Dear G-d

Dear G-d,

Your sense of humor is not appreciated. Hiding the lid to my coffee grinder behind the knife block and making me think it fell behind the refrigerator was just not kosher. Having to move the fridge twice because I trapped a cat behind it was just untenable.

I'm sure you're aware that after shul on Shabbos I've got close to 30 people coming over for lunch. I still have a ton of cooking to do and even more cleaning. At this point I need your help not your practical jokes. I know it was you who moved the coffee, made me search the kitchen for 5 minutes while you put it back where I had set it.

Thirteen years ago, yesterday, I had my third child smack dab in the middle of the busiest time of the year. I know that was your doing. The whole pregnancy was one of your practical jokes really. I found out I was pregnant during one of the worst snow storms Baltimore had seen in years. I was stuck in a tiny apartment with morning sickness and two toddlers for days. I was sure I had strep throat but couldn't get to a doctor for a test. I finally called my midwife who, after a series of questions on the phone decided I needed antibiotics and she called in the prescription. It took another 24 hours for me to get hold of the pills and by then I couldn't swallow a thing. I almost dehydrated.

In my eighth month we moved into a larger apartment. In August. In August in Baltimore. Miriam had just turned 3 and Chana was 16 months. Did I mention it was August? My midwife decided I needed to be on bedrest. Now really G-d, was that necessary? I had to unpack and cook for Rosh HaShana. I had two toddlers to take care of and the laundry was down two flights.

About the only thing that went smoothly was my labor and delivery. It went so quickly that I almost had him in the parking lot of the hospital. It went so quickly that my midwife was still putting her gloves on while I caught his head.

So G-d, I would appreciate it if you would refrain from any more practical jokes until after Shabbos. Thank you.

Your servant,
Yakira

Photo Op

Spent a lovely day at Renn Faire yesterday. Could not have asked for better weather! Gotta love Rachel, she'll never miss a photo op.

Face painting for the princess? Something in pink please. Oh, and make it a butterfly.

Wait! Pony ride too, every princess needs a pony!

"I'll never be your beast of burden..." Ummm, can I take that back? Gotta love a man who'll tote a five year old around, especially one that's not his, and one that proclaims she doesn't like him.
Next year we'll all be in garb. This year was a tough one and I didn't get my sewing machines out. Plus I've been on a yarn kick not a fabric kick. Not sure which is more expensive really, yarn or fabric. I will have to do a comparison one day. Hmmm...

Got little knitting done this weekend. Ah, well.

Yakira

So, You Ask

Why didn't I write yesterday after adamantly proclaiming I was going to start writing every day to rebuild my writing habit?

I was busy. Really.

Today was the deadline for numbers to get to the accountant for the fellow I work for.

I do have some good news. Remember when I said in about a week I was going to start walking at 7:00 so we didn't have to drag HRH with us? Well we decided to start yesterday. We walked our normal route and what took us almost 40 minutes with a five year old took us a little over 20 without her.

After that I sat at my computer most of the day arguing with Quick Books and fighting with a slow connection to the server so I could get stuff done. I didn't get up until right before dinner time. I made dinner, cleaned up from dinner, bathed a 5 year old, put a 5 year old to bed and sat back down at my computer. We had everything as cleaned up as it was going to get at about 9:00 last night and off it went this morning to the accountant. I hate doing shoddy work but there was a lot to go through. I did my best in the time allotted.

Larry and I watched Devil's Advocate last night. Creepy movie. Fun but creepy.

We walked again today. Two days in a row. And I spent money today. Not on fun stuff. I bought paper goods for the Bar Mitzvah at BJ's then I went to the market and bought all my meats for Rosh HaShana and the Bar Mitzvah.

I wanna buy yarn not chicken!

This weeks recipe:

Yakira's Challah

7+ C flour
2 1/4 C warm water
2 packets yeast
1/2 C sugar
2 Tbs salt
3 eggs
1/4 C oil

I use my stand mixer for this recipe. My mixer has a 4qt. bowl. Pour yeast sugar and water into bowl. Let sit for a minute or three while it bubbles. Add 6 C flour, salt, eggs and oil. Turn mixer on low. Slowly add 7th C flour. Keep more ready in case the dough needs more flour. Depending on humidity you may need to add up to a whole C of flour. The dough will be sticky but will hold it's shape. Let the mixer run on low for about 4 minutes to knead the dough. Move dough to a lightly oiled bowl and cover with a towel to rise for about 2 hours. Divide in thirds and braid loaves. Let rise another half hour. Brush with egg and sprinkle with sesame or poppy seeds. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

Yakira

Habits Revisited

It's been 7 weeks today since I hurt my shoulder. They said it would take 6 to 8 weeks to heal. They were right. Who'd a thunk it? I still have a twinge now and again when I move my arm in certain directions but other than that I'm really doing well. I've started doing some upper body strengthening and am now walking every day for half an hour with my neighbor. We take HRH with us so we're not out for speed yet as she walks at a snail's pace. I'm hoping in the next week to move our walking time to 7:00 so I can sneak out before Rachel and Larry are awake. My neighbor and I haven't decided yet what we'll do when the weather goes south but hopefully by then the habit of walking every day will be established and we'll keep moving. Hopefully.

Speaking of habits, I've been really terrible with my writing habit. I think it's time to reestablish my writing goals and just get writing. I will start writing every day again.

I've done a lot of knitting in the last few weeks. Some good, some I'm not going to talk about.

Remember the knitted purse? I finally sewed it up today and got it on a giant pickle jar blocking. It's a giant CLEAN pickle jar mind you. Inigo is inspecting my work. I put in a flexible blocking wire to give the points more definition. I have to make a drawstring and a lining and it's done. I hope it doesn't take me another two months to get to that. This is going to be a Channukah gift so I really do want to finish it before then.
I also finished one half of a pair of socks for a Channuka gift. I got the second one cast on before I got bit with Second Sock Syndrome. Phew...
I am making myself another bag. It's a French Market Bag, knitted then felted(fulled.) I'm making it with Noro Iro. It's not my first choice for this yarn as it's expensive and has silk in it that won't felt well but I've had the yarn in my stash for over a year, I don't have enough to make a garment for myself, and I love the colors. So I might as well use it and make something I'll love and use often, no? As for the silk not felting, I'm not too worried. The bag is knitting up into a nice tight fabric and will be pretty sturdy with only a little fulling. However what I didn't take into account is the size. It's going to be larger simply because it won't shrink as much during it's round in the washing machine. But that's okay, everyone needs a large bag in which to carry things.









AND after the success of my knitted purse, above, I decided to have a go at knitting a larger lace project. It's a Revontuli shawl. Yes, the link takes you to a blog in Finnish. Eat your hearts out Kim and Jason. Revontuli in Finnish means Northern Lights. I'm knitting this up with Noro Kureyon Sock. I still think it looks like cat vomit but other experienced lace knitters keep telling me that it looks like it's supposed to, just keep knitting. The blocking will cure everything they tell me. The jury is still out but I'll take that first step in faith, thank you Dr. MLK Jr. This too will probably end up as a Channukah gift as I can't ever see myself wearing it and with kids and cats in the house, using as a lap shawl and leaving it on the sofa is completely out.

Yakira

Size and Scope

I'm feeling much better now. A huge relatively pain free hug to all my well wishers. Thank you.

Having spent two weeks with only one functional arm, that being my left and me being right handed, and then another week and a half with fairly limited use of said right arm, I learned a few things. Some of the things I learned were akin to the lessons I learned when I was busy having babies and taking care of toddlers; prioritization, lowering expectations, dealing with what is and not what I want it to be. And some things I learned were new; prioritization, lowering expectations, dealing with what is and not what I want it to be, and it's not as bad as I think it is, really.

I call it the Shrinky Dink theory. As a child I would take that magical polystyrene sheet and color and cut and bake and watch it shrink about 35%. I would stare through the oven window and watch it go through bizarre contortions as it writhed on the cookie sheet. There was always this fear that it would fold over on itself and be ruined forever. And sometimes it would require a second baking with a metal spatula pressing down on it to remove the last of the wrinkles. Oh, the anticipation, the awe, the agony! Finally the contortions would stop. Our shrunken piece of plastic could be attached to the key ring, neclace or zipper pull for which is was destined.

And so, it's not as bad as I think it is, really. It only took me a few days to get the kitchen back to normal and the laundry caught up. A few minutes of straightening up and a good sweeping and everything was back to it's relatively neat normal.

During my convalesence I spent time going through my stash (yarn weighs next to nothing,) organizing my patterns (binder and page protectors, and some .pdf files on the computer,) and putting my queue of holiday gifts together on Ravelry. I was able to do some knitting provided I only moved my wrist. A good thing too because I needed those endorphins!

I also read some books that I had aquired and wanted to look at. One of them was a cookbook on canning and preserving food. This is a skill that I wanted to learn one day. I decided that this was the figurtive day. The local fruit stands are selling peaches, cherries, plums, apricots, blueberries, strawberries and every other summer fruit at very reasonable prices. June Cleaver I am not, but I made a yummy mango raspberry jam and a cherry orange marmalade, both of which went into jars and into a water bath yesterday. Tomorrow I am going to make apple pie filling and peach butter. I would publish pictures but my oldest took my camera to document the last week of summer camp and her horrible five year old male charges. Also on my list is cherry berry jam, the berries being blue and straw, and apple butter. Yum.

Well at least I'll have a default Channuka gift if I don't get my knitting done.

Yay me.

Ouch

Just an update. I probably won't be writing for a few days. In the spirit of no good deed goes unpunished, in the process of doing some volunteer work for Girl Scouts I did something to my shoulder. I either sprained it badly, tore the ligaments, or tore my rotator cuff in my right shoulder. The x-ray showed that there was nothing wrong with my bones so I need an MRI and have to see an orthopedic specialist. Meanwhile percocet is your friend.

Yakira

Harvest!

Nothing beats fresh green beans! We harvested about three times this. We were eating them right off the vine. These are the only three that made it into the kitchen.

Yummy scallions. This is the last of that patch. I will trim these and throw them in omelets or something. If I don't eat them first. I've got one more harvest from the loose leaf lettuce and I'll dig that bed up and plant beets and collard greens.

Our fist zucchini! There are two more green ones that will be ready in a day or two. There are also three yellow ones that will be ready in two or three days. The acorn and spaghetti squash vines have started flowering and I expect to see fruit growing on those vines soon.

Look how well two of the tomato plants are doing. One vine has at least 4 tomatoes and the other has 5 that I could see with plenty more flowers on both. Amazing how well they do when planted next to the compost pile.

My only real disappointment is my romaine lettuce. It is supposed to form heads. It didn't. They decided to bolt. I think they got too much sun, because it hasn't been that hot yet here in Baltimore. Next year I will plant the romaine in a shadier spot in the garden. Truth is it's not too late to try that now. I will have to think about that. Meanwhile I am going to dig them up, salvage the leaves that aren't too bitter and harvest the rest of the loose leaf lettuce next to them.
This week's recipe is Mushroom Barley Soup.

1lb white mushrooms, sliced
1lb baby bella mushrooms, sliced
1 large onion, diced
2 medium carrots, diced
5 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 C barley
8 C vegetable broth, I like Trader Joe's
2Tbs olive oil
2Tbs butter
Salt and pepper to taste

In large soup kettle or stock pot saute onions and garlic in olive oil and butter until clear. Add mushrooms and cook for about 10 minutes or until mushrooms are cooked through. Pour in broth, add carrots and barley. Cover and simmer for 45 minutes. Stir occasionally and season to taste. I like to add a pinch of fresh chopped dill right before serving.

Soup in the summer you say? Try it, it's refreshingly light. This recipe is good for the crock pot too. I would suggest sauteing the onions and mushrooms first though.

Heading to the basement now. If you don't hear from me tomorrow, send a search team.

Yakira