My very own trash heap

I persuaded Gman to build me my own compost bin for the back yard over the weekend. I have grand plans for a fabulous garden next year and having good dirt is a big part of a great harvest. As you can see from the picture I think it even looks good enough to pass inspection in suburbia. I've now gone completely over the edge, next on my reading list are Let It Rot and Great Garden Companions.

I've added to our store of yummy stuff for the winter including finishing up the bright green pickles and two batches of Peach Hot Pepper Jelly. The version I put together yesterday and today used bright red Anaheim peppers that give a little heat and fabulous color. The jelly is a beautiful orange color with bits of peach suspended throughout. The debut of the jelly over the weekend was a big hit. I am thinking of doing a fancy lid and nice ribbon to make holiday gifts of jelly.

Jamlady's Original Hot Mango Jam (Hot Picante Peach Jam variation)
5 cups sugar
2 3/4 cups peeled, chopped peaches
1 cup seeded or unseeded chopped jalapeno peppers
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1 1 3/4-ounce box regular powdered pectin
2 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice or lime juice or 1/3 teaspoon citric acid
1/2 teaspoon butter (optional)

Blenderize the peppers and vinegar. Mix the lemon juice, butter, chopped mangoes, pepper mixture and pectin in a pan and boil for 1 minute. Add the sugar; boil for 1 minute more. Check the set. BWB 10 minutes. Hot Picante Peach Jam - Use peaches instead of mangoes and ripe, red jalapeno peppers (I used anaheims since I couldn't find red jalapenos). The resulting jam will be orange-colored.

Check out my review of Printakid's personalized kid books over at Maven Says. The short story...PDQ loved it!

Another reason Gman rocks

It has been a long couple of weeks. I haven't been sleeping again. The stress of school starting and trying to accomplish the 1ooo and 1 things I've committed myself (or us t0) has been taking a toll. Then there is work--its work, enough said. Today I got beautiful lillies (and if I were tech savvy enough to get a picture OFF my phone I'd show them to you) from Gman, just because. What a guy, serious husband points there hun. Love ya!

He even read a book and wrote about it for me this week, serious stuff at our house!

Things that make you go hmmmmmmmmmm....

I ordered a couple of things from Amazon last week, I got the shipping notice. It supposedly shipped from somewhere 45 miles from my house and its estimated arrival date---SEPTEMBER 5, 2007. How exactly does THAT happen?

On the way to daycare this morning
Boobah I broke the TV.
I turnoff the radio and ask her "what?'
Boobah: I broke the TV in the basement, but it still works.
PDQ: Yeah, I didn't do it, it was Ellie but Daddy took care of it
At that point I stopped listening the two of them launched off into some other totally unrelated conversation. I didn't remember until hours later to call Gman and find out WTF.

The insomnia from hell is back and worse than ever. This weekend I went to bed early, got up, went back to bed, got back up. I did get the pantry in the basement re-organized around midnight last night. It was 2:42 when I finally got in bed for the last time and at least an hour after that before I fell asleep. I put in the emergency e-mail to my amazing acupuncturist. He, thankfully, had an opening this afternoon. I certainly hope it helped get the energy flowing correctly 'cause I. need. sleep.

Check Out Maven Says for my review of Fathering Your School-Age Child: A Dad's Guide to the Wonder Years, 3 to 9 by Armin Brott featuring a little guest blogging from Gman.

Big Weekend Doin's

It was a "quiet" weekend at home this weekend, no traveling, no big plans, just us at home. On Saturday morning I got up early and headed to the farm. I picked peaches, blackberries and dug some potatoes. When I headed to another part of the farm for a few early season apples I was amazed to find a sign for blueberries. I thought we'd had the last of them a month ago. There were still some blueberry treasures hiding among the blasins (you know, like blueberry raisins). Once you lowered your expectations it was a fun treasure hunt and one I knew Boobah would love to eat! So I headed home with a little sun and a whole lot of produce.

Gman spent the day constructing a compost bin for me. He slaved away (and I am shocked didn't take a picture!) while I was gone and for several hours after I got home. Now we can have an even better garden next year with our very own trash. Pretty cool.

Today we all headed to the Columbia Iron Girl Triathlon to watch Esmerelda in the race she'd been training for practically all year. It was a cool-ish day for August in the Mid-Atlantic. Gman headed out early, really early for a Sunday morning so he could capture pictures of the whole thing. The girls and I ventured out later to cheer her on at the top of the last bike hill and to meet her at the finish line. Unfortunately in traffic we didn't make it to the finish line in time to see her cross it. We did make up for it with some pink flowers to match her hot pink suit. It was really interesting to watch all the elated women who'd done their tri that morning. There was a great energy in the air and everyone, amazingly, looked like they were having a great time! Way to go Es!

In a pickle

Somewhere early in the summer I decided I wanted to make pickles. I wasn't thinking any old pickle either. I wanted to make my grandmother's sweet pickles. They stand out in my mind as one of those things that makes me think of grandma and family gatherings. Not only did her pickles taste great but they were a bright green color that caused much giggling among my cousins and I.

Grandma is in a nursing home after a stroke last November (right after she got off the red hat float in the Christmas parade). She isn't quite who she was before mentally or physically and it has impacted me more than I might have thought. Part of me wants to make sure I can preserve (pun intended) our family history. Unfortunately, no one can find the recipe. I have scoured the Internet and found a similar sounding recipe and the wise ladies over on gardenweb.com confirmed that their family recipes included green food coloring which they have since omitted.

I was originally a bit daunted by the prospect of making ANYTHING that takes 8 days. Really, my attention span is more like 8 minutes. I like to bake bar cookies because it takes less time. Like so much else, this has been a process and I've learned to enjoy it. Yes, you do something everyday for 8 days but the work isn't hard. The first 4 days I boiled water and poured them on the cukes. Yesterday I made the syrup, added my food coloring and cut the cukes into chunks. Tonight, it is syrup boiling and on Sunday the final canning of the pickles.

Just seeing grandma's crock in my kitchen makes me smile. During the summer it often sat in the chair by her back door. There was a smell of cucumbers and spices in the air. My first batch is a single recipe and it fills maybe one third of the crock, I remember hers being filled right up to the top and I realize how much work it must have been--I bought my cucumbers, she and my grandfather grew theirs in a rocky plot in the backyard. I have the crock, hopefully the recipe will be close enough that we can all remember the "good old days."

Ah, Sleep

Last night I was worried I wouldn't sleep-AGAIN. I got in bed, Gman was quiet, I tossed and turned trying to get comfortable. Tossed and turned some more. Fell asleep. Woke up this morning when Gman's alarm went off. Wow, I slept through the night! Although I've been sleeping better, sleeping through the night unmedicated is pretty much unheard of. Of course it wasn't nearly enough sleep but it was wonderful and unbroken. Let's hope tonight is a repeat!

Back to the grind

Today I went back to the office after being off for 6 days. It was really hard getting back into the swing of things. Of course the girls didn't want to get up today although yesterday they were up and ready before I was, go figure. I had a meeting first thing this morning and then a slew of them this afternoon where I needed to know what was going on and be able to speak intelligently and on topic. I think I did okay but thinking took a lot of work. I would so much rather have been at home in bed catching up on my sleep! Last night was better but it was far from a good night's sleep. GMan and his snoring are driving me nuts, he'll be lucky if I don't put a pillow over his head tonight (JK, love ya, mean it!).

I get to work from home tomorrow. The Verizon guy is coming (at least I assume its a guy, very sexist of me) to hook us up with FiOS TV. I'll admit it we are TV and gadget junkies. We've waited through a year of our DirectTV contract to get to this point--they have a bundle for the right price so we are going for it. For us the holy grail is the multi-room DVR. I can record in the living room and watch it in the bedroom. Yes, we are sick, sick TV junkies.

On Thursday my whole department is going to a training class on negotiations skills. My two fears, it is deathly boring OR the whole thing is role playing. I don't mind doing the role play with strangers but doing it with the people I work with makes me want to hurl. Yeah, stupid I know but me.

Okay, off to clean the TV shows off the current DVR before they disappear into never-never land!