I’ve been gone for four days.  It seems that it must have rained quite a bit as my garden and lawn were saturated -as was the carpet in my office .   That may be a post for another day!

Last week I planted my second round of green beans (on Thursday I think).  Today when I got home, I found that they were off and running!

I also have lots of green tomatoes:

I picked a basket of green beans, lettuce and my first zucchini before we left.  When I came home I found even more green beans and some cucumbers:

This post is linked up at An Oregon Cottage’s Garden Party – check it out for more gardening ideas from around the country!  I also link up at $5 Dinner’s Grow. Eat. $ave. updates!

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Practicing contentment by remembering the graces of the week and practicing gratitude by giving.

This week I was blessed to have my mom visit – with extra hands around, I seemed to get so much done in a short amount of time!  The visit has been extended since I brought her home and GBaby and I have gotten a weekend away.  I’ve gotten to bake with Dad, and get some great menu ideas while catching up on Food Network.  Gbaby continues to be a good traveler.

Produce abounds from my garden and breezes to dry laundry were plentiful.  I scored a ton of cheap school supplies to pass along to our local food pantry (and since I was in NH – no sales tax!).

One chapter is closing in my life this week as I have resigned from one of my part time gigs and I’m looking forward to the new chapter that will start this fall.

GBaby discovered the slides at the park this morning after spending lots of time on her favorite: the swings.  Watching her discover and take in the world around her still fascinates me!

I hope you can look back, and forward, to find the joy dotting your story!

Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light.” (James 1:16 -The Message) May the light of the Father brighten your week!

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I’m always looking for easy recipes that present themselves as a more laborious dish than they really are.  In the summer, the less time in the oven or at the stove the better.  This fantastic Peanut Butter Cup pie is tweaked from a recipe used at Sonlight Camp, where HandyMan and I have spent some time.  The best part, no oven and no stove necessary!  It is easily made the night (or a week) before and placed in the freezer to “chill out” until it is needed.  The only way it will last a week in the freezer is if it’s well hidden or if you’re out of town!

To make this for a crowd, I’m going to try putting a graham cracker crust in the bottom of a 9×13 pan and doubling the filling.  Then cutting it into squares once its frozen.  I’ll let you know how it turns out.

Peanut Butter Cup Pie

1 premade Graham Cracker Crust

4 ounces Cream Cheese, at room temperature

1/2 cup Peanut Butter

1/2 cup Powdered Sugar

1/2 cup Milk

1 teaspoon Vanilla

1-8 ounce tub of Whipped Topping

Hot Fudge topping & Peanut Butter Cups to garnish with.

Directions

1.  Cream together the peanut butter and cream cheese.

2.  Add vanilla and powdered sugar and blend completely.  Mix in milk.

3. Fold whipped topping into the peanut butter mixture.

4.  Pour into crust and garnish with hot fudge and peanut butter cups.

5.  Place pie into the freezer and allow to freeze until firm.  (4-6 hours).  Slice and serve!

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I love Chinese food, but it is one of the few ethnic foods that is very hard to get right at home-although there are some kits on the grocery shelves to make it a bit better.  This summer we’ve come to enjoy fried rice.  I make as big of a batch of rice as I can in my kettle and freeze portions to pull out and use for this recipe later.

It’s a quick one pan meal (if you have a wok or a really big skillet) that is a great way to re-purpose bits of other meals that are hanging around.  You can modify the vegetables and seasonings to fit what is coming in from your garden or your personal tastes.  (I’d have a nifty picture -but we were too busy getting dinner on the table – next time!)

Fried Rice

3 cups Cooked Rice

2 Eggs

2 cups Shredded Carrots

2 cups chopped Vegetables (this batch is Broccoli and green beans)

2 Tablespoons Sesame Oil

2 Tablespoons Grated Ginger

1 Tablespoon Minced Garlic

1/3 cup Soy Sauce

1/2 pound lean Pork or Chicken (optional)

Directions

1. Heat oil in large skillet.  Add ginger and garlic and sautee for about two minutes.  Add soy sauce and cook until mixture is simmering.

2. Add meat to skillet and cook until meat is done all the way through.

2.  Add carrots and broccoli and cook until almost tender.

3.  Push meat and veggies to the edge of the pan and crack the egg into the center of the pan and scramble it.  Once the egg is cooked mix it in with the meat and vegetables.

4.  Add rice, mix thoroughly and cover until rice is heated.  Serve alone or with your favorite egg rolls!

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It has been a party in my garden this week.  My mom is visiting and has been helping with all the gardening, kid chasing, freezing and cooking around here – it’s such a great help to have extra hands!  G-Baby has taken to eating the green beans straight from the garden.

The pumpkins, acorn squash and butternut squashes are well on their way to taking over the world.

I’m starting to get little zucchinis:

My basil that I moved around last week is SO much happier now and has even gotten new layers of leaves on it. Caprese and Bruschetta here we come!

This morning we picked this basket full from the garden before we took off to get that last batch of blueberries from our local u-pick!

My green beans are coming on strong and I decided to plant a second round in the areas vacated by broccoli and spinach.  I’m hoping to load the freezer and we’ll eat them all winter! We are also still picking broccoli and lettuce and the cukes are storming their way to overtake the crisper drawer!

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Practicing contentment by remembering the graces of the week and practicing gratitude by giving.

This week has included fresh blueberries and first cucumbers and green beans. Salads with garden lettuce and little bits of raspberry snacks from around the yard.

One of my favorite moments was while out picking blueberries, looking over to see GBaby plopped underneath a tall blueberry bush snacking away on the fruit of the lower branches.  It will remain a mind moment, as I forgot my camera.

GBaby loved toddler swim time and would excitedly squeal “zim zim” (swim swim) as we would turn down the road to the pool.  She also likes to show off her kicking skills as she has learned how to kick in the water too.  This was a free program at our local pool for which I’m so thankful.  The same local pool and a local teachers association sponsored a free pizza and swim night on Friday which was such a fun way to end a hot and sticky week!

Today brings a quiet afternoon, cool breeze and a date night.  All items of refreshment in a busy summer.  We’re also blessed to have Granny here to hang out for a few days and give us said date-night away.  I love that we live close enough that GBaby gets to spend good bits of time and build relationships with her grandparents.

I hope you can look back, and forward, to find the joy dotting your story!

Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light.” (James 1:16 -The Message) May the light of the Father brighten your week!

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One of my favorite things about where we live is the organic blueberry orchard where we pick every year.  Their bushes are all 5 to 7 feet tall and picking is easy!  So far we’ve made it home with about 6 quarts of berries for less than $12 – can’t beat that!  And it’s a fun family outing to boot!

I portioned some of the blueberries for HV Blueberry Bread and pies and sent them to the freezer.  The rest I loaded into the dehydrator:

24 hours later, I had about 6 cups of dehydrated blueberries – with not additives! – that GBaby loves to snack on and I will use when I make granola.  I have a feeling that these will go fast so I’m hoping to make it out to the orchard for more berries next week!

This post is linked at:

Life As Mom’s Frugal Friday

A Few of My Favorite Things

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One year ago today, I started blogging here at  ThrivingMama!  For those of you who have joined me more recently, you may have missed out on some of my philosophies I shared early on: like how I really don’t like grocery shopping, why I love our cloth diapers, or why I garden.

I’ve shared a lot of recipes, goals (that I really should get back to) and bits about my business.  I’ve counted my blessings, and shared a bit of my practice of gratitude by giving.

It has been a very full year, and I’ve enjoyed this outlet for processing my activities.  I appreciate having to think a bit more about what I’m doing and why I’m doing it.  Thanks for joining me in the journey!

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This week, my gardening has brought about some relocation and identity changes.  My poor basil was not growing and the square it was in kept getting overgrown by grass.  Since I’m starting to see baby tomatoes last week, I decided that if garden bruschetta was going to be on my August menu, my basil needed and intervention.

I very carefully dug it up from it’s overgrown home, separated each plant and moved them into squares vacated by spinach.  Now they have their own, weed free space to live and each plant has a little bit more room to grow.

Overcrowded Basil

Spaced Out Basil

My poor green beans are another story.  I planted them while  tending GBaby (15 months old at the time).  I thought I was doing fine until the row of beans came up and there was a  2-foot gap in the seedlings poking through the ground.  I thought that maybe I had just planted them a bit deeper.  Now, my theory is that I was chasing a toddler and lost track of where I had  planted!  So, my green beans came up.  My citronella chunks were protecting them from the Garden Beast all seemed right in Green Bean Row.  I saw blossoms  - even better.  Then I started to see tiny baby green beans.  This is great, but are they supposed to start climbing the trellis before they make green beans?  I went back to the packet to find that it was non-specific as to which type of green beans it contained: pole beans or bush beans. We had  picked up the packet at the local farm stand and we were assured they were pole beans.  So I went to google.  Google says: bush beans.

If you’re familiar with square foot gardening, you know that bush beans and pole beans require rather different planting patterns.  So far my bush beans that have been planted very densely, seem to be doing ok.  I’m not sure if I want to try to move some of the plants to thin it out or just leave them.  Any thoughts?

Also in the yard, blueberries are getting ripe, wild red and black-cap raspberries are sprouting out around our property and cucumbers are on the way!

I’m also experimenting with some natural weed killing solutions to deal with the grass in some of my beds. I’ll let you all know how it works out in a couple weeks

This post is linked at An Oregon Cottage’s Tuesday Garden Party.

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July22 Update:  If you’re joining me from Life as Mom’s Picnic Recipe Swap – welcome!  I love this recipe for outdoor meals and picnics as it is a nice cool treat that doesn’t get too sticky in the heat! Enjoy!

Most of the yummy jello recipes that I am fond of, originated from my Aunt Joyce.  I’m not usually a fan of straight up jello but certain combinations are so yummy.  This weekend we were expecting to have a bunch of kids around and most kids like jello, right?  I went searching and found this recipe for 12 Layer Finger Jello and it was very pretty, pretty fun and yummy too!

After making it, here are a few tips:

1.  Make sure you have a timer handy.  Each layer will take about 10 minutes to set in the fridge. Mix the jello, Pour the sour cream layer, set the timer, [go do something else], let the clear layer cool on the counter, turn water on to boil, pour clear layer, mix next batch, repeat.    My electric tea pot was also very useful.

2.  Consider a 11×14 pan- or a couple fewer layer – it filled the 9×13 up almost to the top.

3.  Make sure the shelf in the fridge is as level as possible for even layers.

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