Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Rum and Gardening

Spent the weekend at the lake and I didn't get as many pictures as I should have.  Brother-in-law bought a kayak for this summer and let me try it out to see if I actually want one for myself.  I loved it!  I am going to start looking for one on craigslist or Facebook or something.  Do you have a kayak you want to give sell me?

Hubs got a tiller attachment for the weedeater and used it to work the dirt in my flower beds.  Sadly spring is almost over and I hadn't started on my flower beds yet.

I did have a few plants in the bed that are still doing well.  This is amazing considering how brown my thumb is.



If anyone can identify these plants for me, I would love to know what they are.  The little purple one was a gift from Grandma, she said it's purple cabbage.  I hope that means I will get to eat it soon.  I call the fern Fern, but if you know what purple plant with her is, I'd like to know.  The other green plant was a gift from Neighbors.  No idea why people would gift plants to me, I have a REALLY brown thumb.

 
LOTS of grass roots pulled from the beds



My new friend, I call him Big Worm
  Got me a half-price slushy drink at Happy Hour.  Took it home to add my own touch, touch of rum that is. Mmm.  Lemonberry slush with guava rum, a refreshing drink to go with my gardening.
Neighbors had some seed they wanted to plant in one of my beds.  I told them a while back they could.  Turns out the seeds were for sweet corn and okra...  I put the seed in the ground, but I don't think I have ever successfully grown anything from a seed so wish me luck. 

How does your garden grow?

Monday, May 20, 2013

Keep Calm and Okie On



So the title isn't original, I stole it.  It's also my Facebook profile picture because it's appropriate today.  Today, as I'm sure you have heard, was a terrible day for the state of Oklahoma.  Not only were there tornadoes in the state again today, but they struck a couple elementary schools while school was in.  This is even more horrifying to most of us because so many young people lost their lives.  Princess asked me today why God would let there be tornadoes and let them hurt people.  I don't really have an answer for this.  I told her God has a plan.  We don't know God's plan and he doesn't owe us any explanation.  We just have to keep the faith and show His love to our neighbors. 

Verses that I hope will be helpful:

Psalm 34:18 - The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

Isaiah 41:10 - So do not fear, for I am with you;

Matthew 5:4 - Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

Matthew 11:28 - 'Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest'

John 16:33 - 'I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace.  In this world you will have trouble.  But take heart!  I have overcome the world.'

I hope you find peace and trust in God even in times like these.  Pray for all those effected and show love to your neighbors.  If you want to help in the relief efforts pray first then check with the American Red Cross, Salvation Army or some other reputable organizations.  There will be scammers, so please be careful.

Welcome to Springtime in Oklahoma

Oklahoma is notorious for trailer parks being blown away by tornadoes this time of year.  This past weekend was no exception.  I visited the hubs this weekend because he was going to have to work and wouldn't be coming home to see me.  Princess went out of town with some family so I didn't want to stay home by myself.  When I dropped him off on Sunday it was warm and sunshiney.  He called me about 5 miles down the road to tell me not to stop for anything, keep driving home because there was a huge storm hitting where I had just left him.  It happens that quick.  No storm, beautiful day to tornado in no time. Blam!  He found shelter in a parking garage, but the garage and the hospital it serves were in the direct path of the tornado.  He was shaken, but physically unharmed.  Thank God.  He was sad that his cell phone was dead and he couldn't get any video.  As far as I have seen so far, there were no fatalities in his area.  There were injuries and a single fatality so far reported in a town not far from there, though.  Pray for those who lost homes and family this weekend and let's pray for a mild tornado season this year.  We've all seen how devastating it can be.



Fun store along Historic Route 66 called Pops.  They had hundreds of different types of soda in glass bottles.  The burgers smelled amazing, but hubs told me I had to drive straight home so I didn't try one.


Looking a little ragged and ready to get home.


Sister, Mother and I decided to try watermelon 'ritas and not think about storms.
Pretty good use of an early watermelon that wasn't great by itself.

I've always refused to get into a storm shelter because I'm more scared of it than the storm.  What's your take on fraidy holes?

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Vegan Pancakes from Mars

I have been dying to try a recipe I found on Pinterest for vegan pancakes.  They are made with no sugar, eggs, or milk.  This sounds like an adventure to me!  I didn't get pics of the process because I was to excited to eat them.  Here is how it went:

I had used all the dark chocolate chips in the trail mix I made last week so I subbed some frozen blueberries.  Otherwise I followed the recipe exactly.  The mixture turned out pretty thick and didn't pour.  I scooped the mixture into my skillet, but put them to close and they turned into a big blob of pancake.  To save it, I scooped it all into a baking dish and just baked at  350 for about 15 minutes and had one big pancake pie.  The house smelled really good, like baking bread or something.  Ok, so I don't really know what my house would smell like if I were baking bread as I can't remember ever doing such...  Anywho, this is what the finished product looked like. 


Not pretty, but tasted good.  A little maple syrup over the top and voila! Dinner.  I like to have breakfast for dinner, don't you?

I got up a midnight last night because I couldn't sleep.  I realized I didn't have anything for lunch today.  I found another recipe on Pinterest for curried quinoa and had all the ingredients to make it.  I got a big bag of Vidalia onions over the weekend so I diced and cooked one first, then added my quinoa and water.  Boil, reduce, simmer, add seasonings and cover for about 15 minutes.  I added a can of chickpeas because I love them, but the dish wasn't very colorful, so I added a can of kidney beans, too.  It tasted pretty darn good for lunch today.  If I had had any greens I would have cooked them and added them, but I haven't been to the grocery or farmer's market in weeks so I was just working with what I had. 

Come to think of it, I ate like a vegan all day!  Banana for breakfast, curried quinoa for lunch, and veeg pancakes for dinner!  That's pretty good.  I'm not a vegan, or a vegetarian for that matter, but I try and I hope to be a vegetarian someday.  I like cheese, though, and yogurt and honey and lots of other non-vegan things, so I will probably never be vegan.  I just want to try to make an impact in my carbon footprint.  I drive a sports car and don't get 40mpg so I try to make up for it in the food I eat.

Monday, May 6, 2013

Zombie Apocalypse and Renaissance Festival

As I'm sure you have heard by now we are on the verge of a zombie apocalypse.  It's very frightening to think about, but there is so much talk about it we can't help but think about it.  We need to prepare our bug out kits and make our emergency plans.  I'm not a crazy conspiracy theorist (well, maybe a little...), but I'm here to tell you that I have seen the creatures.  I was even chased by some just this last weekend!  It was a frightening experience but I survived to tell you about it today.

Terrifying, right?
 
Okay, so maybe it's me, little sister and her friend dressed for our very first zombie run. So.much.fun. Little sister and I decided (and I think I've mentioned) that if they did fun runs like this in the area we'd be sure to sign up so they would do more themed runs. 
 
How it works:  We were chased by zombie actors in the dark streets and if they captured all three of the flags we had around our waists we were turned to zombies and could try to take other people's flags.  I'm happy to say that our camouflage worked out great because we all made it across the finish line with enough flags to have survived.
 
 
Husband thought we were crazy and got to home to late for me to talk him into dressing with us.  He later said he wished he would have and I think he'll be easier to convince next time. This is one more reason why he is the perfect man for me, not only will he put up with my version of crazy, but sometimes he even wants to join in!
 
 
Princess brains are pretty good, too.  She thinks her mother is a weirdo and tells me all the time, but jokes on her because it's hereditary!
 
To add to our fun-filled weekend, we went to a renaissance festival in the area.  I had been to the festival before, but not in about a dozen years... wait, am I really old enough to be able to say I did something a dozen years ago?!?  Anyway, I had been but husband and Princess never had.  I mentioned to them that we should dress up.  Most of Princess' dress up clothes don't fit anymore and husband didn't think it was necessary.
 
 
Princess got to be a fairy anyway and I husband was won over enough to talk about dressing for the occasion next year!  I, of course, want to be a gypsy and husband says if his choice is tights or a kilt he'll take the kilt. 
 
This weekend just reminded me why I would love to be able to wear a different costume every day of the week.  I LOVE to dress up and any excuse is a good excuse.  I'm glad God blessed me with two people who are just as weird as I am at heart and glad He blessed them with me so I can bring it out in them!





Thursday, May 2, 2013

Energy Bar Fail

I attempted to make energy bars at home rather than buying them this grocery trip.  Save money, hand pick my ingredients, what could go wrong?


Bag o' energy crumble
I really should have done more research.  No Meat Athlete has a formula.  I've used their smoothie formula and liked it, I should have done the same for the energy bars.  They mostly just turned to crumble.  It won't go to waste, I'll blend it up in smoothies or pour milk over it for cereal or bake it to make crunchy granola or something.  The parts that did stick, didn't stick for long.  I'm eating them anyway because they taste good.



They are full of good stuff.  Oats, natural peanut butter, chia seeds, sesame seeds, dried cherries and dried cranberries.  I will put less chia seeds in next time, I love them, but they get stuck in my teeth and swell up and that is not a pleasant feeling.

What are some of your recipe fails?