Lessons from a Teen Mom

Baby swing gotten from a dumpster, decor on the wall is a cut-up greeting card.

‘First we are given the test, then the lesson.’

Buddhist proverb.

First of all, I want to put out this disclaimer: don't do what I did. 

Being a teenage mom was undoubtedly the biggest hurdle I ever faced, and there was nothing glamorous about it, no matter what the reality shows say. Looking back, I can't believe we even survived. Tough times change you, and it is up to each of us to decide if it will be for the better or for the worse. I know what it is like to face an angry landlord wanting his three months of back rent; I know what it is like to look outside and see that the truck has been repossessed. I know what is like to live in a motel room, to cook only in an electric skillet because the gas had been shut off, to have only rice for supper. I've washed my share of cloth diapers without a washer on premises and used bread sacks for plastic diaper covers. One of my infant sons slept in a stuffed chair shoved up to the bed so he wouldn't fall out. I walked to the grocery store almost every day for years with my children in tow, because driving really wasn't much of a possibility until my children were in elementary school. Everything learned the hard way has left its mark on me and shaped how I react to every current crisis. As this nation copes with joblessness and fears of the future, I am strangely compelled to consult my younger self for advice. This hapless girl stumbled onto wisdom without even knowing it. This is what she has to share.

My son is in a stroller we rescued from a dumpster. His little overalls are too short, but they still fit around his waist, so they are still being worn. No shoes, and I am shielding his little face from the sun with my hand.

Lessons from a teen-age mom:

1. Find your faith and grab on tight. 
Start to ask deeper questions about your purpose in life and why this situation might be happening to you. Ask yourself if this might be a perfect opportunity to reassess what you have chosen as your idols. Everybody is made to worship someone or something, and often it is not the true God. Maybe you've relied on your job or your bank balance to give you your sense of worth. I had to realize this lesson the toughest way possible--when I was just a lost high school kid who's only prior knowledge of the 'real world' was Michael Jackson videos. It is said there are no atheists in fox-holes. I cannot express to you how scared I was during those years, how helpless I felt hundreds of miles away from friends and family, with no money, no stable home, no sure way to even feed my babies, and a husband who brought more harm than help. Our money problems were largely caused by my late husband's hard core drinking problem. There were no cell phones; connecting with family would have meant plugging a pay phone with quarter after quarter, and we were distant in many more ways than just miles. I learned to talk to God constantly, and I learned that He really would get me through the day, no matter what it brought. I learned that He really does take care of the sparrows, and I was certainly a small terrified bird. I was in an abusive alcoholic marriage, and although I left often, I really did not see any real way out. Upon reflection, I marvel at how I got through that deep, pitch-black valley. But step by step He walked me through it, and now it is just a surreal memory.  If you think you're alone through the challenges we are facing, I am going to say flat out: you are wrong. Sharpen your eyes and look for the little things He is doing for you each and every day.

Gratitude is a force of nature. It can chase away the shadows of depression and self-pity. Inventiveness comes from seeing all we are blessed with.

Making homemade spaghetti sauce for the freezer, pennies per serving.

2. Eat like a peasant to eat well. And continuing on this topic of food, I learned to make dishes that are the staples of poor people around the world. Library books are free, and there I would check out cook books. We were 'vegan' far before it was cool, because rice and beans filled up little tummies. Apples and bananas are consistently the cheapest fruit in the store. Powdered milk can come in handier than you think, and makes no difference in baking. It can be mixed half and half with regular milk, or one can simply develop a taste for it, as I have. Think dishes like Spanish rice, Hungarian goulash, potato soup, cornbread, gravy on biscuits, spaghetti, breakfast for dinner, Asian fried dishes made with leftover vegetables and meat or egg. It should be noted that traditional Asian cuisine features meat as a flavoring or an accent, not as a main element. We're not talking fancy gluten free diets here; we are talking subsistence until things get better. We lived on things like tuna casseroles, and shepherd pies, where you combine browned hamburger with a can of soup and some vegetables, then put mashed potato on the top with some grated cheese if you have it, and pop it in the oven.
 

My Campbell's cookbook has torn pages from being used--and loved--so much. Most of the recipes I tried with great success, except for the recommended 'tomato soup' cake...which I wouldn't recommend. 

Here is kind of what I do, written down in a much more organized way. It comes from the book, 'The Tightwad Gazette' by Amy Dacyczyn.

The Universal Casserole
(the way to use up odd collections of leftovers for yet another meal)

1 cup main ingredient
1 cup secondary ingredient
1-2 cups starchy ingredient
1 1/2 cups binder
1/4 cup "goodie"
Seasoning
Topping

Main ingredient suggestions: tuna, cubed chicken, turkey, ham, seafood.

Second ingredient suggestions: thinly sliced celery, mushrooms, peas, chopped hard-cooked eggs.

Starchy ingredient suggestions: thinly sliced potatoes, cooked noodles, cooked rice.

Binder suggestions: cream sauce, sour cream, can of soup (cream of mushroom, tomato, cream of celery or chicken.)

"Goodie" suggestions: pimento, olives, almonds, water chestnuts.

Topping suggestions: potato chips, cheese, bread crumbs.

Thoroughly mix your combinations of the above ingredients. If it seems dry, add 1/4 milk or stock or even water. Place in buttered casserole dish and back at 350 degrees for 30 to 45 minutes, until bubbly.

(I rarely use "goodies" in my casseroles, since they are expensive, except I do splurge on hard cheese.)

 

Cooking in our first mobile home. I was so proud of it.

  Simple Goulash

Cooked macaroni (you decide how much you want to use, depending on your family size. I use about the amount you would find in a box of mac and cheese.)

Tomato sauce
Paprika, salt and pepper to taste
Browned Hamburger with Onion (you don't need much)

After you brown your hamburger with onion, drain off the grease. Add the cooked macaroni and then add the tomato sauce. I typically use a couple of cans, but this will depend on how much macaroni you have cooked. Add seasonings and heat through. A can of corn can be added, but it is quite good without it.
Think whole foods instead of prepared ones. A plump fresh orange is far healthier, and cheaper, than a glass of orange juice made from concentrate. The only canned foods I still stock up on are canned creamed soups for hot dishes, any sort of canned tomato product (sauce, diced tomatoes, or paste) and cans of fruit. During tough times, we didn't have potato chips or pretzels or--God forbid--soda pop. Homemade banana bread or oatmeal cookies would be our snacks. This is not a time for pickiness for children--or adults. Buy some lemon juice for about a dollar and use it to make some homemade lemonade for an occasional treat. But a pitcher of chilled water, from the tap, was--and continues to be--our main beverage.

When I couldn't afford baby food, I would cook instant oatmeal mixed with milk, (powdered milk would work great with this) or I would make homemade rice pudding for baby where I lowered the amount of sugar. Most of the casseroles we had for dinner would be cooled to lukewarm and then went into the blender for my babies...this method wound up to be preferable to jarred foods, as I realized it was cheaper and free of preservatives.


3. Integrity is free, but precious beyond belief. There are few things as humiliating as being unable to pay one's bills. If there is a silver lining to all this, however, it is that the entire world is going through similar hard times, too, and this is not your fault. Use this tough time as a test of your self-control and self-respect. Don't let anyone think that you are not a person of your word. If bills are behind, make sure to talk personally with the bill collector. I began this policy in 1989, when my husband and I split up for the last time, and I had $10 to my name. I will admit that it has gotten more difficult to make money arrangements as things have gotten more and more bureaucratized. I struggle currently with settling medical payments. However, the alternative of burying one's head in the sand and pretending the bills will just go away only leads to being turned over to a collection agency, a place no one wants to be. There is no shame in asking for public assistance if you truly need it, but try to polite, patient, and calm. Preserve your dignity. This is a time you are going to get through, but no one wants to remember that they handled adversity by screaming at someone at the front desk.
  

Ironing borrowed maternity blouses.

4. Don't panic, get organized. Now is the time to get resourceful. Now is the time to see what you really have, as opposed to focusing only on what is lost. Maybe selling things in the over-stuffed garage would bring in more grocery money or pay a back house payment. Maybe it's time to inventory what is at the bottom of the chest freezer or in the corner of the pantry and make a few weeks of frugal meal plans with what you already have. Maybe it's time to plant a garden, or look for sales on bulk food. Maybe there are clothes that just need a little mending, or can be handed down to a younger child. What could you do without, what could you sell, what do you need to buy? What could you make do with, or what could you stretch for a little longer? Or even better yet, what can you make yourself? I make my own salad dressings, barbecue sauce, granola instead of boxed cereal, and I can vegetable and fruit produce whenever I receive it. I don't have a sewing machine, so I sew by hand. I dilute all of my soaps...laundry soap, dishwashing soap, and hand soap, and it still works as well, while saving a great deal of money.

Organization and cleanliness are not frivolous time wasters, the behaviors of crazy neat freaks. They are qualities that literally smooth out your life and stretch your resources. Now more than ever, take care of what you have. Study the values of the people during the Great Depression and learn their strategies. There is a saying that clean houses and clean cars require fewer repairs, and I wholeheartedly believe this is true. I cannot count the times I have saved us money--sometimes hundreds of dollars--because I could pull up an old receipt or warranty.  All because I devote a couple of hours a week to filing.  Keep your home clean and neat, and keep a tidy schedule of to-dos for your family that regularly get checked off. When I was a teenage mom, one thing that helped alleviate some fear was creating structure in my day. Consistent nap times, meal times and play times helped me anchor to the reality of the present moment, instead of pacing around in fear.

"Be miserable. Or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it’s always your choice." – Wayne Dyer

We will get through this, and who knows what lessons we might learn, and how much stronger we will be when this is over?  I think teenage me would agree, and then she would turn up her George Michael 'Faith' album.

  

Raggedy cookbooks

My first--and still old standby--Better Homes and Gardens, given to me as a wedding gift in 1984. It looks like it might have survived an earthquake or an attack of savage dogs, when in actuality all it had to endure was a painfully insecure teenage cook who learned through a rollercoaster ride of flops, of sawdust cakes and bread like a brick and stew where the carrots still crunched like orange rocks. My sons took their Crayolas to this book, and although I was mad at the time, now those are the pages that make me want to hold their little hands again. Half of the pages in the book have fallen out and most are bumpy with dishwater stains and all manner of mystery food splotches. The book is open to Blonde Brownies, which I have probably made at least a hundred times in my life, and I see I have marked 'Toffee Bars' as 'good', but I've made them so many times that I certainly don't need that reminder anymore. 

The book above is a 1960s version of Better Homes and Gardens, which I ordered used from Amazon. It is a treasure trove of 1970s memorabilia, since the owner, a "Mrs. David E. Hoover" who inscribed the front cover with a flourish, collected magazine recipes and meticulously added them to her cookbook. She most definitely did NOT allow her sons to color all over the 'egg' section, and her book has nary a water stain.

Crepes, by accident!

People ask me often how we can possibly have a grocery budget of between $20 and $30 a week for the two of us. I have a few tricks I've learned that I will explain more fully in later posts, but probably one of my main ones is that I always focus on using what I have. I have freezer cooking days once a week, where I survey what is currently in my fridge and freezer and see how I can 'transform' leftovers. This time, I had a loaf of bread that did not rise correctly in the bread machine--I still don't know what happened, because the next loaf came out fine--and so I decided to use the flop for French toast. Which turned out not too badly, I must say.  After frying up the French toast, I realized that I still had a considerable amount of egg batter left, and really didn't want to just pour it down the sink. So...I went to my trusty computer and discovered that if I just added a bit more flour to it, to make it a runny form of pancake batter...that it would make crepes. These came out so perfectly, I had a giddy Julia Child moment!!  Whether I can do it again...now that's the test.


Oh, and by the way, this is one of my Grandma Ellen's tablecloths. I figure it's about 50 - 70 years old. 

Everything but the gobble

This was last week's freezer cooking session. I try to use everything I possibly can when I cook. It was high time to use the turkey bones from last Thanksgiving, which had kind of been forgotten about at the bottom of the freezer...oops!

Here is the delicious stock I made from nothing but those bones and some water. (It almost looks like soup already!)  I filled the stock pot up until the bones were nearly submerged, and then just let it simmer for a couple of hours. The amount of water really depends on how rich you want your stock and how much you want to make.No hard and fast rules here...just let the poultry carcass boil for awhile, until you start to see some colorful, flavorful liquid. The longer, the better.  It's amazing how much can be gotten from just a few bones!  The only drawback is that your house will smell so delicious, you might be like me and crave mashed potatoes and chicken gravy for the rest of the afternoon.

And voila, my stocks are ready for the freezer once more. I will use this stock to make gravies, and also as the base for homemade 'condensed' soups (such as cream of mushroom, cream of chicken (of course!) and even cream of celery. It will also make a great chicken soup base either with noodles or rice.  Stock adds a real restaurant-level quality of flavor to seasoned rice side dishes. 
Two things I've learned in just the last few years of my radical frugality:  1.) it's amazing how much just one bird will yield for food...and 2.) how rich and 'gourmet-like' poultry dishes taste when you use genuine stock. Having stock in my kitchen makes me feel like a genuine chef! 
Oh, and one more thing, I don't worry about the fat in the liquid...it rises to the top of the containers, hardens and is easily removed when the stock is used.

Freezer baking day

Today is freezer baking day. On the far left is cornbread to go with our soup tonight, made with applesauce that I canned earlier in the month. (I substitute applesauce for oil or butter in many of my recipes and cannot believe the moistness and flavor difference...yum!) The middle container holds pumpkin muffins for Hubby's lunches.  The loaf behind is also pumpkin bread.  Farthest away is a pan of toffee bars...and as you can see, it is the cook's prerogative to sneak the first piece!  Since it's just the two of us, this should hold us for a couple of weeks. I do a great deal of baking, since, except for a weekly burger-dive splurge, we primarily eat all our meals at home and from scratch.

There are also two containers of unfrosted yellow cupcakes, which later will be frosted and set out for a family reunion this summer. It might sound like I'm a bit hasty to make cupcakes for a summer function this early, but at our house, and I bet at yours too, time always seems to be in short supply. Hubby is currently in chaplaincy ministry and ordaining to become an Anglican priest, and already our calendar for summer is rapidly filling up.

In the back bay window, you might be able to make out my the long gray pot, which I filled with marigold seeds yesterday. I've also got some tomatoes started, as well as some zucchinis. 

Grandma's Apricot Filled Cookies

Since it would be unheard of to visit Grandma Ellen and not be offered these scrumptious cookies, I'm going to try to do the next best thing. Here is the recipe copied word for word as she wrote it for my mother.  (Notice how intuitive the instructions are. Just how much flour? She definitely is an experienced baker assuming she is talking to another experienced baker, who knows what this dough should look like by sight and feel.)
I don't believe my mother ever made these cookies, and I know I haven't. It is probably the highest compliment a cook can give another cook when, even after receiving a coveted recipe, the recipient doesn't replicate it, because of a nagging uncertainty as to whether it will be made as well.  I'm going to try someday, but I indeed wonder if I can come close to that 'special something' that is the signature of every cook's 'best dish'.
The clearest way I can describe these delectables is to say: imagine a shallow pie made out of flaky shortbread, with a spoonful of apricot jam in the center. These are similar to a thumbprint cookie, but because they are made with two cookies pressed together, they have a feeling of biting into a really dainty pie.  (The cookie jar above is very similar to the one I remember on her yellow formica table.)

Apricot Filled Cookies from Ellen Olson

1 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup sour or sweet cream, or half of each
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. lemon zest
Flour to make not too soft dough. Roll out and bake at 350 degree oven, about 15 minutes.


  

Potato Head

Hello out there, it's just me, hailing you from lady of leisure land.

Today, I've fearlessly attacked the 10 pound bag of potatoes that are beginning to turn into potato spider/crabs as they begin to sprout. There's just something so bizarre about a potato that begins to sprout...I remember when I was a teenage bride, defiantly ignorant of the ways of the kitchen and how once I opened a cupboard door where some neglected potatoes were kept...and I screamed...I literally thought there were some sort of bugs in there. Now the potato monsters got nothin' on me. I just sneak up on 'em with my peeler, and that's the end of it...

The freezer now has two large containers of garlic mashed potatoes, and some packages of frozen diced. Everyone loves potatoes, but no one likes to stand over a sink, peeling. So I just bite the bullet and make HUGE batches and then I feel like I can just wiggle my nose and mashed potatoes are *presto* ready for any busy day. God, who talks like that? I sound like I belong in some sort of instant potato flake commercial...circa 1962. *Sigh*, I am a very lonely woman, born into a very wrong time.

Also made some homemade pizzas, using nothing more than a basic pizza crust recipe, some tomato sauce, some crushed garlic, Italian spices, some mozzarella/cheddar cheese, and a crumpled package of pepperoni languishing in the back of the fridge.
Cranking up the This American Life webcasts http://www.thisamericanlife.org makes washing up all the sticky mashed potato gook far more enjoyable. There's just something so enjoyable about listening to the radio while I pound away with the potato masher.

Here is the last batch of diced potatoes ready to flash-freeze. Now, supposedly they say that potatoes don't freeze well, but I am finding contradictions to this traditional household lore. According to one article I found, it's all about the cooking...so these have been boiled for 10 minutes on low as whole potatoes, similar to what I'd do for potato salad. They have been sliced and diced while they are still a bit on the hard side, yet you can stick a fork in them. Hopefully, they won't turn into mush when I decide to bake them. We shall see....

AND CHECK OUT MY NEW JELLO MOLDS!! Well, new to me, anyway. Lately, the Universe has seen fit to shower me with many a retro treasure, perhaps because the Universe knows that I will take super-duper care of them. These molds were free from a secondhand store, because I had a coupon for a return I'd made long ago. Yep, I know what you're going to ask. Yes indeedy, I fully intend to break open the boxes of horse-hoof, fruit flavored and sugar compounds and create my own wiggly confections. And wouldn't the ring one make lovely mounds of rice! More to come on that!

I've also been blessed with a 1962 Better Homes and Gardens 'New' Cook Book that not only was half price of a copy I had lusted after in a ritzy antique store in my home town, but this one is actually CRAMMED with magazine recipes and ads from the time. On top of this, my copy was proudly signed by a Mrs. David E. Hoover. Looking at the flourishing capitals of her signature, you just know she was a lady of the club, who actually wore hats with netting on a REGULAR basis. I really, really like/admire Mrs. David E. Hoover, and wish I could have spent a day in her kitchen. Somehow, I think I would have had more in common with her than I do with most of the women I know today.
Well, at least I can carefully comb through her cookbook. I feel like I should be wearing white gloves when I go through these slightly flour-dusted pages, partly because that's how museum curators protect relics, and partly because a well-dressed friend of Mrs. David E. Hoover would most certainly have worn white gloves.

Off to take off my apron and put on some lipstick. 

Long time, no see

Well, finally I'm back to joining you in cyberspace. Jeez--a month since I've posted anything!! I wish I could show off new tan lines, shopping bags from French Rivera giftshops, and tales of my mimosa-inspired adventures...but my time away has been far from that chi-chi, dahling.

Today, I put away two containers of curried chicken for future freezer meals, along with two batches of Tex-Mex breaded chicken fingers--also for the freezer. I also froze three breasts plain for future use, probably cut up in casseroles. I figure that the package of chicken I bought for $9.00 will go for 6-8 meals. I'm sure that there are folks out there that can do even better than that...coupons seem like such a bother to me, and I don't do the warehouse stores...but I thought it was pretty economical, just the same. Check out the book, "Fix, Freeze, Feast" by Kati Neville and Lindsay Tkacsik. So far, every recipe has been a winner at our house...and my hubby can be picky.

I'm attempting another cut to the grocery budget. My goal is to spend an average of $30 a week for the two of us, including toiletries and extra non-perishables here and there to put in the cupboard for 'just in case'. We have a store in our town that sells dented cans and other slightly 'off' merchandise, and I have sticker shock every time I go in there--but in a good way, if you know what I mean! Last night, I made goulash (a quick skillet dish of tomato sauce, browned hamburger, onion, chili powder, and macaroni), a fresh zucchini and tomato salad, courtesy of our own garden, and crockpot tapioca pudding. I roughly, and generously, estimate that we spent under $2.00 a plate--if even that. Yeah...this frugality thing is really making us suffer...chuckle, chuckle.

We are still waiting for more of our tomatoes to ripen. Darn it, it's hard to garden in a northern climate! This year I've learned: how to make a compost container out of a garbage can, that tomatoes often have 'cracked shoulders' when they are left to vine-ripen too long, and that tomatoes and cucumbers really shouldn't be planted together. Our tomatoes turned into mutants this year and choked out every little trace of cucumber out there...

Last month, we received the stunning news that not only are we going to be grandparents, but that we are going to be grandparents of TWINS! I am embroidering a baby blanket for each of these shavers, and having a blast doing them. I was taught how to cross-stitch and such when I was about nine years old--and it's still just as fun as it was then. (But I do think that bi-focals might be just around the corner.) I'll post pictures of it when they are done. Along with the five or six paintings I've always got going on in the studio, it makes for enough projects to keep the days full. It's weird, maybe it's an age thing, but although my art is still such a part of me, it's becoming more of a companion now than a taskmaster. I'm not so driven to get the shows, the accolades, the attention any more. I just want to make good work, and live a good life. I know many artists that reach this point, of just being happy, healthy people--but unfortunately, the media loves to celebrate the Picassos, the Basquiats, and all the others who live and die with needles up their arms, a string of abusive love affairs, and their cars wrapped around trees. Makes me think I might be a bit boring, but I'll take it.

I ordered a book for my recent birthday called, "Never Done". It's a history of housework, that also includes many of the old advertisements for products and appliances used in the kitchens of long ago. I can't wait to get it...Lordy, Lordy, I'm such a wierdo....

(Image: "Sustenance #1" Acrylic on Canvas, Cory Jaeger-Kenat, 2010.)

Pasta Salad--My Hero!

Yesterday was one of those days. You know...those days where you're running around like a spastic chicken working your tail off before your real 'work' begins. I have my own art studio, and a home cleaning business for people with special needs. And I just so happen to pride myself on providing a thrifty, happy little home with dinner on the table--even when I'm not around to putzy in the kitchen.

And it was the day before payday--the day when there are hardly any pennies left to stretch. And, to top it off--it was HOT, already nearly 80 degrees in our little 1930s house. I looked in the fridge, and suddenly epiphany(!), I had all the ingredients for a cool, colorful pasta salad for dinner.

First, of course, I boiled up some pasta in olive oil. We prefer the thin spaghetti, and sometimes angelhair. Easy peasy.

There was some cilantro in the crisper drawer that wasn't at it's freshest, but certainly wasn't bad, either. I chopped up the rest of it with my cleaver, which really needs a sharpening. It was worth it, though, I love the lemony clean taste of cilantro!!

Then the fun part, raiding the icebox for this and that. I chopped up a couple of tomatoes, really impatient for our garden ones to be ready. Chopped up an onion, and some celery. Cleaning the fridge and cooking something (ahead of time, no less!)--now that's the way to go.

Some salami was sitting neglected in the corner, just begging to be included in the pasta party.

The dressing was simple, and something do-able for even the emptiest cupboards. I took a scant 1/4 cup of olive oil, 3 tablespoons of vinegar, some garlic to taste, 1/8 teaspoon of powdered mustard, 1/8 of a teaspoon of basil, a pinch of tarragon, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, a sprinkling of paprika and pepper.

30 minutes, and my sanity was spared, and the leftovers gone! We served this lovely salad with icy cold red grapes, chilled glasses of water with lemon, and the last of the orange sherbet for dessert. Three cheers for the day before payday!

Sunshine and Chocolate

Today, I've got homemade spaghetti/zucchini sauce in the kettle on the stove that will go over penne pasta.

Just finished making a "Chocolate Mousse" cake, which I think is essentially a minor souffle. This cake is made of egg whites, folded with dark chocolate, and it is supposed to rise high in the oven (which it did) and fall rather quickly (which it also did.) It is served chilled.

I learned today that you don't need cream of tartar to whip up fluffy, heavenly meringue. Instead, lemon juice substituted in the amount of cream of tartar the recipe calls for, makes even higher peaks, and it's something most cooks have on hand.







And speaking of eggs...here is my latest painting...a fun study of light, shadows and texture. Like my art professors used to say, there's really no such thing as "pure white" in nature, and upon close observation, one certainly can see all the reflected colors in an egg shell.
Here's to spring! I'm starting to scrub out all the dirt and crud out of our ancient windowsills--that is when I can pry the window open! Unfortunately, I think many of our windows were painted shut a few years ago, and combined with the settling of this quaint little cottage, many of our windows just may be sealed for life. I welcome any suggestions that are accessible even to such tool-impaired folks as myself.

And finally, finally, the rain and chilly weather has ceased enough that I've been able to put my container tomatoes, peppers and zucchini out for a sunshine bath. I could swear that I heard them let out a sigh of joy, as soon as I placed them in the grass...

Talk to you again soon.;)

(Image: "Nestled" Acrylic on Canvas, Cory Jaeger-Kenat, 2010.)