sunflowers in August

~reaching high to the sky~


~beautiful sky~


~sharing your beauty with all who walk by~

Have a Blessed Tuesday!

pickled

Pickles, pickles, pickles! My oldest daughter has been wanting to make pickles for a while now, so yesterday that's what we did. All last week when I would food shop, I seemed to forget some key spice or seasoning that we need for pickling-got dill, but forgot pickling spice-got pickling spice, but do I have enough crushed pepper flakes? So by last Friday I finally had all the ingredients needed. Yesterday the girls cut up the cukes (which we had purchased from the farmer's market about a week ago), onions, garlic, and a couple of green tomatoes and then we combined all this with the vinegar/spice brine.


~the cucumber cut up


~pickling spice up close


~pickles in jars, now in fridge

This love of pickles for my daughter started when we went to visit my grandparents last Thanksgiving break. See my grandparents are excellent food preservers. They freeze, can (they make the best chow-chow), and they make of course the best pickles too-really garlicky and crunchy. After that visit, she would often remind me about how good "grandma's and granddaddy's" pickles are-and from then on I knew I had a old fashioned pickle lover on my hands (like her mom:)
I think the best thing about this is that my daughter was able to see that really the best things in life are homemade-from the heart, from the home.

Now who knew that a life-lesson could be taught with pickles?

Wednesday thrifting

Yesterday I did a little thrift shopping with my dear friend Kirsten from church. We went to that wonderful place and I found~


a basket and then filled it with goodies which included a pair of circular nylon knitting needles, an old embroidery pattern, some books for the kids, old blank greeting cards, two small floral plates~


I also found an embroidered table runner and a bit of fabric~

As I have said before I could stay at this store for hours, but fortunately the kids key me in when its time to go (:

Take care friends!

kitchen crafting

Funny, as I was looking through some old posts, I've realized that my time crafting has really taken a back seat this summer. I haven't spent that much time at the sewing machine or knitting for that matter. Gardening and cooking have been taking up most of my time as of late-and really I love it (well, especially the gardening part). Because when winter comes, and the garden is put to bed, I'll be able to snuggle up on the couch with some nice yarn and a cup of tea.
This morning I took some photos of my kitchen. Our kitchen is super small, I do indeed wish I had more counter space, but we manage-by shuffling stuff around and storing stuff in drawers and cabinets. The kitchen, my creative space this summer~


~this is right above the sink, something pretty to look at


~veggie scraps,getting a bit out of hand-saving for compost


~jars of everything (tea, oatmeal, rice,couscous, pasta, old coffee beans)


~cookbooks with some bread on top



~and finally today's lunch, pasta salad

And in the coming weeks I'm sure that I'll probably be in my small kitchen even more, trying to figure out why in the world did I plant five squash plants-but thankful too that I did (my dear friend, I'll bring some over :)
Then I'll try my hand at canning (which, to tell the truth I'm a bit intimidated by), freezing, and maybe a little dehydrating-and before I do I'll be reading this again.

here's the recipe for today's lunch:

tomato-squash-cucumber pasta salad

~1 box of rotini pasta (I used most of all the pasta, just left a small amount in the box, I do that for some reason, but if you want you can prepare the whole box).

~1 good sized cucumber chopped

~as many cherry tomatoes as you please

~1 good sized yellow squash (sliced or chopped)

~4 cloves of garlic

~5 leaves of basil (chiffonade :)

~vinaigrette dressing*

~salt and pepper to taste

cook pasta according to directions on box, drain then place in bowl. To pasta add vinaigrette (I add the vinaigrette to the pasta when its still a bit warm because it seems to soak up the flavor more). To this add cucumbers, tomatoes, garlic and basil.Now with a small amount of olive oil in a pan, saute' squash for just a couple of minutes-till it slightly browns on the outside, add to pasta mixture.
Taste salad, add pepper and salt as desired.

*(for the vinaigrette dressing I use 1/3 cup of balsamic vinegar,
1 tablespoon of brown mustard, 2 teaspoons of sugar, mixing it up well-add to pasta.
Once this mixture is added to the pasta I then add the olive oil-I add enough olive oil to make sure that the pasta is moistened well, but not to much that it's over oily).

Next its on to refrigerator pickles, my oldest daughter has been wanting to make these for a while now-she loves pickles! So hopefully we'll get around to making them before the end of the week.

a little baking

~stirring batter


~banana bread all done
(I reduced the sugar and only used one cup of sugar and then added a handful of chocolate chips:)


~sandwich buns all done too

its been a busy day for the oven!

hope you are having a good start to the week.

3 things that are great:

having a wonderful library in which I can checkout current books and magazine issues.



this date book/organizer, hopefully I'll be on time for my appointments for the rest of the year. I just love the birds on the front, really I bought it because of the birds (:



this baby watermelon, isn't it cute?


see, its just the small things.

some vacation thoughts

traveling along the country side


pineapple growing


a man hand processing coconuts


the beach

Really I've being trying to put this post together in my head for a while now. See over a week ago we were blessed with the opportunity to go to the Dominican Republic for a family vacation. We enjoyed the sun, the beach, the people, and the immense beauty of this place-yet in my mind,-as a visitor, you know- I often wondered about the daily lives of the people who actually live there. Staying on a resort for a week, with food and drinks available 24/7 can close one's mind to the reality that exists beyond such boundaries. One thing which I was grateful for was that we were able to participate in a tour of the country side-seeing up close local life. Of course it wasn't all pretty, in fact some of what we saw was just plain sad.
So there in my mind lies the paradox, enjoying the beauty of a place yet not knowing how to respond to the despair. I don't want to fall into the trap of being the stereotypical tourist. I want open eyes, and with this comes the responsibility to respect the people and the culture of a different country. Therefore, I am transformed from merely a tourist into a student.

I hope to travel always with open eyes.