Fathers' Day + Mechanical Yard Monster

Hope everyone is having a great Fathers' Day. We ate grilled shrimp with pesto for dinner. Later, Baby Monkey combined an old bicycle and reel mower into a yard monster.

And we thought it would get less interesting as the Monkeys got older.

Happy Fathers' Day everyone.

Brown Rice Pilaf

To go along with The Walk to the Moon journey I am on with Anna, I need to make some food changes. We already eat pretty well. The only person in this household who is overweight is me. The boys are thin and Manly is, well, manly. The boys eat tons of fruits and veggies. They always have. I eat my veggies, but not nearly enough. My food goal is to eat all five of those fruit and vegetable servings every day.

Tonight we had shish kebobs for dinner. The skewers were loaded with chicken, bell peppers, grape tomatoes and onions. I grew every one of those vegetables in our garden. These were served over a brown rice pilaf that was very good. Now, I will be benevolent and share;)

Brown Rice Pilaf

2 cups cooked brown rice
1 small carrot finely chopped
1 green onion finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon sesame oil
A couple of shakes of soy sauce

Saute the vegetables in the oil. Add in the rice and stir for a few minutes. Add the soy sauce at the end. Go light on the soy sauce or it will be too salty.

Anyway, that was dinner. Have a great weekend.

35 minutes on the elyptical machine + crunches and planks. My belly muscles are shot:P

Ugliness

I have a confession. I've got a lot of ugly plants living on our deck. For some reason if a plant is alive I just don't want to get rid of it. Therefore, I have two year old leggy Snap Dragons that look like HE double hockey sticks. This afternoon, on my way home, I am going to stop at our local nursery and pick up some pretty plants and banish the ugliness to the compost pile. Nothing is supposed to live forever and my deck should not be the retirement home for ancient plants.

Walk To The Moon

Last night, on Facebook.... Anytime you read those words it might be something really, insanely silly. This time, however, it is something really, insanely awesome. Our own Anna Flower Garden Girl mentioned that she had some weight to take off. I commented that I too have some weight that needs to be banished. She said something about walking to the moon, so I went out and found a website that is encouraging people to do just that, walk more that 477,000,000 steps as a group. I joined right up for the Purdue Walk to the Moon group. So Anna and I are going to do this thing and hold each other to it.

See y'all on the skinnier side

This is What Poor Impulse control and an Internet Connection Will Get You

The First Ripe Tomato of 2010

I was out counting my tomato plants' fruits and discovered this jewel. It is my first large tomato of the season. It is likely an Early Girl, although I won't ever know for sure because, once again, I didn't label anything.

I brought it into the kitchen and gave it a quick rinse. Then I cut it up, sprinkled a little sea salt on it and yummmmm. I took a long time savoring that tomato lingering over every bite. After a winter and spring of nothing but those anemic store bought tomatoes, this was a taste of heaven. I look forward to that first warm ripe tomato out of the garden every year. It is almost a religious experience to eat it. No, I didn't share.

I had counted over 200 tomato fruits on the vines of our 17 tomato plants before I found the ripe one and got distracted. I should go back out and finish counting. This should be a wonderful year for tomatoes. I am so excited.

They're Back

The butterflies are back. This big guy was just a tiny little pitter speck just a couple of days ago. Now he is ready to morph. The dill has been munched pretty badly.

I am really pleased with our tomatoes this year. I am growing 14 varieties, many of which were give seeds from the slow mail seed swap hosted by Monica earlier this spring. That particular tomato is a Better Boy, I think. Silly me didn't label anything again this year. Duh. There are two that appear striped, which would be Avivvi and Green Zebra. I also have a Mr. Stripey, which has one tiny little tomato on it. I didn't have any luck with that one last year either.

The garden is green.
We have had plenty of rain.
There has not been any really bad weather.
The butterflies are back.
Life is good.