Pita Bread/Flat Bread

I love pita bread.  I just think it is so cool to stuff your sandwich stuff into a pocket of bread.  I love the ratio of bread to stuffing/filling with pita bread.  Kind of like Goldilocks, you know?  Not too much bread like regular bread and not too little bread like a wrap.  No, a pita is just right.

I think smearing your pita bread into some hummus gives you just the right combination of chewy and creamy in every bite.  The problem?  I don't like store-bought pita bread.  Never have.  I like home-made pita bread...the kind you find in restaurants that have gyros and falafels on their menus.   I don't go to a lot of those, which means I don't have pita bread very often.

Up until now...  (Pita and egg-salad...yum!)  Now I have the power of pita at home. 

One of my friends in "real life" gave me an awesome recipe for pita bread last week and I couldn't wait to try it.  Actually, we were kind of trading recipes...I gave her the English muffin recipe and she reciprocated with her pita bread recipe.  Seems like a fair trade to me.

With no excuse other than I wanted to, I gave her recipe a try and it was fabulous.  I confess to having messed something up and most of my pitas didn't rise to form pockets, but the flat bread I was left with was so good that no one cared.  The entire batch was gone in about ten minutes. Seriously, they were that good. 

Oh, did I mention that the recipe was simple, too?  Well, it is.  See for yourself...this is the recipe exactly as she gave it to me.  (And, see?  A few of the pockets did rise and give me pita bread...I felt so special.)

Pita Bread
by Myshell

Ingredients:

1 T. active dry yeast
1 T. sugar
1/2 c. warm water
4 c. bread flour
2 t. salt
1 c. warm water
1 T. olive oil

Preparation:

Dissolve the yeast and sugar in 1/2 c. of the warm water and set aside, covered, for 15 mins.  Dissolve salt in the remaining 1 c. of warm water.

In a large mixing bowl, add flour and make a well in the center.  Add yeast mixture and salt water.  Knead with hands for 10 minutes in the bowl.  Add olive oil and continue to knead until all oil is absorbed.  Shape into a ball in the bowl, cover, and place in a warm area to rise until doubled in volume, approximately 1 1/2 to 2 hrs.  Punch down the dough and knead for 5 mins more.

Preheat oven to 350 F, and lightly oil baking sheets.

Take pieces of dough slightly larger than and egg and roll out on a floured surface to a thickness of 3/8 to 1/4 inch.  (For larger or smaller pita bread pieces, take more or less dough).  Prick the bread with a fork in several places.  *note - this causes a flatbread, if you want pockets, don't prick.  (I didn't prick...I don't know what happened.)

Place on a baking sheet and bake at 350F on the lowest oven rack for 2-3 mins.  then turn the pitas over and bake for another 2-3 mins.  *  Note:  I find they taste so much better if they are brushed with a little melted butter or olive oil and seasoned with a little garlic salt before baking.  Remove from oven and place on a tray covered with a clean dishtowel, with another clean towel on top.  When thoroughly cooled, pitas can be stored in plastic bags in the fridge, or frozen.

Before using/eating, brown on both sides in a lightly oiled frying pan for a few minutes.


P.S.  Did I mention I'm making another batch today?  It was that good.

We did it ourselves! Installing a Dual-Flushing Mechanism on Your Toilet

Saw this post on Young House Love.  (This couple is so creative...I am humbled by the stuff they dream up.)  Anyway, as they were preparing for the arrival of their first child, they were doing all kinds of fun things...who knew the bathroom would be included?  John's pictures were so clear and his instructions even made sense to a non-plumbing kind of girl.  When I saw them, my used-to-live-in-So-Cal-always-conscious-of-water-self thought, "Hey, I can do that!"  I showed it to Valiant and he agreed...definitely doable.  (Just to be clear, we ignored the diaper cleaning part of the post...we're long past that stage of life.)  Okay, actually, Valiant did the whole thing.  I just bought the thing - $24.99 at Home Depot.  It took him 10 minutes from start to finish.

This is the inside of the tank before we changed anything. (Oh, and please excuse the paint...this is the one room we haven't tackled since we moved in.  It needs to be gutted and we're scared to touch anything until we're ready to do it all.) :

This is the inside of the tank after...the flapper has been replaced:

This is my new handle.  (Which means no one could flush with feet at my house, but that is a different post altogether!)

Anyway, just as easily as he said, Valiant gave me a dual flush toilet and now I'm using less water to send some stuff through the pipes. (We pay almost nothing for water here, but I like the idea of  using as little fresh water as possible. It is precious.  In So Cal, water was EXPENSIVE.)   Now that we've taken it on a test run, we're planning to do our two other toilets. 

I think Superman will approve.

(What?  You're not quite sure what I'm talking about with this whole dual-flush toilet thingy?  Okay...fair enough.   Head back to Junior High and think of it this way:  Number 1 wastes go down with less water than Number 2 wastes.  No major changes, just adjust how much water is used depending upon your needs.)

Dingy Whites? Sunshine Orange!

I had some seriously dingy white shirts.  Just keeping it real.  Actually, whites are the bane of my existence.  I've tried everything to keep my whites white.  You name it, I've tried it, with little measurable success.  I think we need a water softener, but, until then, we'll just have to deal with dingy whites.  I hate them.  I feel terrible that we stop wearing clothing that, with the exception of the color, is in really good condition.  But that is what happens because this is my real life.  My whites don't stay very white and become dingy.   The dingy clothes stay in the closet in favor of brighter, cleaner-looking clothing.

$1.62 later, I had this beautiful box of RIT dye.  Sunshine Orange, to be exact.

A quick jaunt to the utility sink and I had those dingy whites in a lovely orange bath.  I even threw in a Trader Joe's bag for good measure.  Impulsive, aren't I?  (I'm boycotting TJ's because they won't come to my city and they should.  Even worse?  They teased us by shopping properties and then pulling out.)  Anyway, back to my story.

Half an hour later, I put the formerly dingy clothes into the washer for a rinse/spin cycle and ran out to add them to the clothesline.

Look at these!  Four different fabrics (3 of which were 100% cotton), netted four different results.  Buttercup's cami seems more golden, doesn't it?  (It is not actually splotchy...the fabric was dryer in some places than others!)

Oh, the TJ's bag?  I love the way the dye highlighted the crinkles in the linen.  Now I'm going to line it and sew some abstract patch over the logo and start using it again.

Food for Thought

"The greater danger for most of us is not
that our aim is too high and we miss it,
but that it is too low and we reach it."
- Michelangelo

Blogging is Such Hard Work!

When I was typing up my blog about our "stick chores", Bean was "helping me".  After chasing after the mouse pointer on the monitor and helping me with the keyboard, she quickly realized that blogging is hard work.

It took her a few adjustments, but she finally got herself right in the heat cast by the halogen bulb in my recessed light and went to sleep.

A well-deserved nap.

"It's Not My Job!"

I think two of my least favorite phrases to hear my children utter are:  "it's not my job!" or some version of "I didn't leave it there."  There are variations of both, of course.  There is the every popular, "that is Buttercup's chore" or "I took mine, he obviously didn't put his away" or "well, it is mine, but I didn't leave it there/use it/take it out".  All of these phrases are thrown at me as I question how my very intelligent, very capable children can step over something on the floor without picking it up, ignore messes in common spaces, and walk away while a task is only half done.  Seriously.

You'd think they'd not been taught.  Yet, these are the same children that will (rightly) mentally denigrate those who walk away from a fast food table filled with trash ("Look, Mom, why didn't they just clear their table?  That is so rude."); children who always, always put the shopping cart in the shopping cart area ("Mom, we used it, we should make it available for others.") and run to get the door when entering public places ("After you.  Oh, no, after you.")  Proof positive that they have been taught and, even better, have absorbed the lesson of sharing this world with others:  When you're done with something, leave it ready for the next person.

At home it is a different story altogether:  Bathrooms, kitchen, dining room, family room, floors, stairs, trash cans, garden tools, DVDs...really anything that might be shared in the home.  These things have been a problem.  "Valiant, would you please pick up the book from the floor rather than stepping over it? " would always be met with "Buttercup left it there."  Um, okay, she shouldn't have left it there, but you shouldn't have just ignored the fact that it was there and stepped over it!  "Buttercup, did you remember to hang the bathroom rug on the shower door?"  is met with "Valiant left it there after his shower, so even though I took the last shower, since he took it down, he should be responsible for putting it back".


I could spend three days coming up with examples and still not scratch the surface, but you get the point.  It all translates to one simple idea:  It is not MY job, so I'm going to pretend it doesn't need to be done.


Look, my kids do a terrific job at taking care of their personal spaces.  They've learned that I won't do it for them (or maybe they've learned they really don't want me to do it form them), and they keep their stuff presentable.  It is the common spaces that no one wants to take ownership of and it makes me crazy.

In an effort to get my kids to understand the idea that everyone has to be willing to do everything, I borrowed an idea from first grade classes everywhere.  I remember the teachers would have the kids draw sticks for assigned tasks - room monitor, passing out papers, saying the Pledge, etc.  The jobs belonged to everyone, not just one person.  I thought, why wouldn't this work at home?  After two months, I'm happy to report that it does and I decided we'd been successful enough with this little experiment to share it with you.

 
First I picked 10 relatively balanced tasks so that no one got overloaded and no one got underloaded:  vacuum main stairs is balanced by vacuum basement stairs; clean upstairs bathroom is balance by clean guest bathroom, and so on.  Then, to begin with, I put out 5 piles of two sticks each , each with pairs of chores, but face down, so the kids couldn't see the chores they were choosing.  Then the kids took turns picking from the pile.  If Buttercup picked first from pile one, then Valiant would get the stick she didn't choose and then he'd get to pick first from pile two, leaving her with the unchosen stick.  Whatever 5 sticks you got, you did...no complaining and no whining.  After awhile, I stopped putting them in five piles and just had them take turns pulling sticks until all the sticks were chosen.

And, it is working!  Seriously.  The kids are starting to understand that leaving something undone is the same as saying, "I'm expecting someone else to clean this up."  They're also understanding that all the chores have to get done, not just the ones that are their personal chores.  They're learning that if everyone does a little, no one person is done doing the bulk of the work.  Finally, the kids are learning to look around and see things that need to be done and actually do them, before they're asked to. That, my friends, means Mom isn't doing everything and the help she is receiving is actually help.  How cool is that?

In fact, I'm getting ready to add a few more things to the stick chore pile.  Things like "change litter box", "brush dogs", "brush cat", and "add water to turtle tank".  Hey, more pets means more work for everyone, including the kids.

Stick chores!  Doesn't your house have a few?

Should We Tell Her She's Not a Puppy?

I think Bean is confused.  She sees a tennis ball and, well, she chases it.

Look...

First, she chases it.

Then, she tries to grab it.

She wrestles with it.

Finally, she begins to chew it.

Seriously, should we tell her?

Keeping Myself Honest and Saving Fabric for Specific Jobs

Since we're in the midst of aggressive debt reduction, I have to be very careful about any money we spend.  One of the things I cannot do anymore is buy fabric just because it is pretty.  I cannot troll the fabric aisles at Walmart or head to JoAnn's  or Hancock's to see what might be on sale.  Without a project in mind, I "just say no".  Any fabric I buy these days must have an assigned purpose.  (Tragic, I know.)

What I still can do, however, is take advantage of a sale before I'm ready to tackle a new sewing project.   For example, I found the perfect fabric for my new dining room seat covers when I was at the fabric store looking for a new piece of hardware for my overalls. It was an awesome deal on the right color on the remnant table and I nabbed it.   I haven't been ready to sew said seat covers, however, and keeping the fabric in the plastic bag from the store isn't very useful.  So, what do you do with fabric that you've assigned for a certain task, but you can't tend to right away?  You have to put it somewhere, right?  You want it protected.  You want to remember where you stashed it. You don't want to forget why you bought it, right?

Well, if you're like me, you probably hold on to weird things, such as these zipper pouches that curtain panels and sheets often come in.  (Oh, come on, you know it is so difficult to throw away something that looks like it should be so useful!)

I had a zillion of these at one time, but I did break down and donate most of them.  Still, I held on to quite a few because I was certain I could come up with something amazing and I did!

Ta Da!  These zipper pouches are perfect for special project fabric.  Most of them even have this little pouch that the labeling was housed in.  I just turned the label around and wrote my own label.   Not only do they keep the fabrics safe, they keep me honest.  I can't very well say I "need" fabric, when I've got some these fabric pouches waiting to be used, now can I?

P.S.  They're also terrific for wet bags, impromptu diaper/wipe stashes - even an extra baby outfit if you have a big enough bag (like one from a duvet cover or king-sized sheet set) - when I had babies, I had diapers, wipes, and a change for clothes for baby stashed in each car, each bag, and really anywhere I could think of.  They saved the day more times than I'd like to admit.

Father's Day!

For those of us who were raised by men who didn't give us life, but instead by men who gave us a life, I share this wisdom.  Happy Father's Day, Dad!  I love you!

It is not flesh and blood but the heart which makes us fathers and sons [and daughters].  ~Johann Schiller

Food For Thought - Father's Day Edition

 Sherman made the terrible discovery that men make about their fathers sooner or later... that the man before him was not an aging father but a boy, a boy much like himself, a boy who grew up and had a child of his own and, as best he could, out of a sense of duty and, perhaps love, adopted a role called Being a Father so that his child would have something mythical and infinitely important: a Protector, who would keep a lid on all the chaotic and catastrophic possibilities of life.  ~Tom Wolfe, The Bonfire of the Vanities

 Dear Superman,


Time sure flies, doesn't it?  This picture is already 11 years old!  For almost 20 years, you've been their Protector and you have kept "a lid on all the chaotic and catastrophic possibilities of life".  I couldn't have picked a better Father for my children.


I love you,


Erin

Homemade English Muffins

A few weeks ago, the kids and I were having some English muffins with our breakfast when we all concluded that we just didn't like them.  It occurred to me that we've gotten so unused to processed baked goods that we can taste all the extra stuff in store bought English muffins.  I remembered liking English muffins so much as a kid that I couldn't imagine my tastes had changed that much.  If not my tastes changing, it had to have been the English muffins that changed.

So, I set out to test that hypothesis by making my own English muffins using the recipe from Peter Reinhart's Bread Baker's Apprentice.  First off, they were easier than I'd anticipated, but with two 60-90 minute rises, took longer than I'd thought they would.  Secondly, they were so worth it!  Seriously...they were fabulous.  Fabulous enough that I made a second batch last weekend and they're already gone.  Don't these look gorgeous?

Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice.

2 1/4 cups flour
1/2 Tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 tsp instant yeast
1 Tbsp shortening or butter (at room temperature)
3/4 – 1 cup milk (at room temperature)
cornmeal for sprinkling

1. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, salt and yeast. mix in the shortening and 3/4 cup of the milk. add the remaining milk if the dough is too dry.

2. Transfer the dough to a floured surface and knead for about 10 minutes. place in a lightly oiled bowl and roll to coat. cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rise for about an hour. Divide the dough into 6 equal pieces and shape into balls (this is where you need to use your judgement...you might easily get more than six...we got roughly 9). Lay parchment paper on a baking sheet and spray (I used a Silpat) or lightly coat with oil and sprinkle with cornmeal. Move the dough balls to the baking sheet evenly spaced apart (giving them room to rise more). Cover the pan loosely with plastic wrap and allow them to rise for another hour.

3. Heat the oven to 350 F and heat up a skillet  on medium heat on the stove top or an electric griddle at 350F (I used an electric griddle). Brush the skillet with oil and gently transfer the dough balls to the skillet a few at a time. Allow them to cook on the skillet for 5-8 minutes, until the bottoms are nicely browned. carefully flip and cook the other side for about 5-8 minutes more. They should flatten as they cook.

4. When the muffins look as if they are about to burn, remove them from the skillet with a spatula and transfer quickly to a baking sheet. Bake at 350 for 5-8 minutes. Do not wait until all of the muffins have been cooked on the skillet before moving them to the oven – as the first batch is baking, move the second batch of muffins to the skillet.

5. Transfer the baked muffins to a cooling rack and let cool for at least 30 minutes before slicing or serving. serve with lots of butter and jelly. store them as you would muffins you buy in the store – in a sealed ziploc bag in the fridge or freezer.


After making this recipe twice, I have a few tips:

1)  If you forget to make your milk room temperature, your first rise will take forever. (Yes, I did that the second time I made them...oops.)

2)  Doubling the recipe gets you roughly 18 English muffins.

3)  A kitchen scale is my new best friend.  Measuring flour accurately is so much easier with a kitchen scale.  It eliminates the issues with compacted vs. non-compacted flour.  I found mine for $2.99 at a thrift store.

4)  If you really want huge English muffins, make each muffin 4 oz as the recipe calls for.  Otherwise, for normal-sized English muffins, stick with 2 oz.  (Again, the kitchen scale came in handy here...we just weighed each hunk before we formed the muffin balls and ended up with a uniform result.)

Shoot Me: 21 of 52 - Rainy Day MAC Edition

I've been absent from Shoot Me as I've been swamped at home, but getting back into my routine means getting back to Shoot Me, so I'm jumping in today, albeit at the end of the day. 

We broke with our regular routine and joined some friends at the MAC today.  Some of our former home-schooling friends started traditional public school this year and school is finally out for summer, so Buttercup didn't want to wait to see them.  So, despite the rain, we headed into town to visit for a few hours.  On the way out, I handed the camera to my friend and said, "Hey, take a picture of me with my kids for my blog!"  She laughed and complied.

So, here you have it, me with Buttercup and Valiant for my 21st entry in Shoot Me!  I don't know if I'll ever be "caught up", but I'll definitely do all 52 pictures...I made the commitment and I'll stick to it.

The first thing I noticed when I saw this picture?  Valiant is taller than me!  I don't know if he's really taller than I am, but he's sure looking that way here, isn't it?    How weird is that?  The second thing I noticed?  I really need to do something with my hair.  I just wish I knew what.  Sigh. 

Shoot Me is the brainchild of Carin at Forever In Blue Jeans...a year long project in which you include yourself in at least one photo you snap each week.   I'm still a week behind, but I'm catching up.  Carin Says:
It's time to stop hiding behind that camera of yours. Your family is missing you in the picture. So it's time to post a picture of YOU (yes, you) every Thursday with your child, your spouse, your friend, your dog, or even by yourself. Just get in the picture, you'll be glad you did! And just jump in now with 1 of 52, you can do it!

Copycat Dog Gate/Barrier

One of my new favorite blogs is Sew Many Ways.   Karen is so clever.  I don't quilt, but I do so love her Tool Time Tuesday posts.   She is always coming up with incredibly clever home ec/home dec uses for home improvement store products.  Seriously.  I spent a good hour reading her old Tool Time Tuesday posts when I first discovered Karen.  Now I just get her blog in my reader.  I'm hooked.   Anyway, a few weeks ago, she did a post featuring a clever solution she came up with to keep her elderly dog from going up and down the stairs and a light-bulb went off in my head!  I don't have elderly dogs, but I was struggling to come up with a way to keep my dogs off the deck when we're eating and her clever idea worked perfectly.  I hope Karen is of the mind that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, because I can't be more sincere than wanting to copy something someone else did and place it in my home.

Like Karen, I just fashioned a frame from PVC and covered it with fabric.  In my case, I used some of the fabric I have for the new seat cushions.  (Target clearance-priced outdoor tablecloths from last fall as they cleared out their summer stuff...best way ever to get yardage inexpensively.  See how faded my seat cushions are?)  And, viola, 15 minutes from start to finish and I have a cute way to keep Daisy and Lucy off the deck.

It is easy to slide in place and easy to move if you want to get by.  As you might imagine, the dogs aren't nearly as thrilled with Karen's idea as we are, but they'll live.

Spray Painting Fool...

I blame Sharon at Keen Inspirations.  Or maybe I blame the blog Better After.  Or maybe I blame House of Hepworth.  Maybe I should just blame them all.  I've become a - gasp - spray painting fool.

Seriously.  I think I am a victim of the Power of Suggestion.  The first sunny day in weeks saw me outside with two cans of spray paint and I went a bit wild.

Suddenly all the little things that have bugged me have gotten to be too much and I've painted them.  All of them.

The white frame on my memo board above my desk?  It is now black.  I think it looks fabulous against the "macaroni & cheese" orange in the family room.  

The off-white frame of the upstairs magnet board/key hook?  Black.

So ,too, the mirror than was formerly Buttercup's and is now Valiant's (it had been cheerfully decorated with hamsters and rainbows when it lived with Buttercup and wasn't Valiant's cup of tea-go figure), and the tarnished-never-polished-brass candlesticks that never seemed to go with anything.  Nothing escaped my spray painting hands.   The weird little plastic tray that was turquoise, orange, and yellow stripes?  Black. (It is now in my bathroom holding retainers and watches quite neatly.) The unfinished basket that was holding mail?  Black and holding remote controls in the family room.  Seriously. 

Even this cute little bird is now black.  (Isn't this bird cute?  I got it at Lowe's last year for $1.48...I just didn't know how to use it.  As you can see, I've figured it out.)

Then, sadly, I ran out of paint.   The mixing ball in the can of paint had nothing to impede its progress as it rattled around in the can.  Two cans of spray paint drained dry and I was finished.

Oh, one more thing...

Did I mention that Sharon at Keen Inspiration has read my mind and posted about turning a bowling ball into a faux gazing ball?  Surprise...she used spray paint!  I think the future is clear for Charming's bowling ball.  What do you think?

Catching Up...

Sometimes I think life passes at the speed of light.  Blink and you miss it.  I've been so busy lately, I find that I don't have any time to sit at the computer.  The kids and I sat down over the weekend and discussed how overwhelmed we're all feeling and decided on a few things we're going to try to alleviate the situation and make us feel more in charge of our lives.  Finger's crossed that we have a good week.

In the meantime, I thought I'd catch you up with a few things we've had going on:

A few weeks ago, I polled you all regarding the disposition of all my unused scrapbooking stuff.  You all gave me so much to think about and think about it I did.  After much consideration, I decided to decide in September.  My goal is to get some scrapbooking done this summer, but if I haven't gotten any scrapbooking done by September, all my unused paper, a bunch of unused punches, and various other stuff will be a) shipped to my sister if she still wants them or b) donated to Goodwill.  

I had the opportunity to take my kids to the Silver Mountain Resort indoor water park on the 4th of June.  It was an awesome deal worked for our homeschooling group.  At $10 per person, it was worth the drive.  They had a blast, especially because the cool, rainy weather hadn't abated in days and they were romping around in bathing suits. 


After weeks of rainy weather, leaky roofs (water was dripping off a light fixture - no, I am not joking!), and sprinkler issues, I think I've finally begun to get a handle on caring for the house and yard while homeschooling.  Sometimes it is just getting back to the basics, which for us means routine, that makes the difference between productivity and aimless wandering.  Lawns get mowed every Monday (weather permitting), weeding happens three times a week, the filter for the koi pond gets cleaned out once a week, and  plants get fertilized weekly (a Tootsie tip!).  Oh, and my dear old dad got my weed whacker working well (pretty good alliteration, wasn't it?), so that is one less arm cramp.

19-year old Charming is desperately looking for an apartment.  It's been a month since he graduated from Whitworth and he's very clear on the fact that he doesn't want to live at home to expedite paying off his student loans.  He does have a job and a plan, so he's just got to find a place to call "home".  He's very clearly an independent adult and is chafing at living at home, so while I think it may be short-sighted, I truly understand his decision. 

Superman's been away from home for five months now and none of it has been easy.  One of the casualties has been our schooling schedule.  It feels like we settle into a rhythm and something new and disruptive enters our lives (greenhouse disasters, leaky roofs, baby animals, returning family members, etc.), so we've decided to keep schooling through summer for math, writing, typing, grammar, and spelling.  We're also investigating science curriculum.  Does anyone use one they love?  We've looked at Thinkwell, CyberEd/Plato, Fascinating Biology, and Discovery Education Science.  I'm struggling to pick one and would love to know what you all have done.  (Buttercup is entering 6th grade and Valiant is entering 9th grade.)

All the animals are healthy, and all the cats/kittens are getting along fine.  We haven't had any "introducing a new pet" difficulties, thank goodness.  

So, there you have it...a few of the things we've been working on the past few weeks.  It doesn't sound like a lot, but I have to tell you, it keeps me busy!  This week, I'll be showing you some home-made English Muffins, a clever anti-dog gate, and other exciting projects I've been working on.   Thanks for hanging in there...I really appreciate it.

Meet "Bean"

Bean was abandoned the day she was born...the vet clinic received her that day, with her umbilical cord still attached.  After five weeks of vet techs bottle feeding her, teaching her to use the litter box, and various other aspects of nursing her to health, they gave her to us.  We brought her home a week and a half ago--the day she turned five weeks old.

She was so little when she was brought in, that they started calling her "Bean".  She responds to it, so we didn't think we should change her name, so Bean she is.

She's is too cute...she'll be 7 weeks on Friday.  She wrestles with the older kitties and she  ignores the dogs, so all is good.  Sometimes, however, she just gets so tired.  Today, she decided she couldn't make it all the way down the stairs without a little nap. 

So, she stopped and took a nap right where she was.  Come on!  Tell me that isn't cute?

So, for those of you trying to keep track, we now have Sam-I-Am, Ninja, Cajun, and Bean.  No more kitties for us...we're full-up again!

Shabby Blogs Has New Stuff Available

ShabbyBlogs.com has new summer backgrounds up.  I jumped on it and updated my background.

In case you've ever wondered...

This is what would happen if a hamster and a cat got married and had a baby.  (The bubbles would be extra.)

by Buttercup