Category Archives: 4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons

I love to garden. I love to eat. I love to enjoy the seasons. And home is where my heart is!

May Days

May 26, 20091 Christ is All, 2 Mi Familia, 3 Celebrations & Festive Events, 4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, 9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually ThinkJeanie

Celebrate good times, come on!

Warning: loooooooong post :} But it’s only the second half of the month-I promise!

Family Dinner on a Monday night~

For Steph’s birthday we just sorta decided to “take over” this itty-bitty family-owned hole-in-the-wall spot in Brighton: Marisco’s Mazatlan. Steph simply adores their chicken fajitas so we warned them and we showed up…bunches and bunches of us, using about 89% of their total table space.

It was THE hottest day of the year so far and their air conditioning, combined with a zillion skillets of steaming fajitas, plates of chimis and enchiladas and mounds of steamy beans and rice couldn’t quite keep up with all of us.

Then it was back to the house for strawberry shortcake and presents and stories and letters about and to Stephanie. The predominant theme seemd to be tied to the meaning of her name: a crown or garland, a festooning. So we celebrated the woman she is and we festooned her with praises (Yes, we had just had strawberry shortcake for Tara’s birthday, but once is never enough!)

Celebrating Stephanie was such an honor. She really is, without at all being a soccer-mom-typical-suburbia-type-woman, a virtuous woman/wife/mommy in the Proverbs 31 sense. She is anything but cliche, but she is a woman to be praised. I love and admire her with all my heart. She is the family festooning! Good times.

Zoo Day and Farewell to Kindergarten~

Gavin and his whole class got to ride the big yellow school bus to the zoo for an end-of-the-school-year celebration. Riding a big yellow bus was one of the main reasons Gavin wanted to go to school in the first place. Imagine his surprise at the bait-and-switch when we loaded him up with school supplies and then – he had to ride in the car. Bummer.

zoo4 zoo5

But for his patience, he was rewarded when they went to the Denver Zoo. He was assigned a group with his 3 best friends and their mommies chaperoned. The mommies beamed, I hear, when told they had the “rowdy bunch.” I am so glad they can appreciate youthful joy and delight – even if it does get a little loud and crazy, at times. Steph said the boys shared their lunches and watched out for each other, holding hands when the crowd was thick.

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Who knew you could have such true friends in Kindergarten?? Gavin will be attending a school closer to his house than mine next year, but I hope he will always remember the great friends and the running and jumping playtime they have enjoyed together. Good times.

Estes Park for writers

Dave and I got to go spend some time in Estes Park where Christian writers annually gather for inspiration and opportunity. I just go for the scenery and the food. Even though we’re only an hour from home, being in the mountains is an important hour!

It is refreshing and simple and lovely. I get to meet all sorts of interesting people and be with Dave, besides all that (he is pictured here with critters and with Robert Liparulo). Lots of walking (all uphill), holding hands and talking dreams like you can only do when you’re “away.” Good times.

Hang-out Time with Hunter

This is an amazing kid. When his mommy and daddy travel for ministry, they try to take him along. He is a globetrottter! But sometimes he has to stay – like the days DP and Tara went in to Mexico to do ministry this month. And I cherish the moments I get to be with him. Hunter told Stormie “I love school with Nonna because it’s all about letters and grass. And I love those things.” These are good times.

Memorial Day and a red-headed boy and a red-headed girl on another Monday~

Gemma turned 2 on May 23rd. Gavin will be 6 on June 2. With traveling schedules and all that summer brings, we decided to celebrate them on Memorial Day Monday, early in the day.

I wanted to do a 7-tier Fancy-Nancy cake full of boas and streamers and bejeweled to the hilt for Gemma, but her mommy said, “Let’s go simple…maybe do a ‘Gemma-face’.” So for her I just did an oreo-cookie, strawberry and real whipped cream ice cream cake. I tried to replicate Gemma’s very zealous full-face-and-eyes-all-squinchy smile, as that is the one she flashes at any hint of fun. I don’t think her exuberance can actually be captured in ice cream, but there it was, nonetheless. My attempt.

Gavin has asked for a Batman cake pretty much once a week ever since his Transformer party last year. I think he may have been thinking that I’d do some full-fledged, standing-upright-cape-blowing-in-the-breeze Batman like the Optimus Prime from last year (read more about that scary experience here). But with 2 cakes on one day, again with the simple. I just cut a man with bat ears out of a chocolate half sheet and covered it in fondant. Black fondant. A great icing for the grandsons. They relished baring their black teeth and tongue after the eating. Good times.

Friends and family far and wide

May is one of those months. Anniversaries and weddings, graduations and school year’s ending. Everytime I turn around, there seems something to celebrate, to rejoice in, to recount the faithfulness of God and His favor on lives. So happy dancing-and-joy to all celebrants! Congratulations and best wishes for you! Despite the economy and bad news we get bombarded with, these are, indeed, good times.

“You crown the year with Your goodness, and Your paths drip with abundance.” Psalm 65.11 NKJV

God is great, God is good…Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF: Develop a much, much, much more grateful heart and awareness of the abiding love of God in my life. My times are His hands…

Keep the Garden

May 24, 20091 Christ is All, 4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, Stuff I Actually Thinkbroccoli, gardeningJeanie

Gen. 2.15 Then the LORD God

took the man

and put him in the garden

of Eden

to tend

and

keep it.

I did not keep the broccoli well. I may have forgotten to water it. Ever. Half of it is going to flower already – meaning trying to seed itself for posterity. Must brush up on my keeping skills.

But it is raining this perfectly fine Sunday afternoon. So, it will have to wait – the keeping, I mean.

Peter Cottontail just better watch it!

May 13, 20094 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, 9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually Thinkgarden, rabbitsJeanie

I hope I am not accusing wrongly.

I hope this is not the work of the neighbor’s 2 cats (and btw-why is it OK for people’s cats to hang out in my yard, leaving their poo-poo and harassing my obviously “fraidy-cat” of a dog??). Why should my carefully prepared garden soil be an invitation for kitty-frolic? People, I implore you!

But for the past several mornings, my garden has been in disarray.

The onions have been pulled out (which I am able to plop back in: they are a hardy bulb plant and seem none-the-wiser that they have been messed with). And my 1″ high radish seedlings are half gone. Gone! Now the itty bitty tiny carrot seedlings were pulled out and of course, died in the sun (I am starting over), but half of my radish seedlings are gone without a trace. Not a leaf left lying. Some lettuce and mesclun, too. And I am blaming Bugs (as in Bunny)!

I have seen the little bunnies. Our neighborhood is full of them. Full! They apparently did not get the notice that this is no longer open farmland and that to stay will require a vote by the HOA.

You’d think our mangy Lady-in-the-Water*-looking dog would scare them away, but they still sneak back here – to my Eden, my little farm-in-the-dell, my back 40 (feet).

Peter had just better watch out…Mrs McGregor, aka Old Jeanie MacDonald

NOTE TO SELF: I will have veggies! God as my witness, I will have veggies!

*Referencing the “Lady in the Water” movie which was one of the lamest storylines ever from one of my favorite storytellers, M. Night Shyamalan (a bit of indulgence for the writer himself, I fear), but I still watched again recently because the characters are great and the setting is superb. Just a crappy story (but some great visual appeal), with a grass-mange dog-thing of some sort.

pictured: google image

Garden Markers

May 12, 20092 Mi Familia, 4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, Stuff I Actually Think$1, garden, targetJeanie

Elise-the-niece gave me a big bouquet of flowers for Mother’s Day (for being her Colorado mom-ish-type-fill-in-person) and some flower seeds and these adorable little garden markers she found in the dollar section at Target. They say you get 5 in the package, but mine had 6 – good times! They come with the marker and everything.

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These are highly superior to the plastic picnic knives Gavin and I had used! Methinks we shall do some replacing…

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Charlotte needs a course in winning friends and influencing people

May 6, 20094 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, Stuff I Actually Thinkgarden, spidersJeanie

I moved a twisted, decorative log aside so I could weed properly around the base of a small bush. I glanced over to find that a huge, fat, thick and hairy, black-spotted spider had crawled from her hole-in-the-log and was screaming obscenities at me. I think she was getting ready to jump on me and beat the crap out of me.

There is room for all of us in the garden.

Hmph…

Square Foot Gardening

May 6, 20094 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, 9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually Thinkgarden, mel bartholomew, square foot gardeningJeanie

When I first started gardening (1997), I checked out the BEST book EVER from the library, Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew. See a 3-minute introduction in this youtube video:

The book has been updated and is better, all-new and improved they say. The early SFGs were not that great looking and are now much more attractive. But I still have the actual copy I first read – not because I stole it from the library! No, they sold it a few months later because some one had apparently watered it along with their garden. Silly person…Great sentimental value to me!

Mel, the Square Foot Gardener guru, says if you have never gardened, he can teach you all the principles of successful gardening in an hour. But if you have done “traditional” farm-style (rows and hoeing, for instance) gardening, it takes waaaaaaaay longer to teach you (can you say: hard-headed?). Luckily, I was a total novice, so I LOVE Mel! And I love all the produce I have been able to grow in very small spaces!

Mel taught me:

to plant seeds in vermiculite which acts as a sponge to hold the moisture around the seed so it will germinate quickly. Gavin and I planted lettuce, radishes and spinach that way exactly one week ago and it has already germinated! Tiny little sprouts are smiling up at me!
not to plant handfuls of seed and then go back and get rid of 2/3 of it (called “thinning”…there’s no thinning in SFG!). With Square Foot Gardening, you plant the right amount of seeds in a 1-foot space and enjoy every single thing that grows!
to plant smartly: 16 radishes at a time. I have 16 growing right now. In a few days I will plant 16 more, and so on. Why would I plant an entire package of seeds at once when I cannot eat them all at once?
weeding doesn’t have to take over your life because in a SFG, there is hardly any weeding!
and he taught me how to get the BEST tomato harvest ever! And that alone makes Mel one of my all-time favorite people.

This year I have discovered the Square Foot Gardening website along with instructions on how to grow potatoes. Mel’s current website: http://www.squarefootgardening.com/ …F U L L of incredible gardening knowledge! Good times!

Benefits of Square Foot Gardening:

Uses 80% less space per harvest.
Uses 90% less water.
Uses 95% less seeds!
You get 5 times the harvest
And? It makes me feel so green!

This is the method I am passing on to the grand-bebes!…Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF: Never go another year without gardening!

pictured: my ragged copy of the first Square Foot Gardening book….still much used and greatly loved…

Good Day in the Dirt

May 2, 20092 Mi Familia, 4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, Stuff I Actually Thinkgardening, gavinJeanie

Gavin spent the morning with me the other day and we played in the dirt, or “gardened,” if you prefer. We turned over and amended the soil in one of the 4ft x 4ft raised garden beds. Then to really get the visual, we used string to divide it off into 16 squares.

We had alread planted onion sets at the back a couple of weeks ago and they are sprouting up nicely.

The poles are in place for beans to be planted directly in mid-May.

Meanwhile we planted 16 radishes in one 1ft square. We planted a square of carrots, a square of mixed gourmet lettuces and a square of butter head lettuce, with spicy mesclun mixed in around. It will be harvested so young it won’t affect the butter head.

We tucked in some nasturium seedlings here and there, which we will use in salads – both the leaf and the flower, and voila!

Gavin, who insisted on taking some pictures “so we can remember what we planted,” (how did this boy become such a genius???), kept saying to me, “This is a really good day, isn’t it, Nonna?” It sure was!

More veggie tales to come…Jeanie, aka “Nonna”

pictured: some of Gavin’s shots (you can see we planted the seed in tiny vermiculite indentations, because it acts as a sponge to water, keeping the seed constantly moist), and the ones where I was able to wrangle the camera from him. :]

Butterfly Cakes

April 26, 20093 Celebrations & Festive Events, 4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, Stuff I Actually Thinkalyssa's first birthday, birthday cake, butterfly cake, cakeJeanie

see more pics of Alyssa’s cake and party here AND here…

Baby Ally’s Personal 1-year-old Birthday Cake

A chocolate butterfly cut-out, approximately 11″ x 13″ (hand cut from a 12″ x 16″ pan) decorated to compliment her butterfly balloon set (the color and inspiration for the whole party). There are butterfly-shaped pans out there. Why did I not use one? I thought I’d be clever, I guess, and create my own.

Alyssa’s grandma (Pearl) says the birthday girl liked her cake.

The guest cake

Two-tier, 3-layer cakes (approx. 6″ height each tier). The bottom square: my rather infamous lemon-poppyseed filled with lemon curd cream. The top tier, chocolate-fudge pudding cake with milk chocolate filling. Buttercream over all.

All together

About 3 dozen eggs, 4 pounds of butter, 7+ pounds of cake flour, some canola oil, less than 5 pounds of sugar, 6+ pounds confectioner’s sugar, the juice and zest of a dozen large lemons (smells soooo good), chocolate moistening syrup.

Alyssa will be one this week! Just a little over a year ago we were having a baby shower for her mommy (and daddy), Audrey and Ben. A quick look back at the shower and then a glance at this cake and you’ll know Audrey-the-artist-and-mommy is not afraid of color! Nothing pastel about her! Aaaah… Time flies and life is a celebration!

Until next time…Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF: cookie decorating with the grand-bebes to use up the rest of the icing.

pictured: the cake, of course….the final pic is Ally’s cake after she’d had a chance to dig in. I am still having photo-posting problems here at the blog and my silly camera flash was not usable (boooooo). What you can’t see is that the butterflies were also glittery. It was a happy cake!

Plow Ahead!

April 26, 20094 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, Stuff I Actually Thinkgarden quoteJeanie

Freecycle

April 24, 20094 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, Stuff I Actually Thinkbird, gardenJeanie

6:00 a.m. I am happy to report that the little pile of garden “debris,” some stray grass and old roots that I had pulled from one of the beds while “spring-cleaning” my 3′ x 3′ area the other day, has been gratefully discovered and is being used by a large group of small sparrows and a couple of fat robins. They, in turn, are digging through the little pile and whisking off what they can use to feather their nests.

I am happy to have been of service.

A glorious morning is shaping up…Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF: Leave the bat cave at regular intervals today – look directly into the sun.

NOTE: The Aspens are leafing out rapidly this week! The Purple-Leafed Sand Cherries are heavy with dainty, pink flowers – a bit late this year, but worth the wait. They knew to hide until the snow blizzard had passed.