30 minutes

My girls have no problem sitting for 30 minutes or longer so I can cover their heads with braids.

It isn't the braids they're after.

And it isn't some new funky cool fad. Whew!

For the girls it's all about the waves in their hair when the braids are taken out the next morning.

For me it's all about 30 minutes of time with each girl, who can't run off to do something else, chatting about their hopes, their friends, and their lives that are no longer completely tethered to Mom. 


I hope they want wavy hair every day for the rest of their lives!


Christine

Hello/Goodbye

The weather has been warm and sunny this week! Finally it feels like spring has sprung in Minnesota! Yippee!


The girls and I pulled the flip flops out of hibernation.

"Hello flip flops!"

And I packed away my lovely purple infinity scarf..."see ya!"

I said goodbye to fun winter hats..."wouldn't want to be ya!"

I bid farewell to my big warm mittens as I placed them in storage. "You're outta here!"

And it's good riddance to my girls well used and apparently abused mittens. How does this happen?

Goodbye winter! We'll see ya later alligator! After a looong while crocodile! Me and my flip flops are leaving the building!


Christine


P.S. Hurray, photo problem solved! Thank you for returning today. You are the best!

Who knew

Apparently one can use up all of one's allotted space for photo files on their blog. Apparently one needs to be aware of how large one's photo files are and one should reduce the size of one's photo files before posting one's photos on one's blog. Can you guess who that one would be?

(insert photo of me looking sheepish)

Now that one is aware of the need to reduce the size of one's photos, one will have to reduce the size of all of the previously posted photos before further posting may occur.

One is working feverishly to remedy the problem and regular posting should resume tomorrow!

(insert photo of me sweating from feverish efforts to remedy problem...not ugly sweating mind you, with the face all red and blotchy, only the glistening kind, like in the movies)

One thanks you for your patience and for understanding that one is a techno illiterate!

Please come back tomorrow! PLEASE and thank you!

Christine

He said/She said

Sunday


Husband says: Do we have any more hand soap?
Wife says: Isn't there a refill bottle of soap in the linen closet?
Husband says: No. We must be out. And all of the soap dispensers are nearly empty.
Wife says: That can't be! I was sure we had some in the linen closet. Darn! I must have missed that on my Target list the other day. I'll run back to the store tomorrow to get hand soap.


The wife was completely distressed that she had let the family run out of hand soap and began to fret about all of the possible nasty germs her family would catch if she did not get to the store before the last of the hand soap ran out!

Monday


The wife runs to Target to purchase much needed hand soap and she also buys Reese's pieces. Wife realizes she should not have bought Reese's pieces because they are so super yummy she wants to eat them all. She did NOT! But she wanted to.


Wife says: Sorry about that husband. I don't know what happened. I thought we still had hand soap.
Husband says: It's OK, no big deal.


Wife thinks husband is a good and patient man! Wife is relieved family is safe from germs!

Tuesday


Wife pulls out cleaning supplies to clean bathrooms. 

The wife is surprised to find 1/3 full refill bottle of hand soap with cleaning supplies.

Wife says: Honey, do you remember placing the hand soap refill in the bucket with the cleaning supplies after you cleaned the bathrooms last week?
Husband says: Ummm...I...have...no comment. Maybe?!


The family will not run out of hand soap any time soon!

The important point of this story (and the wife knows it) is that the husband had cleaned bathrooms! 


Thank you Husband!


Christine

  P.S. The wife also got Reese's pieces out of the deal! Bonus!


This post was husband approved.

Jerk

It was back to the recipe file yesterday.

It's been a couple of weeks, I know. I want to try a new recipe every week, but I have to face it, some weeks it's just not gonna happen. And really it's not my fault that it's been awhile. I had planned to make parmesan straws last week, but by mistake I placed the puff pastry in the freezer when I was supposed to put it in the fridge and then it wasn't thawed out to use. OK, it was my fault. Anyway, I still haven't made the parmesan straws, but I'm gonna. Sometime.


Back to yesterday.


I found a recipe, out of the Midwest Living magazine, for Jerk chicken wings with mango salsa in the file.  I have never used Jerk seasoning before and for some reason I imagine Jerk anything must be good, add in mango salsa— Yum, mango salsa—and it must be fabulous!


Finding Jerk seasoning was not an easy task. My local grocery store does not carry Jerk seasoning. Cajun—yes,  5 different types of bbq seasoning—yes, actually, they had every seasoning but Jerk. On a whim, I checked Target...found Jerk seasoning! I should have known. Target has everything! Hurray for Target!


With Jerk seasoning in hand, I whipped up the marinade of Jerk seasoning, cider vinegar, orange juice, lime juice, olive oil, and soy sauce. Doesn't that sound good?

I cut the chicken wings into 3 pieces, tossed out the wing tips, and placed all of the remaining wing sections into a gallon size Ziploc bag with the marinade. The baggie then went into the fridge to soak the wings in all of that Jerky goodness for several hours.

With that done I moved on to making the mango salsa. It's a simple combination of diced mango, finely chopped sweet pepper, fresh jalapeno pepper, basil, lime juice, red wine vinegar, and a little sugar. That went into the fridge too. How yummy does that look?

I love a meal that I can prep early in the day, because when it comes time to make dinner the meal seems so easy. It's like early prep amnesia! All that was left to do was broil the wings...

...and serve them up with the salsa. We also had some fresh veggies and dip.

There you have it my friends...Jerk chicken wings with mango salsa. I thought it was delicious. 


The family however, gave it two thumbs down and one ehh. I was the only thumbs up. Then they asked if we could order pizza for dinner tomorrow, if their lips were no longer burning. Did I mention that Jerk seasoning has a bit of a kick to it?


Well, it was worth a try, but this is what happens to recipes the family doesn't like.

Would anyone like a practically full bottle of Jerk seasoning?


Christine

A good distraction

I have a very hard time waiting patiently for spring! It's April, and in my opinion April should equal sunshine, warmer days, tulips blooming, and the wonderful smell of hyacinth. But we don't say April showers bring May flowers for nothing. It's gonna be awhile. Blah.


It does help to know that the growing season has begun though! I found the evidence this past weekend in my flower gardens. Look!

It's so exciting to see even the smallest bit green. Is it obvious that I am one of those people who prowl the garden incessantly in the spring, looking for the new growth and for assurance that everything has survived the winter?

Because of my struggle to wait for spring, I was delighted to get to join some friends at the Macy's spring flower show.


Oh the smell! How I wish I could contain it to enjoy at whim!


The fragrance was outdone only by the magnificence of the colors of the flowers.

It was fun to forget, even for a little while, that the ground outside still has a few snowy patches, and look at Tulips and Peonies.

This Weeping Cherry tree was like something out of a fairy tale.

I don't know what this flower is called, but...WOW!

Lovely flowers, wonderful smells and a good time with friends! Then it was back to reality.

Grow little flowers, GROW!


Christine

I can see it now

We are finally beginning to warm up in my neck of the woods. It was 49˚ yesterday. Woohoo! Of course today is April 1st so we will probably get 4 inches of snow. I had to say that to counteract the fact that I had just said it was warming up, because once we begin to say it's getting warm in Minnesota...we get more snow. So now we won't get more snow, cause I just said we will! However, now that I said we won't, it will snow. It's a vicious cycle! And now I can't remember if I should expect more snow or not. Anyway...


Yesterday was a very nice day and I am excited that once again I can see most of the flower beds around the house. I can also see the rocks we stack, for fun, in the side bed. Yea, they're all still there!

 I can also see the garden snail we picked up while exploring Jurustic Park in Wisconsin. Very fun place to visit!

And I can finally get a really good look at the apple trees at the end of our property. 


When the first snow of the winter arrive, it was so beautiful that I ran outside with my camera to capture the lovely white landscape. This is how our apple tree looked.

Moments after I took the shot, this is how the apple tree looked.

See that large limb that has fallen. It got worse! The large limb on the left fell also. The weight of the snow was too much for the old apple tree.

This is how the sad tree looks now.

It's a goner! Frankly the tree needed to go anyway. It was overgrown, it no longer produced good fruit and it made a huge mess in the fall. We hadn't planned to deal with it this year though.


Looking on the bright side...the tree offered some hungry critters some good eats through the long, long, long, winter.

The critters did quite a job removing the tender bark from those branches, didn't they?


And I get to start planning what we'll plant to replace the apple tree. 


Originally there were three apple trees along the back of the property. One we had previously removed because it died. Now we need to take out the broken one and while we're at it, we'll take out the third as well.


I would really like to put in some smaller apple trees. Some Honeycrisp apple trees could be nice. Wouldn't it be delicious to have our own Honeycrisp apples in the fall? I'll just answer...YES!

And it would be scent heaven to plant a row of Lilac bushes behind the apple trees. Then I could stop searching fields for abandoned Lilac bushes to swipe blossoms from. Not that I do that...when anyone is looking.

Adding in a few Hydrangeas, dotted between the apples trees, with the Lilacs for a backdrop, would look spectacular. I think the blue ones.

Wait! Maybe pink ones instead!

Definitely pink!


It will be a lot of work, but it will be lovely once we're all done. I can't wait!


Now I just need the snow to go away, and then I need to tell the husband what I'd like to do. Maybe I'll tell him after he has rested from removing the trees...and after I bake his favorite cookies!

Christine