Last post before vacation

I woke up this morning with half my hand swollen, and the finger that was bitten was red and itchy and unable to bend. I decided that it was time to see a doctor. I called my friend G to let her know we may be home a bit late for the playdate for our kids, and when she found out why, sweetheart that she is, she insisted on driving me. Geez, I'll miss her and her family when they move back to the West Coast.

The doc said that I have tenosynovitis resulting from the bite and put a restraint on my hand so that I wouldn't be able to move my knuckles. He wanted the tendons there to be immobile so the sheath can heal better. Unfortunately, they didn't have anything smaller, so I have what looks like a full-arm cast. Plus, it doesn't extend out far enough so I improvised a splint with popsicle sticks and bandages.The band-aid on my upper arm is where they gave me a tetanus shot. I also have to take antibiotics and anti-inflammatories. A close up of my arm will show you why it now takes me 4 times as long to type something (and I can barely hand-write).Given my inconvenient condition, I won't bother with any more posts before we head for vacation next week. I'll try and visit people's blogs though, :)

But enough about me, let's talk about the soaps I received! ;)

Because I was running out of Joanna's incredible Crush On You scrubs, I had to order more:Wonderful Joanna added 2 extra goodies that I've been eying at her Etsy store (alas, these soaps are not listed when I checked tonight, but there are other great things there): the Pink Grapefruit Parfait soap, which is totally dreamyand the Strawberry Banana soap which looked and smelled so much like dessert, I decided to photograph it as dessert.I have to let this one cure a bit more so I'll bring it with me to Vancouver to use, but I've been enjoying the Parfait soap immensely. Thanks, Joanna!

Ok, typing this has been pure torture, so gotta go. See y'all in a few weeks!

"To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act." ~ Anatole France (1844 - 1924)

Thursday Thirteen

I will admit to being lame this week with the TT. I had thought about it in advance, but didn't get to it, and then I was bitten by some insect from heck last nite. I took a Benadryl (something I hate to do usually) and 2 Tylenols, and my right ring finger is still a huge, throbbing, swollen mess, making it hard to type. The Benadryl (non-drowsy my butt!) has put me in a haze.

I was going to blog about Joanna's lovely soap last night, but that will have to wait until tomorrow now.

Well, here goes nothing: FOOD!

13 foods that I can eat every day for the rest of my life and never get tired of ~

1. Badenjan borani - The Afghan Horsemen in Vancouver, BC makes the best one, but dh is perfecting his version.

2. Roast duck - Chinese style. It's celebration food but life is so good, I can celebrate with that every day! ;)

3. Tiramisu - if there is a more perfect dessert, I have yet to hear of it.

4. Sushi - love them all except maybe sea urchin (looks like and tastes like cow brains...ick). I've never tried pufferfish though.

5. Pomelos - Asian grapefruit. I'm not all about fried, greasy foods after all.

6. Fried chicken - and speaking of fried, greasy foods....

7. Salmon - wild caught, natch. I love it in any form: grilled, poached, raw...oooh, especially raw!

8. Dim sum - ok, I'm cheating because this encompasses a whole range of foods that is served at this type of meal. Vancouver probably has the best dim sum places outside of Hong Kong and China.

9. Shrimp, lobster, shellfish in general - Yum yum!

10. Anchovies - yeah, seafood trend. Black Lab Bakery in Wilmington, DE makes the most scrumptious anchovy foccacia.

11. Lamb kebabs - Greek or Afghan style, equally fabulous.

12. Calamari - oh, I had the most delicious plateful on the Isle of Aegina, Greece.

13. Asparagus with butter - freshly picked from our garden.

Join the Thursday Thirteen fun! Visit other Thirsday Thirteeners at:http://thursdaythirteen.com/2008/06/25/thursday-thirteen-151st-edition/ and let the TTers know you're participating by leaving the link to your Thirteen in your comment.

"To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act." ~ Anatole France (1844 - 1924)

Gardening and an inspiring quote

Child labor, what a great thing! ;) Here are the boys mulching the pepper plants:
The wild black raspberries are ripening. Not enough yet to pick a bunch and freeze, but enough for a nice serving of fruit after a meal just about every day.I haven't jogged or done yoga as much as I'd like, but I tell myself that weeding, harvesting, scooping chicken muck, and all that glamorous homesteading stuff, can be good exercise too.And because I'm too busy to write a real post, here's an inspirational quote from Let Go of Clutter by Harriet Schechter (p. 149, regarding the six steps in making clutter conquering choices) -
"Trust: Trust that you have made the best possible choice for any given moment; let go of the choice and move on. Trust is what enables you to part with past choices instead of mourning the road not taken, allowing you to keep moving forward with confidence. It frees you from endlessly second-guessing yourself with 'what-ifs' and torturing your mind with 'shoulda's.'" Great advice not just for de-cluttering but in other areas of my life!

"To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act." ~ Anatole France (1844 - 1924)

It wasn't just a dream

I've read in many places (and I'm sure many of you can attest to this) that the worst way to way up is in a panic, either induced by your dreams, your crying child, or a loud, obnoxious alarm. The best way is to have a slowly brightening light simulating the rising sun and/or a slowly crescendo-ing, but non-obnoxious sound. The "best way" is also the most expensive way, unless you wake up with natural sunlight, because the faux "sunlight" systems cost a lot.

Our solution is to use a radio alarm tuned to NPR. Not that the news doesn't scare the poop out of me, but the announcers on Morning Edition have such lovely, soothing voices that it's more pleasant to wake up to than the buzzer option. An added bonus is that I catch a bit of news while still half-asleep - it's a lot harder to read the paper when you're half-asleep.

The problem is that sometimes I'm dreaming so deeply that I can't tell if it's something I heard on the news or if it was something I made up in my subconscious.

Take this morning, for example. I thought I had dreamed a whole sequence involving my going to a make-up store and buying some mineral make-up. Turns out, I wasn't dreaming. A search on NPR found this little item on mineral make-up. Whaddya know!

I was interested in the item on NPR because I've been thinking about trying out Bramble Berry's mineral make-up kits. And fad or not, I like the idea of mineral make-up just because it doesn't involve using petroleum or lots of chemicals.

So this post isn't completely serious, here's another wacky pic for everyone:"To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act." ~ Anatole France (1844 - 1924)

Worry or not, Be Happy!

As I've mentioned previously, I've been reading The Happiness Project blog, which has offered some sage advice at times when I needed it. I also just borrowed the book, Happy for No Reason, which I had seen on Anne-Marie's Soap Queen blog.

Today, I found through The Happiness Project blog another interesting site called First 30 Days, which has a list of top 5 things to do to be happy that I thought others might like to read.

To keep me happy, my dear sis sent me a bunch of wacky pics that made me laugh, and so I'm sharing one here:"To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act." ~ Anatole France (1844 - 1924)

Garden growth

It's as exciting to watch one's garden grow as it is to watch one's kids grow (and you can't eat your kids - or you shouldn't at any rate!). Here are some of our bounty. The first is of one of our apple trees:The summer squash in the greenhouse has a few small fruits ready to be picked:The Shiro plums will turn a pretty, sun-kissed yellow in aother month or so. They are really tasty!Ds#1 took all the photos featured in this particular post. He is becoming quite interested in phtography (the dog is his frequent subject). Here's an "artsy" one of a butterfly (sorry, I don't know my butterflies very well) on a hemp dogbane:We've been having rather lovely weather lately. And because of that, our hilltop get-together with some former members of our literary co-op went quite well last night. Dh build a bonfire when it finally started getting dark and cool around 9:30pm, and we roasted marshmallows, something we hadn't done in years!

Interestingly, a gorgeous looking chocolate ganache cake that one of the moms had bought from our local health food co-op didn't taste half as good as the chocolate truffle cake that I usually make. Makes me really consider selling my baked goods. I'm not as adept with the beautiful finishes, but I'd rather my taste buds be happy than my eyes be happy.

"To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act." ~ Anatole France (1844 - 1924)

Thursday Thirteen

Books!!! Part 2Fiction this week, as I had promised. :)

A) Books I've read and recommend:
1. Edward Eager's "magic" series - e.g. Half Magic, Magic by the Lake, and The Well-Wishers. These are children's books, but even after all these years, I still love them. And the nice thing is, the boys have come to love these books too.
2. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Based on his own time spent at the Gulag, this book, while not exciting, touched me deeply with his observations on human behavior in sub-human conditions.
3. Dawn by Octavia Butler. Chilling, page-turning, thought-provoking...the late Ms. Butler was an amazing writer (she had won one of those genius awards). The storyline is about aliens helping humans to salvage their post-apocalyptic world. My friend, Carol, recommended this excellent book to me; Carol has wonderful recommendations. She was the one who told me about The Primal Teen (in my last TT list).
4. The Princess Bride by William Goldman. All the hilarious subtleties that didn't make it into the movie (because Hollywood rarely deals with subtleties) are in this fabulous book.
5. Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton. While I don't agree with Crichton's politics necessarily, this is a fun adventure thriller with just enough science to keep me happy. Much more grim and better than the movie, which was not bad but was made Hollywood-fluffy.
6. Door Into Summer by Robert Heinlein. Time travel, cryogenics, a cute cat...what more can one want?
7. The Chrysalids by John Wyndham. Not as famous as his Day of the Triffids, but this was an excellent social commentary about superstition and triumph of hope in a post-nuclear war world.
8. Every single robot story and short story Isaac Asimov wrote. I have the 3 Laws of Robotics memorized.
9. Mary Poppins books (Mary Poppins, Mary Poppins Comes Back, Mary Poppins Opens the Door, and Mary Poppins in the Park) by P.L. Travers. Again, the book is infinitely superior to the movie (I honestly don't have anything against Hollywood, I just prefer original movies to those made from books). Mary Poppins is not a pretty young thing like Julie Andrews was. MP is a conceited, funny-looking, not terribly loveable character who happens to be a super fun read because of her oddities. Despite Travers' zenophobia, or perhaps because of it, every story is highly memorable with surrealistic characters.
10. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. The first is the best, but the whole series is pretty fun. Very droll.
11. Cricket In Times Square by George Selden. Illustrated by Garth Williams! I'm generally not too big on anthropomorphic stories, but this series is superbly written, and I'm a big fan of Garth Williams' art.

[As you guys can probably tell, I've read mostly children's books and sci-fi.]

B) Books that I haven't read, but are recommended by others:
12. Happenstance by Carol Shields. Thanks, Diane!

C) Books that I'm reading currently:
13. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. I started this a few years ago, and haven't gotten past the second chapter. Like I said before, I don't read a whole lot of fiction these days.

Join the Thursday Thirteen fun! Visit other Thursday Thirteeners at:
http://thursdaythirteen.com/2008/06/19/thursday-thirteen-150th-edition/ and let the TTers know you're participating by leaving the link to your Thirteen in your comment.

"To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act." ~ Anatole France (1844 - 1924)

"I can see clearly now, the rain has gone..."

I just love that song, especially when I'm in an improved mood! :)

Thanks for putting up with my funk yesterday. Those of you with children probably know the book "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day" by Judith Viorst, and that was my day yesterday: got up on the wrong side of bed and then it went downhill from there. LOL!

Reading your various blogs actually cheered me up a good bit. And mellowing out with a pomtini after dinner didn't hurt either.

What I should really do is to suppress my emotions like my fictional hero, Spock! heh hehp.s. Firefly-Mom, Suspect and Fugitive is having a Goonies art theme this week!

"To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act." ~ Anatole France (1844 - 1924)

Life is...

...a series of minor annoyances. Nothing horrible, of course, for which I am grateful. But, as I, and others more prominent than I, have noted, pointing out all the positives in life doesn't help to soothe those ruffled feelings (not that I don't still do it to my kids..."do you guys know how lucky you are, blah-blah-blah?"). Pollyanna-ism doesn't tend to solve a whole lot, but it can help when you're already on the road to recovery.

I'm just grateful to have found The Happiness Project. I like reading about Gretchen's lapses in her pursuit of happiness, not because I'm glad she has lapses, but because I'm reminded that I am not the only one who falls short of her goals.

Maybe I should do yoga today...at least get my sorry butt off the computer.
"To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act." ~ Anatole France (1844 - 1924)

Carrie's Perfect Paper!

Ok, I have to gloat because according to Carrie of Under the Willow Gifts, I am the first customer to get her new seed paper! Nyeah, nyeah!

Isn't this too green-cool?The whole package was lovely, from the first opening:...to the spread of the goodies:Thank you, Carrie, for the great little extras! The boys will be fighting over who gets which lip balm. ;)

I wish everyone could smell your Bennington Maple Sugar soap...mmmmmmm!

And while I'm drooling, I want to show you the green beans we picked today as our dinner tonight: Oh, and if dh is reading this, I promise that Carrie and Joanna's soaps will be my last soap purchases for the summer! *sheepish grin* (Dh thinks I have a soap problem...)

"To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act." ~ Anatole France (1844 - 1924)

Never ending chores

The boys and I spent a couple of hours weeding and harvesting this morning. Luckily, we got up early enough so that it was only 10:40 by the time we came back into the house. I topped that off by doing a short walk/run on the treadmill before my shower. The machine told me I had burned off 145 calories, but I eat about that much in one snacking period! I think I need to exercise more.

We got our first harvest of green beans today! They grew well in the green house. I'm so excited; we'd run out of our green beans (frozen) from last year for a couple of months now.

A word about weeding, I honestly think that a gardener/weeder's best friend is the Circle Hoe. It probably cuts the amount of weeding time in half. I wouldn't weed without that, and the dandelion tool.

We took some photos of Gaia and her chicks a couple of days ago. Here's a pretty good one of her trying to show them how to eat:Today, I put them outside of the "fowl hut" for the first time. The chicks seemed a little lost, and I figured the grass was probably too cold on their little fuzzy butts, so I put them back inside after a couple of minutes. It was about 78 degrees and humid, and I was dripping sweat, so it's hard to believe anything could be cold, but they're just iddle-bitty things. ;)Ds#1 took a photo of Attila the Hen that previous evening. Attila is one of the chicks that Gaia hatched out last year. She's on the small side, probably because our friends' rooster (who had fertilized Gaia last year...Gaia was our friends' hen until C got tired of Gaia being constantly broody) has bantam blood in him. Attila is a fierce one though ("crazy" is the term we had used). She was born during a time when we were out of town. Our neighbor/friends helped to give them food and water, but weren't handling the chicks to get them used to people, so Attila and her litter-mate, Hypatia, were, and still are to some extent, extremely skittish, and scream like girls if you try to pick them up.
And I threw this next photo in just because Gali was being so cute. ;)And on a totally unrelated topic, but one that is applicable to every day of my life, there is a great entry in today's The Happiness Project blog that I think others might enjoy too.

"To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act." ~ Anatole France (1844 - 1924)

Thursday Thirteen

BOOKS!!!
Now that I've outed myself as a bibliophile, I think it's appropriate that this TT is going to be about books. This week, it'll be non-fiction because that is the bulk of my reading these days. Next week, I'll tackle fiction. For this particular topic, I wish it were Thursday Thirty or Thursday Three-Hundred instead of Thirteen!

I'm putting this list into sub-categories for greater clarity. And I wonder where ds#1 gets his penchant for classification from.

A) Books I have read and highly recommend:
1. Getting Things Done by David Allen. Inspiring! I've put some of his ideas into practice already. I have read lots of books on organizing, and this is, by far, the best one.
2. Craft Inc. by Meg Mateo Ilasco; in a similar vein, many books by Barbara Brabec are really good too.
3. The Real Science Behind the X-Files by Anne Simon. How can one make a great show even more enjoyable? Find out about the science that drives the episodes.
4. A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking. My only complaint about this book is that it doesn't have enough equations in it. The expression "a picture is worth a thousand words" applies to equations too.
5. The Primal Teen by Barbara Strauch. I am so not letting my boys drive until they are in their 20s!
6. Homeschooling for Excellence by David and Micki Colfax. This was the book that helped me convince dh to homeschool the kids. They are a fascinating family.
7. Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. Our family listened to this as a book on CD (ds#1 subsequently read it when he was 10), and was very moved by it. For our homeschool literary co-op couple of years ago, I recommended we read the kids' version, Chew On This: Everything You Don't Want to Know About Fast Food, and the kids liked it so much, they still quote from it.

B) Books I have not read, but that come highly recommended to me, so I have put them on my list (loooong list) of to-reads:
8) The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory by Brian Greene. I saw part of the PBS show on this topic, and it was fascinating.
9) Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen. I actually have started reading a couple of chapters of this during a Native American History homeschool class my kids took, and I plan to do a history unit with the boys based on this book.
10) The Portable Atheist by Christopher Hitchens. I hear this man is articulate and witty. This would round out our study of world religions...or non-religion as this may be.

C) Books I'm currently reading:
11) The Small Business Bible by Steven D. Strauss. Lots of info - I think my brain is on overload...
12) The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan. Mr. Pollan is an excellent and thought-provoking writer. I am planning on reading In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto at some point too.
13) The Simple Living Guide by Janet Luhrs. I need a constant reminder on how to simplify my life, and this is it.

Join the Thursday Thirteen fun! Visit other Thursday Thirteeners at:
http://thursdaythirteen.com/2008/06/12/thursday-thirteen-149th-edition/ and let the TTers know you're participating by leaving the link to your Thirteen in your comment.

"To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act." ~ Anatole France (1844 - 1924)

Surprise!

Gaia's chicks are hatching!! Their birth-date was yesterday, but close enough. We're just happy they hatched at all. The boys checked on her this afternoon and discovered them. I had looked in on her this morning, and they may have already hatched then, but I didn't lift her high enough to see.

Here is one in front of Gaia:I put on gloves so Gaia couldn't peck at my hands as I picked up one of the chicks. They are very curious at this age, and kept getting out from under her to stare at us. I imagine they, like human babies, can't focus very well at this age, but I could be wrong. Here's a better close-up (not blurry):Are they CUTE or what?? :)

So much for trying to make soap this afternoon. I need to go make biscuits for dinner now. The How to Cook Everything book has a very good, and easy, "emergency" drop biscuit recipe.

"To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act." ~ Anatole France (1844 - 1924)

I'm blushing

Diane (of the beautiful Much of a Muchness blog) has given me the following award: (created by Arte Y Pico)

I am not worthy! Really. :}

I am flattered by the compliments that have been paid to me by all you wonderful ladies who are much more accomplished and successful than I am. I very much appreciate the love because I was feeling a bit low about how little I've actually done with my life.

Speaking of making something of one's life, Martha Stewart has a Dreamers Into Doers contest that some of you may want to enter. I hope someone I know wins!

"To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act." ~ Anatole France (1844 - 1924)

Sunny day

The sun is out, the humidity is low...the storm has swept through! At least until Friday.

So, I'm feeling jazzed! And I dedicate this jazz musician sketch to Pica over at Bird By Bird. :)This was done around 1992 or '94, I think. I used charcoal on a crappy piece of paper (you can see the creases in it). It was just meant to be a quick sketch to loosen up those drawing muscles, but I liked it so much, I kept it - and wish I had used good paper. Hind-sight....

"To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act." ~ Anatole France (1844 - 1924)

Anne-Marie's a genius! ;)

I'm like a horse with blinders, sometimes: one-tracked and focussed, which means that I can't see good ideas right in front of my face. Luckily, I've got good friends in virtual places who are generous with their ideas. So, big thanks to Anne-Marie for suggesting using these soaps we made for both Flag Day in addition to my 4th of July idea!I tried to do a close up photo that would show off the glitter:I have written copy for these cuties at our Two Tadpoles site.

It was too hot to harvest strawberries yesterday (did that for an hour this morning instead), so the guys picked sage which I've laid out to dry. Looking at our own harvested goods just makes my heart sing (which sounds even better than my singing in the shower! Hah!).

"To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act." ~ Anatole France (1844 - 1924)

Patriotic Soaps

Just in time for Flag Day and the Fourth of July - our Patriotic Soaps are perfect for your Star-Spangled needs!

Handmade from the finest ingredients, these luscious soaps with a pleasing scent of Green Garden feature a red star and a blue star embedded in a white base. The tiny dash of glitter in the soap is reminiscent of holiday fireworks.

Complete your patriotic decor with these fun and festive soaps!

A rectangular bar (4 oz) is $3; an oval bar (3 oz) is $2.50

Photos and meme

Ok, Indiana is officially saturated! Just when we thought we'd been hit badly enough on Wednesday, along comes another storm Friday night/Saturday morning. Luckily, our little dead-end road wasn't flooded this time, but the larger road our street connects to was - at least until noon-ish on Saturday. The guys took a walk out to the main road and ds#1 took a photo of the field across from us that is next to the road. Keep in mind that this was a field. On Saturday morning, it looked like a raging river. Hoo-eee, baby!There are towns close to us, most notably one about a half hour's drive north, that had to be evacuated.

On Thursday, after the first flooding, the kids went to explore the little creek down from our house, taking the dog with them. I thought this was a particularly funny photo of Gali.I had previously posted a photo of the things growing in our greenhouse; this is an updated photo to show much it has all filled in!Ds#1 took a pic of one of our blueberry bushes just loaded with berries. It's hard to see, but trust me, it is loaded. I'll be out there personally wrestling every chipmunk that tries to take off unripen berries. I hate it when they waste food.
So, anyway, as promised to Firefly-Mom, here is my meme for her tag:

What was I doing 10 years ago?
Getting ready to build our current home – talking to the architectural designer, and dreaming.

Five snacks I enjoy:
pickled herring
Shrimp chips
kimchee
potato chips (but I try to eat the organic ones)
pork fuzz (Chinese thing)

Five things on my to-do list today:
clean bathrooms/toilets
do laundry
jog
start on my The Sketchbook Project
do this meme

Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
Set up some sort of annuity type fund that will provide for my favorite charities for years to come.

Invest well to provide for our (mine and dh’s) old age as well as for the kids to go to university.

Put in a *real* pool.

Five jobs I have had:
Research assistant – biopsychology dept
Research assistant – linguistics dept
Office assistant – geography dept
Office assistant – undergraduate library
Research Associate – psychology dept

Five of my bad habits:
1. Oddly enough, this one is exactly the same as Firefly Mom’s: “I bite my cuticles. I've never been a nail biter, but I can't seem to leave my cuticles alone.” And I just looove the part where I bleed profusely from yanking skin out.

2. This one is similar to Firefly Mom’s too. I’m a bibliophile. I buy way more books than I actually get around to reading. When I was the Scholastic book clubs coordinator for my homeschool group, it was like letting an alcoholic into a liquor store unsupervised. And I didn’t even constrain myself by a bookshelf limit. This vice is the bane of dh’s existence.

3. I’m a procrastinator. No, wait, I’m the Queen of Procrastination. I’m setting a bad example for my children.

4. I have no patience and I lack tact.

5. I have my mom's bad temper and I yell a lot. My lucky kids, eh? ;D

Five places I have lived:
Hong Kong
Vancouver
Delaware
Indiana
...uh, I’ve only lived in 4 places, but in sevearl different houses in 3 of the 4 cities though.

Five people I want to get to know better (yes, this means you are tagged!):
I can't decide, but whoever wants to play, please post a comment here so I can come visit you!

Five random things: (since this doesn't say "about me", I'll post 5 truly random things)
1. Many of my friends are either 1) never married, 2) married with no kids, or 3) married with 2 or fewer children.

2. Aside from homonymic (don’t try saying that, you'll just sound drunk) errors lot of people have trouble with these following things:
a) confusing "eager" with "anxious"
b) the proper time and place for "utilize" versus "use"
c) saying re-la-tor instead of re-al-tor for the word "realtor"

3. "Light year" is a unit of length, not a unit of time. It’s the distance that light travels in an earth year.

4. I believe in social and environmental responsibility, and as such, I don’t shop at Wal-Mart and many other “regular” stores. I try to buy from local, indie, and mom-and-pop type places, or go by Co-op America’s National Green Pages for green options. I admit to doing business with Amazon.com probably a bit too often though...that’s my weakness (see #2 of Five of My Bad Habits).

5. Invasive species such as autumn olives are such a dilemma. On the one hand, they are…well, invasive, and can easily crowd out and take over the habitat of native species. On the other hand, they produce a beautiful scent and berries that wildlife love to eat.

"To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act." ~ Anatole France (1844 - 1924)

Spotted Cow's Repeat Day Challenge

Spotted Cow Soaps issued a challenge! I thought it was very cute, and I sang in the shower like I said I was going to do.

Have a lovely Friday, everyone! And, Firefly-Mom, I'll get to my tag this weekend. I promise! :)

"To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act." ~ Anatole France (1844 - 1924)

Just so my blog is not totally lame today...

I thought I'd share some good and/or fun links!

For the bakers out there, check out this cake by Sue Nelson:and more like it here! They are totally amazing! This one is one of my favorites, called "Breakfast Sunny Side Up" by Jeanne Turman. A slightly more educational site is Energy Hog that teaches energy conservation to kids. They have a free down-loadable activity book for kids and a teacher's guide, also free.

And last, but not least, here's some good tips on how to...uh, what was I talking about again? Just kidding!...how to keep one's brain young! 12 Ways to Keep Your Mind Sharp

"To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act." ~ Anatole France (1844 - 1924)

No Thursday Thirteens this week

Sorry! Between the satellite internet connection being out half the time due to stormy weather the past few days, and my being swamped with other things, I'll have to pass on the game this week.

"To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act." ~ Anatole France (1844 - 1924)

Holy severe thunderstorms, Batman!

Whoa...we already had a full day of storms yesterday, and woke up to one this morning, so I wasn't expecting another quite so bad this afternoon.

You can't really tell from this photo, but we had a downpour and a half. In addition to the several thunderstorm, we also had flash floods, and tornado warnings (luckily, we don't get tornadoes too badly around our town).The flooding was insane though. Our road was like a river; the road that our dead-end road connects to was like a river. Dh was in town, and the downtown area was totally flooded too. A lot of cars are going to be ruined. He had to park on our hilltop property, but managed to make it home safely. Thank goodness.

I started off the day jogging for a bit on the treadmill. I hadn't been exercising in months and really needed to get back into my running/yoga routine. So, I was happy to begin the day productively.

We also finished up the celebration soap that was featured on Anne-Marie's Soap Queen blog. There's a blue star and a red star embedded in every white (with sparkles) soap. We're hoping they'll turn out ok in terms of looks. We wanted a red-white-blue color scheme, but the white may obscure the stars too much.Speaking of soaps, Sher of Savonara had included in a previous order the cutest popsicle soaps as freebies. The boys loved them, as you can see. What a perfect soap for the summer. Thanks, Sher!In the afternoon, before the crazy storm came through, we spent 1.5 hours picking strawberries. I wish I could post the scent of them on this blog. Mmmmmm! We spent another half hour or so hulling them. I've put them on cookie sheets to freeze for later use because I ran out of time for making jelly or baking something. Lots more where those babies came from.
"To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act." ~ Anatole France (1844 - 1924)

A couple of days in the life of...

My days seem to blur together. I don't know if it's age or if it's because we have too many things going on for my little brain to wrap around.

Sunday was a bitter-sweet day. We had our really good friends (best friends in this state) over for dinner, which is always fun. But, they told us that they will have to move back to CA within the next couple of months, due to J's job, which broke our hearts. It is incredibly hard to find a family where the kids get along great with our kids and we get along great with the parents, and we hate to lose them.

On the homefront, dh found a snake on Sunday. He thinks it's a black rat snake, which is wonderful because they eat other snakes (we have some poisonous ones around), and they eat the chipmunks (who have a habit of wiping out our blueberries). The dog was curious but cautious.Monday, ds#1 was invited to a party for some of the teens in our homeschool group. Our good friends, C&D, hosted it at their beautiful farm. I always enjoy being there. It's so lovely and peaceful; and lots of fun to watch their cows, goats, chickens, donkeys, and horses. While ds#1 and I were at the party, dh took ds#2 for a hike at McCormick Creek State Park:It was a long day as we shopped after the party and stopped off to see my FIL. We're going to take it easy today and catch up on home stuff (well, me and the kids anyway; dh has to go to work). I'm just waiting to get a shower - yeah, at noon! - as soon as the severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings go off.

I forgot to post this earlier, but my sister bought a planter for ds#1's birthday. Ds has been eyeing this planter for a while at our ceramics teacher's studio. It is very cool, and looks terrific in our living room! It's in the shape of a stump with shelf-fungus growing out of it.
"To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act." ~ Anatole France (1844 - 1924)