Tuesday, October 31, 2006

it's over

the madness, the mayhem...ghosties, ghoulies and more.

We were fortunate enough to have warm weather for Halloween this year, in the 60's. D went as an adorable geisha, V went as a white witch. But the hordes. My goodness.

We have lived here for five years now and know that this is THE Halloween street in the area. Usually the count is somewhere around 200. I bought candy sticks this year; enough for 240 kids. By 7:45 I was almost out so I called a friend who had offered candy if I needed it. She brought up enough for another 50-60 kids. At 8:30 I had to turn off my lights, we were done. By my count that is around 300 kids!!! Dang that's a lot of candy.

Some of it was fun, the cute little kids just learning to say 'happy halloween' and the older kids who chat for a minute or really put some thought into their costumes. Sometimes I ask if the kids can do tricks. This year I got a kid in a gorilla costume who walked on his hands for me. I like that part of it but admit that it gets tiring handing out that much candy, running back and forth, being up and chipper and "oh how cute" all night long.

My in-laws were here to visit, they were stunned by the sheer numbers. My friends Christina and Patty came with their families, they know this is THE street also but even they were stunned this year. All in all we had a fun evening, eating chili, playing monopoly and handing out candy. Now the kitchen is cleaned up, the candy debris has been cleared and it's off to bed.

Sunday, October 29, 2006

give him an inch...

...he'll take the whole sofa! I am of course referring to the furball-in-residence otherwise known as Tobi. When he first came into our life I thought there were certain rules that I wanted enforced. No dog on the bed. No begging at the table. Must be potty trained. No dog on the sofa. The children will walk the dog.

I don't know if it's because we got him as a puppy, because I am a weak lily-livered person (please don't answer that) or the conspirations of the universe but so far the count has become Dog 3 Mom 2. He does not beg and he is potty trained. Those are my victories.

D likes him to sleep on her bed...I find him there sometimes - with or without her. Then we (read not me) began letting him on the "old" sofa. He would curl up neatly in the corner and be happy communing with his pack while they watched tv. Then he began to stretch out; soon he was lying along the back of the sofa with everyone perched in front. Now I've just chased him off the "good" or "new" sofa. Curled up pretty as you please taking a snooze. I made him get down but I've realized this is a losing battle. Once he knows he can go on a sofa why should he care which sofa? With or without people? Without is probably better, there's more room.

And guess who walks him? Hrrrmph.

what is that white stuff?

OMG!!! It's snow! Yes folks, it's official. Here in our little corner of our little town we had a 5 minute snow flurry today. And it's not even November yet. All of a sudden I'm feeling distinctly colder. Good thing we have lots of wood for the stove.

baking day

I did indeed make sourdough bread today. But instead of making anything from the The Bread Bible I chose to use the recipe from The Joy of Cooking. I have an old copy from 1974 which is just about falling apart but this is truly one of my favorite cookbooks.

However for some reason I was not content to follow the recipe. Using fresh ground flour was enough of a change that I should have stopped there to see what effect this would have on the bread. Instead I chose to use part barley flour. Then, not having any molasses, I chose to use barley malt for my sweetener. The bread rose well overnight but was colder than I would have liked in the morning. I punched it down, added the egg, butter and the rest of the flour and set it to proof over the wood burning stove to make use of the extra heat. It rose well but didn't continue to rise once I put it in the oven to bake. As a result although it is tasty it doesn't have the crumb that I wanted and is a little too dense and not fluffy enough. Well, I learned something and it's not feeding the birds so I guess that counts as a success.

I was in a baking mood so I also made another bread varying a recipe I have for something called Cuban Bread. I used Hard Red Wheat, Spelt, Buckwheat and Kidney Beans for the flours approximately 2:2:1:1. When I ground it I changed the grind to coarse about half way through the milling so that this would have more substance to it.

Cuban-sort-of Bread

2 C. warm water
1 T. salt
2 T. sucanat
1/4 C. ground flaxseed
5-6 C. flour

Mix together water, salt, sucanat, flax and 2 C. flour. Let rest for 10 minutes. Add yeast and remaining flour until dough is formed. Let rest another 10 minutes. Shape and let rise until double. Bake 350 degrees approximately 35 minutes or till done. This bread came out looking great. It's for tomorrow for dinner so I can't tell how it tastes yet.

While baking I guess I felt like I was on a roll so I made two batches of cookies. One was almond barley biscotti. The other was oatmeal raisin coconut pecan cookies. We haven't had cookies in the house in a very long time (mostly because yours truly eats them all and we didn't want to go there) but I guess it was overdue. Both batches were pronounced a success by the guinea pigs official tasters.

Then came cleaning the kitchen....aaaaaaaauuuuuugh!

Saturday, October 28, 2006

thirty-fifth day



Thanks to Chaotic Home I joined the 30 days of peace challenge. The thirty days is more than past...in looking today I realized I was up to 35 days. Even though I haven't posted consistently I realized that I have gained a bit more peace in my life by learning to stop and think about the peaceful things in my day every day. Because I've been doing this for 35 days now hopefully it will be a habit that I can continue, it's defninitely one that is worthwhile.

book review - every mother is a daughter

Remember a while back I joined Callapidder Days Fall Into Reading Challenge. So here is my latest entry review for a book on my list that I read.

Every Mother Is a Daughter: The Neverending Quest for Success, Inner Peace, and a Really Clean Kitchen (Recipes and Knitting Patterns Included) is a great book. I felt a strong connection with the author (whose columns I admire in Knitter's magazine), her relationship with her mother, and her reflections on life, motherhood, culture and more.

Yes there are knitting patterns. Yes there are recipes. But mostly this book is an open and honest dialogue between mother and daughter about different areas of their lives, their approaches, their feelings. There was a lot there that I could relate to. I also found myself amused sometimes by the interjections each gave to the other when certain statements were made. It is a book filled with the love that they have for each other along with the exasperation that daughters have for mothers and mothers have for children. It made me look a little closer at some of my interactions with my daughters. Definitely a good book and a worthwhile read.

lazy saturday

I got to sleep in a bit which was a welcome change from all of the early-rise-and-run-around I've been doing all week.

I made sourdough pancakes for breakfast from my sourdough starter which is starting to smell and taste a little more sour as it matures. I made up the recipe and will have to continue to tweak it a bit but the results were rather tasty.

Sourdough Pancakes

1 C. sourdough starter
1 C. fresh ground soft white flour
1 C. water
2 t. vanilla
1 t. baking powder (I think I needed more)
1 t. salt

mix together
let rest 10 minutes
cook

I did learn that when working with fresh whole grain flours and making pancakes you need to flip them as soon as the bubbles appear on the edges. Otherwise the pancakes will burn. I followed that and these came out perfectly browned. Very tasty but I think if I try again with more baking powder they will rise more which I would like. Served with melted butter and warmed maple syrup they were delicious.

After breakfast I took a big mug of tea back to bed with me and curled up to read my newest find from the library, The Bread Bible. What a luxury and a joy to sit quietly curled in bed reading this book. I really like it and think I'm going to have to buy it for my own personal library. The writing is very clear and I like the fact that the author, Rose Levy Beranbaum, talks about not liking sponges at first and then explaining all the different types, how she uses them and how they work (that's as far as I've gotten in the book). I flipped through to see some of the recipes and they look really lovely, can't wait to read through but I'm enjoying the beginning of the book as well.

I think I am going to try one of her sourdough recipes tonight; I was planning on baking tomorrow and instead of the recipe I was going to make I'll use my starter with a recipe from the book, we'll see how it turns out.

Friday, October 27, 2006

dating myself...

MacGyver Commercial

This is too funny. I remember this show from when I was a kid. Generational memory I guess because I'm sure my kids wouldn't find it nearly as amusing.

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

end of day

It's the end of a very busy day and I'm feeling it but felt like posting before I go to bed.

Today was a cooking day. I have started a sourdough starter and made my first batch of fresh ground wheat/spelt bread from it. It turned out fairly well but I'm having problems with my ferschtunkene oven. I think it's off, maybe by as much as 50 degrees. It's a high end appliance and we had three service calls in the first two years, but I digress.

The bread came out well but I think it didn't loft as much as I would have wanted in the oven so although the crust was perfect the crumb was a little too dense. It was tasty but not too sour as it's still a new starter. I'll be interested to see what happens with the next batch of bread I make from this starter.

The recipe? I'm glad you asked...

2 C. starter
~5 C. flour (I used hard red and spelt)
1 T. salt
1 C. warm water

Knead, let sit overnight, punch down, form, let rise four hours. Bake 400 degrees for 25 minutes.

Still in the kitchen I decided that today was the day that I was finally going to process the apples that I got when I went apple picking with the cousins. They've been hanging out on my porch and I needed to finally get them done.

I made 7 quarts of apple pie filling. I've been wanting to make this for years but every year I go ahead and make apple sauce instead. This year it was the pie filling. It looks delicious and I hope it turned out well. The great thing is that when we want a pie, all the peeling, slicing, dicing will be done. And thanks to my lovely friend Kay I own an apple peeler/slicer/corer so I was able to whip through a half bushel of apples in nothing flat.

Apple Pie Filling Recipe:

Fill your sterilized jars with slices of peeled cored apples and then pour the syrup over them, seal and process in a boiling water bath. The syrup is:

10 C. water
5 C. sugar
1/2 C. cornstarch
1/2 C. granulated tapioca
5 t. cinnamon (I used some very fragrant apple pie spice that my lovely friend Freydis brought over from England on her last visit)

Cook the above stirring often over medium heat until it comes to a boil.

When we were picking apples there was a bin of pears that we could help ourselves to so I did. I've been eating my way through them but still had quite a few left so I decided to make something. Rummaging through recipes I modified a couple and came up with the following:

Pear Cranberry Pecan Conserve Recipe:

4 C. peeled, cored, diced pears
1 C. dried cranberries
1 C. sugar
2 t. ground ginger
1/2 t. fresh ground pepper
1/2 t. salt

cook over low heat until ingredients have thickened together, approximately 30 minutes. Add 3/4 C. chopped pecans. Can and process 15 minutes.

This should be good with roast meats as a side condiment, I hope it comes out well.

After all of that my day was not done because I still had to go to the Leader Training for Girl Scouts. Our troop has bridged into the next level so they get you and make you go to training. Actually it was fun, we had a good time and laughed a lot but they could have accomplished the objective in 1 1/2 hours instead of 2 1/2 hours and it was 40 minutes away. Bleah! But it's done, I'm good for three years now unless we decide that we want to do mountaineering or something, unh huh.

And now it's off to bed.

wfmw - baking tiles




h/t to my friend David for this one.

He taught me that instead of buying an expensive pizza stone you can buy unglazed quarry tile at a home improvement store. They line up neatly on the rack and work very well. They work so well that I now use them for all of my baking. I've been doing this for years.

Simple, easy, inexpensive. Works for me.

Go visit Shannon for more tips.

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

more coolness

In aimless wandering diligently searching for sites of interest or amusement on that great web out there I came across this. How cool! I'm tempted to do this as I have plenty of fall foliaged leaves but then can't figure out what the heck to do with them next. Perhaps I'll just enjoy the pictures.

last day

On the farm. I'm so sad, the farm season is over for the year. No more peaceful pick-your-own afternoons in the field. No more lovely, lovely produce. But I know it will be there again next year because I have already sent in my deposit!

Today's haul included a pie pumpkin, butternut squash, red cabbage, 2 quarts of potatoes, spinach!!!!, a rutabaga (I've never made one, I hope they're tasty), red peppers, kale (yummmm), and brussel sprouts. Three more weeks and the fencing around the farm will come down so that the deer may browse and enjoy the leavings in the field. It's always nice to drive by and see them; I'm much happier to see them there than in my yard.

blog thievery update

Thanks so several very sympathetic people who responded to my last post. A couple of you, including my Mom send this very helpful link
http://lorelle.wordpress.com/2006/04/10/what-do-you-do-when-someone-steals-your-content/ that has lots of good info. One option would be to remove the RSS feeds from my site. But then everyone who reads it wouldn't know when I updated and I'm reluctant to do that.

I am looking into contacting Google Adwords to make sure that at least the site in question does not profit from my writings on their site with Google Ads. I'm also looking into some other options referenced in the link above.

My friend Meg even sent me a lovely Shakespearean cursing site that came up with this gem Thou fawning shard-borne maggot-pie! , thanks again to everyone.

Friday, October 13, 2006

pissed off

I got online this morning in a vain attempt to catch up on some of my favorite blog posts. Life has been very hectic (as evidenced by the limited posts on my end) and I have been behind. What I got was a smack in the face.

Reading Mommy off the Record, one of my new favorites, I was abruptly introduced to Bitacle and their blatant thievery of blog posts for personal profit. To say that I was stunned was an understatement. I followed some of the leads and wound up here which is probably the best place to get info about this. I was outraged at what these people are doing. They are stealing other people's words, pictures, and work for their gain. Since they are in Spain they probably think that copyright laws do not apply to them.

Out of curiousity I decided to check for my blog. Another slap in the face. I'll start with the honest statement that I do not think my blog is anything amazing. There are far more talented bloggers out there. But I enjoy it, friends and family keep up with me this way and I have a few blog-friends who I am slowly getting to know by cross-posting. I enjoy this communication with them and I enjoy sharing parts of my life. 364 of my pages have been stolen. And advertised! I don't even advertise on my own site. I do this for personal enjoyment not to profit off of it.

I'm so angry that I don't know what to do. I am going to have to investigate this further to determine what's next for me. But for the next few days there will be no posts as this has taken all of the joy out of it for me.

If you blog I encourage you to check and make sure your content is not being stolen. If it is you can join the rest of us in fighting against them.

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

wfmw - utility papers



It's Wednesday again and you know what that means....

Today's tip is courtesy of my husband. In case no one has been keeping count I've realized that the last few posts have all been things that work for me but that I got from someone else. Hmmmmm....do I have no original wfmw ideas? I'll have to ponder that.

Take a gallon size ziplock bag. Duct tape the sides to the wall near an appliance (hot water heater, furnace, water softening unit) and put the important appliance related paperwork inside. Zip closed. Then when you need something it's right near the appliance in question and at least zipped shut against potential water damage.

Definitely works for me.

For more great hints skip on over to Shannon's and check it out.

Monday, October 09, 2006

pickle challenge

Well this is a first. My cousin Eric gave me a jar of pickles today. He said, "These are not for you to enjoy. They are for you to figure out how to make them." He loves these pickles so much that he wants to be able to get them at home because they are not easy to get where he is.

Amish hot pickle chunks. Hmmmmmm. I don't know if I can do it but I'm willing to try. The ingredients are on the label so I don't have to guess there. Just a matter of trying to figure out the proportions. We'll have to have a grand tasting and then see if we can figure it out.

Stay tuned for further developments.

30 days of peace - day 14



Graphic and concept courtesy of The Chaotic Home, check it out.

Today had lots of peaceful moments. And those moments that weren't so peaceful? They weren't so bothersome either; that's a good thing as we could all do with a little more peacefulness in our day.

  • playing play-doh with E and M
  • seeing my cousins and Aunt
  • hugs and kisses from my girls
  • lunch in the treehouse with Susan
  • a surprise box of authentic bakery baked goods from a neighbor for picking up their mail

    Hope you had a peaceful day too.

  • apple picking day

    It was a gorgeous sunny day today. Funny enough it didn't feel "fall-y" enough for apple picking. I usually expect the weather to be crisp and cool with a wine-y scent of groundfall apples. It was over 70 degrees but the smell of fall was there.

    My Aunt Susan came up and we met at my cousin's house with her adorable twins, E and M. They are so adorable and we played with play-doh for a while before heading off to the orchard.

    The orchard, unfortunately, was quite a disappointment. It was not well kept, there were poison ivy vines at the bottom of a lot of trees, the trees did not look well pruned, the trees were not marked as to type of apple, the bottoms of the trees had been so thoroughly picked that you needed a pole to get to the apples at the top. The orchard did not have enough poles to pass out to everyone. I was rather upset about it and have decided that I will not be returning to them next year.

    We did manage to pick a bushel of apples. Well, my Aunt and I did. My cousin, E and M sat in the shade of a tree with M throwing apples while they waited.

    After the apple picking the twins went down for a nap and Susan and I went back to my house. We had a lovely lunch in my wonderful tree house (so perfect for entertaining in good weather) and enjoyed hours of great conversation before she finally had to head home.

    It was a really wonderful day.

    Sunday, October 08, 2006

    30 days of peace - day 13




    I find it hard to believe that I am already at day 13. The time has been flying by. Truthfully I will admit to not feeling overall more peaceful but on a day by day basis as I sit and reflect on the journey toward a more peaceful existence I do realize that certain aspects of my life are getting more peaceful.

    Today's big peaceful moment is that I took time for myself. Lots of it. After doing necessary chores today I had some unexpected free time. I chose to use that time to lie on the sofa and read, read, read. Something I rarely get to do. It was such a treat that I don't even feel a shred of guilt about any of the dust/cleaning/laundry that didn't get done. The girls were busy with their activities and the house was peacefully and blissfully quiet (except for the dog who is worse than the cat when it comes to the in-and-out-and-in-and-out-and nonsense).

    That and looking foward to a fun family day picking apples tomorrow makes for a whole lotta peacefulness.

    If you want to have your own 30 days of peace journey or to see what others are doing check out The Chaotic Home.

    apres camp

    Well, here I am. The fact that I'm posting does indeed mean that we all survived the campout.

    Actually it was a lot of fun (aside from bedtime but we'll get there in a moment). We had a pod tent with three sections. The leaders got one pod and the girls split up into the other two. We wound up with six campers which was a good number.

    Dinner was hotdogs/veggie dogs over the campfire. The girls loved it and proclaimed that hot dogs cooked outside over a campfire taste way better than any other cooking method. They even tried to roast the baby carrots which kept falling off the sticks so nobody got to taste one.

    After dinner we sang campfire songs. That was a lot of fun. Sitting there with the sun going down listening to their sweet, energetic voices singing campsongs, laughing and giggling by the glow of sunset and campfire. It was truly one of those magical moments that made me feel very happy.

    After songs we had s'mores. As I had mentioned Miss D is a vegetarian. So we had gelatin-free fluff which she spread on a graham, topped with chocolate and another graham, wrapped in foil and roasted. Her invention was even better than mine as she made the foil long enough to put the stick through both ends and suspend the s'more-a-like over the fire. It was sooooo goooooey that everyone else wanted to do that too and slowly fire-softened marshmallows went completely by the wayside.

    We didn't get a chance to do any star gazing because even though there was a full moon there was a very dense cloud cover so we'll have to find another time to do that for our badge work.

    Flashlight tag and other games ensued before it was finally time to brush teeth. We told the girls that they had to brush their teeth outside, no going up to the house. Please spit in the bushes near the pond. They were so excited about spitting in the pond that they completely mis-heard the directions. D remarked, "Now the fish will be minty fresh!" Not sure how happy the fish were about that.

    Bedtime was a challenge to say the least. Coyotes howling in the distance and what we think was a racoon keeping up a splishity-splashity clatter on the other side of the pond. None of this was helped by the "don't point your flaslight at my tent", "stop talking to me", "well make me", "but I don't WANT the window open" tween chatter that went on for quite a while. It was rather exhausting for both leaders and it wasn't until we threatened to throw them completely out of the tent that everyone finally settled down and went to sleep. As near as we can figure out they fell asleep at 1 am and woke at 7, urgh.

    Breakfast was a complete surprise. Our Fearless Leader's husband, Mr. Fearless decided to "treat" the girls for their first campout experience and went to Dunkin Donuts. Try telling a pack of adolescent girls that they have to forgo the gooey donuts and hot chocolate for campfire cake (well, and hot chocolate). I'm here to assure you that donuts will win, hands down, every time. I'll confess that I wasn't too pushy about that though because I hied myself up to the house for a hot cup of green tea to get my corpuscles moving.

    After a sugar-laden breakfast the girls had enough energy to pack up, take down the tent and hike around the pond trail. Everyone had a really great time and we are already talking about our next campout in May.

    In case anyone was wondering...yes I brought toilet paper; no the girls did not pee in the woods. I guess it sounds more exciting in theory than in practice.

    Friday, October 06, 2006

    brrrrrrrr

    One of the problems with volunteering for things is that occasionally it gets you into trouble. Not serious, messing with the law, trouble. Just trouble.

    Like tonight.

    It all started last May.

    D's Girl Scout leader asked for a co-leader. Somehow I found myself volunteering before any form of conscious and rational thought could make its way through the blobby grey matter that serves as my brain.

    All summer long we happily made plans for the troop, activities for the girls, fun stuff that we could help them work on. It's all for a good cause, for the girls. Helping them to become independent, self-aware, self-caring human beings. Definitely worthwhile for everyone involved.

    However the second not-quite-rational thought was to plan a camp-out. Somehow in August the idea of a camp-out seems like fun. Even though you are planning it for OCTOBER!!!! We did not think (in case you hadn't guessed) that it might be cold. Now we are planning on spending the night in a tent near a pond :probably lots of bullfrogs to keep us awake she grumbles:

    The girls were thrilled to say the very least. Half of them are very excited about the idea of being able to pee in the woods. My thoughts on that matter? If you want to pee in the woods honey, go right ahead. I personally will be bringing a huge honking flashlight and hiking over the hill to the nearest house (luckily belonging to the Leader).

    Now I'm somehow managing to plan the evening's activities:

  • We have to watch stars to finish the Outdoor Creativity Badge (full moon tonight, wonder if that affects the viewing?)

  • eat s'mores [no real challenge there except my daughter is a vegetarian and can't eat marshmallows. Did I go to the healthfood store over an hour away to buy $4.89/bag vegan marshmallows? Nope. Muy bad (and I do feel awful about it). In my own defence I have invented the tinfoil-s'more-maker. Marshmallow fluff has no gelatin therefore you assemble your s'more-a-like, wrap it in foil and bake in the fire. No charcoaled exterior on the marshmallows but gooey and delicious just the same...now back to regularly scheduled blogging]

  • sing campfire songs - It's my job to teach them as this is our first campout. I've been running through some oldies but goodies, I'm thinking this will be lots of fun. I've also got a head-start in that D already knows all the songs.

  • tell ghost stories - I really don't like that part as I'm sure I will wind up with somebodylying on top of/next to me in quakey-shakey terror of the latest boogey man. And let's not mention that I have a very active imagination and really don't like scary stories to begin with.

  • keep warm - I personally plan to bring three pairs of socks and thermal underwear. I'm a wuss, I like to be warm while I sleep. I've been told that Boy Scouts camp even in the winter but that's them.

  • eat - for dinner the girls planned weenie wraps on a stick, potatoes in foil, and baby carrots (probably to try to appease the two moms into believing they would be eating something healthy. Breakfast? Our Fearless Leader says she's not cooking coffee over a campfire, she's hiking over the hill. I have put in an order for a cup of green tea thankyouverymuch.

  • sleep - as if

    Unfortunately I will not be able to take a nap before I go, should make for a very interesting tomorrow.

  • fun stuff

    h/t to: Knitting Iris for this link.

    http://www.jacksonpollock.org/




    Go
    Play
    Have fun!

    Thursday, October 05, 2006

    30 days of peace - day 10



    Today was a bit more fractious. It was a running, running, running day with lots of errands and not much getting done around the house. I really dislike days like that because at the end of the day my house looks like a tornado came through it followed by a demolition derby.

    Although I am feeling overwhelmed and behind on everything I am also grateful for the following:

  • seeing a baby deer by the side of the road. They're so cute that it's unfortunate they grow up to munch the garden.
  • Another beautiful sunny day. It was so sunny that the autumnal colors literally glowed on the trees.
  • Steve made pizza for dinner and it was delicious
  • a quiet evening

    All good things that will hopefully continue tomorrow.

  • thursday thirteen - food



    I confess that this is only the second time that I have been able to participate in the Thursday Thirteen meme. Part of the problem is that there are so many people who participate and I want to read all of them. So if I think I have a good chance of reading them I will participate, otherwise I'll wait until a better week.

    As I was racking my brain for thirteen things I realized it's not that easy. But here's one...thirteen things I make that my kids like to eat. Some of the kids are pickier eaters than the others but these are family favorites:

    1. homemade mac and cheese
    2. red rice and beans
    3. spaghetti with Dad's sauce
    4. homemade pizza
    5. fresh homemade bread with homemade grape jelly
    6. cassoulet
    7. pesto pasta
    8. leek and potato soup
    9. tacquitos
    10. latkes
    11. homemade applesauce
    12. cookies (of any sort)
    13. banana bread

    free hugs

    I found out about this video from Gratefulness.org. It's interesting to watch. Makes me wonder if I would be able to hug a stranger.

    It also makes you stop and realize how often we don't interact with those around us, refusing to even meet a stranger eye-to-eye when we pass them.

    And how can you ban hugging?

    Food for thought

    Tuesday, October 03, 2006

    30 days of peace - day seven



    Day seven on the journey toward a more peaceful existence. I try to take it all one day at a time and at certain times one moment at a time.

    Those things that created calm or serenity in my day and that I am grateful for:

  • going to the farm (love that) with Steve (even better)
  • Stitch Sisters (always a plus for me)
  • a beautiful fall day (I'm so fortunate to live where I do)
  • Hugs from my kids
  • Making a great dinner and feeling really good about it

    To follow along with others or to start your own 30 days of peace visit Chaotic Home

  • stitching the night awy

    Stitch Sister night, one of my favorite nights of the week.

    Two people brought hats, three of us were working on hats, but we're winding down.

    It was a wonderful evening filled with laughter and lots of craft work. It's funny how we can all related to certain subjects such as:

  • "I'm not supposed to buy anymore yarn but..."
  • "My husband found my stash closet"
  • "Did you see this cute pattern?"

    and we all oooh and aah and commiserate about having not enough time to knit everything we want to work on. I also love the fact that we are all at different skill levels and can encourage each other to aspire to greater heights of knitting. It is a wonderful thing.

  • farm day

    Today was the day I go to the farm. Steve was home so he went with me. It was a gorgeous sunny fall day and the company made it even better.

    We were treated to the sight of a flock (?) of turkeys in the field. It was neat to see them there.

    Today's pick your own haul included a large bag of beans that I will shell for dried beans and a large bouquet of flowers.

    The share was butternut squash, turnips, pie pumpkin, onions, garlic, spinach, broccoli and cauliflower. Wow we came home with a bag full.

    Dinner tonight was mostly from the farm. The last of last weeks potatoes cooked Indian style with mustard seed, and tomatos. The last of last weeks kale also cooked Indian style with mustard seed, cumin seed, onions and garbanzos. I made some curried chicken and attempted to make injera, Ethopian flat bread, to go with dinner. Steve turned out to be better than I at cooking it but I think it didn't come out the way it was supposed to. Lovely dinner though, very tasty and I loved the fact that the majority of the ingredients came from the farm: kale, potatoes, onions, garlic, and tomatoes.

    Only three weeks left for the farm season, I'm going to miss it when it's over.

    tackle-it-tuesday - linen closet




     






    This week I got my tackle from a post by Amelia from Works for Me Wednesday last week. Organizing the linen closet by putting the sets inside a pillow case so that you just have to grab one set and you have everything you need to make the bed. Pure genius! I love it.

    You can get more inspiration over at 5 Minutes for Mom.

    Sunday, October 01, 2006

    30 days of peace - day six



    Today is day six on my quest for calmness and peace. It's a Sunday and has been a peaceful day in part because there was not a lot of running around and no chores got done. Truly a day of rest.

    My gratitudes for the day included:

  • rainy sunshine (I love it when that happens)
  • lying in bed reading uninterrupted for a whole hour (a real treat)
  • D making me popcorn and a cup of tea (unbidden) this afternoon
  • a phone call from my Uncle who I had not talked to in a long time

    I'm finding that thanks to Chaotic Mom's idea of a 30 quest for peace I am sitting down every day (even if I don't post every day) and conciously focusing on those things that are positive and bring a sense of calm into my day. It's a really nice exercise. I'm also enjoying checking in with the others who are doing this to see what they are up to for their peaceful quest; it's encouraging to see them working at it as well.

  •