Mary, Mary quite contrary How does your garden Grow?????

hello friends!

I've got a 2-fer today, they're both really short so not too much time!

First is Menu Monday:
Monday: out to eat with my momm and daddy and buckaroo, Bubba Hubster is gone for business AGAIN!
Tuesday: Taco Tostada Tuesday
Wednesday: church dinner
Thursday: pork chops, squash* and carrots
Friday: sticky glazed chicken, mashed potatoes and corn

*from our very own garden :D which leads me to the 2nd part of the 2-fer today and our post title. Every year for the last handful of years we've had a small garden, small being 8x8, we dont need alot when you got a little family of 3 whose Buckaroo will not eat more than a couple pieces of each veggie even after being bribbed with extra nickels and dimes (they have a sticker and pencil machine at school) and no i'm not above bribbing....

so here's our little piece of self suffiency

today we picked two zuchinis and two squash and we have tons of blooms for both and tomatoes and cucumber blooms.

our line up ladies and gents: (L-R)

1 lonely jalapeno plant

4 plants of  I forgot (and no its not a new plant i truely forgot what we bought and planted there. i know it was something i like i'm thinking bell pepper or okra or maybe 2 of each)

6 zuchini plants

6 crooked neck squash

6 roma tomatoes and 1 BIG heirloom tomatoe (Bubba Hubster's favorite)

and along the whole back is 6 cucumber plants (we used an old chain like fence gate we had, stacked with two t-post and just train them to grow that way - keyword train i just planted and left i got on another project and thats why they look so short but they would actually be doubled back over if i had trained them correctly)

Not pictured are the aspargus plants (4) that we planted in a pot, altho they do not look edible at all! we did a huge pot because in our neck of woods texas we have gumbo about 6" below surface and bubba Hubster said he wasn't going to ammend the soil that far down without a walk behind tiller and i dont blame him! the tiller we have will beat you to death and shoveling it isn't any better, so cheap solution 18" plastic pots (also got one for carrots but havent planted them yet.

If any of y'all are too worried about the time of planting a garden and the upkeep - please don't! i'm about the laziest gardener - E.V.A. seriously i plant and forget. i *try* to train the cucumbers it just makes it easier but sometimes i do and sometimes i don't. i make sure they get enough water, add two bags of miracle grow garden soil (totally lurve there) bubba tills it in, i plant and then gather the bounty!

and buckaroo luvs being outside and picking the veggies and all, i'm hoping this year with him being older and picking it, that might help with him wanting to eat veggies instead of me sneakily giving it to him with V8 fusion (total lurve there also), for "french fry chips" which is actually veggie stick chips, and vegtable spegahti noodles. of course i will still probably do all these things even if he does start to eat his veggies just because they are better choices than their alternatives.

hope everyone has a great and amazing week this week!

In His Luv & Wisdom,

Michelle, Bubba Hubster & Buckaroo

Menu Monday

Hello Lovelies,

I know that I have gotten so sporadic  ok almost non existant on posting, but after looking at all the lovely blogs out there that are doing spring cleaning and spring projects  I got the fever! I normally "summer clean" since here in Deep South Hell, Gulf Coast, Texas, it is too hot to do anything outside after, oh lets say 6 am I usually keep the short (maybe 6 wks if we are lucky) Spring season to do all my outside goodies. But that's what I get for gorging on blogs and pinterest, LOL!

So I bought 11 ferns, 7 veggies plants and called my spring planting done with so I could get the Spring cleaning and project itch outta the way. It has been so nice too, my brain is not near as cluttered either. i'm allowing myself to have some MUCH needed breaks from EVERYTHING too, if i WANT and CAN do it I will but if not I've not worried myself to death about who, what, where, when etc. and for me and my OCD and anxiety issues is a major milestone. i tell you its been really nice. anywho thats been it in a nutshell around our Hacienda.

I'll show y'all later on what I did with the 11 ferns, and why only 7 veggie plants - i didn't want a huge garden to tend to and there is only 3 in our little family right now and no matter how much i try to get Buckaroo to eat veggies it is only a few pieces each night. And the mothers day present i made for my momma (and myself - lol) prolly next week or maybe the end of the week.

Here's the Menu:
Monday - glazed chicken, mac-n-cheese, corn
Tuesday - Big Daddy will be outta town and its sewing club night, so that means he fends for himself and I only have to worry about a side dish.
Wednesday - church and our church has weekly meals to eat as a church family and we are going to be eating dinner there so no cooking for momma! we've been feeling a little discontected from chruch and are hoping that this helps restore that contectedness we crave.
Thursday - deer steak, roasted potatoes, carrots
Friday - hotdogs/hamburgers, chips & deviled eggs
Saturday - not too sure tbh
Sunday - bean & beef taco/tostados

You might notice I've not done the best with freezer cooking - and to be honest - i hate it. There I said it, simple and plain, I thought it would be something that I would grow to be ok with, maybe even like but it's not. I don't really care to cook to begin with and then when you had extra time onto that cooking i REALLY don't like it. Plus we aren't really soup people. Buckaroo is but I always feel like there's not enuff sustanance there for me (yes just one more of my weird issues - hang around long and you might feel like thats ALL i got!). Chicken and steaks end up being too dry (to me and Hubster), plus I have NO problem paying extra for steamable bags, anything that might help make dinner under 30 mins. I got to finding out that I was spending the same amount of time warming up freezer meals as it took me to make a meal. I'm a 30 mins or under gal, if it cant be cooked and ready to eat in 30 mins - find a restuarant that cooks it and we'll eat there! We found that we don't really notice a difference or prefer a taste of Ragu over my homemade speghati sauce, canned Mamwich sauce over the homade one, etc. So we (mainly me) decided that the only freezer cooking I'm doing is frying up a bunch of hamburger meat at one time and dividing it up, which I've always done.

I hope everyone is having an amazing Spring so far and it continues. I'll be doing one more post this week, prolly about the ferns.

Luvs,
Michelle

Menu Menu MMOONNDDAAYYYY....(oops, Tuesday...)

Hey Everyone,

As you can see from my title, I'm late....Bubba Hubster said not to worry about it because y'all should know me by now. LOL!

But we had a totally eventful weekend, like crazy - heart stopping - then I hear my blood pumping in my ears crazy weekend.

On Friday, we went to Lowe's <our favorite hardware store - no I'm not paid to say that we just totally LURVE them!> and picked up the veggies for our garden, pots for our carrots and asparagus (we have clay gumbo ground about 8" down so deeper things we do in pots), ferns and hangers for the front porch (11! of them - shew!), miracle grow (luv it!) and a board of mdf for shelving (pix and blogs coming soon!)

Anywho, Bubba Hubster was cutting down trees, like monster 24" diameter trees and guess what happened? Yes, you guessed it, one fell on the house! Bubba was ok, (thank goodness he knows what to do it things go right AND wrong), what we couldnt see was that the way he wanted the tree to fall that side was termite infested. So when he notched and cut it it twisted, spun and fell the opposite way onto the garage. So we were dealing with that all afternoon Sunday and I didnt get to my other Sunday stuff till monday and so on. We have roofers coming to look at it today (fingers crossed).

So here's to the Menu Monday and the other projects I hope to get pix and tuts up.

MONDAY:beef & bean tostadas with Mexican fixings
TUESDAY:creamy chicken pesto, salad, garlic bread
WEDNESDAY:pizza & salad
THURSDAY:beans&meat, green beans or maybe tacos
FRIDAY:baked chops, corn, salad
SATURDAY:honeyglazed chicken, rice a roni, corn
SUNDAY:steak, mashed or baked potatoes, carrots

*You might have noticed we have one staple week in and week out, that is Wednesday night dinner. It's church night and we dont get home till 7:30/45, we live 25ish mins from church so we (meaning I) make sure I have something I can throw in the oven and basically forget about, but also quick to cook AND eat, so we can get all the before bed stuff done. Seeing how Bubba Hubster & Buckeroo would eat pizza 7 days out of 7, that wins the prize, lol!

BUT I get tired of it, so if anyone has any ideas for quick to cook and eat, please comment with them, I would luv it.

In His Luv & Wisdom,
Michelle

Menu Menu Monday

Hello Lovies!

How is everyone? I, for one, am uber tired! I want Spring Break back, where I could snuggle with Buckeroo until WE decided we wanted to wake up. Yes, Buckeroo still climbs in bed with us or I lay down with him to get him to sleep. And no, we honestly don't mind. It's really the only time he will calm down enough to truely talk with us, plus he's a great snuggle bug without feeling like a got a 100# weight on me, lol!

Anywho, I enjoyed the time off, and we are 'Back to our Regularly Scheduled Program' today.

My weekly Menu Monday:

MONDAY:Spagheti w/salad (freezer food)
TUESDAY:Sloppy joes w/fries & carrots (freezer food)
WEDNESDAY:Frozen pizza w/salad (church night)
THURSDAY:Beef tips & rice w/green beans & corn (x2 for freezer cooking)
FRIDAY:Meatballs w/butter noodles & carrots (x2 for freezer cooking)
SATURDAY:Beefy cheesey bean tostadas w/ queso/chips & fruit medley
SUNDAY:Fried chicken tenders w/mashed potatoes & sweet peas

I never list breakfast or lunch simply because we aren't really breakfast people and Buckeroo eats breakfast at school (every child gets it wether they eat it or not) plus it's later in the morning and he's more likely to eat it. If I do eat breakfast (I know I know) it's instant oatmeal that we always have on hand. Lunches are simple leftovers or sandwiches, sometimes Buckeroo will buy his lunch if it sounds like something he likes.

GOALS:

*You saw the freezer cooking above (fingers crossed)
*Be deliberately kinder in my speaking when I'm aggrevated
*Finish bookshelves in office
*Plant vegtable garden this weekend

What do y'all have planned for this week for meals? I'm having to do alot of research to keep from cooking the same thing over and over. What big plans do you have for this week in general? I really hope to have great news next Monday on my goals.

In His Luv & Wisdom,
Michelle

Monthly blog Hop - So much Talent - Your Eyes Will Hurt, LOL!

We Will Return To Our Regularly Scheduled Program.....

Hey Everyone! Sorry I haven't posted in...um....ages, but I've been busy getting ready for Spring Break and our Big Spring Break Hollabaluu 2012. It's buckeroo's 1st "official" spring break this year since he's a Kinder (i was informed that's the slang nowadays, lol!) Any who I hope (this sounds vaguely familiar....jus saying) to post at least two times next week. We were so lucky this year that our Spring Break fell on a show week. Well lucky in one way and not so lucky in another way, hubster didnt get to do alot with us during the day, but we still had a good time and the hotel was paid for because of hubster working. my niece and her hubby (who i call my nephew but i didn't want anyone to get confused and go "EEEWWWW" when i said my neice and nephew and then u read later they are married!) also came. he worked the show also and we had a great time at the meet and greet and dinner with a vendor. Buckeroo has been a really good sport this week, we've had a few hiccups but that happens when everything is hurry up to wait like at legoland discovery center.

We are home and SpringBreak is officially over, well for me at least. Bubba Hubster is sleeping (poor man didn't get much sleep at all!), Buckeroo is watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (shhh, don't tell anyone he would be embarrassed and say its for babies but i luv when he watches these instead of the older ones - attitude is mucho better), and I've done two loads of laundry, cooked breakfast and now catching up on my reading and posting. But you know what? this is what i luv to do best - take care of my boys and my house.

I will be posting pix and recaps of what we did. I've missed home and my rountine, i'm (we) are such home bodies - it's crazy. buckeroo said the last day, "are we going home yet?" poor luvy

Hope that everyone had a great week and have a great one coming up!

Looky Looky Looksie!!

Hey guys we had our first sewing group last night!! It was so much fun, we made a wristlet keychain. We had a nice potluck dinner and started to really make some friendships and build on ones that we have. The kids kept each other entertained and occupied, so they enjoyed themselves immensely (not to mention that they enjoyed their late bedtime!).We can't wait until our next meeting in April!

Isn't she a beauty?! Guess what some people are getting for Christmas?

Hope everyone has a wonderful midweek day!

In His Luv & Wisdom,
Michelle