The garden, the whole garden and nothing but the garden.

On Wednesday we were able to make a side dish using everything (except radishes, which Carolyn appropriately described as "they taste like nothing and then they burn your mouth") we picked from the garden that day and NOTHING else (except cooking spray). We had basal, cilantro, onion, green pepper and 2 tiny zucchini.

Before you get impressed by how healthy we were eating - please note that Anna spit out the green pepper immediately after I put it in her mouth and kept the zucchini in long enough only to put in teeth marks.....Carolyn and Joel did their obligatory "try it, it's from your garden" bites and shared the rest of theirs with me. Matthew said, "it's super delicious", but at this point he really revels in being the "good eater" and loves to praise whatever I cook, knowing that we have 3 others at the table that aren't quiet so gracious.

Tonight, Ken is going to come home early (aiming for 5:30 :), which I think is reasonable since he had a VERY full week - after a meeting in D.M., driving to Cedar Falls then Minneapolis to fly to Atlanta in one day and after a full day of meetings in Atlanta, flying back to Minneapolis the next. I figure he put in at least 17 hours on each day. So 5:30 really isn't being a slacker! Anyway, the point is....after he gets home the big kids (minus Anna) and I are going swimming. Without her, we can really work on getting Carolyn and Joel to be stronger swimmers. I may have mentioned this before, but when I tried to sign them up for classes, they were full. The Ankeny pool is super crowded at times, so they have to stay in the wadding section until they get MUCH better at swimming. (of course the wadding section is gigantic and has lots of fun spray toys)

After the pool, I want to go to the garden (again a much easier task w/out our little Anna). I bet we have more zucchini, and the yellow squash might be ready. Carolyn says she saw a tomato turning orange, but I think it was optimism.

Maybe I'll go search for my camera again....these posts are so much better w/ pictures!