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In: In The Garden

Spring is still eluding us in the Pacific Northwest, teasing us with a few hours of sunshine and blue skies that rapidly change to more snow.  Since Mother Nature isn’t letting us get out in the gardens and flower beds we can give our indoor plants some attention.  A little pruning, a new pot to give roots a little more room to spread out and a shot of natural fertilizer will do wonders.  I don’t care much for a lot of chemicals so I tend to lean more towards simple, natural things that I usually have around the house anyway.  My favorite is black tea, we drinkRead More →

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In: Reflections, Thoughts and Ideas

I used to be so organized, I don’t know what happened.  I knew exactly where everything was.  I took care of things as they arose.  I feel like I woke up one morning and a storm has come through my life and I’m in a daze trying to figure out where I am.  I have fallen into the terrible habit of procrastination, I feel consumed by the aftereffects.  As a new mother I obsessed over a clean house, I would mop the kitchen floor and vacuum in the morning before putting my son in the floor and again in the evening.  Now 17 years later, I’mRead More →

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In: In The Kitchen

Many recipes handed down through the generations often take for granted that the new cook knows what the old cook is talking about.  It has been my experience that this is not usually true.  You’re supposed to automatically know to grease and flour the pans, what a “slow, moderate or hot oven” is and how long it takes to get to “till done”.  It takes some trial and error, but always worth it. My dad was born in a small farming town outside of Fresno.  When he was a young child they moved to another small town in Oklahoma, where my grandparents had milk cows and farmed.  NeedlessRead More →

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In: In The Garden

It’s the first of March and a little closer to Spring!  It’s time to get serious about our vegetable garden and get those cold weather seeds started.  Although some can technically be sown in the ground now, I’m not going to dig through the snow to do it.  I’ll be starting my seeds indoors instead.  Since we have a small family of three and two of them are not big veggie eaters I spread out starting my seeds over several weeks, only doing a few at a time.  Spinach, lettuces, peas, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, beets, cucumbers, melons, tomatoes, peppers and onions can all be startedRead More →

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In: Reflections, Thoughts and Ideas

Trying to find a moment of calm in the chaos of the day sometimes feels impossible.  I find my shoulders inching up closer to my ears, my jaw clenching and tension building in my shoulders the closer it gets to time for school to be out and my husband getting home from work.  That is when my focus shifts from getting as much work done as I can to homework, what’s for dinner and the clean up.  It’s a lot harder to work from home than I imagined it would be.  Some days I feel like I’m stuck on a hamster wheel, it’s exhausting.  It’sRead More →

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In: Reflections, Thoughts and Ideas

Here I sit, watching the snow fall.  After a few days of sunshine and warmer weather it has melted enough to tease us with hints of an early spring.  The snow had melted off my raised flower beds to let little green sprigs of new growth and hope peek out from beneath the mulch.  Now as everything gets covered up again I’ll have to be content with planning; what changes do I want to make?  Where should I replant the dahlias this year?  Do I want to put my Valentine’s mini rose bushes in containers or in the ground?  Daydreaming about my flower garden isRead More →