What’s New?

Not a lot. But, I feel the winds changing. I feel like I have been in a creative rut lately, or maybe just a rut in general. But a cool breeze is blowing. I am back to work, as of 2 weeks ago. It ain’t much, 6 hours on Thursdays and 5 hours on Fridays, but it’s nice. Not gone from the kids to long, but honestly, kind of nice to have a break too. It’s a good balance for me. Summer is coming to a close, Fall is on it’s way. My favorite time of year. THE HOLIDAYS ARE COMING! Love it. So, let’s clear out my camera, and rid my brain of a few thoughts:

Those are carrots. Not sure if you can tell that from the photo. We did a raised bed for the first time LAST year…lettuce and carrots and radishes. I learned a few things…radishes aren’t very good. Lettuce has bugs and tiny slugs on it. Finding slugs on my lettuce grossed me out so bad, I couldn’t bring myself to eat it. I realize that Safeway’s lettuce most likely had slugs at some point too, but I could NOT get past seeing the slug on my lettuce. But carrots…they grow below the ground where slugs do not go. You pull them up, rinse them off, and look how shiny and nice they are. Carrots I can eat. So we did carrots again this year, along with green beans and peas. All were fairly bug free, and quite edible. We also did strawberries, which Thad ate individually, as each berry ripened. Last week, we replanted the bed with cauliflower and broccoli. We will see how many bugs like those, and then I will see how much I like them. Those things go hand in hand.

Thad is still not ready for the responsibility of the rice box. Gah. Maybe I should just give up and play with the rice myself. Or send the box with him when he goes to college.

Now THIS picture requires an explanation. I assure you, that is not a heart. That is a cloth bag filled with cooked blackberries. Justin is squeezing the life out of that bag in order to make seedless blackberry jelly. We spent a long weekend at the in-laws, canning tuna (a Crossland thing) and picking blackberries. The tuna we have done probably 4 or so times since Justin and I have been married. The jelly we did for the first time this year. It took us a couple of after-work evenings, more time consuming because we did jelly (which means you have to juice and strain the berries) rather than jam (chunks of fruit). But it turned out really yummy. As you can see from the picture on the right, Thad enjoys it. He asks for peanut butter and jelly at every meal. Every. Meal. Our jelly success encouraged me to also make some applesauce with apples that my sister had picked at a friends house. Turned out great too.

Speaking of fruit, we have been having smoothies at breakfast quite a bit this summer. We got into this when my sister moved in and started making ‘green smoothies’ with spinach. Sounds gross, but tastes delicious and so nutritious. You make the smoothie with spinach, yogurt, a banana, and whatever other fruit you want. We use various berries usually, but you can also use watermelon, cantaloupe, peaches, etc. Really anything will work. Also delicious is an oatmeal smoothie (pictured) using uncooked oats instead of delicious. Thad absolutely LOVES his ‘juice’ that Auntie Amber makes. He has to be monitored for fruit intake though…he would eat it all day long, and usually pays the price the next day. Or, I pay the price, depending on how you look at it.