Well, we got up for our first Saturday of the year where it was warm enough to drink coffee on the front porch and take in the morning sounds and sights. Gracie woke us up about 7:40 which isn't bad for her or us. She has graced us with her presence and desire for fellowship as early as 5:40 so we were pleased to greet the day a good two hours later.
Gracie enjoys a cup
of chocolate milk while we drink our coffee, and on normal days she sits between Lorianne and myself in our bed and reads books while we wake up and drink our coffee. Invariably asking us to read one to her, which always gets the reply "not until we've finished our coffee" which then signals that we are awake and willing to read "the best little monkeys in the world" for the 4798th time in the last 26 months. This books is so well known that Gracie can recited it word for word at the ripe age of two. Neal, you will have an honest challenger in the memory department in few years.
We noticed that one of our plants in the flowerbed bloomed all of a sudden this week, and it was a nice site so early in the morning. It's either a weed, or a left over perennial from a previous occupant. It's pretty so we let it live.
Not long after coffee was done, it was time for me to go in and make breakfast, which of late has been fresh juice, and fruit. This is how we go about it.
1. Get a good juicer, this means easy to clean, fairly quiet, and solid.
2. Find a way to shortcut cleaning. I found a tip about using a plastic grocery bag for the pulp catcher, so that removal is much easier.
3. Set up our veggies and fruit. Today it's 6 stalks of kale, a bunch of dandelion greens, a carrot, 2 apples, an orange, and half a lemon.
4. Feed it all in using the appropriate speed settings. High for apples and hard items, Low for soft fruits and leafy veggies, feed it in. Our Juicer has a pitcher with a lid that skims off the the foam that occurs during juicing.
5. This is all thats left on the counter after juicing. Everything else went in whole.
6. Pulp clean up is easy: pull out the bag, then it's simply washing out the top container and the blade unit with water and a brush that comes with the juicer. All in all, clean up is less than 3 minutes.
7. Voila, breakfast.
It's so healthy, Gracie is doing pullups at age 2. ....or almost..she needs help going up, but it is amazing how well she does. It's suprising to feel her pull herself almost out of your hands. Not a pull up, but she does enjoy showing off for Nana and Bronwyn. This was her 4th time of the day or so to do this.
Our chores today were done at a much slower pace than last year. We have no deadline and it's nice to go slow. We took several breaks today, and still got a lot done. We picked up the busted bricks, my 3rd time to pick them up. I laid down the bricks after our first flood last year, pulled them back up after the 2nd flood, and again now. It would be nice to do a project once, not three times. This occurance is due to the orange bricks being more porous and getting wet, then freezing, and shattering.
Also got our seeds started for the garden, we're doing tomatoes, several varieties of peppers, some melon, and the requisite squash and zuchini. We may need to get some spinach and other greens as rapidly as we're going through this stuff juicing!
We're now waiting for the heat of the late afternoon to dissipate, and do the final clean up from the outside chores, and a few final projects. Then it will be supper. Orange chicken stir fry with a dandelion green, peppers, carrots, and squash.
It turned out well.
It's evening now, Gracie is circling the drain for sleep, this means she's cranking up the energy machine to fight it. Singing, jumping, acting up, and and eating like a horse. Soon she'll go see Elly (her stuffed elephant) and then Lorianne and I will chill on the couch and read. Another successful Saturday in the books!
Gracie enjoys a cup
of chocolate milk while we drink our coffee, and on normal days she sits between Lorianne and myself in our bed and reads books while we wake up and drink our coffee. Invariably asking us to read one to her, which always gets the reply "not until we've finished our coffee" which then signals that we are awake and willing to read "the best little monkeys in the world" for the 4798th time in the last 26 months. This books is so well known that Gracie can recited it word for word at the ripe age of two. Neal, you will have an honest challenger in the memory department in few years.We noticed that one of our plants in the flowerbed bloomed all of a sudden this week, and it was a nice site so early in the morning. It's either a weed, or a left over perennial from a previous occupant. It's pretty so we let it live.
Not long after coffee was done, it was time for me to go in and make breakfast, which of late has been fresh juice, and fruit. This is how we go about it.
1. Get a good juicer, this means easy to clean, fairly quiet, and solid.
2. Find a way to shortcut cleaning. I found a tip about using a plastic grocery bag for the pulp catcher, so that removal is much easier.
3. Set up our veggies and fruit. Today it's 6 stalks of kale, a bunch of dandelion greens, a carrot, 2 apples, an orange, and half a lemon.
4. Feed it all in using the appropriate speed settings. High for apples and hard items, Low for soft fruits and leafy veggies, feed it in. Our Juicer has a pitcher with a lid that skims off the the foam that occurs during juicing.
5. This is all thats left on the counter after juicing. Everything else went in whole.
6. Pulp clean up is easy: pull out the bag, then it's simply washing out the top container and the blade unit with water and a brush that comes with the juicer. All in all, clean up is less than 3 minutes.
7. Voila, breakfast.
It's so healthy, Gracie is doing pullups at age 2. ....or almost..she needs help going up, but it is amazing how well she does. It's suprising to feel her pull herself almost out of your hands. Not a pull up, but she does enjoy showing off for Nana and Bronwyn. This was her 4th time of the day or so to do this.
Our chores today were done at a much slower pace than last year. We have no deadline and it's nice to go slow. We took several breaks today, and still got a lot done. We picked up the busted bricks, my 3rd time to pick them up. I laid down the bricks after our first flood last year, pulled them back up after the 2nd flood, and again now. It would be nice to do a project once, not three times. This occurance is due to the orange bricks being more porous and getting wet, then freezing, and shattering.Also got our seeds started for the garden, we're doing tomatoes, several varieties of peppers, some melon, and the requisite squash and zuchini. We may need to get some spinach and other greens as rapidly as we're going through this stuff juicing!
We're now waiting for the heat of the late afternoon to dissipate, and do the final clean up from the outside chores, and a few final projects. Then it will be supper. Orange chicken stir fry with a dandelion green, peppers, carrots, and squash.
It turned out well.
It's evening now, Gracie is circling the drain for sleep, this means she's cranking up the energy machine to fight it. Singing, jumping, acting up, and and eating like a horse. Soon she'll go see Elly (her stuffed elephant) and then Lorianne and I will chill on the couch and read. Another successful Saturday in the books!
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