Bright Lights, Big City

Just another day at work on a beautiful day...sunset sure was gorgeous too. I'm up on the tenth floor tonight (we rotate between 3 floors for mother-baby) which is my most FAVORITE floor, I think you can see why...also, it's just bigger with more room to chart. So far it looks to be a pretty good night. Patient's are good, babies are behaving. Hopefully I don't have to admit any sections with duramorph on board because I'll then have two patients with hourly 02 sat checks, then I'll be hosed. But for now, it's a GOOD night :-)

Edible Landscaping

I have been interested in growing fruits and vegetables long before I heard of Rosalind Creasy or the concept of edible landscaping, but reading an article of hers really solidified it for me. As she puts it, people spend all this money putting in maples and azaelas when they could grow apples and blueberries: Also gorgeous, yummy-scented, and with good foliage, but it provides good food as well. When honeycrisp apples hit $3.99/lb this winter, I put 3 dwarf apples trees in to help save money and give us some good, local produce. They're pretty and smell great. The concept doesn't shun traditional plants, but rather encourages people to grow edibles among their inedible decorative plants. Not only does the combination look really cool but it's the environmentally responsible thing to do, what with the price of gas, the resources needed to ship produce around the world, and the cost of food. The geopolitics of food is obviously a complex issue and hey, we go to McDonald's, too (they have a playplace, what can I say...). But I think if most people could make even a small effort to grow some food, it would really make a difference. Especially schools. What better way to introduce the concepts of healthy eating and economics than to have students prepare meals they themselves helped grow? If anyone wants to chat more on the topic, I'm open, and I also recommend:




Happy Reading!

For Sale

For Sale: House next to ours. Clearly the realtor isn't too motivated, so I figured I would help out. Wanted: Nice young family, but willing to consider other family types as well. Young playmates for my children preferred. Wife/Mom who likes to have fun also preferred. So come be my new neighbor, and you can borrow a cup of sugar whenever you want. I'll even bake you fresh cookies. Deal? Awesome.

Like a pile of rocks

This should keep us busy.

  

 Miss Andie Lu loves her bath. Aili is away until Tuesday with her grandparents in Molson since Jeff and I both work this weekend. We'll miss her but I'm sure she'll have lots of fun, and Andie and I get to play :-)

All that fun makes for one sleepy girl!

Let Them Drink Beer

...or drown in it. Whatever. Death to ALL slugs who dare eat my strawberries and lettuce! I was thinning the mulch in the strawberry bed today to ensure all the plants got enough sun and whaddaya know, major slugfest going on in there. I decided to make it a REAL party and offer them the good stuff.

Dear Mr. Slug(s):
Stay away from my strawberries or enjoy a good "chelada." Really, I can think of worse ways for you to go. Just try me. Sincerely, Shani

PS- Stay away from my romaine or I will cover you in chicken scratch (AKA chicken candy) and unleash the birds. Consider ya self warned.

She thinks my tractor's sexy

 

My yard sure is pretty right?  He calls himself 'The Grunt.' We sure do wish they had done the lawn right the first time. Then we wouldn't have to tractor the whole thing.Oh well, it should look good when it is done!       

My little lady- She sure has the easy part of the ride! We've been going on a lot of rides lately. The other day Andie went in the seat and Aili and Ari went in a trailer- man oh man is that thing hard to pull! Good work-out though....

                                                              Onions for your omelet?

 

Our cherry trees outside of our garden are starting to bloom. One of our apple trees is flowering right now too and the scent is wonderfully good. I don't think there are many smells better than apple blossoms in the springtime...

Our bigger girls (the 2 orps and 2 rocks) like to range but stay pretty close to their coop. In particular they like weeds and bugs. Hopefully they'll take a dent out of the mosquito population this summer when it starts to warm up. The araucanas are still pretty little and timid. They don't stray far from the coop, and even when the door's up they are often still inside. Jeff thinks they're smart because they're small and know they need to hide out from predators. They like to hide under my car.

It Was Beautiful

Well, for one day, anyway. We sure did enjoy it though! We are lucky to live right near the Centennial trail, which goes right over the Stillaguamish river and is really pretty. Aili did awesome- she rode her bike the whole 3 miles to Arlington (the trail's longer, but that was our destination for the day) and most of the way back- when she wasn't riding her bike she ran or walked. What a trooper! If she can do the 6 miles now I'm hoping by next year she might be able to go 10 and mama can get a good work out! (by the way, the picture above isn't the Stilli, it's Lake Washington. We went there too- gotta squeeze as much sunshine in as possible!)

Anybody want to go for a ride? I think we'll be here a lot this summer.