the danner family

Mother's Day Tea 2010

2010-05-07T14:27:00.001-07:00

Every year at the preschool co-op the awesome teachers prepare a Mother's Day Tea for us moms. Its complete with gifts and the kids bringing us food and then they embarrass us with funny facts about ourselves and hilarious pictures of us. Enjoy.

Meals and planning.

2010-03-20T11:33:00.000-07:00

I am surprised to say I am having fun coming up with ways of using my veggies from the baskets each week. Last week we made Eggplant Parmesan (served with asparagus), Potato & Leek soup, and Lasagna with squash and spinich. In fact I have more fruit than veggies left, surprising!

My planned cooking for this week:
Hamburgers with steamed asparagus (I am going to make the rolls i think!)
Sauce or broth with the celery (Almond said so!)
Pasta with Chicken & Asparagus
Asparagus w/ Baked Potato (for lunch)
Salmon/Porkchops (I eat Salmon, Jim eats pork chops lol) with roasted garlic cauliflower
Baked Mac & Cheese with hidden cauliflower
Grilled Steak w/ Roast squash

I am also going to dry some mangos and apples this week. *fingers crossed*

Bountiful Baskets Week 2

2010-03-20T09:05:00.000-07:00

This week worked out even better than last week, mostly because it was closer to my house... I got 15 minutes more sleep! No organic offering this week, so this is the conventional basket. So, on with the good stuff....

In my basket this week:
Strawberries (from California)
Apples (from Washington)
Bananas
Mangos (Mexico)
Kumquats
White Kale - I think? the tortoise is currently sampling it for me ;)
Head of Romaine
1 bunch of Celery
2 bunches of green onions
2 bunches of asparagus (mexico)
orange cauliflower (from california)

Overall I think it was a more "local" basket than the organic was last week and it was cheaper. The lettuce is perfect for the tortoise, she is tearing into the kale like she hasn't eating in weeks LOL. I need to look into freezing the asparagus or something as I am worried we won't use it fast enough this week.

Bountiful Baskets - Week 1

2010-03-13T09:45:00.000-08:00

Thanks to some co-op moms I found a new source for organic veggies - Bountiful Baskets Co-ops. They offer both conventional and organic baskets for pretty low prices, using group purchasing to get a lower price. They claim they try to buy local as much as possible. A bit more info:

Conventional Produce Basket $15 Contribution
50% fruit, 50% vegetables, 100% healthy, delicious & fun

In the conventional basket we focus our buying as follows: High Quality, Low Cost and As Local as Possible... So, how hard do we try? Pretty hard! Most bananas are from Central America or the Carribean and are grown by a couple gargantuan conglomerate growers. We get all of our bananas from small farmers in central Mexico. This saves the co-op between $4 and $7 a box, keeps money with small farmers, and helps keep the carbon footprint small.

Organic Produce Basket $25 Contribution
50% fruit, 50% vegetables, 100% ORGANIC, healthy, delicious & fun

In the organic basket we focus our buying as follows: 100% Certified Organic Produce, High Quality, Low Cost and As Local as Possible! Much of the produce in the winter is Arizona local and regional to the rest of the co-op. We enjoy working with several local farmers. We always like it when our produce was in the ground just a couple days before distribution. You produce doesn't sit on store shelves for days before you get it!

So today was the first week we bought in and I went with the organic basket.

Our basket included:
~2 packages of romaine from Earthbound Farms
~1 Pineapple (Mexico)
~2 large Tomatoes from Earthbound Farms (Mexico)
~1 large leek
~1 large Eggplant (from Natura, Mexico)
~1 bunch of asparagus (Brock Farms, Mexico)
~1 bundle of dill from EarthBound Farms
~3 lbs of apples from Washington
~Oranges from Natura (Mexico)
~Potatos
~6 Kiwis from California
~2 medium sized squashes of some kind (Natura, Mexico)

Overall I definitely got over $25 worth of organic produce, my only concern is how much of it is coming from Mexico. I don't know if it is because we are kind of inbetween growing seasons? It is definitely from popular organic brands tho... but I would like it better if the stuff was more local. I think next week I am going to try the conventional basket and compare where that stuff is coming from. I did take a pic of the conventional and it looked like quite a bit more greens but less packaged. I am also going to try the tortilla's next week as the ingredient list looks pretty decent.

We have a cow in our freezer.

2010-03-12T00:18:00.000-08:00

Well, only 1/12th of a cow. A very awesome friend from the co-op organized a group buy for grass-fed beef from a farm in Utah and we jumped at the chance to get in on it. Only $160 for a 1/12th of a cow and you get all this:

In our box was 14 packages of ground beef, 3 packages of beef patties, 3 packages of steak, 1 package of beef kabobs, and 3 good sized roasts. From the looks it works out to a better deal than I thought it would be. Now if we could only find local chicken/pork suppliers.

New Blog Layout

2010-02-23T12:00:00.001-08:00

gardening post coming soon....

Christmas Eve Pajamas

2009-12-24T20:51:00.001-08:00

Our family tradition at Christmas time is that the girls get to open one gift on Christmas Eve, usually it is matching Christmas pajamas. I try to make them every year, but sometimes I end up making a last minute run to Old Navy.

I was determined not to run to Old Navy this year and I found this cute cats with santa hat flannel, so I stayed up til 5 am last night finishing these pajamas. Each girl has her own nightgown along with matching baby doll nightgown.

I don't know when the girls stopped knowing how to smile normally! More pictures here.

Kyla's Christmas List

2009-12-15T11:24:00.000-08:00

Exactly as given to me, spelling and all.

1. A giant toy stuffed lepord.

2. a recorder that works really well

3. a pogostick

4. the best christmas ever

5. some really warm pajamas made by my sweet sweet mommy

6. three new Didj games

7. a toy stuffed Dog. (the same size as my other toy dogs)

8. a floor puzzle

9. a webkinz dragon

10. a pack of candy canes

11. any other stuff that my mommy and daddy got me

12. a pokemon ex-pack

Interesting.

Willow gets her singing debut.

2009-12-13T11:12:00.000-08:00

Tuesday, on my birthday, Willow had her first Kidshine performance. The theme was happiness. Setlist as follows:

National Anthem

Come on Get Happy

Put on a Happy Face

Happy Working Song

Don't Worry Be Happy.

Happy Trails

Willow had her solo in Don't Worry, Be Happy. Videos clips below! They were all so cute and had so much fun!

National Anthem

Come on Get Happy

Put on a Happy Face

Don't Worry Be Happy

Willow gets a speaking part.

Willow's Birthday Party

2009-11-29T21:35:00.001-08:00

We celebrated Willow's 5th birthday on Friday with a cake and presents, but her birthday party wasn't until today. After much nailbiting on my part, 11 kids with their parents showed up today at 2:30pm. Kids played with play dough, floam, wiki sticks and more. They climbed trees and swung from branches.... I hope all had a good time.

I managed to grab a few snap shots and created this nifty slideshow with iPhoto. oh how I adore my macbook and it's super cool software.

Enjoy and thank you to all of our friends for making this day special for Willow.

The baby turns 5....

2009-11-27T14:00:00.000-08:00

Today, the day after thanksgiving, Willow turns 5. I still remember giving birth to her - at home sometime between 1 and 3 am on the day after thanksgiving in 2004. I am a horrible example for moms, I can NEVER remember birth times. Hard to believe that 5 years have gone by. She is a pretty cool 5 year old. Jim and I are happy to be celebrating the end of the baby years of our lives and looking forward to the cool kid/preteen/teen years.... we hope!

This morning, Jim had to go to work so Kyla and I took Willow out for breakfast. Good times were had by all, especially since I allowed them to sit at the counter instead of a table.

From Willow's Birthday Breakfast

Pumpkin Spice Waffles

2009-11-25T17:40:00.000-08:00

If you start these and realize you are out of pumpkin (like me) you can substitute applesauce and they are just as yummy!

Ingredients:

* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 2 tablespoons brown sugar
* 2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon cinnamon
* 2 eggs
* 1 1/2 cups milk
* 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
* 2 tablespoons melted butter
* 1 teaspoon vanilla

1. Heat waffle maker. In a large bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Stir to combine completely with a whisk.

2. Separate eggs. Place egg whites in a medium mixing bowl or in the bowl of a stand mixer, set aside.

3. In a medium mixing bowl, combine egg yolks, milk, canned pumpkin, melted butter and vanilla. Stir with a whisk until mixture is smooth. Pour pumpkin mixture into dry ingredients and stir with a spoon just until ingredients are combined. Mixture will be thick and lumpy; do not overmix.

4. Beat egg whites with a stand mixer or an electric hand mixer until medium peaks form. Fold egg whites gently into batter.

5. Spray the cooking surface of a hot waffle maker with cooking spray. Cook waffles according to manufacturer's directions. Serve immediately with butter and maple syrup or the toppings of your choice.

You must watch this movie....

2009-11-11T19:41:00.000-08:00

I made Jim watch this and we are completely overhauling what we eat. I am planning the garden again, we signed back up with Winder Farms. It is going to take some serious planning to make natural/organic fit in the budget, but we are going to try!

A few pics from hiking at Mt Charleston

2009-10-05T23:12:00.001-07:00

Sent from Jim's Windows Mobile® phone.

First Day of 3rd Grade

2009-10-04T21:58:00.000-07:00

I expected to have to do some poking and prodding to get Kyla up and ready for school this morning, but she surprised all of us. Jim got her out of bed without an issue... she got dressed right away. She even ate breakfast, brushed teeth and hair without a single argument. I have no delusions that this will last, but it was nice for today.

She seems excited to be back in school and it looks like she may have gotten lucky and gotten a super cool teacher (I did see some purple streaks in her hair). We are still waiting on official progress of her 504 plan tho. Willow seems to be missing Kyla today. I think we will make some cupcakes and a welcome home sign for her.

First Day of School 2009

Super cool blogging software

2009-08-13T10:00:00.002-07:00

If you have a mac and a blog or even just like to journal, I would highly suggest taking a look at this very cool software I stumbled upon the other day. Mariner Journal allows you to write journals and blogs on your computer and with the push of a butting it will update and upload to your blog. It even downloaded all my previous blog posts. I haven’t fully tested it but so far I like. Maybe I will update the blog more often now? ;)

Sometimes my husband is a genius...

2009-06-23T12:23:00.002-07:00

I don't know if it is only my kids who have this problem...but in the off chance that it isn't I am going to share an idea the hubby had the other day. The girls go through liquid soap and shampoo like crazy. It doesn't seem to matter what I buy or how small or large the bottle is, I stick in the shower and it seems its empty after the next bath/shower. They apparently take a more is better attitude when it comes to soap. I am not one to complain about this... they can be sticky and stinky and more soap can't hurt ;) BUT I am so over constantly being out of soap and shampoo! So the other day I am whining (yes, I can admit I was indeed whining) to Jim about this and he simply says... why don't you just buy those little empty travel bottles and fill them up, then keep the large bottles of soap in the closet? Simply genius if you ask me. In fact it is such a good idea I don't know why I had not already thought of it ;) So off to target I went and found these cute little travel squeeze bottles for $0.99 cents. Filled em up and labeled with with a sharpie. Knowing my girls the bottle will still be empty after the shower/bath but at least I can fill it back up without a trip to the store! Congrats Jim, gold star for you this week!

Garden Harvest

2009-06-20T15:10:00.002-07:00

We harvested some veggies from the garden today! I want to say this is our first real harvest, but we did pull a tomato and a green pepper from the garden about a month ago. This is the first time we have been successful with carrots tho! Our first attempt at squash as well. I am assuming it was time to pick them because they are pretty bright colored and bumpy.... they looked about right.

We have a ton more squash on the plant waiting to ripen up and a few more carrots that are almost there too. We chose the mini carrots hoping they would work better than full size ones and it seems to be true! The girls can't wait to eat them!

I need to get out there and take some new pics, things are going wild!

"my precious" gets a face lift...

2009-05-30T19:36:00.002-07:00

Ever since my kindle screen broke and I got a replacement "my precious" has been naked. Just plain ole boring white because I really was not in love with any of the skins from Decal Girl and the skins from 3acp.com leave a residue. I finally decided to splurge and ordered myself a custom skin from My Tego. The bad news is that they are in canada so I was expecting a bit of a wait for it. The good news is the wait was only about 2 weeks total, not bad for a fully designed custom skin and shipping from that cold country up north.

So, here she is (and no she does not have an official name yet...) with the Oberon "Roof of Heaven" cover and a custom Monet's Water Lillies skin.

From Kindle

Garden Update

2009-05-26T16:37:00.002-07:00

Things have been slowly growing in the garden. Most things are doing well, but I need to find some more veggies that we like because I have some unused space. I will have to plan better next time.

For now, the lettuce seems to be doing ok. My onion bulbs have not sprouted at all. The carrots are growing still. I just planted beans and they sprouted up quickly! My green pepper is doing far better than the red and the yellow. It has a full size pepper ready to harvest already. The crookneck squash is thriving. I can't wait to see it vining along the rocks. Vine plants are really turning out to be my favorite things to grow!

My basil and parsley are doing well... I have oregano sprouted. I still need to find some cilantro to plant tho. Something has eaten the marigolds I planted in front of the tomato plants... hopefully whatever it was, they are stuffed and will leave the tomato plants alone.

Kyla has been planting sunflower seeds like crazy so we have quite a few sprouting upward. This year I planted both a cucumber bush and a cumber vine... so far only the bush has sprouted and seems to be doing well. My honeydew is just now starting to grow a bit now that its warmer.

All very exciting, more pics below!

New Moon.. yum.

2009-05-17T00:33:00.002-07:00

I have no hope the movie will be anything but cheesy, but all I can say about these posters is YUM. Even Jacob looks hot and I totally feel dirty saying that considering I see him and still think of sharkboy.

Many hours and a destroyed dining room later...

2009-05-12T00:54:00.002-07:00

I finished my Kindle pouch I have been wanting to make. I am underwhelmed. To begin with I splurged on the fabric and now that it is finished I am just not in love with it. Second, I screwed up .... it should have a shoulder strap and I just couldn't make it look nice. Third.... me and fusible fleece are not friends and I should stop messing around with it. I can deal with it in diaper bags and messenger bags, but in smaller things I end up with lumpy unflattering almost symmetrical pouches.

All in all, this will work fine for around the house but it is not what I hoped to do and I will probably by myself one from Borsa Bella if I can find a fabric I like.

I am saving the cleanup of the dining room for tomorrow....

Daddy's Day in the Classroom!

2009-04-23T12:28:00.002-07:00

Jim and I worked in Willow's classroom at the preschool co-op together yesterday. I was hoping for some really messy stuff like gloop or slime or shaving cream painting, but Mrs. Johnson just gave us car painting and scarf dancing. Still entertaining, just not as much work for him as I was hoping for ;) A good time was had by all tho Willow was not too fond of sharing her dad with the rest of the class and I think he was exhausted afterward. I think that next year he is going to have to commit to working with me once a month....

Gardening - 2009

2009-04-18T11:13:00.001-07:00

I have been a serious slacker in the gardening department lately.... but I am working on getting back on the ball! We are going to use it as part of Kyla's schooling so I guess I have no choice ;) Now if only I can convince her not to pick all the baby plants before they are ready! She was most excited to find a couple of mushrooms growing up out of the garden soil when we started planted.

We have our first baby green pepper! I planted 3 peppers, 1 green - 1 red - 1 yellow. We also planted some herbs (parsley, chives, oregano, basil, etc). Some of the herbs this year are from seeds so we will see how well they do.... I haven't had a ton of luck with planting from seed!

We have also planted some onions, carrots, honeydew melon, tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce, squash, and sunflowers. Still on the list to come are beans, strawberries, maybe pumpkin, and some more herbs. I have a ton more room now that Jim made me a second box (with more sunlight exposure) and I find myself unsure what I should put in it! More pics of the garden below!

A gift for me....

2009-04-01T15:12:00.001-07:00

Not like I need anymore gifts for myself, especially after splurging on the Oberon Roof of Heaven cover for my Kindle, but I ordered myself something I have wanted for a while and always put it off. A charm necklace with the girls names and birthstones. I even added a cute little heart for Jim's name.... just call me a mushy romantic ;) The seller was great and it arrived quickly.... so if you are in the market make sure to check out Sweet Peas Jewelry over on Etsy.com.

3-3-09 ~ French Toast

2009-03-03T19:28:00.001-08:00

Yum! Challah bread made it perfect!

Super Giant Challah!

2009-03-03T10:41:00.001-08:00

Every time I attempt to make french toast it is a disaster, but then I read online that Challah bread makes the best french toast. I figured I would give making Challah a shot and then hopefully my french toast would be yummy! Well the results are in and the Challah is awesome. I am considering keeping the plain recipe for just regular sandwich bread its so good. I did let it rise a bit too long so I have SUPER GIANT GHALLAH but its still good. The second loaf I kneaded in raisins and sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar and its delicious.... I don't think it will last long in this house!

The plain loaf is braided and stuck in a loaf pan but I cooked the raisin loaf just on a sheet pan.

3-02-09 ~ Breaded Pork Chops

2009-03-02T20:24:00.001-08:00

Even tho I felt like slacking off and making sandwiches and soup, I resisted the urge and made Jim's favorite dinner... pork chops. I usually skip the pork and bake myself a salmon fillet instead but I had an abundance of pork chops. It was a new breading recipe and I really liked it! It had a nice crunchy texture to it and even the kids enjoyed all of their dinner, especially when I taught them how to dip the pork chop in applesauce ;)

Breaded Pork Chops
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1-2 cups panko breadcrumbs
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
6 -8 thin cut pork chops

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2. In a shallow bowl or pie plate, whisk eggs. Combine garlic powder and onion powder with breadcrumbs in a separate plate. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Dip pork chops into the egg, then press in the cracker crumbs to coat. Fry in the hot oil for 2 to 3 minutes per side, just until golden brown. Remove to a baking sheet.
3. Bake for 30- 45 minutes in the preheated oven, turning once. Serve immediately.

A kindle dilemna...

2009-02-27T15:37:00.001-08:00

For our anniversary in April Jim is going to get me the most awesome purple leather cover for my Kindle from Oberon Designs. To go with this cover I have decided that I need a new skin for the kindle and I am having a hard time deciding which. Too many options.... *sigh*

So here is my "Roof of Heaven" cover in purple and the skin options to go along with it:

My Kitchen Re-organization and Decluttering

2009-02-26T17:57:00.001-08:00

Thanks to Almond's influence I have been on a decluttering and organizing spree. I trimmed down my 3 crockpots to just 1 and did away with some other kitchen appliances that I never pulled out (including my food saver!). Getting rid of some stuff left more room in my pantry so I was better able to organize my actual kitchen area. This is what I have gotten done so far.... I still need to hit the actual pantries themselves, but this is a start! Ignore the fact that we didn't paint the inside of the cabinets when we painted the doors.... we will get there but I think I am going to change the color of the cabinets and no sense in painting it twice ;)

You can click on the slideshow to see bigger pics...

Slow Cooker Chili

2009-02-25T18:23:00.001-08:00

Previously when we have had chili for dinner getting the girls to eat it has been like pulling teeth...so it hasn't been something we make a lot of. However, tonight I made the best chili ever (unfortunately I can't say the same for my corn muffins) AND got Kyla to eat it by putting it on top of a potato. I don't know why that changes things for her, but it did and she ate all of it - beans included. It was even a bit spicier than I typically like it and she didn't seem to mind. Willow is another thing, but at least she can usually be made happy with a baked potato and some deli meat. See the totally awesome recipe below ;)

My broken blog....

2009-02-24T20:00:00.001-08:00

I somehow managed to break the admin section of the blog and in fixing it lost some posts. I may try to add them back in tho.... we will see! For now its a new layout I am playing around with :) I am not sure if its a keeper yet, but maybe!

White Cheesy Ham & Macaroni

2009-01-27T20:25:00.001-08:00

I was late getting dinner together tonight and was really tempted to just make pancakes, but I stuck to my plan and made an old favorite. This is one of my favorite things my mom used to make for us as kids. Unfortunately my mom always did it by "feel" and I am just not that capable so I came up with my own method :) Recipe Below...

Obama doing 'Single Ladies'

2009-01-24T14:03:00.001-08:00

This video is just too funny to not post

Dinner...Night 3

2009-01-16T15:41:00.001-08:00

I meant to post last night about dinner but got sucked into a new book. Shocking, I know. I think I am going to have to find a "Kindle-holic" shirt for the auction this year....

Anyway, dinner last night was Baked Pasta. I would usually make this with chedder cheese because I like being different, but I didn't feel like shredding it. Oh and if you are curious why my salad dressing has a 1 on it, check out Meck Mom for a fabulous fridge organizing idea.

Book Links

2009-01-15T14:51:00.001-08:00

I managed to stumble upon an entire forum for Kindle freaks like myself: http://www.kindleboards.com/. Within that forum I found a couple of handy links that can help you decide what you would like to read next. I always figured there had to be a website out there that you could put in a favorite author and/or book and come back with suggestions...well here you go:

http://www.whatshouldireadnext.com/search
http://www.gnooks.com/
http://www.literature-map.com/ "map" your favorite author! See who else is close.
http://www.allreaders.com/ - Search for books by plot.

Additionally, free ebook sites....
http://feedbooks.com/
http://freekindlebooks.org/
http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page
http://manybooks.net/
http://www.baen.com/library/ (Science fiction)
http://www.kindleclassics.org/

Woo! Happy Reading :)

Dinner... Night 2

2009-01-15T12:31:00.001-08:00

Last night no one was really in the mood to make dinner so we had "breakfast for dinner". The girls had mini chocolate chip pancakes with fruit and sausage. We had blueberry pancakes. The girls like to say that we have the best pancakes ever and I might agree with them. I don't have any big secret to them tho.... I simply use Fresh & Easy Buttermilk Pancake Mix and make it as prepared EXCEPT I replace the oil it calls for with applesauce and add a touch of cinnamon and sometimes vanilla.

Snow in the Desert (December 2008)

2009-01-13T22:47:00.001-08:00

It snowed like crazy here in Northwest Las Vegas yesterday. Our house isn't far enough west to get a ton of snow, but we had a light dusting of it. We picked Kyla up from school 15 minutes early and drove off towards the western part of the city and found snow galore! At one point it was coming down like it was cotton balls.... I haven't seen snow like that since living in Vermont.

Kyla was thrilled, Willow was mostly just cold. But the girls got to make their first Vegas snowman and snow angels and a fun time was had by all.

From 2008 Pictures

More pictures in the Picasa photo album.

I can't help but feel proud...

2008-11-15T17:19:00.001-08:00

When I see the photos and emails that Andrew Sullivan has posted on his blog today to document the protests and rallies against discrimination. It gives me hope that someday soon all of us will have the same rights and liberties, no matter what color our skin or who we love.

As I read the emails posted at Sullivan's blog I can't help but wonder how much of the success of today's protests can be attributed to the movement started by Obama. His win may just have given people hope that as a group, when we work together, we can get things changed. No one thought he could or would win, but he built a movement from the bottom up that was too big to stop. Maybe the people really do have more power than the politicians and the elected if we make our voices heard. The internet certainly makes it more possible than ever before.

I have always been a skeptic, always been a cynic.... until this year. Its refreshing to be hopeful and happy about the future for a change.

My new love....

2008-11-09T17:32:00.001-08:00

I admit, sometimes I am a total sheeple. I saw the Kindle on Oprah and fell in love. I begged Jim for it for my birthday/christmas this year. He eventually agreed and I ordered it (had to do it early to get the $50 off from Oprah). I think it helped that I had already agreed to sell a couple of sewing machines and most of my fabric ;)

Anyway, the Kindle arrived on Tuesday and I am happy to say that I carry it just about everywhere with me. Yes, it was expensive but it is also very convenient and there are tons of ways to find free or inexpensive books to read on it. Additionally you can't beat new releases and best sellers for only $9.99 for those rare times when the library has 1 copy and 20 holds.

Amazon charges a subscription fee for RSS/blog feeds, but you can create RSS feeds of your favorite blogs and newspapers for free from Feedbooks. You can also covert PDF files to kindle format with some simple easy to use software! This will be great for business/board meetings at the co-op - I plan to dump the agenda to the Kindle and read it from there. It has a nifty notation features so I can take notes and not lose them in the mess that is also known as my car.

The only thing I am not in love with is the cover it comes with, but I am brainstorming a replacement for that as we speak.

Speaking of reading..... if you do a lot of it you should make sure you head over to Goodreads. Its a lot of fun keeping track of books you have read and I get a lot of great ideas from looking at everyone else's booklists.

Change is coming....

2008-11-04T22:47:00.001-08:00

I would like to post something profound, but I really have no words. I can't remember a time when people were this excited and celebratory about an election. The photos of people celebrating in the streets outside the Whitehouse make me smile. I have to admit I even got a little choked up as Obama spoke. Yes we can :)

Changes.

2008-11-04T11:01:00.001-08:00

Its been a while since I posted. Things have been busy and I just haven't really felt like I had much to type about. I fell behind on gardening and didn't get anything planted for the fall. Oh well, it will give me time to plan things out and rearrange some stuff for spring.

Some may notice that my webstore is gone. I haven't sewn in probably a year (other than some quick mending) and the thought of dragging myself to the cutting table was not a pleasant one. I have sewn and sold clothing/diapers/bags/etc for 8 years... so it has been odd thinking of giving that all up. Ultimately I realized that it just didn't bring me joy anymore, instead I felt obligated and it was more of a burden. So, I closed up the webshop last night. I am about to start selling most of my fabric and a couple of my machines. I will keep my sewing machine and will probably even throw a few things for sale up on the WAHM blogs on occassion, but for now I think I am done sewing and selling.

The reality is that the more I think about re-enrolling in college, the more I realize that when both my girls are in school.... I want a real job that doesn't include being chained to my sewing machine. I simply won't have time to do it all. So I am saying goodbye to girlwomangoddess.com the webstore and saying hello to a degree in some currently undecided computer tech discipline.

Thank you to everyone who has purchased my pieces over the years, you have been greatly appreciated!

Signs of Hope and Change

2008-09-05T17:19:00.001-07:00

Know hope.

First Melon Harvest

2008-08-21T00:31:00.001-07:00

I harvested our first successful melon from the backyard this week. I probably let it get a bit too ripe, but the kids have declared it delicious! Surprisingly I have another one that looks like it will be bigger than this one! The melons have been really fun to grow and we will definitely be doing it again next year.

Jim also brought home a cantaloupe that a customer gave him as a tip. I guess they got to talking about melons and this customer had a backyard full of melon vines.

I am behind on fall planting - I was hoping to have stuff in the ground already but I still need to get soil for the new boxes and make a plan. Hopefully I will get that done this weekend!

It is a playdough type of day...

2008-08-07T15:56:00.001-07:00

I have been working really hard to get the girls to bed at reasonable times and into a routine before school starts up again. So far its been going well, with both girls asleep before 10pm, but that also means that both of them are up at 7:30/8am every morning. That will work out great for school, but its hard for me to adjust since I am such a night owl.

Because of the early wake up times, by the time it gets to be noon, everyone is a bit crazy and bored. The "witching hour" used to be about 4 on our old schedule and we could survive til Jim got home, but now that its noon I am having to come up with lots of afternoon activities to distract them. One of our favorites.... playdough!

Now, playing with the dough makes them happy, but making the dough from scratch makes them even happier. They love to help measure out the stuff, pick out the coloring, and watch the mixer go around. We tried a lot of dough recipes before we found one that is 1. easy and 2. a great consistency. Here is ours, made in the stand mixer with the dough hook:

Non-stick Playdough Recipe
1 cup flour
1 cup water
1/2 cup of salt
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 Tablespoon of vegetable oil
1 pkg kool aid (or you could use drops of food coloring to get the colour you want)

1. Boil the water
2. Add flour, salt, kool aid, and cream of tarter to mixing bowl. Measure out 1 cup of boiling water, add vegetable oil to water. Dump water/oil mixture into flour mixture.
3. Turn mixer to medium speed (remember to use the dough hook) and let it mix for a minute. You may need to use a spatula to scrape the sides of the bowl and get up any stuck flour to the bottom. Turn back on low again until you get dough that is forming a ball and completely mixed.
4. Shape into a ball and set aside to cool for a few minutes before you transfer to an air tight storage container.

If you don't have a stand mixer of some kind you can do this on the stove. Simply mix it altogether in a large pot & stir constantly over low heat until thick and it looks like a ball of playdough, It just takes a bit longer and more arm strength ;)

A bread baking deal.

2008-08-07T09:36:00.001-07:00

I have to start this by admitting I have a thing for kitchen gadgets. Most people who know me find this interesting, or maybe odd, because I really don't enjoy cooking or being in the kitchen. But for whatever reason, I love neat kitchen things! I do try to hold back a bit because I want to live simply, its just a struggle sometimes ;) Anyway I was walking around Bed Bath & Beyond a few days looking for a pineapple slicer. We all love sliced pineapple and I have been buying it already sliced and cut at costco, but its about $7.99 and I was curious as to whether having a slicer of my own would be cheaper because then we could buy the whole pineapples when they are on sale for $2.50/$3 each.

However as I was walking around an open box bread machine caught my eye. I have a bread machine, I got it from goodwill for $10 a few months ago. I love it for making dough, but I don't cook in it because it makes funny shaped, tough crusted loaves. It was perfect for mixing/kneading dough and then doing one rise. Then I would take the dough out, shape it and let it do the 2nd rise in the pan and then bake in the oven. Yet, staring back at me at Bed Bath & Beyond was a $200 Zojirushi X20 Bread Machine for only $49.99 on clearance because the box was opened. I stood in disbelief for a bit because this was the same machine I had almost bought months ago and then decided I couldn't spend $200 on it no matter how good the reviews were. Luckily I also happened to have a 20% off one item coupon in my purse (I have a collection of these since BB&B excepts expired ones) so I walked out of the store with that $200 bread machine for $42 after taxes.

Now I can make horizontal, unfunny shaped, loaves without using my oven! Its been so hot lately that we were buying bread, but since purchasing the new machine we have made 3 loaves. Yeah the first 2 were "test" loaves and not really very good, but now I have a recipe that works and my house doesn't heat up to bake it. On top of that I am totally trying to think of a good reason to use the cake function on it. It also makes jam, too bad we don't have a pick your own berry place somewhere around here!

It's almost time for fall planting...

2008-07-29T13:20:00.001-07:00

I learned from the container gardening workshop at the Springs Preserve that the best time to start planting for the fall is right around August 15th. That day is quickly creeping up on us and I have big plans this fall!

So to start getting ready I pulled up my tomatoes and peppers - they were dying a slow death anyway. I also pulled up the corn because the soft soil recommended in Square Foot Gardening just isn't right for corn. The stalks just fell over sideways. Then I constructed a few more trellises - goodness knows the honeydew melon needs it. IT has taken over the back section of the planting box... now I know to plant smaller veggies in front of it. Planting the eggplant right next to the melon was not the best choice.

Anyway, here are updated pics of the new trellises. I love how easy it is to make these... and cheap! They may not be the prettiest things int he world, but they work well. They are made with just regular white PVC pipe and nylon netting. IF you buy the 10 foot long pieces of PVC pipe from the hardware store you can then cut them in half. You need three 5 foot pieces and 2 PVC elbow pieces for each trellis if you are making a "single". If you want to make the double you need five 5 foot pieces, 2 elbow pieces, and 1 PVC "T" piece. So you can make 1 double and 1 single out of 4 of the 10foot long pipes, which works out to about $8-10 plus another $4 for the nylon netting.

Jim had the great idea to angle the add on I had to make for the melon outward. It was really a necessity because of the hard ground next to the wall and it will also allow me to put a few potted herbs back there and offer them a bit of shading by means of the trellis!

At the container gardening class I also learned of a neat resource -the Cooperative Extension of the University of Nevada. They have a ton of really helpful information and flyers related to gardening and other nature issues on their website. One of which is this Becoming a Desert Gardener Flyer which is packed with great informating including a chart of what to plant when! Next weekend I am going to build another box on the side of the house for smaller, non vining type of plants (lettuce, carrots, etc).

29.3 mpg

2008-07-29T01:26:00.001-07:00

Just a really quick update in regards to the new car, the Honda Fit. Our 3rd tank fill up and I am now up to 29.3 mpg. The last one I forgot to blog but it was about 28mpg.... so it has been going up by about 1mpg a tank as I drive it more and break it in. I am pretty thrilled to be getting 29.3 mpg even with the A/C on about 99% of the time. I didn't even do a lot of coasting on this tank. I can't wait til Fall and to see what kind of mpg I can get without the A/C - gosh that sounded dorky!

I have a bunch more to post about the new puppy and some gardening updates, but it will have to wait til tomorrow. I should be sleeping!

Melons, Eggplant, Peppers, oh my!

2008-07-22T17:11:00.001-07:00

I figured it was time for a garden update! Some things are doing well, others not so much. First we have the squash, it seems to be doing OK. No babies yet, but looks healthy enough. The watermelon is doing ehhh... parts of it seem ok, others seem a bit dry. I need to get it climbing up a trellis and just haven't had time yet.

Here you can see the wonder that is my honeydew melon. It is climbine and trailing all over the place. The tomatos in the back corner have become a support system for the melon. There are lots of little bulbs on it, but 3 that are most promising.

The green peppers are so-so, it is just too hot and they are being drowned out by the melon and eggplant. I know better next time! I do have a nice sized yellow one that I need to pick. Also a nice sized eggplant that is ready to harvest I believe.

Finally we have some green beans that are doing great! I thought they would climb up, but they are really just bushy and I need to find a better place to plant them next time. You learn so much by just planting things and seeing what happens. It turns out the corn is just not doing well, the plants are doing fine but the soil is too loose to hold the stalks up. Carrots and lettuce are growing tho.

Imeem - make your web browsing musical!

2008-07-19T17:48:00.001-07:00

I was messing around with a few design issues on the blog and decided that I needed an embeded music player. (over there ---->) There didn't seem to be a lot of options, but instead I found Imeem. Pretty nifty if you ask me.... you can create playlists that you can keep open while browsing around or doing anything on the computer really and its FREE, can't beat that.

That last sentence reminds me I am going to have to start laying off the use of the "..." soon. I am hoping to register for a few classes this fall to get back to work on a degree of some kind and I am sure English will have to be one of them.

1:55 am and 27.5 mpg

2008-06-27T18:00:00.001-07:00

For some reason or another I found myself awake at 1:55 am last night. Could be because the summer break is really wreaking havoc on the girls and getting them to bed at any hour is turning into an ordeal. Could also just be that lately I am an really really late night owl. Anyway, earlier in the day we had passed by Huey's Mart at Decatur/Vegas Dr and gas was only 3.99 a gallon. AT 7pm tho, the line was like 30 cars long.... just not worth it! However I found that at 2 am, there are barely any people out and about filling up their gas tanks.

So, if you want ~~cheap~~ cheaper gas, just get up in the middle of the night! The rest of the town is at anywhere from 4.15 to 4.29 a gallon. Its crazy! The good news is that I can happily report the new Honda Fit is getting 27.5 mpg even in the excessive heat and with the air conditioning on.

Speaking of gas mileage, I admit that I am intrigued by the I drive 55and Hypermilling. I am not going to get all obsessive and mount funky gadgets to my dashboard to track my MPG, but I may coast around town for a while and see what happens ;)

Goodbye Saturn, Hello Honda!

2008-06-03T09:51:00.001-07:00

It started a couple of weeks ago. We came into the information that Jim would be getting an extra check every month that was a "bonus", so we decided to take the opportunity to retire Jim's 11 year old truck. The A/C barely worked and the bed was held together by a very long tie down strap.... it was time!

We were able to find a 2003 Honda Element that was in excellent shape.

Wii Workout

2008-06-02T21:24:00.001-07:00

30 minutes on the Wii Fit today. I unlocked the Advanced Rhythm boxing..... not easy! I got totally lost at least half way through... I guess I need to stick to the beginning one for a while ;)

Gradening in the city...

2008-06-02T20:21:00.001-07:00

The backyard garden seems to be going ok. There are definitely some issues (the ants seem to think I planted it solely for their pleasure) but I think things are progressing well for my first serious attempt. Here is the "viney" stuff - the far right is the honey dew melon growing up the trellis. Next to the honey dew is the eggplant, and then 2 tomato plants.

Unfortunately the tomato plants took quite a beating from the dog jumping in the bed, but there are still a few prospects....

Household Binder in progress...

2008-05-28T15:55:00.000-07:00

As shown by my lack of commitment to this blog, I think its obvious that I have a hard time following through on just about everything I attempt. I can't really explain why, I didn't have this same problem as a teenager/high school student, or even young adult. Maybe this is one of those things that can be blamed on having children. Who knows if it is true, but I am going to go with that for now.

In an attempt to rectify this I am going to once again try to create a household binder. I say once again because I did take a stab at one years ago when I stumbled across FlyLady but that just never worked out well for me. It was way too detailed and cleaning focused.

Some friends at Mama Drama seem to really like the files put together by Theresa at Little Turtle Knits so I figured I would give it a shot. I have completed the first step.... deciding to go through with it and purchase supplies. I probably went overboard on the supplies, but thats just how I roll. I do need to get some snazzy scrapbooking paper to decorate the outside of my magenta binder, but I figured that wasn't worth a trip to Joanns this morning.

Apologies for the somewhat bad photo, my camera's batteries ran out and I can't find the charger so the Blackberry is pulling double duty. Will update when binder creation mission is complete.

Mommy I lost you!

2008-02-16T10:22:00.000-08:00

TI managed to miss blogging yesterday about gratitude, but in my defense I was a busy little bee. I spent most of the day cleaning, organizing, labeling. Kyla now has a sparkly clean room and I just need to get the photo labels printed for all her toy bins. I think I need to keep up on her and keep helping her keep her room clean, she is a much happier child when she has that area to escape to. This frustrates me to no end because she is the one who destroys her room.... but she deserves to have a clean space to play in and I understand its not in her nature. It certainly isn't in mine either.

Anyway, since finishing the massive Kyla Room Clean she has been extra careful to pick up the things she gets out and we came up with an interactive velcro "to do" board for her. I found the idea on the Meck Mom blog and so far she loves it! See the blog link for ready made files and photos!

All of this talk of Kyla brings me to my gratitude for the day. I am grateful for my loving girls. They often push my patience to its limit and challenge me to be a better parent, but when it comes down to it they love me as I do them.

We were in Best Buy last night, the girls were hating the trip to the store as much as I was. However, we desperately needed a new printer and I was determined to get one. We found what we were looking for and I let Jim know I would go pay, keep the girls busy and entertained. I made my way back to the computer area and checked out, it did take a bit of time(maybe 15 minutes). As I walked toward the front of the store I met up with Jim and the girls and Kyla had tears bubbling up in her eyes. We headed out the door and she hugged me and started crying and told me she was worried. Apparantly they had walked around the store, didn't see me and Kyla freaked out. She thought they had lost me and was truly concerned.

I jokingly thought to myself I needed to get lost more often. But really I think I need to be grateful for the challenging but sweet and caring daughters I have the privilege of raising and spending my days with.

Gratitude....

2008-02-16T02:41:00.000-08:00

So, I figured I would give this "blog" thing another shot. Maybe I can keep up with it this time ;)

My friend Joy is doing a gratitude project. Journal daily about something you are grateful for over a 30 day period. So, I figured why not?

Today - I am grateful for my husband who loves me as I am and doesn't complain too much when I buy an abundance of stuff to help me "organize". Especially since I eventually getting around to actually following through, but it often sits on the dining room table for a while first. It is something I am working on, but he rarely complains about it. I soon hope to be able to repay him for this by decluttering and simplifying.... but still organizing ;)