A to Z Blog Challenge Theme Reveal

Starting April 1st, I am participating in a month long A to Z blog challenge. This is my first year participating, so not entirely sure how to set up my posts, other than the daily post starts with A and ends with Z. One post a day, six days a week.

It seems that most people that participate (and there are hundreds that do) have a theme. Seeing how my blog is about my family and I, I decided to do posts about my life. I have most of my posts already done. All I need to do is hit publish.

So my theme is all about ME, in a way. I'm going to have recipes, tips, info, ideas, all around what interests me and my family. Hope you join me for the month and get to know me and my family better.

My Crochet Rug

I finished the rug I crocheted for my kitchen, finally. It seemed to take forever. I swear I have ADD and kept getting distracted and wanted it finished faster.

I am happy with the way it turned out though. No pattern, nothing fancy. Just used cotton yarn doubled up to make it thicker to keep my feet warm. Eventually my kitchen will be painted yellow to match the yellow in the rug and I will have blue curtains up as well.

Every morning the rug is either in a ball or pushed all the way up next to the sink. One cat, who will remain nameless *cough* Abby *cough*, loves to run and slide on it. It's funny to watch. One of the many little things she does at night to amuse herself.

Homemade Citrus Cleaner

Here is a little recipe that I use to clean the bathroom. I love the smell of oranges!

I take orange peels and put them in a quart sized canning jar. Add white vinegar to the jar and let the peels sit in the vinegar for 2-3 weeks. I will swish the peels and vinegar every couple of days, but you don't need to.

Then drain the vinegar from the peels. Save the vinegar, but toss the peels. The vinegar is a beautiful light orange color and smells just like oranges. So yummy!

Add to a squirt bottle and then add 20-30 drops of sweet orange oil. Then clean away. I use it all over the toilet, inside and out (I swear my boys miss on purpose) and all over the counter and sinks. Works great and smells great. No vinegar smell at all. Something I can't stand.

Updating the garden journal for the new season

About this time every year I get anxious to get into the dirt and start growing my veggies. But we are still under a ton of snow, so all I can do is plan my garden.


I pull out all my notes and plans from the year before and save them in a pocket folder. I use the past year notes to plan the placement of my veggies and for other things that worked in the garden.

Here I am with a clean sheet (I use two because our garden area is so big now). I also have the veggie placement from the past 2 years. I try to move all the veggies around the beds every year. I do companion planting, so I don't want any veggies planted in the current year that was planted in a spot where a non friend was planted the year before.

Snap pea trellis placement last year

I plan on moving my snap pea trellis to the opposite side of the garden where there is more shade. It still gets a ton of sun (6+ hours), but I want to plant more sun loving veggies where the snap peas use to be, like my pole beans.

About a month after planting

The strawberry bed is the only one that I don't move around. I planted 26 plants there last April (well my dad did lol) and they are now well established. I even gave my sister a ton of the runners last fall.

Pole Bean trellis made with trees from the yard

My big pole bean trellis is moving as well. I was thinking where my tomato and pepper plants were last year. It gets a ton of sun there, but I am afraid it will shade a bunch of the rest of the garden. That's why garden planning is important.

Time to get back to the planning. It will have to suffice until I can get my hands into the dirt.

Lazy Sunday

I have been working on making a crochet rug for my kitchen. The floor in front of the sink and stove gets very cold in the winter there. I have been using a towel, but it is getting annoying. I have to double up on it so the cold doesn't go through. Granted, I could wear slippers, but I hate anything on my feet.

I picked up some Sugar 'n Cream cotton yarn on sale at Michael's in three different colors. One is a white, blue, yellow and green variegated. The other two are solid blue and yellow that match the blue and yellow in the variegated yarn. I double up on the yarn as well. The variegated runs throughout, but I alternate it with the blue and yellow. Its nice and thick and keeping my lap warm while making it.

Time for a little Nascar. What a perfect way to spend a cold lazy Sunday. A little car race (Go Tony!) and crocheting.

Homeschool Co-op

Public school was out for holiday this past week. so Matt was either sleeping over his friends or his friend was sleeping over here. His friend was with us for Matt's archery shoot for score. Matt got two indoor pins, but his score was a lot worse than he normally has. I have a feeling his friend was distracting him too much.

This past Friday was our homeschool co-op day. We meet every other Friday for about 5-6 hours. At first Matt didn't want to go because he had been having fun with his public school friend, but when he couldn't sleep over again, Matt decided to go. Last time I spent the day with the little kids, but I wanted to spend sometime with the older, more calmer and quieter big kids. Don't get me wrong, I have a blast with the little kids, but Matt is 14 now and I have been out of the little kid stage for awhile now. Not to mention, it is usually just Matt around.

The first class he has, they have been building bridges. There are rules that they have to follow. Matt seems to enjoy it. I enjoyed watching and of course talking to the mom leading the class, who happens to be his archery teacher too.

He is working on the decking here. Making it more sturdy for when they drive a car over it to test out its durability.You can see the red car that the kid on the left is playing with. That's the test car. It's got some weight to it too.

Matt was working on the legs of his bridge. He has to have a 12 inch span between the legs on each end. I learned a bunch just watching and listening to the kids working on their bridges.

Next up was his cooking class. On the menu was chicken and zucchini parmesan. When I asked the lady who is teaching the class what was for lunch (the kids always make a ton of food) and she said chicken parm, I had to laugh. I had made it for dinner the night before. One of the kids in the class is gluten free and another is a vegetarian, so we made sure there were plenty for all diets.

 Matt breading up the chicken. They made the gluten free chicken and zucchini first because they only had a couple of mixing bowls to use.

I had to nudge Matt to cook up some of the chicken (you can see it all done on the bottom left corner) and some of the zucchini. He cooked both perfectly without me telling him. He loved both. Now if I can get him to cook at home. This coming school year for sure he is going to be cooking one day a week.

After the morning classes was lunch, recess and some free time. At lunch time, I sat at the adult table and Matt sat with one of the other kids. He was one of two older kids to go outside for recess. Of course he didn't have his coat with him (he runs hot all the time so I try not to bug him about it). For free time, he spent the time messing around on his phone playing a game. He gets along great with the kids his age, but sometimes he needs a break from the silliness. He was giving one of the littler kids a piggy back ride for awhile, running (or walking fast because his legs are so long). All I could hear was Matt making his car noises and the little boy giggling. I took a picture of them together because it was so cute.

The last class of the day, Matt chose drawing with most of the older girls his age. All the other big kids were going to start up a Dungeons & Dragons game, but he wasn't interested. Not his thing. Plus I think he just wanted to quiet too. I joined them eventually because the littles were giving me a headache.

He was drawing a car using a picture off his phone as his model. All the girls were drawing cats. The girls was so cute with all their chatter. I think Matt was enjoying it too. He would smile every now and then at them. He is at the age where he is interested in girls after all. The moms and I were chatting too. I swear I need the socialization more than Matt. Finally someone other than a teenager and my husband to talk to.

It was time to go home after his time with the girls. I totally needed a nap and I really didn't do anything. Of course Matt and his friend were scheming and next thing I knew, I was bringing Matt back over his friends house to spend the night. He is still there, spending another night. He is over there every weekend anyway. One night there and one night here. Trade off the boys to give each parents a night off lol.

Seed and plant orders for the 2015 gardens

For Valentine's day most husbands buy their wives rose or other pretty flowers and chocolate. Although I would love to get those things, the flowers just look pretty or smell nice, but eventually die and the chocolate never lasts long. My husband usually buys me a plant that will last me years. One year it was this beautiful red lily. However, when we moved from MA, it got left behind. Something about moving Thanksgiving weekend that had me thinking of other things.

This year my husband ordered me a dozen Super Sauce tomato plants, six California Wonder pepper plants and 100 each of three different types of onion sets, all from Burpee. I won't see them until May, but they will produce a ton of fruits and will feed our family for the year. Much better than some flowers that don't last more than a week.

My order from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds came in last week.It is so sad to see me so excited to get seeds in the mail. My son just shakes his head and smiles at me. LOL. I ordered mostly herbs from them. Thyme, Rosemary, Lavender, and Sage. I also ordered some Ice Queen Lettuce and more Danvers Half Long Carrot seeds. I only have a little bit left of those seeds from last year. I also got a free packet of flower seeds too. I got the same one last year, but never planted them. Guess I will plant both packets this year to bring more bees and butterfly's to the garden.

My order from Territorial Seeds was small this year. I have most seeds I use already. Leftovers from the year before or some saved seeds from the open-pollinated plants I grew. I needed some more Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans and some more Snacking Sunflower seeds. Matt loves sunflower seeds roasted with a little salt. I also ordered some Cabbage that is made for small gardens to try out.

Now all I need is for the snow to go away and the temps to warm up to something other than single digits and we will be all set. Don't see that happening anytime soon though.