cleaning, sushi and fishy folk

This weekend Dan took the girls to his parents house so I could attempt to clean our disaster of a house! Feeling sick and tired all the time has made it difficult to get normal things done, like making dinner and bathing my children.......cleaning bathrooms?!? Forget about it. It was nice having the house to myself for 3 days and although my cleaning pace was not as fast as it normally is sans fetus I got a lot accomplished! I even had time to take the couch cushions off and vacuum all the mystery crumbs underneath. In between bouts of cleaning I enjoyed some movies......Stranger Than Fiction, Gladiator, American Beauty, Never Been Kissed, The Time Traveler's Wife. It was nice to actually watch a movie during the daytime and not have to worry about how loud the volume was! I NEVER watch TV or movies during the day.....the littles won't let me! :o)

I also decided to make my first attempt at sushi while I was home alone. I've always wanted to make my own, but have been nervous because it seems complicated and time consuming......and normally I don't have time for meals that are time consuming! Well, I learned that sushi rice IS a bit complicated but the whole process really isn't all that time consuming. I still have a few kinks to iron out and I think having Dan around next time will be very helpful (he's very good with mechanics, and I'm banking on the fact that his knowledge will translate to sushi as well!) My sushi rice was not perfect, it was a little bit too sticky and a little bit too dense....if that makes any sense, but rather than start all over again and wait another hour for the rice to dry after rinsing, I just used what I had......not perfect rice. I decided to just make California rolls because I'm not really supposed to have raw fish during pregnancy. I bought some Unagi (eel) but I'm saving that for when I'm better at the whole sushi thing. I LOVE me some eel! I mixed my own wasabi and boy was it HOT!! I am a wasabi lover.....normally the hotter the better, I like my nose to run.....but this stuff was too hot and I had to add more soy sauce. Overall my sushi experience was a good one.....especially since it was my first. I'm looking forward to making more sushi sometime in the near future!




Dan was a busy bee while he was gone too! He finished making my grow light which ended up being HUMONGOUS! I think we're going to put it on the dining room table to begin with.....thats the only space we have off the floor that will handle the hugeness of the grow light. Once it warms up outside we might move the whole contraption to the garage, but I don't want my little seedlings to freeze at night. Once it warms up outside I'm going to get my gardening tools together and take the girls outside to plant our starter seeds. I got Maddie and Charlotte their own watering cans and I'm sure they will enjoy watching peat pellets expand. I'm a little nervous about them and teeny tiny seeds, but maybe I'll just do that part myself! This year I also bought organic biodegradable planting pots that we can put right into the ground when it comes time to plant outside. The only things we're waiting on at this point are the completion of the rest of our garden boxes.....maybe Dan can work on them Wed/Thurs and DIRT. We are going to have a 50/50 mix of compost and sifted top soil delivered but we have to wait for the weather to get warmer to dry out the dirt or else we'll just have a pile of mud dropped off at our house and that isn't good for anything! Hopefully we'll have dry weather for another week or so and then we'll be able to get our dirt. I'm getting really itchy to get outside and plant. Dan and I have been looking at landscaping plants, hedges and fruit trees too. I keep envisioning our yard as a lovely green edible oasis, but we have a lot of work before we get to that stage. Anyone have inexpensive plant resources.....either nearby or order by mail? We have a lot of plants to buy and would of course rather not spend a ton of money! Ideas always welcome!

We are going to be getting a new pet.....or 2. While Dan was in Charlotte at his parents house he found a fish aquarium. We've talked about fish in the past, but just never got around to getting any. Here's our push apparently. I guess we need some tubing and possibly an electrical wire for the pump, but other than that and some gravel and of course a fish or two, we're all set for underwater goodness. I think that fish would be a good first pet for Maddie. She is old enough to be responsible for feeding a fish (with supervision) and there is very little maintenance that goes along with fishy folk. This was very impromptu, but I'm actually very excited. I'll keep you posted when we get some fishies!