Preparing the soil

The seeds were getting too BIG for there starter pellets and needed to be transplanted outside.





I really needed to get the garden spot ready. This time was serious. I had to get it done and not just a small section. The seedlings could no longer live inside, they were falling over.

I grabbed my helpers and went outside.



We started pulling out weed and grass making our garden spot a bit bigger. Some of it was rather easy just cleaning out the weeds but cutting through the grass was a bit harder.




I would loosen the dirt and free the grass. Evan and Gregory would shake the dirt off and throw our chunks into a bucket.



We were working long and hard and boy was it hot outside.



Sweet smiley he spent as lot of the time spying on the neighbors!



But he also helped out when he wanted to.



He and Evan loosened up the dirt and got rid of many weed. They really did a good job preparing the soil.



I did not plant the seedlings in the ground yet. It just did not seem right. It is just such dry rocky dirt. What could we do to make it better for growing ?



I was wanting some sort of fertilizer that would make them grow and keep the ground healthy. I was thinking miracle grow. I asked Jay and the next day he went out and got bags of organic fertilizer. Remember we live out on farm country so guess what it was? Yup, he brought home bag after bag of poop. We poured it on top and he mixed it in.





The soil looked great. It was well fertilized and well tilled. Now I could plant the seeds.

Project 365 week 19 and 20

Lately blogging has been on the back burner. The weather has been hot and we have been outside. With school and sports wrapping up I see a light at the end of the tunnel but we still must continue our busy lives to get there.

May 16
Happy Birthday Gregory! Well not really. He is our firecracker child having his real birthday July 2nd. He never has got to have a birthday with his friends since he has a summer birthday and a busy holiday one at that. Today with cupcakes he celebrated his birthday at school with his friends. Here he is walking around the sun. A Montessori birthday celebration.



May 17
I love to see her smile!



May 18
A unique and controversial advertising campaign in my town. It is upsetting the township because it breaks advertising rules. The borough counsel men launched a lawsuit against the furniture company that has mannequins on truck all over the local boroughs. That got horrible backlash from the public as we all love finding them around town. It is like a very easy where Waldo. Kids love seeing the mannequins and today this one was dressed up as none other than our friendly neighborhood SPIDERMAN!



May 19
Gregory got his haircut. This is the shortest it has ever been with the exception of one time he had to have it shaved after a fantastic self attempt.



May 20
I love finding these surprise pictures in my camera.



May 21
Due to a need to do laundry I grabbed this gender neutral onsie for Faith. It was Smileys at one time and I thought it was so cute. But on my daughter I HATE IT. She looks like a little boy. After I took it off and washed it I quickly put it in the donation pile. Pink and purple only from now on for my princess.



May 22
Back in pink. So much better. She is happier too.



May 23
She loves Daddy and loves to chew on her arm.



May 24
Now that Memorial day is Monday I think its okay to take down the Easter wreath.



May 25
Remember this guy from the winter? He is back and saying our high for the day was 101!!! Can you believe it? Don't it really was not that hot the sensor was in the sun. It was in the upper 90's though still plenty hot though.



May 26
We got a whopper of a storm. Hail, lighting, tornadoes, high winds, it was bad and my husband, my oldest and I were caught in the car in the worst part of it. There was so much damage I had my camera but all you could see out the window was this. We got over 2.6 inches in less than 5 minutes.



May 27
Gregory had been working on ancient Egypt drawings at school. He proudly drew me one for mothers day and the whole class painted these mummy's to display at the art show.

Winner winner chicken dinner

This recipe is super easy and I bet you have most everything on hand. I am not one for fried chicken but this is really good. And if I don't have to go to the grocery store good suddenly becomes GREAT!

Buttermilk Fried Chicken

Gather all you ingredients



4 to 6 chicken frying pieces
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. dried basil or thyme crushed
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. onion powder
1/8 tsp. ground black pepper
1/4 cup buttermilk or sour milk
Cooking oil

Start with the dry ingredients.



In a shallow dish, combine the flour, the basil, salt, onion powder, and black pepper. If you would like hot and spicy fried chicken you could add hot spices here to your tolerance.

In another shallow dish pour in the buttermilk. Now I mentioned that this was so easy because ou have everything on hand... well, buttermilk is not something I keep on hand so instead you can use sour milk and it taste just great. But how do you make sour milk?



To make 1/4 cup sour milk, place 3/4 tsp. lemon juice in a measuring cup. Add enough milk to make 1/4 cup total liquid; stir. Let mixture stand 5 minutes before using.

Now you are ready to bring out the chicken.



Coat the chicken with the flour mixture. Dip it into the sour milk and then again into the flour mixture coating all side.

In a large skillet, cook chicken in hot oil over medium heat for 15 minutes turning to brown evenly.



Reduce heat to medium-low. Cook, uncovered, for 35-40 minutes or until chicken reaches 180 degrees, turning occasionally.

Remove from skillet and drain on paper towels.



Yum. I know it is hard but don't eat it yet. You still need a side. I made mashed potatoes. Everyone has there own recipe for them but here is mine. And it comes out super yummy with out every putting gravy on it.

I use red potatoes because I like them best.



Dice them and I boil them in half chicken broth, half water about an inch over top with a bay leaf or two, depending on the size of the leaf. After they have boiled to fork tender strain them.



Return the potatoes to the pot and add more butter than you would like to admit too.



I use milk, mayonnaise, and whatever I have on had to mashed them with and it always turns out great.



Today I had blue cheese. Some days I use sour cream, or ranch dressing, or cheese, use what you like. So how much of each do you put in? Humm, a dap of this a dollop of that, really. I don't pour in to much milk, remember you can always add more of these ingredients but you can't take them out. I use about 1/4 cup of mayo and a few squeezes of the dressing.

Most importantly use a potato masher to mash them NEVER a mixer.



I taste as I go and adjust the ingredients to make it delicious. And add salt and pepper to taste.



In the end you have a delicious dinner that did not cost much or require you to go to the store. Enjoy.

The seeds are starting

Could I have a green thumb this year? Is that possible? Yes or no and I am leaning towards NO our seed we planted have started to sprout. To us it is exciting. It took no time for them to start to sprout.

By day 7 we had noticeable starts.



To big to leave the top on anymore.



They are growing so quick! The peas, cucumbers, and broccoli are really shooting up.

By day 10 everything had starts. The jalapenos and sweet peepers took the longest to come up. But they are doing well now.





With them growing so fast they need to be transplanted. But the ground is far from ready for them.



And it has been such a rainy week I have not been able to get outside. Yesterday there were thunderstorms forcasted for the afternoon but the morning was sunny and warm. This might be my only chance. I grabbed my best helper



and my mother's day hat and headed outside. I don't believe I ever mentioned what the children got me for mothers day. Apparently they are enjoying gardening because they picked out themselves my gifts. Gregory picked out a watering can. He knew the old one was garbage but we had nothing else. Evan got flowers. Whenever I go to the store he reminds me to get flowers to put in the vase he made me. And my hat obsessed Smiley got me a new sun hat. I love it I love them all and they really picked them out on their own.



So into the dirt we dug. We started pulling out weeds and cleared a tiny section. But life pulled us away and that as all that got done. Hopefully soon I got to get these starts in the ground. It has to eventually stop raining.

I hate painting

I hate painting, I really do. I do not like anything about it. I can never choose a color I like once it is on the walls. I don't like the way you can see brush strokes opposed to roller glides. I don't like the way the roller globs it heavier on spots. One of my friends told me it is not supposed to be like that and I just don't know how to paint. That may be the case but under frustration I do it sometimes.

Once the roof was finished they finished the entry way. Put up the drywall and spackled it. Now it needed to be primed. In the living room the celing had got its first coat of celing paint but need some touch ups. It was never getting done. I watched cans of celing and wall paint just sit there. I grew more and more frustrated as I would trip over all the stuff that need to go back into that room. However nothing can go back in until it is all painted and the floors laid which is waiting on it to be painted. SO I picked up a brush and started painting.



See my kid in the back ground? Besides the fact I don't like to paint that was the other reaason I did not want to. I have 4 kids to watch. If I am painting they can get into a lot! If I am covered in paint I can't pick up a screaming baby. As soon as I start someone will need fed, changed or bandaged. But I went for it and as I guessed it was a disaster. Baby luckily slept, the middle two fought, everyone needed things , it went so bad and ended up in me falling off a stool into a 5 gallon bucket of primer! I was furious. My leg was covered in paint and so waas the floor where I landed on one of my sons. My flip flop was ruined and the floor has a huge mess of a paint puddle and from the accident spot to the kitchen sink and then shower had paint footprints now too.



I still managed to get it done. Everything was primmed. Now that it was done I could paint this celing too when I did the touch ups in the other room.

Another brave day I got out the celing paint wand went for it. How unsatisfying painting white on white. So a few days later I got out the wall paint and started painting the walls a brown. Gasp I hated it. I went to differnt spots in the walls and tried it in all places hoping I might like it better in a differnt area. It was so DARK. It looked so thick. And then it dried and looked so uneven and what had I picked out. I did a second coat just hoping and let it dry figuring I could always paint over it. The second coat did not look to bad once it was on and I had been around it for a while. I figured I would just finish.

I had my baby princess with me to keep her safe from her brothers who I had put a long movie on for and left with cookies to keep them occupied. But they can't resist wanting to paint. They were constantly comming in bugging me to paint and I kept saying no because I wanted the ugly color to look nice not like a kindergartner did it. However after enough wearing down I figured why not? I would need a second coat anyways so why not let them help with the first. It would make them happy and keep them in my eye sight.



They loved to paint!



Smiley started doing a happy dance. Evan soon joined in. It was so cute and made me laugh. What goes through their heads?



It took forever to paint. I stayed up till 1:30 in the morning before I gave up and said I will finish later. But a lot got done. The color is still dark and the room is to little for shuch a rich color but it is growing on me and I like it SOOO much better than the drywall white. I like that I am moving forward.



I will finish the rest soon. I can't wait for it to be done. I hate to paint.