Milestones

I just want to thank you all for helping me continue to grow this blog.  I look back at where I started just a few short months ago and I feel like we've come a long way.  I appreciate so much all of your comments and feedback and I look forward to continuing to meet new friends.

Lots of 6's in the numbers this little project has reached - over 6,000 visits to the blog, over 60 GFC followers, almost to 60 Pinterest followers, 175 Twitter followers and over 200 posts.  For all who have visited, shared, commented and/or followed - thank you all so much.  If you haven't taken a peek at my Twitter and Pinterest pages, I do post and share content there that you won't find here at the blog so be sure to take a look.

I just realized there are a few pages that I had on the blog as pages until I moved my tabs to the top and they no longer show.  I'll be working on re-posting that content so you don't miss on the party and recipe ideas that were on those pages.

My daughter's birthday is coming up and she starts 4th grade on Tuesday so I'll be wrapped up with projects related to those this weekend.  I hope to have many pictures to share with you on all that next week.  Have a beautiful day!

The Great School Lunch Debate

Red, White & Blue Fruit

I honestly had not given a lot of thought to the changes being made to school lunches until the past week when I began hearing more about it as kids trickle back to school.  All summer as I heard reference to the new "healthier" meals being required of school cafeterias, I thought "well great - less processed foods is a good thing".  End of story, right?  When the paperwork came from my daughter's school last week to complete for those who qualify for free and reduced lunches, there was very little reference to the USDA requirements and no explanation about what that would actually mean in terms of changes to what my child has access to for meals.  Then the commentary started rolling in from bloggers, the news, my friends...about the details of the changes...and I started checking things out for myself.

Ziploc 1-cup containers or snack bags and condiment containers
make letting the kids help pack lunch so simple.

When my daughter was in kindergarten, we packed lunch every day.  But she was so busy that she didn't eat much of the lunch I sent and the days I did allow her to choose a hot lunch, she eat so much better.  So we decided the past couple of years to go ahead and do the hot lunches.  For the first two years, there were no issues.  There was always a good variety and plenty of access to fruit and vegetables and we packed a healthy snack for her.  She was allowed to get seconds of anything as long as everyone had been through the line if she was still hungry.  We never had complaints.

Planning a Party? Where to Start

A dollar store tablecloth, fresh flowers and vases
from around the house brighten this Spring Organization party
featuring the Ziploc storage totes.

Planning any party can be a daunting task and the list can seem never-ending without a system in place.  Here is my system for breaking it into achievable small chunks.  I like to plan big parties with a lot of fun details but I am NOT one of those who spends a fortune on hosting them (I haven't found that fortune to spend anyways!).  Many, many of these tips have been discovered through trial and error...so I hope to help you consider the right questions to avoid the error side.  Hosting a great party can be stress-free with a little planning ahead and organization.

First things first - I always start with a Word document with the party name and track everything about the party on that document.  Then as I find ideas and decorations I like online, I can copy and paste the site address into that document and find it easily later.  I use this document at first to brainstorm answers to the questions below and later to edit and fine-tune my list and track everything along the way.  This way I can remember who offered to bring a specific dish or who has an item I might borrow, etc.

Homemade Salisbury Steak & Gravy

photo credit: spike55151 via photo pin cc

Do you secretly love those little gravy-smothered patties referred to as Salisbury Steak?  Yup, I'm talking TV dinners...  Its one of the Princess' favorite school lunches too and since she requested it for dinner one night I thought I'd try to make a homemade version (not sure I'd be safe to call it a healthier version but to me it tastes even better).

 Start with 2 pounds of ground meat - I used 80/20 ground round but you could do ground turkey or venison just as well.  Add a tablespoon Worcestershire sauce, 1/2 packet of onion soup mix, 1 egg, and 1/4 cup Italian bread crumbs and mix well.  Form into patties one handful at a time.  They should be about half the size of homemade burger patties.  In a large skillet, put all the patties in one layer and fry over high heat until both sides are browned but the patties are not cooked through.  

Add 1 package of sliced mushrooms and sprinkle the rest of the onion soup mix and one packet of brown gravy mix over the top of the burgers.  Reduce the heat to medium and cover.  Cook about 5 minutes or until mushrooms start to soften.  Add 2 cups of water, flip the patties and scrape the bottom of the pan to loosen all the fried tidbits into the gravy.  Cover and cook about 10 minutes (stir and scrape the bottom occasionally) or until  burgers are cooked through and gravy has thickened.  I just served them with a scoop of the gravy and mushrooms on top with salad and sweet corn but these would be great served over mashed potatoes as well.  Start to finish this takes about 30 minutes.

Thankful for the Small Things

My husband talked with a former co-worker today and learned that the co-worker's 3-year-old grandson is going through intensive chemo.  Having a 3-year-old son ourselves, it really struck home.  My mom also lost a young man in her life last weekend who had been star of his football team and had suffered a mysterious brain hemorrhage right after his high school graduation.  He had never recovered completely but had remained involved in the community and church and his loss was felt deeply. 

The Pinterest Project is Selecting a Winner!

Maybe you've seen The Pinterest Project Link Party.  If you haven't, be sure to go take a look - there are some awesomely talented folks who have picked a project off Pinterest and put their spin on it.  Lots of fun things happening there.  Well now they are taking votes to pick a winner and crown The Pinterest Project Queen of the month.  The winner gets a prize package any blogger would love to have.  Please take a minute to go look at the top 8 entries from this month's link parties and cast your vote for your favorite project.

Blueberry Crumble Pie

Remember those blueberries I was talking about picking up to freeze and back with while I was on vacation?  Here is one of the recipes I made right away but you could easily use frozen blueberries that have been defrosted at room temperature.  I used a single refrigerated pie crust baked at 375 degrees for 10 minutes but you could use a homemade crust if you have the time.  

Easy Floral Arrangement Trick

My great-grandparents grew roses and used to make tons and tons of arrangements to take to people in the hospital, hospice, shut-ins, etc.  (If you want to read more about them, go here and here for more neat tricks or here to read about how great-grandma taught us about sportsmanship.)  To stretch their flowers a little more and help keep flowers in position in the containers that might have wider mouths, they used this little trick.

Just take tape and make a grid across your container.  You can use floral tape but if you don't have any on hand or your flowers have thin stems where floral tape would be more visible, you can just use a good Scotch tape.  Masking tape also works just fine.  The tape will help flowers with wimpy stems stand up straighter and will allow you to use far less flowers and fillers to achieve a "full" look. 

The first photo is a close-up shot of the arrangement on my button photo and the only thing in the whole arrangement is Queen Anne's Lace.  Queen Anne's Lace has a very thin and bendy stem with not a lot of foliage so to fill a container this size and have the ones in the middle stand up, I would have had to cram a ton of them in here without the help of the tape.  You can use this trick on any size container and then remove the tape when you are done.  This eliminates the need for floral block, although you can use the two methods together.

At the Barn...and My Horse, Topper

My lovely little barn, which you have seen from afar.  She's pretty simple but sweet in her own way.  She desperately needs a coat of paint but she doesn't seem to mind being constantly shuffled to the bottom of the list.  

She has this center part which features a small loft and plenty of storage for the needs of my small menagerie.  Then she has two wings - to the south she houses the two stalls and to the north she has a lovely little hay storage area which opens to the west and also serves as part of the dog pen.

Make the Most of Your Fresh Herbs

I love the smell and taste of fresh herbs - the dried ones just don't have nearly the same flavor or aroma.  They can be pretty expensive in the stores.  The nice part is that fresh herbs are some of the easiest plants to grow.  They are low maintenance - they don't usually require great soil or a ton of watering.  The one thing they do require to reach their maximum potential production is frequent harvesting.  Great news right?