Good Morning! I thought I would begin the week by creating a series of Monday Musings… things I’ve been particularly excited about, listening to, reading, discovered online… Hopefully they will be interesting to you as well!

… I’m spending a lot of time reading this.

We’ve been cooking from and loving this cookbook/book.

I can’t get enough of this music (check out all of his albums- you won’t be disappointed)!

And at work the kids and I are enjoying this lovely c.d.

I just bought me some of these to make my bulk bin buys a little greener

And I am pondering buying my doggies this and this because well,

they are just so darn cute!

I received this in the mail this past weekend and I am quickly pouring through its beautiful pages.

And something for fun because I can’t believe I am already thinking about Halloween!

Happy Monday!

Every Friday for the past month now, I have been biking to work. I have been wanting to do this now since we moved relatively closer to my work but not being extremely close and not feeling the most comfortable on my brothers old bike, I was still very cautious. So, a few months back I decided to finally buy myself a very nice commuter bike, outfit it with a front basket and bungy cords to strap on anything to the back and after watching the documentary No Impact Man– I finally decided to just do it. Take my car off the road for one day a week and get some much needed exercise while doing it. And believe it or not, the almost 10 miles were not so bad, in fact I rather enjoyed seeing a whole other side to this California city I very much dislike. In fact, these Friday rides have given me a reason to like this city and I am warming to the idea of it every time I get out on that road.

It’s as if I stumbled upon this natural treasure. Instead of SUV’s cutting me off and bumping over the same pot holes and hitting the same lights and listening to radio commercials with air conditioning blowing artificially into my face, I get to see wildflowers and wild bunnies and even the occasional coyote. The other day I even got to see a bobcat stare at me from the bike path and then jump into the bushes creating a frenzy of dogs barking from nearby houses. I had no idea this town even had bobcats!

I decided this past Friday to capture some of the images I see on my rides every week. I love the feeling seeing this nature gives me. It helps me appreciate Southern California’s open spaces, even though they are most often hidden behind the asphalt and brick walls.

On those Fridays I ride, I become more aware of my surroundings and I respect even the smallest of earths creatures. It’s good in my line of work to begin the day with this respect for the earth and I find it almost meditative riding my bike instead of driving.

I am trying to work up to a few days a week riding to work, but with so many things to get done in a day and the time it takes me to get home in the evenings, for now I will try and keep my once a week ride steady.

“Each new year is a surprise for us. We had virtually forgotten the note of each bird, and when we hear it again, it is remembered like a dream, reminding us of a previous state of existence… The voice of nature is always encouraging.”

-Henry David Thoreau

I had the opportunity to visit with dear friends this weekend and even though I see these women pretty often, it always makes me think about where our lives are headed, where they have been and how they are still intertwined after so many years of friendship. I stumbled across this fantastic website and it reminded me of how important gathering with friends really is and how I need to make sure my friends I do this more often. Just talking and being with these woman remind me of who I am and what I may become and what I want to be and even what I don’t want to be. Gathering with people you have grown up with and discussing the ways of the world is such an intimate, wonderful experience and I am thankful I have these women in my life. I am thankful I have had the opportunity to grow with them and to be learning from them. And I hope they in turn learn from me.

This weekend was filled with fun and good food. Jeff tried a new multigrain bread recipe from a magazine we discovered a few weeks ago called COOKS Illustrated.

My cooking endeavours this weekend were a little less work but boy was it yummy. After finding this recipe on ones of my favorite blogs, I decided to try popping my own popcorn and making the basil parm drizzle with my own garden basil. It was very fun and a great weekend treat! 

And one last thing I had to share, something that really excites me, almost like its a piece of art I put together every Sunday…. my refrigerator. I absolutely love to come home, cloth bags full of veggies and fruit from the farmers market, meat and cheese, glass containers of milk…. and fill up my refrigerator just right. My husband knows to stay out of the kitchen when I am “arranging the food.” Yes, it sounds a little nuts and a little OCD, but it makes me feel good to see the bounty of what will be turned into next weeks breakfasts, lunches and dinners.

Picked my first Persian Cucumber.Enjoyed a yummy dinner of Heirloom Beans, ground turkey, peas, eggs and croutons made from Jeff’s homemade bread. We used this recipe substituting frozen peas for the broccoli. And enjoyed our fantastic meal under the light of moon glow. Spent some time working on doggie training… specifically recall. Enjoyed the warm weather at the Antique Market where Jeff finally found a straight razor. As well as visited our favorite Sunday spot- The Farmers Market, for fresh beans, berries and other goodies.

Our Farmers market Loot! (Yes, we came out of there with ANOTHER plant. This time a blueberry bush to round out our berry collection). My antique market find- a lovely little teapot I had my eyes on for months. It was still there so I finally grabbed it up and made it mine. I also grabbed up the matching salt and pepper shakers too. I love the little farm depiction with the family working in their garden. Jeff ended the weekend by making two fabulous loaves of bread, recipe from Whole Foods For The Whole Family, a cookbook my mom used all the time.

A wonderful way to end the weekend. Warm bread, two tired puppy dogs, laundry folded and put away and the welcoming arms of one fantastic husband.

Happy Sunday!

It took me quite a few months to finally finish it, but I completed Jeff’s birthday blanket (his birthday was in May) while I was on vacation  last week. It was a mish mash of scrap fabrics (you may notice some Anna Maria Horner and Aunt June fabrics) and I did not do much measuring… I just threw it together as best I could, but it came out pretty nice. Even Miss Charlotte our French Bulldog decided the blanket was comfy. Of course she decides to lay down right as I’m trying to pin the blanket. With my novice sewing skills, I made a few major mistakes, one being I didn’t have enough muslin to cover the back, so I had to sew on some scrap chenille to finish the back off. The last stitches on the machine ended badly as well, when the needle got stuck in the mass of fabric and batting and lo and behold, I broke that needle right in half, right before I finished sewing the edges. So, here I am hand-sewing the rest of it.

The blanket came out very lovely and the belated birthday boy seemed content  to finally enjoy his hand made present.

I have always been a writer. When I moved in with my husband he wondered why I had so many plastic tubs full of notebooks (that filled his garage to the brim). I told him they were my journals. One for pretty much every year I was alive since I was about eight. Add my stories, my poems, my nature journals, my books of songs and anything else I wanted to write down and you have an extraordinary amount of stuff written down. I rarely go into those tubs and read anything I wrote as a kid. I find it self involved and dramatic. And yet, here I am writing on a blog. A blog I have been struggling with writing now for almost a year. I wanted to write, I didn’t want to write. I didn’t want the whole world to read my writing and then I feared the world wouldn’t want to read what I had to say. I think I finally decided to start this because I have been so truly inspired by so many blogs I have discovered over the past year. These inspirational blogs touch on marriage, children, gardening, decorating, organic lifestyles and so much more. These topics interest me now more than ever and reading their stories and seeing their lives has influenced me on so many levels. I wanted to document my own journey through marriage and how I am trying to create a loving, warm, organic, creative, green life. So… here we go…