Eggs, Potatos, Bunnies and more

My kids really like YouTube. Greta gets up early most days and parks herself and her blanket on the computer chair and watches videos on YouTube. Most of the videos are about 5 minute crafts, or toy reviews. But recently she's been looking at science stuff. Slime making and such. She ran across a clip of someone putting an egg in a cup of vinegar. After 24 hours it will dissolve the hard shell leaving the intact membrane and egg. So of course she did this and 24 hours later she had this very cool shell-less egg. She played with it for several minutes before it popped all over the table. 

I just celebrated my three year vegan anniversary. Technically I should say "plant based" but we'll say vegan to make things easier. Do you know the difference between plant based and vegan? You go plant based for your health, and you go vegan for the animals. I love animals but I'm doing this for my health. I'm really enjoying it! It's so nice to find something that works for me, and it's carb heavy. I love carbs! My go to snack when I'm out running errands is a baked potato from Wendy's with several mustard packets and pepper. It's so good and healthy and fills me up for hours. I follow Dr. McDougall's program, here is a easy color picture book in case you're interested: LINK

My kids are not 100% plant based but eat a lot of plant based meals. They often ask for junk food and I give in some times. Other times I try to find healthier options for the junk food they crave. I was given a silicone donut baking tray for Christmas (thanks Mom & Dad) and finally got around to trying it out. I found an oil free vegan donut recipe and baked them in the oven. They turned out so delicious! The kids devoured them.

We've been trying to get Tuttles out of her cage more often lately. She's not exactly a pleasant rabbit, often trying to literally bite the hand that feeds her. Once out of her cage she's nice and calms down. She's litter box trained in her cage but tends to lose that knowledge when running around Greta's room. But we're trying. Greta sure loves getting her out.

Sean has been busy with many projects lately. The skid steer has had an energy drain since we bought it. It needs to be hooked up to a trickle charger to keep the battery charged and Sean thought it was time to fix it. He took the batteries out and put in new cables. The bays that the batteries sit in were rusted and falling apart so he welded up new ones. It was quite the project taking two weekends. He's getting better and better at welding, soon he'll be at his fathers level. The skid steer is all back in working order and starts right up without the trickle charger which is nice.

Plant Love

I love plants, always have. I've had a fascination with them since I was a kid. In college I took several summer jobs working at plant nurseries. I learned all about scientific names and growing techniques. In college I even contemplated going into botany or landscape design as a major. My weakness seems to be sad plants. Perhaps it's because I'm thrifty but I like finding good deals on plants that are a little stressed or sad, taking them home, repotting them and giving them care until they are back to thriving. Most of the plants on the property were clearance plants.

Last December I went to the feed store to get some animal food and there sitting outside in a rack were a bunch of clearance bulbs. They were all marked at 90% off and I knew if I didn't buy them they probably would have chucked them in the dumpster soon. So I bought all of them, it was like a whopping $6 for four massive bags of bulbs. They were mostly mixed tulip bulbs but there was a bag of some unidentified flower bulbs in there too (still not sure what I planted). So I got home and found the mildest day in December to go plant all of these bulbs. I put most of them up at the top of the driveway next to the road. Now every time I pull into the driveway I'm greeted with a colorful display of tulips. It was such a good find and this fall I plan to buy even more...maybe at full price (gasp!).

I planned on that being the end of the blog post but had to add my find yesterday. Once again I make my trek to the feed store (I always find the best stuff at the feed store apparently). There in front of the store was a pallet with some really sad bushes on it. They had gone through a freeze without being protected and had their leaves froze off. I've been planning of adding several berry bushes to our property this year. We already get gallons and gallons of blackberries each year and thought we needed raspberries and blueberries too. So when I went to investigate the sad bushes on the pallet I was delighted to see they were blueberry bushes and they were 50% off. Score! They had eight of them but I could only fit six in my SUV unfortunately. I'm excited to have fresh blueberries for the kids to pick.

Scrub-a-Dub

I remember, as a kid, cleaning a lot of cars. My Mom would work weekends often and my sister and I would go outside with my Dad and he'd put us to work. I remember waxing, vacuuming interiors, washing....pretty much detailing the family cars. He's a car enthusiast so there were many cars to clean. Fast forward 30 years....my car is a mess. We live on dirt/mud roads, I have messy kids and I transport all sorts of strange things in my car. It's not disgusting by any means. I don't let the kids eat or drink (for the most part) in the car so it's not some living experiment. But, it's usually got dust and dirt on it, in it and under it. And if it rains it becomes a mud monster. Case in point:

My Dad informed me a few weeks ago that he was going to come collect Wesley and my car and go teach him how to wash and detail it. I, of course, said "Wonderful, when will you be here?!". So off he went teaching Wesley the fine art of making a car spotless. They were out there for 5 hours washing, vacuuming, dusting, scrubbing and making it shine. Wesley did a great job and learned a lot. I got a beautiful car that has never been cleaner (seriously, it wasn't even this clean when we bought it!). Thanks Mom and Dad!

Happy Easter

We had a lovely Easter! The kids and I are fairly involved in our church, we've been going for two years now and really enjoy it. I joined the choir last fall and this was my first Easter cantata. We sang six songs and had a lot of fun.  We are very grateful to have found such a warm and welcoming church to attend.

Easter wouldn't be Easter without the local egg hunt at the ball park. We've been doing this every year since 2011. his year was the first year Wesley was too old for the egg hunt (It goes through 9 years old) so he and Alex hung back and watched the sisters race for loot. Greta has one more year.