Little Peter Cottontail

He's cute, right? And fluffy? And just as happy as can be? Exactly. He's oh so happy as he hippity-hops away from my strawberry plants. The little dear scarfed down ALL of my strawberries--even the yellow ones, depriving them of the joy of ripeness...and depriving me of the sweet juicy taste of home-grown strawberries.

Is anyone else planning an Operation Peter Cottontail? Hubby wants to set a trap and then release it somewhere far, far away from the garden. I'm a little more aggressive. Hubby said, "If you were a bunny rabbit and you found a beautiful strawberry patch, wouldn't you eat them?" I responded by stating, "Yes, but I would also realize the chance of death I faced each time I entered the garden walls."

So, how do you handle your bunny problems?

Little House

I must admit, all these years I had never read Little House on the Prairie, nor had I really watched an episode. However, I saw the book on the list of "To Read" according to The Well Trained Mind, so I thought I'd jump on it early. I now know why I never read it.

Some may think I'm crazy, as an English major and book lover, to speak poorly of Laura and Mary and the entire family, but honestly, I do not find learning to build walls, doors (some with nails, some without), a fireplace, a roof, or a floor at all (or in the least bit) interesting. Shame on me. I went my entire life passing over the books that were in a dusty brown box in the storage room of my parents house, and now I know why.

I have tried to make the book interesting. I have tried using different voices and making boring sentences exciting, but let's face it: it's just not happening. And the worst part: My daughter shows no interest in the story, either. She will sit through a reading, but she jumps at the chance to do something else, and I'm right there with her. We will finish the book (all 300 and some odd pages), but we will not be checking out more. Shame on me.

Chore Charts

I finally found a chore chart that the girls have been pretty good at sticking with! Yay! Normally, I stick a chart on the fridge, we manage the chores for a few days, and then it goes by the wayside and I remember it a month down the road. Here is our working chore chart (pun intended):

I covered the girls' names, but the actual chart has their names on the pockets, too. I had found an idea similar to this online, but now I can't remember where. I had a chore chart in mind, but I adjusted it slightly to fit our needs. I took a piece of 81/2x 11 white paper, typed their names, etc., laminated it, and then I cut out manila file folders and folded them into pockets, then I attached them to the laminated piece of white paper. If I did it over, I would add the days of the week between the pockets to keep track of which days all the chores were completed.

Here is a picture of some of the cards that go into the pockets:

I used Micrsoft Excel, made two columns of equal width and Googled pictures/images of the tasks my girls should....errr...normally complete. Then, I copied them to the first column and typed the name of each task in the second column, printed two copies, folded the columns and cut accordingly around the edges, laminated, and then cut out the actual laminated cards. Voila! Sturdy cards to handle the worst finger smudges!

Each day, the girls go through the cards and place them in the right pocket once the task is completed. I love this because you don't need to use every card every day, and you can add cards for special chores, or once kids are able to handle more responsibility. My eventual goal: Have Lovely complete all of my...er....her chores every day for an entire month!

Hooray for Me...er...the Garden!

As I begin to focus and organize my life as the homemaker I should have been for the past (almost) seven years, I made a "goal list" for each of the weeks of May. This week's major goal is to garden, so I cleaned/weeded the flower bed in front of the house, and since my allergies weren't acting crazy as usual, I went out back to the actual garden. To my surprise, I have lots of garlic and onion chives, an oregano bush (it's much larger than last year already!), sage, parsley, and the dill that originally wouldn't grow has spread like wildfire--we now have seven dill plants throughout the garden! Yikes! To top that, the strawberries that wouldn't grow last year have really taken off....all through the garden. Is any damage done when strawberries grow in the middle of an oregano plant? lol Any tips on whether or not I should be restricting my strawberries to a certain area of the garden and how if so?

I plan on getting some more herbs tomorrow, such as basil and my favorite--yet my husband's most dreaded--rosemary. I will see what else sparks my interest as well. Hubby still needs to till, so I can only plan in the remainder of the rows that are already growing herbs. I will also get some pretty flowers for out front to snazz it up.

Oh, and we had our first freezer cooking flop last night. I made Slow Cooker Chicken in Mushroom Sherry Sauce, but hubby thought it was too sweet. I thought it was all right. Lovely said, "It's not really good." Cuddlebug said, "It's yummy, but not really much."--she's only four, but already a pro at flipping a compliment! I'm not freezer cooking tonight, so you will have to wait on the next review...

Books and Such

Wow! It seems while my internet was down, everyone caught up on their blogs! I hope I have as much to read tomorrow! While browsing the blogs, I found a link to a new website I just might love... Homeschool Library Builder. I haven't bought anything from the site yet, but that doesn't mean I won't! It offers a variety of books meant for the classical curriculum. You can do a search by age, by curriculum, by country/region, by subject matter...and they are running a sale with $1, $2, $3, and $5 bargain bins through June 1!

Now, more on my cooking escapade...We had chicken cordon blue (sp?) with twice-baked potatoes, and I baked some asparagus to go with it. YUM! The potatoes are super fantabulous! The chicken was pretty good, too, but we had to make both portions because the girls and I ate one portion and hubby dearest ate the other portion himself! Aww...if only I had his metabolism! So, so far, so good with OAMC!

On another note...I hate Belkin routers. And AT&T. I'm just sayin'... Long story short, my internet connection failed. Thought it was the ethernet cord, so I thought I'd just go ahead and get a router so I would have wireless. Installed great, but never worked, even though it said it was working. Got a new modem. Modem stopped working the day after installation. Called AT&T, they said to call computer manufacturer. Didn't want to call manufacturer and get charged. Called AT&T back, was put on hold. While on hold, fixed the problem by enabling the local area connection (it was a little more detailed than that). AT&T guy came back to tell me it was the computer and not AT&T's fault and I'd have to get help elsewhere. I told him it was fixed. He asked, "Which green lights are off on your modem?" I said, "None." He asked, "What message do you get when you try to pull up the internet?" I said, "The internet." He started to reiterate it was the computer and not AT&T when I said once again, "IT WORKS--I FIXED IT." He finally said, "Oh..thanks for calling AT&T."

Lesson learned for today: While spending two hours cleaning my daughters' rooms, I finally found the back to Mr. Potato Head. I attempted to attach it, but it would not attach. Finally found another back a few minutes later. This one attached properly. Knowledge gleaned: not all potato rumps are created equal. Hmm..this might have been funnier had I pictures...

How Once a Month Cooking Works

I've heard that once a month cooking and freezer cooking saves time and money, but I had no idea until I tried it out myself. I was very hesitant, as I enjoy fresh foods and I've become very picky about how I eat my meat, etc. However, I followed the April 2010 menu from onceamonthmom.com and I can't help but be impressed! Here is how it works:

1. Print out the menu, grocery list, individual recipes, and directions from onceamonthmom.com


2. Go over the grocery list. Check off all ingredients you already have. For the ingredients you will need to buy, place the store name of where you will buy them and how much they will cost. I found it easier to make separate lists for each store after I looked through the Sunday ads. I shopped at Kroger, Meijer, Sam's Club, and Whole Foods, so I made a simple spread sheet, divided by department, for each store. Then, I wrote down what I paid and checked off the item once I got home.


3. Read through the recipes! Make sure you have the equipment/pots/pans necessary to cook/assemble each meal.


4. Plan which day to perform the cook. The menu is meant to be used with two families, but you could double the recipe if more famililes want to join.


5. The night before, chop/slice/mince all veggies. Follow the directions for anything else that might need performed the night before OAMC Day.


6. Start cooking early on OAMC Day! I actually used two days because we started so late in the afternoon the first day, and I was cooking until late the following night (because my mom didn't have mini muffin pans, I didn't bring any, and so I had to bring that recipe home to finish...in other words, read the recipes thoroughly before you start!)


7. Be prepared to do a lot of cleaning, but I feel this is totally worth it to have a freezer stocked full of food!

**Note**

Most meals are not "cooked" ahead--they are simply assembed and placed in the freezer, and therefore only need thawed and cooked the day you plan on eating them. Breads/muffins/egg rolls are baked ahead of time, however.

OAMC (Freezer Cooking) Review

I did it! It's over! I followed the menu plan from onceamonthmom.com, which was my first time trying to meal plan that many days in advance, let alone cook/assemble that many meals in advance. Now, here's my review:

Pros:

• Tasty dishes that offer a lot of variety


• Although portions seem small for what my family (i.e. my husband) would consume, you can make two portions at once, or for lighter meals, just make one at a time.


• The main part of grocery shopping is done for the month, the meals are made/assembled, and I know my freezer is stocked for when my family is hungry, if we have guests, or if I'm invited somewhere and need to bring a dish.


• It's more fun cooking with someone else!


• The mess is gone! Come dinnertime, I'll only have minimal clean-up!

Cons:

• Uses a lot of time and energy


• High up-front cost


• A LOT of clean-up the day of cooking

Cost: Ingredients for April 2010's menus cost: $272.72, divided by two because I did it with my mother and the menu is meant to divide between two families of four or less. That means each of us spent $136.36, or $34.09 per week on meals! No, there aren't meals for each and every day, but we made 15 recipes, which gave us two portions of each dish. I'll explain how it works in the next post.

Overall Opinion: I am really impressed! I've already eaten/tasted three of the dishes, plus taste-testing while cooking, and while it stretched what I would normally buy for my family, everything tasted great!