Gratitude and Weekend Links

Gratitude this week: The conversation where the 6-year-old told me she liked my outfit (while I was wearing my oldest capri yoga pants and an old hoodie.) Taking away tv for the week being the best thing ever.  Freezer meals made by friends that made dinners so easy.  Cool weather that means open windows.  Not much on the schedule that's letting us just hang out.  New school lunch supplies and just one selection that didn't involve pink.  

Some favorites from recently: 

On Kids and Entitlement (and Simplicity,) "No matter how much I want to want less, it's a concept I embrace more in theory than in practice...But maybe that wanting is a good enough place to start. Maybe that bone-deep itch to slough off the excess is like the mosquito bite on my right ankle - the more I scratch it, the longer it sticks around....Whether by necessity or pure choice, we can opt out of gift-wrapping the lie for our kids that they need the thing that "everyone else" has. We can instill lessons about necessity and budgeting without ever saying the words."

Foibles of local eating (& tomatoes many ways) "Things seem pretty good for seasonal, local food, if you take a look at my dining room table. I don’t have a ton of disposable income, but I chose to spend a lot of it on tomatoes last weekBreathe: "Today, just do the things in front of you. And if you don’t get it all done? No worries. Just start again tomorrow. Breathe deeply."

How to Make a Watercolor Chart: "They're a bit time-consuming to create (it took me about 2 hours in total to make mine), but making them is therapeutic."

New to Canning? Start Here: Boiling Water Bath Canning: "We all find ways to make it work with the tools, equipment and space that we have. In the end, the most important things are that you get your jars hot, that you fill them to the proper headspace, and that you process them for the amount of time prescribed by your recipe. There’s a good deal of flexibility in the rest of the details."

This Morning I Yelled: "at my son for refusing to put on his shoes, at my clean unfolded laundry for covering the couch, at the rats for reproducing and forcing me to kill their babies, at my daughter for taking 30 minutes to choose a pair of earrings, at the black mold in my bathroom, at my kids in the carpool drop-off line to hurry up and don't forget your lunch please say thank you to the woman opening the door Bella don't hit Dash even though he's annoying. I thought I was done yelling. And then that new Taylor Swift song came on. So I yelled at Taylor as I drove to the grocery store...So when I need a break or a breath or a boost or a shift, I make some ice cream. The great neutralizer. I think you might like my strawberry ice cream, Taylor. I would love to serve you some on my back porch. 

A Little Bit Wild: "My garden is pretty different than my vision for it was early this spring, and from any previous year. It has taken me a while, but I am finally fully appreciating and enjoying it for what it has become. Instead of seeming haphazard and messy, it now seems full, textural, thriving and beautiful."

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