Life is a Bowl of Cherries

I know that many of you are waiting for a health update on my 2 older girls, as they have had plenty of testing and procedures lately.  I appreciate your support and concern, but I'll be getting to all of that in my next post.  In my last post, I unloaded about the rough week or so that we had recently, and I promised to follow up with a post about how we made up for it once everyone was feeling better.

By the time Chloe's eye had healed, Quinn's concussion and sprained neck were better and Cassidy had completely gotten over strep throat (and the allergic reaction to the first antibiotic), I think we were all ready for some fresh air and sunshine, and probably a little comfort food.  So we spent the next couple of weeks packing plenty of that stuff in.

First, we went hiking. A lot.  I love hiking, and so do the kids.  Sometimes people seem shocked by the fact that my small children will hike 2 or 3 miles with me in an afternoon, which I find puzzling.  It's not as though I drag them out in shackles and force them down a rocky desert landscape!  I think that, given the chance, most kids enjoy walking around in the woods, checking stuff out, which is really what a hike is.  My kids are far more interested in the plants and landscape and animals that we see than they are in any movie or TV show!  So we often, actually very often, pack a lunch and find a sprawling nature center, reserve or wooded park to hike through, and the kids love it!

 We hiked through woods and fields. We saw wild raspberries, deer, toads, chipmunks and honeysuckle.

We walked on boardwalks through marshland, and found aquatic plants, tadpoles, frogs and fish.

We looked up at the trees and the sky and the birds.





















We looked down at the trails and the creeks and all of the magic they held.

At the end of the day, every day that we hiked, I had a group of happy, healthy, tired kids.  Kids that woke up the next day and turned off the TV,
begging to go hiking again.  Fantastic!















In between our hiking adventures, we went cherry picking and stocked up on jam from the fruit.  Stay tuned for the recipes in my next post!

Why I Grow Mint

If you clicked on over here looking for an herb gardening post, I should tell you now that you are barking up the wrong tree.  This post is more along the lines of this one, from about 4 months ago. It deals with the trials and mayhem of hands on parenting, but not so much in a typical day to day way.  This is a glimpse into what it can be like when it just hits the fan, and all you can do is keep everyone's head above water until the storm blows over.  Sound a bit dramatic?  I wish it was!  The bottom line is that we had a RIDICULOUS week or two, but it seems we all survived. In fact, we pretty well made up for it with a super couple of weeks after mayhem descended upon us for what seems to have become it's routine quarterly visit.  But I'll get to that in my next post, which I'll probably start writing tomorrow afternoon while I wait for the results from Chloe's most recent set of  biopsies.

At this point, as before, I'll tell you that if you just dropped by from Pinterest or a Google search to get the drink recipes, scroll down until you come to the pictures of drinks.  If you are interested in why I'm making good use of my favorite cocktail shaker, read on!

So it all started the weekend before Memorial Day weekend.  The weather has been great so far this spring, and the garden is thriving.  The kids love to be outside, so we have been spending most of our time in the fresh air and sunshine.  You may be wondering how a post can start out "mayhem descended upon us", then move on to gardening with kids.  Seems bizarre, right?  This is where we get to the string of stuff I couldn't make up if I tried.  Let me set the stage.  It's Thursday afternoon.  Mark has been at work all day, and River, the twins and I made the most of the beautiful weather, and after school Cassidy joined us in the yard.  I was weeding the butterfly garden, and the kids were sitting around a patch of dirt, digging a garden of their own.  The dog was stretched out enjoying the shade. Birds were singing, the breeze was gentle.  Ah, zen.  Suddenly the peaceful atmosphere was pierced by crying.  Frankly, with 4 kids, ages of 3, 5, 5 and 7, that's not unusual, but you still have to investigate.  Quinn's shovel got caught on a tree root, and accidentally flipped some dirt up and out when it popped free.  That would normally be no biggie, except that the dirt flew up into Chloe's face, and her eyes.  Also not really unusual, her eyes were watering and she wasn't especially happy, but she really just seemed to want a popsicle and a hug, so we moved on with the day.

 An hour later, here left eye was still watering and she complained of blurred vision. Yikes!  In the tub, I rinsed it well with water, but it didn't help.  I'll skip ahead a bit.
The point is that this particular dirt-in-the-face incident resulted in this ------------>

That's what your kid looks like at the emergency room with a corneal abrasion.  Usually a little dirt in the eye just gets washed out by the eye watering or a clear water eye wash.  But sometimes that dirt actually scratches the cornea.  In Chloe's case, she also had a tiny piece of dirt stuck to her eye, which had to be swabbed out (very fast, but still a cotton swab across the eyeball.  Not fun!) The debris was causing the blurred vision, so she came home seeing clearly and is fine now.  Late night, but what can you do other than shrug it off and offer the kid a nap the next day.




Friday, Cassidy went to school and the twins headed off to preschool happily,  Chloe's eyes was still feeling irritated, but she begged to go and it's only a couple of hours.  Smooth sailing. River and I picked up some ferns for the fairy garden we created for the munchkins while the twins were at preschool, then we all had lunch and eventually picked Cassidy up after school.  Chloe fell asleep in the car on the way home from getting Cassidy, no big surprise since we were at the E.R. until 11:30 the night before.  While she slept on the couch, the rest of the kids (and the dog) joined me out back to finish gardening.  Seems we would have learned our lesson the day before, but apparently not.  I was getting the new fern planted, easy peasy.  3 or 4 yards away, Cassidy, Quinn and River grabbed shovels and headed back to their own little garden patch that they had started digging in the day before. River and Quinn sat on the ground with trowels, and Cassidy grabbed her kid sized metal ditch digging shovel from the shed.  River and Quinn were discussing what seeds they needed, and Cassidy alternated between digging a hole and tossing a ball for the dog.  Again with the birds and the breeze.  I should have known from the peaceful feeling that trouble was looming.  With Cassidy and Quinn sitting on either side of her, Cassidy turned and threw the ball for Billie Dog.  Shovel still in hand, she spun back around to rejoin the conversation and smacked Quinn, hard, in the head with the metal shovel.


It was completely an accident, but it knocked him back none the less, and after a stunned pause, he cried with a specific pitch that I haven't heard since he broke his arm when he was 3.  Cassidy was horrified, but she called me over (I was already on the way) and ran inside to grab an ice pack and a towel.  Despite the accident, I have to say I was proud of her 7 year old crisis management skills.

After 10-15 minutes, Quinn was wobbly on his feet, nauseous, and his head looked like this
<---------

Nasty, huh?

A big ol' goose egg doesn't ruffle my feathers, but nausea and dizziness do, so we went to the ER.  Again.  Little Hippie had a concussion, but after 4 hours of being observed by the doctors and nurses, he was finally able to keep graham crackers down so we got to come home.



Fast forward to the next morning.  Cassidy was sort of moping around, I thought she felt guilty about the shovel incident.  Quinn woke up a little later than usual, no big surprise.  He headed into the kitchen for his milk cup (in the fridge), and (yikes!) couldn't open the refrigerator door because it hurt his little neck too much! Crap. The discharge papers from the night before specifically listed, among the list of symptoms that should send you back to the E.R., pronounced neck pain or stiffness.  Upon further inspection, Quinn has limited range of motion and can't turn his head certain ways.  I call, and the triage nurse told me to bring him back in (it's Saturday, so the doctor's office was closed).  That's when this  --------->
picture was taken. Major suckage.  The neck brace was on for a few hours while xrays were taken and read to confirm no fracture or anything serious.  Bottom line at the end of the day was that he also had a sprained neck from the shovel incident.  He was stiff and sore for several days, but is fine now.


By the time we got home from the Emergency Room Saturday afternoon, Cassidy was running a 102 degree fever, and complaining of a very sore throat. Deep breath, continue through the day.  3 Emergency Room visits in 3 days plus a kid with a high fever, Mommy is tired.  Motrin for Cassidy's fever, Quinn's neck/headache and Mommy's headache.  Popsicles for everyone. No more gardening this weekend, that's for sure!  Everyone, including me, went to bed early Saturday night.  Which was good since, as many parents know, fevers seem to go up at night.  2am brought Cassidy 104 degrees, Motrin brought her down to about 101.  For her, this went on through the day Sunday, and her sore throat worsened.  Sometimes it can be tricky to consider that as a symptom for her given the disease process in her esophagus, but with the high fever, I kept her on the motrin and on Monday took her to the doctor.  She had a raging case of strep throat, so after an xray to rule out pneumonia (she had decreased air flow in one lung, but the xrays were clear and by the next day it was fine), we went home with 10 days worth of amoxacillin.

By Wednesday she was starting to feel better, so I thought I'd give her one more day so we were a full 24 hours fever free, and then let her go back to school on Friday.  I mean, at this point, things actually seemed to be on the verge of slowing down.  Chloe's eye felt much better and Quinn could turn his head.  The bruise on his forehead was by now a greenish blue, ghoulish, but healing nicely. Thursday, Cassidy started to complain that her mouth felt itchy, but between the EoE and strep, i just made a casual mental note of it and moved on.  With her evening dose of amoxacillin, the itching got worse.  In fact, within 30 minutes of taking the medication, her mouth and tongue were not the only itchy spots, her feet started to itch next, and then she was scratching all over.  She also complained that she felt like she had been holding her breath.  Thankfully she did not have visible trouble breathing, but she had tightness in her chest and was clammy and dizzy.  It's not uncommon to have an amoxacillin or penicillin allergy pop up a few days into the treatment, which was exactly what had happened to Cassidy.  Quinn is also allergic to amoxacillin and penicillin, and it popped up on day 4 with him the 2nd time he had it for an ear infection.  He had head to toe hives as well.  So Cassidy can now add this to her list of allergies.  Fortunately there are plenty of other antibiotics available, so she was switched to a different one and headed back to school the following Tuesday (Monday school was closed for Memorial Day.

During the holiday weekend, Billie Dog started limping slightly, especially after resting, but it was mild enough that at first we couldn't even figure out which leg she was favoring.  She seemed to walk it off pretty fast once she was up and moving around for a few minutes and still ran in the yard easily, so we just kept and eye on it.  Then a lump developed on the top of one of her front paws.  As the week prgressed, it got worse, not better.  After a good romp in the yard on Thursday, she napped and then got up and hobbled around on 3 legs, and the lump on her paw was bigger.




Friday at the vet ended like this
<-----------------------

Xrays showed some old, fractures, in various states of healing, to her seisamoid bones that we never even knew about, but  according to the radiology reports that followed the swelling had to be a soft tissue injury, such as a sprain, because it was not at the same location as the old fractures.  Maybe because she has some rottweiler in her, but we don't really know why for sure, the sweet girl just doesn't react much to pain. She tends to just keep going.  Which on one hand I suppose is good if it means it doesn't bother her too much.  On the other hand, she must have something pretty nasty going on in there to leave her limping like that.







What does all of this have to do with growing mint?  Oh, that's easy!  You can't make a mojito without it.  And in the sunny weather, few things float my boat at the end of the day (or at the end of a few weeks like these) like the combination of mint, lime and rum.  I prefer mine without the pesky addition of lemon lime soda or sparkling water.  Here is my recipe for a Mojito Martini, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!  Please try to do so in moderation, these suckers can really sneak up on you!


Mojito Martini

In a cocktail shaker half full of ice, combine the following:

2 ounces lime rum (I use Parrot Bay key lime rum)
2 ounces fresh lime juice (don't bother with bottled, trust me on this)
a slight dash of dry vermouth
a half dozen or so fresh mint leaves
1 tsp. sugar (super fine if you have it)

Shake hard, to make sure you dissolve the sugar and bruise those mint leaves.  Strain into a glass, over ice if desired.



Mmmmm...delicious.  Now isn't that a great reason to grow mint?  Too bad I don't have my own lime tree!  As always, I'd love to hear your comments if you try this one out!

Enjoy!

How does your garden grow?

So far this year we have so many delicious fruits and veggies off to a great start. We are already through the first batch of jam from the strawberries, and the blueberries are ripening every day. I just picked the first batch this afternoon!

 The plum tree is loaded with tiny green plums, and the cherry, pear, peach and fig trees, although still small, young trees, are filling in with fresh green leaves and, in the case of the apple tree, flowers.  The garden beds are also loaded with seedlings and sprouts.

It is worth mentioning that we grow most of our own produce in the summer for several reasons, one of which is that we have control over the growing practices.  What that means for us both in terms of health as well as environmentally is that we do not use any chemical fertilizers or pesticides, at all.   We use natural and non chemical forms of pest control when necessary and we fertilize and enrich the soil only with our own compost.  We have a traditional compost pile outside, and we also have a worm composter.  So far, we have had great success, and peace of mind, with these methods, and don't really find them to be difficult at all.

The garden peas are almost finished for the season already, and the peas we had from them were delicious.  We will plant another batch late in the summer for fall harvest. The asparagus is growing like wildfire, and the long list of plants that will be ready to harvest over the next few months includes yellow squash, butternut squash, watermelon, pumpkins, corn, tomatoes, green beans, jalapenos, bell peppers, red beans, black beans, radishes, turnips, parsnips, carrots, cucumbers (both slicing and pickling varieties), broccoli, cabbage, spinach, romaine, potatoes, beets and lufas, which we grow because I like to make exfoliating soap with them!

We have switched over most of our garden to raised beds, and are using a square foot gardening method.  It has allowed us to fit a lot more in the space, and so far everything is growing extremely well.  The strawberries have grown enough to now take up 2 beds, along the same side of the house as the 3 largest blueberry bushes.  In this picture, you can see one of the covers that Mark built for the raised beds to keep the neighbor's cats out! Further down are some of the blueberry bushes.  If you look closely off to the right, you can see sweet Billie Dog keeping an eye on things for us!











This is one of the beds of corn, about 2 weeks ago.  The plants are about twice that size now.  These beds are 4 feet by 4 feet, and as you can see they are divided up into single square foot sections with simple string.  Each square foot contains 4 corn plants, and there are 16 square feet in the bed.  That means that we have 64 corn plants in each of these beds, and there are 2 beds of corn.  128 corn plants with at least one ear on each plant!  I can't wait!










This is another  4 foot by 4 foot bed, also divided into individual square foot sections.  This one has 6 cabbage plants, 6 broccoli plants and 4 squares of green beans, each of which holds 9 bean plants for a total of 36 pole bean plants.  Shortly after I took this picture, Mark built a trellis for the beans to climb.  Last year we grew a bush variety, and while they produced well, since the pole beans can grow vertically more than bush beans do, this layout has allowed us to put more plants in less space.  If I'm lucky, I'll have enough beans this year to stock the pantry with tangy Dilly Beans (look for that recipe when the harvest starts to ripen!) and still put my green bean frencher to good use (I prefer fresh green beans french cut!)







I didn't get any good pictures yet of the root vegetable beds, but Mark built them 12 inches deep, which is twice the depth of the rest of the raised beds.  We haven't had great luck with carrots in the past because of our soil, but I'm hoping to have plenty of well formed ones this year.  So far they are growing like crazy, and since all 6 of us love them, I can't wait to have fresh organic ones fill the fridge without breaking the bank!  I suppose I could go on and on about why I am excited about each and every fruit and veggie that is growing, and that satisfaction and excitement grows every time I can go out in the yard to literally pick something for dinner (or breakfast or lunch).  If you haven't had a garden before, it may be worth giving it a try this year, I promise you won't be sorry!  The next thing you know, you will be learning how to can fresh produce to preserve the harvest because you won't be able to eat it fast enough.

If you are interested in more information about how we garden, or the square foot gardening method in general, please leave a comment letting me know!