Five Things for Friday

1.  I'm SO glad God gave me last week, because this week has been INSANE! I had a weirdish virus that attacked my right tonsil and I pretty much decided to LISTEN to my body and go to bed.....er....well....as close to resting in bed as possible. After our birthday celebration, I crashed.  This week has been crazy busy with church stuff and other delightful occupations......

2. I'm super proud of my baby girl. She has really grown up. She comes home after work and tells us of her exciting adventures. If you remember correctly, she works at a local hospital transporting patients. The other day she told me that there was a crazy naked guy hopped up on drugs running down the hall towards her and the security guys yelled at her to STOP HIM! She knew a short cut to get to him and she actually tackled him and held him down until the big guys got there. The security guys said, Dang, girl!  She has begun a new relationship with a very nice young man and I think she is so very brave, strong and super smart! 

3.  We've had an ongoing crazy saga with our sectional all week. 

 

I had decided that the old faithful couch needed a redo.  I called an upholstery company that was recommended, and after I picked myself up off the floor at the price of a redo (it was over $4000!), we decided to go shopping and see if we could find a new one cheaper.

We saw this one that was considerably cheaper, but I still wanted to think about it. Before making a final decision, I called another upholstery company. The quote they gave me was less than HALF the original quote for the reupholstering, so this is what my family room looks like now.

This crazy saga was all documented on facebook because I wanted my kids to see the possible new one. They are SUPER attached to the old couch-it's SUPER comfortable-we've all had many a nap on the old faithful......So we wait for it to get redone. I just hope that I picked the right fabric!!!

4.  Finished up another baby quilt for the little guy coming this summer. This one was super easy and super satisfying because I did SUPER well on the binding. Is that enough supers in one sentence?

 Close up of the fabric. His mama loved the old fashioned vehicles on it!

5.  I've been more immersed in the scriptures recently than ever before.  I think I have mentioned this web site, http://www.theredheadedhostess.com/ . I have been using her ideas to study and write and mark in my new scriptures and it's so amazing the spirit that I have felt. I can't emphasize enough the importance of studying, really studying the scriptures EVERY day. I can feel myself changing and growing in ways that I could never have imagined.  PLEASE spend time every day with the word of God.....(and that's a reminder for myself too!)

Until later.....

Veggify!

I haven't posted much recently about our continuing endeavors to cram more fruits and veggies into our lives. TL is on board with me and we are on a course to veggify every meal we eat. In the past month or so I have taken Instagram photos of some yummy breakfasts that we have eaten and thought maybe I would throw these out to inspire others.

This breakfast salad was inspired by many of the Chef Brad shows I've watched. He mixes a cooked whole grain with some fruits and a sweet vinaigrette, topped with some kind of nuts. I cooked some kamut, and mixed it with some fresh pineapple, oranges and bananas. The dressing was also inspired by Chef Brad. I found a fruit-flavored flax oil that is DELISH! Mixed with a little balsamic vinegar and tossed with the fruit. I topped it with raw cashews. I feel SO good when I eat this way for breakfast.

My man loves his eggs. This was inspired by a commercial I saw on TV, I think it was IHOP. I sauteed some red pepper, green onion, mushrooms and spinach and topped it with a fried egg. Hubby man doesn't like cooked spinach, so his doesn't have it. There's usually about a cup of veggies underneath the egg. YUM!

Here's another, a kind of egg hash. This one was inspired by Real Simple Magazine. I can't remember the exact contents, but I know it has sauteed cauliflower. It was surprisingly good and hubby man liked it too. My secret code is, "Is it a keeper?"  If it's a thumbs up, then I will make it again. I have definitely had some thumbs down meals!

Here's another yummy salad that was inspired by my dear Hispanic sisters. It has shredded cabbage, carrots and cilantro.  I toss it with a little rice wine vinegar and salt.  It tastes DELISH with all Mexican food and I've even eaten it with fish tacos or even in a corn tortilla all on its own as a vegetarian taco. 

Of course we still have green smoothies.....drinking a little more of them as the weather heats up.  I would LOVE to get any more ideas on veggifying meals so SPEAK UP if you are reading this and share some good stuff with me!

Celebrating Life

Last night we celebrated the life of one of our sweet grandbabies. He was born a year ago Sunday. What a precious boy he is!!

I get all mushy and sentimental when I see him because he is the SPITTIN' image of his daddy more than 30 years ago........

Crazy, huh?

He was surrounded by a loving family...siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents. Isn't that what life is all about? 

Although when Chuck E. Cheese showed up, I'm not sure if he thought he was a friend or foe....

 

 Can't wait to get his hands on that yummy "cake."

It brought back memories of someone else when he was a year old.......

Grandma replaced his quilt that got stolen last fall.
(Any good excuse to make a quilt, I say!)

Happy Birthday, sweet boy....!

Five Facts on Friday

I can't BELIEVE that it has been a week since I posted! I got back from Utah early, early Saturday morning and I've been in mourning ever since. Then we got the wonderful gift of a few days of cooler weather and even rain! So today for my five facts, I'm going to show five photos of my new garden. It's not much to look at yet, but I always have high hopes!
#1

 This is the new cucumber patch......I can't believe I had a brain f**t just now and I couldn't think of the word for cucumber in English!!! (it's pepino in Spanish BTW) The Armenian cucumbers love Arizona best but I always plant other varieties in hopes that I can get a successful crop.
#2

This is what I hope will be the bean patch.....This is the THIRD time I've planted seeds, only to have the birds eat all the sprouts.  !@#$%^ birds!!!
#3

 This is the pepper and squash patch. I found out recently that what I THOUGHT was fabulous compost may be full of ground up drywall......GRRRRR......I'm thinking this is why my plants seem so scrawny. We are hoping to correct the problem with deep watering.
#4

This is the tomato patch. So far, so good, I haven't seen any disease yet in my plants. I have had two years of tomato failure in a row due to some type of wilt......again,the gardener's hope springs eternal!
#5

This is the future pumpkin/melon patch. I still have a bit of swiss chard I'm clinging too along with the rest of the green onions that have yet to be eaten.  I've got a few other little projects going on in the garden, but then I would have had to post more than five photos, right?

So how's your garden coming along???

Five Facts on Friday

I'm writing this on my iPad, so I hope I can get it done with a minimum of errors and frustration. So the five facts will probably be short... 1. I'm in Utah. I love coming up a couple of times a year to pop in on my parents and get a little sisterly love from my Sis in Salt Lake. It feels like this visit is super short for some reason tho..." 2. I love technology, but sometimes I hate it. I love the fact that while I'm away I can communicate rapidly with family, check on how they are on Facebook, send photos through a text BUT last night I was sitting and visiting with my family and we all had our cell phones and we were checking emails, playing games, surfing the web and sending texts. I remarked that it was amazing that we were all together, yet we were somewhat disconnected due to our technology. I could write a whole blog post on the distractions that take us away from what's really important in life. Guilty as charged! 3. I dread going home to the weather. It's supposed to be 99 degrees tomorrow in Phoenix and I've been languishing in the 60s and rainy skies here. For heavens's sake, what happened to spring? 4. I saw two people I knew from my stake here within an hour of each other. It was hilarious meeting someone from home, totally out of context of my normal world. 5. I LOVE the mountains! I took a walk yesterday on the "tree streets" where my parents live in the shadow of the Wasatch front mountains. It was so amazing and the hills were better than any treadmill intervals.....ouch! I wish I could harness that gorgeous mountain and haul it home with me! So that's it for today, see ya on the other side of the weekend. Today my Sis and I are going to the new City Creek mall. So beyond excited!

Lumber Jill

I am always loathe to give up my plants from the fall/winter/spring gardening season. But the heat marches on and if I want space for the new plantings, and also to get rid of the old before it fries, I have to clear out the old.
Last week I was working on removing the prolific kale that had grown over the past season.  Much to my surprise, the plants would not yield to my tugging.  After inspection, I realized that a mere shovel was not going to get the job done.  Jessica documented my struggles.....

I always garden with my earrings on. 

It required a hacksaw to "chop" down these babies

Big addition to the compost heap......too bad I don't have chickens.......

Look at the size of that "trunk!" TL had to dig out the roots for me. They were the size of a small bush! I got my workout that morning.......
Lest you think that I tossed all the vegetation, I took the best leaves and did this:

Blanched them in boiling water for about 30 seconds, then placed them in ziplock bags. I had about 8 quart-sized bags of kale, ready for the freezer. I will use them in my yummy sausage, kale and potato soup (I think it's an adaptation from Pioneer Woman)

I felt so provident-ish........

Easter Eve at Grandma's House

No words necessary.....

Amazingly enough, we managed to color about 10 dozen eggs with a minimum of mess and no ruined clothes!

And we all know that frosting tastes much better on the knife than on the cookie!

 Grandpa needed to assist in harvesting the carrots for the Easter Bunny from Grandma's garden.

One little bunny that was too little to participate, the other little bunny was crawling around Grandma's dirty floors getting his knees and hands filthy.....

And we only had one casualty that evening!