Running (on Fumes)

Oh to have the energy.

My first week as a freelancer/stay-at-home mom/housewife/lazybones/artist and I'm sick as a dog. So much for much in the creating, cooking, and fun department. Shh, don't anyone, but the girls watched a lot of TV this week. And ate graham crackers for breakfast. In my defense, they were homemade.

Somewhere in there I did manage to finish my little quilt top. I had grand plans to make this bigger so it was at least a good nap size for an adult. But to do so would have necessitated buying more fabric and I already have that habit down pat. I didn't want to buy anything more for this quilt; I even used stash for the backing.

So it ended up at 48 inches on all sides. I really do prefer to make larger quilts, but I'm fine with it. This was one of those quilts that just had to be made. I'll tell you why another day.

Now to find the time and space to baste it because I already know how I'm going to quilt it. But for now, it must be added to the pile of UFOs. At least it is a pretty pile.

Dirt in my Freezer

It might be the Ukrainian in me, but I am incapable of throwing away good food. And I feel inordinate guilt if I forget about leftovers or a head of lettuce in the fridge. That would also be the Ukrainian in me.

With a really good haul from our CSA this year I've been forced to face these issues head on. It's one thing to throw away grocery store produce that you paid pennies for and was grown and picked by a random stranger in Mexico. It's another thing entirely when you get the lettuce in your hands was placed there by a man with permanent dirt under his fingernails.  The same dirt that still graces your carrots, your onions, your greens.

* Aside - As I read that last paragraph it occurs to me that is just as bad to throw away the grocery store lettuce because there is still a person there with dirt under his fingernails. *

Our farmers, Jon and Andrea are such committed people. We light up when we see them at the market, where we pick up our weekly haul. The girls go running and asking after the horses and roosters, all while ripping greens with their teeth. We shoot the shit about the weather and yuppies and our egg man. And food passes hands.

Then we come home and I am forced to deal all that food. On a day when I'm just so damn tired I really don't feel like finding room in the fridge, grating zucchini, or freezing chard I sometimes leave the bag on the counter for hours, even a day. Then I remember the dirt. The dirt I'm invested in.  The dirt our farmers are invested in.  The dirt this food was grown in. So I sharpen my knives and set too. Far better to have trimmings in the compost pile than real food.

We clean, we store, we cook, we freeze, we eat. And so we will eat for another week, thanks to the phenomenally hard work of Jon, Andrea, their family, and their WOOFers. And in January, I will make another loaf of this zucchini bread, some swiss chard fricos, or a bowl of gingered carrot soup and be thankful for that dirt.

But now? Now I need to head back in the kitchen and make some beet leaf cabbage rolls.

More Catch-up

Managed to get a little naptime sewing in.  Actually, I think it might have been Friday night sewing while Hubby watched Inside MMA. (Side note - I can't wait until I have my own sewing space!)

So I cranked out some bee blocks, a quilt top (to come later this week), and a binding. And no major mistakes at that hour!

This is Jess' block for our Mid Mod Bee.  It seems simple, and I really, really wanted to do a funkier block.  But if you look at her inspiration sketch she has a number of blocks like this. I was worried that she wouldn't get any of the simple ones because the others are too fun to make. Hopefully I'm not the only one who thought this way.

This one is a Valentine's themed block for Samantha of our Pieced Together 2 bee. I could have done hearts, but it seemed boring.  Or maybe I needed a challenge after the previous block? I chose some pieced letters a la The Unruly Quilter. And this was loads of fun to do. I see more letters in my future...

Backseat Adventure - Columbia Icefields

It was a day trip turned into overnight. It was a long weekend turned into a very, very long weekend. But the girls are in bed and I can pore over my photos of our trip to the Columbia Icefield.

Can you believe that as a lifelong Alberta girl I've never actually been to the Icefields? Only one drive by as an adult, in the middle of winter, where we were mostly concerned with merely safely arriving at our destination. So when Hubby suggested a road trip I couldn't really say no, could I?

Poor planning on our part led to a frantic search for mittens and boots, a stop at the mall, and not enough snacks. But we grabbed the last Ice Explorer monster bus and got our canned tourist experience. And it was so worth it! The mechanical geek in Hubby was quite enthralled with the monster bus, as was the Monster. (Guess what her new career aspirations are?) And all of us were blown away by the expanse of the glacier. 

All I could think was, "Holy Crap! I'm standing on a glacier!" And it makes me want to reread Icefields by Thomas Wharton. We had the pre-packaged experience, I know, but it was still awesome. And despite my, I'm struggling to describe it any other way.

While I don't think the girls could grasp the immensity of what was in front of us, they could grab the ice, lick it, and ask why the mountains were so big. Soon enough we'll have them hiking and maybe even backcountry skiing to grow up as good mountain girls.

Sunday dinner was at 9:00 pm. After a day of road tripping and exploring we landed in Banff. it was late, we should have grabbed something easy and put the girls to bed.  We should have done that.

Instead, we ventured out to Maple Leaf Grille and Lounge. After a day of nothing but mediocre snacks Hubby and I decided we wanted a good meal. While I'm not sure the late night with the girls was worth it (it was close to midnight when they finally fell asleep), the food was pretty damn good.

But the best thing we ingested all day was the water, running in a stream, over a thousand feet of ice.