Let's talk gardens

The weather here has been a bit wonky this spring. It was warm and beautiful the last few weeks of March. I was not alone in my urge to get outside and get my hands dirty in my garden soil. Most of my friends who garden were in the same place, bent over their gardens. I moved my 2 established beds to another part of the yard where we will be adding 5 more beds next week. If you've ever started a garden bed you know that building is the easy part, it's mixing the soil that's tough. I went over the weekend and got $150 of soil, composted manure, peat moss and vermiculite. It's an investment. When those beds are overflowing with pounds and pounds of veggies I will save several times that on my grocery bills. Well that's the hope isn't it?

My beets. So pretty and their greens are delicious.

Our new plot that we had tilled into the ground. This will be the home of my roma tomatoes for canning, my green beans and our corn plot!

These are our potato towers. We'll see how it works. It's supposed to grow 100 pounds!

Hubs demanded Iceberg lettuce. We'll see how that goes.

We've already run into a few snags this year. When I moved my beds, I made the giant mistake of not laying a barrier under the beds before I added the dirt back in. The result? Both beds were FULL of some kind of ground cover like weed. I am still pulling them. They grew faster than my seeds so I had to wait for the plants to come in so I could figure out what was weed and what was planted. Yesterday we had our first taste of our garden. Arugula, spinach and beet greens! Not enough to make a real salad, but everyone who stopped by was given a few leaves of each to try. So delicious!
With these small rewards I am reminded why I battle with new lessons each year. NOTHING in the entire world tastes as good as food you grew!
Happy Gardening friends! What gardening lessons have you learned?

Changes

I have struggled over the last month to find a way to share in this space. We've had a lot going on here. I know everyone has a lot, but for us, this is ALOT! I was trying to decide if I should go into detail about what's been going on with our middle little or if I should just skip sharing about it here. I have decided to share the brief version.
 At Everlee's 24 month well check in February we received and "unofficial" diagnosis of autism. (Only a developmental pediatrician can officially diagnose.) While this was not surprising to hear, I had a good idea for a few months and lots of hints from the time she was a baby, lots of changes followed that news. We immediately began meeting with early intervention therapists. As of this week, she has 3 weekly appointments and 2 bi-weekly. That's a lot. I am incredibly grateful that we have these tools available to us, I can't imagine having to figure it out on our own, but I would be lying if I said this has been easy. She is on a pretty intensive therapy plan for the next 10 months at which point she ages out of the program on her third birthday. Then she will go to a special needs preschool. Yep mamas, you heard that right, I have to drop off my three year old, non verbal, baby girl at school!! I have 10 months, I have time. I have my fingers crossed and pray daily that we will both be ready in time.

I could go on about how all of this has been a huge struggle, but instead I will tell you... I am blessed! Our family is blessed. This season is tough, but it will pass and we will move on to new trials and new rewards.

It was just announced that the number of children who will be diagnosed with autism in their lifetime has increased from one in 110, to 1 in 80. Everyone knows someone with autism. Be kind.
I have been so incredibly moved by the out pouring of support we have received by people. Thank you!

Other changes that are much lighter have been happening here too! We have added 5 laying ladies to our little piece of the earth. I can not believe how much our entire family has fallen in love with having these gals in the yard. I am overwhelmed with gratitude each time I open the door and find eggs waiting. It's so cool! It's a little like Christmas every day.

There is much planning here about how and when we will be growing/raising more of our own food. The garden has grown 10 fold this year. Last year my two raised beds were very sad. My pregnancy and new babe took priority. There were a few days of cucumbers and squash but then the bugs and weeds came and well, I am embarrassed. But this is a new year! I have moved those two beds, added 4 more and we have tilled a plot of ground that will hold corn, canning tomatoes (romas) and green beans. We have 2 beds planted with cabbage, Brussels, lettuce, beets, carrots, spinach and peas. It's all very exciting. It only took me 4 years of convincing but hubs has finally realized that we MUST produce as much of our own food as we can. Because it's better for our bodies, it's better for the planet and it's better for our wallet. I am looking forward to sharing with you the lessons we learn both through successes and failures.
We only get one chance on this planet, I refuse to be anything less than grateful for every challenge!

Shew!

Well, I survived. Remember me talking about a craft fair this past weekend? Remember that I only gave myself 3 weeks to really make my stock? Well, I managed to survive it and get pretty good feedback.
Of course you've met the boo-boo birds, but I wanted to share the other items I made and also to get any feedback you might have. Seriously, I can take it.

This was my table set up the night before. I made a few changes the day of, but this gives you the basic idea.

These are small bow hair clips. Something about bows, just does me in! They just scream, sweet little girl to me.

This may be my most practical item after the boo-boo bird. It's an on-the-go art pouch. It has 4 crayon or pencil spots and a sleeve for a notebook. It closes with elastic and a button. It's perfect when you need to keep the littles happy, but don't want to just hand over your iphone.

And holy cow! The bowties. You know you love these bow ties! I just happen to have the cutest model ever!

These are uber-fun too. Pony tails are just a part of life when you have girls. These spruce them up just a bit. (in the spirit of honesty, I totally rock them too! They're fun.)

Holy, Holy, Holy homemade dark chocolate syrup!

Yesterday I was here to sing praise for the homemade ranch dressing. Well, that's got nothing on today's homemade goodness, no not goodness, super duper awesomeness!! Oh my. So if you remember I make a lot of  Mochas in this house. It's my favorite of all the coffee options. While I feel confident that drinking coffee is good for my body, my soul and the health and safety of my family, I have been struggling with the chocolate syrup I used. It has corn syrup and all sorts of other ingredientst that Micheal Pollen would not approve of. NOT ANY MORE!!! I am so excited to add one more thing to the "I will never buy this again" list.
I found a recipe on Pinterest a few months ago and that got the idea brewing and then this morning I ran out of the store bought stuff. Ahh, gasp. Time to get making.
Here's the recipe after my changes:

Homemade Dark Chocolate Syrup

1 1/2 cups of sugar (I used organic because, well, it's the kind of sugar I use.)
3/4 cup unsweetened dark chocolate powder (I used Hershey's special dark because I had some, but I will be investing in a higher quality chocolate moving forward)
1 cup of water
1 tsp vanilla

In a saucepan whisk together sugar, cocoa and salt. Add water and bring to a boil. Stir frequently to avoid sticking and burning. Turn off heat (if you use gas reduce heat to low) and cook for 1 minute. Remove from heat, add vanilla and let cool. SO EASY! Store in the fridge in an airtight container.

No high fructose corn syrup, no GMOs. Just delicious chocolately goodness!! You're welcome.

Reminder: Go like LouLeeLou on Facebook to be entered in the giveaway! When we reach 100 likes I'll give away a boo-boo birdie of your choice. Shipping included! How fun is that?! Want another chance to win? Have someone else like us and mention your name in a comment on the wall. Get to sharing!

Holy Unhidden Valley!

So a few weeks ago I found this recipe for Ranch Dressing on pinterest. We are a Ranch loving family so I was really excited at the idea of a homemade option. I was a pretty disappointed. It was not great. It tasted ok, but not something I would say could replace the green lidded bottle in the fridge. As it turns out, I messed up. The recipe calls for fresh herbs and I only had dried. I kept the amounts the same rather than reducing. Big Mistake.
Skip to last night. Hubs had been bugging me to make it again because even though it wasn't great, he loved it. We followed the recipe as a guide but made some changes to account for the dried herbs. Success!! It is amazing! Seriously, I will NEVER buy ranch dressing again.
 Just in case some of you would like to whip up some ranch with what you already have in your spice cabinet.

Here's the recipe with our alterations:

-3/4 cup mayonnaise

-3/4 cup sour cream

-1 Tbsp olive oil

-1 Tbsp lemon juice

-1/4 to 1/2 cup buttermilk (we used regular milk)

-1/4 cup dried chives

-scant 1/4 cup of dried parsley

-1 clove garlic (hubs just informed me that he doubled this)

-1/2 tsp salt

-1/2 tsp pepper

Directions:

1. Place all ingredients with 1/4 cup of milk in a blender
2. Blend for 10 seconds. Check consistency and blend in additional buttermilk if desired. Less buttermilk for dipping, more for dressing.
3. Store in an air-tight jar in the fridge for a week or more.

Reminder: Go like LouLeeLou on Facebook to be entered in the giveaway! When we reach 100 likes I'll give away a boo-boo birdie of your choice. Shipping included! How fun is that?! Want another chance to win? Have someone else like us and mention your name in a comment on the wall. Get to sharing!

Boo-boos and a giveaway.

Well hello there! Where have you been? OH wait, it was me that was missing. hehe. oops. There have been some pretty heavy goings on around here so I've been a bit leary about writing. I was trying to decide if I would share or just keep it to myself. I'm still not totally sure, but I'm leaning towards sharing. Maybe tomorrow? Today is not heavy, not heavy at all. Today is cute and fun and makes me smile.

Once again, I signed up to do a craft fair. However this time, instead of 6 weeks to get ready I waited until the last 3! Yep, three weeks to create an entire stock for a craft fair. Now this one is a bit smaller (a whole lot smaller actually) but, never the less, 3 weeks is pushing it!. I have several things that are in the midst of completion. For today though, I wanted to show you my "boo-boo birdie". This little guy is about 5 1/2 inches tall, is made from 100% cotton (the back is super comfy cotton flannel), and is filled with whole flax. (I've heard that the flax is supposed to hold the heat or cold longer than the traditionally used rice.) I have to say, it may be my favorite! Super cute. If I was a little with a boo-boo, I feel confident this little guy would help ease the pain faster than a sack of peas!

I thought I'd share my love for this guy by doing a giveaway. I am not selling them in my etsy shop until after the 24th so this is your only chance to get one! How exciting is that?! Want in on the action? Go to facebook and either like LouLeeLou for the first time or have someone new like us and put your name in a comment on the wall. All new "likes" as well as people who were mentioned on the wall will be eligible for the random drawing. When I reach 100 likes on the LouLeeLou facebook page I will randomly select a winner to pick which birdie they'd like. You will be entered once for each person that tags you on the wall. Got it? good. See you over on Facebook.
Oh and don't fret! I'll ship it to you if you aren't local!

Ummm coffee.

I have had many days where all that keeps me upright is coffee. The mama fuel. Coffee keeps me moving. My littles are safer because I drink coffee. I don't understand even a little bit when people say they want to stop drinking coffee. WHY?!!! It's wonderful!
I am a big fan of iced coffee too. Do you know the trick on iced coffee? It's not really much of a trick, but just in case....

If you put the left over coffee from your morning pot (or afternoon, or evening) in the fridge, then you can make iced coffee with it later. I'm a mocha gal, so I put chocolate syrup and half and half in the bottom of my reusable cup, stir it well and then add the cold coffee, stir again and add ice.

When you try this with hot coffee it requires too much ice and then you have watered down coffee. Boo, on watered down coffee. This is nice and cold right away! Ahhh, yummy iced mocha goodness! And it saves me the $5 from Starbucks. Give it a try and please share if you have another coffee trick! Happy Friday folks!

Welcome to our new visitors! Thanks to pinterest we've had a bit of a surge today! I hope you'll come back and see us again soon! Or stay for a bit and take a look around!