When I was a little girl one of my fondest memories were spending time with my grandparents.  I guess that is no surprise if you have read a few of my previous posts.  Recently my daughter and I went to a local farmers market.  I visited the vegetable stand that is set up every weekend.  I love being able to support local farmers. We bought several things that day, including green beans.  Now I have had fresh green beans numerous times but I had never made them before.  So to the phone I went and asked my Mom what to do.  Of course you have to snap off the ends before cooking. So I grabbed my daughter and off to the picnic table we went. The first bean I snapped immediately transported me right back to my grandparents yard snapping beans.  I could not help but tear up with the flood of memories that one little bean brought back to me.  I felt like I had a movie playing in my head. It was a happy but also very sad moment.  My daughter was there helping me and asking me questions. I proceeded to tell her about my grandparents and how when I was a little girl I used to do this with them.   We talked about the beans and how yummy they were going to be for dinner that night. Little did I know about what a truely amazing new memory this was going to be.  Of course I heard the why question and what do we do with the ends and so on.  Out of the blue my daughter asks me "are frogs slimy?"  Not realizing why I was being asked this question I told her I guess they are slimy.  She says she never wants to kiss a frog!  She had watched the Princess and the Frog at my sisters that day and she says that Tiana said she would never kiss a frog.  I could not help but smile.  She really thought it was important to share this with me.




I set out to share a memory with my daughter about my grandparents and in turn we had an in depth conversation between us.  She is a very active little girl and I am a very busy mom so little conversations like that are priceless.  We get so busy with the hustle and bustle of everyday life sometimes you just need to take a breath.  I wanted to share a memory with her and instead we created one.  I was reminded by a 4 year old to slow down and enjoy the little things, even if it was about frogs!

I seem to have gotten a case of writers block.  I think I have just had so many things thrown at me all at once all of a sudden and I am having trouble writing up a new post.  I sit down and look at all the pictures I have taken and just have a hard time coming up with how to start.  So I am gonna start this post off by just writing with hopes that it will all start flowing out. 

Our family vacation is coming up in a couple of weeks.  We have been stressing about what we were going to do.  We have not had a family vacation since before my daughter turned 1, she will be five the end of August.  Due to sickness when my daughter was really little and then my husband had some health issues and then 3 lay offs we just didn't have the funds to do anything, or I didn't have the vacation time left to take. I feel this year it is important for us to go away to reconnect as a family since my husband is working all the time, he is off when I am working so it doesn't leave us much time to spend together.  Staying home is not an option because we will just get stuck in our same little rut.  We have narrowed down where we want to go we just have to figure out the details.

On a recent walk around our little neighborhood we saw a baby deer feeding in a field across from our house.  We were just in awe at how it just continued to graze and would look up at us every now and again.  I am sure its moma was not far away and this was probably one of its first attempts to venture out on its own.  It did not seem scared of us, it was probably wondering "what is that looking at me." We gradually walked our way on by and let it continue to graze.  I so wish I had my camera, what a beautiful sight it was to see.  My daughter caught sight of this little deer again yesterday morning as we were heading out.  I didn't see it but she was excited.  We also saw along the way rabbits in some of the neighbors yards.  The more we walked the more rabbits we saw.  This sparked a conversation with my daughter about what animals we raised growing up.  I started telling her about our cow that that we had, Toby.  He was actually a bull that my parents raised.  I became so fond of Toby and would go out and talk to him and I was fascinated at my pet. This was until the one day my Dad told me he was going to go to a big farm where is was gonna be a lot happier.  This made me very sad.  Little did I know my parents were raising this bull to feed us.  I care not to think about that and I want to still think he is still grazing on that big farm and is very happy.  We also had rabbits and chickens.  We had quite the little farm in our little yard.  I had no idea at that age that these were actually for us to eat. I am sure the up keep for raising these animals became too much because eventually we no longer raised any animals.  I have fond memories of our little farm.

I really don't remember if we had a garden.  I do remember going to my Nanny's house and digging potatoes.  They had a lot of other veggies but I remember this the most since you have to dig them up.  I was fascinated at how you could do that.  My parents now plant a garden every year.  The garden is planted in boxes so they are limited on what they grow but my Mom loves to garden.  We also have planter boxes in our yard and plant a few veggies each year now.  It is so rewarding when you harvest your crop.  My love of gardening comes from my Mom.  I wish I could expand my garden and plant more, maybe next year. 

I want to share my Moms Squash recipe with you today.  My husband was a very, very picky eater.  Over the last 19 years we have been married his palette has evolved and you would be amazed at the variety of foods he eats now.  This recipe is one of those recipes he loves.  I think he could just eat this and be happy.  It really is that good.  Lets get to this recipe.