i asked God for a ministry. i told Him i want to make a difference in people's lives...

and He answered me.

because that's what He does.

so i listened?!?! and said, "ok"?!?!?!

{shakes head}

here's what happened:

so, i woke up this morning, totally not feeling it. i don't quite know how to explain "it," but i wasn't feeling it. gosh, mornings like that are just swell, aren't they? {rolls eyes}

but i got girlie off to the bus (the boys had spent the night with their dad) and i sat down on the couch with my handy-dandy notebook. (the power chord for my laptop is dead - at least i hope it's just the power chord :S )and i turned on the tv. i decided to watch a christian show that i never watch, but for some reason, i watched today. the guest was a man who rescues children from the sex trade in cambodia. and then i started thinking/praying, God, i want a ministry. doesn't have to be something like that, but i want something. just give me something to do. and the man made a really good point that we often think we need all kinds of education and training and what-not to do something for God, but we really don't. He'll put us where He wants us.

so i turned off the tv, and i actually found a great verse for this morning. i took it as my theme verse o' the day:

i cry out to God Most High,
to God who will fulfill His purpose for me.
Psalm 57:2

and then i pulled out my journal and prayed (yes, i write out my prayers. otherwise, i get too distracted and ooh! look! something shiny!!!..... k, i'm back, what was i talking about? ah, yes. i get distracted easily. why was i telling you that?? right. i was praying).

so, i ask, God Most High, give me a purpose. give me a ministry. give me something to do that will make a difference in people's lives.


He answers... wait for it..., clean the house.


i'm not even joking.

when i complained rolled my eyes argued asked piously for some clarification, i said, no, i wanted something that would make a difference. who would this possibly minister to?


He replied, the kids.


sigh. totally not what i was hoping for. i'll be honest, i wanted something glamourous like a call to india or working with street kids in a big city or something...

nope.

clean the house.

nice.

well, i bargained replied graciously and with the piety of mother theresa, because i know it's what You want me to do, i'll do it. just... give me joy while i do it. thanks.


sigh.

so right now, there's a load of bedding in the washer, and another waiting to go. i'm about to fold some laundry i did yesterday, load up the dishwasher, collect the garbage, and then try to find the play room floor. and maybe the end of the couch. and maybe, while i'm making a pot of coffee, i'll find at least some of the kitchen counter.

and you know... i'm actually feeling pretty good about this. like God actually has given me joy to do this job. cool! :)

Philippians 2: 5-11

it's amazing what you find in your kitchen in seven minutes...

it's no secret that i hate housework. and i mean,

i.

hate.

housework.

well, it's not so much doing it that bothers me. it's the unendingness of it all. i can clean off the counters right now, but by tonight, they'll be covered with stuff again. and laundry. seriously, when is someone going to invent perma-clean clothes????????

ugh.

a few years ago, i gave FlyLady a whirl (the link is on the sidebar). and found it to be just as overwhelming as the mess in my house. so that was a no-go.

but, a friend suggested it again a few weeks ago, so i decided to sign up again. and yes, it took me a while to figure out how to wade through all those emails (and WOW! there are a lot!), which ones to read and which ones to delete unread. but now that i've figured that out, i'm actually not so overwhelmed by it all.

(and please ignore the irony that i can tackle the clutter in my inbox but want to cry when i look at my coffee table.)

anyhoo...

the other day, she issued a challenge: clean up. do it all, toss stuff, put stuff away, wipe stuff down. everything.

for seven minutes.

that's right.

seven minutes.

"bah!" i thought, trapped in some semi-dickensian (time-)warped frame of mind, "seven minutes! i can't clean the house in seven minutes!! humbug!!"

but then i thought... you know... it's only seven minutes... maybe i'll try it...

and prove FlyLady wrong...

because we all know you can't get anything accomplished in seven minutes.

and so, i set off to the black hole pile of clutter kitchen to do some tidying and cleaning. again, thinking, "seriously, seven minutes?? bah! humbug!!" and i set the timer on the stove.

and do you want to know what i did in that seven minutes??

i put away the remaining pantry stuff from christmas that had not previously fit in the pantry. but it fits now... other than the case of KD, so, admittedly, that's still on the floor.

i put all kinds of stuff into recycling.

i almost threw up a bit when i looked in my mini compostainer.

i found several forks.

i found a couple spoons.

i found parts of the floor i'd forgotten were there.

i found out what colour my counter is.

i found my breadmaker.

ok, the breadmaker wasn't lost. i knew where it was. but i couldn't get to it. but now i can!!!

turns out, you can accomplish quite a bit in seven minutes! who knew!!!

ok, probably a lot of you. i'm sure this is some centuries-old strategy and i'm just ridiculously slow in learning it.

and now i have a new housework mantra:

it doesn't need to be perfect; it just needs to be done.

so my plan for today is:

• seven minutes cleaning the kitchen.
• seven minutes tidying the living room.
• seven minutes looking for the dining room table.
• seven minutes in the bathroom.

and i may, perhaps, if i have time (i have to work at 3:30), do the challenge from one day last week: the 27-item fling. basically, you get a garbage bag (or item from your declutter kit, haha), and get rid of 27 things. could be 27 flyers. could be 27 pieces of clothing that are too small. could be 27 toys the kids don't play with anymore. could be 27 mini chocolate bar wrappers. could be 27 miscellaneous items of various shapes and sizes and degrees of decomposition. just get rid of 27 things from the house. if they're donate-able, then toss them in your vehicle and take them straight to the nearest Goodwill or BFM or whatever. if they're garbage, take them outside. if they're recyclable, recycle them. but just get rid of them.

who knows?? by the end of this week, i just might find my floor... at least, i hope so. 

apparently, i'm the "awesomest mommy EVER!"

so! what started as a crappy kind of day turned into, apparently, the BEST day of blithe's life! and i know bram and asher had a great day, too. and ok, i had a pretty fun day, too.

yes, this morning i was in a funk. not cool. then we went grocery shopping. having learned my lesson last week, i was determined to have a better experience grocery shopping today. so we went in the morning, before the kidley-winks were tired and cranky and out of control their usual selves more active than i prefer. and i put asher in the cart. he wanted to walk, and he cried for the first minute or so, but he adjusted once he realized that i wasn't letting him out. no way was i going to chase him all over the store again. when you're the only adult with three young kids in a crowded grocery store on a saturday, the last thing you need is those three kids running in every imaginable direction at the same time. i refuse to leave my cart to wrangle wayward children. i just. plain. refuse. so, with asher in the cart, and having given blithe and bram very specific warnings instructions, we headed into the store.

apparently, they love fish. who knew! well, ok, i know bram loves fish. whenever we go out to eat (which, granted, is rare), if there is fish and chips on the menu, that's what he wants. he won't even hear of anything else. just fish and chips. and he eats the fish first. he'll leave fries uneaten, but you wouldn't even know there had been fish on his plate at one point. i swear he licks the plate clean when i'm not looking. LOL but the other two?? since when do they like fish?! but, they all wanted it, and there was some marked down, so i grabbed some. we also got our usual items, plus a couple extras.

• pizza crust. this is in the bread section, and you get two crusts and packets of sauce. and it's only about $3 for the package, so it's great to have on hand. and really, who doesn't love homemade pizza??
• toaster strudels. i'll admit, i'm not a morning person. i prefer to stay up at night when i have some quiet time to myself, and then i get up in time to do whatever it is we need to do for the day. lunches are made quickly, but they're also pretty basic, and blithe and bram dress themselves, and asher gets dressed when we're home from the bus stop, and that's our weekdays. weekends? with no obligations? please! you're lucky if i'm out of bed before 9! or maybe you're not so lucky. depends on where you are when i get up, and what you've been up to that necessitated my early rising. either way, this is the one meal per day that i want to be as easy as possible. so i like to have easy-peasy brekkies on hand for the kids. usually it's cereal, which they can pour and fix themselves. but once in a while, i splurge and get them a treat, and this week it's toaster strudels, on sale 2 for $4.
• ice cream. alas, asher needs fat. and it's hot. and the PC ice cream was on sale. so we got Chocolate Crunch and Banana Split. and all i can say is: le drool! yum-tastic! seriously, try them. delicious!
• ice cream cones. for those days when we don't have clean bowls just need a special little something. so today was the day, gentle readers. we each had 3 cones, i think. LOL
• 2 cans of whipped cream. nuff said.
• strawberries were on sale this week, too, so i got some. however, i plan on picking some up from a local farmer later this week. possibly grabbing a flat and dividing them into pre-measured packages and freezing them. much nicer to have local produce than store-bought. but they were there and so was i, so i grabbed some.
• a package of sponge cake. (see 2 previous listed items.)

and the shopping went well! the kids were even well behaved in the check-out, and that is usually their challenging time. but they survived! see? there is a God!

then we came home, and after an hour or so, the wanderlust in me kicked in and we piled back into the truck and headed out to the Quaker Meeting House near Sparta. i had checked it out earlier this week, and it's absolutely beautiful, and the kids had wanted to check it out ever since they first heard of it, so off we went. they had a blast! it's a beautiful building, about 150 years old, and it's so simple and quiet and peaceful. they asked a lot of questions, and managed to sit quietly in the pews... for about 3 seconds. maybe. but they tried. they also enjoyed exploring the grounds, which are absolutely picturesque. the meeting house is tucked back into a maple grove, so it's surrounded by trees. there's a swing off to one side, and all you can hear is the sound of birds chirping overhead. stunningly beautiful. the kids want to go there one week for service, and i think we just might do that once this summer, and see how it goes (there's a sunday school for the kids, so they don't need to sit through an hour or so of silence).

then back home for a while and they played nicely together. then it was time for supper, so i tried to summon the will to make supper. but alas, the mood didn't strike. haha so i told the kids that we were going to go grad a pizza and come home. we piled in the car, and as i'm driving down the road, a thought occured to me: "they would love a picnic. i'll take them to the park tonight." so that's what we did. i didn't even tell them we were going until i was pulling into the park. we found a table in some shade, the kids each had maybe one piece of pizza and then took off to play. blithe and bram had a blast on the splash pad, getting completely soaked in their clothes (remember, i decided after we'd left home, so they didn't have bathing suits or towels, but who cares!). asher was going to join them, and even took his shirt off and stood at the edge of the chaos pad, but in the end, put his shirt back on and ran over to the playground equipment. there he climbed, slid, ran, swung, rocked and laughed for about 45 minutes. 45 minutes of constant motion, amongst (i swear) every child in town under the age of 17. he only got bumped once, but he didn't get hurt, and it was on his back, so no worries there. he had a great time! needless to say, they didn't want to leave.

but we did. and on the way home, all i heard was what a great day this was, how they loved the park and the quaker church, and how this was the best day of blithe's life. bram dubbed me "the awesomest mommy EVER" and asher told me he had a lot of fun, too. why do i always forget about the park? it's free, it's fun, it's fabulous!! we'll be going there a lot more often this summer. :)

when you're poor, you gotta do watcha gotta do... sigh...

i bake.

a lot.

sigh.

i hate baking.

a lot.

sigh.

but i'm discovering something about myself. i may not hate baking as much as i have in the past. note, i'm not saying i love it. but i'm discovering that i actually kind of enjoy it. or maybe someone has taken over this blog and is typing this post. annie, i'm looking at you... haha

anyway, i have recently taken up baking on a fairly regular basis. why, just this week, i've made apple crisp and cookies. and i plan to make tortillas, a couple more loaves of bread, some granola bars and/or muffins (having just re-discovered my recipe for banana muffins on this blog), and possibly some cookies.

 i've also begun making soup more often. from scratch.

i have to make soups from scratch (including broth, since commercial broths are rather high in sodium, and that doesn't mesh with my littlest man's congestive heart failure). to do this, i've started shopping differently. now when i go to the store and buy chicken, i make sure to buy it with the bone in. then when i cook it, i take out all the bones and spend the evening using them to make broth. (if you're lucky, i'll post those details later.) the next day, i make soup.

i've decided that i love soup, and the more i make it, the better i'm getting at it, too. soup is awesome. that's all i'm gonna say about that. and in fact, when i'm done this, i'm going to post my current fave recipe, which is loved by everyone in this house... and the occasional babysitter. ;) it's quite scrumptious, actually: sausage and lentil soup. and believe me, it's just as easy to make as it is yummy. mmm... sausage and lentil soup...

the other thing i did yesterday, for the first time in my entire life, was to make hot cocoa. and holy marshmallows, batman, it was AWESOME!!!! infinitely better than hot chocolate!! i'm going to be making this more often, and don't be surprised if i have the recipe memorized in the next week or so. the kids loved it, i loved it, it's cheap, it's easy, it's slow (which is definitely the way to go when it comes to food, etc, if you ask me), and it's satisfying on more levels than i care to admit.

and one other thing i've done recently... i rediscovered my local library. did you know they let you take books home... for free?!?! it's a poor booklover's dream come true. why, just last week, the kids took out several books, and i grabbed a few for myself, including one about ADHD, a barbara coloroso book, a magazine, and three novels, including one Sophie Kinsella (and no, not The Undomestic Goddess; i already own that one. haha). and today i went again on my own, and borrowed another novel, which i'm digging so far (it involves Dracula!!) and... get ready for this... a cookbook. you may be able to guess my heretofore held opinion of cookbooks, given that they contain actual recipes, for which one must - gasp! - measure! but i've decided that cookbooks are perhaps the most glorious kind of books. because. that's why. just because. in fact, just thinking about them right now, i have a smile on my face. :) <---- that's me, right there, in case you were wondering.

anyway, i have to run at the moment. it's about time i start working on supper for tonight. in case you're wondering, perogies with bacon and fried onion, smothered in (gah! i'm gonna butcher the german here... forgive me, anni) schmauntfat... basically, it's milk, flour and bacon grease. and yes, it's a beautiful meal. comfort on a plate, if you ask me. and the kids all begged for it tonight, so there you have it. toodles!!!

i think i can, i think i can, i think i can, i think i can

ok, so, i don't know how many of you readers know this, but i journal. a lot. it helps me to sort through my life, my self, my feelings, my journey in general. so i like it. today, while writing about something else, i branched off into "how can i be better at housework?", and i thought i'd share it with you. now remember, this is from part-way through a journal entry, so the beginning is rather abrupt here. but here you go:

and i'm not quite as good as i'd like to be in some areas. i'd like to be a harder worker.... and i need to work harder at things like integrity, being a role model, self-control, discipline, but also having fun. basically, balance.

God, please make me the woman You want me to be.

yikes! what a prayer!! God, help me to mean that prayer, and don't let me be afraid of that prayer.

but i think it's do-able (strengthening my weaker areas), so long as i remember balance. that's the key. when i get all fired up and go at it in a manic, frenzied determination, it never lasts. i burn out, get discouraged and depressed, and nothing changes.

so what's the trick? what's the path to success? i'm thinking specifically about housework, for example. what are my obstacles?

1. doing it alone
2. lack of routine
3. uber long to do lists
4. emotional exhaustion
5. physical exhaustion
6. an "i hate housework" attitude.

alright, now that i've identified my obstacles, i need to identify some solutions.

• the kids need chores, and those need to be displayed prominently to remind them (and me). i've already assigned the chores; now i just have to display - and enforce - them.
• i need a routine. a daily routine, but also a weekly and - dare i say it? - monthly and - eep! - yearly routine. basically, i need to know what gets done when. i need to make regular time for housework, every day at the same time.
• my uber long to do lists can be shortened, now that i'm thinking about it.

1. make a list of everything that needs to be done
2. assign as many tasks as is possible and reasonable (to kids, to friends - like helping to build stuff around the house, to hired people).
3. rank remaining items by importance and deadline
4. ask of each item: Do i have to do this, or can someone else? how long will this take me to accomplish? how urgent is this item? when MUST it be done by? do i need any supplies to accomplish this?

• emotional exhaustion can be beaten by balancing work and play. going for walks, playing with the kids, creating, working in the garden, coffee with friends. routine will also help with this, since i'll know when work gets done, etc. also, a shortened, organized to do list will prevent me from feeling overwhelmed. cutting myself a bit of slack, remaining realistic in my goals, and not hating myself when i don't succeed right off the bat. i will never be annie brown (love ya, girlie, but we both know it's true! LOL) or martha stewart, but i can do better than what i do now. perfection isn't possible, but improvement is.
• i need to rest. i need to accept help, and i need to ask for help. and i need to sleep. if, in the afternoon, i'm tired, i'll nap. better nutrition will also help. and i think that once i've started working on alleviating my emotional exhaustion, my physical exhaustion will also be taken care of.
• my "i hate housework" attitude is crap, i'll admit. when i get down to doing the job, i generally enjoy it. i like doing laundry. i like doing dishes. what i hate is the seeming un-ending-ness of it all. you know what i mean. how you wash all the dishes, then kids want a drink of juice and bam! a dirty glass. same goes for laundry. and sweeping, now that i'm thinking about it. LOL but once i get a routine in place, and i know when things get done, and i can stay on top of things, it'll be better, and i'll actually start to enjoy housework again. because i used to, once upon a time. and i know i can again. i just have to not feel so overwhelmed, that's all.

i think i can do this. i really do. it's possible. it's totally do-able. and i can succeed at this. wish me luck!!! :)

meet Sally

this is Sally, the newest member of our household. isn't she lovely? blithe found "her" at Springbank Park the other day and she just had to bring her home.

i'll admit, for a while there i didn't think Sally was even "with us" anymore, but then it occured to me that we hadn't given her anything to eat, so the night before last, i dropped two spinach leaves in there. by morning, there was only part of one leaf left. so, spinach it is. and actually, one of the most fascinating parts of the day is sitting and watching her eat (which would leave me unable to actually eat, if i had several people just sitting and watching me eat. but i have issues. obviously, sally is a little more well-adjusted than i am. lol)

i'm using this as an on-going science lesson for the kids. they're absolutely loving this caterpillar! they're both enjoying watching her eat and move around and sleep and... well, actually, that's about all she does. so far, there's no coccoon or anything. just a lot less spinach in my house. ;) but if anything develops, you know i'll post.

a quote

i don't know what this has to do with anything "simple," but i just re-discovered this quotation, and it's going on the sidebar here so it won't get lost, but i want you to read it, so it's a post, too (don't mind me, i'm a little odd...). here it is:

beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
- Benjamin Franklin

a wise, wise man, that ben franklin... ;)

thank-you, sarah, for finding bug info. be warned, though, readers: don't click on the links if you don't like bugs. tanna, this means you! lol

ok, remember my post the other day about that creepy bug in my backyard? i think we all do, and now we've all got the heebie-jeebies just thinking about it. well, sarah looked it up for me, and here's what she wrote:

I looked it up on a site called 'What's that bug' and figured it to be a Hellgrammite. Yeah, an interesting name to say the least. But it is the larva of a dobson fly...if that tells you anything. Apparently they can pinch but other than that, pretty harmless. So if you want to know more about it, just google it.Just letting you know as you peeked my curiousity,
Sarah S

so, there you have it. a creepy bug with a creepy name. now i'm off to google "dobson fly," because i don't really know what that is either, although i think i have an idea. i'll post a link when i find it.

UPDATE: here's the link to What's That Bug? http://www.whatsthatbug.com/index.html
enjoy. or don't, if you're squeamish. be warned. it's all about bugs. if you don't like bugs, don't click on the link. but, if you're into bugs (and i looked around, they're not all creepy), check it out.

also, i don't think it is a Hellgrammite, they're all black, and this one has some grey on it, not as many legs, and the pincers look brown. i'm going to send them the pic of my bug and let them figure it out. but thanks for the tip, i'm definitely taking advantage of this site now.

and a bonus about the bug site: there are these weird black and red bugs in st thomas (i've seen them in a couple places, one of which was, you guessed it, my backyard... what is it about my backyard and bugs! sheesh! i know it's got lots of grass and mature trees and a garden, but seriously! leave my backyard alone, creepy crawlies!!!!!! oh, yeah, i'm SUCH a girl, lol). well, i found them on this site. they're called boxelder bugs, or garagebugs. and, joy of joys, they tend to come indoors as the cooler weather approaches. fortunately, they're harmless, so i don't have to worry about trying to kill them (so, pam, tell hal i won't need him too often in the next while). but still... a world without bugs... a girl can dream, right? here's the link to that specific bug: http://www.whatsthatbug.com/true_bugs_2.html
nice, eh? glad they're harmless, but i'm also thankful for the nice tip on getting rid of them. dishsoap and water, what could be easier (or greener)?

Theology 101 at Blithe Peters Seminary (i don't know what denomination, or even if it's accredited, though)

and i'm quoting here:

"mommy, you know what? God is an alien."

that's it. no room for questioning. just "God is an alien."




*****here's her reasoning: Daddy told her that God lives in heaven, and that heaven is in outer space. she made the leap to "God is an alien." how's that for systematic theology?! yup, she's gonna be a famous theologian someday... or maybe, infamous... lol

finally... a garden update...

ok, yes, i know it's been a while since i posted an update on my garden. well, there's not really all that much to say. but before i continue, i'll admit, i've been a little neglectful toward it over the last week or so especially. lots going on at home, and since i'm the only adult here, i easily get pulled away from my beloved garden.

what else can i say? well, the non-picture update: my cucumbers are dead. they did well there for a while, but apparently they don't like the lots of rain then lots of wind combo or something like that (i don't know, ask a farmer). so, yeah, no cukes for me. the peas are coming up nicely, albeit surrounded by clover. i've simply got to do some clover-pulling. i've also got a couple carrot plants coming up, which is exciting. um, what else? hot peppers are doing ok, as are the potatoes. but they're not so exciting, so i left them off. but, i've learned what does really well in my soil here:

squash!!!! pictured above, in no particular order (mostly because i can't tell them apart anymore, since they've all mixed together), zucchini - 2 plants, acorn, butternut and pumpkin. ok, i'll do my best here and tell you which is which in the pic: way at the back and in the bottom left corner is the zucchini. in the middle somewhere is the acorn squash. the giant leaves, that's the pumpkin plant. and down in the bottom right, with little leaves and looking very "don't mind me"-ish, is the butternut. you might remember that i moved this one a while back, and since then, she hasn't done much. but when i checked on her tonight, i was thrilled to see that she's now spreading! go butternut go!!!
again, more pics of the pumpkin plant. seriously, those leaves are enormous! but this picture is really of the raspberry plant. doing quite nicely, don't you think? it'll still be a couple seasons before i get any berries from her, but that's ok. this garden is teaching me patience.
here's my giant tomato plant. it started to tip over the other day, so i had to stake it. it's huge! and earlier this evening, it had 17 tomatoes. but, i accidently knocked one off, so now we're down to 16. but it's all doing rather nicely! :)
ok, on to the herbs. oregano, lavender and rosemary are doing doing pretty well. in fact, i have already used the rosemary a couple times. yummy! :) as for the others, well, earwigs got at the dill and cilantro, so they're pooched. and the basil, well, i think that was my fault. i think basil might actually like water or something silly like that. i don't think it likes drying right out repeatedly. oops. :( and i really like basil. maybe i'll see if i can find another plant, or maybe some seeds, and grow it again. and water it. and take care of it. you know, learn from my mistakes and all that.

anyway, there you have it. my garden, such as it is. well, i'm heading into another not-so-simple week, but lots of fun planned. a trip to toronto for a couple days. first we're to the ROM to check out the dinosaurs, then swimming at a hotel, then clinic on wednesday. while we're in TO, i'm hoping to see a friend who's there with her baby after his open heart surgery the other week. well, i'll talk to you later! :)

Crockpot Strawberry Jam (finally!)

look! i'm finally doing it! crockpot strawberry jam. i didn't use the full 4 lbs of strawberries that the recipe called for, but that's ok. i figure i'll test it out on a smaller scale, and then go bigger if we like it.

i went with a friend to the local farmer's market here in town this morning. i picked up 2 flats of strawberries. i'm going to use them for baking and stuff (if bram leaves any for me to use! honestly, it's like he has a hollow leg or something. where does he put all that food?! the boy never stops eating!). i'll likely freeze a lot of them, and keep them on-hand for roll kuchen (a mennonite favourite - strawberries in deep-fried pastry - delish!), jam and strawberry sauce.

so there you have it. crockpot strawberry jam, in the works. i'll update later (or tomorrow) with the verdict. talk to you later! :)

UPDATE: so, i'm sure that if i'd followed the recipe exactly, including all the directions and not just the ones i chose to follow, it would have turned out. but since i'm a rebel and never do exactly what i'm told, well, don't ask. tomorrow we're making simple freezer jam, and freezing the rest of the berries, which mom and i cut up this morning, so they're ready to go. anyway, don't judge the recipe by my ineptitude. i'm sure it would work splendidly for you, but... i'm not you. lol

a friend takes some stamps and i learn something new!

thank-you, monika, for popping over this afternoon. i can't wait to make the perogies (a favourite in our house!).

and monika told me how to make my own cottage cheese! woohoo! i'm so excited - i want to make it right now! it'll have to wait, i think, but seriously, yay! :)

take some milk. add some buttermilk. let it sit for about 4 days at room temperature. then cook very slowly until it looks cottage cheese-like. and voila! homemade cottage cheese (which is, when you think about it, the very definition of cottage cheese, but i digress).

thanks again, monika. you rock! anyone wanna make some cheese with me?

my garden - weekly update. and a couple lessons in weather watching. first of 2 posts today. but they're different, so make sure to read both.

garlic! i have 9 sprouts!

pickling cucumbers. doing great!


i have 2 yellow bean sprouts

hot banana peppers. still doing well!


pumpkin's doing nicely, too. starting to spread!


that's right, folks, there is progress and growth in my garden this week. i'm not kidding when i say that the garlic has grown noticeably just this afternoon! the plants are loving this heat and humidity (they'll learn, lol). i wanted to show you our tomato plants, but my camera died, so i have to recharge the batteries, and i'll try to get pics for next week. but they're really growing! in fact, not only is the plant doing well, but we have about 7 plants starting, too, from the seeds that blithe planted in there. so exciting!

i wanted to take these pictures and post them this afternoon, you know, just in case. we've got a severe thunderstorm warning and tornado watch here at the moment, so i thought i'd do this before we lose power or something. (i didn't think it'd be fair to asher if i used up the power from the solar generator so i could update the cyber-world on the garden when i should have been using the generator to, oh i don't know, feed him. lol)

but, you know, we're ready for the big storm now, if indeed it happens and is as bad as "they" predict. mom and i put everything thing away that we could. all the herbs (which are also doing wonderfully, by the way) are in the kitchen, all the tools, toys, balls etc are in the shed (the last thing we need is a pitchfork to come flying through the kitchen window). if the weather gets really bad, we'll probably bring the barbeque inside, too. keep it safe a bit, in case we need it later for cooking. we have a few extra mini-cans of propane somewhere (i'll have to get ed to dig them out for us, or at least tell me where they are). we've stockpiled some water, and we've got cans of beans and rice already cooked. we pulled out the candles, and have the lighters and matches present and accounted for. we couldn't move the sandbox, so we put the picnic table over top of it. i think we're good (or at least, as ready as we'll ever be).

i also gave blithe a little lesson in meteorology this afternoon. she's worried about the storm, so i took her outside and told her a little bit about clouds. i explained to her the 2 types of cloud (yes, uncle ed, i know there's more, but she's 5, and read on to see how i explained them). i told her that the great big ones that look heavy and fat, the ones off in the distance that are kind of grey, those are rain clouds. they dump rain on you. the two or three little one overhead right now, those are "pretty clouds." know what they do? they look pretty. no rain. just prettiness. there you have it: Meteorology 101. i told her that the weather man isn't always right, sometimes he's wrong, but we have to be prepared when he tells us things like today. but the best way to know the weather is usually to look up. if the sky is blue, it's not raining. if you look up and get water up your nose, it's raining. mom also suggested we make a weather rock. i'd love that, but i don't have a big enough rock. i'll have to keep my eyes open for one. so i'm on the look-out for one now. lol

anyway, that's our life at the moment. the kids are stocking up on some good ol' fashioned TV time (we'd have to turn it off during a storm, and it's too humid to play outside right now). but it's Thomas, so the boys are happy, and it's a welcomed distraction for blithe, too. so, i should go. i have to post a video of asher on his blog, then maybe i should spend some time with my family (novel idea, don't you think? lol) ttys.