I love my farm.

Check out the new photos we got from the farm today, including pictures of the new chicks! It is such a privilege to be part of such an amazing group of people. I really do love my farm.

Love that lunch.

What a great surprise it was when I saw (and eventually translated) my kids' first school lunch calendar this fall. If you've been reading this blog for even a little while, you can probably sense that I get a bit (okay, a LOT) uptight when it comes to the food my children are offered. I have long feared the day when I will send both of my children to full day school where they will encounter a lunch menu filled with bland processed, frozen, and fried foods and I have thankfully accepted the fact that I will be making my children bag lunches (just like my mom did for me) from their first school lunch until their last school lunch.

This year, though, has been a relief. For lunch today, both of my kids are drinking jamaica (hibiscus tea) that is sweetened with sugar. That, I could do without. But, look at the rest of their menus for today! The primary school is eating lentil soup with carrots, corn tortillas, and oranges. The preschoolers are eating papaya, bananas, plain yogurt, granola, and oatmeal cookies. Today's menu could be better, but it could be a whole lot worse, too. Our school puts together a menu about every 30 days and parents sign up for which meals they would like to bring. I have to bring one meal each month for Brynn's class and one for Callie's. The meals are generally well-rounded vegetarian meals and always have fresh fruits and vegetables as main ingredients.

Today our farm posted a link to this Time Magazine article about school lunches in France. After living in Mexico and experiencing what this non-American lunch menu is like, I was really interested to see the French lunch menus. The article wasn't really surprising, but it did reinforce what I already know: As Americans, we are really screwing up our kids by offering them crap to eat for lunch every day. The school districts and the government can offer all kinds of excuses for why they offer our kids crap and I know that school lunches aren't something we can change overnight, but all it takes is a little bit of time visiting schools in another culture to know that we are selling our kids short. To me, the biggest bummer is that most parents either don't care or figure their kids won't eat anything other than chicken nuggets and tacos, so why bother offering (or demanding) something better? The parents who do care and who have the time and the means to pack lunches for their kids take the easy way out and avoid trying to change the system. That's probably what I'll do.

But...our farm is looking for ways to get our organic produce into our local schools, so maybe I'll see what I can do to upset the apple cart in my district when I get back. It sounds like an overwhelming challenge, but it is one that I care about!

An evening at the beach

You've already seen some photos from a recent evening at the beach. Here are a few more...

Bubbles already has three great families interested in adopting her when she gets to Canada next month. Hooray!


Happy Callie.










My girls LOVE to dig in the sand. It is never-ending entertainment for them.




She can be thoughtful...for about two seconds.


Brynn intends to win some races someday.






Scott doesn't get to go to the beach much, so when he does, he REALLY takes it all in.




Doodling in the sand is another favorite beach pastime for the girls.










Baby turtles!


Watching the turtles go.

The Real Callie

Sometimes she pouts, sometimes she screams, sometimes she is very difficult to live with.

But this is who she really is, at her core. A smiling, twirling, free-flying, giggling girl who loves life.

Now THIS is a rule I can follow.

The older I get, the less I want to follow rules. But, here is a rule I can follow and pass on to my children, as quoted in a NYT Personal Health article about Michael Pollan's newest book, Food Rules.

"Perhaps I’ll try the so-called S policy Mr. Pollan says some people follow: 'No snacks, no seconds, no sweets — except on days that begin with the letter S'.”

In addition to following the S policy, I think it is also high time for me to begin eating my meals off of our extra large salad plates instead of our gargantuan dinner plates. Although...I suppose that can wait until we get back to Colorado since we only have two little salad plates here.

I'm not desperate to pick up Food Rules since it seems to be a compilation of what Pollan wrote in The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food, but I will probably grab it from the library when we get back to see if I'm missing out on any other memorable nuggets. Of course, Food Rules only costs $5 on Amazon, so maybe I'll add it to my next order.

For those of you who have followed Our Little Family for a while, you know that Pollan's previous food books have been life-changing for us. Based on what I've read from him before, I think if you're looking for highlights from his earlier food books in a compact, easy-to-read version, you'd like Food Rules.