Game night

My friend gave us a board game for Christmas and we just got around to playing it with Grace. I won, so she bratted out. She really wanted to win the gift card that came with the game ;)

Wine and cheese pairings

Baby quilt

 I decided that I wasn't going to have the motivation to finish the crocheted (?) blanket I had started for my cousin's baby, so I decided to do a scrap quilt instead. I found this brick pattern and started it. Of course, I couldn't just sit and do it all in one day, so I finished it right before the baby shower. I'm pleased with how it came out, though the quilting isn't that good. I'm not sure if it's me or the machine.

Fun hacks

So(a)urkraut/Vanilla

Since I'm a science person, fermenting foods is right up my alley. Of course, it takes special equipment that I don't have, but I managed to gather some supplies via ebay. And I had cabbage in a produce basket, so I've got some cooking, so to speak. Glass, wide-mouth mason jars, washed cabbage, sea salt. Just make sure the shredded cabbage stays under the liquid, lidded with an airlock. I put them in the cabinet to ferment, so hopefully there will be some great sourkraut in a few weeks. Usually you would do this in a stone crock and put weights on the cabbage to keep it under the liquid, but I don't think the baby would leave it alone, so I'm starting here. 

And I'm making another batch of vanilla. I ordered vanilla beans and bought vodka, so there should be homemade vanilla for Christmas. 

And I want to do kombucha, but I'm afraid it's going to take too much time and attention. Maybe this summer. It's such a great science experiment and good nutrition, according to all of the hype, but it tastes like ass. Unfortunately, it tastes so bad. This hibiscus flavor is the best I've tasted. And of course, mine would taste worse until I figure out how to make it taste good. You have to make a mother SCOBY and feed it on schedule so it makes babies, though it won't make good kombucha if its underfed and malnourished. This may be a summer project.  

Stargazing events for 2014

Spring Break

Of course it went by so fast. Friday Grace and I went on a girl's night. Barnes and Noble, Kohl's, etc. Saturday we had a cookie booth, then a birthday party in Houston, so we spent the night at Scott's parents house. Grace wanted to go ice skating, so we did since we were in Houston. 

Flat Stanley went along

Of course, the Rain Forest Cafe in the Galleria

Grace spent some time with Mawmaw. We went to a bouncy place with cousins on Wednesday, library and sunshine Thursday . . .

Refridgerate vs room temperature

Looking forward to all of the summer produce!

Books

I found this at Barnes and Noble. I want it because there are some great techniques AND the recipes are broken down by ingredient. Really interested in the pickled watermelon rinds and fresca.

There are some worksheets and stuff in here, but I really want it for the from-scratch recipes in here. 

Love this. Want to do kombucha. Want to make bread with funny flours. They wrote a book before this one about cooking that I want to look for. 

He has a lot to say about not very much. I got another one from the library today, The Third Chimpanzee. 

I liked this, but I can't remember why. 

My father-in-law gave me the last 3 books in Dean Koontz's Frankenstein series. They were good. I think they could have been tightened up and made into 1 or 2 bigger books, but whatever.
I also read Anne Rice's second Wolf book. I can't remember the name. It was good. I remember her being a better writer, but maybe I just have more experience now? It was fine, but I've definitely read better.
There's a new Mercy Thompson book out that Scott wanted to read very badly. I didn't so much because I'm not interested in seeing Mercy belittled by Adam's ex, so I just read the ending. I did the same thing with Magic Rises last year. He likes the story. I like knowing what happens.

Living green

The artist currently known as Millie

Companion planting

It's almost gardening time!

Garden/Seeds

I've been adding to my original wave of seedlings. Some are doing well, some aren't doing anything, so I'm reseeding. Here are some started in egg shells. 

Newspaper pots

The lone butternut squash seedling. I've seeded more. 

Green onions from the co-op basket. I saved the ends and replanted. 

Rough night

We had a rough night tonight with Grace. She comes back from my mother's house with an attitude of entitlement and spoiled brattiness.
She had food in the fridge from the other night that she had sworn she would eat for supper, so tonight, when she said she was hungry, we brought it out and endured about an hour of screaming and crying.
:It tastes bad; I hate it; The broth is too thick; It hurts my throat; You must hate me; The cabbage was too sour and sweet; We're putting pressure on her over a bowl of soup:
I told her that she was obviously tired and was going to go to bed early so she would be better tomorrow. Another set of fit-pitching when we tried to get her to bed, only this time she also brought Millie into it. She wished she was an only child and Millie took away all of her attention and she just wanted to cuddle with Mommy, she never gets to spend time with Mommy, etc. Some parts of that breaks me, but most of it just pisses me off. She spent a lot of the evening sneaking off to watch a show we didn't want her to watch. Cue lots of manipulative tears and wooden spoon spankings. I'm so tired of her arguing all the time. And talking to us like we're stupid or her servants. We are not raising her like that. Poor Millie was just minding her own business.  I finally sat down with Grace and told her that we are all part of this family and no one was more or less special than anyone else and we were very upset she didn't want her sister to be with us anymore. She said she just wants to be a little kid again. She's too old for that. And I told her that if she got out of the bed, she would lose tv time for the week.

Chores for kids