New Years Again!

Awe yes, the obligatory New Years post!

Yep, I have resolutions and plans and goals! I want to get skinny, save money, travel etc.

Every year is very similar... We are inspired. We are excited... We know the drill...

I am going to change it up this year!! Yep again... it is a tiny change and I am making a big deal out of it.

I am going to spend the next week making a list of all my goals. All the goals for all the things I want to do, all the places I want to go and all that. All the things... I love lists...

Now, here it is, the change I am over emphasizing... Mission Critical Goals!!! Are you excited?? I am!! I know this isn’t a new idea, I am sure someone somewhere has been doing it for years. Thats ok, I am still excited.

The idea is, find the goals that are the most important, the ones that are deal breakers. Like, pay off that credit card, spend more time with your kids or lose that last 10 pounds. Whatever defines a successful year for you. Then, every single decision you make through the year needs to be weighed against your mission critical goals.

Are you ready for my silly example? Well, ready or not... Let’s pretend that I am kidding when I say a mission critical goal is to spend more time having coffee with other ladies. Let’s also pretend that my husband says, “Hey honey, lets spend the weekend cleaning out the garage!” The first thing I need to do is think through my goals, does this decision derail any of them? Well, yes, yes it does! If I spend the weekend cleaning out the garage, I will be making myself unavailable for coffee dates. LOL see I have a plan...

Of course, things will come up that that conflict with each other or conflict with what you really want. I have a solution for that! When one goal conflicts with another, pick the one of greater value to you. If one of my goals was to spend more time with my husband, and the other was to spend more time having coffee with girlfriends, I will have to choose. I will choose wisely, because no relationship trumps the one with my husband. Although, I might just let him take me out to dinner instead of cleaning out the garage...

So there you have it, don’t clean out the garage, go out for coffee and a dinner date with your hubby instead! #goals...

In all seriousness, we get to define what success looks like in our lives. Success looks so different to each of us that we should never even consider measuring your goals against someone else’s. I haven’t finished my list yet, and I will probably keep working on it through January, but I hope it inspires me to continue being positive and making positive changes in my life.

God bless!
Tammy

Muffin Tin Sausage and Broccoli Fritatta

Ok... I know... it has been almost a year and a half since my last post... I really wanted to change that this year, I mean, it was on my list of resolutions! But alas, here it is March and I am finally getting around to posting something. Thankfully the reason I haven’t posted anything is because I have been happily chugging along with regular life, homeschooling, loving my family, friends and pets (yes, I am including the chickens as pets).

Since we are just as busy as ever, I love using this cabin fever time of year to meal prep for busier days. When the weather is ugly, we hit hard on our homeschooling. When the weather has its nice moments this time of year, the kids love to be outside, carefree and muddy.

This is the perfect time to prep meals for the future! (Lets just be honest, I’m prepping for the days I feel like being lazy, just as much as the busy days...)

Today I prepped a breakfast food, mostly because I love a fancy breakfast but I don’t love getting up in the morning. Also, 90% of the time, my meal prep time is simply making a double portion of whatever the kids like, feeding them half and freezing the other half.

Muffin Tin Sausage and Broccoli Frittata

I used ingredients I already had so you could absolutely substitute your favorite foods.

1lb Sausage (Or bacon)
2+ cups frozen Broccoli florets (My kids love broccoli, so I use more when I can)
6+ grape tomatoes (Any tomatoes work)
18 eggs
1/2 cup milk
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 1/2 cups shredded cheese (this is approximate, I used about a tablespoon for each of the 24 frittatas)

Preheat your oven to 350. Coat two muffin tins with cooking spray and set them aside.

Next, brown your sausage well. While you are working on your sausage, rinse your frozen broccoli under some hot water to thaw it.

I chopped off all of the stems and cut the florets very small. I feel like they cook through a little more efficiently when I do that.

I cut my grape tomatoes into fours, but if you are using larger tomatoes, I would dice them evenly.

It is time to start assembling these bad boys.

I start by putting the sausage on the bottom, then the broccoli then the tomatoes. The order really doesn't matter, that is just the way I like to do it, because its pretty.

Try to assemble your muffin cups without the toddler eating all the broccoli. If you aren't careful, you will get this look and it will be hard to give a firm no.

I didn't plan well and had to wash my eggs before I could finish, but I can't lie, this is a sight that makes me happy. All the different color eggs fresh from our family chickens... so cool...

The egg mixture is very simple. Just crack all your eggs into a bowl, add the milk, salt and pepper. The amount of salt you add will be determined by the saltiness of the sausage/bacon.

Pour your egg mixture into each muffin cup just below the top edge. Sprinkle about a tablespoon of cheese on each one. Less is more on this one. We just want a taste of cheese, too much ruins the texture.

Bake them for about 22 minutes, or until completely set. You don't want them to be runny in the middle.

Take them out of the oven and let them set for a few minutes to cool, the inside is hot like fire.

Serve them or take them out of the pan to cool completely for freezing.
Package about 12 of them into a gallon sized freezer bag, get as much air out as you can and toss them into the freezer.

I reheat them in the microwave for about 45 seconds to a minute each.

I have no idea how long you can leave them in the freezer, we always burn through them pretty quickly. I would assume that they will lose their texture after a few months.

There, I fed the kids half, froze the other half. Two meals, one breakfast worth of effort.

Fun Craft for the Wall

I had so much fun making this darling wall hanging out of pallet wood.

It was, however, very challenging!

Have you ever tried to take a pallet apart? If you haven't, don't bother.

The wood was exactly what I wanted, the perfect aged look and thickness. I assumed it would be a breeze. Nope. The nails in this pallet were about 3 feet long and the wood loved them so much, they they hung on for dear life!

I found myself sweating and panting and just ripping the wood apart like a rabid Tasmanian devil. Take a minute to picture that.

Anyway, it was still fun, just hard. After the sweat and pretending not to cry for fear of failure while the kids were watching, the rest of the craft was the breeze I was hoping for.

This is it, the crowning piece on the kids bathroom wall...

I am considering making a tutorial for this one if there is enough interest!

Duke and Daisy...

The 4th of July was a day mixed with emotions and fun.

We made the difficult decision to let Duke and Daisy go to a family that could better care for them. We will really miss them, but this new family was very blessed to receive them, and they can afford to feed them!

Looking back the the several times Duke and Daisy jumped the fence and ate the garden. The several times they pushed against the posts to bend them down and get out. We were afraid that they weren't getting enough to eat. They ate all of the raspberry bushes and the lettuce. We still love them and want to keep them, but we simply cannot continue to pay for feed, fencing and time to fix everything they damaged.

We adored hearing them talk and watching them run and play in the yard with the kiddos. They were so happy when we let them roam the yard, but in the end, we didn't have enough grass to keep them fed. It doesn't help that the amount of pee and poop those animals produce is seriously unreal.

We found a family who will love and care for them, and they have other sheep!

So, before our exciting day of food, friends and fireworks, we let them go. The kids were all bummed but soon were distracted by all of the prep and excitement. Today the kids talked about them but there was almost a sense of relief that came with the lifting of a burden. They speak of them so lovingly, like they are already a distant memory.  Every one except for me and Abby.

Abby and I are the only ones who are still bummed. I loved caring for them. I loved the experience for the kids and the fact that we had actual sheep living in our back yard! I seriously enjoyed every minute of having them. Abby loved being chased and hearing their voices.

So, farewell Duke and Daisy. Don't be surprised if one or two of Bella's kitties are named after you!

Learning as we go...

Our financial struggle this year has turned into some pretty interesting conversations between me and the kids. I really enjoy explaining to them that God will provide, that he is always listening, and that everything is going to be OK. What I enjoy more is when the proof is in the pudding. 

As I am in the garden pulling weeds before breakfast, waiting for the bread to finish baking, I have all the kids working. Ellie is following me around yelling "boobie" and pulling on my shirt, Tan-man is whining that he shouldn't have to pull weeds because he is so cute, and Abby is complaining that she is pulling weeds but cannot dig a hole to China. The three oldest are diligently pulling weeds, but only because they have figured out that if they just do it, it will be done and they can go play. 

Perfect time to talk. As we talked we reflected on the last few weeks and about the garden we wished we could have put together this year.

When We planted all of our seeds earlier this year we had SO MANY plans. Little did we know, Duke and Daisy had plans too. 

The lambs ate everything. Every sprout, every plant, everything of value. 

All we had left were a few kinds of unplanted seeds. The kids were almost as bummed out as Ash and I. All of the money and time invested in those sprouts, gone. All of the plans, the excitement, man, we couldn't catch a break.

After the disappointment of losing the garden we tried to make up for it by planting some old seeds. Pumpkin, watermelon, corn, cantaloupe and zucchini. The zucchini came up almost immediately. A neighbor friend emailed me that week to tell me about a plant sell that supports the garden program at a local college and the plants were "super cheap." We went over there as a family and purchased several tomato plants, peppers and a few trees. We spent $17! We planted them in the garden and made it almost beautiful again. 

Would you believe, the lambs knocked the fence down and did it again?! I know, we should have known better, we didn't. Thankfully, they only ate the peppers and the corn. Apparently lambs don't like tomatoes and zucchini. We wanted to give up. We halfheartedly pulled weeds for a few days, but only because we duper love the only things growing, zucchini and tomatoes. The other seeds hadn't sprouted yet, so we wanted them to have a fighting chance.

Fueling my give up fire, I over did it, and hurt my back. I was unable to get out and the kids aren't motivated to pull weeds without me, so it had been a few days since any now had been out there. The weeds in the garden exploded! There were millions of weeds everywhere!   

I have been trying to go out there and pull weeds as much as time would allow. After a few days of trying to catch up, something interesting happened. We noticed some sprouts that could only be pumpkins!There were little pumpkin sprouts everywhere! When we rototilled the garden before we planted we left the tiny old pumpkin that never grew last year. Last years garden was a total fail. Apparently, the seeds from that unenthusiastic pumpkin plant spread through out the garden and now there are sprouts everywhere!

We went through and tried to pull weeds around each of the sprouts, thinking maybe if we got nothing else from this garden, at least we might get some pumpkins! Pulling weeds for a while we noticed something else. The weeds we were pulling were mostly the common weeds that we have to pull all around the property. There was one weed that we didn't recognize, in an attempt to identify them, we started pulling them up and examining them. Teachable moment about our 5 senses we decided to smell them and realized we recognize that smell! These are TOMATOES! There are tiny little tomato plants everywhere!

Now instead of begrudgingly pulling weeds, we are rejoicing in the fact that we are not just going to have a couple of tomatoes and a couple of zucchinis; we're also going to have a million tomatoes and pumpkins too! We made the decision to pull weeds around the tomato plants and let them all live where they are. If we need to construct supports for them later we will.

We also noticed that the corn and peppers that the lambs ate are growing back! The seeds we planted are starting to sprout and we fixed the fence. So as the kids and I pull weeds I get the joyful opportunity to explain to them that each and every single weed that you pull is giving God a big high-five and saying thank You. Thank You for all that we've been given, thank You for our blessings...

 This garden may have turned out to be a success after all...

Chicken Coop!

We have enjoyed our chickens so much over the last year, we decided to get 6 more! We got our chicks around the same time we got the lambs, and they stayed safe and warm in our garage with the lambs for several weeks!

Now that we have 11 birds, we need a bigger coop and enclosure to house them. After the amazing experience with the lamb shed, we decided to keep up the momentum and finish out the enclosure and coop for the new chicks. Before we could finish we had many obstacles, you know, like working in the rain... I am not keen on muddy chicken poop with a ton of kids... excuse me while I gag...

We did however complete all of the components in an untimely manner... :)

They have been in their new house for a few weeks now and they are HUGE! They grow super fast. The new chicks are doing well, one of the older hens is a little mean, but she hasn't hurt any of the others.

It is so interesting to watch the social dynamics of chickens. They totally form groups, there is a bossy one and they all pretty much throw their social hierarchy out the window when the crazy 4 year old runs in there to kiss them all!

Picture Frame Fun!

Ok, I know this one is super simple. I just had to share because I it's so cute and fun!  I love being able to change out pictures, or keep a picture in a frame forever. Sometimes I want the pictures to reflect the seasons or the season of life we are in!  With the endless possibilities of home decor, let's just keep it simple!

I started this project with a few simple items.

•  Large inexpensive frame 
• Random paper clips or clothes pins  
• Twine or string of choice 
• Photo/photos (made at Costco)

I removed the glass and backing so the frame was, well, just a frame. Before I could attach anything else, I had to make a hard decision; hang the frame landscape, or portrait.

After making my sons hold the frame up all different ways for several minutes of agony, I decided on landscape, and they survived, just barely. 

 I used tiny picture screws to tie the twine to the frame. I did have to be careful not to split the faux wood.

You can place the screws and twine where ever you want. I decided to place mine very high on the frame because I am hanging only one large photo. If you wanted to hang several smaller photos, you can easily string several pieces of twine across the frame.  

Before I finished I got a crazy idea to add fun little tags that I had stuffed away in my craft closet. I have a bout a million random little goodies stashed away in there... I might have a problem.... And wash tape... for real, its the most amazing craft item in the history of ever...

WASHI TAPE! EEK!

After stringing all of the letters on a piece of twine, I hung them from the corner in a diagonal and used a piece of tape to hold the letters facing forward.

I did change my mind about where I wanted to hang it after I moved the room around a little. Now it is sitting on my little home made buffet in my kitchen.  I am in love.