5 Things

5 Things I Love at the moment.  I've been busy getting ready for my best friend in the whole world to visit me this weekend.  She's coming all the way from Great Britain to see me.  I'm so psyched since I haven't seen her since the summer of 2006.  It was such a cool surprise when she announced she was coming for a visit.

1.  Amazon Cloud Player

I love that I have access to my music anywhere.  On my phone.  In a hotel.  On any of the computers I have, or even a friends computer.  I can access it while doing dishes, gardening, traveling, writing, taking a bath, sitting outside...This makes me happy.  And because I bought a few albums from Amazon, I got the upgrade to 20 GB.

You've got the Love...

2.  Florence and the Machine

Speaking of albums I got from Amazon, this is one of them.  I've been a total Florence + the Machine kick for a few months now.  I just can't get enough.  My favorite songs?  Rabbit Heart, Drumming Song and Heavy in Your Arms.  Daily listening requirements, at least on my part.

3.  Gardening

We know I love gardening.  Well, at least, I seem to be focusing on it a lot.  Despite a lot of frustration, I find myself enjoying it a lot too.  It's been raining for so many days straight now, and today has been the first time in ages I've seen the sun.  First thing I did?  Took Liam out and worked on the Garden a bit.  And my whole plan to go simple this year?  Destroyed in one big trip to Lowe's.  It's been relaxing (for the most part) to go out there and work.  Just focusing on that and nothing else, it's almost therapeutic.  Thinking about it can stress me out, amusingly enough.  I think "Oh no, what if this doesn't grow?" or "What the eff am I going to do about these weeds!?" and I get a little irritated, but actually getting out there, and getting dirty...it's a good feeling.

4.  Game of Thrones

Oh Ned.

Obsessed.  Literally, utterly obsessed.  I was obsessed with the books.  I am still obsessed with the books.  I'm reading A Storm of Swords for the millionth time (after finishing the first two books again as well) and am attempting to read that, and a Feast for Crows before Dance with Dragons is released on July 12th.  (3 days before my birthday!!!)  I spend far too much time reading threads on various theories, some of which blow my mind. I was so excited for the show, but had this fear that I'd be disappointed.  How wrong I was.  The show has been excellent so far.  I look forward to Sunday now.  Painfully.  Monday I wake up thinking "Crap, there is 7 more days until another episode..." or "Is it Sunday yet?"

HBO has done a good job keeping to books.  The minor changes they've made are just that: minor.  Nothing has been taken from the story, except maybe that I love it even more.  I'm already looking forward to season 2.

5.  InuYasha

(お座り) Osuwari!

Netflix recently put Inuyasha up on on-demand.  I've watched the entire series before, but that was years ago- before the kids were born.  It had been so long, I forgot how much I enjoyed the series.  I've gone through 100 episodes in 3 weeks.  105 episode, actually.  I'm watching the show as I type this now.  I haven't felt like a fan girl in a while, so it's a welcome feeling.  Speaking of being a fan girl...it seems as though our geek level is about to level up.  We're throwing an anime night with our friends next week.  We'll be watching Evangelion 1.1 and Evangelion 2.2.  Fun times!

And because we should always strive for balance, here's 5 things I hate at the moment:  Weeds, Laundry, Rain, Wallpaper and rabbits that eat my apples trees!

Two posts in One!

I was going to oooh and ahhh after spending an hour (or two) in Lowe's yesterday.  But I sort of forgot...so you can hear about it today.  Our mower hasn't been good enough for the amount of land we have (just under an acre)- so we had to buy a new one.  I told John it was fine to get a ride on, but he declined, both to save money, and because a ride on mower isn't his style.  He got a nice self-propelled one, as well as a weed wacker.  Yay for lawn care!

We also ordered carpet for the kids rooms.  I can't wait- this will basically complete their rooms, outside of some touch up paint work, and new lights.  Oh, and some new curtains rods.  Liam decided to pull out his curtain rods.  It was a bit bit loose to begin with, but made worse by Mr. Destructo.  Really, I know it's a stereotype that boys are more destructive.  And before I had kids, I never believed in Nature over Nurture...but both my kids seem to be determined to prove me wrong.

We also picked up the supplies for my living room shelves.  This has me really excited.  The living room is so close to done!  Well, not really...there's still a lot of physical work to be done.  But we have a lot of the supplies we need to get the job done.  We just need this semester to end.  Did I mention Graduation is this Friday?  Oh yes.  House work will be getting done!

If this rain ever stops (Damn La Nina!) I can get into my garden.  I have my tomatoes and cabbage in the ground (as well as strawberries, blueberries, and cranberries) and I now have cucumber, peppers, various squashes and pumpkins, and watermelon seedlings waiting to be put in as well.  And onions, shallots, potatoes, garlic and asparagus...I also have a bunch of seeds, waiting to be put directly into ground.   Sunflowers, carrots, lettuce, basil, corn...and probably other things, I just can't remember them all.  Pics soon, if it ever stops raining.

So yeah, that's what's going on.  Lots of little stuff, but it's adding up.  It's taking a lot of patience, particularly with all this crappy weather which is basically caging us all in again.  So here's this weeks' Wordless Wednesday- Hoping the Sun returns, and we can have more of this kind of fun.

Not so Wordless Wednesday

Good Bye Ugly Carpet

It's been raining since Friday, with more rain expected the rest of the week.  It's such a bummer- particularly after the nice weather we had last week.

I have to give thanks and love to my husband, who decided today that Liam's rug needed to pulled up asap.  My little monster son decided that he needed to EAT the rug and the foamy stuff underneath.  Yesterday he had diarrhea, and I was a little freaked out that he made himself sick.  So this morning, John spent it moving furniture and removing staples, and taking the carpet completely out. Underneath wasn't too bad- it was some sort of ugly as sin linoleum.

Liam didn't seem to mind the missing carpet.  In fact, he seemed to like it because without the carpet, the room has more of an echo.  He was running around the room yelling happily.

Hopefully we can get to Lowe's tomorrow afternoon and get some carpet put in.  And of course, since I love Lowe's, seedlings, and maybe some needed shelves.

Laundry!

Bflomama over at Everyday Miracles posted a picture in her blog that I could totally relate to.  Laundry on the line!  So I had to do the same.

I love the warm weather, for many reasons.  Drying my laundry on the line is the best!  I love the smell, and I love not using my dryer.

Starting to hit the Vegetable garden

I spent Mother's Day in my Vegetable garden, cleaning out the beds as much as I could.  There are two large beds, all full of waste.  As you can see, I only got about a fourth of way through the beds, and that took about two hours.  There was a lot of waste in there- I don't know what was growing in there before, though I'm positive most of it is not vegetables, which is what I want this area for.

I've spent a lot of time trying to figure out what all the green stuff in the back bed is.  After much searching, I'm pretty sure I have figured out the mystery.  I'm not 100% though.  I think that its a chard of some sort.  The stalks are bright red, so I think they could possibly be a Swiss Bright Lights Chard.  I don't know for sure though and I'm not sure if I want to try "cooking" it and consuming it to find out...I don't want to get sick, though the thought of possibly tearing everything out makes me a bit sad.  I wish there was a way to find out for sure.  I have tasted the leaves, and they were very tangy tasting (raw).

Also, there seems to be some sort of Rhubarb growing.  This is amusing, since I planted Rhubarb last year, and it's doing well.  But they look nothing alike, so again, I don't know for sure.  It does look like the pictures of "flowering" rhubarb I find on google.  But nothing else looks like a rhubarb, so it's probably not a rhubarb.  It sort of looks like a Japanese Knotweed as well.  Since there are tons of dried up, dead brush, I'm thinking this is a possibility.  Not to happy if that's the case, it seems like it's as bad as bamboo when it comes to getting rid of it.  Ugh, that's not a pleasant thought, let me tell you.

I also found this little guy- only one in the entire bed.  It looks like a strawberry plant.  I think I'll keep it and see what happens.  I'm aiming to get the beds mostly cleared by the end of the week.  I have some berries bushes to plant too, so hopefully I'll get those in the ground by the end of the week.

Wild Strawberry?

Happy Mother's Day

I've had a nice mother's day so far- John made me some delicious chocolate covered strawberries, some Cinnamon Monkey bread for breakfast, and it's been pretty relaxing.  My gift was some Strawberry and Blueberry plants, as well as a cute American Cranberry bush.  I'm going to be working a little on the vegetable garden today, and hope to get them in the ground.

This poem has been posted to one of my friends, and Adopt-a-Mom breastfeeding mentor,Alicea-Berg. I'm reposting it here with her permission.

For those who have carried, and still hold your babies tight, this day is for you.
For those who have carried, and still wait for your little ones, this day is for you.
For those who have carried, held, and then lost them too soon, this day is for you.
For those who have carried, but never saw their little faces, this day is for you.
Hold them, in your thoughts, in your memories, in your heart.
They will always be with you.
You are Mother.

For those who placed them with others, but still remain in their lives, this day is for you.
For those who placed them with others, and know you did right, this day is for you.
For those who placed them with others, and long to see them again, this day is for you.
For those who placed them with others in a new home, with love and stability, this day is for you.
Hold them, in your thoughts, in your memories, in your heart.
They will always be with you.
You are Mother.

For those of you who are partnered to mothers, this day is for you.
You are there for the joys, the sadness, the support.
In spirit, you are mother, even if they did not come from your body.
Hold that, in your thoughts, in your memories, in your heart.
Their thanks will always be with you.

For those of you who long for that child, this day is for you.
You have shown strength and a love that far transcends material things.
In spirit, you are mother; if not in body, in your very soul.
Hold that, in your thoughts, in your memories, in your heart.
They will be with you soon.

For those of you who are mothers alone, this day is for you.
You have amazing strength.
For those of you who are mothers in distress, this day is for you.
You will find your path.
For those of you who are mothers by marriage, this day is for you.
You are there with support.
For those of you who are mothers through adoption, this day is for you.
Your love knows no bounds.
For those of you who have to be father and mother, this day is for you.
Your love transcends gender.

The conventional definitions of "mother" are no longer valid in our society. If you feel neglected on this day, I recognize you now.

YOU ARE "MOTHER".
THIS DAY IS FOR YOU.

Happy Mother's Day to all of you, with all of my love.


I hope all the Moms out there feel a little love and appreciation from those they mother.

Flowers and Bread

I spent about 2 hours today in my garden.  It was really nice, though exhausting.  Did you know gardening burns a lot of calories?  I entered the time in sparkpeople's fitness tracker and it said 2 hours of gardening burnt over 700 calories.  Crazy!  I need to do this daily!

But I didn't take pictures, and I have a few "Mother's Day" presents to plant this weekend, so I'm not going to talk about gardening today.  Instead, I'm making today all about bread.  I've been wanting to make some bread for a few weeks now, so I decided to order a dough hook for my KitchenAid mixer.  It arrived today (Love Amazon Prime) and yes, I did put it on my arm, and "Yarrrr" like a pirate.

I really want to replace store bought bread with home made bread.  I really do.  I'm just not sure we could...

Friday is usually confession day, isn't it?  Well here's my confession: My family and I are terrible with food.  We waste a lot food, and while I've worked to make it better, we still end up throwing out food that spoiled before we ate it.  And sadly, while we go through about 2-3 loaves of bread each week, I'm not sure I could ever replace store bought bread.  I've made it before, and it's not the first thing the family grabs when making sandwiches.  It sort of bums me out seeing the last few pieces of bread I've made get thrown out.  I'm not a big bread eater myself, so I can't really dictate which bread to eat.

I have a bubbling jar of sourdough starter going right now.  It's a bit gross...fermenting flour, but it seems to be working pretty well.  I used 1/2 cup white flour, 1/2 cup whole wheat flour and 1 cup warm water. I feed it daily with 1/4 cup white water, 1/4 cup whole wheat flour and 1/2 cup warm water.  Eventually I have to grab a 2 QT jar, because the jar I'm using now is too small.  It should be ready next week sometime, Tuesday hopefully, maybe Wednesday.  I like it sour!

Wordless Wednesday

*cry*

I am very sad right now. I know I mentioned it before, but I'll talk about it again. My apple trees are most likely going to die.  Over the winter, all the snow prohibited the rabbits in the area from eating.  So they ate the bark off my apple trees, without me knowing.  When the snow melted, I found that almost all the bark from the lower half of each tree was gone.  I've been watching and waiting, to see what would happen.  Almost all the advice I was given said to just leave the tree alone.  Don't cover it, don't do anything but let it heal.  Sadly, my trees are still young and scrawny, and I just don't think they'll survive.  Everything I've read said they won't.

Bark is like skin...

So they aren't dead.  The small area on the bottom that does have bark is still green.  But as of yet, not a single bud has appeared.  It has no leaves.  I just don't see how it could survive.  Some of the ends of the branches (not that there is many...) even look a little gray and sickly.  Sigh.  And looking at these pictures, and the previous pictures, I'm pretty sure the rabbits ate off branches as well.

Damage is pretty severe on this tree...

I'm angry enough that if I could, I'd go rabbit hunting.  I don't know how my vegetables are going to survive.  According to our neighbor, the shed next to our yard has a family of like 12 rabbits living in it.  Maybe I should make my yard more owl friendly...

Snack Attack!

I love snacks. Who doesn't? I've been on a cheese kick lately, which is a good healthy snack, right? But I recently made a big order of Japanese snacks, and for some crazy reason, I wanted to share them.

Ume (Plum) Onigiri flavoring, Green Tea Marshmallow,  Miso soup (variety pack) , Hi-chews, Various caramels, and Green tea Oreo sticks

Wasabi Cheetos, Takoyaki Cheese balls, Sukiyaki Cheese balls, Ume cheese balls

Nestle Green Tea KitKats

The first thing I opened was Green Tea Kit Kats.  These were the main reason I made an order.  I've ordered from Jlist.com (JBox.com if you don't want to view the Over 18 items.)  Japan always seems to have some really cool stuff- Cucumber Pepsi, Variously flavored KitKats (lemon cheesecake, anyone?), Green tea Coke...  All sound yummy to me!

Jlist is a good place to get Japanese snacks and items.  They have a good assortment, and it's pretty inexpensive, if you don't include shipping. Shipping is expensive, but that's pretty much a given if you consider it's coming from Japan.

Individually wrapped! 

So they were pretty good.  I won't say they were the best thing ever, because, well...they are Kit Kats in the end, and have that Kit Kat flavor (cheap chocolate, though very yummy!)  It basically tasted like Nestle chocolate, flavored with Green Tea.  Which makes sense.  It was very soft, although it was a warm day.  It melted on my fingers easily.

Break me off a piece of that Green Tea Kit Kat Bar!

Coming soon- Takoyaki cheese balls, and Seaweed Moringa Caramel.