Just Around The Corner..

Call me superstitious, but I heavily dislike the idea of thinking that summer is here, Washington and I have trust issues. That said, I can almost hear her coming around the corner. Lilies bloomed well this year, but they didn't get very tall so I couldn't cut any of the flowers. We have potatoes sprouting well, corn is right on schedule and my sunflowers get stronger each day. My zucchini is just exploding with blooms and I can't wait to get my hands on it this summer, I have plans to really see what I can do with shredded zucchini now that I'm seeing food from a whole different perspective. It's no longer just for bread. 

I have recently learned that I was never really shown how to trim lettuce from the garden. Luckily I only killed one red leaf lettuce, the other i growing back at supersonic speed. My husband schooled me, I say lucky for me.

This is what many dinners look like for us. One big baker, topped with fresh grated cheese, herbs spices, butter, a fried egg and one slice of bacon. In exploring our options and suggested meals, my husband has perfected the ultimate baked potato! Who knew being gluten free, and eating only local produce meats could be so darn fun? 

Purging is going really good - and keeping me so busy. I cannot get over what we have accumulated in just the last three years. So ready to see it all gone! Just around the corner..

Slugs And Butterballs

Slugs. Their numbers deplete a bit each year, but they are still ever present. I would like to give a shot out to Espresso Connection and the amazing baristas there that happily fill my small bucket of coffee grounds for me. I think a morning has started out good when I get free coffee, and free coffee grounds. 

As long as I stay on top of the grounds, but be careful with the placement of, I won't change the ph of the dirt, and slugs and snails alike will stay away. I found this comic I thought was funny, so I thought I would share. 

Mark planted a good row of these potatoes, German Butterballs. I hope they're as good as they look in this picture! Lots of shoveling going on this week, at least the sun is shining! 

Crimson King, Is Queen

Although the day started earlier than preferred, it's been an amazing start to our summer break. The sun is back, veggies are happy, and things are coming out. Like these four tree's below:

This little corner has heard much conversation about how it's utilized. It provides so much privacy, homes for little critters, and hunting cabins for the beast of the house. In keeping with the current theme of finally starting fresh all around, we decided it was time. Mixed in between these four small trees, were different sages, roses, blackberries and vines straight out of the bowels of hell. 

Bye-bye privacy! Lucky the other side of the fence is the corner of our neighbors lot and the dead end of an alley so as far as sudden lack of the privacy we were used to goes, it's really not too bad. I got rays of sun in the living room from the back yard for the first time since living here. What a difference!

So then we planted this beauty. It's a Crimson King Purple Norway Maple. This little tree has been after my heart for about 2 years now. It seeded in the front yard, in a spot it would never be able to stay in. I kept cutting it down, and pulling what I thought were all the roots, but it just kept coming back. It refused to go away, or die, instead it just thrived and constantly tried to get my attention. So after another round of discussions, we decided it deserved to be planted somewhere where it could really take off. We plan to turn all that area into grass, and plant along the fence line evergreens that will grow to be about 15 feet tall (in many years to come). Still in the early stages of getting all the stumps out of the ground plus the vines, it might be a while before we get grass seed down and more trees in the ground, but I think it's already an improvement. 

Here's what the leaves look like. This tree should grow between 20 and 35 feet tall, and can be anywhere from 15-25 feet wide. Wish our little tree the best of luck!

And In The End..

And in the end, I find my heart still beating and my gardens growing. It was nice to have a break from the desk for a few weeks. I had time to ponder, experiment, plan, ruin, and just plain old cheat along the way, (cheating consists of coffee stand lattes, and tiny bites of things I know I shouldn't be eating anymore). Now that I have a good grip on what it means to be gluten free, I think I'm ready to jump into phase two of the entire ideology. A much easier step to accomplish, but still a phase that will take time, a little planning, and a lot more reading along the way. 

So what does it mean to be gluten free? Two months ago, I would have said it was just a special diet. It's not a diet, it's not something only one member of a household can do, it's a lifestyle change. It forces you to take a hard, unveiled look at your food, where it really comes from, how it's really treated before you see it, and what the hell are all those ingredients that nobody can pronounce. Rule #1: if you can't pronounce it, toss it. Rule #2: GO LOCAL! I am nothing but blessed in my food situation because I have an entire valley filled with organic farmers eager to fill my plate, so eager that I'll be able to buy directly from them twice a week thru October. 

In between, I have battled with the old need for places like Costco - where us happily fat Americans can go and buy even more crap food and in the masses so we can go home, stuff our faces and still have leftovers for the next two weeks. I have battled simple replacements for things like Cheerios (once thought impossible), syrups, and learned what a healthy staple filled cupboard really looks like. What does it look like? It would take less than five minutes for me to clear out every single piece of food in my kitchen. Two months ago, it would have been a job on my to-do list. I occasionally stroll into a Fred Meyer or Haggen's, but the more I do that the more I feel like it would be so easy to undo the pathway that I worked hard on building - so I find myself avoiding it as much as possible. Shortly after we started this lifestyle change, I was so determined to not go to Costco ever again, it forced me to get Isabel potty trained so I didn't have to go there for anything. Three days later - success!

The effects on my children have been amazing! I thought they were getting little added sugar before, but again, once you go this route your forced to look into things you never would have otherwise. I now have kids that wake up and want carrot sticks, apples, and bananas for breakfast. I did find a replacement for cereal, and they each have only 2-5 ingredients and they're all natural things that actually grow in dirt somewhere. I learned through this process, what a REAL sugar high looks like. The look on my dad's face as we experienced that episode together, was priceless. 

I only have a coffee once a week (twice if I'm having a rough week) and I really just prefer to get it elsewhere. I put my espresso machine away and enjoy having the extra counter space for my new "tea station". Yes, I now have a hot water and tea station, and I love every bit of having tea in the mornings. 

 Rule #3: If you can grow it, just do it! Mark and I have always had some sort of a garden, but this whole change has prompted us to clear more space for vegetables. So far we have tomatoes, tomatillos, zucchini, cucumber, lots of cabbage, arugula, peas, red leaf lettuce, carrots, corn, and radishes. All this is in my south facing garden that we finally got a grip on. Pictured above is just a small area. Still a lot more to come! My master plan is to continue to grow things that have multiple uses. Fruits for jams, veggies for eating and storing, and I would love to start making my own hot sauces and pickles. I planted another blueberry bush, but it's the Pink Lemonade variety. It will taste the same but the berries are hot pink, it will add flare to my garden. We also plan on getting some raspberry bushes so I can use my own berries for my raspberry jam, it would take at least a year before I would get any fruit off it it, but I think it would be worth the wait. Until then, I'll continue to buy them out of Duvall. 

These changes also prompted me to start making my own chicken broth. I buy a roasted chicken from the Co-Op, we eat most of it, and the rest goes into the pot. I get enough broth to last me a couple weeks. I feel it's efficient and nothing goes to waste, although I do need a good fat skimmer now. So after all this blah blah blah, maybe your curious as to what phase 2 of this lifestyle change means. I have already started, but it will take more time. I plan to rid this house of any kind of chemical. From soaps to cleaners, to the now empty medicine baskets. If it wasn't compiled from ingredients found on this earth in natural form somewhere, it goes. Does this mean that one day I'll stop using my expensive shampoo and conditioner? Hell yes, I have plans to wash my hair with baking soda, and condition it with apple cider vinegar. As soon as I get through all my dishwashing tablets, I will then be forced to make my own. I'm so glad the world didn't end last year, because this year so far has been stellar!

Time Is Flying

Time is flying past me at speeds I can't keep up with. With so much going on, it's a wonder I manage to shower some days at all. Gross, I know. It's nice to finally have some time with the Mac. We recently cleaned our garage - it was such a task that both our cars sat outside overnight for a week, it was awful! I feel like my car is mad at me.  

 Anyways, I pulled out my favorite tool in the process, my badass hand sander. I know when I get this out, I have fun things planned in my near future. Right now I'm using it for small projects around the house that I'm painting and getting ready for renters, next it will hopefully finish some projects around my house.  

I cleared around my rhubarb and it looks so happy! It's so healthy and just exploding with life! Being on a gluten free diet, rhubarb is something that I may finally have a use for. It's a cousin to buckwheat, something that we've been eating lately. Maybe I'll learn how to make a gluten free rhubarb pie one day. The thought of not using my personal crust recipe doesn't sit well with me, so I'm not sure I'm looking forward to that. I think I might have to hide the eyes of a betrayed recipe box. 

Cooking has been...a bit backwards. I haven't gone to Costco in a month, and instead go out every couple of days and get what  I need because everything I put together now, involves fresh organic uncooked fruits and/or vegetables. I'm starting to think that my 3 hour shopping trips might have seen their last day of chaos. Could I be so lucky? Mark has also been wanting to do the cooking as he likes to understand his food better, and feel it out as he goes. I'm not entirely sure I'm ok with this, I'm a stay at home wife and mother, shouldn't I be doing the cooking? Well, perhaps it's time to let that go and find a way to fill in the void. I purged my cupboards of food, and went through every single thing that I had. I filled 2 Costco bags with food that I need to distribute elsewhere. It was sad, and refreshing all in one. Now when Mark opens the cupboards, he doesn't see a bunch of food he can't eat. I have one small corner for some things for the girls like cheerios, crackers and peanut butter. P.S., I'll finish what I have, but one day I will need to find a way to make my own peanut butter. I'll go into further detail sometime about peanut butter. 

This was a soup that I made that was super yummy! It was bean based and I got to add some bacon to it. It came from the gluten free cook book that has endless amounts of information in it. It has an awesome and easy recipe for making my own flour so I can finally start making some bread. I have to say that even my girls are enjoying whats been coming to the table. 

I still have terrible cravings for bad things. Chocolate, fast food, Taco Time. It's awful but I'm happy to report that the only things I've cheated with are chocolate and crackers, maybe a piece of gluten loaded bread here and there. Twice I found myself driving towards fast food, and both times I turned myself around and once I got over the mouth watering thought of greasy meaty food, I felt better about my decision to NOT eat what my heart desires. Sometimes I think I could just indulge and binge eat a bunch of stuff, but I can barely finish a half sandwich - which I've been getting at the Co-Op. They have amazing gluten free sandwiches there and it's become our new "fast food".  I am off to paint so have a wonderful day!

The Problem With Change

Changes. Some are good, some are bad, some are just darn hard! I watch my husband go through these changes, although healthy and so rewarding, it's still hard to change how you think about food, and drinks. So with these changes, I've decided that I too need to make some personal changes. I thought it might be easier to do this on my own terms instead of waiting for someone to tell me to do it. Yes friends, we are talking about that morning cup of joe. Coffee, latte, caps, whatever you want to call it - it too, will have an end but will be given visitation rights. I plan to kick my morning coffee, and replace it with good tea and lemon. Human's are suppose to drink warm water (preferably with lemon or lime) in the mornings to wake your warm sleeping belly. Warm water wakes all the acids that sit in your intestines over night and restores your body's PH back to neutral. 

So this morning, I sipped on Chamomile tea with lemon and ate a hard boiled egg with the slightest hint of sea salt. I'm sure I'll get a caffeine headache sometime today, and probably tomorrow, and hopefully not the next day. 

So in short, the plan is to cut my coffee out. I hope to be able to enjoy a good latte maybe once a month. But I know that once I get to that point, I probably won't want coffee at all. 

The second part of the plan? Is to not freak out about it. Baby talk will happen, sneaking trips to my favorite barista which whom I have free coffee available to me, will happen. I expect this to take time and, I'm no stranger to afternoon coffee - it's going to happen. I've always gone through coffee phases, and during an off phase I would buy a mocha, savor it, look forward to it and then could be done with it. Let's pull these big girl panties everyone talks about on and get this snowball rolling. 

P.S., the eggs we get from our friends farm, make the best and most creamy hard boiled eggs ever. Yumm!  

I challenged myself last night. I told myself to make a dinner, without going to the store (a huge challenge in these early weeks). As bland and boring as this plate looks, it was really good and satisfying! I made my first batch of buckwheat, cooked only one chicken breast, shredded it, added black beans and the slightest amount of pepper, and then of course some lightly steamed greens. It was so simple, but as I watched myself "get away" with using only one piece of chicken, and only one pepper, and one head of broccoli, I couldn't believe how much I was stuffing my family. Mark and I cleaned out plates, and the girls did pretty darn good at eating and we were all satisfied for the rest of the night. Mark and I topped ours with the ever so slightest amount of bleu cheese and it gave it an awesome little kick here and there. I felt 18 all over again as I was trying so hard to come up with something edible. 

I'm starting to see past the costs of being gluten free, because by not buying nearly as many meats and expensive dairy products, I could see myself lowering my grocery bill. It's going to take a lot of time, and I will make a lot of mistakes. We did become members of the Skagit Valley Food Co-Op, with kickbacks! It's a start!

Breathing Goes A Long Way...

Breathing CAN go a long way, if you remember to do it! I often forget and instead get overwhelmed, overworked, and stressed out. Trying really hard to get a grip over here, and it's not going so well. We are working hard on becoming a gluten free/dairy free household. Hardest. Thing. Ever. 

This was a simple simple crock pot gluten free meal. Chicken in broth, add some onion and whole celery sticks. Put it on high for 4 hours, take out, shred, add lots of hot sauce (make sure it's gluten free Val) and then you make lettuce wraps topped with fresh shredded carrots - thanks only to Pampered Chef for that amazingly awesome tool! Sprinkle some bleu cheese and fresh celery, wrap, slowly consume and be happy. A bit on the spicy side, but all around good and satisfying.

 Remember the experimental tulip bulbs I rescued? Well they were planted, struggled a bit, and then thrived. This picture is not them thriving, I had just planted them. The yellow one bloomed, the red one thats all bent over had a hard time, but then reached back up into the sunlight and started to bloom. I stepped out to take a picture of my happy tulips only to find the flowers dismantled and thrown out of my dirt...I'm pretty confident that I have Isabel to thank for that one. Looks like she played "loves me, loves me not"...I'll try to replant them but this might have been too much for them. The garden in the back of this picture will hopefully one day be all grass.

 A girlfriend gave me this book - sorry for the blur - and it's amazing! It gives me the baby talk that I need to be able to execute this change without the stress of just not knowing how to make anything. I've been looking at my pantry, and I'm thinking that I might have to go through and get rid of everything I have and just start over. The more we learn about this diet, and they way that humans are suppose to be eating, I cringe every time I open a cupboard. I have pounds of flour that I will never be able to use again, so why keep them around. "The more you cook, the more you rot!" - A very smart man! Well shit, maybe I won't be doing as much "cooking" anymore.

My trillium is blooming. I wish these got taller. They're so low to the ground they're hard to see. But I have lots and they love where they are. This bunch is nestled between two different types of ferns, a very dainty Japanese fern, and the good ol' Washington found ones. (I don't know it's book name)

Remember the dandelions? Well, we got most of it cleared. We stopped just past the last blueberry bush, and then had a major discussion. It involves the removal of ANOTHER 3 trees, and I...don't want to talk about that yet. 

Resets, Upsets, And A Bit In Between

Annihilation. Reset. Upset. That is how I feel as my plans changed dramatically overnight. Everything seems to have been flipped around. After much discussion between the Mr. and I, we have decided to make the large garden on the road a vegetable garden, (the last thing I ever thought I would see in this garden) and we have decided to rid ourselves of most of the garden area in the back yard so we can have a much larger grassy area for the girls, and we will be adding evergreen trees against the fence lines as needed. I will  only have one small section of garden, and all my raised boxes in the back yard. The rest will be grass. That means we have three tree's to pull and I'm not looking forward to that work. 

This is what the future vegetable garden looked like. It's about 7 feet wide, and runs the length of the house. Part of it has flowers that grow well and take up a whole corner, so we just maintain those and the two large bushes that sit outside of two bedroom windows. This garden also has six blueberry bushes that prove to be faithful in their production of juicy berries. I see those bushes and only see pie, jam, and crepes in the summertime. This patch is a huge work in progress and I will keep you updated.  We are so close to be being done with the first shoveling. 

Coffee grounds. After bla bla bla bla about how good coffee grounds are for your garden, while making my coffee this morning I decided to empty my grounds into this pretty canister. Since I have hundreds of filters I will never use, I used some for a liner and spilled the beans. I have to do some reading as to what exactly I should be doing with them. Double bonus is that I won't be making such a mess with the grounds in my compost bucket. Score! I might throw egg shells in their if I can remember 

 An experiment. While we were shoveling the dandelion garden, of the hundred or so bulbs we pulled I put these aside with some dirt and water and will try to transplant them somewhere. Overnight the yellow one got color and is about to bloom. I threw in a red one late last night, it's still in shock. Time will tell what happens with these guys. Your suppose to dig up tulips every two years and split them. These have obviously been neglected. 

Because dammit every good morning begins with properly foamed milk! I cherish these calm moments as I have them. The Mr. and I are gearing up to do a walk through as we prepare to get another house ready for renters. This will be so different from the last house, it's well updated and has nice hard floors.  Last time it became a serious renovation, (previous blogs have before and after pictures of that house) but this will be just a remodel, thankfully! I get a serious high when I get to go into houses and fix them. Too bad my house had to be the experimental one, I'm still fixing my own mistakes. I've had such a hard time figuring out my musical taste for the day, while writing I went from BT&H, to Metallica, to Rob Zombie, to Twista to System of A Down. Too many decisions! 

Time To Let Go

Things have been busy, and it's been a good busy. We have pooled our energy and started tackling some huge projects this past week, things I have purposely ignored and with good reason. We finally pulled out a bunch of very large bushes, small tree's, and a lot of what was in between. For the first time ever, we are seeing some blank canvases in the gardens and it's exciting, but I'd be lying if I said it's been easy. My body is sore, tired and already has it's first tan line. 

This garden is bigger than I originally thought. We pulled a walnut tree, another ugly something, two large fushia bushes, and a large bush of some sort. We lost just about all our privacy from the living room, but that will soon be fixed. We planted our new winter rose, Pink Frost Helleborus. It was a gift from my husband to both of us for our anniversary. It was happily planted and now we get to plant around it. Still a lot of work to be done here..

The fact that all this major work is finally being done, means two things. For starters, it's amazing to have a husband who is dedicated to a good garden. The knowledge this man has from his days on the farm is priceless.  Second, all this time I have been trying so hard to save some of the gardens and bring them back to their former glory, the award winning garden it once was. I learned that the former owner made wine out of the grapes that grow in the back, so I suspect she was either drunk a lot and did good gardening that way, or she hired help. Either way, I have decided that it's just time for a lot of it to go. It's too hard to live another's vision, Mark and I want our own. Hopefully this way it will be even more successful, because it will truly be ours. Short of the winter rose, I'm going to finish pulling up all those other plants and flowers.

 Here's a close up of the flower, Helleborus Pink Frost. I wasn't familiar with this before, but I am over the moon in love with it! I think it's happy in it's new spot. We have been talking about re-graveling too, something I would LOVE to do, but holy back breaking work! The positives outweigh the negatives.

Ahh, garage sale season. A few weeks ago, I was given a request. Someone wanted a small, boxy type thing that could easily be concealed and locked. I saw it as a challenge, and set out early in the season for some hunting. I honestly thought that it would take all season to meet all the listed desires, found this piece for $3. It's mostly real wood, the door is in good condition, and it's overall a sound piece of furniture. Now I get to make it manly. I can't wait to get my hand sander out, something about being covered in saw dust. It's exciting. I'll give an update! It's suppose to rain at the end of the week, that might be a good time to get these projects checked off, like my growing pile of sewing projects.

Heavenly Blue's

Today not only looked like spring, but it smelled and felt like it too. I spent the early part of my morning inside doing basic little chores around the house, and slowly sipped my latte. Once I got home from picking my eldest up from school, we were outside the entire day and it was awesome! Things have been busy, interesting, surprising and just all around unpredictable this past week so I hadn't really had to many moments to sit and breath a little. Mark tied up loose ends with school this quarter and we are now free to garden our little hearts out. My ultimate plan is to check at least one thing off my spring 2013 to-do list every day. So far so good.

I don't know what this plant is, but I love it and want more of it. There's zero maintenance (highly desirable right now) and it's green all year round. Once I'm familiar with it, we'll see about planting a bunch of it on the side of the house facing the street - a strip of garden that has been really needing some larger plants. This yard is all around NOT easy to maintain, and we would like to change most of that into gardens that keep themselves. Mostly the "curb appeal" areas are the ones that need low or no maintenance plants, bushes, tree's, something!

 I did something I've never done here before. I cleared and cut back the boxes that hold the grapes, one of the clematis, and lavender. All of it was so intertwined together, and the grapes are so happy here I've been scared to do anything to them. Part of my problem in not knowing what I should and shouldn't do was that I could never figure out exactly what kind of grapes I was dealing with. Well, today while cutting back the lavender, I struck gold! I've found hundreds of old tags while gardening here, but could never find one for the grapes, until today. They're Heavenly Blue Grapes. They are among the most desirable kinds around, and so they're considered table grapes. Which would explain why they're always to sweet and juicy. The little I've found out about them is interesting - like they were almost extinct until they were saved by an avid horticulturist - thanks dude!

I also managed to clean out most of my raised boxes (there's only 1 ugly one left!).  I even pulled out all the elephant garlic that won't stop growing but isn't edible at all. Some bulbs from last year got left hidden in a corner - not buried at all, and they're growing right where they are. The rocks in this box are project rocks. Up close, they have some cool details about them so I plan to make them garden markers.  I have paints around here that I could use up and paint on veggie names that I grow every year. One will say carrots, one will say zucchini etc; I saw it on Pinterest a while ago and remembered it as Mark and I were moving around large rocks. So far I've found 2 pieces of well weathered wood, and 2 flat rocks. 

I got my last round of Pampered Chef today! I splurged on a deep dish stone pie plate and I can't wait to use it, and everything else that I got. Then after all this work (not to mention that I cleaned the car inside and out and did some things around the garage too) I went into Subway to grab dinner, ordered 3 BLT's, and was asked if I wanted lettuce and tomato...do you speak up or shut up? I shut up and waited for her to realize what she just asked me, but she didn't. Tomorrow will be a good day - finally getting a new windshield and will have some out of town family over for none other than food! Don't know that I'll get out in the garden at all, but I know I'll be doing some research on plants. 

The Cake, The Freeze

It sure is nice to sit down, I swear it's the first time in at least 4 days! Last Friday was baking day. With little ones around, at my feet, and looking for dirty beaters to lick clean, it took me until 11p.m. to get the entire cake baked. That included getting the tiers stacked ( but still separate from each other ) and crumb coated. 

Here is my first pile of sifted cake flour. This was for the bottom tier, white butter cream cake. 

I got to use my new spreader finally, I loved the feel of the spread but it did take some getting used to. So with every big project, comes anyones "nightmare" right? I had made my first batch of frosting. Half way through my second batch of frosting - my hand mixer that I've had for almost 12 years totally fried on me. If it had flesh, it would have twitched like a recently slaughtered chicken. There was no way I was whipping such a thick frosting by hand. So I ventured out at 6 o' clock on a Friday night looking for a hand mixer. Gretchens is closed. Dicks is closed. So then I drive all the way to Fred Meyer which had next to no selection so I bought the best one they had. 

I get home, get it out and continue to finish my batch of frosting. It's fastest speed was my old one's slowest speed. It took forever to make frosting from the beginning. But if that's the only disaster I had then I'd say the day went pretty darn good. I let the kids have the house and only fed them when they asked. I didn't pick up a single toy, clean up a single mess ( outside of the kitchen ) and I didn't even care. Everything seemed so smooth, so calm. I was more nervous for the next day and having to drive all the way into Machias without damaging the cake. I drove like a gramma and it was all fine - it was pouring in Snohomish and seriously windy in Skagit valley so between the wind and heavy rain, my hair was ruined in next to no time. 

The final product! I was going for a country made, intentionally imperfect, simplistic feel. With a lot of help from my sister - I think it came out good, I was happy with it! We played with flowers for a little bit and all agreed on this. 

Another view. The top tier is devils food cake with fruit filling. The bottom is traditional white butter cream cake, with a whipped fruit filling. The frosting is buttercream. 

So after the wedding, me and my little family went to my parents house just to visit.  As I was leaving the church to go into Monroe to grab food, I noticed it started to rain a little thicker than normal.  It was snowing!  It wasn't sticking anywhere, until after I picked up dinner and headed to my parents.  I took this picture a while after it stopped snowing, and mostly melted. I was frozen to the bone I felt, wearing sandals and a dress. I was a very happy girl when I got home and changed into my warmest sweats. 

How To Wake A House

Yesterday for dinner, my husband wanted meatballs. So he got meatballs. I made my red sauce but used a different kind of canned tomatoes. I generally use a little from the can, and the rest is cut up fresh. The canned tomatoes were very tangy and I thought they kind of ruined the sauce. Shame on me! 

 The meatballs came out as they should, but trumped the sauce in taste. I'll call it a partial success, and I did try to fix the sauce but it was just too late. 

How do you wake up your entire house in a short amount of time without saying a word? You buy a Hamilton Beach piece of shit toaster that cost more than it's worth. Although I've had it about 5 years now, it's burned a handful of MY breakfasts and for no apparent reason. I think it's time to ditch this piece of junk. The house was warm, quiet, and I was just waking up. Five minutes later I'm swinging the outside broom around trying to get the smoke detector in Mia's room to shut up and the house is filled with smoke. Windows and doors are now open with our too large of a fan going full blast,  and it's stormy outside so it got cold, fast! I didn't want my english muffin anyways. 

Sleep was only a dream last night, as I woke up in Isabel's bed for the second night in a row. Chachi spend the second straight night out all night which means I may be hearing an ear full from my neighbor who "is too old to deal with Chachi at 2am - he eats Salisburys food, pulls his fur out on MY chair, and has these meowing wars with both my cats! I'm too old for this!" Yes, that conversation really did happen. 

Pampered Chef

There's been a lot of Pampered Chef stuff flying around here lately! I had a party in November, one friend had one in January, and another friend just had one last Saturday. We all scored awesome free stuff and I couldn't be happier with my stuff! Of the long list of things that I ordered the last time around, I got this bamboo serving set. I purchased bamboo spoons and scrapers and such a while ago and just love the look and feel of them. So I set out to replace anything that I could with bamboo. I love the idea of a bamboo ladle. 

Anyone out there into apples? There's a crop out there - organic Fuji apples. BEST APPLES EVER! Seriously these are probably the best apples that I've ever had in my life. I buy a lot of apples lately as we can't seem to keep them stocked for very long, so we get all the varieties all the time. Something about the crop that is in stores now, they're so sweet, juicy and crisp. I feel like I've been having an apple affair. 

In my recent post, I talked briefly about my brother having a baby soon, well the due date for that baby is now April 9. They're getting married this weekend, and I am making their wedding cake. I'm a bit nervous as this is my first official wedding cake (and hopefully my last). It won't be something you see out of a magazine by any means, I can't pipe to save my life or make flowers or designs. It's going to be a very simple 2 tiered cake with fresh flowers. My sister gave me the idea of a lily or tulip, and I think that's a great idea. I guess a simple cake is better than no cake right? That means that I have a good two days worth of baking and mixing ahead of me.

I plan to make one tier white butter cream cake, and the other devils food cake. I've made both these recipes before and am confident that they will come out. I can make these a couple days ahead and freeze them. I plan on transporting the cake unstacked to the church and then building it there and I can only hope that SOMEONE out there with an eye for small detail will notice something and give me their brain for a little bit. If it looks like shit, I know it will taste amazing. Whats kind of crazy about this is that I've considered taking those cake decorating classes at JoAnn Fabrics.  I'm sort of kicking myself for not doing it when I first thought about it. 

Aside from some laundry, I plan on going to the RE store today. It's a big store on the edge of town that  people take old materials to, like when they rip it out of their house but it's still got life in in - you can find some pretty cool things! You can find large slabs of granite for like $100 or cool old doors, or old stained glass. It's a cool place to look for treasures because sometimes they end up there!

Music, Opinions, and Honesty

 DISCLAIMER!!! Im in a weird mood. This is a weird post. If you aren't ready to dive into my mind - go back to facebook and do something else. :)

Music is considered evil (laughable) and some is "bad" for our youth's ears. Music teaches us to be bad people. Music leads us to commit crimes. Music causes murder.  Music causes suicide. Music teaches men to mistreat women.  Can you guess which of those are just not true? All of them. 

Music is important. Music I believe calms the soul. Music can be very therapeutic. Music is art. Music is a form of love. Music is expression, style and talent. Some is full of "bad" words - by the way, who decided what makes a bad word? Who are these people that they're so uneducated about what is, and what isn't, in the world of music? Why am I talking about music you wonder. 

Since before Mia was born, I always wondered what kind of mother I would be. Would I be that overprotective, naive mom who shelters her kids from everything around us? Would I be the chill but protective mom who lets her kids explore freely? Turns out I'm a mix of both, and maybe a little extra. I'm a momma grizzly that can bake you a cake, or put you in the ground. I prefer to bake a cake though.  

I often refer to the way I was raised when I come up with these questions. Well, I went to my first concert when I was 4, seeing Heart. I was pulled out of class in the 5th grade to see Queensryche, and 6th grade to go see Ozzy. My parents later let me go to rap concerts in distant cities. They briefly put up a fight over my music in my early teens, hating my hard core gangster rap like 2 Pac, Dr. Dre and Three 6 Mafia. I only learned how to hide things better. They learned that you can't change the music a person listens to. 

I don't want my kids to have to hide their music. I cringe at the sound of country and jazz, but if it's their flavor I hope that I can be happy that they discovered the love of their own style all on their own. So no, I don't hide music from the girls. They listen to everything from my husbands country to my favorite, often angry, yet poetic Polish band Closterkeller. They can hang with Bach and 2 Pac. They ask for the music to be turned up, and then they dance their little hearts out! Who would miss such a thing?

Mark and I have decided that we would much rather introduce things to our girls as they come up, then for them to learn about it from someone else. If you shelter them from everything, they have a much higher chance of not being able to properly cope with things that come their way. It mirrors a lot of past lottery winners. They were either dirt poor or just making it and then all the sudden they have millions of dollars. They're ALL broke. They were never taught how to manage money properly because they never had it - and when they finally get it, they spend it all within about five years. Most of them end up being in major debt and some have even gone to prison for tax evasion. 

I find myself pausing before I answer some of Mia's questions. I want to be honest with my girls. Where do babies come from? Sorry dear but they don't come from Heaven, or storks. They come from when a man and women love each other so they sleep together. That's what I was told. Why can't I tell my kids that? It's the truth isn't it? Why should I sugar coat, or mislead my kids when it comes to simple or not so simple facts of life? We aren't in the 50's anymore, and I wish more people would agree with me that being honest with kids when it comes to serious questions, is the best thing a parent can do. Don't throw the bible at them, don't wait for them to learn it in school - or even worse - their friends or their parents. Be the parent! Be and honest parent. I work hard at preparing myself for some tough years ahead but if I can be honest with my girls from the beginning, in theory it shouldn't be a problem right? Ha! 

Rainy Rainy Day

What a rainy day! I let Mia wear her flip flops today, she's been asking all winter. She gets to paint with her feet at school today so it worked out perfectly. So far my start to the first weekend of the week is good - laundry is going (I'm behind of course) but the house is clean, and we are ready for weekend time! Im also excited because I just found out this morning that my brother and his fiancé are having a boy in May - which means I can shop for fabrics and start sewing. I'm super excited to watch my brother become a dad again! 

 Here's a picture of my hair. I spent 5 minutes putting stuff in it, and look - it has a little bit of body already! Miss Bel, always naked and never cold. This girl doesn't mind running in the rain totally naked. Thank goodness for top locks because if I didn't have them I would constantly be looking for her. When the house is on lockdown and she knows she can't get out, she dresses herself right down to the gloves and asks to go outside until you let her. It's probably a good thing because it helps get ME outside and that's good for my gardening. Just a quick note - any ladies out there who buys hair products at salons - HairMasters is having a buy 1 get 2 free. I scored over $60 worth of sprays, gels, and mousses for only $22. 

I got to spend time outside yesterday. I took mental note of all the bulbs coming up, and what should be coming up but I haven't seen yet. Mark did the first grass cutting of the year so it's officially gardening season for us. I bought these gloves at Costco a while ago - they were only $7 and you get 6 pairs of gloves. I plan to destroy them all! I pulled out a birdbath that I really like but just don't think I'll use. I've had good luck in the past selling online, so I think once I talk to Mark about it I'll try to get rid of that, and a few other things. 

When we moved in, we had a pond and a waterfall in the back yard. The pond was actually pretty deep, and with a toddler (at the time we only had little Mia) it wasn't safe so it came out. I sold the pond, utilized some of the rocks around the gardens, gave a ton away to my parents who used them for a pathway, but I still have 2 piles of very large, very heavy rocks. These have to go! They're driving my crazy. I always enjoy Wednesdays, I get to go to Aikido and get quality time with the husband. 

Good Monday, Better Thursday

I spent some time with Isabel outside today, and it gave me time to map my garden plan for this year. I'm confident in the layout, and after trial and error with certain veggies, I know what I'm good at and what to stay away from. I'm about to transplant my red onions, as they are getting much bigger now and I have no plans to attempt to grow more. They take too long. I want corn, pumpkins, zucchini, and lettuce. I feel like I can manage more if I have larger quantities of just a few or so different veggies. The girls will have their own box again, and maybe a barrel or two - I know that they really want carrots. Remember Mia has a green thumb, and she's excited to plant  again this year. I would also like to get a second 50 gallon water barrel for rain water collection - I will keep my eye out for used ones. 

The more sun I see, the closer I know I am to garage sale season. I have a mental list of things I plan on looking out for: old but decorative plates and similar cups for a special secret project, ornate picture frames, wooden boxes, garden fencing, and pottery. I'm not closed to flipping a few pieces of furniture, something that I've wanted to do for some time now. The things you see when going to these sales,  I swear people throw money directly into the garbage because they can't grasp the thought of refinishing something. I'm gonna see if I can't pick up some of these dollars people are tossing out. 

The last day has been different. I've neglected the house a bit, but managed to do some cooking, and even got outside with the girls a few times. I decided to make taquitos. I keep calling them flautas. I made the tortillas, then cooked and shredded the chicken mixing it with sour cream, cream cheese, salsa, fresh spinach and the chicken. I seasoned with cumin, salt and pepper. Rolled, fried, consumed. We dipped them in chile verde. They were really good! Its a recipe worthy of a recipe card. 

Mia and I made our first nursery visit this year after school. We looked at the cool ponds of fish, and I checked out some things in the main house. I have so much to do, once I got there I wasn't even sure where my shopping should begin. How about a "red item" off my spring to-do list? Oh ya, I'm starting with kitchen cabinet doors. I plan to refinish them, and finally replace all the hardware - the doors look awful and I can't wait to get this done! See how fast that road changed directions? 

The Art of Chair Hunting

I'll be honest. I was too lazy to get up and take a picture, so I pulled a photo from online that replicated my new chairs. In November of 2011, I finally got a large table. It came with ZERO chairs, but I didn't care. I was in love with the table and the sheer size of it. I had a mix of chairs to use while I shopped around. I'm such a penny pincher (now by choice) that I generally refuse to buy new furniture, unless it's something personal, like a mattress or bedding or pillows and blankets. If it's wood, and can be sanded or painted - why would I pay full retail value? 

So this entire time I have been frequenting moving sales, estate sales and good ol' garage sales. Which I have to add, I've mastered the art of shopping like this for certain things. I stay out of crappy neighborhoods, and frequent the more upscale sales. It's amazing what people are willing to part with and at what price - I tell you I could fill an entire house with one good season of second hand shopping. 

One morning, I was a feeling a bit bored. So I started checking out what my local craigslist had to offer as far as chairs. First post, there's a set of these chairs for $25 - for all 6 of them! My first thought is that this price HAD to be a typo, I've seen these chairs go for over $100 used. I have nothing to lose, so I call the number. The add had been up for 6 minutes, and they were now mine. So Mia and I put Isabel down for her nap, strapped ourselves in the truck, and headed out towards La Conner for my too good to be true deal. 

No, it was real. They're in awesome condition, with slight wearing here and there and they just needed a good cleaning. Turns out the very wealthy couple furnished their entire waterfront property with second hand furnishings and so they let the chairs go for  darn near nothing. They had this amazing view of the sound - one of those million dollar views. With the truck loaded and the sun out, I was the happiest girl! I looked up retail of these chairs online brand new - $259 each. I now had $1,554 worth of dining room table chairs that I paid $4 for. Patience paid off! 

Two Mondays, Two Fridays

I have such a strange schedule. Every week, I have what I refer to as two different Mondays, and two different Fridays. Maybe five days out of the week, I have two mornings. Lunch is sometimes brunch, and dinner is almost always at 5:30, my husband and I feel it's important to sit down for dinner every night as a family. About a week ago, I was joking with Mark that it must be great to be Mia, because she gets amazing sleep, and is on a typical schedule. Her weekends are really the weekends, and she gets three full meals a day. Isabel sleeps, sometimes. She eats, sometimes. She throws parties at 3a.m. and tries to include all members of the family. 

So why this crazy, mixed up schedule? Mark sometimes doesn't get home until 6:30a.m., then he has a short wind down time. Then I wake up, start my day with the girls. School, errands, cleaning, laundry, feeding, cleaning up food messes, Words With Friends, and shopping. It's no wonder I have a whole drawer full of different types of sweat pants. His Monday is really Friday, and his Friday is really Tuesday. So on Sunday, I have to prepare for the week ahead so Mia has all her clothes cleaned, and Isabel too. But then on Friday I have to do all my laundry so that I have all my clothes cleaned for the beginning of our work week. Hold on, let me process this a little bit..

It's no wonder I don't have much time for myself! I cherish my night during our work week, as soon as I get the girls to bed - I generally don't do much and I love it that way. So kids, this is where it gets interesting! I finally made my spring cleaning list - color coded - and printed it out. It has 21 major things to be done this spring. I'm also aimed towards using my spring "greening" recipes. I'll share them!

All purpose cleaner: equal parts white vinegar and salt.

Disinfectant: Mix 1/2 cup borax powder with 1 gallon hot water. Add a few drops of fragrant essential oil like thyme, rosemary or lavender.

Glass Cleaner: 1/4 undiluted white vinegar, 1 TBSP cornstarch, 1 qt warm water. For a line free shine, use crumbled newspaper or an unused coffee filter. 

Here's the best part:

POST CLEANING HAND SOAK: Warm in the oven a small bowl of olive oil. Soak hands in oil. Add sugar and scrub away the extra dry skin that has accumulated over the winter!

My crocus's are coming up! Along with daffodils, tulips and blue bells. It's so warm outside, I'd swear I was ready to get the rototiller going. I also cut most of my hair off, trimmed some side bangs and added multiple different layers and had it thinned. It feels so light! This morning I actually had time to put some stuff in it to give it some volume and it's awesome, it was long overdue! Now I get to take Mia to Chuck E Cheeses for a birthday party. 

Hello Again

Hello Again. It's been so long, I almost forgot the password to my own blog! I think about my blog from time to time, wondering if it feels left out. I would like to start writing again, and keep it up. Things have been interesting lately, and since my last post a ton of stuff has happened, gone on, been done and so on. 

Working out hasn't been happening at all, and I've gained a little bit of weight back because of it. I also blame this on my terrible eating habits (sometimes not eating at all because I just don't feel like it),  and lack of desire to eat healthier foods. I was doing really well for a while, and then a specialist that my husband see's changed his entire diet. It went from high fiber to NO/LOW fiber. What? So like pasta everyday? Thats when salad everyday went out the window. If I wanted to continue the diet that was helping ME, I would be making two different dishes for every meal. Not going to happen, my kitchen is not a restaurant. I am happy to say that my husband has been doing much better!

I had a job for 3 months. It proved to be the dumbest idea. What was I thinking? Having small children, a husband in school, a household to run, a garden to tend to, and downtime at night - is more than enough for any stay at home mom. I only asked for 2-3 days a week, and within' a couple weeks I was working 6 days a week, all day long. That shit didn't fly long because my day off consisted of large amounts of laundry, a house is serious need of a cleaning, dirty bathrooms, no food in the house, and errands to run. It was exhausting and the day I put my notice in, was a great day! Once I was done with the job, I spent 4 days just catching up on all the little things. 

The last year has also been a big year for personal reflection, growth, and understandings. I learned that you cannot always put "things" in pretty boxes and throw them in attics because they will haunt you. I have an incredibly smart husband who has taught me that there are healthy ways of dealing with things, and although it's hard to deal with them, it must be done. Well, in short - I did it! I dealt with some things and now I feel so at peace. 

I've also realized that I have totally neglected myself in the past couple years. I hate my clothes, my shoes, and everything in between. What happened to that girl with all the cute clothes that used to fix herself up most of the week? She was long gone, and nowhere in sight.  Well I'm sick of that character. I'm going to kiss my 20's goodbye soon, and this old me is going with it. I'm stepping into my 30's and I'm doing it with grace and style. I wouldn't say I'm reinventing myself, just getting my old "style" back. It's time. 

I have some serious gardening to do this year, and I couldn't be more excited about it. It started well last year, and then ended very badly when I got that job. My entire garden went from healthy and manicured, to total shit in about 3 weeks. Not this year, and do I ever have plans!

This photo tells a lot about me that I'm finally willing to address. I'm constantly cleaning something, my hair is a mess, I'm way overweight, and it's time for change. P.S., what I'm really doing is cleaning up the large mess our Christmas tree made when we brought it home. My mother-in-law made me stop so she could take my picture.