Thanks to The Green Mommy for this link: Birthdays Without Pressure. This is EXACTLY what I was talking about in my previous post about making birthdays special. The examples they give about the excesses seen in children's birthday parties is eye-opening. What are we preparing these kids for? Gimme, gimme, gimme. I hope we can all grow backbones as parents and stop trying to keep up with the Joneses when it comes to birthday parties. I personally love coming up with clever themes, decorations, and games for our at-home birthday parties, and I know that most of the kids in attendance have never seen such a thing. I hope that it makes for a special event for everyone involved. And I personally refuse to spend over $200 for a pizza parlor or play-place party where we will get kicked out in less than 2 hours. Parents of the world unite! We can make birthdays special and meaningful occasions again!
OK. Stepping off my soapbox now....
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Sunday, August 19, 2007
A little piece of sunshine...
That's what my new dress reminds me of. I *finally* finished the yellow gabacha yesterday and wore it to a baby shower. It was nice and comfortable, and I got lots of compliments on it. Have a gander:
Now that I know my son will be gone a good 4 hours a day 4 days a week (hooray mommy-time!), I can get some major projects done. I'm planning on doing the next gabacha this week in the blue floral that is pictured in an earlier post. I didn't get the baby blanket done - I wanted to do a Speed Hook Baby Blanket, but had trouble locating a size S (yes S) hook. I did find one yesterday, on the way to the baby shower, so we ended up picking a few things off the Target registry. Not ideal, but hey, all babies need clothes. :) The next baby blanket I make will be the 4 Hour Baby Blanket pattern by Lion Brand. I'm interested to see if the name fits with the reality of how I crochet. We'll see....
A few weeks ago I cooked in the solar oven again. I made Filipino Menudo, based on a friend's recipe, and it was excellent! I do the recipe by sight, so I can't really give any solid measurements, but your ingredients are: pork loin cut into cubes, a yellow onion, chopped, about 5 or 6 cloves of garlic, minced in a garlic press (more if you really like garlic), potatoes peeled and cubed, raisins (don't look at me like I have lobsters coming out of my ears, it's really good!), soy sauce and water. Saute the o
nions and garlic until the onions start to get a little soft, but don't brown the garlic! Add the pork and brown. Then add a few handfuls of raisins, the potatoes, about 1/2 cup of good soy sauce from the Philippines (I use Silver Swan), and enough water to cover everything. Then, slow cook it either on the burner or in my case the solar oven. The longer you cook it, the better it is. I think I left it in the solar oven about 3 hours. We eat it served over rice. I was really impressed by how much I could actually make in a 3 quart pan. We had 3 meals out of the one batch. I think I'll be doing this again soon. YUM!
I haven't been back out in the garden yet, I still need to locate row cover. I may h
ave to order it. At least I can still plant for fall. We have had some good rain, and our front yard plants, which are desert plants, always say "Oh boy! Water!" and put out impressive new growth. I love the purple sage (is it Texas sage?, I'm not sure of the exact variety) that we have out front, and here's a picture of one happy bush. I hope the rain comes back soon - it's been hot and muggy with no rain payoff the last week or so. :( At least not in our neighborhood.
So, I leave you with hopes of rain and cooler temperatures, as long as the rain holds off until I'm finished line-drying the wash tomorrow.....
Now that I know my son will be gone a good 4 hours a day 4 days a week (hooray mommy-time!), I can get some major projects done. I'm planning on doing the next gabacha this week in the blue floral that is pictured in an earlier post. I didn't get the baby blanket done - I wanted to do a Speed Hook Baby Blanket, but had trouble locating a size S (yes S) hook. I did find one yesterday, on the way to the baby shower, so we ended up picking a few things off the Target registry. Not ideal, but hey, all babies need clothes. :) The next baby blanket I make will be the 4 Hour Baby Blanket pattern by Lion Brand. I'm interested to see if the name fits with the reality of how I crochet. We'll see....A few weeks ago I cooked in the solar oven again. I made Filipino Menudo, based on a friend's recipe, and it was excellent! I do the recipe by sight, so I can't really give any solid measurements, but your ingredients are: pork loin cut into cubes, a yellow onion, chopped, about 5 or 6 cloves of garlic, minced in a garlic press (more if you really like garlic), potatoes peeled and cubed, raisins (don't look at me like I have lobsters coming out of my ears, it's really good!), soy sauce and water. Saute the o
nions and garlic until the onions start to get a little soft, but don't brown the garlic! Add the pork and brown. Then add a few handfuls of raisins, the potatoes, about 1/2 cup of good soy sauce from the Philippines (I use Silver Swan), and enough water to cover everything. Then, slow cook it either on the burner or in my case the solar oven. The longer you cook it, the better it is. I think I left it in the solar oven about 3 hours. We eat it served over rice. I was really impressed by how much I could actually make in a 3 quart pan. We had 3 meals out of the one batch. I think I'll be doing this again soon. YUM!I haven't been back out in the garden yet, I still need to locate row cover. I may h
ave to order it. At least I can still plant for fall. We have had some good rain, and our front yard plants, which are desert plants, always say "Oh boy! Water!" and put out impressive new growth. I love the purple sage (is it Texas sage?, I'm not sure of the exact variety) that we have out front, and here's a picture of one happy bush. I hope the rain comes back soon - it's been hot and muggy with no rain payoff the last week or so. :( At least not in our neighborhood.So, I leave you with hopes of rain and cooler temperatures, as long as the rain holds off until I'm finished line-drying the wash tomorrow.....
Sunday, August 12, 2007
I guess this thing IS on....
I have received some comments from persons other than family and friends. Most welcome if unexpected. Hi! Have a look around and enjoy yourself. Leave a comment if you wish or continue lurking like I normally do. :)
Update on the garden: Something ate my sprouts. :( I emailed a local garden expert (Dave the Garden Guy) and he suggested birds as the culprit, but I'm not sure. I will be replanting as soon as I can get some sturdier row cover and hoops to support it. Such is the life of a gardener. *sigh*
My son goes back to preschool on Tuesday (yippee!!) so I'll have a few hours each day to finish up the many projects that have stalled lately. I hope to have the yellow dress done by Wednesday, and will be working on the blue flower print next. I also have a baby blanket to make by Saturday, and hopefully I'll remember to take a picture of it this time. I may also try to make bread in the solar oven this week. It is supposed to be hot and clear, so it should go well. Ambitious? Yes. So keep checking back and I should have more posts forthcoming. Now I'm off to figure out what to do for supper......
Update on the garden: Something ate my sprouts. :( I emailed a local garden expert (Dave the Garden Guy) and he suggested birds as the culprit, but I'm not sure. I will be replanting as soon as I can get some sturdier row cover and hoops to support it. Such is the life of a gardener. *sigh*
My son goes back to preschool on Tuesday (yippee!!) so I'll have a few hours each day to finish up the many projects that have stalled lately. I hope to have the yellow dress done by Wednesday, and will be working on the blue flower print next. I also have a baby blanket to make by Saturday, and hopefully I'll remember to take a picture of it this time. I may also try to make bread in the solar oven this week. It is supposed to be hot and clear, so it should go well. Ambitious? Yes. So keep checking back and I should have more posts forthcoming. Now I'm off to figure out what to do for supper......