Spring

And just like that… Coronavirus day 6

It has been an interesting last few days… to say the least. Life is never boring on a farm, that’s for sure. While we’re supposed to be self quarantining, you can’t quite do that exactly when you live on a farm. Anyway, you can’t stay indoors because there are animals that rely on you. 

My parents live the next place over and then my grandma is the place after that. So I have a couple hundred acres to keep me occupied in this self-containment time.

It seems like these days there is a bad rap on people who are farmers. They are horrid people who don’t take care of squat. Well, I have pictures and stories to prove that’s just not so. Today is a prime example.

My uncle lives with my grandma. Moved in after he and his ex-wife went through their divorce. (more…)

Coronavirus Day 5

Just a friendly reminder. Especially since we don’t have any idea what lies ahead…

So much talk but at this point who really knows. We’re on spring break around here… but we got a phone call yesterday stating that school wasn’t starting back until April for one daughter and the other daughter’s school has been canceled for the rest of the school year.

Things are getting weird and scary. Don’t let fear be your driving force.

Out of Our Control – Coronavirus Day 3

No truer words have been spoken. There is a lot of weird fear and hoarding going on lately. It is rather sad really. I don’t know anything more about the future than the next person. I did a little research on why people are hoarding toilet paper. It’s supposedly because when you can’t something you don’t understand, you feel better when you can control something. I guess being able to control the fact you have toilet paper is a happy thing? I’m back to being a little lost sadly.

My dad and husband both are constantly reminding me to not worry about the things we cannot control. That is really harder to do than said. (more…)

Life Lately…

And just like that, it’s the middle of June. I have now slept in my house, overnight, 2 times. WHAT?!?! When did that happen? Well, I’m glad you asked. It happened Friday and Saturday night. Now, here we are Sunday night and I’m sitting in bed at my house. I was in the shower a few minutes ago reminiscing the last couple of months. Wow, it has been a whirlwind.

We have had tball practice, tball games, ended tball, made a trip to Kansas City for a weekend, made a trip to Kansas City for a day, had the last dance class for the year, had dance rehearsal, had dance recitals, had dance pictures, had tball pictures, bought furniture, put said furniture together.

The furniture consisted of (but not limited to) 3 desks, 3 beds, 6 chairs, 1 bench, 1 coat rack, 1 coat bench, 1 storage bench, 2 bookshelves, 1 vacuum cleaner, and whatever else I’m forgetting.

We have slept in our house, put pictures on the wall, restained a floor, put down new flooring, replaced tiles, found new tiles to replace, washed umpteen million loads of dishes, washed 548,912 loads of laundry, most of which happened this previous weekend.

Then we ended preschool, had preschool graduation postponed, had preschool graduation canceled, had flooding, had tornadoes, had more rain, had severe thunderstorms, driven into severe thunderstorms, hid in the basement during tornado warnings, started summer school, about to finish summer school and then… (more…)

Book Review – Purple Orchids – Samantha Christy

Earlier this year I debated giving up my Kindle Unlimited subscription. I wasn’t sure if I was even going to use it again. When you are so wrapped up in home remodeling… Well, we’re closer to being done than not… I hope. So I went on the hunt for a book to read. I had just finished The Beach House and that’s when I saw this. It’s part of a Trilogy, the Mitchell Sisters. I decided to bite. Oh, boy was I glad I did!

I like many different genres of books but WOW… this might have it’s own. Okay, truthfully I think it is put in as a romance and boy did it heat things up. We’ll leave it at that… mmmmk? (more…)

I Baked an Angel Food Cake (The Kitchen)

Woohooo… go me, right? Oh… but… here’s where I mention that I baked an Angel Food Cake IN. MY. OWN. KITCHEN. WHAT!!??!!??

Yes! You read that correctly. I baked a cake in my kitchen. In my oven. So super exciting if you ask me!! Today I think I’ll focus on said kitchen. Then the next post will be about said Angel Food Cake. Deal?

The Original Kitchen

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Book Review – The Beach House – Mary Alice Monroe

I am a huge fan of Hallmark movies. Yes, they tend to be totally predictable, but I love them. With all the turmoil in the world, it is nice to watch these movies and just relax. I laugh every Christmas when the drinking game appears. You know, the one that says do this if you see this person in a movie or find someone with this name, etc. You’d definitely be drunk by the end of like 5 minutes. Okay, maybe a bit of an exaggeration, but not by much. Ha!

Last year at Mother’s Day The Beach House premiered. In fact, I haven’t seen it since, but that doesn’t mean anything. I recorded it to watch at a later date. Here is where I tell you it was a really good movie. I did find out however that it was based on a book by Mary Alice Monroe, so I went on the hunt for the book. Turns out it was in the Kindle Unlimited app, so I took the opportunity to read it.

If you’ll notice, my last book ended in January. So doesn’t this look funny that it is now April? Well, this was an extremely good book but it was hard for me to get into. It was interesting to see the similarities and the differences, book to film. They always say the books are better and I think this was the case. Although I pictured the movie characters as I was reading the book. (more…)

Pigu {Italian Gougères}

Here while back, I came across a recipe for Pigu. What the heck is Pigu I wondered? Well, basically it is a little dough like thing filled with romano cheese. You start out by making the dough much like noodles, but I almost think it comes out tasting more like bread than a noodle dough. Basically, it is like an Italian Gougères.

Okay, I’ll bite (for you)… what is a Gougères? It is a choux pastry flavored with cheese (usually Gruyère), then usually filled with a savory filling.

So, we have dough, check.

We have cheese, check.

Well, it’s like an Italian Gougères, correct? We’re going to go with it and run! (more…)

Smoke on the Border

The big shindig… also known as… Smoke on the Border in Gravette, Arkansas. So, we made it. The boys signed up, we hauled everything down, and bam, we were entered. I say we loosely. I helped when they said they needed it or by washing their dishes, but this was all them!

Saturday was the People’s Choice event. Basically, people were allowed to come and walk through the 2 streets blocked off for the event. If people had samples, obviously they could sample it. Samples were cut off around like 2 maybe. Then, the People’s Choice meat was dropped off to the church around the corner at 5 pm. People could buy wrist bands for $10 and they basically got all you can eat meat plus possible sides. Sunday was the main event. So they had the option of entering in 4 categories… pulled pork, brisket, ribs, and/or chicken. The awards were held at the Methodist Church as were all things turned in. And bam, it was all over but the cleanup. (more…)

Smoke off Prep

I’m pretty sure these days I meet myself coming and going. I try not to but dang. Anyway, last week I mentioned something about a BBQ/Smoked meats thing. Well here are the details… FINALLY! 

So we started hanging out with our dive friends in 2013 when we met them. It wasn’t an immediate BAM, we’re friends, but pretty darn close. So throughout the last couple of years, hubby and Jared have been smoking different types of meats for different events. Events include just a night in with friends to dive club meetings to events for the Red Coaters at Chiefs Stadium. The big leagues… in our books anyway.

They have been honing in on our their meat preparations. Wow, that sounds weird. ha! Anyway, last fall they went to Kansas City to a Chiefs game and actually cooked for 60+ Red Coaters and family. Then the leftover meats, they tried passing out to passer byes. A lot of people around our hangouts really like their brisket and pulled pork and chicken, etc, so they told them they needed to start entering contests. (more…)