Tired

Nine days until surgery and a ton of things to do. This is the list I just sent Dax:

3/22--One World classroom Event
3/24--Mel dr. appt
Go look at Plank Rd. House
April Fool's Party
Kenny to Groomer
Laundry
Easter shopping (Easter is the Sunday before we leave for Missouri)
Mazzy's birthday shopping
Shoe shopping for Jack and Maz for the wedding.
Cooking and freezing for when I'm laid up.
Packing for the trip
Making sure the kids are ready for school pictures (3/31)
and the science fair (3/31)

That, of course, doesn't include regular cleaning around the house or photo work that I should be spending 4+ hours/day on.

I'm sleepy though.

Spring Cleaning

I have knee surgery scheduled for March 31, and we're driving to Missouri starting on April 6, so I've been doing my best to get the house clean, laundry done, and things taken care of and ready for the trip, well before the surgery. Plus, with the food challenge and all the cooking I'm doing, I'm spending less time in front of the computer, and therefore, less time updating the blog. These pictures are from a couple of days ago (St. Patrick's Day actually, as the green shirt tells me), during a break from cleaning my room.

I've been lamenting the fact that my pictures are boring, and I have the same sort of expression in most of them, but really...what am I supposed to do? Make faces? "Catch" myself mid-cry or mid-laugh? (let the eye-rolling begin) I did take some photos of me in my new lingerie this week, but no one needs to see that. So here's another picture I took, going for a different "look". HA! I spend too much time in my own company.

Behind the Veil

or curtain, as it were.

5-Minute Artisan Bread

My family is in Week 1 of a 4-week food challenge. During this time period, we're only going to eat foods that have 10 or fewer ingredients, and we understand exactly what those ingredients are, and how they made it into our food. So far, I'm loving it! It's taken a little extra time (especially at the beginning), but we're getting into the rhythm of it all. I have to say, I have never felt more overall satisfaction with what I'm eating as I have this past week.

One of our bigger challenges was what to do about bread. I haven't found a single store-bought bread that fits the requirements. I'm sure I could find some at a bakery or farmers market. Or I could just make my own. We have a bread machine, and while I like it, the results are fairly inconsistent, and the bread doesn't make me swoon with its goodness. I had heard about this 5-Minute artisan bread, as seen here... http://www.globalgourmet.com/food/cookbook/2009/artisan-bread/boule.html ...from one of the message boards I visit. While it certainly takes more than five minutes (you do have to bake it), the prep time is about as minimal as you can get! (well, not as fast as beer bread, but that's a different kind of loaf. This is more like a sourdough). One of the things I love the most is you mix up the dough ahead of time, and then just pull some out of your fridge when you're ready to make a loaf.

Definitely worth a try! It's fabulous!

Cropped

One thing about doing so many self-portraits is not being able to control framing very well. I'm lucky if I'm in frame at all, nevermind whether it's a flattering angle or an interesting photo. I played with some cropping today though and had some fun with it. Before the crop, this one looked pretty much like 90% of my other photos on this blog. At least now it's a little more interesting.

A Day at the Farm

We spent a great (but cold!) day at our friend's farm yesterday. We got to see Emo Cows...

ride snowmobiles...(that's Mazzy and Dax). We all got a chance to ride, but I think Dax enjoyed it most of all.

I have a torn ACL so I couldn't do much other than sit and watch.

The horses watched too. They look happy about it though. :)

That is ALMOST one beautiful pie!

Well, I know there's no new picture of me, but who needs THAT when you have pie? Overall, I was sooo happy with how this turned out! (aside from the edges of the crust getting messed up by the foil....the same foil that took out one of the points on one of my stars.) We're going to a friend's farm today, and I'm bringing this pie and a dark chocolate cream pie. So that's how I spent my Friday night...in pie heaven! And I loved every minute of it. I love love love baking pies!

Happy

It's a good week. I feel good. I feel happy. I'm not getting a darn thing done, but I'm enjoying my days.

Tuesday on the way to chess club...



Wednesday, killing time before book club....

Getting out of the house really does wonders. I should do it more often.