What do you do for fun?

I can't remember what I used to do for fun when I was single.  I'm sure there was something.  I guess I liked reading, listening to music, shopping, playing my guitar, hanging out (is it just "hanging" now?) with friends.  

After I married my Mister, and even more so when J was born, I couldn't answer if someone asked me what I did for fun.  

Last week, someone asked me that, and I surprised myself with how many things I thought of.  I think maybe it just took me awhile (nearly 10 years?) to figure out how to be a wife and a mother and still be me, and have things that I do for myself, for fun.  

Running the 1/2 marathon was really good for me in that way- It forced me to put myself ahead of other things.  I had to run, or I wouldn't be able to make it through the race, so instead of running if I had time, I made time, I let go of some other things in my life and made running a priority.  Sometimes it messed up dinner times or nap times, but we all survived, and I'm happier because of it.  

I'm cutting back running to three times a week now that the race is over, but I plan on keeping my running time a priority.  It makes me feel good, gives me more energy, and it gives me time to think about whatever I want to think about.  Same with gardening.  I love getting my hands dirty, and watching things I plant grow.  Right now the raspberry canes I planted awhile back are starting to sprout tiny leaves and it makes me happy to know that I did that (and especially happy about the berries, I can't wait!).

So when someone asks you what you do for fun, what do you say?  (I'm embarrassed that it took me so long to realize I have a better answer than "I know I used to have things I liked to do, but I can't remember what they were".)

Baking Day

A spurt of energy, aging bananas and lack of things to eat results in this:

I had to open the oven to take this picture.  Whole Wheat Bread

Banana Bread

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Artisan Bread Dough (to put in the fridge and bake later in the week)

Strawberry Jam

I found strawberries for a great price, and bought 12lbs.  I spent the day making three batches of low-sugar jam.  I think I ended up with 6 pints and 13 half pints.  Hopefully that will be enough to get us through the year.  Between PB&J's and yogurt, we go through a lot of jam.  We also have a bowl full of sliced strawberries to eat.  

I find that I feel less overwhelmed by things when I've been getting stuff done.  A shelf full of strawberry jam certainly doesn't hurt (but drat, we're out of regular bread, guess what I'll be doing tomorrow).  I finished the last slice with a thick layer of the jam foam (I love Jam Foam...for a random flashback of jam foam drama, and a description of what jam foam is if you don't know, see here),

In other good news, I now have a ceiling fan in my bedroom (and really nice sheets, I can't wait to go to bed tonight!) so the warm weather isn't going to make it hard to go to sleep and I won't have thoughts about turning my AC before my mom does.  

My tomato seedlings are getting bigger and bigger and are doing well outside.  They've been out all day so far with no signs of sunburn (although it has been overcast) so hopefully they're about done with the hardening off process and I can plant them after this next storm passes.  Saturday maybe?

The surviving chicks seem to be doing well, they enjoyed a nice treat of strawberry stems today and were very happy.

Soccer practice & Game tonight, and then I can crash.  

Lunch with friends tomorrow, then a play date (and bread making somewhere in there).

Soccer game on saturday, and maybe I'll take the kids and go for a bike ride.  I might make it through the weekend!

Overwhelmed

It's finally spring, the chicks have been doing fine with our older hen, and I've been feeling pretty good, then this weekend, I felt so frenzied with all the activities we had, and feel a little overwhelmed with all the stuff going on this week, and My Mister heading to Moab for a few days.  

Add on today's events and I'm ready to climb into bed.  This morning I took the chicks out to the coop and left them there.  Several hours later I hear much squawking, and run out to see Taja over one of the chicks.  I have no idea how they got out.  The one I caught her with seems to be okay, but will need some antibiotics and to be separated so the other chicks don't peck her injury.  She's missing most all the feathers on her back, and might have some small puncture wounds.  After I brought that chick inside, I noticed that there were only two of the small chicks in the kennel.  I looked inside the hen house, and they weren't there either, so I started looking around the yard and eventually found two piles of feathers on opposite sides of the yard.  We're down to the older hen and three chicks now, assuming the injured one survives.  

Then this afternoon, J arrived home from school with a sore on his lip- where he said another boy slapped/punched him.  There was apparently also a headlock involved- having something to do with J getting off the bus before him.  I hate speaking on the phone and having to confront people, so this was not easy for me, but I called the boy's mom to talk to her about it.  It went okay, and I hope that it doesn't happen again.

I'm in the mood where I'd like to go to sleep and have a good dream and maybe not wake up until life calms down a bit.

Homemade Pretzels

I love pretzels, and I found this recipe today. I'll probably wait until tomorrow, although pretzels for dessert tonight don't sound too bad...

Laura’s Amazing Soft Pretzels:

Ingredients:

1 c. water
2 T. yeast
2 t. honey
2 1/2 cups milk
1 stick butter
1/2 cup honey
4 t. salt
8 cups whole wheat flour
butter
salt

(You can make these with white flour and white sugar if you want to have a delicious mound of empty calories…but I have found that using these healthier ingredients does not make us like these pretzels any less!)

Okay, here are the directions for preparing the pretzels that are to die for:

In a large bowl, mix 1 cup very warm water, 2 T. yeast and 2 t. honey. Stir this together and kind of mush the yeast around. Let this sit for a few minutes while you melt a stick of butter in a large saucepan. Add 1/2 cup honey, 4 t. salt and 2 1/2 cups of milk. Heat this to 120 degrees. Pour milk mixture into yeast mixture and stir. Stir in 8 cups of flour, 2 cups at a time. (add more if you need it) Knead the dough for 5-10 minutes. Plop it into a bowl, cover it and let it rise for 1-1 1/2 hours. Pull it out of the bowl and knead it a few times to get the air out.

Pull a ball of dough, about the size of your fist off and get ready to make your very first pretzel! (such a proud moment) Roll into a snake and shape into a pretzel (there are step by step photo's on the blog in the link) Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

Melt a stick of butter in a saucepan.

Right when you take the pretzels out of the oven, slather them with butter. Lay it on thick. Don’t hold back. Shake salt over the tops.

Pictures by A

A (my 5-year-old) saw the camera on the table (I had it out to photograph my groceries again- don't worry, I'm posting them on their own blog now), and decided to take some pictures. I was going to delete them until I saw the focus he put into them. It's an interesting glimpse into his little head.

Throw-Up Pot

He's been sick. (A few nights ago, he ran downstairs, got a pot, went back upstairs and threw up partly in the pot partly all over the bed- he doesn't get the concept of throwing up in the toilet).

Pinecones

This one seems kind of random to me.

Self Portrait

Little Brother

Bowl and Spoon, Used

Since he's been sick, we haven't been letting him eat as much as usual, so this bowl of applesauce was much wanted. He's feeling hungry, which is good, but he still isn't keeping food down.

Another grocery post, sorry..

Milk was on sale at Smiths Market Place this week for less than Costco, so I decided to go there today instead of costco next week.  

Smiths doesn't break down the receipt like other stores, but before coupons started coming off, the total was pretty close to $90.  

I paid exactly $20.  

The kids soaps and cheerios were free, the knox gelatin and the salsa were -$2 (so buying them subtracted a total of $14 off my bill).  We don't use store bought salsa, but I figured we can donate them to the food bank or give them away.  There were also special deals on the quaker things that made them between 50 cents and $1 per box.

Picture Round Up

Dinner two nights ago- it looked so good I had to take a picture.  Buffalo steak with mushrooms and asparagus and couscous.  Plus a side of home made fake-sour-dough bread to dip in oil and balsamic vinegar.  Dinner doesn't get much better than that.

I've taken up couponing.  As a hobby more than a way to save money, since I can't figure out how people live off of the groceries they can buy with coupons, but getting things for free or really cheap does bring a bit of a rush.  All of this was just over $30.  I "saved" $60.  (I also got a pack of gum for free but forgot to put it in the picture.)  Yes, I'm photographing my groceries now.  My life is that exciting. 

Signs of Spring I:  Baby Chicks 4 bantam Cochins, 1 standard Rhode Island Red (not pictured).

Signs of Spring II: Bare root strawberries planted a week ago are indeed alive and growing.

Signs of Spring III: Popcorn popping on the apricot tree.  The recent cold weather doesn't appear to have done too much damage (yet).

A White House Garden

Thanks Q for sending me this link...

"The 1,100 square foot garden will include 55 kinds of vegetables, including peppers, spinach, and, yes, arugula. (The list of vegetables is a wishlist put together by White House chefs.) There will also be berries, herbs and two hives for honey that will be tended by a White House carpenter who is also a beekeeper. The chefs will use the produce to feed the first family and for state dinners and other official events."

Seed Starting and a Random Picture

I've started a couple of trays of seeds over the two weeks, and they are starting to sprout, so I told my Mister that I was going to need some kind of a light for them, and this is what he came up with. I went to a book club/girls night and when I came home it was all set up. There's a light switch on it to make it easy to turn the lights on and off, and the board that the lights are attached to raises and lowers as the plants grow.


This last picture is just a random one of my Mister after an interesting shave designed to tease and torment our 5-year-old who doesn't like his dad to have any facial hair.

Good Things

-The bulbs are up, there's no stopping spring now.
-I feel pretty good after my 6 mile run this morning.
-I pruned the fruit trees.
-If I'm really lucky, I might just get some new raised beds built today. Maybe.

The Greatest Threat

Dear Senator Buttars,

You may think that gays are the greatest threat to America. I disagree.

Hatred and divisiveness are greater threats.

What is the morals of a gay person? You can't answer that, because anything goes. So now you're moving toward a society that has no morals.

Why doesn't senator Buttars understand that just because someone's morals are different doesn't mean they don't have any? I don't understand why people are gay. I'm not, so it doesn't really make sense to me. However, I do understand how it feels to love and to want to be loved, and I can't imagine being told that loving the person I do is amoral, and that the person I love and myself can't have any protections against being thrown out of our home or fired from our jobs, or the ability to provide health insurance for each other, because our love doesn't count somehow.

It's easy to focus on things that make us different, but maybe we could be a little more understanding if we focused on the things that make us the same.

There is no "Gay Agenda" other than to be treated like everyone else. I'd like to know who's behind the "Hate Agenda".

Training Schedule

I pulled out a calendar and planned my runs now through race day. Now that I know what I'm looking at I'm only a little worried about it. :) Last week (well, three days of last week) I ran 2.5-3 miles. I'm going to run 3 miles monday-friday this week, and on saturday 5 miles. (I hope the weather is good, because 5 miles on a treadmill sounds boring.)

Next week I'll run 4 miles M-F and 6 miles on saturday.

The first week of march I'll run 4 miles M-F and 7 miles on saturday.

The second week of march I'll run 4 miles M-F and 8 on saturday.

The third week of march I'll run 5 miles M-F and 9 on saturday.

The fourth week of march I'll run 5 miles M-F and 10 on saturday.

The next week I'll run 5 miles M-F and 13 on saturday.

The second week of april I'll run 5 miles M-F and 6-8 miles on saturday.

The week of April 13th I'll run 4/3/4/3/3 with the BIG Race on saturday.

Typing it all out makes me a little worried. But hopefully I'll be ready, and not over train and injure myself. May- you interested in coming out for some of the longer runs (or the short ones)? We could run on the legacy trail, if it would stop snowing! For the short runs I'm staying on the treadmill, but treadmills get awfully dull after so many miles.

my 5-year-old

Yesterday during sunday school, the primary president called me out into the hall to talk about my 5-year-old. Apparently he's been a bit wild lately, getting up and running around, and not listening to his teachers.

A has always been a bit on the energetic side, but for the most part, he's a pretty obedient kid for me, so I'm not sure what to do about his wild side in primary. My first idea is bribery. It can't be too complicated for his teacher, but I'm thinking a sticker on his hand and if the teacher has to take the sticker away during class, no treat when he gets home?

I'd rather not resort to bribery, but short of sitting in class with him every sunday, I'm not sure what to do.

I'm now thinking about how his swimming teacher struggled with him last year- because he'd get so excited that he was always getting into trouble (like the time he nearly drowned). So maybe the problem is not that he's trying to be naughty, but that he gets so excited with so many other children around and kind of loses control.

If I go with the sticker thing, it would put some power behind the teacher asking him to calm down and listen.

Any ideas?

Dream Yard?

This Old House (yes, I've stopped getting Parents magazine in favor of TOH, I must be a parenting Pro by now, or it's too late to learn anything else... I'm not sure.) magazine had a neat article about a woman in Seattle and her sustainable yard. I've always thought that kids need a big patch of grass for running around on, and to some extent I still do, but when I think back about playing in the yard as a child, I think about picking raspberries, and rose hips, and those little cheese-weed things, and putting them in a bucket and rigging up sticks to pretend we were cooking our bounty over a fire. The pretend fire-cooking usually happened under the overhangs of two lilac bushes, or in the center of a close grove of trees.

We did regularly play soccer or baseball in the field next to our house, which was mostly grass, but I don't remember the grass being central to my adventures, and I look out at my backyard with no places to hide or pretend is a cave and I feel like my kids are losing out on such an important part of childhood.

I've planned so much of my yard for growing food (or grass that would have to be pulled up (and a Mister who'd have to be talked into pulling up grass)) that there are few places I could grow any kind of fort. We did make a play house out of PVC pipe and sheets several years ago, so we may have to get it out this summer, but I'm also thinking about growing a sunflower fort on the side of my house where the compost bin and nothing else is currently. Wouldn't this be fun to play in?


I had looked at the article in TOH when it came a couple of months ago, and I remember thinking how cool the yard was, and then thinking how there just wasn't enough grassy space for kids to play. Since I've changed my mind about how much grass a kid really needs in their backyard (especially considering the proximity of several parks), I'm looking again at this and thinking how much I'd like my kids to have places to imagine and hide and pretend.
Here's the layout-and to see pictures and read more information about this cool yard, click on the "sustainable yard" link above. (The only thing wrong with this layout is that it needs more fruit trees and garden beds)

I Ran!

2.5 miles at a fairly constant speed around 12 minute miles, so not my personal best, but considering I haven't run regularly in almost two years now, I'm pretty pleased with myself.

I haven't registered, but the SL 1/2 Marathon in april might be in my future... (and yes, I know, I have a lot of work to do)

FMH Guest Post

I submitted a guest post on Feminist Mormon Housewives last month and got a little (good) shock when it was posted this morning (I didn't think it was going to get posted).

Here it is if you'd like to read it.

Why I kill houseplants

I consider gardening to be one of my main gifts. I enjoy it. I'm pretty good at it. I think about it and read about it nearly every day, currently I'm reading about growing herbs in pots that I can move indoors in the winter and put on the patio in the summer, which leads me to my problem.

I kill houseplants. The three houseplants that my mother-in-law gave us (they had belonged to my Mister) early in our marriage struggled off and on until three years ago, when they finally gave up and died. The plant I received as a young woman at a church activity centered around the idea of "growing our testimony" did well for a few years before I killed it (I hope that doesn't reflect poorly on my testimony). Plants from various funerals have all passed on.

As good as my intentions, and as skilled as I am outside, I can't seem to keep a plant alive inside. The only "living" plant I currently have inside is a Jade plant I bought a few years ago. It was actually doing okay until this spring when I think I overwatered it, and then my toddler pulled the whole thing out of the pot several times (amazingly it's starting to grow tiny new leaves.. I think I love jade plants).

Anyway, so back to growing herbs. In my search for a way to grow herbs without killing them, I discovered something called a self-watering planter. Seems like something that might improve the odds of survival for my houseplants, if they work...

I've found a website that talks about why houseplants often die. Lack of light, and overwatering. Turns out houseplants that don't get as much light really don't need as much water. You think I'd know this. The website Inside Urban Green may just be my new best friend. They suggest watering your plant, then weighing it. Then weighing it again a week later to see how much water it actually used up, and using that as a gauge for watering in the future. As for the fancy self-watering containers? I linked to one at Ikea above that is relatively inexpensive. I've seen them online for $30 for a tiny pot that wouldn't work for most herbs after a year. Inside Urban Green recommends saving your money, and making planters out of old soda pop bottles. Maybe not something for your front room, but then again, you could stick the plastic things inside nicer looking/less practical planters (If you see any big ones at DI or something, get them for me!).

Woods Cross Power Plant Update

Davis County Democrats Blog urges us to get involved to stop the West Bountiful Petcoke Plant

Zions bank is backing the project, so if you bank at zions, email Zions Bank CEO scott.anderson@zionsbank.com and let him know that if they support the petcoke plant in west bountiful you will take your business elsewhere.

If you look around on the site I linked to above, you'll find a page with a whole bunch of contact emails. Here's a direct link.

Clean air and healthy lungs are not something to sit back while things play out. Make your voice heard. This is our community, and every voice makes a difference.

There may be some things that our legislature can do to stop the petcoke plant as well, Rep. Roger Barrus is sponsoring a bill to put a moratorium in place that would give us two years before any new plants could be built, to buy us more time. Contact your representatives and encourage them to support Rep. Barrus' bill.

There's a Utah state code which says that the state government can't enact regulations more stringent than federal regulations, and the petcoke plant meets federal regulations, however Rep. Becky Edwards has found that the state can set higher standards if it is documented that the federal standards are not enough to protect the health of utahns.

South davis county has a higher incidence of asthma than anywhere else in Utah, if that's not a sign that federal standards aren't enough, I don't know what is.

Come to the state capital on Wednesday, February 25th at noon (come early, it should be crowded). There will be media there, bring your children, and show that we want higher standards of air quality. We want our children to be able to play outside, and breathe. We will not allow corporate interests to override our health interests.

Split Pea Soup

As a child, it seemed like every halloween, we were forced to eat split pea soup for dinner before going out to trick-or-treat. (Actually I think my mom fed it to us one year, and then we actually LIKED it, so we made it our own tradition- at least for a couple of years after that.)

I saw the bags of split peas were on sale at the grocery store, and in a fit of reminiscing, I bought a few. I went off a recipe in my Fix it and Forget it cookbook, although, I don't like following recipes much, so I altered it a smidge.

Split Pea Soup

2 Cups dry split peas (the bag was just a little over 2 cups, so I put the whole bag in)
8 Cups water (it seemed like too much, so I only used 6, but it is now getting really thick, so I added a little more water, so 8 is probably not too much after all)
2 Tbsp chicken bullion (or 2 cubes) (with only 6 cups of water, it tasted too salty to me, which is another reason why I added more water back in, next time I might only use 1 tbsp, but I like less salt than normal- according to my mister.)
1 small onion, chopped
1 tsp cumin powder
a handful of bacon pieces (I was going to use the rest of the ham bits that I had cut up and frozen from the ham we bought last year, but I apparently have used it all, so I used some of the real-bacon-bits things that I keep in the freezer (I bought the bag at costco). You could also use bits of real bacon if you happen to have leftovers, or you could leave the meat out, but it sure tastes good in.

Combine all ingredients in crock pot. Cook on low for 8 hours, or high if you start it late and don't have 8 hours until dinner. If it looks done before dinner, turn it to low. (You have to love crock pots.)

Serve with crusty bread and butter if you plan ahead that well. Otherwise serve it with whatever you have available.

Post Dinner Update: J and A thought I was poisoning them. We heard over and over how awful this dinner was. They will probably be extra hungry in the morning. Surprisingly, CP LOVED it, and ate it like it was one of the two foods he loves: cereal or chocolate. My Mister said it was a do-over (but in light of the reaction our oldest two kids had to it, maybe not a frequent do-over).