the cutest vegetable

From today's CSA share. SO cute, don't you think?

lovely

Well, it feels as though it's been all 'me, me, me' around here lately. So here are some things I've come across to share!

Love this post on the 'win or lose' parenting myth.

Look at these stunning spring onions. I think I'm going to try that recipe. I love onions almost as much as I love lily of the valley. And roasting things can only make them heavenly!

These unusual rhubarb recipes have me drooling. The rhubarb ketchup sounds especially lovely!

Loved this post of Jenna's.
Oh, my shampoo saga goes on. I'm still using up the 'regular' stuff that I have on hand. But I did an experiment last week, which looks promising. Rather than using potassium hydroxide to make a proper liquid soap (which I tried before and it was a semi-unsuccessful pain), I grated and dissolved some of my unscented soap in water. And let it sit for awhile. And it got to be a lovely consistency! So I'm thinking that I might okay with proportions and such, and come up with something like this. Beautiful, no?

Good for them, indeed. Love, love, love this one.

The second photo in this post makes me so. happy.

I'm still super excited about my herbs this year, and this post on herb-infused water only makes me moreso!

Vanilla roasted berries. Holy.

Happy Tuesday!

mending nicely

I think my photo mojo has come back - yesterday morning, when I finally went out the door to empty the compost bin, I needed to take some pictures to share. It felt so good, and I took enough for several posts. This is actually the only one that I took inside. I love lily of the valley. Love, love, love. And we have literally thousands of them in our yard. They are so delicate and graceful.

I'm sure you'll be happy to know that Phillip woke up this morning on the run and hungry. His version of this bug was much milder than Adam and I had it. I think that tomorrow, we'll be back to our normal selves!

So today, because I was feeling so amazing (I usually feel even more energetic and enthusiastic than usual right after I've been sick, maybe because I'm more appreciative or something?) I completely cleaned the entire house, top to bottom. Adam was up to watching the boys for awhile, so that's how that got accomplished. I also: did most of the usual boy-looking aftering, whipper-snipped, planted seeds with Phillip, tidied and weeded the veg beds and found piles of black ants in one of them - what the heck do I do about those? are they a problem? - watered the beds, went for a run, bathed boys, put boys to bed. I feel like I did something else exciting in there, but I can't remember what. Oh yeah - cleaned the whole house! Some buyers were going to come look at the house last evening, and we had to cancel because P was sick. I felt kind of bad about it, but really, there was nothing we could do. We're hoping that they might be able to come soon.

Anyway, this was supposed to be a short and sweet post, because I must scoot. Hope that you had a healthy weekend!

thyme in a bottle

I have a quick herb tip for you this afternoon, while all three of my boys are sleeping. If you get little bunches of herbs in your CSA basket, or even at the grocery store, you can do a few things with them to help them last. Keeping them in a bottle or cup of water in the fridge or on the counter will keep them fresh for a week or so, if you'll be using them up. You can also chop and freeze herbs, to add to soups and such. But if you wanted them to last a bit longer, keeping them on the windowsill in water will encourage them to sprout some teeny-tiny roots. Which you can then, of course, start your own plant with.

P came down with 'the sick' as he woke up this morning. Poor guy. The washer has been going non-stop, and today I've felt up to some serious cleaning. Speaking of thyme, the disinfectant that I use when we're sick is made from thyme oil. Amazing things, plants!