The Garden is IN!

These past couple weeks the weather has given us the go-ahead to put some seeds in the dirt! Aaron tilled up part of the garden and we direct-sowed lettuce, spinach, beets, corn, and wildflower seeds. I know I started my seedlings extra early this year, but I feel like I haven't really been on top of anything else in the garden. Maybe after a few years of successful gardening our "wing-it" nature is coming out. I don't know. Yesterday I realized that planting zucchini never crossed my mind when we were sowing seeds! We only want one hill to have some to eat fresh since I still have a lot of shredded zucchini in the freezer, but since zucchini boats are one of our favorite summertime meals, I had better not forget! I still have cucumbers to plant as well, and maybe okra if I decide I want some of those too. I'll have to check my lists from previous years to make sure I'm not forgetting anything else!

Last year this time, Adam was crawling all over the place (and fast!), and it was so hard to keep him from crawling all over our mini plants. This year he's a little helper and has to do whatever daddy does, but we still have to keep an eye out for where he's walking until the plants are tall enough to see. Here he's helping plant the corn!

I'd been waiting for spinach, and it's finally coming up! I hope to freeze quite a bit.

One thing we did different this year is plant our pumpkins in pits instead of hills. They need lots of water for optimal growth when the fruit starts forming, and we though this might be a good way to keep them from drying out too quickly in the summer heat. We will be running our sprinkler again this year, but this way it should be more efficient with them being below ground level, instead of on hills above ground. I'm excited to see if it helps! The pumpkins are doing really well and are off to a great start having been planted early. We stuck them in the little greenhouse for awhile because they craved direct light even more so than other seeds I've tried growing in a kitchen window. One of the first nights out there got a little cold, so Aaron put a heater out there for the night. Problem is, we forgot to turn it off during the day until we got home later in the afternoon. We scorched a couple of plants, but the majority of them were saved.

I transplanted the tomatoes and peppers this week, and they aren't doing so swell. I'm not sure what they are needing, but the plants just look sickly. We were gone over memorial day weekend and returned to some super dry pepper plants. I lost one of four jalapeños, but the rest perked up fine with a drink. Now that they're in the garden they aren't looking very good again and I'll be lucky if any of them make it. The bell peppers all look great, thankfully. 

The tomatoes are another sad story, but I'll leave that for another day. Hopefully by then they will look better and there will be something worth capturing on camera! I need to douse them in water tonight.

Yard Sale Season Begins

It's officially yard sale season! Memorial Day week marks it for me, since that's when the sale that I look forward to every year is held. There's a certain one I've been going to for 7 years now that I mark on my calendar as soon as the new year begins.

These past few weeks I have had so much stuff coming and going from my house! Not only bags of nice, heavily discounted yard sale items, but also bags of children's clothing that friends have been giving me to sort through! I have been extra blessed to be the recipient of such goods, as not only does it save us money, but I have been running out of clothing that fits my kids since they keep growing. I was hoping to hold out until yard sale season to have to go shopping for them (since that's when I can get good stuff cheap), and now that said season has arrived, my stock of clothing is growing again! I just need to buy more storage totes now. I have piles of clothing in several rooms that are waiting to be tucked away for future use. I'm sure my poor husband is as ready to have his studio back as I am my dining and living rooms. 

I pictured a few of my more exciting bargains in the photo above:

A 50c watering can. I have had one on my wish list for two years now! It sure makes watering my seedlings more convenient. I had been using a drinking glass, but by only being able to dump water over top of the plants I felt like I was harming them with the extra weight on their fragile leaves. Now I can water at the base of the plant with the nice, long spout. 

A nice salad dressing jar for 50c. This one has recipes along the side of the jar for 8 different salad dressings. Instead of measuring ingredients of bigger quantity, like oil or vinegar, it has fill lines. So you measure your spices/herbs, and add oil until you reach the fill line for that particular dressing. I'm excited about this one because we eat a lot of salads in the summertime and this way I won't have to resort to Pinterest every time I want to try making a new dressing. 

A new, unopened package of herbal tea bags for 50c. I like to have several varieties of tea around for company and cool evenings, and what's better than finding a brand new box for 50 cents!? 

An office organizer @ 50c. We've been working on reducing clutter around our place, and one area that seems to collect stuff is a dresser we have in our dining room. I dedicated the top drawer to office supplies, and purchased a drawer organizer awhile back to hold miscellaneous items like scissors, tape, sticky notes, and pens. Only I happened to use the pen compartment for Sharpies and dry erase markers, leaving our pencil and pen collection... still on top of the dresser. So I got this handy, dandy organizer to give those pens a place to call home, all tucked away out of sight.  

A 50c light timer. Not sure what its official name is, but I have been wanting one of these, too. Especially since we killed a couple pumpkin plants because we forgot to turn the heater off in our greenhouse during the day a couple weeks ago. All you do is plug the timer into your outlet and plug your appliance, lights, or whatever desired device into the side of the timer. It has a 24-hour clock on it that you can set when you want it to go on or off, and you can even set it to have several on/off cycles in a day! It was brand new too, so that's an extra bonus!

Several packs of stickers @ 25c each. Aaron and I are starting a choir with all the young kids in our church group, and we want to make it fun by having a reward chart where they can earn stickers by doing good deeds such as perfect attendance, bringing their book every week, helping set up/clean up at practice, etc., and bigger prizes will be awarded when we reach so many stickers on the chart. I was able to get 5 baggies full of sticker books and sheets that will be perfect for that. This was a huge savings, and probably about my best deal at this yard sale. 

A muslin swaddle blanket for $1. Now that it's summertime and the weather is warmer, I have been needing lightweight blankets so I don't have to resort to my flannel receiving blankets and baby quilt. I still swaddle Jewel at night, so this will be nice to keep her cool while feeling secure and safe. Plus it will double as a nursing cover!

A bundle of skirt/pant hangers for 50c. I seem to break several of them a year, and since I don't do a whole lot of retail shopping, I don't get a whole lot of purchases that come with hangers. These ones are made of harder plastic, so they aren't the super cheap ones that don't last! 

Winter clothing. Now that I have a girl to dress, I need to be thinking ahead and plan for her. This warm, fluffy coat was $3 and looks practically brand new. Three dollars might sound like a lot to spend on one piece of clothing, but I find people tend to mark their winter stuff up quite a bit when it comes to kids boots and coats. Probably because they cost so much new and they only get one seasons' use out of it per kid. This was an excellent deal for a coat, especially with as good of condition it was in. The boots were $2, which is also an amazing price considering what it is and the fact that they barely show signs of wear! They won't fit Jewel for another year and a half or two, but one must act when good deals are found. A lot of the baby/kids stuff was priced pretty high for yard sales (yes, $1 is high. And yes, I did purchase some anyway), but these two items were exceptions. 

So there's a peek into some of my yard sale finds! Have you come across any good deals this summer yet?

More Seed Starting

Well a lot has happened in the gardening area these last two weeks. The weather has been warming up, sun has been shining, and the last frost date is approaching. Our garden plot is borderline dry but enough where Aaron could take the tractor and discs out to turn up some dirt this week. The area is big enough we get to prepare it like real farmers! We'll use the walk-behind tiller right before planting. I'm itching to get my spinach and lettuce in. It's kind of annoying that our garden stays wet so long with it being as low as it is (but somehow is bone dry in the summer), because technically early seeds could've been planted already. But I do have my little seedlings to watch, so I guess they will have to hold me over until next week when I can plant seeds in the actual garden. 

This week I did something new that I had been wanting to try. I started pumpkins indoors! Since they need warm soil in order to germinate, we can't plant them outside until the beginning of June. We've had a rough time starting some of our squashes in the past and I think it may be because of trying to get them in too early, even though it was always after the last spring frost date. By starting them in pots, they have an extra month growing time before the garden and weather is ready for them. Plus, most growers in our area don't have pumpkins ready until early-mid October, but the demand for them begins in September. I'm hoping that by starting them early I can have an earlier harvest and make sales before our area has an influx of them.

We've been trying to look for ways I can make extra income while also caring for our children. Options seem kind of limited unless I build a fence or cage for the toddler, but one thing I can do is expand our garden some and try putting a stand out by our decently-busy road. That's another thing I've wanted to do for awhile, but the past two summers we have been super busy, we've needed lots of produce for our own canning and eating, and I was pregnant both years, so we never got around to selling any "extra". This year however, we decided to cut way back on our garden size since we have a nice amount of canned goods left from previous years, and also because Aaron decided it was more profitable for him to spend the time he would've been helping me weed and use that time to work one of his various money-making jobs instead, since that would put more money in the bank than trying to save a few dollars by growing our own produce (as much as it sounds like trying to get out of weeding). We prefer not buying grocery-store produce if we don't have to, and still hope to have enough home-grown vegetables to feed us through this next year, but this year our goal is to save money to put toward buying a house, so it seemed like a good idea to cut back and spend more time on money-making stuff. By having a smaller garden area, I'll be able to weed it myself during the day while the kids get some fresh air. But if you know us, we don't really know how to downsize. You'll have to watch and see if we're able to leave some of the garden area unplanted! 

After moving my tomato seedlings to larger pots, I was having a rough time figuring out the right amount to water the plants. I ended up killing one of our paste/sauce tomatoes, and this poor plant was all wilted. I was expecting it to wither up and die as well, but looking closer, I saw it was all still green and healthy looking aside from the fact that it looked blown over. I gave this one a little extra water than the rest and the picture below is how it looks just a few days later! I'm still trying to get the hang of water in the different soil, but at least it's standing upright again!

When I started my seeds in the little starter pellets I put two seeds in each, so if one never came up I wouldn't have to worry about replanting and losing a week or so of growing time. My seeds were a few years old, and a large percentage of the pellets only grew one seedling. I've never had so few seeds not come up, but I was going to weed the extra one out anyway, so it worked out fine. I had seeds come up in all (maybe all but one? I can't remember) the little pellets. When I transplanted them a couple weeks ago, I weeded out the weakest from the ones that grew more than seed. I gave the extras to Adam so he could feel like he was planting too, but then decided to try putting some in a pot with soil anyway just to see what would happen. I salvaged two of those extras and put them in the same pot, marking it so I could watch and see how it did. One of them withered and died, but I still have this one growing just as strong as some of my other tomato plants! I wasn't expecting it to do much since I had disturbed its little roots, but seeing it thriving now makes me glad I rescued it. I just wished I would've thought to do it with the other ones I pulled. If nothing else I could've put the extra fruit out at a little garden stand!

Sad Season for Poinsettia

It was doing so good.

But then something happened, and I have no idea what.

My poinsettia is losing its leaves.

It looks so sad! Looking back in my archives, I see it dropped the green leaves last spring too, so this must be normal, unless I'm consistently doing something wrong. I wish there was a way to prevent it because the plant had been looking really nice! The red leaves are all still intact and there has been quite a few more new ones growing since I last updated you all. You can see in the picture above that there are three groups of red leaves. I hope they keep on growing to become full flowers and don't end up falling off like the rest of them. I was getting rather excited to see the new growth! I wish I was able to take a picture right before it started shedding to show you how full it was looking. Oh well. It happened. We'll see what this summer brings. Do you think it will keep growing or fall apart completely?

This is what it looked like last April (2016).

Transplanting Tomatoes

I finally got the chance to take care of our growing tomato forest! We had beautiful weather yesterday which made for a perfect opportunity to get out and play in some dirt. I'd been meaning to get around to transplanting the seedlings for some time, as they had been outgrowing their little starter pellets. This is something I've never had to do before! In the past I've been so late in the game getting my seeds started that they've been only this tall by the time the weather was ready for outdoor planting. The last frost date is still a month away for where we are in mid-northern Michigan, so things are looking promising for an earlier harvest this year. Everyone always seemed to have tomato sandwich juice dripping down their chin way before we had our first ripe fruit. 

After one unsuccessful try using potting soil last year, I hesitated at the idea of moving the plants to bigger pots, but my brilliant man suggested using dirt from our garden. It's going right back in there anyways! So that's what I filled them with. Somehow our trowel has gone missing since last summer, so I had to get creative and used a teacup to scoop the dirt. 

I took Adam out with me expecting him to get dirty, but he spent half the time sitting on the grass playing with the pots. It surprised me, since I know he likes playing in dirt! Then he spotted a rock peeping out of a deer track and went on a mission uncovering it. He plopped down on his belly and dug away! The boy mom in me chuckled as he got up and wiped his hand across his mouth, and then reached in and grabbed his tongue with a puzzled look on his face, leaving a nice brown streak behind. His immune system should be nice and strong after this summer! I've heard that kids should consume a certain amount of dirt in their childhood, so we're off to a good start on getting that accomplished. 

Cooking for a Crowd: Episode 3

After a several month hiatus on the crowd meals, Free Time Mom is at it again! Due to the birth of our baby girl (born January 29), we were removed from the monthly responsibility of lunch for 40 so that we could rest up, find our new normal, and enjoy our new bundle without the added stress of extra cooking. In a blog post the end of January I wrote that I'd be back later this spring with more, and here I am!

For those of you who are new here, every week two ladies from our church group pair up and take on the lunchtime meal. One is in charge of providing the main course (including side dishes), and the other provides dessert. Currently there are four moms on full-time rotation, and two as part-time or fill-ins. This works out that I do the main meal or dessert about once per month.

Now that it's springtime and the weather is warming up, I don't consider soup a good option for a main dish anymore. While there are people who consider it a year-round dish, plenty of others view it as something to serve only on a cool day, which is the category I fall under. So with soup being out, something like a casserole makes a great second choice. I opted for one of my go-to quick meals, which is also one of my husband's favorites, a Cheesy Beef and Macaroni Casserole. It's sort-of like a goulash, or homemade hamburger helper. But since I don't like goulash and hamburger helper is boxed food and full of a bunch of added ingredients which I stay away from, lets pretend I didn't compare it to those. This recipe is one that I plan to share with you all sometime, because it doesn't take long to prepare at all, tastes amazing, and leaves few dishes for you to clean up afterwards. When I made it this weekend, I served a pot of our homegrown sweet corn, french bread, salad, and applesauce as sides.

This week there were a few extra mouths to feed, so instead of cooking for the usual 40, I was serving 50. Here's the run down of my ingredients and expenses:


Main dish:

5.5 lbs Ground Beef         $11.00
3 lbs. Macaroni                  $3.00
2 lbs. Mozzerella               $7.00
Beef Broth                         $4.76
Tomato Sauce                          -
Milk                                           -
Spices                                      -

Total:                               $25.76


Sides:

3 heads Lettuce                 $5.34
3 Peppers                          $1.43
4 Tomatoes                        $1.61
Cucumber                          $0.78
3 loaves French Bread      $5.97
4 qts. Applesauce                    -
4 qts. frozen Corn                    -
1 stick Butter                     $0.75

Total:                               $15.88

Expenses Grand Total: $41.64


When I'm cooking for 40 people, I try to keep my budget at $30 or below. Knowing I had an extra 10 mouths to feed, I decided $40 would be a reasonable number. Not bad being only $1.64 over! The foods with a dash in the cost column are ingredients that I either had already home canned from last summer, didn't have any cost into, or have no way of figuring (such as spices which I didn't measure).

At the end of the day, this is what was left: One loaf plus a few slices of bread, one head of lettuce, one red pepper, a container of salad (enough for a lunch for me), and a container of the casserole, which Aaron took with him for lunch today.

Ways I Could've Cut Cost Further:
I could've made my own bread. Normally I do, but I didn't have time. I figure I'd have saved around $3 if I did. Also I should've done my own beef broth. I don't have a whole lot of my homemade stuff left in the pantry, so I bought what I needed for this meal. I should've planned ahead and checked with my local butcher and made my own. That would've saved me a few dollars there as well. Apparently there is a shortage on lettuce, so prices have been increased by 50% at my grocery store, so that was more than I was expecting there. But as I said, I had aimed for a $40 meal, and only barely missed the mark. Cost per person ended up at 83 cents each. Success.

Household Hacks: Removing Pilling

I'm sure we've all dealt with those nasty fuzz balls on our clothing. I can try my very hardest to keep a piece of clothing nice but somehow my knits always end up pilling. I almost decided it would be easier to hand wash and dry everything that might possibly end up that way! Since being a housewife/ mom, I've realized the importance of reading labels and following the original washing instructions, as it is entirely up to me to ensure our clothing is washed properly. Okay. I confess. I don't follow the instructions to a T, because I prefer washing with cold water and there's no way I'm dividing up my clothes into several itty bitty loads just to comply with manufacturer recommendations. But as far as hand washing, line drying, or laying flat to dry, I pay attention. Sure there are times I miss a certain piece while digging through the dirty laundry pile, but ya know, that's life, sometimes unfortunately.

Maxi skirts are the worst. My husband officially decided he didn't like them because after a couple wears they look like trash. I've had a few in my day and have tried several different washing methods, but somehow after a couple wears, they do end up looking like trash! I have one maxi dress and one skirt that somehow have been spared thus far, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they stay nice. I think there are some cheaper versions of the maxi skirt, and some more high end, and the more expensive "higher-end" ones that I own are the ones that have stayed nice. Anyway.

 

I also have a sweater. It's one of the few pieces of non-maternity clothing I've bought in all the years being married (I admit... but there really aren't good clothing stores here!). Aaron loves this sweater, and he compliments me on it every time I wear it! But it had the same problem when I bought it (yes, second-hand), in that it was all pilly. I ignored it for awhile but then one day decided it indeed looked nasty and I was going to do something about it. 

There are several methods to removing the lint balls, but pulling them by hand really doesn't leave you with a neat looking outfit, plus it takes a lot of time and frustration. So the method I used - which totally makes sense - was a razor. I mean, what else do you use to remove unwanted fuzz? Just sayin'. 

Because of the tool involved, I'm going to include a disclaimer: please test in an inconspicuous area first. And work slowly. Just in case. Certain materials may be more prone to snagging than others. Now that my hands are free from blame if you happen to cut a hole in your garment, I'll also add I've never had tears happen while using a razor to remove pills. But be careful. 

I found that it worked best to run the razor across the material with the grain. It was more efficient that way, and left much neater results. After shaving off the pills, I used my lint roller (which was invented in my birthtown of Flint, Michigan, by the way), to pick up the shavings. It's much easier to use a lint roller or something sticky than trying to brush them off with your hands.

I couldn't believe the difference it made having the pills removed. It's so smooth it almost looks new again. I'm very happy with the results, so I'll call this household hack a success.