We have made quite a mess over here this weekend. We are working on building a carport for the vehicles. Scott is going to mill some lumber to make it out of, so we are taking down the cedars on the property to use. Pretty confident he took down less than 10. I more than doubled that as far as planting more trees. The man is very near begging me to stop planting them. He keeps pointing out the difficulty I have/am creating for when it is time to mow. Below is my solution and it just happens to be much cuter than our current lawn mower.
Pretty confident he is not going to agree with that solution.
Our strawberry patch is looking good so far. The kiddos enjoy watering the plants, but they also take any and all opportunities to play with water and dirt. On the right Ava is watering her magnolia tree. Shepard also has one planted for him. My hope is that someday these trees will grow big and healthy so I can carve their initials or names on their trees.
Shepard is also watering our blueberry plants. They have grown since last year and are doing pretty well. With that confidence, I think we are going to give growing grapes a try this year.
This Week’s Books
I really liked “We are the Gardners” by Joanna Gaines, but it might have been a little too long for my kids ages. Both kids loved “Mustache Baby”. “No Boring Stories” was super cute and a fun read.
My favorite for sure was “What We’ll Build”. I am not going to lie….this one got me pretty teary eyed. Shepard loved “Monkey and Me”. Ava’s favorite was “Alan’s Big Scary Teeth”, which is super cute.
Gluten Free & Dairy Free Menu
- Frittata made with Italian sausage, tomatoes, spinach, green onion, tomato, topped with avocado and carrots and navy beans on the side.
- Blueberry & Chocolate chip pancakes with maple syrup and strawberries.
We have a new dinner thing going on. Every Sunday night for dinner, we try different frittata recipes. Just hearing the kiddos say that word makes it all worth it. And I finally gave in and made some chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast. I did sneak in some blueberries and very much glad I did so because they were super yummy. I think I found my new pancake jam.
- Tuna Rice bowl with tuna, green onion, cucumber, avocado, and Tessemae creamy ranch.
- Grass-fed beef burgers topped with vegan queso, green beans, Yukon potato fries with Tessemae Ketchup.
The combination of tuna, cucumber, and avocado with Tessemae creamy ranch is sooo good. This would definitely be a lunch I would pack if we were going on a picnic. Because I enjoy pretty much every Tessemae dressing, I thought I would give the organic ketchup a try. If you like sweeter ketchups you probably wouldn’t care for it too much. This I feel like is kinda in between a steak sauce and ketchup. With that being said, I like steak sauce more than I like ketchup so I enjoy this version.
Farm Animals
The kiddos like to make sure the hens are getting their greens. We know they like celery, so we tried out Asparagus with them. It took some convincing, but Ava eventually won them over. At least she got a dose of what is like at dinner time with them trying to convince them to eat their food.
We discovered if Benny the rooster eats it, then the other hens will eat it. I guess that’s another job for the rooster. So now we know who we have to convince first.
This is a sight we see several times a day. We call it the quacker train as they go to and from the pond. The leaders and cabooses change, but not the line. If you want to see chaos, just break up the line and these girls just wonder around trying to figure out how to get the line back together. Oh…they are so much fun!
Our hens and ducks are laying very well these days. The ducks are actually outlaying the hens at the moment. Because of their efforts, we were able to donate 102 eggs this week to the blessing boxes. Thank you very much to everyone for saving your egg cartons for us!
Fitness
Gardening has definitely been my workout this week. This week alone the kiddos helped me plant 25 strawberry plants, 30 trees, some more vegetable seeds, grapes, and flowers. I love gardening and I am doing my best to share and instill that same love for planting in our kids. It is such a treat to be able to eat something that you have grown.
On Another Note…
Scott and I both received our first dose of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine. Neither of us had any side effects other than arm soreness that lasted less than 24 hours. I hear the 2nd dose is a doozie, so we look forward to that…..just kidding.
Have a fabulous week! God Bless!
