Live to eat

There are, with perhaps some gray folk out there, two kinds of people in this world, those who eat in order to live, and those who live in order to eat. The former, like my mother, would be happy if God created them without stomachs and also would be happy enough eating pancakes and toast their whole life, without butter.

Not me. I belong to those souls that thrive on living our eating adventures.
I think about food.
I talk about food.
I watch shows about food.
I like looking at recipes. Even if I don't make them, I just enjoy reading them.
I like planning menus, even if at this point the 4 course meals never happen, who says I can't dream?
I like growing food. Well, I should say, planting and watering and watching those little veggies grow! I would not rob God's thunder by taking credit for something I truly can't even do (or understand). It really is a marvel that our creative God made so much to eat with so much variety!
And last, but not least of course, I love to eat!

So here's a sample of some of my latest food adventures, in all their sweet and savory glories:

 This order last weekend was for a frog and turtle themed baby shower...honestly, I've never made a 'turtle' cake before, but it didn't turn out too bad. Luckily there's a lot of people who have made frogs and turtles out of icing and cake before that I could look to for inspiration. Thanks google images!

 The little pacifier idea was just too good to pass up!

 The turtle is supposed to be sleeping on a blanket (or waves, whichever you prefer).

 Now the following is a bit of our process in creating 4 raised beds to grow lots of vegetables this year. They are all popping up now, and Luke loves helping me water (or drown) everything =: )

 

So we laid newspaper down right on the grass, put our little weed-mat-stapled-to-the- bed frame on top of that, filled it with dirt, cow poop, and peat moss, planted some seeds and plants, watered, and voila':

Now we just have to wait and see if we get to eat our vegetables, or all the creatures of the earth do.

Mother duties are desperately calling my name now, so take care and have a lovely weekend!

New discoveries

As I have not been swamped with free time lately to blog what I have wanted to share, I'm just going to dump together three blogs in one. Hope you enjoy, and thanks for stopping by to catch up with the happenings of the O'Connell household...

This March I decided to venture in the paths of what most women since Creation have had no choice but to do: Cloth diaper my children. This is a simple thing that, though it is not a pleasure to do in and of itself, saves money, saves last minute trips to Target, and makes me feel just a touch closer to the life Laura Ingalls would have lived. And somehow, though I have to still swish poop down the toilet, that makes me feel good.

Here's Mr. Cute himself sporting one of the several cloth diapers I bought, after MANY hours of research. Let me tell you, buy them new and buy them from cottonbabies.com. (Free shipping!) Ebay did not work out for me on this (cheaper diapers = cheaper material = less material = wet and messy clothes. Not good!)

Discovery number two that has made my life a tad better is the fact that Raw Milk tastes great and doesn't make me feel awful. AND the farm I get it from has been under my nose these last 20 years! 2 minutes from my parents' house there live plenty of very pretty, cute brown cows that produce very delicious milk. I'm hooked. I make everything with it now, including these lovely Apricot Love Letters with Vanilla Pastry Cream (and at over 4% milkfat, it almost is like cream =: ) Yum!

Discovery number three: my husband is a garden fanatic. Not that our little .11 acre plot of land has that much to garden, but boy when he gets an idea into his head, he goes gung-ho! Between Good Friday afternoon and that following Monday night, we now have 4 beautiful raised beds inspired by the square-foot gardening trend, with seeds that are just now beginning to burst from their dirty homes. So God willing, barring the onslaught of slugs, disease, bunnies, and small children, we may have some:

Tomatoes,

green and yellow beans, 

onions

carrots

spinach

leaf lettuce

sugar snap peas

zucchini

cucumbers

peppers

and oh yes, marigolds. They smell awful but that's the point: they are supposed to ward off unwanted rodents.
Sounds like a lot, and it is a lot, in not that much space. But we crammed them in. I love how the seed packets say "sow 3-4 inches apart in rows 36 inches apart." Yeah, so O'Connell speaking, that's 1/2 inch apart and rows 6 inches apart. But we don't have to walk between the rows, AND there's tons of healthy soil for them to thrive off of, i.e. Irish peat moss (at least I think that's where all the peat bogs are), O'Connell compost, and cow poop. What plant could ask for a happier start? So I'll keep you posted on our gardening adventure as the summer (what a wonderful word) progresses. (as well as pictures)

Discovery number 4: Ducks are able to hatch two different colors of chicks. And are they CUTE. I had the fortunate experience of witnessing a brand new gaggle on my neighbors porch this past weekend, just sitting there (she could have hatched them there for all I know they were so fresh). She didn't seem to mind I got within three feet of her to shoot a quick pic.

Ahhh....smell it! SPRUMMER! May just exudes happiness in it's new life, warm weather, fresh sunshine, blossoming everything, and pretty much is my favorite month of the year (ok, so it's my birthday month, so I guess I'm biased). But it IS lovely nonetheless, and I'm so happy it's finally here.

A couple days late I know, but anyway, HAPPY MAY DAY!