Monday Mutterings, Mama Style

The ever-fantastical Mrs. BC at Mrs. BC's House of Chaos posted a picture of her citronella geranium, and I threatened to do the same.  Here it is, on my impeccably clean absolutely filthy porch:

This thing smells amazing, and supposedly keep mosquitoes away.  I'm like crack to mosquitoes - they flock to me from miles around - so I'll try anything.  The one completely toxic thing you'll find in our medicine chest is DEET mosquito repellent, and we still get bitten.

This is another plant I love.  A few years ago I thought it died, so I stuck it outside and forgot about it.  It was early summer and it got heavily rained on a few times, and then produced new leaves and flowered all over.  The blooms are gorgeous - they look like bougainvillea, papery white flowers with a red stamen.
I had no idea of the name, but I did some googling and found out this is Bleeding Heart Vine (also called Glory Bower) and is native to Western Africa, where it can grow to be 10 ft tall!

 It was just starting to flower here -it has clumps of blooms all over it now.
I threatened to do the daybook last week and since no one screamed in protest, here it is!
Favorite Picture of The Week:

It's a toss up between this:

 

The girls at a farm up the road from us, playing on the "kid's tractor"
Or

 This would be neighborhood children flocking to my backyard as soon as the pool (which is a crappy little pool) comes out.  This was after they had run a lemonade stand on my front lawn and decorated the entire driveway with chalk.  I love that our girls have buddies in the neighborhood, and I'm a softie, so I end up being the neighborhood mom.  The kid in the foreground was once found on the other side of town when he was 3 - he had ridden his bike across 4 busy streets and had to be brought home by the police.  I'll let you guess at what his home life is like.  So while he behaves himself, he's always allowed over.


Least Favorite Thing of The Week:
Humidity

We already know what the heat does to me, and it's filthy whore cousin needs to go, too.  

Song I Can't Stop Singing:
Young Blood by The Naked and Famous

I Can't Stop Eating:
This little dinner I made the other day:

Remember how I'm trying to eat more vegetarian?  Well I say if you're going to fall off the veggie wagon occasionally, make it for something really, really good.  We have an organic sausage company that is at our Farmer's Market, and their sausages are oh-holy-mouth-orgasm good.  This sausage was porkette with broccoli rabe and provolone in it.  We have also tried their lamb sausage - imagine the best Middle Eastern kabob you've ever had, but more tender.  

For this, I seared the sausages in my trusty cast iron skillet until they were cooked through, then set them aside and added a bit of olive oil, and carmelized some onions in the drippings.  Then I added thinly sliced zucchini and yellow squash and cooked until tender.  A half glass of wine was poured in (I had to dispose of the rest of it - poor me), then I added a half cup of veggie broth, returned the sausages to the pan and covered it and let it cook down and reduce by about half.  In the meantime I mixed up some polenta and served the sausages and veggies over this.  Holy YUM.

What I Made This Week:

Banana muffins from leftover bananas (the Mister won't eat them unless they're practically green), and a horribly failed cloth napkin makeover.  Pictures to come.

Rant Of The Week:

My husband worked midnights this weekend - which means he went in at 10 pm and got home at 8 am.  So during the day I had to get and keep the kids out of the house, and make sure I brought absolutely everything we could possibly need for the day.  Thank the gods for my parents and the fact that we get along, because we end up just crashing their house basically the entire weekend.  But housework?  Yeah.  If I want to do anything I have to wake up before Butterbean (so around 6) do what I can, and save the rest for after they go to bed and the Mister's out of the house, assuming I haven't dropped from fatigue.  My house is so in need of attention, and it's driving me crazy.(er)

Things I Have To Accomplish This Week:

Clean, and steam-clean the carpets because the stupid cat who refuses to die has some sort of stomach thing going on, and spent the weekend throwing up.  I repeat : cats are THE WORST, EVER.

I also really, really want to try my hand at making either Kombucha or water kefir.  The Co-op we shop at is trying to get kefir grains for me.  

And wrapping up the project that I started 2 weeks ago that's sitting forlornly in our spare room would probably be a good idea.

And, as an added bonus, DUH! Moment Of The Week:

Brew your coffee the night before, and stick it in the fridge.  In the morning add ice cubes and milk and voila!  Your iced coffee is ready to go.  Why did this never occur to me before?

*It should also be noted that Bonzai Aphrodite advocates this because when you add your milk there is no heat present to destroy the enzymes, which keeps your milk "raw"*

Enjoy your week, lovelies!