The Garden & Some Randoms

this past weekend was a productive one.  {opposed to the several very lazy ones that i had in february}

so... the weekend recap:

first and foremost:  the house stayed clean-ish.  which means i was "on" all weekend, picking up and nagging.  the house can really turn into a pit if i'm "off" verses "on"  and then... monday is a beast.  recover the house from its pit-like state and do monday's chores... which should be the bulk of my house work so that i am freed up for other projects in the week.  BUT  i had a killer headache on sunday night, got next-to-no sleep, so monday was still a beast.  just a different kind of beast.  :) 

secondly:  we planted the garden.  now we just REALLY need some rain this spring.  almost all my seedlings were transplanted, and leftovers were sent to a friend who wants to plant green beans in her family garden.

the rest of the garden came from starter plants.





except the lettuce.  they are from seeds too.  i am trying some in a row, and some in a pot...



i also started our cucumber seeds. they don't have cucumber plants at the nursery yet...



my mother got me these copper markers - aren't they cool?  too bad they actually are taking me a chunk of time to write on... i thought it would go a bit quicker.  i want to ditch all the paper markers...






and now we wait.  and we pray that we don't get a freeze.  or else we will be starting over...

i have a little spot in the back of the yard that i don't know what to do with...  suggestions anyone?  fruit is pretty much out, seeing as how we practically live in the desert.

third:  ethan got a tee-ball set and a new fishing pole.  my husband used the excuse:  "when my son asked for a new fishing pole, how could i tell him no?"  and i said, "hmm... i'll remember that one.  it will come in handy."

***sarcastic side note, isn't it fun having an alley behind the house??***














and fourth:  we also made it to church.  that is a feat in and of itself.  and the kids continue to sit with us.  {hmm... that might be another blog post entirely.  i've become somewhat opinionated on that one.  i mean, how on earth do you teach kids how to behave in church if they are always in the nursery?}

i also made this chili.  saturday was a chili kind of day.

and i've debated on whether or not to blog this, but i am trying to be more transparent... and not just put all the easy stuff out here on the blog.  anyway, i am a ball of nerves this week... because i am having some work done on my sinuses on friday.  apparently it's no big deal, but i've never had surgery... so its a little scary.  and i might be out of commission for awhile.  my mom and mother-in-law are going to be filling in for me "at work" - dare i say it?  i'm taking "vacation"  hahaha!  it will be nice to breathe and not have chronic sinus pain though...  so maybe if you are the praying kind, will you say a little prayer?  thanks.

sounds like we'll have a blast on spring break... :)

and i leave you with a confession.  i bought a bag of cadbury mini eggs and put them in my closet.  i told no one.  i ate the entire bag by the end of the weekend, horder style.  they are my favorite... i didn't want to share!!  horrifying, no??

Lately...

i've been busy... the weather is wonderful.

joe t's on the patio last night was wonderful.

savannah in sundresses.  wonderful.  the zoo, the museum.  even not having school because of teacher in-service was {shocker!} wonderful. {and i really like it when the kids have school...}

the little guy's behavior has been great.  {knock on wood.}  he has to have his big boy accessories, though.  every waking moment.  i think it's cute.  "i want my fishy.  i want my tape measure"




and i have been taking care of my babies.  we don't get much sun through the windows inside, so i move them around all day long.   it is shocking how quickly they grow...let's hope they do the same once they are in the ground, right?

Carrot Soup

Saturday morning, my dear husband and son played outside... ethan "mowed" the bare garden, {in a shameful outfit that consisted of pajamas, rain boots, and a winter coat that i was too embarrassed to record in photographs.} While ethan mowed, faustino harvested our carrots.

we've harvested some here and there, but by far, this was the largest batch of them.  2 lbs!  these are fingerling carrots... they are small, and tasty.  pretty sweet.  but i must tell you that cleaning them was a labor of love.  little carrots aren't easy to clean.  and carrots are really dirty.  so dirty that from now on, i think i will make sure to only buy organic carrots. 

but back to the soup.

i had a bit of an Eeyore attitude this weekend.  so soup sounded like a mood lifter.  but i am also a procrastinator, so i didn't start on the soup until the weekend was nearly done.  anyway, when faustino asked what i was going to do with the harvest, i told him soup.  i figured it wouldn't be too hard, and i was correct!

and then i happened upon a carrot soup recipe in my google reader.  it was meant to be.

except i wanted more spices.  and garlic.  and i didn't want to shred my carrots.  but i liked the potato idea...

so here is my soup recipe, that is on my "make again" list.


Fingerling Carrot and Potato Soup

Ingredients:  
2 lbs baby carrots
1 lb white potato
1 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
olive oil
vegetable stock carton
bacon {optional, but why not???}
salt
pepper
garlic salt
nutmeg
cayenne pepper
heavy cream {optional, but such a nice touch}


Directions:

wash and scrub your carrots, trim {these are pre-trimed}


saute diced onion and minced garlic in olive oil, until soft but not browned.


while onion softens, grate potatoes


add potatoes and carrots, cook for 5 minutes on medium.  add carton of vegetable stock and cover.  cook until vegetables are soft.


puree in batches in blender, and then transfer to pot. 


season to taste.  i am a horrible judge of salt, because i like salty things... and the garlic salt was a nice touch.  and the black pepper was wonderful.  i only used 2 - 3 pinches each of the nutmeg and cayenne.  i might have done more, but didn't want to risk it...


fry bacon.  i like to cut it up before hand, but you could just fry it up in whole pieces and then crumble.  i made extra bacon... i ate a lot of bacon.


serve with some cream and bacon on top. 

what a treat.  seriously.

and the owner of these chubby legs loved it too.

Catch Up

wow.  where do i start??  i have been completely absent this last week...   i haven't had it in me to even read any blogs, much less write on my own.  and my husband has been on vacation... so, one would think that means i have more free time, but somehow, it means i have less.  seriously, way less.  although we watch more movies...  and i do WAY more dishes {or i don't do them, and then have massive amounts of kitchen catch up} 

while i was away from the computer, we harvested a few of the veggies.  nice, huh?





one issue of note -- my cat is still gone.  ethan will say "come out, come out, wherever you are" when we go outside. breaks. my. heart.  he was such a good cat.

for those of you that don't know:  a week ago, my cat jumped out the front door to attack the semi-stray alley cats that have made a cozy home on my front porch.  he hasn't been back since.  i blame myself.



the 3 things that have made me feel better:  my MIL said that she would have not broken up the cat fight that prompted his disappearance either {seeing how it was at night and both kids were in the car AND it was a cat fight}, faustino has looked for him multiple times and told me not to feel guilty because it was a matter of time before he jumped out the door, and my friend told me that maybe he is enjoying the freedom.  perhaps.

i am still hopeful that i will open the door one day and he will be there.

another issue of note is that my milk is back thanks to the wonder drug reglan {with all of its not so wondrous side effects.}  I have 2 more weeks of this garbage.  the warning label should say something about it turning you into a zombie.  if i ran into you last week, after having taken a dose, you probably thought i was on drugs.  you were right.  yikes.

{did i tell you that i nearly lost my milk?  maybe i didn't go into it... it was an emotional hell for me.  a hungry baby is a sad, sad, thing.}

another time suck of last week -- i spent hours at the volvo repair shop.  two afternoons in a row.  the second afternoon i had two elementary school children who were in the waiting area as well.  if you are a mom of young children, you know that this means it was a wretched time.  they were bouncing off the walls {which made ethan hyper excited} and they were very curious about savannah.  and they had no regard to personal space.  and savannah needed to nurse.  and i am on the zombie medicine... to say that i needed a drink {which i CANNOT have on reglan} would be an understatement.  and i just thought i would get some work done on planning the disney vacation.  yeah, right.

also, we celebrated our wedding anniversary.  sort of.  at a work dinner for my husband's program.  it was... free.  not romantic, but definitely free.  oh well.  he did buy me flowers... and that is romantic.  perhaps next year we'll go on a trip or something...  i can dream, right?

and the weekend was good... and now it is thanksgiving week and i am horrified at how quickly time is passing.  i'll post a super yummy seasonal recipe tomorrow.  until then, my house is yelling at me to clean it.

xoxo, stephanie

Lately

sooooo.... bad things happen in 3's right?

1.  kidney infection for yours truly
2.  10 days of cipro to fight it = no breastfeeding {pump & dump -- give savvy formula}
3.  massive oil leak in the volvo to the tune of christmas presents.

we're done right?  that's three.  please, please tell me that 1. and 2. are separate and not the same thing.  i hope that there isn't another bad thing looming on the horizon.  yuck.

in other news, on sunday savannah started rice cereal.  she did okay.  i am the one that hasn't been consistent.  surprise, surprise.  {and do you like the xmas jammies?  they were fleece, it was cold.  did i mention our heat isn't working?? yeah...}


and in our prep work for disney i have downloaded various disney productions and loaded them on to the ipod.  {we don't have cable -- so we don't get the disney channel.  so i have been educating him...}  does he look so old or what in this picture?


i think we are getting very close to crawling.  she scoots a lot.  she can sit for a LONG time too.  i don't know if i am ready for her to be mobile.  yikes.


ethan has decided to go hog wild picking out his wish list.  lord help us.  {see #3 above}  how do kids know to pick toys out of catalogs??  i did not teach him.  i swear.


and after being inspired by a friend's son's blog post, my mother-in-law cooked julia's beef bourguignon recipe {with my carrots!!} and while she said it was difficult, might have been the best meal i have had in months.  seriously.  perfect comfort food for feeling like crap.  and do you like my carrots??  i planted these and grew them.  from tiny little seeds.  it really is pretty cool... 


and that is what we have been doing lately.  i have also desperately tried to keep up with the laundry.  oh. my. gracious.  we have so much laundry.  and housework.  and groceries.  and sleep.  i could sleep for the rest of the week.  basically i am a zombie.  what's new??

xoxo, s

Gardening Disaster & a Touch of Nostalgia

so after i researched trellises, loaded up the kids, spent a long time at Lowe's and then unloaded the lumber... i thought i would be ready for trellis building after dinner.

wrong.

and then my husband.  he's not so happy with my idea... i believe his exact words were something along the lines of "the most inefficient and expensive way you could do this" and he told me to take it back...weeellll....they cut the cedar for me, so, it's non-returnable.  nice, huh?  i am not imaginative or a creative problem solver on things like this.  i feel really stupid.

did i mention i was out of my element?

anyway, i was trying to dig a two foot deep hole... and it didn't quite pan out... so tomorrow, i will try again with a borrowed post-hole digger {i didn't mention to faustino that i could have bought one of those gems earlier but decided to save money and use a shovel... i think men and women have different ways of looking at saving money, and telling them that you saved money when you only really were spending in your mind doesn't always sit well with them -- example:  "i saved us $150 by buying jeans at target"}

anyway, the shovel.  it didn't quite work.  but reminded me vividly of a time when i was in the fourth grade and my friend kristen and i decided that we should build a tornado shelter in her back yard... and we dug a HUGE hole.  like, 3 feet deep, 4 feet wide.  right in the middle of the yard.  nice.  and then it filled up with rain...and mud.   i really thought we might be successful.  silly 10 year old.  silly 28 year old with my trellis! 

kristen, do you read this??  do you remember the hole?  did your mom care?

hmmm... no pictures.  so since i like to have a picture in every post, how about i show you my most wonderful toddler seat on my stroller.  genius.  it even folds down so you don't have to remove it.  very handy last week at the zoo.

Hello Organic Salad!

Dear Tom Thumb,

Thanks for the overpriced Organic Spring Mix we've been buying.  We don't need you anymore, pricey greens.  We grow our own.

how does your garden grow

Faustino has been working very hard on the garden... and I have been watching and helping where I can.  {Sort of.}  Doesn't it look nice??








I did work on my herbs (no worry of stray cat poop and toxoplasmosis in their preferred sleeping spot - eww!) and trimmed down my oregano a week ago.  Looks like they need trimming again.  Would you believe that all of these came back from last year??  And the rosemary has been here for years now, maybe 5 or so... and the mint has come back for 3 years now... new addition:  cilantro.  And I am thinking about chives and dill.  Any other good suggestions?  From left to right: cilantro, parsley, oregano, thyme {fighting to grow back}, sage, and tarragon.  Basil is in the garden by the tomatoes.  It is supposed to be an organic gardening thing to grow your basil and tomatoes together.  But black thumb Stephanie wouldn't know first hand. :)

In fact, while I was dating Faustino, he bought me a basil plant and planted it.  And it died.  And I really thought he might break up with me.  It was like some weird test or something.  Surely it didn't surprise him... green things and me haven't had a good track record.  I am working on it.  The herbs are mine.  I cleared out the space for them, planted them, helped them live through last years ridiculously hot summer and here we are again.



and these little guys are green beans, sunflowers, and corn.  Won't corn be awesome??  It is at my mother-in-law's request.  And in the back of the yard we have a melon patch with watermelons and cantaloupes {by all the not so beautiful brush that forms a buffer from the alley - because if we cleared it and cut the hackberry trees down, what would our buffer be??}  Although, a compost bin rather than pile would be nice... but it is strategically placed in front of the gate to the alley... Don't you wish that you had an alley like ours??




And my neighbor has these... and I secretly want to steal them to make a pretty floral arrangement in the house...



Now, go plant something!

another year, another garden

Yesterday afternoon the gardening began.




And Ethan got to play with a friend and look for worms.



And I was exempt from the labor because of my condition... perhaps next year I can till... or not. :)



Let's hope that this year, with our garden much larger, that it actually rains some.  Because last year's dry, hot, 100+ degree days at the beginning of summer didn't quite make for a bountiful produce season.  I think we only got 10 tomatoes.

Now, my herb garden on the other hand... it is thriving.  Any suggestions on keeping the stray cats out??