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!

Thats What She Said

Since I have lots to share and no two things go together, how about I put this in "daybook" fashion, mmmkay?  Should this be a weekly thing?  Anybody anybody?
Favorite picture of the week:

 The minions curled up watching Backyardigans this morning.  Notice the "summer legs".  Every time Butterbean's knees heal, she falls and skins them again.  I swear we don't beat them, these kids are just forever running, jumping, climbing, and talking (the last one - they.never.stop.)


Least favorite thing of the week: Stinkbugs.

If they ruin my garden it's very possible you will find me curled up in the fetal position, crying.  For the love of all things holy, I spent $50 on heirloom seeds ... if I have to quit my job to hand squish these f$#%ers off my plants, the Mister will have to get over it.

Song I can't stop singing: Paint It Black by the Rolling Stones

Do I need a reason for this one?

I can't stop eating: Organic Pink Lady apples, and this amazing Coconut Lime Berry Cake.  If you make it, cut the sugar in half - it does not need an entire cup.  The Mister woke me up Saturday morning and requested this ... if he hadn't gotten up with the kids and let me sleep in, I would have told him to piss off.  But it's so easy and sooooooo good.

What I made this week :  Scrap-fabric flower headbands for Mooch.  She loves headbands, and since The Mister is usually the one getting her ready in the morning, these help her not look like a little hobo.

Rant of the week: I'm sorry, but I cannot get over the bashing Mrs. B took over the whole Circle Of Moms blog contest.  If you missed it, the contest is here (please vote for your favorite blog, whatever it may be!)and Mrs. B.'s blog post about the hoopla is here.  Yes, the bashers have apologized and have been removed from the contest, but I honestly cannot believe the hate spread by a bunch of alleged "Christians".  What an insult to the sweet wonderful Christians I know.  It would take up this entire damn post to cover all the misconceptions about Pagans, but allow me to hit on two that are burning me up right now:

Pagans do not believe in Satan.  Satan is a Christian concept, not a Pagan one.  The horned god that you see represented in Pagan works is the fertility god (just how deer sprout horns in spring when they are most fertile - get it?)

You don't need to pray for our children, and honestly ... isn't that a little disrespectful?  Isn't that implying that our children are in some sort of danger?  If raising your child to respect all forms of life, to take care of our Earth, to spread goodwill, to commit random acts of kindness, and to appreciate beauty every day is putting my child in harms way .. then by all means, pray away.  

And - the most dreaded - Thing I Have To Accomplish This Week:

I have to completely re-work our downstairs playroom/computer room.  I live with 2 clutter bugs and a two year old.  The clutter bugs would sooner chop off their pinkies then throw ANYTHING away ("Why are you throwing away that piece of paper Mooch scribbled on two years ago?  I WANT TO KEEP THAT!"  "Mommy, I need every single McDonald's toy I've ever gotten!  Yes, even the boy ones!")  I bought a few things to get the organizational groove on, and I need to sort and organize a ton of Mooch's school work from the last year, all our books (will I ever really read For Whom The Bell Tolls?  Prolly not.  Sorry, Ernie) and sooo much other crap stuff.  This is especially important now that the weather is heating up - our downstairs in a finished basement and is lovely and cool all summer long, I want to be able to enjoy it and not walk in and want to scream.

^ Connected to this project ... I need to dispose of some poor neglected fish.  Still alive.  I think a 100 lb dog and a cat who thinks he's a dog are enough pets for a little house.  What's the nicest way to do this?  We have a stream nearby, I'm thinking about sending them to live there.  

I'll be back, my lovelies ... here's a tease of a project I've just started ... what could it be? ;-)

More progress!

Hey there all!
Hope you all are well and it is sunny wherever you are.  We have had almost non-stop rain, but the sun is shining today and I'm loving it.  My parents kept the girls last night and The Mister worked a midnight shift, so not only did I have the entiiiiiiire bed to myself (oh, sweet bliss), I got to get up and run this morning, then play in the garden for a bit before getting ready for work.  I am so excited about how everything is growing - this is my "experimental garden" year, where I get to figure out what works and what doesn't, and as long as the stink bugs stay away I think we are going to be able to produce a lot of food.  
The whole plot has had a thorough soaking the last few weeks, so now we just need some sun.

 My Moonflower planter is starting to look really good.  I put this trellis in the day before last and it's already started to climb.

 A bean plant my sweet friend Mary gave to me, and our planter of mustard greens.  For some reason there's a bald spot in the middle of this planter - I'm thinking of adding some seeds in so we will have an ongoing harvest.

Strawberry planter, with PVC pipe insert.  I saw this idea online a decided to try it, since our planter last year died off so quickly.  You take a piece of PVC piping cut to the height of your planter, drill holes along the length of it, and fit it into the planter before you add soil and plants.  This way the strawberries throughout get an adequate supply of water.  So far, so good!

 A newly transplanted heirloom tomato, sprouted from seed.  This is a Black Tula, a beautiful slicing tomato.

 We have established that I am a cheapskate of epic proportions.  I needed to add trellising to my peas, and of course I was not going to spend a dime on it.  We have a birch tree in our neighbor's yard that hangs over our yard and sheds branches pretty regularly - to the point that at least once a month anything that we can't use gets bundled up and taken to the city compost pile.  We had a big bunch gathered, and I decided to make some of the smaller branches do some work as pea brush.  Not only does this not cost squat, it looks sooooo pretty.  3 big sections of branch were put to use with some garden twine as trellising along the back wall.

 

*Happy Dance*

 My "nursery" of baby heirlooms.  C'mon, lil guys.

 Oooh, radishes.  I have so many plans for you.

 This iris came from my Mom's house a few years ago.  This is the first time it bloomed and boy, was it worth the wait.  This is on the shady North side of the house, and apparently it's quite happy!  Mooch loves this, purple is her favorite color.

 Sigh.  Can anyone use about a ton of lemon balm?  You thought I was joking when I said one little sprout turned into Herbzilla, didn't you?

 And something NOT from my yard, but oh-so-beautiful I wanted to share.  My parent's house is surrounded by mountain laurel, and it is in full bloom right now.  It is so pretty and smells wonderful!  

 

 

 

Garden Progress!

I have so many pictures other than this, but I stupidly loaded them onto my computer at home and deleted them off the camera.  These I had to rip from my FB account.  But I am so excited with how the garden, and in fact the entire yard, is developing.  I know the anklebiters need a certain amount of grass to run like crazy on, but I'm starting to think that grass is dumb.  Dumb, I tell you!  Why would I devote my entire yard to grass when I could grow food and herbs and other amazing stuff instead?  Cue to me defiantly blowing dandelion seedheads all over the place - I want dandelions.  I am going to make them the must-have lawn accessory.  You can eat them, and they have pretty flowers, and the seedheads can keep your children entertained.  And by not spraying them with weed killer (or the dreaded Weed n' Feed - more on that here) you are saving your children from increased allergy and asthma risks.  Don't be the dick who needs the greenest lawn.

Anyyyyyyyway, here are a few pictures, more to come!

 My in-laws came to visit a while back, and they like soda.  We don't typically have it in the house, so the Mister was dispatched to get a couple of liter bottles.  After they left we dumped the remainder of soda down the drain, then rinsed the bottles and put them in the recycling.  I was on StumbleUpon and came across an article from a man who cuts the bottles in half, fills the bottoms with pebbles and soil, then adds seeds and water and flips the bottle closed.  Instant greenhouse.  I had to try it.  These are cabbage seeds that sprouted within a few days!  The bottle keeps the seeds moist and warm and they sprout very fast.  In the other bottle I sprouted some Chocolate Beauty bell peppers.  They have both been moved into the garden and the bottles are now being used to sprout valerian and angelica.  

 Side view of the garden.  My garden!  I have a kick-ass garden!!!  Guess I better cross this off the to-do list.  The pots on the side are my heirloom tomatoes, which I'm nervous about.  They're not very big except for a few.  Next year I will start them earlier and maybe use the soda bottle trick under the grow lamps.  The wooden planter is mustard greens and we moved Mooch's strawberry plants, which last year got eaten by slugs, into a planter.

The hay is leftover from Samhain decorations - I had a bale outside with pumpkins and gourds sitting on it, and I had thrown it under our deck with the intention of adding it slowly to the compost bin.  I came across another article (I need to start keeping track of this so I can credit people!) that touted covering your garden with hay to keep the soil moist and keep down weeds.  This is a line of zucchini and yellow squash - I should mention that I did thin the line after this was taken.  I can't wait for these suckers to start producing - and for fried zucchini blossoms!

Heirloom sugar snap peas on the left, radishes on the right.  Yum!

This is in the back of the yard - a little bed I created in front of the compost bin.  See that tree-like thing in the back?  That's my first ever witch hazel!  I treated myself to it at a local plant sale, and I am so excited to have this growing in our very own backyard.  I look straight out at this bed from my kitchen window, so I get to see flowers and birds as I slave away over dirty dishes.

Little shady bed on the opposite side of the yard.  That stick is mountain laurel, which grows all around my parent's property.  I absolutely love it, and the fallen branches look like driftwood.

Our latest herb/faerie garden.  Mooch added the decorations, I added the dill, thyme, oregano, and marjoram.

My kids go through berries like crazy.  This is an everbearing strawberry plant, which claims to produce from now through September.  We shall see.

This I'm so excited about (no, not the dog butt).  This is a thornless blackberry bush.  I'm starting with one but there may be others, snuck in so the Mister doesn't notice ;-)

The site of the next project, the rain garden.  That pile is sod that we dug up when we put in the garden.  I started to move it into a bin so we could take it to our community compost pile and dump it, and disturbed two gigantic wolf spiders that both had egg cases still attached to their abdomens.  So I'll let it stay for a while, or at least move it bit by bit.  If anyone has a fetish for digging really big holes, please feel free to come over and start digging.