Remember this window?

I found it at a second hand store for $5 and knew immediately what to do with it. Superman got a couple of used cedar fence boards from our neighbor's old fence and an awesome planter was born. I copied Lilsista's window planter idea and tweaked it a bit to suit the materials we had on hand. The planter is actually part of our window frame, we used 3 mil garbage bags to line the planter portion, and we kept the glass panes and sprayed frost on the thembefore we hung it up. The eight petunia plants were on clearance at Home Depot for $1.19 for 4, so for less than $8, we added charm and whimsy to an otherwise boring fence.


So, what do you think? Can you just picture it with the petunias spilling over? It is so cute...I just love it and I owe it all to Lilsista for sharing her inspiration and instructions. Yay, me!

Is It Any Wonder I Have to Exercise?

I keep trying recipes like this one for Big and Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies by The Farm Chicks that I found at Farenheit 350. Like everyone seems to do, Kitty made her own modifications to the original recipe and I agreed with some and disagreed with others, so I've modified it a little bit more. I've posted the original Farm Chicks recipe along with the modifications I made. This is the BEST EVER PEANUT BUTTER COOKIE RECIPE! Seriously...you must try this recipe...it is completely worth every minute I spend on the exercise bike (and not all recipes are). My neighbors agreed that this made a really good cookie...just one (big) cookie is all you even want...it is that satisfying. Try it yourself, you won't be disappointed.

Big and Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies by the Farm Chicks
From: Kitty at Farenheit 350

Preheat oven to 350.

Cream together:
1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup crunch peanut butter (we used creamy...it was what we had)
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup peanuts (we didn't have any peanuts, so these were left out)

Add in:
2 eggs
2 teaspoons of vanilla (oops! we used 1 tablespoon)
Whip together until light and fluffy.

Stir in:
2 cups of all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda

Drop 1/4 cup size spoonfuls (I used my trusty scooper) onto a cookie sheet and use a fork to press the cross-hatch pattern on the top of the cookies (if you have trouble with the cookie dough sticking to the fork, just dip the tines in flour). Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes. Cool and serve.

Now I'm wondering how awesome these would be if I dipped half in melted chocolate and let it cool/harden before serving. Doesn't that sound fantastic?

Kitty Update, of sorts...

Well, $1600 later, we brought Lucky Baby home today. What did we get for our $1600? Well, she's been on iv fluids for a week and been getting round the clock care. We don't have a diagnosis, but suspect cancer. (The hepatic lipodosis they thought it was turned out to be a best case scenario diagnosis.) They wanted to run more and more tests and we said, "No". She's had enough: enough blood tests, enough fur shaved off, enough needles. I guess now we just wait. We wait to see if the guess is wrong and it isn't cancer and she bounces back or wait for signs she's declining and wonder how long it will be before we have to head back to the pet hospital to put her down.


We're all sad, but resigned...we've done all we can do for her. Honestly, even though it will take us a while to recover from the expenditure, the time it gave us has helped the children understand the immense responsibility that is pet ownership. It is so much more than being able to buy the food each month...it is having to make the really hard decisions about what is best for the animal, even when your heart aches.

Thanks for listening...I know to some people it is no big deal and I can appreciate that, but for all of us, it has been really difficult.

Making Your Home Sing Monday...

I can't believe it is already Monday again. Where did the time go? I think trying to get back into the swing of things after two weeks away combined with all the stress we were dealing with made the week pass in a blur. Throw in super hot days and, well, nothing seemed quite right. This week, however, we're hopeful for a better week. Keeping up with last week's tasks, I have the charity truck picking up on Thursday, so we're still going through our closets and cupboards to look for stuff we get shed ourselves of.


To that end, I'm jumping into Making Your Home Sing Monday with fervor. After some difficult parenting moments this weekend, our home is probably singing military cadences...yep, we've had some dissension in the ranks and I'm have to remind my children this isn't a democracy. Sweetness and light are great when everyone is taking care of business, but when some of the members of our family think "I don't want to" is a terrific reason for not taking care of their responsibilities, it falls to me to remind them that adults have a lot of things they don't enjoy doing (cleaning toilets? mopping floors? diapers?) but that we still do them. No, it is not the military and I'm being facetious when I say that is how it will be, but...obligations must be met, when they're supposed to be fulfilled, and in the manner they're supposed to be fulfilled. Not everything is up for negotiation.

Being the "mean mom" isn't fun, it isn't easy, and it isn't something I enjoy doing. Raising responsible adults is my job, however, and "I don't want to" doesn't work for me, either. So, this week, my household will be marching in step rather than singing and that is okay with me. Because, at the end of it all, I truly believe that legitimate accomplishment is the best motivator and, by golly, by the end of this week, those children of mine will have done a lot of things they can be proud of.

To see what everyone else is doing this week, head over to Momstheword and join in the Making Your Home Sing Monday gathering. It is a great way to a) get a feel for what everyone else is up to and b) get a reminder that you're not the only one!

This One is Throwing Me for a Loop...

My friend Melissa at 365 Days of Exercise took the time to let us all know that Jen of Prior Fat Girl lost her mother in a freak accident yesterday. Today was the day that people all over the world were logging in to celebrate with Jen in anticipation of her achieving the milestone weight loss marker of 100 lbs. Instead, though, people were greeted by the inexplicable...shocked into stunned silence by the news of Jen's horrific loss. Jen's mother was only 49 and was killed by someone backing out of a residential driveway. Before she was hit by this driver, she was able to push the stroller carrying her infant grandchild out of the way, saving the child's life. You can read the specifics here, if you'd like. Please say a prayer for Jen and her family as they deal with this senseless accident.

This one is throwing me for a loop. Why? Because I'm responding to it as the mother. We're so busy being the strong ones...caring about babies and children, neighbors and strangers, but what if we were the ones to disappear? Responding as the mother, I think about things like: What would my children do if I were to die so suddenly? How would my husband cope? How would they all deal with the senselessness of it all? I don't know...all these thoughts are just racing around in my brain, even as I thought to tell my relatively newly driving son, "See? Terrible things happen if you don't pay attention to what you're doing when you're driving."

So, please say a prayer for Jen and her family as they grapple with the loss of their mother and grandmother in such a tragic and unanticipated way, as Jen's dad grapples with the loss of his partner of 32 years. I am just so sad. My heart goes out to them.

Making Food Prep Easier

One of the things I did in anticipation of our long vacation was to prepare as much food ahead of time as possible. You've already heard me rave about Andrea's amazing Buttermilk Pancakes and I wasn't joking when I said they became an instant favorite in my house. Since I knew we'd want them when we were camping, I prepared the mix (in two different batch sizes for when Superman would be with us and when he wouldn't) ahead of time. Then I simply put masking tape on the jars listing the necessary ingredients to complete that batch and, viola!, "instant" pancake mix.
P.S. As for the buttermilk the recipe calls for, I didn't want to give up space in my tiny refrigerator to buttermilk. Instead, I used buttermilk powder in the dry ingredients and then added the required water when it was time for the wet. We tasted no difference. Just be sure to sift the dry before you pack it up, as the buttermilk powder will clump.

Tootsie's Fertilizer Friday...

If you haven't seen Tootsie's garden, you really need to head over there and check it out. Her garden is what I aspire to have, but I'm truly a few years away. This week, however, I'm joining Tootsie in her Fertilizer Friday party. Tootsie encourages all of us to fertilize once a week for gorgeous plants and, if that is what she does, then I'm copying her. (I think she uses pixie dust, too, but she won't cop to it!)


This week, I'm showing you plants that survived the great aphid infestation that devastated my seedlings this spring. The only reason these survived was their fortunate placement in my kitchen window rather than with all the other little seedlings. (Notice that I put flowers upstairs and left the vegetables and other flowers downstairs...hmmmm...I wonder what that says about my priorities?) Anyway, anything you see today I started from seed. I'm so proud of myself for having anything turn out...I've never started flowers from seed before.

So, here are my surviving impatiens. They're in a hanging basket right by my front door.


One of my zinnias - isn't she gorgeous? (Our heat wave is wreaking havoc on her leaves, though...poor thing.)


My only surviving marigold (she lives with the zinnias and the verbena in a huge pot):


And my only surviving verbena:


I just love flowers...especially since I moved into a part of the country where the difference between annuals and perennials is acute, I've become more and more addicted to these annual bursts of color. They just brighten things up, don't you think?

Where in the world?

Well, I've passed through Williamsburg, VA and now I'm just outside of Jamestown, VA.

19.2 mi - "1.85 mi to Jamestown, VA", James City County
"Section: 12 Map Name: Yorktown, 150"

On my transcontinental journey, I'm combining cycling with running. Today was a cycling day, so I was able to cover 16.2 miles, bringing my total to 19.2 miles so far.

Jamestown, VA is the site of one of the earliest colonial settlements in the United States. 13 years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth rock, 104 men and boys began a settlement on the banks of Virginia's James River. How cool is that? I think I can learn a lot of if I spend some time at the historic site. Want to learn more about where I am? Check out Historic Jamestowne, hosted by the National Park Service.

What about you? Have you decided to join me on this transcontinental journey?