A Versatile Recipe

Years ago I had lunch at a friend's house and she made the best sandwiches.  I asked for the recipe and years later made it for my husband.  The sandwiches are delicious and we eat them every so often.  Over the years we have taken the recipe for the sandwich spread, altered it and used it in many different ways.

4 slices bacon, crumbled
3 oz cream cheese, softened
1 tbsp grated Parmesean
1 tbsp sour cream
1 tbsp minced onion

Mix together.

It's a simple enough recipe.  Depending on how we feel at the time we'll add in garlic powder, Emeril's Essence, or whatever else we have on hand that strikes our fancy.

We have used the spread in jalapeno poppers, on top of steaks, and with numerous other sandwiches, wraps, you name it.  And now I have given away our secret not-so-secret recipe.  Enjoy!

A Dress and New Boots

My brother is getting married this summer.  I have begun searching for clothes to wear to the wedding, knowing that in another month or so most of the stores will have their summer inventory picked through. 

Last week I found a dress for Kellyn.  We don't put her in dresses too often, but maybe we should.  When I tried the dress on her she pranced around the house and played with the skirt and petticoat.  She was a bit upset when I took her out of the dress and put her back into her pants and t-shirt.

I haven't worried too much about what Aric will wear, except that we realized his beloved pair of John Deere boots are too small.  His toes were right at the edge, but he was still wearing them everyday.  I started searching for another pair of boots, but really wasn't wanting to spend full price for a pair of kid's boots and, yet, I didn't want to settle for a cheap pair of boots.  After bible study this morning, I took the kids to the local boot store to see what they had in stock.  My prayers for a pair of boots were answered- all of the kid's boots were on the discount rack and they had a large selection.

I had Aric fitted into a pair and discovered that he jumped up two sizes.  After gently guiding him away from a bright green pair, we settled for these:

Usually when Aric is allowed to have something he'll carry it through the store and give it to the cashier to ring up.  Today he hugged his boots tightly refusing to give them up.  The cashier coaxed the boots away from Aric to check the sizes and remove the price tag.  Knowing how important it is to wear a new pair of boots home he then put them on Aric's feet with tags still attached.  Aric wore his new boots out of the store and Kellyn was satisfied to clomp around in Aric's old pair.

Apparently boot shopping is exhausting work.

The End of an Era

Years ago I remember buying our bistro table.  I was so excited about it.  Ryan and I were moving into a place of our own after having lived with family for years.  I was excited about having my own kitchen, my own table and having it just be Ryan and I.

Five years later and our little family has long outgrown the bistro table.  I've been all too aware that we are unable to host dinners comfortably and our almost three year old is a little too big to still use a high chair.  We found a gorgeous table at Sam's Club of all places. 

There were a few hiccups on the road to the table.  We originally tried to buy it on Saturday but they only had one damaged table in stock.  After looking elsewhere, praying about it and a trip back to Sam's yesterday to ask if they were expecting another shipment or if they were willing to sell the floor model, God provided and I took a table home with me.  They received a shipment of five tables or realized they misplaced their stock of them and we bought a brand-new-never-been-opened table.

It has a hidden leaf and four more chairs.  I'm excited that people will actually be able to sit at our house and eat at the table.  As for the bistro table, it's downstairs for now but we might have found it a new home already.

Sand and Water

Since returning from our trip, we have discussed ways to make our backyard fun for the kids.  There is no playground nearby for them and the backyard is all we have right now.  We've debated purchasing a swing set, but haven't made a decision either way nor found a swing set that we have to have. 

Last year for Aric's birthday we thought about giving him a sandbox.  We were close to getting one, but ultimately decided he might have more fun with a sand and water table.  He did enjoy it, but it's just not a sandbox.  Well, that and I didn't purchase the right kind of sand last year and it was more of a water table.

On Sunday Ryan was searching for ways to make our backyard more fun.  His search led him and Aric to Toys R Us.  There the two of them picked out something fun for the backyard.  A sandbox with the "right" kind of sand:

Now if only we could get the weather to cooperate...

A Week of Projects

It hasn't been the best week to blog.  I've been busy but the things I've occupied my time with haven't been the best subjects.  Having your husband work long days, one child sick with another cold (you would think she would have run the full gamut of baby colds having spent her first year in daycare, but no, apparently there are more in the big city that she needs exposed to), and the other child has a weird rash and keeps threatening to catch his sister's cold it keeps a mom busy.  Very busy.  But a mom needs time to do her own thing and I used nap time this week.

Last weekend we worked hard at our front garden.  It's not quite done.  There's one place right in the middle without mulch waiting for Samuel's bush.  It's still out at the farm and we plan on getting it next weekend.  It rained quite a bit at the end of this last week and the plants seem to be happy.  Hopefully happy means growing and taking root.  It would be nice to have them thrive and mature.  Here's a sneak peek at part of the garden:

Monday was the entry way tile installation.  I am glad it's done and, yet, I was annoyed by it.  If the installer had installed my kitchen tile as he did the entry way tile I would not have called him back.  He was in a hurry to fit our entry way into his schedule and grouted the tile before it set, leaving us with areas of cracked grout and bubbles.  I was unhappy with the way it turned out and still annoyed with having people in our home working.  I didn't call him back to fix the grout, because I didn't want to deal with the inconvenience of having anyone back in our house.  One afternoon during nap time I re-grouted it myself and it looks a million times better.  I probably could have laid the tile myself except that it is installed on a wood sub floor and I did not want to deal with underlayment.  Now I'm happy with the entry way tile, except it's at that stage where it needs mopped 15 more times before it will look clean.

This week I spent part of nap time painting white doors white.  Ryan said he didn't really notice.  I noticed that no amount of elbow grease and Mr Clean was going to make those doors any cleaner.  After combining old paint for disposal that the prior owners were so nice to leave for us, I did find some that was useful.  I used the white paint and put a fresh coat of paint on the inside of four exterior doors.  That's when I decided I want to paint our front door a different color.  It needs painting, too.  It is currently white and boring and not adding to our curb appeal.  That's a project for this week...

On Friday I used nap time to paint our downstairs bathroom.  I have several cans of paint that we purchased to paint our living room.  We never used those cans because the contractor bought paint for our basement.  Otherwise, I might have picked a different color for the bathroom.  It is beige now and matches the main color in the basement.  It is also decorated and makes me feel like it is finished and ready for people to use it.

 Before

After

My last big project of the week was to change the window treatments in the kitchen.  The house came with brown bamboo shades that matched the trim.  I flirted with the idea of spray painting them a different color and keeping them.  I wasn't sure how they would turn out, especially since they were coated with years of dirt and grime and I didn't really like them.  The bay window in the kitchen had wood trim around the windows.  The trim was poorly installed and those were the only windows in the entire house with trim around them.  Yesterday I pulled the trim off, patched holes and painted.  Then I installed new white wood blinds.  I like how bright it looks now and I like the privacy the blinds afford over the see-through matchstick shades.

Before

After

Let me explain where a bit of my nesting frenzy is coming from.  At the end of the month we are hosting a get together for some of Ryan's coworkers, who helped us move, and their families.  Next month there is a possibility that we might have some family visiting us.  Those events have put me into over drive and made me feel like I need to get some things done.  I might have been a bit manic this week, but I feel like things I wanted done have been accomplished.

The Entry Way

Yesterday we had an installer tile our entry way.  I've been wanting to have it done for awhile, but was tired of having people working in my house.  I found out I'm still tired of having people work in my house.

The one thing that bothered me about our entry way was that it wasn't functional.  I noticed this past winter that the vinyl area in our entry way was too small causing a bottle neck while people waited to take off their boots.  I wanted a larger area.

I had the installer extend the entry way to the stairs.  Now there is more room to enter our house and room to take off boots and coats.

There was a large piece of carpet that was removed to expand the entry way.  I knew just where to put it.

The bottom of our stairs has an area of vinyl.  In theory it made sense to have it there. Originally the builder had the vinyl installed at the bottom of the stairs because the basement was unfinished.  When the previous owner finished the basement, ideally, they should have carpeted the area.  They didn't.  We found that area uncomfortable.  Walking from carpet to vinyl to carpet barefoot or in socks in the middle of the winter is not a pleasant experience.  Since we have no intention to re-carpet our house for another year or two, I found the perfect solution.

I had the installer stretch-in the carpet and pad at the bottom of the stairs over the vinyl.  It is nice to have cushy carpet to sink our toes into.

...And that concludes our flooring installation for awhile.



Curb Appeal

Our house has none.  Neither Ryan nor I were impressed with our house when we first drove up to it.  Thankfully, curb appeal isn't everything, but it certainly helps.  From the moment we moved in I finished painting the majority of the house, I started thinking about what I should do with the front yard. 

My dad has a gorgeous garden and I picked his brain while I was visiting.  He helped me come up with a plan for the front yard.  Something that will add interest and help to hide the ugly concrete retaining wall. 

Today I began the plan:

This next week I'll start digging the rest of the garden.  I'm pretty excited to see the changes.

Remembering...

Puzzled

Aric has a new hobby:

He loves putting together puzzles.  When he has them together, he'll disassemble and reassemble them over and over again.  He asks to play with puzzles and has actually refused to go outside because he wants to put his puzzles together.

I bought Aric a Toy Story puzzle today while we were at Target.  He carried it around the store like Gollum guarding his "Precious".  He wanted to hold it while we drove home and as soon as I let him out of the truck he ran to the door.  We've been home maybe 30 minutes and he has already assembled the puzzle 10 times.  I didn't even help with it and he never asked.  I guess we'll need to get him a more advanced puzzle.  Ages 3+ isn't cutting it anymore.

Things That Make Us Happy

Remember the problem of Kellyn climbing out of her crib?  Her crib design provides her with an unfair advantage because she can use the bar across the front to boost herself over.

When we were on vacation she was climbing out of her pack and play, too.  I wanted to rip my hair out in frustration.  It made for some very long nights when she decided she also didn't want to sleep a whole night through for a week and a half.  During one of those nights I had an epiphany.  Why not turn her crib around backwards?  So I did...

...and it works!  Ryan said she was attempting to climb out last night when she was unhappy about going to bed. Thus far she hasn't been able to figure out how to get out.  I pray that this is the case for quite awhile.  She's still not mature enough to be moved into a toddler bed.  Or maybe I'm not the one who is mature enough...

Since I moved to Kansas almost 10 years ago, it has been Ryan's dream to buy a 1/4 of a cow.  He has been close many times to achieving his dream, but then something always happened and the deal fell through.  This year his dream was fulfilled and our freezer currently looks like this:

The whiteboard next to it looks like this:

It is nice to have a stocked freezer and we're looking forward to some fabulous grilled meals this summer.  Neither one of us is sure what a tenderized round is and we've never tried a porterhouse steak before, but we're both pretty excited to try them.

This is currently the view of our entryway:

On Monday this will change.  I have tile installers scheduled to install tile that will match our kitchen.  I'm going to change things a little in the entryway and I'm pretty excited to see what the finished result looks like.

After moving this winter, we tried to move our cat, Gobbles, with us.  He has lived outside at the farm for the past three years and did not transition well to being a house cat again.  He was unhappy, losing weight, using Ryan's duffel bags as his litter box, and generally just annoying everyone.  We looked for somewhere for him to go, and even talked about having him put to sleep.  We just couldn't allow him to roam free where we live, especially without a fenced in backyard.  We finally found some family friends who have a barn and no barn cat.  They agreed to take him, but made no promises.  We understood that it might be temporary and thought we would give it a try.

We saw Gobbles when we picked up our 1/4 cow.  He was happy and healthier looking.  We could tell he genuinely was enjoying life out on the farm again and we're happy that he has a good place to live.

Back from My Hiatus

I took an unintentional hiatus from blogging.  I didn't really mean to, but time just kind of slipped by.  We spent the last three weeks in DC.  Ryan had a school in the area and we decided I would bring the kids and spend the time with my parents.  We had a great time, but blogging was kind of put on the shelf while I was gone.  I didn't really realize how many people read my blog.  I received a couple of e-mails checking to make sure I was alright and several people have commented that I haven't posted anything since March 11th. It is comforting to know that I have at least eight blog followers.  Thanks family and friends.

The last few days have been a whirlwind of trying to get settled back in.  Taxes, grocery shopping, visiting with friends, laundry, cleaning house, gardening and buying a 1/4 of a cow are some of what we've been up to since returning home. 

Yesterday, Aric had his very first tractor ride:

He was excited to ride around on a tractor.  Even if he does look a bit serious in that photo.  Apparently tractor rides are serious.

Kellyn was not as excited.  She might have been mad her arms were too short to steer.

It was nice to come home to a completed fence:

We are pleased with the finished product.  The weather has been nice and I have enjoyed being able to allow the kids to roam outdoors without having to tell them to stay away from the street and out of the neighbor's yard.  They have had so much fun outside in our back yard.

Kellyn is old enough to truly enjoy the castle slide.  She climbs up and slides down like a pro.

When she hits the grass she acts like a "girl":

She sits at the bottom staring at her hands saying "mess" over and over again.  Then she gets up and comes to me, refusing to start a new task until I clean the mess from her hands. It's pretty funny and kind of cute.

Aric still enjoys the slide, too:

He doesn't make a big deal about getting dirty, though.  He is still all boy and loves to chase his sister, kick and throw balls and play in the dirt.

It was nice to see my family and it's nice to be home again.  The days are longer and getting warmer.  We have plenty of outside projects to keep us occupied for awhile.  It'll be nice to not be trapped inside by the cold weather.