Weekend conversations.

A Conversation with Jim:
(Lottie begins to cry suddenly behind me)
Jim (sounding concerned): Mommy, why's Yottie cryin'?
Me (slightly distracted): I dunno, Jim, she's probably getting hungry.
Jim (contemptuous of my ignorance): No, she's not hungry! I just hit her with my shoe.
Me (unsurprised): ...

I'm not sure why he asks when he already knows the answer better than anyone.

A Conversation with Lottie:
(Lottie points to random body part)
Lottie: Owwie! S'ooch it?
Me: (complies)
Repeat. And again. And again.

So what're the kids so pleased about?

Looks kind of suspicious, no?

Fortunately, Jim is ready to help Lottie model the damage:

Remind me not to turn my back when Jim's got a dry erase marker within reach.

Finally!

Due to circumstances beyond our control (laziness and procrastination, mostly), our garden got off to a late start this year, so it's been a long tedious wait for it to actually start supplying us with food. Jim especially has been immensely invested in checking every single day (often two or three times) to see if there's anything ready yet. But the wait is over! In the past week, we've had yellow squash, zucchini, eggplant, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, and okra all big enough to pick and eat.


Jim with his harvest basket.

Jim's favorite activity in the world is now harvesting the garden, which involves going out with an old Easter basket and collecting everything that seems remotely edible. Here's what we found yesterday:


Yesterday's harvest. Three kinds of cherry tomatoes, three kind of peppers, two over-sized cucumbers, and enough okra for me and the kids to eat for dinner.

Fortunately, he's more than willing to eat everything except the cucumbers. Out of that pile, we ate the tomatoes and one cucumber for lunch (he insisted on having half the cucumber on his plate but wound up giving it to me), and I fried the okra for dinner. Lottie was a fan. The peppers are probably going to travel to North Carolina with us this weekend, along with a few eggplants that ought to be ready tomorrow.


Bonus: Okra flower! I keep telling everyone how surprisingly pretty okra flowers are, so I figured I should show proof.