Friends

I'm slowly getting together my list of goals for next year. I have a little prep work first before I can finalize everything. This list though will include every conceivable goal, not just what I think I can accomplish. One of the things on the list though will be an expanded garden. We've upped the list of things we want to grown and made a preliminary layout.

Our current list of things to grow:
Tomatoes
Onions
Potatoes
Jalapenos
Oregano
Basil
Parsley
Cilantro
Thyme
Carrots
Celery
Green beans
White beans
Black beans
Cucumbers
Hops
Peas
Red bell peppers
Cayenne peppers
Strawberries
Romain Lettuce
Garlic

We've got a main garden box in the back yard, a smaller rectangular box along the east side of the house, another rectangular one along the south side of the house, and a square one on the north side. The two spreadsheets linked above go to the main box garden and to the box on the east side. The south side has blackberry and blueberry bushes we planted last year, and the north side will just be potatoes. I also plan on building an herb box for somewhere either in the house or right outside one of the windows. I'm not sure where the strawberries will go. They need more sun than I have available in any of the other locations so I'm trying to parse out if I could plant them in a little area we have bricked off in our front yard. I'm still deciding. Same with the garlic, although I'm late planting it. :( I may still be able to squeeze some in this year.

I need to start ordering seeds so I can start them indoors. I would rather not buy seedlings again as they are expensive. I'd like to go through Seed Savers so that I can be sure I'm not giving any money to Monsanto. And it might be fun to get some pretty hybrid tomatoes!

• 17:14 UGH I have Dolly Parton's "Hard Candy Christmas" stuck in my head. GET IT OUT GET IT OUT. #

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• 11:55 Last day of vacation. Off to see the Princess and the Frog with Mike and the girls. #

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Happy Yule and Blessed Solstice to all! We aren't doing our Coven's Yule until Saturday night but we celebrated a bit today (as much as we could with an emergency at the old house....long story). We bought a new Yule tree since we couldn't find the legs to ours, we also got a SHINY purple tree for our room (it's tacky but in a shiny purple way!) and a tiny pink yule tree and miniature ornaments for Miranda's room! Given the other icky crap that happened today, I think that is a nice ending and now we can spend some quality time together putting them up at last!

This was going to be a longer list but the more I thought about it the more it sounded like bragging. I don't mean it to be, so I cut it back a bit.

1. Our relationship with Delora. We picked up the girls early last night because Mike and I had today off. We got there and she just went on about how GLAD she was that we picked them up early because she needed some time to herself and they had not been very nice to her. I hugged her and told her that we didn't mind and to not feel bad, they can be mean to us too. I mean they're KIDS not exactly the most empathetic people in the world. Not that I want them to be mean to her, but it's nice to know they're equally bad for both of us. I'm glad that she is so understanding about us fudging the schedule sometimes. She is nice enough to take them when we need a day free of kids, and we are more than happy to do so for her school, doctor appointments, or just plain whatever. It's like this arrangement is the best of both worlds. We get the kids 1/2 the time. We get to spend time with them, take them places, and we get enough time with them to have a good relationship with them. But we also get time away from them to be adults. We also both get free babysitting which is awesome. Our step-parenting arrangement could NOT be any better than it is currently. And we are all ridiculously thankful for that.

2. Freezer cooking. I am so enamored with freezer cooking that I think I may do an entire month of it next year. I'm currently making leftover minestrone for dinner tonight, and it smells delicious. We'll be having leftover beef bourguignon for dinner tomorrow, and pot pies on Wednesday. I'm not sure how I came to be such a fan of leftovers, but I LOVE them now. Getting soup out of the freezer and just plopping it in my stock pot and then having amazing home made soup 30 minutes later with no effort on my part is just wonderful. And now that I've been doing it awhile I have an entire arsenal of recipes to use so that we will have a large variety when freezer month comes around.

3. Mike. He has been super sweet and wonderful and chivalrous lately. Doing sweet things for me, pumping my gas, giving me surprise kisses, picking up without me asking. I am so thankful that we are together.

• 11:56 I love random acts of chivalry. #
• 15:29 RIP Brittany Murphy. #

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One of my goals for next year is to make at least 50 different breads from my New Complete Book of Breads. I went through this evening and marked all the ones I wanted to make. After discussing it with Mike we both decided not to try any nut breads or breads with candied fruit in them (which pretty much eliminated an entire chapter in the book) because that's not something either of us care for. With that in mind I still have a list of 56 different breads that I want to make next year. That is slightly more than one recipe a week. That seems doable to me.

Here is my list of bread and the page numbers in my book if any of you have it and want to see what I'm talking about. I will try to do a post on each bread and take a picture, and then link to it here, but I make no promises. I highly doubt I'm going to make these in order, but below is the order they came in the book.

( Without bread all is misery. )

Murphy's Law #3339084:  The day of the first snow that sticks, your furnace will die.  Also, it will be on a Saturday night/Sunday morning, so that none of the service technicians in the area will answer their telephones! :D

If it weren't so funny, it'd be tragic.  The boys and I are wrapped up in layers of clothing and I am baking to make the house smell and seem warmer.  Gingerbread, anyone?

• 23:03 At some bar in Cleveland and I'm surrounded by obnoxious jerks. Yay fun! #
• 01:31 Just got done boozing and bowling with Dustin, Erin, Mike, Mike, and Beth. We had a GREAT time! #
• 18:34 Busy busy weekend. Hoping to wind down at Kate and James' tonight. #
• 21:34 Happy 30th birthday James!!! #

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• 17:00 Getting a tour of Great Lakes! #
• 21:22 I definitely ate too much at Great Lakes and I am paying for it now. Uugghhhh. #

Because I can never be away from LJ, these updates are automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

• 19:22 Bagels, and soup, and pie, OH MY! #

Because I can never be away from LJ, these updates are automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

The fabulous pretzelcoatl was my secret santa this year and got me an amazing set of recipe cards from Bon Appetite. Mike and I have already gone through it picking the things we HAVE to make. There are so many to choose from. I was drooling reading them! Izzy also approves!

• 09:46 I have no shame in admitting that I love Kelly Clarkson. #
• 14:39 Today is just not going well. I seem to be having a lot of shipping problems. #

Because I can never be away from LJ, these updates are automatically shipped by LoudTwitter