Hello! How are you? We have a bit of a less busy week this week, which is nice. We are getting ready for my in-laws to come stay for a couple weeks, so lots of little projects here and there. I suppose I should get their room ready soon as well - they will be here in two days! Then once they leave that room will start getting converted to the baby’s room. We FINALLY get to find out on July 2nd the sex of the baby! I have been waiting impatiently, and finally convinced my doctor to let us have the ultrasound at the beginning of July instead of the end of July.

I haven’t been out to the garden too much. Enough to discover there are more weeds growing then I care to admit (My Organic Vegetable Preen didn’t work quite as good as I had hoped). Since my stomach seems to be growing by the day it seems to get harder and harder to pull those weeds, but I do a little here and there. We also have had a few days of rain so I haven’t had to go out and water for a few days. Speaking of rain… we had an exciting storm yesterday morning.

We woke up at about 3:30 a.m. to a big thunderstorm, but it didn’t feel like anything too out of the normal - just a typical midwest storm. However, then shortly before 4:00 there was a HUGE crash of thunder - the kind that shakes your house and your body. Matt at first thought perhaps our house got hit by lightning, but eventually we discovered it was the tree right outside our window that got hit. It sent wood flying quite a ways and left us with a tree with no bark. Here is a picture (but you really have to see it in person to get the full effect).

Well, I have to help my husband with a couple projects so I better run - he is waiting patiently. Take Care!

Anyone else know that Veggies Tales song? LOL “Busy, Busy, Dreadfully Busy, You Have No Idea, What I Have To Do” THat’s how it has felt around here.. We were in Oklahoma City, last week for a pastor’s conference and at the same time we arrived home (literally) our team of college students that runs our Vacation Bible School arrived, and this week is VBS. Guess who is in charge of VBS? Yeah.. that would be me. So add on top of that our laundry from the trip, a baby appointment and swim team practice every day and we feel pretty busy - but happy! We’re having a good summer.

Next week we are slightly less busy, and then my inlaws arrive for 2 1/2 weeks, so no things don’t really ever slow down in the summer, but that’s okay - it makes for fun memorable summers for the kids, and at this rate before we know it our new little one will be here as well!

Our garden is GRADUALLY growing. I was able to harvest quite a few more strawberries than last year, but they of course get gobbled up before they even make it to the fridge. No one can believe how much better they are than the store bought ones. I’m looking forward to the raspberries later in the summer - it looks like we will have a larger batch of those this year too! Good thing, such they are so expensive in the store and we all love them so much!

At the moment I am watching a friend’s little boy and my older two boys are helping my husband and VBS Team clean up two trees that were dead and they chopped down. I see a huge bonfire in the very near future! I’m off to an OB appointment in just a couple hours and then we have a swim meet tonight from 5:30 - 8:30. Oh and somewhere between 4 & 7 I am supposed to pick up our CSA Veggies as well. So, I better run! I hope you are having an awesome summer as well!

Christine

For new members - or old members who didn’t know… I just wanted to remind you that I do have another blog at www.themenumom.com Sometimes I post the same message there that I post here, but lots of times it is different if you want to periodically take a look. Enjoy!

I have a ton of brownie mixes from a sale awhile back, and was trying to figure out what to make (besides plain brownies) and came across this site. I thought you might enjoy it as well.
http://www.aaa-recipes.com/browniemix/brown.html
We’re going to try the Chocolate Brownie Pudding Cake tonight.

I am in a big search… At a little fruit stand when we were in vacataion in Indiana last year… I bought this mix. It is from Herbs For Healthful Living, and is called “Ice Box Dill Pickles” Essentially it is a mix to make dill pickles. This is the BEST mix I have ever tasted for homemade dill pickles and now I can’t find anymore… I have looked everywhere online. Does anyone frequent a shop that might sell this? If so I would be very grateful if you would let me know and I will send you money to purchase some for me (along with shipping). Please? Pretty Please? You can e-mail me at christine at dinewithoutwhine dot com. Thanks!

Christine

Hi, how’s it gong? I’m having on of those “I’m starving, but there’s nothing to eat” moments. You know… when you know your house is full of food but nothing sounds good. I finally settled on Doritos (I know real healthy) and yogurt (to balance it out LOL).

We’re on the countdown for the end of school - they get out next Friday. But really next week is kind of a wash… Monday is no school, Thur. is a half day, and Friday they only go for like an hour. Which reminds me…I guess I better figure out some kind of end of the year gift. I always seem to forget about that until the last second.

So have you heard of a CSA? If not, don’t feel bad.. I hadn’t until this week either. It stands for Community Supported Agriculture. Basically you buy a “share” of the farm in the fall/winter, and then in the spring/summer each week you pick-up (or in some cases have delivered) a box of fresh veggies (and sometimes fruits). In a lot of the groups you have the added advantage that the produce is organic. So what is the point? Well first off the produce is FRESH generally picked within a day of receiving it. (Opposed to the grocery store where sometimes things have been in transit and/or on the shelf for up to two weeks before you purchase them!) Next, like I said, a lot of it is organic and at a much lower price than organics at the grocery store. Finally, you are supporting a community farm. There is a website: http://www.localharvest.org/csa/ where you can check to see if you have a CSA farm in your area. I thought it was a long shot for me since I live in such a small communty, but I found one within 20 mnutes, so you just never know until you look! A lot of them will be sold-out at this time of year, but you just never know. Mine said it was sold-out on the website, but I sent in an e-mail just in case and they have agreed to “sneak” me in! I am so excited to get started next week - we’ll see how it goes! I am a bit nervous about ending up with a bunch of vegetables I have never heard of, but they do provide storage tips and recipes each week, so hopefully that will help me out. Should be an adventure with lots of good organic produce! Let me know if you are already a member of one or if you join one in your area!

Christine

I just found a fun site to visit - Instructables. They have user submitted instructions on how to make… well.. just about anything! But the fun comes (in my mind) when you click on the food link. See if you can find the Rubic’s Cube Cake (my hubby would love that!). Anyway, go take a look and post in the comments what your favorite was - there are definitely some creative people out there!

My boys had a new experience yesterday - frozen dinners - you know, TV dinners. I think they might have had a Kid’s Cuisine a couple years ago, but they aren’t a regular thing around here. Well… Banquet meals were on a huge sale and I caved in and bought a few. Last night hubby was gone, so I pulled them out and made them for the boys for dinner. They were so excited. LOL I’m tellling you, if they wouldn’t have watched me make them and I had taken all the food out of the plastic tray and put it on a regular plate, they wouldn’t have eaten more than a couple bites. But because of the novelty of it…. Yup they all pretty much ate the entire thing. LOL

Nothing too major is happening around here. School is getting close to an end - about 2 1/2 more weeks. Morning Sickness has passed and life is MUCH better. We have about 1/2 our garden planted. The weather has just been kind of strange - hopefully it will be a bit more regular soon. It is hot one day and cold the next mixed in with lots of rain and wind. Dane has a friend over for the day, so he is happy and entertained.

I hope you are having a great week!
C-

First off, wow, what a beautiful day it is out! I hope you are having some great spring weather as well. Here it is 84 degrees and just beautiful. We just spent several hours in the garden (and hubby is still out there planting his peppers) but Dane and I were getting hot and decided to come in. So far we have raspberries, strawberries, broccoli, radish, cauliflower, lettuce, rhubarb, blueberries and hot peppers planted. Hopefully we’ll get to the rest soon. (and hopefully they will all grow…) This is only our 2nd year gardening, so I guess we’ll see! We love it though! Gives us a great reason to spend some quality time as a family outside. We live in a farming community, so the farmers are also out planting their field corn and soybeans. Our 4 acres (contracted out) will have soybeans this year - it rotates each year.

Has anyone got their tax rebate check yet? I hear if you have direct deposit most can expect payments in May. YEA! We were at the grocery store, in the “big town” yesterday (about an hour away) and they had big signs on their windows saying that if you put your rebate check into a gift card at their store they will give you an extra 10%. I know a lot of stores are doing this, so maybe it is a thought if you want your groceries paid for for awhile, or if you have a big home improvement project or such. I think I heard Sears and Home Depot are doing similar (although check with your local store, don’t hold me to that…)

Speaking of the grocery store… the reason we went the hour to go to the grocery store was because of the huge sale I found. The store is Jewel-Osco if you happen to have one (I think it is the same company as Albertson’s?) Anyway… through my local ad, and The Grocery Game (www.thegrocerygame.com - I love that site! You can try it for $1, and if you do, I would be honored if you use my e-mail as your referral christine@dinewithoutwhine.com) ANYWAY… through the ad and the site I was able to find some great deals. They have General Mills cereal on sale for 10/$10 (if you buy 10) but wait it gets better… In the cereal aisle they had coupons for $.75 off 2 boxes of cereal. So we got 20 boxes of cereal at $.67! Try to beat that! Then they have similar deals for microwave popcorn, granola bars, and fruit snacks. I also picked up a few other sales items and some basic items we needed such as produce and bread. Grand total.. read for this? We got 106 items for $115! Total amount saved - $198. I know gas is expensive, so I generally don’t travel an hour to go to the grocery store… but for that deal? Totally worth it! I love deals like that! Anyway, now that morning sickness is pretty much gone… I have been having fun with The Grocery Game and Refund Cents. www.dinewithoutwhine.com/refundcents swiping deals here and there. Our pantry areas will once again soon be re-stocked with great deals! If you have a CVS, you can grab some excellent deals there too - once again check out The Grocery Game with help.

Well, I guess I better go get cleaned up and ready to pick up the boys from school.

C-

Has spring arrived at your house yet? The weather has been such a tease here! One day we had 80 degrees, and now a couple days later it is freezing with a bit or snow. My poor plants in the garden aren’t going to know what to think! Opposed to planting the rest of my garden just yet.. I have decided to stay inside for a bit and get some spring cleaning done! Yuck, I know not the most enjoyable task. However, my friend Susanne, the Hillbilly Housewife, has put together a guide to make your spring cleaning quick, easy and maybe even enjoyable! At least if you’re like me, you’ll enjoy the end results at least. Head on over and check it out:
www.dinewithoutwhine.com/SpringClean

She walks you through cleaning your home room by room and she’s even included some great checklists to help you stay organized and on track. Go take a peek and you’ll be done with your cleaning before you even know it!

www.dinewithoutwhine.com/SpringClean

Christine