Grow Baby Grow

First of all, my feet are freezing this morning. I want socks or house-shoes but I would have to ninja dance down the hall trying desperately not to squeak, or crack, or pop the floor and wake a baby. Guess I’ll be cold.

It is time for a garden update people. I have pictures. Go me. The potatoes are growing like mad. Love it. My tomatoes are kind of an unhealthy yellow green. I really think they just are not getting enough sunlight. I had a tomato plant in the same spot last year that produced grape tomatoes until October. I guess these are more finicky. We’ll see if they make it or not.

I have carrots, lots of cute little carrots. I made the mistake of not thinning them enough last year and it really hurt them. Well to be real honest, I had one whole carrot that we were able to eat last year. It was a stunted, pitiful little thing, but we ate it and liked it. I really did not weed the garden enough and it totally killed my carrots. We are determined to get those little boogers growing this year. I’m weeding them and thinning them every other day or so, trying to keep just the carrots growing.

Okra is a growin! I replanted the areas that just were not producing plants and I plan to thin those as needed. My friendly little plant munching rabbit is wearing my poor green beans out. I do have a few bigger plants that are pulling through so I will re-seed as it warms up more. The cucumbers are doing great and the zucchinis are so-so. All of my strawberries have been eaten by that rascally rabbit.

My herb garden is so sad. I think I’m growing trees in it better than herbs, but that’s what happens when your dog wants to dig in it. I have a plan though…Muuuhahaha! My hubby will not like it, but I get whatever I want anyway (except for chickens, he truly did put his foot down on having chickens…at this house ;). This will require work from him but in the end it will save us some mowing time. I’ll let you know when my idea comes to fruition.  Have a blessed day peeps!

Quick Tip

Real quick tip today. Some people...uh huh...leave open Kool-Aid packets on the counter when they are in a hurry and kids are saying, "Mama, I'm hungry!", "I'm thirsty", or if you are barely 18 months old, "AAAHHH!". Then, some people may let the packet and some of the residule Kool-Aid granules get wet...in a puddle of water. If you know some people that may accidentally do this and now have a lovely purple stain on the counter top, you can now inform them that putting a small pile of baking soda on the stain and letting it sit for a while (30 minutes to an hour?) will remove the stain. Do this while the stain is still damp, although I think that adding damp baking soda to a stain will help also. My best tip though is to not be a goober like me and make a stain to begin with! Have a blessed weekend!

Stew on a Stormy Night

I am behind. I think I am always behind. I need to either get caught up permanently or change my thoughts about being behind. Anyway, let me tell you about using my  leftover ham repeatedly.  I made a super yummy ham for Easter. Crock pot overnight with brown sugar and coke. Yummers. It was truly finger lickin’ good. My Hubby was in heaven because ham is his fave!

I made homemade rolls to go to Easter dinner, they were so not my best. I had issues making them because I am a goober who apparently has to read the directions to a simple recipe every single time I make it. Sorry they weren’t great #3, I’ll do better next time.  So, yummy ham plus ok rolls equal fantastic ham biscuits for breakfast Monday & Tuesday (did you enjoy that math lesson?).

For supper on Tuesday, I made a casserole from the ham. I put rice, egg, sour cream, cream of mushroom soup, a bag of mixed veggies, and cheddar cheese together and ta-da. Nothing major, Lazy Mama remember? I also made some fried tater cakes from leftover mash potatoes, they were ok, but I could have done better. Of course we also had deviled eggs from Easter eggs. I won’t tell you what that did to Risky, just think about that a minute…

Anywho, on Wednesday I had a little less than half a casserole left. That casserole was great and everybody liked it  but it was extremely filling so you couldn’t eat much. What to do? Make stew!

I had some chicken stock in the freezer that I made last week. I pulled that out to thaw early in the day. I dumped it into the pot and got it hot (poet and didn’t know it!). Then I added the casserole by cutting it into small pieces with a knife in the dish and then just slipping it into the pot.  Add salt, pepper, cornstarch, dried chives, and a few leftover noodles and dinner is served (say that with a British accent). I grilled some ham and cheese sandwiches on homemade bread that I made earlier in the day. My Hubby loved it. He said I should serve that in a restaurant. Now, I thought it was yummy and hearty for the fam, but trust me this was so not something I’d order at a restaurant.

Later in the evening, we were rocked by the worst set of storms that my area had seen in over 30 years. It was scary and impressive. My little family experienced lots of rain, wind, lightening, and thunder.  I was ready to bend over and kiss my booty good-bye several times! The kids and I spent a fair amount of time in the basement. We were not hurt and sustained no damage. Others were not so lucky. My prayers are with everyone who is hurting. May God comfort and hold you tight during this difficult time.

In a very UNimportant side note, my garden survived the drenching. If I can walk on the swampy thing called my yard, I'll take pictures later to post. Have a blessed day!!

Lazy Mama Lasagna

Man, we a had busy weekend! We went t o a local theme park on Friday, I shoe shopped with my 3 oldest kids most of the afternoon on Saturday, Easter was fantastic, and Monday was “oh my gosh we are behind in all the yard work” day. I’ll tell you more about my weekend in another post because I want to share with you what I made for supper on Saturday night.

I’ve already said that the kids and I had been out for most of the day on Saturday; I made a quick pit stop to unload shoes and kids then headed out to the grocery store. I so did not want to go but I knew we’d pay for it later if I didn’t go then. So about an hour late,r I was back home and it was 5 o’clock and the critters were hungry. I have really been trying to use my stocked up items and just shop for the fill in stuff soooooo… we had Lazy Mama Lasagna. Oh yeah baby.

If whole fryer chickens are priced right, like 78 cents a pound, I will buy 2 or 3 of them to stock up. I roast one and have that for dinner one night and then I like to cook one in the crock pot all day and do different things with it. I usually have lots of leftover chicken and I freeze some for later use.  Where am I going with this? Leftovers rock. Well they do, but my point was I had leftover chicken so  that was my meat for the lasagna. It was very tender crock pot chicken so yum.

I have had tons of spaghetti sauce and pasta noodles because I bought them on sale and stocked up. We are kind of tired of spaghetti and that is where the inspiration came from for the lasagna. I knew I had the sauce, pasta and chicken, so I bought a big container of cottage cheese and extra mozzarella and dinner was on baby!

First, I boiled the noodles and drained them. Then after spraying my pan I lined the bottom with half of the noodles and left the rest in the colander. I added half the container of cottage cheese in dollops on top of the noodles.

In the same pot I had boiled the pasta in (less dishes makes Lazy Mama a Happy Mama) I heated the pasta sauce and the diced up chicken together. I added some Italian seasoning and salt, because I can’t leave anything alone, and scooped half of that over the noodles and then a layer of mozzarella cheese.

I repeated that pattern one more time and topped it with extra mozzarella and some Parmesan cheese I had left over. I baked it at 350 for 20 minutes and broiled it for a couple more to brown the cheese.

I was disappointed that I let the cheese get too brown. I like it a little less solid, but hey, when you are trying to cook and cool eggs for after-dinner-Easter-egg dying that’s what you get!

It was yummy though, and we are going to have the leftovers tonight with some other leftovers from last night. Holler for leftovers!!

Mess

Wednesday it was a full can of paint. Yep, the whole can, my darling angel baby knocked it into the floor and swoosh paint went everywhere. Don’t ask why it was available to knock over this was not my fault. Well, yeah it was, but that is beside the point. In my panic, I finally decided the best thing to do was to start scooping by hand.  Scoop after scoop, and many, many paper towels later it was finally sort of clean. I, on the other hand, was covered in paint.  I can still see some speckles of paint on me 2 days later. I have showered I promise, and I have scrubbed my poor skin raw but still the paint remains.

Thursday it was a half a bag of dog food. You know the big ol’ bags from Sam’s.? Those 50 pounders? I needed to dump some into the dog food bin so instead of waiting for Hubby to help I took it upon myself to pour it in the bin. Sometimes I go all nutty and work like a bull in a china shop and even though I have this little angel on my shoulder saying, “You know this could turn out badly” , I don’t slow down and regroup, I go for it. And boy do I pay for it! So as I’m sure you’ve guessed, dog food went everywhere! Aydan said, “Huh Oh!”.  You said it right son. Thank goodness that I have a big ol’ sturdy broom from Sam’s to clean with.

This morning Aydan took the last of the big bag of potatoes and dumped them off the dishwasher into the dogs’ water bowl.  {Sigh}.  Water everywhere.  2 towels later I finally cleaned it up. You may think that I’m complaining and well, I am, but… I’m grateful too. Grateful that I have these things to get messed up in the first place. Grateful that I have the ability to clean the messes as they happen. Grateful that I have that little baby to help me make these messes.

Today is Good Friday. The day my Jesus gave it all for me.  Trust me, I’m not worth it, but he loved me then and he loves me now. I’m going to take a moment to think about my savior and how he died for me.  This is my favorite holiday. It’s not about toys and we don’t get caught up in that. It’s about a miracle beyond measure, a gift that is so big but so easy all you have to do is accept it. Thank you Lord for your unending love and thank you for cleaning up the messes I make in my own life.

Quiet Time

I actually got up on time this morning. You probably don’t understand what an accomplishment that is for me but trust me, it’s big. I’ve struggled for months with a drowning depression that makes it hard for me to get up in the morning. If I didn’t have 4 kids that needed me, I don’t know if I would have ever have gotten out of bed.

This morning though I was determined to carve out time with God. I need time that is uninterrupted to read God words, pray, and LISTEN. It’s hard to listen to the Lord when little voices are breaking in all the time saying Mommy, Hey Mommy, she hit me, he bit me, I bumped my head, etc. etc. Now, this is not the kids fault, it’s mine.  God deserves better from me and I need more time alone in his presence.

So this morning, I woke up, got dressed and groomed, made some coffee and sat down to study my bible. I do not say this with pride or braggingly. I say it with humility and a little shame. I am ashamed that at 33 years old I have only maintained a steady quiet time of bible study for a short time in my life. Yes, I have studied my bible at regular intervals over the years, but I don’t believe that I have done it often enough or consistently enough to really grow where God needs me to be.

Today I started my day in the Lord’s presence, for that I am awed and grateful. Have a great day!

Onions, Blueberries, & Okra, Oh My!

I had so much fun yesterday. The kids and I went out in the morning and pretty much stayed out all day.  I cleared weeds out of the garden for the first part of the morning, which I’m sure will last all of 1 day since it is now raining. I always love finding my little plants springing up through the dirt. Green beans, onions, and potatoes are the first to show through. The okra may not make it though, because the seeds were a gift from my Grandmother and she said they were old.  If I don’t see some little plants by next week I’ll replant. Dylan and I have an extreme love of fried okra so we have to make them grow. Not the fried with batter okra that you buy in the grocery store, although we will devour that, I’m talking about okra stirred into cornmeal with salt and pepper, country style. Well, I don’t know if that is country style or cheap style but country sounds better so that’s what I’m going with.

Now let me tell you about my other excitement. I bought another grape vine! I have one that has grown on our fence since we moved in here but these grapes need to cross pollinate so all this vine has ever done is grow along the entire fence up into the poor, sick, apple tree. Soooo, I put a little friend out there! Will this work? I have no clue! What if this is a muscadine vine? Does that matter? Is it too late this season for them to pollinate each other? So many questions, so little knowledge.

The strawberry patch is feeding my unwelcome rabbit family well. Very well. There have been at least 5 strawberries that we were almost ready to pick only to come back the next day and find them chewed. GRRR! Naomi and I were watching one yesterday morning only to go back after lunch to find it nibbled on! My husband has a task this weekend… Not kill the rabbits! Sheeesh. Put up some rabbit proof fencing is what I meant. Visions of Elmer Fudd are dancing through my head.

I kept the blueberry bush and bought him a girlfriend. I planted them along the fence line together. So exciting. I was sad thinking that I would probably have no blueberries this year since they had bloomed already. Later,  I forced a tour of my plants on Hubby, he said,”They were probably pollinated at the store before you bought them.” Well duh. I’m so dumb sometimes. They probably have the best chance of being pollinated this year from being with all the other blueberry plants.

Finally, me and my girls planted some beautiful daisies that they picked out. I planted a peony that my Mom bought me and we planted sunflower seeds. I also transplanted a Jacob’s Ladder vine (plant?) that seems to be doing great. I’ll take pictures and follow up later if the rain stops. As a side note, while typing out this little post my baby managed to dump an entire can of paint on the floor. Holy cow, what a freaking mess!

Join the Gardening fun at Frugal Gardening 101 with Smockity Frocks, The Finer Things in Life, and Getting Freedom. I'm really enjoying this series.