Motivation

My husband is a very hard working man.  We often sacrifice your life for the needs of our kids.  What parent doesn't?

We spend our hard earned money on cars, repairs, school,clothing, school trips to D.C., bicycles, skate boards, pets, swimming lessons, horse riding lessons, musical instruments and lessons, voice lessons, college, and so many other wants and needs.  Life goes by too fast, and before we realize we haven't done anything for ourselves (but hard work).

We have gotten the puppies for us, but they are family dogs too.  We also take more time for our marriage, now that the kids are older.  So what's next?

Mac n' Cheese with Homemade Condensed Cheddar Cheese Soup ~ Snow Return-eth

We are still messing around with baked macaroni and cheese recipes.   This one was required canned condensed cheddar soup, so I made some from scratch.

The recipe I used was pretty simple.  It does not contain chopped onion, or breaded topping (which I prefer), and it was very creamy.  Hubby is stuck on a very old recipe that my Mom gave me using (gulp) Velveeta.  I keep trying to tell him it's not food, so this recipe may be the one to convince him to ditch the bad so-called cheese.  We'll do the reheat test today and see if it reheats creamy.  It tasted much, much better than the crock pot recipe I make using ricotta.  You could play around with other cheeses with this recipe too.  I may be typing it up to share.

Random Tidbits

I've been doing some more deep cleaning. Dumping drawers, sorting, purging, tossing, re-organizing.  I'm purging like a mad woman this year. I saved those days for rainy days.

And look at this.  I don't think I need any new bandanas for outdoor work and camping this year.  Ha!  They are all washed and ready for the season.

Camping Lantern Dilema

I have been searching for a replacement bulb for this battery operated camping lantern for two years.

Garden Time

I've been spending more time in the garden and with outdoor chores.  The garlic is weeded, the asparagus is weeded, and the sticks are getting picked up.

I loaded up a cart of firewood and stocked the hearth. Barns are getting a good spring cleaning, debris picked up that blew in over winter, and so forth.  The temperatures are typical too.  High's in the 60's in the middle of the week and down to lows of 27 over the weekend.  

I got all the fruit trees pruned (apple, pear, plum, peach and elderberry).  I am tickled pink to see the plum tree made it.  Yay!  I just have to buy and replant the red raspberry and blackberry.

Breakfast Fun ~ Random Tidbits

I've been playing around with new breakfast recipes.  This one I printed from the internet, and is a diabetic friendly dish.  I like their recipes (Diabetic Living recipes online), because they are very healthy recipes.  This one won over.  Everyone liked it.  Some grocery stores sell non-gmo/organic hash browns in the organic freezer section, or you could make them from organic potatoes too.  If you google it, it's called "Sweet Pepper Hash Brown Baked Eggs."  It was sort of fun to make this too.

Herbal Coffee ~ Mini Pineapple Crochet Applique ~ Tidbits

I placed an order for the Teccino herbal coffee sampler reently.  I wanted to give it a taste test before introducing it to my Mom.  She really can't drink regular coffee, and decaf can (from what I read) contain traces of caffeine.  

This coffee was rated organic, and made with various nuts, fruits, and herbs.  These are completely caffeine free.  I'll let you all know how they taste.  They are all non-gmo as well.