Mommy and Sweet Pea

I have been a stay-at-home-mom once again for the last two weeks. The pace of life is slower, but not as slow as I imagined it when I was working full time. I have managed to fill the days very easily, with catching up on house-work, adding another bed to the garden, weeding and mowing, paperwork, getting my doula business registered, attending a birth (joyous, beautiful, and a privilege to support this family), running three times a week, and hanging out with friends and family. In addition, we bought a new front door, Average built two ramps for riding BMX, and we are also taking a dog training class with Glen. We have dog class once a week, and daily homework assignments. Glen is making progress on heeling, sitting, and staying, although he did chew up a new rhododendron in the back yard one day when we forgot to feed him -- that never happens, I swear! -- but I couldn't really blame him. To sum up, the last two weeks have absolutely flown by, with very little blogging going on,...

I made a silly gardening mistake with the soil that was leftover from filling our raised beds. I knew we would need it for additional plantings in our yard throughout the spring and summer and I didn't want it to grow a layer of weeds, so I put a tarp over the pile. Unfortunately, the tarp was also under the pile. After several weeks of heavy rains with occasional hot days, the soil that started out with a fresh manure and bark chip scent has gained a distinctly rotten odor. The lesson here is, make sure your soil has a way to drain water out, and get air in! I can't believe that I really didn't think anything of piling my soil on a tarp, and forgetting about it for a while. I don't think I'll make this mistake again. I think the soil WILL recover, with time, but I don't know for sure if I ought to do something to it to make it a better planting medium. I did a Google search for "rotten soil" and apparently that is a song title. I am going to just ad...

I've made a discovery: I can add sautéed vegetables to almost any meal I make, and love them. I have long struggled with finding easy ways to incorporate more veggies into my meals, overcooking them in the oven or undercooking them in the steamer (or vice versa). We eat a lot of salad, and there are endless variations of that (my current favorite is low on the lettuce, high on the cabbage and broccoli, with nuts and cheese), but I do get a little tired of salad every day after a while. So lately, I've been trying out just cutting up a couple of veggies and adding them to whatever I'm cooking on the stove top. I generally prefer cooking in a cast iron skillet on the range because I have the best luck with avoiding both burning and undercooking when I can closely monitor my food. Many of our dinners include either potatoes or meat that is cooked in olive oil in a pan. Others will often include rice or pasta, which, when we eat them as leftovers, are refried in oil or butter. ...

Today was my last day of work as a long-term substitute teacher. It's summertime, y'all! I am looking forward to more working in my yard, harvesting the fruits of my labor, swimming with Sweet Pee, bike rides with Average, dog training class, barbeques, afternoon naps, and catching up on my blogging. I have hundreds of ideas swimming around my head and haven't had any time for writing. But I am back!