Rindy Mae

Life Lately: 2/2020

2020-02-11T07:55:00.001-08:00

Hello!

I've recently started writing blog posts in my head again, so I figured it was about time I sit down and type.

After being gone for so long, I run the risk of this being extremely long, but I'll do my best not to wear out my welcome.

I guess I'll start with the farmstand, since that's what I spent a ton of my time on last year.

If you're on Instagram or Facebook, I post regular updates about what's happening down there.

You can find them both at Northrop Acres.

The whole thing kinda started out as a fluke.

The kids thought it would be fun to sell some produce our first full summer here.

They quickly realized how much work it was and declined the job year two.

As always, I had tons of perennials I was dividing that spring, so I figured I'd put them out on a table and see if they'd sell.

That turned into produce, and eventually, at the suggestion of a customer who received thank you flowers with her fruit order, I started making bouquets in early summer.

I still just had a table and my old potting bench down there, but with the sun and wind, I was constantly shifting from one side of the driveway to the other, and picking up broken jars off the ground.

After weeks of sweet talking (nagging) The Dad got started on a cute little shelter for me.

We ran out of summer sunshine to get it finished, but it was a HUGE time saver for me to be able to put stuff down there and not have to check on it multiple times a day.

Hopefully this spring we can get the siding and roof put on.

Then double swing open doors so I can lock it up at night.

Because it all sort of just happened organically, I'm looking forward to going into this growing season with the stand in mind.

In other news, we had to put White Goat down last year when he got really sick.

It was a low day for The Mom.

We buried him in the pasture.

Sadly, we also lost Leonard, our sweet, music loving turkey, last year, as well.

It was my first loss to a predator and fingers crossed it's my last.

It was really, really, awful.

We buried her in the garden under one of the olive trees.

I made a special bouquet with some of her feathers.

Funny, Delilah, who would never come near us, has now imprinted on me.

She waits for me on the stoop every morning and follows me around outside wherever I go.

It's pretty sweet.

What else?

The kids are doing great.

All three are playing sports.

The Little One (Baby who isn't a baby anymore) played soccer for the first time last year and will do so again this year.

The Girl is still playing baseball with the boys, basketball, and soccer.

The Kid is also still playing baseball, as well as basketball.

He tried football for two seasons and says never again. Ha!

The Girl turned twelve in October.

We celebrated with the usual, requested meal, dinner at home.

That weekend we celebrated with the rest of the family.

Her cake was a llama this time around.

In January, The Kid turned fourteen.

He's definitely more difficult to get a photo of these days.

And, The Little One is now eight as of this month.

I can hardly believe it.

Eight!

I swear I was just posting belly pics and ya'll were trying to guess if she'd be a boy or a girl.

Again, the usual food-focused gathering with family.

She chose koala bears as her theme.

I still just can't get over how fast the years have flown by.

I took this picture of the kids with their cousins on her birthday.

This one was taken eight years prior, in the hospital the day she was born.

Other than that and the holidays, I've just been plugging away, still settling in, and slowly making things our own around here.

Winter didn't seem as long this year.

I always look forward to hunkering down and reading as many books as I can get through, but I've only read one since Christmas.

Where The Crawdads Sing - so good.

But I still have a stack and spring has sprung!

The yard is obviously keeping me busy.

Spring clean up is always overwhelming and the to-list could fill an entire spiral notebook.

But as I work away on the things that need to be done, I'm daydreaming of what will come next out there.

So many ideas floating around in this brain of mine.

I'm anxious to see how it all plays out.

I know I said the same thing early last spring, but I'm gonna try to give the blog a go again.

With gardening season upon us, there will be plenty of fodder to post about.

Before I go, I wanted to share that the magazine with the article of our old garden is back on stands right now for its third release.

I spied it at Albertsons!

Pretty fun.

So if you missed it the first time, and second, time around, you can check it out next time you're waiting in line for groceries.

Until next time.....

The Yard: 2/19/19

2019-02-21T10:40:00.000-08:00

My first official real-time yard post at the new house.

Kinda exciting.

Most of you know, I am not a winter gardener.

I hate to be cold.

I have zero desire to be out working in the dirt anytime between October and March.

Okay, sometimes we get nice days in February, but this year so far has been a bust.

I went out one day over the weekend with my pruners, thinking I'd tackle at least one of the kagillion pruning projects, and was immediately overwhelmed.

So I cleaned out raised beds instead.

I couldn't feel my fingers when I was done, so I headed back inside.

Then yesterday was in the mid-forties, with sunny skies, so I went out again and weeded the Rainbow Garden.

It was several hours worth, so I felt like I accomplished something.

Other than that, the only time I've been out there is for watering the greenhouse plants, or brief spurts with my camera.

All of these photos were taken on Tuesday.

I had never grown snowdrops (Galanthus) before.

Can you believe it?

I inherited quite a few patches of double flowered ones with the house.

I moved some around last spring to places I could see out the windows.

They're so dang cute.

These, coming up through the thyme, are in the septic tank bed.

A tiny clump in The Garden.

Under the hydrangeas next to the porch.

One of the things still on the to-prune list.

The daffodils are popping up all over the place.

I was in shock last year when I saw how many were here.

It's really quite amazing.

None blooming yet, but lots with buds showing.

The inherited Nandina out the kitchen window is loaded with berries.

This crazy hebe in the front yard has been blooming all winter.

I brought it from the old house.

I got several free candytuft (Iberis) babies our first summer here.

These out front are just starting to bloom.

No tag, but the dark center is different than I remember seeing on the ones in the old neighborhood.

Maybe I just never payed that close attention.

Another freebie, also out front, Euphorbia.

Over in the Rainbow Garden, the wallflowers (Erysimum) are blooming their little hearts out.

I bought a purple, orange and yellow off the clearance rack last summer.

The yellow one is alive, but hasn't bloomed since bringing it home.

The other two have had flowers non-stop.

Definitely worth the dollar bill I paid for each.

Over in The Garden, I found a surprise in the bed next to the pond.

A new peony that I bought last year is up and at 'em!

I got two at a street fair we went to and I think this one is 'Coral Sunset.'

And last, I finally did something I've wanted to do for years.

I picked one each of the blooming hellebores and put them in the birdbath.

They are so dang pretty.

I want all the different varieties!

I definitely need some doubles.

These are all from plants I brought with me.

There were a couple here, but they're not blooming yet.

And that's all I've got for today.

The sun is out again...it's so deceiving from this side of the windows...but I think I'll throw on some work clothes and see if I can't get another spot weeded today.

Until next time....

Valentine's Day 2019

2019-02-19T10:27:00.001-08:00

Figured I'd throw some Valentine's day pics out there like the old days.

We did what we've done pretty much every year since popping out all these kids....

....dinner at home.

The table setting wasn't as elaborate as I've done in the past.

I used a tablecloth that the little one wanted for her birthday, but was too small with all the leaves in the table.

It still didn't fit, but oh well.

Paper doilies, cloth napkins, the flowers that I managed to eek out of the yard, some conversation hearts and their little boxes of chocolates.

Just enough to make it more special than a random weekday.

The napkin rings were a gift from my aunt.

Hellebores, snowdrops (Galanthus), and wallflower (Erysimum) were put at each place.

By the way, my purple and orange wallflowers have been blooming nonstop since last summer.

Definitely a winner in the garden, especially this time of year.

My mom mailed this to the kids.

Isn't it cute?!

Under the money it said, Grammy loves you.

The Dad brought home these goodies.

It's like he knows me or something.

The Kid and The Girl both had basketball practice, so I didn't do much in the way of appetizers.

By the time everyone was home together, we were all starving and ready for the main event.

Just a little picky plate to munch on while The Dad grilled.

I prepped all the dinner stuff during the day, so everything would be ready to go once the crew was all here.

Brownies were baked first and I made a blackberry sauce to serve with them.

A London broil marinated overnight in my favorite easy marinade.

I got browned butter done ahead of time, then just put it back in the pan to remelt and fry sage leaves in, before throwing in some cooked gnocchi.

Breadsticks were doctored up and ready for the oven.

Halved tomatoes were slathered in pesto, sprinkled with seasoned breadcrumbs, then covered in shredded mozzarella.

Caesar salad was assembled ahead of time and tossed with the dressing right before sitting down.

Annnnd, everything cooked and ready to eat.

No fancy plating...everyone's bellies were rumblin'...just family-style dinner.

Haven't said this in a long time.....

Here's dinner on my plate:

And there's another Valentine's day family dinner for the books.

Until next time....

Baby turns 7!

2019-02-07T11:41:00.000-08:00

Can you believe it?

Some of you were around when I announced I was pregnant.

And then followed my belly pictures every month.

And then waited, along with us, to find out if it was a boy or a girl.

Seven.

Man, it's like they say, The days are long, but the years are short.

The other two don't much care about "themed" birthdays anymore, so I probably only have a few more years of it with the little one.

She didn't specify a theme, but she had her grandma send me a photo of the cake she wanted.

I saw it and was like, ummmmm, okay, we'll give it a shot.

It had to be easier than Ariel, right??

After showing me the picture, she told me that it didn't have to be perfect, as long as I tried my best.

That girl is so dang sweet.

This is the photo I was given.

So cute, right?

I have no idea where they found it.

If it's yours, holler and I'll link to it.

I read up on the differences between fondant and gum paste, and decided to try my hand at the gum paste.

I just bought a tub of white at the grocery store and used some gel food coloring I already had to get the pink and green.

Then I busted out my cutters, that I got eons ago at an estate sale and have never used, and got to work.

I used a hydrangea leaf from the yard to get the veining on the leaves.

I didn't have any of the special tools, so I just dug around for things that would work for shaping.

A glass skewer with a ball on the end was perfect for the flowers...the pokey end worked good for helping to fold over the leaves.

An upside down egg carton held them in place until they were dry.

I made those a few days ahead of time and just kept them in the egg carton.

In addition to the cake, I made flower and leaf sugar cookies and decorated them with buttercream frosting.

I baked the cake a few days before her party, and kept it in the freezer.

The day before, I assembled it and got it frosted.

She doesn't like frosting, so I always use whipped cream for her cakes and cupcakes.

Usually I whip it myself, but this time I gave Cool Whip a try.

It worked out just as good.

The layers got whip and strawberries, per her request.

Crumb coat went on, then back into the freezer until I was ready to finish it.

I had forgotten I wanted to color it to match the inspiration photo up until this point, so the filling and crumb coat were white.

I used regular food coloring to get a barely baby blue for the final outside coat.

Her real birthday was that Friday, and we always do dinner at home with their requested meal.

She asked for cheese ravioli with pesto, which I had in the freezer from summer, Caesar salad, garlic bread, and then added chicken strips with ranch at the last minute.

Hahahahahahahaha.

The next day, we had our usual family gathering to celebrate.

She asked for her dad's famous cabbage rolls with mashed potatoes and green beans.

The appetizers filled the table to start.

Homemade pickles from the Armenian cucumbers I grew.

More homemade pickles with homegrown beans and garlic.

These are the house favorite.

Smoked fish dip that's so dang good.

I made it for The Kid's birthday gathering, then had to do it for Baby's too.

Cocktail napkins from our wedding.

Awwwww.

Cloth dinner napkins got rolled up with candy bracelets just for fun, and flower garland from my 40th birthday party..ahem..got hung in the big window.

And, of course, the traditional balloons hung from the ceiling.

And an excited, twirling, little girl.

Cookies plated up.

Cake revealed.

It passed her inspection.

Present time.

Chillaxin'.

Candle and birthday song time.

The remnants.

And there ya have it.

Another birthday documented.

As quickly as seven came, seventeen will be here before I know it.

Until next time.....