Farm Weekend

My family spent this last weekend in the country to enjoy some free-range living.  I love that my four-year-old can run in and outside at will, chase chickens (who are always free range), romp with the goats, play with sticks, rocks, mud, turtles and easily find willing accomplices for his adventures.  An adventure could be as simple as tumbling down piles of dirt or as complex as divvying up popcorn to “sell” while watching Ghost Busters in the barn.

My twelve-year-old, well, she’s happy to read, write and gab with her girlfriend.  She’s suspicious of any effort on my part to get her outside, so when I saw this beautifully, sculpted bird blind I practically had to pick her up and drag her out to see it.  This nest is the perfect place to spend an hour or two contemplating the characters and plot of her next story.  I’m not sure she agrees, she was too anxious to find her friend.  Perhaps I should reserve it for my own stories, if the kids forget where to find it.

Bird blind built by John Seaman.  See more photos here.

Like many urban dwellers, I was excited to get out of town to see some color.  That big old evergreen is thinking, “Yeah Red, think you’re hot now?  Just wait a month, ha!”

With this parked on the property, I had a hard time keeping it raw this weekend.  It’s a Studebaker turned wood-fired, pizza oven called Rolling Stonebaker.  Being such a word nerd, their word play is just about as fabulous as the pizza.  If it was me in line to put in our order, I would have seen their mouth watering, gluten-free, heirloom tomato salad pizza or their veggie marinara with roasted garlic, artichoke hears, baby bella mushrooms, red onion and basil.  Should’of, would’of, could’of.  Instead, George ordered up a plain cheese (for a super picky 4yo), a Margherita (for a somewhat picky 12yo) and a pepperoni (for papa).  I might have sampled a bit of each.

I’d like to say that with all my walks, jogs and hikes over the weekend that I’ve earned the privilege to eat whatever I darn well please.  However, my focus on food these days isn’t as much about counting calories in and energy expenditure out as it is about choosing to eat food that makes me feel vibrant.  How I feel the day after indulging in pizza and cupcakes reminds me of waking up with a hangover.  I’d like to say that with all my walks, jogs and hikes over the weekend that I’ve earned the privilege to eat whatever I darn well please.  However, my focus on food these days isn’t as much about counting calories in and energy expenditure out as it is about choosing to eat food that makes me feel vibrant.  How I feel the day after indulging in pizza and cupcakes reminds me of waking up with a hangover.  It also reminds me of keeping my food choices in perspective, my activity in balance and keeping my thoughts in the present.

We all returned to the city a little bedraggled, picking cobwebs from our hair and mud from our boots – glad to find our beds, and me happy to find my greens didn’t turn.  Today was a juicing day for recovery.

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