A New Routine...

It's officially started today... the need for a new routine. Our old routine is no longer an option. Gone are the days of waking up at the last possible moment... savoring every last bit of sleep before it was imperative that I wake up and get ready for work... or be late!

Here upon us are the days of waking up early...

rousing a sleeping baby (ok I know she isn't a baby anymore!)

convince Little Miss to get dressed, brush teeth and hair, eat breakfast and make her bed (HAHAHA I know... but hopefully one day!)

Gather lunches, backpacks and purses and head off to work/school.

The hard part, as if getting up early isn't going to be difficult enough, will be our new night routine...

Come home, unpack lunch boxes, make lunches for the following day, make dinner, eat dinner, dinner dishes, quick clean up of the house, family time, early bedtime for Little Miss, unwinding time and the early bedtime for the grown-ups... rinse and repeat!

Things are going to get interesting around our house!! At least for a little while until this new routine becomes habit! I can't wait to get things dialed in... and perfected!

Up to my ears in Strawberries!

After joining the Live Earth Farm CSA, I discovered that they offer "Community Days" several times through the season. During the community days, they offer tours of the farm, hedgerow plantings and U-pick opportunities. For the U-Pick, they might offer Strawberry, Raspberry, Apricots, Apples, Watermelon, Pumpkins and more. They even let visitors come down on Friday nights and camp out on the farm!

On Saturday morning, Brittany, Keira, Grandma Dub and I headed off to the farm. We gathered our baskets, gloves and hats and hiked down to the strawberry fields. We were warned that the walk to the fields would take about 30 minutes, however I had no idea that it was all downhill. (Not a problem going down, but returning with a couple full flats of berries was a different story!)

I have never seen such beautiful strawberries.... perfectly ripe for the picking! Many of the children in the field sat happily picking and eating berry after berry! They all wore the tell tale red stained mouth, cheeks and fingers giving them away!
Keira thoroughly enjoyed picking them, but rather than eat them, she was excited to fill our baskets.... as did the rest of us!


After we quickly filled the first flat, we decided to get another.... after all, $15 for a full flat of organic strawberries is unheard of around here! We had visions of jams, ice cream, margaritas, and smoothies in our heads! After filling the second flat, we headed off to the staging area for the tractor ride to the top of the hill. We quickly decided that the wait was longer and the exercise would be welcome! (We had quite a few strawberries to work off!) The hike back was a little tougher, but we still ended up reaching the top before the first load of tractor passengers and we were on a time schedule; Brittany had to be at work soon.

Once we got back to Grandma Dub's house and saw Brittany off to work, we started the task of washing, hulling and mashing strawberries. During this time, I also made my batch of bread for the week. This was by far the best batch yet! Warm weather and fresh yeast! What a glorious combination!
We ended up making 3 different kinds of freezer Jam. Option 1. Low Sugar, Option 2. Liquid Pecton with Lemon, Option 3. Liquid Pecton with lemon with 10 minute resting period. Option 4. Cooked Jam (shown below).

We also ended up with 3 gallon sized freezer bags full of frozen strawberries, perfect for smoothies and Margaritas. After several hours, 24 - 8 ounce bottles/containers of jam we were still left with 4 or 5 baskets of strawberries. We hulled and sliced a couple baskets to use for strawberry shortcake and ice cream, but those would have to wait till tomorrow. Mom and I could hardly stand to be on our feet any longer, Keira was starving, and she and I needed to get home.

It was a great day! Next time around, I hope to have a few more sisters around to help with the post picking process, but Mom and I survived... and we had a great time together!

What a beautiful spread!

We picked up our first CSA share this afternoon. Wow, I'm glad that we're sharing this with Mom.... cause right now, I don't think that the 3 of us could eat all of this in a week if we didn't. I do hope to start incorporating more vegetables into our diet... but for now we get our 3 - 4 servings of greens and a couple servings of fruit.

The spread this week is beautiful! There are things that I've never had before... that I haven't cooked before, that I wasn't quite sure what they were. Everything we got though.. I am excited to try. Here's what we received this week: Arugula, Broccoli, Carrots, Chard, Escarole, Fava Beans, Green Garlic, Lettuce, Pac Choi, Young Onions, Spinach, Summer Squash, Tatsoi, 6 artichokes and 2 baskets of Strawberries.

We split everything up and packaged up Grandma Dub's portion and then started thinking about our "plan of attack" for eating everything before it goes bad. We decided to wash and put away all the greens. I packaged up our strawberries, carrots, onion, squash and artichokes. We ended up cooking all of the broccoli and some green garlic in a garlic/broccoli/spinach dish that Jason makes using some of our homemade beef broth. Mmmmnnn!

After dinner Keira wanted dessert, so I washed and sliced up all the strawberries. I topped them with a little homemade whipped cream and they vanished in minutes! I love that she's excited about a bowl of strawberries as dessert! (on a side note, she was quite distraught when she discovered that her "weekly strawberry" from the garden was eaten by a bird!)

I think we're going to be quite happy with our weekly CSA order! Thanks MOM!!! You rock!

My little Garden Girl!

Keira is finally getting to enjoy some of the fruits of our labor! She's such a great little helper... and she sings while we work! What more could a mom ask for!

Our little strawberry plant is growing bigger and bigger... and Keira now gets to eat about 1 - 2 berries a week. It't not much... but she LOVES IT!

Backyard Chickens and Raw Milk anyone?

Today Grandma Dub, Keira and I went on a little adventure. We heard about a group of families in Alameda who were opening up their yards to let people see their backyard chicken coops. There were several different types of coops.... some made with plywood and chicken wire, some with reclaimed/re-purposed redwood, and some that looked like little doll houses/children's playhouses. It was very clear that most of the houses along the tour didn't just think of their chicken as utilitarian "egg layers"... and more like family pets! There were some different species of chickens which were absolutely beautiful! Some of my favorite were:

Slikies - There were several silkies... white and black. Very cute. They look like tiny little fluff balls!

Mille Fleur Belgian D'Uccle... this little bantam girl was adorable. She was bandaged up though, as she broke her wing trying to outrun a neighbor dog! Her eggs were TINY! (Apparently very tasty though!

Black Sex Link... there were a variety of sex links along the tour. I especially loved how some of them had a shimmery blue tint to some of their feathers in certain lighting.

Crested Polish.... You've got to love the little Feathered Afro these chickens have! They are just so funny looking, you can't help but love them!

Easter Eggers / Americananas... these beautiful ladies were big girls! Beautiful oranges and reds.

Wyandotte... another big girl. She was very pretty blackish bird.

After spending the day touring all these coops, it made me want to get some chickens of our own. Unfortunately, we don't have the kind of backyard which would be very fitting to chickens.... we have ZERO grass, and the only vegetation is my garden and I wouldn't want them tromping through there. So, we'll have to settle for fresh eggs from Grandma Dub's house.... well in 5 months that is!

Keira was a great on the tour. She didn't complain about getting in and out of the car, over and over and over. She didn't chase the chickens, she didn't try to catch them, and she only pet them when they would come up to her extended hand. I was impressed! She did rather enjoy the houses along the way which had sand boxes and toys for her to play with. She also loved looking at the baby bunnies in the rabbit hutch. At one point though.... after scraping her arm along a brick wall... she lost her sense of adventure and humor. GONE... out the window. Stick a fork in her... she's DONE!

We noticed a cute little market as we were pulling up to one of the house so...G-Dub and I bribed her with some juice. Please be good... be patient... and after this house we'll go to the market. Well she was, so we did! WOW! I would love to live next to a little market like this. There was a fresh bakery, a sushi bar, a butcher/meat counter, and a kitchen gadget shop all around the perimeter. The meat counter had an incredible selection of grass-fed meats, wild fish, pastured pork and poultry. They displayed the ranch name from where the meats were from. WOW... places do that?

We walked into the grocery section greeted by a tray of fresh cut strawberry samplers. Behind there were strawberries laid out for you to put together your own basket. Places do that? WOW! The produce section looked so colorful and fresh! I knew I wanted chocolate, and I was curious... so we walked to the dairy section. There before our wondering eyes did appear... RAW WHOLE MILK! They had Raw Milk, Raw Cream, Raw Colostrum (Not sure I want to try that one) They even had chocolate Raw Colostrum. Hmmmm. I have NEVER seen Raw Milk sold in a grocery store! I've been quite curious to try it so we picked up a quart at a whopping $5.60!!

We got to the car... got Keira in her car seat... and loaded up with her juice. She was content and Mom and I were anxious to try the milk. I don't know why.... but I was shocked at how "normal" it tasted! Actually, for whole milk (which anyone who knows me know I hate!) it was smooth, light, refreshing and left a wonderful texture/aftertaste behind. I don't like typical whole milk because it tastes/feels like I'm drinking like heavy cream. This Raw Milk was great and it went wonderfully with my chocolate bar!

Oh... the quart of milk, in case you might wonder barely made it home! Between G-Dub, Keira and I we drank almost half of it. Once we got home... Keira was begging for some "Cow Milk" (as opposed to Almond Milk aka "Grandma Milk" or Egg Nog aka "Snowman Milk."

Now I just need to find a place to buy it where it doesn't cost $arm and $leg!

a beautiful weekend!

I was spoiled this weekend!

When Jason and I married 4 years ago, it never crossed my mind how often our anniversary would coincide with Mother's Day. For the last 3 years our anniversary has fallen within 2 days of Mother's Day. This year they were both on the same day!

We decided earlier in the week to celebrate our anniversary on Sat night, since Jason had a late night hockey game on Sunday night. We went out for an amazing dinner at Alexander's Steakhouse! We have been to Alexander's several times and it's never a disappointment! They have wonderful cocktails, incredible wine selections, mouthwatering appetizers, steaks that melt like butter in your mouth, and a dessert selection that can not be described it's so wonderful! BUT what makes Alexander's somewhere that we enjoy frequenting over and over again... their service! Although it might be a little "Big Brother" ish... they keep a customer profile on their repeat customers. They remember if you like a Bombay Sapphire martini before dinner.... a Bone-in Fillet for an entrée... or Creme Brulee for dessert! We usually get the same server and the same table... and they ALWAYS make whatever occasion we are celebrating special.

This trip to Alexander's was no different, except they were celebrating their anniversary as well. So, in addition to our complimentary champagne and creme brulee, they were offering Five of their favorite bottles of red wine, five of their favorite white and five of their favorite sparkling wines for $5 a glass! You can believe that I indulged! Jason and I were going to try the Chef's Tasting until we heard the specials. They were offering a few different cuts (T-Bone, Porterhouse and a New York) from a local ranch that offers Hormone free, Antibiotic Free and Naturally fed beef! You can believe we jumped at that! We both ordered the New York. We had a Prime Rib with Foie Gras Slider Dipper as an appetizer and then we shared a wedge salad with applewood bacon. When our steaks arrived.... we realized that we could have shared a steak as well! They were HUGE! I think between the two of us we only ate 1/2 of one steak total! After dessert we called Jason's parents (our chauffeurs for the evening) to come pick us up (with Keira in tow) and take us all home. We went home, put on the Sharks game (GO SHARKS!!!!) and put Keira to bed. What a great night!

Sunday morning I awoke to the feeling (smell) of Keira's breath on my face. As soon as I opened my eyes, she gave me a giant kiss and told me "Happy Mother's Day, Mommy! Now let's go cross it off the calendar!" She loves her little calendar... it helps her to know which days I am home from work, which days she has places to go and which are special days. Jason and Keira go up and left me to sleep in! OH HOW LOVELY!

As I was getting up and getting ready for the day, Keira comes in to tell me goodbye.

"Mommy, we'll be right back! Daddy and I are going to go get you flowers at the flower store!"

Jason and I had a great laugh, because she has no concept of a secret! Also, my anniversary gift surprise to Jason (Shari's Berries) was ruined by FedEx... who delivered them while I wasn't home and the box says BERRIES / Shari's Berries all over it!

They came home with the most beautiful floral arrangement! I want to take them to and from work with me every day.... so I get to enjoy them as much as possible! There are a bunch of roses, stargazer lilies, Gerbera daisies, and more! They might just be the prettiest flowers anyone has ever given me!

My heart is full of love.... I had such a great weekend!

Garden Update

After spending the better part of the day pulling weeds I thought it was time to take some pictures of garden. I'm so excited with how much everything is growing.

We finally have little corn sprouts!

Keira's very excited to point out

the little strawberries

that are starting to grow on her plant!

I discovered that I'm off season with our broccoli, but they are still growing!

Look at all those beautiful carrots! I can't wait to sample them!

When I started the garden, I thought it would be a fun little experiment and something that Keira would enjoy. I thought that it would be good for her to learn where real food comes from! Little did I know how much I would enjoy everything about it! Everything... the getting dirty, the weeding, the anxiously awaiting sprouts to make their appearances, the smiles and pride on Keira's face when she shows off our garden! It's been such a great experiment for me!

Baking

While we were visiting Las Vegas, Keira fell in love with Lindsay's Bagels. I've decided to try making some homemade bread. I always doubt my abilities in the kitchen when trying new things. I am afraid I'll make a mistake... afraid that it won't turn out like I imagine it to. I don't know why I just can't trust myself to succeed, I always do.

I had a great time making Carrot Cookies with Keira while waiting for the dough for the bread to rise. Finally it did and once the bread was out of the oven...

it was a huge hit! Keira loves it!

Time flies when you're....

going crazy, having fun, traveling, gardening and working.

Recently, Keira and I took a trip out to Las Vegas with "Broken" Grandma Dub in tow to pay a visit to WLAH... aka Wyatt, Lindsay, and Addison and Huckleberry Dog! I say "Broken" Grandma, because I was "Amber the torturer" and picked up mom from the hospital after her hand surgery and put her in the car to immediately drive out to Vegas. I mean really... what better way to recover from having your finger bone shaved down and 2 pins put in your finger than by jumping in the car for a 10 hour bump filled drive!

In all seriousness though, I thought we should take advantage of Mom's time off work and my Holiday (Good Friday) and go pay a visit to Keira's favorite cousin... and two of my favorite people. When we planned the trip, I didn't think Mom would go directly from hospital gurney to passenger seat! I thought she might have a couple hours to come to and change her mind! We were both wrong though... her surgery started several hours behind schedule and that's exactly what happened!

Since we got such a late start, hitting the road at 8:36PM, we decided not to push it to Barstow and stayed the night in Bakersfield. Mom and I, in all our recent travels, have found that we have pretty good luck with Comfort Inn and Comfort Inn and Suites, so that is how we determine what city we'll rest our heads in.... but when we arrived to the GPS navigated Comfort Inn... we discovered it was a Baymont Inn. We decided to chance it anyway, since it was close to 1AM and the room rate was just $75 for the night. Wow, it was a nice room... comfortable beds, nice sheets, pillows, towels. There was a fridge, microwave, tv, in room internet, and a continental breakfast in the morning. There was also a little putting green outside our window. This will definitely be somewhere we'd stay again if we decided to break up our drive (and we did on the way home)!

We arrived at WLAH's house in what I think was a record time. Since it as a work day, Wyatt wasn't home, but Huckleberry, Addison and Lindsay we happy to greet us. Lindsay is always such a great hostess! She is quite the homemaker and has the most delicious recipes picked out for our stay! If only I ate that way at home every day.... I'd be fit and healthy and very satisfied! During our stay we enjoyed the following, Pecan Crusted Chicken with a beautiful salad, Sprouted Bean Chili, Salmon, and Rack of Lamb. I had never had rack of lamb before... I was a little nervous about what it would be like, but I loved it! I think Keira loved it more than any of us! She mush have had 4 cuts all to herself! At one point Wyatt looked over at her as she was taking a bite off the bone... he said she had her eyes rolled back in her head and looks like a great white shark devouring it's prey! I was glad that Keira was able to experience trying something new... and that it was a favorable experience for her! I do think though, that Keira most enjoyed the homemade bagels Lindsay had.... eating 5 in one day!

Easter Morning, Lindsay discovered during her morning walk with Huckleberry that the Easter Bunny had paid Keira a visit! Thanks Lindsay!! Keira was so excited to walk down to the park, finding treasure filled eggs every 5 feet to fill up her basket with! At that park she found egg shaped chalk, beautiful dress-up necklaces, and a hopping chick. Who knew that Easter was so exciting! I love these magical moments in her life!

We decided to break up our drive home and left Vegas after Easter dinner. On our way home we decided to stay in the same hotel in Bakersfield, knowing that the rooms were nice and the price was just right! We had a great drive... very uneventful. We mostly missed the high winds that were on the forecast and only had a few minutes of heavy downpour! We arrived home early enough on Monday that we were able to spend some time with Daddy, Grandma and Papa P before Keira's bedtime. All in all... when all is said and done it was a good trip. We had an uneventful drive, a nice visit with family, and good food in our bellies.

Spring at last..... Spring at last!

Oh I forgot how much I love spring! I love walking out into my yard every morning and seeing the new growth on the trees, the flowers blooming.... and the sprouts getting bigger and bigger every day!

This weekend, Keira and I decided to take advantage of the warm weather and we pulled out the bike trailer and my bike and took a ride to Grandma Dub's house. It was a short but sweet little ride; just enough to make me realize I need to be riding my bike more. We ended up spending the day getting ready for Andrea's surprise party... which despite a few hurdles (Andrea not wanting to stop studying to leave the house) the party went off without a hitch!

Today, Jason dropped Keira and I off at Grandma Dub's house after a quick trip to Home Depot. We hung out a little bit to say our "see you laters" to Chandra and grabbed my bike and Keira and I rode home. We spend the next few hours working in the yard some more. Today, I laid out the drip line and planted a few more things.

I've been nervous about the bell peppers not sprouting yet, since I have now seen sprouts from a few of the other seeds that we've put in. Keira and I went to the nursery to check out some of the herbs. They had some beautiful red and green bell pepper plants... so I picked up 2 green and 1 red. We also picked up a jalapeño, basil, oregano, and celery.

The Jalapeño

The Celery

The Bell Peppers

The Tomato, Oregano, Basil and Sugar Snap Peas

The Strawberries and Cherry Tomatoes

I realized after spending a few hours doing yard work and going for a couple short rides this weekend how much my body needs by way of getting activity in. I've been really bad for the last few months about getting to the gym. I hope to take advantage of the nice weather and be sure to at least get in some walks this week during my lunch break.

Garden Update

We had our first sprouts show up! We have Broccoli sprouts! YEAH!!!

I knew when I woke up this morning that today was going to be a busy day.... but I got a lot more than I bargained for!

After a short trip to the hardware store, to pick up some tomato cages and some new gardening gloves, Keira and I got started on finishing up our garden. After a short while, I realized that the vine we had growing along side of our yard down the entire fence needed to come out. It grows some "Audrey II" looking pods which open up and drop very fine white fur into our pool, which is clogging the pool sweep. We called Jason in for his support and set him right to work tearing out "Audrey II!" Little did we know this would open another can of worms!

After taking out the Audrey, there was a ton of clean up and anther plant that needed to be relocated. I transplanted one of our 6 year old plants to another side of our yard near the pool filter. (The thinking behind this was 2 fold..... 1: I love the plant and didn't want to just tear it out and throw it away. and 2: We thought that with it next to the pool filter it would help absorb some of the noise when the filter is running.)

Once we got all the plants moved and removed filled 2 yard waste containers and made huge piles in front of our house, it was time to clean up and get the rest of the seeds planted! Here's what we planted today:

Cherry Tomatoes, Standard Tomatoes, Sugar snap peas, Strawberries, Carrots, Green Onions and Spinach. This is in addition to the Broccoli and the Bell Peppers that we've already planted.

My poor baby!

Keira has had a cough for a few days now.... it started out as nothing but for the last 4 days she has sounded horrible! Sometimes it sounds like she can't breathe when she is coughing! We finally decide to call the advice nurse to see if we should bring her in. Jason took her this morning. Well.... Keira has pneumonia and an ear infection! Now I'm questioning whether we should have taken her in 3 or 4 days ago!

She is her father's daughter!

So this past weekend, we went to Disney on Ice World of Fantasy. Keira has figured out that all she has to do is ask for something and Grandma and Grandpa get what ever Keira wants.

She wants a new tiara... DONE.

She wants a t-shirt..... DONE.

She wants a Tinkerbell Hat.... DONE.

Snow-cone... DONE.

She's starting to take after her daddy more and more!