A Second Look--June 2, 2015

I haven't had much of chance to look around outside this week because we've had a lot of storms. I don't mind being out in rain, but I do not feel comfortable when there is thunder and lightning with it. Rain continues in the forecast for the next few days.

The birds are maturing nicely and I won't be surprised to see they've fledged the next time I get a chance to look. They grow up so fast.

Here are a few things I saw this week

 during a Second Look.

Cranesbill

Rozanne geranium

Purple sage

The feathers are developing nicely on the baby bluebirds who are two weeks old now. For comparison, below are the pictures from last week and the week before on the day they were born.

Food Talk

It's been about 6 months since I've done any regular posting about food. I used to post every week in conjunction with the Frugal Girl about my food waste. With that public accountability, I got pretty good at having little to no food waste each week.

After a while, I added a True Food Confession to my Friday food posts. Here I would talk about our eating for the week with a goal of cooking more and eating out less. I hoped that public accountability would help me here also. This had hit or miss results. Since cooking is a chore that I don't really like, it was easy to be distracted and often not get around to it until it was too late. Granted, there were good reasons like frequent migraines, but there were plenty of not-so-good reasons, like talking to my sisters on the phone, that kept me from cooking more. Ward likes to cook less than I do, so he was happy with ordering out. So public accountability did not really help in this area.

Now I'm going to try a new tactic. I'm going to post positive things about food and eating in our family. I am going to use the same formula that I do in a Second Look each week where I look at the interesting and the beautiful and ignore the chores that didn't get done and the negative things I see. Doing a Second Look has been very good for me and how I see my yard and maybe it will do the same for me in the kitchen. Instead of feeling guilty about not eating as I think we should, I hope to see things in a more positive light.

This Week's Look Around the Kitchen

Theo's Birthday Dinner

Theo's birthday was this past weekend and we had a birthday dinner for him that included a smoked pork shoulder that Ward smoked in our homemade smoker. I'm not that big of a pork eater and I really liked it. The males loved it. We also had a Greek salad with 6 kinds of greens from Uncle Billy's garden and roasted cauliflower. We grilled pineapple and asparagus (some of the last from Uncle Billy's garden). And for dessert-vanilla ice cream with fresh strawberries once again from Uncle Billy's garden. Uncle Billy's garden sure did give Theo great birthday presents.

We spent all day cooking this meal starting in the early morning with the smoker moving on to picking and cleaning vegetables, but boy, were the results good. We all enjoyed the meal, and we were able to send Theo home with enough leftovers for a couple of meals. At this point in his life, that was a perfect birthday present for him.

Thankful Sunday

I am thankful for remote access.

Ward often has weekend work but he can usually do it at home. He may be busy, but he is here for a quick question or a smile as I walk by. For that, I am thankful.

Where's A-Z?

I think I need the A-Z challenge back. I seem to lack motivation for posting on my blog when left to my own devices. But today, I am determined to post. I can't seem to come up with anything that captures my fancy, so I will just go with what doesn't capture my fancy. And right now, that seems to be a stream of consciousness of what I did yesterday.

Yesterday, I got great satisfaction out of finally lowering our cable/phone/internet bill. Should have done it sooner. Most of our features were out of date, so they were upgraded to better service for a lower cost--$25/month lower. We lost a few channels, but I didn't even know that most of them existed. And for once during a call with Verizon, they didn't try to upgrade our service and add a bunch of premium channels. Yea!

However, that phone call lasted much longer than I expected it to, so I wasn't able to get in the errands I had planned before work. So they will have to happen this morning, unless of course, I spend too much time here at the computer.

This picture has nothing to do with this post except that I ran onto it while I was writing it. It is the cats in their playground otherwise known as Wally's room years ago.

Went to work and am back home now.

I was able to accomplish the errands before work. I mailed some letters, picked up a prescription, and had a blood test. And speaking of blood tests, does anyone else have hard-to-hit, rolling, slow bleeding veins? They seem to run in my family and having a blood draw never easy for anyone involved. However a few years ago, after a couple of sticks, the nurse said, "Always point to this spot right here for anyone doing this." And it has been smooth sailing ever since. It made me wonder why it took all of those years of multiple sticks each time for someone to figure it out.

One time after four tries and no luck, the nurse called the doctor in. The doctor tried another time without success and I started to cry. The the doctor-with-no-bedside-manner asked what I was crying for and said that my husband didn't cry when he was stuck. Well, first of all, she shouldn't have been discussing another patient with me even if he was my husband, and next my husband's veins jump out and say pick me anytime he has a blood test. He has never had a problem.  In fact, when he gives blood, they call him a good bleeder. We never went back to that doctor and I'm can laugh about it all these years later, can't you tell?

Tonight I have a book club meeting where we bring our nominations for what we want to read next year. We vote on them next month. The book we are discussing tonight is The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. I know that the book has been quite popular over the last couple of years and I can see why. It's just my style. It will be interesting to hear what others think about it.

Until next time...

A Second Look--May 27, 2015

This is the perfect time of the year outside. The mornings are cool and the afternoons are warm. Everything is newly green and lush with a different kind of flower popping out every week. The stars of the flower show this week are the iris.

The baby bluebirds almost look like real birds now. In one short week, they have gone from featherless creatures that were all eyes and mouths to little birds with some tiny feathers, and eyes that are proportionate to their heads. The mother is very attentive to them. She seems either to be feeding them or standing sentry on top of their box. I was lucky to take a sneak peek at the babies when I caught her away.

Here are some things I saw this week 

during a Second Look.

Siberian Iris

Bearded iris

Bearded iris

I think the cold winter we had was hard on the squirrels because I'm not seeing as many as last year.

Most of the bleeding heart have already gone to seed, so it was a pleasant surprise to find these.

The mother bluebird guarding the box her babies are in.

All four babies appear to be developing well.

This what they looked like just one short week ago!