Do Life Right

My daughter received a Lil’ Kinz Gecko for her birthday. After much thought, she decided to name it Nopalito. This is the name for chopped little prickly pear pads that are ready to be eaten. The color is the same as the Lil’ Gecko, sounds cute, and it’s appropriate for the areas [...]

My daughters and I were thrilled with the latest Webkinz development: The Travel Agency. We all took vacations to the Tropical Island with our pets today (we haven’t tried the Spa yet). It costs 500 KC to take a trip, and then all souvenirs cost an additional amount (so save up before taking your [...]

As I’ve recently posted about, my Always Unschooled 12 year old recently turned 12. For her birthday, we planned the whole day around her and what she wanted to do (we actually do this often, but somehow birthdays are extra special). She wanted a surprise (to the guests) Chinese New Year’s birthday party, [...]

My oldest daughter turned 12 yesterday! Happy Birthday to Zoë! Since she was born in the Chinese Year of the Rat and it is currently the Year of the Rat again, she decided to have a Chinese New Year’s themed Birthday party. Here are some of the details of her party.
For starters, my [...]

My Girl Scout troop has been doing a lot of art related projects recently. In honor of that and in order to be inspired to try a few new types of art, we recently visited several art galleries. The overall favorite was the DeGrazia Gallery in the Sun, located in northern Tucson, Arizona. [...]

No, vegan meatloaf is not an oxymoron. I also don’t know why this is one of the most frequently made fun of vegan foods I hear about. I’ve tasted far more animal-meat meatloaves that tasted disgusting than vegan versions. Plus, you’ll never come across gristle or fat globs in a vegan version. [...]

I was mistaken when I believed the Arizona summer monsoons were nearing their end for 2008. On Wednesday, earlier this week, my area was hit harder than it has been in the whole entire time I’ve been in Arizona (9 years). We spoke with three different neighbors on Thursday and they’ve all been [...]

We’ve been fortunate enough to actually see wildlife eating the pads of some of our prickly pear cacti. We especially love watching the rabbits eat it. They take a bite into the outer rim and then eat only the inside part, leaving a circle behind. Bugs, on the other hand, eat it [...]

My family and I recently went on a tour at the Titan Missile Museum in Sahuarita, Arizona (south of Tucson). While close to us and very interesting, we are especially thrilled that Star Trek - First Contact was partially filmed at the missile site.
Here are some photographs of our experience. We didn’t get [...]

Prickly Pear Jelly
I haven’t had the greatest luck in the world preparing jelly, so here is my “What to do when the recipes don’t work” directions.
Prepare syrup as pectin package indicates. Basically you need a lot of sugar, the fruit itself, and pectin. With this made, you supposedly just need [...]