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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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:
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
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:
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:
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.
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.
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:
