Plant Something and Work on your local food systems: I picked up a dozen freebie tomato transplants from our local university. These will go in the work garden over the next few days. We are going to be overflowing with tomatoes come August! This is a good thing...the hope is that we will have so much that we can send a lot home with the childrens families. (And I plan to can some ) It's really interesting how the children are so different with gardening. About 90% of the kids in my classroom l
Today is Tuesday. Since Henry went to a four day work week several months ago, Tuesday is the beginning of our week days. Since Monday's are now a part of our three day weekends, I never dread Monday's like I use to.
I find that I'm enjoying Tuesday's as well. I try to never schedule anything on Tuesday and just stay home and do what needs to be done after three days of projects, chores, errands, shopping,etc... It's revolutionized our life style and I am so thankful that Henry's comp
You know ... I love my husband. He really is a good guy. But he sure pisses me off sometimes!
Here we are in this financial pinch. We talked. We agreed that we needed to be prudent and really avoid spending money. I've been doing the things I've described here. Yet, a few days ago, he stopped by the store and bought tortilla chips, breakfast sausage and a comic book for the kiddo. How are those necessities? I'm beating myself up over a jar of PNB (which I did NOT return), and he's buying co
Plant Something /Local Food Systems: Planted 3 watermelon and 3 cantaloupe plants at my work garden. The children are getting a big kick out of the garden.
Cook Something: We are eating smoothies daily made with fruit from our garden. Also, we made something new I found at this blog...she calls them masonades. We've only made the lemonade (with frozen lemon juice from our tree). They're delicious on a hot day!
http://coldantlerfarm.blogspot.com/2009/03/masonades.html
Today I went to the surgeon who did my knee. I needed information about why my knee is locking up.
He said my knee is seriously damaged, with severe arthritis and that I should be having a knee replacement surgery -- but he doesn't do them. He said with my weight, they probably won't do knee replacement surgery at this time.
So -- reality check. Right now I have three more weeks of therapy and I need to do as much to stregthen my knee as possible -- then he recommends that I start s
One day, you're a teenager telling Mom to quit bugging you. Then one day, you're over 30 and something happens. You look in the mirror and see Mom's face in yours.
Pausing with the hairbrush in your hand, you suddenly see why everyone says you have her eyes, why her friends stop you in the supermarket and do double-takes.
For them, it' s a time warp.
"You're Hazel all over again!" they exclaim. But they don't say much else.
It used to bother me, but looking in the mir
Good morning,
I just did a quick read of the forums, and now will quickly post and then I HAVE to get back to sewing for the craft exchange.Have I mentioned how I hate to be late, and this project may be really close to the wire.
DH and I had a great trip back for his sister's 50th wedding anniversary party. Their 4 kids put a lot of thought, time, effort and love into that party. DH and I also got to visit with his other sister and her family and children and grandchildren, my 81 yr old dea
Don't tell anyone, but, it's really day 6. Yesterday was just so ridiculously busy that I didn't do anything that would be considered a challenge.
Today was better.
Prep something: I found 4 boxes of empty canning jars I had gotten from Freecycle and stashed (and forgotten about). They're soaking in hot water. Once they're washed they'll be filled with some prep item (rice, pasta or something) so they can won't take up as much space.
Cook something: Made smoothies with peaches an
We - as a family - have become very dependent upon sandwiches of some sort - on bread, in pita pockets, wrapped in a tortilla, or even on crackers. I can bake bread, pita pockets and tortillas look do-able (though I have yet to try them)....but lunchmeat? How am I going to make that? It's not practical or economical to substitute a hunk of chicken or turkey breast for the thin-sliced stuff I buy at the store. And tuna? Well, one can only stand so much tuna. There's egg salad, but only half of us
Checking in on this cool saturday morning.
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<font face="comic sans ms"><font size=3><font color=000000>Season's Of A Lifetime<P>
People come into your life for a reason, a season or a lifetime. When you figure out which it is, you know exactly what to do.<br>
When someone is in your life for a REASON, it is usually to meet a need you h
Next month will be two years since our family grew from four children to seven. It was quite the adjustment, let me tell you. Not only did have MORE children but now we had two girls, talk about a change in family dynamics! Oh my!
Here they were , these three little children who had been in an environment that would make you and I shudder. They had a different set of values, morals, priorities, opinions, outlooks, lifestyle...I could go on but I think you've got the picture.
It h
Today was a very long, busy day. All I can say I did today was to reduce waste: I picked up a bunch of newspaper that will be used for mulch and dinner was made up of leftovers to help clear out the fridge.
Oh wait... I forgot...I got some muskmelon and tomato transplants from a fellow Freecycler (and they're heirlooms). They'll go in the ground next week.
The good news is that I am recovering from surgery fairly well. AND recovering from the pnemonia.
The bad news.
When I went into the hospital, they did a cat scan and found a 2 cm nodule on my thyroid. Wednesday I am starting with an ultra sound, and then will be going on to other tests (redioactive iodine anyone?)
The good news: Only about 10% of nodules wind up being cancerous.
The bad news: The bigger they are the more likely they are cancerous.
Then to
Plant something: This one won't be happening at my home very much because we are moving at the end of the summer. But, the raised garden beds at my work have been weeded and are useable now. This is where most of my gardening energies will be going this summer. Today we planted 3 tomato starts. One Early Girl, one Shady Lady and one unknown that was donated. The sunflowers the children started in the ground from seed are about 2 feet tall now and we have a dozen transplants that the children sta
Earlier this year, I went to the warehouse store and stocked up on easily portable snack-type things. We were gone all day today, so I packed a "lunch" of these portable things: fruit leather, granola bars, applesauce cups, single-serving chips. I also packed some home-dried fruit and PB&J sandwiches. We didn't eat all our "lunch" so the kids ate the rest in the car on the way home. Guess who doesn't have to cook dinner! All those convenience items aren't cheap, but are healthier and cheaper
No, it doesn't have anything to do with the fourth of July... I found this very cool blog and on it was a challenge to do one thing every day to create food independence. Each day you: Plant something, Harvest something, Preserve something, Prep something, Cook something, Reduce waste, Manage your reserves and Work on your local food systems. I like this challenge because it gives me some guidelines...I find that the days can slip by and I don't do anything.
Here is the link to the challeng
I just tried the Sam's 'Click and Pull' for the first time. So, hopefully after PT tomorrow I can go and pick it up without having to 'shop'. Here's what I got...
Item Description Item # Quantity Unit Price Subtotal
FULLY COOKED BACON 72 COUNT 272086 1 $8.52 $8.52 I try to keep a pkg of this on hand, very handy and shelf stable
DQ PK SALMON 4-14.75 4-14.75 OZ 822899 1 $7.67 $7.67 noticed I needed mored salmon the other day when counting
CHOCOLATE PUDDING 112 OZ. 4
I'm not going to continue blogging every single thing we eat...too much effort. Though I will mention a couple of things. Today we had a small snack of berries from our own yard. Yesterday, I ate a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich; it was REALLY good!! At this point in the journey, I am using up odd items from the cupboards (and freezer). It will be a bit of time before I am seriously into preps. I am also spending a fair bit of time being more imaginative and creative about what I'm fixing. In
Disclaimer: I do not routinely stock "Spicy Habanero Tuna;" it was given to me. You could substitute regular tuna plus taco seasoning, canned chiles, or other spicy seasonings of your choice. Frankly you could just omit the tuna, but I was looking for a way to use this up. You could also probably substitute rice for the orzo, but again, the orzo was given to me and I'm trying to use it up.
Soak and cook
1/2 cup dry beans of the Mexican or chili sort of variety
in the usual manner. Drain
1 cup dry macaroni
2 Tbsp dried celery stalk
1/2 cup home-dried zucchini slices, broken into quarters
1 Tbsp dried minced onion
1 carrot, sliced thinly
1 cup frozen (or dried) peas
1 cup home-dried kale
1 can tuna
1/2 tsp dried parsley leaves
dollop of mayonnaise
salt & pepper to taste
Bring water to boil, add macaroni, celery stalk, zucchini, onion, and peas. Return to boil & cook until macaroni is done. Strain off cooking water, using a small amount to soften k
Well, as I've been typing on this blog here and there, it turns out that it doesn't appear to the rest of you unless I hit the publish entry button.
Here I was fussing at myself for not keeping up with it like I wanted to and the little bit I was doing wasn't even going out.
Oh well live and learn.
A special thanks to the little birdie who let me in on what I was doing wrong.
Only one more official day of school left, then next week to do the required paperwork and get it
