Sick day

I had a sick day last Monday. I think I got that stomach thing everyone else seems to have had. Since I wasn't so sick I couldn't do anything I decided to spend my time at home making a bed for Shadow.  She seemed pretty excited about it.

So much so that she laid down on it while I was still working.

And now that it's finished?  Yeah, she won't go near it.

In the kitchen

We've tried out a few new recipes in the last couple of weeks.

The weather WAS decent last week or maybe the week before. So we ate some yummy spinach cannelloni on the porch.

 I am working on getting both of us ready for summer (you know, weddings and bathing suits) so I've tried out a few healthier meals including this salmon with strawberry relish. Yummy.

And then the husband planned a meal, and invited over some guests, before telling me that it was a completely fried meal - fried chicken and fried green tomatoes. Oh well for getting ready for the summer. But every bit of the meal was quite tasty - he did a great job. (No pictures of the tomatoes b/c they were gobbled up too quickly)

And then, after dinner, I got a wild hair from some images I saw online. So we made peep smores!

This is for my bff who couldn't figure out how we toasted the peeps - I thought stoves were made for this kind of thing!

I highly recommend these guys!

Weekly garden update

We constructed and put in the tomato cages for all of our bizillion tomatoes. The tomatoes have shown great appreciation for this by growing a ton and producing lots of little tomatoes. We also have other veggies popping up including zucchini, several varieties of peppers, and tomatillos. So far we have picked 15 tomatoes. Thank you goes out to the lady bugs and other nice insects who are currently helping keep the bad insects at bay.

Not as pretty now that we have the cages in.

It's a baby zucchini!

One of our garden helpers.

New car!

We got our new car last week!!  It is very exciting to me for several reasons.

1. It is the first time I have ever had a car with power windows and locks. Ever. (yes, this is an amazing fact)
2. I have been driving the same car for 11 years now.
3. Our one car family was relying on a 1996 Corolla - although the old thing is in good shape, it is still a little worrisome.

And the new car has really brought out the OCD behaviors of it's owners. We have already ordered and installed a thing to protect the car from the dogs, scotch-guarded the floor board carpets, and ordered new mats and a protector for the back bumper. Oh, and if you think that most of that OCD-esque behavior is coming from me - you are MISTAKEN. Yes, it happens to be that I married someone more uptight about (some) things than me. Truly amazing! :)

An update on education

Last night I went to a screening for the documentary Race to Nowhere that I discussed awhile back. And it was terrific. I realize we're all busy and for those of us who already have a few causes that we support, whatever they may be, it may be hard to think of adding another. But I implore you to consider adding this one.

In less than 90 minutes you will learn more about the challenges children face in the education system than you ever imagined, and unfortunately, the results of an education system that continues to fail us - results that turn children into mini-adults who never have the chance to really be children.

As a non-bio aunt, it really troubles me to know the pressure children are under to perform in schools, and now, to understand that this pressure does not lead to greater success.

What stood out to me:

1. The suicide rate for children and adolescents has increased significantly over the last ten years - especially in girls.
2. Homework in elementary school is NOT correlated with success, homework in middle school that takes longer than an hour is NOT correlated with success, and homework in high school that takes longer than two hours is NOT correlated with success.
3. The countries with students who out-achieve American students give less than half the homework American schools give to students.
4. The use of drugs in schools has gone up - primarily the use of non-prescribed stimulants - and the reason is so that students can stay up later to finish homework.
5. School children report more anxiety now than psychiatric patients reported in the 1950's.
6. Despite all this work to get our students prepared for college, 40% of college students now have to be remediated b/c high school did not prepare them sufficiently, and the US has one of the lowest rates of college graduation among industrialized nations.

You can find screenings in your area here.
If you want a quick overview of research findings, look here.

She's cute

But she has a little problem.

Yes, this cute, sweet, crazy dog has a problem with vegetables. You see, if you leave her unattended with certain kinds of vegetable plants, they may suddenly disappear.

Example 1: The poblano plant, in her first attempt she took the unplanted container out into the yard to destroy it. We salvaged the little guy and brought him back to life.

Until she finished it off for good.

Example 2: The newest member of our vegetable community, a little okra plant, lasted a day after its first photo shoot.

Add wily to that list of adjectives.

How things grow

We started with this

And now we have this

 

A diamond for women (aren't they all supposed to be for women??)

Last year I taught a graduate level counseling course on women and one of the topics is career, which happens to be a very salient topic to me. I admire women who know what they want - to be a mother, to be a wife, to be a teacher, to be an engineer, to be (fill in the blank). Whatever it is, I understand we are all different and what we want, and sometimes what we can get, are different. This blog post describes the challenges women who work outside the home face. It is challenging for ALL women, regardless of where they spend their days or nights but I think she elegantly describes some of the nuances of this particular challenge.

Outdoor living

Well maybe, at least until the highs start getting in the 90's - oh wait, that happened once last week. :)

Anyways - we're done with another project!!!

The project that has maintained it's position on our to-do list the longest is the screened porch. But after the past three (or more) weeks, we (the husband mostly) have worked hard to get this thing done.

It's always the last bits of the project that seem to take forever and are less than fun - like caulking and filling holes with wood putty and sanding. But we finished that finally, painted, and got the screen in. The change is amazing - so much brighter. As proof - here are some pictures.

Note - no sooner had the husband finished the screen on the left side of door, Shadow bolted straight through it. So I put up caution tape in the form of blue painter's tape. No more breakouts yet!

Excuses

I can find an excuse anywhere - especially when that excuse allows me to bake yummy sweets! :)

My most recent excuse has been a pregnant friend. Now that the baby's here, my excuse is that the new parents (and visitors) need treats. So I'm at it again with the excuses. And here are the results.

Homemade peanut butter cups

Vanilla ice cream (recipe from kitchenaid)

Action shot

Orange olive oil cake - yums (phone photo)

Stealth attack

Yes, our wee little garden fell prey to a stealth attack by none other than these bug(ger)s.

So the husband WONDERFULLY stood in the garden picking these monsters off our plants. The damage wasn't too bad on most of the plants but we will have to see about the three red pepper plants that look very sad.

And FYI, I took the pictures so I can identify these bugs. My gardening books say the first step in the battle is identifying, then finding (hopefully) an organic way of nuking them bastards. I will not stand idly by while someone else makes my future dinner their current dinner. :)

Garden bounty

We have some freakish "cherry tomato" plants that already have tons of tomatoes. Why I refer to them using quotation marks is b/c they are currently growing tomatoes that are anywhere from 2 to 4 times the size of cherry tomatoes. Hmm. Despite the oddities, it is still super exciting to have a ripe tomato already. Oh, and in preparation for more garden bounty, I'm trying out this recipe tomorrow (with yogurt instead of tofu - quinoa already has a ton of protein so no need to add more).

Have a great weekend!!!

Check that off the list

Well at least one of the two outstanding projects is done!  We are so close on the second one too.

Finished project 1: The desk!!!  I'm super excited and it turned out so well - the husband did an excellent job. Here it is, with nothing more than my little workhorse of a laptop and a lonely light - yes, I plan to add more pretty fun stuff.

(Warning: it was cloudy and gross all weekend so these pictures are not super accurate in color)

The desk was built based on the modular office collection plans from Ana White's blog (desktop, CPU base, shelf base), but modified to increase the length of both sides. We went with the CPU base on one side and the open shelves on the other. It is painted Valspar's antique white with a polyurethane top coat, using tips from Bryn Alexandra's blog about painting furniture here. 

Now that we have the desk finished, the husband thinks its high time we painted that room - yes, that is only primer you see there. And if you look closely, you can catch a glimpse of the neon yellow underneath. I have some paint on hand so it might just get done soon - who knows!

Our credit card company is run by men

The husband setup a large expense alert when he first got this card (prior to getting married) - it sends us an email if the card is charged with $200 or more.

Lowe's or Home Depot: We usually get an email alert anywhere from 3 to 7 days after the purchase

My anthropologie trip during lunch yesterday: My phone indicated I had an email (the alert mentioned above) AS SOON AS I WALKED OUT OF THE DOOR of anthropologie.

Umm - how is that fair????

FYI - I bought several dresses for my brother's wedding - I intend on taking all except one back. And the husband was aware of said purchase.