Cleaning Music

Eye twitching

Eye twitching, or myokymia, is an involuntary eyelid muscle contraction that usually affects the lower eyelid. The exact cause of an eyelid twitch is unknown. A twitch sometimes develops during times of increased stress. Twitching has also been associated with high caffeine intake, fatigue or excessive squinting.

Stress - check
caffeine - check
fatigue - check

My perfect chai

After realizing and being officially diagnosed with lactose and soy intolerance I've not had chai often because it pretty much only comes made with regular cow milk or soy milk. Last night and tonight I've made myself a perfect cup of chai.

This actually makes 2 cups

1.5 cups water
1.5 cups lactose free milk
2 bags of rooibos
big spoonful of honey
1/4 tsp of Shiba Sweet Spice

Heat it all up, let it steep and enjoy in your favorite cup!

How does your garden grow?

Forgive the blurry pictures. Twilight has it's complications when photographing.



















Pretty cucumber flowers














Hello Mr. Zucchini, I'll be eating you and your blossom in a few days



















Our carrots like their snazzy ribbon














And the show offs of the garden, the heirloom lettuces

I need to do some weeding and fertilizing but things are looking tasty!

Only one month left

Happy eleventh month birthday, darling!

Independence Day

This year it holds special meaning for me as my brother is anything but independent at this time. He is nearing his third week of 13 in the Marines' Basic Training Program (commonly known as bootcamp). His letters to me haven't arrived yet but my mother has received a few in which he shares how thankful he is for the things he considered so mundane before bootcamp. He lives, breathes, eats, and poops as his Drill Instructor allows.

I'm proud of my brother for coming to his decision to join the Marines in a mature and thoughtful manner. I do wish he was here visiting me or at least at home but I respect his decision and hope he comes out a disciplined and mature man.

It's become part of my daily routine to write him a short note. I write him daily and then mail the notes in batches of 5 or so. I'm looking forward to getting mail back from him.

We miss you, Uncle Cam!

Looking for a deal

May this photo serve to remind you to wipe off the top of your cans before opening them.

Shopping around used to be part of my grocery routine but with the third child that has somehow become nearly impossible.

It being scorching day and having heard of a particular sale decided to stop by the canned food outlet (I know some people have issues with the place but I can overlook a lot for a scorching hot deal).

I did indeed find the kids favorite sweet snack, Stretch Island Fruit Leather, as well as some other organics including tomato sauce and paste (for the pizza that the kids love eating), crushed pineapple (perhaps also for the pizza), 2 bags of really delicious chips in sea salt and rosemary flavors, and 4 frozen gluten free enchilada meals for easy dinner nights.

All in all some really good deals on the organic foods I prefer to feed my family.

Perhaps I should add canned foods back into my routine.

My routine is off

Shawn is home today and tomorrow for a long holiday weekend so I'll be able to be more productive as well have a more peaceful day.

Each day I start out with one or another kid waking me up. This morning we got a late start and didn't get woken till 8am. I always prefer being woken up by a happy child than a demanding and cranky one. I got lucky today.



While the coffee was brewing I turned this (rack of clean and dried but not put away dishes not shown)


into this



By 8:30 I'm on here drinking my coffee and posting this which never could have happened normally but all three kids are in the other room with Shawn asking him question after question.

Today was the day of cooking. Banana pecan buckwheat mini muffins, french onion soup and cheese sandwiches for dipping, quesadillas for the kids, granola, and spaghetti sauce and meatballs both stuffed with hidden veggies.






this

into this

and now my sink looks like the photo above. All the tiny ones are falling asleep and soon I'll try to reinvent the kitchen once more since we are getting a really early start tomorrow.

I hope that you will stay nice and cool tomorrow and I'd love to hear about your day to day doings.

Routine

So I'm doing the NaBloPoMo this month and the theme is Routine. This is fortunate for me as I'm trying to create new routines. When one has small children who grow and change so quickly changing routine frequently is necessary!

Tomorrow I'll regale you with my daily routine and it will have pictures (because pictures make even boring entries seem exciting!)

Until then check out these links to some sites that have tools and information that I enjoy making a part of my daily routine.

Motivated Moms chore lists and more
Gluten Free Cooking School great GF recipes that even the glutinous can enjoy
Balancing Everything a real family that incorporates creativity into their life and uses lots of real life solutions
Moxieclean for those needing someone to kick their butt into getting the house work done

See you tomorrow