Farmers' Market

Took Iliacat, LittleD and Buzz to the Farmers' Market this morning. We got some local fruit and some Traverse City Cherries.

Pretty, huh?

Now I'm off to start prep some bbq pork for dinner and get some lunch for ... lunch.

I'm hungry and sleepy today.

Because c0rny is Cool

My friend c0rny blogged this the other day.

I totally had to copy her, because she is the c00limost.

Octopus Hot Dogs on Mac & Cheese

Here's the whole Octopi family, before serving:

The kids liked it, and it was fun.

She said something about skinless hotdogs but my brain said "blah blah blah" and bought what was on sale. Hers curled up more on the legs, I'm jealous of that. I don't know if mine were skinless or not. I could read the package, but it's so far away. Maybe mine didn't curl as much because 8 hot dogs cooled the water too much, too fast?

anyway ...

Thanks c00l c0rny! :-D

Long Long Ride

Iliacat loves bike rides.

Long ones.

We did 10 miles recently. She remembered our long trip a few years ago and wanted to outdo it. You might or might not remember that I overdid that long trip a few years ago, paid for it with my knees, which are not at all "bad knees" but perhaps are predisposed to become so if I don't take some preventative action. But since I'd been walking regularly since last August and doing some other strength/alignment/flexibility exercise I thought it would be okay.

So here's the start ~ we joined the path 1 mile from it's start, but it's also 1 mile from home, so the mile markers matched up nicely:

And the route:

We rode down the Rail Trail past Sanford, over the cool Railroad bridge:

Looked down and saw a bike in the river:

Detoured through the Arbutus Bog path

Past the bad pun:

Out so far there was only cornfields, path, and sky:

I pretended to be dead upon reaching Coleman (20 miles out) - but I'm not sure Iliacat appreciated it. :-)

We ate lunch in Coleman and turned back. Shortly thereafter I realized 20 miles without working up to it was perhaps too much for my knees. :-( I was frustrated because I still had energy and wanted to go the whole way, but the previous knee ordeal made me wary. After a few miles Iliacat decided she was, also, getting sore and tired. So we called for the troops to bail us out.

We stopped at the Sandford trail head, 12 of the 20 back, and waited for our ride. I felt a little bad bailing out - especially when my knees felt okay after we stopped riding. But tonight they have the same achy burning feel I remember from last time. So I'm glad we stopped when we did. :-/

Maybe next time we'll work up to a long ride slowly, like smart people would.

a very "me" nightmare

I had a dream I was hosting a homeschooling mom's meeting.
At my house. Which, in my dream, was actually my parents' house.
It was time for the meeting and I hadn't prepared the food.
It was a potluck, but I had bought a roast and hadn't even started cooking it.
And everyone who brought food brought it uncooked / unprepared.
So I was trying to cook and prep all the food really fast, but was late to start the meeting I was supposed to host/run
And was really stressed about it.
The dream ended while everyone was still waiting and I was still running around desperately trying to get the food ready.

Cranberry & White Chocolate Muffins

from a lemon poppyseed recipe

INGREDIENTS
4 cups white whole wheat flour
1-1/2 cups white sugar
1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
4 T. flax seed, ground, plus 1/2 cup water (or sub 4 eggs)
2 cups plain, fat free yogurt
1/2 cup applesauce
2 tablespoons grated lemon zest
2/3 cup lemon juice
1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup white chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x13 pan.
Combine the dry ingredients.
In a separate bowl mix the water, yogurt, apple sauce, lemon juice and lemon zest. Blend well and pour over the flour mixture. Mix until just combined. Do no overmix!
Spread batter evenly in the prepared pan. Bake at 400 degrees F (205 degrees C) for 30-35 minutes.
Let muffins cool in pans for 10 minutes before removing them from the pan.

For muffin pans bake ~20 minutes.

I. O. U.

Dear Blog Peeps

I. O. U. ~

* comments on your sites ~ I'm so lame! I know it! I'm sorry!
* pix of the birthday girls
* pix of the planted garden
* pix of my one remaining spiderwort, just because I love it
* funny stories and insightful rambles

but you'll just have to make do with this:

I'm tired of exercising nearly every day. It's hard work. Remember that little window of time when I claimed to like exercise? I really did think I liked it for awhile. But that's all gone now. I hate all the hard work and being hot and sweaty, no matter how often Leslie tells me not to hate sweating. And Leslie keeps saying I'll have more energy, too. What's up with that? I'm starting to think Leslie lies. I just want to crawl back in bed and sleep for a month.

I'm just sayin'.

It's all in the dirt!

I did it!

Can you believe it?

The Grand Lunar helped me get some of the space ready, and I pruned, sawed, dug, and planted all afternoon and evening.

I planted:
4 tiny baby lilac bushes (including one red, one lavender, one deep purple and one white)
3 tiny baby blue hydrangeas
3 tiny baby bare root dead stick looking sub-zero hardy hibiscus
1 tiny itty bitty baby butterfly bush
6 blue asters
6 jacob's ladders
3 butterfly blue scabosia

I hope they grow, and look nice, and don't die, and don't take over.

I took before pictures. But it was getting dark so I didn't take after pictures yet.

It would've been a lot easier if I'd just prepared for planting before they arrived.

Live and ... well, I don't really expect I'll learn from this, other than intellectually. I'm sure I'll do the same thing next time. Stupid procrastinator.

What have I done?

I like flowers.

I like nice yards.

I love to take pictures of my pretty flowers.

I like to think that, with enough wishful thinking and occasional effort, I will have a lovely yard. Maybe not all professionally landscaped looking, but nice.

And so, riding high on that dream and an internet discount, I bought some plants.

What was I thinking?!

They arrived today. A box full of tiny little baby plants. Sweet little drooping things too long enclosed in a dark cardboard box. Baby plants that need a carefully prepared bed and some love and attention.

Who did I think was going to provide that for them?

I can't even remember where I had envisioned planting them. I mean, I vaguely remember, but all those areas need to so very much prep. And, of course, I didn't do the prep before the plants arrived. And, of course, all the baby plants arrived at once, on the same day, in the same box, with instructions to plant them all immediately.

In the box are 4 tiny baby lilac bushes. They are so tiny. I'm not sure what I expected from "2 year bare root" plants but they are TINY! The kind of thing you'd mow over without blinking. The kind of thing that will be overwhelmed and lost amongst all my aggressive invasive species. The kind of thing that may not last one summer.

And the three blue hydrangea "bushes" are even smaller than tiny. They came packaged on a microscope slide.

And in addition to the bushes, there's a smattering of blue flowers that supposedly are easy to grow. But all, also, need to be stuck in soft dirt and watered. Requiring effort and attention.

So ...

I'm feeling bad for all the lovely things I'm about to kill.

What have I done?

waiting ... waiting ...

In retrospect, I guess it was a stupid plan

Yesterday someone called and said she'd stop by this morning around 9, for an exchange of goods. I said fine, that I'd be up ... still in my shorts/t-shirt jammies, but hey. She said she'd call if she couldn't make it. I said fine. I'm flexible. I'm in no hurry.

I was up at 7 this morning, but don't usually exercise/shower until I've gotten all the children fed and all that ... so I drank my coffee and waited while kids straggled down.

By the time almost 9 rolled around, I didn't want to be exercising or in the shower when the lady came, so I waited.

Now it's almost 10 and I'm still waiting. I guess I could start exercising and just stop, and answer the door all sweaty ... but I'd rather not. If I had just exercised and showered at 8, I would've been done and fresh and clean and shiny to answer the door.

But the later it gets, the more likely I'll be interrupted if I start, or worse yet miss her while I'm in the shower.

So I'm just sitting here, stalling, waiting to see whether she comes or not.

Getting hungry, too.

I don't like to eat right before exercising, so I was planning to eat afterwards.

I hope she comes soon.

Or calls to say she's not coming.

Waiting ...

Waiting ...

Let the Summer Begin! ... I guess.

Well, today is the first of an unending series of "park days" for the summer. Actually, I guess there was one on Tuesday, but I was out of town and I think it was cold and rainy here. I'm not sure. But we obviously didn't go.

But today's park date is one I'm committed to, being a long standing attender with a reputation for always being there. I'm part of the core, baby.

But I have to admit, at this very moment, 7:40 am on the first park day, I'm really not looking forward to it. I do this every year. I somehow perceive the hassle of getting all the park stuff ready as monumental, and the idea of being out in the fresh air and sunshine, instead of basking by the warm healthy glow of my monitor, as foreign and scary.

Plus, we've been in a pretty decent rhythm for school, chores, and exercise recently. Laid back, slow moving mornings, but making steady progress. The children have done really well in getting to their school work, and I've been consistently getting my workouts in. I don't really want to give that up for the faster paced morning rush of park days.

Seriously, though, I get to hang out with some of my best friends at the park. The park is all fenced in, with a little shallow pond and some sand, so the kids can get wet and dirty without getting lost. This year I don't have a newborn, but my youngest is old enough to play without me being 1 step behind, so I get the luxury of sitting on the blanket, watching the kids and talking with my friends. What could be better than that?

So I'm not sure what my hang up is, with not wanting to go. I think it's just figuring out which clothes to be the "okay to get dirty" park clothes and deciding whether to have them change into clean dry ones before coming home (requiring, then, two outfits per child for the trip) or what. I could do swim suits for them, but I don't want the nice swimsuits to get trashed by the muddy sand ... and then there's lunch, hauling a cooler and trying to remember to take fruits and veggies and hope nothing gets squarshed on the way there.

Writing that down seems like a lot of lame reasons not to want to go to a really cool thing. I'm sure I'll have a blast and be glad we went. I guess I'll start getting ready. In a minute. As soon as I sit here on my behind drinking my coffee, a little longer.

Maybe I'll take my new camera and manual and see if I can figure out the things that are confusing me. And if I get some cool pix, I'll share them with you.

Don't ever let me go internet free again

Did you catch the mental blog stream I was sending out? 'Cause I blogged the whole trip in real time in my head. And, unfortunately, I've forgotten all the funniest lines.

Almost broke down twice and paid for internet access. But I survived.

Here's a glimpse of what you missed:

My namesake, spotted on the way up:

It was very foggy and sprinkling on our way to the Island:

Here's Iliacat and I, taking pictures on the island, when we were just generally damp and not yet soaked to the bone:

Cannon Firing at Fort Mackinac:

There's a few more (of the 307 I took) on my flickr space, including the artsier fartsier ones, if you want more. I tried to limit the pix for the dial-up peeps.

Oh and I made sure there was no pictures, but Iliacat and I got to swim several times ~ there's a cool indoor waterpark in Mackinaw City ~ and I don't hate my new swimming suit. (I followed your lead, Karen, and found a little swishy-skirt to go with the new suit) I figure not hating a swimming suit is blogworthy these days. LOL.

We had a nice time. But it's nice to be home. 'Cause blogging in my brain was tiring.

While the bells ring

Heads up, peeps!

I'm going up to Mackinaw City and Mackinac Island with Iliacat today, leaving in a little while. I'm not taking any of our technostuff, other than the phone & camera (okay, and the iPod, but no computer, that's my point) so you won't be hearing from me! But I promise you pictures when we return.

While I'm gone, say a prayer for me, I got some of that Venom goo on me about two weeks about and it's been trying to entangle me. I even tried it on as a spidy suit under my real clothes, but I don't want to go that route. Decided to listen to the persistent whisperings of God, instead. So I'm using the time we're gone as the clanging bells to throw it off of me. Pray that it would be like coming out of the fog into the sunshine. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, that's okay, just say a prayer for me anyway, I'd appreciate it.

See you all Tuesday night!!!

Oh, and here's a pix of the 3 littles with their new little baldy heads for summer. Kelly, see a little Mac wanna be in there?

hey there

hey there ...

I feel like I've been off in space. still a little sleep deprived. thinkin' deep thoughts and shallow thoughts but not getting them out to the blog peeps. sorry about that.

I haven't been reading blogs and commenting, either. I feel like I've abandoned my buddies. I'm sorry. I'll try to come back soon to the blogosphere.

we got a new camera I want to try out today. our old one was having odd lens cover issues and iliacat had also asked for a camera for her birthday. (blog about that soon) ... we didn't want to spend $$ on a less good one for her when our old one is still mostly good, so we've got the lens cover mostly working and gave her our old camera - pretty sweet for a 12 year old I think - and we got an even cooooler one for us.

I should spend some time learning more about photography. I love taking pictures but there's so much I really don't know about camera settings and options and all.

But anyway. Due to sleep deprivation and stuff, I'm behind on my walking and should get going on that.

Just wanted to let you all know I'm still alive ;-)

miss you, peeps :-*

enough with the faces, Kim.

oh, and shari, you asked about the blog spam I mentioned -- spam comments posted to the blog, usually on old posts. I'm getting something like 100 a day, and I got way behind and bogged down in deleting them. It's just another thing to babysit. Wears me out. LOL.