Vaca

We will be escaping to a friends cottage up north for the holiday weekend! It will be lovely to hit the beach and snoop around in a new little place! Enjoy your 4th and have a peaceful weekend. Updates when we return. Oh and did I mention this trip offers the hope of a drive in movie?!! The kids are uber excited about that and the Irishman is curious! Seems I am the only one in the household to have ever been to them...

CSA

We finally got some goodies from our CSA...the season is just behind here in Michigan. Not that I was impatient or anything! But the CSA will keep us up on our veggies and trying new eats!! Tonight the haul was slim...a basket full of turnip greens and what I think may be mustard greens though I am not sure, some lettuces and the brightest red radishes I have ever seen (oh and do they pack a punch!!) and should I forget eggs!! So tonight I pulled out my big book of everything veg and surfed my very favorite vegweb.com to find what exactly to do with greens...and I kind of threw together some butter, olive oil and onions in a pan heated those, cleaned my turnip greens, threw in some vegetarian bacon bits, and the greens in the heated oil, and some salt and pepper and I must say it was really quite tasty!! I think I might just get why people crave greens!!! So next week I go do the pick up and see what we get in our basket next week!! So go on and have some greens they really are good!!

Cafe McCoy

So Bronwyn asks if we can go to the coffee shop...well as a lot of you may know a coffee shop visit with three people can get a little spendy...so I said no but you can come to my cafe...I seated them in the blue room and came back in to take their orders offering steamers, cocoa, and tea...they ordered the special hot cocoas with marshmallows, carmel sauce and sprinkles...and asked if there were any goodies, I said I hadn't baked today but may have something to offer. I pulled out my antique dessert dishes and gave them some cinnamon sugar twists and a square of ghiradelli chocolate. They were delighted and said it was better than going out...unfortunately they seem to think the cafe is open at all hours everyday...so Dad took over the duties today...what little gourmands are we creating??? Oh well off for another late shift...growl!!!

Growl...

Sometimes life for me is not all smiles and giggles...actually this last week I would probably be more likely to growl at you than laugh and say hello... I have tried to make peace and breathe and find my happy place in general but work life simply keeps getting in the way of all that! I get angry just thinking about the place. Not good, this I know! Getting angry at anything this regularly would probably be life's way of hitting you up side the head saying seek change...find a balance or else...but this is not a job I can walk away from, particularly since I am the bread winner in our household. Not a real option to just bag it all and walk away...that is the bad part of being a grown up!! I like the work I do unfortunately it comes with a huge ball of politics and interventions and threats and what-ifs that are so beyond my influence and ability to control...and for me as for most people it is the lack of control that is so very hard. I am not a control freak...but I like to feel like my life is under my hand...and this job over and over has made me feel powerless...and this is not a career you want the people doing it to feel so distracted and aggravated!! And everyday brings more threats and frustrations and more hours and overtime and head beating!!!!!!! And by the end of the work day I am a vegetable curling up in a fetal postion on my couch...dreading going back in the next day... I knew this year would be like this well somewhat like this and I even picked a word to remember for the year breathe as I knew it would be all in my power to do but I have found putting that very wise choice into action has been very difficult to remember as my life is becoming less and less my own...but really it is still all I have left in my control to breathe....so life is not just gardens blooming and my lovely ladies but me wanting to scream out loud!!! Sigh...

Yummo!!!!!!!

So on the suggestion of a friend, we went to a cute little restaurant and I mean little (the top photo is taken from the far side of the restaurant to the other side!!) in Sanford. It is called Elvira's and has a very reasonably priced menu and yummy mexican food and good service... and can I tell you how awesome the desserts were?!! Of course I can!! They were big and yummy. We got a mexican cookie which was ice cream, chocolate syrup and cinnamon chips and a fried banana which was the banana and ice cream drizzled with chocolate syrup and even better they were only 2.95 each!! So even for a yummy dessert it was a good stop. (And for those of you who know John he did not shrink nor did I grow, Bronwyn told him to stoop down so she could get us all in!) So even though my lovely vegetarian doesn't love mexican food we will be back!!

Of course...

With beginnings come endings...the last poppy....sigh....till next year my lovelies!!

Happy Solstice!

Summer is officially here and we are truly in bloom! The mini roses have never had so many blooms, the chammomile is blooming and filling in, the tomato plants are thriving and are in need of cages, even the compost pile is alive with growth, and there is even the hope of raspberries in the not too distant future! So happy solstice, and happy summer, enjoy the season!!!