This is part two of our Gardening Ideas Series, which will talk mostly about vegetable seeds and where to buy them. You can see part one here. Our garden wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t have some type of veggies planted. In past years we’ve taken the easy route and purchased most of our plants, but lately we’ve begun to start quite a few indoors. While we do plan to buy several plants this year, there are a few we’ll be starting in pots come spring break. Here’s what we plant to start in pots: - Strawberries We’ve actually already started these, since I found some cute mini kits at Target around Valentine’s day. Although I have my doubts they are going to grow right (due to an accident involving cats and tiny little pots), so I may just buy some more seeds and try again. The tricky thing...
If you are like me and actually USE the kitchen in your home, you know how dirty it can get in a hurry. I’m not just talking about the floor needing swept or mopped, or even flour on the counters nearly every day. What I’m talking about is the REALLY nasty jobs that don’t get done every day, such as cleaning behind the fridge or scrubbing out the sink. So take a good look around your kitchen. Does the counter need cleaned behind your appliances? Is the inside of your oven pretty gross? Does your microwave need a good scrubbing? Don’t forget the crumbs in the toaster! This week just focus on those really dirty jobs around the kitchen and get to it. You’ll be happy to you did, even if your kitchen needs cleaned again in a week or two! Make sure you report here once this week’s task is finished! Read More →
While I don’t use my crockpot that often, I’ve found it works well for nights when I’m short on time and also for chicken breasts in general. This isn’t the first time we’ve blogged about a crockpot chicken meal, but I’ve yet to make the same dish twice. (See the other two recipes here and here). I’m officially calling this the “whatever I’ve got on hand chicken and noodles” recipe, because obviously I use whatever I’ve got. This time we used chicken breasts, garlic flakes, garlic salt, chicken broth, cream of chicken soup (a family size can), and cream of mushroom soup. No veggies this time, although I probably should have. I started the chicken around noon, dumping in all the ingredients plus a can of water, setting it on high. I stirred here and there, but for the most part...
If you’ve been coming here for awhile, you know I’m a big fan of the download games at Big Fish. Usually it’s me that gets addicted to the various game, but once in awhile a game comes along that’s great for kids. That’s exactly what Farm Frenzy, Pizza Party is. Now chances are the younger kids aren’t going to be able to play this one quite as well as the older ones. There’s a lot of different things to remember and do, thus the reason I was the one playing it most of the time. However, because of the animal and pizza appeal, the kids might be sticking to this one for some cheap entertainment. If you don’t already have a membership to BigFish, I do suggest getting one to play this game. For a few bucks a month you get a game credit to use with any game on the site, which is added to daily....
Last week I decided to make hot wings as a main dish, and thought onion bread in the bread machine would have made a nice side for it. Unfortunately, as par for the course around here, I was missing just ONE ingredient from every onion bread recipe I could find. Out of three or four, I was either missing onion soup mix, sour cream, or cottage cheese. So when I went to the store you better believe I bought all three! The recipe I ended up using was the one which used the onion soup mix, because it sounded the easiest and probably was going to be the best. Sure enough it was good, and everyone really enjoyed it. We even had some left overs for the kids to take to school the next day for lunch, and a few bites for me to munch on during the day as well. This onion bread recipe was a little strange to me, since there was an option of using dry...
This is part one of our Gardening Ideas Series, and will talk mostly about flower seeds. As in where to buy flower seeds online, and when to plant, and what we plan to add to our garden this year. I love flowers. One of my fondest childhood memories was taking a walk through the greenhouse next door to my dad’s. I also loved the smell of the walk-in cooler with the carnations, baby’s breath, roses, and assorted flowers. It’s no wonder I have flowers growing all over my small yard. In addition to the perennials that come up every year (which I’ll talk about in the flower bulb installment of our series), I’m planning to plant the following annuals and perennials this year: - Four O’Clocks While these are suppose to be in full sun, last year I planted them around my tree. They were absolutely beautiful,...
Once upon a time we had a weekly ritual here at the blog called “Tidy Tuesday”. It was meant as a weekly motivation (or kick in the behind, if you will) to get me and all you awesome readers up and doing those “once in awhile” jobs like cleaning out shelfs and washing windows. Judging by the looks of my house, it’s time we get back to that. So this week we’ll start off easy with something I already did (nothing like cheating out of the gate, eh?). Let’s clean out the fridge. I don’t mean just throwing out last week’s leftovers, but REALLY cleaning it. Get in there and SCRUB. It’s amazing what can get stuck on the inside of the fridge when you aren’t looking. Read More →
Do your kids still play Webkinz like mine do? Remember, in order to keep your membership, you need to purchase at least one Webkinz per year. Compared to similar membership sites, this is EXTREMELY cheap. They make nice birthday gifts, and so do the accessories! When you adopt the Webkinz of the month, you get all kinds of fun extras to start with, plus daily extra stuff the regular pets don’t get. So if you are planning to buy your child their first Webkinz or needing to renew your membership, this is the one to buy this month! (Just make sure you buy the LARGE one and not the “Little”. Use the link below to see the large) See Webkinz Yorkie at Amazon. Read More →
Even after cooking a roast all day last weekend, I was still in the mood to cook and really (REALLY), hungry for chocolate pie. And doesn’t it always seem like you can have all but ONE ingredient for whatever you’re craving? Seems to be the norm around here, and I’ve gone to the store a half a dozen times this week just to get ONE item. *SIGH*. But at least I got my pie. The recipe I used was the Chocolate Cream Pie from our recipe site. Even though I had chocolate pudding mix, I had no whipped cream or pie crust, so I was going to have to go up to the store regardless. This recipe didn’t use pudding mix, but rather chocolate chips (which I had as well) and whipping cream. I almost didn’t use it because it looked like a little too much work and I was being very lazy after making that big meal, but I gave it a...
We’ve gotten into a new habit around here, and that’s reading off the school lunch menu at the beginning of every month. The kids decide what they will and will not eat, and I make a note of when each kid is taking lunch (and more often it’s been both of them on the same days…hmmmm….). I started sending just basic turkey sandwiches with a small bag of chips (you know the kind – the ones that come in those big packs of 8-20), plus a juice box and some dessert like item (Oreo dippers, for example). But now that there are several days in a row each kid is taking lunch, I had to come up with some variety. Here’s what’s on the menu for our cold school lunches this week: - Summer sausage I spotted this at the store and thought my eldest son would love the idea. He loves basic items like meat and bread...
