August 14, 2010
…of various sorts has been ours lately. I’ll have to come back to the posts on the road trip, but here’s what’s going on more recently.
Lucy has finally given in and decided that she is, in fact, old enough to poop on the potty. We are jubilant. And it’s consistent, it’s been only one diaper since we got back from Fargo. We even tried sleeping without diapers for a couple of nights (at her request), but that went less well. Apparently if she sleeps in a diaper, she waits until she gets up to pee, and if she doesn’t, well, she doesn’t. But maybe soon. Read more...
July 19, 2010
It has been a week of visitors. We managed to have someone over for a meal every day last week. After Taylor’s wedding, my mom and brother came over, so they were here Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. (Their visit also included a shopping trip to the French Quarter and a trip to the Aquarium.) On Wednesday Craig’s brother and his girlfriend came for dinner and so that Craig could help Sean with calculus. Thursday’s dinner included some of the usual suspects, Theresa and Paige. (Eric Parrie – I am calling you out publicly for standing us up!) Friday Fr. R.B. spent the night. Which I guess means I could count Saturday breakfast, too, but then Theresa brought a little girl she was babysitting over to play and have lunch. Seven days in a row! Read more...
June 18, 2010
Well, it’s been a while, hasn’t it? Nearly a month, actually. If you’re still checking, I’m impressed. There has been a lot going on, including my going offline for weeks at a time and some serious writer’s block. But here’s the update.
School ended, thank God. Everyone survived. Summer is hot, hot, hot. There will be not trips to the zoo any time soon, membership or no. The goal is for everyone to survive the summer. Read more...
April 18, 2010
For once, the pause in posting wasn’t my fault! Last Saturday Craig put insulation in our attic, and bumped something that killed the electricity in the room with the computer. So that was finally fixed yesterday, when Craig was home in the morning when it was cool enough to get up in the attic again and fix it. But now we’re functional again, anyway.
We’ve been busy in the garden, and I’ll have to put up some details and pictures sooner or later. But the exciting thing, we realized last night, is the variety of foods we’ve had this week. Almost all of which Lucy has at least sampled. Many of which are things I’ve only started eating recently myself. Here’s the list, at least what I can remember, from the last week: Read more...
April 9, 2010
The beans have come! It’s garden time, and my first order from Seed Savers has come in, and is already in the ground. Well, not all of them, but nine Flor de Junio, and nine Tejano beans (I only ordered the Flors, apparently the others were lagniappe) are in their appointed squares. Prior to their arrival, we already had onions (some green ones we rescued from the compost pile and some seeds which are just coming up), orange, green, and “chocolate” bell peppers, jalapeño and Anaheim peppers, basil, oregano (which over-wintered) lemon balm, dill, chives, parsley, orange mint, salad greens (some of which have already bolted and been removed, including the bacon-flavored one, whatever it was), and several types of tomatoes. The daffodils and tulips are bloomed out, and the iris are in full bloom now (some yellow and some white, with some white and purple on their way). I put in some morning glory seeds in pots in hopes of getting them to climb the play ground the porch posts. The orange tree is blooming (I wish I could send you a smell of it – it is amazing!) and the jasmine is almost there. All the berry bushes (ok, they’re not bushes yet, they’re sticks) have new growth, so in two years, if nothing goes wrong, we will have berries, too! Read more...
March 20, 2010
In an attempt to make up for the long, long silence, here are some pictures. First, the “man pit” that Craig build over the old (dug out hole in the grass) fire pit. It is now an oven and stove. I picked up the brick off the curb, in my church clothes, no less. Dad would be proud.
The roasted (in brick oven) vegetable quesidillas (cooked on brick stove) were really, really good.
We have done a little planting. We’ve had several dafodills bloom, and the tulips and iris are ready to bust. Read more...
December 14, 2009
Last week was black bean and sweet potato week here at the Baker house. I know that probably sounds strange to you, because it did to me a couple of weeks ago. But we (and by “we” I mean Craig) had purchased many, many pounds of sweet potatoes about a month ago, and they needed to be eaten. And black beans are cheap (as were sweet potatoes, hence our abundance). And I generally trust Moosewood cookbooks, so I thought I’d give the “black bean and sweet potato hash” a try. Now, I’m not one to make hashes, as a general rule, so this involved a little bravery to start with. Here’s the recipe, so you can see for yourself what I was getting into. Read more...
November 26, 2009
The CD player in our Honda has been out of order for a while now. It will take a CD, but just make a disturbing flapping sound and sit there. Which is a problem, because, especially on eight-to-ten-hour drives, being able to put on some appropriate mood music for the girlies can come in very handy. So, yesterday, we took matters into our own hands.
There are instructions on the internet for disassembling your car. With photos. So Craig removed the top dashboard piece, the one with the air vents in it. And the case around the gearshift, and the “not an ashtray”, and the pop-lid storage thingy, and finally, (finally!) the control console. Read more...
