The Cottage Around the Corner

Yeah!! It only took... FOREVER!!!! I have been wanting to use this for quite a while. After a frantic search for the missing laundry rope, and my triumphant discovery, our first load is up. Yes, you have my permission to think me a strange cookie, but if we all tasted the same... where would the variety be? I want to plant something near the laundry line and against the house, but have no idea what. I have thought of lavender, but wonder about the bees. Anyone have any ideas?? 

I finally got everything in the garden, now I just need to figure out what all I want in there. I know I want climbers that can climb on the chain link fence and I want it to be organic, so I will be researching companion planting a lot this week. I put in 3 marigolds already, and I know I want tomatoes, pole beans, bush beans, nasturtium, cabbage, lettuce, chives, basil, squash and egg plant (if I can manage them) but I make no absolute promises. I just know this will be a lot of fun. Really it depends on what started plants I can find around here. I waited too long to start a lot of it from seed. Next year it should all be from seed. Anyway, here is how it look planted with only 3 marigolds. Next weekend it should be fully planted. Now if I could just stop getting sunburns on top of my sunburns.... ;)

It was supposed to be so easy. And it is, really. The hardest part was digging in the wood border. Unfortunately, I thought I had enough dirt and compost. Haha!! Not quite. So today I have to go and get about another 12 bags of top soil and 6 bags of compost. At least I have enough peat moss. :) Here she lies so far. She is 18x6. Much bigger than in my mind. I am really bad about size. Still, it should be a lot of fun. I had better be going. I hafta get to Lowe's to buy more dirt and poop (my kids think that is crazy!!). Have a great day!! :)

This week has been crazy busy. I have not officially gotten over my first sunburn, but added to it yesterday by working on a lasagna garden. Yup, you guessed it. I was peeling last night. I have to chase my kids away from my neck... they won't leave me alone!! :) A lasagna garden is where you don't have to dig out the turf or rototill, you layer on right over the grass... newspaper, top soil, compost, sphagnum moss, other soil amendments. I haven't built a bed around here is a while because the old way is just too laborious for me. I can't throw my back out, I have the kids to take care of. I have heard nothing but good things about lasagna gardening, so we are setting one up for our vegetable garden. I will wait to plant until next weekend, or next week depending on rain. Frankly, I am tired and burnt. But we got the poles for the clothesline installed and most of the garden done. I only have about 12 more bags of top soil and 9 bags of compost to add. Plus the moss. Not bad though. It should go pretty fast. Certainly faster than the old school method. If this works, I will be doing beds all around my house this fall. So exciting....

Have you ever felt like this? i am feeling so very restless today. If I had a bucket of paint today, I would feel so much better. Alas, it is not to be. I have the paint, but it is too humid to paint. With 5 kids, you have to really watch the humidity. If it takes too long to dry, well... you pretty much just set yourself up. My kids love to help decorate the cabinets. Crayons, markers, pens.... nothing is too creative for them. In the next coupla weeks we will be painting the cabinets. The only problem is we plan on moving in the next year or two. Should I go for the red anyway? It might hurt resale. I love the idea of black, but it might make the kitchen too dark. I just need to remember that it is only paint. If I need to repaint it before the selling of the house, then I do. No biggie there.It would probably be better to do it white for resale anyway. White, for me, is not really a color choice. At least not for now. Not with them as artistically inclined as they are. Maybe I should give in and paint them with chalkboard paint. Haha!! Boy would that be a great selling point!! :) We have lots of plans for this weekend, so I will be posting a lot more this weekend. Until then, my dears....;) 

I love Easter. It is such a relaxed holiday, with some of the deepest meaning. Without it, there would be no point to living at all. In fact, when you think about it.... Easter in every way means life. Without the death of Jesus, there would be no life. Yet, we would have no life had he not come back again. Not a snowballs chance in, well... you know. I know in this country, we tend to casually refer to the crucifixion, death and burial. When you stop to concentrate on what he truly must have felt, it becomes consumingly overwhelming. The first time I had even an inkling of the suffering of Christ was when I watched the movie, "The Passion of the Christ". I had never really thought about all the pain Jesus must have felt those last days of his life. Going through all the torture and then hearing one of his own disciples disown Him must have been so devastatingly painful. I have heard it said that when you are emotionally upset, it magnifies the pain. The intense emotional pain He was suffering would have been far more than I know I could ever bear. I thank Him every day for doing that for me. I know had it been left to me, well... we would all be up a creek of... you know... without a paddle. Thank you God for being perfect!! And thank you for loving me and accepting me even though I am so imperfect and worthless. Your worth gives me mine.

I won this the other day from Debra at the Bunny's Bungalow!! It is stunningly adorable!! I would never have come up with this idea in a million years.... and it is wonderful!! We decided it would be fun to put over one of the bunnies, and then my three year old pretended he was in jail for being a bad bunny. Too funny!

I wasn't sure what to title today's post. So I asked my daughter, Chloe, what to call it. She said:"polka dots". So I went with it.

I am joining a grill party over at Poofing the Pillows. I love to grill. I think anything can be grilled. Even pizza. One of the ideas I really want to start making more of is grilled dessert. I found this recipe a while ago and plan on trying it out on Sunday. I try to make Sundays relaxed, so if I could manage to cook everything outdoors... well... that's a good thing.

1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup dark rum
4 fresh pears, cored and quartered
Powdered sugar
4 slices pound cake, cut 2 inches thick
Whipped cream (optional)
Fresh mint (optional)

Place the sugar in a non-reactive pan and caramelise over medium heat. When it liquefies and is dark brown in colour, add the cream and reduce heat. Add the butter and rum. Stir until butter is melted; set mixture aside.

Dust pears with powdered sugar and place in centre of cooking grate. Grill pears 10 to 15 minutes, until tender, turning once halfway through grilling time.

Sprinkle each slice of pound cake with powdered sugar; tap off any excess. Place cake slices in centre of cooking grate. Grill 2 minutes, turning once halfway through grilling time. Transfer to warming rack and continue grilling for about 2 minutes to warm through.

Cut cake slices in half on an angle. To serve, cross each half piece with the other half on a serving plate. Arrange pears around cake and drizzle with caramel sauce. Garnish with whipped cream and mint, if desired.

Makes 4 servings.

Thanks to www.weber.com

Camping also gave me several ideas for grilling or cooking over an open fire. I really enjoy the flavor of vegetables, any, wrapped in foil and slow cooked over the fire. Add a little butter and it is delicious. There is just such a nice, smoky flavor with dishes cooked over the fire.

I am really looking forward to reading everyone else's recipes. Grilling season is a comin'!! Yippee!! :)

I had to go to the grocery store yesterday. I was so not motivated to go. So, I decided to go to Aldi's. I am always motivated to go there. Why? Because the downtown rescue mission is right across the street. It used to be, and sometimes still is, my favorite thrift store. I would say used to be because their prices have gone up so much. Seriously, I shouldn't be able to go to WalMart or Target and spend the same amount of money or less. I can still get better deals at garage sales and estate sales so I will make sure I save time every Saturday morning. As a SAH mom who homeschools, I think I should be given a few hours every Saturday morning. I love the terra cotta bunnies. And I am not positive what the "red thing" is, but I plan on hanging tea cups off it. We also found an old blue apron that my 3 year old went crazy for. She has to wear it a lot right now. She was not pleased that I washed it before letting her play with it. That's ok. Her attention span is pretty short. :) I hope everyone is having a wonderful Thursday. We are supposed to have more bad weather today, so I hope everyone stays safe. If it isn't tornados then it is snow. I love spring, but the confusing weather is a bit... well... confusing!! :) TTFN!!

I just love Bunny on a stick!! My son Gabe went with me to Pier 1 and we just thought they were the cutest thing. And soft. So, of course, I had to put them where they can't rub them all the time...