A Second Look--August 14, 2013

Birds and Bees Edtion

While there are still flowers blooming, the big shows of spring and summer are gone. That means I've spent more time watching the celosia right outside my window. It is all volunteer from last year and as most volunteer plants do, it is growing very well. This week it had a great influx of bees* and I'll show you some of them.
(*I am using the term "bee" in the most generic sense. These are mostly pictures of wasps and maybe a fly.)

Also, what would a week be if I didn't show you some difficult-to-make-out baby bird pictures? The baby sparrow should fledge any day now, and the baby bluebirds have just hatched. Last time I looked they still didn't have their eyes open. Also, there has been a male cardinal at the feeder with a somewhat bare head. It is molting season for many birds and I assume that is why he is bald.

For this week's Second Look, 

"Let me tell you about the birds and the bees."
 (Does anyone know that song by Jewell Akens?)

Ordinary Treasures--maple syrup crystals

Every once in a while I find an ordinary thing that happens everyday but strikes me as wondrous. I found one of these recently in a jar of maple syrup in my refrigerator--large sugar crystals.  I know I can melt these back down, but I think I will just admire them instead.

Maple sugar crystals. They are about 1/2" high and about 1" long.

What everyday wondrous thing have you noticed recently?

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And now for the rest of the story.

--The maple syrup that I found these in was some that my father made. There was a lot of work that went into that endeavor starting with tapping the trees. For me, that makes them even more special.

--Also, I had a crystallography class in college, and I exercised some very rusty parts of my brain trying to classify them in the right system, etc.

Read the Labels

Recently I was having a discussion about vitamin D with a friend and she said I should check my bottle to make sure that I was getting the dose I intended. I had two different kinds and looked at both of them.

At first glance it appeared that the major difference between these two was that one of them is a gummy vitamin that you chew and the other is the traditional pill that you swallow. However, when I read the nutrition information on the back, another more important difference came to light.

Even though both labels on the front say 2000 IU, it takes one pill to equal that of the traditional vitamin and TWO gummies to equal that of the gummy vitamin. Sneaky. Yes. I guess the out for the gummies is that it says "Formula" after "2000 IU".

I like to think that I am a smart shopper and have a good eye for detail, but not this time. I fell for the "clever" marketing practices of the vitafusion company. I hope that I pay more attention in the future and you can use this as a heads up for your own shopping.

Thankful Sunday--August 11, 2013

I am thankful for my new running shoes.

I am not a runner, but I appreciate the lightweight support these shoes give me. I am not a runner, but these may turn me into a walker.

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Food Waste Friday and True Food Confessions--Aug. 9, 2013

It's time for Food Waste Friday, when the Frugalgirl encourages us to post pictures from the previous week of wasted food from our household. This accountability hopefully will help us to be more careful with our food and maybe save some money. Also, I am using this public forum to encourage us to eat out less which includes better meal planning. You can follow how we are doing in this endeavor by reading True Food Confessions.

This Week's Food Waste

A little cucumber and tomato salad. 

  
The fridge has been fuller than normal recently with fresh produce and somehow the last bit of this salad got hidden in the back. However, we really do like it, so I made another one today.  I don't think this one is going to get lost because I not only made another one today, we ate it all today.

 

This Week's True Food Confessions

Our treat for the week--yellow watermelon

My true food confession for this week-- I'm getting tired of cooking regularly. That should come as no surprise if you have read many of these posts before. There are many other things I would rather do than cook, but it is important part of every day life so I guess I'll stick with it. I'm going to have to think of a way to shake things up though because the thought of eating out seems more and more attractive every day. I mean every day I want to eat out. Oh well, let's move on.

We were lucky this weekend to go to a couple of cookouts.We took the food for one of them, but it still felt like a treat. Also, we used fresh tomatoes to make a mushroom and tomato sauce for tortellini one night. Another night was chicken and potstickers and yet another we had pizza (still can't say enough about Aldi's take and bake pizza.) Despite all of my longing to not cook, we actually only had takeout one night with Subway Sandwiches. 

I didn't try a new recipe this week, but I did try a new food--yellow watermelon. The outside of the watermelon looked the same, but the flesh inside was yellow instead of pink. The novelty of the melon got "I-don't-like-watermelon" Wally to try it. And guess what? He liked it as much as everyone else. 

Until next time...