I have a dislocated rib. Ouch!!

This is day two of having my rib in the decidedly wrong place!  I can't do much and it's frustrating to say the least.  I was on such a roll with the house being clean, kids happy and well-occupied, everybody fed good things....  Now we're back to "did everybody survive the day?" 

Thank goodness for sisters; Alison came over for almost 5 hours yesterday so I could take it easy and is coming back today!  Hopefully when I go back to the chiropractor today he'll be able to fully resolve this nonsense.  **grumble**

Oh, Christmas Tree!

Alison and I decided that we need to go to cut down our own Christmas trees this year.  It's something neither of us has ever done, though the idea is treated as no big deal around here!  We went this afternoon and though it was freezing cold and windy, it was really great fun.  We brought our own saw and went hunting!

"Mom.  This one.  This tree.  It's perfect!  PERFECT."  (Also what, 10 feet tall?)

That one was a Douglas Fir -- very pretty, but the needles and small branches all drooped fluffily to the floor.  This made us think these trees wouldn't be great at holding ornaments.  (Especially when kids are helping to hang them!)

Jack fell asleep in the car but Alex basically dragged him out by his ear, at my insistence. 

He did NOT approve.

The Webbers thought they found the perfect tree!  But was it tall enough?  And just the right shape?  You can't be sure until you look at at least a hundred more.  ;)

Meanwhile, Alex found a tree for us that was quite nice.  After I browsed around a bit myself, I conceded that he really did find a great tree.  ....Timber!

As usual, Jack thinks his daddy is awesome.

He can carry a Whole Tree!  I think Jack was torn between the desire to help move the tree and the desire not to get smushed flat underneath it because Daddy was moving too quickly!

Meanwhile, the Webbers shopped on....  :)

Okay, no, SERIOUSLY.  This one is PERFECT.

Alison sawed down her own tree! (With a hefty dose of heckling from Alex....)

She even helped to carry the tree back to the car.  It was REALLY heavy.

Jack decided that maybe this whole tree farm thing wasn't such a horrible idea.

We even got a smile out of him after all.  :)

Our tree.  :)

And where was Evie this whole time?

Where do you think?  :D

Bonus Video: Peek-a-Boo

Evie was playing peek-a-boo with Melissa one evening and I managed to capture it National-Geographic-style.

seasons

It's worth mentioning that the last few months have encompassed one of those rare spans of time when nature and the weather agree exactly with my idea of what should be happening. Hot when we're ready for it, cool and breezy when we need a break. Cloudy only when the sun threatens to become monotonous. And the rare splashes of rain have happened (I kid you not) on every night that I've forgotten to water the garden.

Tonight I was planting some perennial bulbs in the front yard (more on that excitement later, with photos, of course) and reflecting on how tomorrow is the first day of September and really fall is just around the corner. I'm ready for falling leaves and pumpkin patches. Today Jack and I were remembering last year when we got a hay ride in a big wagon pulled by a farmer's green tractor. He's ready to do that again, please, but takes my word that we have to wait *just* a bit longer before those are available.

Well, back to tonight. I was outside at 10:00 p.m., planting the last of about 50 bulbs. It was cold and my nose was just a little runny. The wind suddenly gusted and the night air smelled like wood smoke and slightly damp soil, and everything felt just... like fall. And I tell you what -- I have never been happier than when I get the first signs of summer's end, and this year was done particularly stylishly!

So I do have to commend Mother Nature on her timing and attention to detail. Well done, madame! I hope to see you continue this trend right on through the new year. ;)

summer projects

Living in Oregon gives one a fine appreciation for summer weather. The days have been hovering around 80 degrees, usually with clear skies and a gentle, cooling breeze. Perfect for just about any summer activity one could imagine.

There are so many things to do, from picking berries, to playing in the river at a park nearby, to taking beach trips, to having playdates with our friends who will be back at work when school rolls around again... and special summer activities like the county fair this week!

We've been having a very busy time of it, and I'm still turning down activities here and there. "Stressed" is not the right word, but sometimes the kids just have enough of activities and it's time to stay at home and mellow out.

Or, you know, the "mellow out" that you can do with two little ones, which is usually pretty busy in its own right. ;) At home one of our big activities is the garden, which is going gangbusters. This leads me to my first picture:


That's fifteen cups of basil right there! I picked it yesterday from my four basil plants. Today I used 2 cups of olive oil, 2 1/2 of Parmesan, 1 1/2 of walnuts and pine nuts, and all that beautiful basil to make an enormous batch of pesto. The end tally was 5 1/2 cups! That went into the freezer tonight as Alex fed dinner to the kids. Pesto is one of my food passions, and I'm so glad we'll have plenty for the winter. The basil plants are growing so well that I'll be able to make another big batch in just a few weeks.

The garden is also ramping up production on the veggies. (At last, more than just lettuce and herbs!) Here's Jack showing off one of the carrots. He's been waiting and waiting to pull one out of the ground! We kept digging one up just a tiny bit and seeing that it still wasn't ready. He finally got to gobble this one up without any more prep than just washing the dirt off.


We also have peppers and all our tomatoes finally showing signs of ripening, along with a few eggplants that are SLOWLY getting bigger. Add our few cucumbers to that mix and we're in business! We also have chard, lettuce, winter squash, more carrots (a later planting), summer squash, zucchini.... In about two weeks I'll be complaining that we have more produce than we can eat, I'm sure. ;)

We also have projects going indoors. Jack is being a wonderful helper these days. There are a lot of projects related to the fact that the people who lived here before us were... not of the same mindset as I am.

Painting is one big thing. Scrubbing is the other. If/when we ever move again, I'm hiring professional cleaners before we take occupancy! Today I finally got back to my project of scrubbing the kitchen floor. I don't think the previous tenants ever mopped -- literally. I've been hand-scrubbing one tile at a time to actually find the floor under all the grunge.

Well, I scrubbed for a while and then took a quick break. What do you know, Jack scampered over, grabbed my sponge and cloth and took up right where I left off! He did a wonderful job, getting 20 squares clean before he was distracted by Daddy returning from work.

The best was what he told me as he scrubbed: "Mommy, I making your day! I making your day! By scrubbing the floor!!!!" Boy, does he know when he has figured out a good way to help me. :)

As if that weren't enough, there is one more project we worked on today. It's nearly time to plant the winter garden, which means I am in need of more garden space. Jack and I tag-teamed this one. (I mentioned he's been a great helper recently, right?) I dug up big clods of the dense clay, and Jack beat the stuffing out of them with his hoe. His mission was to break them up small enough that we could blend in some of our homemade compost.

Here's the completed hole, with loosened clay down to 12 inches deep. We ultimately had to call it quits for bedtime, so tomorrow we'll be mixing in the compost, filling up the hole, and planting a little more lettuce and lots more chard.

Why all the chard, you may ask? Well, Evie LOVES chard cooked up with a little onion and garlic, so we have to keep her well-supplied! She can literally eat an adult portion in a day, and I'm more than happy to indulge her.


You may also notice a few cars parked by the side of the hole. Jack got tired after a while of swinging the hoe (the whole thing so far has taken at least two hours) so he drove his cars over the bumpy, dirty landscape while I finished digging. I can really appreciate that he wants to spend time with me. He was right there by my side until I dragged him in for his bath and bedtime!

By the time the end of the day rolls around, I spend a little time loading up the dishwasher, tidying toys out of the kitchen or putting away laundry that we've folded earlier. I keep a notebook handy so that as it occurs to me, I can write down what's happening tomorrow.

I try not to forget anything too important -- like the fact that I told Jack we'll make blueberry muffins together tomorrow. Or that Evie needs more diapers. Or that I haven't talked to my sister Amy in a few weeks now.

And I trust that whatever I am forgetting, I am forgetting it in favor of something worthwhile like spending time planting seeds one by one with Jack, or blowing raspberries on Evie's belly, or having a quiet moment with Alex after we get the kids to bed.

In closing (since I can't say "in short" after such a post...) it's a busy, busy life right now. But that's part of the flavor of summer, and part of the joy of it is that I know winter will come again. It will bring the rain and the slower pace, and we will all take a deep breath for a few months until it all ramps up again in the spring.

Yes, I'll admit it. Part of the glory of gorgeous, hot crazy summer days is that they make me think of how I can't wait for the winter season.

BUT there is just so darn much good stuff to do right now, and I'm thankful for the sunshine and the long days, and the many friends and family who are accompanying us on our wild ride. And now -- good heavens! -- it's almost midnight and I have to get to bed! I know a very happy baby who will be up with the sun, waking me with her latest words: "Hi maaaaaama!"

It really is a beautiful life. :)

07092011284.jpg

I really liked this one. Evie was with Julie while I got Jack settled at the car, so he and I had a minute to ourselves. Sometimes I get caught up in the "mommy-ness" of making sure we get from point A to point B with a minimum of injuries or lost time, everybody gets fed, etc., etc., and I forget that he and I really do have a great, friendly camaraderie. For me, this picture really captures how much fun we were having together.

Sent from my Nokia phone

the garden is exploding!

When we moved in, the yard was in such sorry shape that I wasn't sure whether we were going to be able to grow anything this year. I could definitely see all the potential, but it was also clear that many hours were going to be needed. (I spent at least three just ripping the rotted old clematis vines off our trellis while I decided what needed to get done next!)

There were weeds EVERYWHERE. There still are weeds most places; because they are well-established and have sturdy roots, I've had to focus only on the areas where we're growing food plants. Over the winter and next spring I'll have to beat them fully into submission.

Later on, I may post the full story of my springtime battle with the yard, but the short version is this: I planted sad, stunted little sprouts (started in our shady apartment, much to their chagrin) in the ground. Most of them didn't thrive. Some outright died. Then Chris saved the day by giving me the cinderblocks to build a raised garden bed, and Mother Nature finally decided to cooperate by giving us some sun and heat!

I only really stopped planting around June 15th, and still Jack and I planted some more carrots and chard last week, with a bit more lettuce to follow soon. I've been barreling along for two months just trying to get my plants established, until I looked around today.

What do you know? The garden is established just fine! Flowers busted out all over during the last two weeks and I'm really starting to get an idea of how much delicious food we can look forward to.

Tonight I took Jack on a tour of all our plants and showed him that our food is FINALLY growing at an appreciable rate! He hung in there with strong interest as we looked at each plant and found where it had flowered and whether it was growing the actual food yet. I wasn't expecting him to make it through the whole yard, but he did! He got more and more excited, and kept saying he was going to "eat the ____ ALL!"

So, I was smart and brought the camera with me as we toured. Here's our crop as of about 6:15 p.m. today. :) I'll have to apologize for doing tons of close-ups and not too many wide shots to let you see what the garden is like over all. But I'm just so darn excited about the FOOD we're growing! :)

These are Jack's peas. They're growing up the side of the swing set. They're about 3 feet tall and Jack is eagerly awaiting the day they'll grow up the ladder, across the top, and all the way down the slide. That will be about 30 feet, which would truly be impressive! ;)

Here are the two biggest pea pods. This was really surprising for me, because the peas only bloomed three or four days ago. How did they start making pods already??

The blooms are really pretty. And behind it you can see the "hand," as Jack calls the viny, grabby-onny bit. I think he has the right idea, though it looks more like a pine tree in this shot.

This is a winter squash. I've never seen a happier plant in all my life. We planted it maybe two weeks ago. The darn thing is going to be huge!!

It might be a bit hard to tell, but it's already putting out blossoms. This plant is excited about life! :)

This is a nasturtium, which Chris gave me two of. The blossoms are GORGEOUS and she tells me the seeds can be used as a substitute for peppercorns, so I'm looking forward to trying that! The beautiful color on this one is produced by the evening sun hitting it from the side. The orange is all sunlight; the actual blossom is red!

Here's a pepper on our biggest pepper plant. It will give us at least 30 peppers, judging by the number of flowers it's sporting. I was telling Jack that we get to harvest these peppers when they're orange. He really likes to know how we can tell when the food is ready.... This may be because last year he picked every single tomato before it was ripe, and was continuously disappointed that they didn't taste good!

A close-up on the pepper. I need to find out whether it has those cracks because I'm watering it too much, or not enough. An important question!

This is the second-biggest pepper, growing on the same plant. I have five other pepper plants that haven't bloomed yet. I hope they do as well as this guy!

Here are some new carrot sprouts, with the photo color almost completely washed out by the setting sun.

Can you find the eggplant blossoms? They're certainly not your traditional flowers. I've never paid attention to how an eggplant starts life, so I'll be watching this one closely.

More carrot sprouts. They're so cute! We must have planted at least 60 seeds in this row and only 10 germinated. That was disappointing... but then a few more sprouts appeared just today, so maybe some are just slower than others. I sure hope so! Jack revealed today that he likes to eat carrot sticks. That's a snack choice I can definitely support!

This is the Little Squash That Could. I accidentally hoed it nearly in half (of course, this was while Jack and I were hoeing the garden together and I was gesturing with my hoe and telling him "Watch out for this kind, we want to keep this kind!" ...*snap*) Well, he was so dismayed at its demise that I offered that we could tape it back together. What do you know, the tape worked! The squash is growing fine, and I'm at a complete loss to explain why.

Here's our climbing cucumber, with some twine we strung up for it. We also have a bush cucumber but I think I forgot to photograph that one.

Here's our first planting of chard. Jack put the seeds in the ground, so they're a little unevenly spaced, but I think he did a nice job overall!

Evidence! This plant really is being held together with scotch tape. I can't understand it....

I love the sight of squash blossoms because I know they foreshadow very good things to come. I'm one of those people who never gets sick of zucchini! Which is a good thing since we have six or seven of the plants!

Here's our lettuce. Again, Jack helped to put the seeds in the ground so we have a few clumps and gaps to deal with. But that's okay! Everything is growing nicely. Jack took one look and knew this lettuce was big enough to harvest, so we're going to cut some tomorrow morning and make a salad. :)

Right next door to my tomatoes (which I belatedly realize I didn't photograph at all, because Jack and I missed that part when Evie decided she was hungry and ready for bed!) is this cute little rose bush. It's only 2 feet tall and very old-fashioned. I love the color on its fresh blooms!

I just discovered I'm the proud owner of a black raspberry patch.

It's really not fair because the red ones look so tasty but they're AWFUL. You definitely have to wait for them to fully blacken!

It looks like this crazy, crappy corner of wilderness in the yard (and yes, that's basically what it is) but the raspberry is happy there. I researched today and found out how to cultivate it so it's a little less aggressive but will still give us fruit. I'm definitely looking forward to that! Right now it takes up at least 40 sq feet of garden space.

Even though we have three blueberry bushes, I wasn't expecting to get any fruit because they're planted in the shadiest part of the yard, right under a big tree. They don't look happy there! Well, it turns out we'll get at least a hundred blueberries from one bush! I'm excited to see what it can do after it gets transplanted to a spot where the sun actually shines. :P

And out in the front yard we have a seemingly accidental patch of strawberries (which I also didn't photograph, due to a hungry baby), and the world's tiniest rose bush. It's somewhere between 6 and 8 inches tall and it already has buds! I wouldn't have thought that possible. I'm not sure if it's a dwarf or if it is a seedling from the other roses that are just littering the landscape.

I'll have to do another post about the flowers, I think, if only so I can make a record for my future gardening plans. And I do have big plans... but I also have small children ;) and for now I'm just happy that we'll be eating good food out of the garden that Jack helped me to plant. Hooray! :)

pot luck dinner

We've been participating in many potlucks around here recently. Today we're going to a potluck birthday for one of Jack's friends. Everybody is bringing a picnic basket with a dinner, and then we'll all swap.

We're bringing homemade mac & cheese, wild rice with veggies, and a little cherry crumble for dessert. The downside of this kind of thing is that I generally want to keep and eat what I brought! Do you think I can sneak my basket past the swapping table and keep it for myself? ;)

Har Har

"What heck the that is??" says Jack. Evidence that I don't cuss too badly around him! :)

Corned Beef

This St. Patrick's Day, I used the America's Test Kitchen recipe to make corned beef at home. It essentially consists of rubbing a brisket with some herbs and spices, and a LOT of salt.

Seriously, I think it was a half-cup of salt alone....

Note my lovely assistant, and the monstrous pile of fat I had to trim from the backside of the brisket. The tricksy butcher hid it on the underside! Next time I know to ask him to trim the fat before packaging it up.

I bought this gorgeous piece of brisket and couldn't wait to try out the recipe. After five days of brining in the fridge, it was ready. I boiled it up with some cabbage and carrots. It smelled so good!

We dug in, and -- yuck! Too much salt. WAY too much salt. I had rinsed the meat thoroughly before adding it to the pot, but I guess that wasn't enough. Next time I think I'll cut it down by half, and maybe give the meat a preliminary boil, then swap the water out for fresh stuff before adding any veggies.

Conclusion: Better luck next year!

Going Out

Evie and I were recently invited to a ladies-only tea party for a friend's birthday. I decided to throw on a little makeup... and this was so different that Jack was fascinated.

Watching (and having his own makeup applied -- note the tiger face in the following pics!) was quickly not enough. He had to help! :)