First Day of School
Aug. 20th, 2007 03:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
liralenIt's been surprisingly untraumatic.
Jet got up in plenty of time to get into his clothes, get some breakfast into him, and then rattle around the house while John and I put his lunch together and ate our breakfast. Then the three of us walked to the bus stop together, and he met up with Tristan. There the boys stood around for a while listening to us talk, but then they ran off to climb a tree.
At least this time Jet waved and said good-bye to me as he got onto the bus. *laughter*
He waved out the window as Tristan made faces, and then they turned to each other to talk and off then went.
On the walk to the bus stop I did say that I was nervous a bit about the whole thing, and Jet said that he was, too. But John talked about why he should be okay with the milk at lunch, and I know I felt that John had missed the whole point, but it was okay.
We'll pick him up after school at the bus stop, too.
It's been a quiet day and I was unambitious. The only thing I wanted to get under my belt was a bit of Okami as Jet's been dominating the game system for the last couple of days. I'm also figuring out how to spin a fine yarn with exactly the wraps per inch I want, rather than just trusting on how it feels when I'm spinning. I was kind of surprised to realize I was bouncing between something like 12 to nearly 20 wpi and having the visual check against a single and a twisted double be "right" still. Yeesh. But there's very little difference in a single two-ply yarn at that level. It's only when I actually wrap it around something and get twelve in a row and go... oh... wow, this is way too thick or way too thin... I'm learning.
It was okay when I was just doing socks for my kids and friends and things and I could compensate. It's different when someone else is going to take the yarn and do something with it and is expecting something. So I'm pretty happy, now. Just a disposable chopstick with some inch marks on it has proven very, very helpful.
Besides the tomatoes, the zucchini are going mad as well. Eighteen at a time. It's pretty amazing for "organic" produce, as I'm only throwing organic fertilizer on and not spraying for anything. The local bug population seems to be pretty happy and they're fine predators. I tried to put out praying mantises in the spring, but we haven't seen any holes in the egg sack or anything, but then maybe they got through something tiny and are out there hunting. The local wasp population seems to be taking care of nearly everything that isn't microscopic. I'm probably getting lady bugs for next spring, just because there's lots of tiny mite things attacking the bottoms of the tomato plants again.
Last night I made a huge lasagna with zucchini, tomatoes, and onions from the garden. I slow cooked the onions and some sweet bell peppers from the store until they were all caramelized. The zucchini I sliced, salted, drained and then roasted so it wouldn't make it all too watery. I actually used slices of fresh tomato along with slices of fresh mozzarella (Costco was selling it in big one pound balls for as little as the dried rubbery stuff at the store) and some ricotta. It was really yummy and went really well with a roast chicken that John did on the grill.
We'll have leftovers for the week, I'm guessing. *grin*
I now have a pile of To Do cards nearly twenty high, between knitting, dyeing, painting, reading and writing, there's a lot to do. I also have a birthday party to go to on Friday. *laughter* I have a social life! Meep! I have someone that needs help making Moo cards that's going to contact me about when she can do it. She's an artist and her only business card doesn't have her email, celphone, or even a picture of the kinds of art she does now. She saw my cards and I thought she should have some, too.
Pastor George asked me to be lay leader next Sunday, so I'll have to prep for that, too. And the people that usually make coffee on Sunday have asked that John and I do it next week, too. So we'll have plenty of reasons to be at church.
John's already doing volunteer work at the school and he has two or three meetings at the church every week already. It's going to be interesting when he's moderator for real rather than just elect. The amusing thing is that three of the four new members who are also moms and are also kind of practical about "the religious stuff" are all thinking of doing the Disciples class with me. It's going to be a blast, especially since one of the moms is thinking about bringing her husband, too, and he's kind of afraid of "church people" for lots of reasons I only know too well. It would probably be quite... uhm... eye opening for him to come to a Bible class with us. *laughter* John thinks it's going to be absolutely great if the guy does it. I have to agree.
Jet got up in plenty of time to get into his clothes, get some breakfast into him, and then rattle around the house while John and I put his lunch together and ate our breakfast. Then the three of us walked to the bus stop together, and he met up with Tristan. There the boys stood around for a while listening to us talk, but then they ran off to climb a tree.
At least this time Jet waved and said good-bye to me as he got onto the bus. *laughter*
He waved out the window as Tristan made faces, and then they turned to each other to talk and off then went.
On the walk to the bus stop I did say that I was nervous a bit about the whole thing, and Jet said that he was, too. But John talked about why he should be okay with the milk at lunch, and I know I felt that John had missed the whole point, but it was okay.
We'll pick him up after school at the bus stop, too.
It's been a quiet day and I was unambitious. The only thing I wanted to get under my belt was a bit of Okami as Jet's been dominating the game system for the last couple of days. I'm also figuring out how to spin a fine yarn with exactly the wraps per inch I want, rather than just trusting on how it feels when I'm spinning. I was kind of surprised to realize I was bouncing between something like 12 to nearly 20 wpi and having the visual check against a single and a twisted double be "right" still. Yeesh. But there's very little difference in a single two-ply yarn at that level. It's only when I actually wrap it around something and get twelve in a row and go... oh... wow, this is way too thick or way too thin... I'm learning.
It was okay when I was just doing socks for my kids and friends and things and I could compensate. It's different when someone else is going to take the yarn and do something with it and is expecting something. So I'm pretty happy, now. Just a disposable chopstick with some inch marks on it has proven very, very helpful.
Besides the tomatoes, the zucchini are going mad as well. Eighteen at a time. It's pretty amazing for "organic" produce, as I'm only throwing organic fertilizer on and not spraying for anything. The local bug population seems to be pretty happy and they're fine predators. I tried to put out praying mantises in the spring, but we haven't seen any holes in the egg sack or anything, but then maybe they got through something tiny and are out there hunting. The local wasp population seems to be taking care of nearly everything that isn't microscopic. I'm probably getting lady bugs for next spring, just because there's lots of tiny mite things attacking the bottoms of the tomato plants again.
Last night I made a huge lasagna with zucchini, tomatoes, and onions from the garden. I slow cooked the onions and some sweet bell peppers from the store until they were all caramelized. The zucchini I sliced, salted, drained and then roasted so it wouldn't make it all too watery. I actually used slices of fresh tomato along with slices of fresh mozzarella (Costco was selling it in big one pound balls for as little as the dried rubbery stuff at the store) and some ricotta. It was really yummy and went really well with a roast chicken that John did on the grill.
We'll have leftovers for the week, I'm guessing. *grin*
I now have a pile of To Do cards nearly twenty high, between knitting, dyeing, painting, reading and writing, there's a lot to do. I also have a birthday party to go to on Friday. *laughter* I have a social life! Meep! I have someone that needs help making Moo cards that's going to contact me about when she can do it. She's an artist and her only business card doesn't have her email, celphone, or even a picture of the kinds of art she does now. She saw my cards and I thought she should have some, too.
Pastor George asked me to be lay leader next Sunday, so I'll have to prep for that, too. And the people that usually make coffee on Sunday have asked that John and I do it next week, too. So we'll have plenty of reasons to be at church.
John's already doing volunteer work at the school and he has two or three meetings at the church every week already. It's going to be interesting when he's moderator for real rather than just elect. The amusing thing is that three of the four new members who are also moms and are also kind of practical about "the religious stuff" are all thinking of doing the Disciples class with me. It's going to be a blast, especially since one of the moms is thinking about bringing her husband, too, and he's kind of afraid of "church people" for lots of reasons I only know too well. It would probably be quite... uhm... eye opening for him to come to a Bible class with us. *laughter* John thinks it's going to be absolutely great if the guy does it. I have to agree.
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-08-20 09:18 pm (UTC)Dumb Non-Cooking-Savvy Question: onions in a slow-cooker, or...? Um?
no subject
Date: 2007-08-20 09:26 pm (UTC)Hmmm... 'em... when I caramelize onions and pepper, I slice the onions with the grain. I take the root and top off, slice it in half, pull the tough outer skins off, and then slice it with the lines on the onion, and it makes sticks instead of half-rings. This is so that the resulting strips will stay together better after.. and no curl to 'em.
I prep the peppers by just cutting each of the sides off and then the bottom off, leaving the stem and seeds and ribs and throwing out the ribs and stem and a bit of the top flesh. The side slabs are easy to just slice into strips as well, then.
I throw it all into the skillet with the other stuff on a medium to medium high heat and turn it only occasionally at first, until there's color on the onions. Then I start to turn it more often to keep it from burning until the whole mass is brown and about half its original size, and it's all good and limp.
It's great on sandwiches, in spaghetti or any baked pasta dish (like my lasagna) with tomatoes, on eggs, with lots of other things afterwards, which is why I make a huge batch when I do and just fridge the rest.
no subject
Date: 2007-08-20 09:38 pm (UTC)*drool*
I usually cook things into submission much faster. (and scramble 'em in with eggs.)
ack, must flee, kid foraging...
no subject
Date: 2007-08-20 09:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-20 09:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-23 04:10 pm (UTC)I keep thinking school starts in September. So to have it be in mid-August seems like it's starting mid-summer. :-)