Holy Busy, Batman.

Here's the thing.

I am home right now, and have been for about 15 minutes. I need to leave in 25 minutes. This is my life for the entire week, and next. Needless to say, it is a busy time of year. I feel like the husband and I have been go-go-go for at least a month now. In fact, I don't remember the last time I actually went grocery shopping and bought more than just what was needed for that night's dinner. I don't like that.

I did get the chance to run to the fabric store. Let me admit something quickly. I was crabby Saturday afternoon. Since I was home alone, I decided to head to my local fabric store to learn that it will be moving in a few weeks. SALE!

I bought $110 worth of fabric and paid $23. Totally awesome. I have some awesome plans for the fabric: pillows, a skirt for my niece, pants for my nephew. I can't wait to start creating and show you all the awesome things I make! Wait a minute, though. I don't know how to sew very well (I'd call myself a novice!), so we'll see how these projects actually turn out...

Garden Beds!

Finalmente, my husband and I bit the bullet and make our garden beds. When we moved into our home, there was a small wooden box filled with sand. Since the previous owners had a small child or two, we figured it was a sandbox turned stray cat litter box (seriously, gross).

Being that the husband and I don't have kids (and when we do, they will have a much bigger sandbox!), we decided to make it a garden. Last year, it housed our potatoes, onions and sunflowers. The sunflowers and potatoes did fabulously. The onions...not so much.

Our dream, though, was to add three more raised beds to make our garden more fruitful. Our seeds have already been started (the tomatoes aren't looking so hot) and will need to move into the ground sooner, rather than later. With the free time that we had yesterday, we headed to Menard's to pick up some cedar (hooray, it was on sale!).

We made three 4 foot by 4 foot boxes that have 10 inch anchors in each corner. Well. Our original plan was to have them be anchors. We are now discussing the possibility of using them as a fence post to protect our veggies from the rabbits I have seen in the yard. We'll see what happens when we get to putting the garden beds in the ground.

Isn't it pretty!?

Oh, The Vegetables

My husband and I started our garden. With the weather having been so odd this year, I think we will be able to move the little buggers outside rather soon. We started seeds indoors last year and had some luck, especially with cherry tomatoes and potatoes. We also got married, went on a two and a half week honeymoon and a week long family vacation. Most of the garden died or was eaten by the wildlife.


This year, we are more prepared and more in town. We are scheduled to be gone for two weeks this summer, instead of 5. About six weeks ago, we headed to the local garden supply store and picked up seeds. A lot of seeds. Carrots, squash, zucchini, tomatoes, hot peppers, cucumbers, peas, tomatillos, bell peppers. So many vegetables! We will also be adding potatoes, cantaloupe and pumpkins to the mix.


About three weeks ago, we planted the little buggers and they grown like weeds. Holy cow, we need to move them outside soon. Sadly, though, we've had frost over night this entire week. I don't want to risk moving all of my veggies outside quite yet...


Last year, we had our back garden and a small elevated garden. This summer, we have big plans. Our back garden is slated to be the salsa garden: tomatoes, peppers, tomatillos and fruit: raspberries. Our current elevated garden will hold the peas and carrots. We also plan to build three more elevated gardens. We need a place for the summer squash, zucchini, and cucumbers. I also have to figure out where I want to plant the dill.


Maybe you can tell, maybe not, but I am SO excited to have homegrown veggies!

Another Moment...

In all honesty, I thought I would have one or two, maybe three moron moments a year. Well. It's March and I think I'm on number two. But I may have already lost count. Ugh.


My latest moron moment wasn't just me. The husband was an assistant. We have been collecting sap from our silver maple trees. With the odd weather, we didn't expect to get any sap, but we have collected a bit. Well, enough to warrant our trekking through the yard each morning to collect and refrigerate the sap.


Thursday was the day of the moron moment. We decided to head out to collect at 6:45, after having had breakfast and about ready to leave for work.


I close the front door behind me. Husband and I look at each other and think, "Oh, shit. The door is locked." Then one of us, I think it was me? says, "We'll go in through the garage." No biggie. We collected a LOT of sap that morning. Well, I guess it was only 40 ounces, which only makes an ounce of syrup. But still. For expecting nothing, it was a lot.


We made our way to the garage and punched in the code. Garage door open, we can get in the house. Hooray!


But, no. Because we are safe, we lock the deadbolt on the door that goes from the house to the garage. And we didn't unlock it on our way out this morning.


And because it's the morning, we don't have our keys with us. Nor do we have our phones.


CRAP. The husband tries everything to get in the door. I take off every screen and attempt to get in each window I could access. No luck. We are too safe and ensure that everything is locked. And, indeed, it was. Every single window. Every single door (all four of them).


With my head hung, I brought my husband a hammer. A few swings later, our (ugly) front door had a busted window and were inside. We swept up the glass, taped up the door and headed to work. 


After the work day, we headed to Menard's (how lucky to have seen their weekly ad, with entry doors on sale!) to buy a door. We had to stop at my sister's to borrow her minivan (nice ride!) and gathered all of the supplies for our new project.


Two? Three? Four hours later? We had a new front door (one I actually liked!) and a key hidden in the case that we lock ourselves out again (believe you me, this is not the first time we've been locked out). We also made some extra to distribute to parents and a nearby friend.

BBQ Chicken & Roasted Vegetables

I know, I know. It's not summer yet, but the zucchini and yellow squash looked SO good at the store the other day, I had to get a few of each.


I can only give you my plans right now, because I don't have my camera with me (I really need to get better about bringing it everywhere!). I will have pictures for you, though because both parts of the meal turned out fabulously!


I started the chicken early because my plan was to use the slow cooker. Oh, before I get any further. I have another novice moment. And (digital age, anyone?) Facebook helped me out. The original plan was to make pulled pork sandwiches. I headed to the market to buy a shoulder roast. Couldn't find one for the life of me. I searched high and low (well, in the pork section, anyway). I settled on chicken because it was there. Each night, I spend some time looking at my news feed on Facebook. And there, right in front of my eyes, was a picture of a butt roast. Funny! I saw those when I was shopping for the shoulder roast. So, I clicked on the picture and read the caption. It informed me that a butt roast is actually the shoulder. WHAT!? I could have gotten the pork and been fine. Ugh. Thanks, Facebook.


I put all the chicken in the slow cooker and dumped a bunch of BBQ sauce on top (21 ounces, to be precise). Cooked on high. The chicken was fabulous. And, what's better is how easy the recipe was!


The vegetables. Ah, the vegetables. I cut them all in the small chunks (zucchini and squash into half-moons, peppers into squares) and let them soak in some water for a bit. I tossed both in olive oil and sprinkled it all with garlic salt and a little pepper. Then it was to the baking sheet and on to the oven. 350 degrees for about a half hour. They were so summery and delicious--I plan on making them again (soon!). 

Demolition

We've started wall demolition and an experience it has been! As mentioned before, we had a construction buddy stop by. We were told that the wall was not load bearing and could be taken down (hooray!).


The big, ugly, useless cabinet was emptied during the pantry reorganization (another big hooray!).

Do you see how horrible it is? It isn't that deep, which is the problem. You know the big cans of tomatoes? Crushed, stewed, whole, etc.? Think of the diameter of that can (I think it's the 28 ounce size). That's how deep the pantry is. Useless, just useless. Plus, you can see in the bottom right corner of the picture, there is a counter top. That is our peninsula. Makes for a little walkway between the kitchen and dining room. Key word: little. After emptying the cabinet, it wasn't missed even a little bit.


So...after dinner the other night, we took it down. And it was frighteningly easy. And now, amazingly g-g-g-gone!

Oh yeah. We put some holes in it too. You see, here is the story:


First came the hammer.
Then came the (big) holes.
Then came the...

• Why are there two 2 by 4s in there?
• What does that note say? (there was an inspector's note nailed to the doubled up 2 by 4s).
• Can I put more holes in the wall? (that was from my lovely husband).
• Let's call a home inspector (that was from the sensible wife).

So, when I started thinking about this post, I was going to say that now we'd have to wait to hear from the city's building inspector and that we hope that the wall is not load-bearing and that we will live with a wall that is half destroyed.


But the wonderful husband went to the city right after work and found out that "what? That wall? That's not doing anything."


And, as I type, our wall looks ... fabulous? It doesn't look that fabulous right now, but the husband is pounding and demolishing away.

And soon, there will be no wall!

The Gas Man

Did I ever feel like a home-owning novice today. Goodness. Here's the full story:


I was making a recipe in the slow cooker that called for chicken stock. I glanced at my newly organized pantry and realized that I was out of chicken stock and chicken broth. Oh no! Luckily, I did have chicken bouillon cubes. Now, I've never prepared the cubes in water on their own. I normally just toss a few into the crock pot. I thought I'd give it a shot, so I put a chicken bouillon cube in a saucepan with a cup of water and turned on the stove. Hooray, it worked!


I poured all of the other ingredients into the slow cooker and then added the ... can I call it "homemade" broth? to the slow cooker and went on my way. No biggie, the recipe was turning out and smelling wonderfully!


I went about my business: checking email, putting the laundry into the dryer, cleaning off the dining room table. Then, about twenty minutes after finishing the "broth," I headed into the kitchen for a little lunch. I looked down at the stove and HOLY EXPLETIVE the stove was still ON. Quick, quick, quickly I turned it off and turned off the crock pot and the dryer (what if my house blew up!?).


If you know me at all, you know I can be a paranoid person. So, I called the gas company and talked with the woman in the call center. She decided it necessary to send a tech out to check out my house. She also made me even more nervous by asking me all of these questions, then having me open all of the windows in the kitchen, dining room and living room. She told me to not turn anything on or off (including lights) and to leave the house.


Ugh.


An hour and fifteen minutes later, the gas man came (thankfully...I was getting cold, after having been outside the whole time) and said the air was clear in the house. He said there is no issue at the furnace, water heater or dryer. He checked the gas oven and stove. All was well.


And, all is well. My toes are a little cold and the house hasn't warmed back up. As tedious and annoying the whole process was, I have to say that I am happy that I called. I'd still be worried (a full hour after the gas man left) had he not come out and said everything looked OK.


AND! Look what I found in our garden from last year (no lie, these pictures were taken today):

There's only one of them, but this is where we had onions planted last year. Needless to say, winter has been pretty odd in Minnesota this time around!