Susanna’s Blog

Today is the first day to vote early in Ohio. On the news this morning, they showed a bunch of morons waiting outside the board of elections, many who camped out there to be the first to vote. Why???? Don’t they have jobs? Or are they lazy and stealing our tax dollars through welfare? They must not know how the Ohio voting system works, because anyone voting early uses a provisional ballot, a ballet that is carefully looked at and many are thrown out. If they cannot prove you are real, they trash your ballot.
If you are for McCain, vote November 4th!!! (If you are for Osama, vote early)

I can’t remember the last time I was bored, I think it’s been years!
Last weekend was busy, but fun! I have no pictures, but will post some when I get them. Saturday was the Exaltation of the Cross, a fast day, so after church we went to Olive Garden…pretty good place for fasting food (and they don’t use msg, except in soups). The girls were amazing!!! This is the first time we sat down for an entire meal without an incident! Then we went to Iron’s with the Baiers, Greg and Missy! The girls got to sit on a donkey! I’ll have to post pictures of that, for sure. We went apple picking, went on the hayride, and listened to a live blue grass band! Emma was drinking cider, which I guess the bees love because two bees went in her mouth and she got stung on her bottom lip! Her lip swelled and she looked so funny for a few hour, but it didn’t seem to bother her.
John has been gone since 7:30 this morning, it’s 9:30 now and I don’t expect him home for another half hour. He might be more exhausted than I. I am so thankful to have the girls on a good bedtime schedule, it has been quiet since 8:30 and I love it!

I don’t like soy milk. I won’t put in on cereal or cook with it, because the taste is awful and I really can’t understand how some people drink it plain without throwing up…yuck! It can also be dangerous to ones health, read here. Rice milk is ok, but bland. So, I was really excited when I saw hemp milk at Kroger! It’s a little bit thick, kind of like soy milk, but not as bad tasting. I had one bowl of cereal with it, didn’t like it at all. I put it on oatmeal and used it in pancakes, and it was fine. There is no substitute for real cows milk, definetly the best!
Why do humans drink cow’s milk? It’s made for baby cows, not people. Human milk is made for humans, but no adult would drink human milk, right? A couple days ago, PETA wrote a letter to Ben & Jerry’s asking them to use human milk instead of cows milk. They say it would “lessen the suffering of dairy cows and their babies on factory farms and benefit human health.” Read the article here. I think Ben & Jerry’s would lose alot of business if they made the switch, they would lose mine for certain. Oh yeah, and that restaurant in Switzerland that they mentioned, well, they have been banned from using human milk. It’s just plain weird.

I thought we made huge bowls of homemade applesauce when I was a kid, but it didn’t make as much as I remember. Still, it was just as tasty! Here are the apples after they’ve been cooked for about half an hour.

Then I put them in this gadget and to strain the skins out. The skins are really good, I eat them.

Here is a bowl of the finished product, it’s pink from the skins being left on the apples.

Emma is enjoying applesauce for breakfast, with her eyes closed.

Juliana and Emma enjoyed their first day of classes at the Nature Center! Juliana made binoculars with toliet paper rolls and explored in the woods, she says she saw a snake! Emma’s class played mostly, but we walked to the lake and fed the fish and talked about bluegills.

This weekend is Great Outdoor Weekend. I got this booklet that lists all the activities and hope to make it to a few. Some of the events that particularly interest me are the at the Civic Garden Center – how to make compost, how to construct rain barrels (we have the barrel, but now what?), and something about preserving vegetables through fermentation. The Cincinnati Nature Center is having a big pawpaw thing. The CNC has several pawpaw trees, but not much fruit because the trees need sunlight. Apparantly, the windstorm was very helpful for the pawpaws, because now the trees are getting light and can produce more fruit. Something else I’d like to do is a class “Simple gardening for busy gardeners” at Granny’s garden school in Loveland. You can pick flowers from their garden this weekend, free…so we’ll probably end up here for sure. Juliana loves to pick flowers, because each flower has a little thumbelina inside.

Tomorrow is John’s first day of grad school at UC! Tomorrow is also Juliana and Emma’s first day of classes at the Nature Center. Emma is taking a baby class with me, and Juliana will be in a preschool class at the same time.

Emma loves this kitty, from great grandpa Bassett and Josie.

John’s grandma put this plant together for us, I love it! I went to a gardening program at the library tonight, about pruning. I really love gardening, but am not very good at it yet.

I am cooking apples right now, and will make applesauce…pictures to come in the next post.

Today is the first day of fall. Juliana and I picked out these scarecrows to decorate our front yard, one for her and one for Emma.

We went to Iron’s yesterday and picked apples! The trees were full of delicious apples! I’ve become a little picky about apples. Most apples in the grocery store are covered in wax or shellac, which is just gross. Plus, they are genetically modified and flavorless. Local apples or organic ones taste a millon times better. Yes, a milllion! I could eat apples for every meal if they were always as good as the ones from Iron’s. And their cider is the best!!! We bought two gallons at $5 each, and if they raised the price to $10, I’d still buy it because it is so good! We got a couple apple fritters and cider donuts, which are delicious too!

Pick your own pumpkins starts in October, and we’ll definetly be back for that and the hayride!

Juliana says funny things all the time, here are some from this morning:
“I’m gonna ride my trike into the sea witch and kill her.”
At the street corner, waiting for a car to pass – “Is that a morlon, mom?”
Watching the garbage truck – “When I’m a grown up and a garbage girl, I’m gonna come to your house and take your garbage.”

I love Clifford the big red dog, and so does Juliana. We’re really sad that the show is not on PBS anymore. When George laid on this, Juliana is the one who noticed he looked like Clifford.

I love Iron’s Fruit Farm! We are going apple picking on Sunday afternoon, anyone want to join us? We’ll go again in October for pumpkin picking and hayrides! I can’t wait!!!

1 onion
2 stalks of celery
2 carrots
2 quarts of chicken stock or broth
1-2 cups of chicken, cut into pieces
1/2 bag of egg noodles
parsley, salt and pepper

Chop the onion, celery and carrots and saute in butter or oil for a few minutes. Add stock/broth to veggies and bring to a boil, then add noodles. Add chicken, parsley, salt and pepper.
Not much harder than opening a can.

I avoid MSG, which is in almost all canned soup and broth. It is a “flavor inhancer” like salt, but very dangerous. I started the anti-MSG thing after hearing how dangerous it can be for kids. It is also known to cause obesity, heart palpatations, nausea, headaches, neurological problems and much more. Have you ever felt sick after eating at a Chinese restaurant? I have. For chicken soup, I recommend Kitchen Basic brand, something from the health food section, or Trader Joe’s. Here’s an interesting video:

Juliana is sick today. She was just fine yesterday, but woke up in the night last night crying and very very hot! I took her to the doctor this morning and she has an infection in her throat, not strep though. She’s really sleepy and has a fever, a little over 103 degrees. We have a fantastic pediatrition who says keep the fever, because that is how our bodies fight infection naturally. Hopefully, she’ll feel better tomorrow.

These are Emma’s best friends, her lion and her dog. She say’s do-do-do all the time…it means dog.

I put a whole chicken in the slow cooker this morning and made chicken noodle soup with it. Delicious! I like to buy chickens at the farmer’s market in Anderson. We buy them from the same guy, a stand at the farmers market that I will never pass, the chickens are awesome!