I planted eggplant and pepper seeds almost 2wks ago. Last night I went searching for what happened last year – to see how long it took for sprouts to appear. 2-4wks is what they *should* take, under ideal conditions (which I don’t provide since I don’t want the office set at 85F). Today, I found…

There’s 3 of them, that I can find. They’ve already grown from when I first caught them this morning. I’m a happy gardener.

2nd green thing today is my Elemental skirt, so named because the bottom pattern is a leaf pattern (earth), the 2nd pattern is a candle flame pattern (fire), the 3rd looks like gusty wind to me, and the last will be a wavy pattern (water).

I’ve tried it on, and I maybe should have made it bigger but blocking will definitely help that so it’s hard to say. Either way I love the colour and it’s enjoyable, if taking a while. I’m about halfway done, and it seems I’ll have lots of yarn leftover for something else; all of which makes me a happy knitter.

I’ve already ordered and received most of my garden seeds for this year. I mainly order from Baker’s Creek Heirloom Seeds because, when the time comes (not yet) I’m hoping to be able to harvest my own seeds. So I order from them, and large orders, and this year they sent along a “bonus” packet of seeds (pretty common from seed sellers and a nice thing). “Oriental Mizuna Greens” – I figured I’d find somewhere to grow them (we’re having quite a large area for lettuce and spinach so I found a small corner to try them out).

This evening, on a lark, I went looking for vegetable sources for calcium. Guess what’s among the very highest? Mustard Spinach – aka Japanese Mizuna. Too funny. What’s best is that in a single cup of it, there’s over 30% of your daily recommended amount of calcium (based on 2000 cal diet). Better yet, 325% of your daily recommended amount of vitamin C and 297% of vitamin A, 30% manganese (very important for processing calcium), and 3g of protein. It’s like super-food!

Extra peculiar is that with many of the “deep greens” that’re so high in calcium (beet, collard, kale, spinach, etc), they’re minimal when raw, but the calcium level explodes when cooked. I suspect I’ll be pureeing a lot of this stuff to sneak into sauces and such. I’ll also be making more room in the garden for it!

I made a skirt!  It’s very comfortable and a tad big, so I need to fix that (should be easy enough).  I’d show you but I haven’t shaved my legs since October and I wouldn’t want you wondering why Ken’s wearing a skirt in my photo.  Maybe this weekend…

In the meantime I’m also working on a super cute hat that will maybe be done this weekend (it’s a quite a bit more involved than the skirt) if I have time.

Joy. All I want to do is curl up in a ball on the couch and not move. Instead I’m sitting at the table, persuading each bite of breakfast into E (he’s also sick, so disinclined to eat).

Conversely, I’d like to be healthy and have a bunch of free time to sew up the fabric that arrived today. New, super cute hat and at least one skirt (would be two but one of the fabrics is quite shear so that skirt will need to be lined and I don’t have any liner-type fabric). This is, of course, assuming my sewing machine agrees to work. I haven’t tested it much since Ken “fixed” it.

Ken, upon leaving for his daily grind, just opened up the door and informed me that “Just so you know, it smells like March outside.” I asked if I should stay indoors then?… To keep from torturing myself. I won’t, naturally. I’ll be outside within moments to just suck in that moist, earthy smell. The Mother can be a cruel mistress…but she does have her sweet moments.

So the next 10 days are going to be above freezing during the day. It’s not entirely hopeless to go out and brush the little remaining snow off the mint, oregano and parsley in the wild hopes that something might perk up by the end of the week, is it? Let’s just call it an experiment…

Done and, though it took much longer than we were told (45-60mins does not equal 1.5hrs!!), everything went off without a hitch (so far as we know). Ethan.was.a.champ. I’m so very proud of him.

He’ll be out of school for the next week an a half, and no gym/recess for the next month (which sucks), but hopefully it all means no future problems for him.

*breathes sigh of relief*

Last night I batted my eyelashes and pouted and found links and gave the computer to Ken to do a massive upgrade of my aging WordPress software (older than dirt means a lot of upgrades). Sweet husband that he is, Ken rolled his eyes and then hunkered down for a few hours to make my blog less hacker-able.
Done and completely unnoticable (for you), which is just what I’d wanted (less work for me, right now – have headache). Behind the scenes looks so different that I have a lot of poking around to do, but at least I know, now, I’m less vulnerable to some known issues.

Yep.  Another gift certificate to my favourite yarn source means another slew of projects to work on (not that I’m completely done with other WIP – work’s-in-progress – but this is about inspiration! and I’m inspired to work on the new ones NOW).

I know you want to see…

will become…

(which is much cuter, closer up, and will be longer in the waist since I don’t show my navel off to just anyone (anymore) and won’t have the tie.)

(which uses up some extra from my “Florida Tank top” last winter) will become…

but not a dress – shorter, as a long tank/tunic type top.  Pink replaced with the purple, tan with the yellow, darker brown with the green.  Not that I didn’t like the original colours – they’re really pretty – but I don’t do pink.

will become…

(the yarn looks kinda dull in that image and it’s really not – a nice bright, light green called, appropriately, Honey Dew)  (also the skirt img isn’t the best but it’s the best I can show you).

I’m not willing to pay for the whole book for the skirt, when it’s the only design in the book I like, so I’ll be deconstructing the design and winging it.  Shouldn’t be too hard, and it’s soooo pretty!!

Well, I’ve finally finished planning the garden for the upcoming year (with a few little loose ends, but mostly done).  It’s a good feeling.  Knowing what I’ll be growing (or trying to), when it needs to go into the ground and how and where.  It’s a process that takes a surprising amount of time – calculating not just where in the boxes and when to plant but time in seed trays and hardening off and phases of the moon (yes, I do that).  Every type has it’s own specifications to what it needs and I’m thankful to have spreadsheets and notepads to help me juggle it all.

This year we’re planning on growing hot peppers, sweet peppers, eggplants, tomatoes, celeriac, onions (red, yellow, leeks and bunching), luffa, brussels sprouts, lettuce, spinach, carrots, bok choy, cucumbers (eating and pickling), turnips, radishes, daikon, peas, beets, green beans, drying beans, all kinds of herbs (including rooting parsley), watermelon, parsnips, summer squash, winter squash, sunflowers and some other flowers.  It’ll be my first time with many of them, and many are repeats from last year (though, hopefully with better results on some!).  Some I’ve never/rarely even eaten, so it’ll be a learning experience on many fronts.

This weekend it all begins with seed tray prep.  I’ll start taking pictures once I’ve got anything to show.  Here’s hoping!

From what I did last year…
1. Built a garden and grew food.

2. Went to Disney Land (without children *gasp* bad mommy!).

3. Expanded our family by 3 (cats).

4. Knitted… a lot (more than accessories – actual clothes!).

5. Got locked out of the house, in winter, with Ethan, by Victor.

That I plan to do this year…

1. Bake as much of our bread as I can.

2. Fine tune the garden plan (make trellises).

3. Exercise more (and drag Ken with me).

4. Finish painting (Ethan’s room, play room.
5. Try my hand at canning (without poisoning us).

Ken’s plans…

1. Get in shape/improve health.
2. Move trees.

3. Start to move mountain.

4.  Make things with wood from last spring.

5.  Work on hobbies (make beer, collect rpg’s, etc)

Kelly’s additional…

6. Convince Ken that his #3 should be done by professionals, despite cost therein, and not by us since it’ll never get done.

Once upon a time I was a young woman, living on my own in an awesome apartment with a job that let me pay my bills, in a world of independence.  It was shortly after my Mother passed and I was feeling a need to connect with my family.  The next time I saw my Gram, I asked her to teach me how to bake her bread.  As far back as I can remember she baked her own bread.  It was delicious and perfect and every bread I’ve ever had is always tested against the memory of it.  So she gave me a copy of her recipe and walked me through baking some loaves.  Once I got home I started baking it for myself.  I enjoyed the process, stirring, kneading, the feel of the dough in my hands.  I made it enough that those things are instinct for me and my hands *know* when the dough is right.  I stopped making dough once I moved out of that apartment and hadn’t made it, by hand, since then.

Until today.  I found a new recipe to try and the stand mixer just wasn’t going to make it through full-kneading, so I turned it out on the counter, rolled up my sleeves and began to work.  I’d forgotten how pleasurable it is to do.  The warmth and texture of the dough, the motions back and forth, regular and repetitive.  It’s very relaxing and very satisfying work.  Midway through, Ken came over and gave me a big hug and thanked me for finding so much joy in being a homemaker.  I do, too.  Not everything I do, but there are some aspects of homemaking that are deeply satisfying.   Gardening, cooking, making things for us to wear/use.  These practical skills that I could easily live without, yet choose to do.  They enrich me, and my family, and I’m grateful to have them.