My Brain Is Officially Full

We drove down to my parents this weekend to visit and to take the whole family, grandparents and all, to our CSA’s annual strawberry picking potluck. The farm is outside Virouqa, WI, about 45 minutes from my parents. Despite dragging my family to Virouqa before the potluck to go fiber shopping and visit their public market, we arrived at the farm exactly on time for the potluck. Kind of, until…..

I bounded out of the car, waving to Andrea (a farm assistant) who was coming across the lawn to us.

Andrea: Hi Are you guys here to camp??

Me: Nope. We’re just here for the potluck and to pick strawberries. Where should I put the food?

Andrea: Potluck? Well, see…the potluck is tomorrow…

Me: Tomorrow? That’s right, tomorrow, because I read that yesterday, it’s Sunday, Father’s Day, which is tomorrow, and today is Saturday, and I knew it was on Sunday so why on earth did I drag my entire family here today? (Continue with nervous babbling…)

Andrea: That’s okay…you can still have a picnic and pick strawberries today… seriously, it’s okay. Our farm is your farm!

Me: Are you sure you don’t mind? I can’t believe I came here on the wrong day. Really, I knew it was Sunday, I just don’t know why I came on Saturday, we were here last time on a Saturday, so maybe I just… and I’ve got to much to keep track of, I think, and….(okay, just shut up now or she will totally think you’re a crazy lady, crap, here comes Dad and I’ve got to tell him, and the Skeptic is getting out of the car with the boys and now they don’t get a tractor ride and, dang, every worker on this farm is staring at me, the lady who reads Sunday but thinks Saturday!)

The good news was despite feeling like a dumbass, we did have a nice picnic and picked a ton of berries. I’ve got about ten pounds to freeze. The farm and the farmers are wonderful! The problem was that this was really the icing on the cake, since I also got my family home an hour and a half late Friday night since I can’t seem to keep track on miles on a map. We stopped on Pepin to check out the Laura Ingalls museum and cabin and I got a little distracted. As Caroline Ingalls would say, “for shame, keeping your parents waiting until 8:30 for dinner.”

Tidbits from the weekend:

-If you stop at the musuem in Pepin and an old lady with orange lipstick is working, don’t bother trying to get her to like you. She won’t, and she won’t like your kids either now matter how polite and cute they are. But the museum is cool.

-When we drove up to the cabin outside Pepin and got out with out three kids, me putting Spinner in his sling, another family with three kids was also getting out and putting their baby in a sling. In the middle of nowhere, my almost doppleganger family. They were nice and we chatted too long.

–Ewetopia in Virouqa has an awesome, awesome assortment of fiber. Did I saw awesome?

–Trempealeau Hotel. Grandma and Grandpa babysitting. Yum. If you are a cyclist, this is a place to put on your radar.

-When my kids are grown and I want to live the quiet, fiber filled life, I want to move here.

-Lastly, in honor of Father’s Day, I’m going to show off what the Skeptic does in his workshop:

What is it? A panel. I have no idea what it does, just that he builds them from scratch, takes them to work and hooks them up to a lot of other stuff that I still can’t wrap my brain around. Not only is the Skeptic the best Dad, but I think he’s quite clever too. If he reads this he’s going to be totally embarrassed and tell me it’s no big deal, but I think it is. He even manages to make this stuff with little boys underfoot. And I have to say I’m pleased to know that our boys will grow up to be able to knit, sew, and make electrical devices!