Its finally over!!!!

Yesterday afternoon we finally wrapped up the last of the car accident stuff. It only took 2.5 months. I swear it feel like 2.5 years. Since we have almost been hit again with someone running a red light we decided to get a dash cam. I have not pulled the memory card out to see what it looks like on the computer but I started thinking about all the singing I do in the car. I love to sing and even though I dont think I am the worst singer on the planet I am not sure how I am going to feel if I do have an accident and the officer is looking at my video and I am singing "Pour Some Sugar On Me" by Def Leppard.


I am so loving this sunshine. Its making my hands really want to dig in the soil. We have two days of rain ahead of us and then its three days of sunshine and Mr Ladybug home for a long weekend. I am pretty sure we are going to get some of the things we have growing inside planted and under hoops outside. That will give us more room to plant inside. Look at my lettuce. Its growing in a container that had donuts from Walmart in it. The peas will be going outside definitely before they start climbing up the other plants. On our calendar it has that we are to put out onions outside. I think Mr Ladybug planted over 100. We really love onions.

Mr Ladybug planted a whole flat of strawberry seeds.

My to do list was quite easy to accomplish today. Do you have to make yourself lists? 

I am really in the mood to craft. I have no idea what but be looking for something crafty from me.

Serious Randomness for your Monday

I think we are finally getting back into the routine from before the auto accident and all the car sharing that had to go on. I am very thankful for this. As both college kids headed out together this morning no one needs me to pick them up or run them anything. That makes for a quiet Monday morning which is usually what I need after a weekend. I realized its a short month so some bills will be due soon so I sat down and took care of that. How do you do your bills? I usually sit down on Friday and see whats due the coming week and pay them. But that short month threw me off when I realized there wasnt or has never been a February 31.

Mr Ladybug did make me a dessert this weekend so we didnt have to get a divorce. I found a simple recipe for a layered no bake lemon dessert and it was wonderful. I sent this picture to my sister who loves lemon desserts as much as I do and she replied asking why it looked like we just made it on our counter. I have an addiction to clear glass containers and didnt even notice how funny the picture was. I did reply to her that we did in fact make it on the counter because all my dishes were dirty.

Mr Ladybugs Lemon Dessert

1 package of lemon cookies ( we found lemon oreos)
3 Tablespoons of softened butter
1 cup milk
1 box of instant lemon pudding, 3.4 oz or close to it
4 cups of whipped topping, 32 oz total
1 cup lemon curd, more if you are tempted to eat it right out of the jar

Crush all the cookies in a food processor or in a gallon ziplock bag. Place half the crumbled cookies in the botton of a 9x9 inch pan. Mix in the softened butter. You dont have to press the mixture down hard into the pan it will harden a bit in the fridge.

Mix together the pudding and milk and then fold in the whipped topping. Spread mixture on top of the cookies in the pan. Top with about half the remaining cookie crumbs.

Mix Lemon curd with 1 cup of whipped topping and layer it on top of the crumbs. Sprinkle remaining cookie crumbs on top and add 2 cups of whipped topping onto that and place in the fridge for at least 4 hours.

Sometimes you get a mouse or even two in your home or garage. We generally set up traps and our cat is quite the hunter. Yesterday he caught a mouse and took it to the bathtub. The Beagle thought it would be fun to help his brother out and while the cat and the dog growled at each other the  mouse went down the drain. My hubby turned the water on and let it run for a little bit and that was that. Then the boy went to take a shower and there was the mouse in the tub. Yikes! Even though we are not fans of mice whenever I have found one alive like in a bucket in the garage or something I have driven it to the park and released it. I had a popcorn tin that I was undecided what to do with and I got the house in there and drove him to the park. Mr Ladybug thought this was insane and that I should have thrown it in the outside garbage but I figured it survived the house attack, the beagle attack and the water torture and this mouse had a serious will to live. I hope he likes his new home.

Last night was one of those times when I had no idea what to fix for dinner. I try to always have dried tortellini, canned tomatoes and cooked hamburger in the freezer. It makes for a very simple and fast meal to put together. What are some of your quick dinner secrets? I really need them since I think I may becoming lazy in my old age.

I love a bargain and when I saw on FB a friend was selling these coupon books for her son I jumped on board to get one. I like to stick a post it on the cover and keep track of how much we save with these in a year. They are also a great way to try new places and not pay full price if they are not good. This one had an app download that you can get even more savings. I will keep you posted. Mr Ladybug loves Hardees Country Ham biscuits. Yuck, but I do love him so that will probably be our first money savings with it. I will keep you posted.

Whats your plans?

Friday is here which means the weekend is so very close you can smell it! I consider the weekend to start at 4pm because thats when Mr Ladybug gets off work. We have a very wild weekend planned. We are going to some antique and thrift stores on Saturday with our daughter and son in law. I have been looking for an old hand cranked coffee grinder that really works and I am afraid to get one without my mechanical husband.

I did all my grocery shopping yesterday so that today I could just do a few things around the house and not be rushing around. If you are a Kroger shopper there are a few good deals for your Kroger Plus card, If you buy 2 Burger King gift cards forHe  $15 each you get $5 off. Add that to the coupons that come in the mail or ones that you can get off their app and you can get quite a lot for your money. Ruby Tuesdays has buy two $25 gift cards and get $10 off.  Retail Me Not had some coupons for there with either free appetizer or buy 1 meal get one 1/2. Gotta stack those deals people.

I can not believe that next weekend we will be able to plant peas and onions outside. I think the rain is suppose to stop on Sunday so I am sure that we will be doing some things in the garden this weekend to prepare for planting.

I always run to the library on Fridays to grab any books that may look interesting and to snag a few movies. Sometimes we watch them and sometimes we dont. You feel less guilty when they are free. I grabbed American Made with Tom Cruise, Mark Felt with Liam Neeson and Dinane Lang and Wind River with Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen. I am also starting a new book series by Joanne Fluke. Its a Hannah Swensen Mystery and the first one is called Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder. Any book you read that throws in recipes is like the best thing ever.

Mr Ladybug and I have been having a little arguement. I made him homemade peanut butter cookies for Valentines Day. I told him I wanted him to make me a treat as well. He forgot and then the other night he wanted me to make him no bakes. I did but told him he now owes me two tasty treats. If he does not do something this weekend hes in big trouble. He told me he would take me to McDonalds to get a hot fudge sundae. Hes not getting off that easy.

I hope you have a great weekend and have lots of fun adventures.

No Errands Today

I told you I would send pics of pigeon jewelry and here you go. Our pigeon breeding season is not going as well as we would hope. They start laying eggs in late December and we had that super cold weather that may have made it a little hard for them to keep the babies and the eggs warm enough. This little guy does not have a nest mate which is a bit unusual. They always lay two eggs and then hatch them. Since there is no competition for food hes a little chubby buddy which is exactly what I call him. There is another pigeon sitting on her baby but I am a little short to reach her and when I try she smacks me.

I do not have anywhere I have to be today. I am not sure how I feel about that. A little happy and a little scared that maybe I am forgetting something. I am hoping tackle the kitchen counters and come out the winner. No promises. Since I really want to start doing grocery shopping every two weeks I need to get a menu going.

Mr Ladybug and I decided to try Kindle Unlimited. We love to read and listen to audio books. You can try it for free for a month and then its around $10 a month. They also have magazines. I am currently looking at this book. I am not sure how extreme she goes in it but I do believe that we could all be more prepared for natural disasters. The little bit that I have read is very honest, like her talking about trying powdered eggs and that they were nothing like real eggs. I will keep your posted on any thoughts and good ideas I find. I tried another book about cooking on a budget and they lost me when a recipe called for dumping two cans of tuna into spaghetti sauce. Yuck!

We have some rainy days ahead of us. There is actually a flash flood watch from today until Saturday with a prediction of 3-6 inches of rain. Not that I have to personally worry about flooding I do worry for those near that do.

These guys have loved the warmer weather and have had lots of fun running in and out all day. I hope that there are some breaks in the rain so we can go out and not get too wet or muddy. The German Shepherd is Atlas the Beast, The chihuahua is Thor and of course we have Balder the Beagle. I absolutely adore them even though they drive me crazy.

I hope you are having a great day. I would love to hear your thoughts on being more prepared and on anything else that you would like to share.

A Little Bit Of Everything

Wow what a morning. We are normally out the door at 6:15am. The girl doesnt have class on Tuesdays and was sleeping. I dropped off the boy around 8:20 then ran some library movies back that were due yesterday but the library was closed for Presidents day so we had an extra day. I really enjoyed this Agatha Christie movie called Crooked House. I love mysteries and I love how all the suspects are introduced from the very beginning and you keep guess who it is.

I ran back home to see if the girl wanted to go to the feed store with me but shes was going to visit with her sister and will wait until next week so we can go visit the baby chicks at the feed store. I really want to get more but we dont need them but baby chicks are so cute. I did get a free air freshner while at the store and a new straw hat for Mr Ladybug. He doesnt know that the beagle chewed up his old one a few months ago. Shhhh maybe he wont notice.

After the feed store I realized that my tank said I had 13 miles to go on it. Stopped to get gas and ran into Kroger to grab Ale81 while it was on sale. Mr Ladybug drinks one every day. Then I realized I had to mail some racing pigeon bracelets. They are called bands but I like bracelet better, When I go out to feed them later I will post a picture of one of the babies modeling their new bling. Dont tell Mr Ladybug I talked about the pigeons this way. They are suppose to be athletes not my little pretty pets. One of them is named Mr Moo Moo, lets be honest thats a pet name. Got to the post office and it costs $3.50 to mail piegeon jewelry. Highway robbery!



Now the important stuff. The Garden........

I love my bees. I love that they are coming in with full pollen sacks on February.

This is our horseradish plant. I think we need to put it in a bigger pot. We will try to do it this weekend and maybe process some horseradish sauce.

Rhubarb, we have not had much luck with it until we bought some from a local nursery. It had done so well and I look forward to using it a lot this year.

If its been nice weather wise in your area I sure hope you have been able to get out and enjoy the outside.

A lot can happen in a week

I can not believe its been over a week since my last post. Lots of things have been happening on the Urban Homestead. Where do I start.........

We got a car! Monday was spent getting everything set up to pick up the car my hubby picked out. We had to drive a little over an hour to get it which isnt terrible but that had me driving back in our other car, in the dark. on the interstate with nothing but big tractor trailers all around. Not fun!

Tuesday one of the kiddos had a doctors appointment, nothing serious just a regular thing and I had to get insurance stuff taken care of. It was a weird day that nothing worked out easy. I am sure you know what I mean.

Wednesday was getting caught up on things that I had put on the back burner because of the previous two days and then I started not feeling well. I did fix a big Valentines Day dinner for my hubby and my boy.

Thursday I felt terrible. No temperature but chills and fatigue. It was the boys turn to have an appointment. I did start feeling better and my hubby took me out to dinner. I would also like to add that it like rained every stinking day and we got over 3 inches total. My yard is a mess and the dogs were stir crazy with being inside so much and I was stir crazy dealing with the crazy dogs and feeding all the outside animals was a challenge to not slip and fall. The Farmers Almanac was spot on when they said we would have a very wet winter in Kentucky.

Friday things got better. I had to go to the dmv for the title stuff with the totaled car. No one was in line. It was so nice. In and out so fast. I ran errands with my oldest daughter who is married and doesnt live at home and we had fun and got some cute clothes.

Saturday Mr Ladybug had to work and he drove the new car. The kiddos went to school to work and study and I was home alone, with the exception of the crazy dogs, and didnt have to drop off anyone or pick them up and it was awesome! I mopped floors because of all the rain but you cant tell because it rained all day Saturday too but I didnt even care.

Sunday we ran to Lowes, Half Priced Books where I got the rest of the Little House on The Prairie tv show seasons I didnt have, ran by a tile store but they were closed and had lunch at our oldest daughters and her hubbies.

I had been spending about 18 hours a week in the car and that was reduced a little last week and I think we will see even less time in it this week. Yay!

I loved doing the two week grocery run. I really think the extra planning helped me not feel too overwhelmed this past week. I was able to find some good sale on a few things and am pretty stocked up on meat. So my budget should be fine. I have not had the time I would like to work on the apps that I earn my free gift cards on but that is not part of my budget just bonus mad money and I should get back on track with that this week.

Lets get to the important stuff, the garden. Its time to grab potatoes if you havent and let them start sprouting or the correct term is chitting but if I say that too fast it sounds bad.  We have had ours our for a few weeks and they look great. As you can see the two doggie noses in the picture. One is a beagle nose and they other a german shepherd nose, They are quite pleased with the progress and were sad I paid attention so no one ran off with a potato.

We went to a seed starting class last Saturday and started bok choy and broccoli, they are the picture on the right corner. The one below it is my peas planted in toilet paper rolls I cut in half. Peas do not like to be transplanted and have their roots disturbed. This way in a week or two we can just dig a hole and pop them in the ground and are hoping to get at least a two week earlier crop. The bottom left are green onion seeds I saved from last year and the top left are three or four different kinds of cabbages. My Ladybug is very excited to try fermenting sauer kraut this year.

In the picture below you can see our lettuce, radish sprouts and the onions I clip on for cooking. We I need to thin the lettuce and so excited to have more things to eat that we grow ourselves so early in the season. If you have not started planing any of the things we have you still have plenty of time. We have also started cauliflower and Mr Ladybug has some experimental seeds I can not remember what they are.

You should be able to start your onion sets outside on March 1.  I will call around and see if any of the seed places have any out yet. Since we have started ours from seed we will probably not get any unless we see some that we dont have. March 7th is when you can plant peas and spinach outside. This is all so exciting. With our temps being around the 70 degree mark today and tomorrow we will be doing some garden bed prep tonight and I hope to hang some laundry outside as well.

Friday Fun

Yay, its Friday! if you are reading this you survived the week. Please celebrate responsibly, like only one mocha latte from Starbucks. We have an awesome weekend planned. I think we are going to grab a movie from Redbox. I am on my last rental with that discounted gift card. It was a good run tough 25 movies rented for $12 thanks to codes and rewards. We are going to our garden class tomorrow along with a friend. I think we will also map out a plan for our big raised garden. Dont quote me but I think its like 3 feet by 12 feet so that means we have 36 squares to plant things in. We planted the peas and cabbage last night. If the pea transplanting works well I may try it with the green beans as well. If you can get produce a few weeks earlier than normal its worth it in my book.

Look at all that green in the picture. We will probably harvest the radish sprouts, the ones in the blue containers, on Sunday. I found my broccoli sprout seeds so we will give them a try too. The wheat grass needs to be mowed. this will be the 4th cutting of it. We are going to try sprouting outside this year as well. I think I have found a good place to get seeds and will let you know how that works.

Today is suppose to be in the 50's and I think we may even see the sun! Make sure you get outside and soak it all in. Its suppose to be rainy over the weekend. I hope to see my bees our flying around. They use warm days to clean the hive. Bees are so fascinating.

I am headed to the grocery stores this morning. I mentioned yesterday I am going to give a two week meal plan a try. I use to do a monthly grocery haul so surely I can do two weeks without issue.

Last night as we were planting the peas Mr Ladybug said "why cant we just plant frozen peas" and I was like "because they have been cooked" and he said "really" and I was like "yeah" and he said "who knew" and I was like "ummm everyone but you". I seriously think he knew that but just says things to drive me crazy. I have a good mind to stick some frozen broccoli spears in a pot today and tell him I am pretty sure they will sprout roots.