Totally Random East meets West

I took this picture for fun a couple of weeks ago and totally forgot about it. As I mentioned before, it's that time of the year where local fruits are in season. We got a bunch of strawberries (on the left durrrr), which is grown locally. A couple of days ago, we hit our local Asian type grocery store for, for, uhm, I forgot what for, BUT I saw some fresh lychees. Most people probably have tried them at Chinese and Japanese restaurants, but those are canned and soaked in syrup. Fresh, they have a rough, somewhat hard yet thin skin, which is easy to peel. The edible part of the fruit itself is white, and it has one pit, like a peach. It's very sweet and has a slippery texture and is a tiny bit firmer than the flesh of say, an apricot (who knew this would be difficult to describe). One interesting side note, if I eat a lot of these on a fairly empty stomach, I start to have the aftertaste of alcohol. I think my sense of smell and taste are a tiny bit above normal.

The ONLY early memory I have of this fruit from back in the Philippines is when I was 15. My dad bought a huge bag from the street market, maybe 3 lbs or so. This is my Grandpa's favorite fruit. Of course, my Grandma told him not to eat too many, he would get a stomach ache. He just kept right on eating and eating and finished almost all of it. He then... of course.... got a stomach ache. Grandma had no sympathy.

So, for hubby's birthday earlier this month, I was supposed to make one of his favorite deserts, cheesecake. I did not have a spring form pan, so I kept delaying and delaying. Also had several busy weekends and what not. Finally gave up and just put it in a regular pie pan. The recipe was such that it took 2 pie pans rather than one springform. Not that I think hubby will complain about this much. Of course, little man and girlie pants helped prepare by putting the graham crackers in the food processor and little man helped "clean up" the bowl of the cheesecake filling.So here is the result, caramel topped cheesecake with graham cracker pecan crust. I took a picture of one of them. The other is already 3 slices empty.

Farmer's Market

It's that time of year again when fresh produce start coming up. Today we went to the farmer's market in our area and I saw some poppies, at least, I THINK they are poppies of a color I haven't seen before. So, I wanted to take a quick picture. My daughter's hand got caught in the shot and even though it was an accident, ended up looking pretty cute.

We got the usual kettle corn, caramel corn and something new.... shave ice, coconut flavored for the the kids, at least, it was supposed to be for the kids. Daddy and Mommy had some of it. Little girlie wasn't too keen on it, and little man liked it, but the coldness threw him off a bit.

Garden

The weather is finally nice enough to get a little bit of yard work done. Unfortunately, I have kind of let it "go" for the past 3 years.


I planted a few things the past years, like iris and columbine, some lipstick plants, three types of lavender, gerber daisies and tulips. My upkeep has been sadly lacking. Thankfully, God is forgiving and still blessed me with a few splashes of color despite my neglect. Here are some pictures I took just this morning. I spent an hour and a half and maybe progressed 2 feet in weeding and removing invading grass. I haven't pruned the lilac bush in three years. There were a LOT of dead branches. This thing is flippin' tall, maybe 10-12 feet? Anyway, really tired so I stopped the weeding/ de-grassing of the bed for now. I still have 5 feet by 2 feet to do as well as the corner (roughly 4 feet by 2 feet) were I am removing gravel and MAYBE planning a herb patch.

Transitions

So, a couple of weeks ago I noticed that little man's lower left front tooth was wiggling. Ah, it's that time to start getting big boy teeth. I told him it will come out and it might bleed and not to worry since it won't hurt. He still seemed concerned, so I told him that when it comes out, we can put it under his pillow and he will get a dollar from the tooth fairy. (When we were kids it was a quarter, inflation, eh?) As soon as I said "dollar", he immediately started tugging on it himself. Motivation, BABY!

Next, we have girlie pants. Thanks to Auntie (Momma Pajama) who got her a tent like net thingee to go over her bed (girlie calls it her "castle in the sky"), it motivated Daddy and me to start to think about how it was time to get our 4 and a half year old out of a toddler bed and into a big girl bed. Since Daddy has been off this week, it just took a tiny bit of his elbow grease to make it happen. So, a daybed frame from the classifieds, brand new mattress, and a trip to the store to get new sheets and comforter and ta-da! Big girl room. Next month, it's little mans turn to get a room update. I was seriously considering camouflage netting for over his bed, hmmmm. We'll see how it goes from there.

Bro and Sis

So, I decided I haven't posted a couple of new photos of the kids in awhile. So here they are, fresh off the digital camera, taken today. All you parents out there, and those who regularly take photos of kids.... you KNOW how many shots it could take to get them actually looking, smiling AND with their eyes open. As cute as these photos are.... there are many others that didn't make the cut. Thank you God for digital cameras.

April Snow?

It's supposed to be Spring, correct? Complete with Spring flowers and warmer weather, right? Apparently, the weather didn't get the memo. Even though last weekend was in the 80's, this weekend it is snowing. As I am typing this, snow is melting off my hair. I just had to dash outside to take a few pictures before the light faded. The few tulips that I planted are kind of buried right now. Here is also a picture of the view from my front porch. Yes, that is a holly bush. Although, from it's size it seems more like a holly tree.

Beaded Jewelry

I WAS going to finish up random knitting and crochet projects stowed in various bags, then I got hold of a book from the library called "Bead Crochet" and had to try out a few of the projects. I have taken a basic class in jewelry making with wire and finding and such, but never thought to combine crochet with beads. This is the result. I am keeping the 2 on the right, I even wore the center one out already to dinner. The one on the left will go to my sister-in-law.

Easter egg gather!

Last week, a couple of 12 year old girls in our neighborhood decided to organize an egg hunt. They went around asking parents of the neighborhood kids for plastic eggs they could borrow and candy if possible. We live in a culdesac so there isn't random traffic that comes through our driveway. Since all the kids involved were fairly young it wasn't much of a hunt more of an egg gather. Eggs strewn everywhere. I estimate over 200 eggs. Not exaggerating. My girl had the least (she was more interested in opening the ones she had than speeding through picking up more) and she had 22. The "winner" with the most had over 40 eggs. There were about 8 kids participating, so over 200 is decent number to guess with.

So, well, our almost 10 year old television finally kicked the bucket. What does this have to do with the kids? Well, you see the kids play well together but when they start to irritate each other one or the other watches a show, but, they didn't this week, so their methods of entertaining themselves get a little kooky. This is chicky pie with not one, but BOTH tu-tus on. I was going a little kooky myself with all the refereeing I had to do when they started to annoy each other, finally got another TV. Ahhh a tiny bit of relief.