go fly a kite

mom-mom and pop-pop brought Mayden a kite yesterday. the weather was perfect so we flew it and it was fun!

have you heard?

Christmas in August?

i know nobody wants to talk about Christmas in August... but i do :o) we've recently decided that this Christmas will be different for us. after a really empty-feeling gift giving season last year, i have a plan to change that this year. the Speers will only be giving handmade/homemade items as gifts. this will accomplish two goals. 1) lower the cost of buying gifts for us 2) support the little man (see below)

shortly i will be drafting a letter to our friends and family begging them to not spoil us this year. we don't need more stuff and i don't want to feel badly for making them a frame made of popsicle sticks when they give us a big screen TV (slight exaggeration on both ends). with the economy the way it is right now money is hard to come by so i will be encouraging our friends and family to use it well and to not go overboard.

if i can't make it i will purchase the handmade from vendors at craft shows or from this great website called Etsy. Etsy makes it possible for anyone to sell (some really amazing) handmade items. in fact using Etsy will probably help me nix that popsicle project and be able to hand out some really cool gifts.... on top of supporting the small time people. Walmart does not need any more of my money, but these folks could probably really benefit from some extra cash. i should mention that the prices (especially shipping costs) are really low.

beauty around our house

Kiki the frog

we have a rather large frog that has decided to call the little pond in our backyard home. he is normally really shy and every time i walk by i hear the enevitable **splash** from him jumping for cover. yesterday he must have been really hungry because he was out and about for all to see... hunting as you'll see in the video. i asked May what she thought we should name him and so he she is now Kiki the frog.

our morning at the farmers market

early this spring i made a commitment to myself that i would try going to the Farmer's Market weekly (or at least every other week) to buy all of our families fruits and vegetables. here it is already AUGUST and today was the first day i wrangled the kids in the car and met my mom at the Burlington County Farmer's Market.

this summer i've been reading (slowly but surly) Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingslover and so far it's great but it's definitely kicking my butt in the "buy & eat local food" realm of life. so we went and it was nice, small but nice. we sampled some homemade salsa the blueberry flavor was my favorite. Mayden did not exactly appreciate the salsa as much as i did given after her bite she proceeded to spit it out in a napkin... hello embarrassing!! i bought some blueberries, peaches, watermelon & my mom treated me to a bar of lavender vanilla honey soap. one stand had the most amazing (yet pricey) blackberries and i just might go back to get some next week. oh and perhaps i'll find room in the budget for a pie too :o) i'm going to try Columbus Farmer's Market soon as it's a bit closer to us. it will be fun to compare the two.

compost: week one

so after the kids party i was kinda sick to my stomach with all the trash we generated. i wanted things to be different for my parent party and so i found this company called Branch that sells 100% biodegradable & compostable tablewear. looks super cool, relatively cheap (50 plates for $9) it worked well as tablewear now we'll see how it composts. this morning i added it to our already gigantic compost pile and as with the corn i'll be documenting weekly the decomposition of this tablewear. sorry if this is gross but i think it could be neat....we'll see!