What a week!

Meetings, meeting and more meetings. The 15th of April was our 14th anniversary and I don't even really remember seeing the poor man. His work and my meetings kept us in and out at different times, but don't weep for us! This weekend we are on a marriage retreat at Myrtle Beach! Don't groan, it's nice. We get help remembering our "Love Languages", and the kids get to play in a big room with all kinds of wonderful things, and other kids.

The chaplain takes us through the book and helps us find our personal love language as well as our spouses. Then helps us remember how we use to just do that right things to help boost the other. Most of us call it the honeymoon stage. You know when just know what the other person needs. Well then comes kids, bills, reality. That's when you forget to tell your spouse, "the kitchen looks nice", because she needs words of affirmation. Or in my case that honey-do-list that's longer than your arm is really the acts of service that fill me. My list seems much longer these days since he isn't around as much because of his work. Hand holding for him seems out too since uniforms and regulations don't permit his need for physical touches. Older doesn't always mean wiser. I forgot go watch for that one moment when every eye is turned just to touch pinkies. For him, he remembered that something as simple as putting away the clean socks is much more than a gopher drill.

This is just our first day, we still have half a day on Saturday then we'll be free for a family adventure at MagiQuest!

Until then check out the 30 second assessment and see what you come up with. The book has a much longer profile finder and explanation. But maybe you'll remember to to leave that sticky note on your honey's mirror to find in the morning, just like you use to do. Marriage isn't always easy, sometimes it take work!

How do you find things like that?

"How do you find things like this?" This was the question posed to me by hubby tonight after I asked to look at something I found. I hear this often but gave me my topic for today. It also gives you a little insight into my mind, lol, continue only if you dare!

My search started on ask.com with one simple word, "contest". The first choice is a neat contest guide page that lists a number of different contests that they know about. Click on the coffee one, I love my cup of coffee each morning, down to only one now and I'm not willing to give it up. Big bonus is my charity gets something too! Click the solar electric one, always interested in where this is going and if I can win a system all the better. Check out the products for residential. Hummmm, will that actually work? It's just a little motor? Good thing I have a hubby that knows plenty about electrical things.

So hubby tells me a bunch of stuff that to be perfectly honest, I haven't got a clue what it was. So more simply put its a motor that kinda of acts like a battery. It catches some of the energy that comes in the house and is usually lost then puts it back into the house when it's needed. It's a whole lot more complicated than that, but at it's basic function that's what it does. No solar panels needed, that's a different system.

Then the look, you know the one, "only you". And then.......here it comes............."How do you find things like that?"

Just one of the little adventures in our life that makes it go!

Garden update

We planted more squares of lettuce, spinach and salad mix again last Monday and then I did the same thing last night. The small rectangle boxes that you see are the marigolds. This way we can move them as we need to if the bugs decide to show up. We usually have to pull out pine needles that have fallen in and the little pods (pollen comes from them) that fall in too. But it takes all of 5 minutes to do that and make sure that it doesn't get to acidic. The first spinach is getting pretty big and I can't wait till we get a night of salads from the first thinning!

The stakes are to help brace the boards, so the dirt weight doesn't push outward. I was going to use them with the yarn and have a grid but I ended up using the bamboo instead.

Mondays and April!

Mondays are easy days for us usually. Busy but easy. Mondays are our days to volunteer. I'm lucky since the girls can volunteer with me and I don't have to put them into daycare. A lot of places don't want children to volunteer with you. The girls have found there is lots they can do to help out and the other volunteers (mostly older ladies) miss them when they're not there. Simple things like sorting hangers suddenly have new meaning. This Tuesday our home school support group won't be meeting due to Spring Break this week. The youth center we usually meet at is being used so we won't be able to. So we will be volunteering again today!

April is a month full of observances. A simple search of "observances in month of April" will give you numerous leads. I've already told you that April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month. But it's also Mathematics Awareness Month, Autism Awareness Month, Financial Literacy Month, check out the list here to see many, many more! But the one that is dear to my heart is that it's the Month of the Military Child. Being a military brat myself and now having two we try to go to many of the things that go on around us to celebrate it. With so many observances going on in this month it's easy enough to look in the paper, or on the Internet for many free or extremely low cost things going on. Try something new like being in a marathon, or seeing a festival that you've been meaning to get to. This is probably the easiest month to do it!

Sunday suppers.

So Sundays are normally no electronics (TV, computer, Wii, gameboys, phone, etc) in our home unless everyone can do it at the same time (like a Wii game for four). Sundays are for family even if one isn't able to be there cause of work. But this morning I'm alone and trying to catch up on everything since we've been without the Internet since Wednesday thanks to the line getting cut up the street. I thought I would share my Garlic Pork that I did last Sunday. It has a lot of garlic in it but the taste isn't overpowering since half of the garlic is pretty much roasted whole and turns out sweet. You're friends won't avoid you the next day. I make enough for 5 servings usually but it can be adjusted easily. You'll need a crock pot; about a cup of some type of pork cut up (mine was from a huge Boston Butt I cut up into stew meat); about 4 cups worth of fresh, frozen, or canned vegetables; 1 onion (I ended up using 2 tsp onion powder cause my last onion was bad); 1/2 tsp ginger; 14 garlic cloves; salt (to taste, I didn't use any); pepper (to taste, some people like a lot we use it sparingly); about 2 tsp oil (I use olive oil); Parsley (unfortunately I was completely out)and water.

First you need to clean your cloves. You can get the skins off easier if you smash them gently first. The skin will usually slide right off. Now I cut off the ends (yes I know you don't need to do this, I just prefer to do that) and separate them into two groups. Half that the worst of the smashed ones will get minced up, the other half are left whole.
Put the pork (mine was frozen still this is fine), garlic, ginger, onion (onion powder in my case), pepper and olive oil in the crock pot. Cover it put it on high for about 1 and a half to 2 hours. Now here is the trick, you can't keep opening it up to look at it. It needs to act like an oven. Go do something, I went threw the kids closet and got rid of the clothes that were to small so I wouldn't keep looking at it.

I checked mine at an hour and forty-five minutes and there was a bit of a burnt part on the left side as you can see.(Sorry about the flash) I just scraped it out with a spoon. You want the golden brown everywhere. You'll get more with onions in it. Add you're water (be extremely careful when doing this as the oil is very hot and can splatter when water is added. I try to add the water as quickly as possible to avoid this.) and then scrape all that golden up, it's where your flavor comes from. Take your time and get all of it mixed up into the water well. You'll have a nice broth. Add all you're fresh vegetables. I added only celery and lots of it since my kids love it. Then cover it on high for another 1to 3 hours depending on what you put in (carrot usually take the longest, the celery only took about 30 minutes). By now the fresh vegetable should be turning tender and only need about half an hour more. If you are using canned or frozen vegetable this is where you'll add them. I used canned potatoes (I don't even know where they came from, probably something my 6 year old put in the cart when I wasn't paying attention.) and about 4 cups of frozen mixed vegetables. Cover, leave on high for about 30 to 45 minutes. I lowered mine to medium for about 3 hours since we went to see a movie (below in another blog). Grab a loaf of bread, make some cornbread up, crackers, or what ever else you like and there you go. The actual time getting it all together isn't that long. Even when I use all fresh vegetables in the summer it's still about 45 minutes prep time I would say. Once you get past the browning in the first part it's pretty hands off from there. We've added tomato juice to it before cutting the water in half and it is really good like that on a cold rainy day with sandwiches. You can leave out the meat even, we've used garbanzo beans as a meat substitute in it and that is really good too. We've used chicken, and beef in this too and it still turns out really good. The nice thing is you can add what you're family likes and leave out what they don't. If you don't like garlic leave it out completely. Experiment and see what you like, if it doesn't turn out the way you though there's always PB&J sandwiches! Although I really haven't found a way to ruin it yet. But my crock-pot is my energy saver, and time saver so that I can spend more time playing with my family on our family day! Grab a little hand, and play today!

National Child Abuse Prevention Month

"April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month, a time to raise awareness about child abuse and neglect and encourage individuals and communities to support children and families. Learn more about the history of the month, see examples of Presidential and State proclamations, and find strategies for engaging communities and supporting families. You may also want to learn more about the 17th National Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect in April."-quoted from www.childwelfare.gov

Please speak up for the little ones who can't if you suspect anything. I would rather be wrong than right! I'm glad someone did for me! Thank you Paul where ever you are, may god bless you!

Herbs!

I admit I like the convenience of the dried herbs in the store. I don't like the price sometimes. And I'll admit that I'm a parsleyholic! I love parsley. I know some people say it doesn't have a taste. I agree if you buy the cruddy stuff that's grown in the hothouses, or the dried stuff it's cruddy and it takes a lot to be able to obtain even a little bit of taste. But parsley that that has been grown out in the fresh air, warm sun, and cool dirt is completely different! Then you have all the varieties(link says more than 30 different types): Hamburg parsley, parsley bush, Italian parsley, and even a toxic plant called "fool's parsley" but it isn't a parsley at all only looks like it. Then is has many common names such as parsley breakstone, garden parsley, rock parsley, persely, and petersylinge. There are many uses that parsley can be used for both internally (although pregnant woman shouldn't use it at all and limit handling since it's been proven to induce uterine contractions, I missed it greatly during both of my pregnancies and those with kidney problems should use caution also due to it's ablitity to increase blood flow to the kidneys) and externally. Check out the link by click this parsley. There are basically two type of parley when you come down to it: those with curly fringed leaves and those with flat leaves. The most common type of parsley that most cooks prefer to use is Italian parsley with the flat leaves. That is what I prefer for everything. The taste is more earthy to me where the curled parsley has a much milder taste and has a bit of bitter taste to me, although I do like to add a bit of that to tea because for some reason the bitterness seems to be lost. Hence the reason I grow it every summer and try to continue in it the house. (Only for some reason when a plant comes in my house it's a death sentence for it.)

I put it in everything too. Chicken, fish, pork, beans, lentils, beef, salads, soups, tea, vegetables, casseroles, sauces, and I'll eat it fresh from the garden just cause I can. So yesterday I grabbed two of my large flower pots and planted my herbs. In the first pot I placed a bamboo rod (cut to fit) so that I could see where it would be split for Chives and Oregano. And then....... the other has all Italian parsley. I put in an entire package of seeds! Yes I know please don't tell me it was way to many (I got the look from hubby so I know) but just think of everything I can do with the thinnings! You can do this in much smaller pots and many people grow them right in the kitchen windows, and around the house in other windows. I simply can't seem to grow anything in a house except kids and our marriage! And that's fine by me, fourteen years and our two miracles soon so we must be doing something right.

So tomorrow the last bag of potting soil goes into little rectangle pots (found at the dollar tree last fall for 25 cents a piece) that can be moved around to where we need the protection from our marigolds! I only wish that I could of found the French Marigolds instead of the African Marigolds since the French ones are much stronger, check out the link for more information on that. But they are very difficult to find for some reason. Many bugs like the African Marigold also (not stated in the article just an observation) but it still keeps them off my plants! So with a troupe of neighborhood kids, dirt, pots, and seeds they'll get started! And some mommies will have dirty, but tired kids!

Make a mess with yours this week too.