Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Like a chicken with its head cut off

Like a chicken with it's head cut off, that's how I refer to myself on a regular basis, how about you ? There are days where I find myself running all over creation never stopping to really gain any semblence of control. Days when one child has to go in one direction, the other in the opposite direction, I'll be called upon to watch my Grandson (A favor I can rarely say no to) there'll be orders to fill and hungry children to feed and those children don't want to wait 30 mins for Mom to cook dinner and Mom doesn't want to feed her kids junk food or frozen nuggets, enter in the handy dandy crock-pot, I seriously don't know where I'd be without it, there's nothing better after a long crazy day of running, knowing that the minute you walk through that door dinner is ready, rarely is dinner a flop and once in a while it'll be a dinner that everyone raves about and can't get enough of and that's why I'm writing this. Last week I made Slow Cooker Lemon Garlic Chicken and it was to die for, not even kidding and it would be a sin not to share the recipe with all of you busy people out there so without further ado (Because I know you have somewhere to run off to) here's the recipe.

Slow Cooker Lemon Chicken

Ingredients

4 lemons
3 whole heads of garlic
1 whole chicken
Fresh Rosemary
Seasoning of your choice ( I used garlic and wine seasoning from the Melting Pot )

Instructions

Cut 2 garlic heads and 3 lemons in half and place at the bottom of the crockpot
Add a sprig of Rosemary
Remove insides from chicken, rinse and pat dry
Season chicken well inside and out and stuff with the remaining head of garlic (halved) and half a lemon
Slice up remaing lemon and place over the top of the chicken along with a sprig of Rosemary

Cook according to your crockpot directions... I cooked mine on high for 4 hours and it was perfect

Once chicken is cooked remove from crockpot, carve and serve.

I served this with Wild Rice and asparagus and poured the juices over the rice and chicken, it was soooo good.

                                                              ENJOY !!

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Starting over

I've decided to start blogging again if for no other reason than to document what goes on around here, so many fun and life changing things happen on a day to day basis and I am realizing that it quickly gets forgotten in the bustle of every day life.
Today I was hustled by the 10 y/o, can you believe that ? I couldn't. We were looking through the Scholastic flyer and she'd chosen several books, they were over my
budget and so she asked if she could pay half towards the one she really wanted. The one she REALLY wanted was $16. I made her what I thought was a good deal "You pay half towards the most expensive book and you can get all 3, or I'll pay for the most expensive and you only get 2 " She thought about this for a while and said "How about you pay for the most expensive and I'll buy the other 2 ? " The other 2 came to $6, yep out smarted by the 10 y/o and ladies and genleman that's why in her words she should get into the T.A.D program this year 

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Ant Repellent, tried and true

Wednesday morning I came downstairs bleary eyed to make coffee and start on the preparations for the day the last thing I expected to see was the army of ants who had invaded my counter tops during the night. I went to war, spraying and squishing until each and everyone was dead and I was able to claim victory for a short period of time, and then the next army came along, walking up to the bait traps but smart enough not to go in and take sips of the poison residing inside and then I remembered a friend had shared a recipe for an ant repellent on Facebook so I looked her up and found it. I was dubious at first but asked Marc to please go out and purchase the one ingredient that I didn't have on hand.. Boric Acid.
Later that night whilst cleaning up from a day of festivities I looked over and sure enough hundreds of ants were covering my counter tops again and this time I went to war with a new ammunition and oh boy it was like a miracle. It didn't work as my friend had described, they didn't climb up the jar reaching in to take sips and then taking back to the colony, instead I watched in awe as they retraced their footsteps all the way back to the crack in the window ledge from where they first came, so I have to believe the mixture gives off some pretty toxic fumes that only an ant can smell.
So without further ado here is the recipe for you, so you can go to war as soon as you see the first army march on into your home.

1 cup sugar
1 cup Boric acid
3 cups warm water
Cotton balls
2 x 1 pint Mason jars

Mix the sugar and Boric acid together, add water and whisk.
Fill both jars with cotton balls
Pour mix in jars until cotton balls are almost covered
Set where major ant traffic is.

Warn all children and unsuspecting adults what is in the jars so they don't touch the foam that sits on top  or even choose to drink it .

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Post Worthy

I've really struggled lately with what is really post worthy and well apparently I decided nothing really was whence the lack of posting but then a special man walks into your life and you know you have to share him with the world especially when you find out he's on the endangered species list and he literally just walked across your path without a care in the world, so let me introduce you to this amazing male species because it would be selfish not to share and you may never get a chance to view him again.
Meet Sphodros rufipes doesn't he sound exotic ? Now for his not so exotic name The Red legged Purse Web Spider..


I captured him just long enough to take his picture and then find out what he was, once it was determined he wasn't going to hurt any household member we let him run free back to where we found him in hopes that he'll find a mate and live happily ever after.
Pretty cool huh ?

Friday, April 27, 2012

I need your help

My oldest daughter has just been diagnosed with Celiacs Disease, I have to get my other 2 kids tested for it because they are both showing symptoms of it and if one person has to go gluten free then I've decided that we all will, in the long run I'm pretty sure it will benefit all of us. But here's where I need you, I know there are a lot of people going GF now for one reason or the other, if you're one of them could you share some recipes and cook books along with pointers such as what flours are better, tapioca or potato, are some GF crackers better than others ? what salad dressing do you use ? what about broths and noodles ? a staple around here is homemade chicken noodle soup, but my recipe is going to have to be tweaked a bunch I'm thinking.
If you could help me in this process I'd be so appreciative xox

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Frugal Crafter

I love it when I can go through my supplies and come up with a meaningful gift that ends up costing pennies. This week was one of those times, I'd seen some gorgeous fabric at Hobby Lobby that I had to have, the best part was it was on clearance, I bought 1/2 yard for $2.50.  I decided to make a clothespin bag out of it and it turned out beautifully , once one of the teachers at Reagan's school saw it she too fell in love and said it would be perfect to put baby socks in and it would match the new nursery perfectly, she wanted it.  I had a very small amount of the fabric left and figured I'd make her a little something out of the rest, I looked around my stash and found the perfect supplies, a small amount of white minky and some bright ribbons for a ribbon blankie, a Birdseye cloth diaper (unused) to fancy up into a burp cloth and some super soft white flannel to back the very last teeny tiny bit of pretty fabric and turn it into a newborn bib.
So for $2.50 and some extra supplies laying around my sewing room I came up with this ensemble, pretty sweet huh ?


Thursday, April 19, 2012

This boy

This is Ben (the big one not the little one) in case you didn't know Ben is my son, the little he is cradling is his nephew (my Grandson ;) ) Ben is 14 and Ben makes his Momma proud.
I don't write about him a whole lot because well he's 14 and I like to put pics with my posts and often when he's getting his picture taken he looks a lot like this
Nice huh ? Cracks me up though because he's generally really smiley, but point the camera in his direction and it's all over, whence I don't take many pics of him, add that to the fact that he's 14 and what 14 year old do you know who is going to approve of his mother writing about him on a public blog ? But sometimes you've just gotta  do whatcha' gotta do and he's such a great kid (most times) that I wanted to brag on him and have something to read on the days he drives me nuts to remind me what an awesome person he is behind the teenage hormones that can raise their ugly heads at any given time.
Ben now towers over me, he's 5ft 8 inches, I'm a mere 5 ft 3 inches and he likes to rub that in my face whenever he can, it's very odd to have a son who is so much taller than you are, it's even odder to have to shop in the men's department for your 14 y/o son, very odd indeed. He may tower over me and it's obvious he's going to get much taller if his feet are anything to go by, size 11  people, but he's my gentle giant. He's so 'nice' I can't think of a better adjective to describe him and I think that's his best quality. I don't know how many times I've had friends tell me that they saw Ben at the mall with his friends and how he spoke to them, not embarrassed to be seen talking to his Mom's friends but will go out of his way to talk to them and not walk in the opposite direction, he's nice to little kids, he's kind to his younger sister (most times)  and her friends, he'll talk to them, play with them, he's nice to his teachers both past and present, PTA meetings last twice as long if I take him with me because we have to walk around and say hello to every teacher he's had in the past and every time they'll tell me the same thing, he's so nice, he's also funny and brings humor into the classroom, yes there have been times that he was the class clown and needed to be reprimanded, even received a detention one time, but for the most part he's nice, funny and smart. Smart, oh boy is he ever and he takes his schooling seriously, a far cry from his oldest sister, he's in all AP classes and next year as he starts High School he'll be taking Honors classes, his favorite subject without a doubt is Latin, where he gets his love of foreign language and ability to pick it up so quickly I have no clue, perhaps his Grandfather who can speak fluent Spanish as well as English. We'll be going places and he'll see a word in Latin on something and have to take a picture, even if it's on the T-Shirt that his drum teacher is wearing, he gets extra credit for things like that, and extra credit rocks, right ?  Talking of his drum teacher, yes he plays the drums, he loves to play the drums and some days it drives this Momma crazy and I have to send him out to the garage to practice.
He's already getting his ducks in a row to play in the symphonic marching band in High School, it's not going to be an easy task, there's an audition process and only the best get in, so he's putting in extra practice, going to all the band camps and introduction sessions offered and asking his private drum tutor to help him go over things, I'm keeping everything crossed that he makes it. Will you send some prayers his way that he gets in, it would mean so much to him ? Auditions are June 2nd and he's pumped.
Ben is not a Momma's boy but he tells me he loves me every time he leaves the house to go somewhere and he's not ashamed to say it in front of his friends, he tells his sisters, Dad, nephew and soon to be brother-in-law the same thing, family is really important to him even though he's 14.
He's polite to everyone even strangers, last weekend we were out shopping, I walked into a store in front of him, I turned around to say something and he wasn't there, he was stood at the door keeping it open for some women who were on their way in, that made my heart swell so much I thought it would burst out of my chest, yes my son with the skater hair cut and clothes knows how to be polite.
When you ask him what he wants to do when he graduates college he'll tell you several things, "I want to go in the army and fight for my country, then I want to come out and teach history to elementary kids" Or he'll tell you he wants to work in law enforcement "To get the crap off the streets."
Don't get me wrong he's not perfect far from it, just this past Saturday he got grounded and had all privileges taken away for a week for mouthing off to his dad about doing yard work, he hates to do yard work unless it's sitting on the tractor mowing the lawn, but Saturday was pick up sticks and nothing will get his ire up more than having to pick up sticks, there was yelling, screaming, 2 y/o temper tantrums, door slamming the whole 9 yards. It was embarrassing (neighbors were out working in their yards) it was frustrating and infuriating that such a huge fuss was being made over something so innocuous, but that's life right ? Nothings ever perfect, not even a 14 y/o hormonally charged boy no matter how proud he makes his family.

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