Names

My son, Aidan....

~the name wasn't popular when he was born, but since, we have met multiple Aidans as well as Caydens, Haidens, Jaydens, etc.  Apparently there was a character on a popular prime time show whose name was Aidan. We were going for something slightly unique, not too unusual and not very popular....

*sigh*

but I digress...

My son Aidan, is very interested in my blog. Well, truthfully he's never sat down and read it.

However, he is always making suggestions for things that I can blog about.

Like hamburgers.

Excuse me.

I stand corrected.

It is actually called a "double burger bacon deluxe".

Two patties, two slices of American cheese and four slices of bacon. Condiments galore.

His creation:

Seriously, dude, you gonna eat that whole thing?

Mouth-watering goodness

Every last bite.

 

 

 

 

Chicken Yoga

House Elves

I am a huge Harry Potter fan. The cat's out of the bag.

I began reading the books out loud to the kids a few years ago and read them to myself a time or two since then. Love them. Wished they had been written when I was my kids ages.

It's my guilty pleasure when I am feeling under the weather to watch the movies while lying horizontally on the couch.

But what I really want to talk about today are house elves.

I want one.

Wouldn't it be lovely to have someone tidy up at the end of each day and generally keep things clean, while preparing meals and doing the laundry in-between. Oh--and the dishes. Someone will need to do the dishes.

Now I know that Hermione felt that elves weren't treated properly and I certainly wouldn't want to take advantage of any being. We would pay our elf well and even allow our elf a vacation or two.

But in the summer especially, when there are so many chores to do outside, a house elf would be nice.

Maybe I can just stick pointy ears on my kids and pretend....

Peas and things

Our peas are flowering and we had our first salad with snap peas the other day. I am definitely a snap pea/snow pea kinda gal. I definitely prefer shell peas (all peas) fresh rather than cooked. It's fun snacking in the garden.

Rooster Bob is sporting his shiny new bracelet. HE banded the older chickens so that we can identify them. Then we let the "little" guys out.

They loved it!

The kids saw this tiny guy outside and collected him for about 15 minutes and then let him go. We looked and looked for our snake book (to identify him) but can't find it anywhere. If you've seen it, let me know.

Spotters Update

Back when we adopted Spotters we had a couple of reasons for getting a second dog. One was that we believed Tippy would enjoy a companion and would get more exercise. Another was that we had space (in our home and our hearts) for a second dog.

But another reason is that we (or maybe I) have a minor addiction to baby animals. Fortunately, the logical half of my self disallows the "collecting" of multiple baby animals, because it knows that baby animals grow up and that they require veterinarian care, food and any manner of fecal clean-up. [see earlier post on baby raccoons]

Not that Spotters was a tiny pup when we adopted him. In fact, he was four months old. But still awesomely cute and sweet. And he still is. At the time, it seemed the right thing to do. Our lives had settled down a bit and I think we had envisioned more than one dog at a time in our future. Sometimes we do these things without thinking them through. Some emotion takes over and we plunge into a decision.

The trouble is, over the past several months, we realized that he was not a good fit for our family. After consulting with a dog behaviorist and engaging in several weeks of intense training; after many discussions, we realized this simple fact and contacted the rescue organization from which we adopted him. He is now placed in a loving foster home and I am sure he will soon be permanently placed in the perfect home for him.

We will miss you Spotters.

MILE and FILE

No, we are not studying the "ile" word family. These are my in-laws: Mother-In-Law Extraordinaire and Father-In-Law Extraordinaire. Two wonderful, amazing people whom I have the good fortune to call my relatives. MILE and FILE for short.

FILE. Well, what can you say about him. A true renaissance man. Let's just say that if it wasn't for him, we would probably be living in a mobile home still.

Scratch that~we'd be divorced.

Apart from building houses, he takes the kids fishing, gardens, plays trombone and has incredible clarity and objectivity. He's a great guy.

MILE. Inspirational. Her acronym is apropos, as she is always going the extra mile (or miles as the case may be). She seems to always be out helping others or doing some activity for someone other than herself. Kids birthdays? Extra special. Holidays? Extra special. Weekend dinner? Extra special. I think that just about sums her up--Extra Special.

We have the additional good fortune to live a mile from them and see them more often than we see any other relatives. HE and his dad help each other out with various jobs from time to time and we get together with them for dinner occasionally.

The proximity also allows us to feed their dog when they will be gone for more than a few hours at a time or pop-in on short notice for any number of reasons (cookies, my kids would say).

Or when MILE calls to report that she has two little visitors in her flowering crab tree.

So we went over to take a look:

Aaaaaawwwwwww!

I mean really, how adorable.

What do you do with two baby raccoons?

Well, apparently if you were HE when he was a boy, you take them in and feed and care for them.

I'm not exactly sure how that story ends. We didn't get that far.

Though, when we came home from ooohing and aaaahing over them I walked into the house and said:

"Hon, can you fetch the old rabbit hutch?"

He stood up with a slight grin on his face, shaking his head and began to say something along the lines of: "I knew you wouldn't be able to leave without rescuing them".

But, alas, I am apparently made of stronger stuff than HE thinks, for we left the little cuties in the tree.

One thing we do not need: Pet Raccoons.

Breakfast Goodness

You take some of these from the garden:

Wash 'em up, slice 'em and add some chopped peaches from your fridge (or not).

Then you whip together:
1 large egg
1 1/4 cup milk
1 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt

Heat a small omelette pan, lightly coat with oil and fry up some crepes.

Spread a hint of butter onto the crepe, fill it with fruit, sprinkle with some sugar and roll it up. Then add some fruit and a titch of sugar on top. Voila!

Repeat, repeat, repeat!
Eat, eat, eat!

Weather Radio

I have a love/hate relationship with our weather radio.

Mostly love, though.

You see, I have a bit of an obsession with the weather. My mom was always obsessed with the weather. I think it's one of those things she passed down to me. I can remember once when I was very young, my mom and my siblings and I (or at least one of them) sitting in front of a big window in one of our homes and watching a thunderstorm roll in. I wasn't afraid~I was intrigued, admiring the beauty in the colors of the sky and the lightning.

Well, I'm sure I couldn't have stated it in those exact terms, but if I'd had the language I would have.

Anyhoo, I have a thing for the weather. I check the weather at least once (or ten) times a day.

A couple of years ago, I even dressed as weather girl for Halloween. That was fun. As we walked through the neighborhoods with our kids I blurted out things like "it's going to be sunny and windy!" and then threw my head back, laughing like some mad-scientist/weather forecaster.  (mwaa, haa, haa!)

I should do that one again.

So, you see, I have a deep appreciation for our weather radio. It lets me know when I should cook up a batch a popcorn, pour an ice cold root beer and sit down in front of the windows for the show.

Or--when it's time to head down to Jim's parents house and hunker down in their cozy basement until all threats of tornadic activity have passed.

Tornadic.

You see, I really don't like that word. It wasn't a word when I was growing up. I am a word person and this word sounds made-up to me. Primarily because nobody said this word during my "learning" years.

Yes, I know I am still learning and yes, I also know that all words are made up...

Bully for you!!

I will stop complaining about "tornadic" now.

However, sometimes (like today) our weather radio announces thunderstorm warnings at 2 am and then again at 5:30 am (and about five more times afterward). That would be okay--but mostly I like to sleep during those hours.

But then I would have missed the show.

The sun rising over the chicken coop in the east:

The dark clouds moving in from the west:

The faintest hint of a rainbow.

The thunder. The lightning. The sound of rain on the roof.

The fresh scent of rain on grass.

Pass the popcorn.

Strawberries

We've had lots of these:

 

Which produced a lot of these:

Which will turn a deep, luscious red and be eaten.

In all kinds of glorious ways.

But mostly straight off the vine. 

Yum!