Book Goals Mid-Year: A Fail
As you may recall, I made one New Year’s resolution when the calendar rolled over to 2010: I wanted to read 26 books this year, which averages out to one every other week.
I’ve reminded myself again why I do not make New Year’s resolutions. I stopped at five books when the weather warmed up. I only read what I had to read for work.
I was excited to jump back into my reading a few weeks ago with my book club’s pick of “The Senator’s Wife,” by Sue Miller. I’m not normally a “Peyton Place” type reader, but I had skipped the two previous book club reads and instead went just for the conversation and food.
This was a bad choice to get me back into reading. Continue Reading »
The Microbes are After us
When we moved to Our Little House 3 years ago, I almost tossed the microwave. While I didn’t know of any specific dangers from cooking with radiation, I’ve somehow always inherently known that it must not be good for us.
Maybe it was one of the first experiences I had with a microwave. I was about 12, getting ready to head with a friend to the pool for a day of sunbathing (I know now, of course, that isn’t good for us either) and boy chasing (whether that is good for us depends on the boy).
As I recall, my friend had one of the first microwaves in our neighborhood and we proceeded to blow up our hot dogs all over the new oven. I remember we were a bit delayed after cleaning it up, but I also remember thinking that anything that could make a hot dog explode in under 2 minutes couldn’t be good.
And then there was the woman who continuously called the appliance service center at the department store where I worked as a teenager. The poor lady kept telling us she could see the “microbes” escaping her oven and she needed a service man out right away. We thought at the time she was just lonely — as she always had a fresh batch of cookies for him – and insisted he sit and visit with her while there.
But, maybe the little old lady wasn’t crazy or lonely as we thought…
Summer's Bounty
As summer winds down, some of our Living Large in Our Little House community might find themselves with more summer harvest bounty than good recipes.
Unfortunately, that is not the case here this year. A wet, cool spring followed immediately by too hot of temperatures made for a short growing season. As you can see in my post from a few days ago, my grape and volunteer tomato plants have about had it and the ones in the garden didn’t fare much better.
Still, I know some of you are still picking and growing. Here’s a couple of recipes from my mother’s recipe box that have long been staples for summer in our family:
The End of Summer
The end of July, I cannot believe the summer is almost past here at Our Little House. Sure, the long term weather forecast says we still have at least a month left of these oppressively hot and humid temperatures, but once July is gone, I feel the summer slipping.
This too, is ingrained in my DNA from childhood. July 31 marked the end of my Dad’s month long vacation from his long-time railroad job and August 1 marked the beginning of school clothes and supply shopping (the railroad paid once a month on the 1st) and the dentist and doctor check ups.
While there were still plenty of days to run, bike and play and evenings to catch fireflies the end of summer was just around the corner, as school usually started by the 3rd week in August (as it does here now). My staying up late with my mother also came to and end as she tried to get me back into a routine.
It was a time to begin to hunker down, spend more time indoors and get serious about life again.
