Today we will be learning all the ins and outs of brushing your teeth from Dr. Calder Haymond.

First, stick the toothbrush in your mouth.

Next, try to figure out how to get some toothpaste on your brush.

When you can't figure that out, stick the whole thing of toothpaste in your mouth to see if that helps.

At this point, you may want to consider bringing water into the picture.

If you still haven't succeeded in getting any actual toothpaste on the brush, try try again.

And then resort to finding satisfaction without it.

This is Calder’s favorite thing to do these days. I figure there are worse things he could be addicted to–at least this way his teeth get clean!

Yum!

Last week, we did something that I, for one, am extremely excited about. We joined a local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). In case you’re not familiar with the concept of a CSA, I’ll explain. What it means is that we have chosen to support a local farm that will, in turn, support our family. Last week, we looked through the various options for local CSAs and picked one based on convenience, price, and produce quality. Then, we officially joined the CSA and paid them a fee. With our fee (and the fees of a couple hundred other people), the farmer will now plan and plant his crop. Once he begins harvesting, in late May or early June, we, as share holders in the CSA, will get a box of gorgeous fresh produce every week for 13 weeks. If you’re interested, the CSA we have joined is Jacob’s Cove Heritage Farm in Orem. Here are some of the reasons I’m excited:

1. Great community experience. I’m eager to support our local farms and be a part of our agricultural community. If we want to, we can even go and help out on the farm–awesome learning experience for all of us.
2. Delicious produce. I have been wanting to get more produce into our family’s diet and this seems like the perfect way to do it. This particular farm is known for its heirloom tomatoes. In fact, they’ve even made someone cry, they’re so good. Check out this news story. I’ve never really cared for tomatoes unless they’re on a sandwich or pureed, but I hear that garden tomatoes are a whole other story. I can’t wait to be converted.
3. As fresh as it gets. The produce that we bring home each week will be as fresh as it gets. Usually, it will be harvested the day (or the day before) we pick it up.
4. Expanding my cooking skills. I think it will be a fun challenge to get a box of mystery produce each week. We’ll never know exactly what will be in our boxes and I can honestly say that I am looking forward to finding something I’ve never seen before nestled among the tomatoes and cucumbers. What a great way to introduce new food to our family!
5. Year-round produce. One of the reasons we chose Jacob’s Cove is that they are year-round producers. This means that when our initial 13 weeks is up, we can sign up for another 13 weeks of produce because of their greenhouses and other growing technologies. There might be less variety come Winter, but at least it will be fresh.
6. Local food. I think it will be awesome to look at our produce and know that it grew right down the road from us–that we know the farmer and his farm and that we can stop by for a visit any time.

Can you tell I’m excited? Although Jacob’s Cove doesn’t grow fruit, Dale (the farmer) told me that they will contract with local fruit growers to give us a fruit share option. Utah Valley has some fantastic orchards, so I’m excited about this. I am so glad we decided to go for it and join the CSA when we did. The day after we joined, the shares sold out and now they’re starting a waiting list.

So, as Bryce said, “Bring on the produce!”

Sorry that there hasn’t been much posting action on this blog recently. Two reasons: (1) I’ve been busy over at www.discoverthechild.com and (2) I somehow managed to delete all the pictures that were on our camera. There weren’t a ton, thankfully, and none of them were absolutely irreplaceable, but it was still frustrating. I’ll have to re-stage a couple of the shots. So, with that in mind, here are a couple shots of our lives in the recent days:

Look at all these valentines! Amelie was in heaven. We traded valentines with some of her neighbor friends and we were also part of a homeschooling valentine exchange. We sent out 10 valentines to families across the country and got 10 in return. It was great fun "meeting" these other families and learning about where they live. Thanks, all!

"How dare Mommy try to store any toys up here! This is my spot! Oh, well. I guess I'll just have to clear it out. Again....There. Much better."

And that’s it, folks. A couple of pictures. I’ll try to make up for it later this week. Happy belated Valentine’s Day!

Just wanted to let you all know about my new website, www.discoverthechild.com . For those of you that don’t know, we are planning on homeschooling our children. This new site is all about that adventure. It’s a brand new site, so I’ve only written 3 posts and there are still a couple of features in the works, but I just wanted to invite everyone over for a little blog-warming party.

The beginnings of my homeschooling library.

So head on over!

www.discoverthechild.com

We’ve been making some tasty food around here lately. One of Bryce’s Christmas presents from me was Table for Two: The Cookbook for Couples and we’ve been enjoying cooking from it. We made French Onion Soup last week and this week we made a Blueberry Pear Crisp–both delicious!

Behold, the Soup!

Isn't it beautiful? It was so so good. Yum.

Just wanted to capture a Haymond tradition in action--Daddy Breakfasts. We make breakfast for dinner quite often and Bryce is always in charge of the eggs. He makes them just like his dad did when Bryce was growing up--fried and covered in various spices and seasonings. Not sure what Amelie's doing in this picture. Trying to smile like Bryce?