Gratituesday-The Munchkins

These three little people were my very favorite little people ever, until my own son came along. Now they are 3 of my 4 favorite little people ever! They are (l-r) Lucie, Emma and Oscar and are my sister's kiddos.

My sister had Oscar almost 6 1/2 years ago. He made my parents grandparents and changed their lives. He and Sarah lived with them during part of her pregnancy the first few weeks of his life because my brother-in-law serves in the Air Force and was gone for training. His arrival was an amazingly exciting time for all of us and he moved me to tears the first time I met him. He is a fun little boy and I've called him (and later his sisters) munchkin since he was tiny. He loves planes, trains, cars, his accordion, and his baby cousin. He fell in love with Mike as soon as he met him and even has a little accordion just like his uncle. He even played on stage when they were visiting with Mike twice. He almost backed out the first time, but after he knew he could have his own microphone he was all for it. Then the second time he worked his mic talking to the crowd and thanking people when they clapped. Turns out he can be a real ham! I've so loved watching him with our little one. He has talked to him on the phone (actually more than he talks to me now) and just loves on him when we get to see them. He is eager to hold him and is so gentle and loving towards him. I've always loved this little guy and it makes my heart swell when he loves my favorite two men too!

The twins came along just 15 months later. Twins do not run in our family and it was a real blessing when we found out they were coming! There is a story behind it, but that is for another day...

Lucie is the older of the twins. She is not just the 2 minutes older that it shows on her birth certificate. She was actually concieved about a week earlier if I remember correctly. An unusual, but wonderful thing. She was born with black hair, but now is the blonder of the two. At times she is so much like me that Mike asks if I gave birth to her. She is talkative, bubbly, has a great sense of humor, is a natural motherer, can be bossy, is starting to act like a mini-teenager, can throw a temper tantrum that would blow your mind and is still so sweet that she can make my teeth hurt! When she was a baby my sister would call so I could listen to her belly laugh. When we visited them last Christmas she was always patting my 7 week pregnant belly and talking to the baby. She crawled in bed with us Christmas morning and said "Merry Christmas, Baby!" to my tummy. Talk about melting my hormonal heart! That trip she was so anxious to see me that when we would call to check in (they live about 13 hours away from us) she would sadly say, "My Heather is on the road." It never seemed like we would get to them! That night when we pulled up she was to the door so fast that my sister didn't even know we were there. She was jumping up and down yelling, "My Heather, My Heather!" She is My Lucie, My Lucie.

Emma is the youngest of the crew, but not by much :) She has always been a blond little beauty. She is getting so tall and has become quite a little model when given the chance to pose for a camera. Emma is a special little soul. She has been diagnosed on the spectrum of autism, but most would never guess it. She is so loving! A funny story about Emma happened as we prepared for our wedding. The girls were to be our flower girls. We knew Lucie would love the dresses, but Emma was hating anything that was dress like. My sister thought we might be able to get her in it if we put pants underneath, but when we saw them a few months before the wedding she wouldn't try it on at all. There were tears and it was not a battle worth fighting. We figured that we would find her another outfit if she wouldn't wear the dress at the wedding. About 2 weeks before the wedding the kids all watched the movie Cinderella. From that moment on (to this point) she has been a princess whenever possible! She couldn't wait to get in her princess dress, she wears dresses as much as possible and the bigger, puffier the dress, the better. The only hard part was getting her to not wear the dress the three days before the wedding! She loves her little cousin like mad as well. When we sent his birth announcement she carried it around for days. No one else could touch it because she wanted him all to herself.

I am lucky enough to be Godmother to Emma and Lucie and am so grateful to have that role. These three munchkins are such a blessing to me and to our entire family. I wish we lived close enough to see each other more, but am just thankful to have them in my life. I couldn't have picked better cousins for my little guy if I tried. A big thank you to my sister and brother-in-law for having such great kids!

For more things everyone is grateful for head over to Heavenly Homemakers. It is Gratituesday!

Heather

She Liked It, She Really Liked It!

I wrote a little post a while back about selective squeamishness. It is something that I've been figuring out and just wanted to share my thoughts and perspective. Turns out it was something that other's wanted to think about too!

Gayle from The Grocery Cart Challenge put out a request for people to submit frugal ideas. I sent her a link to my post (and to my rummage sale post too) and she liked it! She puts up links every weekend and this time my little post was one of them. She even had this to say, "She has a really well written article that will make you look twice at what you might have. I love things that challenge my preconceived ideas. "

I am so tickled! If you have found me via GCC please leave a comment and let me know who you are so I can stop by and say hello. If not, please stop by Gayle and tell her hi too!

More frugalness to come, but for today I'm just enjoying the compliment!

Heather

Frugal Find Friday--Canning Colanders

Canning colanders...that's right I found two of them this week! It just proves that if you put it out there and ask enough they will show up in your life!

The first one came about because of an e-mail that I sent to a craigslist posting about a rummage sale that had canning items. She originally didn't have it out with her rummage items, but after I e-mailed her she remembered that her grandmother's was still around somewhere. She found it and e-mailed me to let me know to come to the sale or to call her. I touched base with her Sunday morning and she agreed to hold it for me till I could get there Sunday night. We also agreed on $5 for the colander. I hadn't seen it, but she assured me it was in great shape, although it had been well used.

I was thrilled to see that it was indeed in great shape when I got there. It is different than the one I grew up with in many ways, but is the same basic item. This one is pointier at the end, has a stand that comes apart for easy storage, and the wooden mallet rolls a bit easier. I did end up buying 12 pint jars in their original box with their rings for $1 as well and they threw a few bath toys in for little guy. I felt GREAT about the $6 I had spent and proceeded to fill the jars with pineapple the very next day!


Today I was rummaging on my way home from work and stopped by an estate sale. I often do not have much luck at estate sales as they are often priced much higher and are rarely filled with things that we need at this point in our life. This one seemed fairly typical with lots of beautiful crystal bowls marked for $10 and $20. However there were clothes for $1 and tons and tons of really great shoes. If only my feet were a size 6! I'd be the proud owner of pink crocs and white sandals right now, but alas, I am not as mine are more like an 8.

In the basement there were shelves of odds and ends, mostly kitchen things and decorations and crafting items. There, on the top shelf sat a canning colander. A brand new, very old canning colander. It still has the label, now sitting inside of it as the glue has long since stopped sticking. For $3 I couldn't leave it there. It is exactly like the one I grew up with and that my grandma has. I figured I could try them both out and keep the one I like best. Or keep them both and have one to have for a helper at some point. Or sell one to pay for both of them. I decided to rationalize it anyway I could and bring it home to meet the other one!

I'm excited to give them a whirl this summer. I know I'll use it for tomato juice and applesauce. The label also mentioned using it to 'rice' potatoes, which I had never thought of. We may have to make mashed potatoes, just so I can give that a whirl! I even read that you can use it for pumpkin. It keeps the seeds and fibers behind so it would make mashing pumpkin go a bit quicker, potentially.


So, price breakdown. I spent $8 for 2 perfect condition colanders. On e-bay they are somewhat limited and seem to be around $20 or more. None have shown up on our craigslist in Milwaukee. Amazon has a similar one listed for $28. All in all I am so happy with what I got and I can't wait to wash them up and put them to work!



Any Frugal Finds in your life this week? I'd love to hear your great find stories!

Heather

Summerfest

Today Summerfest begins. If you live anywhere around Milwaukee you know about The World's Biggest Music Festival. Summerfest runs from today until July 6th and it is jam packed with the biggest, craziest, loudest music you can imagine. There are performers from every genre (okay, most every) and the music goes all day long from noon until the cows come home. There are many, many stages of music, the big Marcus Amphitheater and all the food and beer you can consume as well. It really is a big deal here and people come from all over the place to have a great time down by the lake. And for one ticket you can see a huge range of acts and have a really full day of music. Not a bad deal all in all.

Here is everything you could ever hope to want to know about Summerfest.

This year the big acts are:

Bon Jovi

Keith Urban/Counting Crows

Chicago/Earth, Wind and Fire

No Doubt

George Straight

The Fray

KISS

Stevie Wonder/John Legend

Kid Rock/Lynryd Skynrd

Kenny Chesney

Bob Dylan/Willie Nelson

These shows require an additional ticket. It kind of gives you an idea of the range and quality of acts that they bring in to Milwaukee in just 11 days! If you are heading down to the lake enjoy yourself. The weather is perfect for Summerfest! Just don't forget the sunscreen and some water :)

Heather

This Weeks Produce

I went to pick up more produce from our freecycle produce people this week. Unfortunately I missed last week when there were tons of great blueberries. BUMMER! However, I am so grateful for what we get that I can't be too upset!




This week I picked out about a dozen pineapples that were in need of processing ASAP, a few random red and green and orange peppers, an apple, a banana, 2 cukes and 5 bunches of asparagus. It wasn't as big of a load to bring home as usual, but the pineapples and asparagus are not something we usually buy so they are a treat. And everything was pretty usable, so not nearly so much ended up in the compost pile.




I took care of the peppers right away by chopping and flash freezing them and putting them into two freezer bags. I use these on pizzas, in soups, in any dish that I am going to saute onions and peppers and garlic and such. When cooked they are not much different from fresh.





The asparagus I took care of Monday evening after work. I cleaned them up good and got rid of the bad spots as some of the tips were a little slimy. Then I snapped them. Did you know that to find the woody end all you have to do is hold asparagus by the two ends and snap? The stalk will break where the tender ends and woody part begins. This way there is no waste of the tender asparagus and there is no tough asparagus in your dishes. So simple and so wonderful! The tough ends went in a bag in the freezer to be cooked down for soups. The tender parts got made into two casseroles of Asparagus and Poppy Seed Chicken from Tammysrecipes.com and one recipe of Ham, Cheese and Asparagus Pasta that is take off of a lasagna recipe I found. One chicken and the ham dishes went into the freezer for quick meals in the future. The other was lunch yesterday and today. The last of the asparagus is waiting to be grilled tomorrow. It is so hot that I think we need to use the grill as much as possible!




The apple and banana were eaten at work. Bad spots were tossed and the rest was enjoyed! The cucumbers are waiting patiently for me to slice them up for dinner.

The pineapple was the biggest undertaking, but it didn't take too long. The biggest challenge is that it is so hot here and I knew I wanted to can it...ugh! My first step was to peel or de-skin or just plain cut up the pineapple. I wasn't sure how to do it easily, so I found a little tutorial on The Pioneer Woman. It went really quickly and was pretty darn easy! As I did each pineapple I tossed the top, bottom, core, skin and bad spots into a big bowl to compost. If the flesh was really firm it went into another bowl and if it was softer then it went into a third bowl. This way I just boogied through the fruit and I do the next part without having to re-sort the fruit. I took all the 'good' pieces and chunked them like you'd get in a can at the store. I put a full bowl of it into the fridge to eat fresh. The rest I put in my big 8 cup measuring cup to can in pint jars.



The soft stuff was what I wasn't sure about. I considered making pineapple jam or just canning crushed pineapple. Can you believe that I couldn't find directions for canning crushed pineapple? And I don't have a food processor, so I wasn't sure how to crush the pineapple either. However, we have a bunch of jam already and I'd like to have the option to use it in other things so I decided to give it a go.


I used my KitchenAid stand mixer with the fine shredder attachment. It worked, but it wasn't exactly clean and it didn't do as good of a job as I'd have like. I'm thinking I should have used the course shred attachment or that maybe the pineapple is just too soft for that. There was sure a ton of juice!


Next step was to boil the pineapple for 10 minutes. I took some of the juice out of the crushed pineapple and put it in the chunk pot. Both pots got put on the stove and started heating up. At the same time I started the canning pot to get the water boiling. I used my 8 cup measuring cup to heat some of the water in the microwave. I figured the less time spent with the burners going, the better. Three pots boiling and the heat index is almost 100...craziness! The kitchen was hot enough and I hated the fact that the air was on and I was heating the house up too. Once the water was boiling and the pineapple was done cooking for 10 minutes I started putting it into pint jars.

I put 1 teaspoon of lemon juice in each pint jar to help with the color, but added no other sugar or water or anything. This is pineapple in its own element! I ended up with 5 pints of chunks and 7 pints of crushed pineapple. They processed for 15 minutes in the water bath.


So exciting to me that I am able to really utilize this produce and that it will be so helpful for our family. I am hoping to be able to find other ways to get produce this summer and fall as well. I know there are people who will have vegetables and fruit that will go to waste and I will be happy to help them glean their gardens!


On a side note I am SOOOOO excited to say that I found a canning colander! I e-mailed a bunch of people on craigslist who had canning items listed with their garage sale. One e-mailed back and had one for me. She wasn't putting it in the sale, but when I asked she remembered that she had her grandmothers. It is different from the one I grew up with, but is perfect! It is going to be loved and used by at least one more canner. I hope her grandmother is somewhere enjoying the fact that her stuff will be enjoyed!

Heather

Grateful for the Flowers!

It is hot, hot, hot today in Wisconsin. We seem to have gone from early spring weather to hard core summer weather in just a week. It is hard to believe that we were all complaining about the cold and rain and now we are all complaining about how hot and humid it is...hard to please, aren't we? :)

Today, I thought I'd show some pictures of flowers from summers past. We've already enjoyed the tulips, hyacinth, daffodils, peonies, iris and such this spring, but there are lots of others still to come. I love the beauty that is showcased by all the different flowers. I'm not a true green thumb but did have lots of beautiful flowers at my single girl house. Lots of them are still there, but slowly I'm working on bringing some flowers to our home. These are all photos I took from flowers in my yard! I'm so proud since I planted all of these too. The previous owner had no flowers at all. I was lucky there was one hosta plant in the back corner of the garage. The rest of the bed came from hard work, plant sharing, Stein's and some seeds. What a feast for the eyes it is when the flowers all show their colors!

So pretty in pink! Love the pop of color that annuals can provide.

Those big, beautiful white blooms. The peonies smell so heavenly too!

These beauties are such a perfect peach color with the most lovely violet petals. Every year I am amazed how perfect they are!

Nothing grows as easily or elegantly as day lilies. These bright orange beauties have sent up their stalks and are getting ready to bloom again this year!

Shasta Daisies. They are simple, sweet and look amazing when many other flowers are finished. I love them massed into a simple glass milk bottle. We don't have these at our house yet and I miss my big bank of them along the side of my garage at my single girl house. So cheery, you just can't help but be happy when you see them!

The beauty of the season is what I am grateful for today. See lots of other gratitude flowing by visiting Gratituesday here.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all the Daddies out there! Of course, I won't get to see my Dad on Father's Day, but I'll be thinking about him and hopefully we'll get to chat. We will be going to see my in-laws latter in the day, but I thought I'd write about the father I see most often.

Mike is an awesome Daddy to our little guy. He was so involved throughout the entire pregnancy, attending Bradley classes, helping me practice my relaxation techniques and just being there when I needed a back rub! When my water broke and we began the real thing he was with me the entire 44ish hours of labor that it took to get our little one here. No going home to sleep, no wimping out on me...he was in it for the long haul. Heck he even took pictures of the placenta...he was into it!

After the peanut had spent a bunch of time on me and Mike had finally cut the cord the nurses handed him over to Mike. The picture above is that first nose to nose meeting of the most important men in my life. It was a sweet moment, watching Mike really get to meet his son. It chokes me up a bit to look at it even now! Of course, parenthood is never easy and the little guy gave Mike a whopping introduction by passing his entire meconium into Mike's hand. Everything was cozy baby warm so Mike didn't feel it until he handed him back to me and his entire hand was full of black tarry goo! Welcome to being a Daddy.

I had to go back to my part-time job after 12 weeks and Mike got to become the little one's caretaker while I was gone. Before that I had been the main event as we were nursing all the time and I was in full on baby mode. Mike took over duties like nobody's business and the boys have a good time when Mommy is gone to this day. I should mention that Mike has no siblings and had never really held a baby until ours was born, let alone changed a diaper. To say he had experience with babies or children would be a big stretch. I think it makes him an even bigger hero that he has stepped up to the plate in such a big way! He and little guy have a special bond and I'm glad that they have had time to be together without me getting in the way.

Little Guy's First Brewer's Game

I know lots of great Dads, but really wanted to brag on Mike. He is a great Father to our little guy! We both hope there will be more little ones in the future and I have no doubt that he'll be just as amazing with all of them too. Happy Father's Day Honey! Thanks for all you do for little guy and me.

Heather