Good intentions killed my plant!

Just like video killed the radio star my intentions killed this plant. A few weeks ago I was out weeding my peppermint and I clipped a few pieces to put in a jar with water just to see how long they would last. I am happy to report they WOULD have lasted quite a long time had I not let all the water evaporate out of the jar. It even started sprouting roots so I could have replanted and got a whole new plant. I put water in that thing twice a week for like three weeks then one day just totally forgot about it. It was sitting in my kitchen window right near the sink where i spend lots time with my hands in WATER washing dishes.  All is actually not lot though. I can use the now dried leaves as peppermint tea.

I had good intentions though. That counts for something doesnt it? I think about little projects I started or planned to start that got forgotten about. Dreams I had that were thrown to the wayside and sadly even friendships that sort of fizzle out because I kept intending to call them. With friendships we even sometimes justify it by saying "well its a two way street and they could have just as easily called me". They could but maybe life got just as busy for them as it got for you or maybe life got pretty stinky and your call could have been much used. Dont worry I am not writing to make anyone feel terrible. I have actually started 2 posts the past 2 days that slowly turned into crazy rants. Thats what happens when you decide to keep up with the world news.

I am here to hopefully give you hope and tell you to stop reading political news for a few days, your blood pressure will thank you. I want you to think about something you have intended to do but havent. If its because of time think how you can rearrage your schedule to make the time. Could it be something as simple as turning off the screen, thats tv or tablet? I wont lecture you about your facebook addiction as long as you dont mention my Pinterest one. Is money stopping you? Maybe you need to look at your budget or maybe you need to make a budget. Where can you save money to put towards your goal or dream or how can you make some extra money?  You have had your intention or you dream now its time to move on to your plan.

Think about relationships that you have and are there any people you wish to reach out to. People you may think about in the morning but then get busy and look at the clock at night and think its too late to call. I texted a friend last night at 10:30pm. I freaked when I realized the time. Shes actually someone I talk to often I just saw something on Pinterest and didnt want to forget to tell her about it.

I am reading a book right now that takes place right after WWII and its all written as letters to and from different people. It has really made me sad how the art of letter writing will be lost if not already. Reaching out to someone could be as simple as sending them a card that says "Been really busy but miss talking to you. Lets do tea." You dont have to do tea thats just one of my favorite things.


Water your intentions, help them grow roots into a plan or relationship and watch them take root to establish your goal garden. Can you tell I am a little excited about fall gardening?


Lots of Love

Mrs Ladybug

Busy Bees

I remember a few years ago I read an article about bees and then my hubby and I watched a documentary on colony collapse. I looked at him and he knew what I was thinking and he said " we are never getting bees". Oh by the way thats my husband in the bee suit.

Last year we had gotten bees and everything was fine with them until about February. On an unseasonably warm day we noticed that our bees were acting a little odd and when we opened the hive almost all were dead. There are lots of reasons why this would happen. A more experienced beekeeper told me that with the temps getting warm and cool every other day the ball the bees make to keep warm  may have broken up thinking spring had arrived only to have it get below freezing again and they died. Whatever the reason we were bummed.

We had already ordered some bees to start a second hive so we knew we would have at least one but decided to order package of bees, With a nuc of bees you get around 10,000 bees with four frames that usually already have the queen laying eggs in. In a package of bees you get 3-5 thousand bees with a new queen in a box that they have to eat a sugar cork to get to. These bees have been taken from a healthy hive and if the queen was just put in there with them would kill her. Because they cant get to her and they have lost their queen they are kind of angry at first but as they get use to her smell by the time they are able to get to her they love her like their old queen. Another difference between a nuc and a package besides price is where they are at in the building up for the next winter. The package bees are at least a month behind the nuc.

Here it is getting to be the end of summer and the bees have been busy collecting pollen and making honey. As my hubby was inspecting the smaller hive this morning he brought me a present, propolis. This is a wonderful thing. Its a natural antibiotic, its believed to help lower blood sugar, help with minor burns and even help with ear infections. I am not a doctor nor am I telling you to stop seeing your doctor if you are on medications.

The best news was with the 1 1/2 quarts of honey that we were able to get today, in a few weeks, there should be more in the bigger hive. I promise you that we leave plenty of honey for the bees. There are some large scare bee keepers who take all the honey and then feed their bees sugar water over the winter. I personally wonder if that is contributing to some colony collapse.  How would be handle having all our food taken away for the winter and only being able to drink sugar water?

So here is my sweetie turning the extractor and a picture of a little honey with the capping from the frame. We had to strain out all the wax and little bee parts. We set the frames with the wax outside near the hive and the bees cleaned it all right up.

Have a great Saturday. We are going to go stargazing tonight unless the hubby isnt feeling it. He actually got stung on the leg by one of the bees. Thank goodness he thinks the honey is worth the stings.

Changing the world one foot soak at a time.

If you like to read my blog for my neat little recipes then just scroll down past the picture of the jar with my foot soak recipe in it. I am feeling a little chatty today and am lightly touching on world events and religion. I just needed to give my two cents worth and well this is my blog.

I am pretty terrible at keeping up with current events, I dont watch the news, some days I dont even turn on the tv. I know nothing of politics. I sort of live in a bubble. Its not that I dont care about whats going on outside my world its actually everyone having an opinion on whats going on out there that I dont care to hear. I promise you this is about as political or worldly as I get in my posts. I have learned in my 47 years that I can not change people. I can only change how I react to them and I chose love. Even for those who are not very lovable, My motives for that are pretty self serving as well. Just because I chose to show kindness to someone not being kind to me doesnt make them stop what they are doing and start being nice as well. It can but thats not always how it happens. They walk away angry that they didnt get a fight and I walk away feeling sorry for them but not angry.

I am just a woman who wants to garden, raise chickens, keep bees, and leave my little square of land better than I found it. I want to make my own stuff and create things that make me smile and hope to inspire a few people along the way the way that others have inspired me.

As I have made the mistake this week of keeping up with a few current events I thought if I could change the world around me how would I start. What do I do when I need to relax and get my thoughts under control? I soak my feet. This actually reminded me of something in the Bible. In John 13:1-17 when Jesus washes his disciples feet. This is also something I dont really do in my blog is get religous on you. I am not ashamed of my faith or that I am a christian. I believe that if we are doing it right we dont have to let everyone know we are a christian. I would hope that it shows in our actions.  Back to the foot soaking. My evening foot soaks are something that winds me down. Its relaxing and calming. I wonder if anyone would join me if I set up a few chairs around a wash tub in my front yard and put a little sign up that said free foot soak. I wonder how long it would take for a few people to start stopping by regularly?  I could also go big. We have a big fountain in our downtown I could just make up a big batch of my foot soak, dump it in the fountain and ask passersby to join me there. After I am arrested and get out of jail I could just do it again the next day. Is it even possible to have heated conversation sitting across from someone while you share a foot soak?

Last night as I was sitting with my feet in the tub thinking about all the negative things I read online and wondering if this world is really as terrible as everyone seems to think I thought about a few encounters I have had this week with people.  One was with a pharmacy worker who commented on how similar our phone numbers were which made me ask her if she had a rental property in another county that I am constantly getting calls for. She said yes. One was with a cashier at the grocery that we somehow got on the subject of her husband traveling a lot and she had lots of sample size toiletries she didnt know what to do with and I gave her the name of an organization to donate them to. I had a nice little chat with a lady who gave me her shopping cart at Aldis when I couldnt find a quarter. I then in turn gave it to someone when I was finished. I got to see my sister who lives like 10 hours away and she gave me shoes which I needed because puppy keeps chewing up my sandals. Lots of terrible things happened in the world this week. That doesnt mean that its a terrible world. Lots of amazing things have happened this week in the world. We just dont get to read about them. Instead of posting and reposting the negative things that happen in the world what if we posted ways that we personally impacted our little bubble positively? Just a thought.

World Changing Foot Soak

1 cup baking soda
1/2 cup epsom salt
5 drops of lavender
1 TBS spoon lavender buds (optional)

Mix and store in jar. Add a few tablespoons to your foot soak and enjoy.

Is that little crocheted basket adorable or what? My sister made that for me and filled it with chocolate. I think shes a keeper. We have a fun weekend planned. We are going to learn more about watching the stars, we are going to can some food and we get to see an eclipse on Monday. We are going to plant some peas, lettuce and other stuff.

A quick good morning

My daughter has a friend who rescued a baby opossum whose momma had died. Is that not the cutest thing ever? I do not need a baby opossum, I do not need a baby opossum, I do not need a baby opossum. I really want a baby opossum. My hubby was asleep when our daughter got home last night and showed me the picture. I sent it to him this morning and got a very quick reply. He thought we had found it and it was in our house. I think we was relieved to know that it wasnt.

This spider is named Hildy. She showed up several weeks ago when it was pretty hot outside between the window and the screen at my kitchen sink. I thought she was fun to watch while washing the dishes and she caught lots of little bugs. I think she keeps getting bigger and now that the temps are sometimes getting lower I cant open my window for fear of her coming in the house! I also feel like it would be kind of rude to ruin her little home when I encouraged her and I do actually talk to her every day.  I think while I am sitting getting my car worked on today I will try to find out what kind of spider she is.

You will be happy to know I slept so well last night. I like to soak my feet at night. I fill up the bottom of the tub with warm soapy water and sit on the side with my feet in a read. My daughter has been coming in there to join me and so has our dogs. The dogs dont get in the tub they just sleep on the floor. Anyway after my relaxing foot soak, I come to bed, use my magnesium oil, put on any essential oil that I find calming, and turn on my diffuser. RIght now we are using euclapytus and lavender to help with my hubby allegies. I fell asleep on my left side and woke up 7 hours in the same exact position feeling very awake.  I think while googling spiders I will add look up good foot soak recipes as well.

Yesterday the kiddos and I ran to one of my favorite grocery stores. Luckys. We purchased some peaches and they girl couldnt even wait to get home before she bit into one. She said it had no flavor and it was disappointing. So I called a local orchard to see if their peaches were ripe and for sale yet and they were. We drove there and bought some and it was so worth it. They also had tomatoes on sale and since the squirrels and groundhog and  I really hope its only one groundhog, I think I may get some of those tomatoes to can this weekend. You get 26 pounds for $15. While I am there I may grab some apple cider as well. We love Evans Orchard!

I hope you all have an amazing Thursday. Find time to make a new friend even if its an opossum or a spider.


Lots of Love,

Mrs Ladybug

How can it only be Wednesday?

This week is just dragging on. Does anyone else feel they are moving in slow motion? We are pretty schedule oriented in our house and if anything disrupts that we are all off our game. I use to think we were pretty flexible but I think I was in denial. 

Our daughter got back from her vacation yesterday. We drove about an hour and a half to pick her up which was a much shorter journey than the 13 hours she and my sister spent in the car. Being away in the evening put out pets off their evening schedules, I decided to drink and iced tea while we were out which must have had triple the caffeine in it and I was unable to fall asleep. The puppy needed back out around 11 as  I was drifting off to sleep. Then he started barking his crazy head off when I let him out. I saw a groundhog yesterday eating my cucumbers and I think the puppy may have been barking at it last night. Hes a beagle and you can always tell when he picks up a scent. To make things even more fun the cat decided to jump on and off our bed last night aggravating the puppy and our other dog. That my friends is why I have dark circles under my eyes and can not speak in complete sentences today.  Its okay though as you can tell in the photo Balder is sleeping perfectly well right now.

These are the pizzas we made the other day. Once frozen the stack perfectly in a bag and fit in the freezer. Since I had ran out of mozzarella we just put the dough and all the toppings in little bags and put it all in a big bag. All I will have to do is roll our the dough once it thaws, add the toppings and bake.

We also make mini meatloaves. We freeze them. pop them our of the muffin cups. place in bag and pop out whats needed for dinner. When baking them I will flatten one like a hamburger, add the the catsup topping and put it in my hubbys lunch one day. I think meatloaf sandwiches are weird but he likes them.

I really dont have an exact meatloaf recipe. For every pound of ground meat I add an egg and 1/2 cup of bread crumbs. You can add chopped onion and green peppers if you like as well. For the topping I just mix 1/2 catsup to a few teaspoons of brown sugar and spoon on top about 10 minutes before its done. I really need to time them too. I just normally look at them and know they are finished. Oh no I am turning into my mom and granny. I remember asking my mom for a recipe when I was firt married and she said " just add this and this and that and bake" No measurements or times and I got off the phone with her and fixed something else that had exact measurements and times.

I have been using the magnesium foot lotion and the homemade eye cream for about 10 days now. I have to say I think both work very well. On nights when the animals dont all lose their minds and I dont drink caffeine I sleep great. I dont think I look any younger but my face is so soft. After reading severy recipes for an all face cream I seen that they were all mostly the same as the eye cream and started put it all over my face and neck. I used magnesium tablets on my foot cream and have since read about using flakes that dissolve and you are sort of making your own oil. I am going to try that next and maybe not have the grit left in the bed from the capsules. Did you ever get your kids a sandbox at home and then you found sand everywhere for like 5 years. Thats sort of what the magsesium is like in the capsules.

On the agenda today is to stay awake, finish getting some things in the freezer, figure out where my tomato sauce pictures are on my tablet,  try to get my blog ready in the evening since I have a car appointment in the morning and write a book on tire pressure monitoring systems because I have been back to the shop three times and am becoming an expert on them.

Lots of Love

Mrs Ladybug

Spaghetti Sauce and a quick hello

My day has managed to get filled up and I almost didnt post anything today. I want to blog and I enjoy it. I actually do not care how many readers I have. Mind you I would love to have lots of people enjoy my blog but just the few responses that I get tickles me polka dotted. I know the saying is pink but polka dots are my favorite.  So if there is something that you enjoy doing I would like to encourage you to do it. Even if you arent very good at it. Sort of like me and grammar.

The boy and I made a big pot of spaghetti sauce. For dinner we had spaghetti and meatballs and we made pizzas to freeze for this weekend plus a pizza meal kit I will show you tomorrow.

Spaghetti Sauce

5-28 oz cans of crushed tomatoes ( make sure your pot is big enough)
5 Tablespoons of italian seasoning ( dried or from your garden)
3 Tablespoons sugar or honey ( you dont have to add this but I think it cuts the acidity of the tomatoes)
salt and pepper to taste

Cook on medium heat and simmer for at least 30 minutes. Its ready to serve or freeze.

For some crazy reason I can only get my pizza pic to load. We used the spaghetti sauce to make the pizzas. We roll them out, add all our toppings and freeze them in the pie pans. Then we pop them out the next day and stack them in ziplock freezer bags. When you bake them you just add a few more minutes to your cook time.

Super lazy weekend, pancake Sunday, and why I am wearng a hat.

I recently noticed that whenever we get ready to go somewhere my guys grab a baseball cap to throw on. I guess it is like how I always grab my purse. Of course you cant keep things in your hat so it actually seems a bit weird. I wear a baseball cap when we are going to be out like walking the dogs and things and they are great for protecting your eyes from the sun. Thats the extent of my hat experiences. As a joke the other day when my guys grabbed their caps I put my hair in a pony tail and threw on mine as well. I now know the secret. You dont have to worry with how your hair looks.  I may never take this thing off or brush my hair ever again. I fell so free now. Think of all the time I will save!

I was not feeling well this weekend. Nothing serious and nothing a heating pad. chocolate. lying in bed and crying while watching chick flicks wouldnt cure I should have known something was wrong when I had the urge to flip someone off the other day. I dont do that or ever think about it but sometimes those hormones are insane. 

My guys and my oldest daughter and her hubby went to a baseball game Friday night. I normally go out shopping with our other daughter but shes in Alabama visiting my sister and sending me pictures like this one. 

I am totally jealous but glad they are having a good time. So since I was alone  I did some Christmas shopping. I know that may sound crazy to some but I really like to get it all knocked out before Thanksgiving. I even try to have most of my meals planned and cooked for the month of December just so I can sit back and enjoy the holidays and whatever else might pop up that month. We will discuss that more as the holidays approach. 

Saturday was so lazy and just what a frazzled ladybug needed. My husband put on a few finishing touches to our daughters room while she was away. She painted her room before she left and he told her he would do her trim and hang her light fixture. The boy and I ran to Chipotle with my amazing coupon. I also had a great coupon at chicken place and the boy used that one since he does not like Chipotle. While we ate lunch we watched The Lost World of Z. I enjoyed the book and I enjoyed the movie. It had gotten some bad reviews, I am guessing because it wasnt action packed enough for some people.  I found the story of Percy Fawcett interesting and sad. The book was written by David Grann and of course had much more information than the movie.

Every Sunday I make pancakes for breakfast. I have no idea how this started as a tradition. Honestly am not a huge fan of them but my guys are and I am a huge fan of my guys. These are my blueberry pancakes. 

Pancakes

1 1/2 cup all purpose flour

2-3 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons sugar

1 egg

2 Tablespoons cooking oil

1/2-1 cup of milk This is a personal preference. I like a thicker batter so I only use 1/2 cup some like a more thin batter.

Mix dry ingredients and then add the wet ones. You can add chocolate chips or any berries if you like. Use a 1/4 measuring cup or scoop to put in a hot oiled skillet. when you see bubbles its time flip. 

The other day my friend Marlene messaged me a picture of a crockpot full of homemade spaghetti sauce. She was going to freeze what her family didnt eat for faster dinners later. I was super inspired and the boy and I are going to make up a big batch of spaghetti sauce today to make spaghetti and meatballs,  a ravioli casserole, lasagna soup and pizzas. I will share my recipes tomorrow. I dont have them written down and will try to get better measurements for your guys other than " throw in this or that".

Have a great Monday friends.

Lots of Love,

Mrs Ladybug