Today I need some horticulture therapy

I was late for my meeting this morning. I was going to a departmental planning meeting that I would be sitting in on. I didn't know exactly where the meeting was and I was a bit late. It's been so warm here and I know that winter is far from behind us but still.... I was getting too comfortable. I was coming around a huge bend in the road and even though I wasn't going TOO fast, I hit the middle of the road where some snow had collected and I lost control of the car. I zig zagged back and forth enough to slow the car down a touch but not enough to stop me from going into the ditch. I've never been in an accident before (and have been pretty proud of that). I knew I was going to end up in the ditch but I probably have watched too much TV to be realisitc about it. I thought there was going to be broken windows, blood and lots of bent metal. I was soooo lucky. The ditch was probably about 8 feet deep strait down and I slid down it sideways (I think, my eyes were closed) and the only damage I can see right now is one tire completely off the rim and the other tire is low so it's probably off too. I broke a small corner of the front bumper towing it out of the ditch but I can't see any more damage. This is probably way too soon to say though. I could have bent rims and even have some problems under the car yet. But there was no loud noises, no blood and it all seemed quite soft. Its funny, the first thing I noticed was that the radio was running like normal and so was the engine. I almost felt like I could drive right out of the ditch if it wasn't so steep... until I saw the tire. Going down into the ditch I was thinking.... my seat belt IS on but man! i really don't want to hurt myself.
I'm fine though.... I'm home and waiting for Dan to come home tonight to see if we can fix those tires yet. And now.... I just wish I could do something. Dad says that I should get downstairs, set out some pots and start planting some leek and some herbs. I've got the lights set up so.... why not? I can even going into town and see if there's any seeds that I don't have that I want to start. Some horticulture therapy.... that's what I need.
Thanks again to Dad and Cass who hooked me up with CAA and got me home safely (and cheaply). Thank you!

*edited*

And now it's all said and done with.... $15. Only one tire needed to be put back on the rim and filled up. All done. Well, that was a little bit of drama for very little. I guess all I did was just slide into the ditch backwards. Thanks everyone for the thoughts and prayers.

Blessings!

So, yesterday was Family Day. What a good day it was for me. For Dan it was just an extra long day of Sunday evening blues but for me, I enjoyed every minute of it.

We woke up fairly early (for a day off) and left right away for mom and dad W's. Dan wanted a paved driveway to work on his truck. I wanted a working washer and dryer. It was so beautiful out. If it was April I probably wouldn't say this since it was still 0 degree's out but the sun was shining and we had a day of zero plans. Chloe spent the day sniffing out voles in Caleb's snowmobile and laying on the remaining piles of snow. Between Dan, Dad and Caleb, the truck sounds significantly better and doesn't smell like exhaust anymore.

Mom came home from work early and we just sat around drinking coffee, doing crossword puzzles and online scrabble. Eventually, we decided to go into town so Dan could clean the truck and we could all go and visit Oma and Opa. Dad still has to send those pictures to me. We all crammed into the exteneded cab Ford Ranger and drove to O & O's. It was really funny and cute. Mom giggled the whole way .... kinda like how Caleb did when he first sat in the back on the pullout seats in that truck. :)

And here's where my day starts to get REALLY good. Oma and Opa are trying to give away their stuff. They are downsizing and planning on moving out soon so their years of collecting and building and making things that work for their hobbies have to be given away now. I don't really like this and could write a whole other blog on this issue but that's not the point of this post. Opa and I both LOVE gardening and so.....

I GOT HIS SEED STARTING STUFF!! This might look like a pile of junk to some people but to me, this is GOLD. I woke up this morning with the same feeling of excitement that everyone has (come on, admit it) just before we remember that it's Christmas today or your birthday. My parents have tried to convince me that it's really a waste of money to try to start your seeds indoor. It takes a bit to put together your operation with lights, tables, soil, containers etc. And then you have to pay to keep those lights going for 16 hours everyday..... blah blah blah. Well, I haven't done it before but this year I thought I would start. I was talking about this when Opa mentioned that "boy, do I have the thing for you!" He gave me a table top, the lights, trays, soil, and even (if you look hard it's on the trays) a timer for the lights to automatically turn on and off with!!! Isn't that awesome?! Dan is bringing home some chain for me tonight so I can hang the lights. I have some seeds saved from my beautiful garden 2 years ago that probably aren't even viable anymore but who cares! Both mom and I are working on our seed orders from our different seed companies. I have a "poop calender" (you know, those dutch birthday calenders) that I don't use that I think I'm going to turn into a gardening calender where I can write last frost dates, seeding dates and maybe even harvesting dates. These lights and stuff really is gold to me. I don't even have a compost pile let alone a garden or even back yard yet. To dream about spring and planting just injects life into me again. Not that this winter has been bad.... in fact it's been a really good winter. I'm just excited to look forward to something... even if its temporary or even just a dream that won't happen. I'm going get a good box that I can mix my dirt in. I'm going to get some plastic from Larissa and James' to drape over the lights and keep the warmth in. I remember mom and dad starting their seeds down in the dirt basement at home with the exact same set up. I remember we weren't really allowed to go near it because the heat had to stay in but I CLEARLY remember the smell of warm dirt when you snuck a peak under the lights. mmmm.... I can't wait.

When we got home, I transplanted some indoor houseplants and spent the next 3-4 hours trying to replicate Oma's bami goreng recipe. mmm ... It's actually pretty good this time. I doubt it's close to right but it sure tastes good. I can't wait for lunch.

So, I spent Family Day hanging around with family, dreaming, planting and cooking.... can you see why this was such a good day for me?!

OH Oma

I called my Oma today (my mom's mom). What a hoot. She is such a funny lady. I LOVE her. Well, in our conversation she mentioned she got a fwd. from someone about "you know you're dutch when..." I could name a bunch of them before she even told me about it. So here's the list:
You Know You're Dutch When..

• The temperature is so low in your house that 2 sweaters is a bare minimum if you want to be remotely warm.
• During the winter it's warmer outside than it is inside. You open the freezer and are excited to find a container of ice-cream, only to open it and discover it's full of homemade soup or stamppot.
• When looking in the fridge, you never trust that the yogurt or margarine containers contain what the label says.
• You were green before it was popular. Why recycle when you can just reuse!
• You have a pair a wooden shoes in your house.
• Your china cabinet is filled with Delft.
• You like pickled herring.
• You've eaten oliebollen at New Years.
• You enjoy chocolate sprinkle (hagelslag) sandwiches.
• You have cousins who wear size 14 shoes and are over 6'4"
• You wash and reuse plastic cups and plastic cutlery.
• You have soup and open-faced sandwiches for Sunday lunch.
• The most frequent phrase uttered growing up was "Turn off the lights!"
• You get a chocolate letter every year for Christmas.
• All the tables in your house are covered in tablecloths.
• You like krokets.
• You know that Vla is better than regular old pudding.(Vla is a runny custard pudding.)
• You drink tea with breakfast, coffee at 10 am, tea at 3 pm, and coffee again at 8 pm (with cookies or biscuits of course!)
• You have an afghan knitted by your Oma.
• You collect coupons like they're going out of style.
• Your Oma had a calendar with everyone's birthdays & anniversaries spelled out in capital letters (bonus points if it hung in the bathroom!)
• You've been known to recycle aluminum foil. And ziploc bags.
• You own a special utensil that is only used for cutting cheese.
• You know that Gouda is the best cheese ever.
• You have at least 5 relatives with the same name (and somehow you always know which one is being talked about).
• You reuse teabags.
• When you hear all the "new ways to save energy" you yawn and say "I've been doing that all my life!"
• You eat your sandwiches open-faced. "What? You want another slice of bread? I'll make you another sandwich."
• You rarely have both meat and cheese on the same sandwich.
• You have never met half the relatives at your family reunion
• You have 100 rolls of toilet paper in your house because they were on sale.
• You put a little water into the jar of tomato sauce and shake it to make sure you got it all out.
• You have trouble shopping for hats. There should be at least two sizes:'one size fits all' and 'dutch'.
• You wipe the last of the butter out of the container with your bun.
• All your cookies taste like almonds.
• You make the bed in your hotel room.
• You have lace on your windows but not on your underwear.
• You like dubbel zout drops, and have occasionally tricked a friend into trying one.
• You've put mayonnaise on your french fries.
• Your kitchen is filled with milk bags drying, waiting to be reused in the freezer.
• You drink Heineken out of pride.
• You have a front room but nobody sits in it (or it's only used for special occasions).
• You have a spoon collection.
• Your favourite mustard comes in jars that can be reused as drinking glasses.
• You leave a window open year round to get fresh air.
• You eat stroop waffles.
• You love the colour orange.
• You have a vegetable garden because there's no way you're paying that much for veggies at the grocery store.
• Your fridge is always stocked with leftovers. Throw out food? Never!
• You go to the "Dutch Store" because the smell brings back so many childhood memories.
• You have pictures of windmills around your house.
• Everything is Do-It-Yourself - it's cheaper than hiring someone.
• You use "washandjes" (facecloths that you can put your hand into).
• You have to explain what 'om' and 'tante' means when you're discussing your relatives with non-Dutch people.
• You own tea towels and oven mitts patterned with windmills and dancing women in clogs.
• You call it "MELK" not "milk".
• All your cousins have the same names as your brothers and sisters, because everyone is named after Oma and Opa.
• And finally, you know you're Dutch when..You're laughing along with this list because you can relate to most of it!

I know it's a long list. I laughed at most of it.... the others I didn't understand. Maybe I'm getting a little weak in my dutch genes.

Evening shifts

This week I have a lot of hours but most of my shifts are closing shifts. That's a good thing and a bad thing. I like having my mornings and not having to get up so early. On the other hand, I won't get home before 9:00 any night this week.... these are my prime cooking hours. I love cooking in the evening and it's rarely too late to start a project. I definitely wasn't planning that when I went shopping this weekend. I bought sooo many fun ingredients that I hoped would inspire some fun cooking projects. I bought a block of Parmesan cheese, prosciutto, leek, 2 whole chickens (they were on sale), fresh parsley, 2 different types of pasta, savoy cabbage.... the list goes on. Now what am I going to do? I don't want to freeze those chickens but I don't know when I'm going to get the chance to cook them. Besides, who feels like cooking a supper in the morning?! And even if I do, I'll have to throw it into the fridge for Dan to reheat when he comes home. Maybe I can do some slow cooker meals this week. We rarely eat a real dinner anyways and the whole point of the meal is to make something good to take for lunch the next day.
Besides all of this, I did cook this morning. I spent some time researching a good recipe and then.... ta da!! Browned bread crumbs and pasta!




oh, so anticlimactic!!! I can't upload my pictures!! so sad. Well, briefly, it was shell pasta, browned bread crumbs, prosciutto and Parmesan cheese all tossed together and topped with some parsley. The next picture was of my empty bowl. It wasn't bad for the mid morning. It wasn't a really fulfilling meal to make. I wasn't really inspired, hungry or filled up. Oh well, it was good.