Yes, I know it’s Wednesday.  You should feel blessed–I didn’t even get one OUT last week

We have hit the hectic season of spring.  There is all the end of year school stuff for the kiddos (Princess has 2 more weeks of school, Buddy a month–so there are trips, concerts, dance recitals, parades).  There is all of the garden and yard stuff, which is time and weather sensitive–if you put off planting your spinach for two weeks you might not get a crop before the heat hits and it all bolts!  And on top of all that my Mom just retired and moved to our town this weekend–which is wonderful but has added a bunch of “helping mom get moved in and settled” type tasks.  (note: my mom is young & vibrant–so it’s not like she’s feeble or anything–I just want to be there to make things easier)

Long story short–chaos rules supreme.  I’ve been shoveling mulch, playing chauffeur, pulling weeds, planting perennials, etc etc etc. . . But hey, despite it all we have to eat and the better I plan, the less stressful it is.  My big goal this week is to use up some of the things that have accumulated in the fridge.  Seriously.  There is not room to put another thing in there.

See–I told you it was packed.

These are the considerations for this week:

1.  My mom is now in town–since she is buried in a sea of boxes I’ll assume she’s going to eat with us a lot this week.

2.  Our 14th Anniversary is this week–we planned to have dinner and a movie on Tuesday night to celebrate.

3.  Regularly scheduled dance and scouts this week.  I skipped my photography class for the Anniversary dinner, but Yankee Bill still MAY have to play pool one night.  We also have the chorus concert.  I’m driving my mom to her eye appt and to the DMV–mostly cause she doesn’t know her way around yet.  So I’ll be in town 2 days this week.  Because the weekend is a 3 day, I’ll also plan for the fact that we are having a big BBQ at our house on Monday.

4.  Memorial Day weekend is the “safe” planting day for us here in zone 5b.  So I’ll be out in the gardens a LOT the end of this week and this weekend–and with the long daylight I frequently don’t realize we are at suppertime–so meals that are either easy to throw together or premade are good.

5.  Good chance of rain the rest of the week-Wed, Thur, Fri–but the weekend is supposed to be sunny and a bit cooler.  I better not plan on any grilling until the weather clears up!

6. As always my goal is to have one venison meal, one fish meal, one pork meal, one bean meal, one meatless meal and one soup meal per week.

Taking all that into account here is my game plan:

Monday: Pork Curry over Couscous

I defrosted a package of bone in pork chops (from my 1/2 organic pig), cut the meat off the bone, cubed it and browned it in my big skillet along with a chopped onion.  Then I added frozen green beans and purslane (from last years garden), water and some of the “Vermont Curry” (mild) cubes that I like.  Served it all over some leftover couscous (which was incredibly bland–I made it with plain water last week instead of bullion.  Mistake.)  I boiled the leftover bones in some water to make stock and refrigerated it.

This was my pork meal for the week.

Tuesday: Anniversary Dinner/Leftover Pizza

Yankee Bill took me out for a lovely anniversary dinner, Cici (my mom) brought over some of the leftover pizza we had bought from moving day and fed that to the kiddos while we were out.

Wednesday: Chicken Soup and Biscuits

I’ll mix the pork stock I made on Monday with the chicken stock I made last weekend (from the rotissere chicken I bought from the new town butcher shop), and add in some of the odds and ends of vegetables that are cluttering up my fridge.  I’m actually going to toss it in the slow cooker as soon as I’m done writing this post.  Hopefully this will clear things out a bit in the fridge and give me a quick and easy meal for before the concert tonight.

This is my soup meal for the week.

Thursday: Slow Cooker Salmon Noodle Casserole with Green Salad

This is an experiment.  I’m going to make what is basically a tuna noodle casserole–but with canned salmon.  Then again, I saw a recipe for Scalloped Potatoes with Salmon that also looked good–so it’s going to be something with canned salmon that can be cooked in the slow cooker since I’ve got a busy day.  I’ll need something to cut the richness of the main dish (whichever it is!) so a green salad seems like the right thing.  I’ve got lettuce in the packed fridge, and I’ve got a few greens starting to come in the garden (plus a few in the lawn) so I’ll be able to put something together.

This is my Fish meal for the week.

Friday: Venison Parmigiana over Spaghetti with Sauteed Greens

I’ve got a bit of time on Friday, and the weather isn’t supposed to be nice enough to be working outside, so I guess I’ll make my Venison Parmigiana.  It isn’t horrendously time consuming but you do have to bread & fry before adding the sauce and baking, so it does take a bit extra.  It will be served over pasta and, since I’ve got Chard & Spinach coming up, it will be served with sauteed garden greens on the side.

This is my Venison meal for the week.

Saturday: Quiche (Dandelion Green & Cheddar Cheese) and Salad

I picked the dandelion greens a little while ago and I NEED to use them up–so today I’ll just boil them in a couple of changes of water (to reduce the bitterness) then they will be good in the fridge for a couple of days.  I will probably make the actual quiche one evening this week so that it will be ready whenever we feel like it on Saturday.

This is my Meatless meal for the week.

Sunday: Homemade Baked Beans

We are having a big BBQ on Monday, so I am thinking that I can make baked beans on Sunday as a main dish and then I can use them as a side dish on Monday at the BBQ.  I’ll put them together in the crockpot–and if we don’t feel like beans that night and want to do something else we just leave the beans for the next day-no problem!

This is my Bean meal for the week.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Are you interested in learning more about menu planning? Check out my post “Why Plan a Weekly Menu” .

Here’s an great chicken marinade that I’ve had for years.  I’m not sure how “Finger Lakes” it really is–but that’s what it was called when the recipe was given to me.

The unusual combination of mayonnaise and vinegar in the marinade helps to both tenderize and moisten the chicken.  The acid in the vinegar is the tenderizer and the mayonnaise adds moisture.  While you’ll get a good flavor at the minimum marination time of 2 hours, I think it’s far better at 4 or more!

I wasn’t planning on attending the Mom 2.o Summit this year.  Earlier in the year when the tickets first went on sale I had considered it–it’s a stellar conference (I attended the inaugural one in Houston years back) and lots of fantastic folks I knew were going.  Not only that, but it was being held at the Ritz Carlton in Laguna California.  I mean seriously!!!   But I just couldn’t plan my life out that far–the spring is a busy time (kids, gardening, work) and I was pretty sure that I’d be heading down to Walmart Headquarters in Bentonville in June for the annual Shareholders meeting. . .so I just sighed and watched jealously while other folks online chattered about their plans and excitement.

Then one afternoon, about 10 days before the conference, an email arrived in my inbox from Walmart.  They told us that Dove was the major sponsor for the Mom 2.o Summit and that they had offered to send a few of the Walmart Moms.  Would I be interested?  Oh, and they needed to know by the end of the day, which was 3 hours away.

Well being a blogger and working from a home office–I am our kids after school care.  When I say frantic texts and phone messages were sent to my husband, I may be slightly understating;)  Long story short, I finally got hold of him and Yankee Bill was able on very, very short notice to take time off each afternoon I’d be gone so he’d be home to get the kiddos when school ended at 2 (4 days total–1 day of travel each way and the 2 day conference).  Isn’t he awesome?

So in just over a week I was heading for California. 

Yes, I wind up flying on a lot of tiny planes when I go places.  Binghamton is a lovely, but tiny airport   Three planes and two layovers–one of them over four hours long–later and I was in California.

The conference was even better then I expected.  For a couple of years I was attending and speaking at a lot of conferences.  After a while y0u can feel like you are hearing a lot of the same topics over and over again.  Many conferences favor a “panel” type format for the sessions, and if you don’t have a strong moderator who can reign folks in and keep them on topic you can wind up watching folks share a lot of interesting anecdotes without actually delving into the topic at hand in any depth.  That was NOT an issue at the Mom 2.o Summit!  The sessions were excellent–even the sort of “speed dating” quick 10 minute round robin of sessions in the ballroom the first day.  The only problem with those was you wished you had more time!

Two sessions in particular really stood out in my mind:

Session photos were taken by Lori from A Cowboy’s Wife

First was the 10 min session called “Using Analytics to Make Friends and Influence People” by Shelly Kramer (Founder and CEO of V3 Integrated Marketing).  I’ve known Shelly online for several years, and she is amazing.  She managed to squeeze more actionable information in to that 10 minute session then I’ve gotten in most 45 minute panels and lectures I’ve attended!  She explained in detail why and how a blogger could provide a post campaign report back to the brands and agencies they work with in order to increase the value of their contribution and make them more likely to be worked with again in the future.  We were taught that we should create monthly reports for our own blogs to track our own growth and influence.  She also gave a big list of analytics websites/tools (that a smaller practitioner can actually afford–frequently free for the solo blogger), business communities and more. (Get Clicky, Biz Sugar, Triberr, Twitsprout, Tweet Reach, Pinalerts).

The second really excellent session was the workshop Raising Performance Levels: The Control Enthusiasts Guide to Delegating… How to Clone Yourself and Other Good Advice. (AJ Wolfe of Cambrick Yard Media, Meagan Francis of The Happiest Home, Beth Blecherman of TechMamas.com) This session can be summed up in the pithy saying “Do what you do best, and hire out the rest.”

One of the issues with blogging is that you are the ENTIRE staff.  For example, here at Frugal Upstate I am the writer, editor, photographer, videographer, video and photo editor, secretary, bookkeeper, publicist, marketing/advertising department. . . well,  you get the picture.  And then I’ve actually got to make time to actually do all the things that I write about. . . I’ve thought for a long time that I’d love to have some help–but with WHAT.  What parts can you pass off, and what should you keep?  If you hire someone as a virtual assistant or as one off help–how do you find them?  What do you have them do?  How do you communicate with them?  What are the pitfalls to avoid?  The greatest benefits?  And how much can you expect to PAY?  There was a ton of information and experience shared!  Some of the sites suggested for hiring some help were Fiver, Elance, Flexjobs, Guru.com and Virtual Staff Finder.

Another benefit to the conference was getting to hang out with some of my other Walmart Mom pals!  There we all are in that picture above.  From left to right:  Lori from A Cowboy’s wife, Liz from Hoosier Homemade, Caryn from Rockin Mama, Erika from Chic Shopper Chick, Me (of course) and Ana from Spanglish Baby

So wait, I said Dove was the sponsor here–where were they in all this?  Well-they were everywhere!  And it wasn’t about all of their lovely products (although we did get a very generous gift bag with lots of full size samples!)  Nope–it was all about their self esteem programs–specifically their new “Girl Unstoppable” campaign.  Dove has for YEARS been an advocate of real beauty–beauty in all it’s forms, not just the plastic beauty of super models.  Their keynote speech talked about how 6 out of 10 young girls will stop doing things that they love because they feel bad about how they look. (30 second video)

And guess what? They get it from us. This “Real Beauty Sketches” video is incredibly powerful.  It’s worth watching (3 minute video)–here’s the basics–they had a police sketch artist draw women without seeing them, based ONLY on their descriptions of themselves.  Then they drew the same woman again from a description given by a stranger who had only met the woman for a few minutes.  The difference between how we see ourselves and how others see us. . . well, it’s actually saddening.

We spent a lot of time talking about these issues–both in the keynote, in workshops and among ourselves throughout the weekend.  As the mother of a very pretty 12 year old girl who already worries about how she looks because of societal pressures–well, let’s just say it’s a topic that hits close to home.  I think it’s great that Dove has put together the Dove Self Esteem Tool-Kit and other resources for young girls on their website.  If you are the mom, aunt, grandmother or even just friend of a girl or young lady–you should check it out.

Here are a few more shots from the conference!  At these things there are usually some lovely evening parties hosted by the sponsors, suites set up where you can get a quick snack or even a beauty treatment during the day (that’s me at the Starbucks suite getting a quick makeover), there was even a morning fun run (which I walked) hosted by CVS Minute Clinic.

Bottom Right photo was taken by Lori from A Cowboy’s Wife

And, since it WAS the Ritz Carlton, there was plenty of gorgeous scenery, lovely sp0ts to relax for a moment, and chances to just take a few minutes and recharge.

Thanks again to Walmart and Dove for sending me to such a wonderful, exciting, educational and even relaxing conference!

****This is a sponsored post****

Disclosure: As a participant in the Walmart Moms Program, I’ve received compensation for my time and efforts in creating this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This is my bicycle.  I bought it in Bel Air Maryland in 1990 shortly after I arrived at my Officer Basic Course for the US Army at Aberdeen Proving Grounds.  It’s a Gary Fisher 13″ Marlin and I believe it cost me $400–making it (at the time) the most costly thing I had ever purchased for myself.  It was never ridden particularly hard, but I have used it over the years.  It’s a well traveled bike–it’s been in Maryland, Germany, Virginia, Alabama, Tennessee, Virginia (again) and finally New York.  It is now (ack!) 23 years old.  I think in that time I’ve had it in to a bike shop for a tune up 3 times.

I actually ride it quite a bit now–not for hard hitting, blood pounding trail adventures (I’d probably have a heart attack at this point-I’m out of shape) but for general transportation.  The Frugal Village Homestead is in, well, a village with nice wide,  level streets.  The post office, grocery store, main street shopping, library, my church and even my Mom’s house and Mother in Law’s house are all within a mile radius.  It just seems plain wasteful when the weather is nice to jump in the car and use gasoline to go that measly distance. . . but on the other hand sometimes you want to get there quicker than walking (or–for the last year or so–you have painful plantar fascitis that makes walking too far a bad idea).  That’s why I purchased the rear carrier rack, the basket and the saddlebags (panniers) at Walmart last year–so I’d have more carrying capacity!

As I’ve become more and more interested in sustainability and preparedness, I have come to believe even more that it’s important to have quality items that will last you a long time.  Of course buying quality doesn’t do you much good if you don’t treat the item well. . . so that makes maintaining and caring for items just as important!

I am embarrassed to say that I have not taken very good care of my bike–thank goodness it IS a quality item to start with or I’d have probably destroyed it by now!

When Walmart told all of the Walmart Moms that May is National Bike Month and that they’d love for us to do a bicycle related post I knew just what I wanted to do. I wanted to learn how to tune up my own bike!  That way I’d have no excuse not to do it annually.

A bike tuneup primarily revolves around cleaning, lube and a few minor adjustments

How to Tune Up your Bike

To start I purchased a few items at Walmart:  A bicycle multi-tool (that also includes some patches and bike levers for changing tires in the carrying case), tube sealant, chain and gear cleaner and bicycle lubricant.  From home I used a bucket, sponge, dishsoap etc.

It’s best to start the tune up process with a clean bike!  I read conflicting information about the best way to clean your bike.  Some sources stated that you should use as little water as possible–one even suggested using a spray cleaner and no water.  The thought process in these articles seemed to be that water could cause rust on various parts of your bike and could get down into the joints and such. This seemed to be a concern on sites that were aimed mainly at racers and extreme sports type bikers.

Other sources went ahead and recommended hot water and soap.  I decided to use that for mine   I figure the dang thing is meant to be ridden in the rain and mud and such–how much damage could a bit of soap and water do?  Popular Mechanics states:

If you’re a mountain biker and you often get muddy, Gonzalez says you can wash the bike with a light mist. Make sure not to direct a stream of water to the hubs, bottom bracket or headset. These can cause the bike to creak and rust internally. Use dishwashing soap, worked to a light lather, then rinse thoroughly, and make sure to bounce the bike after thoroughly drying it with a towel to remove all excess water.

When cleaning your bike make sure you get the the frame, chain, gears, pedals, and seat.

To do the tune up I decided to use the League of American Bicyclists “ABC Quick Check” from their beginning cycling section.  “ABC Quick Check” is a phrase to help you remember the steps of the tune up:

A-Air
B-Brakes
C-Cranks Chains and Cassette
Quick-Front Tire Quick Release
Check-Check it Over

So let’s go!

1. Air (& Tires)

Check your tire to see if they need to be inflated. Here’s a tip–if you can actually compress the tire when you squeeze on it–it needs more air!

The sidewall of the tire will list the recommended air pressure.

Use a tire gauge (which you should have in your car anyway) to check the pressure and to know when you’ve filled it enough.  You can inflate your tire with a hand or foot pump, an air compressor (if you are lucky like me and have a husband who has such a thing just sitting in the barn!) or even head down to your gas station that has an “air” pump.

While you are down there messing with the air–take a look at the tires themselves.  Do they have any rubbing, tears or splits in the sidewall?  Are there signs of uneven wear in the tread?  It’s best to replace damaged tires immediately–you don’t want to have a blow out while you are riding down the road! I think it’s a good idea to keep some “slime” on hand to use as a quick fix for pinholes and small leaks in the inner tubes until I can get in to purchase a new one.

I was quite embarrassed to notice this when I did my inspection:

Ummm.  Obviously I need a new tire.  I think the one on there must be one of the original, 23 year old tires. . .  The front tire we replaced a few years back–so that’s just fine

note:  My Walmart has a huge selection of tires and innertubes–including ones with the “slime” already built in!  Make sure you know your wheel size if you head in to get a new wheel or inner tube–it will save you a lot of frustration in the store.

2. Brakes

Inspect your brake pads visually. You may need to use a flashlight to take a good look, or else you will have to carefully release the brakes.  There are a couple of different kinds out there-so this is a case where Google is your friend.  Once you get a look at the pads, if they show wear indicator lines on the surface, have metal poking through or are worn down to 1/4 of an inch it is time to replace them.

note:  My Walmart carries replacement break pads for about $5 a set.

If the break pads are wearing unevenly then your breaks need an adjustment.  Squeeze your break levers and watch the pads–they should both hit the metal rim of the tire (not the rubber or the spokes) at the same time, at the same level.  If they do not you will have to adjust the brake arm tension screw, which is located on one of the brake lever arms near the tire.  You loosen this screw using the appropriate Allen wrench on your multi tool, move the break pad into alignment and then tighten the screw back down.  (the video embedded at the end of this post shows this process)

3-Cranks Chains and Cassette

Visually inspect the cranks, chains and cassette for rust, gunk and damage.

Note:  You can fix minor rust spots on the cranks and cassette by rubbing them with steel wool.  It’s best to just replace a rusty chain.

Check the crank bolt (the bolt that holds the crankset on) to ensure it is tight.  Check your bicycle chain for wear.  If it seems loose you can measure it–12 links should measure no more than 12 1/8 inches.

Note:  You can buy replacement chains at Walmart for around $10

Clean the chains and gears using a bicycle chain cleaner (I picked up the White Lightening brand) and a rag.  The easiest way to do this if you don’t have a bike stand (and I don’t) is to flip the bike over so it is resting on the handlebars and seat.  Then you can easily access the chains and crank the pedal to turn the chains.

Lube the chain and gears using a bicycle lubricant (again I used the White Lightening brand lube). Apply the lube to the chain while slowly turning the pedal.  Wipe off any excess with a clean dry cloth.  The correct amount should be barely visible, but still leave a tiny sheen on your finger when you touch it.

4-Quick Release

The quick release is the lever that allows you to pop the entire front tire off of your bike.  It needs to engage firmly, so firmly that it’s almost a bit difficult to do–you don’t want your tire popping off as you ride down the street!  If it is loose you can tighten it using the knob/bolt/WHATEVER on the other side of the tire.

5-Check It Over

Check your bicycle for any loose or broken parts that might need to be replaced or fixed.

The bicycle seat should not be able to be twisted, pulled out or pushed in–clean, lube and tighten as necessary

The handlebars should be solid.  Try standing in front of the bike with the front tire between your legs–try to twist the handlebars.  If you can move them independantly of the tire then they need to be tightened!

Take a test drive. Use the breaks.  Run through all the gears.  Ensure everything is working properly.

Yay! You have tuned up your own bike!

This is one of those processes that will get easier each time you do it.  For right now I’d give myself an hour or so to slowly run through the process without rushing–but in time I bet you’d be done with the whole thing in about 20 minutes annually.

PS–if you are in the market for a new bike–Bicycle shipping is free all this month at Walmart and they have an online bicycle buying guide to help you pick the perfect bike.

Want to check out what the rest of the Walmart Moms did?  ModernMami wrote about Baby’s First Bike, Lille Punkin equipped her kids for safety, Hoosier Homemade did a vintage bike makeover, Green and Gorgeous gives you six reasons to go biking as a family, Wholesome Mommy got her son his first big boy bike, and Classy Mommy spruced up her kids bikes–now they can bike while she runs!

****This is a sponsored post****

Disclosure: As a participant in the Walmart Moms Program, I’ve received product samples and compensation for my time and efforts in creating this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own

I think by now all of you know that the Walmart house brand is called “Great Value”.  And if I asked any of you what the Great Value brand looks like–you’d say “A white package with blue lettering and a photo of the item on it”.

Except now it’s not!  Great Value has had a makeover.  They’ve changed up the packaging to look a whole lot less like the the black and white “generic” brand stuff of the 1980′s (any of you old enough to remember that?) and more like a, well, brand.  Now these changes are slowly being rolled out–and Walmart felt that folks might be confused so they asked me to show you all some of the new packaging so that you’d have an idea of what it looks like, and also to assure you all that the price of the items has not changed–even if it now looks a bit more “upscale”.

I went into the store with a list of a few of the items that had already started to change out–and I’ve got to tell you, if I hadn’t KNOWN that these items were Great Value brand and been specifically looking for them–I probably wouldn’t have even realized that they were Great Value!  While the previous white and blue packaging really was completely different from anyone elses–the new packaging looks pretty similar to the name brands out there.

To show you the difference, here are a few items that I was able to find with both the new and old packaging mixed on the shelves.

Whole new potatoes:

Plain tomato sauce:

Great Value Brand sandwich cookies:

So what do you guys think?  Do you like the new packaging?  Have you noticed it in the stores?  Would you be any more likely to grab this packaging off the shelf?

****This is a sponsored post****

Disclosure: As a participant in the Walmart Moms Program, I’ve received product samples and compensation for my time and efforts in creating this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

In the last year or so I’ve become very interested in buying more locally when possible–especially locally produced food items.  I grow my own veggies–which is about as local as you can get.  I purchase additional vegetables and fruits from preserving at our local farmers market (the ones not purchased from farmers themselves come from a vegetable “auction” up in Syracuse–all from w/in NY and PA).  Our venison is obviously local (go Yankee Bill!) and I purchase a 1/2 pig from a local organic CSA.

(note:  Yes, obviously I still buy a lot of conventionally supplied items at store such as Walmart.  It’s a balance of price, intent, availability and more)

Not only am I supporting my local economy, but I see it as helping to ensure that there ARE local producers.  I’m a big believer that the more complicated something is, the more chances there are for it to break or have issues.  And our food production system here in the US?  It’s pretty complicated.  There are “multiple points of failure” that could occur.

Buying food grown locally?  Well for a lot of it I could practically walk or bike to the farm and pick it up if I had to!

Some of it even comes to me!  Like my eggs.  A friend has a farm just outside of town.  Among many other things, she keeps over 40 laying hens and sells the eggs locally.  Every Monday she comes into the village for a meeting–so she offered to drop my standing order of 2 dozen eggs a week off at my house regularly.

We’ve got a pretty slick system worked out if I do say so myself.  Every Monday morning I take my specially reinforced envelope (I just love packing tape) and I pin it with a clothes pin to the porch mailbox.  I actually have an alert set in my Google Calendar to send me a text early on Monday morning reminding me to do this.

Inside the envelope is her payment–$4.

If I have egg cartons to give back to her I stick them in a bag and hang them off the mailbox as well.  Recycling don’t ya know.  At some point in the morning she drops the eggs off on my porch and takes her payment.  She doesn’t ring the bell or anything, just sets them there.  As the weather turns warmer I may set a Styrofoam cooler out there with an ice pack or two in it. . .

I have another alert set on my Google Calendar reminding me to go out and pick up the eggs in the late morning.  While they are fine out there for quite a while, I don’t want to forget!

As you can see, my farm fresh eggs are different sizes and different colors.  Sometimes I get a bluish one.  Sometimes one is rather small.  Frequently I get speckled ones or eggs with imperfections on the shell.  That’s fine!  They are all good!  It’s amazing how much more orange/yellow the yolks are then the store bought kind.  Probably from a more varied diet and the fact that the chickens actually get to move around. . .

Finally I usually take a piece of paper, write the date on it and stick it in the carton.  I usually have about 3 dozen eggs in the house at a time–they are good in the fridge for several weeks–and I want to make sure I use the oldest first.  I don’t write on the carton because I give those back to her for re-use.

So what do I do with all those eggs?  I will boil up a bunch for quick breakfasts/lunches, deviled eggs and pickling.   I make fried eggs for breakfast.  I use them in baking.  I make quiche.  I make mayonnaise.  I make egg drop soup.  They are a low cost, high quality protein–and there are a million things you can do with them!  Here are a few of the egg recipes that I’ve previously shared here on Frugal Upstate:

• Easy Hard Boiled Eggs
• Scotch Eggs
• Classic Deviled Eggs
• Crockpot Spinach Egg Strata
• Baked Egg Casserole
• Quiche
• Crustless Cheeseburger Quiche

Spaghetti Carbonara

• Overnight French Toast Casserole
• Crustless Quiche

Making Homemade Mayonnaise

First off, a public service announcement.  Mother’s Day is Sunday–so if you haven’t taken care of the mothers in  your life you might want to make that happen!  And if you don’t, and someone gets upset. . . well, I tried!

So this year Walmart gave me a wide open challenge for Mother’s Day–just do SOMETHING to celebrate it and share with all of you.  Well, I thought about doing a craft, but really couldn’t think of anything that either I wanted (even if there are tons of cool things at Walmart) or that I wanted to make for my own Mom or Mother in Law this year.  (remember last year I made my mom some cool Chalkboard Labeled Canisters?)

That got me thinking.  What makes a great Mother’s Day for me, personally?

Well, first off I’m not into having expensive gifts for every holiday.  True–I love gifts.  Just ask Yankee Bill–it’s one of the things he had to come to terms with in our marriage.  He could care less if he gets anything for holidays, I LOVE opening packages.  But I realized early on that it was a bit,  um, challenging to expect him to come up with a big, meaningful gift for Christmas, Valentines Day, Anniversary, Mother’s Day, and my birthday.

That’s 5 amazing gifts a year–and that’s a lot to expect of any man.  So we agreed that it would be Christmas and Birthdays for big gifts, and then 5 year wedding anniversaries for something more meaningful.  For the rest we just do small token type gifts.

I remember when I was a kid my mom used to tell us that what she wanted for Mother’s Day was for the 5 of us kids to spend a day and not fight with each other.  I don’t know if she ever got her wish (and really, we all do love each other–we are just forceful personalities) but I now understand it!

And that brings me back to me–what’s my idea of a great Mother’s Day?  Well, it’s having some nice, quiet time to enjoy things I don’t normally let myself do–like reading a good book in the middle of the day.  It’s also about spending time with my family–after all without Yankee Bill, Princess and Buddy I wouldn’t BE a mother.

So for my Mother’s Day from Walmart I chose to create a little “Mommy Quiet Time” kit:

What’s in my kit?  Three romance novels by Johhanna Linsey (did you know Walmart sells all it’s books for 10% off the cover price all the time?), a nice card, a lovely coffee mug (it says “Keep Calm and Carry On” on the inside) and some delicious chocolates–Lindor Caramels and Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate and Raspberry.

So what’s the way I’d like to spend Mother’s Day?  Like this:

Enjoying a hot cup of coffee, a good book and some chocolates on my lovely front porch.

So what makes Mother’s Day great for you (or the Mom in your life)?

Here’s what some of the other Walmart Moms did:

Renee from Cutie Booty Cakes got her mom healthy with a new Single Serve Blender for Smoothies.  Linsey at Lille Punkin took a bit of a break from her normal scratch cooking routine to have a Mother’s Day restaraunt style meal at home using frozen seafood.  Lynnae at Freelance Homeschool Mom got crafty with an adorable Mother’s Day Flowerpot full of pictures.  Caryn at Rockin Mama went the relaxation route and made a gift basket including homemade bath bombs.  Amy at MomAdvice crafted up some awesome Pom Pom Flower Bouquets.  Modern Mami made some gorgeous, grown up looking tissue paper flowers. Denise at Wholesome Mommy made DIY Coconut Orange Sugar Scrub (mmm!)

Strawberry season is here! While I won’t be able to hit up the “pick your own” places here in Upstate NY for several more weeks, delicious strawberries from warmer climates are all over the place at my local Walmart-and at great “in season” prices too.

To celebrate the start of their big “Strawberry Season”, and to tempt you all to head into your local store and pick some up, Walmart asked me to share a strawberry recipe. You guys know how much I like to can and preserve–so of course the first thing that came to mind when they said “strawberry recipe” was “Strawberry Jam”. But there are a million strawberry jam recipes out there. . . and they are all pretty much the same. My second thought was “Strawberry Rhubarb Jam”. Another classic but my rhubarb wasn’t quite up enough yet (and that particular regional specialty has not made it into my Walmart for the season yet).

So I was flipping through a couple of cookbooks I had and came across Sherry Strawberry Preserves. I don’t usually keep sherry in the house, but I do keep some lovely, fruity, NY Finger Lakes wines! Viola–I created “Tipsy Strawberry Preserves”.  The wine gives a certain elegant “something” extra to the recipe!

Now, preserves are not quite jam–although sometimes the term gets used interchangeably. Rather it’s supposed to be whole (or large chunks) of fruit suspended in gelled juices. The juices can be the consistency of jelly or looser up to a more syrup texture.  I was aiming for a jam–but wound up with a syrup.  That’s ok–I could have fixed it by opening up the jars, pouring it all back into a pot, adding more citrus, boiling it down a bit more, checking my gel and then re-canning the whole thing.

I decided to heck with all that, I’d just use it more as a syrup

One of the coolest things about this recipe is that the strawberries make their own syrup/juices.  After washing and trimming your berries (you do know you should never wash strawberries until you are ready to use them, right?  They get soggy & mold otherwise), you just mix them with a relatively small amount of citrus and the sugar, then let it set a minimum of 4 hrs at room temperature (I left mine overnight) and the sugar pulls the liquid out of the berries and creates the juice!

While you can’t spread these preserves on toast, they are awesome over ice cream, cheesecake or pound cake.  They would also make a fantastic strawberry shortcake–perhaps mixed half and half with fresh berries.

Here are what some of the other Walmart Moms made:

Lille Punkin made Fresh Strawberry Spinach Salad with Hot Bacon Dressing

MomAdvice made Baked Strawberry Donuts

A Cowboys Wife made  Strawberry Lemonade

Wholesome Mommy made Strawberry Egg Rolls

****This is a sponsored post****

Disclosure: As a participant in the Walmart Moms Program, I’ve received product samples and compensation for my time and efforts in creating this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I’m a gal with big dreams.  Not “I’m going to be a millionare” big, or “I’m going to cure cancer” big–but rather big in the sense of having lots and lots of dreams.  Lots of plans.  Lots of things I want to accomplish.  And there is always so much that I want to achieve in a day–that I am frequently down on myself.

Just a moment ago I caught myself thinking this:

“I really haven’t gotten much done yet today.”

I was fretting over the fact that I’ve got blog posts due that I haven’t written (and that’s not counting this one).  I’ve got Hostas I want to plant out front.  Folks I want to send “gee it was great meeting you, let’s keep in touch” emails from the conference I just attended.  A book proposal I promised I’d do a draft for.  Bread, ice cream and chicken to pick up at the store.  Laundry to start.  Dishes to do.  Ironing.  Vacuuming.  The list goes on and on.

I had to forcibly stop that line of thinking–and I decided to stop what I was doing for a moment (which was eating lunch) and sit here, at the computer with all of you, and take a minute to think of what I actually HAVE gotten accomplished today.

-Made coffee, read my Bible.
-I got the kiddos up, made sure they fed themselves, were dressed and out the door to school.
-Let the dog in and out at least 3 times.
-Did a quick spray and clean of the kids sink & toilet. Ick.
-Loaded the dishwasher and unloaded the sink drainboard.
-Sprayed & wiped down the front of the stove and the doors to my pantry.
-Made jello and pudding for lunches and after school snacks.
-Chatted with my mom for 30 minutes (while making jello, pudding, unloading the drainboard etc)
-Finished thinning the turnips in the garden.
-Dug up a couple of Borage seedlings and transplanted them into the garden.
-Did some quick research on Borage recipes.
-Drug the hose out and watered the onion patch and then moved it to water the main garden.
-Took two phone calls, made a couple of texts and updated Facebook twice.
-Watered my seedlings, then brought them all out of the basement into the shade to start getting ‘hardened off’.
-Thinned the seedlings.
-Took the bucket of coffee grounds, vegetable scraps, eggshells etc out to the compost.
-Chatted with the mail lady (who happens to be a good friend) and with my Mother in Law (who stopped by) each for a couple of minutes.
-Pulled an entire wheelbarrow full of Garlic Mustard from the side yard to take to the compost–took the time to pinch off the flower buds to cook as a vegetable for dinner tonight.
-Ate lunch.

When I sit and look at it all typed out like that I realize–I’ve already done a lot today.  And yet I felt like I had done “nothing”.

Why?

I guess that I just expect so much from myself–put so many things on my mental “to do” list that I’d have to be superwoman to even come close to finishing them.  Instead I’m just your average gal.

I’ve got to learn to cut myself a bit more slack, to think more positively, and to realize that I can’t take on everything–no matter how much I want to.

I’m willing to be that there are a few of you out there who are doing this exact same thing too.  So I’m here to say–cut yourself some slack as well!

I’m back from my travels! My flight arrived late last night, so I’m pretty tired this morning.  Nevertheless, I want to get my meal plan made and published so that I’ll start my week off right!

These are the considerations I’ve got:

1.  I’ve got a lot of blog posts due in the next two weeks, so I’ve got to leave myself time to do those.  It’s also time to start planting a few more things in the garden, to do my flower bed weeding and mulching. . .basically I’ve got a lot of both office work and physical labor to get done.  I know me, and I know how I work.  I’ll get involved in those projects, be busy all day and then by dinner I won’t feel like a) stopping and b) cooking.  Easy stuff is the order of the day–nothing complex this week!

2.  It’s a regular week as far as dance, scouts, pool and other assorted regularly scheduled meetings/evening activities.  That means Mon, Wed, and possibly Thurs are days where I’ve got a lot going on and really need to be on top of the dinner thing.  I’ve got a class on Tuesday night for the next several weeks (digital photography–trying to improve for y’all)

3.  There actually isn’t too much in the fridge.  Yankee Bill does frozen meals and eating out with the kiddos while I’m gone, so I am not stuck with all those drips and drabs of leftovers to try to use up.  The fall garden stuff is pretty much used up and the garden hasn’t started producing.  I might be able to harvest a few wild edibles like chickweed, dandelion etc.

4. As always my goal is to have one venison meal, one fish meal, one pork meal, one bean meal, one meatless meal and one soup meal per week.

Taking all that into account here is my game plan:

Monday: Spaghetti with Organic Pork Sausage and a salad

Did I mention I’m tired?  This is about the easiest thing I can think of that is still a homemade meal   I’ll just use some ground pork sausage from the freezer.

This is my pork meal for the week.

Tuesday: Chicken Soup and Homemade Bread

I’ve been a bad, bad homesteader. . . I haven’t baked bread in over a month!  I’ll get a batch going and then toss the fixings for a chicken soup in the slowcooker in the morning.  That way dinner will be ready regardless of what I’m doing in the garden or the house, and it will be ready whenever folks want to eat even though I’ve got to run off to class.

This is my soup meal for the week.

Wednesday: Breakfast for Dinner ~ Pancakes, Bacon and Canned Peaches

Yankee Bill will be out so the kids and I will have this classic for dinner (he doesn’t enjoy it).  I may try a new pancake recipe–I’ve seen one on pinterest several times for a pancake made with cottage cheese.  That would up my protien content.  I might toss a bit of bacon on the side, but I consider that more of a condiment than “meat”.  I’ll pop open some home canned peaches to add a bit of vitamins, minerals and fiber to the whole deal.

This is my meatless meal for the week.

Thursday: Bean & Cheese Burritos, Green Salad and Cilantro Rice

I’ve got to fit some beans in somehow, and I missed cooking on Cinco d Mayo, so I figure I’ll put some burritos into the rotation. Who knows, maybe I’ll try lentil burritos.  Buddy doesn’t really like beans, but he loves lentils–so I wonder if he’d be more open to eating burritos if they had lentils instead.  Hmmm.  Anyway–they will be Bean & Cheese.  I probably won’t make my own homemade tortillas this time (although maybe I’ll be all caught up by then.  Nah.)  Salad will be the “roughage” and I’ll make cilantro rice as a side.

This is my bean meal for the week.

Friday: Grilled Venison Burgers, Macaroni Salad, Carrot Sticks and Pickles

It is supposed to be decent on Friday, so grilling burgers sounds good.  If the weather turns I’ll just pan fry them.  I’ll make up a macaroni salad to go on the side, chop up some carrots for a bit more veggies and serve some homemade pickles.

This is my Venison meal for the week.

Saturday: Pizza

Using the Pizza Hut Crust Clone recipe of course!

Sunday: Mother’s Day.  Someone else can figure out dinner.

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Are you interested in learning more about menu planning? Check out my post “Why Plan a Weekly Menu” .