Greek Cherry Tomato Salad In many ways, it feels like summer arrived just a few short weeks ago. But also feels like it's been "summer" for one hundred years. What even is time anymore? Or seasons? Until we figure it out, let's soak up the last summertime has to offer. Looking for something to serve alongside some delicious barbecue chicken or grilled steak? Try this delicious summer salad. This recipe caught my eye because it calls for things that are actually growing in my garden right now -- cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, parsley, onions, and garlic. The dressing is light and flavorful, giving the vegetables a great kick. For a new spin on the Keep Reading
Making vs. Buying: When you should make, buy or grow
I'm a simple girl. Give me a good cup of coffee or a surprise sale on cheese, and I am happy as a clam. Would I love to travel the world? Sure. But I am really quite content tickling my children and booking camping trips to exotic locations like... Eastern Oregon. Another thing that always gets me excited is learning new skills. I dream about sitting in front of a piano or a sewing machine and producing something that actually sounds or looks beautiful. Until then, I have my sights set on a more familiar and comfortable setting: my home. Specifically, my yard and kitchen. One goal I have for myself each year is to make or grow more food from Keep Reading
A Realistic Look at Living with Less: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Guest post from Kari Patterson. Every email my friend sends from Africa contains her signature quip: From a distance it looks like an adventure … up close it is filled with challenges. Isn't that always the truth? It's easy to look on the lives of others from afar and simply see the adventure. The success. The end-result. But making meaningful changes in our lives involve far more than adventure, right? It involves challenges. Obstacles. Hard things. The key is looking honestly and realistically at these challenges and still believing it's worth it in the end. We all would probably agree that “living with less” is a worthy goal. I doubt that Keep Reading
5 Tips to Help You Buy and Sell on craigslist
One of the best avenues available to buy used is craigslist (spelled intentionally with a lower-case "c"). For those of you who don’t know, craiglist is a no-frills classified advertisement website organized by location where people can post items they have for sale and browse through listings for everything from jobs to housing to lawn mowers. When my husband and I have something we need to buy, sell, or take to the dump, craigslist is the first place we turn. We buy things, we sell things, and we have given things away for free that we otherwise would have had to pay to dispose of. Wheeling and dealing on craigslist has reinforced the concept Keep Reading
Summer Break Survival: Summer Activity Bags
Last week I talked about the importance of setting up systems and routines for you and your kids so your summer can run smoothly. The next step in this "getting ready for summer" process for me is to get all of my summer bags organized. Stop for a second. You should know by now that I am the anti-planner. I love all things spontaneous -- it's my favorite thing in the world to do a crazy, spur-of-the-moment activity with friends and my kids. But I do know that anything spontaneous with five kids requires some level of readiness or else we end up taking two hours to "get ready" to jump in the car for our fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants Keep Reading
How to plan a (successful) strawberry picking trip with kids
I can't even tell you how much I love this time of year in the Pacific Northwest. Warm days. Cool nights. And the berries. Oh, the berries... After much practice, my friends and I have somewhat perfected the art of berry picking with small kids. In fact, five years ago, we hauled our two toddlers and one newborn out to Sleight's Farm in Mulino to pick strawberries. At worst, this may sound like a recipe for disaster. At best, this may sound like lots of kid chasing and very little berry picking. The kids did great, though, and we managed to pick around 25 pounds each. The kids raced up and down the rows, filling their bellies with berries and Keep Reading
12 Camping Hacks for a Trouble-Free Trip
Camping Tips for a Trouble-Free Trip Have you ever been on one of THOSE camping trips? Where just everything that feels like it can go wrong goes wrong? Sideways, backwards, upside down. Camping can be such an enjoyable experience, with some simple tips and tricks and planning ahead of time. While we can't anticipate every possible problem, we can sure do our best to take some of the frustration out of the experience. Also, hopefully you have camping available to you right now! Some of our state sites are still not open, but privately owned campsites are. 12 camping hacks and ideas: Line your backpack or bag with a garbage bag -- Before you Keep Reading
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