Nature vs. Nurture

Sunday is laundry day at our house. Every week, as soon as we get home from church, Dude goes down for his nap and I start on the mountain of dirty clothes that has somehow accumulated in what feels like the blink of an eye. On a good day, there are only 4-5 loads to do, so the last trip outside and into the basement laundry room is over by 7:00 or so. On a bad day, I'm not finished until well after I want to be in bed.

Fortunately, yesterday was one of the good days, so by 7:30 the last load was in the dryer and waiting to be brought upstairs and folded. I had left the laundry basket out in the living room, since Dude likes to play with it, so went to get it and head downstairs. Except it wasn't in the living room. Nor was it in the dining room or kitchen. After some searching, I discovered that it, along with the slippers I had been wearing for the trek outside, had been put back in our bedroom where they're normally kept.

My first thought on seeing this was along the lines of Again? Seriously? Why does he always do this?! You see, my husband is a compulsive neat freak. I cannot count the number of times I've gotten something out, and he's put it away before I even get a chance to use it. He is no longer allowed to touch my purse or anything that is even remotely connected to my work, since the memorable day he "put away" my work bag without telling me and I ended up being late because I couldn't find it. I therefore felt quite justified as I went to find TC to scold gently remind him not to put things away before I'm finished with them. Until he told me he hadn't touched anything.

As it turns out, it was our son who felt compelled to put the basket away, along with my slippers that had been sitting next to the couch waiting for the next trip downstairs. I couldn't believe it. Now I'm living with 2 of them!

As I continued to work on the laundry, I found myself wondering whether this was something Dude had learned from his dad (nurture), or if he came from a long line of neat freaks and therefore has a genetic predisposition towards neat freakishness (nature). The interesting thing about adopting is that we'll never really know, since "General Neatness" doesn't seem to be a category in the biological parents' standard histories. :) It's funny how many characteristics Dude shares with us, which has led me to believe that either: a) nurture is a lot more influential that I originally thought, or b) we have a lot in common with Dude's biological parents. Or maybe both?

In any case, I've resigned myself to the fact that I'll be spending the rest of my life looking for things that have been "put away". *sigh*

Baby It's Cold Outside

Have you ever gone a little bit shack whacky? By the end of the day yesterday, TC and I decided that we'd been stuck in the apartment for long enough and needed to get out. We made plans to walk down to a little Thai place today for lunch, so that's what we did despite the extremely cold temperatures outside. As a result of this little outing, I'm thankful for 2 things:

1) That there's a Thai place nearby which is MSG-free. I don't often get to enjoy Asian food, since the majority of it contains MSG, so it was great to be able to eat at this place without having to worry that my heart was going to go haywire shortly thereafter.

Amusing side note - there was a guy in the restaurant who entertained us greatly with his continual efforts to impress both the woman with him and the waitress. My favourite part?

Guy: (Trying to impress Asian waitress with his extensive knowledge) Did you know that Thailand was named one of the best places to live? It was Bangkok, actually.

Waitress: (deadpan) Are you sure?

Guy: Uhm...well, it could have been...it was somewhere over there.

Tee hee!

2) Did I mention that it was extremely cold today? We walked to and from the restaurant, about a 25-minute endeavour each way. By the time we got home I was painfully cold, which made me realize how thankful I was for a warm apartment to come home to where I could put on warm, fuzzy clothes and make a nice hot cup of tea while I waited for the feeling to come back in my fingers. My heart goes out to the people who I know will be out on the streets tonight.

Weekend of Wonderful-ness :)

I had the most wonderful weekend! In fact, it was almost perfect. I got up nice and early on Saturday and headed out to our local farmer's market, where I chatted with the vendors and did some leisurely shopping before it got too crowded. The weather was perfect for it - sunny and warm with a nice fresh morning breeze - and I came home with two bags full of goodies, which included...

...blueberries that had been picked the day before, local Ontario cherries, organic sweet potatoes (and a couple of 'Oh Henry' potatoes that the vendor threw in because he thought I'd like them - I love markets!), fresh peas in the pod that I shelled when I got home, a dozen organic duck eggs, and a head of crisp leaf-y lettuce. My favourite purchase of the morning, though, was this:

A bouquet of fresh lavendar. It's now in my living room, and I spent all weekend sniffing it's lovely fragrance. It may eventually end up in some soap, but I haven't decided on that yet. For now I'm enjoying it right where it is :)

Once I'd come home and put all of my market finds away, I ran out to pick up the other groceries we'd need for this week, and started on the many loads of laundry that have been piling up because we'd been busy the past couple of weekends. By that time, it had clouded over and become ominously dark, and just after I had brought up the first load of dry clothes, the skies opened up in a torrential downpour that lasted all afternoon and most of the evening.

Have I mentioned before that I absolutely love rainstorms? I especially love them on days when all I'm doing is puttering around the house. It was perfect! I had some rolls in the oven, and a chicken ready to go in once the rolls were done, which made the house smell divinely comfortable. And between running downstairs to shift loads of laundry, I sat out on the sun-porch in my big comfy obesan chair, wrapped in an afghan and reading a good book while listening to the wind and rain. Heaven!

After supper, which included the aforementioned chicken and rolls, as well as the newly shelled peas and sweet potatoes, TC and I played a few rounds of Carcassonne. He'd found the game, with all of its pieces, at a local thrift store earlier last week for $1, and it has turned out to be one of our favourite games.

Sunday, we were off to church and lunch with friends, and then in the afternoon, while it continued to rain, I made these cookies with the left-over sweet potatoes. They're super yummy, so I have to share the recipe with all of you :)

Sweet Potato Cookies

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/4 cups brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup mashed sweet potato (you can also use canned pumpkin puree if that's
what you have on hand)
2 cups flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp ginger
1 - 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Cream together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs one at a time until well blended. Mix in the vanilla and sweet potato. Combine the remaining ingredients and add to the wet mixture. Drop by tablespoonful onto greased or parchment paper-lined cookie sheets, and bake for 15 minutes at 375 degrees.

I also spent quite a bit of time playing my piano and working on an afghan that is going to be absolutely gorgeous when it's done - I'm not going to post any pictures of it until then, which shouldn't take too awfully long, since I'm already about 1/6th of the way there.

All in all, it was an ideal weekend, and now it's Monday and I'm feeling wonderfully rested and refreshed :)

Yay - it's summer!

What a lovely weekend! It was the first one that has felt like a summer weekend, which is my favourite kind :) We were able to get outside and enjoy the warm sunshine, attend a friend's baptism, as well the birthday party for our little friend H who turns 2 today, and still manage to get some stuff done around the house.

One of the first things we did was to give TC a haircut. We recently purchased a razor for $30 so that I can cut his hair at home rather than having him go to the hairdresser every 3 weeks. The end result:

Not too bad for a first attempt, I think (though he doesn't really look all that enthused about it, does he?). We have determined that next time I'll leave it longer on the top, and I need to go a little easier around the ears, but all in all we were very pleased. And in two more cuts, we'll have paid for the razor :)

I also made some yummy apple-cinnamon muffins. I'd post the recipe, but I don't have it with me right now. It's from this book, though, which I have mixed feelings about recommending. It supposedly has 250 muffin recipes, but I've noticed that some of the recipes are actually identical. For example, there are 2 banana chocolate chip muffin recipes - one called Banana Chocolate Chip, and the other Chocolate Chip and Banana. The difference in the recipes? One uses metric measurements and the other imperial. All of the recipes that I've tried from the book have been very good, but I don't like to support that kind of sneakiness.

On Saturday morning, we went for a walk and came home with this little guy from our local florist. I have no idea what he is, but isn't he adorable? I wanted a little plant to have on my desk at work, but needed something that doesn't require a whole lot of sunlight, so the florist recommended him. I'm really hoping I manage not to kill him.

We also picked up this hanging geranium, at TC's request, to put in our sunporch. I love the bright, cheery red - geraniums are such happy looking flowers, don't you think?

Last but not least, we stopped at our local hardware store to pick up some magnetic tape so that I could finish making these fridge magnets. Aren't they cute? They're a birthday gift for my future sister-in-law, and since she lives in a different province I had the extra challenge of finding a gift that met my gift-giving resolution requirements and could be sent through the mail. These fit the bill rather nicely, I think :)

That's pretty much the weekend in review. I'm hoping to get the rest of our France pics up this week, but my land we took a lot of pictures in Paris! I don't want to subject you to 30 pictures of Notre Dame from every possible angle, so it's taking me a little while to sort through and select the highlights. They'll be coming soon!

Check and Check :)

I'm always so much more productive when I take the time to make a list! Check out all I've managed to get done already:

16. Charge the batteries for our camera so I can start taking pictures again! √

Isn't this tree gorgeous? It's right across the street from me, and I love walking by it every day on my way to and from work. It's always the first to bloom every spring - does anyone know what kind of tree it is?

1. Re-pot my houseplants that have outgrown their current homes. √

This was fun! The trickiest part was re-potting the samona (top right) without getting pricked by its thorns, but it was well worth the risk just to be able to play in the dirt :)

2. Pick up the clothes that have erupted all over the floor and wash them. √

Despite appearances, I'm not quite done this one yet - there's still one load to be folded. But when the second-last load came out of the dryer at 11:30 last night, I had to throw in the towel and go to bed. TC will (hopefully) get the last one done before he heads out this morning, though, so I'm counting it as done.

18. Randomly select winner of mystery gift from previous post and send the gift. √

Except I haven't sent the gift yet :) Austen, if you'll email your address to bloomingpatterns at gmail dot com, I'll get it in the mail asap. Thank you all for your wonderful book and author suggestions - I'm looking forward to some good reading in the next little while.

4. Order a shampoo bar. √

The wonderfully talented and generous Sherrie of Birch Bark Soap fame has offered to send me a shampoo bar to try. I can't wait - thank you so much Sherrie! Her soaps are amazing, so be sure to check out her etsy shop and order a few :)

12. Get milk. √

15. Book a massage at the spa. √

Done and done. Not bad for a little less than a day, eh?

To Do This Week:

1. Re-pot my houseplants that have outgrown their current homes.
2. Pick up the clothes that have erupted all over the floor and wash them.
3. Listen to old mix tapes and determine if they're worth keeping.
4. Order a shampoo bar - Sherrie, do you make those? Or know someone who does? I want to try one to see if they work.
5. Order some books from Chapters with my gift certificate (thanks for all the wonderful suggestions, folks!).
6. Plan crocheting lesson for a friend who wants to make a baby afghan.
7. Start making list of what to pack for our upcoming trip to France (17 days and counting...).
8. Arrange for someone to cover my shift in the nursery the Sunday we're away.
9. Buy a pile of non-electric pencil sharpeners. Did you know that many African children become infected with HIV because the only thing they have to sharpen their pencils with is their father's old razor? A friend is going to Africa next week and has asked everyone to bring in as many pencil sharpeners as we can.
10. Pick up one more skein of yarn to finally finish the latticework afghan.
11. Photocopy some sheet music and return the originals to their owner (I know, I know - I'm a criminal).
12. Get milk.
13. Look into sources of local, preferably organic produce this summer.
14. Come up with an idea for celebrating mother's day that doesn't require buying gifts (any suggestions?).
15. Book a massage at the spa.
16. Charge the batteries for our camera so I can start taking pictures again!
17. Call the folks.
18. Randomly select winner of mystery gift from previous post and send the gift.

That ought to keep me occupied! Have you all been out enjoying the glorious spring, even summer weather? TC and I went for a walk last night to pick up the soil for item #1, and it was lovely! The grass is green, the trees all have leaves, and some have started to blossom; daffodils and pansies and tulips are everywhere - it's a beautiful time of year.

Along the way to the hardware store, TC got ice cream while I got some sour gummie bears, which reminded me of all the summers I managed to beg a dollar from my mom to spend on penny candy at the local convenience store. Good times! We got home exhausted, TC from carrying 10 lbs of dirt for half an hour, and me from forgetting that it was 30 degrees out and over-dressing.

It's a warm, rainy day today - the kind that makes the earth smell delicious, and the worms come out to play on the sidewalks. A puddle-jumping kind of day. I'm going to have to find one on my way home :)

Airing my dirty laundry?

Right now my house is a complete disaster - partly because we've both been sick off and on through the entire month of February, and partly because when we have been well, we've been frickin' busy! Looking around at the place this morning, the state of chaos struck me as so funny that I just burst out laughing. My mother and grandmother would be horrified! No one would be allowed anywhere near the house until everything was spic and span. So what do I do? Take pictures so I can show you folks the pig sty I call home at the moment, of course :) Where shall we begin in my little tour of shame...

How about the kitchen, where as you can see, the mess from a couple of meals is still sitting out on the various countertops - though in our defense, the milk is empty and all the leftovers have been put in the fridge. We're not quite that bad! Let's move on to...

...the dining room, which is currently the cleanest room in the apartment. The mess has been confined to the table, which we haven't been able to eat off of in quite some time. And the chairs are serving as impromptu drying racks for clothes that have been dry for a while but not put away yet, much like...

...most of the clothes you see here in the living room. There's also another load of clean clothes in the dryer in the basement which has been there since Tuesday - I really should go get them, but I haven't been home long enough to do so. Actually, only the clothes in the hamper underneath the yarn and jeans, and the sheets/sweater on the rocking chair are clean - the rest need to be washed. We've had to change and get ready in the living room for the past couple of days because...

...our shoes (as well as various and sundry odds & ends) exploded in the bedroom. Actually TC's temporary fix of the box spring fell apart in the middle of the night, so everything had to be pulled out from under the bed so we could put it on the floor again. I nearly killed myself when I got up to get a drink of water last night.

As you can see, life has been, and continues to be, a little chaotic right now, but you know what? I'm okay with that. This time last year I would have been stressing out about all the stuff going on, the state of my apartment and how much I have to do, but this year I'm just not worried about it. I think it's because I've finally come to realize that it's such a waste of time to worry about anything.

When it comes right down to it, I worry because I'm not in control, because I don't feel like I have a handle on things. But what I've come to realize is that that's okay. Ordering the universe is not my job, that's handled by someone who's much better at it than I am. My job is to become the best me that I possibly can, and insofar as I am able, to try and help others do the same. If accomplishing that means letting the housework slide for a little while, who cares? It's just not that high a priority.

That being said, though, if you're looking for me tonight, I'll be at home, cleaning up :)

On the horizon...maybe

Is the suspense killing you? Are you anxiously waiting to find out what our potential new adventure is? I hope not - that would be a little wierd. I mean, you all have lives of your own, right? (Sorry, the antibiotics seem to be making me a little loopy. Yeah, that's got to be it...)

Anyhoo, do you remember waaay back in the beginning of this blog when I told you all about the high table at Massey College that TC and I attended? Well, it may turn out that we'll be attending quite a few of them next year. Because we might be living there. TC has decided to run for the position of Don of Hall, which if he's elected necessitates that he live in said Hall. Which necessitates that I live in said Hall. I never thought that I could still be living in residence at 30, but what fun would life be without any surprises? :)

We'll know if he's been elected in a couple of weeks, so until then I'll be here, trying to keep it all in perspective.

Sick Day

It's definitely a winter scene out our front window today, and rather appropriately, I've finally managed to catch this cold/flu bug that's been going around for the past month or so, despite my vigilant hand washing and vitamin taking. It's a doozy too - I'm so tired that all I want to do is lay on the couch, but my sinuses feel like they're going to explode if I sit still for too long, so I'm compelled to be up and about.

Also, I miss the days when I could just stay home and not worry about work, but alas that is no longer the case, so I brought my computer with me when I came home early yesterday and worked from here today. Do you like my home office?

It's a lot easier being sick at home, though, even if I have to work. I made myself a yummy lunch - curry chicken soup, chocolate chip cookies, tortilla crisps with hummus, mmm... And of course my constant companion at the moment - tissue. Isn't the little flower cute? TC bought it for me last week when I was having a rotten day. He's so sweet! Anyhoo, the soup I made is absolutely wonderful for anyone with a cold. It's chock full of flavour, vitamin C and all kinds of chicken soupy goodness. Here's the recipe:

1 Tbsp olive oil
1 Granny Smith apple: peeled, cored and chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1 large carrot, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbsp. flour
1 Tbsp. curry powder
1 tsp. cumin
5 cups chicken broth
1 tomato, chopped
1 large potato, peeled and chopped
1 lb pre-cooked chicken, shredded

Saute the apple, onion, carrot & garlic in oil for 5-6 minutes. Mix flour, curry & cumin in a small bowl and add to vegetable mix. Cook 2 minutes more, stirring constantly. Stir in the broth, tomato & potato, bringing it to a boil. Lower the heat and cook at a gentle simmer for 20-30 minutes. Add the chicken and heat 5 minutes or so. Season with salt & pepper.

I've also managed to fit in some time at the piano, working on a new song that I'm finding rather challenging but fun. I'm sure TC and the neighbours are sick of hearing it by now - I need to get ahold of some headphones :)

Ugh, I've been sitting still for too long - my head feels like it's going to pop. Cheers.

Warning: This post may gross you out a little...

As I posted earlier this month, one of my resolutions for this year is to reduce the amount of water that my household uses each day. So far, most of what I've done has been in the way of observing our water usage habits - and it's not always pretty, people! My eyes have definitely been opened since I started taking note every time a tap is turned on or the toilet flushed.

We waste a lot of water! Turning the tap on full blast and letting it run for the duration as we brush our teeth - gak! Turning on the shower as soon as I enter the bathroom in the morning - oy vey! Flushing after every little dribble - egad! That's litres of perfectly good water down the drain.

All is not lost, though. We've started implementing some changes to this water-logged lifestyle. I'm working on remembering to turn off the tap between toothbrush rinsings, and not turning it on full blast at all. I'm also annoying TC by constantly pointing out his water wastage in this area :) The shower now waits until I'm ready to start, though I still have to let it run a little to warm up - I draw the line at cold showers! And our new flushing motto is "If it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown, flush it down." Unless we have company, of course, in which case we flush away. So there is progress!

Can I vent just a little bit, though? I'm also trying to be water-conscious wherever I go, and since starting this project I've developed a new pet peeve - people in public washrooms who feel the need to flush 15 times while using the toilet so that other people won't hear them do their thing. To those people, I just want to say...

YOU'RE NOT FOOLING ANYBODY!!

It's not like we're sitting or standing outside the stall wondering if maybe you're composing a sonnet or plotting to overthrow the government. Everyone else in that bathroom knows that you went in there to relieve yourself - and nobody cares. We all do it, and it basically sounds the same. So smarten up, get over yourself and quit wasting water because of your vanity!

Okay, I'm done now.

Comfort Week - Home

The most comforting thing about my home is the light. We have a sun porch on the east side of our apartment, which lets in all the glorious morning light, and the great big bay windows in the bedrooms on the west side of the house do the same for the afternoon light. There is nothing more comforting than sitting or lying in a pool of sunlight, soaking in the warmth and sunshine-y goodness.

Still here...

Hey folks! I am still alive and kicking, despite the lack of activity here :) Life, combined with illness, has redirected a lot of my blogging energies. As well as my housekeeping energies. We are currently experiencing a severe shortage in the grocery department, and a severe overabundance of laundry. Thankfully, our cleaning lady comes today, so the apartment will at least be clean when I get home.

We spent the weekend at a retreat for the elders of our church (I still find it wierd to think of myself as an 'elder' - it evokes images of old men in suits, which I most definitely am not!), which was a lot of fun and very uplifting. And cold. Very, very cold. Extremely cold! But we survived, and it turns out that extreme cold is an effective stimulus of interpersonal bonding - it was either bond or freeze...

I was very thankful to return to my grocery-less, laundry-laden, warm apartment :)

Requiem for a Mouse

I think mice are rather nice;
Their tails are long, their faces small;
They haven't any chins at all.
Their ears are pink, their teeth are white,
They run about the house at night;
They nibble things they shouldn't touch,
and, no one seems to like them much,
but, I think mice are rather nice.
~Rose Fyleman

This is a poem that runs deep in my psyche, mainly because it's one of the two poems that my dad knows by heart, and he would always recite it whenever the topic of mice came up. (The other is a poem he wrote in grade one and goes like this: "I had a little doll. I stuck it in the wall. That's all." Pure literary genius!) I've always liked the poem, and I sincerely agree that mice are rather nice. Which is probably why I've felt so conflicted about trapping the one that had decided to become our new roomie.

I first spotted him on Saturday, scampering across the dining room floor - so cute, with the little ears and feet just a-going. But the reality of it is that they poop everywhere and get into our food and garbage, so he had to go. We considered buying one of those live traps, so we could release him back into the "wild" - but then we realized that there is no "wild" in Toronto. Anywhere we left him, he would simply make his way into someone else's home. So we got a trap that promised to kill him instantly so there would be no suffering, and last night I heard it go off.

The poor little guy! All he wanted was a warm place to sleep and food to eat, and all he got was killed and flushed down the toilet.

It's a cruel world.

"The Necessary" is the Mother of Invention

I love our apartment. I love the fact that the walls aren't white and the floors squeak when we walk on them. I love that it's relatively cheap for the area. I love that 6 out of 7 of our neighbours are pleasant, reasonable people. I love that there are windows on all 4 sides that let in lots of light.

It's really quite a nice little spot - perfect for TC and me. The only fly in the ointment is our landlord's idea of repairs. Case in point: When we first moved in, we noticed that the caulking along the edge of the bathtub had become moldy, not just on the surface but the caulking itself. We called our landlord who promised to come look at it right away, which he did. His solution? Slap some more caulking on top to cover the moldy stuff. That's basically his answer to everything, so we've stopped calling him for anything unless it's going to cost $$ to fix.

About a month ago, the handle on the toilet broke half. Since neither TC nor I are plumbers, we thought it would be best to notify the landlord to come fix it, which he did rather promptly. And for the past 2 weeks, we have had to re-attach the blasted handle he replaced the broken one with a number of times. Until yesterday, when my ingenious husband found a cost effective solution, using nothing but a napkin ring and some stainless steel wire (and I'm guessing a pair of pliers):

Isn't it beautiful? It works perfectly! My favourite thing about it, though, is that we didn't have to go out and buy anything to fix it. Hooray for TC!

(I'm inwardly laughing at the realization that I'm excited enough about this to post pictures of my toilet on the internet. Sorry you had to see this, loyal readers!)

Fall Organizing

Everyone has heard of 'spring cleaning'. After a long winter shut up indoors, out come the cleaning supplies and everything gets a good scrubbing while the windows and doors are flung open to let in the fresh spring air. It's a ritual performed by households all over the northern part of the hemisphere, including my own and probably yours!

What I've just come to realize, though, is that for me there is a counterpart to the spring cleaning ritual - 'fall organizing'. Every year, as soon as that crispness hits the air, I begin to feel the need to get my life in order. Closets and cupboards get emptied, sorted and organized. The filing cabinet, with its myriad of paperwork, is given a once-over and reams of stuff is sent off to be shredded and recycled.

So far this year, all of my organizational zeal has been focused on my crafting stuff. With some wonderful results! I have now condensed and downsized the contents of 2 giant storage tubs into 1 giant storage tub. How, you may ask, was this miraculous feat accomplished?

To begin, I pulled out all of my scrap yarn - a rather sizeable collection of leftovers. I then channeled all my crafting energies into completeing a scrap yarn afghan that I have been working on for 5 years. It felt wonderful to finally have it done, but I still had a huge amount of scrap yarn to use up, so...

...I started working on another afghan - this one not quite as stylish, but definitely colourful! Right now I've used up about 90% of the scraps, so it's almost done.

I was also able to give away this afghan to some friends of ours who just got married this weekend. And I've made the commitment that I will not be buying any more yarn until I've used up the rest of my stash.

That being said, before I made that commitment, I had stopped by a local yarn store that's having an inventory sale for the month of August where if you pay cash, you get 10% off and they pay the tax. How could I not buy something? So I picked up a skein of Fleece Artist Sea Wool, which is going to make a lovely pair of Jaywalker socks. But not until I finish all my WIPs!

Sweating it out...

One of the less pleasant realities of living in TO is the incredible heat that we experience every summer. Seriously, I had no idea it could get as hot and muggy as it does here on a regular basis. Growing up in the moderately climed Maritimes, a/c was something you only encountered at places like the mall or the grocery store, or in people's cars. In my entire acquaintance growing up, there was only one family who had a/c at home.

The opposite is the case here, with most people having some form of a/c at home, and for reasons I understand but don't necessarily agree with. It's freakin' hot in this city! For those of you who live down home, o loyal blog readers, think of the hottest day of the year, add at least 5 degrees, jack up the humidity and make it last 2 months, with brief stints of relief when it rains. Sleep becomes next to impossible, and all you do is lay there and sweat.

That being said, we do not have a/c in our apartment. Nor will we be getting any. One of my biggest pet peeves is the fact that people use a/c make their homes and/or businesses a temperature that they would deem unfit during the winter. I should not need to wear a sweater inside when it is 35+ degrees outside, people! That's aside from the obvious waste of energy and natural resources that using a/c causes.

Now, I don't think that using a/c is an inherently evil act. There are those for whom the extreme heat of summer is a genuine hazard, such as the elderly or those with certain health concerns. And think of all the people who work in bakeries during the summer - how miserable and/or lethal would that be with no a/c? But outside of these and other such exceptions, I just can't seem to justify the wide-spread use of a/c for comfort (check out the article on a/c and comfort here).

I have therefore accepted the Keep Yer Cool challenge issued by Crunchy Chicken to sweat out the summer without a/c insofar as it is within my power to do so.

So let me ask all of you - how do you keep cool in summer, without a/c? Any tips or tricks would be greatly appreciated :)

A lesson learned

I have learned something new about the structure of the house we live in. Apparently our sun porch is built over the roof of the unit that is behind/below us where our landlord's son lives, so when I water my garden any excess dripage just runs down the roof and off the side of the house like rain. However, since this is not a normal occurence (it doesn't usually rain in our sun porch), I apparently caused a bit of panic for the poor guy, who thought that someone must have left a sink or bathtub overflowing, causing the trickle off of the 'roof'. I shall have to remember to go a little easier on the watering in the future :)

(On a side note - my neck is much, much better. I went to see a chiropractor yesterday, and she was amazing! Now I just need to catch up on my sleep, and it will all be okay...)

Yay for long weekends!

Well, the long weekend has come and gone, and I have to say that I'm happy with how much I managed to get done! Check it out:

I made this yummy chicken pot pie. It was rather chilly over the weekend so it tasted really good. Here's the recipe (I forget where I got it):

1-1/2 cups chicken stock

1 cup cooked chicken, shredded

3/4 cup frozen or fresh peas

1/3 cup celery, diced

1/3 cup carrots, diced

1-1/2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded

2 tbsps cornstarch

1/4 cup milk

2 9" pie crusts

In a medium pot combine stock, chicken, peas, celery and carrots. Bring to a boil. Mix the cornstarch and milk in a small bowl. Stir into stock mixture and cook, stirring constantly, for 5 minutes. Stir cheese into mixture and pour into pie crust. Top with second crust, seal edges and cut slits in top. Place on a cookie sheet and bake 35-40 minutes, or until top is golden brown.

I also did a little experimenting, making some body scrubs and bath salts. They're so simple to make I don't know why I haven't made them before! My home church is hosting a bake & craft sale in a couple of weeks to support a mission team that's going to Costa Rica, so I'll probably donate these to the cause (except for the weird purple-grey one, which didn't turn out the colour I was looking for).

And last, but certainly not least:

We put my garden in! It's an early birthday present from TC. Hopefully by the end of summer we'll be able to feast on our own green beans, tomatoes, green peppers, jalapeno peppers, strawberries, swiss chard, leeks and lettuce. I can't wait! I'll be keeping you posted on the garden's progress :)

A thing of beauty...

Isn't it gorgeous? I love how quickly these things bloom! When I left for work on Friday morning, I could see the 4 buds ready to blossom, and by the time I came home that night, which was around 10:30, two of the buds had completely opened. Cousin P, who had the day off, said she had fun watching them bloom over the course of the day. I got to watch the other 2 buds open up on Saturday. TC did a lovely job of splinting it, don't you think? The blossoms are so heavy that the stem was bending over to the ground by Saturday afternoon. Nothing a couple of wooden spoons, a little packing tape and some leftover yarn can't fix, though :)

Amaryllis update

Look! A blossom! And it's gotten so tall! I love growing things :)