Sunday in the Kitchen

I know meals on Sunday should be prepared with simpleness of heart (or something like that) but my zucchini blossoms couldn't survive another day in the fridge, so I made more fried zucchini blossoms.

But these weren't just any old fried zucchini blossoms....

.... They were stuffed zucchini blossoms (ricotta, Parmesan, egg, and fresh chive.) I felt so Paula Dean cooking them.

The chives came from my Bucket O' Onion.

Which I think amazingly resembles this guy's Head O' Hair.

The blossoms were good. I even shared a couple with neighbors who were playing Scrabble on the porch next door. This afternoon I was reading the Ensign and there was an article on gardening that had a quote from Spencer W. Kimball,

“Another commendable thing about gardening is the exchange of products by
neighbors and the fostering of fellowship and neighborliness.”

In other words, the way to your neighbor's heart, is through her stomach.

We also feasted on the first born succulent cucumbers. (Are you sick of hearing about my garden? It's just that the first fruits are so exciting! Kind of like your first baby. Subsequent fruits lose the novelty.)

We experienced a kitchen casualty today. I guess his plastic was just too brittle to withstand another stirring of grits. Mr. Blue Spoon served us well the past nine years.

May he rest in peace.

Story

The other night when my parents were here David and I got a date night with free babysitting. We went to Target. While we were browsing the shoe section an attractive young man approached us. He was most likely in his young 20's, blonde, fit, groomed, wearing cool worn jeans and a snug fit ivory colored polo shirt. He was a pretty boy. He had a shoe box in each hand and he politely asked us if we could give him our opinion of what pair we thought he should buy. One was a brown sneaker-like shoe. Very Mossimo and trendy. The other was a plain pair of brown leather dress shoes. David immediately pointed to the sneaker and I agreed. He thanked us and told us that he asked two other women a moment ago, but he wanted to get the opinions of people more "his age." I had seen the other women earlier and I had estimated that they were pushing 30. 35 at most. David and I turned the corner and giggled in the next aisle. I guess leaving six kids at home makes us look younger.

I went to the grocery store this evening and came home, pulled into the driveway, and shined my headlights on this:


I'm glad I saw it because I would've walked right into it carrying the groceries inside the house. You can't see in this photo, but the spider is bright orange.

Yes.

Today was a "yes" day. It's been long week. I didn't even attempt to actively teach my kids anything. My bleeding got a little heavy today. It probably wasn't all that heavy, but being a tampon sort of girl, I'm not used to wearing maxi pads and feeling and seeing the quantity of blood flow out. So I chose to remain in the supine position most of the day to prevent gravity from doing it's uncomfortable work. Which means that I let my kids get away with a lot of stuff including watching TV and eating junk. As I momentarily sat at my computer this afternoon, I was able to record this:

Notice that I've trained them well to peel Hershey Kisses over the trash can because they know that they will not get anymore if I have to pick up foil wrappers in the house.

Rachel was napping during the video event. She got her chocolate later:

Emily told me today that she is SO excited for this summer. I asked her why. I was thinking that she was excited for the pool, for my birthday, for Wendy's birthday, or for a vacation, but she told me that she is so excited for Science Camp. Which means I better get a move on it. I think we might start with pH the first week which begins on Monday. Yay! Science Camp!

Good Morning Glory!

Emily was watching me get dressed this morning and asked, "Mommy, why do you wear a bra?"
Sadly I gave her an honest reply, "To make it look like I have boobs."

There might not be much glory in my chest, but there was some glory in my garden this morning. I surprisingly found this beautiful bloom by my beans. I believe it is a grandchild, or possibly a great-grandchild of a plant I planted from seed 2 or 3 years ago. I think the center of the flower looks like the entrance into heaven.

I'm afraid you might have to put up with lots of pictures of my garden this summer. It's just a source of joy for me right now and I can't help but share. I've never had much of a green thumb. If it's been green at all, it's been a putrid green. But we discovered the key to success this year -- COMPOST! And lots of it!

I also made fried zucchini blossoms this afternoon. That was fun.

I gathered 10 male blossoms that fell off or were ready to fall off and made a batter of egg, milk, flour, and a dash of salt.

I dipped them in the batter and fried them in a pan of oil until golden brown.

Not bad. You can also stuff them with feta cheese which sounds really good. I read that zucchini blossoms can cost as much as $1 a piece at farmer's markets. So I guess we had quite the delicacy today.

Speaking of delicacy, I have a quick funny little story. When my husband and I were dating, we attended the young single adults family home evening on Monday nights at church. One evening a returned missionary was giving the lesson or made a comment during the lesson (I don't remember) about a certain food that was served in the region of the world where he served his mission. I don't remember what it was, maybe cow testicles or monkey eyeballs. It was something gross. Anyway, he kept describing this rare and luxurious food as a "delicatessen." I turned to David and whispered, "Does he mean delicacy?" David whispered, "Yeah, I think so." Then we couldn't stop busting up the several times he said delicatessen. Nobody ever corrected him. We probably should have, but it was so funny to hear him saying it.

So, yes, zucchini blossoms are a delicious delicatessen. If you think you don't have a green thumb, try growing zucchini. I think it's pretty easy.

A Few of My Favorite Things

So I mentioned last week that I was having a bad week. To fill you in on the details ... I found out last week that I was chosen to be one of the elite 1% of women who experience more than 2 miscarriages in a row. On Monday I was hoping to start feeling the wonderful morning sickness that always begins at the conclusion of week six of pregnancy. Instead I was greeted with bloody underwear. Not what I had in mind, but I cried, dealt with it, and had a good friend bring me some fried chicken and mint chocolate chip ice cream to fill the void. I'm ok. Perhaps I'm just getting a little greedy with the children. It's just so weird having a gap of more than 2 years between kids! Or maybe my body is just taking a break and preparing itself for the next batch.

I went to the doctor the next day and he thinks I have low progesterone. I could've self diagnosed that. I've read that chronic stress can cause high levels of cortisol which in turn decreases progesterone which is an essential horomone to maintain a pregnancy. However I get frustrated that doctors won't admit that stress can be a factor to recurrent miscarriages.

My other theory still remains too ... that the angels in heaven are still having difficulty finding a willing spirit to play the part of a 7th child. Grrr. Or ... my fetility has been transferred to our garden ...

Look at that lush fertileness! If only my uterus could do the same.

Not only is our garden a source of food, but it's also a source of genital coverings if we should lose the clothes off our backs in this bad economy.

Now this THIS is beauty!

I think Heavenly Father and Jesus did an awesome job creating the Zinnia. Why they created the cockroach is still a mystery to me. But I suppose it must needs be that there is an opposition in all things.

This made my day today.

I've been worried that there would be a lack of bees to pollinate my cucumbers and zucchini. I saw several bees feasting on the delicate blooms today. Perhaps now my chronic stress will be put to an end and I can enjoy a surge of progesterone.

A few more things that make me happy.

Cucumber tendrils - such spiral beauty in nature!

Garden visitors.

McDonald's ice cream cones.

That yellow safety cone in the background is protecting Walmart patrons from slipping on the Sprite I spilled.

Jason also learned that shortly after this picture that it's not a good idea to take a bite out of the handle of the cone before finishing the top.

Nana and Papa left today. I'm on my own with cleaning dishes and thinking of meals to prepare. We had a great time!

Our First Zucchini

Zucchini is not a vegetable I often buy at the grocery store, so today I offered a prize of a small bowl of mini marshmallows to any child that was willing to try a slice of our home grown zucchini. The winners were Emily, Wendy, and Jason who enjoyed the vegetable. Sarah and Bradley weren't brave souls, but Sarah offered an alternative and said, "Mommy, I have an idea. How about if Bradley and I drink a whole glass lemonade and we get marshmallows?" She was so proud of her ingenious idea and was so disappointed when I vetoed it.

I know I am such a lame blogger when I have company in town. My parents leave tomorrow and then I should be back on track and able to catch up on the past week's details.

Happy Memorial Day!

Our First Green Pepper

Portrait Friday

Today my parents and I took the kids to JCPenney to get a picture of Rachel. When Emily was little I took her every month for her first year to the Walmart portrait studio to have her picture taken. The package was $3.95 at the time. The Walmart portrait studio is now gone and we have to trek about 30-40 minutes to another part of town to go to the more expensive department store studio. Because of the hassle, poor Rachel hasn't had any professional pictures taken. I keep telling myself that when I get the money I am going to hire a good photographer to take an hour or so with our family and shoot a whole bunch of pictures. That way I get to keep the digital files and select which photos I like at my leisure because seriously I think that is the most stressful part. However, who knows when we will ever have money again so my mom insisted that we get her picture taken while Rachel still looks like a baby. I'm glad we went and I'm glad that my mom paid. Bradley is also glad because I can now fill the empty frame that's been hanging on our wall for the past 16+ months that says, "Coming Soon."

While waiting our turn, I saw this in the frame display:

Nothing says "I love you" more than your 5 shirtless boys with fake tatoos that say, "Granny." I'll bet that put a tear in Granny's eye on Mother's day.

If you go to JCPnney's site you can see that they have definitely narrowed their target market. I opted not to get the Harley-Davidson Road Rebel portraits with background, leather vest, and kid-sized motorcycle. I just didn't think that it went that well with Rachel's polka dot dress.

Happy Anniversary, Tom and Cherie!

43 Years

Before she traveled here, I told my mom that she had to keep along with our 2009 polka dot tradition and wear polka dots on her anniversary. She went shopping and was excited that she had a blouse fit for the occasion. Her blouse didn't quite meet my polka dot standards, but I'll give her credit for the spots. I also set my mom up on Facebook today. She was excited. She already has 4 friends!

We even got to go out to eat with the anniversary couple. The Chocolate Stampede dessert was devoured in minutes. When Jason was finished, he took his plate and started walking around the restaurant looking for the kitchen counter to place it on. Obviously we don't go out to eat that much and he hasn't gained an appreciation in paying somebody to take away your dirty dishes. His feelings were hurt when we all laughed at him. At the end of the meal the waitress took him into the kitchen and showed him where they washed the dishes.

That made him happy.

Just some pics

Christmas in May and Emergency Preparedness

Today was generally a BAD day, but this cheered me up:

In case you can't tell, it's a picture of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (Sarah), Santa (Wendy) and her elf (Bradley).

The kids are preparing a play for when my parents come tomorrow. The last time my parents were here it was Christmas, so I guess my kids think they should put on a Christmas play? I don't know. Emily is the director and costume designer. She made Rudoph's nose. It's a folded paper towel colored with red marker taped to Sarah's nose. And I guess she also wrote the feminist version rendering Santa as a female who plays the recorder as she flys around on Christmas Eve night.

As the oldest child, Emily has quite the leadership skills. She gave our Family Home Evening lesson tonight. I had no idea she had it all prepared. She had visuals and everything. It was on emergency preparedness. She drew pictures of things we should include in an emergency kit. She had pictures of:

• food (granola bar, orange, bread)
• blanckets + pilo
• flashlights + radeo
• clothes + shoes (shirt, belt, pants, shoes with bows on them) She also mentioned pajamas and Sarah thought we should have slippers.
• scripshers + jernel (because we want to record those emergency moments)

Then she read an article from the Friend titled, "Emergency Day Drill" (March 2009, p 28)

Then she had a plastic bag of items and had each family member pull out an item and it was an example of what should be in an emergency kit and she talked about it. There was a flashlight, first-aid kit, batteries, play food, a pretend Book of Mormon, stack of fake money that she made, an ambulance Matchbox car (it reprensented what would happen if someone got hurt in an emergency.)

Just when we thought it was all over, she handed a plastic bag to each family member and told them to get a few items that they thought should belong in an emergency kit and bring it back to the family room. When we all brought it back, we showed each other what we gathered and placed the items in two different piles according to whether they were appropriate for emergency preparedness. Everyone did a good job. The only item that was somewhat questionable was a bobbin with pink thread that Sarah brought. I don't think it's likely that my sewing machine will need to be included in the 72 hour kit. Maybe we will just include a travel sewing kit.

The lesson was awesome. It was nice that it even included an activity. All I had to think about was getting the tub of cookie dough out of the fridge. Yay kids!

The end of the day turned out really well. I'm going to bed now and hope for a better day tomorrow. I'll fill you in on the details later.

Talk next Sunday

I had a good day today. I was asked to give a talk next Sunday in church. That is what I'm doing right now -- preparing my talk -- because I know I won't have much time to prepare this week.

Church Cleaning

This weekend it was our family's turn to clean the church building. We gathered the kids, jumped in the van and headed to the church at about 5:30 PM this evening. My policy is to clean the church building as good as I would clean my own house. Ok, so that's probably not the best policy considering my house looks like this right now:


... but I have to draw the line somewhere and I can assure you that our church building will not look like that tomorrow.

We set up the folding chairs in the back of the chapel and placed hymnals on them. We made sure the Relief Society room had its chairs in order. We scanned the floors for debris. We took out the trash. We vacuumed the Primary room.

Emily was in charge of cleaning the glass on the doors while Sarah and Wendy looked at their reflections while making faces.

The glass wasn't all that dirty, so Rachel helped to give Emily something to clean. First with some handprints.

Then a little cheek grease.

Then a little toddler slobber.

Finally another handprint. I'm pretty sure we made negative progress on the glass by the time we left.

Bathrooms were also on the list. I scanned them and they looked clean to me. They were cleaner than my toilets at home. So we skipped that. I see no sense in cleaning something that isn't dirty. Right? I mean I know there are probably microscopic germs on those toilet seats, but it's my policy that I must see dirt, mold, or mildew to clean it. I say to all germophobes, "Toilet goer beware. If you want a clean toilet seat, put some Lysol wipes in your purse or just squat." (Seriously, men have it so easy, don't they?)

Our duty is done. Now I have to clean my own house within the next 15 minutes if I want to get to bed on time. Not going to happen, but at least I blogged.

I'm totally boring.

I don't have much to say this week because I'm trying to get my house in order. My parents are coming on Tuesday. They haven't been here in 5 months. I think that is the longest period of time that my mom hasn't been to seen us. So I'm a bit boring, but here is a picture of something I found in my freezer the other day. It frightened me at first, but then I remembered I was saving them to make banana bread.

Like I said, my life is a bit boring right now and all I have is picture of frozen limp bananas.

Dinnertime / Naptime

A few months ago I stopped putting Jason down for naps. Normally I wait until a child is 3 years old to quit naptime, but he learned at an early age how to climb out of his crib which made naptime miserable because I usually spent an hour or so trying to get him to stay in his crib. Anyway, I gave up the nap because I figured that it was less torture having him around for a couple extra hours downstairs than me having to carry him back upstairs for an hour or two. Why do I tell you all this? Because he often crashes in the middle of the afternoon if activities aren't exciting enough. Tonight he began crashing at dinnertime. He couldn't even finish his last bite of hot dog.

Now if I could get just get my husband a job doing laughter voice overs, perhaps we could be rich!

But she has a great personality...

... I promise.

Naptime

It's almost 9PM and I really need to do something productive tonight, like clean all of the junk off of the family room chair.

This is how Jason napped today. It looks so uncomfortable! But he slept there for 2 hours.

Happy Mother's Day!

When I was little, it was always my job to stand in front of my mother, or at least slightly in front of her so that she would look thinner in photos. It looks like I can gain as much weight as I please because my children completely bury me! Bring on the doughnuts!

My Mother's Day present to myself. I'm a big fan of paper plates, but for the past few months I've classified them as a frivolous expense to help trim the budget. These were clearanced at Walmart last night for $1.00. I couldn't resist. They are even high quality paper plates! These should get us through 4 meals.

Rachel was crying in the family room so I put her in her high chair with some crackers. She sat there for 10 minutes before I noticed the blood on her collar from the blood dripping down her face. Apparently she was crying about the gash in her scalp which would explain why Jason kept saying, "Head. Head." I think he was the guilty suspect. Nothing like celebrating Mother's Day doing a little Spray 'N Washing. Rachel is ok. It was just a lot of blood from a little hole.

And FINALLY the priesthood wisened up this year and gave all the mothers at church CHOCOLATE! Usually we get a potted flower that I'll sit on my porch railing with good intentions of planting, but forget about it and it wilts to its death. The chocolate was delicious and I quickly planted it in my belly.

Today was a good day. There was a thunderstorm. I got a nap. I talked to my grandmother and my mother. My family made me biscuits and leftovers for dinner. We had strawberry shortcake for dessert. The only thing missing was the children singing Mother's Day songs in Sacrament meeting at church. What's up with that? I missed it.

As mundane as the daily tasks of motherhood can be, I do like being a mother.

"Recognize that the joy of motherhood comes in moments. There will be hard times and frustrating times. But amid the challenges, there are shining moments of joy and satisfaction."

-Elder M. Russell Ballard, Daughters of God, Ensign, May 2008, 108-10

Here's a little joy and satisfaction.

Happy Mother's Day Eve!

I don't have much to blog about today. I got back from the grocery store an hour ago and I need to put the groceries away. My free child labor is in bed and it's all up to me. I'll leave you with this picture I took on Waffle Thursday. I'm not quite sure why Sarah didn't finish her last bite. I think my husband went outside to work on the garden and she didn't want to miss out.

A note from the frugal housewife: Crystal Light containers are great for dipping waffles into syrup. (I say Crystal Light for universal understanding, but they're really from Walmart's Great Value Pink Lemonade.)

When Boys Play Barbies

Massages make me verbose.

So today I cashed in on an early Mother's Day gift. Actually it was last year's Mother's Day gift to me -- a gift certificate for a 60 minute (including gratuity) massage at a local spa. Yes, today I self indulged and escaped to a little piece of heaven on Earth. This week I had a little stressful melt down because I had to log in to our bank account and it always freaks me out when I do.

I was a little nervous to go to the spa today because I'm not well practiced on spa going. I followed the receptionist's instructions to change out of my clothes, put on the robe, and wear the provided flip flops. My massager was Christie. She was nice. She asked me if I had kids and I told her I had six. Her jaw dropped and she asked me if I was Catholic. I told her I was Mormon.

I laid face down on the table and she began the massage. Then I got confused. What is a person supposed to think about when getting a massage?

Should I think about the things I have to do the rest of the day? Heck no!
Should I pretend Christie is my husband and just enjoy it? A little weird.
Should I use the soft music to help me pretend I am in the Sacred Grove and think about spiritual things? I'm practically naked and that's a little weird too.
Should I think about my kids? No!
Should I fall asleep? That would be a waste.

I decided to think about whatever came to my mind. First I focused on the music. I was thinking it sounded very Pachelbel with bird chirps and rain sounds. I liked it. I wondered if the massager used the music to help her know when to do certain things. Then I thought about last night's episode of Scrubs, but I quickley got rid of that thought because I was afraid I would get the giggles.

She spent a lot of time on my shoulders. They were pretty tense. It felt good but I was hoping that she would do more than my shoulders because I do like my feet and hands rubbed. Then she got out the hot rocks. Those were awesome! At first when she told me that she was going to use them, I was afraid it would be all new agey and weird, but it wasn't. Heat helps a lot to relax. Then I wondered where she got the rocks. Did she order them from some massage therapist catalog or just buy some river rocks at Walmart for $4.82? Then I thought how it felt like the blood was rushing to my head because the table seemed to be at an incline. But I tried to focus on the rocks. I was glad I had gone pee before because the heat from the rocks could've possible made me wet the table.

Then she went to my legs and feet. I thought about how glad I was that I remembered to shave my legs that morning. I wondered what massagers think when they have to massage a woman who doesn't shave her legs? I then wondered if she could tell that I don't shave my thighs all that much. When she began to massage my right foot, I felt a big intestinal gas bubble. Then my thoughts focused on not farting. Finally the gas bubble subsided. I could relax. I enjoyed the calf muscle massage. I wondered what kind of oil she was using. I thought about what David might be doing with the kids at that moment. (It turns out that he napped on the couch while the kids watched Sky High.) I thought about a couple of errands I was going to run afterward. Then she got to my left foot and its toes and I got another intestinal gas bubble. Then I developed a theory that foot massages cause intestinal gas bubbles. It must be a reflexology thing. Then I wondered if in massage school, Massage 101, the instructor teaches the students to beware when massaging feet because their clients might fart. Thankfully I was able to contain my air and all was well.

I sadly knew that the session was more than half over when she had me flip over. At that point I couldn't help but cough because I was short of breath from laying on my chest and lungs. I thought maybe I had lung cancer or something, but it went away after a minute. She rubbed my arms and hands. That was awesome. Then I thought about my blog friend who is a massage therapist. I wondered if she was as good as Christie. I thought about a blog friend who just got called as the food storage specialist in her ward. I was disappointed in myself for not being able to fulfill her blog post request yesterday to help her name the Food Storage progressive dinner she is planning for an enrichment activity in a couple weeks. Then I thought, "#10 Can Caravan." Quite cheesy, but I like rhyming. Then I thought, "Meet and Greet the Wheat." More cheesy rhyming. I've never been too good at naming things, except for my kids. I like all my kid's names. Then I started stressing that the session was coming to an end. She went to my neck and hairline. Then Pachelbel's Canon in D actually did come on. I thought, "How good am I for knowing my Baroque composers?" Except, I didn't think "Baroque" because I didn't know it was Baroque. I just Googled Pachelbel and saw that. I also just found some girl on imeem.com (one of my favorite sites) who has a playlist of 57 versions of Canon in D. Cool! It's one of my favorite songs.

Finally the session ended. She put my robe at my feet and told me to continue breathing and that there was no hurry and she left the room. So I laid there and breathed and wondered if it would be ok to take a nap. I didn't want to leave, but I reluctantly got up after about 3 minutes, robed myself and left the small, quiet, secluded room. Christie met me with a glass of water and told me to take my time and make myself at home. Make myself at home? Ok. A little more noise please. Do you have a TV so I can watch Dora? Do you have a computer so I can check my email, facebook and favorite blogs? Do you have a few naked Barbies I can throw on the floor? There were fruit snacks, packages of pretzels, and champagne. They were good choices, but I really wanted some macaroni and cheese, animal crackers, and milk. Instead of eating I decided to read a book called, It's a Mom Thing by Tina Neidlein. It made me smile. It was a collection of her 1 or 2 sentence thoughts about motherhood. Here I found someone who violated some copyright laws so you can read it too.

Then I decided it was time to go. I wanted to stop by Comcast, Whole Foods, and Goodwill in the remaining 2 hours I had left before I needed to be home. Now, Christie pointed out the shower to me. Did that mean that I was supposed to take a shower. I really didn't feel like it. I kind of liked the feel of the oils on my body. Would they think I was gross if I didn't shower? I opted to just get dressed and go on my merry way. I handed the receptionist my gift certificate and I was back out into the loud, bright, real world again with the sounds of birds minus the Pachelbel.

I dropped by Comcast to get a new remote for our cable box. We have two, but the fast forward doesn't work on one and the volume doesn't work on the other and neither one of them have the battery cover and we get tired of holding two remotes while we watch TV and constantly trying to find the 4 AA batteries that belong on them which are usually between the cushions of the couch or under the couch. I was afraid that they wouldn't give me a new one since I didn't have the old one, but the lady handed me a nice shiny new remote with no questions asked. She told me that the old one (I didn't let on that I had two already) probably just lost it's programming and that I needed to reprogram it. I told her that I thought it was just broken. She insisted that it needed to be programmed. I decided to leave it at that and and not get into how the remote has teeth marks and had been through a LOT of wear and tear the past couple of years. What mattered was that I had the new remote in my hand for free.

Next I went to Whole Foods. I don't usually go there, but it seems like the appropriate thing to do after getting a massage. I actually did want to go there because I was looking for Agar to make microbiology agar plates for the awesome science camp I have planned for my kids this summer. I found it, but it was $7.69 for 11 tablespoons. I decided I could probably find it online for cheaper including shipping. I looked around some more and left empty-handed except for the sample of buffalo jerky the employee offered me. I don't think I would accept a sample of buffalo jerky at a normal grocery store, but it's got to be safe at Whole Foods, right?

My final stop was Goodwill. I wanted to self-indulge a little more and buy something. I almost bought a black and white polka dot skirt. Polka dots make me happy these days. But I tried it on and it was a little short for my liking. It looked fine while I was standing up, but I'm sure any man sitting next to me in church won't care to see my hairy thighs when I sit down. Then I wanted to buy a bike for Emily because she is outgrowing hers. There were no prices on them so I asked and they priced them at $14 which I thought was too much for the rusty, nasty, pieces of junk. I was hoping for a price of $6. I'm going to hold out and hope to find a banana seat bike for her someday. Ideally a purple glitter one like I had when I was a kid. So I went back inside and found 3 children's books, Homer Price, Pippi Goes on Board, and some hard back kid's book about Grains. Then I found a cute black and white toile handbag. It was very cute and I got it. It would be a perfect scripture case. I am guessing it might have been a friend of mine's? She had a garage sale this past week and it looks like something that would've been hers.

Then it was time to go home. Time to go home to peanut butter and jelly sandwich makers like this because Mama ain't cookin tonight:

Must stick tongue out when concentrating.

"My cut it!"

"I need help."

That mess is from the tortilla jelly burrito he made when my back was turned while I was getting the dishes washed and dessert ready (Tollhouse chocolate chip cookie dough.)

Progress Report

April 26th

May 6th (10 days later)

I don't know if zucchini normally grow that big that fast, but I like it! I'm sure they are way overcrowded, but I'm learning. The seeds just look so little when you plant them. I had no idea the plants would be this big.


Jason was a little bored with the applesauce.



But Rachel had fun with the linguine.

And now to report on my Google Analytics. I like to check it everynow and then to see how people get to my website. For the past month I've had some keyword searches. Here are some:

1. back in panties
2. "plunge the toilet" husband
3. so badly i wet
4. with him inside me
5. "woman poops" in public pool
6. baptism dunk
7. can i plant my placenta in a big pot with a tree
8. got to pee
9. how do you know youve been defriended
10. i wet my knickers
11. mature naked moms
12. mature pooping
13. mature+poop
14. melinda pee
15. my kids wet their pants blogspot
16. peed my pants accident pregnant
17. poop pants girl
18. "potty" + "accident" + "15 years old"
19. shaving bikini line
20. wash sheets peed bed blog
21. wetting panties accidents
22. women pooping in their panties
23. melinda beth booty

Ahh, good. I'm glad to know that my blog is still a popular landing spot for the poop and pee searches. And I wonder what does happens if you do plant a placenta with a tree?