settling in

We have had a nice, slow-paced week just settling in after my trip. I'm not a "good" or seasoned traveler so the whole experience was a bit stressful (think "driving in Boston"), so we've just been super mellow this week. I'm a huge homebody anyway, so picking up these homely rhythms suits me perfectly.

What we've been up to:
:: making fairy villages with the boys (that's what we did first thing, first morning I was back)
:: sending snail mail and boy-made pictures to Faith at BU
:: hanging load after load of laundry out on the line (my love affair with the laundry line has not diminished. If anything, it has intensified! I am the biggest geek ever.)
:: doing the first baking project since the trip (breadsticks). Most likely we'll follow it up today with my favorite healthy cookie.
:: picking flowers and making little bouquets.
:: using lots of produce from the garden (made this recipe last night--so good!)
:: making jam (plum was finished before the trip. Now we are onto nectarine--my favorite! The thing about home grown fruit is that when it is ready it is now or never! Thus late-night jam making when I'd rather be sleeping. More jam tonight).
:: getting back to my Flylady routines. I am loving her system so much! Yesterday I started working on my Flylady notebook (what she calls the "control journal"). I'm a notebook person, so this is fun for me.
:: getting back into sewing a little bit.

{fairy village}

{inside a fairy house}

{I asked him to pick a pretty napkin to cover the bread dough for rising. I loved his selection!}

{herbs from our garden. Ken always grows pots of herbs along with all the fruit trees and vegetables. Awesome, he is.}

{Rolling the dough. Dieter really enjoyed the process but didn't eat the results. Oh well!}

{Cheesy breadsticks. Inspired by this recipe, although we ended up doing our own thing.}

{log cabin squares for a table runner like Soulemama's}

Looking forward to more of the same this weekend. What have you been up to??

some more photos from the trip

I am back and so happy to be with my little family again! Faith is still in Boston for the Boston University "summer challenge" program. She is taking classes in mass communications and creative writing and says both classes are really interesting. This is giving her a chance to get a taste of college life before the real thing. I think it's great but it was hard to leave her there in that lonely dorm room, knowing no one! She'll be back in two weeks.
We loved our trip but I am so happy to be home too. I am a true homebody, that is for sure. To tell you the truth, I hadn't been on a plane in 11 years before this. How wild is that???? The Northeast is beautiful and I hope to go back soon, but the trip also made me thankful for where I live. In the car between Maine and Boston, Faith and I made a list of our very favorite local businesses and favorite spots right here at home, and it turned out to be an awesome list. (Listmaking on car trips is fun. We also listed favorite movies).







I'm taking a couple more days to get settled, then hopefully will be back to regular posting. Thanks for all your nice comments about the trip and Faith's photos. Next time I'll let you know earlier about any trips, in case of bloggy meet-up possibilities!

maine

Faith and I are on the beautiful coast of Maine! Faith is signed up for a two-week academic program at Boston University and I am officially here "dropping her off." But we came out a few days early so we can sightsee. Yesterday we visited Mackworth Island and it was beautiful! Love love love this area. We are especially enjoying how lovely and green everything is.


And we met the amazing Erin of Bluebirdbaby! She shot Faith for her senior pictures, and they are going to be gorgeous! (Erin has posted a little preview here). Erin herself is beautiful, warm, friendly, open, passionate, and down to earth. We had such a wonderful time getting to know her.

Here's a little video I shot with my i-pod, in case you have an extra minute and half to soak up some beauty of the Maine shoreline.

cleaning

One of my goals for the summer was to learn the Flylady system for cleaning and whip the house into some kind of order. I knew I wanted to learn her system from her book because the website is quite confusing. I had read about the first half last spring and had to turn it back in before I was done. That was good, maybe, because it gave me a chance to ponder some of her basic messages. Then, this summer, I got it again and this time I really studied the book and even took notes!

Here is what resonates with me in Flylady's message: she says that it is our perfectionism that keeps us from cleaning our houses. I have never thought of myself as a perfectionist before (and I'm not one when it comes to my crafts and sewing or even my blog) but her description fits perfectly when it comes to house cleaning. I have always thought "it's going to take me 2 hours to clean that area perfectly so I might as well not even start," or "it took me 2 hours to clean last time and I don't even want to think about doing that again." Or I would start out cleaning a small area and just get super frustrated as I would look around and see more dirt everywhere. Flylady urges us to ditch the perfectionism and just start cleaning. Even "hitting a lick at a snake" is better than nothing, but if you follow her system you will be cleaning in short bursts but the house will eventually come into order and "you will never see dirt again." The other thing I like about her is that she encourages building small routines. I do very very well with routines so this is perfect for me. Other than shining your kitchen sink, one of the things she starts you with is a bedtime routine and a morning routine. Later there are weekly and monthly routines too.
So here is her system in a nutshell (as I see it):
:: develop a morning and an evening routine. Part of the evening routine is to go to bed at a decent hour. This is key because you'll need energy for maintaining the system.
:: once a week you do a quick one-hour cleaning. She calls it a "weekly home blessing." I was visiting with my good friend last week and she always has called it a "white tornado" so that is what I call it too. The key to this one-hour cleaning is that you set the timer and work for 10 minutes per area. It sounds too short but it really works! The beauty of this is that it is only an hour (or a bit longer, depending) so you don't get burnt out and the house really is much cleaner even after only that relatively short burst.
:: then, for 15 minutes a day, you work in the current "zone," either de-cluttering (at first) or detailed cleaning. There are 5 zones. This week we are in the bedroom so yesterday I decluttered my nightstand and spent a little time dusting the blinds in there.

The morning and evening routines are key. One of my other summer goals was to get a bedtime routine for the boys and it dovetails perfectly with Flylady. Here is how I have adapted the nighttime routine to suit our needs:

:: quick kitchen clean-up, after dinner. Ken and I usually work together on this.
:: 5-minute family tidy-up, which includes the little boys helping. We pick up toys and do a quick sweeping in the main area. It's only 5 minutes, so when the timer goes off we are done.
:: family walk around the neighborhood.
:: bath for the boys. (While they are in the bath I quickly set out my clothes for the next day).
:: read to the boys
:: bedtime for the little boys--one of us lies down with them.
:: after bedtime, when school has started, I plan to come back out, finish up any kitchen cleanup (for pans that have been soaking or whatever) and make lunches.

I like that I am developing routines now which can be adapted for back to school too.

We are enjoying summer around here. Posting is going to continue to be erratic until at August most likely. Happy summer to you all!

happy birthday to Faith!

{17!}

{Faith's birthday table}

Faith turned 17! We had a little family party for her a few nights ago.
Here is the wooden birthday girl I made for her a couple years ago. Disaster will befall her by the end of the evening.

I surprised Faith by buying ingredients for Shirley Temples. She loved them!
The birthday tradition in our family is that the birthday boy or girl gets to choose the dinner. She chose salmon with brown sugar glaze, Rice-a-Roni, broccoli, and fruit salad.
Opening the gifts. She was very gracious.
She had so many candles on the cake at her advanced age of 17 that the birthday girl ignited!
Sadly, her crown is singed and her ruffle burned off almost completely, but Faith still loves her and insists she doesn't want her to be refurbished for her 18th birthday--instead, she wants her atop her cake just as she is.

Happy birthday, Faith! You are an awesome daughter, fashion consultant, and friend!

nature table freshen-up

Dieter and I totally re-hauled the nature table yesterday as part of our "mama and Dieter" day. It really needed it! We cleared off absolutely everything and he had fun cleaning the top with natural cleaner. Then we went outside and picked these little bouquets. His is the one of the right.
I decided that what the nature table is needing right now is "less is more" approach. I put away several of the items that usually live there and got out some more summery decorations.

Now it is all ready for the boys to add their nature treasures as they find them.

happy friday!

After years of not having these margaritas (due to either being pregnant or nursing from basically '04 through late 2009) I finally mixed up a batch. They are as delicious as I remembered.
If you would like to make some here is what you do. This is not a smoothly blended restaurant style margarita. This is a fun, summery recipe I got from a friend years ago when I was living in Wichita. Take a 12 ounce can of limeade and leave it out on the counter for awhile so it gets melty (so it is easy to blend with the liquids). Pour it into a gallon sized freezer bag. Now you will use that same can for measuring the other ingredients. Into the freezer bag, pour in 3 cans water, 1/2 a can triple sec, and 1/2 a can or up to a full can of tequila.
Blend, double bag, and place in the freezer overnight (or basically 24 hours--it takes a long time to set up). To serve, spoon into glasses. We like ours with salt and a lemon wedge.
These start out very icy and at first you will just be trying to catch some of the delicious ice shards into your mouth. On a hot day, very soon the concoction will become more melty and drinkable. I love doing the margaritas this way--so easy, and with storing them in the freezer like this they are ready to serve at a moment's notice. Happy weekending everyone!

what's in that pot?

Recently I got to thinking about why I put so many food and cooking posts on my blog. I don't consider this a "food blog" and I'm not an especially good cook. On the other hand, I am fascinated by domestic life in general and cooking from scratch and family dinners in particular.

Then it occurred to me that making these meals and setting up these little table scenes is one opportunity for creativity in my day that I am sure to make time for. Each meal cooked and served is a lot of work, frequently with frustrating moments in the midst of it, but also fills me with a sense of accomplishment and a wonderful feeling of having nurtured the family and created something beautiful. That is all so important to me.
Sometimes I like to read through the comments over at Soulemama and one of my favorite things is when people ask her "what is in that pot?" whenever she posts a table shot. Back on this post somebody asked her that very question and she kindly replied that it was the vegetarian chili from Once Upon a Tart. That happens to be one of my all time favorite cookbooks so of course I was inspired to try the recipe. It turned out to be a wonderful, rustic and summery chili with beans soaked and cooked from scratch and with fresh summer squash and zucchini and fresh corn from the cob. On the down side I started it late in the day (aside from having already soaked the beans) and it took forever to get to the table. It was nearly 8 o'clock before we ate that night! Oh well--it was close to the Solstice and still quite light. Another thought I had: I think I need a Le Creuset pot in the next size up! This recipe makes such a huge batch that I ended up having to scoop some into a separate saucepan! (Do you see how I rationalize such purchases? Never mind, though, because I'm on a 2-year spending freeze . . . otherwise I would be tempted!)
The recipe suggests topping this with sour cream, cheese and onions, which was delicious.
Here is the cookbook that I am talking about. I've also blogged about it here.
And an inside shot to show how delicious this book is.

By the way, I have a little bookshop! It's been there for months but I never mentioned it to you. I just wanted to have a spot to show you all my very favorite books. I only have added books that I love and return to over and over again and that have lots of "heart" and good writing. It's not a money making endeavor for me at all, but just to let you know, if people bought enough books through my shop Amazon would eventually cut me a $10 certificate.

And thanks so much for all your help with the mystery of the comments not showing up! You guys are awesome. It was good to hear that it is a Blogger-wide problem and not something I had done wrong with the blog. And it looks like they're working again.

problems with comments

Comments are not showing up in Blogger! I'm still getting my comments in e-mail but then you guys can't see the comments being made . . . big bummer, as I'm a firm believer in comments being the heart of blogging and being able to see the discussion going on. Hopefully Blogger will have this fixed soon! And thanks for all your lovely comments, as always. If anyone has any experience with this or hints for me, let me know. I have no way of contacting Blogger directly and their help section is no help at all.

washing the grocery bags

Ken bought a newspaper over the weekend and he pointed out an article about reusable grocery bags. The article said that researchers tested the reusable bags of random shoppers outside a store and found bacteria in most of the bags. The article suggested that when we carry home meats and certain produce in the bags bacteria can be left behind.

It was a good reminder to me to wash my bags more often but the article had a sensationalistic tone that I didn't appreciate. I'm sure a lot of people will read that and just settle even more firmly into their routine of getting one-use plastic bags from their grocery store every time. My mom said they were making a big deal about it on the TV news as well.

Washing the bags is such a simple and common sense solution! And I'm pretty darn confident that even with less-frequent washing, I've never gotten sick from my bags. I love my Envirosax bags in particular--they are going strong even after nearly 3 years and are highly washable. How about you? Have you been scared off from reusable shopping bags?

some scenes from our fourth

{sliced homegrown cucumbers}

{digging in to roasted corn}

{Dieter goofing around}

{flowers for the table}

{desert of homemade ice cream and favorite chocolate chip cookies}

Ken took the boys to the fireworks at night. My big revelation and fun project for the day was making homemade ice cream with no ice cream freezer. It was so fun! The boys helped and were involved along the way. I followed the recipe for vanilla ice cream in Apples for Jam. You make a simple custard, stir in cream, allow to cool, then cover the mixture and place in the freezer. Every so often you pull it out and give it an energetic whisking and put it back in. I'm the type of person who loves to do things like soak beans and hang out laundry, so you can imagine that pulling ice cream out of the freezer every 30 minutes is super exciting for me. It was fun to see it develop from a liquid into ice cream. And the taste? I thought it was great. Yes, it's a tad more icy than you would get with an ice cream freezer, but I loved doing it this way and I really love not owning extra gadgetry or having to buy, store, clean and maintain another electric appliance. I'm amazed that any mention of making ice cream by hand has almost completely disappeared from any cookbook you can buy. Apples for Jam is the only one I've seen that mentions this. It was fun and highly recommended!