Starting The Garden

Over the weekend, Tyler and I got to work planting our vegetable garden. It's kind of a late start compared with previous years, but I guess that's what happens when you're so preoccupied with other things...like finishing the backyard.

Rick tilled the boxes for us, but after that we were on our own.

We used seeds for the most part and Tyler did a great job putting them in the ground.

Here he's working on the peas, but we also planted beans, corn, carrots and cantaloupe.

We only got a few starter plants this year. I thought we'd try the Roma tomato and see how it goes.

And of course some red and green bell peppers.

Also in the backyard, I've been enjoying the finches that have been visiting the thistle feeder. We get quite a crowd in the mornings and afternoons. I didn't even know we had those yellow guys around here!

Weekly Review

This past week in the kitchen I made a classic with a twist, a few tropical inspired dishes, and another that was just plain off in outer space land.

To start off, I went with something sure to be a hit, Barbecue Meat Loaf.

It was a basic meatloaf with bottled barbecue sauce added into the meat mixture and topped with it as well. Nothing fancy, but I thought it was moist and flavorful. Not quite as tasty as the meatloaf muffins I made last month, but still pretty good.

Next I made Grilled Tilapia with Pineapple Salsa, a recipe out of the latest Taste of Home Annual.

I've been looking for a tilapia recipe that our family will love and this just wasn't it. I didn't think the tilapia itself had much flavor. It was seasoned with olive oil, lime juice and salt, but that wasn't enough I guess. The salsa was good though.

Also from Taste of Home, I made Spicy Shrimp Wraps.

These were really good. They have shredded cabbage, taco seasoned shrimp, and a mango/salsa mixture wrapped in a flour tortilla. I followed the recipe loosely and made my own taco seasoning for the shrimp and my own pico de gallo style salsa. Yum!

Finally, I made Southwestern Falafels with Avocado Spread.

Now I'm not sure what constitutes a falafel, but these were basically mashed pinto bean patties. Granted I didn't serve them in pita pockets, but still, they were kind of weird. They looked great in the picture (in the cookbook, not so much online), but in actuality, I wasn't impressed...at all.

Free With Purchase

They got me all right...those clever marketing schemers over there at Kellogg's. All they had to do to get me to buy an obscene amount of cereal was to offer me super cute reusable shopping bags in exchange.

Oh ♥ ♥ ♥ I love these bags! And all I had to do was buy 6 little boxes of cereal...two for each bag.

The only problem....Kellogg's cereals are generally full of sugar with little to no nutritional value. In other words, stuff I don't normally buy. All of the healthy cereals were more expensive and not on sale, so I only bought one box of plain shredded wheat. Oh well, the boys can enjoy the sugar high while it lasts. They know that cocoa krispies, apple jacks and the like are rare sights around here.

Rick even tried to tell me that he'd eat them as a dessert or late night snack. Yeah right. I saw those apple jacks in his cereal bowl this morning.

So to ensure that at least some of the cereal was in fact eaten as a dessert, Tyler and I made a half-batch of cocoa rice krispy treats today after school.

But enough about that....I want to go shopping with my new grocery bags!

Fingerprint Art

Our library books were due today, so after school I took Tyler to return them and pick out some new ones. Lately, all he wants to read are his Encyclopedias. He's been working on the animal one that his grandma sent him. We're on the bird chapter...my favorite. So I went easy on the new library books since I can hardly pull him away from the encyclopedias.

But we did find something neat in the arts & crafts section.

A fingerprint drawing book.

Once we got back to the house, it wasn't long before Tyler was hard at work. He borrowed some ink from my scrapbooking supplies and started stamping away.

And adding the details.

And before dinner was ready, he already had one full page complete...front and back. He thinks he'll be finished with the book tomorrow, but I'm not so sure about that.

What? I Can't Hear You

Last night Rick and I went to see Daughtry play at the Sundome. That's right, I went to a real live concert....for the very first time. That's not weird is it? Good, because I was starting to feel old having a couple of 10 year olds sitting next to us. But I'm pretty sure they were just there for the food...and to spill soda on my purse.

We had a great time. The music was a little louder than expected, but it was still pretty enjoyable, for the most part.

The first band to open was Cavo. I didn't think I even knew who they were until they played that song from the Transformers movie. Then I thought 'Oh, I have heard of Cavo'. Even though I only knew one of their songs, I still thought they put on an excellent performance.

Next up was Lifehouse. Let me tell you a secret....it was my favorite part of the night. I hate to say it, but they definitely performed better than Daughtry. But that's just between you and me.

After 2 hours, Daughtry finally took the stage. I was so excited, but then I heard the music and I was practically ready to leave. It was terrible...it really was. The music was too loud. I mean ear-piercingly loud, to the point where everything sounded muddled and full of noise. It was hard to enjoy the songs.

After about 45 minutes, we got up and left. We would have stayed to the end, but we told the sitter we'd be home at 10:30, and 10:30 it was.

A snip-it of Life After You...one of the quieter songs.

And Lifehouse. I swear they sounded better in person! I think I had my finger on the mic, while I was recording. Not intentionally...I was just trying to hold the camera still. Next time I go to my very first concert, I'll try not to do that. Sheesh!

Mother's Day

The boys were up and at 'em early this morning. Tyler had picked a recipe out of his Gooseberry Patch cookbook to make this morning and Rick had good intentions of helping him with it.

Tyler started by mixing up the pancake batter.

But before I knew it, both boys were busy trying to figure out the new coffee maker and suddenly I was in charge of making breakfast by myself. What!? I thought I was supposed to be waiting in bed.

The breakfast was delicious....chocolate chip pancakes with a strawberry sauce, scrambled eggs, and a few pieces of turkey sausage. The coffee wasn't bad either.

Speaking of which, that was my gift from Rick....a Tassimo single serving coffee brewer.

Plus lots of coffee to try.

And Tyler unveiled the gifts that he made at school. Some hanging paper plate art and a keychain that says Tyler ♥ Mom.

After breakfast, I headed out for my weekly grocery shopping trip. I was feeling all nice and loved until the cop pulled me over on the way home....and by 'on the way home', I mean 4 houses down from my own. That's right, I was disgraced on my own street, right in front of my neighbors. All because our car doesn't have a front license plate, which apparently carries a $150 fine. Nice. He let me off with a warning, but seriously, doesn't that guy have anything better to do?

It's Mother's Day, for gosh sakes.

A Good Deed

Today was the Stamp Out Hunger food drive where you leave canned/non-perishable food at your mailbox for the mail carrier to collect. I try to participate in this food drive and also the Operation Harvest the happens in the Fall. Usually I go to the grocery store and buy a few things for the food drive, but since we didn't have much notice this year, I just went ahead and raided our pantry instead.

I think I did okay. I found some decent things in there.

Then with Tyler's help, we brought the food to the mailbox.

At first I thought maybe we had the wrong day because I didn't see any other donations at our community mailbox or at the others up and down the street. So I ran back home and double checked, and sure enough, I had the right day. Strange!

After that we headed over to Lowe's for yet another building project.

I knew the project was a trellis planter, but I didn't know that it was a Mother's Day project! The two ladies that ran the clinic also filled it with dirt and a small plant and threw in a $10 off coupon. Neat!

Okay, now it's confession time. I'm just going to go ahead and say it because Tyler's just going to blurt it out anyway. I was helping him build the planter today and in the process told him to hammer the wrong pieces together at least three different times. So I'm not the best builder....gimme a break. It still came out fine in the end though. Probably because Rick was there to help pry the pieces apart so Tyler could put them back together correctly. Sigh.