You Say Tomato...

     On a chilly February evening I snuggled with my little baby in my rocking chair and watched my sweet husband and three of our darling children working away under the warm glow of the kitchen lamp.  They were planting tomato seeds to plant in our little vegetable garden when spring came.  The kids absolutely loved working with the dirt. Ariel and I loved having them be a part of the creation of our food because we were sure it would get them excited about eating their veggies.  Aston was the most excited of the bunch and told the others, "I hope my tomato grows into a beanstop (yes, that's right, beanstop) so I can climb it up to the clouds".  The next morning he ran straight to the tray of little pots in the bay window and sighed, "Oh, my potato didn't turn into a beanstop after all".

     Checking our seedlings was a favorite daily event.  We got through to Aston that the tomato plants were going to grow tomatoes.  We offered to plant green beans so he could see a bean plant.  Everyone finds the fact that we can go and pick food we grew from seeds amazing but Aston's disappointment with the size of our bean plants was obvious.  Of course, Ariel and I have our own disappointment to deal with.  Baby Dorothy is the only kid who will eat everything we've grown and she had NOTHING to do with the planting process.  So much for that theory.  Aston actually threw up when we forced him to eat one green bean and Enzo cried about the lettuce.  Clara pretended to like the tomatoes but finally said, "I can't do it Mom.  I hate them!"  More for Ariel and me I guess!