Photo A Day June 22-28, 2012

It was really hard for me to choose my photos this week.  I took A LOT of pictures since we have been traveling for the majority of the week.  We have been quite busy and my camera (either my phone or Nikon) has gone with me everywhere.  There are a lot of pictures of Taelin this week.  This photo-a-day adventure is reminding a bit of Becky Higgin's Project Life, only without the scrapbooking part; a way to record what is going on in our lives.  I am thinking about how to get great photos most of the time, but really what I am appreciating more right now is how much more of our life I am capturing.  This week certainly reflects that...

june 22, 2012

june 23, 2012
Nana's big tub has jets.
Bubble bath + jets = tons of fun!

june 24, 2012
There is little I miss about Montana on a regular basis
(other than the people I love),
but Montana sunsets can't be beat.

june 24, 2012 

june 25, 2012

june 26, 2012

june 27, 2012

Photo A Day Week of June 15-21

Admitting right up front...not my most stellar week for photos.  You would think with a camping trip, my first week off from school, a couple of 80 degree days,and an upcoming family vacation to Montana that I would have a ton of photos to pick from.  Truth?  All of those things left little time to snap a lot of good photos.  There are photos...but they aren't all that great.  BUT...when I look back at these photos years from now, I am going to remember this week...and it was a great week!

june 15, 2012: I remembered right before I went to bed.

june 16, 2012: When did she get so big?

june 17, 2012: I hate slugs.  

june 18, 2012: My favorite from this week.
 Both of them are waiting for Joe to get home from work

june 19, 2012: My too often ignored scrapbook tools.

june 20, 2012: homemade strawberry freezer jam

june 21, 2012: spent 6 hours in the yard...it was going to be my picture of the day

enchiridion: a handbook; manual

There seem to be handbooks for most everything.

I have found the most useful handbook is my gut.

Freezer Jam...was is always this easy?

We got our first CSA box this week and along with some lettuce, swiss chard and kale, we also got 4 pints of very ripe strawberries.  There was no way that we were going to be able to eat them before they got over ripe and for some reason I wanted to do more than just freeze them for smoothies.  I thought about what else I might do and making jam (#80 on the list) came to mind immediately.

I have never made jam before, but remember my mom and both grandmothers making it when I was young.  I don't eat a lot of jam/jelly myself, but Taelin is a kid and of course likes peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  Joe puts an obscene (his term, not mine) amount of jelly on his sandwiches and his favorite is cherry, which if you don't know is the most bloody expensive kind there is.  So, I thought I would give it a try in the hopes that maybe I could have some on hand for Taelin and maybe even venture into making cherry jam if this turned out.

I looked up some recipes but came to the conclusion that I should just use the recipe on the box of pectin.  Interestingly, someone submitted a recipe to Allrecipes that is the exact recipe on the box...so if you are interested, here is the link.  You can't really make it without buying the box of pectin so if you want to make it yourself, you should probably just go buy the box and go from there.


There are only 4 ingredients: 2 pints of strawberries, 4 cups of sugar (yikes!), a box of pectin, and 3/4 cup of water.  There are several easy-to-follow steps and there were quite a few things that Taelin could help me with. Really, only the boiling water/pectin step and the pouring it into the containers step were not really kid friendly.

I remembered to have the camera nearby!  

So juicy!

Smashing the berries...her 2nd favorite part.

That is a whole lot of sugar....

Serious business

They had to set for 24 hours at room temperature before we could eat it...
easily the hardest part of the whole thing! 

Finally ready!

And...her most favorite part!

It was really good jam...I mean really good. It was super sweet so a little went a long way. It made about 5 cups total, but I divided it up into 6 one cup containers to allow for freezer expansion.  One didn't make the freezer and is sitting in our frig with a few tablespoons missing.  Taelin really want to take one over to our neighbors, so we did, and the other four were labeled and headed to the freezer.  I want to wait and see how the jam tastes after it has been frozen before I make anymore, but I have a feeling that this isn't my last batch of freezer jam!

You learn something every day if you pay attention. ~Ray LeBlond

The other night I found myself needing to power through and finish up a project.  I tend to like to have a movie or t.v show running in the background but most of my favorites just weren't sounding good.  I logged onto Netflix to see if their was something in the instant queue that would interest me and I found a documentary that I had added awhile ago.  Since nothing else sounded good and I haven't watched but one of the ten documentaries I set out to watch, I hit play.  And then after that one, I watched another...and then another.  (It was a big project.)

All three were very different in topic but all had the same kind of effect on me.  They challenged my own thinking and opened my eyes to a different way of reflecting on my own beliefs.  Needless to say, I have added quite a few more documentaries to the queue for the next time I am feeling undecided about what to watch.

  This documentary was the one that was originally on my list.  At the beginning of the movie, there is a lot of talk around what scripture in Bible is used by some conservative groups and how it has been interpreted to fuel fear and hatred towards many different groups of people...in this case, homosexuals.  The rest of the movie follows five families as their religious beliefs and having a gay or lesbian family member collide.
  The stories were varied, from total rejection to understanding and support.  It was hard to hear some of the stories...there were a couple of times that I just couldn't believe the hateful words that were coming from parent mouths about their child. All in the name of their faith.  It just seemed insane to me.  I know other people don't agree..that is crystal clear after seeing this film. I am far from considering myself Christian, but I know many people do.  What I could appreciate in this film, was how families reexamined their faith and realized that they was room for understanding and compassion for all people, regardless of who they love. Definitely a must see.

 This film dug into the nightmare of credit credits, home ownership and personal debt.  It shows clearly how lenders and corporations have targeted and taken advantage of people, specifically low-income families and the youth and then how our government turns a blind eye or even makes it easier.
  Personal stories are also shared in this film, all of them heartbreaking.  "Keeping up with the Jones" is a phrase that came to mind.  Many people spent money they didn't have without a real plan of how they were going to pay for it later.  I, personally, can't remember a time where anyone sat down and taught me about money management (other than the time I got yelled at by my mom for bouncing a check when I was 15).
  Other than being disgusted with some of the practices of the lenders and the role of the government in those practices, my biggest take away was that Joe and I really need to think about how we are going to teach Taelin how to be financially literacy.  We have talked about it before a little bit and Taelin is just started to "notice" money.  It is on my list of "things to occupy our 11 hour car ride to Montana".

 Out of the three films, this was my least favorite.  I still enjoyed it and honestly out of the three it is the one that I should probably watch a few more times.  The film shares information on how forgiveness has played a part in personal and community healing.  9/11, the Amish school shooting, survivors of the Holocaust, and family tragedies are just some of the stories that are explored.  There was some talk about how different faiths play a role in forgiveness but it wasn't centered around one certain religion.
  The film explores how forgiveness can reduce anger and help the grieving heal.  So much easier said than done...and they acknowledge that.
  Even as I sit here typing, I realize that I do need to watch it again.

Camping Anyone?

Until this last weekend, it had been four years since we camped.  We used to go a couple of times each summer but I was so sick the summer I was pregnant with Taelin that there was no way we could have gone.  The idea of taking a baby camping just didn't see like fun, especially with diapers.  I think I might have been a little worried that our hiatus from camping would turn into a permanent thing which is why it ended up on the list. I am SO glad that we waiting until she was this age and I am SO glad we went.

We went to Beverly Beach on the Oregon coast.  It is my favorite place to go because it is a 5 minute walk to the beach and there are bathrooms with hot showers.  (I never said I was a hard core camper.)  We went with two of our friends that got the site next to us but pretty much just hung out at our site.  We got there late Friday night and were on the go until we left on a pretty soggy Sunday morning.

We toasted marshmallows, ate, went on long walks, ate, played on the beach, ate, kayaked, and ate some more. What is it about camping that makes you want to eat constantly?  I knew that and so I spent the better part of Friday pre-cutting fruits and veggies to have on hand.  We didn't have a ton of down time, although Joe and Taelin took a pretty good sized nap on Saturday afternoon and I spent the time walking around and then later reading/falling asleep in my camp chair.

Here are a few pictures from our trip:

Our new tent!  Our old one was TOO big and was missing the fly!

Joe's headlamp turned Taelin into Ironman!

Dug a hole to find the ocean. 

Yes, a shower was necessary after this!

She was convinced that she could carry the wood over.

Being instructed in the finer points of fire building. 

When did she get so big?  *tear*

The promised root beer!  Now we had a real happy camper!

We had a lot of fun camping even though it rained Sunday morning.  It took a whole day to get ready and a whole day to clean up, but it was so worth it! I was so grateful to have the time as a family on Father's Day weekend! I asked Taelin what her favorite part of camping was and she said, "All of the parts!"

sacrosanct: extremely sacred or inviolable

While not a new word, sacrosanct is not in my everyday vocabulary.  But when I walked by my counter to check this for the third time in 10 minutes I realized that I needed a word for this week and this one fits the bill.

What you see above is my camping checklist.  The first page is the meals we are going to eat with all the ingredients I am going to need to make said meal.  The last two pages is everything else that I think I will need...organized by categories.  I think it is safe to say that lists (for any reason really) are quite sacrosanct.  

I will let you know on Sunday night when we get back if there is anything I forgot.

Garden Update 6/15/12

It just occurred to me that you might be getting bored with my garden updates.  If that is the case, I am sorry...my guess is that you are just going to have to a) skip reading them altogether or b) continue to read them and be bored.  How's that compassion for ya?

This past Wednesday I was out watering and weeding after Taelin had gone to bed.  I got to the radishes and sighed.  I don't know if my memory is bad or if fresh garden radishes are really spicier than store bought radishes. I do know that the ones I had were spicy...really spicy...so spicy that I picked them out of the salad I had made the night before.  As I looked at the HUGE leaves on the radishes that were bumping into my peas and my peppers, I made a rather rash decision.  I pulled them all up.

I save the ones that were ready to eat but the rest I just pulled.

Hopefully, my peas will not feel so crowded and my peppers might have a chance to grow away from the tomatoes a little.  I *may* have planted too much for my little boxes.  

My spinach also needed to be harvested so I just took a scissor to it and trimmed it all down.  I washed it up, spun it in my new salad spinner and packed it up for the fridge.  Here is what is already looks like only two days later....  

I don't think I am going to have a spinach growth problem.  I may have spent an hour or so looking for new spinach salad recipes on Pinterest and Allrecipes.  (I made one today with strawberries, low fat feta, almonds and fat free balsamic vinaigrette.  It was very yummy!)

We are expecting a sunny weekend here so there is probably more spinach (and a first big lettuce harvest) in the near future!

Photo A Day Week of June 8-14, 2012

With the posting of these pictures, I have officially finished one month of "photo a day" and can check it off the list!  I had some portraits of Taelin this week and I played around with some of the different settings on my camera.  

june 8, 2012 

june 9, 2012  I love this face!

june 10, 2012

june 11, 2012:  our first strawberry harvest

june 12, 2012:  at the end of a long day

june 13, 2012:  moving pinwheel 

june 14, 2012: morning light through the door on the wall

Garden Update 6/11/12

The garden is going strong and we even added to it today!  We are having a bit of a problem with slugs, which are really gross, but I think Joe and I have put a few things into place that should help with it a bit.  They chowed down on some of my lettuce which I don't think will be able to be saved, but I think we are going to have plenty, especially once our CSA box starts. 

I have harvested twice already, the first harvest not resulting in much.  The second harvest, however, made a nice salad with lettuce, spinach, radishes and peas.  And, Taelin ate both peas and spinach as we were harvesting which is a major accomplishment for her.  She liked the peas and wanted more but didn't want much spinach after 5 leaves.  Still though, down the right path and part of the whole reason I started on this venture.

Here are how things are looking at this point...

First harvest!  

Note the empty section in the first row of lettuce in the
back...the slugs thought it was good.
 I don't think, however, that they are going to care too much for the
crushed egg shells that are now surrounding the lettuce, spinach and carrots.
Not pictured here are the beer traps that have also been the demise of about 15 slugs so far.

The tomatoes are growing like crazy
(I think I may have overestimated how many I would need)
and the peas have already climbed up the sticks I had put in with them.
I will need to do something about that soon.  The radishes by far are the most ready.

I have exactly 6 more frozen vacuumed seals bags of green beans
from the ones I got through a Salem Harvest last year,
so hopefully we will start getting beans once those run out! 

Peppers!

This past weekend, a friend of mine delivered some extra strawberry plants she had.  I clearly don't have room in the boxes and so we decided just to plant them in off to the side of one of the boxes.  Taelin and I dug up the sandy soil and added some potting soil, cleaned them up a bit, and got them in the ground.  There were some strawberries on the plants already...but they were gobbled up pretty quickly by a certain little 3 year old.  A side lesson that same 3 year learning today was that dirt and water make mud...and she had fun with that!  (She also had fun with the 40 minute bath/playing with shaving cram afterwards.)

Here are a couple of pictures of our new additions!

I managed to get a few pictures before those red berries got snatched up!

This was just the beginning of the "water + dirt = mud" lesson!
I don't think that pink shirt will ever be the same...
Once this picture was taken, I couldn't
really pick up my camera until I was a little cleaner!