Category Archives: around the house

around the house

My Pathetic Garden

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Carrot Tops

Earlier this spring I made an attempt to plant a garden.  A very small garden.  I had Calvin go out to the back yard and dig up grass from a small section of the yard that used to be a garden.  Then I bought some  topsoil and some seed packets.  I know most people plant plants, but time and money were not on my side, so I decided to just see what would happen when I put down some top soil on my little patch of yard and I planted a couple herbs–basil and cilantro.  I planted lettuce, cucumbers, and carrots.  With all the rain we’ve had, I thought perhaps it would all wash away.  But now, it looks like some of the things will actually become vegetables.  The herbs, of course, are already usable.  I think I will have a bit more basil and cilantro than I could ever use, but I will try to dry some and give some away.

Lettuce

The grass around the garden is very long because we have had no lawn mower to use as our new one of last summer decided to stop working.  It was in the shop, but the shop called and said they couldn’t fix it.  I found another repair place today that says they can take it apart, clean it, and possibly make it work.  So the garden area doesn’t look wonderful, but despite my poor planning and willy-nilly way of throwing the garden together, I might just have something to eat from it as the summer goes on.   If all goes well, I might try my hand at a real garden next year.

Cilantro and Basil

Cucumbers

around the house, family

Pretty Little May

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“March went out like a lion, a whippin’ up the water in the bay.  Then April cried, and stepped aside, and along came pretty little May.  May was full of promises, but she couldn’t keep ’em quick enough for some.  Then a bunch of doubting Thomases, kept predicting that the summer’d never come.  But it’s comin’ by gum.  I can feel it come.  Look around.  Look around.  Look around!  June is bustin’ out all over, all over the meadow and the hill.  Buds are bustin’ outta bushes and the rompin’ river pushes every little wheel that wheels behind a mill.  Because it’s June.  Because it’s June.  Because it’s June, June, June.  Just because it’s June, June, June!”  — From the musical, Carousel

This is a song I have sung to my kids since they were little.  Evangeline, whose birthday is in June, has claimed it as her song.  I am thinking of it this morning because of the phrase, “Pretty Little May.”  I was looking at my last post, and I saw it was from 3 weeks ago and I realized May is nearly over.  It is truly almost June and almost summer.

May was full of promises  . . . The first promise was the one of walking/running.  I was not as faithful as I wanted to be.  I did pretty well for the first 3 weeks, but a combination of sickness, getting a new part-time at-home job, lots of rain, and all the end of school activities got in my way.  But this week I am back on track.  I am not giving up.  That is one of the great things about the little book I mentioned when I started the walking plan.  It reminds you that not meeting your goals, is no reason to give up.

My new part-time work is for an advertising professional whom I worked for last year briefly.  He is an older man who has been an ad exec for his entire life.  I am helping him with some phone and internet research.  So far, he is pleased with what I am delivering, and I am hopeful it will continue for a while.

School activities were many in May.  The highlights were Victory Day, a K field trip, and K Graduation for Charis.

Victory Day — School Carnival

 K Field Trip to Grant’s Farm

  Charis at K Graduation

School vacation is here, and there will be plenty of kids around for photo ops, so I expect to be posting more pictures in the coming weeks.  Hopefully, I’ll be a little more attentive to my blog.  If not, check back at the end of summer for another summary post.

 

around the house, cooking

Recipe Time

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I don’t post recipes very often, but this one is so good, I wanted to share it.  My oldest is doing an oral report for school on Paraguay, and for a little extra credit, most students usually distribute a snack that is related to the country of the report.  Calvin told me that he read about sopa, a type of cornbread when he was researching the report.  So I did a web search for a recipe, and I found this great one at cookinglight.com.

The steps are a little complicated, but the end product is worth it.  This bread is hearty and savory, and just plain yummy:

Paraguayan Corn Bread (Sopa Paraguaya)
Yield: 8 servings (serving size: 1 wedge)

Ingredients

* Cooking spray
* 2  tablespoons  grated fresh Parmesan cheese
* 1  tablespoon  butter
* 1  tablespoon  vegetable oil
* 1  cup  chopped onion
* 1/3  cup  chopped green bell pepper
* 2  cups  fresh corn kernels (about 4 ears), divided
* 1/2  cup  1% low-fat cottage cheese
* 1 1/2  cups  yellow cornmeal
* 3/4  cup  (3 ounces) shredded Muenster or sharp cheddar cheese
* 1/2  cup  fat-free milk
* 1  teaspoon  salt
* 1/2  teaspoon  black pepper
* 4  large egg whites
* 1/2  teaspoon  cream of tartar

Preparation: Preheat oven to 400°.

Coat a 9-inch round cake pan with cooking spray. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese, and set aside.

Heat butter and oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add onion and bell pepper; cook 5 minutes or until soft. Place onion mixture in a food processor. Add 1 1/2 cups corn and cottage cheese; process until almost smooth, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Place pureed mixture in a large bowl. Stir in remaining 1/2 cup corn, cornmeal, Muenster cheese, milk, salt, and black pepper.

Place egg whites and cream of tartar in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at high speed until stiff peaks form. Gently stir one-fourth of egg white mixture into batter; gently fold in remaining egg white mixture. Spoon into prepared pan.

Bake at 400° for 30 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean (cover loosely with foil if it becomes too brown). Cool in pan 10 minutes on a wire rack. Place a plate upside down on top of bread; invert onto plate. Cut into wedges.

In the cold weather when we eat a lot of soups and stews, this bread is a great compliment to make those meals more hearty.  Enjoy.

around the house, family, health, helpful consumer items

Of Luffas and Dandruff Shampoo

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Readers of my blog have been scant for some time, but I guess the “Tears” post was a little too much for anyone to comment on.  Oh well.

The big news is: Charis has her cast off.  Eight weeks in a cast, and I didn’t post one picture of her.  That is because the only ones I took were on my stupid phone which will not allow me to upload photos to my computer.  Since we are too cheap (or broke) to pay for the upgrade in service to be able to send the photos from my phone, I really shouldn’t take pictures with it!

After the cast was removed, her skin underneath was GROSS!!!!  It was so dry and flaky, I didn’t want her on me.  Even after using a luffa on her arm, it was flaky.  Then at her glorious bath last night (glorious because she could actually be in the tub long enough to get really clean), I had a revelation.  I thought, “If dandruff shampoo works on dead dry skin on the skalp, perhaps it will help remove the dead dry skin from her arm.”  So I used dandruff shampoo and the luffa on her arm, and it made a huge difference.  The flakes all came off.  Now her skin is rough, but we are putting lotion on it whenever we can.  It will be back to normal soon.  Long sleeves were in order for today so the dry skin won’t distract her to much at school.

around the house, family, fun outings

Halloween Pics

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The gang on Halloween.  Calvin opted out of Trick or Treating this year.

The girls chose to be “good witches,” while Nevin was a soldier as he had been at the Harvest Party a few weeks earlier.

Here are the “good witches.”  Evangeline assembled both costumes.  She’s a great big sister!

Nevin misplaced his pit helmet, so his soldier outfit was a bit incomplete.  He managed to collect some candy nonetheless!

around the house, family

Our Simonaversary

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Perhaps you remember this post from a little over a year ago.

So it has been just over a year since Simon joined our household.  He has adpated well to the craziness of living with us.  The children still bemoan the fact that he feels he must sit as close to me as possible when we are just hanging around the house, but they have gotten used to it.  I think Simon thinks he is just another one of the kids–the most special one who must always be by Mommy.  He and Charis have had their tossels as they both jockey for position.  In the end, though, I think Simon has learned that he is #5 in the pecking order of children (the rest come in no particular order of course, ahem  . . .)

So raise your coffee cup to our first year with Simon.  He has been a happy (albeit sometimes smelly) addition to the family.

around the house

Clean Counter Tops & Sanity

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Last Saturday, I hosted a bridal shower in my home for a young woman from church.  I was providing the place, and someone else was bringing the decorations, set-up, etc.  I was only responsible to have the house clean, make my one small contribution to the food table, and be available.   So I cleaned, and I was pretty happy with my results.

This is the counter a bit after the shower–not completely clean, but close!

We have a long, skinny galley kitchen with very little counter space.  So one thing I did was cleaned off the counter surfaces completely.  Our refrigerator stands between two island like tables I have added to serve as extra counter space, so I removed all the papers, notices, pictures, etc., from the refrigerator, too.   Boy, do I love a clutter free refrigerator.  Who knew how good something so simple could make me feel?

In the week since the shower, I have tried to keep the counters and fridge clear of as much stuff as possible. It has been great to have more space for cutting, serving, etc., this week because there’s not a lot of extra junk sitting on my counters.  I have felt more calm in my kitchen than I have in a long time.

Now, with 4 kids and a husband, is it possible to keep up this clean counter-top regimen?  Time will tell.  In the mean time, would you like me to slice you a piece of banana bread on my nice clean counter top?

around the house, blogging, family, parenting

No Longer on a Roll

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So I was doing pretty well there with regular blog posts.  What happened?  What always does–life.

Mark has been crazy busy with work projects.  One has a quick turnaround deadline, and it is sort of speculative.  So pray he gets it done, and pray the $$ comes through.

Then there’s been all the kids’ stuff.  The girls are taking swimming lessons; Nevin is taking wrestling; and Calvin only made it on the waiting list for fencing, but he’ll get in the next session in a month or so.  Awana started for the the 3 younger ones three weeks ago, too.  And, Evangeline has been to the dentist twice in the past 2 weeks.  She had a toothache that turned out to be an abcessed tooth.  She had to have it pulled, and she was very brave about it all.  Then we took her back the following week for a cleaning and x-rays.  It turns out she has 2 more cavities that will need to be filled.  Oh, and the dentist informed me that we need to see an orthodontist.  Yay!  We have expected this with Nevin, but we were crossing our fingers that he would be the only one.

So in the midst of the nation’s economic crisis, life goes on.  Nevin asked me today what we would do if the economic system collapsed.  I told him we would be ok because we have practice with economic crisis.  He laughed at my little joke, which I guess is a good thing since he understood what I was getting at, and yet it didn’t make him unhappy.  (I also added that we would trust God and work for a solution, btw. )