My mad wood-working skilz

 The other day I bought a purple aster. Mostly just because it was purple but it was also on sale. So I brought it home, stuck it in a pot, and put it on the railing of the porch. Then the wind blew. The aster did not last long on the little 4" railing.

So I came up with an idea. Borrowed some wood from M, dug my jigsaw out of it's hiding place and set to work.

Three days, 4 partial re-dos, and a-lot of jigsawing and TADA!

A bench.

 

It may not hold a lot but I only intend for it to hold plants. And it seems to hold L just fine. 

And she helped clean up.

 

Country Dogs

This post is kinda gross. But that's dogs I guess. I'll skip down a bit just so your not forced to see grossness if you don't want to.


But who wouldn't want to see what the dog dragged in?


Or is it drug in?


Well either way.



Have I given you enough chance to leave the page yet?




Ok If your still with me now your seriously interested. So here's the story,
I'm dog-sitting my dad's two dogs. Both are hunters, German Short-hair pointers. Abbey is 15 and Buster is 3. And Abbey is gross. Well Buster is too but it's cause he's an unsnipped (though soon to be snipped) male. Back to Abbey. She came home with this yesterday:

And then this morning she found the rest of it. I spent a good 10 minutes scrubbing my hands after having to wrestle disgusting decaying turtle parts from an old dogs mouth.

Seriously. Ew.

No Preservatives Please

One of my goals that accompanies moving into the country is to break my prepackaged, sodium laden, preservative packed foods. Yes their low in calories, as long as you don't eat the whole box.... oops.

Have you ever looked at the ingredients list on the bread bag? Natures Own was one of my favorite store bought breads. It has 20 ingredients. Seriously? Here they are:
Stone Ground Whole Wheat Flour, Water, Maltitol, Wheat Gluten, Yeast, Contains 2% or Less of Each of the Following: Butter (a Trivial Source of Cholesterol), Salt, Dough Conditioners (Sodium Stearoyl-2-Lactylate, Monoglycerides, Calcium Peroxide, Ethoxylated Mono and Diglycerides, Datem), Cultured Whey (Milk), Vinegar, Natural Flavors, Calcium Sulfate, Monocalcium Phosphate, Yeast Food (Ammonium Sulfate), Soy Lecithin.

I have given it up since moving. I now make my own via a bread machine. There are 6 ingredients in my bread now. Water, sugar, salt, flour, dry milk, yeast. That's it. It's fantastic. Tastes amazing. Makes the best grilled cheese sandwiches.

I also have given up store bought cereal. The amount of sugar in a bowl of cereal is enough to run a toddler for an afternoon. Home made granola cereal is so much fun though. As long as you don't burn it. :) And I can change it every time I make it and it's like a whole new cereal. Sunflower seeds, peanut butter, almonds, raisins, cranberries, wheat germ, even baked apples. Everything adds a new flavor and each has it's own nutrition value. Well wheat germ doesn't add much flavor but it's nutritious.

One word. Bisquick. My grandmothers secret to amazing pancakes. Holy preservatives Bat Man. So easy to mix up a batch of home made "bisquick" without the preservatives. It's not like they help preserve a healthy body. Botox would do a better job.

I'll keep adding to the list of foods I've learned to make to avoid the prepackaged - quick and dirty - foods. Next up: The Bug's favorite: Kraft Mac and Cheese.

Traveling with Kids: One parent, 2 kids.

This past weekend I did something many people told me was brave. By the end of my experience I realized I wasn't brave, I was padded room crazy.

I took my two children, aged 2 and 11 weeks, through a total of 4 airports and on 4 airplanes.

Alone.

Completely.

Crazy.

Picture it. Me. Pulling a red rolling suitcase to which is strapped my daughters car seat. My daughter is in the car seat with her little backpack, blanket, stuffed dog, dino, and sippy cup. On top of my little red suitcase is the diaper bag, boppy pillow, and lunch bag with sippy refills. I am wearing the baby in an infantino front carrier. It was effective and back breaking. It was more effective on the trip home that the trip out but some bugs with the straps got worked out.

Here's some advice I will be taking for the next trip:

1. Triple check the time of your flights before you click the BUY button. This will prevent arriving at the destination at 1 am and having to be to the airport at 430am on the return trip.

2. Book directly with the company your traveling with. Airlines let you change flight times, rental car companies would have your credit card on file for their security requirements. Prevents having to get a taxi at 1am. I got lucky and the taxi meter stopped at $56. I only had $60. Talk about a heart pounding taxi ride.

3. Get the CARES Harness. This is the only FAA approved child seat restraint that isn't a car seat. Most people don't realize that the FAA requires that all children under 40 lbs be in an approved child restraint system. Which normally means having to bring the car seat. My harness' have already arrived. It was the first thing I did upon arriving home. Next time the car seats will be checked baggage.

4. Book a hotel that offers breakfast. Any breakfast. Bagel and coffee, it doesn't matter. When you are alone with two kids, have no car, and are outside of the reasonable toddler walking distance from a restaurant, some kind of breakfast on site is a sanity savor. Even if it costs a bit more.

Some people have told me that I should have canceled our trip because of the difficulties we were experiencing. Some other people, and alot of the same people, told me that next time I shouldn't even think about it. To those people I say no. Just because I'm alone with two young kids doesn't mean we have to stay home. Lifes an adventure and we will share the adventure no matter the obstacles.

:)