Today I choose __________.

As I said in a previous post the week or so I was very sick with whatever I had I was a bit dramatic. I was so tired and had gotten into the habit of taking little naps which now I know was from the ever and I had eaten popsicles which I guess made me happy from childhood memories. I even told a few friends and my sister that when I started feeling better I was not going to give up my naps or my popsicles. All week I have had my energy back and happy to report no naps or popsicles. Every day I feel so energized and am very thankful for feeling so well. I actually said maybe its good to get sick every once in awhile to appreciate every day tasks once again.

I was looking up a bible verse this morning and came across this little gem. That was sarcasm by the way.

 1 Peter 4;1-2 MSG  Since Jesus went through everything you're going through and more, learn to think like him. Think of your sufferings as weaning from that old sinful habit of always expecting to get your own way. Then you'll be able to live out your days free to pursue what God wants instead of being tyrannized by what you want.

Well they didnt beat around the bush with getting to the point in that did they? I never made the connection that when  something goes not as planned and it throws me off and I start thinking "its always something" that thats me being upset things arent going my way. Heres a good example. A few weeks ago when my hubby and son were trying to get the kids car fixed they were having a time getting the tire off, It was very frustrating for them. Nothing was getting that tire off. This seems to be an issue with some cars and people online and even a few youtube videos said you are going to have to take a sledgehammer to it. Which is what they ended up doing. They had to break something off to get to the part they needed to fix and then had to replace two parts. All the while I was their best cheerleader. I was like you are doing great, dont worry you will get it, its okay I dont mind us all carpooling. I meant every word. They fixed the car it saved us money and all is well with the world.

Then I had planned  some hospitality with others, I had planned on doing some house cleaning and decluttering so hospitality would run smoother. These plans were for the good and then I got sick and couldnt get anything accomplished. I whined and acted like a baby, refused to admit I was sick until I was really sick and my plans were put on the back burner. I on several occasions thought this isnt fair, why is this happening? I am trying to do good things and this is what happens? I was like a toddler who didnt get what they wanted.

Things usually have a way of working out. When I look back over my almost 50 years of life I see lots of little and sometimes big bumps in the road that I had no idea how they would get fixed but they did. I think most of us would agree thats how it works out in their lives as well. How we CHOOSE to react to them in on us. We may have no control over the situation that arises but we have so much control over how we react.

This is where the hospitality wiggles its way into this post. I could name at least 10 people right now who are having some little to some pretty big bumpy roads. One of the easiest things you can do is reach out and ask if there is anything they need? How can you help. May I suggest that you do not give advice unless you are asked. I have friends that I can say anything to and they know its out of love and they may not agree even if its exactly what they need to hear but they will think about what I say and either say thanks for the great advice or you have no clue and mind your business. Either way we are all good and they can do the same to me. There people are special and not everyone you know wants or needs your advice.  No one wants to hear that they put themselves in this situation because they already know that. Mind your business, if you arent going to help them please dont hurt them.

I feel like I need to insert a cute story or something to make you laugh because thats sort of a mean way to end my post. So I will end it with a great idea a hospitality day if you like spa themed dates. You can think my sister for finding this one. She and I have the most fun sending each other the strangest things we find on Pinterest.

https://hungryhappenings.com/spa-party-appetizer-clever-way-to-serve/

Hospitality is refreshing.

Have you ever had to unlearn something? There is 5 years difference between my oldest and my middle child. I was very observant with that first child in school because I knew I would have more children and I wanted to be on top of the things they needed to know. I wanted my kids to be smart and do well. Well in that 5 years they changed everything. I had to unlearn and relearn along with the second kid. Luckily two years later when the last kid came along they hadnt changed anything and I am so glad because with three kids I was too tired to learn anything new. 

Hospitality is suppose to be refreshing. Unfortunately sometimes we get entertaining and hospitality mixed up. Hospitality is about your guests where entertaining is about your skills as being a great hostess. I think when we throw the thought of entertaining out the window and embrace what true hospitality is we will find it refreshing, just like a good friendship. 

Here are two examples. My sister sent me this pic of ham roses. Is this not the cutest idea ever? But it looks like alot of work and if you are going to make ham roses what else fancy do you have to go with them. I am going to be honest I will be trying to make this bouquet. I find this very fun but its gonna take time and I will post my first Pinterest Fail of the project when I attempt this.

This pictures is of my smashed potato appetizers. You boil fingerling potatoes and smash them. You then top them with bacon crumbles, cheddar cheese and pop them in the oven until the cheese melts and then add a little sour cream. Its like two bite baked potatoes and so very easy. We actually had these with dinner last night with a rotisserie chicken from the deli and steamed broccoli. 

As you ease into the idea of hospitality keep it simple. Keep it comfortable. Think more about what you want to talk about and get to know about your guests than whats on the menu. It can be as easy as chips and dip with bottled water. Hospitality has you sitting with your guest not up and down getting things or watching the oven. 

When your guest leaves you should feel refreshed. Having piles of dishes and having to spend time cleaning up after everyone leaves is not going to make you feel refreshed. Take this into consideration as you plan your get together.

Hospitality is real.

I had this great quote that I had written down and then I am pretty sure I saw my scribbled paper a day later and threw it in the trash. I do this with my grocery list all the time. The quote was basically saying that true hospitality is sharing your real self with others. Your REAL life.  Not your perfect Pinterest, Facebook or Instagram life.

I have noticed that my closest relationships are with those I am my most real and vulnerable with. I am not saying that you share your most private thoughts with just anyone you meet but glimpses of the real you should shine through with anyone you speak to. I dont think that most of us lie on our social media pages we just edit the crap out of them. I am going to fix the boy some pancakes for breakfast this morning, I can easily snap a picture and post the pancakes and it look like something from a magazine. I am now the best mom on the planet. If you didnt fix your kid homemade pancakes with real maple syrup you are failing as a parent and human being. I could zoom out on my picture and show you my tiles that are popping off the counter and they have discontinued them and we have no idea what to replace them with right now so I throw a towel over that area when people come over but mostly I just say pretend you dont see that. You would also see the dirty dishes in the sink and a dog or two laying around on the kitchen floor because they are afraid that if they are not in the same room with me I may just disappear. We could open the fridge and see the science experiments I have growing in there. Those are not intentional by the way. I think you get my point in keeping it real.

I had two experiences with hospitality last week. One was going over to a friends house for dinner which was so much fun and one was having a friend stop by which was also so much fun. Going over to  my friends Pennys house was easy. I didnt have to bring anything. She had appetizers of cheese, meats, crackers and nuts. For dinner we had risotto with chicken and asparagus in a cream sauce and for dessert a chocolate mouse with a berry compote and whipped cream. There was also wine and iced tea involved. Mr Ladybug had been invited but wasnt feeling great. I had the kids grab pizza for all of them and made sure to send him pics of what he was missing.

Then my friend Kelly stopped by to drop of some water kefir grains to me. There will be more posts on the kefir later. Kelly is in a season of life that I am thankfully done with. Her son had a music lesson so she dropped him off, ran to the store and then a quick stop at my house before going back to pick him up. I enjoyed being the taxi cab for many years but I do enjoy my kids taking themselves places and I can give them a list and money and never have to leave the house if I dont want to. So Kelly comes in and she needs to visit that powder room or should I say gas station bathroom. I did warn her that someone had just taken a shower and that it would be a sauna in there and probably messy. So she explains what to do with the kefir grains then we shared our kombucha with each other and chatted about a few things and she left.

I then went into the bathroom because it was on my to do list to clean anyway. I was horrified that I let her in there. The soap dispenser was about empty and it needs to be replaced because the  pump is not pumping like it should, there was no hand towel for her to dry her hands and there were qtips and tissues all over the sink because I can not find the PERFECT trash can for that room so the sink is where people leave things. I forgot to  mention that one of the dogs peed on one of the rugs. I immediately sent her a message apologizing and told her I was sorry we lived like wild animals. She was great and we laughed and I felt less terrible about it. I even took a pic 15 minutes after she left to prove that I do know what a powder room should look like.

Lets be honest sometimes thats what life is, MESSY. If I waited for my house or even my life to be perfect before I started sharing it with people it would never happen. We miss out on some great times when our thoughts are I will share my life with others when I get a bigger house. My house is less than 1100 square feet and 4 adults live here and we only have one bathroom. Another excuse I will practice hospitality when I have more time. Kelly had a busy errand day and she squeezed in time where she found it. I have met the nicest people and had the best conversation with others while waiting on my kids at soccer fields, dental appointments, band functions and many other places. It was nice before cell phones when we didnt have our heads down in our little world and noticed others around us.

Sometimes with think we have to have nicer things before we can have people over. I dont like new things, Well some things I like new but I love old things and I like to repurpose things so here is a picture of my couch which as you can see is an old day bed. Look at the hearts cut out in it. Luckily I can hide those.

I paid $30 for this couch about 8 years ago. It even came with the mattress which by the way I knew the person selling it and felt comfortable buying the mattress from. It even has a trundle underneath that when pulled out connects with the top and makes a king size bed that can sleep 3-4 girls. It was actually used a few weeks ago when our daughter had friends in for the weekend. I bought the grey comforter marked down at Walmart for $15. I just have pillows and other blankets on it and let me tell you we love this thing. Its so comfie and if you set on it at least one dog will want to snuggle with you sometimes all of them and the cat. If something gets spilled on it or a dog with muddy feet gets past us and heads straight for the couch we just pull everything off and wash it.

Another of our excuses for not having people over is it takes work. We dont have to have a three course meal like my friend Penny had. I think the last time she came over to my house we had pizza cooked in the smoker and made smores. Here is a quick and simple appetizer to have. You can serve it with wine or iced tea or even just plain water. Its not about your house or your culinary skills its about building relationships.

I found the pic online but cheese is always our easy go to quick appetizer. On the plate you see blackberries with brie, granny smith apples with sharp cheddar, anjou pears with gouda, grapes with fontina and peaches with goat cheese. Seriously how easy would that be to do? You dont even have to use the toothpicks if you dont want to, Just have the fruit and cheese cubed and on the same plate. Throw in some crackers and nuts and you have a party.

Whats your quickest and easiest entertainment menu? Its also okay if you say Pizza Hut.

Use your words.

When our children were smaller and would get frustrated or were overly tired they would sometimes get whiny. I would always say "use your words". I said this nicely to let them know that I wanted to help them but I needed them to tell me what was wrong. I remember once my neighbor fell in her driveway and about that same time I had stepped outside and all I heard were a continuous stream of curse words. That was not the norm so I ran over to see what was going on. She kept swearing like her life depended on it and I was unable to know if she needed my assistance or not. Finally she was able to put together a few sentences that I could understand and luckily all that she bruised was her backside and her pride. We all handle stress and pain differently suppose.

Mr Ladybug and I say use your words to each other all the time if we lose our train of thought mid sentence or a word just escapes us. Are you ever just chatting away and then totally forget what a word is? The other day I was trying to tell one of the kids that an item they were looking for was on the kitchen island. I could not remember island to for nothing. I was like you know that thing in the kitchen with a top and drawers. I am describing it like my life depended on it and finally said it had wheels on it and they knew what I meant. I was about to start cursing.

Our words have more impact that we think and the older I get the more I am learning that I want my words to mean something. I want them to build others up and not tear them down. I want them to connect me to others not separate.

These ladies never stop amazing me.

The bible verse in the pic above is one of my favorites and even more so that I am a beekeeper. I watch my girls fly in and out all day long. I know what it takes for them to make that honey that I love in my tea every morning. When you look at a frame of honey its just tiny little hexagon shaped thing with the tiniest bit of honey in each cell. But as you start to extract it flows out pretty fast. One box of honey can easily hold 20-30 pounds. A box of honey would be one of the top boxes in the picture below. When we get honey from the hive we never ever ever touch the three boxes on the bottom. We check them to make sure the queen is laying eggs and as it starts to get cooler we make sure they have plenty of honey like over 50 pounds to get them through winter but we only take the smaller boxes off to get honey.

This is the tallest hive we have ever had. Mr Ladybug has to use a ladder to get to the top.

So if you are looking down on your neighborhood and each house represents a little cell you may think that you dont make much of an impact. But if each cell in that neighborhood was filled with kind words for all they meet that would make quite a but of honey when added all together. I am not going to lie, thinking of each little neighborhood in my city as individual bee hives makes me super happy. I really love those bees!

So lets use our words and make them kind. There are lots of souls out that need them.

I had wonderful evening last night hanging out with my friend. For my hostess gift I made her a fun little tea towel with lots of summer bugs on it. Can you spot the bees and ladybugs? I just took the piece of material and hemmed it up  I gave her some of my dried rose petal tea from my very own rose bushes and some honey sticks. I bought some honey sticks from our local bee supply store. They are great for when traveling and you want a cup of tea. You will see this in practice soon while Mr Ladybug and I go on our vacation adventure.

Who is stopping you?

Last night I realized I hadnt left me house since last Friday and I was actually pretty sick that day and when I got home from grocery shopping I wished someone would just shoot me and put me out of my misery. What a great and positive way to start a blog entry. I think maybe I was enjoying becoming a bit of a recluse which is actually odd because I am actually an extrovert. Any way I dragged my son out to Walmart with me to grab a few things. Mr Ladybug asked me last night to get the ingredients to make him some homemade trail mix and thats when I realized I am the only one who stops me from doing what I want to do. Well so did the sinus infection I had been battling the past two weeks but its mostly myself.

Here I am back home and I have started mixing the trail mix. I have peanuts, cashews, sliced almonds because I really dont like biting into whole almonds, pecan pieces because it seemed like a good idea, raisins, chocolate chips, dried cherries, raisins and a bag of reeses pieces and little reese cups and dried pineapple which is actually the only ingredient that Mr Ladybug requested.

First I started dumping the nuts in a gallon ziplock bag. Then once I started adding the dried fruit I realized I was not going to be able to shake it up so I had to get my large mixing bowl off the top shelf of the cabinet. For maybe 30 seconds or so I started wondering of Mr Ladybug was worth all this effort and maybe I made a mistake in this marriage of 29 years. We are getting ready to head out on a little vacation in week or so and maybe we will decided if its time to call it quits. For anyone reading this who does not really know me this is all a joke. Mr Ladybug is my partner in crime, beekeeping, farming and all things crafty. I wouldnt know what to do without this guy and his assortment of power tools and his love of spray painting. Anyway I then realized I hadnt added the reeses bag and then I start over thinking. Like is it weird to bite into a peanut butter cup and then into dried pineapple? I am seriously stressing way to long over this. I then just but the bullet and added it. I of course started freaking out a little which is crazy because its trail mix. You can pick around what you dont like. It will be fine.

So then this experience made me think about how I bought pink paint to paint the front door. My new focus in life is hospitality so be warned lots of recipes and cute ideas will be coming to this blog. I wanted a color to really brighten things up and I found bright pink paint marked down at Lowes. Now I have started worrying about what people will think of my front door which is crazy because on my front porch I have periwinkle chairs with flowered bottoms, a yellow table, a red table, a little green box so I am obviously not afraid of color. This is paint that cost less than $3 if I dont like it I can just find new paint.

I can go on for days over the things that I overthink about and then do nothing. No more, from now on the first thought I have I am going for it. Mrs Ladybug would look awesome tattooed across my forehead. Right? I guess I am writing this because I know that I am not the only one who thinks like this. My advice is dont be the one who gets in the way of your dreams. Nobody wants whats best for you better than yourself. All that grace and understanding you are willing to give to others give it to that sweet face you see in the mirror.

If you will excuse me I have a hostess gift to make. Mr Ladybug and I are headed over to a friends house for an evening of wine, cheese and other goodies. Its the perfect way to end my 2 weeks of being in a sick fog.

Restocking the Freezer

I had to make a quick run to Aldis this morning after I dropped off the kids to class. I seriously only went in for rice and chili powder. Since I was there I thought that I might as well look at the meat section and I am so happy that I did. I decided that I didnt like to think I was starting over with the freezer, I am looking at it as a new beginning. Honestly its hit or miss sometimes of the kids will even be home for dinner and even though neither are going to be moving out tomorrow or anything I need to  learn that I dont have to have every thing for them. Just the other day the boy ran to the store without even being asked because he was out of almond milk. We have been leaving them every other weekend for several weeks and when I get home no one is dead. They will be fine. I am sure I will be fine too, eventually. Can you relate? 

Lets focus on those deals.

I got 4.6 pounds of lean ground beef. It only has 140 calories for 4 oz. Since only three of us eat ground beef I thought it silly to use the whole pound so I froze it in 12 oz packages. Which is why it was $2.40 per package. I bought for packs but got 6 meals when I divided. As someone who never thought herself a math person I love to calculate cost of meals and all that stuff.

I normally dont buy chiicken tenders because I have no idea why they charge more to cut your chicken breasts into 3-4 strips for you. But when I did the math these came our to $1.78 pound and I decided they would make for quick meal prep and who really enjoys cutting up meat? Not this girl, I just do it because I am cheap.

Last but not least the skinless boneless thighs. I have really become a fan of these especially in stir fry and fried rice. They offer so much flavor and you can always find them marked down. I think these came out to $1.17 pound. If I can get a meal with the meat being less than $2 momma is a happy camper. I actually took a few of the thighs and cooked them in a hot cast iron skillet with some seasoning and made wraps for lunch.

My freezer before this accident was a hot mess and after the door being opened for like a week it really was a hot mess. I had started to work on it but honestly I had done a poor job and labeling and sticking stuff all over the place and cramming and when I went to the freezer to decide what to make I dreaded it. I actually have lots of areas in my life that remind me of the freezer. Thats the good thing about fresh starts you can do them right now!  Think about a relationship that you may miss but you keep forgetting to reach out or just dont because you are too busy. Think about that closet in the livingroom, you know the one next to the front door, you hope that if anyone breaks in that will be the first door they open and if they arent killed by all the stuff thats going to fall out they will run away. Anyone else or is that just me? Also if you drop in for a visit dont try to open that door when I am not looking, I have it locked for your safety and mine.

Now close your eyes and think about some areas you need a fresh start in. One of mine is a date with Mr Ladybug. Oh sure we are always running around together, gardening, binge watching Netflix, we listen to audio books and all that but the other day I suggested we go out to eat. He was tired and said lets just order in and we did which was fine and we ate together but sometimes you just want to dress up and eat off dishes you dont have to wash. Our marriage isnt on the rocks and if we never eat somewhere nice again we will survive. Well fell in love on those first date nights and we will stay in love going on them too. It doesnt even have to be a place to eat. A nice picnic with nice food would work too. I think its all the rain we have had on the weekends that has kept us from our favorite outings. Basically what I am saying is I will drag that man someplace nice even if hes kicking and screaming! Wouldnt that be sight? Mr Ladybug is lucky to have me and I remind him of it daily!

Tomorrow I will show you my inventory sheets. Well thats if the printer cooperates.

Is your glass half full of half empty?

There are some sayings out there that just make me crazy and I really had no idea why until the other day and this is what happened....

Wednesday I have my errand day, we are planning on heading out early Thursday morning to my moms farm so we can get her chicks out of their brooder box and into their coop we also plan on getting our green beans, watermelon and corn on the ground. Did I mention we have to do this in between rain showers? I get home from my last stop of errands and start putting the groceries away. I run out to the garage where we have a freezer and most of the good is thawed. Its not even cold. Are you serious?

I have already messaged a friend to stop by. I almost texted her and said done come. Dont be alarmed if you never hear from me again. I am running away. I instead just told her to message when she was on her way because I would be in the back throwing away all the food in my freezer.

I run to the store and grab whatever garbage bags smell the most scented because our garbage does not run for 6 more days. Oh my gosh the smell is going to be terrible. We are going to wake up with every meat eating animal from a 20 mile radius in our backyard, I just know it. 

I get about half of the food thrown in bags and in the garbage can and my friend is almost at my house. I take a deep breath and this thought comes to me "why do people say go big or go home instead of go small and manageable and stay out of the mental institution". I am going to admit that the time I thought this idea what the most profound thing I have ever thought. Typing it out I am seeing its good advice but maybe its not the best idea for my first tattoo.

My friends visit gives me a moment of pause. We chat a little about some things. She has some stressers in her life as do I. I am super sorry that she has some but its also nice to know that we all have things going on thats not Facebook perfect. She runs off to pick up her son from school and I go back to my smelly meat locker. It actually hadnt started smelling but it could have at any moment.

When I get done with the freezer its time to leave and pick up Mr Ladybug from work. The freezer is empty over $300 worth of food is now in the garbage but the freezer is not broken. Somehow it was left open enough to get ice built up which it already had some and needed defrosting but that caused it to not work properly and there goes my stockpile.

So we leave early Thursday  morning and get everything going on the farm and get a call from the kids that the back end of their car is making a weird noise. We are thinking maybe the thing that holds the muffler on has come loose and its that. They only have a 2 mile drive to and from school and if the muffler falls off no worries. We get all the stuff done on the farm and feel pretty good about it and get home around lunch time. Inspect kids car and its not the muffler its the wheel.

Of course it couldnt be an easy fix. It took some doing to get the wheel off the car but then the rest of the parts which I have no idea the names of would not cooperate. My guys are searching every website and youtube channel for a solution with the only one being was take a sledge hammer to it. I am not even kidding thats what so many people said you had to do. Saturday morning we ran around trying to find the right tool and well ended up taking a sledge hammer to it.  So now we are looking about a $250 project. We got all the part we could get in town and ordered the rest and everything should arrive by Thursday.

So that means that every day I take Mr Ladybug to work because I have to make sure the college kiddos get to work, school and any other appointments they generally take care of themselves. Does it sound like I am complaining? I dont intend to.

This was not my plans for the week but it is what I have been dealt. I can choose to over complicate the whole thing, be miserable and make everyone else around me miserable or I can just be thankful that it stinks to have to start all over with the freezer but now I have clean slate and try to have one of those Pinterest Photo freezers. I had more than I needed in there and some dont have anything to eat.

If we had to take the car in to be repaired our bill would be more than $250. I am lucky to be married to someone who can fix it and know the problem with the freezer. So is my glass half empty or half full? I dont even care I am just happy to have something in my glass. I am happy to have a glass even though sometimes it does look empty. I have friends who care for me as I do them. I have more food than I can possibly eat and thankfully the garbage comes tomorrow and there are no weird animals lurking around the backyard. I get to spend more time with my adult children driving them to a few extra places this week. I get to take my husband to work and start our day off just chatting it up and getting to talk on the way home. Lets not forget all those new recipes I get to try out and store in the newly cleaned freezer.

I have to leave in a few minutes to pick up the boy, then its home for lunch and then back out for an appt. While waiting a little bit for him at his appt I can make a quick trip to the library and work on new dinner menu for the week. I use to get so much done in car lines when they were in public school. I had perfectly organized coupons and lists and dinner menus. Without that down time I have found other ways to fill that time and am not quite as organized as I was in that department. I also got lots of knitting done. Its funny how when in the car lines all I could think about was all the stuff I could be doing and now that its gone I think of all the stuff I got done. Life is weird.

Budget Update and a few odds and ends

I have managed to survive the fruit flies and now get to battle the ants! For some reason ants dont seem as annoying to me. I usually  just find where they are coming in at and put a few drops of peppermint oil on the location, You can use essential oils or even an extract from your pantry. I will warn you that the ants will just find a new location to come in so keep the peppermint handy.

I havent really been updating the budget for a few months but its going along nicely. The good thing about keeping your budget on track is that when unforeseen things pop up you are prepared, like a new bee hive.

If you follow me on social media you know that our well established hive split last week. We were able to get all the bees off the 2X2 post they landed on and into a hive box. We checked them yesterday and they are doing pretty good. I am betting the old queen wishes that she hadnt left her old hive because they have to start over and build up from scratch. Mr Ladybug thought he saw eggs in the frames which is a very important thing so they can build up their numbers and get that hive ready for winter. The cost of buliding a new wooden hive is around $250. The cost of bees is around the same amount. Now you know why honey costs what it does. We really do love our bees though.

Its time to start changing the menu to more of a summer friendly one. For us that means more outdoor cooking on the grill and much faster meals. We eat a lot of tacos and salads. I will be working on summer menus this week and will share that later.

I also got an air fryer for my birthday and I am so in love. I have cooked fries, fish, potato chips and brownies, Not to bad for only having it for a week and being gone two days.

Over the weekend we went to my moms and started our big garden. This will be our first year and we are super excited. In fact Mr Ladybug was so excited he took all our tomato, pepper, squash and pumpkin plants to the farm to plant and left none for our backyard garden. I guess we have to live on potatoes. lettuce, onions, peas and herbs during the week and only get the other stuff when at the farm. Thats not really true because I made him start some new ones the other day. I can not live without tomatoes nor should I have to!

In the last three weeks I have only used my dryer for 1 hour total. I have no idea why this excites me so much but it does. Its taking some getting use to and with so much rain I had laundry coming out my ears but its not been that bad actually and putting on those clothes or placing your head on that pillow and smelling that sunshine makes me smile every single time.

I love the picture at the top of this post. We had just arrived at my moms on Thursday. We were headed to the old wooden shed where she has an old wood cook stove that needs a little tlc. I can not wait to get that thing working and cooking. Anyway momma and Mr Ladybug were all in a hurry to get to the shed and I was picking flowers and looking at the creek and just taking in all the nature around me. It was heaven. My May is going to be a little busy, momma has a surgery at the end of the month and our middle child graduates from college, gardens need tending, grass needs mowing and life is happening. Its so easy to be so busy that we miss all the beautiful things around us. My advice is if you are going through a busy season right now take time to stop, take a deep breath and enjoy whats around you.

Have an amazing Monday! I have some clothes that need to be hung on a clothesline and some meals that need planning and maybe a trip to Hobby Lobby.

Why fruit flies will probably keep me from getting to heaven.

I will be 49 years old in a few days and I am at a stage in my life called perimenopause. If you dont know what that means it boils down to my hormones are all over the place ad I am fine one minute. mad as a wet hen the next and can cry for no apparent reason. Its great and fun and its like Mr Ladybug is married to three different women sometimes in a matter of 30 seconds. I should probably have a warning label on me.

 One of my favorite authors and comedians is Anita Renfroe. Several years ago she wrote a book called If You Cant Lose It Decorate It. There is a picture of a shiny belt buckle on the cover. I can not control my craziness these days, well I guess I could try to use medication but where would the fun in that be? I thought I would share some things that make me laugh and insane all at the same time for those if you who may be in the same boat as me or for those who wont think you are going crazy when it starts happening to you. Since I can not get rid of these feelings I might as well get a laugh and I hope you do too.

Fruit Flies! Those things drive be bonkers. I like to control things as naturally as possible and saw a few recipes online that swore they were best things to get rid of these pesky things. One was pretty simple. You take a bowl fill it with apple cider vinegar and then add a little dish soap and stir with a fork to have bubbles from on the top. The flies land in the bubbles. get stuck and drown. They said that with in 30 minutes they had several in their bowl. This is my bowl after 5 hours. I am not amused.

So the second one held a little more promise, You made your own sticky fly paper. Boil equal parts honey and sugar, add a little water and heat until sugar dissolves. You soak paper, I used index card, let then drain onto a plate and once done dripping hang. As you can see it worked like a charm, or thats what they like you to think.

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When I approached the paper they all flew away but this one.

Are you serious? Maybe in Kentucky we breed the thoroughbred of fruit flies and they will stick to nothing. I stepped away from the strip and with in 15 minutes they were all back and this is where it gets crazy. I actually started talking to them. I was like are you serious? Y'all need Jesus and the flies replied ummm your the ones using the terrible language at us. I repled that they were right and then I grabbed the foaming bleach and sprayed them and screamed die you stupid flying__________, insert whatever word you like.

You know what really works? Leave a ketchup bottle out and open. Those little monsters crawl right in and cant get out and you have to throw away the whole bottle. I GIVE UP!

Dandelions, honeysuckle and stevia experiment and a few things I forgot yesterday.

Last year I harvested some dandelion flowers. I read you could dry them and use them as a tea. I cut the green part off and only had the yellow strings, I laid them out on my drying screen and left them for a few days, I then placed them in a mason jar and a week later I had a jar full of the white flower parts that you normally blow. I dont know why I didnt think about them doing that. I think its safe to assume the blog I read did not do an update or I did something wrong.

Last year I harvested all the heirloom roses off of my rosebush and dried most of them and some turned into a tincture. A tincture is just where you place all the parts of a plant into a jar and soak them in alcohol, normally vodka, for about 4 weeks. After the first batch sat for 4 weeks I drained off the liquid, discarded the petals, put new petals in and poured the liquid over the petals and let it set for another 4 weeks. What I ended up with is the most amazing smelling rose perfume. I dab a little on my wrists and I am smelling like roses all day long. I can also add some to a bath. or put a few drops in water to drink or into my hot tea for a little extra flavor.

So I decided to try the tincture method with the dandelion and the honeysuckle this year as well. The picture at the top is of the dandelions from last weekend. The honeysuckle isnt blooming yet in my backyard but I check on them every single day. I dont want to miss one one little bloom!

stevia plant

Last week when Mr Ladybug and I stopped at the plant nursery they had a stevia plant. I had to have one. I normally buy one every year because I have not had much success in growing it but this year we have some sprouts.

Its hard to tell but theses are soooo teeny tiny. The seeds are so little and light its hard to plant and you only get 12 little seeds in a pack.  So far we have 4 out of 12 sprouting. If all goes well I will make a tincture to use to sweeten my teas and will try drying some. I saw on another website where they dry the leaves and then grind them into a powder to use.

We planted so many different squash seeds last week and most have come up. I love the bigger seeded plants and how you can see the ground breaking open as the seeds sprout.

These are raspberries that we planted last year. We found a patch at the community garden and the ground keepers kept mowing over them. Yay for free plants.

The pea plants are coming along nicely. We are planting about a four foot row every 2 weeks to not get a crop all at once. It doesnt really matter because most dont make it into the house because we eat while we pick. 

Mr Ladybug and I are headed out early in the morning to visit my sister and brother in law and then headed to pick up the bees early on Saturday morning. We hope to be back home by lunch time on Saturday. I think its suppose to rain so we will not be able to put the bees in their new hive until Sunday. On Sunday we have a birthday celebration someones not only graduating from college this year they are turning 22. Goodness we are getting old. It should be a fun weekend and I hope to have a bee update and some honeysuckle blooms on Monday.

April Garden Update

Its a very busy morning on the urban farm. Our youngest doggie is getting neutered this morning and I have grocery shopping today since Mr Ladybug and I will be out of town on Friday. I have already been outside watering the garden. When I get done grocery shopping I will have clothes to hang on the line so I thought I would just do a quick garden update this morning.

I asked Mr Ladybug if we needed to cover the potato bed since our cat likes to be a jerk most of the time. We planted the potatoes over the weekend and this morning Socks was taking nice little dirt bath in it. I sent him this picture and he said we would put fencing over it when he got home. Oh the joys of being a cat mom.

As you can see there is a big gap in the lettuce. For some reason that seed did not come up. I have some seeds I saved from last year and am going to see how well they come up.

This native mint plant makes me smile every time I pull a leave and pop it into my mouth. I am going to start drying some if it for teas.

The radishes are doing pretty well even though a dog ran through them when we were planting so some of them are out of order.

I can not wait until June and see how these garlic bulbs are doing. I love growing garlic and making garlic scape pesto.

The onions are coming along nicely. I think I can start pulling a few for salads.

The lemon balm never disappoints. I will be drying some of this too soon for teas.

These are some volunteer tomato plants I need to transplant. I think they are cherry.

What I never pay full price for and a few other money saving tips.

I read lots and lots of blogs. I also dislike lots and lots of blogs. I get all bent out of shape when people say "anyone can do this' and then proceed to say the way we save so much on meat is they raise their own cattle. I think thats great but not all of us have a cattle farm or want one. I hope my ideae are not as far fetched as the cattle peoples.

1.Make a list of things that you will refuse to pay full price for and stick to that rule.  Here are a few of     mine.

   Toilet paper, I like name brand and I stock up when its on sale. I will buy several months worth.

   Potato chips or any kind of chips, I set my limit at nothing over $2 a bag. 

   Cereal and once again I do not pay over $2 a box. I have had as many as 20 boxes of cereal at home.

    Meat, I wish I could get buy with not paying over $2 a pound for most meat but that doesnt happen        that often. Chicken and pork can be found at that price or lower but most beef I stick with around          $3.50lb. If you pay attention most stores do a 4-6 week rotation on meats and most anything in the        store and you just buy enough to get you through until the next time its on sale. Fish is something          that hards to find below $6 a pound and we do love our fish around here. I try to get a good deal but      if we are craving it thats one thing we will pay full price for.

    Coffee, its not fair that I can not drink this stuff but I am always buying it and making it for a certain      man in my life. We do like to buy coffee from local roasteries and he drinks a cup or two on the              weekends but mostly we grab whats on sale. I have actually been pretty lucky for the past few                months to grab it for $3-4 a large can like in the picture. Kroger had it as a Friday/Saturday only deal      this past weekend so when we were out running errands I made sure we stopped by and grabbed the       limit of 5. Lets cross our fingers it goes on sale again in the next 5 months.

I have a few other things on my list but I will save it for later. Long winded blogs get on my nerves too!

So in the picture above you see lots of things. Its Tuesday and the sales at Kroger and Aldis end today and there were a few things I needed to get. We only use butter and it was $1.99 I think with the 6 I bought today and the few I have in the fridge I will be good for 2 months unless I go on a cooking making spree and I very well may. I saved $8 this week on butter

I found these double bottles of ranch dress for 99 cents! I grabbed 5 of those babies. Its the college kiddos that really love the ranch and I do use it on wraps that I make them for lunch. I saved $10 on ranch dressing.

They had Panera and generic Panera soups for sale. I know I can make soups cheaper but lets be honest sometimes its worth paying a little more for convenience. Isnt that why we love our drive thru fast food?

All the pasta sides and instant potatoes. These will last us forever and they were 79 cents for the pasta and 99 cents for the potatoes. We are getting lazy in our old age and sometimes we will have something like this for lunch or even dinner. Over the weekend I took some pasta, added cooked chicken I had in the freezer and a cup of frozen peas and it fed three of us for less than $3 and took 15 minutes to make.

A very important thing when you start stocking up on things is to have room to store it and keep up with what you have. I have a very small kitchen with very limited cabinet space. Mr Ladybug and I have started to become minimalists when it comes to clothing and I think he and I can get all our clothes in one small closet and use his closet with was in our hallway as a pantry. So on todays agenda is to clean off the top shelf of the closet to store most of this stuff and get the clothes he doesnt wear anymore to Goodwill. I have used our coffee table which is an old trunk to store kleenex and paper towels. I talked to a mom in the grocery line who only got paid once a month so she shopped once a month. She kid cereal and cookies under her bed in totes so they would last all month with her kiddos. I thought that was pretty smart!

I hope you found this helpful and not terribly long winded.

Free Seeds and Busy Busy Bees

One of the things that we did over the weekend was go to a seed swap. I had packaged and saved some of my onion. marigold and purple bell pepper seeds from last year but had no idea what I was going to do with them. Then I saw the seed swap and took them to share with others. We were super excited to get a few cone flower colors we didnt have and Bakers Creek seed company donated lots of seeds for this event and we were able to snag some that we hadnt ever tried.

Time is flying by and we are as busy as our bees on the urban farm. Speaking of bees I can not wait until this Saturday when we pick up our second hive. Since getting stung on the face over the weekend I am a bit nervous about the 2.5 hour drive home with the bees. I am guessing with Mr Ladybugs allergic reaction to bee stings being much worse than mine he is very nervous. If you spot 2 people in a little red car wearing full bee suits just honk and wave its probably us.

The bees are looking awesome and we are hoping to be well on our way to that first honey flow in June just like last year. I can not wait to taste that amazing floral honey like last year. The honey we harvested later in the year was good but oh how we love that first harvest and so do my customers!

Mr Ladybug signed us up for an air plant terrarium class a few weeks ago and we had so much fun. He loved the air plants from Plants for Pets so much be ordered some and make me this nifty planter for them. We saw a frame sort of like this on amazon for $20. I ran to Goodwill and got mine for $4. We just took it apart and added chicken wire. The air plants were $14 but if you have ever priced them at Lowes or a plant nursery you will find they are normally $5-$7 and these are much bigger. So what would have cost us $55 to buy somewhere only cost us $18.

I was actually wearing that bonnet in the above picture when I got stung by the bee. Another bee had gotten into my bonnet and I now understand that old saying "bee in her bonnet". If you have a bee in your bonnet you are a hot mess and people should stay out of your way.

Notice the difference in these two plants? They are actually both tomato plants. The one on the left is called a potato leaf. Since this tray is full of Glacier tomatoes they obviously got a stray seed mixed in with this pack. Its like Christmas to us, we can not wait to see what kind of tomato plant it turns into. I think I will email Territorial Seeds where we got the seeds from and see what variety of potato leaf tomatoes they carry. We are pretty excited about the Glacier tomato. Its a new one for us too and it suppose to be cooler weather hardy. I am hoping to plant a few later in the season and see how late we can harvest tomatoes outside.

Dont let this cute face fool you. This guy has not only torn a huge hole in the screen of my sons room and has been leaving and coming in through it at night he also tore off the coffee filtered top of my sourdough starter and allowed fruit flies to fly in it. I guess we need to start a new one and cat proof it.  He does have his good qualities too though. When Mr Ladybug let the chickens out to forage around the yard yesterday he stays right back there with them to protect them from anything that might try to do them harm. He doesnt even try to attack them. I guess he just attacks screens and sourdough.

How do you start your day?

Our normal weekday starts with Mr Ladybugs alarm going off and he getting right up. I usually wait a few minutes since we are a one bathroom household and that one bathroom is very small. So while I am waiting a few minutes I am usually snuggling with the worlds cutest beagle. Our Balder Beagle loves to sleep in. Mondays are so funny because hes had the weekend and no morning alarms. So when that alarm goes off on Monday morning he almost always groans like "not again". Hes even worse on long weekends or when Mr Ladybug is on vacation. So this morning he didnt groan but he wasnt amused either. After Mr Ladybug shuts off his alarm Alexa comes on with NPR news. This the thing I need to change. The news is normally not happy and though I do believe we should know whats going on in the world its not the best way to start your day out on a positive note.  I guess I need to figure out how to have Alexa wake me up with fun facts. I will tell you that if you say " Alexa just shoot me". She usually says that she doesnt know what that means. Hopefully tomorrow I will have a fun fact to share with you.

A while back I purchased a Smithfied ham marked down at Walmart. I like Smithfield brand because their spiral hams are usually spiraled through the whole ham. That makes it easy to get most of it off the bone without having to cut it yourself. So as you can see this ham started out at $23.48 and was almost 12 pounds. which made it $1.83 a pound. But when I cut into the package there was so much water, plus the sugar coating package and the bone that I only got about 9.5 pound of product. I am not saying I was ripped off but when you are figuring out how much things cost you have to take these kind of things into consideration.

I only paid $18.08 for the ham and will get 9.5 meals out of it that comes to $1.91 per pound. Which is a really good deal. I saved probably a pound of meat on the bone to cook some beans in too which is included in that 9.5 meals. With the half pound of ham I make homemade hotpockets with extra pizza dough I had in the fridge from over the weekend. I calculated that it cost around $1.75 to make 2 hotpockets and looked up to see that Hotpockets were on sale at the grocery for $2 for 2 in a box. I am sure mine had more meat and better cheese. I think some philly chesse steak hotpockets are in our future. I may even try to freeze some and see how they reheat.

I was reading that you could take egg shells, soak them in apple cider vinegar, place a lid on container, leave it sitting for 3 days and it makes a great anti itch remedy. It does need to be stored in the fridge and is good for about a month. Since I have good supply of egg shells from my chickens and I made 2 gallons of apple cider vinegar in the fall with the peels and cores of the apples we froze I thought I would give it a try. As soon as someone gets bit by something I will let you know how it works. I did it at the beginning of the month so I will try to discard old batch and make a new one each month to always have it on hand. If it works you are looking at less than a penny to make this stuff.

See how its bubbling a little? It will bubble over a bit with a lid on. So sit it on a saucer for those 3 days its out.