Weekend News and Ponderings

testing out the blackberry spritzer (I personally liked the strawberry one better) - they just used pureed blackberries or strawberries with seltzer water - it was good! (Speaking of blackberries, I may not enjoy blackberries, but that little girl downed an entire pint of them for dinner a few nights ago!)

This weekend, we found a really great recipe that used up some our potatoes without making mashed, baked, or roasted potatoes- it's called Summer vegetable succotash- I felt like Sylvester cat while we ate it! Anyway, I found the link here and it was really easy and tasty! I ended up cooking the onions cause I just don't like raw onions as much as cooked. Very flavorful- Elisabeth even ate it! (we also used butter beans instead of edemame because it's what we had and I'm allergic to soy)



I can't get a picture of E while she sits anymore. Nevermind, I take that back. She doesn't sit anymore. She's constantly on the move, so, so are here pictures. Her last tooth finally broke through last night/this morning- what a relief! She's been teething on all 4 top teeth for a few months, but the first of the series made it's debut 2 weeks ago, and finally this one- so 2 a week. whew! I don't blame her for being a grump!


She wouldn't leave the buckles alone- I fear she's going to be a picky dresser when she realizes she can put on and take off what she wants


can you see?? her left side middle tooth is the biggest, the others you can barely see, but can feel them really well! ;)

Yesterday after church, we headed down to Corvallis for the annual CSA potluck- it was awesome! I really wish E had gotten in a nap at some point before we had gotten there because we were only able to do half of the tour before she gave up and wouldn't cooperate anymore. What we did see was amazing though. They grow over 100 different items on their 20 acre farm. We found out that they used to use 30 acres but lost their lease, so he was telling us how they improvised with using the walkways as growing beds while things like the strawberries were too little to notice. Incredible! They just bought another 20 acres adjacent to what they have now, but since chemicals are still in the ground, they can't grow anything for a couple more years and call it organic, so they think they'll just grow grass on it til then. It was really fun to be able to walk right up to the plants and just take a nibble of what was there. The strawberry tunnels (I know there's a real name, but I don't remember), anyway, they smelled SO good!!! I was amazed at how tall the tomato plants get- more like vines that were 8+ feet tall in some places! Same with the raspberries and blackberries. We also learned that the green peppers you get at the grocery store aren't ripe- they turn yellow, red and orange when they're ripe...who knew?! And this was just 1/2 of the tour- I'm sad to know I missed half of it...maybe next year!


(tons of lettuce, over to the left where it looks like regular soil they just finished up growing garlic and are now growing carrots- tons of tomatoes and peppers and strawberries behind)


(pepper hall)


(basil paradise! - it smelled SO good! - we learned that if you cut the basil before it flowers that it'll just keep growing and growing, and growing- but once it flowers, it gives up. I also had no idea I loved pesto so much! We are stocking up for winter!)

As Drew and I were driving home, I told him I was almost embarrassed at how much we have been pulled away from what we eat...that we had no idea that peppers start green and change colors just made me feel so out of it. I'm grateful for this opportunity we've had to expand our knowledge and work on becoming more self sufficient...even if it is minutely..

So that leaves my last pondering. How much is TOO much to share online? Several of my friends have been turning to private blogging, or just dropping it all together. I like blogging, I like writing down the happenings of my life. I also like seeing all the weird and random countries that visit my site. BUT, I also know there are some people that share TOO much with too many people and that's kind of creepy. I'm not afraid of anyone stealing my kids or burglarizing our house. What would they take? My books? I am also not one of those people trying to prove myself to the world through my blog. I blog because I love to share my stories that others might find humorous or can relate to. I share because it's a way to keep family in the loop with what's going on with their Oregonian family. So I can't decide if I should privatize my blog or not. I have no idea who reads it apart from my mom and sister, which is fine. I just don't want to put too much out there where some people decide that it's just too much....


Oh hai mom!