Monday, January 21, 2013

Leafy greens


After ten straight weeks of full-blown morning sickness, I can eat again.  Thank goodness!  And, thankfully, I'm finally having healthy cravings.  I was worried for a minute that I'd only want corndogs and cheesy rice for the remainder of this pregnancy.  :x  For the past couple of days, all I have wanted is milk.  But raw, creamy, fresh-from-the-farm milk, not the watery stuff.  But, in a society that treats raw milk like poison, I'm just not willing to take the pressure.  I'm already having a time dealing with comments about my coffee consumption and whether or not I'm getting my subs toasted.  Now I'm craving salads.  Normally, I'm not a great consumer of salads, at least not until summer rolls around.  I'm a pretty seasonal eater.  But now I could eat salads morning, noon, and night.

After years of searching on-and-off, I've finally found a store bought salad mix that I like.  The goal is to eat organic and direct from the farmer, but in a pinch I'd like to be able to just drive to Weis and grab a bag of greens.  Every product I've tried until now either tastes disgusting (or has no taste at all) or is wilted and soggy - just overall sad bags of lettuce. But the other day I picked up a container of organicgirl baby spring mix.  Not only are these greens delicious, but they're crisp, colorful and stand up very well in a salad.

From their website:

organic ingredients:

baby green romaine lettuce, baby greenleaf lettuce, tango, tatsoi, baby spinach, baby red romaine lettuce, lolla rosa, baby red chard, arugula, mizuna, baby green chard, baby oakleaf lettuce. ingredients may vary by season.

Delicious!  Just an FYI: even though the packaging proclaims they wash the greens three times, I would still wash them before hand if you're adamant about that sort of thing, because there is still a bit of dirt (maybe from transportation?)

I can't wait for spring to come and, along with it, farmer's markets!  Until then, I think I'm going to stick with organicgirl when I can't make it out to get fresh farm salad mixes.

 I've also bought some seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds to try and see if we can't grow our own veggies indoors this year (I'm pretty excited about that prospect!).


Saturday, January 19, 2013

R is for Rabbit


“Weeks passed, and the little Rabbit grew very old and shabby, but the Boy loved him just as much. He loved him so hard that he loved all his whiskers off, and the pink lining to his ears turned grey, and his brown spots faded. He even began to lose his shape, and he scarcely looked like a rabbit any more, except to the Boy. To him he was always beautiful, and that was all that the little Rabbit cared about. He didn't mind how he looked to other people, because the nursery magic had made him Real, and when you are Real shabbiness doesn't matter.” 

― Margery WilliamsThe Velveteen Rabbit


I love the look on someone's face when I tell them that I have a free roaming house rabbit.  At first incredulous, then suspicious.  "You mean you just let him run around??"  When I inform them that rabbits can easily be liter-box trained "just like a cat" they are bemused.  Most people have no idea.

I love having this conversation.  I like to imagine that I've created a ripple effect - that, just maybe, those people who always felt bad about having to leave Cotton in her cage will continue reading and learning and realize that they can bunny proof their home, or even just a single room, and give their bunny some much needed running and roaming time.

Loki is our Dutch rabbit.  He's pretty well behaved.  But, he's incredibly smart and, for a bunny, that's downright dangerous.




Since we adopted him he's had free range of our little apartment with no problems.  He would still leave a pellet or two around the living room, but such is the way of rabbits - they have to make sure you know that, even though they're using the bathroom in this plastic den you've given them in the corner, this is still their living room - got it?  However, when we took in my mother's cat back in April, he became a little....too friendly with her.  Constant kitty mounting ensued and so Loki has since been banished to the bathroom for a temporary hiatus.


This past week Shane and I have been working on downsizing the apartment.  We're expecting our first baby in August, so we've been trying to make room and get everything organized (easier Pinterested than done).  He and my kickass future mother-in-law carried down a huge couch and love seat we've been meaning to get rid of for months.  So I think the plan is to get the living room cleaned and with minimalist decor, then move Loki from the bathroom to the livingroom.  Which I will be incredibly happy about.  Rabbits are fundamentally social pack animals and do best when bonded with another rabbit or around their human family.  He'll be much happier when he's able to snuggle up for cuddles on the sofa again.









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