Little Pink Houses

Vegetarian Epicure

2011-01-02T23:13:00.000-09:00

Tonight I was looking for a new book to start, most preferably a novel to read for five minutes or so before I fall asleep, when I came across the old copy of The Vegetarian Epicure Book 2 that my mom brought up to me a couple months ago. I just want to start cooking my way through this book. It was written for a generation of people who were entering a new era of cooking and eating. It very obviously shirks any notion of cooking "healthy" in the sense that real butter, a variety of cheeses, and other delicious but not low-fat ingredients are often included. But the concept is healthy in another, much more subtle way: that being healthy involves preparing foods with real ingredients. Including lots of vegetables, beans, eggs, herbs and other delicious and flavorful items.
The freshly made corn tortillas, refried beans, and enchiladas have all caught my eye, as my family loves Mexican food. The desserts look decadent and delicious, such as dessert crèpes, cherry & amaretto soufflé, and castilian hot chocolate. The salads and vegetables all seem so simple and tasty I want to try them all!
Unfortunately, this cookbook I've selected for my bed time reading has done little to tire me out tonight. I'm making grocery lists instead of drifting off. And it has become even more imperative that I get up early and do something active so I can delight in a few of these recipes without worry ;) Maybe I'll have some results to post later in the week. A promise of near-future blogging? Perhaps....

Longing to pick up the needles again

2011-01-01T16:53:00.000-09:00

I'm just trying to settle on a project. Something quick and gratifying and using a yarn from the stash. I have lots of unfinished projects I could finish. But I just need a quick fix. No time for anything big and involved, even if it is part way done. Sigh. I know what I'm looking for. I will prevail!

Salsa Fresca, Valentines and More

2010-02-14T09:43:00.002-09:00

We made halibut tacos the other night and topped it with the most delicious salsa fresca, I had to share. Plus, I just love pictures of beautiful, colorful produce. And when my kids are included, even better! The salsa recipe was given to me by my friend Paul, who learned it in an Allen & Peterson cooking class. The bell peppers were an excellent addition, and Teagan LOVED the stuff. She just ate it off a spoon and asked me to make it the next night. See below for the recipe. Here she is with some of the vegetables and sampling the halibut.

Salsa Fresca

2-3 tomatoes, diced

1/4 each yellow & green bell peppers, finely chopped

1 jalapeno seeded & finely diced

1/4 of a large onion, finely chopped

2 T. cilantro, chopped

2 T. lime juice

1 T. olive oil

salt & pepper to taste

For the halibut, I just made a dry rub out of chili powder, cumin, coriander, paprika, salt, and pepper, coated the halibut in olive oil and a little lime juice, coated it with the rub, and cooked in my cast iron skillet at high heat till done. Served on warm corn tortillas with salsa fresca and sliced avocado. Yum!

For Valentine's Day, Teagan made hearts with pencils for "arrows" since they weren't supposed to bring candy. Although lots of the kids did bring candy. I guess it probably would have been worse if they hadn't told people not to bring candy. Here she is after completing all of the valentines and laying them out to dry. And here is Aidan with THREE suckers in his mouth after the party at his daycare. He is a glutton for sweets! Plus some photos of Teagan after her hair cut the other day, and making a bracelet with some beads she got for Christmas. She loves to make stuff.

Staple crazy lady!

2010-02-11T21:24:00.000-09:00

Here is a quote from someone related to me. Kooky, no? I just couldn't help it, this was so funny!

I am really excited to use a complete box of staples. I know this is very strange, but I have this funny excited feeling when I finish a strip of staples in my stapler and then put in the new strip from the box. It gives me this little high to know that I will use an entire box all by myself. I think it is because I always felt like staples were one of those things that you bought, but NEVER would use all that you bought. That you would lose the box before you ever finished it, and then buy another, and then find the first one. And you would have enough staples to last a lifetime in your house. But I guess it is different at work. Still, I only have 7 strips left in my box. 1,470 left to go, I've used 3,530 (which includes the strip I just put in my stapler).

I have lots of good posts brewing in my head, I just don't have the energy to get them down on "paper." If this cough would just go away, I might feel a little better. I'm stalling bedtime, too, and I need to get the kids to sleep. They don't do anything I want them to unless I ride them all the time. Sigh. Good night and Happy Valentine's Day this weekend!

Semicolons are a beautiful thing; please do not abuse their usage!

2010-02-05T14:03:00.000-09:00

I love grammar. I'm not very good at naming all of the various components, like there's a split infinitive, or that's a dangling participle, but I have a natural grasp of it. I just love love love technical writing. I try to avoid being technical on this blog, because I can stand some improvement in the creative writing arena. However, I have been working on some documents written by a coworker who "adores" semicolons. I don't have a problem with this; I, too, love the semicolon. I do have a problem with his constant improper use of the semicolon. How can you express adoration for a punctuation mark that you are completely unable to properly use? I recently provided the following guidance to him, and I'm hoping to see a reduction in frighteningly inaccurate semicolon use:

The key to proper semicolon use in a sentence (as opposed to its use in a list of items) is that it should only be used to split two complete sentences; if you read the portion before the semicolon separately from the portion following the semicolon, they will form two independent, complete sentences. If either side of the semicolon does not form a complete sentence, do not use a semicolon in that location. Check out http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/607/04/ or http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/semicolons.aspx. As long as they are properly used, go forth and pepper your text with semicolons!! ~T

Another of my tech editing pet peeves is unnecessarily complicated technical writing. Keep it simple and straightforward and I guarantee you will be much more effective at conveying your idea. Believe me, complicated sentences do not make a person seem any smarter...quite the contrary! There is nothing more satisfying to me in technical writing than creating a well-read, rational, easy to follow bit of text without a lot of complicated sentences or jargon.

Stepping down from the soap box for now. Until next time....

Go Holly!

2010-02-02T12:29:00.000-09:00

I just want to say that I am so excited for Holly Brooks, who will be skiing for the US Olympic Team! She worked with me at Weston Solutions a few years ago, and I was always impressed with her drive and dedication as a skiier. She acted as our Weston Wellness coordinator, and, as you might expect, she did a fantastic job. I will be glued to the tv as she races her way to Olympic glory. I've added a link to her blog in my favorites on the right side bar, so go wish her well if you have a chance! Alaska has also contributed skiiers Kikkan Randall and James Southam (who is married to an old co-worker of mine) to the US Ski Team. Good luck to all of the Alaska competitors in this year's Olympics!

I is for seeking Improvement

2010-01-22T15:47:00.000-09:00

I sort of suck at Scrabble, but I want to be better! I want to kick my friend Kelley's butt!! Therefore, I am seeking improvement. I am studying two letter words, like aa and mo, and words without vowels, like hmm and shh (or hm and sh), and q words without u, like qat and qi. The Scrabble dictionary is a mysterious thing, really, quite unlike any normal dictionary I've ever seen. Don't expect to find all of the normal words in it, and you can be certain there are a lot of really odd words that you would never use in day-to-day life. I was particularly disappointed to discover that "fart" is not in the Scrabble dictionary. Really? Fart isn't a Scrabble word??? "Bitchen" is, however, in the Scrabble dictionary, I was delighted to learn on Sunday evening as Kelley and I battled out our second game of the night.

I also just finished reading the book The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon. I loved it. I love the writing style and the mix of pop culture/history/fiction. I loved all of the new words I had to look up. I probably won't remember many of them this time, but if there's one thing I've figured out as I've gotten wiser (read: older), there is nothing like a lot of books under your belt to help build a vocabulary (which goes hand-in-hand with adding years under the belt as well). Happy Scrabble to you, my friend(s).

H is for what the Hell?

2010-01-17T06:24:00.000-09:00

Why would I think F comes after G? Oh well. My debut back into the blogging world can't be perfect!

F! F is for re-Finding my Blog

2010-01-17T06:03:00.003-09:00

How did I get back here? I'm not really sure, but it was such a joy to look at my last post and remember my alphabet blogging and all of the other things I posted about before disappearing for more than a year.

Why did I disappear in the first place? Hmmm. I think this new world of Facebook and Twitter has displaced my blog to some extent. After all, I'm a busy mom and I don't have a lot of time to devote to this sort of thing. Facebook is instant gratification defined. Pop on, check out everyone's goings-on, new photos, etc., post a one-sentence status, and leave. (Although sometimes it's the "leaving" part that I have trouble with.)

Maybe I'll come back to blogging. I miss it. I miss knitting, too. It can be a dual come back (I never finished Versatility because, alas, I ran out of yarn and by the time I got more, I'd lost the momentum).

Because I hate to post without pictures, here's a beautiful photo of the Sagavanirktok River on the North Slope of Alaska.

g, g, g what begins with G? Goodies from the Garden, g, g, g!

2008-09-21T21:17:00.007-08:00

On Saturday we had friends over for dinner. I made seafood chowder and salad with pears, blue cheese, candied walnuts & grapes. Today my mother in law arrived at our house and we had poached salmon, oven roasted potatoes, and broccoli & cheese. Good stuff. I'm always excited when we harvest potatoes from the garden. I love to dig them up, it's like digging for treasure. And they're so fresh and firm and beautiful. This year we grew Yukon gold and a purple variety. Can you believe how beautiful these purple potatoes are?

Seared silver salmon and Yukon gold potatoes before they went into the seafood chowder. We ate a lot of salmon & potatoes this weekend, but it was all tasty.

Rich started a batch of wine, a Zinfandel I think, and a batch of mead this weekend.

More potato pictures because they were just so pretty. This was right before I roasted them in the oven.

The sun came out this afternoon and we enjoyed a beautiful fall day. We had to get some of those pre-winter season chores taken care of. We split the bleeding heart that should have been split about four years ago. Raked a few leaves. Cut back some perennials. Scooped some dog poop. Went for a short walk. Short because Teagan's stomach started hurting and she actually threw up in the middle of the road. It was really strange, and not even a full-blown barf fest (not like the time she threw up into my cupped hands in the grocery store, anyway). She doesn't seem sick, so hopefully it was just some random weird thing.... (On another, less revolting note, don't you love my pink fence? It's one of the remnants from our little pink house. You'd think we'd have painted it when we painted the house, but no.)

In response to the comment and questions about versatility: first of all, how fun that we're knitting the same color versatility! I'm finding the dimensions to be really strange as well. I'm knitting mine on size 11 needles, and it still seems fewer than 19 inches wide, but easily stretches to that and beyond, so I'm not too worried about it. What's bothering me more is that I started on my third skein two rows before I reached the halfway point! The whole thing is only supposed to take three skeins!! At this rate, I'll have to start a fifth skein to finish it according to the pattern! If I'm consistent, I'll be four rows short of making it with four skeins, so I'm considering shortening it a little. I REALLY don't want to go buy another ball, though it would be fun to knit some matching gloves or a hat or something with the leftover yarn.

Happy knitting!

F is for Forks (or lack thereof), Flips, and (halfway) Finished objects

2008-09-20T09:13:00.005-08:00

Lots of good F stuff today! Aidan is practicing with dishes and silverware. As you can see, the fork isn't getting much use. But the spaghetti was good enough to slurp right out of the bowl. This was a meal we followed immediately with bathtime!

Teagan just learned to do a real cartwheel. I didn't get the best shots ever, but here she is showing off her moves. She's such an active kid!

Finally, I thought I'd proudly show off my progress on Versatility. Exactly one-half is complete. Here's Teagan modeling the first half for me. It looks sort of afghan-ish in this picture, hopefully just because Teagan's wearing it like a blanket.

So do any of my devoted readers (ha ha) watch Project Runway? Is Kenley just about as annoying as can be? I like her designs, but she's driving me so crazy!! She's always so smug. And what was that crap about her getting the "pretty" girl for the last challenge? Ugh. I'm ready for her to go. I wish Blaine was back, though, I loved him and his tanorexia. He made me think of my friend Slade. Anyway, I had to dish a little about the show. I just love it; even Heidi is growing on me.

Sayonara!

Ah, fall must be here

2008-09-13T19:44:00.005-08:00

Because the knitting bug has bit!! The turning leaves, chilly days, and lengthening nights always make me crave knitting or other crafty goodness. They also make me excited for the new fall lineup, primarily Grey's Anatomy, but I can save my television obsessions for later. This post is about my current knitting obsession. This post is for Rhiannon. She called me the other night to look at the new Knitty patterns; one pattern in particular, called Versatility. She loves it. She caused me to love it. And now I am knitting it. I'm so excited about it for so many reasons:

I haven't done anything crafty in SO long!
I love knitting, or at least thinking about knitting, accessories, such as leg warmers, hats, gloves, scarves, arm bands, etc., and this is sort of an accessory, but more!!
I have never knitted a lace pattern, bobbles, or cables, and this has all of them. I can't believe how long I've avoided cables; they are SO easy! And the pattern is really fun to knit.
The yarn I'm using is called cafe au lait. Yummy. It is the most beautiful variegated brown ever. More than anything, I'm a freak for yummy fiber (not the edible variety).
I love to tease Rhiannon that I'm knitting it because she wants to knit it but wants to finish her other projects first. Finish a project? What's the big deal? I rarely finish anything, as Rhiannon and my husband have been pointing out to me all weekend. But I do hope to finish this, as I really want to wear it.

Ciao for now...I have some knitting to do (oh yeah, and Teagan to put to bed, and laundry, and, well, knitting...).

E is for Exhausted

2008-09-10T22:02:00.006-08:00

Why am I still up? This is why I don't get on the computer at home. I'm not getting enough sleep right now because everyone in my house has been sick over the past week, and Aidan's teething is driving him, and subsequently me, to distraction. He's been needy and cranky during the day and waking up a lot at night. Sigh. That's just life with kids.

So I love this little sequence. I would put it in a collage like Rhiannon if I only knew how. One day I will learn.They were so cute I wanted a picture of them together, but Aidan was having none of it.

He just wanted me to hold him, which is par for the course these days. So is this face.

But how cute is my big kindergartener? She is so big I am amazed whenever I look at her. School suits her well, and she is doing great in the Japanese immersion program. It is an amazing program; she has already learned so much! (I've been so out of touch on this blog I don't think I've mentioned any of this. But there it is: Teagan just started kindergarten in a Japanese immersion program!)

Well, sayonara for now!

D is for...Don't know what

2008-08-03T22:18:00.003-08:00

What the heck is wrong with me. I've been thinking about D for a week and couldn't come up with anything. I'm D-challenged. Or maybe I just wasn't really looking for a great D word. Hmmm. I just decided (there's a d) to move on. So here's a picture of Aidan and Teagan playing with the alphabet in the tub. It's sort of related, right?

Aidan's 1st birthday was Thursday. He's such a sweet baby. He was 21.5 pounds and nearly 30 inches long. He hasn't walked yet but he's close. He says mama and dada and that's about it. But he can throw a ball like no 1 year old should. And he's a fast crawler. He crawls like a bulldog with his elbows poking out and he slaps his hands on the wood floor as loudly as possible. He loves to eat. I can't believe a year ago I'd just barely kicked this latest (and last) resident out of my womb.

Aidan eating a birthday "cupcake" (ie, muffin)

This picture was taken in our camper on a camping trip a few weeks ago. I just liked it.

C is for CAKE...birthday cake, that is

2008-07-28T20:41:00.006-08:00

Teagan's birthday was June 30. Five years old! She's made this transition from toddler to child in the past year, and sometimes I just can't believe it when I look at her. She starts school in just a few weeks, and I am both so scared and so excited for her I can barely stand to think about it for too long. She is a beautiful, smart, sassy girl who gets her feelings hurt easily. I know she'll be great in school, but I worry that all the other kids will be more savvy than she is. Isn't that silly? She spent the night away at a friend's house the other night and I could barely sleep for worry that she might wake up scared in the middle of the night.

How hard, this parenting thing. We have to instill confidence and independence in our babies but when they run off on their own we just wish we could carry them so they don't fall and skin their knees.

Well the birthday party was fun. We had it at Valley of the Moon park, and although the turnout was low, the kids had a blast! We also had pinatas, which was so fun!

Race ya!!!

Teagan and big brother Austin

I wasn't going to do it, but...

2008-07-17T22:15:00.002-08:00

It was a little internet diversion Rhiannon had on her blog. She has the instructions on her post. I'm too lazy to copy them over. I'm fascinated by all the blue in the photos I chose. The colors didn't vary much. Hmmm, maybe I shouldn't have picked green as my favorite color?

A is for Aidan & B is for Blueberries

2008-07-17T21:41:00.002-08:00

It's Aidan eating blueberries...yum!

I had to think of a way to make myself blog more often, if only with a picture and a few words. This adorable picture made me think of the alphabet, so that is my new theme for awhile.

They look so much alike!

2008-05-26T22:36:00.003-08:00

I love their near-identical, two-tooth smiles. They are both just shy of 10 months in these pics.

So sick...

2008-05-25T17:26:00.006-08:00

We have been so sick this entire month. We just had our fifth doctor appt in just over a week. Teagan's got a stomach virus now. I can't wait until we're healthy! I'm worn out from all the laundry I've been doing this weekend. Sigh. But just look how sweet when they're sleeping. Aidan can't sleep without that little teddy bear blankie thing he has in his hands. We call it "dancing teddy" because Teagan likes to make it dance and sing a little song, then throw it onto Aidan's face, all of which makes him squeal in delight. Then he snatches it off of his face and Teagan takes it from him and starts all over. It's the cutest.

Here's Teagan working on a Father's Day surprise. I'm pretty sure Rich doesn't read this blog, so I went ahead and put it up. They're made from that salt/flour/water "clay" and we are going to glue them to a wood picture frame. We also did an outline of her hand.

Teagan's new roller skates. I have to mention that I also got a pair. The funnest part is skating in the house.

He was just so cute I had to add it!

Travel trailer joy

2008-05-11T16:33:00.004-08:00

My family has become quite the travel trailer family. Rhiannon and Kyle bought their own retro travel trailer recently, we're getting ready to get ours prepared for summer camping, and I just talked to my dad who dreams of building his own. So I happened across this blog. The trailer featured here is similar to ours. Ours is smaller, doesn't have a bathroom, but is a 1960s Aloha travel trailer. I want to renovate it to look like this...how gorgeous! Here's Teagan in our trailer. She and Rich slept in it last night in the driveway.

So anyway, happy Mother's Day to all. And happy birthday to me. I had a lovely weekend. The kids spent the night with some friends Friday night, so I had dinner with my hubbie, and an early night in, if you know what I mean. Tonight I'm headed to my friend's house for bday dinner, not cooked by me (the best kind). I'd better get going now before I get yelled at...

Snakes and snails and puppy dog tails

2008-04-12T06:16:00.006-08:00

I must admit I was scared to have a baby boy. I'd already had a girl and thought I would understand a girl better than a boy. But I stand corrected. I adore my baby boy! He is worlds apart from his sister and he amazes me every day. The strangest thing about having two kids is how much you expect them to be alike and then how surprising it is when they are so very different.

Aidan is 8 months old this month. He is so very active. He has been able to roll across the floor for a couple of months, and he gets closer to crawling every day. He gets around just fine with his little army crawl on his belly, although he loses some momentum once he gets off the rug and onto the hard, smooth floor. He's like a race car spinning its wheels on slick pavement: just not enough traction. He loves to play with toys that make noise, the louder the better!

Aidan loves to eat. He loves cheerios (a baby requirement, no?). When I put him in his high chair and start to get them down, he starts waving his hands and feet in excitement. He eats his vegetables with an enthusiasm equivalent to when he eats bread and fruits. The only thing he hasn't been too thrilled about is the hard boiled egg yolk I mixed into his homemade rice cereal. It is a point of pride with me that I've never fed my babies baby food from a jar, except when we're traveling. I believe it is one more thing companies have convinced us we must have for our babies, when in fact we've been feeding them from our own plates for many hundreds of years longer than Gerber has been around. (Of course, I say this, but I sure do love my jogging stroller/bike trailer.)

I don't think Aidan's breastmilk intake has decreased much despite all the food he eats. He drinks it expressed from a bottle at daycare, and from the source the rest of the time. He looks up into my eyes when he's nursing, and I just love that time with him. I've recently started reprimanding him (verbally when I yell "OW!") for biting. His first tooth just came in, so it won't be long and the biting will soon be REALLY painful.

On the sleeping front, Aidan has been awesome! Teagan was hard to get to sleep from the very beginning, and even now she's the one to wake me up in the middle of the night rather than him. I am still so surprised that I can lay him down in his crib when he is wide awake and he will fall asleep without even crying once. I like to hear him talking and playing while he gets sleepy.

Last night I discovered he won't sleep in his crib without his blanket. It was in the dryer so I'd used a different blanket, but he just kept crying and crying even after both Rich and I went in separately to rock him for awhile. He still was fussing. He also has a little teddy bear/blanket for holding onto, which he likes to mash his face into, but this wasn't helping last night. So I got his big blanket from the dryer, went in, and covered him up. He immediately stopped crying, snuggled up under his blanket, sort of patted it with his chubby little hands, and then rolled over and went to sleep. I guess we're bringing it with us on our trip tonight!

Aidan is just such a happy baby. His laughs are infectious. I'm so glad we have him in our lives now!

Laundry and cleaning and packing oh my

2008-04-11T10:55:00.005-08:00

We're getting ready for a trip to California. A whirlwind trip. We fly to Fresno on Sunday, then we're driving to the Bay Area on Friday where we'll participate in as much Portuguese partying as possible till Monday. I wish we were staying longer. Of course, Murphy's law says if you're going to get sick, it will happen right before a big trip with the whole family. So I'm sick, and last night Aidan woke up with the croup AGAIN! WTF? He's doing well today, but that meant missing the last day I had at work to wrap everything up for my week-long absence, plus being terrified that he'll have respiratory distress on the plane and there won't be anything anyone can do about it. Oy vay.

On a positive note, I can't wait to meet Lowan, and Teagan is beside herself about going. The weather is expected to be nice and warm, well, hot, actually, in the upper 80s. Rich's dad is Portuguese, which explains our Portuguese partying. It is the Holy Ghost festa, and Rich and Teagan get to be in some big parade. Plus all the eating and drinking that goes along with being Catholic and Portuguese! Good times!

I have lots of things I'd love to ramble on about, but as you may have noted from the title of this post, I also have lots of laundry and cleaning and packing to do. So I should get to it while Aidan is napping. Here are some pictures from last month.

Me attempting to take a picture of Aidan and myself on a sunny day outside. I have a feeling I make this face rather frequently.

Teagan climbed the crabapple tree in our front yard. She got all the way up by herself, and then needed some assistance getting down.

Every boy needs a magic wand. Especially a purple, sparkly, beribboned magic wand. Can you see Aidan's naturally full and fluffy mohawk? I love it! Actually, his hair is ultra straight and not at all fluffy, like his dad's. Teagan got all the wave and body (frizz), like her mom.

Well, too late to get stuff done during Aidan's nap. Darn.

My new nephew!!

2008-03-31T15:13:00.002-08:00

My nephew Lowan Thomas Oakes arrived this morning at around 6:00 am. He's a beautiful baby! Congratulations Rhiannon & Kyle.

Happy (Belated) Easter!

2008-03-29T23:21:00.008-08:00

Happy (Belated) St. Paddy's Day!

2008-03-29T23:16:00.004-08:00

Austin was here for spring break; we had a great time, but it's been very busy! We missed him a lot this winter!

My grownup girl

2008-03-08T22:19:00.004-09:00

Teagan had a big day today.

We took her to get her ears pierced.

The other girls at daycare have their ears pierced (since they were babies), so she asked if she could too. I'm not big on the baby ear piercing thing, since I feel like it should be her decision, not mine. Not like pierced ears is a big deal, really, but that's just always been my philosophy. Anyway, she said she really wanted to and stuck with it all day. I could tell she was nervous when we got there, but she was such a trooper, she didn't even shed a tear or move a single centimeter when they punched those earrings through. It made me want to cry, though, for my big, beautiful daughter who seems so grownup with those little fake pink gemstone studs. It's supposed to be alexandrite, which is one of June's birthstones (the more traditional being pearl). Of course, she'll have to wait till she's 18 for a tattoo and most other piercings. She gets to be fully responsible for all that business.

Mohawk Hat in Progress

2008-03-07T21:15:00.008-09:00

I'm knitting a mohawk hat for Rich from the book Pretty in Punk. I have the entire hat knit, now I just have to add the fringe that makes up the mohawk. It has ear flaps and i-cord tassels. Rich is getting a black hat that will have some teal in the mohawk. It has been so much fun to knit, and I nearly succeeded in completing it without him knowing, but Teagan spilled the beans last night. The exegesis of how I ended up knitting this hat is somewhat lengthy to type, but basically Rich said he thought a mohawk hat would be cool and assured me that if I ever knit one, he would definitely wear it, even when he goes to work on the slope. That was my cue to find a pattern and knit one. This particular hat is knit in two pieces that are seamed together. I really like it's deep crown. Since I have a ginormous noggin, I like a hat that stays in place and covers my ears. I can't wait to get the mohawk fringe on it!!

So here it is. I didn't get a great picture of it before the batteries in my camera died, so it's sort of from the side/back.

In keeping with the mohawk theme, I gave poor Aidan a mohawk the other day, with his tiny bit of hair on his big ol' head. But isn't he so cute? I love these striped pjs.

And finally, to even out my photo representation of my lil'uns, here's Teagan at Village Inn downing some whipped cream-laden hot cocoa after a night of ice skating.
For anyone who cares, the Iditarod is taking place as we blog, and Lance Mackey is numero uno, followed by Jeff King. When my parents were here, we sadly only caught the last two dog sled teams going through Anchorage. Oh well, maybe next year we'll catch more of it.

Also, I've been moderately obsessed with the revealing of Sarah Palin's pregnancy. Sarah Palin is Alaska's illustrious governor, who has been dubbed as one of the hottest governors in history, or GILF. I don't think she's getting the kind of publicity she should, but I think it's rockin' that she's going to give birth to her FIFTH child while in office. She's 44, 7 months pregnant, and NO ONE NOTICED! Kudos, Sarah. And to anyone who doubts a woman can have a baby and run a state...SP's gonna show you how all of us hot workin' mama's do it every single day!

Taxes and houseguests

2008-03-03T21:55:00.007-09:00

I just got done with two weeks of houseguests. It was fun, but now I have to catch up at home. I have lots of good pictures, but no time to post a thoughtful, inspiring entry. I'm also trying to get my taxes done and organize my financial life. Ugh. It's a lot of work. Here are some pictures from the past few weeks.

Aidan with his Mimie.My dad and I at our friend's cabin near Willow, AK.

My mom and Aidan.

Aidan and I at the cabin.

Teagan in the window seat at the cabin.

Mmmmmmiso soup

2008-02-21T12:55:00.003-09:00

Amy asked about the miso soup I made, so here it is. For all two of my regular readers (Amy and Rhiannon). If I have any lurkers, make yourself known by commenting...I'd love to expand my audience to three!

I pretty much followed the recipe on the miso container. The last miso I bought is Westbrae organic mellow red miso, and I LOVE it! It has such a great, understated (i.e., mellow) flavor. Since I just made it last night, I can tell you exactly what goes into it.

Saute one onion, thinly sliced, in olive oil till translucent, add thinly sliced carrots and celery (last night I used 3 carrots and 2 stalks celery), and saute till tender. Add 4 cups water or broth (I just use chicken boullion) and diced tofu (I use at least half a block of tofu...Teagan loves the tofu so I like to have lots in there for her to eat), bring to a simmer, add around 3 or 4 tablespoons of miso and mix in till dissolved. Simmer for another 5-10 minutes. (Other veggies I think would be yummy but haven't tried since Teagan probably won't eat them are baby bok choy, napa cabbage and/or mushrooms...she already avoids the onions.) We had a delicious green salad with our soup last night. I actually have a picture of the soup from the last time I made it. I'll have to add it when I get home (I'm now blogging from a top-secret undisclosed location!).

Poor blogging and the purpose of hospitals

2008-02-20T08:40:00.004-09:00

I have been so busy I haven't been able to blog. My mother-in-law (known to the kids as Mimie) just got here Sunday night and my parents are coming Saturday, with several days of overlap, so I'm just trying to maintain a clean household and think a little bit harder than normal (i.e., plan ahead) about what I am going to feed everyone. Tonight, miso soup, I think. Teagan loves it (requested it, actually), and Rich is out of town for work (he won't eat it), plus we have dance class tonight and miso soup is ultra quick to make, so it is the perfect meal for this evening. Also, Mimie works while she's here, and I never know what time she will be home. Last night she wasn't home until 8. I'm learning that Rich gets many of his traits from his mother. But I really enjoy having her here to visit, and Teagan is excited, too. In fact, her employer is trying to convince her to move up here, and that would be just fine with me. It would be great fun to have some family here, and I think it might be good for Mimie as well!

Mimie recently had a hip replacement surgery, and is still recovering to some extent. Before Mimie arrived, Teagan asked me if she was bringing her baby. For a second I was confused and didn't know what she was talking about. Then I realized she thought that because she had heard us talking about Mimie being in the hospital, Mimie must have had a baby. Isn't that what people do when they go to the hospital? Teagan is fortunate to have that be her only hospital experience in life to date...mommy at the hospital, and a new baby brother for Teagan! It was very cute. I love the way kids think about the world.

I have no really new pictures to post right now. Here's one of Teagan decorating cookies at daycare last week.

Growing pains

2008-02-11T21:38:00.000-09:00

I started looking through old photos yesterday and as much as I love Teagan at 4, I miss the baby she has left behind. Why does it seem so sad that she's not a baby anymore? I know, it's probably way too early to start this wistful reminiscing, but my girl is SASSY and some days I wouldn't be heart broken to go back to that sweet and curious little toddler. Not that we didn't have our challenges then. I just love looking back at her growing and changing, and it is always bittersweet. Here are some pictures of her when she was one year old, eating berries and picking flowers, and when she was almost two years old, with her sweet baby curls.

Tonight while I was cooking dinner I said something to Teagan about learning to cook and she told me she didn't need to learn. I asked her who was going to cook for her when she grows up and lives on her own and she answered "you, mom." I explained that when she gets old enough, she will move out and live on her own and learn how to take care of herself, and she replied "but I LOVE you!" in a somewhat betrayed tone of voice. Like how could I ever think of sending her out on her own? I just wanted to fold her in my arms and tell her she could stay forever, but I know how this growing up business is supposed to work. I sure hope when she's ready to go I've given her all the tools she needs to be the best person she possibly can be.

I know! She's only four!!!

Here we are, back in the present, Teagan and I checking out the ice sculptures in town square park this weekend. It was sooooo cold!! If it weren't so damn cold I probably wouldn't be dwelling on such depressing subjects. Here's to an early summer this year!!!

Fond food memories

2008-02-05T22:26:00.000-09:00

Prompted by Amy's blog entry on food, I thought I'd blog about some of my fond food memories. The best food memory I have is of going to my grandma's house and getting to spend the night there all by myself; no siblings or parents to bug me. I would get to sleep in the hydabed in the back room and watch cable (which we did not have at home), and my grandma would make rice pudding for me, which I would eat while it was still warm and I was snug in bed. I love all kinds of food, I'm certainly not a picky eater, but there's something about comfort foods that just stick with you. How can you beat warm, creamy rice and milk spiced with cinnamon and studded with plumped raisins? My grandpa (on the other side of my family) was the one to show me how to fake rice pudding by taking warm, leftover rice from dinner, pouring milk over it, and sprinkling it with cinnamon and sugar. I still love to do this, and recently showed it to Teagan. Of course, she loved it. My grandpa also made the best meatloaf (sorry mom!).

My mom always made great meals and desserts. She helped me learn to cook (I liked to make pork chops with apples and rice, turkey pot pie, and scalloped corn when I was a kid). In my memory, she got stuck with the day-to-day business of feeding a family, which is why the things prepared by others stand out more in my mind. Still, I think it is so important for a parent to nurture her children's bodies and souls with a good, healthful meal, and I know my mom did that for us. Yes, it is possible to nurture the soul on tuna noodle casserole every Tuesday night ;)

I should have a picture of food, but I don't. Just more pictures of the kids!

Where's my village?

2008-01-30T21:44:00.000-09:00

I remember a few years ago, after Bill was out of the White House, but before all this presidential hoopla, I took an interest in Hillary Clinton. I can't really remember why, but I read part of her autobiography Living History. This was the first time I remember hearing the phrase "it takes a village to raise a child" (Hillary also wrote a book titled It Takes a Village). I'm sure she didn't coin the phrase, but I associate it with her nonetheless. And I often contemplate the truth of those words.

I think because my husband has been out of town so much for work, I've been thinking about my "village" a lot lately. And I'm finding it lacking. My entire immediate family (mom, dad, sister, brother) are in California, so although I talk to them on the phone frequently (usually more than once a day with my sister), I see them rather infrequently. I never thought when I moved to Alaska that I would stay for so long and miss my family so much. And I didn't really feel so strongly about it until I had children. I often feel very isolated when Rich is gone and I am by myself with the kids.

When this happens to me I wonder why I moved away from my village. And I think about how true village life might have so many advantages. I imagine the women coming together to prepare meals while the kids entertain and, to some extent, care for one another. I don't know if the men would be hunters or maybe herders...herders, I think; it sounds so much more serene than hunting (although my man is a hunter already). And even though it would be a life filled with hard work, it would be ameliorated by the camaraderie of the villagers and the sharing of a way of life.

For a time I had a little bit of that village. We had these really great neighbors and I developed a wonderful friendship with the woman in the household. She has two kids, and even though they are considerably older than mine, we understood the challenges and rewards of being working moms and could support one another in that role. If one of us didn't want to cook, or wanted to share a meal we had created, we did exactly that and neither of us felt guilty for it. We played cards many Friday nights, we went to the gym or ran together as many mornings as possible, and we listened to one another's problems. Even our men-folk loved to get together and drink vino all night and act like morons. They moved to Idaho the summer before I got pregnant with Aidan, and I still miss them terribly. For a small time, I had a glimpse into what that village life would be like and I loved it. I hope I can find it again.

The young inhabitants of my village snuggling in the laundry:

Hula hoopin' good time

2008-01-27T20:43:00.000-09:00

Okay, I love this. She makes it look so easy! I think Teagan would love this, too. I'll have to show her!

Through the eyes of a 4-year old

2008-01-27T14:19:00.001-09:00

Teagan loves to take pictures. She takes pictures of whatever is lying around, usually as close up as she can get. She winds up with some really great photos I would never consider taking. So I thought I'd put some of her most recent pictures up.

Here's one she took today while we were making banana bread.

Aidan during dinner time. I'm the one holding the spoon; Teagan's holding the camera.

I guess she thought this bowl of oranges and lemons looked interesting. Some of our paper crafts are lying about in the fore and back grounds.

The kitchen from an interesting perspective.

Well, my Sunday's going to be over before I get much done. It's cold today, so I've been in the kitchen making bread and granola and new baby foods for Aidan. Now we are getting ready to head out into the cold, cold world to run some errands and I think Rich is taking Teagan ice skating. Fun stuff!

3 am Internet Searches

2008-01-22T03:01:00.000-09:00

This is what kids do to you. Here I am, 3 am, searching the internet for the cause of my baby's horrible barking cough. My internet-based diagnosis is croup. He sounds perfectly fine until that cough. It's awful, and it's keeping me up tonight. That, and the fact that I, too, have a virus that's making me toss and turn.

When you get sick before you have kids, you get to wallow in your own misery, take time off work to nap, and eat whatever you can make in less than three minutes. Once there are kids involved, your own illness takes the back seat (because invariably your kids are sick, too). You go to work even though you feel like you could crawl in a hole and die because you already took four days off to stay home with your first sick kid, and then realize you're going to have to take more time off work to stay home with sick kid #2. You still have to cook meals when you'd rather just eat toast, read books out loud even though your throat hurts, and a nap? forget it! It doesn't help that my husband is out of town for work, since Friday. At least his working extra will help make up for me missing so much work.

But having kids is still worth it for some weird reason that's hard to explain! Because in between his horrible barking cough, he still makes the sweetest chattering sounds when he wakes up, like right this very moment.

It's been a loooong week

2008-01-19T21:50:00.001-09:00

So I am a terrible blogger. I have dreams of writing witty blogs that engross all (three) of my regular readers in such a way that they can't wait to come back for more. But I just can't seem to find the time. Tonight I had the kids in bed by 7:30, a record for Teagan, really. I got just about caught up on my financial stuff...well, sort of. The day-to-day stuff anyway. There's still taxes to think about, and archiving the last five years' worth of paper that's bursting out of my file cabinet, moving Teagan's savings into something earning higher than 0.9%...what am I thinking, I'm not even close to caught up.

Teagan has been sick for the last five days. Meaning I had to miss four days of work. My boss is going to fire me for sure! On top of that, my car broke down Monday morning, so I barely squeezed in four hours before having to run out to get the car (minus $700 from my bank account) and pick up the kids to haul them over to dance class (minus another $300 from my bank account). The account balance is now leaning heavily toward the negative side, especially since the following four days I was barely able to work, all of which took place from home. Do you work from home with kids? I don't know how people do it. Between meals, dishes, laundry, more meals, and the kids just generally wanting your attention (who can blame them?), it's impossible to get more than an hour or two in a stretch...and that IS a stretch! I can do one or the other: go to work, or be a stay-at-home mom, but doing both is NOT for me.

So poor Teagan has been diagnosed with pink eye (see below), a staph/strep infection surrounding the pink eye, and finally a virus (fever, headache, a bit of upset tummy, supposedly unrelated to the other ailments). We've been to the doctor twice, and Teagan threw up in the grocery store once. Like any good mom, I caught half of the puke in my hands and then stood there wondering what to do with it while reassuring her that it wasn't her fault she threw up all over the place. I ended up placing the puke in my hands on the floor with the puke that was already there, grabbing a package of paper towels (yes, I was already in the paper towel aisle...thank goodness for small miracles), ripping said package open, scooping up all the vomit, running to the customer service area to grab some plastic bags, and cleaning up all the puke myself. I tried to call out to an employee going by shortly after the incident, but she didn't hear me. I don't think I was very loud, though to hear Teagan tell it, I screamed at the lady. It was quite an adventure. Needless to say, we haven't been out of the house since. She hasn't thrown up again, either.

Anyway, Teagan's on the road to recovery, thanks to industrial antibiotics, Dora-shaped chicken noodle soup, and her current movie favorites, Spy Kids and Spy Kids 2. Aidan, miraculously, has been perfectly fine. But I probably shouldn't say that yet. Here he is in his bouncy doorway seat.

He's such a happy baby! He's been rolling around and seems like he can't wait to get moving. Teagan and I like to cheer for him when he flips from his back onto his belly, which makes him giggle. He doesn't actually make a giggle sound, but he just looks like he should be giggling. He also loves to eat, and if I try to make him wait while we're eating, he gets pissed off. Teagan has us all calling him bub or bubba, which is just the weirdest thing, but it has really stuck. I'll have to get him a little embroidered carhart jacket that says Bubba. Army-Navy, here I come!

The Stockings were Hung...

2007-12-18T16:36:00.001-09:00

by the chimney with care. Teagan sure hopes St. Nick will be here! We're excited for Christmas round here. Disappointed that Rich will be working on the slope on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, though. We just hung Aidan's stocking up with the rest of ours; my mom made it and sent it this week. It has a big, fat polar bear on it; it's perfect!

The kids have been sick so much this winter. I just took Teagan to the doctor again. Her asthma is bad, and I have to give her the albuterol inhaler every 4 hours, and oral steroids to reduce the inflammation that's causing her wheezing and coughing. I hate giving her all these meds; I just want her to be healthy. Hopefully we can be diligent and get rid of this stuff. Here she is eating raw spaghetti noodles.

Aidan's been getting better and better at grabbing stuff. He likes to lay on his play mat and whack the toys that hang down. He definitely favors his right hand. He's eating sweet potatoes and rice cereal, too. I had to give him some applesauce with the cereal to keep him regular, if you know what I mean! He has quite the sensitive digestive system. Here he is with dad:

Here are some pictures of Teagan in this fun, mod outfit she's only worn one other time even though she's had it since last Christmas. She's so finicky about her fashion. I put her hair in a french braid and felt the need to photo document the occasion, as it's her first french braid. Her hair's never been long enough. But I'm a sloppy french braider. Will have to practice that little skill. Also looks like I need to trim her bangs.

Who knows if I'll post before Christmas...probably, since Rich will be gone this weekend and I'll be lonely. But in any case, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Hasenpfeffer

2007-12-06T22:03:00.000-09:00

Here it is, the hunt. I will spare you all the gory photos, which was most of them. They went in Palmer, Rich and Teagan, below with our friend Jeremy. Jeremy's wife Heather took the pictures.
And the results are in, the stew was fantastic. Rich couldn't stop raving about it, especially that the rabbit came out so tender. I adapted the recipe to the crockpot and it worked out great. We had roasted red and Yukon gold potatoes from our garden with it, and cooked carrots. Teagan had second helpings. Just look at their happy faces!

No Hasenpfeffer for Aidan, but he enjoyed his warm rice cereal...at least when I could get the spoon past his fingers, which are constantly in his mouth. He's getting pretty consistent at putting his right thumb in his mouth, too. My little thumb-sucker. Now I'm off to fill out my benefits enrollment paperwork for open enrollment. Good stuff!

Tis the Season

2007-12-03T21:59:00.001-09:00

Aaah, Christmas time. We decorated the house on Thanksgiving weekend. I feel like it's all going by so quickly; I'm not sure why. It was fun decorating. Four years old is pretty fun when it comes to this kind of stuff. Here she is helping sort out the fake Christmas tree. Gotta love the fake Christmas tree.

Rich took Teagan on her second hunting trip this weekend. They went a couple weeks ago, but didn't have any luck. They were hunting snowshoe hare. Teagan loved it. They shot two rabbits and she still loved it. She's an Alaska girl, through and through. She helped dress the
hare, and tomorrow morning I will put it in the crockpot for rabbit stew (i.e., hasenpfeffer). I'm adapting the recipe to the crockpot, just to make sure that rabbit is good and tender. We'll see, I've never cooked rabbit, let alone tasted it. Rich has always given the rabbits away to others who enjoy them, but now we have to teach Teagan if you shoot it, you must eat it. Too bad I don't have any pictures of the event (okay, probably not too bad if you don't like these kinds of things!). I'll have to post the stew results.

Winter Adventure

2007-12-02T15:37:00.001-09:00

On Monday I didn't have daycare, so I took the kids and the dog for a walk, to the woods at the end of my street, which is essentially a bog. Since it had been warm that week, the bog was a skin of ice over water and mud, which we had to bust through to get anywhere. The going was rough, but it was so nice to be out in the sunshine we didn't care. I ended up pushing Aidan in the jogging stroller, while I pulled Teagan in the sled. I had to use the dog's leash to tie the sled around my waist to leave my hands free for the stroller.

We ran into three moose along the way. Here's a picture of a young bull who got a little too close to us for my comfort. He was drinking water from a puddle and didn't seem bothered by us. Thank goodness my dog didn't care to chase that moose.
I must have looked a sight pulling Teagan in the sled on the icy road on the way back home. I tell you, I got my work out for the day. What a fun time we had!!

Thankful

2007-11-22T11:59:00.000-09:00

Happy Thanksgiving. We have so much for which we can be thankful! Teagan and I made rocky ledge bars from Martha Stewart's cookie magazine from last year (or maybe the year before?) to take to our friend's house today for Thanksgiving dinner. These are ultra decadent, with marshmallows, caramels, chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, and butterscotch chips. Mmmmm, guilty pleasures! Here's the recipe.
We've just been lazing about in our pajamas this morning. I talked with Teagan about why we celebrate Thanksgiving, and taught her what it means to be thankful. Learning that the earth doesn't revolve around you when you're four years old is a hard lesson! Some things we came up with for which we're thankful:

A healthy, happy family;
A house that keeps us warm and dry;
Hot water so we can take nice, warm baths, every day if we want to;
Plenty of food to fill our bellies; and
Lots of toys to play with.

This holiday season I plan to teach my daughter humility and graciousness. I'm sure Santa will be generous like always, but I don't want her to take her life for granted. Too much to ask of a four year old? We'll see....

A new milestone

2007-11-16T20:15:00.001-09:00

Aidan rolled over for the first time tonight! Twice!! He had the audacity to do it the first time when I turned away for one second, but made up for it when I flipped him back and he did it again. A repeat performance that we all got to see...mom, dad, big sis. He is precisely three and a half months old. We cheered and clapped and now he can't seem to stop wiggling around, ready for more I think. I'm definitely in for it when he starts getting around the house!!

Why I Should Never Work from Home...

2007-11-16T11:23:00.000-09:00

There's simply too much non-work related stuff to do at home. Like post to my newly revived blog and look for something to eat, do laundry and read mail.

Right before I went back to work from maternity leave, I got the overwhelming urge to knit something from start to finish. So I found a pattern that would be fast and not require much thought or really any sort of challenge. I just wanted to have the joy of making something since it had been so long (not counting the making of my son, one of the two most unimaginably beautiful creations of my lifetime). So here it is, Wendy's Last Minute Purled Beret, available for free over at Knit and Tonic. I decided not to block it so that it would be less beret-ish and more slouchy. I like it!

Here's Aidan passively modeling the hat. Don't worry, he loved it!

Back again?

2007-11-15T21:52:00.000-09:00

I have a working computer. It's fabulous. It's fast. My internet is reliable. I love it. I have less time than ever to blog, but here I am. Since my last blog, I've had a beautiful baby boy! Yes, it's been that long. I really need to go to bed, so I'll just post some photogs. Let's see if you can guess which ones were taken during our trip to Hawaii....

So Sick!

2006-05-29T21:51:00.000-08:00

I've been SO sick this last week. What a huge bummer since not only has the weather been gorgeous, but my three day weekend was pretty well ruined. I could only lay on the couch or in bed, I was so drained and I had a fever for SIX STRAIGHT DAYS!! What is that about? It was horrible. Today is the first day I'm feeling any better, thanks to some industrial antibiotics.

I made a lovely necklace for my sis on her birthday...it's another carnelian one with hessonite (a garnet variant) for the amber colored accents. I really like the way it turned out, although I sort of messed up on the length (sorry Rhiannon). Just for fun, here's a spring cleaning portrait. This was a few weeks ago. Good times! ~Tara

Lovely Monday

2006-05-22T14:16:00.000-08:00

Today is lovely because I'm not at work. I'm at home with my girl having a beautiful, quiet Monday. Miss T had a fever yesterday, so I kept her home today, but she seems to be feeling pretty good. We played outside and now she's snoozing. I made frittata for breafast and banana bread for after lunch. I picked up the backyard so we can mow the lawn...I should really be a stay at home mom. Then maybe I wouldn't be as grouchy at the end of the day. I should at least cut my hours back. Anyway, here's Missy T in the sweater Auntie Rhiannon knitted her. Still not blocked, but some day....

I can't seem to get any other pictures to load up today. I feel like the last person on earth with dial-up. Oh well. For now I'm off to take advantage of the last few minutes of quiet nap time.

What's up with this blog?? (Original Post 5/11/06)

2006-05-15T17:16:00.001-08:00

I guess I haven't been the best crafty blogger. All I've posted are pictures of my family. And now I wonder if I shouldn't have a different blog for these pics. I mean, do you really want to show a picture of your little girl on a blog called "HoBags"? I'm pretty new to the blogging scene, so I don't know. I realized too that I haven't posted any pictures of projects, either in progress or completed, so my tea swap pal (from whom I received an email today...yay!!) has no idea what things I like to knit, what yarn I like, etc. How frustrating! Well, I'll try to post some new stuff tonight.

For now, here's a picture of a hat I knit for my friend for Christmas. It's a bit goofy, since I took it myself trying to show the hat. I like moderately chunky yarn because I'm a slow knitter. Anything knit on smaller than size 8 needles seems like too much work. And I like muted colors, natural fibers, soft is good, green is always welcome. I'm not really sure I want to learn to knit socks because I'm afraid I'll knit one and never finish the second. Plus, won't they just get stinky? ;-)
Those are just some answers for my tea swap pal. ~Tara

Mother's Day (Original Post 5/15/06)

2006-05-15T17:16:00.000-08:00

Well, I had such a great week as it was my birthday on Wednesday, and Mother's Day yesterday. I got lots of good stuff, including a beautiful mother's day ring, a new (well, new for us, but actually used) barbeque, an awesome lounge chair from REI called the lounge lizard, a really cool bag (a hobag original) from Rhiannon, and a cute little hand "painted" heart from my sweet daughter. Here's a picture of her making it at her daycare. I already hung it up in my room, even though she insisted that it should go in her room.

I know I keep promising to post crafty goodness, but I have family up with me right now, and my home computer is in the "spare" bedroom, so it's hard to get on there to post stuff. If it's crafty goodness you want, check out Rhiannon's blog rhiannknits...she's going to town on a gorgeous cable knit sweater. I hope everyone had a good mother's day!! ~Tara

(Original Post 5/7/06)

2006-05-15T17:15:00.000-08:00

It was sort of dreary today. I should've been cleaning, but I didn't. Teagan was sweet as usual. Except she won't wear real shoes, only her "princess" shoes. Not seen here because they don't stay on her feet. Also, don't you just love our matching ponchos? We are the stylinest gals this side of the Yukon River! Heh heh heh.

I really want to put a pic up of my most recent project, but must wait until I actually mail it and it's intended owner finally gets it. Mustn't ruin the surprise! ~Tara

Flash Your Tea Stash (Original Post 5/6/06)

2006-05-15T17:14:00.000-08:00

I'm the first to admit: my stash is sort of pathetic. I have more in the pantry area of my home (i.e., the garage), but pretty much it's plain old green tea and some lipton tea, primarily for iced tea. I like to have herbal tea for in the evening, but I've recently realized that I always buy citrusy herbal tea when what I really want is something that tastes similar to regular (black or green) tea without the caffeine. I'm looking forward to something from my secret tea swap pal.

I do have a lovely little ceramic tea pot from China that I haven't even used yet. My parents brought it back for me.

I will have to give it a whirl, maybe with my new tea!! Good times! ~Tara