quiet

It's been a little quiet over here of late. Wish a had a wonderful great excuse, but I don't. Other than we've been dealing with some not-so-fun stuff. Our summer hasn't quite turned out the way I had planned due to a lack of vehicles and funds. Oh well, right? There have been some very good parts but also a bit of sadness as well. Reading through some bloggy friends wonderful summer posts (like her's, her's, her's, and her's) I realized a. I haven't taken many pictures in the last 4 months and b. our summer days of late have looked mostly like this =




















Not exactly post worthy or inspiring, huh?
Maybe I should follow Andi's example and make a family end-of-summer to-do list for these next few weeks. Maybe I should muster up some spare energy from somewhere and make a few more memories with the family. We'll see. I'll keep you posted.


PS. Please excuse my blue funk and self-pity party. Chock it up to mid-pregnancy hormones. Tomorrow will be a better day!

1st day of school

School has officially started for us. 3rd grade, here we are! Our books arrived last Thursday around 4pm and Olivia was ready to start right then. Thankfully I was able to put her off until Monday.
We had a family conference Saturday morning regarding our attitudes and how everyone has a part to play in the function of our family and for everything to work smoothly (or as smoothly as possible) that we all need to try our hardest and best at all times. I think it has helped, though I don't kid myself in thinking that it will be the only one we'll have to have this school year.


Our days are going well. There is a comfort and peacefulness in knowing how your day will progress. And as we are still with only one air conditioned car (as Mike likes to drive to work in relative coolness in our heat index of 115F) we enjoy quiet afternoons at home reading, folding laundry, and listening to books on CD.

Sadie-Rose spends a lot of time playing blocks or in her kitchen with a baby and fixing up copious amounts of pretend tea with milk. She also has her own "school book" and loves to sit on my lap sorting the pencils and having me help her write numbers over and over.

My favorite day was definitely Monday. All the excitement of starting something new, the new books, new pencils, all make for good spirits. The funniest moment was by far during our math lesson. We were working on learning some new subtraction sums. Here's how the conversation went, being worked out with manipulatives :
Me: "These squares are cookies. If I had 5 cookies and then I eat those 5 cookies, how many do I have left?"
Olivia: "I want some cookies! Give me some cookies!"
Me: "That's not the point, remember. They're just plastic squares. Now if I had 5 cookies and then I eat those 5 cookies, how many do I have left?"
Olivia: "0"
Me: "Right! Now if I had 9 cookies and I ate 9 cookies, how many do I have left?"
Olivia: "0"
Me: "Good! Ok, now if I had 7 cookies and I ate just 1 cookie, how many would I have left?"
Olivia: "6. I still want some cookies."
Me: "Not right now dear. So, if I had 5 cookies and I ate 0 of them, what would I have?
Olivia: "A bellyache! Because you ate all those other cookies! ha ha ha ha ha!"

Much hilarity ensued but we did finally finish our lesson and Olivia finally got her cookie. :)

I hope your first days of school go as well and are filled with as much merriment. I can't wait to hear all about them!

You know your a redneck when...

Last night I decided to make this delicious recipe that I had found (surprise surprise) on Posie Get's Cozy. Now, it's definitely not cold or blustery around these parts but it looked good and I've always wanted to try a bolognese sauce. Sadly, all the recipes I have ever read were really complicated, took hours and hours of cooking time, or called for weird ingredients that I never have on hand. But, I was quite delighted to see that I had all of the ingredients (well, enough to fudge it) and it only took 1 1/2 hours of cooking time. This I could do! So I printed of the recipe (you can get the original here) and got started.

Ingredients

• 5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 carrot, finely, diced
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 rib celery, finely diced
• 1 clove garlic, sliced ( I used 5 because this is Italian food after all!)
  
• 1 pound veal, ground (I used 2 lbs of ground beef because, come on, who eats veal anyways???)
  
• 1 pound pork, ground
• 1/4 pound pancetta or slab bacon, ground ( I used 1/2 package of bacon, sliced into little strips)
  
• 1/2 tube tomato paste ( I used half a can since I didn't have a tube and you can never have too much)
  
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup dry white wine ( I used beer, don't do this! Continue reading after recipe)
  
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Parmigiano-Reggiano, for grating (none was to be found in our fridge, we used smoked gouda instead)
  

Directions

In a 6 to 8-quart, heavy-bottomed saucepan, heat the olive oil and butter over medium heat. Add the onions, celery, and garlic and sweat over medium heat until the vegetables are translucent and soft but not browned, about 10 to 15 minutes. Add the veal, pork, and pancetta and stir into the vegetables. Add the meat over high heat, stirring to keep the meat from sticking together until browned. Add the tomato paste, milk, and wine and simmer over medium-low heat for 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Season with salt and pepper, to taste, and remove from the heat.

When ready to use, the cooked pasta should be added to a saucepan with the appropriate amount of hot ragu Bolognese, and tosses so that the pasta is evenly coated by the ragu.

Ok, so if you read the ingredients you can tell that I fudged the recipe a bit but the bacon and ground beef suggestions were via Ms. Paulson so I was pretty certain on that part. What threw me a bit was the white wine part. Now, I usually have a bottle of white in my fridge but since I'm the person in the family who enjoys it and I haven't been drinking lately, there was none. But I have in other recipes been able to substitute small amounts ( 1/4 c. -1/2c.) of wine for beer because that is something that we most generally have on hand. I had second thoughts before I pour the entire cup in. "Maybe I should use chicken broth instead. No, there's no chicken in this and it's will throw the flavor off. Ok, pour it in." And so it went in. The gravity of this began to settle in in earnest when the entire bottom floor of our house began to smell of cooking beer.
Mike couldn't quite figure out what I was cooking when he arrived at home. I explained my problem of the lack of wine and the substituting of the beer. He looked at me somewhat askance and said, "you really put an entire cup of beer in the sauce when it called for white wine???" Of course my answer was "yes." At that we decided to laugh about it and eat anyways.
It turned out ok, but the flavor was a little too dark and earthy for me and Olivia to truly enjoy it. Today, we had it as leftovers and I added about 1/2 c. of chicken broth to loosen it up as it was short on saucy-ness and long on meaty chunks. It helped a whole lot and we enjoyed it much more with it's beer flavor tempered quite a bit. I can't say I'm in a great hurry to try this recipe again but it will be going in my recipe binder and I'll make sure to follow the ingredients list a bit more closely next time. And please don't let my mistakes deter you from trying it, it really is delicious. We ate ours piled high on quinoa and corn pasta and topped with a generous helping of shredded smoked gouda.
But for heavens sake make the little extra effort and buy a bottle of white and then drink the rest with dinner. :)

An itch

I have been incredibly unproductive(in my creative life) for the past 2 months. So many things going on and mental stresses and bodily stresses and comings and goings. It has been miraculous most days to have 3 meals fixed, clean dishes to eat on, and clothes clean but definitely not folded to put on. We've had company, been company, done some semi-major construction on our house, spent almost over 25+ hours at the church in one week, drove 2400 miles in 10 days, and have lived to tell about it. Momma has been tired and even some days, quite ill. During that time, my life was pretty much shut down to necessities only. No blogging has gone on, not even reading other blogs or hardly any Facebook, (gasp, I know!) most days I didn't even turn my computer on. I just checked my email on Mike's laptop if it was necessary.

But, life has finally slowed down, momma's feeling herself again, and certain stresses have dissipated and newer ones I'm pretty much content to let someone else worry about. I'm finally spending some time reading blogs again and it's been ever so nice to catch up a bit on what's been going on everyone's lives. Some made me cry, I had missed so much, others sent me into giggling fits and snorting my tea. ( you know who you are!)

While do my wanderings (after I checked on my "friends") I went over to {inspiration blogs} Kelly McCaleb's and felt a little tickle in my brain after reading this post. No, I told myself. Get a grip. So, wander on over to House on Hill Road. Crumb, that's not much better! So, then I did the worst thing possible and stepped into Ms. Paulson's most cozy little blog space. Shoot! Bad bad, terrible, no good, disastrous idea! Now I'm completely overwhelmed and have a head full of ideas (like I need any more!) and the most insane urge to pull out all of my carefully folded and packed boxes and bin of fabric and start tossing everything all over my newly organized FROG. Forget the fact that I'm in the middle of a custom order that involves 7 yards of black duponi silk, 7 24" zippers, and many many more hours of labor than I estimated and a custom designed 50's style apron for another client that has even been started yet. Nope! A summer patchwork quilt for our bedroom is far more important as are patchwork hexagon seat cushions and embroidered wall hangings for our bedroom.
I mean, come on! Who could resist the likes of this?

source
(Because I really have a pressing desire to make a patchwork quilt. Right.now.)

Or this?

source
(Because I really must start setting a prettier table)

Or this?

source
(Because who would say "no" to a hammock, in the backyard, covered in vintage quilts, fluffy pillows, and a vintage chenille bedspread topped with a sweet corgi?)

Or to this?

source
(because every seat in our kitchen is wooden and hard and my hinney hurts quite frequently from them)

Do you see what I mean? I could go on and on forever and ever. And this isn't my first time down this road either.
But, I digress.
So, I made myself a promise. Finish these last 2 orders and then no more custom orders for at least 6 months (forever?). And to make one thing a month just for me, my house, or someone I love. Just because. Just because I can and I enjoy it. No deadlines and no worrying about whether it's up to someone else's standards.
It truly sounds like bliss. I can't wait. I'm making my lists!
And I'm working up the courage to sew 336" of zipper.

What are you greatful for?

Although we are technically still a little ways from summer, we have been enjoying the early days of it here. Sunshine, breezes, windows open, entire afternoons spent in the pool, and fruit. Lots and lots of fresh fruit.






10 Things I'm greatful for today:
1. fresh cherries
2. thrifted pyrex
3. $2 vintage child's chair garage sale find
4. the kissable face of a 2 year old
5. gentle rain
6. plans for a date celebration on Saturday
7. a stack of freshly laundered vintage sheets
8. prayer in the morning with Mike
9. the hugs of Olivia
10. playing hide and seek with my girls


Good List Daily