Getting Hold of Contentment

Sometimes it's not easy.  But for me, if I ignore myself for a little while and keep living my life instead of sulking on the sofa, things improve.  How nice to be old enough not to get lost in a wallow!  I mean, there are problems in my life, but this is just a bad mood, friends.  So here is a collection of contentment for Leila and Rosie's Thursday tradition.

Pretty:  a little birdhouse Genevieve painted at a birthday party.  Her daddy hung it up for her as soon as it was dry.  I love this spot of whimsy and I often glance at it while I deal with the laundry.

Happy as they wait for the Fourth of July parade to start.  It was fun to be with friends in the beloved neighborhood where I grew up.

My boy gives me flowers wherever we go, wherever he finds them. 

Funny photos I'm taking these days.  I'm learning to use the manual setting on my camera, thanks to my friend S who loaned me her little book.  I printed out my camera manual which didn't help a lot.  I got several books from the library which helped a little, but finally, finally, I think I'm cracking the code of aperture and shutter speed.

These could be artsy photos, except that's not the look I was aiming for.

Finally, the real part of my contentment is this blueberry pie.  It was not as good as I thought it would be, but that didn't detract from sharing it with dear friends.  I had some Cool Whip in the freezer (I know, I know) and it did taste of chemicals.  I used this recipe, substituting some pineapple juice for part of the water.

The Nasturtiums Bloomed

They're a scraggly lot and they've suffered in the dry heat oven, but they finally bloomed.

I planted these for extra-special salads, and I meant to garnish our salade necois with it on Sunday. . .

but the children were so excited that I told them to go ahead and eat a blossom.

Ben was not impressed.  Genevieve liked them a lot. 

Oddly, I cannot get these dang things to climb, so they sort of sprawl.  Next year I'm going to get bush variety and I'm going to plant them a lot closer together.  There will be big salads and lavish garnishing!

Another Great Granola

I thought I had found my one and only granola, but no, here's another one we love.  It's modified from a recipe I found in Fix-it and Forget-it Vegetarian.

Granola

5 c. rolled oats
3 c. whole wheat flour
3/4 c. brown sugar
1 c. sunflower seeds, preferably raw, unsalted
1/2 c. wheat germ
1/2 c. shredded coconut
1/2 c. chopped nuts
generous pinch salt
scant 1 c. oil
1/2 c. water

Mix everything together well in a big bowl.  Spread into two 9x13 baking pans.  Bake at 300 for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes.  Allow to cool undisturbed.  Store at room temperature in airtight container.

We are eating our granola with exquisite little apricots right now.

Unfortunately, there aren't many days when I want to turn my oven on this summer.  I followed an idea on Pinterest for making granola in my slow cooker.  It worked very well!  I mixed up a half batch of my first-love granola.  I put it in my slow cooker outside, lid on, on high.  I stirred every 20 minutes.  Then when condensation appeared on the underside of the lid, I cocked the lid and kept stirring with the cooker on high.  It was done in maybe 2 hours.  The finished granola is crunchier and drier than my original recipe, maybe because of the longer exposure to heat, even moist heat. 

Tried Recipes + Reviews

I have a Pinterest board called "Tried Recipes + Reviews."  I am making Pinterest useful in my life, not just another waste of time online when I myself could be making something, could be engaged in my life.  It is so easy to just float along admiring other people's projects! Or getting jealous and feeling inferior, which is corrosive.

So.  I look through the recipes I have pinned occasionally, and one or two usually pique my interest and I try them.  Some of the experiments don't end up here on the blog because I didn't take a photo or the photo is bad (that didn't stop me in the early days of this blog!).

Have you tried some new recipes recently?

Another Patch on the Sleep Shorts

I caught my shorts again on the same cabinet pull.  But it was fun to find another scrap of the sherbet pillowcase and put on another patch.  It's not just crafting and decorating for pretty's sake, it's functional. 

the underside of the patches

In other news, we have shut all the windows and put in 2 window air conditioners.  The heat was just too much - when it comes down to it, family life comes before environmental concerns.  I justified the air conditioners for the stretches of 90-degree days that do not cool off at night (81 this morning at 5:30 am), not for the whole summer.  We have the air conditioners set at 83 degrees.  Rebecca said maybe the new normal is huddling inside in the scorching summer and emerging for outside activity in the mild winter.  My energy and mood are improving already.

High Summer Supper

Sweet corn, on the grill.  It's tasty, but the direct roasting like that does make the kernels chewy.  I like that heartiness, but it's a surprise after boiled corn.

This is basically how our butter will look the rest of corn season.

Umami burgers in homemade buns.  My husband said it was the best burger he'd ever had; I wasn't willing to go that far.

Photo credit to Mr. Thrift who said I would be happy he took this photo.  I then felt inspired to take photos of the rest of the meal.  Even though I was hot.  Thank you, honey.

Cherries for dessert.

But the cherries are done now.  I got the first peaches and apricots at market this week, and they have been perfuming the dining room as they ripen in the big wooden bowl.  They're so luscious that Ben wanted to have a second apricot today instead of more pesto and pasta.  Ah, summer.  But it's so fraggin' hot.

The Hilarious Game of Exhaust Ball (with video!)

Margo:  So you saw this game at the baseball stadium when you took the kids on Saturday? [Thanks to our neighbor John for the free tickets]

Mr. Thrift: Yeah, but they made us wait in line for 10 minutes only to tell us that we needed a wristband to play the games.  And Ben cried.  So we took our balls and went home.  Well, we didn't actually have balls there.

Margo:  You have balls now.  Tell me what you did today while I was at my job.

Mr. Thrift:  I bought 6 solid plastic training balls, not whiffle balls.  I tried using that old fan from an air hockey table, but the air wasn't strong enough.  Then I hooked my shop-vac hose up to the exhaust hole and wedged the hose between 2 rocks.

Margo:  And?  And?

Mr. Thrift:  You see the results!  It's tee-ball without the tee!

Margo:  Wow, it's fun!