Fathers Day

In honor of Fathers Day I thought that I would share a little about the two fathers that I am closest to.

The first would obviously be my dad.

He is the first man that I ever admired. 

As a little girl I was sure that he could do no wrong. 

 Now that I'm older, and know that he isn't perfect I still love him just as much.

I think that I've inherited his love of words, both written and spoken. 

I grew up trusting him because he was a steady, dependable provider, and a man of few surprises.

My husband is the other man.  I first met him when I was fifteen.

The characteristic that first attracted me to him--is what continues to attract me eighteen years later. 

 He has a confidence about him that is steadying to me.

When I'm not sure about a decision I can trust him to give me a prayerful answer.

We waited a long time to be parents, and although I knew he loved children his love for his children took me by surprise. 

He is the perfect mixture of tough and tender for our two boys.

He expects much of them, but gives much in return, and they love him fiercely for it.

I feel immensely blessed to have these two men in my life.

Butterscotch Oatmeal

We eat quite a bit of oatmeal at our house.  It's a cheap nutritious breakfast food, and there's not many other foods can you call cheap and nutritious.  I usually serve it at least once a week  My children LOVE it. 

Whisk together in a medium saucepan.

2 eggs

3 1/2 cups milk

2/3 cup brown sugar ( You can use more or less depending on how sweet you like it.)

1/2 teaspoon salt

Cook over medium heat until boiling.

Add 2 cups Quick Oats, stir, bring back to a boil, and turn off heat immediately.



Let sit for 5 minutes and stir in 4 Tablespoons of Butter or Margarine.  Serve with a little cold milk.  This recipe serves 4-6 people depending on how much you eat for breakfast.

How Does My Garden Grow

 

The garden is progressing along nicely.  So far the only things we've harvested have been a few tiny radishes and a couple green onions, but it won't be long now until we will have more produce than we can keep up with.

Last year was our first year of mulching our garden.  Previous to that we had always just tilled between the rows every couple of weeks, and tried to keep ahead of the weeds.  After reading about some of the benefits of mulching rather than constant tilling I decided I wanted to try it.

We bought straw bales and spread them thickly over the garden.  I was amazed that we hardly had to water last year.  Our garden has somewhat sandy soil, and watering is a huge chore, but with the mulch keeping the moisture in we had very little need to water.  The only down side to the straw mulch was that apparently there were some weed seeds in the straw, and so we had an abundant crop of weeds about halfway to harvest. 

This year my husband has a lawn mower with a bagger, and we decided to use grass clippings for our mulch.  I'm hoping to continue adding to them all year until I have a mulch depth of about 7-8 inches.  Mulching with grass is a little harder than straw because it's green and heavy when we put it on the garden, but so far I've been pleased with it.

I'm open to advice about mulching.  It's a fairly new idea for me and I would love to hear from some of you who have been doing it for a long time.

Now check out how Connie's garden is doing.

Sensitive Subject

This year when I bought my plants for the garden at a local greenhouse they gave us a free gift.

A sensitive plant--pretty isn't it?

When you touch, bump, or blow gently on the leaves they fold up.

   Then a few minutes later they unfold again.   It's hard to resist touching it over and over and over. : )

Sometimes I Have Sugar In My Coffee

I'm a routine person.  I like to do things the same way every day.

This drives my husband crazy.  He's a fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants kind of person. 

We've been good for each other to say the least.

He's helped me to loosen up.

I've helped him to straighten up. : )

Let me give you an example:

I drink my coffee with a little milk. ( My stomach can't handle black coffee very well )

On the rare occasion that he gets up before I do in the morning he would bring me a cup of coffee. ( He's sweet like that. )

But he ALWAYS put sugar in it with the milk.

Now, it's not that I don't like sugar in my coffee--I do.

But I know that it's not good for me (sugar that is) and I don't need the extra calories.

So, I would get annoyed with him--for messing up my "perfect" coffee.

But he didn't let a little thing like my annoyance stop him.

He kept bringing me sugary coffee.

And ya know what happened?

I started to realize that variety is good.

Sometimes it's fun to break the routine.

It makes you feel adventurous. : )

So, now, sometimes I drink sugar in my coffee.

Chicken Update

These are our chicken coops.  We actually have two right now. The green one houses our 9 laying hens and Goliath.  The white one has the 30 Isa Brown Chicks that will start laying sometime in the early fall.

 

This is a view from the back of the coops.  There are two separate chicken runs.  Once the young layers are a little older we will put both batches together, but to eliminate excess fighting it's best to wait until they are almost full grown.

Here is my current laying flock with Goliath watching over them.

These are our meat chickens.  If they appear fat and somewhat clumsy its because they are.  We have 34 of these this year.  This will supply all the chicken we need as a family for the year.  There is something very satisfying about raising some of your own meat.

This is our chicken tractor.  My husband designed it from a truck topper.  Normally we raise the meat chickens in this and move it around the yard.  However this year we attached it to an existing chicken run, which made the chores much easier because we don't have to haul water and feed quite as far.

Summer Supper

We've been having unseasonably warm weather lately, which makes cooking a challenge.  Although we have central air conditioning I still try to not use my oven more than I have to.  This was what I made last night.
Tortillas (usually I use flour, but last night I only had corn) spread with homemade pizza sauce and topped with mushrooms, black olives, green pepper.....

.....crushed pineapple, mozzarella, and Parmesan cheese.  I baked them at 350 degrees for ten minutes.

While they baked I talked to the dog.  Doesn't she look like she understands perfectly?  She didn't have much to say in response, but she is an excellent listener.

I popped them out of the oven and we enjoyed them.  A simple supper that doesn't use the oven very much, but is very tasty nonetheless.

What does your family eat when it's hot?