Lauream Terry's Obituary

Cliff's mother called us early Saturday morning to tell us that Lauream, Eletta's mother had passed away.  Eletta is married to Cliff's oldest brother James.  click here to read the obituary

It's Storytime- with OJ AND the shop building

I realize the two above are totally random- but I seem to remember taking some type of test in high school that labeled me Concrete Random- so there- we have concrete floors and two random topics- I guess I was typecast correctly.

Today was Lauren's last day at Comm Central and Kindergarten graduation- we start again the first Monday in August.  She really did not want to stay after lunch...... so Mommy took her home- even though I knew it would be a long time before getting downtime.  She came home and helped daddy put up some of the structure of the shop building and then she came inside and read for just a little over an hour to me.  OJ the cat was glad to be included.  Below you can see kitty storytime and some of the shop framework along with Cliff's scissor lift.  You have no idea how glad I will be to have this shop building up- stuff out of the yard and the garage- yippee!!!!  Just when do I start charging Meow and the kittens rent for their stay in the garage......kidding- I love having them there and knowing they are safe and cared for. 

# 4 and # 5

Lost the top, two front teeth this week- the fourth and fifth ones to go!!!  We'll have to reschedule our spring portraits for a later date.

Gold Glow Roses

Having heard the forecast for heavy rains in our area, Lauren and I decided to clip our first blooms of the season to enjoy indoors.  She renamed  the Gold Glow hybrid tea- "Lemonade".  We were enchanted with it's first opening hue of a beautiful shade of peachy-apricot- a few hours later, it became the color you see above.  The fabric above is one of three audtioning to be placemats on our bar- this one is the front runner  with the soft yellow paisleys and pinky red sweetheart roses AND it looks great with our butter cookie paint color.  The other two have a more summery feel with reds, royal blues, creams and yellows. 

Bye Bye Bishops and Bows

This picture was taken a few Sunday ago on the way to church.  When pulling her hair back (she rather wear it down) I snuck in a hair bow.  Later in the bathroom at church, she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror and said- "I do not like bows!"  Climbing into her booster seat in dad's truck- she pulled  it out and handed it to me.  So sad to see them go- but will try to get her to wear them to church and forgo them during the week- sounds like a good compromise to me.  Just wondering when she will protest wearing the bishop style dress above as well.  The smocking plate is Creative Keepsakes Cynthia-one of my very favorites I have made for her.  Thinking she might wear them longer if they are either shortened to be like a top or in the angel sleeves style- I am not ready to give up the smocked bishops yet.  At least she we still have yoke and mary de styles that she does like to wear.

Newborn Kittens- short video clip

Meow has six kittens. She gave birth to them Sunday after lunch - on a boat- underneath it's tarp. I came home Monday to move the kittens to the garage and discovered Meow and the black kitty missing. Used this opportunity to move the remaining 5 without Meow interfering and leaving door open. A few seconds later, Meow appeared with the missing cutie and allowed me to carry it into the garage with her following closely behind. She quickly jumped into the box and all was well. Lauren is having a great time talking to all of them and softly petting them and making sure each kitten has it's own "nibble". The kitten crawling around Meow's back resembles are 10 year old inside cat- OJ- named after a former stray we adopted-Orson- who was named after Orson Welles- they both had oversized heads - at least to me they did.

What are You Reading???

Currently - I am reading the above books- make that rereading Screen Doors and Sweet Tea by Martha Hall Foose- a real treat, I promise- you will love reading her humourous tales that preclude each recipe- even if you are not southern.  Wonderful recipes as well- my favorite is the Chile Lime Skirt Steak recipe and my favorite story would be for the mailbox cocktail - you will have to read it yourself- check your local library for a copy.

So Easy by Ellie Krieger is written in a format that I like- divided by breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert recipes that are all healthy and tasty.  Be sure to check out her recommendations for healthy pantry staples.

Month-by-Month Gardening in the South by Don and Chris Hastings is another book that has provided lots of useful information.  As you might guess - the book covers each month and is subdivided into shade and flowering trees, shrubs and vines, fruits, roses, flowers, vegetables, houseplants and lawns.  Each categories lists jobs that can be dones during each month-very helpful- I do not also remember when to prune my roses and how to do so for each type- so - very helpful. 

What are you reading???

Pie- the former carport kitty

Pie is our 9 year old female cat that was once at my grandmother's house.  She loves to nap and to eat tuna.  Lauren requested that I include Pie and OJ in our blog since Bella has been featured. OJ will have his chance when we can catch him in a camera friendly mood- he is a good cat- just camera shy.

Planting Strawberries and Chives

The garden is tilled, amended and ready for planting- well at least strawberries for the moment.  My desire is to have use plants in the garden that benefit each other- for example-according to The Family Kitchen Garden - plants in the onion family ward off fungal diseases- hmmm- chives fall into this category-love their pungent flavor both fresh and dried.  So- yesterday afternoon, I staked the bed to make sure the rows were somewhat even (the bed is not perfectly squared).  Bought twine for this -but unable to locate it- twirly ribbon streamer worked just fine. 

Next, dug holes 12 inches apart and placed peat moss and compost in the hole before setting in the bare root strawberry plant.  Bought 20 of these bare roots- really did not want to invest a lot of money in buying 20 plants at 3 dollars apiece- have had good luck with using bare root plants before so was willing to wait until next year to be able to harvest these berries.  Here is a picture of  one of the roots after it had been soaked- you can see the crown at the top.  Lauren said they looked like octupus or jellyfish.  We are planting both everbearing and june bearing varieties.

After setting in the roots, we covered them until the crowns were at soil level and sowed some chive and marigold seeds around the outer edge.  These are the tiny chive seeds.

Below is a shot of my finished work.........

and a picture of last year's strawberry plant that we planted in the front bed to overwinter it- needs to be transplanted into the new bed this afternoon along with another set of berries and chives.  Need to take some time to figure out the best way to water- especially as we had the cutting garden, corn, tomatoes and peppers.  This is my first year to garden and appreciate any comments or advice.

Dreaming of Summer

This picture was taken of Lauren and my father in the summer of 2007 at Seaside, Florida.  Just love the beautiful color of the sky and the water.  Hope the weather is just as nice when we journey to the beach in May.

We had the shop building dropped off today- took about 4 hours to unload it- the driver's truck was too long and wide to fit down our drive. Had to unload his truck onto our trailer and unload again- I will so glad to have this building up- thanks to Paul for helping this am.  We will see you and family tonight - grilling glazed burger and homemade ice cream.  Sure all the kids will have a blast playing outside- mid 70's today -lots of butterflies!!

Shrimp with Roasted Red Pepper Cream

This was one of the meals we had for dinner this week.  My husband really likes it a lot and it is quick and easy to make- in addition to having less than 7 grams a fat per serving and around 40 grams of protein- we won't mention the sodium or cholestrol count!!

• pasta of your choice- I ended up using fettucine because I made the sauce a little thicker- thin spaghetti also works fine
• 6 oz of roasted red peppers- you can find these in a jar at the market
• 4 oz 1/3 less fat cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup juice from your roasted peppers or use chicken broth
• 2 chopped garlic cloves
• 1/4 tsp red pepper and smoked paprika
• 1 lb. cooked and peeled shrimp
• basil for garnish is desired

Prepare pasta according to package directions. Drain and keep warm.

Process peppers and next 4 ingredients in a food processor until smooth.  Pour mixture into a large skillet.

Cook over medium heat for 5 minutes until throughly heated- stir often.  Add shrimp and cook 2-3 minutes.  Remove from heat and serve over the pasta.  Garnish with basil if desired.

 I am linking up with Designs by Gollum for Foodie Friday. 

Lauren's Container Garden

Seems like the gardening tasks are really taking hold of Lauren.  After transplanting the peppers and tomatoes yesterday, she started her own garden by herself.  She carefully dug up some of the "weeds" in our yard and replanted them-most had their roots intact. 

Afterward, she requested that we fertilize them as well.  You may notice a small red frog in the picture- it is her "strawberry poison dart frog".  According to her - the garden is it's new habitat.   I would say that her little "garden"  fits several categories regarding bloom's taxonomy.

Transplanting and Hardening Off Seedlings

Since we really wanted to grow some heirloom tomatoes and their plants are not readily available- we started some indoors on March the 1st.  Lauren and I started them in the compressed peat pellets and placed them under a growing dome.  It took seven days for most of them to germinate- aunt ruby's german green took almost 12 days to germinate.  We took them out of the dome and placed them under a grow light until their first true set of leaves developed and then transplanted them into larger pots and gave them half strength fertilizer.  Here is a picture of them as of today. 

We started hardening the off last week- hope to plant them out in the garden around the 15th- last frost date is april the 8th here in Arkansas.  The above tomato plants are Brandywine Red, Cherokee Purple and Jubilee.  Brandywine is commonly found in plant stores.  The yellow cherry tomatoes are already in the sunshine today along with the better boys.  My thoughts are to use use cages for some tomatoes and part staking to get an idea of which method I prefer.  Any comments from those with experience???  Thinking air circulation would be better for those staked although more work involved in trying them up as the grow. Very humid here in the summer.


Today we transplanted our pepper seedlings and the aunt ruby german green and box car willie tomatoes.  Kicking myself that I chose a mix color packet of bell pepper seedlings- I am in love with the red - the packet we planted had green, red, yellow, orange and purple.  Thinking I will grab a red bell at the store to make certain I have them- we are having shrimp and red bell pepper sauce for dinner tonight and at last Friday's pizza party- one of the guests brought red bell peppers- mine never made it to my pizza- are they ever good just plain raw!!  Still I do hope to have some purple come up as well- next year might have to buy in individual packets. 

Here you can see the impatiens that are in need of pricking out this week- if you are thinking I probably had some help sprinkling the seeds - you would be correct.  Hoping this will tolerate the eastern side of our home's front- although I have noticed the sun is still shining in that bed as late as 2 pm- crossing my fingers the trees filter enough sunlight for them to thrive.

Wish us luck and good weather.  Still have zinnia seeds (around 100) and basil and sage to deal with.   Will add that this project and ongoing gardening will play a big part in our homeschooling for this summer.  Just think of all those cool vocabulary words and brining  in math and science.  Don't worry- she will get a week off each month in May, June and July.

Dogwood Trees

Lauren and I spent some time today walking through our propery and tying ribbons around all the dogwoods.  We will be clearing some of the smaller trees and undergrowth on our six acres to allow more grass to grow and just basically clean it up- but we do not wish to remove the dogwoods.  As we were walking around- I was reminded of the legend of the dogwood click here to read about it.