Thrift Magic

I love to thrift. I love dusty, wrinkly, unwanted items that I can't live without. I fancy that I have the ability to give old treasures new life. To wit:

A Midsummer's Night

A blessed Midsummer to you, Friends!

Litha is the day on which the Sun God is closest to the earth, giving us the longest day of the year. In the Pagan calendar called the Wheel of the Year, Litha lies directly across from Yule, the shortest day on December 21st (in the Northern Hemisphere – here’s wishing a blessed Yule to our friends in the South!)

Litha and Yule are lesser sabbats, but they are celebrated with gusto and much revelry. Today we sing and dance for the Goddess in the fullness of her pregnancy, and feast as the earth bursts with all its riches. The air is as heavy with magic as the Goddess is heavy with her progeny. The veil between the worlds is thin and it is an exceptional time for rites of divination. Fairies frolic about; it is common to leave offerings of fruit and flowers for them. It is considered a blessed time for handfasting, the Pagan ritual of marriage, which has lead to the longstanding tradition of a June wedding.

Midsummer is a time to be joyous in our work and in our leisure. The labor of sowing is finished and the harvest is not yet underway. We are assured of many long days to prepare for the starkness of winter. It is a day of pause, of merriment, and of indulgence. So party hearty, witches and wags! See you on the other side!

A New Home, A New Life, A New Outlook

Our lives are very different since I started Sacred Tasks in 2008. Six years ago, we were full of plans and ambition, searching for our homestead that would provide for us, off-grid, into old age. Since then, The Tall Guy and I have negotiated a number of roadblocks to our original dreams. But that's the thing about dreams - they're flexible. If one can't be realized, another one can easily take its place. 

While we miss our visions of an old farmhouse with acres of garden, and maybe a goat or three, we are learning that there is much we can do in our scaled-down life to lead a healthy, sustainable and fulfilling existence. Come to think of it, our dreams haven't really changed that much. Only their parameters.

Revisiting this blog feels like one of the few continuous threads in our lives. Here we talk about a lot of different topics - from crafts and hardcore homemaking, to thrifting, canning, cooking, small-scale gardening & farming, responsible use of resources, fun with beads and sewing machines, fiber arts, general observations on life, and bacon, and wine. I feel certain there will be much bacon and wine. 

So thanks for stopping by. Welcome, and hope to see you again real soon!

Settled! And possibly back for good...

Wow. Where does the time go? Hard to believe I started this blog in 2008! Life has seriously gotten in the way, but it is entirely possible that we have a handle on things now. Oh, how I've missed you!

Quick update:  We bought our home August 31, 2012. We spent our last rental year in the inner city of Schenectady, NY. It was beyond miserable, and I'm not quite sure how we managed to get through it. I've never been so homesick in my life. But now we're in our sweet little white and green foursquare on a quarter acre in a tiny town on the Hudson River. Back to the mountains and homegrown crunchy hippie land. WE ARE HOME!  Insert big smiles here.

The Tall Guy continues his battle against chronic Lyme disease and related co-infections. He's been on antibiotics almost non-stop, and had a PICC line in 2011/2012. Like I said a hundred weeks ago, I won't go into his illness in great detail here. It has eaten our lives and I want this blog to be a safe place where I don't have to think about it. That said, if you are struggling with vector-borne disease, or want any information, please feel free to message me. I would be more than happy to help you locate resources. And my heart is with you.

I have a grandson! We call him Mander, and he may just be the most perfect child in the history of humanity. Grandmotherhood has completed me in ways that single-motherhood often fell short. Love him this much.

Oh, and one more big piece of news: I quit my day job! Yes I did. I opened my own business. Actually a few different lines of business. I have a jewelry/craft thing that soothes my spirit, a home-inspection gig suits my need to ramble, and a construction-consultancy that actually pays the bills.

We continue to take baby steps on our path to off-grid self sustainability. Gardening was impossible this year, we're working on getting the house together, and it's a challenge with The Tall Guy's health. But we are fortunate to live in an area loaded to the ears with local farms, markets and CSAs. More pickles this year!

So now you're all caught up :)  I have pics of a recent knitting machine rehab that I want to post, since info is scarce for my particular model (Singer LK-100). I'll also put up some pics of my jewelry and crafts. I promise to stop by more often with tutorials, tips and tricks for living simply in a complex world. Blessed be, my friends.

House Hunting, Lyme Disease and the Quest for Homemade Brown Rice Syrup

I think it's safe to say the everyone got through the holidays all right - now if we can just get through the winter! Holy snowballs, enough already! It doesn't matter what part of the country you live in, we're all taking a beating this winter. Hopefully everyone is safe and warm, surrounded by family and friends while we dig out time and again.

On the homefront: The Tall Guy continues his battle against Lyme disease with me firmly by his side. It's a long aggravating tale of which I'm not going to share much here. If you have or suspect you may have Lyme, any of its co-infections, MS, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue or any one of about a thousand illnesses that may be Lyme in disguise - CALDA is our favorite place to start. The California Lyme Disease Association at www.lymedisease.org also has a terrific Facebook page. Check it out, it's really a wealth of information.

The Girlchild got married a week before Christmas. We love her new hubby, AJ. He's funny and slightly twisted, so he's a really good fit with the rest of the family. They're very happy and we're happy for them.

The Boychik is doing well. Talking about returning to school in the fall to start a liberal arts curriculum. His girlfriend, Vee, has been a terrific influence on him, so naturally we love her also. They're both modeling for an art school and bringing in some respectable bucks. Good for them!

We are finally actively searching for a home! We don't know if we will find our dream or our interim yet. Since The Tall Guy is so ill with no end in sight, we may need to adjust our fantasies of small-scale farming. Which is okay. We're happy to support our local CSAs if we can't grow our own. We can still have many of the things we want - off-grid power, shelves full of preserves and a dairy goat. Who of course will need a cashmere goat for a friend! So we'll either start off with some land and an old country house, or buy a place within civilization and rent it out down the road.

I'm working on developing a craft business. It's terribly complicated in the legal sense, and insanely fulfilling in every other way. It's wonderful to have a creative outlet and show it off! I have a business name and website. As soon as I'm established, I will post links.

One of things we've been working on is adjusting The Tall Guy's diet to better control his illness. Sugar is a terrible catalyst for him, but he seems to tolerate alternatives. Agave, stevia, grain syrups, etc. Sigh. Baking with stevia is complicated! Brown rice syrup is a good choice, but expensive to buy and almost impossible to make at home. Not sure where we'll end up, but we will get off the evil sugar train.

So what's up with you?

Confessions of a Lapsed Vegetarian

It's awful. It's disgusting. It's over 1,800 calories and more than ONE HUNDRED grams of fat. It's Grade Z beef from what was most likely a very miserable cow. I know all that.

I still kinda sorta want one:

And I think maybe you kinda sorta want one, too...

All Things Pasta & Dairy

So you may or may not know about our extremely difficult experiment with a gluten-free and dairy-free diet last spring. Some doctor had some bright idea that The Tall Guy's health problems could be alleviated by abstaining from two of our three favorite food groups (the third being chocolate). It was horrible. It was expensive. It was not any fun at all, even though I'm fearless in the kitchen.

We stuck with it for three months. After a lot of discussion and review, The Tall Guy decided he was not seeing enough benefit (actually, none at all) to justify the aggravation and cost. We celebrated the return to regular diet with pizza, mozzarella sticks and Chinese dumplings. That was a fun day. The result of the failed enterprise was a newfound appreciation for things creamy, cheesy and wheat-y. Two of our favorite meals are posted below. These are the ones we missed most during that time, as we mention whenever I serve one of them.

Macaroni & Cheese

This is The Tall Guy's favorite, and ranks pretty high with the Boychik as well. Two secrets to this sauce - Jarlsberg or other mild swiss, and double mustard.

Go to the deli of your favorite market. Ask them for their cheese ends. Whatever they've got, take it. Don't ask, just accept what you're given. HOWEVER - if there is no Jarlsberg, Alpine Lace or the like in your stash, get a quarter pound while you're there.

Cut all the cheese into 1" cubes, or as best you can. Dump them into a pan and add enough milk to not quite cover the cubes. Add a squirt of dijon mustard, but go easy. You can always add more, but you can't take out. A dash of Worcestershire sauce - please spend the extra change and go for the good stuff. Lea & Perrins is the original and I think the best. Next stir in some dry mustard. I can't tell you how much, sorry. I just sprinkle it in till it looks like enough and then taste. No salt needed, there's plenty of that in the cheese and woowoo sauce. Heat slowly, stirring frequently until it's all melted smooth. If you're feeling adventurous, add a drop or two of hot sauce. Why not?

Pour over pasta of your choice, or potatoes or veggies or anything else that looks good in cheese sauce. None of that flour-roux-thickener crap! Cheese is thick, leave it alone! I like to add ground pepper at the table.

Pasta e Fagioli

This is super easy and so good.

One large onion

Mushrooms, if desired

One green or colored pepper, if desired

Garlic, fresh minced or powder

3 large cans tomatoes - diced, sauced, squashed, whatever. Add all juices.

Stock or water/bouillion equal to amount of tomatoes

1 small can tomato paste

1/2 to 1 pound ham, small diced

1-2 cans cannellini beans, rinsed well

1 pound small pasta, traditionally ditalini

Saute veggies together in a stock pot until soft and transparent. Add tomatoes, water, paste, ham and beans to pot and simmer at least 20 minutes. Just before serving, add pasta and cook according to time on package. You may want to add more water if it looks too dry after the pasta has soaked up the water. I've been know to add a handful of spinach or shredded carrots, or various other things that need to be used. It's a very forgiving recipe. Enjoy!

Things I'd love to share with you: Parma Rosa sauce with The Tall Guy's homemade sausage recipe. And raspberry marble pudding cake with chocolate ganache. Yeah, that one's worth coming back for.

The Prodigal Blogger Returns

Is anyone out there? It's been a very long time since I've been here with any degree of regularity. Lots has happened, please allow me to fill you in!

1. The Tall Guy has been diagnosed with chronic Lyme disease.  Who knew it would be with us forever? It's the biggest reason I haven't been around. Three years, tens of thousands of dollars and about a jillion doctor visits to get it figured out, but at least now we know what we're dealing with. Diagnosis and treatment is a nightmare, and it's really just too much to go into right now. But he's feeling better and that's a RELIEF :)

2. The house hunt has begun in earnest. We looked at five properties last weekend, two of them quite promising. The weather was perfect, and even though we ended up doing some almost-off-road trekking in the clown car, we had a wonderful time. Because the market keeps getting softer and softer, we're holding out for something that really speaks to us.

3. I've been transferred to our main office in The Capitol. The job is interesting, I'm saving lots of taxpayer dollars and feel validated and/or appreciated (almost) every day. It's a big change for me. I miss my workboots. I miss working with men. I miss having my own office with a door. But it's a good move nonetheless.

4. The Girl Child is engaged to be married in December. Oy. I'm very pleased for her, but it makes me feel so ooooold. They just bought a house, hooray for them. Love her!

5. The Boychik seems to have gotten his apples together. He's got a nice girl, and a job with a startup electronics recycling company. He's finding his way, growing into the man I know he can be. Love him too!

So...what's new with you?

Snow Day

Below find pics explaining why I called in to work today. Maybe not much for our Syracuse or Colorado readers, but certainly enough to disable the Hudson Valley.

Stay safe out there!

Knead-less Pizza Dough

I've been playing around for a few weeks, trying to create the perfect homemade pizza dough. It had to be quick, easy and tasty. This weekend I finally came up with what I think is the blue-ribbon winner. It's light and airy, crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. And anyone can manage it. Even I, who have a lifelong aversion to working with yeast. This recipe is written for folks who can't cook, so disregard the obvious steps if you're comfortable in the kitchen.

KNEAD-LESS PIZZA DOUGH

Dry Ingredients:
2 cups unbleached white flour
1/2 cup semolina flour (this makes a big difference in the rising)
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
Scant 1/2 tsp salt

Wet Ingredients:
1 cup lukewarm water (it should be the same temperature as your finger)
1 packet (2¼ tsp) yeast
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp honey

Also:
Cornmeal
Nonstick cooking spray
_______________________________________________
Makes two 12" thin pizzas, or one 16" thick crust pizza.

Preheat oven to 425°. Preheat pizza stones or pans in oven.

In one bowl, sift together dry ingredients. In another bowl, mix the yeast with the water. Add honey and oil, stir to combine. Add the dry ingredients, half at a time. Stir until mixed and a ball forms. It will be slightly sticky. Grease the bowl that held the dry ingerdients, transfer the dough there to rest. Cover with a towel and rest in a warm spot for 10-20 minutes (not too warm!).

Refrigerate covered for 4-24 hours to allow the yeast and flavors to develop. Remove from fridge at least an hour before using. Between the warm and cold rests, it will have at least doubled in size.

Lay out wax paper on the counter, enough to work your dough to match the size of your pan. I use two overlapping sheets. Do not oil the wax paper or you'll have slippery problems later. Spritz your hands with cooking spray before working. Divide the dough in half if needed. Smoosh out the dough to slightly smaller than the size of your pan(s). Don't press out all the air, you want it to stay kind of fluffy.

Remove your pans from the oven, spritz with cooking spray and sprinkle generously with cornmeal. Starting at the edge of the pan farthest from your body, lay the edge of the dough on the pan and flip it in upside down into the pan. It's hot, so be careful (duh). Peel off the paper slowly. Pieces of dough may stick to the paper, but that's ok. If big pieces come off, just press them back into the holes. Make adjustments to size and shape if needed.

Prick dough with a fork and bake for 5 minutes. Remove from oven and add your toppings. Bake for about 10-13 minutes more, until center is done and toppings are bubbly. Remove from oven and let sit for 5 minutes before slicing.

The Beauty of Brine

Happy New Year! I was originally planning to talk about our holiday menus today. We had a ton of good stuff to eat, many enjoyable hours were spent in the kitchen and most items surpassed expectations. But they all paled next to The Brined Chicken. Thus the title and focus of today's post will outline the beauty of brine. Veggies be warned and come back again later.

How could something so simple, so low tech, so frugal make so much difference in a piece of meat? With nothing more than a gallon of water and a few ounces of salt, a meal can be transformed from "oh, chicken again" to "don't you dare come between me and that chicken!" There are a jillion web pages that explain the science behind the process that keep lean meats moist and tender. I recommend http://www.cooksillustrated.com/images/document/howto/ND01_ISBriningbasics.pdf, which gives a quick and dirty lesson on the how and why.

But it's enough for me to know that it does work wonders. Brine is to chicken and pork what a crock pot is to beef or lamb. We had a whole chicken ordered special from our friendly neighborhood butcher. It was a big boy because we do love us some leftover chicken salad (with a little dill and carrot, oh my!). We generally roast our chickies in the rotisserie. You know, set it and forget it - we're also suckers for As Seen on TV, remind me to tell you about our Ninja. Anyway, the rotisserie is a wonderful invention and totally worth the hundred bucks or so. It keeps the chicken moist and the skin gets all crispy, just fabulous. But I do have to admit that a brined chicken makes that taste like sawdust. We soaked our boy in a simple mixture of 1 gallon water, 1/2 cup salt, four cloves of garlic and some crushed rosemary. Set the pot in the fridge for a day. The Husband pulled him out and gave him a rinse Christmas Eve morning and patted him dry. When I got home from work, we stuck him in the rotisserie for an hour and three quarters. We usually give some additional searing time after the meat is done to make sure everything crisps nicely, but maybe it was something in the brining that made it unnecessary this time.

I don't usually eat the chicken skin. I love it, but it's completely incompatible with Weight Watchers. However, there was no turning it down. Resistance was futile. And I honestly didn't try very hard. Oh my goodness, bless my buttons, and come all ye faithful, I have never had a chicken like this. It was everything I've always wanted a chicken to be, but never knew it could. Please try it. Really, please get a chicken this week and brine it before cooking. You won't be sorry, I promise you.

We have no leftovers...

Other menu items over the last 10 days included a Chinese buffet, phyllo dumplings, stuffed mushrooms, sundried tomato dip, baked la-ziti and baklava. Fruit and veggie cleanse tomorrow! Best wishes for a happy, healthy and successful New Year!

Happy Everything!

May your week ahead be everything you want it to be; full of good surprises, lots of good food and as many hugs, compliments and kindnesses as you need. I was going to take pics of the jewelry I made for my secretaries this year, since they all turned out so beautifully. But of course it was midnight by the time I finished, so I wrapped them and sent them on their way. Maybe pics of our Christmas Finger Food Feast instead?

I'm not going to reach my goal of 50 lbs lost by New Year's Eve, but I'll be close. 46 lbs as of yesterday. I'm down five sizes and have to figure out something about an interim wardrobe. Just picked up a new book, "Reconstructing Clothes for Dummies". It looks terrific, I'll let you know how it turns out. I've got a few ideas already.

Things were kind of hectic here for a while. The husband has been dealing with some ongoing mysterious health issues. My workplace has been rather tense lately, and the Boychik is going through some post-adolescent angst. So we're looking forward to relaxing over the short holiday weeks, and looking forward to getting back to normal in the New Year. I have lots to share, some new experiments that have gone well, a few that have failed miserably, and news on the home quest.

All coming soon to a blog near you...hopefully this one! Take care and stay safe out there.

A Dragonfly for My Daughter

Those of you who know me personally are aware of my longtime love of tattoos. I got my first in 1986 at age 18 - a birthday/graduation present from my mother (who was very supportive and cool for the time). Since then, I have gotten eight others, including both sides of my neck, the insides of both wrists and the back of my right hand. Not very concerned about showing them to the world, they tell the story of my life. I have a tattoo for an old friend who I loved dearly, one for the breakup of a serious relationship, one for my stillborn son Max, one for The Boychik...but I've spent years looking for inspiration to strike so I could mark The Girlchild. I was tempted a number of times to go searching for something appropriate, but I knew from experience that when the time and image were right, they would make themselves known.

She came to visit recently with her boyfriend and a girl we refer to as my "other daughter". The Other Daughter wanted a tattoo, a dragonfly. Now The Tall Guy and I have a thing about dragonflies. They appear all over our home, and we've considered naming our farm after them. As soon as it was mentioned, I knew that was the right one. And as luck would have it, The Girlchild decided she wanted to get her first tattoo, as well. What a great bonding with my baby, my first child, the one I loved so much that I cried when I learned I was pregnant with her brother. I loved her so, I didn't see how I could possibly have any room in my heart for the new baby (it turned out that I did, of course).

We have a rocky past, The nina and I. We haven't lived together for a very long time. She has her bitterness and I have my regrets. We don't always understand each other. I don't know if she listens when I give her advice. I don't know if I have the right to give her any advice, considering our history. But I still love her with everything in my soul. I hope when she goes to Hawaii to study for her Doctorate, she will look at her tattoo from time to time and remember when we were marked together. I hope she knows how enormously proud I am of her spirit and her drive. And I hope she forgives my mistakes and remembers that, like the dragonfly, we all go through changes before we turn into what we were truly meant to be. Te quiero, Chica.

Saying Goodbye to Summer

It's very sad. Even though fall is my favorite season, we don't feel that we got to experience much of a summer in these parts. We're just not ready for it to be over yet. Garden-wise, this year has been a terrible disappointment. Daily thunderstorms of biblical proportions, very little sun and a regional tomato blight has rendered all our hard work virtually useless. Out of the entire garden we harvested six banana peppers. That's all. Everything else was drowned or devoured by fungus. See this article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/09/opinion/09barber.html

On the positive side (and we know to always look for the positive spin), I didn't have to spend an August week in a 2,000 degree kitchen canning our wonderful annual bounty of tomatoes, sauce, pickles, salsa and chutney.

Sigh.

Some good stuff has happened, as well. Football starts this week. I got a new tattoo. The Girl-Child came to visit for four very loud and busy days. The Tall Guy and I came into a windfall - a business associate had a book sale with a jillion leftovers, which I was then allowed to browse at my leisure. The result? Almost twenty boxes of books, including two complete Time-Life Series. One is the Home Repair & Improvement series of 35 volumes; the other is the Encyclopedia of Gardening with 28 volumes. I picked up books on furniture building, alternative energy for home use, herbs, landscaping, labyrinths, sundials, homesteading and a dozen organic gardening primers. Also a ton of fiction, biography, memoir, sociology and political commentary, spirituality, women's studies, black history, mysteries, games and even a book on CD. It adds up to a winter's worth of reading and research, I'm very excited about it. The only problem (and book addicts can relate) is that there are SO MANY choices, I don't really know where to begin!

So how was your summer?

I Lost Everything in the Crash of '09

Well, not everything, but a lot. You see, I was hijacked. It was an ordinary Saturday. I'm working on a sudoku puzzle, The Tall Guy is playing on the computer. Suddenly he sits straight up, a look of horror on his face, and says, "um.....uh-oh." I knew immediately it was bad.

So a few weeks, a few hundred dollars and a lot of gray hair later, I am the proud owner (and sole user) of a brand new Acer Aspire One D150 mini-laptop. It's adorable and tiny, I recommend it. It comes with a 6-hour battery and the keyboard is managable most of the time. The mouse tracker pad thingy is awful, so I hook up my cordless mouse when I'm home. Wishlist to complete the package:

1. External DVD/CD drive
2. Cordless mini mouse
3. Docking station
4. Wireless router

Onward and upward.

This is just a hit and run today, summer is so busy. What's in season this week:
Squash
Tomatoes
Bell peppers
Cukes
Blueberries
Melons
Peaches
Plums
Early apples
Pears
Onions
Late hardy greens
Baby pumpkins
Herbs of all kinds imaginable

Hope your days are full and happy.

All Around the Mulberry Tree

No bushes here. These babies are full-grown trees, and they mean business. I do believe these trees intend to feed the entire world, or at least their corner of it. Check them out:

See what I mean? They're HUGE. I've never seen so many berries in one place in my life. I don't know if you can see it, but the ground below the trees is covered - literally caked with mulberries (click on any photo to see it original size). So yahoo. Free fruit, right? Um...sure.

My first mulberrying experience was a little overwhelming. First, the trees grow enormously heavy branches that reach from around 10 feet up the trunk to almost brush the ground. You stand underneath them and it's like being in a green, fruit-scented cave it's so thick. Little bugs and teeny tiny spiders. I don't mind, they have to eat, too. The berries grow strangely, right up close to the branch in a V of the leaves. Look here:

And they were insanely ripe, so that I didn't even really have to pick them, I just held the bowl underneath and sort of brushed them with my fingers. They plop right into the bowl. The thing is, they were so ripe, that every time a branch moved - because I moved it with my touch, or a breeze blew, or it just got too darn heavy from all the fruit - berries fell off from above. That was what made it strange, it started raining mulberries in my green fruit-scented cave. Squishing in the fallen stuff on the ground ( I had to scrape my shoes off after, it looked just like preserves), berries in my hair, in my pockets, down my blouse...it was a whole lot of mulberry.

But here's what I brought in after 5-10 minutes:

It's hard to see, but that's a two-quart dish, about 3/4 full. Not bad for a few minutes of weirdness. They have tiny little stems that you don't even have to remove if you're eating out of hand. I couldn't believe how sweet they were. Next year, I'm going to cook & strain them to add to strawberry jam. The sweetness of the mulberries and the tartness of the strawberries should offset each other perfectly. No sugar, no fuss, just a little pectin and we're good to go!

Have I mentioned how much I love summer food?

Here's what's in season now:

Squash of all kinds
Lovely fresh peas (best eaten directly out of the pod while standing in the garden)
Cherries
Blueberries are hanging on
Onions
Raspberries
Broccoli
Garlic is fabulous
Cucumbers
Beans are coming
Carrots and peppers will be here soon

Our garden, like everyone else's in the area, has taken a beating this year. We've had an insane amount of rain. Not gentle summer showers, either, but massive harmful downpours. Our peppers are struggling, and our tomatoes had better learn the backstroke if they want to survive. The farmers are having a tough time of it as well, which means higher prices at the local markets and farmstands. We persevere, but are not very hopeful that we will be able to harvest enough to see us through the winter like we did last year. At least we have the luxury of a hundred grocery stores, but there is nothing like opening a jar of your own tomatoes in February - it's like you've canned a bit of summer!

Have a great one!

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Yes, rain is essential for streams & lakes, fish & animals, beautiful autumn leaves and the tourists all those things bring. But this much rain? I don't think so. Almost 9" to date this month. Enough already. Our container plants like it, but everything in the ground is swimming. On the up side, here's what can be found in our garden markets this week:

Early garlic
Spinach
Snap peas
Baby turnips & greens
Tender early greens
Yellow squash and baby zucchini
Beans
Baby carrots
Green onions
Strawberries are almost gone
Mulberries

More later on mulberries - we have them in our yard and they're so yummy sweet this year. Right now I'm off to enjoy the ten minutes of sunshine we're allotted this weekend. Happy Summer!

The Garden IS IN!

The tiny little baby garden we absolutely positively were NOT going to plant this year is now planted. I'd talk more about it, but I'm tired! Short version: Mountain Fresh tomatoes, banana peppers, mystery beans and mystery onions.

Naptime :)

Birthday musings

Taking stock of the past year, I've come up with the following accomplishments, deficiencies and lessons learned:

ACCOMPLISHMENT
* We downsized our belongings by at least 50%, probably more, when we moved in with the in-laws.
LESSON:
* We cannot live with anyone else. Anyone. Ever.

ACCOMPLISHMENT
* We took the first steps toward our first house, including paying off old debt, researching options and enrolling in the savings & grant program. It is entirely within the realm of possibility that we will become homeowners in 2010.
LESSON
* That thought touches the farthest ends of both terror and exhilaration, and we can handle both with grace.

ACCOMPLISHMENT
* We took a friend's advice and are working up a weighted checklist of what we require in a property (3 points each item), what we want (2 points each) and what would be nice to have (1 point each). This graded scale will help us to measure one home against another when we start the house hunt.
LESSON
* We are shockingly compatible when it comes to what we want from a house, the land and life.

ACCOMPLISHMENT
* I got a big fat promotion in the past year, instead of the small lean promotion that was expected.
LESSON
* I don't work nearly as hard as I thought I would. At least, not every day!

ACCOMPLISHMENT
* We don't fight and we don't argue. However, we have had several heated discussions over the past year. The accomplishment is we have committed to talking through our differences before too much time has passed (usually within an hour). We have been able to bring all our issues to a close, even if it's just an agreement to disagree.
LESSON
* Fussing now and then can be healthy for a relationship. It clears the air, helps us to understand each other better and builds trust and intimacy each time we successfully come out the other side.

DEFICIENCIES TO WORK ON
* I am a bad saver. I am an earner and a spender. I've never had any money to speak of, and now that I have some disposable income, I'm inclined to dispose of it as quickly as possible. I have a book problem and a craft problem. I also love to buy gifts for friends, family and especially The Tall Guy. Big gifts. Expensive gifts. Extravagant, embarrassing, "Oh-you-shouldn't-have" kinds of gifts. I am a BAD saver. Fortunately, The Tall Guy is a great saver, so he controls most of the money for now.

* My patience with the outside world is getting shorter and shorter as time goes by. There are days I feel I hate the world and the world returns the sentiment. It's a lose-lose attitude.

* I am very judgmental. It's a terrible habit and makes people think I think I'm better than they are. Sometimes this is true (I'm ashamed to say) but usually it's my overdeveloped sense of right and wrong.

So there it is. Not a bad list of accomplishments, and certainly not an insurmountable list of stuff to work on. I'll get right to it...after cake!

Going to NYC with my mom for a long weekend. After we return: Weight Watchers, a Craigslist pasta machine and a new website. See you soon!

How old am I??

It's one month before my 41st birthday, and I've been feeling pretty good about it. Everyone tells me I don't look anything near my age, and could easily pass for 10 years younger. Which works out well since The Tall Guy is 10 years younger than I and looks his age. Apparently however, these are my friends and I should keep them close. To wit, the following:

Last night, The Tall Guy was feeling very ill and quite frightened about it. He asked to go the ER. As they were checking him out, the registration person stopped to chat with him for a minute before he directed her to me for information. So I'm sitting in the little "privacy booth" giving name, address, etc, when she drops the bomb. The Big One.

"So you're his mother?"

I think I need to lie down.