Basic Muffin Recipe

Makes one dozen muffins.

2 cups flour- any combination of types
1/2 cup sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup liquid
1/3 c butter or oil
1 egg

Mix all the ingredients together. Preheat oven to 350 F and prepare muffin tins. Spoon into cups, about 2/3 full. Bake for 12-15 min.

Add ins;
1 cup fruit
3/4 c chocolate chips
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 c chopped nuts

I like to use these for leftovers. The kids will never finish a whole piece of fruit. So I'll chop up the apple, pear, plum, whatever and add in.

Some of our favorite combinations are 1/2 c oats in place of the flour, with milk and chocolate chips or cranberries and egg nog this time of year.

This is very plain and needs something added to it but that's up to you. Experiment and try whatever strikes your fancy.

DePhoMo

As if I needed something else to do, December Photo Month. A photo a day....

Dec. 1 - Gifts for friends-Yum, I had to keep one for myself.

Dec. 2nd Fire-It was evening and I was playing around with the functions on the camera.
Dec. 3- Walking the dog- Isn't this just the sweetest thing, usually the big kids walk the dog and Journey never gets a chance but the kids were in school today.

I cannot believe how long it's been

I am a bad blogger. I deserve a spanking for neglecting this for so long. Let's see school is back in session. Sapphire is in middle school now, if you can believe that. I am much too young to be the parent of a middle schooler. Kenz is in 1st grade, he's doing excellent. Journey is at home with me, all by his lonesome. Not that he's missing the kids much, we get to spend all day together. He has lots of fun mommy time.

Part of the reason that I wasn't on for so long is that my hubby lost his job. Money was super tight and the internet was not a necessity. But things have been working themselves out so I'm not too worried. I guess I have faith that everything will be fine and so it will. I know that sounds really naive but that is just how it has worked.

Before he lost his job I signed up to do several craft fairs here this summer. They were already all paid for and I had all the supplies. So I worked my butt off and got ready and made enough money to pay any bills that needed to be paid. Then we had a yard sale and made enough money so that everything got paid. Then we got a settlement, he hurt his back in Nov. of last year, which we were not expecting. We thought that since the surgery was paid for and he was all better then that was that. So that was an amazing surprise. So you see things just have a way of working out.

I am planning on doing NaNo again this year. I want to do it to finish off my current novel. I figure it'll at least give me a lot of raw material to edit.

I have been working on this novel, well consistently, for about a year now. Some where along the way I lost my voice. It hurts some to read it and see that it's not the same but there is no concrete evidence that it isn't. It's that feeling that you get when you read a book. Now it's not mine anymore.

I've been volunteering for Sidelines for almost a year now. It's been great so far. It feels good to know that I am helping someone who's shoes I was in several years ago. I wish that I could have had someone to just say "Hey, I got through it, it wasn't easy but you can do it too." Bedrest sucks big ones. There are no ifs, ands or butts about it. You are stuck, if you are lucky at home, in a prone position for weeks or even months. You cannot do your own laundry, make your own meals, shop for groceries, or clean your house. You are reliant upon others for most everything. You learn patience, and to let things slide. You go insane with boredom and learn more about yourself than you probably wanted to know. If you are lucky you are not taking daily medications, shots or hooked up to a pump. You are monitoring yourself, or being monitored, for contractions. You over-think and re-count fetal movement like they were seconds on a clock. And with all this, constantly in the back of your mind, is the worry. You are on bedrest because your body is not functioning the way that it should. You worry about your health, your baby's health and the possibility of premature birth or miscarriage. And you do all this isolated and alone most of the time. I think that any woman who makes it through bedrest deserves a medal.

Dreams and such

I was thinking the other day about doing a pictorial story of Inanna's descent into the underworld. I don't know why but those random thoughts just pop in my head. It's my over active imagination. Plus, who doesn't want to be a Goddess for a day? And there is something empowering about portraying dying and rising again. Conquering your own fears.

So fast forward a couple days and I pick up a book about soul searching- Soulcraft, Crossing into the Mysteries of Nature and Psyche by Bill Plotkin. I'm not that far into it but it talks about Inanna and her descent into the underworld as a journey of soul discovery.

Last night I had a dream, I stood at the gates of the underworld. They were tall black iron gates. I could not see anything but the gates, everything around stood in shadows. I could not see the path. I stood there poised to open the gates. Then I woke up.

Some Fun Summer Pics

Family Reunion

My family reunion is this weekend. It's extra special this year because we are celebrating my great aunts 100th birthday. So there will be a really good turn out, lots of people I haven't seen in years. Plus my cousins are coming down to stay with me so that will be nice. I never get enough time to spend with my extended family. I wished they lived closer. I like some of my cousins better than my sister. Is that a bad thing to say? She and I are just totally different and have nothing in common but blood.

Be a Donor

If you've ever thought about it before now is a great time to sign up to be a bone marrow donor. Through the 22nd they are having a free membership drive, usually you have to pay for the typing. So check into it, it may save someones life. http://www.marrow.org/

Grocery Shopping

I actually enjoy grocery shopping, by myself. With three kids it's enough to make me want to drink. There is some law of the universe that says that kids make any mundane chore 100 times harder than it needs to be. Today my middle son kept poking my daughter. Then they get to yelling at each other. All the while I am trying to walk along and find whats on my list. And all the breaking up fights and separating the kids I loose track of what I was looking for so I end up going back to get things I forgot. If it wasn't a 30 mile drive from our house I would have just packed them back up and went home.

To try and burn off some of that energy we went for a bike ride. I raced Kenz along the path, he almost beat me too. That was fun until the kids decided they wanted to go to the river. I was not planning on getting wet, it was getting late. Which led to a very whiny walk back.

New Bags and A Fantastic Pattern

So I've been sewing like crazy getting ready for the Saturday market I'm doing this summer. I go through moods where I love sewing certain things and will just make a ton of them. Lately I've been loving bags, esspecially the Buttercup Bag. So it's a free pattern if you aren't going to sell them but I plan on selling them so I bought the pattern. It's so simply but looks fantastic. And when I bought the pattern there was a larger version, because I carry around a lot of crap. So the two brown, one of the denim floral and the smaller diamond pattern ones below are Buttercup Bags.

When trying out patterns they don't always end up looking so good or working out well. Like the top left bag... it looks okay in the pic but I ended up getting interfacing on my iron and getting it on the bag. It's got a couple spots that look like grey boogers stuck to it. I managed to scrape off the most of it but it left behind a couple grey spots that won't come out so it'll be a freebie. Then the skull bag, how the heck did I manage to twist one of the handles before sewing it on? Then after ripping it out and resewing it on it got all bunched up and now I'm ready to throw the stupid thing across the room. Such a shame because it was pretty cute.

I think the applique on the the two totes looks a little funky in the pictures, looks so much better in real life. I need to practice with taking picture so much. Of course it might help if they weren't just laying on my cluttered dining room table. But who has the time?

New Additions

Our family was very excited to welcome Natasha to the world on Thursday evening. She's a big beautiful baby and already the apple of her parents eye. I don't think I mentioned it but my cousin was expecting. Actually currently two of my cousins are expecting and one just had a baby. It'll be nice to not be the only one with kids. Plus lots of baby cuteness to cuddle and buy adorable itty bitty socks for.

Update on Tomato Planters

Excuse the weeds, behind the fence is city property I can't do anything about that. The plants are doing really well. I was hoping that I could water them with the sprinkler as I watered the garden. You can't see in this pic but the garden is on the ground in front of the fence. On some of the jugs I cut the top opening large enough to catch the over-spray but most of them do not. So they need to be watered by hand. It's not a big deal, and with as much rain as we get in Oregon I won't be needing to do it often. This sunny warm weather is strange and unsettling. I'm so used to the rain, it feels more like August than May.

New Camera=More Pictures

Cooling off on a hot day








A rhody heart and the whole line of bushes.










Some pretty pansies along the front walk.

Rock Feature

The kids had dug a "river" in the back yard. It was a big fat mud hole. I was getting so tired of cleaning up all the mud. So I filled it in with the big pile of rocks that was in the backyard. So I killed a few birds with one stone, no more muddy mess, no more ugly pile of rocks and a pretty rock feature in the area of the yard where grass won't grow. It needs some fine pea gravel or sand to fill in but it looks a million times better.

Some Old Writing

I was just reading through some of my old stuff. Trying to get back into the right frame of mind, it's hard to write if you've forgotten in the meantime what you character was doing. But some of these are funny, sweet, or sensual. Just thought I'd share, as if anyone actually reads this. Hint-Ice Cream is not about ice cream, food can be very sensual.

The Porcelain God

I worship thee, morning, noon, and night.
I fall to my knees before you
Begging for reprieve.

Lost beyond control
Clinging tightly, afraid to fall
I give in to my body's demand.

How I try to stay away
No remedy can be found
I'm compelled to seek you.

So cold and hard
You stand unmoved
At my pain and tears.

Oh porcelain god,
How I long for delivery day!

Ice Cream

Round, milky
luscious
cherry tipped
cinnamon sprinkles

begging your tongue
to dance along
the curves
smooth and sweet

delicate lines
blueberry syrup
trickle down
pooling in the cleft

the warmth
of your breath
melting
into puddles.

Dancing in the Rain
Pelting crystals
Melting diamonds
Raining down
On glistening skin

Moonlight limbs
Starlight eyes
Dancing in the rain
Under night skies

Doorknobs and Pansies

So today I changed all the doorknobs on the outside doors so they all have the same key. But what really led up to me changing the knobs was a startling discovery. I went to let the dog out back this morning and discovered some of my plants knocked over, a door that was back there on the ground and foot prints-human and animal- all over. It scared me even if nothing was missing and no one tried to get into the house. So I put a lock on the door to the porch and changed all the other locks so that they match.

It was another nice day today so I mowed the lawn. My head is still stuffy and aching. I need to wear a mask or take a pill before I mow. My allergies are killing me. For some reason they are so much worse than last year.

Then Journey and I planted pansies along the front walk. It looks really nice now. I need an edger so that it's a clean line. Not on the top of my priorities right now though.

Sapphie is spending the night at a friends house. She was so excited. Don't you miss slumber parties?

Baking and Golf

An interesting combination....not that I did them together. I don't golf, my hubby does. He bought the kids some clubs awhile ago. There was one, don't ask me what, sitting in the back yard. Being so short I could actually use it. So instead of picking up the slimy ball to throw for the dog, I whacked it with the kids golf club. The kids thought that was hilarious. Mostly because I couldn't hit the side of a bus with the dang club and would have to swing at least three times before I hit the ball. I'm talking about a tennis ball here, not a golf ball. Yeah, hand eye co-ordination has never been my strong point. In fact any time I participated with any time of sport I have been injured, like breaking bones and needing stitches kind of injured. Still I killed several birds with one club, I exercised both the dog and I, and entertained the children. My day ends pretty good if I've made the kids laugh.

Now on to baking...it started to rain. So our outdoor adventures came to a close. I still had a little bit of bean soup leftover from the night before but it wasn't enough to feed everyone. So I added some tomato sauce, and corn, chili powder and cumin. Ta Da! Chili! The kids actually liked it better than the bean soup, and ham is interesting in chili. But you can't have chili without corn bread and since the oven was warm you have to make cookies. That's a rule right? So we made chocolate chip cookies and corn bread. No use wasting energy.

Miracle Diapers

Miracle Diapers is a nonprofit organization that provides cloth diapers to families in need. I have been sending off various seconds, out of season, pattern testers and such to them for quite awhile now. I just finished off a batch of diapers to send to them. It includes, a couple one-size pattern tester that I decided not to pursue, a few diapers that have been cut out but unsewn for a long time and various other fun things. I also still have a few of Journey's diapers laying around. So I'm filling up a large flat rate box and sending it off next week.

Milk Jug Tomato Planters

Okay you can't tell too well from this picture but I cute a hole about an inch square in the bottle corner opposite the handle.
Then I cut off the top, being careful not to mess up the handle.
Here's a tip that I didn't know. Your plants should still be pretty small. I had a larger plant and had to slice up the side to get it to fit in then taped it over. I don't know how well this will work in the long run. But we're experimenting here. So shake off some of the dirt around the root ball.


Now after practice it's easier to insert it from the top then it was to try and squeeze the root ball through the small hole at the bottom. Don't laugh at me, I'm sure other's have done that too. Just carefully thread the plant through the hole.
I cut up an old cotton sweater to help brace the plant. Other instructions have used either nothing at all or those basket liners. I didn't want to just leave it bare, the sides of the milk carton seemed kind of sharp. Plus it helped keep the soil in.

Here they are all done, I still have to hand them outside but it still gets a little chilly in the evenings. In another week or two it should be good.

Planting Tomatoes

Today I went to the local Master Gardeners plant sale. I bought a bunch of heirloom tomatoes, some herbs and peppers. I plan on making upside down planters with milk jugs. I will let you know how it goes, with explicit directions and pictures. I've read plenty of directions on how to make one but they don't have pictures.

Merry Beltane

Today was a beautiful day. Journey and I went for a walk to the river and threw rocks. This evening we had some friends over and made s'mores. Then the kids picked flowers, filled a basket and left it on a neighbors doorstep. She'd been sick and the flowers made her day. Now all the kids are asleep, it's raining and peaceful out. I'm going to curl up in bed with a book.