The Great Salad Experiment

A black radish. At market it looked like a basket full of coal.

The insides are white. It's a spicy treat.

In June I'll be traveling to Philadelphia every day for 7 weeks. It's going to be an intense time and I know I'll be exhausted. I want to try to take a healthy lunch and I'm a big salad eater over the summer when it is hot and the veggies are fresh and local. I wondered if the salad would stay fresh if prepared all at once for the week. So today I started the grand experiment after returning home from market. My salads have 2 kinds of lettuce, carrot, black radish, breakfast radish, mushroom, red pepper, avocado, tomato, bacon and feta cheese. I also make my own salad dressing. It's usually a conglomeration of items I find around the kitchen: olive oil, lemon juice, herbs, onions, peppers, etc. I haven't had a bad batch yet.

What I've been up to, a photo post.

Yesterday was Nathan's 16th birthday. He's becoming such a young man! He's applying for his first job today.

The quilt. I've changed my mind about the layout and cut some strips this morning for some 9 patch blocks. 

The quilt again. These blocks will be in between the 9 patch blocks. Well, unless I change my mind again. Which I may.

Corner round. For 4 years every time I went up stairs I hated that our hall way was without corner round. It took me about an hour to miter cut and nail it all down. Mike's in charge of painting. It's sort of pathetic that something that bothered me so much for so many years was so easy to remedy. I hope I keep that in mind for the future. 

Mike and I are in charge of the music for our 7 last words program on Good Friday at church. We've been working out the music. It is so wonderful to play and sing together.

I'm still studying and writing papers. In fact that's probably what I should be doing right now. I'd like to finish paper number 4 by Tuesday.

Germinating. Seeds, that is. We've got LOTS of tomato plants and a few peppers, onions and cucumbers growing in the sun room. It is so delightful to see these little guys grow so quickly. 

Decorating the sunroom. Every year I try to do a little more to the house. This year we are adding curtains to our sunroom to try to keep it cooler in there during the heat of the day. I've loved these IKEA curtains for a long time and finally decided to splurge.  

New chairs for the sunroom. We live out here when it's warm enough and needed some more seating. I think the colors will liven up the room and go well with the curtains.

The garden. We've been working on keeping out the critters. We have so many birds, rabbits, squirrels and cats in our neighborhood that garden covers are necessary. We have been able to keep the cost of the garden around the same as our CSA price last year. That doesn't count the amount of gas we spent getting there. 

And finally my most time consuming event: homework. I've done quite a bit of negotiating with both boys schools this year and helping them cope with 8th and 9th grades. It's been a struggle many days but one that will reap many benefits.

My day today is just as busy as the last few weeks have been.I can't believe how hard it is to get everything done even when I'm not working. There is just so much that I want to do and I know that my time is limited. I start my classes in Phila. in June and will be gone all day every day and then will start working again in August. I guess I'm trying to accomplish my list in the months I have left at home! Happy Saturday everyone.

Rainy Day

It's a rainy day today. The kind of day that makes me want to sit in a comfortable chair and put my feet up.

 This is Walter. You may recognize him from the Muppets movie. I have to admit I'm a bit smitten by him.

 Actually, my husband is a bit smitten by him as well.

 Walter was one of my latest sewing projects. Mike and I went to an Oscar party dressed as Mary and Gary from the Muppets Movie and we needed Walter to make the trio. The kids were a little freaked out by my waltzing through the house singing "Everything is great, everything is grand...." with Walter on my arm. Mike had him almost the whole night. Smitten, I say.

Here's my seat for the next few hours. I've got an applique project started and Memoirs of a Geisha on the iPod. I won the movie at the Oscar party but wanted to re-read the book prior to watching it. Since I have a pretty hefty applique quilt project to work on I thought the book-on-tape (or book-on-iPod) would be a good companion. I hope you are having a relaxing rainy day!

Change

February. It has never been my favorite month. The days are short, cold and dark. It seems an eternity since the joy of Christmas. Lent begins and so Easter is also only a glimmer in the distance. February is, I think, the most perfect month for Lent. A time to go inside yourself for reflection. A time to let go of the world for a while and discover the spark that brings our purpose into light.


Today is the first day of my new adventure. I quit my job and enrolled in a Montessori teacher training program. It feels fitting to be doing this now, amidst the mid-winter gloom for some reason. Seems easier to sit and study by the fire with a blanket across my knees. 


Of course, being job-less for the time being also brings the other projects to the forefront that I have ignored for the past 10 months. Sewing and organizing and cleaning and getting ready for the garden.


A new start.

 Wow. The last few weeks have been a blur. There is so much to say, so much to tell but I'll leave most of it for another post. I haven't been this exhausted for a long time. It's a good exhausted, from work that I love and gives me energy. I'm not exactly sure how something that gives me so much energy can make me so tired. I'm of course talking about helping to costume the 65 kids that are involved with Nolan in Beauty and the Beast. I have enjoyed it immensely but it has been non stop work. This is the first weekend of shows (so you'd think we'd be done costuming...but no). What a gift for our children. Nolan has made some new friends (as have I) and learned a little more about theater, working as a team, self sacrifice and many other traits that I'm too tired to think about.

These photos are of my sewing buddy. Last week I took home the Cogsworth costume to finish. I found Cloe in this position when I went into the sewing room to work on it. She is generally with me when I'm up there. Of course, she generally likes to sit on top of whatever fabric I'm using at the moment. But how can I be annoyed! It's nice to have a furry friend for company!

The Most Fun

 It's insane how much I love to help with costumes. Really I'm ripping almost more than sewing. Taking off trim, adding trim, ripping out sleeves and altering shoulders, waists and hems. I love it. I love seeing the actors transformed. I love being at the theater helping out. I love seeing the smiles on the children's faces when their costume goes from being a frumpy mess to fitting like a charm. I'll be disappointed when this is all over. It's a spectacular ride!

Costuming

I should be baking bread and cleaning and shopping for my little get together tonight. Instead I'm altering costumes. There's a lot to be done and I'd like to help as much as possible. We were at the theater for a LONG time last night trying to fit everyone. The budget is small so the theater is trying to use as many costumes that already exist as possible. That means lots of altering. I do have to get moving on my other chores but I think I'll do just one more costume. I think I'm addicted.