Friday, February 26, 2010

Potting My Babies

About a week ago I started some seeds in paper towels and they were ready to get into a container so they can really grow. Wednesday night after bible study I got the baggies and cut the seedlings out of the paper towels. I then placed the paper towel and seedling in the pots that were filled with soil then I gently covered them with more soil. Here they are on my stove (not safe at all) under the night light of my microwave which is my grow light for the time being.


Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Sunday





After church we loaded up the bikes and went to Callaway Gardens for a nice bike ride along the outside of the gardens. I forgot to cut my odometer on but I bet it was around 5 or 6 miles. We stopped to take a break and watched the turtles. We were able to sneak up on them for these shots. Normally they get in the water when people get close, but not this time. I am going to use one of the above pictures for our desktop.

Monday, February 22, 2010

Friday Night Pizza Night

Friday my Mom came over for pizza night and helped me cut up the vegetables. Keith and I have been taking turns picking out what toppings to put on the pizza's and it was my turn. I used spaghetti sauce and sprinkled Italian seasoning on top and then I put finely chopped onions, baby bella mushrooms and chopped asparagus. We topped that off with mozzarella and put them in the oven.
Keith said in regards to flavor this was the best yet. Hopefully we can keep coming up with good combinations that make our mouth water.


What's your favorite pizza topping combo?

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Seed Starting

In my attempt to respond to all emails that need it and to clean out my folders and favorites I have spent the morning going through web site after web site. But good things came from this, I have no emails that need responding to, I learned another way to start seeds and test their germination at the same time and I found tons of inspirational garden pictures (to come at a later time). I found this neat blog called DigginFood they have this neat video about testing the seeds that you have saved from years past so you don't have to buy any and spend money. So here are my seeds that I have started today. I have my seed catalogued by a letter and a number. The letter will either be a V for vegetable, H for herb or a F for flower, then it is followed by a number. The code is written on the outside of each baggie that the seeds are in. I store them in a gift card tin in the fridge. I can just go to my spreadsheet and look for the code for lets say 'ez serve lettuce' and then go to the tins and dig until I find the packet with that code. So when I started the seeds today I just used the same code to make it easier to write down the germination rate.


My little garden Saturday morning. The first and maybe last snow of 2010 for Hamilton, Georgia.
Some really cool plant markers. Check them out here.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

My First Actions When I...

Found out my job is being outsourced by June were:

  1. Ask questions that management didn't have the answers for
  2. Pray
  3. Cry
  4. Praise God for answering unusual prayer request
  5. Cry
  6. Read Psalm 55:22-23
  7. Plan on planting more vegetable seeds tonight in case of no success in finding a job
  8. Call my sister and mom and cry
  9. Go against company's firewall to write a blog post
  10. Research unique ways to earn a income
  11. Learn how to bargain shop
  12. Think of how I can find a job doing what I LOVE
  13. Wonder if I can still go to Alaska for 10 days in July

Saturday, February 13, 2010

What Would You Call Your Lifestyle?

I am curious. So I will list my hobbies, interest and anything else that describes me and then I will tell you what my husband says my lifestyle is. So here I am on your computer screen...
~vegetable garden ~read ~sew ~go to church ~organize ~plan events ~work in the yard ~sweat ~listen to podcast ~run ~kayak ~try new hand crafts ~make new recipes ~do anything green ~use homemade laundry detergent ~recycle ~overload myself ~list maker ~build stuff ~chicken owner ~sleep with my cat ~have picnics ~camp ~read my Bible ~crochet ~take baths ~explore anything new
This is all I can think of now but I am sure the list can go on and on.
I asked my husband the other night "What would your answer be if you had to describe me or tell them what my lifestyle was?" and he said I would say that you are, are ya'll ready for this??? He said I was Old Fashioned. I am not offended by this at all. The only part I wish was different so that I could be more Old Fashioned is that we had more acreage and I had more time to do all the things I have going through my mind alllllll day.
So what do you think your lifestyle is or what would your spouse describe you as?

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Miss Piggy Has A Little Brother

His name is 'Socks'. His feet and belly are white and his tail is pink on the very tip. He is about 5 months old and weighs 13 pounds.



Here he is getting acquainted with his new home outside with Miss Piggy.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Maw Maw's 80th Birthday

Keith's Maw Maw will be 80 on the 16th and we are having a huge party. As of last night we have received 78 rsvp's. I was asked to make some kind of banner to help celebrate her birthday. I got to thinking about what kind of banner to make and I just didn't want it to be a sheet of paper with something painted on it, that would get balled up and thrown away after the party so here is what I came up with. First, she has 2 children and 4 grandchildren and also a dinning room table that seats 6 with that said I am making 6 place mats for each child and grandchild's family and in the middle we are going to write something to her. Since they are place mats she can take them home after the party and use them on her table and cherish the kind words. I plan to hang the place mats around the banner. The banner part will come later this week as I am still working on it. But, here are some pictures of the place mats. The back is a floral print that I just LOVE.
Here is a close up of the back.
A corner of one of the place mats.
And Ta Da 1 of the 2 place mats that will be mailed off tomorrow to 2 cousins that will fly in Friday for the big party.
I would like to do a tutorial for this so stay tuned.

Friday Night Pizza Night

I have recently been inspired by Jennifer to make homemade pizza's. She and her family do a Friday Night Pizza Night. I also am reading this awesome book called "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver. Her family also make homemade pizza's every Friday night. So I gave it a try and made some pizza crust, not the kind where you go to work, work a little, get paid and then go buy the pizza crust but the kind where you mix the flour and yeast, let it rise and roll it out. I haven't mastered making a circle as this was my very first time but give me a few Friday's and you might think that I work at Papa John's.
The recipe below is from the Animal, Vegetable, Miracle's website. This is the one I used to make my dough. Our toppings included squash, zucchini, mushrooms and pepperoni.


FRIDAY NIGHT PIZZA (Makes two 12-inch pizzas)
3 tsp. yeast
1½ cups WARM water
3 tbs. olive oil
1 tsp. salt
2½ cups white flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
To make crust, dissolve the yeast into the warm water and add oil and salt to that mixture. Mix the flours and knead them into the liquid mixture. Let dough rise for 30 to 40 minutes.

Once the dough has risen, divide it in half and roll out two round 12 inch pizza crusts on a clean, floured countertop, using your fingers to roll the perimeter into on outer crust as thick as you like. Using spatulas, slide the crusts onto well floured pans or baking stones and spread toppings.
Layer the cheese evenly over the crust, then scatter the toppings of the week on your pizza, finishing with the spices. Bake pizzas at 425° for about 15-20 minutes, until crust is brown and crisp.