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RiverDog Prints is Where I’ll Be

Hello.
For the time being, I am blogging at my business site, RiverDog Prints.

Please visit me there!

And if you need to find Scout the Dog, she blogs here. Woof!

Flickr Photo Friday

It’s My Square Foot Garden

The garden is planted! Woo-hoo! Here is some photographic evidence…


There are herbs (parsley, basil, rosemary, chives, mint); veggies (yellow peppers, tomatoes, carrots, kale); fruit (muskmelons) and flowers (lavender, marigolds, zinnias.) All the plants and the soil mix are organic - more woo-hoos!


There is room for a few more plants. I’ll be on the lookout for some more varieties of veggies. I’d love to have some peas, but it may be too late for those. I have wonderful memories of eating peas straight from the vine as a kid. Mmmmmm. I still need to build a proper grid for both “boxes” - Mel was very clear about having a permanent grid. Shouldn’t be too difficult. I just need to keep the plants alive long enough to reap some of the rewards. Stay tuned…

Flickr Friday Photo

Pink and White
by Deborah Garrison

Peonies are the only flower I care for
and when I saw them from the window
yesterday, tumbled and heavy along
a fence, fully exploded, nodding
at the ground, hanging their heads but not
yet spoiled, I remembered
a summer (maybe seven years
ago, or was it ten?) I wasn’t sure
our love would come again,
and here I am, almost
kissing the grass like that,
bursting and rich, cracked
all over like broken cake–
makes you cry but still sweet.

My Journey to the NICU and Beyond - Part Three

I haven’t been able to write this 3rd part of my preemie’s story - not sure why. But I’m not going to force it. When I’m ready, I’ll update this post. Check back soon…

Monday DIY Update - Sorta Square Foot Gardening

If you’ve been reading along with my projects and life experiment, you already know we fall slightly WAY behind the norm, especially when it comes to any kind of landscaping. We mulch mid-summer, instead of spring, and we prune when we’ve got a second, ok?

So, here for your astonishment are my attempts at the following: raised beds, square foot gardening, and planting before August. Below is my take on the Square Foot philosophy of gardening.

I know it’s not a perfect square. I’m a big fan of not being perfect and of using found objects when you can. We have an abundance of boulders of all sizes in our yard and I’ve used them for many borders. If my vision for our yard comes to its fruition in 2021, it will look cohesive in a natural kind of way. And maybe a bit like Stonehenge.

You can see all the clover sprouting everywhere. That was our attempt to have a green “lawn,” after reading many accounts of success with clover as a grass replacement. We just couldn’t figure out how to make it look good, so now it’s just enriching our soil and will be covered by some sort of mulch or ground cover very soon.

Inside the bed, I will line it with newspapers I’ve been saving. According to Organic Gardening Magazine, this is a great way to block weeds (or clover) from getting into the garden. Then, I will fill with the Square Foot Gardening mix of soil, which is a 1/3 peat moss, 1/3 vermiculite and 1/3 compost. Then, I will have to go to the nursery to buy plants since I didn’t start any from seeds (even typing that seems unnecessary.) Stay tuned…

Flickr Friday Photo

It always, ALWAYS amazes me what grows in my own yard. I feel I really don’t have any control over what blooms or grows, so it’s like Mother Nature decided to give me a gift today. Thanks Girl!

Introducing Yummy Recipes

I have posted about my inadequacies quite often, so I thought a little balance was in order. I actually do know a few things and people even ask my advice about these few things that I know. I will try more often to share what works for me. So here’s a new feature to go with the Organize Me theme…


First up is an easy and healthy recipe to feed your family that almost everyone will shout for joy! Pizza. And it’s homemade. And it’s healthy. You can make it as organic as you like by using organic ingredients, but it will still be healthy if you choose not to use them. You can read about my organic thoughts here.

I vividly remember arguing with one of my aunts about how pizza can be healthy. She was having none of it! There is a very stubborn streak in my family and when it comes to an opinion, I think some of them mix it up with fact. It is my OPINION that this recipe is healthy and you can try it out to see if that’s a fact jack!

Whole Wheat Pizza Dough

Ingredients:
1 packet or 2 1/4 teaspoons yeast
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
3/4 cup hot water, divided
1 tablespoon olive oil

Dissolve the yeast in 1/4 cup of the hot water (about 110 degrees) for about ten minutes. Begin to preheat oven to 500 degrees and place oven rack at lowest part of oven. If you have a pizza stone, it should be placed on the lowest rack. Combine the flours, salt, sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer and whisk together. Fit the stand mixer with the dough hook. When yeast is dissolved, add olive oil to remaining 1/2 cup of hot water. Turn mixer to low speed and gradually pour yeast and hot water/olive oil into bowl until dough forms a ball. Turn mixer up one speed to knead dough for one minute.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface - it will be sticky. Cover with plastic wrap coated with cooking spray (spray side to dough.) Rest dough for about 30 minutes.

Flour your hands and flatten the dough a bit. Pick up the dough and rotate it by the edge to stretch it. Put the dough back on the floured surface and roll out the dough to your desired shape. I usually make a rectangle and place it on a sheet pan.

Now you can dress your pizza dough however you choose. My family prefers tomato sauce and part-skim mozzarella cheese. You can add extra veggies to the sauce if your kids have an aversion to all things green (except M&Ms).

Place the pizza on the bottom rack and bake for about 10 to 15 minutes. When it’s done cooking, make sure you let it rest outside the oven for at least five minutes.

Doesn’t it look yummy? Eat and enjoy!

Organic Shmorganic

The term organic has become so overused that it seems to have lost its meaning. You even need to read labels closely to determine that what you’re buying is Certified Organic. I must admit that I am kind of a latecomer to using organic products, but I was on-board before every major grocery store had it’s own organic line of products.

I really must credit my husband for his reading of obscure writings and his somewhat healthy paranoia of THE MAN for setting me on a path of better eating. Being raised on Ding-Dongs and bologna, I didn’t give much thought to What I put in my body, but How Much. But hubby has always kept his ear to the ground (or eye to the internet) about hormones in bovines and antibiotics running rampid through the food chain. We started buying organic milk early on. From there, it was natural meats, poultry and eggs. There just was not a lot of selection here in the suburbs in 2001. But we did our best and made a commitment, both mentally and budgetarily, to eating this way.

In 2002, I got pregnant with my first child. If I had any reservations about being as organic as possible, they were gone. This was a human inside me and didn’t he deserve the best chance for the best body, mind and spirit possible? Hell yeah. I ate the purest and most natural foods I could find. I also gained 50 pounds or more by the end of the pregnancy, but I believe that’s unrelated :)

My son was breastfed and when he started eating solids, I made all his baby food from organic fruits and vegetables. Lots of my friends thought I was a bit crazy. My mother-in-law was afraid to deviate from my grand plan and my mother would always try to usurp it. I never preached my views (still don’t) - I just tried to quietly abide by eating as naturally as possible. Now you can walk down the aisles of the baby section and take your pick of organic baby food. I used those with my 2nd child, which was great. I know making fresh, organic baby food myself would be healthier, but I had two kids by then. Who are you kidding?

So what does it all mean? Will we live longer? There are so many factors that determine length of life, I don’t know. Will we live better? I can speak for myself on that count and say YES! I suffer from a chronic illness (Crohn’s Disease) and I can attest to feeling better and rarely being out of remission. I completely credit feeling good with what I put into my body. Remember the Ding Dongs? I do, and my body thanks me everyday for not inhaling a couple of those with a glass of organic milk.