Author: Liz Braithwaite

Grandma Visit

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Strong boy. This is the result of his daddy being a little ambitious. 

Chubby baby smiles. What could be happier?

A playhouse at the Atlanta history center. Wired, wallpapered and ready for little guests. PB had the idea for the set up. 

Playing doctor

My mom came out and visited for my birthday. We went to the Atlanta History Center, a children’s museum, and a park. But mostly we spent lots of time talking and playing with the kids. Grandma is imaginative and expressive with the kids. I loved watching her play with them, and listening to her stories. She is a wonderful storyteller and I enjoyed her stories as much as PB did.

Star Box

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This creation is all my idea. I don’t know if it is necessarily one people will be running to duplicate, but we had fun. I try to do “school” with PB, and our theme was space. I had this great idea to make a star box.

We took a box, painted the inside black, poked holes in it and added a paper moon in a larger hole. There is paper over the box seams to prevent light from entering in.  Decorated the outside with spaceships and stars. The idea is that you get inside (or in this case use it as a strange hat because it’s a smaller box) and you experience the night sky. It didn’t turn out too bad…I was very pleased when I went to take pictures and ended up with this:

The view from inside

The experience was not so great in real life. But still a fun, easy idea.  

Death by Fall

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My “garden” this year was a few pots out on the balcony. Their have been some bumps in the road. I mistakenly let my son help me thin seedling. Later on I found him “thinning” the already thinned plants. The cilantro and a few other plants were decimated to only a single seedling. I eventually re-seeded…but the damage was done.

After I fertilized, my plants began to grow much better. The basil was doing the best.  I had harvested it several time for such things as basil hummus, and still had a large healthy plant. I was contemplating trying out pesto in the near future and then I came home one day…and the basil was gone. It had fallen off of the high railing to its demise two stories below. I was able to harvest the shattered remains, which ended up being a couple of cups of good leaves, but now there is no more basil.

The demise of the basil has left me with a very sad outlook on the rest of the garden. Mostly due to laziness, I have not used the lettuce, chives and bit of cilantro that I have out there. The morning-glory and cosmos are only sporadic bloomers. I also have a ‘rescue’ plant that would probably be better off in the office it came from. It did not adapt well after the move. (I shouldn’t have put a plant that had been growing inside out into 100 degree temperature…laziness again.)  I have enjoyed the begonia and dusty miller planter: now that the basil is gone it is the one success of my small garden.

Kid Art: Ice Cube Painting

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I enjoy kid art. Much better than grown-up crafts that tend to be a little demoralizing because they never turn out as planned. PB is semi-old enough to participate. He  doesn’t quite get everything as intended, but we all have fun. I like some projects we do just as much or more than he does. Kids are great excuses to have fun. (One day I was singing along at story time, and realized PB wasn’t paying a lick of attention to me so I didn’t need to sing. I stopped but quickly realized I was singing  because I was enjoying it not to engage PB.)

Here is a partial list of some of our projects in the past little while: tractor cut-out, a rain stick, stickers, watercolors, paint butterflies, contact-paper butterflies and ice cube painting. I get some ideas from this blog I subscribed to, along with the very useful Pinterest and the book Homeschool Your Preschooler on a $1 a Day. I recommend that book for anyone trying to entertain preschoolers: the Kindle edition is only a dollar.

I used food coloring and koolaid for the ice cube painting: there are a lot of different methods. We had some friends over to join us in our messiness. Not a clean activity at all (my hand are purplish right now), but a great art project on a hot day. The kids didn’t necessarily paint with the ice…just played with it. PB loved throwing it at the end.



Atlanta History Center

At first glance, this place looks like a history museum. And it is…but it also has some incredible gardens. I’ve enjoyed them more than any other garden I’ve been to out here. The day I went there was a pretty good chance of rain. I planned on mostly looking at the interior exhibits and maybe ducking quickly outside if the weather cooperated. The rain never did show up and the weather wasn’t that hot, so we were able to spend lots of time enjoying the woodland gardens outside. We were out there longer than my little preschooler wanted to walk.

My mom was there with me, and as native Utahns we agreed that you couldn’t mimic this out west. The moist air, towering trees and moss growing everywhere creates an exotic feeling, as I grew up surrounded by sagebrush. I enjoy dense woods with a sense of oddity because they are the opposite of the steppe landscape I grew up in.

The batteries died in the camera, so I didn’t get as many shots as I would have like. Occasionally it is nice to not worry about pictures at all and just enjoy the scenery. There are six different gardens there, each with a unique style. The large formal gardens of the Swan House had a secret garden enchantment to them, surrounded by the more wild woods. My favorite was the quarry gardens, filled with native plants including burnt red rhododendrons in bloom.

The only downside to visiting the garden was it wasn’t spring with its blast of color, but it looked fantastic even in the heat of the summer. For more information visit their website.

Fourth of July

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Little kids and the fourth of July do not mix well. We did not stay up for fireworks: happy kids were more important to me. We did visit the park, make American flags and lighted up some sparklers. It was mostly a laid back, easy day. We don’t do that too often with Joe home: I tend to want to go and do things with him and the kids. I’m sure he appreciated having a lazy day for once!

On Saturday we went out to Fort Yargo State Park. A little tip: the library checks out state park passes (both here and back in Utah), that waives the entrance fee. Before 2:00 that day we had played disk golf, gone out on a paddleboat, ate lunch and swam in the lake. Fun!

 

Tomato Flavor

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I first ran across an article on NPR that made me miss my Cherokee Purple tomatoes from last year. The article discussed a study in science (see abstract) about how choosing uniform ripeness in tomatoes also lead to a decrease in taste. The study was also discussed in this article in the  NY Times. It’s big news in the horitcultural world, and another piece of evidence why modern agriculture stinks and heirlooms are wonderful.

Later on in the week I read this by Graham Rice at Transatlantic Plantsman. His response reminds us that not all modern bred hybrid tomatoes stink. For me, even the much deplored grocery store varieties have their place. I would rather go and buy a decent looking tomato than buy the mess of a shipped Cherokee purple tomato. (Sometimes just transporting them in the car a few miles left gooey soft spots.)  If I really want the taste of a homegrown tomato, I’ll grow it. Hybrids and supermarket tomatoes can make great tomato sauce, cooked dishes etc, where the tomato is masked by other introduced flavors. There are times when sacrificing flavor for traits like uniform color make sense.

Heirlooms and modern hybrids are not competition, but are compliments. Something I do not agree with in the organic agriculture movement is a push away from modern-bred plants. I’m not even against all GMO’s. (For example, at the end of the Times article they mention re-engineering the lost flavor genes back into tomatoes, creating a GMO.  Alternatively, breeders could cross different tomato plants, look for mutations and desirable gene traits and after many generations, and years of effort finally find a tomato that resembled or might even be identical to the GMO. The GMO took far less time and energy to produce, so I’d take the GMO.) The original research is not another piece of evidence why modern agriculture stinks and heirlooms are wonderful, but simply an interesting look at gene play.

Unexpected Garden Trip

I packed up the kids and went to the Fernbank Science Center, the goal of which was to entertain the toddler. I pleasantly discovered a small demonstration garden out back. The garden was enjoyable but not remarkable, unless you count the number of composters littering the pathway. (The composters compared methods of composting.) I miss gardening, noted by the fact that I was much too excited about finding a small demo garden. The pots out on the patio don’t cut it. I would love a home-grown heriloom tomato right now, but they are not lining my cupboards like they were last summer. Oh well, I guess I will take potted basil and finding gardens to tour.

The garden featured a small butterfly garden (complete with magnifying glasses), bog garden, wildlife habitat, and bees. There was a beehive in the garden, and bees in a narrow glass case. My kid and I spent a good portion of our time there peering at the busy bees. Bees are awesome. I was also happy to see not only a honey bee hive, but nests meant for native bees as well.

The DeKalb County school system operates the science center, and its main mission is education for schools. While there, I felt a little like an elementary school kid on a field trip. The place was not spectacular or modern by any means, but it helped me get into a learning mode. The Fernbank Science Center is low cost (free), so it makes a fun day expedition. In additional to science displays, they have planetarium programs and an old growth forest. For more information go to http://www.fernbank.edu/

Sweltering Summer Begins

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My guess is your only real reason for reading this blog is my adorable kids. So without further banter, here they are:

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PB at a car show: He loved it. We spotted a sign for a fair on our way elsewhere and made a fun detour. 

The next few pictures are from Jones Bridge Park. I love this park. It’s located on the Chattahoochee, with lots of fun places for wading. We went twice in the past week. On a sweltering day the cool river felt better than air conditioning.

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Chubby baby stare down.  He’s not sure what to think of the camera in his face. 

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This kids would rather look at mommy. 

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Next time we brought a swimsuit. But he didn’t get this wet. 

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There are lots of geese and ducks . (By the way, feeding wild fowls human food is not a good idea. for the birds. But it is fun for kids.) 

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Wading in.

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Tummy time. This large kid (21.8 lbs at his checkup!) is not quick to pick up milestones. He managed to roll over here though–on an incline, with his arms just right, and a little help from mommy. 

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Big rubber car at the mall. 

Water

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PB is a little wary of the water. I often find this trait a bit annoying such as when I am shampooing his hair, or trying to get him to play in the fountain. It’s probably good though–I’m not too worried about drowning either.  With summer heat, water is a necessity of fun outdoor activities. It’s a bit depressing when we go to a fountain and he won’t play at first. Eventually he always ends of having a good time.

Last time we went with some friends, and he was very excited to get in and play. I had to wrangle him down to get his swimsuit on and sunscreen on…and apparently he was a bit wiggly or I was a bit sloppy and sunscreen didn’t get everywhere it needed to be. He now has pink shoulders.

Life has not been that exciting lately, I don’t have much to write about. That’s just fine. My one other thought for the day: I was feeling a little depressed and then I realized I have complete control over my thoughts. Thinking about all the reasons I might be depressed was a great way to feel depressed. I decided I should think more positively. It’s not too hard either when I get a smile back from chubby baby, or PB says something funny. I have great kids!

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