Tag: simplicity

Simple summer fun

I’ve been a bit quiet lately, but this doesn’t mean our days are lacking in action. On the contrary, we’ve gotten into our summer routine, which is both busy and relaxing.

Above: some lovely modeling clay art by Shira (11) and Tehilla (9).

Aaaand, we’ve had a hugely exciting event last week when our cat has had her kittens. She is such a good mom and it actually looks like she’s counting on us to babysit her kittens when she leaves them for a bit!

So these are our days. Some work. Some rest. A shady spot in the garden. Playing with the quickly growing baby chicks. Ice cream and watermelons.

Hope you’re all having a good time too and taking care of yourselves.

Delicious beer and onion rolls

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When you’re out of bread, you can run to the grocery store… Or you can get out some flour and dry yeast and whip up a batch of delicious, savory, crusty rolls.

This time, upgraded with beer, dried onions, and caraway seeds.

I’m terrible at quantities, but the general idea is, you use beer instead of water in this recipe.

So, here goes:

About 2 1/2 cups flour

1 tbsp dry yeast

About 1 1/2 cups beer

2 tbsp dried shredded onions

Heaped teaspoon caraway seeds

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp sugar or honey

1/4 cup olive oil

Some more olive oil for coating

Mix all ingredients and knead thoroughly. Let the dough double in size, then knead again.

Form the rolls and place on a baking sheet. Lightly pat them with olive oil, or spread it with a silicone brush.

Let the rolls double in size again.

Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the tops get nice and golden.

Enjoy with butter, cream cheese, or tuna salad. Yum!

This world is crazy

Honestly, though. I feel like everything that is going on right now is messing up with my head so badly that I just want to crawl into a narrow hole and hide.

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Seeing how that’s impossible, I can find nothing better than sitting in the shade of the mango tree, supervising the little ones in the wading pool.

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Watching my geraniums grow is nice and relaxing as well.

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Oh, and baking cookies. These ones are oatmeal-peanut butter-chocolate chip, and they are seriously good.

Hope you’re all hanging in there and keeping sane. Because it sure hasn’t been easy lately.

Humongous heat wave

For the past three days, every time I opened the door it has been like stepping into a preheated oven, day and night. Yes, that bad. Stifling, scorching, suffocating heat that is literally making us lethargic.

I try not to run the air conditioning all the time, but it’s not easy. We wake up in the middle of the night sweating. Thank goodness for AC, cold drinks, and showers (having lived with constant disruptions in running water supply for a few years, I really appreciate the last one).

So what have we been doing without our favorite pastime of nature walks, and with the heat too intense for outdoor work or baking? Well, there are always books and crafts for the kids to fall back on, for which I’m thankful.

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The mulberry tree in the nearby park has been especially bountiful. I just wonder why nobody else seems to take advantage of all this fruit. We have been making jam and also froze some for later, but there’s a great deal more than we can use up.

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The incubator is humming along and we are supposed to have our first chicks in a few days. The kids can’t wait.

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I’m making another little jute basket for storing odds and ends – it seems I’m always in need of more of those!

I hope we get to enjoy more pleasant weather soon and can get out of doors again. On the up side, I can’t imagine the coronavirus surviving too long in this heat.

Exploring nature

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Today we went on another one of our hikes, and guess what we found? It’s the first one I saw since we had moved here.

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Little explorer.

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A cool moss-covered rock. We had a rainy weekend, so everything was fresh and lovely and not too hot.

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We all had so much fun!

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A breathtaking view on a lovely afternoon.

And, most importantly, we still adhere to social distancing. Our government is opening everything up way too fast to my liking – but just because something is now legal, it doesn’t mean it is recommended.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Last post before Pesach

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By this time, I have cleaned both my refrigerators and things are rising to the feverish pitch that will culminate in the Seder night on Wednesday, but we’ve still had some time to spend in the garden lately and I even sneaked in a couple of short walks with the children (strictly keeping to empty, lonely places). Last week we saw this flock of cranes right next to our house.

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These birds sure aren’t doing social distancing!

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One of our little house geckos. The kids love to play with them.

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Shira tried to make a smiley egg face here, but this didn’t quite work out. 🙂 I am so extremely grateful for our plentiful and healthy eggs these days. The stores are just empty of eggs at the moment, and I’ve read they are forced to import to meet demand – no knowing what the price or quality will be.

Overall, though we are holding up pretty well, there’s just no denying the situation in the world is kind of crazy right now. I’m so looking forward to the time when it’s possible to lift the quarantine at least a bit – I miss day trips, going to the library, and getting together with friends. There are so many people around the country, from Rehovot to Maalot and from the Shomron to Ramat Beit Shemesh, who are often in my thoughts, and though social media and email thankfully make it easy to keep in touch, nothing can replace a good ol’ cup of coffee together. So this is my post-quarantine resolution: make more time to visit with friends in person.

I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy, and enjoying spring despite the necessary limitations. No better time to start a garden if you haven’t yet!

I’m off to take all the stove knobs apart and give it a good polish.

Finally, warmer weather

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We’re finally enjoying some fine, warmer and drier weather, and I’m taking advantage of it to clear the yard, plant some seeds, and hang out with our chickens (the wooden bed frame you see in the picture is supposed to be used as part of a fence eventually).

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We’re also being spoiled by lots of beautiful, delicious colorful eggs (collected a great many more since this picture was taken).

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I made another dragonfly crochet pullover. These are so easy and fun to make that I might try another one in toddler size too.

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A beautiful rose. I love the hues. Wish I could plant a bush like that around here.

In between, I’m also getting addicted to this YouTube channel. The unique and beautiful tiny houses are so inspiring. Not sure I’d agree to live full-time in some of those, but as retreats they would be charming. Pop over to have a look if you have some spare time.