no madness to write of

this is strange, a 4 day weekend and we have nothing to do. And by nothing I mean no obligations to outside organizations. Nothing but choosing what to do for ourselves. It's been so long since we've seen a wide open window of time. So, Mike spent some time straightening up the garage and now watching Uof L play for the conference title in Baseball, the kids are all out playing with friends. It's so nice to live on a street full of children. And I've been ADD cleaning. What's ADD cleaning you ask? It's where I start in one room, say my bed room, on a cleaning/organizing project. I strip the bed and take the sheets to the laundry to start washing them. then notice the shelf i've been thinking of setting up in my craft room. So I start to do that, after a bit of mess, I realize it's too big for the space I've chosen. So, I decide to set it up in the laundry room, but that requires moving a picture. Back to the craft room to move pictures and clean up the mess I made trying to put up the shelves. Then into the laundry to set up the shelf in that spot. Now I notice that the dryer is covered in stuff that doesn't belong there and start cleaning that up. Then Mike asks for help outside, so I leave opening a few windows on my way. I start helping him, and notice a jacket that belongs to the neighbor. I take that to her and visit for a moment before returning. Where I decide to get a drink and check email.
Note, my bedroom is still a mess and the washer is now a mess from moving stuff on the dryer. But, I did manage to get my sheets into the wash and they are now ready to be dried.

And that's how I ADD clean and why my husband is a better cleaner than me :).

I did get a phone call from a friend, who foster parents on post, and we will be providing foster respite care for her for 1 week while she vacations with her husband during his R & R. we'll have a baby in the house again. I've already told K who is quite happy with the idea. It should be nice practice to having more kids in the house.

OOH, I do have to share with you all, I made bread this week with my new mixer. I pulled out the recipe a lady had taught me several years ago. My first attempt flopped. I killed the yeast, I think my water was too hot. My second attempt fared much better, however it still didn't work quite right. It was supposed to rise in 25 minutes, instead it took several hours. But, it rose and my family is enjoying it very much. So, I'm going to Whole Foods Monday to get more flour and some different yeast. But, I'll be making our own bread from now on. Eventually, I hope to start grinding our wheat as well, but that will have to wait until next year.

Our garden is taking off, thanks to this cool spring, my lettuce is growing nicely, I haven't harvested any yet, but I probably will tonight for dinner. Our strawberry's are also starting to ripen. We left the plants from last summer and they have just about taken over the planter box. We've put in our salsa garden with jalapenos tomatoes, and onions. We've also put in Cantaloupe, Green Peppers, zucchini, snow peas, green beans, and something else we can't remember. If you want to have a garden and don't have a lot of space or don't want to dig up your yard, I really recommend "Square Foot Gardening" by Mel Bartholomew.

Come visit and I might share a salad, bread and salsa with you :).