Changes

::In the pantry
I first heard about this CSA in my area a couple of years ago. At that time, I called and the kind farmer himself told me that he and his family farm together because they love hard work and are passionate about growing organic food. I was immediately sold. But since our life has been so transitory for the last two years, I haven't been able to try his food until this weekend.

Karis and I braved the blustery Saturday temps to drive out to the little farm in Switzerland (Florida, that is) where I met the farmer and his wife. I asked questions, they shared recipes, and I had my first taste of digging through boxes of fresh veggies. And when I say fresh, I do mean fresh...when I first walked up and saw dirt and earth debris clinging to the veggies, I had to take in a deep breath and remind myself this is how all veggies start out. Some just get a really big bath and get handled by untold amounts of people before being placed in nice, neat rows in the grocery store.

And the citrus bag they gave me? I literally watched their son walk out to the groves to pick them right off the trees. Now...if I can just figure out what to do with kohlrabi, Chinese cabbage, tatsoi, pumelos, and rutabaga...

::In the playroom
Matt and I changed around the furniture in Karis' bedroom last night. Her bed had been sitting under a drafty, old window, and with the cold weather of the last couple of weeks and her lingering illness, it simply had to be done. With the bed in place, I began arranging around the play kitchen, table and chairs, and other furniture items. Karis was happily watching me and playing with her toys wherever they were set down, no matter how temporarily.

Those moments of decorating reminded me of when I was a kid. My mother had a knack for home decorating, and since there was literally no budget to work with, she became quite good at mixing up what she had to make the whole room look brand new. I can remember my bedroom after one such decorating spree. The beds (for me and my sister) had been rearranged, old bedspreads retrieved from storage, and in the end, it was so gleaming and different and pretty that the whole thing felt like someone else's room. Some other little girl with nice things. It was exciting and new though everything had most definitely been there all along.

I saw a little bit of this excitement in Karis last night. I had finished up and was taking Karis to the bathroom, when she suddenly glanced back in her room and exclaimed, "My kitchen! My house!" She then promptly went about her bathroom business all the while chatting to me, "Thank you for my kitchen, Mom. And my high chair. And my table and chairs, and...". And on it went like that, continuing into her prayer time...all that thankfulness for her things that had been there all along.

::At the store
On our way back from the CSA on Saturday, Karis and I passed by a Fresh Market, and I knew my mission. Get this drink. Now, I'm not normally a fan of vitamin waters. I don't often pay $2 for a bottled drink, and I wasn't particularly thirsty at the time. But I needed this beverage. My brother, who lives in Brooklyn and works in advertising as a copy writer, put together a team on his own and designed this label. The name, the graphics, the copy...the works.

When I first got to the store, I had trouble locating the drink, and then I asked a guy who asked another guy who took us right to it. I was so excited by that point that when I saw the drink, I gushed the news about my brother to them both. One worker was kind and replied, "Oh, very good for him." I couldn't agree more. I called Andrew right away to tell him, and ironically, he hasn't even seen the label yet in person since none of the stores carrying it are near NYC. So here you go, bro. It looks awesome!