new challenges

i'm excited about spring.

i know everyone usually gets excited about spring, but i am especially this year. not only are we getting into a really fun age with isaac, but just having him in general makes each season feel like a "first" even though i've seen twenty some-odd springs myself. we will be going to watch tim play church softball (a big deal up here)and walk in the park with Marley.

most importantly, we'll be simplifying our life in new ways. tim and i are always looking for ways to do this, because we're ones to easily get caught up in over-cluttering and over-scheduling ourselves. we also get used to nice things very quickly, which leads to a standard of living that i don't want to feel like i have to have. especially if i don't go back to work next fall, we'll have to get used to that without a choice. i have always gotten a unique satisfaction out of trying to figure out a life of simple pleasures.

our new rental house, which is downtown by the way, doesn't have central air. these 2 things alone have changed our lifestyle drastically. we went from a nice full acre of yard to....an alley for parking behind the house with about five cubic feet of "grass" if you pick up all the trash first. needless to say, our neighbors are not people we're used to being around and it's not the cutest house i'd pick to live in. when we had 2 weeks to find a house to rent, we didn't really care about the "no ac" thing...this summer, that may change. 2 advantages - the constant whirring of box fans reminds me of being a kid at my grandparents and our electric bills will be lean! :)

the biggest thing i'm excited about (and will probably need your help with) is splitting a share at a local CSA. in short, it's a local farm where you can pay for a season at a time to get a weekly box of whatever produce is currently growing. you can read more about it here. i love this for many reasons. one, we are supporting a local farm. two, we will be eating healthy things and know exactly where they came from. three, i'll get to live out my dream of having a garden to eat from. this works out great for us as we're renting and have zero land (or knowledge)to even begin a garden. finally, i'll have to use all the vegetables and create new things to eat. this will be a challenge for me, but more for my non-vegetable eating husband. so, if you have any recipes that would be helpful..send 'em my way! i think the first vegetables we're getting are spinach, radishes, red leaf and romaine lettuce, bok choi, parsley, arugula, and baby carrots.

i've tried growing herbs in a box on our deck one year and i remember getting a lot of cilantro and not much else. another thing tim doesn't like...lots of lonely salsa for me that year. any suggestions on plants that grow great in window boxes or pots?

check out www.localharvest.org to see if you have any CSA's near you!