As far as I’m concerned, we easily do strawberries as well as seafood in this state. Every year I go the farmer’s market and pick up a flat when they are perfect (see image of perfection above). Then I come home, put a few aside for nibbling immediately, and then start de-stemming the rest to store in the freezer. I can make smoothies out of these for months. And in New Orleans those are some long hot-ass summer months. Considering how I’ve bumped up my workouts I will reaaaaaaally need these strawberries. Anyway, this was the first year that the kids were aware of what I was doing. They were all, “Mommy, why’re you cutting the STAW BURRIES?” So I sat them down to help me do the job.

Eva helped, Savi did not. He nommed – through a basket by himself.

I was wondering why I take so many pictures of Savi eating. It’s probably because his sister never eats (thereby breaking my wee home cookin’ heart), and because his faaaaaace. He so enjoys whatever he’s eating and will try ANYTHING. He tastes, he thinks, he moans, all while staring off into gastronomic bliss space. I can’t stop watching his contentment.

I just realized I have no idea what color eyes he has. Khaki?

Today is Savi’s birthday. My youngest is THREE. It seems like just yesterday he was this wee gummy bear in my tummy…

Now he’s shooting me with water guns while wearing a wicked grin. And I LOVE it. Because he’s so mine.

Eva making her tigress cub growl after her face painting was finished.

I’m always on the lookout for bilingual events in the area for the kids, especially in French (their school language). Last year we discovered Festival International de Louisiane which is the largest Francophone music fest in the USA. It’s one of the few events you can go to in Louisiana where you’ll actually hear the French language – the acts are announced in it, many of the bands perform in it, and you can hear it being spoken around the fest by some if you’re lucky. I’ll take a guess and say this is the most French immersion opportunity you’ll get at a free event inside the USA.

The fest was started in 1987 to preserve Louisiana’s French-speaking heritage so encouraging the language is the point. With the rise of French immersion schools’ popularity in southern Louisiana post-hurricane Katrina/Rita, there are now more French-speaking youths in the state than since the Americanization of the Cajuns in the mid 20th century. It was wonderful to see schoolchildren performing songs in French in the Scène des Jeunes (Youth Stage) area of the fest, and I’m really grateful (and envious) that my kids get to grow up during this cultural renaissance in Louisiana.

I was interviewed by The Advertiser newspaper about how to prep for the festival with kids. I find it a bit confusing that the title of the article is Festival Can Be a Place For Kids since they have so many activities there designed for kids, but it also has a very global-bohemian reputation so perhaps that’s why. I mean, there was…

Face-painting…

Illicit fountain activity on city property… (Actually, I’m completely unsure if this is allowed or not since everyone brings swimwear for their kids to do it, and no one got fussed at). I love how the face paint is dripping down her face here.

En franglaijun… (Grammar nerd alert: The acute accent marks on “scene” should be grave accent marks. You can shoot me anytime.)

Of course, no words are necessary for Cajun food. Just moaning… (That’s a pistolette on the left there, by the way.)

A really talented, unusual, and very fun Quebec band called Canailles played for a sweaty crowd of post “Courir du Festival” 5k runners (Q made a personal record that morning!). The band was surprised that we were drinking after a race… and drinking in the morning. I guess I should be glad they didn’t call me out for doing both with a baby on my hip. Hey, I never confuse the sippy cups, people.

This is the only photo I have of my son because he was moving too fast to catch on camera. Now this is what a fully sated preschool kid looks like… (He fell asleep right after this and snored through a very loud and rockin’ Acadian band, but managed to clap after every song in his sleep!).

It’s bad enough that I have to think about what might be in the food I eat when I’m buying it, but now I have to think about what’s in my flowers too?!

Take last week. Q was returning from a business trip so I grabbed some flowers on my way to the check-out line at the grocery store. Eva loves bright flowers so I picked some colorful daisy looking things (hey, this is not my area). When I got home I arranged them in a vase and started putting the perishables away. By the time I was done the water in the vase looked like THIS.

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew! C’mon! Really?!?! Is that DYE? Can’t I just have plain old nature colored flowers? Is that not enough? This looks like a fairy pissed in the vase.

No photoshop necessary. The supermarket does it for you, apparently. Guess all my flowers will come from the farmer’s market or I’ll grow them myself from now on. Even my preschoolers were like “Mommy, what did you do to that water?”. Of course I got all defensive. “What do you mean ‘what did *I* do?‘. I had no idea they tortured flowers in factories too.”

You learn something new every day. And I made it to 37 having no idea they dyed flowers at the supermarket.

I signed up for my June challenge at the Crescent City Farmer’s Market this morning. It’s the Eat Local Challenge! I know you’re probably wondering what happened to the April and May challenges, and I’ll get to that… I’m only mentioning this one early in hopes that others will sign up too! If you’re not in the New Orleans area, look up “eat local” or “locavore” events or challenges in your area. Many major cities do this, albeit in different months.

Yes, as it turns out I’m a big hippie about food. The shaaaaaame. I’ll explain more about why I’m even doing this when I start in June.

Anyway, here’s the breakdown of the 2012 challenges so far:

• January: Paleo and CrossFit challenge.
• February: Budget and finance overhaul.
• March: Nablopomo.
• April: Home organizing projects.
• May: To be determined.
• June: Eat local challenge.

So that’s it for now. Got any ideas for May? Since I’m tackling home organizing this month I might piggyback it with “hurricane preparedness”, which is a pretty big deal around here if you’re sane.

Follow the Nola Locavores’ Eat Local Challenge via Facebook and Twitter.

One of my favorite bloggers, Design Mom, is doing this series called “Love The Place You Live” where you explore something in your area and blog about it. She lives in rural France so you should really check out how beautiful her dispatches are. Anyway, when I pondered my first post for this I realized that doing an urban version is quite different. Do you focus on the details or the sheer amount of what’s around? I still haven’t figured out my own approach, so one morning I just walked out of my front door, camera in hand, and decided I would only walk 2 blocks. Initially I said 2 blocks in any direction from my front door, but most of the photos below are just two blocks north or two blocks west. And still I’m unsure how to narrow it down. Perhaps in the future I’ll just pick one store or event like DM does (quality over quantity). Anyway, here’s my quantity post, but it’s pretty quality too ;-) It’s photo heavy, but it’s mixed business and residential blocks so they’re pretty diverse. I promise, I’ll do something more in-depth and less ADHD next month!

Our neighborhood’s historical marker. These are found all over New Orleans.

Mardi Gras beads in the bird bath.

Seat for the bus stop. More beads hanging on the fence in the background.

I just looooove this front door.

The neighborhood po-boy cafe.

This smells SO strong right now. I think it’s sweet olive? It’s Jasmine. (Thanks Suzanne!) We have walls and canopies of it.

If only I could make this photo smell!

This building has a popular local coffeehouse downstairs and apartments above. My husband said it was a drugstore when he was a kid in the 1980s. The New Orleans Fire Department truck just happened to be turning at the signal light when I took the picture.

I very much want to climb into its tower.

Mardi Gras beads were not used much outside of carnival season when I was a kid, but these days you see them adorning everything – likely tied to the post-hurricane Katrina renaissance.

When they get stuck in the trees, we leave them there now.

Yes, it’s a cockroach, but it’s a DEAD cockroach. And that’s always good.

More bus stop art. Love these signs…

Our thriving neighborhood toy store, next door to some soon-to-be-redeveloped building.

Details.

And more details.

A common sight…

I am obsessed with this stationary store. When I was in labor for Eva (my first baby), I actually went here to buy calligraphy pens because I knew I’d forget I was having a baby if I was in here!

I just liked everything about this -  the glass, the shutters, the porch light…

I love how the gothic-catholic themed bar has an “It’s a Boy” sticker in the window. The reflection in the window is of a mammoth Whole Foods grocery in a renovated bus barn. It’s technically in the third block from my house so I can’t include it in the “2 blocks” photo shoot.

An artist lives here. Duh.

Sometimes I just stare at the ground. Because even that is beautiful here.

And finally, for those of us who need reminding…

New Orleans is known all over the world for its big festivals like Jazz Fest, French Quarter Fest, Essence Music Fest and Voodoo Fest. But I’ve only been to three of those ONCE. I’m not big on crowds, and I really have to talk myself up to walk around in direct sunlight for several hours. As delicious as the food is, I have trouble enjoying it because I’m so hot! Who wants to eat hot fried food it 90 degree weather and no shade? Pas moi. But there are alternatives.

Another thing we have a lot of here are small street festivals. They extend a few blocks either clustered or along a main street and have a much more neighborhood feel to them. They are mostly attended by locals, and feature arts, crafts, food and music, all by small local vendors. I like that I run into a lot of people I know, and that there is space. Space to breathe, and dance, and eat without getting elbowed in the face. Space to let my kids run around in a crowd that not only is sparse enough that I can see if they run off, but will likely be intercepted by a friendly neighbor who will bring them back to me.

Unfortunately, these street fests rarely stay small and local for long. They always grow to insane ‘international’ sizes within 3-4 years. It’s only by the will of the organizers if these things stay small and local-friendly. Once such fest we attended this Saturday was the Freret Street Festival. After Q ran the Crescent City Classic 10K that morning (I told you the shit never ends here!) he came home, we took a nap, and then it was off to the street party. It did not disappoint. It had a great atmosphere that really was family friendly (usually that just means kid friendly and the adults want to shoot themselves). The music and food were great, and of course being in my own neighborhood makes it fairly perfect.

To illustrate, it goes kinda like this…

You DRINK and EAT…

Savi nomming on Dat Dog.

You DANCE…

Eva dancing to “Russian mafia band” Debauche.

You smile, because life here is pretty damn amazing.

Q and I, having just devoured some pulled pork po-boys, and several Abita beers.

I have this dilemma with the grass in front of my house. See, technically I don’t own it. The City of New Orleans owns everything between the sidewalk and the street (including the historic oak trees). The problem is that they don’t maintain their property. The people who own the property beyond the sidewalk are expected to maintain it. I don’t think it’s a law, but more like an unwritten rule. If you want it to be pretty then you have to fix it up yourself. They don’t maintain the oak trees either. WE have to go out there and trim the dead branches and pay to have it sprayed for caterpillars every year!

"Monkey Grass"

Most of the people who live on this street have come up with creative ground cover solutions. Up until last year we had “monkey grass” planted here. I don’t have a photo of what mine looked like, but there’s some in the pic there. It was lush but stayed low and tight, required no upkeep, and did well in the low light environment (under the oak tree). It withstood heavy foot traffic from bicycles, pedestrians and even cars pulling over it from time to time. But last summer all that changed when the street and sidewalks were resurfaced. Magazine Street was in dire need of repairs and I’m very glad the work finally got done, but I was pretty sad to see the well-established monkey grass get ripped up. I accepted it though – until the resurfacing was complete and I saw crews come by and throw seeds on the overturned soil.

I wish I could say I threw a passionate tantrum of sorts, but I’m used to this kind of abuse in Nola. Nothing is fair here, especially where real estate is concerned. And so I responded rather apathetically. The new grass is pretty enough, it just grows like an unruly weed and needs a lot of regular cutting.

I REFUSE TO DO IT.

Of course the city had no intention of maintaining it all along. I’ve managed to ignore it since last summer. Mostly I was letting it grow in during the winter, but now it’s pretty thick and needs cutting – or weed-killer. I’m considering ripping it up and replanting the tried-and-true monkey grass. But the size of the area would likely require $1000 in new plants to get it looking the way it was (out of MY pocket). Plus, I’m not even sure that’s legal. I’m technically not supposed to touch the oak tree either, but I’m sure I’d get a good laugh if I called the city to come and trim branches that fall on my house after tropical storms.

Anyway, we’re not the only ones unsure what to do with this grass. Most of the neighbors don’t maintain theirs either. So the street’s looking kinda shabby lately, and it’s not exactly a low traffic area. What would you do?

I guess I have some explaining to do. Yes, I stopped doing Nablopomo (National Blog Posting Month) – at the very end too! What can I say, it was a busy and trying weekend. Plus, I never really had my heart into the posting every single day thing. I’d rather do higher quality, lower quantity. I know that posting every day is supposed to get you into the “writing habit”, but I was kinda cheating anyway by posting photos with captions. I think if I do this challenge again I will have to set up stricter rules for myself. Not simply posting every day, but posting a certain length. And perhaps not on weekends. That’s why I failed this time. Weekends! Who wants to work on the weekend? I have a family I’d like to spend time with, a garden to get dirty in, and obnoxiously beautiful New Orleans spring weather to bask in. Screw writing on weekends!

Anyway, I’ve been doing a challenge every month in 2012. This is my first unsuccessful one. If you’re the type that grades easy you could say I completed 75% of the goal. Back in January I did the Paleo and CrossFit challenge which I rocked. Then in February I did a strict family budget overhaul that saved us hundreds a month. I was so successful in February that I’d completed most of the goal the first week.

Which brings me to the difference between goals where you must complete something before a certain amount of time and goals where you have to endure something for a certain amount of time. I’m great at completing before time’s up. Tell me that a certain task must be done before X and I can do it with little distress. But tell me I have to endure X for a certain length of time no matter how well I perform and I shut down.

This is why I’m more proud of January than February. January was very difficult for me, not because of the physical demands, but because I simply had to keep doing them no matter how well I did. This was hard for me to wrap my head around. What do you mean I have to do 50 push-ups again? I just proved I could do that yesterday! *shakes head*

The March challenge (Nablopomo) was another endurance challenge and it took me off guard. I tried to approach it like the workouts in January, but the thing is – once you show up for a workout it’s as good as done. In my opinion, showing up is the hard part of physical challenges. However, with writing, showing up is the easy part. Actually doing the writing is that hard part!

So I’ve been successful 2 out of 3 months in 2012. I haven’t yet decided what I’ll try to tackle in April. There are several things on the list, including the one I always push back – learning French! (learning languages is another endurance challenge). I’ll ponder today what I think is manageable for April. I think I need to be more practical when considering challenges. Life is busy, especially with young children, and having no room for error is unrealistic

What I know now is that if my 2012 challenges are going to have a theme then it’s enduring. I want to crack this. It’s pissing me off. I have little patience, which makes enduring very difficult. My natural state is to want everything to be fast, abrupt and over. The thing I hated hearing most as a kid was “you have to pay your dues”. So if I’m going to do this I’ll have to learn some patience first. Oh shut up. I can do it. Maybe. But it won’t be easy. Now I just have to figure out the best way to torture challenge myself in April.

It’s Friday. I’m going to play. But before I go… The daily post.

I was going through my Flickr stats and it looks like my baby nursery photo set still gets the most traffic. It’s kind of funny because they aren’t even good quality or properly sized. I think there’s just a lot of crazy women searching the internet for baby nursery ideas :-P

Anyway, I went with unisex colors. A Chinese theme. It looks too dark and dull to me now, and since my second child is almost done with the crib I’m thinking of brightening it up some. Even though the crib converts into a full size bed I don’t think I want it to take up that much of his room so I might sell the whole set. Maybe. I’ll think about it later. There are raw oysters and beer in my future.