It came to my attention yesterday from both good friends and my son (!) that my blog hasn’t been updated in nearly a month. This is mainly because I was feeling (and still do feel) that my blogging is more a familiar refrain of What I’ve Been Doing rather than What I’ve Been Thinking. I guess it’s a place to start.

Though I work full-time year-round, the nature of my work outside the home has shaken out to be an intense 9 months on/3 months kind-of-off situation. Physical preparation for the upcoming farmers’ market season begins, in earnest, in February (though I’m thinking about it all year long, and I’ll be starting even earlier for the 2010 season), and the weeks leading up to the first actual event are, for lack of a better term, completely wackadoo. It is no coincidence, either, that my last blog entry before today was the day before we had ourselves a bit of farmers’ market controversy in Urbana. I spent two and a half weeks sorting that out, and then the season went ahead and started, and things are hopefully settling down. Two solid markets so far; may there be 26 more, with v little rain.

Part of my job involves checking out new produce vendors - the market gardens and small farms who want to sell fruits and vegetables at the Market. [Funny aside - did you know that in Sweden, berries aren’t considered fruits - they’re considered berries? As is “fruits, vegetables, and berries”? Anyway.] Every new applicant gets a visit before they can sell at the Market, and this year every produce vendor, even if I’ve been to their place before, will get a visit from me at some point during the season. I take photos of their places, get the tour, chat for a bit. I get asked a lot of questions about the food and the farmers in my job, so my goal is to have as much information as possible available to consumers about the orchards, fields of sweet corn, acres of tomatoes and potatoes, and berry patches that supply food to many eaters in the C-U area. This means I drive to a lot of places, and occasionally I get lost. Note to self: charge hi-tech gizmo before leaving for 1.5 hour trip on gravel and dirt roads.

A bunch of online friends and I were reminiscing last week about the old days, 9-10 years ago, when we all met on a message board, and we’ve followed along with each other ever since. I sighed aloud about how I loved homeschooling my kids back in the early 00s, how much fun it was when they were younger to be with them like that, and how now - now is so fraught with getting things done, getting ahead (whatever that means), really intense planning, and feeling a bit left behind as my kids grow and embark on their young person lives. One of these friends pointed out to me that when I was home with them, I always had one eye a little bit on the future, and that I’m accomplishing what I’d hoped I’d someday do - the kids are thriving, and I’m doing work that I enjoy and that I feel is important. Ya can’t go back. So… what’s next? I keep thinking grad school is next, but…

Happy late Mother’s Day to all the moms out there. I hope your Sunday weather was delicious, that your breakfast wasn’t charred, and that you were able to carve some time out to do whatever the hell you wanted.