Life With The Crew

"Super" Shelving

My husband grew up in a family that buys books (and went to the library); I grew up in a family that only went to the library.  It drives me nuts when he buys a book that he could just borrow from the library.  For a while we had a deal that for every new item of clothing I bought, he was allowed to buy a book.  He has acquired a large Steven King collection, which drives me even more nuts because they are books that I don't like to read!  Since half of our house is under construction and we never had a lot of bookshelves to begin with, we have had piles of his books just sitting in bags in the spare bedroom.  When he finished installing the ducts for the new heating system in there on Sunday, there was dust EVERYWHERE, so I had to do some major cleaning.  I decided that we needed to put these books somewhere, but buying a bookshelf isn't at the top of the list right now and my brother is already building my daughter a closet so I can't ask him to make me one.  

My husband used to keep several hives of bees and so we have lots of equipment in the shed.  I thought that the empty super cases would make good simple bookcases.  So I got him to pull out the cleanest two for me and I washed them off.  Not the prettiest, but totally simple, free, and easy to take apart when we eventually get a real bookshelf.

Recipe for the Weekend - Blueberry Ricotta Muffins with...

Lemon Sugar Topping!  So wish I had found this recipe before.  The lemon sugar totally makes it delicious and the blueberries and ricotta make it healthy - right?!  Add some flax seed to the sugar topping if you're feeling guilty or use coconut oil for half the amount of butter.  Enjoy!

Blueberry Ricotta Muffins with Lemon Sugar Topping

Keeping It Positive

My mother-in-law shared an article with me by Rachel Macy Stafford called "Notice The Good" and I would like to share it here.  I tend to be a cynical, jaded, glass-half-empty kind of person and I am trying my best to NOT be those things anymore.  Partly because I have a daughter now and I want her to grow up in an environment that is filled with happy energy and partly because it is better for ME, mentally and physically, to be more upbeat and positive.  With so many animals in our house and now the baby, there are some days that are just utter craziness.  I have rabbit poop pellets in my bathtub, the dogs just HAD to pee on the brand new rug, the baby is entertaining herself by "reading" paper that she pulled out of the recycling bin, the cat boxes haven't been changed yet, one dog won't stop itching from allergies and kept me up last night with "thump, thump, thumping", the wild rabbits insist on laying a nest in a yard with 6 dogs, the chickens are eating their eggs and so I have to go buy some, etc, etc.  

So I am training myself to let all of that go, realize that it doesn't really matter and that people have WAY more important and worse things to deal with than some rabbit poop, and to be thankful for all of the positive things that I have in my life.  For instance, last evening I was trying to make my dinner, feed the baby, make and feed the dogs their dinner, all on my own because my husband was working late.  I knew the baby wanted to sleep, but I had to keep her awake until we left to pick him up at work.  So I was a little stressed.  As soon as I put the baby in the car she fell asleep and since I had some time to kill, I decided to drive out through the country.  It was a beautiful evening with an awesome sunset with lots of interesting clouds and colors.  I drove by red barns, stone farmhouses, sheep and horses in the fields, pumpkins at the farmstands, and RELAXED.  Just noticing my surroundings and acknowleding that I am lucky to live in such a place made me feel calm and happy.  I then stopped into the local dairy to treat myself to an ice cream while the baby still slept in the car seat.  By the time I picked up my husband and he asked how I was (expecting a negative response), I could honestly say that I was "GOOD".  

Stafford's article talks about "noticing the good".  That is what I did last night and it made me feel much better, so I want to pass on the advice.  It can be applied to all aspects of life - parenting, relationships, work, and all the common activities in the day.

 

Any Dog Lovers Out There...

When I started this blog I told myself that I wasn't going to discuss the Romanian dog problem.  I was going to have this blog be as positive as possible and it is hard to be positive when talking about the hundreds of thousands of street dogs that have no one to care for them, face the threat of torture and abuse, and die from starvation and exposure.  And this all happens in a country that no one in the US even knows where it is.  However, the truth is that I have a wonderful dog that I adopted from Romania two years ago and since then I have brought over 3 other dogs to foster that I found loving homes for.   SO, Romanian dogs are a part of my daily life and there is something important that I want to talk about.  Because I could talk for hours about this, I will keep it short.  

 

My Romanian dog, Wallace

 

Katy, the Romanian dog I fostered this Spring, who now lives in Pittsburgh

There is a brave, caring, and hardworking lady in Romania named Irina who cares for over 70 dogs by herself with just her mother to help her.  She takes care of sick puppies, old blind dogs, dogs with disabilities, and perfectly fine unwanted dogs that no one else will help.  She builds them dog houses, carries their food and water, does a lot of the medical treatment herself - and all without a car and while working multiple jobs to support all of this.  

She has just very recently moved the entire pack of dogs (and even some cats!) to a new location on the other side of the country in Romania because she was going to be evicted from the land where she kept the dogs.  She now needs donations to build a new shelter.  She is literally working night and day and does not have time to fundraise, so luckily she has some angels that are helping her.  One of them has created the site below to make it easy for people to donate to Irina.  This is totally legit.  It is not the Romanian version of the African cousin that we all know who needs money if you'll just respond to his email.  

If you have an extra dollar in change in your car or if you skip that morning chai latte that I just talked about in my last post, you can use the link below to send the money to help Irina.  She pours her heart, soul, and every penny she has into keeping dogs alive and giving them a chance when no one else will.  

I broke my self-imposed rule, but I am a believer that some rules are meant to be taken loosely.

http://www.youcaring.com/pet-expenses/new-shelter-for-street-dogs-in-valcea-romania/80769

Warm Me Up!

Inside my house the temperature is 52 degrees.  That is according to the thermostat for the new heating system that is not functioning yet.   Outside the temperature is in the 60's.  I should be used to this by now, after 8 years of heating with a woodstove, but I am freezing right now!  So I made myself a hot mozzarella and pesto grilled cheese and was waiting for water to boil for some hot tea.  I opened up the latest post from Foxs Lane and it was about tea!  They featured a tea company started by two women in Australia who wanted to do something they love that would be flexible with their family life too.  They are offering a give away today, so if you pop over and comment, you'll be in the running to win some tea! 

Then I thought about the book that I reading right now, Baking Cakes in Kigali, by Gaile Parkin.  I normally read more serious novels and historical non-fiction, but this is a fun and easy read about life in Rwanda post-genocide.  It follows the daily life of a woman who bakes cakes.  New characters are introduced when customers come to place an order for a cake and most of them have amusing problems and stories.  It is an entertaining read.  The reason that I am mentioning it here, is that drinking tea plays a prominent role in their society.  Every time someone comes to visit, they are offered tea.  When there is a problem, they make tea and it gives them time to think while the water is boiling.  They drink a sweet, spicy tea made with milk and sometimes honey.  It sounded to me like chai and in fact when a new customer from India comes to visit the main character, she says the tea is similar to what they drink in her country.  

American culture is focused more on coffee - I think its the go, go, go mentality.  I am a chai latte drinker myself, and as much as I hate to admit it, seeing the Green Goddess always gives me a good feeling (except when it is litter on the ground).  However, my husband and I have discovered a great tea house that is the total opposite of Starbucks and they still make a good chai latte.  Dobra Tea started in Czechoslovakia and has a really fascinating story.  We have visited their tea houses in Asheville, Portland (Maine!), and Madison.  All really cool, funky places with a feel good vibe. 

Oh, and one last comment on tea.  When my dad comes to visit us, he can't understand how we can live without a microwave.  We just do not need one.  We don't eat frozen dinner foods, we have a toaster oven that heats up leftovers just fine, and the thought of all those crazy micro waves zinging around my house freaks me out.  (even though they are  apparently proven scientifically safe)  Yes, we do not have boiling water for tea on demand.  When we want some, we actually have to wait 5 minutes for the water to boil on the stove.  But isn't that part of the reason that we drink tea - because of the calming, soothing, slow down effect that it has?  That is why I drink  it.  

And to warm me up!

What I'm Thankful For Today...

The few moments of peacefulness that we do actually have in this house.

Local organic food so that I can make a healthy home cooked meal for my family.

Quinoa, Eggplant, and Goat Cheese Stuffed Peppers with a simple Mixed Greens Salad

Naptime!  I was able to drink a cup of tea and only had to run upstairs ONCE to see if the baby had woken up.

What are you thankful for today?

Friday Afternoon Flowers

Yesterday we took a little field trip to The Arboretum at Penn State.  After a misty morning it turned into a beautiful afternoon and I decided that we need to make more use of what the University has to offer.  

 

I loved the water lily and lotus garden.

 

The Pollinator's Garden was full of busy, buzzy insects.

 

The last time we were there the sun flowers weren't blooming yet, so it was exciting to see them all in bloom.  My daughter liked picking the petals and putting them on her Dad's shoulder.  (we only let her destroy one flower!)

Hope you have a sunny weekend!

You know you're a mom when....

the songs that you have in your head are from the Raffi album Baby Beluga.  This past weekend my father-in-law shared a funny story about my husband when he was a toddler.  He came to them and said that he had a song stuck in his "thinker" because he couldn't think of what to say - brain, mind, etc.  Well, I have had "Day O" stuck in my thinker for two weeks now ever since I put that in the CD player for my daughter.  It is a really catchy song and it always makes me think of the movie Beetlejuice, which scared the crap out of me when I was younger.  

I wondered about the line "I work all night 'til the morning come" - did banana pickers work at night?  How could they see the banana spiders in the dark?  (Spiders literally give me the goosebumps and we trap at least one a day in my house, so that's why I worried!)  Well, according to Wikipedia, the song is a Jamaican folk song thought to be song by Jamaican banana pickers loading bananas at night.  Raffi replaced the original line which was "I work all night on a drink of rum".  More child friendly.  He also replaced the line "Hide the deadly black taranch-la" with "A beautiful bunch o' ripe banana!"  So there WERE spiders - I was right to be worried!

Its nice to know that some kids songs aren't just words that don't make sense.  I actually learned something today!  

What is your favorite children's song?

 

Stressed and Thankful

We have a lot going on in our home right now.   We live in an old farmhouse, probably built in the late 1800's, and we are constantly in a state of remodel.  Neighbors walk by and ask, "Is the construction done yet?" and my response is, "No, it will never be done."  My grandma came to visit yesterday and commented on the 4" gaping hole between our dining area and woodstove room and asked if that was new.  "No Gram, that has been there for a  year and a half, since last May."  Well, definitley the wall that is down to the original bare beams is new construction?  "No Gram, that has been that way since last May also."  You get the picture.  Things take a long time here to be completed.

We had an old oil furnace in the house that was just an awful contraption of belching smoke (I imagine it being like the one in "The Christmas Story", but it really isn't that bad) and so we have only heated with a woodstove since we moved in.  With a baby in the house and a baby's room that doesn't have any heat, we decided to install a  new heat pump heating system.  Apparently this involves cutting holes in the ceilings of rooms that actually do not have any part of them under construction, such as my peaceful bathroom, so now every room in my home will have a hole or wall exposed.  So is my life.  I am really hoping that by the end of September I will have some heat and I will not be able to see insulation while I am brushing my teeth.  Its bad enough that I have to see it whenever I change the baby on the washing machine.  

So I am trying hard to focus on the good things in life and not worry about the things that are driving a clean freak crazy in a house under construction.

#1 - We had a very nice visit with both sides of our family yesterday - one for breakfast and one for dinner.  Good food and good company and a cute seasonal flower display!

 

#2 - I have a healthy child who has lots of furry friends to admire and play with/torment.  And I am able to provide a good home for my pets.

 

#3 - My chickens have decided to start laying in the coop again and so I have more eggs in the fridge than I need right now.

 

#4 - I found a couple of late season red raspberries on the bushes in our yard - a sweet surprise.

 

#5 - I have a great husband who was working his butt off yesterday installing the heating system and then pounding nails in the floor last night (for yet another project - refinishing the wood floor) while I went to bed with the baby.  I felt guilty reading my book in bed while I heard loud exclamations of pain come up from downstairs.  I do not have a picture of his fingers, though he claims they are not too bruised.

So if you are feeling stressed, take a couple minutes today to take stock of what you are thankful for.  We all have much more than we realize.

Peach Recipe of the Day

So I am still dealing with my 1/2 bushel of peaches.  Last night my husband pan fried some Tilapia and I made this salad or salsa, however you would like to think of it.  Easy, light, refreshing, and totally healthy, it went great with the fish.  Then I also ate it with some tortilla chips today for lunch.  

Summer Rainbow Quinoa Salad 

Makes two good servings as a side dish (fills two of the Weck jars shown).

1.  Bring 1/2 cup quinoa and 1 cup water to a boil, then reduce to low and simmer until water is absorbed.  Fluff quinoa with a fork.

2.  Dice the following:  1 red bell pepper, 1 avocado, 1 cup fresh peaches, small bunch of cilantro.

3.  Mix all of the above.  Season with salt, pepper, and juice of 1 lime.  That's it - enjoy!