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I am baaaaack!

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Goodness so much has happened over summer and as fall has begun.  I had intended to be able to blog more but well you know......... We have two extra little people living with us now days and that just adds to my happy chaos.  Oh and makes me bone tired.  I am still working out whenever I can and I joined a running group here in town.  I have another five k on Saturday. I have been canning and making stuff like mad so I will attempt to catch up over the next few days with the tutorials and ideas. A couple of weeks ago we were in the cities which of course means I went to Trader Joes and Dragonstar Market.  I love the deals I can get down there.  One of my deals was a heap of Thai basil for pesto.  I try to by a heap each time we go so I can make it all up and then freeze the pesto for later.  I love easy suppers. My pesto recipe is another one of those things in my head.  If you have made pesto before you will know what to look, smell and taste for as you go along.  I suppose if you
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More strawberries.

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So for the second round of berry canning delight I went with Strawberry Lemonade concentrate.  I found the recipe on pinterest.  The recipe for this concoction is found here.... http://www.myrecipemagic.com/recipe/recipedetail/restaurant-style-strawberry-lemonade-concentrate It is very yummy and I will be saving most of mine for New Years Eve when I will serve it mixed with chilled sparkling water.  Here is the catch, don't be like me.  I went to Target and bought a little hand operated one.  YOu know the kind, where it has a cone like thing and catcher.  For this you really need either an electric type one, one like they have at those lemon ade  places at the mall where you pull the handle and it smushes the lemon half or about a dozen minions.  I had one minion and he declared it to be an awful lot of work.  He was right.  It takes a lot of lemons to get to five cups.  But honestly the flavor of fresh lemons is worth it.  The little one is going to a friend of mine.  You h
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Strawberries

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It is that time of year.  You know, the one when all the delicious things come in to season and that means it is time to start canning.  Well thanks to that lovely prolonged winter we endure here in the northland this year we are just now hitting that season.  This week it is strawberries.  I finally broke down and went to pick our own.  We went to Finke's Berry Farm. Definitely recommend them the berries are fabulous and chemical free.  I am amazed that Stir and the girls didn't have belly aches by the time we got home they were snitching so many.  We brought home 25 quarts of strawberries.  Ok we left the farm with that many.  But now I have to do something with all these berries.  There is a lot of canning in my future.  And in my posts to follow. I am starting with my favorite strawberry jam which is strawberry-rhubarb.  Hey I am doing the canning my stuff first.  I like it because I think the rhubarb lends some sharpness to a cloyingly sweet jam.  But because I am me and
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Progress

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I know, you are probably wondering why you are looking at the  calluses on my hand when the post is title progress.  But those ugly things do represent my progress.  I have been doing crossfit for over 6 months now and I am slowly but surely progressing. It sure isn't easy.  In fact, on the way home I nearly cried trying to drive because my hands felt so whiney after trying to get my knees to my elbows while dangling from the pull up bar.  For a break between reps of 12 I got to dead lift 8o lbs six times.  All of that for  four rounds for time.  I ended up under six minutes but boy I still feel it this afternoon.  My big woo for the day was I PR'd my max effort dead lift.  I managed 140#.  I can now dead lift body weight.  Oh yeah, oh yeah.  (Be glad you couldn't see the dance with that!) My dead lifts are my best.  I can only shoulder press 45.  But I will get there s-l-o-w-l-y. But as I was saying this is about progress.  I think the best kind of progress is the cloth
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A nearly finished project......

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The color of my morning has been red.  I went out and finally weeded the flower beds along the stairs.  I hate weeding those but they do look so much better.  Then I planted the ten red geraniums I had gotten at the farmer's market.  I love having those.  They remind me of Grandma and the fake ones she use to keep on the front step in a hanging basket.  They had to be fake because that was a total sunblock spot.  Anyway my happy red flowers are out and I feel happy.  Then I replaced one of the two blueberry bushes that didn't make it last winter.  Although now I may need a third one as someone seems to have run over one with the lawn mower.  Gotta figure out how to make them more noticeable. After doing all of that in what I thought was perhaps an hour but was actually two I decided to check on Ravelry mystery knit along to see if the first clue was there and it is there.  Woohoo! I cannot wait to start that as I have a very yummy cake of Araucania Huasco in some very divi
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See???

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I just got this from Becky the awesome @ Beckysgaragegym.blogspot.com  and I know you couldn't wait to see it either. The super smart fitness guru who thought to snap pictures of our official times.  Yes, I know my time is pathetic but I am still bragging big time.  Because I did it!  What were you doing at midnight????  For the one in July I am really hoping to drop under forty mins but that is a lot and it is during the day when it could be way way too hot.  I still haven't figured out how to sweat on more than my scalp.  Oh well.
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Oh yes, I can!

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Cue the "My Fair Lady" soundtrack.  Go to the song they sing right after the ball.  I want to hear " You did, you did it. You said that you could do it and indeed you did!"  Yes, I am a wee bit gleeful after the 5k that started at midnight. I may be slower than a turtle in molasses but I finished.  And although I wouldn't admit to goal time before we started I was really hoping that I would finish in an hour and just wouldn't be the dead last one that everyone was waiting for wishing they could turn out the lights.  But I did it in 42:24  and I didn't keep anyone too late!  I learned I can do it and now I will even train for the next one.  Oh yeah there will be more.  I hated it in the moment.  But now I can't wait to try it again only this time with some training.  The cross fit helped me get to that point.  Today I actually hurt more from yesterday's  work out (75 power cleans @30# for time) than I am from the run.  I am a bit sleep now th
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