Woke up to big booming thunder and lots of bright lightening. Not how I wanted to start my day. Charlie was a little scared and so he crawled under the covers and snuggled up. Ask me later how much I like taking a dog for a walk in the backyard to do his business while it's storming.

The day usually gets better once the coffee is ready.

This past weekend went by way too fast for me. I guess it always does really. Spent some time with family and friends and each other, did a little housework, a lot of painting (ok my hubby did most of it)- and then it's done. The weekend is done. Just like that.

And now for a little music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkEfn2LEEMs
Happy Tuesday.

Simplicity

Lately my husband and I have been talking about living more intentionally and simply. What does this mean exactly? Well we're trying to figure that out. We sometimes use the term "Back to Basics" and if said around other people, I think it makes them nervous.
When we moved into this house 6 months ago my husband (Teddy) built us 5 raised garden beds. We ordered our heirloom seeds from Baker Creek in Mansfield, MO and started them near a sunny window in our kitchen. We planted potatoes, tomatoes, zucchini, yellow squash, onions, lettuce, pumpkins and 2 types of watermelons. The seeds including shipping were around $30. Plus the dirt and time and nurture. In the last two weeks we have already picked a bucketful of produce from our very own garden. I can't even begin to tell you how satisfying that is. A few evenings we have had an entire meal from the garden and pork that we had raised. Once in awhile we are lucky enough to get local organic eggs too. My husband REALLY wants us to have our own chickens, but I'm not sure I'm quite ready for that yet.
Some other changes we have made are chosing not to have cable/sattelite. We only do netflix and have Internet. When we tell people this, they instantly get a puzzled look on their faces as if they can't possibly imagine not having "TV". My parents and grandparents just can't imagine how me manage without watching the news. We somehow make it just fine! We find more time to read or journal, work in the garden or our house and the many projects. Somedays I really want to veg in front of the tv and watch trashy shows on Bravo( I love the Real Housewives!), but in the end I'm better off without it. Really.
I don't think we will make it to the point of making our clothes or being able to produce all our own food, but we have  made our own butter before, and various jams and we definitely love the art of bread baking. Does anything make your kitchen smell better than bread baking??

Today Is The Day!

Hello! I'm finally here after much waiting and anticipation my blog is up and running! Ok, really the only person that has been waiting is me and wonderful hubby Teddy.
So when a person starts blogging, what do they really say? I feel like I go thru everyday thinking of ideas or topics and thoughts go by like "OH! That would be something to blog about!"

But alas, I am here to talk to you about two things tonight:
1. The cuteness of my dog Charlie and 2. My dishwasher and how much I dislike it.

1.So the subject of Charlie and his cuteness..... There are many things to discuss such as how when he is ready for bed he starts to get restless and carry his bear, whom we call Mr. Bear, towards his bed or how he only likes to eat his dog food if there is a hearty splash of milk on it. But I was thinking of telling you how this dog likes to jump like Michael Jordan, into the air to catch lightning bugs mid flight. He chomps on them, sometimes gags on them, but mostly spits them out. I can only imagine that once the bug is flying frantically around his mouth he is thinking EEW! Why did I do that? But then, just a nano second later he is jumping into the air again.

2. My dishwasher is horrible. Plain and simple. If my dishes are not clean before I put them in there, they have no chance of making it out half way decent. Really. And sometimes, even if I HAVE washed them, they still manage to come out, well....gross, for lack of a better term. If you are reading this and you have eaten dinner with us, please know that I take great pride in making sure the dishes are 98% clean for you to enjoy a meal on :)
If the previously stated issue was not enough to be upsetting, we recently have a kitchen drain on the fritz. One side is clogged and gurgling and so now the other side of the sink is doing the same. Sympathy pains maybe? A few months back we stopped at an organic grocery store in a neighboring town called the Truck Patch. That's the name of the store, not the town. They have a product called Earth Worm drain cleaner. And for some reason my husband was possessed to pay $11 for said product. One thing I will say, it smells really good. Which in my book is reason enough to buy just about anything. Good job hubby! This product is meant to be poured down your drain a few ounces at a time and then left overnight. In the morning when I turned the faucet on, it gurgled, shot up water 4 inches high and then did nothing out of the ordinary. Good or bad? I'm still pondering.

Hopefully in the future this blog will have all sorts of things going for it. Crafy items to sell, pictures, recipes and much more.
Thanks for reading! If you have any ideas on how to fix a clogged sink drain I would greatly appreciate it!