Squeeeee!

I was so excited upon the trip to the mailbox today. My new harvest bible is here!  

I regularly order Ball's Blue Book every few years, just to keep up on the latest techniques, but this little beauty is making my mouth water and my hands itch to get started. I can tell you that I'm not going to be churning out just quarts of tomatoes this year!

Crimson Honey Grapefruit anyone?

Relaxed

Well, I have returned from my surprise vacation.

To make up for the fact that both of our vacations this summer were ruined by the weather and microbial interlopers, my husband surprised me with a weekend away in Pennsylvania. While he was out riding the trails all day, I spent my time reading, knitting and catching up on 'me' time. Clean towels, crisp sheets, great food, and I didn't have to lift a finger to produce any of it!

I also want to give a shout out to the great state of PA and all of her wonderful people! The scenery was gorgeous all of the way across the state. It felt like a scenic by-way instead of a highway. And your roads are so smooth! For someone used to the Swiss cheese that passes for roads in Ohio, traveling through your great state was pure bliss!

The Calm Before the Storm

 
 
 
  

Indisposition

I'm still here!


Things have been extremely surreal around here lately, but now I feel as if I can come out from under my rock.

We went on our family vacation to Myrtle Beach last week and things could have been better. I'm afraid that is wasn't very restful. Peanut refused to sleep anywhere except on top of either my husband or I. We only saw the beach for a total of two hours over the span of five days. And my husband contracted a nasty stomach virus.

Which he then passed on to the rest of us.

Due to Brian's discomfort, we cut our trip short by two days, and I am very thankful for that fact. No sooner did we finish unloading the van, than Peanut began to vomit (or to use her new word for it "yuke") all over the living room floor. And she continued to yuke all night long. So on top of a dozen bags to unpack and my mountains of sandy, wet laundry I now had mountains of smelly, wet laundry.

And then I got sick.

This particular bug was not content to ravage our stomachs and leave us be. It felt the need to party in our intestines also. It was a good thing that no one felt like eating much, because no one had the strength to go to the market for groceries. Things were pretty bleak.

Then, as if my figurative plate wasn't full enough, I was scheduled to host our family's annual ladies' Christmas in July party on the 15th. Which meant that I had to cook and prepare Christmas crafts for 20 people, all while feeling less than well.

In the end, everything worked out and we are getting back to our normal routines around here.

Now, if I could only find out how to get rid of all of this sand that I keep finding all over the house...

Made-up

   This was the sight that greeted me upon being torn from my dreams this morning. My Peanut has definitely been flying her toddler flag lately.

I said a few posts ago that I don't regularly wear make up. But I do actually own some, for the rare occasions that I find it necessary. And what I own is expensive (I have very sensitive and picky skin). I can't even think about the cost of my daughter's clown mask this early in the morning. And the lovely new wall mural in her room... and the hand-painted skirt on her changing table... and the three (white) towels she used to wipe her hands... and the pillow and pillowslip she sat upon (Miss Muffet style) while applying her 'face'... and the 'Picasso-ed vanity table...

Comfy In More Ways Than One

Today I made the trip to our local thrift store. I hadn't been in quite awhile, what with one thing and another, I hadn't made the time. But today found me with a free morning and a willing Daddy to babysit, so off I went! I browsed through the children's clothes (always my first stop), found a cute jumper to put away for Peanut, and then I moseyed on over to the women's section. As I flipped through the double-knit pantsuits and stained turtlenecks, I started to lose hope that this trip would yield any fruit. And then I found it.

The Holy Grail of thrift store finds.

The Favorite Shirt.

It was a button-down-combed-cotton
perfect-shade-of-froggy-green-sleeves-roll-up-just-right dream of a shirt.

And it was half price!

I was in love! I snatched it up, rushed home, threw it in the washer, and I am wearing it right now. It is as comfortable as I knew it would be. And it clashes just right with my favorite pair of hanging around the house pink yoga pants.

I love the thrift store!

But I know not everyone does. I often hear shocked statements of disgust from people, including my own family, about the questionablility of wearing someone else's clothes. "How can you wear something that once belonged to a complete stranger?" "Why would you want to buy old, used, clothes?"

Why indeed?

For me, there are a couple of reasons that I shop thrift stores and garage sales for clothing. First and foremost is the price. I am not especially picky about things that don't matter to me, and clothing is not very high on my list of interest. I've never been a label slave, I don't care if I'm wearing the latest look, and I don't especially feel inclined to pay four times as much for an item just to have the privilege of being a walking billboard offering free publicity for some designer or company.

I do like to look neat and tidy. I do like for my clothes to be comfortable. And I do believe in looking put together. All of these things can be achieved at second-hand clothing stores.

Another reason that I shop at thrift stores is for the reduce/reuse/recycle aspect. America is the #1 trash producing country in the world. We throw away an average of 1609 pounds of garbage per person, per year. That means that in one year, an average family of four produces a little over three tons of garbage! ONE FAMILY=3 TONS! and one third of that amount is packaging from new items.

Every shirt that I buy used, but still usable, is one more that I won't be buying retail. Which is one more that the huge clothing manufacturers will not be selling. Which is one more that they will not have to make. Which is that much energy that was saved and that much cloth that wasn't sent to a landfill. And you may say that my one little shirt does not make a enough difference to matter, but I will say to you that my one shirt, plus your one shirt, plus her one shirt, plus his one shirt, all across the world, would make a difference. And it all starts with my one comfortable shirt.

Now I didn't start this post to rant about the state of our garbage problems here in the U.S. I really did only mean to tell you all about my comfy new shirt. But maybe the next time you are thinking of buying something new, with all of it's packaging and advertising, and waste producing manufacturing processes, perhaps you'll make a sidestop at you local thrift store first.

Who knows? Maybe you'll find your own favorite shirt!

Catching Up

I was reminded by my blogging angel last night that I hadn't given you all any details on my little solitude trip. I'm so glad to have someone to nudge me along when it comes to blogging!
(Thank you, HH!)

In a word it was... wet.

So wet, in fact, that we came home after one night. I literally stood in a field with water dripping from my nose, fighting a losing battle with keeping our things dry, for 10 hours. We had so much rain that I had to empty collecting water out of our tarps and awnings every fifteen minutes or everything would have collapsed. I also managed to keep a fire going through this deluge, so that my hubby and everyone would have someplace to get dry (ha, ha) when they got off the trail, but only by adding wood and stoking it every twenty minutes or so. It was not exactly the most relaxing trip. When DH finally turned up, we both decided that going home would be for the best. (but I honestly think that if he hadn't broken a vital Jeep part, we would have stayed, rain or no, lol). We were lucky to be at a Jeep meeting though; our truck and trailer had to be pulled out of the muddy field by two other Jeeps! It took a week of sitting out in our back yard for all of our gear to dry out enough to put it away. Not a fun trip , but not a boring one either!

Let's hope that Myrtle Beach goes better in a few weeks!

Aren't you all impressed?

Your IQ Is 120

Your Logical Intelligence is Below Average Your Verbal Intelligence is Genius Your Mathematical Intelligence is Exceptional Your General Knowledge is Above Average

A Quick and Dirty IQ Test

Thanks to thicketdweller!

Father's Day

We had a wonderful Father's Day weekend! My husband took us for a mini-break to the lake and we went boating and swimming. Peanut did her fish impersonation. Brian fiddled with his new iPod (his Father's Day gift). And we all just relaxed and enjoyed the sun and the breeze.

Silliness

Oh if you all could have been a fly on my wall this week you would have gotten some really great laughs. I've taken up a new very fun but very silly hobby.

It all started a few weeks ago while attending the graduation party of one of my cousins. All of the 'young people' were milling about and having a good time and I was sitting in the row of lawn chairs with the other matrons, surveying the scene, as befitted my stately married-and-mommy status. After awhile the 'kids' started playing this video game that consisted of standing on a plastic mat covered with arrows and dancing in time to the flashing arrows and music on the screen. It looked like so much fun and I would have loved to give it a try, but I'm sure that the presence of someone over twenty-five (trying to dance to music that would normally give me a headache) in their midst would have been too much force against their coolness factor, and I would have hated to be the reason for the party breaking up. So I sat in the background, watching the action and making jokes with my sister, thinking that maybe I would give it a try if no one else was watching. Didn't happen.

When I got home, I remembered that we had an old Playstation 2 gathering dust and the wheels started turning. I looked up the game, ordered the gear and a week later, it was in my livingroom. And I am having SO MUCH FUN!

I would never be caught dancing like this in front of an audience, but in the privacy of my livingroom I can fumble around all that I want and still enjoy myself. The game (Dance Dance Revolution Extreme 2) isn't all new music either. They have some great dance remixes of songs that were popular when my parents were kids. It also has a workout mode that will count calories burned and set up a customized series of songs for your desired level. The mat is really easy to use (think those old dancing courses where you followed the numbered footprint shapes on the floor, only with flashing arrows and fast moves) and I'm finding more about the whole process to enjoy everyday.

Although, I don't think the designers of the game pictured the users trying to play while a two-year old dances around them like a maypole, pulling them off balance and treading on their toes, but I look at it as an added difficulty bonus, lol!

Frugality at it's Best

I just stumbled across this great new website, Want Not and I am impressed. If you love ideas about saving money but are not interested in crazy stuff like washing out your paper towels and stealing condiments from the local fast food chain, this is the place for you. She has only been up and running for a few days, but everything is so great so far. She even answers questions from readers. Do yourself a favor and have a look!