Enjoy!

Whether you are observing a Memorial Day service or maybe a parade, blessings to you and your family on this day when we remember those that have given the ultimate price.

We will be enjoying our ribs out back with lots of water balloons and fun. We spend the day in the yard and just relax as a family. I will be up early making the food. No rest for the moms but the joy it brings me to see the family enjoying the food and time together. The big girls will be helping of course and that makes it more fun for me in the kitchen. Nothing like making a big mess and turning to the kids and saying, "Can you clean this up for me?"  Muwaahaahaahaahaaaaa!!

Linking to:
Tabletop Tuesday

Frugal Challenge - How to Stockpile When You Have Very Little Money

Recently when I posted about this topic I received a few comments and e-mails like the one below.

Do you have any advice for people who cannot afford to purchase that much food at a time.... I would love to do this, have even tried to follow this, but I cannot afford to start.... 


Here was my answer:
I was in the same boat when I started a couple of years ago. Then I really focused on what I could get for almost free or even free with coupons. I just made it a priority to look up the deals on couponmom.com and then make stops at the stores when I was out. Even if you just buy doubles of something when they are cheap you are money ahead. Coupon using does take time and I don't do it as much now but if I have a really money tight week or two I will spend the time to clip and match the deals so I can bring home more for my money when I shop. Good luck.

Really it can be overwhelming to begin a grocery stockpile but it is a wonderful asset to a household for a few reasons:


1. You always have ingredients on the shelf to pull a home cooked dinner together. It may just be spaghetti but knowing you have the sauce and noodles is wonderful.


2. Say your car breaks down and you face a huge repair bill, it is nice to be able to prepare meals from your pantry and not spend money at the grocery store for a week or two. You may need need to pick up some milk and fresh produce but to skip all the other isles can save you a lot money until you recoup the cost of that transmission.


3. Say your kids invite a few extra friends like mine do all the time. We have an open dinner table policy. I love that I can head to the freezer to make some garlic bread or open up a couple cans of veggies to help stretch the meal. 

If you don't have any extra grocery money to start buying extras then use coupons to stretch that grocery budget. You can follow lots of deal sites to help let you know where the freebies and real cheap buys are for the week. If I know I am going to Target or Walmart during the week I will take a few minutes to look and see what coupon match ups there are. Almost every week you can find a few items for free or pennies when you match the deal with the coupon. Start doing this once a week and you will start stashing away extras of odd items here and there but after a while you will see that you have two and three cans of this and bags of that or bottles of shampoo. Just continue doing this and when you find you are not buying the items you already have at what would have been full price you can then use those few extra dollars to stock up on the deals for that week at the grocery store or to buy some markdown meats and breads for the freezer.


Here is a list of my favorite deal/matchup sites:
couponmom.com
hip2save
save at home mommy

Linking to:
Sat. Night Special
Blog Party Sunday
BNOTP

Garden News - Butterfly Bush

You know summer is coming when you pick your first tomato. Not very big but it was delicious. Early girl is the variety and it gives me my first tomatoes each year so I always plant one.

Picked our Texas Red grapefruit tree clean. No more food for the opossum to steal. Put the extras in a wheelbarrow out front.

The butterfly bush is bursting.

And as I was standing there shooting the pictures, along came a visitor.

I love it next to the chartreuse green leaves.

Do you do this? I get distracted with kids or chickens and leave my garden tools hiding in the planters. Then the next time I am poking around I think there that thing is.

Linking to:
SNS 135

You Can't Help but Grow Radishes

For the simplest, fast reward in gardening, plant a few rows of radishes. I am trying to be diligent about sewing some seeds every two weeks so we always have radishes for our salads. Hubby loves them in his lunch as a crunchy but healthy snack.

My dear friend Patti from Lemon Lane Cottage showed us that they make a wonderful bouquet. Radishes do need water or dry up quickly. Patti is having a week long of giveaways so head over to see her wonderful goodies.

Q picks them for me and puts them in this sweet old basket that always held little packets of sugar in my mom's kitchen while growing up.

 We eat the crunchy red bottoms and the chickens fight for the tops. I just read you can eat the tops as well but I prefer to watch the delight in the peeps out back.

Linking to:
The Charm of Home
Common Ground
Seasonal Sundays

All Set for Ribfest

We are all set for Ribfest on Memorial Day. It is our annual family barbecue. It is usually only us so very relaxed but I like to make it festive. The kids look forward to it all week.

Q and I made the poster yesterday. Now I am not a crafty gal so don't laugh.

The bunting has been hung.

The flags have been placed.

And of course we will end the day with our annual dessert, good ole jello poke cake.

You can find the recipe on my recipes page.

Linking to:

Weekend Whatever

Show and Tell Friday

BNOTP

SNS 135

Farm Girl Friday

Animal Antics

Napping peacefully.

Hmm... curious chicken.

More curious chickens.

Scaredy cat.

Today I think I will watch from the window.

Memorial Day Centerpiece

Every summer we travel over the 4th of July, so I decorate for Memorial day as we always have a wonderful barbecue and games.

The red and blue cans were from my girls and the star I just picked up. All from Country General Store.

The centerpiece was intended for the dining room table. All set for the weekend.

Linking to:

BNOTP

Thursday Favorite Things

Delightful Order

Share Your Cup Thurs.

The Charm of Home

Show and Tell Friday

Simple Creations

Sunday Blog Love

The Tablescaper

Bowl full of Lemons

More the Merrier

Vintage Drainer Becomes Under Sink Organizer

I bought this vintage dish drainer and have been trying to find a good spot for it. Previously I had it here.

It just was not working out there as I really need the counter in my service porch to remain uncluttered. So I thought how about under the kitchen sink to corral all of our cleaning supplies we had stored. I love the way the little sponges fit perfectly in all the slats. My daughter was doing dishes and reached for a new sponge and said, "Oh, how organized." Exactly I thought. I am always looking for new ways to keep things in order.

Linking to:
Wow Us Wed.
Whatever You Want Wednesday
Frugally Sustainable
Raising Homemakers

What Can You Substitute for Eggs in a recipe

Sunday morning my hubby was in the kitchen making breakfast when he realized he only had one egg and not the two that he needed to make a batch of pancakes for our herd. I said never fear I will find out what we can subsititute for it. Off to the computer and here is the option I chose:

For One Egg:
1 1/2 tablespoon of water
1 1/2 tablespoon of oil
1 teaspoon of baking powder

Here is another option though I have not tried it:
1 teaspoon yeast
1/4 cup of water

Our pancakes were wonderful. I could taste no difference but it did have the one real egg in it and one substitute. BUT if you are ever baking and find you are short an egg, now you know you have options for an egg substitute. Now if my girls would just get laying and I have eggs in the backyard, that would be perfect.

Linking to:
Tasty Tuesday
A Bowl Full of Lemons
Coastal CHarm
Wow Us Wed.

Frugal Challenge - Time to Stock Up on Condiments

;

Part of saving money on groceries is stocking your pantry when prices are lowest. Now that I have been keeping track for a couple of years, this is the time to stock up on condiments. The week approaching Memorial Day is the time buy your condiments for the year. Even more than the fourth of July, I seem to find the best deals on all the things you need for barbecues and burgers, right now.

This year I am going to stock up for the whole year. Over the last year I have roughly kept track of how many bottles of this and that we use in a year, so I will hit the various good sales this week when I am out running errands. I have already begun as you can see. If you don't have the space to stock for the year, then how about for the summer. Combine the sales with coupons and you will pay half if not less than you will the rest of the year.

You can see our most favorite barbecue sauce ever and that is Sweet Baby Ray's. I swear my kids drink it. I will need roughly 20 bottles to last the year.

Linking to:
BNOTP

Teaching Girls About the Little Things

   When I was a teenager and getting ready to start shaving, my mom was old school about it. She handed me one of those scary razors, you know the ones with all the blades and no instruction on how to use it. I proceeded to shave off every bit of skin along the back of my ankle. I did not know to keep the leg stretched out. It bled for hours.

 

   Now that I have four daughters, I have taken a different approach. When a sensitive topic comes up and I need to teach them about how to deal with it, I just lay it all out for them. I use correct terms and give them as much info as is needed. I want them to feel comfortable coming to me with questions, and they know I am always here if they have concerns.

 

   Shaving is a big deal in our house. I allowed my girls to start shaving when they asked to. I did not see any need to hold them off if it was something that was starting to embarrass them. I would show them exactly how to hold the razor and to use shave cream if desired. Of course I made sure they knew to always hold their skin nice and taut so as to not make the mistake I did.

 

   There are always several cans of women's shave cream in the shower and numerous razors. My poor husband. We recently were able to try the Venus Embrace razor. Hands down my girls favorite. It has five blades for a close, comfortable shave and their favorite, the Ribbon of Moisture for a smooth glide and smooth legs.

 

   No one will shave without their favorite shave cream and we love the Satin Care Passionista  Fruit. It has a sparkling, fruity scent and my girls loved it. 

   

   With daughters aged 20, 17, 14  and three, there will be a lot of shaving and other beauty products in the shower for many years to come. Sorry hubby.

 

   Share a tip for tackling tough "firsts" conversations with your kids to be entered for a chance to win a $50 Visa gift card, courtesy of BlogHer and Venus!

 

Rules:

No duplicate comments. You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods: a) Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post b) Tweet about this promotion and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post c) Blog about this promotion and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post d) For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry. This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.
The Official Rules are available here.

 

This sweepstakes runs from 5/21 - 6/30.

 

Be sure to visit the Venus Brand feature page on BlogHer.com where you can read other bloggers’ reviews and find more chances to win!  If you have a first-time shaver in your home, you should check out some of these great tips from Venus Embrace!

Blogging Goals - Family Time

One of my personal goals for blogging is to pull the posts I do on family and then have them printed up. I am going to do occaisonal posts under family time that will make it easier for me to find the posts in the future. You are so welcome to see what we are up to over here but since we spend a lot of our time on our blogs it is nice to know we will have something we can save and remember from our work.

So here is some family time from yesterday.

When your grandparents buy you a princess dress you have to wear it at your birthday party.

It was from Costco so if you need one for the princess in your life that is where they bought it.

I want to show you how my sister in law takes such care to wrap her gifts. She is a perfectionist and I am always in awe as my gifts are of the basic wrapping.

A tissue paper flower.

Such cute colors she puts together.

The hair band for the gift inside was the bow on this box.

Here's the moist mouth watering chicken. Leftovers for dinner tonight.

Two worn out but happy parents. Two big parties in two weeks. We are so happy they went well but next weekend we can rest.

A little baseball in the front yard.

At her request, a Hello Kitty cake.

Butter cream frosting and candle light. What's more perfect than that?

What are your blogging goals? Please share.

Linking to:
Susie QT Pies

Our Favorite Dinner Salad

Almost every night of the week, we have a fresh green salad on our table. My hubby loves salad and sometimes I think it is the only fresh produce he finally eats in a day as his apple in his lunch seems to keep coming back every day. So if he loves salad, this wife is going to give him one.

Our favorite salad is made of fresh spinach, tomatoes, mushrooms, cucumbers and feta cheese sprinkles.
Other items we love to toss in are sliced hard boiled egg and greek olives. Did you know spinach is easier to digest than lettuce and more nutrient rich. So next time try spinach. Even my youngest will eat this salad but gives me all of her mushrooms. Here is the recipe for my easy vinaigrette dressing.

Linking to:
Seasonal Sundays
By Your Hands
Twigg Studio

Update on Gardening Experiments

Time for an update on my garden experiments and my attempt to grow as much of our food in our small city  yard. 

Remember I was going to attempt to grow potatoes in a large pot. Here they are last month.

 Look at them now. They are huge. When the plants start to die back I will see what I have in there.

Remember the celery ends I planted. One died but another is doing fine. I have even started some by seed which is exciting as I have read it is hard to germinate.

There's those baby stalks now.

Now here is my continuing frustration, my grape vine. I planted it four years ago and I still have not seen any grapes or any sign of them. I have asked the nursery and they said it takes a few years but I am losing my patience with it. I WANT GRAPES.

See the little vine starting up in the pot? That is the sweet baby watermelon I am attempting to grow from a pot. It can ramble through the planter but the soil is poor here. I just mulched it with some home made compost. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Linking to:
Sunday Blog Love
Seasonal Sundays
BNOTP
The Morris Tribe
Fishtail Cottage

Busy Busy

I have so much on the docket for this month I don't even know what day it is. June isn't looking much less busy either. Saturday we celebrate Q's birthday. We gave her our gifts on her actual birthday but Saturday is for family and friends.

She was so thrilled to open her gifts. How special it is to see such joy. Just sitting around and enjoying her fun.

When we have her party on Saturday we will be cooking up a bunch of barbecued chicken.

Our recipe for moist bbq chicken is here. 

My third daughter said good bye to her little class of kids at Awana. She prepared a little gift for each of them. I love how she always makes it special with a little ribbon.

I am off to get the oil changed in the truck, and head to the store and order a birthday cake. Have a wonderful day!!

Adding Color to Any Area of Your Garden

We all have those problem areas in the garden where nothing will grow. Last year I shared how I added greenery and color to the side of my garage.

You can see that post here.

This year my challenge was a spot in my garden between trees that is impossible to grow anything in. Hard as a rock soil full of shallow roots. This year I decided it was going to be beautiful. My solution was lots of pots.

I gathered all sorts of unused pots and just filled the entire space. I included a very old beat up wagon.

I tucked some Swiss chard in there behind the flowers and have little pots of wheat grass planted for the chickens. That way when they visit this area they tend to leave my petunias alone.

I chose red petunias for all the pots so there would be a cohesive look to the eye.

It does require daily watering but I am out there every day filling the dogs water bowl and the hose is in this area so it gets a splash when I am doing the dog and chicken chores. The secret to pots that grow full and flower long is time release fertilizer mixed in with the soil when planting. I am an organic gardener for all my beds and veggies but for pots you cannot beat the time release granules.

Linking to:
Open House Party
Delightful Order
My Romantic Home
Frugal Friday
SNS 134