These days I mostly try not to write. My life is so full of work and family and weeding. But every now and then, my brain starts to itch and the only way to scratch that itch is writing. This is where you will find my most recent scratchings.
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Camping with Kids: Whatever it Takes
On Tuesday, the 3YO spied the tent under the bed and got that Gleam in her eye. “Let’s go camping!” she cried with joy and excitement. “Oh, yeah, okay. Good idea.” I thought quickly, “We can set the tent up in the backyard!” “No.” She says indignantly. Grown-ups really need you to spell everything out for them. “I want to go real camping.” Uh-oh. I can see she means business. With feigned mama enthusiasm, I grasp for a creative redirect.”Oh, I know! We can go set up the tent at the park, and have a picnic!” (Oh boy!) “NONONO! I want…
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Of Green Tomatoes and Turkey Enchiladas
A couple of weeks ago, I sorted what was left of my slowly ripening tomatoes. The ones that were still very green, I decided to make into a green tomato jam. I had been enjoying slices of green tomato, fried simply (unbreaded) with my eggs in the morning, and then stacked all together on whole wheat toast. Yum. I imagined a savory jam which captured that fried green tomato flavor, and I could use it in the same toasty egg combination. I quartered them, roasted them at 350 for an hour (since I had the oven on anyway) then promptly…
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No Sewing Necessary
I patently hate sewing. I do know how to sew. I sewed my own (blood red silk velvet) wedding dress. More recently I’ve been known to borrow a machine so that I could sew bridesmaid dresses in the middle of the night, in between nursing sessions, when the time came and it had to be done. There was even a brief liaison with an organic cotton toy “company” (who was I kidding?). For someone who hates sewing, I’ve done an awful lot of it. The thing is that I love designing. I love dreaming something up. When I was 10,…
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Anything But the Kitchen Sink
Okay, I’m done talking about cleaning. For now. Honest! I have lots of other interesting things to tell you. And I realize I’ve been text heavy lately, so let’s see some pictures, right? Let’s start with my garden, which is a heap of righteous green glory. I can’t believe I am eating out of my garden in January, it’s divine. I have cabbages bigger than your head, a bit of broccoli left, snap peas barely surviving the frosts, salad greens if I could want to eat them, garlic and onions putting on heft (though not bulbing yet of course) and…
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Master or Slave?
I was going to title this post “Master of My Domain” but honestly, part of me has been wondering who the hell had this big Clean House idea anyway, because shit is this some work! My house is clean. Not immaculate, but pretty darned clean, even in the unders and behinds. It’s been more or less clean for about a week, but the upkeep takes all my spare moments, and then some. Including, significantly, those moments where I’m just dog tired and want to take a load off. On top of the upkeep, even though I feel like I am…
calamity jane 