Our garden and other weekend fun

Yesterday was a big day. I needed to get a taillight and headlight replaced on my car, and I'd called the Kia dealership for an estimate, but the dealership is far away and our local Kwik Kar is, well, local. So we dropped the car off there. Not only did they have it fixed within the hour (before we finished running errands), but they also fixed both the headlight and the taillight for less than the price that the dealership had quoted me to repair just the headlight. I love it when things work out like that!

We ran up to Dallas to pick up some firewood (found it free on Craigslist - if you haven't gotten into the habit of checking out your local Craigslist, I highly recommend it, you can find a ton of good stuff for free or cheap if you just keep an eye out). Then we went to Home Depot to pick up the rest of our supplies for our square foot garden. By that time, it was lunchtime and we were hungry, so we went to Chapps Cafe for a hamburger. It looks to be largely a north Texas thing, but if you're ever in the area, it's worth finding one and giving it a try. I love Chapps - I give them full credit for convincing my son that there are better chicken strips to be had than Chicken McNuggets! LOL Any restaurant that he'll choose over McDonald's gets high marks from me, and they make a fine hamburger to boot.

After lunch, it was home to garden! Brian had already made our garden box and the square foot grid for it, so all he had to do was mix up our dirt, put it in the box, and then we were ready to plant.

Here's our box with dirt in it, waiting for good things to grow there:



Here's our box with plants and seeds:



We're growing two kinds of lettuces (Bibb and a salad mix), four kinds of peppers (mild jalapeno, hot garden salsa, orange bell, and Cubanelle), two kinds of tomatoes (Roma and Celebrity), yellow squash, zucchini, sugar snap peas, green beans, golden beets, onions (two squares), and cucumbers. I hope our little garden does well! Brian also got really motivated and built a compost bin yesterday.

And today we gave church a miss. Brian woke up running fever, with a head full of multicolored snot, and basically feeling like a train hit him. Bless his heart, he looks awful. I've been puny for the past few days, and I'm still not 100%, but I'm doing better at this point than he is. He's been sleeping for most of the day.

I think most of my problem is allergies. When Julian and I went out to the store this afternoon, I realized my car was just yellow from the pollen. Ugh. Only a month until I can take my Allegra, only a month until I can take my Allegra....

In other fun, Julian is out of his Vyvanse. He's happy as can be, but Lord have mercy, he's wearing me out. When we went to get a refill on Saturday, the pharmacist said he couldn't fill it due to errors on the prescription form and due to the date of the prescription being written incorrectly and then marked over to change it. We're hoping to pick up a new prescription on Monday and get it filled Monday evening, so Julian should be back on the Vyvanse by Tuesday. I'm just vexed that the doctor's office wrote the prescription out with errors, and vexed with myself for waiting until the last minute to get a new one, and vexed that this is a prescription that they just will not call in - we have to go by and pick up the written form every month. School should be interesting tomorrow. I just hope he doesn't have a completely rotten day, because if he does, it won't be like it's entirely bad behavior on his part. We'll see.

Earth mother

You know, I don't think I'm really suited for corporate America. I grew up in the country, and I like being outside when I've got something to do there. Now that I'm married to a man who also likes the outdoors, we're doing some more outdoorsy-type things. He's planted a couple of trees in the yard, a red oak and a fig, and we're watching them grow. I was out watering them today and it occurred to me that I'd be much happier if I weren't having to schlep to work in the big city, if I could do something from home and tend to our growing things (kids and trees alike). We're planting a garden this year, too, and that will be both food and science experiment - Julian is already excited about the prospect of watching our plants grow (although we'll see how excited he is when he gets to go out and pull weeds! LOL). I like to cook. I like to be outside when I get a chance. Why, then, can't I figure out some way that I could be home doing the things I like more often, instead of sitting behind a desk wishing nine hours of my life away every day?

In other news, I'm now 35 weeks and 1 day pregnant. My c-section has been moved to April 17, so I'll be able to make it to J's school program on April 16. This makes me happy. I didn't figure it would be a real good start to his relationship with his brother for me to have to tell him, "sorry, sweetie, I'll miss your program and art show because I'll be in the hospital bringing your brother into the world!" I know the time will come where he'll have to learn that mama will now be dividing time and attention between two boys instead of giving it all to just the one, but I didn't figure right off the bat was the time he *had* to learn that particular lesson.

I've been home sick the past couple of days. I don't know if it's a cold or a sinus infection - the doctor said it was too early to tell, and I can't really take much in the way of good meds, so I've just been drinking lots of fluids and trying to rest. Julian stayed home with me today, too. I figured we could both use a rest. Of course, the day we *could* sleep in, naturally he was awake at the crack of dawn, wanting to know when I was going to get out of bed. Still, it beats being at the office. I don't feel great just yet, but I guess I feel better than I did yesterday. I'm not perky, but I'm not sure if that's from the crud or just from being hugely pregnant.

Oh, please, just shoot me now.

Today I'm 34 weeks, 6 days pregnant. I'm big as a house, I hurt in strange places, I'm tired, I'm cranky, and now I'm sick to boot. Yep, that's right. My right ear is so clogged that I can hear my breathing echoing. My eyes itch like mad. My head is full of snot. My nose runs and clogs at the same time. Tomorrow, I'm staying home. I'll try to get in to see the doctor, too, because I'm not sure if this is allergies or sinus infection or what, but I think I need something stronger than Tylenol Allergy and Sinus to kick it. And I am not going to muddle through a few days, or a week, or longer, waiting for it to release its grip. Thus far, it looks like I'll be at work for the duration, and if I have to be at work, I certainly don't have to be there feeling pregnancy miserable and sick on top of it.

Grump, grump, whine, whine. Does anyone have the phone number for Roto-Rooter? Maybe they can help unclog my stuffy head.

Menu Plan Monday - March 16-22

Another Monday is upon us, and I've managed to do a menu plan for three weeks in a row! Woo hoo! Without further ado, here's this week's plan - you may notice that I've got some recipes I've listed in the past two weeks listed again here, and that's due to changes made on the fly. What's a plan for if not to deviate from occasionally?

Monday: Cheesecake Factory - dinner out with friends

Tuesday: Fish fry! Brian is picking up dinner, 'cause it's on sale.

Wednesday: Homemade pizzas

Thursday: Grilled steak, Crash Hot Potatoes, green salad, Yummy Delightful Mystery Rolls

Friday: Julie’s Crock Pot Korma, Curried Sweet Potatoes in Coconut Milk

Saturday: Pastitsio, Broccoli Ritz Cracker Casserole (Recipezaar), garlic bread

Sunday: Spaghetti squash, meat sauce, Balsamic and Brown Sugar Roasted Carrots , bread of some kind

Pumpkin Bread/Pumpkin Muffins

This is a recipe I got from my friend Annmarie. I made pumpkin bread for Christmas, and it was so good, I'm making pumpkin muffins now just because I want to.

15 oz. can pumpkin
4 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup applesauce
2 cups sugar
3 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
splash of vanilla
1/4 tsp pumpkin spice
1 cup mini chocolate chips
1 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ginger

In large bowl, mix together pumpkin, eggs, applesauce, oil, sugar until well blended.

In separate bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, etc.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour (7 x 3) loaf pans

Stir dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended.

Bake for about an hour or until toothpick tested.

Per Annmarie, muffins take about 30-40 minutes to bake.

Recipes I want to save

In doing the menu plan thing, I'm coming across a lot of recipes I'd like to hang on to. For now, I'm just posting links here so I can go back to them later, and hopefully save them in a more organized fashion! I'll probably keep adding to this as I find more recipes along the way.


Blueberry Wild Rice and Butternut Squash
Tuna, Macaroni and Cheese Casserole
1929 Depression Casserole
Crockpot Country Ribs with Mashed Potatoes
Spaghetti Squash and Chicken Bake
Texas Cowboy's Pie
Crockpot Stuffed Bell Peppers
Chocolate Chip Muffins (can make a big batch and freeze)
Giant Breakfast Cookies
Cuban Black Beans and Rice
Breakfast Burritos to Go
Pasta Carbonara
Chicken Spaghetti
BBQ Chicken and Cornbread Casserole (crockpot)
Mexican Chicken Skillet
Ginger Sweet Potato Chicken Bake
Ham and Potato Pockets (OAMC)
Chicken Ziti
Slow Cooker Apricot Chicken
Beef and Black Bean Burritos
Slow Cooker Curried Coconut Chicken
BBQ Chicken Pizza
Crockpot Country Ribs with Mashed Potatoes
Chicken Wraps with Balsam-melized Onions

Menu Plan Monday - March 9-15

Another week of menu planning, woo hoo! Last week went well - we made a few changes on the fly, but nothing that required extra grocery shopping, and we certainly had lots of leftovers during the week to take for lunch! We had to package some things up and freeze them for later use, we had such an abundance of food.

So without further ado, here's this week's menu plan (published a day late, but better late than never, yes?):

Monday - Spaghetti squash with meat sauce, garlic bread
Tuesday - Delicious Chicken Pot Pie, green salad
Wednesday - Sweet and Sour Hawaiian Beef Crockpot, The Best Southern Green Beans
Thursday - Cabbage with Meat Sauce, Redstone Restaurant Famous Cornbread with Maple Butter
Friday - Clean out the fridge, it's leftover night!
Saturday - Dinner out!
Sunday - Sweet and Sour Meatballs, Balsamic and Brown Sugar Roasted Carrots

Forty-three days and counting.

Well, one more appointment down as of yesterday afternoon. I'm feeling fat and rather uncomfortable, but my blood pressure is hangin' in there and doing OK. Rhys' heartbeat was about 144 BPM, so apparently he's doing all right, too. My next appointment is March 17, and after that, I expect I'll be moving to seeing my doc once every week.

And don't get me wrong, I'm glad my blood pressure is staying steady and glad both Rhys and I are healthy - I'm very, very thankful for those things. But today, I would have paid money to stay home. I hit snooze twice before I ever heard my alarm, and I was draggin'-butt tired. I hurt, and Rhys was squirmy as all get out this morning, which was slightly uncomfortable and made it hard to concentrate on work. The afternoon just got worse, too. My hips were hurting, I was having one of my random itchy spells (no rash or anything, so it's not anything that can be actually treated, I just use lots of moisturizer and wait for it to pass), hungry but unable to decide what might actually taste good if I were to eat it, and I just wanted to go home. I wanted to not be at work. I wanted to not be answering the phone and responding to e-mails and trying to make my brain work in a logical and coherent fashion. Blech. And I warned Brian that it's going to get worse before it gets better. LOL

Forty-three days to go....

Menu Plan Monday - March 2-8

I'm posting this early Monday morning, since I can't do it from work! Here's this week's menu plan - we're trying lots of new things this time around. Head on over to Organizing Junkie to check out other menu plans and recipe ideas.

Monday - Fish fry! Fried fish, French fries, hush puppies
Tuesday - Smoked chicken (Brian will be using his new smoker!), calabacitas, baked potatoes
Wednesday - Slow Cooker Sloppy Joes, sweet potato fries
Thursday - Breakfast for dinner - pancakes and bacon
Friday - Dinner out!
Saturday - Cabbage with Meat Sauce, Redstone Famous Cornbread with Maple Butter (Recipezaar)
Sunday - Oregano-Lemon Chicken, Mushroom/Red Pepper/Onion Saute, Buttered Wine Rice