Recommended Reading: Crime and Punishment

Crime and Punishment is a Russian Classic, so I feel that I MUST read it. I am only about 1/4 of the way through.  All I have to say about it so far is - DEPRESSING. I may post about it again after I have trudged through the rest.

Reuse Project: Old Wooden Toilet Seat

Is it possible to take a flattering picture of a toilet?!? Sorry. I tried.

This is a sneak peek of the downstairs bathroom update (ongoing).  For today, I just wanted to show the toilet -specifically the seat. It was once white, old, worn out, but wooden. I could have just thrown it away and bought a new one. If you're reading this you probably already know that's just not my style. 

I thought, "hmm.. it would be so much better in my updated bathroom if it were black." So I taped off the hinges/hardware, primed it with Stix (my new fav primer), and spray painted it with black enamel paint (two coats). I will probably also seal/wax it with my favorite orange smelling wonder.  Loving it so far!  

More on the floor/vanity/wall update coming in future posts.

Garden Progress: Fall Eggshell Starts

Everything out back is winding down now. I made another ground cherry pie and a large batch of fresh salsa. I picked a few ears of the popcorn and they are gorgeous! Now we just have to wait for them to dry on the stalk. (That is what the internet says anyway... Is that how you did it AJEH&Z?)

The tomatoes are late this year, but we are finally getting some ripe ones on the few plants that I protected from the deer. My children have caught on to my frustration with the deer's arrival and now tell people, "Mommy does not like deer.  She wants to shoot them with a gun." Oh dear me, I should probably NOT have stomped my feet and talked about a gun when those sweet potato vines were eaten to the ground...

Big Striped German Tomatoes are so beautiful

 The fall starts have been on my window sill since mid July (right side carton) and are ready to go out and replace some of the summer plants.

Plants started in Eggshells

cilantro, basil, and swiss chard

Sew Special: Another Kelly Skirt

This one was a "special order" for my little sister Camden, who just graduated from BYU. She chose the fabric. I really love how this turned out... possibly even more than the first one.

Megan Nielson Kelly Skirt

Homeschooling Summary for Last Week

I should be calling this "summer vacation summary" at this point, but we'll be back to school soon enough. This week we were all about the County Fair. Everyone was talking about it in my neighborhood. We have gone every year since we moved to the area. This was the first year that I went during the day with other moms and pre-schoolers. I liked the atmosphere better. We saw the petting barn - donkey and camel were the favorites there. We also went to the Poultry barn and saw the "chickens with feathers on their FEET" as Big Sister A so enthusiastically called them. They also had hatching and newly born chicks and ducklings. The Rabbit Barn is also a fun place since they can pet the bunnies. Personally, I was scoping out the meat rabbits and thinking of future homesteading projects. This was also the first year that we went on a ride. Big Sister A wanted to ride the Merry-Go-Round. It is super pricey to ride the rides, but she was determined (can't imagine where she gets that from), so we did it. Brother M was very frightened by the whole ride experience and after he had stopped screaming explained, with tears in his eyes, "Mommy, it was TOO fast." Noted.

Sammy is not too excited about the cow and calf

Testing out the tractors

Not having a fun time

Leopard print chicken

Hatching chicks

Ducklings

Caramel apple tradition -- and this year they brought their own "fun money" so that they could each have their own

Garden Progress: Thai Basil and Lemon Grass

Photo from here

Lemon Grass Plant

Thai Basil

Today I was in the mood for thai curry. So I went out to my garden, picked a few stalks of lemon grass, and some stems of thai basil and whipped up the following vegetarian goodness.  I am so excited to have these (sometimes) hard to find delicacies right outside my back door! And they are so easy to grow. Both of these came as tiny starts from my local farmers market. I hear that they are pretty easy to overwinter and restart next spring too.

Thai Basil Curry (vegetarian)

Ingredients:
3 T. Coconut or olive oil
1 t. minced garlic
several squirts of vietnamese fish sauce
1 small onion diced
5 small golden potatoes diced
1 red pepper diced
4-5 carrots sliced
1 (14 oz) can coconut milk
3 - 6 inch stalks lemongrass pounded with rolling pin
3 T. roughly chopped Thai Basil
1 T. Brown sugar

Use oil to fry onions and garlic. After a couple minutes, add fish sauce, potatoes, lemon grass (whole lower stalk) and carrots. Slice the pepper and add that and then the coconut milk and brown sugar. Pluck the thai basil off the stem and coarsely chop it, then add that to the skillet. Simmer until the veggies are tender, remove lemongrass stalks and serve over rice. This was very mild and my kids had no trouble eating it. You can add asian hot sauce to spice it up for the adults.

Sew Special: Rag Doll

My neighbor is a "Doll Doctor". She owns a business selling dolls and fixing them. She knows that I like to sew and brought over this little darling that had been so loved her arms were falling apart. I made new arms for her using the old ones as the pattern and sewed her little gold bracelet back on. It was pretty fun.