Planting an Herb Garden
While I’m busy sunning myself on the beach, I’m grabbing this post from my draft folder. I’ve been meaning to do this for weeks, and I finally got my act together last week and put my herb garden together.
I mentioned that I’ve been using a lot more fresh ingredients lately in my attempts to eat healthier and with fewer carbs. Slowly I’ve been collecting potted herbs as I’ve seen them at the grocery store and plopping them in a cereal bowl in my kitchen window sill. Let’s just say that my window sill was getting P-R-E-T-T-Y crowded. That, and I was running out of cereal bowls.
So I finally wised up and purchased a planter. I put the basil, parsley, and oregano together. I have another individual pot for my mint because I hear it likes to take over.
Now my herbs have plenty of room to grow! And my window sill is a lot less cluttered.
Wish I could say the same for my counter top. Ahem.
I’m afraid I’m going to wish I’d planted each of the herbs separately. The long planter on my deck looks kind of sloppy, and the oregano is already falling over. Any ideas? Should I stake it?
I’d also like to add thyme and rosemary to my collection. And perhaps cilantro.
What are your favorite herbs? Do you grow them or shell out the big bucks at the grocery store? If you use only dried herbs, I encourage you to try the fresh variety. It really makes a difference.
There’s No Place Like Home
Especially when you forget to bring sheets to your vacation rental home.
Thanks, Cathy, for decorating my blog. That was a fun surprise when I woke up this morning!
We arrived at the shore yesterday afternoon, had a lovely hour on the beach before the clouds rolled in, and then came back to house for dinner. When we went to prepare our beds for the night, we realized that we (and by we, I mean my husband, of course; it’s always easier to blame someone else for your misfortune) forgot to bring most of our sheets. Fortunately we had sleeping bags for the kids.
We made do until 5AM when I woke up to a moist backside. My 3-year-old had climbed into my bed and wet herself. And me. And the bed that had no protection other than a single flat sheet that I had wrapped around myself so I spent the rest of the night on the floor in my daughter’s sleeping bag. Good times.
In case you didn’t notice, it’s my birthday today. So far it’s a pretty dreary day. We’re hoping it burns off so we can enjoy a day on the beach, but if not I’m sure we will find plenty to do on the boardwalk. And by do, I mean eat.
TTFN.
What I Learned This Week Vol. 21
Besides learning that my DVR is allergic to So You Think You Can Dance results shows (for the second week in a row, it failed to record. ARGH!) and discovering The Next Food Network Star (I’m totally hooked on this show!!), I also learned for the umpteenth time that this blogging thing never ceases to blow my mind.
Yesterday I got a little package in the mail from IRELAND. I haven’t even been to Ireland. In fact, I haven’t been outside of the continental United States except for a cruise to the Bahamas when I was 18. But because of this medium called blogging, I have a friend in Ireland that I’ve never met. How COOL is that!?
Oh, you wanna know what was in the package? Take a peek!
My blogging buddy, JanMary, made this bracelet for me after I helped her with her blog design. Just look at that little purse. Who can take it!? And the colors will go with just about everything in my closet — and my favorite handbag, of course. I wore it last night to a home party, and I got a ton of compliments on it.
So, thanks, JanMary! You’re a doll.
I also learned that my thyroid is out of whack again and that I’m slightly anemic. That explains A LOT, my friends. At least, I hope it does. I’m already on a higher dose of Synthroid, and I’m hoping that helps me feel better.
And with that, we’re off to the beach for a few days. I can’t WAIT to squish my toes into that sand.
Now I want to know what YOU learned this week! Here are the carnival rules.
1. Any time this week, publish your What I Learned This Week post on your blog. (It can be one sentence. It can be several paragraphs. It can be a list. It can be an essay. It can be serious. It can be silly. It can be thoughtful and profound. It can be sarcastic. It can be sentimental. It can be ANYTHING that you learned as long as it is of a family friendly nature.)
2. Within that post, please mention the What I Learned This Week carnival and link to this post.
3. Then link up with the Mr. Linky form down below. (Please only link if you have written a What I Learned This Week post. And please link directly to the carnival post, not the main page of your blog. And finally, please do not put a Mr. Linky on your post. THANKS!)
4. Go forth and comment! Visit the other participants and see what they learned this week. I’ll be at the beach, so I may not be able to make the rounds, but I hope you’ll enjoy learning from one another (or laughing at one another, as the case may be.)
Alrightythen. Ready, Set, GO!
She Speaks Roll Call
I can’t believe She Speaks is just one month away! Ever since Lysa Terkeurst asked me to speak on the topic of giveaways and working with companies, I have alternated between being exhilarated and terrified. I am SO not a speaker. However, I could talk about blogging until my voice withers away to nothing, so I think I’m gonna be alright. Although if you ask me again on July 31, I can’t promise I won’t be freaking. my. mind.
I’ve already completed my outline and turned it in, and I’ve been trying to flesh out my talk, writing everything out in my own voice almost as if it were a blog post. Now I just need to start practicing. UGH.
I know I’ve asked this before, but if you have any questions you would like answered on that topic, or suggestions for things to cover, I’m all ears. There will be plenty of time for Q&A, I’m sure. I can’t imagine that I’ll be able to fill AN HOUR all by myself.
So I’m wondering. WHO’S GONNA BE THERE? If you’re coming, leave a comment, pretty please. I would love to visit your blog and get to know you a little bit (if I don’t know you already.) And if you Twitter, be sure to leave your Twitter ID so I can follow you.
I’m so excited! SQUEE!!!!
Fashion Question of the Week (and other assorted commentary on my life)
It’s Monday. Sigh… I don’t know why I’m always caught by surprise. Mondays come along every week. But they never get any easier.
I’m feeling pretty beat up today. I pulled an ab muscle doing the Shred on Saturday (no thanks to those dang walkout push ups!) and I wasn’t able to complete the ab portions of the video. I also have a bit of a stiff neck — not sure if it’s from straining my neck during my workout or from sleeping funny. At any rate, yesterday morning I decided to take a break from the Shred, and instead I took a walk outside with some running sprinkled in there to add some intensity to the workout. Thanks to Jillian, I am now hooked on high-intensity workouts, which I suspect has more to do with my addiction to instant gratification than it does with ambition and the thrill of pushing myself to the brink of death.
Today I’m feeling the effects of the run/walk I did yesterday, on top of the stiff neck and pulled ab muscle, so I think I’ll forgo my morning exercise in lieu of a kid-free trip to the grocery store. It’s amazing how refreshing the grocery store can be at 7:00 in the morning.
But first, a fashion question.
Sarah says: Tank tops seem to be the in-thing, but what do you wear when you feel your arms look flabby and unflattering in them. (And I don’t want to hear – work out more.)
I say: I think this is an issue of personal preference and your own comfort level. I do love tank tops, but I didn’t wear them for years because I was self-conscious about, um, a different area of my anatomy. Finally I decided to start wearing them, but I select them carefully.
I’m all about camouflaging the problem areas. For me, it’s my midsection. I hate it. And low-rise jeans don’t help one iota, that’s for sure. I realize that no one is paying attention to my midsection as much as I am (or probably at all) but when I’m feeling particularly self-conscious about it, I will layer a denim jacket or light cardigan or sweater wrap over top — ideally something with structure.
All that to say, you’re probably more aware of your arms than anyone else is, but if you’re uncomfortable baring them completely, then perhaps try layering a light-weight, see-through type of blouse over the top to give your arms some coverage while still allowing a glimpse of the tank top underneath.
But at the end of the day, wear what you like and what you want to wear. Don’t feel you have to wear tank tops because they’re the in-thing. But if you like them, and you feel comfortable in them, then go for it. I really think it comes down to how YOU feel in them.
What do YOU say? If you’re self-conscious about your arms, what do you do have to say about the tank top question? Do you throw caution to the wind and wear them anyway? Do you wear them but only as a layering piece? Or do you avoid them completely? Inquiring minds wanna know.
Tiger Woods, we are not.
This afternoon I found myself home alone with the kids once again — not like I don’t do this all week or anything. To save my sanity, I decided to get out of the house and do something fun. I considered the pool, but the story in the local newspaper last night of an almost-drowning incident at our YMCA sort of soured me on the whole idea.
Then in a moment of insanity I asked if the kids if they wanted to go mini-golfing. Well, they jumped all over that.
I wasn’t sure how it would go. My son has been before and knows the rules. What’s more, he LIKES rules. He doesn’t exactly appreciate the bending of the rules. Note the look of intense concentration.
My 6-year-old, on the other hand, has only been mini-golfing once. It was at a friend’s birthday party, and they weren’t exactly following the rule book.
And my 3-year-old had no idea what golfing even was until her brother gave her a quick lesson.
She rapidly hit her frustration point.
She decided to just follow along while the rest of us played. She particularly liked the shady tunnel.
My 6-year-old was enamored with her pink ball and pink club.
It actually went quite well. Nevermind that we spent more time fishing our balls out of the water than actually golfing. There was a father-son duo in front of us who got quite a kick out of our little troop.
I even decided to join in the fun. The Line of the Day goes to my son, who proclaimed when I got a hole in two, “That’s pretty good for a mom!”
Thanks for the vote of confidence, dear.
He took his game quite seriously, but amazingly had a great deal of patience for his flighty sisters.
About halfway through the game, my 3-year-old decided to give it another chance. She wound up doing pretty well.
Of course we rounded out the game with ice cream for all.
We won’t be winning any titles any time soon, but a good time was had by all.
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- Musings of a Housewife is the personal blog of one mom attempting to juggle three kids, four blogs, a blog design business, and the laundry.
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