Friday, June 7, 2013

just a year. nothing new.

Oh wow. So it's been a year and a day. I figured June was a great time to take up blogging again. Not that I have anything particularly interesting to say, but...sure.

So! What's new in the last YEAR. Big moyashi went back to school in January. I sometimes wistfully wish to homeschool again, and then I have to think long and hard about my reasons for putting him back in school. Little moyashi turned 2. She walks, she talks (but nobody can understand her, huzzah!), I made and sold some really nice diapers and then stopped making them. We ate from our garden. We tore it down because we were going to move. And then we decided to stay here. Oh, right. And I got pregnant. 23 weeks this week, so over halfway there. I'm sure there are more things that are new. We'll break it out by area.

the garden - rebuilt larger, planned better. We've got all sorts of fun things in there this year. I was the one who picked them out and ordered them, but I'll be damned if I remember what they were. I know there's haogen melons and golden bantam corn, sweet peppers, strawberries, watermelons, purple potatoes, scatter casted carrots, beans, double yield cucumbers, some squash. Assorted herbs. Nothing fun or unusual this year, just culinary. Tons of basil, rosemary, thyme. I'm about to transplant some lemon balm. We are also the proud owners of three New Zealand rabbits. 2 does, 1 buck. They'll be ready to breed in August. The mister planned out and built their hutches. I knew that half finished engineering degree would come in handy some day. Too bad it's computer engineering.We're also growing oyster mushrooms. We started with one kit and soon had developed several other kits.

from the woods - well, we had decent mushroom foraging last fall, and the mister made some amazing honey mushroom perogies and gluten free ravioli with delicious mixes of wild mushrooms and herbs and ricotta. Of course, those are long gone. This spring has been pretty suck for mushrooms...at least for us. His boss brought us a bag full of morels from his yard. Boss's wife swore they were poisonous and that they should be in the garbage. How about....get in my belly. Winter hunting was just okay. No deer. No turkey. A small amount of small game. A goose.

in the kitchen - Well, now that we're in full swing greens season, I'm going to dehydrate a bunch and crumble them into green powder a la nourished kitchen. I should probably put that on tomorrow's farmer's market list. The mister has been baking gluten free bread every weekend. I can only eat it sometimes. I don't know if it's the pregnancy or if I just find the blend he's using (his own blend, which I'm pretty sure includes millet and sorghum) to be overly offensive or what. But it seriously sucks that there's fresh baked bread in this house weekly and every time it bakes, or gets used, I want to barf. We also have a raw milk share again, and the mister has perfected yogurt and yogurt cheese making. There will be a fridge hauled downstairs and temperature controlled before too long, so we have cold storage for our cheeses. We're using the resulting whey in everything from beans to rice to bread to pancakes. I want to make whey lemonade, which sounds disgusting and amazingly tangy. He's brewed a couple of beers lately, having decent success with one, but I guess the other one needs to go through a second process because the IBU's were off the chart blah blah blah over my head i don't drink anyway.

We're not much for prepared foods, even gluten free, but every so often I get a big chip on my shoulder about not being able to run to the corner diner and get, say, a plate of onion rings. We don't eat perfectly, we probably get carryout once a week or so, sometimes more, sometimes less. It typically goes between our local mediterranean joint (which is actually located inside of a gas station...counter intuitive, yes, but local, delicious, and affordable? Yes.), the coney up the street, or cottage inn pizza, because they have serious delicious gluten free pizza. I can't even eat fast food, simple cross contamination makes me severely ill. So, I was reading someone's blog the other day, and saw they had made the Chebe cinnamon rolls from mix. Being pregnant and being subject to serious ludicrous cravings, the next day, even though I was sicker than hell (convinced I wasn't contagious), I dragged my daughter all over town looking for that same mix. Didn't find it, but found their cheese bread mix, which the mister made last night to serve with grilled rabbit. They were mini rolls, almost like donut holes. Delicious and totally devoid of nutritional value. Completely manioc flour and starch, plus some dry milk powder, and then the cheese and eggs we made them with. Sometimes it's comforting to eat something delicious that isn't made of rainbows and unicorn meat. Speaking of, while ISO this mix, I picked up a bag of Ian's GF Onion Rings. Guess what I had for lunch today, along with a heaping side of mayonnaise for dipping. It had been over 4 years since I'd had an onion ring. Like most things, either the GF replacements aren't that good, or the item in question wasn't as good as I had remembered.

in ye ol creative workshop - *snort* Like I've gotten ANYTHING done since becoming pregnant. This pregnancy has been rotten, miserable, horrible, and I am convinced it will be my last (although I keep saying that, and then I have another one). I had to take a leave of absence from my job. It's been that bad. And I mean at like 6 weeks pregnant I begged to be taken off the schedule. I have gained maybe 2-3 pounds. Total. So, anyway.

Here's what's brewing in the workshop - i bought a bunch of white long sleeved bodysuits from salvation army (don't even get me started on their horrible homophobic practices) for a song. I have some Dharma Procion dyes on order along with glauber's salt. When I am able to pick them up from the co-op runner, I will be hand dyeing all of these blanks and then machine embroidering them. I bought several design packs from Urban Threads when they were on sale. I also have a pattern for baby pants from t-shirts. Eventually I will drag myself upstairs And dig through my bin of clothes to be repurposed. I am hoping for white t-shirts, so I can dye them along with the onesies. I also have some diaper patterns for newborns and smalls I intend to construct. Better get crackalackin. I'm also knitting a few patterns out of What to Knit When You're Expecting. I've knit a pair of booties, I'm in the middle of a pullover sweater as well as a sleep sack. Ack, only 17ish weeks to go and SO MUCH to finish.

The last two weeks, or really, just the last 10ish days, have truly been the suck here. Little bit has had a nasty case of allergies and has been up all night coughing for weeks. Her cough has finally started to die off. About the time I finally gave up and took her to the doctor (the spectre of pertussis was lurking), the mister got a rip roaring chest cold. I told him when I got back from the doc with Little Bit that hers was just allergies and he probably was dealing with the same, but he looked at me crankily and said, I don't think so. Lo and behold, I came down with it HARD. I mean peeing my pants every time I cough (take that, internet), can't sleep, whole body aching from coughing so hard horrid nastiness. So, I had just taken Little Bit on Thursday. I hauled my sorry rear end into the doctor on Tuesday. Dx was just a nasty virus. I was honestly concerned because of how hard I was coughing that it had to be some major infection. This virus can kindly go back to the hell from whence it came. I can't remember the last time I had a chest (or head) cold this bad. And then, last night, my little lovely girl decided to lay on the wrong cat, and the cat promptly scratched the crap out of one side of her face. So, back to the doctor we went, because when it comes to deep cat scratches or bites, this momma don't play. 3 times. 3 times in 8 days we were at the doctor. And I can count on one hand the number of times we've been there since Little Bit was born. For pity's sake. The Mister and I are still coughing our idiot heads off, I feel like I should buy stock in Lemonade Stand postpartum mama cloth from all the cough pee, and now my daughter has some nasty scratches that I need to medicate. Awesome.

In other other news, Big Moyashi asked me last week if we were going to celebrate the solstice. Bless his heart. Of course we are. I just need to figure out how, and how I'm going to make it happen with a ridiculously low amount of energy. I am thinking sunrise breakfast of cinnamon swirl pancakes and orange juice and some other "solar food" followed by some rest, and then some fun crafts and a nature hike, and then at dusk, a big ol balefire (i mean tiny bonfire). Of course interspersed with lessons about what this time of year means, nature wise, science wise, spirituality wise, etc. And I have to pull that off on a shadow of energy, in two weeks. WOO LETS GO.

So what's new with you?

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