The Dining Rooom

The dining room is one of my favorite rooms. I love the tall windows and the tile floor. We don't have anything to put on the far wall. But that's OK. I'm enjoying the space for now, since we lived with it crammed with all our extra furniture for 5 months while Sean redid some of the floors in other rooms. The piece in the corner is an English Conservatory. We make jokes about it while playing clue. But eventually, it will have some pretty plants inside it, Lord willing and husband approving! I found it at a garage sale too just up the street.

Our fall centerpiece. Normally we fill the cornucopia with gourds and little pumpkins. But I haven't been able to get any yet this fall. Evan really wanted to set out the fall decorations, so we make do with what we had. I think it turned out rather well and now maybe I don't need the gourds after all.

We found the buffet off Craig's list and it turned out we knew the person selling it! That was fun. My mom painted the beautiful painting over the buffet. And Sean brought me the roses. He said it was to say thank you for taking care of everybody who was sick (including the horse). It looks like Sean and the kids may have had the swine flu. If not, they had a yucky one. The girls were sick with viral meningitis before that. I don't think we've gone much of anywhere for the last month. Praise God, I was spared and didn't get sick. Evan thinks it was because I've been drinking green smoothies. Emily says it's because I've been exercising. Whatever the means, I'm grateful for God's mercy. And I really like the flowers!

The Kid's Bathrooms

The girls are very happy with their muted purple bathroom. It's actually the same paint that we had at our old house in the guest bath. We had a bit left over and this way they can use all my old decorations.

And we got a few new ones as well. I found the cute green accordion hanger at a garage sale and the flower print at a different one.

Evan went for the more sophisticated jungle theme. A friend of ours had the same cute jungle theme in their bathroom so we gave them our towels and bath rugs.

The jungle stuff that we had in the kids bath at our old house from Africa goes really nice with the new updated theme. And lucky for Evan, jungle is really popular right now so it was easy to find new towels that went well and were a little more masculine.

Sean found this great bamboo screen for the window.

We put the mirror from Emily's bedroom in his bath. I think it looks really good!

Up next, the dining room...

The Girls Room

You can see the before pictures here. This was the first room we painted (actually the only room we painted). It was such an awful purple and yellow before. Now it's a very pale pink. The same as Emily's room before.

Sean put up some fake wood blinds that look great even though I don't think you can see them in the picture. The girls are doing really well sharing a room. And it's nice having two closets: one for toys and one for clothes.

Up next the kids bathrooms.

Roasted Vegetable Lunch

A few years ago, and before the movie came out, I made Ratatouille from scratch. It was wonderful. But the recipe that I used (from Martha Stewart) was pretty complicated and took a long time. However, the first step was so good I remember thinking that it would be good all by itself. Last week I got a beautiful eggplant from farmers market (for only $1) and zucchini from my CSA basket. I knew I had to try my idea. I threw some sweet potatoes in the oven to roast at the same time and put the roasted zucchini and eggplant over it. It was tasty and very filling.

For other great ideas for thrifty and healthy recipes, visit the Penywise Platter over at The Nourishing Gourmet.

Roasted Vegetables

1 large eggplant (about 1 1/2 lbs) cut into 1 inch cubes

4 medium zucchini cut into 1 inch cubes

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh thyme (or a few teaspoons dried)

1 tsp salt

Sweet potatoes washed and wrapped in tin foil

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place the sweet potatoes on the bottom rack. Toss together the eggplant, zucchini, 1/2 cup oil, thyme, and salt on a large rimmed baking sheet. Roast, on the top rack, tossing every 15 minutes, until vegetables are golden, and sweet potatoes are soft, about 1 hour. Depending on the size of your sweet potatoes they may need a bit more time.

The roasted eggplant and zucchini after cooking for an hour.

To serve, cut open the sweet potato and slightly mash with a fork. Cover the sweet potato with the eggplant and zucchini. Serve with a green salad.

My CSA basket. A very full 1/2 bushel basket for $19. What a great deal and it's organic too.