Lazy Summer Days

Can it really be nearing the end of July? Summer, as it always does, has been flying by way too fast. We have not been doing too much around here, just enjoying all the time with Zach that summer brings. Here are some snippets of what we've been up to.

• Our worms are doing great! Most of them are much bigger than when we got them, and the bottom of the bin is filling up with castings. We are contemplating starting a second, larger bin when they start to reproduce.
• I discovered a nifty recipe for "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes." It comes from a book by the same name, actually, but I found the basic recipe online. (I am pretty sure they put it out there for free to convince you to buy the book.) Somewhat to my surprise, you actually end up with really tasty bread in about five minutes a day. No kneading, just mix up the dough, let it sit in the fridge, then bake. I haven't bought a loaf of bread in several weeks. It is cheap and healthy--no high fructose corn syrup hidden in this stuff! Check out the recipe here if you like.
• I have also found some awesome recipes for granola bars and "health-nut muffins." You can probably tell that I'm really trying to find alternatives to processed foods. I don't like looking at ingredient labels and seeing a bunch of weird chemicals that I've never heard of. But I still want to eat yummy stuff.
• I have been able to do a lot of reading this summer. Admittedly, a lot of my book choices have been pretty light, with little to no literary value, just for fun. But I have read a few more serious things. For fiction, I highly recommend The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Don't let the somewhat funny name throw you off--the book is warm, humorous, and touching, and will actually teach you something about WWII history as well. As far as nonfiction goes, I just finished The Shaping of a Christian Family by Elisabeth Elliot. Very convicting and inspiring. I feel like I gained much more vision of what I would like my home and family to become for God's glory.
• Austin went to the doctor last Friday and weighs 24 pounds and is 32 inches tall. He has also officially said his first word: "duck." Or as it sounds when he says it, "duh!" He doesn't say mama or dada consistently at all but he knows what a duck is. Hmm.

I know this was kind of a random list but it will have to do for now. Perhaps I will motivate myself to post some pictures in the next few days.

Our New Pe(s)ts

One normally doesn't think that sharing your home with 500 or so worms is a good idea, right? But that is just what we are doing. After reading my sister's recent post about her plans to start vermicomposting, we decided to do a bit ourselves. The idea is pretty simple: a bunch of worms live in a bin and eat your vegetable scraps and paper. No need to find a place for a compost bin outside or worry about stirring it. Just let the worms do their thing and in a few months you will have some worm castings (aka worm poop) to fertilize your garden.

Here are the worms right after I dumped them into the bin, starting to settle in and get cozy. They were in such a big twisted mass; I wonder how long it will take them to unwind themselves and spread out. Happy eating, little worms!