I'm writing this post from the comforts of a quiet kitchen. It's crazy-warm here today--pushing 70 degrees. Dan is in the garden and Emma's running around outside somewhere in short sleeves. This weather is wild.
So anyway, back to a quiet kitchen. All I'm doing is making a batch of chocolate chip cookies. But it's the first time in awhile that I've been in my kitchen all. by. myself. (I hear that phrase in my two year old's voice, by the way.) Usually, my kitchen is overrun by "helpers" and that usually brings a good share of chaos. Two nights ago, I was making a batch of chili on the stove. Two chairs had been pulled up to the stove front for overeager helpers--one to dump the beans and one to pour the tomato soup in...I reached across to give it all a stir, amidst the six hands in the dutch oven, and ran my finger swiftly across the lid of the can Emma was dumping in to the pot.

It's the first time I've really cut myself since being on "the shots" for my blood clot, and my first reaction was that I was going to bleed to death, right here, from this slice in my finger. All over a pot of chili...well over the sink, really, but all because of a pot of chili. I managed to clot in record time, though, in case you're wondering. And taking this picture, I realize my cut is in TV-quality location. Isn't this where the lady in the neosporin commercials has her cut? Hers heals so nicely.

(moving on, i've now burned two trays of cookies. don't blog while you wait for your cookies to bake. or use a timer.)

Speaking of cooking and food--last weekend Dan and I shopped at an Amish-run grocery store. In reality, it is a grocery outlet. It is a beautiful 40-minute drive from here in the heart of Amish countryside. You pass horse and buggy on the road and their pristine farms with laundry lines full of clothes, strung from an upstairs window all the way up to the tip of the barn roof. They have the lines on a pulley so that you can hang your laundry from inside. I guess when you hang clothes year-round, you want to hang them from the warmth of your upstairs window.
The amish grocery store was amazing. It has no lights, just sky lights cut out of the ceiling. The only electricity, is used to run the refrigerators and freezers. And the prices are unbeatable. However, you have to be willing to buy a box of cereal that is dented, or a box of taco shells that is a month away from its expiration. I filled, overflowed my cart and was a little panicked that my two hundred dollars cash wouldn't be enough...but she rang it up and....sixty dollars! can you believe it. I think I'll be making that trip ever other week and might actually make my grocery budget this month.

Well, there was more to write but this is getting long and I really shouldn't burn another batch. Emma's birthday is monday, and today Dan and I filled one of her birthday wishes. But I'll save that for Monday.

I've also extended the miniswap signups until Monday. We're at about one hundred people right now. We'll see what Monday brings.