Spring, Salt, Schedules, and Sandwich Fails {phfr} - vol. 47


{pretty}
We have finally gotten a little bit of spring around here.  Yay spring!  I'm trying to ignore the fact that our yard is mush and the loads of work to be done in the garden and all the projects calling to me and just appreciate that it is finally here.  The other day David and I washed the walls of the porch which sounds weird but it made such a huge difference.  They get so dirty in the winter.  Plus a few stray chickens whose wings have since been clipped had been escaping and roosting up there at night and gross.  It made me feel good to get that done.  The floor needs to be repainted (again...every single year it looks we accidentally brought the lawn mower up there). 

The only photographic evidence I have of said spring

The wicker needs to be put out but it is in a sad sad state.  We have repainted it so many times after scoring the set crazy cheap at a yard sale and every year it chips all summer onto my nice porch and frustrates me.  It's unraveling at parts and has some holes and the cushions are growing mildew (ew) but I've been looking into a new set and holy sticker shock, batman.  I think we'll be repainting again.  Any advice for getting mildew out of cushions?

{happy}
Baseball season has started again which makes the boys happy.  Me?  I have mixed feelings.  I do really enjoy it but for the next couple of months many of our evenings are not as routine and relaxed as I like and the weather has not been cooperating.  (I may be starting a crusade to begin the season at least a month later.  This happens every year and hello, we live in Buffalo.  Let's just come to terms with that fact, move the season, and save the hundreds of parents huddled under blankets and winter coats to watch baseball in windy fifty degree weather.)  It's a little difficult having two on different teams.  I have no idea how families do this with more children and several different sports per child like I overhear them talking about.  I would go nuts, never mind the other reasons not to. 



Someone was very excited to get his chance to pitch last night.  He did pretty well!  And look at those little baseball pants!  Too much.

And this random picture of Luke playing with the wooden Mass set one early early morning when we got back from our trip.  Because look!  He had it all set up!  Clearly a sign of a vocation.

{funny}
Have you ever heard of Himalayan pink salt?  We use a reverse osmosis filter for our drinking water to get all the fluoride and birth control hormones and other grossness out of our water.  But the problem I've heard is it also takes out the good minerals, too.  So I try to use a good quality mineral salt to help make up for that.  (That sounds like I researched that a lot, didn't it?  I didn't.  But it makes sense, no?)  Normally I buy the Himalayan pink salt from my friend Joe the Trader.  But it goes pretty fast and it's sort of expensive.  Enter this find:

Do you see that?  It's FOUR POUNDS of pink salt that I found at our local revamped produce market/nursery for $7.99.  That amount would cost $32 at the Trader (we're close now and I call him that).  You could build a house with these things.  Or, apparently, attract wildlife.  Now, I have no idea how I will actually make this usable but no matter.  Deal.  Maybe I should just see what happens if I were to put it on the floor in the middle of the living room...

Anyway, at least now if you're over for dinner and I break out the hammer and chisel, you'll know why.

{real}
And this.  What happens when I completely forget (AGAIN) that I put bread in the oven to rise.  I mean, it was a WHOLE HOUR ago.  Sigh.  
My very sad and deflated sandwich bread.
Thank goodness my gang isn't picky when it comes to their carbs.


Linking up with the highly acclaimed authoress (my copy comes tomorrow!) Leila for some {phfr}!

6 comments

  1. I bet you could get the boys some GOOD exercise breaking up that salt block! But I wonder how much of it would actually end up usable :P

    And I'm always glad mine aren't the least bit picky about bread, either! Sometimes I try something new and it's a total bust, but they always love it!

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  2. Hi Mary! I found your blog very recently and am hooked! I
    Concerning the Himalayan salt, this does not seem like the real deal. I have heard of some fake ones from Pakistan that do not have the same mineral contents as the real one. I am no expert though. I will have to stop by trader Joe's to get some( Amazon does have different ones as we'll not sure all genuine).
    What kind of RO filter do you use? We were on the market for one originally but not sure anymore if RO is the way to go for us give the amount of water used to make one gallon.

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    Replies
    1. Ha! Leave it to me to score the black market salt. I should probably look into that, huh?

      We have the very basic Whirlpool filter from Lowe's. We've been happy with it, though the filters are expensive. I would love to get a whole house one but that's a big investment.

      So glad you're here, Valerie :)

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    2. Thanks! We will not be getting a whole house one either( maybe just a shower head filter).

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  3. I put bleach water and a couple drops of dish soap in a spray bottle and squirt my cushions out on the driveway (someplace you can squirt them and it won't make a muddy mess). I let them sit with the "solution" on them for about an hour and then give them a scrub with a brush. Then a squirt with really hard spray of water, front and back. Repeat if necessary but usually one treatment gets them looking pretty good. They dry in the sun or you can use some really strong clips (like vise clips) and hang them on a line or fence.

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  4. Soak your Himalayan salt in a ball jar of water and give everyone a teaspoon of it diluted in a glass of water and call it done! That's how our local farmer prescribes it;)

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