TOTALLY AWESOME - Bountiful Baskets!!!

So my cousin's wife tabitha has done this for quite a while, down in AZ and i just thought it was an AZ thing. Then i found out my aunt Julie tried it, which means it is in my area. The first week i missed the sign ups at www.bountifulbaskets.org so i was bummed. But this week i got it and picked it up today!

It is a co-op. you purchase a "basket" online for $15/coventional or $25/organic on your assigned day for your state you are in. Then, it gives you a pick-up location and time for saturday mornings. It is all volunteer based. It is crazy cool!!! For the first time it costs 19.50 but after that it will be 16.50 each week you CHOOSE to do it. That's the nice thing, you don't have to do it every week if you don't want to...but believe me, you will want to!

You get all of the FRESH produce above for that price. It varies each week, but most of it is basic stuff we normally eat. You can't choose what is in your basket. My aunt said she got sweet potatoes and baby carrots her week. This week we got everything above (+ three more apples the little munchkins ate), for only 16.50!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

apples, oranges, pears, asparagus, zucs, cucumbers, cabbage, bananas, 2 boxes blueberries, 1 lb strawberries, 2 spinach bunches, two BIG bunches leaf lettuce.

You've just got to try it out!!! See if they have it in your area, it is so cool and you can actually afford to eat healthier at these prices!!! Good luck and give it a try!!!

Bottled Chicken

So, brad had originally taken thursday off to bottle chicken, but then we had this other project with the GRASS come up! Yeah! Anyway, the wonderful husband that i have and the sickness that chooses not to leave me, he bottled chicken AND worked on the grass project during his time off. He bottle 40 lbs of chicken and 5 quarts of his elk meat. It looks kind of nasty but we already opened a jar (to make sure it actually cooked) and made chicken pillows out of it! Excellent food storage and fun! Now i just have to learn to do it! Or maybe i won't, brad did a great job!!! ;) He is the best!

Guess what we got?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Here are our helpers...

here they are prepping the yard...;)

Brother Westhoff let us use his tractor. Brad had the day off on thursday. He was taking it off to bottle chicken that needed to be done and that i couldn't get to since i have been so sick the last couple weeks. His sister called us on wednesday night saying they had a bunch of sod if we wanted it, for FREE!!! So brad worked on this project ALL DAY instead. While i was a siloutte in the window, the cold outside just made my cough worse, so i stayed in. ;( I wanted to get out there and get my hands dirty so bad! Erg!!!

So, I haven't taken a picture of the finished deal yet, because it's not quite finished. But by the end of it, we will have laid 5400 sq ft of grass all for the mere cost of $340 for sprinkler stuff!!! I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO overly excited to have it and can't wait to mow it!!!!!!!!!!! This day was better than Christmas!!! It makes me want to landscape the whole rest of the yard now. It looks so nice i want to finish it up. I will get pics of the finished deal in a couple of days...stay tuned!

D's "Blueprint" for building the perfect tent!!!

you will have to click on this to get a bigger view of it, then it's kind of too big of a view. Sorry. anyway, you can read my translations as to what he drew. Pretty accurate...we were impressed.

Okay, so last time B had a day off, the kids wanted to camp out in the front room with him. So D asked for paper and pencil. Then he went to his room. Busily working on something. He came out later with his "Blueprint" for buildling the perfect tent! It was so cute. He takes after me in the regard to paying attention to detail in his "blueprint". B was shocked at the detail he picked up on too! He wanted to draw up more options and have everyone vote on the best one, but it was late so we coaxed him into using this one this time. It was really just so cute. He felt sooooo big and proud too! I love to see him grow into a young boy, having real likes and dislikes, his personality starting to shine through. I love it!

What do you think of your mom interview???

These are D's answers...just thought it would be fun to see how their answers have changed.
1. What is something mom always says to you? I love you
2. What makes mom happy? when we don't whine and when we listen
3. What makes mom sad? when we whine and don't clean our room and don't listen
4. How does mom make you laugh? by telling us funny jokes and tickles us
5. What was mom like as a child? you were a little girl and you played house or something.
6. How old is your mom? I don't exactly know (giggle)
7. How tall is your mom? I don't know, you know!
8. What is your mommy's favorite thing to do? always mess on the computer
9. What does your mom do when you're not around? spend time with Brother C
10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for? an actress
11. What is your mom really good at? running
12. What is your mom not very good at? at not screaming at us...
13. What does your mom do for her job? watching us
14. What is your mom's favorite food? eggs
15. What makes you proud of your mom? when you don't yell at us
16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be? minnie mouse
17. What do you and your mom do together? we do chores, read, go to the park
18. How are you and your mom the same? we both got brown eyes and red hair, we both like biking and we like running.
19. How are you and your mom different? because you're a girl and i'm a boy
20. How do you know your mom loves you? because you do nice things for us.


And C's answers...
1. What is something mom always says to you? I love you
2. What makes mom happy? when we clean our room
3. What makes mom sad? when we don't clean our room, when we ruin our stuff
4. How does mom make you laugh? tickle us
5. What was mom like as a child? you liked to play games with your mom
6. How old is your mom? uh, i don't know
7. How tall is your mom? 7 or 8 and 30 inces
8. What is your mommy's favorite thing to do? sleep and work outside
9. What does your mom do when you're not around? cleans the house and pulls weeds
10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for? a famous mom
11. What is your mom really good at? playing piano and violin and you're good at making stuff
12. What is your mom not very good at? letting us go outside and do what we wanna do
13. What does your mom do for her job? work in the backyard
14. What is your mom's favorite food? pizza
15. What makes you proud of your mom? for not yelling at us
16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be? a girl goofy
17. What do you and your mom do together? we go to the park, and we play outside, and we clean the house, and we uh have home school time.
18. How are you and your mom the same? the same hair, same ears, and we're both great teasers!
19. How are you and your mom different? uhhhhh, different necks, different shirts.
20. How do you know your mom loves you? she plays with me all of the time


Well, they both had the same answer to #15, which made me kind of sad. Realizing that i really am a yeller. So, my new goal is to use kind, soft words with my kids so they can really be proud of me!!! Wish me luck!