We like to dance!

Mike may request me to take this off but I just couldn't resist posting :)

Yada yada ...enough about the garden

We want to see pictures of the kids! (I imagine in my head you saying...)

One Little Project

I think we've officially decided we hate grass. And by that I mean the grass that we have here in IA. No underground sprinkler system and the preponderance of weeds and bugs have really put a cabash on our attempts to have the green carpet lawn that we had in CA. But we have tried. Well, this spring there was an area of reseeded lawn that looked just horrible. It took about 2 days to percolate in my mind (along with staring out the window while I was between ironing shirts) and I decided to extend a flower bed. I told Mike about my idea, got his go ahead and started removing sod (and I use that term lightly here). I think we've officially become "those" people in the neighborhood. My neighbor said, "Hey Miss HGTV, what are you doing now?" We had neighbors in CA, Jack and Debbie, who thankfully don't know about this blog that continually were "putzing" about their yard. Always adding a little something here and there. It was nice at first and then it was like - what on earth are they doing? Oh man, that it is over the top, too much! All I have to say though is that both our neighbors across the street have done landscaping projects this spring after we started this one. So maybe we are spurring them on? Or the stimulus checks are working!

So here it is, before and after pictures:

We've lots of plants in but I know that it is hard to see. The colors will be yellow, red, purple and white. I've also tried to throw in some grey-green foliage to foil the bright colors and help it all meld. We'll see how it looks in full bloom!

Oh, and here are a few more pictures of the yard.

The garden last week. Currently we are eating radishes, green onions and cilantro from the garden. Not much but some!

And here is a super cheap garden art project. Two horribly hideous fake butterflies left in the front bushes by the previous owners - I mean they were ugly - and one left over can of silver spray paint from another project and this is what you get:

Not nearly as ugly and I think they are kind of cute. You can keep your opinion to yourself if you feel otherwise - they are in our backyard.

Encouragement

My dear husband just e-mailed me. It was an e-mail to encourage, spur on, inspire, rally me into posting more to the blog. What can I say? There has been much to post but oh so little time to do it in. But I promise I'm going to get some on here. Maybe today! But soon nonetheless.

Newest Gadgets

Ah, I really enjoy a good kitchen gadget. And my husband knows this. His love language, I believe, is giving gifts. Meaning, gift giving is a major way he shows how he loves you. Thus, on my birthday and on Mother's Day I was the recipient of two new gadgets. One I didn't even know that I wanted and the other I've been tempted to buy myself for a few years.

For my birthday I received a pressure cooker. Honestly, I kinda thought "Am I really going to use this thing?" But I have! At least once or twice a week which in my book means it is a pretty good gadget! For instance, I made 14 bean soup from dry beans without soaking them and it took a matter of 45 minutes total! I also decided late one day to have chicken enchiladas for supper (hey, I think it was Cinco de Mayo). All that I needed to do was take frozen chicken breasts and some chicken broth (but water would have worked fine) put them in the pressure cooker and 9 minutes later I had chicken breasts that seemed as they had been in the slow cooker for hours! Yes, it really is a neat little gadget. Mike got me one that has one lid and two bottom pots, a 4 quart and a 8 quart. I can also "can" veggies in the 8 quart. Very cool. Now, the first time I used it I have to say it was a little daunting. I mean, I remember hearing horror stories of pressure cookers blowing up and having split pea soup over every inch of the kitchen but the new generation of pressure cookers have many built-in safety features, I have little concern of anything going wrong.

Now, the second gadget I received was a salad spinner. Very cool. We've always leaned towards buying the pre-washed bagged salads. Well, no more! I hated having to wash and then dry the salad. It seemed it was always soggy or there would be little puddles of water under your salad. Not cool. Last night I chopped up a head of iceberg lettuce for tacos and for salad. Both girls helped me spin the salad dry - another perk - it keeps the kids entertained (and it unnervingly feels similar to some baby toys in the church nursery). Then I spun dry some cilantro - perfect! I'm in love with it already and I feel like this will save me money in the long run. However, don't forget Ebay. I think you can get them cheaper from there than in the store.

Now, I have a sad, very sad thing to update you all on. My mini-tiller died a horrible death. It just wasn't worth fixing as I was told by the small appliance repair man. So we bought a new member to the Richard gardening arsenal - another larger albeit older rototiller. I'll post about this baby another day.