Weed Be Gone

Nobody likes weeding. Right? Well I have to admit that even though I dread weeding I do find it incredibly satisfying. There's something about rescuing your pretty plants from your ugly ones that makes the dirt under your fingernails worth while.

This tool makes it even better and a lot easier.


My neighbor in Cleveland had one similar and I always coveted it. Then Joel got me one for Spring Gardening Day this year. It's so easy to use and so cheap that every gardener should have one.
All you have to is hold onto the weed and run the lip of the tool down the stalk of the weed along the root then lift up on the weed and they just pop right out. Even Dandelions that have evolved over millenia to drop their leaves at the slightest pressure leaving the root intact come gliding out from between your phlox with ease.
Happy gardening everyone!

A Different Kind of Work

We all know I work outside the home. I love my job. It's a very rewarding job but I also very much enjoy my weekends off.

This weekend was not really a weekend off. This was the Mulder "Spring Planting Weekend." Recently expanded from the "Spring Planting Day" due to the amount of planting to be done. It was a very successful weekend and I feel very accomplished.

I feel as if I provided for my family in a different way this weekend. I have provided food for my family. Well, in a few months it will be food.

Take for example the tomatoes. With about ten dollars (seeds, peet pots and a handful of compost for each plant) I planted 44 tomato plants. Those tomato plants, on average, should yield 10-15 pounds each, which we will make into tomato sauce by the gallon, salsa by the jug and still have plenty fresh to eat on our burgers and roast for freezing.

And that's just the tomatoes. It doesn't include the peas, carrots, spinach, lettuce, beans, squash, pumpkins, zucchini, peppers, potatoes, asparagus, and corn. Not to mention the "experimental" broccoli, celery, fennel, tomatillos and black Japanese watermelon. They're experimental because we've never grown them before and we don't really know how to.

Then there's the herbs. With one packet of basil seeds I have more than 30 plants just growing along happily until they get turned into sauce.


On a more long term note the fruit plants I put in (blueberries, grapes, raspberries and cranberries) probably won't produce until Adeline starts grade school...


My point is that working with the earth, really getting on my hands and knees to nurse these little plants into organic, natural food for my family is incredibly rewarding. So despite the sunburn, the sand in my mouth and the blisters on my hands I feel like I had my most productive week(end) at work in a long time...

Tic, Tic, Woosh

Or Major Cheese Failure

It started out as a failure. It really did. Doomed from the start. A simple cheese recipe I had used a dozen times. Probably the oldest cheese recipe known to man. (Boil milk, add lemon juice, drain) All I did was double it and use a different pot.

I could blame the failure on the pot or the nebulous law of doubling a recipe but I prefer to blame it on the stove. It's one of those flat top jiggers that is "easy to clean" and provides "even heat".

Whatever. They suck. Don't ever buy one. Oh how I miss the Tic-Tic-Woosh of a gas stove lighting. I miss not burning the bottoms of my pans and whatever settles to the bottom of my pots. Including my ill fated cheese.

The worst part is that getting a gas stove would involve not just pulling a gas line to the kitchen but also pulling one to the house. We have no gas. Don't get me wrong. I love that we don't have a gas bill, I just miss cooking with gas.

Maybe I'll start making cheese on the grill.

Something Had To Give

And this time it was my running.

About 5 months ago, in the dead of winter, when this spring was a distant dream, I signed up for a 10k on May 29th. At the time I was running 3-6 miles at a time, 3-4 times a week on the treadmill. I could have run the race then. But the race wasn't then. The race is 3 weeks from now. And I haven't run in a week and a half.

It's not that I've been lazy. Far from it. I've had a very productive spring. As has Joel. It's just that I've had to make a series of choices that seemed to leave running out of the picture. I can't say that I regret any of those choices. I just wish I didn't have to make them.

These choices have included:
1) Clearing out an area for and building a herb garden behind the house out of pavers and 4 square yards of dirt I hauled up the hill from the garden one wheelbarrow full at a time. I'll try to post some pics. It turned out very well. I can't wait to plant my herbs in it next week.

2) planting and caring for a garden's work of plants from seed.

3) planting, watering, mulching, training 6 seedless grape vines and 12 raspberry bushes. The blueberries, cranberries and fruit trees are yet to arrive. Thankfully.

4) doing all of the above for 100 asparagus plants not to mention the potatoes, garlic, onions, shallots and other tubers I haven't had a chance to get to yet. (Anyone want any asparagus?)

5) chickens. Nuf said

6) Hops yard. Joel admittedly did most of the work here but every hour he spent working, I spent watching Dela and not running. I've thought about a jogging stroller for us, but our area is way too hilly to both push it up the hills and control it on the way down.

7) Painting the living room, bathrooms and guest room.

8) just relaxing for a moment and enjoying my daughter and Joel when all of the above is done.


Now that I've listed all of that out, I do feel pretty accomplished. I just wish I would have saved myself the entry fee on that stupid race...

Mommy Outsider

One of my fellow bloggers recently talked about the Mommy Mafia and how all of us moms are guilty of the practice in one way or another. I have often felt that besides the mommy mafia there is the mommy hierarchy. I don't rank very high up on said hierarchy.

On Wednesdays I like to take Adeline out and about. We go to the library for Wigglers. We go to the park or the indoor play area at the mall. It is kind of my chance to get to see how the other half lives. What I've found is that Adeline and I don't travel in the right circle. It seems that no matter when or where we go there is a group of women and their toddlers who are all about meeting you.... until you tell them that you work. All I have to say is "Wednesday is my day off so we like to get out" and the curtain comes down. It's a conversation ender and I don't know why. It's not what I do because we rarely make it to that point.

There are a few exceptions.
Every once in a while I'll meet a mom new to the area and we'll chat for a long time. Or I'll see a patient out and about with either their mom and dad and we'll talk. But there is a clique...

I rarely meet another working mom out on a Wednesday morning. They're usually the ones sitting alone watching their children play, like me. So this is who I try to strike up conversations with now.

I think I'm not going to worry about the other ladies for right now. That's what I thought right up until one of their sons yanked my daughter around by the collar of her shirt and pushed her down the slide. Action which was followed by less than effective discipline. (Yes a mommy mafia comment but the boy did turn right around and push his own brother down.) Now I think I might just find a new park.

Luckiest Girl Ever

I am sitting at the kitchen counter, writing on my laptop (a Christmas present from my husband) and watching said husband make two made to order pizzas from scratch. One Hawaiian, one red pepper and pepperoni. I am drinking Sangria and facebooking while he lovingly makes dinner. Our daughter is sleeping soundly and mini Friday is here.

I am the luckiest girl ever.

Thursday Hangover

OK So it's not that I booze it up on Wednesday nights. (Fire and Wine nights the exception.) It's that I have Wednesdays off. No rounds, no office hours, no long list of patients. It's my free day to spend with Joel and Adeline. It's the day that makes being a working mom bearable.
Yesterday for example I spent the whole day with Adeline. We ran errands and went to the book store, which she loves even more than the library because the kids section is bright and fun and accessible for kids. We came home and played outside for a long time. We blew bubbles. Adeline watered the patio. After nap we were back outside and then had a nice relaxing dinner as a family.
Wednesdays are wonderful. They are peaceful and calming and a perfect intermission to my work week.
Thursdays always come after Wednesdays like a slap in the face. Some days, like today, it feels like my first day back from maternity leave. I miss Adeline so. Even knowing that Joel is home with her only makes it a little better. I still feel a little guilty...
Yes I get two Saturdays a week (and a Sunday) but I also get two Mondays. If I were still working for "The Clinic" I would not have a day off in the work week and many moms don't at all. (Many mom's don't have to leave in the middle of the night on a moments notice and maybe not be back until the next evening either.)
Today I had to round to top it all off. Ugh. AND I'm the only doc in the office which means I'm tied here over lunch and maybe into the evening. I'm also on call again tonight as I cover for a partner who's on vacation.
But hey, tomorrow is Friday again.