Where does the time go?

Hey all,

I sure have missed blogging and will be taking it up again. I have been so busy with the family. All the stuff I do here with the yard and the homekeeping and the frugality are all for my family and they have really needed me and I sure have needed any time off I could get and that meant not blogging for a bit.

Now I have the school year in swing and an entirely new schedule.

Here is a new picture of us, our first family portrait, touched up and everything!

Team Everest - A Himalayan Journey

My husband took the boys for the weekend to visit his hometown. This was the first time in my parental history to have been alone. I mean, come on, who would want to be away from these adorable guys?

Well, it happened and so I needed to do something besides pick up my order from the CSA and buy grass-fed organic milk and beef from the dairy hub sooooo I watched some television, you know the good stuff, two-hour plus inspiring documentaries.

If you need a dose of inspirational style reality television check out Team Everest - A Himalayan Journey. I guess it's true - you can do anything!

Creepy Babydoll and Cardboard

Angry Chicken posted about this creepy babydoll. It reminds me of a doll I played with when visiting my grandmother in Arizona; it gave me nightmares for years!!! I think it so funny what kids will find to play with. Our oldest is enjoying playing with cardboard boxes. Do you recycle for play time???

In the news...Designed to Sell

The Hanford Sentinel wrote up an article on our appearance on Designed to Sell.

Happy Anniversary Husband!

Are you organic-transitional?

Laundry & Children posted a very funny video.

Sustainable Living

There is a family nearby who has been living sustainably for years now. CNN just ran a segment on them. It's great to be able to see inside their live and see how they pull it off.

Click here to play video

I showed this to my husband and he said that he was discussing the way I run our home with one of his co-workers. It came up because she is a vegan, does she eat organic, does she belong to a CSA, etc. The co-worker wanted to know if I worked, yes part-time. Wow, how does she get all that done, etc. My answer is learn to love what you have to do. The family in the video knows no other way and must love what they do. I took on this attitude when I first married and had kids and realized that if this was what my day-to-day would be like I better learn to love it or else risk turning into one grumpy gal.

Today, we had homemade cinnamon-raisin bread for breakfast. We had something fabulous and homemade for lunch, oh, I remember. We had some great southwest chicken with a potato casserole. I made extra for later in the week and some goes in hubby's lunch tomorrow. Hubs took one of the boys to see the new Narnia movie and I canned some pickled beets while my little guy tried to nap. I started some homemade tomato-basil bread (what do I do with all these tomatoes - problem solved). For dinner we had cold teriyaki chicken, cucumber salad and cherry pie for dessert. I still have lunches to pack for preschool tomorrow, bread to pull out and a bit of counters to wipe. Oh, I just remembered I did tons of laundry too. Now this was fun for me today. I took a break for tea, called my folks, talked to my dad about what to do with all the green beans I had. It was a good day. It's only 6:30 now and I am off duty soon. I gave one kid a bath already, forgot about that. If I didn't like all that I needed to do in a day, I would be in a real pickle! I'm sure I can complain another day but now I have a cute 5 year old who wants to cuddle!

ps I don't like to organize clutter. Ick. I need to learn who to love that next.

Happy Father's Day!

DAD

GRANDPA

UMPA

It's My Birthday!!!

WooHoo!! It's my birthday, well yesterday! I'm 38 which has been really great so far. 37 felt a bit stale, hmm. 38 seems like a fresh year.

I'm kinda excited about having received some birthday money. I'm leaning toward buying an electric food processor. I only have a manual food processor. It's great but, you know, it is 2008.

Now my husband and the boys gave me the most amazing gifts.

This was gifty number one from the guys, a garden kneeler. My son A says this will help me "to get close to the thing I'm gardening." He's so right. In addition it will cut down on the comments from people driving by the house such as "Nice butt." I obviously need the kneeling pad, okay. I can admit that.

Now ladies, I bet you're as surprised as I was when I found out that there are garden fashion accessories for the lady gardener. The men folk also gave me this garden tote. It has a zipper compartment in the middle, two open compartments on either side of that and these exterior pockets. Now to make this gift even sweeter, well the one they gave me was PINK! You know this means that hubby won't fill it with plumbing tools! I'm so stoked!! I'm going to call this my gardening purse!

This is called a hori hori. This ladies is a knife for you!!!! Whoa! I never knew I wanted a knife until I received this one! This has a million uses in the garden. It digs holes for bulbs, it cuts away stubborn weeds, it's uses just go on! I admit this was my favorite gift.

Of course there was a celebration, I'm not just into the gifts, really but that was where the pictures came in so I started there to keep you reading. Okay, my oldest son wanted me to have a Power Ranger party and I wanted a garden tea party. Since we couldn't agree we simply winged it. My hubby got off work early and we went to eat at a restaurant. This is a rare occurrence in our home. We went out for Mexican and I even drank a margarita! I made it through the whole thing; I was celebrating! Then we came home for cherry pie. I'm not a cake girl, never have been; I adore fruit pie. Anyway that was my birthday. It was great and I'm thoroughly recharged and ready to tackle my chores this Saturday.

Designed to Sell - June 1st

I hear our episode will air on the 1st!

Here is the link:

http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/shows_hdts/episode/0,1806,HGTV_15857_56861,00.html

Dale Chihuly - Glass Artist

This is just beautiful.


Dale Chihuly's Glass GardenNora Quinlan, researcher, Alvin Sherman Library, NSUThe NSU Glass Garden by Dale Chihuly in the atrium of the Alvin Sherman Library on the Nova Southeastern University campus is a rare opportunity for the public to view and enjoy a beautiful one-of-a-kind glass sculpture for free. Watch as this permanent exhibit is installed and learn a bit about Chihuly's creative process.

Vintage Mom

My A. had his 5th birthday party and requested everyone attending dress up. He was a Power Ranger, his brother Bob the Builder, husband was a racecar driver and I dressed as my mother at the time of my 5th birthday party.

Secret Messages

I received a email post from one of my online groups from a mother of a 10 year old. She says she's been trying to get him to write more and she offered to dictate to him while he typed. He told her about the secret messages he leaves in his writing assignments. He'll type the assignment and then add his secret message in a white font. The secret message won't be visable until he highlights all, exposing the message. Pretty neat I thought. Try highlighing in black which makes the assignement disappear and your secrect message appear.

Year of the Rat Stamps

The United States Post Office offers stamps each Chinese New Year.

http://shop.usps.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10152&storeId=10001&categoryId=18401&productId=35901&langId=-1

This year is the year of the rat! I have purchased a sheet each year for our son R.

Baby Birds

Who doesn't love baby birds! If baby birds are good then baby bald eagle birds are the best. Please take a look see at these little guys. Look early in the day as it gets dark in Florida before it does out here on the west coast. A. and I kept the birds up on the screen for several hours waiting for the adults to come home and feed the fluffy little babies.

http://www.audubonofflorida.org/friendsoftheeagle/cam.html

Victoria Magazine is back!!



http://www.victoriamag.com/