Strawberry-Shortcake Cookies

I found this recipe and I had to try it. The timing was perfect, I had a huge box of strawberries and bookclub was meeting at my house. They are from Martha Stewart Living Magazine (June 2009). The recipe makes a ton of cookies and they are delicious especially if you want something to do with those extra strawberries before they go bad.

Garden

This is the story of my garden, partially written to answer my neighbors who are asking,"Why did she plant her garden in mid-June at 9 p.m.?" Here is the tale:


So this was the year I was going to put in a little garden. I had a beautiful garden at our old house a few years ago, and it is time once again to have our own Victory Garden. The spring chores had another idea, after a few additional beds, lots of mulching, planting, soccer games, end of school events, and a new baby April and May disappeared.


Then much to my surprise, in early June after I told my husband that it was getting to late for a garden, he rented a tiller and prepped my new garden.


It was way to late to start plants from seeds, but the next week the kids and I stopped at Hirt's Greenhouse on the way home from swim lessons to pick up a few plants. A friend had mentioned the greenhouse, and she was completely right the place was amazing. Talk about an incredible variety of everything. The amount of tomatoes was overwhelming, and suddenly Sport became enthusiastic about peppers. So with about 10 different types of peppers and two other trays with plants inside our little Mazda 5 the kids and I went home all excited about the garden.


Then the brakes hit. Mastitis with 102 degree temperature attacked me for three days. I was completely useless. I could barley feed the baby let alone plant a garden, let me tell you I was sick!!! I don't remember being in this much pain after my C-sections. However, my mother reassures me I was indeed in that much pain just so doped up I can't remember it. After several good doses of antibiotics, I felt better by Tuesday night. That night after putting the kids to bed, I looked outside at my tiny baby plants who were struggling to be alive and decided I had to plant them. So at 9 p.m. and a storm brewing, I planted our tomatoes, pumpkins, lettuce, squash, beans, cucumbers and don't forget the peppers. I was putting the garbage away when the first drops of rain hit.




This is what it looks like, I'm hoping that we see something out of this garden. We at least tried, and next year there will at least be a garden to start with.


Keep your fingers crossed.

Summer Lunch

Above is my solution for hectic summer lunches. I don't know about you, but I am awful at packing lunches the night before an outing. Which means I'm constantly trying to get us out of the door at 10 a.m. or even later to go to the zoo.

So last year I started taking two loafs of bread, peanut butter and jelly and whip up about 20 or so sandwiches that I throw into the freezer. It's my own version of the Uncrustables. I can't tell you how much easier it makes getting ready for the park, zoo, or pool. If nothing else it makes me feel like I have it together.

Summer's Here!!

So I'm sitting her recuperating from our last Soccer Saturday with the kids watching Mamma Mia. I am warning you I may break into song, you never know...It has been three days since Pumpkin's school ended and it has occurred to me that now is the time to plan our summer schedule or else: Sport will become more addicted to Wii and will be limping around with some game related injury, Pumpkin will be bored and I will lose her to the wilds of the neighborhood having never connected with her. Then there is Tiger...he may never crawl if my head isn't on straight. So this years there is going to have a plan, and we will get the most of these lazy hazy days of summer.

8:30 Get dressed/clean rooms

9:00 Family Time

10:00 Snack

10:15 Open

12:00 Lunch

12:30 D.E.A.R. time

1:00 Quiet time/desk time

2:00 Open

3:00 Snack

3:15 Open

4:30 Make Dinner

6:00 Dinner

6:30 Open

8:00 Get Ready for Bed

9:00 ZZZZZzzzzzzzzzz!!!!

So hopefully this will be our guide to follow on the days when we are home and a place to start off with when we come home and Sport says what can I do, what can I do. The goal is to keep them out of the peek sun, do a little school work, plenty of free play, limit the amount of T.V. and computer games played and most of all have fun. "Mamma Mia, here we go again, how can I resist you..." Oops sorry, time to go enjoy the movie. Here's to a great summer!!!