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Back for another round of NABLOPOMO.

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NaBloPoMo September

Have I lost my mind to go back to trying to write a blog every day for the next month after 5 months off? Probably.

But with my little guy back in school full time 5 days a week I hope I might have a bit more time than last year when he was out at noon. Plus, I missed writing about other things than just food and recipes. I will still be blogging over on That Recipe at least twice a week, because that is still my bliss.

 

Right now I have a post up about why you might want to think about buying new kitchen appliances. And you want to be sure to check over there on Thursday for the monthly Fill the Cookie Jar recipe exchange where a bunch of bloggers join together and post a themed cookie recipe - this month we have Fall cookies. I made some delicious Cran-Oat White Chocolate cookies that were devoured pretty rapidly.

Over here I will be keeping with the blog title and posting random thoughts about parenting, weight loss/ fitness, gardening, crafts, photography and maybe even some genealogy. And I am sure the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will be mentioned once or twice.

Parenting - School has been going for two weeks. YEAH! My 6 year old with ASD is in a regular first grade class with an aide that is helping him and another boy as needed. Our Annual and Triennial IEPs are scheduled for the 30th, and I will have plenty to say about that.

Fitness/Weight Loss - I have been working out 6 days a week and eating well below 1700 calories a day, but the scale isn't showing much progress. The tape measure is showing a steady decline, and that's the one I really trust to show improvement. I will be some different workouts in the next few weeks to mix things up, and I will let you know what I think about them.

Gardening/Crafts - My veggie garden was very disappointing this year, these planters made from plastic file boxes and landscape fabric might work well in areas that receive summer rain.

 

But here in hot dry Inland Southern California they produced dismal results. However, I made some new self watering planters that are both cheap and easy and work very well based on past experience. I will be putting together a how to blog on it as soon as I edit the photos.

Genealogy - I just got back into this recently and have found some interesting information like my second Great Grandmother was an indentured servant. And on the other side My Great Grandfather went to Italy for a visit and ended up getting sick and the family did not return before their passport expired. Does anyone read Italian? How about Italian Doctor?

As for the Turtles, they are our latest obsession. I get to be Raph. Why? you ask. "He's the grumpy one." Ouch!

I don't know what else I will ramble about, but I hope you come along for the ride.

May 2014 Garden Update

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This is a busy beautiful time in my yard.

I got the lawn organically treated a few weeks ago and I finally trimmed the monster tree in the front yard - I wasn't spending $250! M is still not thrilled the roots of the tree are breaking through the grass, but now that the lawn is healthy and green he doesn't notice it as much.
just a little difference between my yard on the left and the neighbors on the right

The African Sumac got a long overdo hair cut.
It'll grow back, right? right?
The pond plants are in full bloom. Not only did I finally figure out how to fix the waterfall (the water has to go away from the rocks instead of down and behind or it will cause the liner to bubble up) I found a treatment for the sludge build up, so hopefully I won't have to drain the pond and clean it out by hand. A few more treatments and I will go buy more fish. PetSmart had an adoption event when we went by the other day and it was mass chaos! Hopefully lots of animals found homes.

The natives look "berry" good. The birds already ate most of the Manzanita berries I wanted to try when they were ripe, so I think I will leave these for them too. All-natural bird feeder with no mess to clean up.

coffee berry

California lilac
Toyon berries
Salvia - butterflies and hummingbirds love these trumpet shaped flowers as well as the bees.

Edibles aren't quite edible yet, except the beets, which I finally harvested and planted a few pumpkin seeds yesterday.

beets of different varieties

watermelon

green beans

red table grapes

Thompson seedless grapes

 

tomatoes - forgot to label the early girl and the beefmaster - oops.
I have 3 of each.

lovely lavender

lots of pomegranate flowers, hopefully more than one tiny pomegranate this year

yarrow slowly becoming a ground cover where the citrus trees that never grew were

And a few just for fun treats:

Taken through the patio door - this beauty wasn't letting me get much closer.
We are lizard central right now, don't tell my friend Mary.

We have added Shiver City to Mushroom Kingdom this month.
I asked Little Master if he wanted me to cut the holes into doors, but he preferred them this way.

Hope you enjoyed your little tour of my yard. Come back next month for more updates.

Mini Mushroom Kingdom Garden for Your Yard

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As I may have mentioned a few times, J has a slight obsession with Super Mario right now. He has also noticed me pinning cute pictures of Fairy Gardens and he immediately wanted one! So, I put the two together and came up with this Mini Mushroom Kingdom Garden.

I also thought it would be a great time killer project for Spring Break. And there was the fleeting hope that if he helped make it he would take care of it better.

We went to our local home improvement store and bought:

  • seven 4" clay pots
  • seven 6" clay saucers
  • one quart of "oops" glossy white paint
  • samples jars of red (Calypso Berry), green (Peacock Green) and brown (Rich Chocolate)
  • cheap sponge paint brushes (I already had small paint brushes for the details)

 

After conferring with the "paint guys" at the store we opted for the samples even though they were interior paint which were planning on using outside mainly because of the price. The cost of the samples was less than $4 each and exterior would have been much more. I splurged on the white because I wanted leftovers to touch up some baseboards in the house. I also knew I had a can of Glossy Clear Polyurethane that I was going to use to spray the pots inside an out.

You can choose exterior paint, or get acrylic paints at the craft store specifically for outdoor crafts. I wanted one stop shopping.

Cost for these supplies was about $40, $16 for the pots and saucers, $21 for the paint and poly, $3 for brushes. But, I have plenty of extra paint despite the big OOPS! details below.

The very first life lesson I mentioned in my post 5 Life Lessons Crafts Can Teach Children is "Life is messy, clean it up". But there is a very important codicil to this.

If you do some pre-planning and preparing you can avoid some of the bigger messes.

First, I set up to paint outside both for the smell and because paint spills outside are not going to upset me as much as they would inside. Then I covered EVERYTHING, the table as well as the ground underneath it, with an old drop cloth.

And I covered the kid!

look at that concentration!

And despite all of my precautions, we still managed to get green paint on the patio.

Did I forget to mention that you want to have wet rags on hand for quick cleanups?  Luckily I managed to dash into the house and get one before that dried. Learn from my mistake, have clean up materials ready before opening the paint cans.

And another little tip for those that want to work with children: always follow the "spill rule". Only give a child as much liquid (to drink or to paint with) as you are willing to clean up.

half a jar of red decorating the drop cloth

Ugh! Despite that OOPS, we still have plenty of red left over. Which is a good thing because less than 24 hours after showing it to him...

 

This is why I bought seven pots and saucers even though I only planned on using six: 3 for the Toad Houses and 3 for the Koopa Houses and 1 for the inevitable breakage. I know my kid.

I let him do the base coat for the houses and roofs and paint the white circles on the Toad Houses with a circular sponge paintbrush we have. I did the rest of the details: doors, windows and the pattern on the Koopa houses.

 

top view of the Toad Houses

 

top view of the Koopa Houses

Then I sprayed both the inside and out with the Polyurethane to protect it against the rain and sprinklers.

I used what we had around the house for the extras:

  • a piece of 2 x 4 for the road
  • a green bubble bottle with the top sawed off for the pipe (I still may get some PVC pipes to add a few more).
  • figurines from the toy store
The Toad Town section of our garden
The Koopa Village section of our garden

I set it up while J was otherwise occupied. When I finally showed him he was thrilled with all of our hard work! Ten seconds later he announced we needed to make Shiver City and Bowser's Castle and... sigh! no rest for this weary Mama. 😉

[Tweet "Make your own mini Mushroom Kingdom in your garden for your Super Mario lover. #supermario #garden"]

For more fun ideas and recipes check out
Fabulously Frugal Thursdays
SITS DIY LinkUp
Wake Up Wednesdays
Wine'd Down Wednesday

April Garden Update

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I have been busy busy busy in the garden, hence there haven't been many blogs the last month. The pile of dead grass is gone and the space leveled. The freesias and plum tree are done blooming for the year, but there are so many beautiful and exciting things happening in the rest of the yard I don't mind too much. Since it is almost bed time here, I am just going to get right to the photos. 

Edibles

Jerusalem Sage

Seeded Red Table Grapes
Thompson Seedless Grapes

Artichoke playing peek-a-boo!

Turnips

Tuscan Kale

One of the six tomato plants

Lettuce going to seed.

Asparagus
Pomegranate flower

The one remaining green bean plant out of 9!!! Planted 8 more today, fingers crossed.

Native Plants
The new plants haven't died yet! And looking back at the photos in February when I planted them, the Goldenrod and Aster are growing well.
Zauschneria cana - "Hollywood Flame" California Fuchsia

Solidago californica- Goldenrod

Corethrogyne filaginifolia Silver carpet - California aster

Galvezia speciosa - Island snapdragon

Fallugia paradoxa - Apache plume - starting to open up

 

Fallugia paradoxa - Apache plume - starting to open up
Fallugia paradoxa - Apache plume - here come the petals and pollen - the plumes will follow in a few months
Ceanothus - California lilac - pollen for the bees and berries for the birds

Salvia Bees Bliss
Coming soon
more vegetables once I cover the bottom with something to prevent roots from the neighbors tree from creeping in

An above ground pool is going where the pile of dead grass was.
And in this corner...
well you'll just have to come back to find out.

5 Life Lessons Crafting Can Teach Children

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Five ways crafting can teach children important life lessons.

child gluing tissue paper with text overlay "5 Life Lessons Crafting teaches children"

Once again Huffpost is telling me I am doing everything wrong. First, I was an idiot for not opening Chinese takeout containers into plates, now I am ruining my child's life by looking on Pinterest for crafts and activities to do with my child.

Well, if crafting is wrong, I don't want to be right.

I know the author was actually talking about the pressure we parents put on ourselves to make everything perfect for our child. It isn't the crafting or theme park trips or parties in and of themselves that are the issue. It is the pressure we feel to make everything "magical" by getting too far out of our comfort zone either with money or activities we don't enjoy.

Every parent needs to define his or her own comfort zone:

  • For people that don't live in theme park central, going to a theme park is a big vacation. For us, it is an hour drive to the nearest one. We have annual passes, go for an hour or two during off peak season and come home.
  • Elf on a Shelf? Not in this house, if he (or his friends) ask me I will inform them the Santa Surveillance Squad installed mini video cameras throughout the house and school.
  • We threw a party for J's 1st birthday and haven't done one since. I doubt we will do one this year. He doesn't care right now so why should we spend a mortgage payment or more on something that he won't miss?

Searching Pinterest and other sources for crafts and activities to do with my child is out of the author's comfort zone. Apparently, she did not grow up with a crafter.

I sure did.

When I lost my first tooth the Tooth Fairy left my coin in a pile of shiny clear glitter. My response? "Mommy, the Tooth Fairy uses Diamond Dust too!" We were always making "something" and being a young girl I probably had a penchant for sparkly stuff like glitter.

Mom sent me a text the other day asking if I had popsicle sticks because she needed one for something she was working on for her favorite (and only) grandson. Once a crafter always a crafter.

Since crafting has always been a part of my life I know there are many life lessons to be gained beyond the enjoyment of crafting. Here are a few

1. Life is messy, clean it up.

I know that line is from a commercial, but crafting, like life, can be messy and you need to clean up your own messes.

2. Life doesn't always turn out like the picture on the box (or on Pinterest).

Life isn't easy and never goes exactly as you planned. You just make the best of it and enjoy the experience.

3. It's okay to try something and find out you don't like it.

Carving, painting, sewing, and knitting are not for me. I don't have the talent or interest in them. I have tried, they weren't for me. I am not great at quilting either, but I enjoy it as long as I don't EVER use knit again!

4. Sometimes you have to figure out what doesn't work to find out what does.

Sometimes you need to step back and rethink how best to accomplish your goal (creative problem solving). Scraps of knit = nightmare for me: use the whole t-shirt if I am insane enough to try again.

5. You don't have to buy everything! 

His grandparents naturally love all of their homemade cards and gifts, because they are his grandparents. But, I want him to understand that there is a pleasure and an internal sense of accomplishment by making things yourself - be it crafting, gardening or cooking or any other interest he may take up in the future.

I could have bought him a bed spread, but making one with cut up pieces of his baby clothes meant a lot to me and hopefully to him someday too.

If you don't enjoy crafting, don't do it. I never said you had to and anyone that did is full of themselves. I enjoy crafting, and gardening and cooking. So, I do those activities with J. My husband does not enjoy any of those things, so he and J do other things together. And we do activities as a family that are different too.

Every family is different and that is okay. Maybe that should be life lesson number 6.

Some craft projects your children may enjoy:

Happy St. Patrick's Day! and a request for blogging tips

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Well, if we ignore the hours between 3:30 and 5:30 when a certain naughty little leprechaun, who shall remain nameless, decided he was going to be up and play and scream instead of sleep, today has been a happy day.

First the FMS Photo a Day prompt was "your weather today", so we headed outside for a few minutes before school to snap some shots and show off our green.

Forgot to set it to backlight, but I thought it was a good picture for the prompt.

This was my second choice for the prompt.
watching a plane fly overhead while he sits in front of my Ponzo Blue Ceanothus

 Then off to school for a little party and to see if we caught any leprechauns:

No he didn't touch the broccoli or grapes.
All of that hard work on our leprechaun trap and the little sneak just left us a taunting note:
"Ha ha ha. He he he. I am a leprechaun and you can't catch me."
He left footprints and other mischief throughout the classroom.

Then back home for more fun:

Because of the sleep issues I did not make green pancakes for breakfast.
I told him if he was good all day at school I would make them for lunch.
He ate two of these shamrocks (the equivalent of 6+ pancakes).
Baked Corned Beef - thatrecipe.com
I made Baked Corned Beef and Colcannon the other night for the blog so I won't be making it tonight.
But I might make some Irish Soda Bread.

A friend is starting a winery and was thinking of having a blog to help promote the wine. She is new to the blogging world and looking for tips, so I thought I'd throw it out there to the bloggers and marketing gurus reading this. She'd also like to fine some small wineries with blogs that are actually active (i.e. posts more recent than 2 years ago!!) so she can follow along.

So, do you know of any winery blogs and what tips would you give a newbie blogger?

The pile is slowly disappearing

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I have been slowly scraping off the dirt from the grass we tore up from the front yard three weeks ago, dirt in a pile and grass in the green barrel, but not more than ½ full or the trash can will break when they try to dump it on pick up day. Then I got sick and the pile was still there!

Last night my husband asked when I was going to have the area leveled so he could put up the pool, saying he did his part in one day. Hummpf! When he went inside to do a little work, I got inspired. The pile up there is on half of the space we were going to level. I removed the sand box from the side you don't see in the photo. Then, instead of getting rid of the grass, I turned it grass side down and "tiled" the area. D'uh! I should have done that in the first place. I also should have taken a picture of it in the middle of the process, but I was on a roll!

As J and I were dumping his sand box of the green sand (eewww) I told him "I bet Daddy will come outside and see what we've done and say I was just kidding." Twenty minutes later as I was scraping the dirt off the grass and leveling the area out, M came out and muttered "I was just kidding." Do I know that man or what?

This morning I headed out early to do some more because it was predicted to approach 90 degrees here. After about 90 more minutes, the area looks like this:

And it looks pretty close to level to me.

Now the area is ready to put up the swimming pool. Just in time for the temperatures to drop to 70 degrees for the next 3 weeks. 🙁

The Leprechaun Trap

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I could have sworn I said I wasn't going to do it. If I am not mistaken, it was exactly one week ago I SWORE I wasn't going to help J make his Leprechaun trap. It was optional and I had no desire to go through another special project. If he really wanted to do it, Daddy could help him with it.

But, didn't we all know I was going to be the one to help him anyway?

I feared not doing it because his teacher and friends had been talking about it, and if he didn't have to something to share on Friday like EVERYONE else, I would be hearing about it for months!!

I went with what he knew: Mario.

We agreed on a box with a simple trap door in it.

 

Since it is a well known fact that Leprechauns are naughty and do the opposite of what signs say, we went with a simple Keep Off and No Leprechauns to entice them into the trap, even though J originally wanted switches and levers.

Did you know Leprechauns are about the same size and weight as Bowser? Lucky for us, so we could test the trap and he can use it to demonstrate on Friday.

And, we finished with a day to spare.

I was thirsty, so sue me.

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I'd been working in the yard on a beautiful spring day and worked up a bit of a thirst. But, what should I drink?All I wanted was a drink, not to know everything was going to kill me or the planet.

 

Sugar filled Soda is out according to the new WHO guidelines limiting sugar.

Diet Soda is nothing but poison according to a few of my FaceBook friends (I know they are trustworthy because their profile pic is one of them falling over drunk with a margarita in hand instead of a lethal diet soda).

Coffee? - No! Caffeine will destroy my "emotional intelligence" per Forbes.

How Stuff Works gives me 8 reasons why I can't choose milk.

Lemonade or ice tea? - oops, no sugar or artificial sweeteners allowed. And the tea might have caffeine so my emotions would get stupider than they already are.

Maybe some nice healthy 100% fruit juice? Nope, Smoothies and fruit juices are a health risk per The Guardian.

Ok, how about a plain glass water?

  • Healthy Stuff.org is adamant that I'd better not drink from the garden hose or risk lead poisoning among other dangers.
  • Even tap water is potentially dangerous says Huff Post.
  • Bottled water? No way I want to risk angering all of the environmentalists by bringing those evil plastic bottles into my home.

[Tweet "All I wanted was something to quench my thirst, but I found out "everything" is BAD! #humor #media"]

Sigh. I was just thirsting for something to re-hydrate my body, not thirsting for excessive and obsessive knowledge that everything on this planet is out to kill me or by consuming it I am responsible for killing the planet.

Forget it! Maybe my FB friends were on the right track with the margaritas after all. It might make me thirstier in the long one, but after one or two of these I won't care anymore.

Click here for our Margarita recipe.

 

 

Funny Daylight Saving Time Memes

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Some people hate it. I love it.  I agree with the state of Florida that is currently considering making it Daylight Saving Time year round. It is the change part I don't like. Besides having to change the clocks I am never thrilled at the concept of losing an hour of my weekend.

 

And since my weekend is shortened I am not going to spend any time blogging about why we do it or attempt to convince you that it is actually Daylight Saving (singular) and not Savings (plural). Instead I will share some Daylight Saving Time funnies.

201502_1031_gbcda_sm

 

 



Hope you have an awesome weekend, even if it is a bit shorter than usual.

Comment Conundrum

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Last month I participated in a Comment Love group with a bunch of other bloggers. We had to visit 75 other sites and leave a comment on one of their posts - all to be done in one week. Of course it was scheduled for Valentine's Week which is insane at my house with 2 birthdays plus Valentine's Day. But I got it done, albeit a few days little late. 

The experience was enlightening. I found some awesome new sites with lots of recipes and craft inspirations plus some I wouldn't normally look at because they are not my type of blogs, such as Fashion and Subscription Box reviews (I had no idea there were so many out there).

I dutifully commented on everyone else's site, but I admit there were a few that I didn't want to bother with. Not because of the content on the blog, but because of the comment system used.

This is my personal opinion and by no means indicative of all blog readers, but when I am on my own time I am not going to waste my time to leave a comment if you make it difficult for me.

What makes it difficult? Here are a few things:

  1. Disquis  - I do not want to be forced to sign up for a service to leave a comment, I did for this project, but not everyone will.
  2. Captcha - GAH!!! There are no words to express the depth of my hatred for Captcha for blog comments. At least now it is numbers instead of a ridiculous combination of letters and numbers that I could almost never read and retype on the first try.
  3. Requiring me to comment with Google + or Facebook - great if the commenters use them, but if they are not then you are forcing them to sign up. Plus, it forces you to use your "personal" page instead of allowing to use your business page. I was participating as That Recipe, but couldn't leave comments from that page.
  4. Not allowing non-bloggers to comment - my mother doesn't have a blog and for the longest time she would text me her comment because she couldn't add it.
  5. Human Detectors that don't work - I can't remember the name of the comment plugin, but there is a fantastic blog I have tried to comment on in the past, but I have to copy and paste a "code". The problem is it NEVER works. I even tried typing the code instead of cut and paste - no dice. I just gave up ever commenting on her blog.

If you are on Blogger, number 2 and 4 are selected for you by default. Unless you go into Settings| Posts and Comments and change it, you could be annoying potential commenters.

Chose "Anyone" to allow people without blogs to leave a comment.
Moderate your comments if you worried about SPAM or abusive comments
Chose not to show word verification so your commenters don't have to go through Captcha.

My suggestion is abandon the default comment system and install Comment Luv or something similar. No, they aren't paying me to write that. I use it on both blogs and always smile when I see someone else has it. The plug in allows both commenters with and without blogs to comment, but it adds a special bonus for those with blogs: when they comment they are given the option to share a link to their most recent blog post. Free Publicity - ka-ching! I am more likely to comment when I see that.

For Word Press all you need to do is select Plugin | add new  - then search for it (remember it is Luv not Love). Easy peasy to install and customize.

For Blogger it is more difficult but worth it in my opinion. For detailed step by step instructions check out Social Media Sass. I know it sounds scary messing with your template like this. It is easy if you follow her steps carefully. I didn't and it still turned out okay.

At the very least, Blogger users, would you please turn off Captcha? Pretty please with sugar and a cherry on top. Monitor your spam by moderating your comments if you feel it is necessary, but please stop making me type annoying codes just to leave a comment.

And now I give my fellow bloggers the chance to share their most recent posts by asking them to leave comments. What comment plugin do you love? Which ones annoy you? Do you leave comments if it is too difficult or just move on?

Your turn!

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I have been the one to make sure J gets his homework done every night. He only has to do 4 out of the 5 days a week. With J, every single day must be done completely. Where is the O page? Why did we skip O? I want to do an O page. I created an O page.

I have "worked" with him on the Rainbow words. Okay, I confess, with J it was show him the list and ask if he can read them all - my little hyperlexic could have read them 2 years ago. Throw list in a pile and ignore it for months. Oh, now she wants us to work on spelling them. I give him 6 spelling tests (one for each "color") to see if he could spell them. He only needed to review 3 out of 100 once or twice until:

  • wich became which
  • thier became their
  • bin became been

(I know adults that would have trouble with those without auto correct)

I am the one that keeps track of the special dress up days, making sure we have something the week before, buying or making it as needed and then laying out clothes the night before. Don't get me started on the nightmare of helping him write 1 through 100 legibly on a t-shirt with fabric pens for 100th Day. *shudder*

I make sure all of the permission slips are signed, fund raiser orders are placed, library books are returned, special items are brought in for the parties, etc.

I take care of the presents for the teacher and the aide.

I volunteer twice a week in the classroom.

Today, this "optional homework" came home.

I am using my "free pass". Daddy, this one is ALL yours.

Garden Update for March

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I know most of you are laughing at us here in California for a paltry 5" of rain in one weekend. But for us that is a lot. While we needed it desperately, we didn't need it all at once. If that was spread out over a few weeks or even a month it would have been much better. Luckily we will be drying out here for a few weeks with temps back in the 80's so there won't be anymore damage like this:

These pictures are not my house or even my block, but a few blocks north:

At the far north end of the block.
I guess they get the gusty winds that we do at the north end of our block

They were taking some massive pumps into the house.

24 hours after the last rain and water is still streaming out of this backyard.

Dandelions in median strip
Click here for a delightful Dandelion Green Soup recipe.
But I'd buy them in the store and not use them from the median strip.
So pretty and delicate.

 Our damage was relatively minor:

I kind of like the rustic tilted look and may leave it that way.

Foam and algae in the pond - yeck!

Lots of damaged leaves on the turnips.

Sigh! At least he noticed that he was tracking in mud after a few steps.

All of my pink plum blossoms - GONE!

It is the last one that really depresses me. The entire block was just starting to turn pink and then the storm hit. The show only lasts a week or so anyway. Boo! There are still a few blooms though.

A few shots of my other short lived beauties - freesias:

The California natives are looking beautiful:

The view from the living room window.
The reason they are called Manzanita or "little apples".

A preponderance of pink - Arctostaphylos
A plethora of purple - Ceonothus
Betula Occidentalis - Water birch - just starting to leaf.

The edibles are doing pretty well:

Lots of big green leaves on the artichoke.

The first pomegranate bloom

Thompson grapes

Red Table grapes

ready or not, you come out next week, beets.

same to you, carrots.

kale and turnips

Started hardening off the tomatoes, which is why the beets and carrots need to move over soon.

Hope your garden is starting to show signs of spring soon.

Silly Stuff

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I am making a concerted effort to find the humor in everyday life lately. A few things that have made me chuckle:

While reading Cat in the Hat to a small group in my son's class one girl was completely baffled by the kids sitting and doing nothing inside all day because of the rain. "Why can't they just play rainy day games?"  Her mom, a high school English teacher, got a kick out of it when I told her. Poor deprived little California girl, in her lifetime she has never experienced days on end of rain so you get bored and stir crazy.

Since playing Paper Mario, J has become fascinated by the phonograph.

  • "You have to turn the handle, ha ha, not too fast and not too slow, ha ha."
  • "It has a TUBA on it, ha ha ha ha."
  • "You put a ree-cord on it." (as opposed to the correct pronunciation in this case of "reck-ord".

Oof, I feel as ancient as I did when I showed J and his friends a pay phone and they gasped "The WHOLE thing is a phone?!"

Not sure if we are playing Moses or Firefighter here.

I considered myself warned and put a towel down before I let him get in the tub.

That's all I have to share at the moment. Hope you have a great weekend. Looks like we are FINALLY getting some much needed rain here in the West. Mommy better come up with some rainy day games before the my new gown, the one with spots that are pink white and red ends up on Thing 1's kite string.

What is better than free money?

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Life has been a bit rough lately with one piece of bad news after another. But this week our luck seem to be changing.

What's Better Than Free Money

Free Money

First we got a letter from the water district stating we had been erroneously charged for something we shouldn't have been... for the last 8 years. Refund check enclosed! Cha-Ching!

 More Free Money

We are at the end of a cul-de-sac and the way the wind blows here trash tends to end up in my yard from throughout the neighborhood. On Monday it wasn't trash, but cash in my newly planted front yard.

I asked the neighbors, but couldn't find out who it belonged to (ill gotten gains from the "pot house" next door, perhaps?). So, we will be buying a gift certificate for the school's silent auction. I figure everyone on the block either has kids at the school or kids who went there or just want a good neighborhood school to increase their property value. Plus, I want to keep the good karma flowing!

Better than Free Money

But the best thing wasn't money related.

J's school makes a big deal about Dr. Seuss' birthday. There's a huge carnival in a few weeks (when they will have the silent auction) and tomorrow the students are supposed to dress up in a Dr. Seuss theme while they do Dr. Seuss activities in class. Not just Kindergarten, the WHOLE school.

I thought of doing a 10 Apples Up on Top Hat, but was concerned about the logistics of keeping the apples on the hat and keeping them from toppling over. Then on Monday I was looking through his drawer for a sweatshirt when I saw this.

Cat in the Hat shirt

 

THANK YOU AUNT IRENE! Another awesome hand me down from his big cousin Kyle. It might be a little big, but he can wear it this year and next, buying me at least two years until I have to come up with a new costume. He will have to wear the shirt under the reversible Thomas and Friends jacket he also got from Kyle because it is supposed to be raining pretty heavily on our walk to and from school. Which is actually good news for parched California.

Phew. Life is looking up.

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Goodbye Front Lawn, Hello California Native Plants

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Two weeks ago we were playing out front and I casually mentioned that I would like to rip out some more half dead grass and just put in more native plants. My husband looked at the space and said "Next weekend". "Yes, honey, next weekend is your birthday and your last days off until May."

Well, the night of his birthday he grabbed the shovel and hoe and starting digging up the grass.

My job was to entertain J and haul the grass to the backyard to be dealt with later. We don't have a wheelbarrow, but I needed something with wheels. I turned and looked in the garage and there was Big Blue!  You can just see it sticking out in the photo above. I dumped all the toys out and it was perfect!

You have served me well, old friend. Hopefully a hose down and maybe a little sewing and you will be as good as new. Or at least good enough to still be useful.

 

 

First night's work

 

 

Daddy's little helper. Note the busted sprinkler head in the foreground, grr!

 

We intentionally flooded the lawn to make it easier to cut through.
And the mud gave J something to do while we worked.

 

And in less than 24 hours we had a giant mud pit.

 

And a big pile of dead grass and mud!

 

On Tuesday we went down to "the mulch place" after dropping J off at school. Southern California Mulch in Menifee rocks! We knew what we needed so we quickly ordered, stopped at the store for a few supplies and then headed back home. Within 5 minutes of walking in the door they were backing their truck up and dropping off my 3 cubic yards of mulch!!

 

3 cubic yards of mulch to be moved.

 

Only one yard for this space, the other two are to fill in some places in the backyard.

 

All neatly mulched

 

Thursday was plant day. We went down to Las Pilitas Nursery in Escondido to pick out our native plants. I took a picture of the space with me and told them I wanted a butterfly/hummingbird garden that would be the envy of the neighborhood (and hopefully convince others to go native). It took some doing because the space gets full sun, but is consistently wet due to the neighbors overwatering their lawn. But we settled on:

 

Corethrogyne filaginifolia Silver carpet - California aster

 

 Solidago californica- Goldenrod

 

Galvezia speciosa - Island snapdragon

 

Zauschneria cana - "Hollywood Flame" California Fuchsia

 

no more gass
Tomato cages are there just to give the plants a chance to get established and not get trampled by you know who.

Hopefully he will remember to use "the bridge" to get to the big green box.

Today I moved a few plants from other places in my yard like Yarrow and Erigeron glaucus (Seaside Daisy). We'll see how they all do in a few months.

[Tweet "Californians: pull out your boring turf grass and plant native plants instead! #californiadrought"]

This is the only grass we have left, which we will keep for a few years since it is still fun to play on and have picnics.

 

Needs some humus and maybe a little reseeding.

I am done for now. Except for the piles of mulch scattered throughout the backyard and that big pile of dying grass. Maybe next week.

Save water and increase curb appeal

 

My BEST blogging tip EVER.

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Wait two hours between writing and publishing.

Yup, that's it. Pretty simple isn't it.

I just spent 45 minutes on a post about my miserable day then immediately published it. Five minutes later I deleted it. It was the right decision. It was nothing more than a pity party. And if my husband had read it he would have added it was too much information.

Writing out the situation helped a lot. I didn't need anyone to read it and then tell me everything will be better. Or worse think I am nothing but a whiney crybaby.

I am playing the peri menopause card. Things may not be that bad, but the hormones are pretty crazy right now. That's my story and I am sticking to it.

Which is a good reason for me to make a "holding time" a habit. Too many times I have written blogs and then an hour later think of a better way to word something, or an anecdote or tip for a recipe I should have added.

And then there are the typos I catch after I post and reread what I wrote. Cringe.

Maybe I should consider it for social media too. Heck, EVERYONE should consider waiting before responding in social media.

February Garden Update

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I have been taking some time to focus on That Recipe lately so this blog has gotten neglected. But as it is the beginning of the month I needed to update my garden pictures. Even if no one else is interested this is going to be a good reference for me in the future.

And it seems that in my absence from Blogger they STILL have not fixed the picture uploader so it works with IE. Please hold while I switch to another browser. Grr!

California Natives:

Hello springtime! I cut back the Apache Plumes mid month, but other than that everything else is beginning its growth cycle.

 

Manzanita flowers started to bloom mid-January
Another Manzanita

 

Ceonothus (California lilacs) Pozo Blue just starting to bloom
with the pond in the background.
Salvia (sage) has started to bloom.
The bees were very camera shy and would not sit still for me to snap their picture.

 

The butterflies were even more camera shy than the bees and would not let me get any closer than this.

 Ornamentals:

 

My first freesia bloom should open in the next few days.
Seems a bit early for them, but I can't find my notes from last year.
I left the paperwhites for dead, then low and behold I noticed this tiny little sprout.

Edibles:

Artichoke looking pretty leafy, no signs yet of a flower stalk though.

 

Garlic chives coming back again!
Beets and carrots still not growing much. They have about 6 weeks until they get kicked out of their spots for the tomatoes, green beans and watermelon.

 

A pot of soil.
But under that soil are turnip seeds I planted on Friday.

 

With 5 plants of kale I am going to be eating a lot of kale chips washed down with green smoothies.
Hopefully.
Leaves on the pomegranate bush/tree.
Tomatoes planted on Jan. 12 from seeds saved from last year.
The peppers and eggplants planted on the 10th never came up, retrying today.
So as far as my garden is concerned we are currently 50/50 with Moon Favorable gardening.

 

Basil seedlings to go with the yummy tomatoes.

 

The neighbors peach tree. Hope they will share like the former owner did.

Now, all that is left for me to do is pray for rain! Rumor has it there is some on the way tonight. We NEED it! But that is a subject for another blog.

The Great Mommy Detective in the Case of

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Ladies and gentlemen, today in Parenting Theater we are pleased to present you with...

The Great Mommy Detective in the Case of the Tigertastic Car

The Great Mommy Detective - nothing is ever lost until mom can't find it, or figure out what you are talking about. parenting. motherhood. humor.

J: My Tigertastic Car is GONE!! Mommy, help me find my car.

Me: Excuse me?

J: My Tigertastic Car is G... O... N... E... gone!

Me: Are you forgetting a word?

J: SIGH! Pleeeeeaaaase, find my car.

Me: Go look on the train table.

J: (after a cursory glance) It isn't there.

Me: Did you look carefully?

J: Yes.

Me: I see it right there on the corner.

J: No it's not.

Me: (walking over and picking it up) Here you go.

J: That is Umi Car.  (using the pre-teen "that was so 6 months ago" disgusted voice)

Me: Oh, Umi Car isn't Tigertastic? I thought because of the tiger stripes you made me put ...

J: No, I want my Tigertastic one.

Me: Okay, which one is your Tigertastic one?

J: The Tigertastic one.

Me: Can you use your words and tell me more about it?

J: Tigertastic

Me: (deep breath, he isn't trying to be difficult, deep breath) What color is it?

J: Yellow

Me: (Yeah, now we are getting somewhere!) Is it big or little?

J: The BIG one (sheesh, don't you know anything).

Me: Got it! We put it in one of these baskets last night.

J: Did you say "this" basket or "these" baskets"?

Me: Sigh, these two baskets where we stuffed all of your toys last night before bed. Never mind. (I am too tired to have an argument over these and this right now.) Is this what you are looking for?

J: YES!!

Me: Did you forget something?

J: Huh? Oh, please! I mean thank you.

Me: (as he was running off to the other room) My bill is 10 minutes of no whining payable on demand ...

Who knew Bumble Bee was Tigertastic?

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[Tweet "It's never lost until Mom can't find it. #motherhood #humor"]

Valentines Day Mobile

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The corner of my entryway is a bit dark and well, boring. When I put up all my Christmas decorations I came across this Santa mobile made from sewn construction paper.

 

 

It was falling apart so I remade it. I even made a pattern that I had every intention of making into a printable to share with you all. But, it didn't get completed in time for Christmas.

On Tuesday it was the last Christmas decoration I needed to take down. But, I wasn't go to all of the effort to drag a chair over there and climb up to take Santa down unless I had a new one to put up. So, with my first "child-free" time on Tuesday I grabbed some construction paper and made up this one.

 

Valentines Day Mobile

 

Decorations from T to B - construction paper flowers, crinkle cut scissors, open heart, the scrap from the open heart, cut outs from napkins and red glitter glue.
The only problem occurred when I sewed up the empty big white heart. Originally it was going to be completely empty, but it was such a big empty space that I didn't keep the heart flat enough going through the machine. When I finished the top and bottom were too close together and it looked like it might rip if I tried to hang it. So, I snipped that thread and added the pink stripe in the middle. I like the extra color and the security it provided.

I am not going to bother giving you a pattern, because I am assuming you can free hand a heart as well as, if not better than, I can.

For the pink and purple ones, I folded the paper vertically and cut two smaller hearts. You can make them all identical size and shape if you prefer. In total, mine used 2 sheets each of pink, white, red and purple 9 x 12 inch construction paper.

Valentine's Mobile
Items needed:

  • construction paper of different colors - 2 for each heart.
  • scissors (straight, pinking shears, etc.)
  • sewing machine
  • white all purpose thread
  • clear tape (optional)
  • decorating materials - construction paper scraps, glitter, stickers, napkins, heart shaped doilies, etc. - use your imagination.
  1. For each heart, fold two pieces of construction paper together down the middle (horizontally or vertically - you choose - I did some of both) and make a sharp crease.
  2. Cut out a half heart shape from each folded pair of papers, then open to form a heart with a crease in the middle. Repeat for the number of hearts you want to make.
  3. Leave at least 6 inches of thread to hang the mobile before beginning sewing.
  4. Using the longest stitches possible, sew a straight line down the crease of each heart pair.
  5. Run off about 2 inches between each heart - if the top indentation on the heart is deep you may want to run off more so the hearts do not touch. (this picture is of the Santa, but you get the idea, I hope).
  6. Decorate hearts as desired.
  7. (Optional) Tape over the stitching on both sides of each heart pair. I am hoping this will increase the longevity so I can use it for years to come.
  8. Tie a loop in the top for hanging.
  9. Gently spread each heart pair apart to make an X when viewed from the top.

I am going to attempt to make one of these every month and post it here. Not sure what I am going to do in the summer months, but I have awhile to think about that. 🙂

 

A Mother's Vacation

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Sitting in the bathroom with the door locked eating an ice cream cone.

That was my BFFs Facebook status this morning. I saw it about an hour after I had attempted to use the bathroom for a few minutes after breakfast. I hadn't even been sitting down for 10 seconds, when the door was being beaten down so J could tell me something of vital importance... about Super Mario.

Once I was allowed to finish and came out of the bathroom he proceeded to pretty much ignore me like he usually does when his dad is home.


Planting time already?!

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I was doing a little puttering in the garden this morning and got to thinking about what I am going to do in my edible garden this year. Which led me to wonder when I should start sowing seeds indoors. So, I came in and looked it up. According to the Old Farmer's Almanac it is NOW!!!!

If I "plant by the moon" the peppers and eggplant should be started in the next three days, and the tomatoes Sunday through Wednesday.

I have never tried planting by the phase of the moon before, but I am going to give it a shot this year, because I am desperate for a good harvest, ha ha! The theory of lunar planting has been around for millennia.

According to Old Farmer's Almanac:

Above-ground crops are planted during the light of the Moon (new to full); below-ground crops are planted during the dark of the Moon (from the day after it is full to the day before it is new again). Planting is done in the daytime; planting at night is optional!

Modern science hasn't proven or disproven it yet, but I figure it can't hurt to try. Luckily, I have banana pepper, Italian eggplant and two kinds of tomato seeds saved from last year so I don't have to rush to buy any.

I just need to set a reminder on my phone to transplant the peppers on March 16 and the peppers and eggplants a week later. And decide what else I want to plant besides watermelon (start indoors Feb 9-14) and green beans (direct sow outdoors March 16).

January Garden Update

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Time for another update on the garden. While we aren't blanketed in a foot of snow like some of you in the East Coast (sorry to rub it in), the garden does look a little drab right now. Well, it did until I started looking closely.
Not only are all the plants cut back around the pond, but it has a leak and I haven't figured out where yet. Still a beautiful spot.



The only edibles I have at the moment are some beets, carrots, lettuce and arugula - yummy salad!

I often forget to look at the big picture of the garden and focus only on the bare spots. But stepping back I see the beauty of the plan we had in the design.
Peek a boo through the giant lilac bush down the path.
A pot and a bird bath have filled in some of these bare spots.
And if I do the opposite and use the macro lens there are some beautiful blooms.


And soon the plum tree will burst into its annual show of pink flowers. 
This is one of those times that I wish I could view a blog chronologically forward so I could see the garden progress through the year instead of seeing it in reverse order.

"My" printer is out of black ink.

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My darling husband informed me that my printer is running out of black ink.
The last printer died so I carefully researched it and purchased a new one. Okay, so I walked down the aisle at mass merchant, saw one I'm my price range,verified it would do what I want then put it in the cart.
I then set it up in his office and installed it so we could print from all of our electronic devices.
Since then the percentage of printing breaks down about like this:
- 85% his stuff - syllabi (syllabuses?), tests, study guides etc for his classes
-13% J's stuff - calendar numbers, coloring pages, etc.
- 2% my stuff - paperwork for the house, taxes, packing slips for his stuff.
But, my printer is out of ink.
Translation: I don't know the model number, can you please take care of it, oh wonderful caring intellectually gifted amazing woman that I  was lucky enough to marry?  Or something like that.
It's good to be needed.

Thanks for making my work easier, Facebook

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I have joked about Facebook's "similar to" programming not working quite correctly before, maybe they took my suggestion to heart, because today they nailed it and did my work for me.

What work? Why the never-ending task of trying to convince people to check their facts before blindly reposting information.

Today Facebook kindly offered me these suggested articles after a friend reposted an article about Johns Hopkins supposedly issuing a "cancer update".

Of course the ALL CAPS should have been the first tip off of the fallacy of the original.

And in case you didn't know, the meme about AAA's Tipsy Tow service (free towing if you are intoxicated on New Year's Eve) is only partially true, so you might want to think twice before reposting that one too.

Feet Painting

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Lil Monster has the post Christmas grumps. All of the excitement leading up to Christmas and now it is done. About 1 o'clock this afternoon he was bored and starting to get whiney. Mama had to think fast.
 
"Hey partner, would you like to do some painting? I have some new watercolors."
 
"I want to paint with my feet."
 
Really? Do you really think you can stump me?
 
Your Uncle Mike tried once when he asked me to make "spaghetti cookies" one year for Christmas - so I made these.
 
Your Dad told me I could never throw a surprise party for him. He was stunned when he walked into the arcade to see his friends and family.
 
"Go get a towel from your bathroom and meet me outside - and DON'T put on your shoes."
I cut some long pieces of butcher paper then grabbed some washable paint, duct tape and paper plates. I taped the paper to the driveway, put some red, yellow and blue paint in the plates and filled a wash tub with soapy water.
 
 
He understood as soon as he saw my set up. After he walked in the blue he grabbed his chalk and started drawing a color wheel.
 
 
I guess someone was paying attention during the Claude Monet  Meet the Masters lesson. Here's his reproduction of the assignment. The instructors were floored, and I have to admit, so was I.
 
 
 
Eventually, he used the three colors I had poured and then went on to mix orange, green, purple and then finally brown.
 
The only challenge was the paper and paint combo was slippery and I probably shouldn't have set it up in a slope. I just held his hand when he was walking.
 
I think we will make thank you cards with the end result. Grandparents, aunts and uncles love these kind of things.

Silly Superstitious Sayings

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About a month ago, as J and I were walking to school I dropped his hand as we walked with a pole between us then took his hand again and said "bread and butter". Of course he gave me that, "Mom you are insane look." So I explained it was just a silly thing to say for good luck. Now he wants to do it every day.

Over the course of the next few weeks I introduced him to a few more:

  • Don't walk under a ladder or you will have bad luck (especially if you bump the ladder while Daddy is on it putting up Christmas lights!)
  • See a penny pick it up and all the day you'll have good luck.
  • Step on a crack and break your Mama's back. (This is his personal favorite and explains why I have been walking funny for the last few weeks since he jumps on every crack he sees, tee hee.)

And now my mind is drawing a blank. I know there are a bunch more. Can you help a poor sleep deprived Mama with a broken back out here and share what you remember in the comments?

Sunday Funnies

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I'm starting to get a little down today, so I am putting the brakes in the negative thinking and posting a few things that have made me smile this week.
 
My son informed me recently that "Mario and Luigi sailed on the Mayflower." They were on a boat in a game and apparently every boat is now the Mayflower. 
 
My friend's 3 year old grandson wants an "electric cord of his own" for Christmas because none of the grown ups in his life will share theirs. Meanies!
 
There is a yellow G strategically placed in my Christmas tree. Sigh, magnetic letters really are EVERYWHERE in this house.
 
And on the little 3 foot tree upstairs: I am TOTALLY freaking out! Cat is stuck in a tree, AGAIN. (Another Peg + Cat reference - awesome show on PBS, find it and enjoy, especially if you have little kids!)
 
 
 
This is how the Mom in charge of Scholastic book orders delivered the latest order for J so there'd be no chance of him peeking. Heck, my husband won't even look in that bag.
 
 
And finally, a little cooking tip for you: wooden forks burn if left too close to the fire. Just thought you'd want to know.  No one to blame but myself for that one. And I heard all of the jokes Hubby could come up with including serenading me with "Burning Down the House."

December Garden Update

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Another month, another entry for my gardening calendar. It is amazing the difference a few hours can make this time of year. It was a brisk but beautiful sunny morning so we went outside early to play (J) and garden (me). I quickly took some quick pictures, emptied my compost bin and refilled it with some scraps I had been saving for the next batch, tidied up a little and then the clouds came followed quickly by the rain.

I am glad we went out so Lil Monster isn't cooped up all day and that I got the compost on the grass and trees just in time for the rain to soak all those nutrients into the soil. But, now I am happy to be warm inside munching on some warm from the oven Hawaiian Bread, editing photos and, of course, blogging.




hummingbird fuchsia
Sad waterfall has a leak somewhere about a foot down so it is turned off until I get it fixed
and the hummingbird fuchsia is cut to the ground for the year.

Asparagus is growing back nicely with some lavender and rosemary in the background.

Manzanita flowers starting to grow.

Giant Toyon loaded with bright red berries for the season.
Close up of the Toyon berries. Eat them up birdies!

Hopefully we will have a few carrots to harvest for Santa's reindeer Christmas Eve.

The Yellow Carpet on one side of the median strip almost looks like a carpet now. The side I planted almost a year before STILL isn't filling in. Not sure if it is less water or the partial shade.

Flowers forming on the big tree in the front yard (anyone know what this is?)

Apache Plume. No flowers, all plumes, and the leaves are turning brown.
Almost time to say nighty night to it for a few months.

Sunset Manzanita - wow! this one had some bright red tips on it.
Lightly composted the lawn and fruit trees/vines before the rain.

Yummy Compost Tea! (with a pretty cool reflection of the lights and tree above, I think)
Well, I bet my Freesias and indoor plants thought it was yummy when I gave it to them.
Personally, I prefer Constant Comment.
And now, I am going to curl up on the couch with something warm to drink, another slice of bread, and my first seed catalog for 2014! 

A few fun uses for old Christmas Cards

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I have saved all of my old Christmas cards for years, at least the tops of them, because I knew I could make something with them. To make my pile even larger, I also saved all of the business ones sent to the company I used to work for from our customers and suppliers. This year I finally decided it was time to use 'em or lose 'em. I came up with 3 different ideas and I am still looking for more.

One of the ideas I had always planned on making was these ball ornaments.

Christmas ornaments from old Christmas cards

It is pretty simple, you cut circles, fold those circles into triangles and glue them together. You can add ribbon or glitter or whatever, if you desire. It is good fine motor skills practice for preschool/Kinder age to trace and cut the circles - they will need help with the triangle folding - and then help them glue them together. Older kids can pretty much be let loose to do it themselves. Check out There's Just One Mommy for step by step pictorial instructions. She makes hers with smaller circles and lots more of them.

And the ever dangerous Pinterest provided me with the idea of cutting circles and using them as toppers for mason jars. Only another 20 or more of these to make. But at least the hard parts of making the jelly and canning it is done.

Cut circles from old Christmas cards to top mason jars for giving

But the project I am the most proud of is my Christmas cards for this year. I was going to have J help me make cards again this year doing some kid of potato printing or sponge painting, but I need at least 30 and I knew he'd get bored after about 5. I just wanted them done. So I decided to make collages out of my old Christmas cards.

Here are a few of them.

Use old Christmas cards to make new Christmas cards.

 

Basically just cut out the parts you like and glue them to a piece of card stock. Mine are 5" x 7". The size doesn't really matter, just make sure they fit in the envelopes you are planning to use with at least ¼" extra to make them easy to get in and out.

And the best part about finally making something with these cards, was finding a letter from my Grandma Ruth from December 2008 all about her great grandson, J. It wasn't too long after that she started to forget who we all were. She passed away a few months ago. I will have to scan the letter to make sure it is preserved for him when he is old enough to understand.

So, do you have any craft idea for using up the several hundred I have still in my stack? Please share!

Santa Surveillance Squad Sign Up

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Just after Thanksgiving three years ago, I received a call from HOHOHO, or so it said on my caller ID. Not looking like a usual telemarketing call, I answered the phone. Phew! I am glad I did. The conversation went something like this.

One mom's conversation with the Santa Surveillance Squad about behavior monitoring options. #elfonashelf #parenting #humor

Caller: Good Evening, Mrs. H. My name is Perky McJingles and I am a representative of Santa's Surveillance Squad.

Me: {light bulb over my head} Oh! The ones that make the Naughty and Nice list. Please, call me Audrey.

Perky: Thank you, Audrey. Technically we just gather the data then send it on to the Review Board. I am calling today to find out how you would like for us to handle the monitoring of J's behavior. We have a rather exciting new option you may not have heard of since you are an old.. er, uh, I mean, that is, a more mature mother.

Me: That's okay, Perky. I know how old I am. Ha ha! Now, tell me about this new option.

Perky: Oh, uh, yes. Our latest option has been available for only a few years now. We call it the Elf on a Shelf Program. An elf comes to live at your house for the month of December and observe your son, then when everyone in the house is asleep he or she comes back to the North Pole to report.

Me: I hope you have some fast flyers - J isn't known for sleeping through the night. Do I need to feed the elf, provide it a bed or a room or something like that?

Perky: No, Ma'am! The elf just sits on the shelf, or where ever he/she may decide to perch for the day, and observes. Occasionally some of the elves have been known to make a little mess now and then in the middle of the night.

Me: Like I don't have enough to deal with, now I have to clean up after some mischief making party animal?

photo by Veronica Medina

Perky: Well, actually, you can't clean up the mess, and no one can EVER touch the elf or he won't be able to fly back to the North Pole.

Me: Cannot TOUCH the elf?! At all?  Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha  ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

Perky: Ma'am? Ma'am?

Me:  ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Oh sorry, about that. ha ha. Yeah, that is NOT going to happen in this house. What old school methods do you have?

[Tweet "We said NO! to the Elf on a Shelf. #humor #parenting #elfonashelf"]

Perky: There is the one we used for you and your brother. Pets! Especially cats. They look like they are sleeping all the time, but they are actually watching everything and then they report in once a week by calling in to our hotline - toll free for you, of course.

Me: SALLY was a spy?! I should have known! So, that's where she would wander off to.

Perky: And, that's why she starting sleeping with your brother. We didn't have to worry about you, but him. Oh boy!

Me: So, now you have 16 agents spying on him and his wife?!

Perky: Actually, all of his cats are retired now. Buddercup was one of our best. And, uh, how shall I put this? , as "wild" as your brother may have been, he and Mel take great care of our retirees.

Me: Personally, I like the option, but my husband says no animals right now. Do you have any other choices?

Perky: Well, there is one that is a little expensive, but it comes with a full warranty and free upgrades until the child turns 18.

Me: Do I have to clean up after it or feed it or take it for shots or anything like that?

Perky: No, this one is fully automated. We place minuscule 1080p cameras in every room of the house and the yard, plus we have access to all of the schools in your area. Data is fed back to us via satellite every night. If there is any technical problem we come in and take care of it. If there is ever a maintenance issue or a newer system is available we come in and swap out your old system. And best of all, you don't have to be home for installation.

Me: Top of the line video cameras?! Perky, my friend, you should have started with that option knowing his father.

Perky: Tee hee! I figured you'd end up selecting that option, with the info I have on file for Mr. H. But, my manager wants us to give you all of the other options too. {In a whisper} Personally, I think she is trying to get a transfer to the Elf on a Shelf division so she is sucking up to the Department Head by pushing that option. But, you didn't hear it from me.

Me: Ha ha, hear what? Now what do I need to do to sign up for the camera option?

Perky: I will e-mail you a simple form to sign. Also, there will be a brief customer service satisfaction survey attached. If you could take a moment to complete it you will be entered in a sweepstakes to win a special weekend getaway package for you and your husband. {Whispering again} And, the elf with the highest satisfaction rating gets Christmas Eve OFF!

Me: Perky, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship...

-------

M and I did not win the special weekend getaway package, but Perky got Christmas Eve off, which she spent down here with me at a swank Day Spa getting full body massages and facials. We keep in touch pretty much daily on Facebook, but she uses her "human name" instead of Perky, so don't bother going through my friends list to find out who she is... she just might report you to the Big Guy.

 

 

 

Paper Bag/ Toilet Paper Tube Turkey

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Here's a fun and easy upcycled craft using a simple toilet paper tube and paper bag. Older kids can handle it on their own while the younger set will need assistance with the assembly.

You will need:
toilet paper tube
paper lunch-sized bag
paint
scrap red and yellow construction paper
google eyes (or paint)
stapler or paper clip
penny, washer, paper clip (optional) and a piece of tape

Step 1 - Open up the bag by cutting along the seam and cutting off the bottom.

Step 2 - Paint the bag (tail feathers) and toilet paper tube (body) any way you want. J was in his "mix all of the colors together" stage when we made it a few years ago. Let dry completely.

Step 3 - Cut a small yellow triangle to make the beak and a red squiggle to make the wattle. If you want the wattle to be 3D and stick out from the turkey fold a thin strip on the straight side for gluing. Fold over the top corner of the body to make the head, glue on eyes, beak and wattle.

Step 4 - Cut long strips about ⅔rds of the way down the bag to make the feathers. Scrunch the bottom portion, stuff it into the bottom of the body and staple or paper clip.

 
view from back
 
view from inside

Step 5 - (optional) To prevent the turkey from tipping backwards tape a penny, washer, paper clip, etc. to the inside front of the body to balance the weight of the tail. Or prop it up against something like I do 🙂

One little, two little, three little

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Uh, make that 36 little Wampanoag vests ready for J and his classmates to decorate this week.
 
 
You didn't think I was going to use the incorrect and offense "I" word did you? Nope, even though his homework "I" page had a drawing of a Native American on it. Maybe they meant "I for indigenous".
 
 
 
 
Hope you all have a great week.

How to Make Your Own Grapevine Wreathes

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When it is time to trim your grape vines, don't let them go to waste. Make these simple wreathes for decorating your home year round.

grapevine wreatu

For the first time since I planted them 7 years ago, I have used all three parts of my grape plants.

Red Table Grape Plant

In Spring it was Stuffed Grape Leaves

In Summer it was raisins and Red Grape Lavender Jelly .

homemade raisins

 

Now that Fall is here it was time to cut back the vines for the year and I made a few grape vine wreaths.

Supplies

freshly cut grape vines
twist ties or twine (optional)

Instructions for making a wreath

It is so easy. The only trick is to do it right after you cut them before the dry out and become too brittle to bend without breaking.

Take one of your longest and thickest vines and make a circle slightly larger than you want your finished wreath to be, then continuing wrapping the end of the vine around (over and under) the circle you created.

Tuck the end in between to secure it. Or tie it together with the twist ties or twine. Add more vines by tucking the end between two vines and keep wrapping.

If you have seen a grape vine wreath before you know how it is supposed to look in the end.

Leave it to dry out for a few weeks, remove the twist ties or twine,  and it will be just like a store bought one.

Yesterday, I used some ribbon left from our Halloween costumes and a few decorative sprays I had saved from another wreath years ago to make this fall wreath for our front door. Total cost = $0

Next year I am going try to get more creative with the shape, but for a first try I was pretty happy with how they came out. I even made some smaller ones to use for Christmas ornaments like this one:

 

Bird Family Grapevine Wreath Christmas Ornament
Bird Family Grapevine Wreath Christmas Ornament

The Ubiquitous Hand Turkey

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Making turkeys using your hand as a template in preschool/ early elementary is as much a part of the holiday as the bird itself on the table for Thanksgiving dinner.

I love them, and I like to see the different ways people decorate them. In case you need some inspiration, here are some of ours through the years:

2010 - J was 2. I traced his hand one time on cardstock and used as a template. The turkeys themselves were cut from a paper bag, decorated with shapes I cut from scraps of construction paper and he glued on a used paper plate with the middle (used part) cut out. Aside from the glue, scissors and dots of ink this was 100% recycled.

2011 - His first year of preschool. This one is laminated so he could use it as a placemat.

2012 - Preschool year two - crinkled wads of tissue paper decorate this one and he had to trace the letters that his teacher had written

2013 - He made this calendar at school. I was Mommy helper for the calendar writing part :). They had to fill in the missing numbers then trace them again in a pattern of their choice. J chose an ABCD pattern. I know we need to work on coloring in the lines, but in his defense everyone else's was the same because they were told they could have computer time as soon as they were done - ha ha!

This one we made at home. This little dog has an outfit for every season, but I don't like the Thanksgiving one, so we made our own. construction paper and paper plates to the rescue! We both are pretty proud of this one.

And this final one is out slightly out of order, since he made it completely by himself last year for his Daddy. When I took it out of the box and showed him last week, he grabbed it and ran up to M's office to give it to him, again. It is now hanging on the office door.

Now I think we are going to make some cornucopias.

November Garden Update

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The garden is in transition right now.

Many of the natives are getting ready to start their growing since summer is more like winter elsewhere in that California natives go dormant in the summer to withstand the heat and lack of rainfall. Once the rains start, they start growing.

I am switching the edible garden from Summer to Winter too. I just picked the last of the eggplants yesterday and need to remember to plant more than one next year. The banana peppers are still producing, but I picked and pickled about a ½ pound yesterday. I'll find out in two weeks if they are any good. I cut the grapevines back for the year and made wreaths out of them - but that will be another post.

The grasses have been fun to deal with - NOT. I have reseeded patches of the lawn trying to fill in dead spots, which meant hand watering on the 90+ degree days, but I think they may actually take hold.  Then there are the natives (deer grass and whatever that other sharp grass is that cuts my arms to shreds whenever I need to trim it) that need to be hacked back to the ground this time of year or they become fire hazards.

Lizards are everywhere and so are dead bees. I guess they don't like 90 one day and 65 the next. Truthfully I am not that fond of it either.

And now for the photos...

Good bye garlic chives - see you next year.
Good bye grapes - see you next year.
The hummingbird fuchsia is starting to look tired,
another 6 weeks or so until that is cut to the ground for the year.

Carrot sproutlets that will hopefully be ready for Santa's reindeer in a few months.
Arugula is producing nicely.
 Squash bought as a seedling from the nursery - bad luck with growing from seed this year.
 Another crop of beets that will hopefully be ready to make
pickled beets for Christmas presents.

Black Seeded Lettuce, third and final try. First didn't sprout,
second got this big and died (from the heat?)

Third attempt at rooting some of the natives and this is the only one left.
Cross your fingers it actually forms roots.
Crystal clear pond with a few lily pads still left.
Hope you had a wonderful weekend.

The Circle is Complete

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Yesterday, I mentioned that life got a little crazy last month. There were days I felt like a salmon swimming upstream with the house cleaning.
 
After J would go to sleep I'd go downstairs and clean. The next morning the place would be a mess within minutes. Legos and magnetic letters all over the floor. Ugh!
 
And then there is the mess my husband leaves. Since he gets home late and leaves early in the morning he dresses downstairs so he won't wake me. One, sweet of him but I wake up anyway. Two, he leaves his clothes in a pile on a chair downstairs. Three, HIS son dumps the pile on the floor every day. (He is my son when he does something cute or smart and M's when he annoys me.)
 
So, one night last week I completely lost it. I started ranting and raving. I threatened to take away the magnetic letters off he did not pick them up (a cruel punishment for J). I started throwing things into the storage containers they should go into when we aren't playing with them. I muttered under my breath something about being the only one that is capable of putting anything away and that I was getting sick and tired of it. I ended my tirade by throwing a blanket over M's pile of clothes just so I wouldn't have to look at it.
 
As I started to tell J that this is what clean looks like I realized it wasn't my voice that was speaking, it was my mother's. Aaauuugh. How many times did my brother and I hear those sentiments growing up? And in the end she probably heard her mother's voice coming out of her mouth too. This harangue has probably passed from mother to daughter since the cave women days. "Do you really need to leave your sticks and rocks right in front of the cave entrance where everyone tries to walk?"
 
Then the guilt set in. Sheesh, Mom commuted to the city, worked all day, and walked into a disaster area and was immediately greeted with "What's for dinner?" Eventually we learned to cook, because of this, but we could have at least let the poor woman go to the bathroom before we pounced on her. (actually that became a rule at one point, she got to put her briefcase down and go to the bathroom before we said anything other than hello).
 
Yes, the circle is now complete. I am now the one nagging my kid to pick up his toys or lose them forever - duh duh duh...  🙂 
 
My husband's reaction to the clean house was "Who's coming over?"
 
When I told him "no one" he quiped "oh, so I cleaned up my crap for nothing." He took one look at the expression on my face then turned to J and said "C'Mon partner, let's go outside so we don't make a mess." And I got to stay in and enjoy my tidy house. Something we probably should have done for our mother more often. Pay back can be rough. 

Happy Halloween is Over!

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Did you miss me? I knew October was going to get crazy and something was going to have to go. And the winner (or was it loser?) was this blog. I had a bunch of ideas throughout the month, but there never seemed to be time to sit down and write.

Besides my usual keeping up with the kid and the house and the yard and volunteering at the school twice a week and everything else I do that manages to keep me busy, I spent quite a bit of time doing back end "stuff" on That Recipe. Plus plenty of cooking and baking and blogging.

Baking recipes like this Pumpkin Spice Cake with Caramel Pecan Glaze. I'd never made caramel from scratch before, it was fun and oh so delicious! You can use a store bought sauce if you are intimidated, but the sauce was actually easy to make. The cake was a treat for the teachers at J's school to help them through Parent Teacher Conferences. They loved it! Rumor has it that at least one person *cough* the principal *cough* snuck a few extra slices to take home to "his kids".

And then there was all of the Halloween related activities...

like decorating...

Mummy light, wrap a jar with cheese cloth, gauze or streamers,
add google eyes, put battery operated candle inside.
I traced his hands on a meat tray and cut it out then he decorated.

 We hung the spider lights from the tree to the web over the
walkway to the front door this year.
 

The tree is the purple on the right and the spider lights arch from it to the porch.
 

Our new addition to the decorations this year was a pair of glowing eyes in the upstairs window
 - the kids in the neighborhood loved it - no one was scared.
They even reminded me to plug them in if I forgot.
I am proud of this photo in particular, because it was chosen out of thousands of other photos for an FMS Photo a Day Fab Four. Yeah me! I get nothing for it except to say it was chosen.

And I had to make the Halloween costumes...

Simple sewing on store bought sweats - I can handle this.
 
Geo from Team Umizoomi.
The Shape Belt was a beast but I did it (completed version below)!
 
 Geo's sister Milli (Dad went as Bot, their friendly robot, but I didn't get a picture)

And then there was the actual day of Halloween...

Breakfast! (all ideas courtesy of Pinterest and easy to make)

How cute are these Oreo spiders they made at school for "Spider Day" yesterday?
His got a tad squished on the way home.
 
My masterpieces! Super Mario and a Mini Boo! 
 
 

 

 Garlic Parmesan Pumpkin Seeds... What is this "share" you speak of?

Mommy finally let him get in his costume to go trick or treating, but first some pictures.

Eight houses and he was done! Life on the Spectrum can be great sometimes.
Here is his little stash that he was perfectly happy with.
Yes, I noticed he opened the M&Ms before I could check everything.
Luckily I knew each and every person we got candy from so I didn't really bother to inspect.

"Mommy, no more pictures!"

And now on to November.

Actually we put up the November calendar numbers before we went trick or treating so I could stall a little to let it get dark, hence the 31 had to stay up until this morning, when it was immediately handed to me when we came downstairs.

He wanted an ABCD pattern for the calendar so I had to make the number cover ups. Design, print, cut, glue on card stock and cover with packing tape. And did I even get a thank you? Nope! Ha ha!
 

I already have a Pinterest Board started for Thanksgiving. You might want to follow along if you aren't already following That Recipe, because I will have plenty more coming once I get out of this sugar coma. I'll also be blogging everyday in November as part of NaBloPoMo, either here or on That Recipe, so be sure to stay tuned for more fun and craziness, and hopefully lots of great recipes.



Keep Trying Facebook

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I have noticed Facebook has been trying to get me to like pages similar to ones I already like. Some are fairly similar to the original page like this one:

A radio station and another local newspaper: totally makes sense. Then there's these that just have my head scratching:

How does Long Island Medium fit in this mix? And, sheesh, How does she have more like than those top name chefs?!

The original page is a memorial page for the daughter of a dear friend of mine that passed away from Ewing's Sarcoma last year shortly after her 16th Birthday. Sourdough Sam is the 49ers mascot that most true 49er fans (like me!) wish would go far far far away. Mascots in pro sports are ridiculous. Leave it to the colleges. Or at least the Triple A teams. The only link here is I believe Zoe did like the Niners.

A rock band and the local school district. Oh, yeah, those two are very similar. ha ha!
 
Keep trying Facebook, keep trying.
 

Random thoughts on blog stats

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I know I really shouldn't care about blog statistics, mostly because I have yet to find a program that tells me the "truth". But, I do occasionally take a peek and have come to realize a few things, particularly about the www.thatrecipe.com stats.

First the challenge. If anyone has a solution I'd love to hear it. That Recipe is a hybrid. It was created with Yahoo Site Builder and has a WordPress blog as the main page. Yahoo tracks the site Builder pages, and I think I have the right widgets so it is now tracking the blog too. But WordPress pretty much only tracks the WP pages. Ditto for Google Analytics. Short of going back and putting some code on every one of the already created Site Builder pages (and there are a lot), I do not know how to get an accurate portrayal of what is going on.

Why do I care? Well, if people like a certain topic or are finding the page through certain social media or search engines I want to do more of that. So if you have any suggestions, I am willing to listen. If you are selling me anything the answer is NO!

Blogger stats pretty much tells me what I need to know for this blog. Which is spammers seem to love the blog on My "If You Give a Mom a Muffin Kind of Morning". Not sure why, but that blog generates the most spam comments, all of which never see the light of day. Second would be the Daniel Tiger's Trolley PJ's. I am sure that is because the blog comes up pretty quickly on a search because PBS hasn't seen fit to make them yet, even though little fans of the show would love them (hint hint)!

Over on That Recipe, Daniel Tiger makes another appearance for a popular blog topic, this one for Banana Swirl Ice Cream. I don't get it. People really need to search for the recipe for that? They tell you how to make it in the episode! Eh, who am I to argue. I can tell when the episode airs because I get a little traffic spike.

But not like I get when the infamous Bell Pepper Gender meme starts circulating through social media again. Must have been floating around yesterday:

I guess I should be happy people are looking it up instead of blindly believing and reposting it.

A few things I have figured out in regards to Social Media. I am a Twitter flop! Probably because I really don't have a feel for how to use it to bring people to the site. Truthfully, I have little interest in figuring it out and that probably shows. Facebook does well, but most of it is family and friends. The real traffic generator for me is Pinterest. Which makes perfect sense: recipes, gardening, pictures etc. It is a good fit. I just need to figure out how to get the "pin it" button to work on the Site Builder pages. I might have to ask Pinterest support for some ideas because the standard directions aren't working.

In case you were wondering, hands down, the two most popular pins are Asparagus Beef and Peach Cobbler. Not sure why people like them so much, both recipes are delicious, but so are the others. No idea why these are singled out.

That's pretty much all I have today. Except, I finally got around to putting in Comment Luv on both sites. So if you have a blog, you can leave a comment and it should post a link to your most recent blog post. Kind of cool, huh?

I am going to wrap up this boring blog now, and shut my eyes for a bit. Hopefully the headache will go away.

September Garden Update

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Ugh! Yech! Blah!

When did I move from a beautiful sunny inland down with delightfully cooling ocean breezes coming through the mountain gaps every evening. To hot and humid disgustingness! I may as well be living in hurricane alley. Lest you think I am exaggerating about the weather, here is what happened to a cup my husband left in his car during his travels yesterday.

This weather is taking it's toll on my edible garden and everything seems to be barely holding on. I am nervous about the few fall plants I sowed this week not knowing how long this will last. I don't want to lose plants like I did in the spring when the wind took out two tomato plants. For the most part the native plants are supposed to be dormant in the heat, hopefully they will bounce back when cooler weather arrives.

Oooh, exciting! Pots of dirt. Before long the freesia bulbs should start popping up again.
The grape leaves are starting to turn brown. I am going to have to research how to make grapevine wreaths soon so I will have used all three parts of the plant this year.
Yeah! a banana pepper! So far just this one.

The lonely little pomegranate still hanging in there.

This Early Girl tomato is still producing some beautiful fruit, if it would cool a little more may set.
Sunflowers are drooping fast. A few of them were taller than the fence, then the heat and humidity hit and droop city!

But, I got to enjoy the flowers briefly and now I can enjoy the seeds.

The bloom spikes on a Muhlenbergia rigens (Deergrass) one of my California natives.

Also in bloom this time of year, Zauschneria californica (Hummingbird fuchsia).
Hopefully everything will survive this weather and I will have some yummy arugula, lettuce, carrots and beets coming up soon, as well as some tomatoes and eggplants still producing.