When an eye is an eye

Yesterday I finished crocheting this hat for my dear friend's middle child.

I love this hat. It is so kooky (like me). On a side note I wanted to use the word corky but when I looked it up it meant the nature of a cork (Which could be me some nights if the nature of a cork is wine soaked). It did not really apply to the hat.

I made this eye too big for the hat and my kids found it.

James loved it because he has brown eyes too.

I love my life. Seriously how lucky am to have these wonderful little people who can always find a better use for my 'mistakes'.  I can not wait to share with you the three hats that I made for my friend's kids. I also made matching scarves! I am thinking about make her and her husband a hat so that everyone gets a new winter hat. Yes, I know it is summer. They live in Michigan so they will need the hats in September. All I really know is that I am grateful that she is letting me make these for her family. When I made my first hat I did not know that I was going to fall in love with crochet.

I hope you are having a wonderful day filled with delight, love and laughter. Be well my friends.

Reality Check

Do you remember a couple of weeks ago I posted about my weight loss goals? How I said I didn't want to change the way I was eating and would only weigh myself once a month? Yeah I do too. Yesterday I told my husband that I thought our cat was fat. We were discussing whether or not the dog was eating the cat food. He said it was the dog and I said it was the cat. Anyway I ended up proving it by getting on the scale to weigh the cat. The truth is I was mortified at my weight gain. So now I know I need to be proactive and do the work.

So let's call this the start of phase two.

I am going to count calories on www.sparkpeople.com

My goal is 1500 calories a day.

Honestly I have done this before and the reason why I have been dragging my feet is because the first 4-6 weeks sucks. If you want to do it with me that would be awesome. I could use the encouragement and a partner in crime.

I am also going to do the exercise plan that sparkpeople.com sets up for me.

I am going to keep doing couch to 5K

Did I mention that sparkpeople is a free program? It is. Does that help convince you to join me? No. I don't blame you.

I got this wonderful idea from http://www.aturtleslifeforme.com/2012/05/trim-down-thursday-2-with-nutrisystem.html

Each one of these stones equal half a pound. I decided to go with half pound measurements so that I will be able to move over more stones. I know from past diets that sometimes I only lose half a pound and I want to count that.

So I went up one pound in two weeks. I am going to stop making candy for awhile. Since it seems to be sticking around for longer than I would like. I have next to no self control if the candy is in the fridge. It is bad! Monday at 7:30 will be my weigh in time.

I have 22 pounds to lose. Which may not seem like a lot but to me it feels like a rocky mountain and I am at the bottom not even at base camp looking up. I know I can do this and that it will get easier once I get started. So if you are in with me, I am begging now (please, please, pleeease I don't want to do it alone), I know we can make it to the top.

I hope you are having a wonderful day filled with love and laughter. Be well my friends.

Song of the day

Today I went off and talked to my favorite farmers collecting about 15 yellow tomatoes for a Honeyed-Yellow Tomato Butter. Yeah I am not sure what it is either but it is in my handy canning recipe book and tomatoes are in season so I say, "Why not." I should bring Becky the farmer some if it is any good. I also picked up my super fresh eggs. Now you may be thinking I would pick a farming song and well you would be mostly right as of this very moment.

I know you are tapping your knee as you tap your foot. Green acres is the place for me.
Farm livin' is the life for me.

The true is I really wanted a different song to be the song of the day so if you would kindly stand up. Trust me your going to want to

I saw him dancin' there by the record machine
I knew he must a been about seventeen
The beat was goin' strong
Playin' my favorite song
An' I could tell it wouldn't be long
Till he was with me, yeah me
And I could tell it wouldn't be long
Till he was with me, yeah me, singin'

I love rock n' roll
So put another dime in the jukebox, baby
I love rock n' roll
So come and take your time and dance with me

Ow!

You know I am singing along. Be glad that you can't hear me.

I hope you are having a rockin day filled with love and laughter. Be well Friends.

Oh me, oh my.

Do you ever have a moment when you realize that your child is taking after you in all the wrong ways? If you haven't yet had the pleasure I am sure it is coming soon. At least I hope so because the other option here is that I am totally crazy. Which is mostly true looking at the facts alone. Today I asked Damian to copy four sentences from his latin book explain etc. Which as you know is et cetera which is a Latin expression meaning "and other things" or "and so on". He started crying and yelling and ranting and raving. Me I am standing at the counter reading a recipe on making ricotta cheese. I look up at him and see myself when he says, "I am going to be a dried up old prune by the time this is finished and it is going to be all your fault." I swallowed hard and smiled at the absurdity of it all. This is my child acting like me. Not that I have ever said those words in that way before but I have been known to yell crazy things when I get upset including, "Oh all hail the King of the House for he has spoken and so it will be down!" or "Don't tell me that my argument makes no sense, it makes plenty of sense, I know your thinking it so stop thinking it right now. I make total sense and just because you are currently thinking I am crazy does not in fact make me crazy. No you are not right stop thinking that too. I am going to pull out of my hair trying to tell you that I am right not you." Maybe this last argument was a lacking in content but I was totally right at the time I knew I what I was talking about. Plus I get mad and I don't want to be hurtful so I yell, "Your lucky I love you right now!" I don't know if it is just me but it feels good to just yell something anything. Here is the thing my husband lets me talk crazy until I calm down. He sits there and smiles at how absurd I am saying next to nothing. Believe me we had an argument over fig vinegar and that just got completely out of hand on the crazy meter. Even he could not believe the crazy things coming from his mouth. Sometimes the crazy spreads.

Anyway as I was saying I realized that my sweet boy was taking after his nutty mother instead of his usually calm quiet father. I am so sorry that he is taking after me. I feel like maybe I am the wrong parent to take after most of the time.

There is a bright side of this crazy train when we are happy we sing about daily life. If you watch How I Met Your Mother you have seen Marshal sing about paying bills, doing laundry, walking, cooking, drinking, etc. That is me and the boys. I sing about driving the car, traffic, cooking, chopping, walking, folding laundry doing dishes, reading, playing, lunch, so on and on. It is weird and wonderful to make up little songs that fill you up with happiness. I only hope that when my children grow up they find a partner to balance them out. I hope I haven't ruined them.

I have no idea how the universe aligned to allow for Rob and I to find each other in this crazy world but it did. I have to believe That God brought us together because he knew we needed each other to fully grow into the people we were meant to be. Not to sound totally dependant on my husband but even the flowers need to be watered in order to grow.

I hope that your children take after the right parent and that your day is filled with love and laughter. Be well my friends.

Harvest from the heart

Today I went to wonder around the garden and found that I could do the most rewarding activity. My first real harvest because I needed a basket and I didn't eat everything I picked right away. I am super bad about picking and eating the ripe fruits without sharing. Especially tomitillos yum. In fact it is so bad that yesterday my husband was telling me that the tomitillos were not doing well and he might have to take them out soon. My response was, "Well think of how many tomitillos we have gotten." He smiled at me then asked, "How many would that be because I have only had one." No response from me because I know that he knows that I have eaten a few every morning for a month. Only sharing if I have company in the garden. Listen before you judge my greediness I did full tell everyone I was going to the garden. Just because they did not want to come see what was ready with me means they missed out. Besides that my sweet husband eats as he goes too. Don't be fooled by his sweet loving smile. We all have our weaknesses.  I want to show you what I harvested this morning

Yellow boy tomatoes. Hello boys!

We ate this one. It was sweet and just a little tart and totally perfect.

Onions! I pulled the rest of the yellow onions as they were completely ready. Sadly I found two that were over ripe and went in the compost bin instead of the table.

I know that these babies are small but it turns out that onions don't grow that big on their own.

At least here in good old hot Texas.

This is how you store onions. Braid the top and hang them up. They will last a long time.

This is my first harvest.

I even saved about a dozen tomitillos

I totally did a happy dance when I found these green beans.

Banana Peppers

Jalapenos, bell peppers, and tomatoes.

I picked some of the tomatoes before they were ripe because they will ripen on the counter. If we let them get ripe all the way the bugs and birds are more then happy to help harvest before we can. I am so happy that we are finally getting meal sized harvests. I have tons of swiss chard I need to find a recipe to use them in. Maybe I could do swiss chard rolls. I need to look up some recipes.

I hope you have a happy day filled with love and laughter. Be well my friends.

Slinky on the edge

Today I watched a video of a slinky...

It is memorizing will it fall off? Look at that incredible save. Then I start singing

Oops. I think I am showing my true colors.

So did you watch all three minutes of the slinky video? It is crazy, I forgot how much fun slinky are. Then I remember the self destructive Slinky's that I had as a child. They always got tangled and twisted and laughed that evil laugh when I tried to save it from itself. Not cool evil slinky! I should get a slinky for the kids but every time I see one looking innocent on the store self I remember that horrible laugh. It is haunting. What if we get the evil slinky terrible cousin with pretty red hair? I am scared.

I hope that you have a lovely day filled with love and laughter. Be well my friends.

Macaroni Salad

We are having a BBQ later today with some friends. As you know I planned to make Macaroni Salad mostly because I can only stand potato salad like twice a year. I get a little burnt out on staple dishes. Potato salad was my job for about five years for every occasion with our very close friends because he was allergic to mayo so I made my own dressing experimenting until it was perfect. I made it a lot then we moved away from them and I stopped making it except when I am asked to bring it along or help out in the kitchen. Well if you know me I probably weaseled my way into the kitchen and took over under the guise of getting a glass of wine. That is right I will lie to you so that I can get my hands in to the meal preparation. Wait how did I get on potato salad? Moving to the original theme of this long winded story I have never made macaroni salad before and I have to say I really like this American classic.  I don't know if you already have a recipe but just in case here is my version.

First I want to show the printout I got for Macaroni salad. I added a few things...

 

I am in love with this yummy bowl of macaroni

Will you be my, won't you be my neighbor?

Here is the original recipe's link www.sixsistersstuff.com/2011/08/traditional-american-macaroni-salad

Ingredients



 2 cups dry macaroni, cooked, rinsed, and drained (I used the whole bag of macaroni)
1/3 cup diced celery (I used two stalks)
1/4 cup minced red onion (I used a small one from my garden and diced it)
1/2 cup diced vine ripened tomatoes (I used a lot of pink lady cherry tomatoes and cut them in half)
1 tablespoon minced parsley  (check)
1 can of olives cut into quarters (I added this to the recipe)
3 small bell peppers of different colors (I had a red, purple, and green in the garden. They were small so used you judgement and personal taste to how much you might like in it)
1 cucumber peeled and diced (addition I love)
a small bunch of Dill minced (Believe it or not dill adds a great fresh taste to the whole salad)

Dressing
1/2 cup mayonnaise (I use light miracle whip because I like it so if you have a favorite mayo use it)
3/4 teaspoon dry mustard (check)
1 1/2 teaspoon sugar (check)
1 1/2 tablespoon cider vinegar (I used half a tablespoon of cider vinegar and 1 tablespoon of the new fig balsamic vinegar I got from a local place. You can mix up your favorite vinegars. Balsamic is a fail safe. It is never wrong)
3 tablespoons sour cream (I used greek yogurt because it is awesome!)
dash of cayenne pepper (It evens out the sweetness of the sauce)
a dash of olive oil (I used lemon olive oil. I think you could leave this out if you wanted)
Salt
pepper

Directions

In a large bowl mix the vegetables and macaroni noodles together. In a small whisk together the remaining ingredients to make the dressing. Then combine the two bowls. I did not use all of the dressing I made because I don't like my food drowning. I recommend that you add and mix a little at a time until you find the constancy that you like best. If you like it saucy add it all in.

I hope you enjoyed today's recipe.

Happy Memorial weekend! I hope it is filled with love and laughter. Be well my friends.