Ron Paul

I Like. Ron. PaulandIcannontlie.

Nouthabruthacandeny...

When a candidate walks in...

- who thinks states should decide their own issues, instead of federal mandates across the country...

- who always votes "no" because we have enough laws already...

- who authored and succeeded in passing legislation to audit the fed...

- who wants to get rid of the Fed entirely, now...

Well, I kinda like the guy!  I don't believe that he cares about both short- and long-term environmental issues like I do, and I don't like his tax philosophy.  But when the power is to the states (and thus more squarely on the people!) then I am not as concerned about differing views.  And I can't stand how ignorant and uninformed the other candidates (and most politicians) are.  I wish we, the people, cared a lot more about educated political leaders.

So I wanted to voice my opinion that Ron Paul is my choice, and to defend this seeming appearance of "throwing away my vote" by saying that I want to always do what I think is right, period.  Big order, I know.  But that is why I recycle.  Not because it makes any difference.  But because it's the right thing to do.

Salad and Salmon

 Tonight we needed something delicious and wildly healthy.

Just look at those toasted pecans! the tomatoes and feta! the peas and avocado!

We dressed it with toasted sesame oil, salt, pepper and a squeeze of lemon.

And the butter-bathed salmon, with sliced lemons and "Mural of Spices" from Penzey's Spices.

We stuffed ourselves until the merest sliver of salmon was left, and the salad was no more.

All the salad but the pecans came from our organic local farm.

Mmmmm! Delicious!

The kids had yesterday's cornbread but Shane and I didn't need a carb. =)

Dishes and Philosophy

The kids have kitchen chores that rotate weekly. I'm a happy mama because they are all old enough to do all three jobs and they've been doing them long enough that they do them WELL!  Yay!  My reason for having kids has come true! Kidding... kidding. The jobs are set and clear the table, unload the dishwasher and rinse and sort the dishes.

This week, Aidan has the "rinse and sort" job which means he organizes the dirty dishes, rinses them off in a sink of water and puts them in the other side of the sink for me to load.  Nowadays, I tell the kids to do their job, (assign an extra chore if there is complaining) and then check back to find a sink full of dishes that I can load in the dishwasher.  Beautamous!

Aidan was playing in the sink with a spoon and tupperware, a dangerous temptation of rinsing dishes, and announced:

"If I had three hands, I could wash these dishes twice as fast!  And if I had four hands, I could wash the dishes three times as fast.  And if I had five hands, I could wash the dishes.... four times as fast. I would hold this dish with this hand and wash it with this one, and hold another dish in the other hand and wash it with the other hand. And if I had six hands, I could wash dishes five times as fast."

I love it when I get to hear what they are thinking about!

Nutmeg Pie, with a little Peach

 The mood for pie struck!

There was supper to make, but supper could wait.

Julia was my little helper, getting ingredients and supervising the peaches.

I swiftly realized that I had no more white flour in the house, only whole wheat.  Well, there was no denying the craving, so total whole wheat, here I come!

Gina's pie recipe in hand, we adapted it to fit our needs.  Her recipe is supreme, and although I have a black thumb or the kitchen equivalent when it come to crusts, I can manage this one.  It is:

Old Fashioned Pie Crust

(top and bottom for 2 pies)

4 C. flour

1 T sugar

2 t salt

Combine.

Cut in

1 3/4 C butter

Whisk together

T vinegar

1 egg

1/2 C ice water

Pour into flour and toss until a ball forms.

Note: I learned from Carleen to keep a block of butter in the freezer and grate frozen butter into the flour.

We improvised on the filling, I cooked up some frozen peaches to help them thaw and soften and put in some brown sugar, tapioca beads, flour, and then I asked Julia to tap in some nutmeg.

She emptied the container.

The idea for cookie cutter shapes on top came from my sister's husband's sister's husband.  =) Truly! Thank-you, Jonathan!!

The pie lasted that evening through lunch the next day.  Shane informed me that he liked the crust best, as he ate the crust off the top.  It was really nutmeggy!  Yes, nutmeggy.  The rest of us enjoyed the entire pie.  But next time it will have white flour and no nutmeg.

Laundry Room Makeover!

Before you get all excited, this isn't like most makeovers.  It's strictly functional, not so much cute.  Perhaps one day I'll get around to decorating, but for now, I'm just happy to have things more useable!

However, I did get one decoration:

Before:

This is how things looked after saying goodbye to the old washer and dryer and buying only a washer to replace them.  We are now dryerless!  Oh yeah, and the shelf was piled high with junk...

Above, those doors are to the water heater, so the space is limited around those doors.

So I emptied the room(8x5.5 feet) and knocked out the shelves and prepared to paint:

The hallway full of junk that Shane had to step over every day...

And now the painting!

Taped it up, cut in the edges (with massive help from Lucas!) and the walls look so much better!

Yay!

And here's the current after pictures:

I can't believe I forgot to mention IKEA...  I forced my family to take a vacation to Phoenix for some sun, swimming and SHOPPING!  Truth be told, it only took about a half hour in IKEA before I was ready to be done shopping.  However, I had a HUGE list and so I worked out on their horribly wheeled carts for another couple hours.  Those things are bears!

The rug above is from Ikea, as are the two folding clothes drying racks.  Works perfect for doors that need to be able to open, since the racks fold out for drying and then lay flat against the wall when not in use. The red thing is a "socktopus" which has eight legs and 16 clips for socks. What a wonderful invention! We bought three.

And this picture features the two Grundtal shelves that can be used to hang shirts on.  I will be putting up two wooden shelves below them after my next trip to Ikea, and I have three towel racks to hang with S hooks and shower clips for delicates.  And I need to put away Shane's tools.  And I need to get some cute storage bins for up top.  Then I should be set!

I can now hang and dry at least two full loads of laundry in there.  By the time I've washed a third load, the first one is usually dry.  =)  

I thought I'd have to force myself to just deal with the extra work of air drying all laundry, but I've been pleasantly surprised.  It's relaxing, the kids love to help, and it slows things down and I have time to put away laundry before it piles up.  Ahhhhhh!