Around the House - Things to do this fall

Our resident "garden" guru Jessi fills us in on a few things you can do around the house & yard around this time of year. 
Read on - you'll happily think twice about bagging up those leaves before guests arrive this Thursday.

A few simple things to do in your garden this fall:

1) Drain and disconnect your garden hoses and store them on your shed or garage.  
If temperatures drop below 25 degrees where you live, it is a good idea to insulate your hose bib. 
I was unable to locate an exact picture of a hose bib insulation cup- but Thea saw a crate full of them at the entry way of a Home Depot for about a dollar.  They are really easy to "install".

2) Do your trees need work? 
If you have large trees in your landscape, it is a good idea to have them evaluated by a qualified professional before the storm season.  My recommendation is to contact a Certified ISA Arborist. http://bit.ly/slEOLz 
Be careful about getting advice from uncertified individuals or companies who are just out looking for work.  For smaller trees, pruning can wait until later in the winter.

3) Leave your leaves! 
For some reason it has been ingrained in us for decades now to clean up all the leaves in the fall then bag them up and ship them off, or even worse: burn them.  But no, please stop! Leaves are a great thing to keep in your garden - compost them, or shred them and use them as mulch in your garden beds. Just be sure to not bury your plants with them and don't allow them to accumulate near storm drains in the street.  The one exception about reusing leaves: any diseased plant leaves should be removed from your garden.


Just a couple things to think about before the really bad weather moves in. Small preventative maintenance things can save you headaches and cash in the long run.


Enjoy the season!

Thankful Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Menu List

Thanksgiving is ONE week away. How time just keeps flying by me.
I really love Thanksgiving. Its is my favorite holiday. No gifts to give, nothing much to decorate and we keep it casual attire wise. One year (or 3) my family just wore sweatpants all day. Why bother to get all dressed up if you have small kids and save your appetite for this special occasion. Stretchy pants are a must! Best thing of all is enjoying food with friends and family and give thanks to each other.

I also really enjoy cooking Thanksgiving dinner. We all have our gifts in life and I am pretty sure that one of mine is the ability of cooking a great turkey.  I suck very much at cooking some stuff but roasted turkey isn't one of them. Hey- when you know you're good at something might as well acknowledge it right? I dote over our bird for hours and I enjoy every second of it.

This year I'll be cooking for 16 people possibly. Maybe more or less.
Traditionally like many other families we each get an opportunity to say what we are thankful for at dinner. Its nice to listen to each other when those are said. Each age bracket has a different outlook on what they are thankful for. Toys, boyfriends, jobs, health etc...  The evolution of life is great like that.

I'm just very thankful in general. My ages states that I haven't lived very long on Earth but my soul would argue otherwise. Time is fleeting and you have to enjoy things and be thankful for them while you can.

xo-Thea

(x-post from Thea's main blog)

The First Accident

Yesterday afternoon my daughter was in her first car accident.
She wasn't driving but she was in the front seat in her boyfriend's car on the way home from school.

A lady rear ended the car in front of her which propelled that car into "my" kids car. *My daughter & boyfriend  have been dating for 2 years so he's like my kid at this point.*

The cars were at a complete stop when she hit them. They called me immediately after the accident and asked me to come there. My daughter's boyfriend's parents were both at work and I work from home so I able to get there quickly.

They had been waiting there for about 15 minutes when I arrived. I made sure that they were all okay. They said that the lady didn't even get out of her car at all or even talk to them. She got out when I got there and I had a little chat with her.  To make a long story short from the looks of things, she totaled her car, the kid's car whom she hit directly and my daughter's boyfriend's car needs a new bumper, back quarter panel at the very least.  The kid who's car who was directly hit said when he looked back after he was hit said he was pretty sure that he saw that lady on the phone.

To protect the privacy of the cars involved I'm only showing a little tiny bit of the damage.

Although the situation was a little intense for a couple minutes, I was very proud of my daughter (who was slightly hurt - face into dashboard) and her boyfriend. They did everything that they were supposed to do even if that lady wasn't being corporative at first.  All of the teenagers involved showed maturity and patience. The kids all "looked" like the stereotypical "punk" kids which I think they are often misjudged for.  I was very proud of all 3 of them - and I just met that other kid right then.

Thankfully it wasn't worse than it was and now they all unfortunately know what it is like to be in an accident. As mom I will never bitch and moan about the high cost of driver's ed. It paid off yesterday.
Teenagers +3 Old lady on cell phone -3.

Do you remember your first car accident? Did it change you as a driver/passenger for life?

xo-Thea

Money is money

Right?

There have been times in my life where I've scrounged for change in my car, couch & purse because I needed money to pay for diapers or other important kid items.

I would be a blend of horrified, angry & sad if I made it up to the cash register with a handful of change to pay for my items only to be told they only accept a certain amount of change as payment.

Read how this Portland, Oregon had to deal with this situation.

Sure it might be annoying for the cashier. I was a cashier just outside of Flint, Michigan briefly once upon a time and I remember counting out a lot of change from elderly couples. Hey I understood. Money is money and like the woman in that story linked above. "If the government issues you the money they "stores" should take it." As a small handmade artist even at craft shows I accept change as payment.

Hard times falls upon the best of us why not do what we can and help someone out?

Recipe - Crockpot Yogurt

Apologies for the quietness around these parts. I have a few posts lined up that I need to gather pictures for. Because blog posts are more fun with pictures. So stay tuned for that.

So this week my kids had a 3 day school week so I had to cram a lot of stuff in before we started a 4 day weekend. But for long weekends like this I like do something small but special as a treat, so I made some delicious home made yogurt.
I decided to make a little video about it:

I know there are other methods and recipes for this. I know if you add powdered milk it will help thicken the yogurt if you are using 2% milk. I have never tried that so I didn't mention it. 

You can use any type of milk but we (who can drink milk in my house) only get organic milk. 

Again with all of my recipes and tutorials if I didn't use it or try it myself I won't include it. 

This yogurt is delicious and its a fun a thing to teach your kids about. 

I'm not exactly sure how long the yogurt will keep because so far we've eaten it up with out any spoiling. Remember there are 6 people who live in my house so keep that into consideration if you make it for yourself.

If you want to make half of this just cut the ingredient measurements by half.

Things I used:

1 crock pot
1/2 gallon of whole organic milk
1 cup of yogurt (from the previous batch)
1/2 cup of local honey
2 tablespoons of vanilla extract
1 large junky towel
and patience.

Let me know if you have any questions & have fun making your own. 

-Thea