The end...

Well, February challengers, the end is finally here and we all survived. Plus we posted some pretty cool stuff. Thank you so much for going along with me. You made this cold, dark month much brighter.

Our last reward goes to the person with the most posts this month. Several of us had 29 posts, Debbie was second runner up with 31 posts, Taylor had 33. She also happens to be the only person in our group who posted every day in February. What you probably don't know is that she started blogging on February 1st... after following her mother around for hours and begging for a blog. Love of chocolate is a powerful thing.. but week after week went by and Taylor didn't win any chocolate and she still kept blogging. I think it just comes naturally to a girl who has been keeping a journal since she learned to write. The prize is a box of delicious Stephany's Truffles and a fun book of writing prompts. Taylor, I hope that you will continue to post to your blog. I really enjoy reading it.




I'm getting ready to mail out the last of our February treats... Candy bars for everyone who posted about where they grew up last week. February blogging bookmarks for everyone who participated in the challenge. And more candy bars... for anyone who didn't win anything, because I never feel good about leaving anyone out. I have addresses for almost everyone. Heidi and MS Teacher, if you want chocolate please email me at ginaagain@aol.com.

Lastly, I want to thank you all. This has been a lot of fun for me.

gina

Blogging

I've been doing some thinking about the blog lately and trying to decide what exactly I want to accomplish with it. I didn't really have a goal in mind when I started writing this.. other than to write something every day. I figured if I told a few friends I might feel as though I had to write for them every day. Leeann can testify that it didn't work! But she refused to give up on me and continued to ask every few weeks if I was going to be updating any time soon. You are a great friend Leeann, and a very patient woman.

Anyway, in September I made a commitment to give myself six months to work on nothing but writing. It was a serious commitment.. at least I thought it was.. and the first thing I did to prove that was to start posting to the blog. I intended to use it as something of a warm up and an organization tool to keep me on track with menu planning and time management. Well, of course, plans change and instead of six months I got six weeks. A staffing emergency led my husband to ask me to come work in his office part time for a few weeks. A few weeks turned into a few months, part time turned into full time, and I've written very little other than the blog. Next week marks the end of my six months.

Six months isn't very long at all.

For those of us who have been married for a long time...

This is awful and hilarious at the same time... and it's mild compared to the other commercial at the "shave everything" website.



Second Puberty

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Update... my son just informed me that the makers of this video are probably going to hell.

Frustration...

Despite being a generally grumpy pessimist I am stubbornly optimistic about what I can accomplish in a day. Probably a bit too optimistic, if truth be told, and everyday I am disappointed by my lack of progress. This is a problem. Especially in the evening when I'm desperately trying to get something written while my family is trying to live their lives.

Something needs to change.

February Challenge - Final week update

First of all, I want to thank everyone who wrote about their homes or where they grew up last week. I loved reading all of your stories. I think it's interesting that all of you wrote about where you grew up rather than about where you live now. Is that because you are worried about security issues or simply because childhood memories are just more fun to write about?

Leeann, your years in Milan sound like heaven. Thank you for the photos so that we could "see" your memories too!
Nicole, your post was every kids dream of a perfect summer! What wonderful memories you have.
Debbie, someday I would love to hear how a girl from small town Colorado moved to Nagasaki. Your description made me a little homesick for my own small towns (I lived in a few just like that).
Taylor, hopefully your memories of cow poop mountains will grow sweeter with time!
Nancy, Washington DC in the fifties and sixties must have been just fascinating. It's amazing that it was safe enough for you and your sister to go sightseeing on your own.

I've thought a lot about our prize for this week and I've decided that instead of one prize I'm giving everyone who wrote about their homes a treat from my area. So, Nicole and Debbie please email your addresses to ginaagain@aol.com (Leeann, Taylor, and Nancy, I know yours already)and I will send you a bar of Dilettante Chocolate. It's made in the beautiful city of Seattle, about sixty miles north of here, and it is delicious.

This is our last week of this challenge and you have all done so well. It's been wonderful to read all of your posts. Our final prize will be awarded to the person who has the most posts for the entire month but I am working on something I want to send to everyone who has participated in the challenge. So, Heidi, Debi, and MS Teacher, could you please email your addresses to ginaagain@aol.com?

And lastly... I have a confession to make to all of you who have already won prizes. I just mailed them today! I'm sorry, I really did mean to get them in the mail sooner but I kept forgetting to put them in the car on my way to work, or running out of time, or just being really lazy. But, the US postal service does indeed now have possession of them. So, Leeann and Nancy, you can expect your packages to arrive in two to three days. Karen, yours will take six to ten days.

Have a good week ladies and keep writing!

February Challenge - Final Week!

Ok ladies... I've been shirking my responsibilities and letting this challenge drift off course. Sorry about that. I have to leave for work right now but I will be back later to post our weekly winners and talk about the coming week.

Don't let my bad example discourage you from writing!

Where I live...

Photo by the Unibonger

Eighteen months ago we moved to Olympia Washington. It's a very odd city. Home to one of the most liberal, liberal arts colleges in the US and home to a huge military population who work at the largest army base in the US. In the last year and a half I have seen hemp festivals and military appreciation parades, peace protests and my neighbors coming home from war. The most surprising thing about Olympia is that, despite it's astounding contradictions, it is the friendliest place I have ever lived. People are genuinely nice here. I'm still getting to know the area but I am happy to call this home.

100 posts...

and I totally missed it! This is number 102. For some reason this is typical of my life. Milestones and landmark events are overlooked, anniversaries and birthdays forgotten. Why is this? I have no idea. It's not that I'm a heartless creep who doesn't care. I'm just completely lame.

Thank you for sticking with me through 100 silly, sad, lame and pointless posts. I truly appreciate each and every one of you!

gina

You just have to read it...

It is very rare to find a man who is capable and willing to express his deepest emotions about his wife and children. Even rarer... a glimpse of that man on the night his son is born. I can't begin to express how much this post by Jim at Sweet Juniper touched me. It is truly a gift.

Final Product

It's off to the Science Fair today. Good luck Delaney!

Science Project Rules

1. Never allow any experiment involving animals or spores!
   
2. Remind your child to keep good records. Discourage any attempt to make up data... until the day before when your child suddenly remembers that a chart/table/graph is required.
   
3. Plan how long you are able to spend helping your child with their science project. Add 72 hours to your estimate.

Menu Plan Monday

Honestly, I don't feel like planning at all this week! But I've got to do it so here goes...

• Monday - Hey.. Monday is done! Yippee! (and I'm not telling you what we ate because it was shameful. Truly shameful.


• Tuesday - Spicy Roasted Chicken with Avocado, Rice, Romaine Salad .


• Wednesday - Lasagne, Salad, Focaccia.


• Thursday - Steak Quesadillas, Black Bean, Pepper, and Corn Relish.


• Friday - Dinner and a movie!


• Saturday - Two birthday parties and a major formal dance for my high schooler. We will be having something very easy.. probably Soup and Panini..


• Sunday - Bob cooks something delicious.

Focaccia

pinch of sugar
2 3/4 cup warm water
2 teaspoons of active dry yeast
2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil - this is a an occassion to use really good olive oil. It will make a huge difference.
6 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon course sea salt


Sprinkle yeast into 1/4 cup of water and let stand about ten minutes.

Stir in remaining water and olive oil. Add flour one cup at a time.
Dough will be soft. Add salt.


Knead dough until smooth and springy, about ten minutes by hand or five minutes with an electric mixer and dough hook. (I'll admit it.. although I love to knead bread I almost always use the mixer now. I think hand kneading makes better bread but the mixer is just so easy.)

Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl and cover with plasic wrap. Let rise at room temperature for about one and a half hours. After the dough has doubled in volume spread it into an oiled baking sheet. Cover and let rise thirty minutes. Uncover and gently poke the loaf every four inches, cover again and let rise another hour. Heat oven to 425. Brush the loaf with olive oil, allowing indentations to fill with oil, and sprinkle with more salt. If you like you can also sprinkle with fresh rosemary or basil.


Bake 25 to 30 minutes until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack. Slice and serve warm.

Check out Orgjunkie.com for more Menu Plan Monday menus!

Another week down..

Three weeks into the month and you are all doing so well! I'm really enjoying reading everyone's posts. The box of Hershey's goodies goes to Nancy at A Step at a Time. Congratulations Nancy! Please email your address to ginaagain@aol.com and I will send the box out right away.

This week I want to do something a little different. I would like to encourage you to share more about where you are from... where you are living now or, if that really doesn't excite you, then perhaps something about where you grew up. We are a diverse group from all over the world and I think this will be a fascinating assignment.

The prize this week is a few wonderful things from Batdorf & Bronson a coffee roasting company based here in Olympia, Washington. I'll be writing more about them later in the week after I tour their roasting facilities!

Now there are a few catches.. first, I don't think that a random drawing will be a good way to choose a winner for this one, and second, I don't want to "judge" your work. So, on Friday I will post a poll and I'm going to ask you all to read everyone's work and vote for a winner. In order to be in the poll you have to have your "Home" post done by Friday, ok? Does this make sense or am I making it too difficult?

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I'm still thinking about the voting issue. I've never used a blogger poll so I want to give it a test... by giving you all a chance to decide whether or not we should vote for the best post this week. Could you please take a minute to vote so I can see if the poll feature is working. Thanks! gina

Wire, Bread, and Wine

If you spend the entire day building a wall.. and I do mean WALL of these things...

and you even find time to make a delicious olive oil enhanced foccacia...

then it's ok to spend the evening drinking a bottle of this...

Especially if tomorrow is a holiday.

Happy Sunday everyone.

I've fallen...

... and I can't get up!

This is what it's come to. My creativity has sunk so low that all I can think to do is quote crappy commericals from the 80's.
Hopefully someone is sending help immediately.

Warning

I think my car doesn't love me anymore. Yesterday it started flashing a "low coolant light at me". So, I procured coolant and topped it off. Then I came out this morning, already running late for work, and my right front tire was low. So, I filled it. I drove for a mile and the "change engine oil" light came on.. even though it's not due for an oil change until March. A half an hour later the "check engine oil level" light started alternating with the "change engine oil" light. Flash, flash, flash... darn the darn lights!

It's just been that kind of week.

Happy Valentine's Day. I hope everyone had a lovely, warning light free day.

Sometimes it's better to just not say anything...

Week Three

Hurray! We made it through our first full week of February and everyone is doing so well. You should all be proud of yourselves! I wish I could give a prize to each and every one of you but today our winner is Karen Meg at A Day In The Life! Congratulations Karen. I hope you get a lot of inspiration from The Pocket Muse. Please email your address to ginaagain@aol.com and I will get it in the mail tomorrow.

Our prize for the coming week is a Hershey's gift box filled with yummy chocolate treats, a really cool silicone pan that makes brownies look like chocolate bars and a t-shirt.


Write on Bloggers!

Sunday Night

I had big plans for the weekend but I think I only accomplished a third of what I wanted to do. I really don't want to go to work tomorrow. I want to stay home and putter around my house, cleaning and putting things in order. Funny, six months ago I used to grouse about having to clean the house, now I just wish I had time. This is one of the things that working again has taught me. I've learned that I didn't appreciate what I had and now I want it back. I want to move all of my furniture out onto the back patio and scrub floors. I want to organize the garage. I want to make 17 trips to Goodwill and get rid of all the crud that's clogging up my life. Oh.. and sometime during the day I want to find a couple of minutes to write.


I think it's time to reevaluate my priorities.



In the meantime I guess I'll just analyze my menu choices for the week.

• Monday - Beef Stew
• Tuesday - Chicken Scallopini with Pasta and Asparagus
• Wednesday - Chili Verde, Beans, Tortillas, and Salad
• Thursday - Chicken Mei Fun
• Friday - Soup and Paninis
• Saturday - Bob Cooks
• Sunday - Who knows, maybe we'll just have ice cream...

It's just a number

Delaney and her friend were having a conversation about birthdays this afternoon. My dear nine year old said "My mom turned 43 on her birthday!" and her delightful friend said "Oh! My Grandma turned 46 on her last birthday!"

For some reason they both thought this little coincidence was very funny.

Rotten whipper-snappers.