It's a Parade!

Early Monday morning, large coffees in hand, we headed over to our friend Kelly's farm to load up for the Dexter Memorial Day Parade.  We loaded up animals, decorated the tractor and trailer, and prepared to honor the vets of the community with a kick ass parade!

They close all of the streets down really early, which means you sit in "line" and wait for the parade to start for quite awhile.  And, unfortunately, it was freezing...but that did not stop the day from being awesome!!  So proud to honor the vets by riding on the Cornman Farms float!

Loadin' up the crew!

When you gotta go you gotta go...Good thing Joe's got the pooper scooper!

Are you cold Allison? ;)

 Thank You Vets!  And Thank You Cornman Farms!

The Dexter High School Band, Grandma's Girl Goat, and my partner for the parade, Flirt the Lamb!

The parade beauties! (did I mention it was cold?)

Allison and Kelly passing out Zang Bars (adult candy!! ;).

It was really awesome to see the kids and adults light up when they saw the animals!

Me and Mini Me.

Joe entertaining the crowd!

Thanks for an delightful day Cornman Farms! 

xoxo, e.

Memorial Day, Old School.

We had a jam packed weekend of events, one of those weekends in which I could only look ahead to one event at a time.  Then rush home, change, grab the next "dish to pass," and head out to the next event.  But what a lovely weekend it turned out to be!

We had family in town, and a family confirmation to attend yesterday morning.  After a little family brunch, we ran home and got ready to head out to Bill's 51st annual Memorial Day BBQ!  It was a potluck/picnic/bbq done up old school and right.  There was chicken on the big handmade stone grill, and dishes ranging from hand pulled mozzarella to green been casserole.  There were jello molds and pea salads.  There was rhubarb in every shape and form.  This was such an awesome change from the usual "vegan hipster" spreads at most the parties we attend (not that I'm complaining, I love vegan hipster food!).  But pea salad and jello molds?  Amazing.  Lots of good old farm folk pulling the fresh rhubarb from their yards and whippin' up pies.  Cheers to Bill's delightful shindig, and to his lovely daughters for running the kids and adult games!

 I sent Joe to the barn for lawn chairs, and he came back with 

"Don and Betty."  Never a dull moment.

Some people stayed upright for the sack and three legged race, and some did not ;).

This blog is getting long winded, so stay tuned for pics from the Cesarz' riding in the Memorial Day Parade!  xoxo, e.

In Slow Motion.

We had a friend over for Sunday brunch, and in chatting my beautiful friend said something that really struck me.  She said that since she became a mother, everything has slowed down...as in, she wants to see things with her daughter in slow motion.  She want to watch the leaves unfold one at a time, or drag out this beautiful spring by weeding the garden with her little one...slowly, lovingly.

This morning, over coffee, I was reading one of my farming magazines.  There is a cooking section with old recipes, and a section where one can write in and ask for help remembering old recipes.  As in, "What was the cake recipe on the side of the Hershey's box that called for three eggs?"

It warms my heart that there are still people in this world that don't just google things.  There are people that write letters to magazines, wait for those letters to be published, and then wait patiently for responses.  And then probably bake the Hershey's cake from their childhood.

For the love of God good friends, let's slow down.  Let's enjoy every minute of this beautiful season unfolding before us.  

I will not worry about planting, or painting, or laundry, or the shop.  I will drop everything to go fishing, or have popsicles on the porch.  I will have an extra cup of coffee with a farm journal instead of doing paperwork first thing in the morning.  I will lay on a blanket in the field with Coco and let the goats eat grass around us.

Let's take this summer slowly and enjoy it together!  

xoxo, e.

Zenni, An Eye Glasses Love Affair.

On May first, my health care benefits at work rolled over into a new year.  So, last week I had to do a bunch of annoying adult stuff and figure out plans and deductibles and such.  As I did the math on our optical insurance, I got really frustrated.  

While an eye exam is covered under out "not cheap" vision plan, it always feels like nothing else is.  This is covered at 80%, and that is is covered at 40%, etc.  When all is said and done, after anti scratch, anti glare, frames, lenses, etc., it costs Joe and I hundreds of dollars out of pocket to get new glasses...

That is, until we found Zenni Optical!!!

An eye exam is really cheap these days due to the plethora of vision places competing for your business.  It's the frames that they rape and pillage you on, and that is how they make their cash flow.  But once you have a copy of your eye prescription, you can go to any brick and mortar or online store to buy your frames and lenses.  And that, good friends, is where Zenni comes in.

The prices are the best I've found online (ranging from $6-$46) and the quality of the frames is better than that of our glasses from the optometrist.  There are a ton of cute vintage styles, and you can order any of them as sunglasses too!  You can search by shape, color, style, price, size, etc.  So here are my tips....

#1 - Find your PDF (pupillary distance) on your script and use this in your search perimeters.  Not every pair of glasses comes in every size, so this narrows your search.

#2 - Spring the extra $4.95 for the anti glare lenses.  This option is at checkout.

And that's it.  Seriously, it's that easy.  Joe and I have both gotten so many awesome pairs over the last year and half.  It's kind of addicting.  I mean, I'd spend $25 on a new dress, so why not on a "facial accessory" that I wear every day?  So here we go!!.....

My "I'm just a retro mamma" pair.  $25.95

My "I'm fancy cuz my glasses sparkle" pair. $25.95

My "Perfect with a floral dress" pair.  $27.95

My "I'm doing my homework!" pair. $23.95

 These have become my every day pair...who knew?  $29.95

Next on my wish list?  Everyone is listing super cute round 1920's styles in anticipation of The Great Gatsby coming out...and I want some!

photo credit Kelly

...Oh, and these little guys came last week.  Meet the Bourbon Red Turkeys!  Cute enough to eat?  ;)

xoxo, e.