Strawberries!!

They are here! They are here! I can't believe it. Even though I know they are a perrenial andand know that they spread, I still really can't believe that something I put in the ground last year is going to come up again this year with more! I really love strawberries for some reason. There is somehting about thier shaoe and size that I find so endearing. I think i counted fourteen berries compared to the three or four that we got last year. Let's hope that the birds or that they Harveysdon't get them before I do!

I Love the Library

I love it. I really do. I can't believe the amount of time and money that I have wasted at Barnes and Nobles when I have had this free resource right in my back yard. Norah, Harvey and I have had lots of solo time over the past week (Brian has been traveling) so we went to the Bloomfield Children's Library this past Saturday morning just to see what they had to offer. And WOW did they produce. There was a story hour (both of mine were a little too young), craft making, a young children's play room and LOTS more. I think I may be becoming a little obsessed with it though--I mean I really can't stop thinking about ALL of the library-like possibilities. Had I discovered this resource before Spring, the winter might not have been quite as long. I got a couple of really neat looking craft books. They are more like resources so I might want to have a personal copy of at least one of them, but I can decide that after looking through them and before buying them instead of vice-versa. Ahh, life is good.

It's Raining

a lot around here these days. As Brian's mom said to me today, good for the bushes, good for the grass and trees... bad for me. We went kind of nutty inside today. In fact, at 4:30, I piled both of the kids in the car and drive without a destination. We ended up driving in one big circle around town, but the 30 minutes outside of the house did do us some good. Harvey is getting better--I have never seen a baby throw up so much. Poor thing. He is still not very excited about eating but he will be there tomorrow.

Since there is not much else to write about, I thought I would share some of the pretty things that the rain is doing to the outdoors here in Montclair:

Our hydrangea bush is growing some new leaves. I wonder if it will flower this year.


There are new figs on the fig tree already. We are going to miss our figs this year. Hopefully the new owners like them.


And the lilacs are in bloom. I LOVE the smell of lilacs.

Mother's Day

I am so glad you picked me. Lucky, lucky me.

The Little Family

Harvey and I went to the library today while Norah was at school. As of late, I LOVE the library. I think I may be obsessed with it. How did I not discover this resource earlier? I had Harvey in the Mei Tai today and he was NOT happy about it so our visit was a short, but fruitful one.

We got a couple of books about going to the zoo. We are going tomorrow in the afternoon with Norah's cousin Colin--pictures to come shortly. We also got a book about birds--Harvey's new word, "biii-i-ds," and one on gardening. My favorite of all, though, is one by Lois Lenski called The Little Family.



My 25 year old self would be horrified at the gender roles it conveys (the picture of Mrs. Little serving Mr. Little his meal on a tray still scares me a bit, I must say). But my thirty something year old self loves the simplicity the book depicts. Life in the 1930s was, I think, much fuller than our lives today.

Homemade Peanut Butter Cups

I needed to enjoy being at home today. Enjoy this little house. This cozy little place that does not seem to give a very good first (or even second) impression. Our house is on the market, and in our market, places generally go for over asking within the first week of being for sale. Not ours. We are going on week 2 as of tomorrow. We have had 5o+ people through our house and one very low bite. We have one showing tomorrow and hopefully some will line up for this weekend. Otherwise, we may be in this for the long haul, the very long haul. So I decided to enjoy our house today for the first time in a long time--we played, we cooked, we painted. It was all good.

In the cooking category, we made our own version of Reeses Peanut Butter cups. I read about this first on Angry Chicken. Amy has her own special recipe for these treats which you can order. As it turns out, The Artful Parent found a similar recipe online. I went the freebie route as well. Norah and Harvey enjoyed the making of them:


And the eating of them:


By the way, I am issuing myself a "Do Over" for the Buy Nothing Challenge. It starts today, May Day, and ends June 1. Watch me.

From the Old to the Young

We took Norah and Harvey to see Aunt Lena and Auntie Weenie and Uncle Paul in Brooklyn this weekend. We were supposed to spend half of the day with each of them but it didn't work out that way. We arrived at Lena's before nine and went to visit her 96 year old sister who lives a couple of streets away. Norah cowered behind me most of the time and Harvey grabbed giant Italian indoor fences and pointed to glass figurines of dancing women, saying, "S'Tha" over and over. We ate struboli from Christmas and listened to Lena and Mary talk to each other in very guttural Italian slang.

From there, we moved back to Aunt Lena where in a matter of thirty minutes, she made some of the best food I have ever eaten at her house: pan fried pork chops with red peppers soaked in vinegar, a salad, a vegetable stew, macaroni with chick peas, mushrooms, and other yumminess.

Norah sat on the counter next to Lena and watched her cut an onion without very letting the knife leave the vegetable, she watched her salt the food over and over again until it was just right, and then she ate and ate and ate. I watched Brian, Norah, and Lena in her small kitchen making big food. I watched and listened. What a day.