Day 203, Year 7: Garden Weeds for Dinner
Date: Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Weather: Still Sunny and Warm
Location: At Home with Heather, Jed, and Boys in E Falmouth, MA
Mark had his chemo treatment today and now has only four more to go!!! I
stayed home with Heather this morning to help her with the baby. She needed
to make some work related phone calls and get the last packing done for
their family trip to New Mexico. Then in the afternoon, Heather and Jed
were busy with parent-teacher conferences at the Woods Hole Daycare
Cooperative and visiting the public school Sam will attend in the fall. It
was an opportunity for the children to see the kindergarten classrooms and
for the parents to talk to the principal. Mark and I stayed home with
Jonah. When Sam came home he joined Jonah and I at the swing set. As he
was swinging, he told me all about the kindergarten visit. Having taught
preschool, kindergarten, and first grade for twenty of my teaching years, I
was very interested in his first impressions. He actually made me a bit
teary (tears of joy) when he said with the greatest enthusiasm, “That school
stole part of my heart. I just love it.” This statement came with a
radiant smile and I was just sad that Heather and Jed weren’t there at the
moment. He liked the idea of making choices at school and he loved the one
classroom that had small Legos. Since there are younger ones at home, Sam
still plays with Duplo Legos. He does have one set of small ones and he
loves building with them. I’m just so glad his introduction was so
positive. The Woods Hole Daycare does a great job of getting them ready for
‘real’ school.
The most fun part of the day came at dinner time. Yesterday Heather weeded
the garden and kept all of the Lambs Quarter. This is a common weed, is
abundant here, and is delicious. It has a taste somewhere between spinach
and asparagus and is so easy to fix. I first blanched it in boiling water
for two minutes, then drained it and stir fried it in a bit of bacon grease
and olive oil for two minutes. It is tender and has such a beautiful bright
green color. It has been years since I have had Lambs Quarter. When
Heather and Justin were little and we lived on a farm in West Virginia, I
often went out and picked a five gallon bucket of Lambs Quarter and Poke
weed to eat. I loved them then and love them now. And besides, eating
weeds for dinner is just fun.
Tomorrow morning at 4:45 am Mark and I will go with Heather, Jed, and boys
to the airport in Boston. We will drop them off for their 7:45 am flight to
Denver, and then on to Albuquerque. They arrive before 1 pm New Mexico time
and then drive a rental van north to Santa Fe where Justin, Jo, and Ziggy
will meet them. I sure wish I could see the boys as they play together over
the next week. New Mexico is so different from here and I just know Sam and
Jonah are going to love it and love playing with cousin Ziggy.
