Menu Plan SUNDAY!

We have such a hectic week next week that I'm doing my menu planning on Sunday instead of Monday. Since is will be so hectic, I'm planning a week's worth of crock pot meals. I really love cooking in the crock! I just throw something together in the morning and a hot meal is made with little to no effort, plus, the house smells so wonderful as the meal is cooking all day long!
Monday: BBQ Chicken. A whole chicken is placed in the crock and covered in BBQ sauce. It literally falls of the bone! Will serve with corn on the cob and mashed potatoes.
Tuesday: Chicken Tortilla Soup Will use the left over chicken from Monday's dinner.
Wednesday: Italian Beef Sandwiches
Thursday: Ham with Mac & Cheese. Put a picnic ham in the crock with 2C. of OJ, and a little brown sugar. Make sure to baste during the day (a good job for kids!)
Friday: Vegetable soup. Super simple using your favorite canned veggies mixed with tomato puree and Lipton onion soup mix. Served with corn bread.
Saturday: Stuffed Bread. Stuffed bread using leftover ham and italian beef.
Sunday: Pepper Steak and Rice

Signs of life!

The little seeds we planted the other day are coming to life! It never ceases to amaze me that one little seed placed in the ground can produce a basketfull of vegetables. These are my Brandywine heirloom tomatoes:

Grow, babies, grow!

Is it a dog or an ostrich?

We have a few holes in the backyard due to a little mole problem from last year. They've filled with rainwater and are perfect homes for frogs. Shorty went on a frog hunt this afternoon. Here he is with his face totally shoved into the hole...it was pretty funny!

While I was at Walmart, I found these growing bags for strawberries. The kit comes with the heavy duty bag, a cord for hanging, and ten strawberry plants. It's a total steal for $5.95! Once they take root and green up, I'm going to hang them on our barn. It'll be a pretty site seeing those green vines and red berries trailing down the wall of the old barn and I can't wait for little Danny to taste his first homegrown strawberry!

We've been adopted

Shorty, the neighborhood dog, has decided he wants to be a Creamer! Every morning, Shorty comes to the door and scratches. The kids let him in, he gets a drink, then jumps up on the corner of the couch for a nap. He leaves around lunch time to roam the neighborhood then he's back around dinner time to reclaim his spot on the couch! He's perfectly content laying in the grass and watching the kids play, or hunting for God knows what in the field behind our house!
Now why he comes to *our* house to take a nap is beyond me! It's the last place on earth anyone would find a little peace and quiet!

But we adore this lovable lump of a dog!

Fun with a cardboard box

Doug got some new photography equipment in the mail today and John Paul has commandeered the boxes! The box has been a club house, a rocket ship, a boat, and all sorts of other imaginative things today. He tells me that he loves his box so much that he's going to sleep in it tonight (yeah, right!)...and this is what I find at 10 pm:

My son is preparing himself for life as a hobo!

One step closer...

Got the garden tilled up today, and there is nothing more beautiful than those mounds of black earth! The smell is amazing and the soil looks so good after a year under the landscaping plastic. Ryan is helping out by raking up my rows for planting - it's a BIG job!

Later in the week we'll get the ground fertilized and covered again in the black plastic. I can not wait to get planting and I'm absolutely thrilled the kids have taken such an interest in getting the garden into shape!

Homegrown Revolution!

If you need a little motivation to get gardening, take a look at this:

Mutant vegetables!

Kyle took me up on my offer for cold hard cash to pull up my winter garden. He spent about three hours pulling up plants, weeds, plastic and boards. He did a GREAT JOB!!! During his digging, he pulled up this mutant carrot. This thing is seriously HUGE and I'd hate to run across the rabbit who can carry this thing off!

Menu Plan Monday

Feels good to finally be well enough to shop and cook for the family! Here's this week's meal plan:
Monday: Spaghetti and meatballs. Monday is a work day for me so sauce and meatballs will go into the crock pot to cook all day!
Tuesday: Chicken and dumplings. Another work day for me...and another crock pot meal!
Wednesday: Taco Night!
Thursday: Breakfast for dinner. I thought it might be fun to have some homemade waffles, sausage and eggs for dinner. The kids always get a kick out of having breakfast for dinner!
Friday: Linguine and clam sauce.
Saturday: BBQ sandwiches and corn on the cob.
Sunday: Pannini and pasta salad.

I'm baaaaack!

WOW! What a hell-a-cious week! I had a bout with the flu that lasted the entire week that turned into an ear infection that landed me in the E.R. About two antibiotics and a hundred bucks later, I'm feeling much better! Thankfully, none of the rest of the family has come down with anything!

We woke up to a beautiful morning! Temps in the mid 70's and sunny. My gardening bug got the better of me and I decided to start some tomato and pepper seedlings. We soaked our peat pots and Danny and JP decided to give me a hand:



I'm hoping that since they are participating in growing our veggies that they will be more apt to eat them! We started seed on Brandywine heirloom and Roma tomatoes, bell peppers, jalapenos and chili peppers. I was very tempted to to just buy my plants, especially since Home Depot has started carrying some cool heirloom varieties, but John Paul says store bought plants "don't have the LOVE!"

I told Ryan I'd pay him to clear out the remnants of our winter garden. Not specifying *how* he should do this, I found him outside taking a golf club to the plants (cue "Caddy Shack" flashbacks!):


Kyle was enjoying the morning by doing summersaults on the trampoline:


I look forward to everyone enjoying their lazy Sunday afternoon...it's back to our usual grind come Monday!

Taking a break

Taking a little break from my blog due to a nasty bout with the flu. I'm one sick pup and this bug is sure to make it's way through all of us before long! I really do have lots to blog about, just no strength to sit at the desk!
Prayers would be most appreciated!

Crazy Busy Weekend!

I'll be sooo glad when Tuesday comes! This has been a really busy weekend for our family! Friday we had planned for Fr. to come to our home to celebrate Mass and bless our home, but those plans were foiled as I got terribly sick as the day went on. By 2pm, I had a fever, chills, and aches. I just knew the flu was coming on. Doug cancelled our plans but Father was so gracious to reschedule the next Friday!
Saturday, we got to the Wharton convention center to set up for the bridal show only to find out that the panels I had painted just would not work. They were too tall and a little unstable. So we haul all of that crap back home and scramble for a plan B! Doug had a wedding in Rosenberg to shoot, so he picked up some easels and frames on his way. Doug spent all Saturday afternoon until midnight shooting the wedding while I was home sick in bed. I got up early this morning and found a 6am Mass to attend then went to set up his booth for the show while he got some much needed sleep! I come home and get Doug and the big boys off to Mass, but as soon as Mass is done, Doug will only have time for a quick bite, then it's off to the bridal show until 5pm!
Monday Doug has an engagement sitting with one of his brides and Kyle has baseball tryouts. If I wasn't so sick, it wouldn't be too bad, but I feel like death!
Say a prayer for the Creamer's today!
A quick pick of Doug's booth:



Gosh, I feel like I just rambled on and on....must be the cold meds!

Handy Tip

Saw this in a parenting magazine: Take your extra plastic grocery bags and stuff them into an old wipes container and put in the car. This way, you'll always have a bag handy for diaper changes, trash, or in my case - car sickness bags when the kids have been playing too much GameBoy on long trips!

Signs of Spring!

Happy Valentine's Day!

We had such a busy morning here, we were trying to get the house clean for guests and prepare for Doug's bridal show this weekend. Amongst all the rush and fuss, I found the sweetest little Valentine's day card from JP (that's me there, on the right!):

After a trip to the craft store and Home Depot, we came home and painted the display boards that Doug's photos will go on. I'm doing a faux finish on them. A milk chocolate base coat:

And over that, I put a really cool textured paint:

And then over THAT, I'm going to put in flecks of black and gold. You'll have to wait to see the finished product!
Doug knows I'm not a bouquet and candy kinda girl, so while at Home Depot he picked me up a half dozen roses:

These beauties will get put in the ground early next week!
Have a happy Valentine's Day everyone!