Overwhelmed...

Right now at this moment I feel so much older than 22. When I see people that I use to go to high school with I feel like we don't have anything to talk about. They talk about their University classes, the current romantic fling and which apartment they are going to rent. I talk about my job, my long term boyfriend and my never ending house renovations. All of the realities of life are piling up on my plate and I find myself reminiscing about the fun, care free days of University.

This week my house went from looking like this.......

To this.........

Lovely eh? My basement is crumbling. There are holes that are so large in the foundation that I can actually stick my hand right through the cement. My flower gardens that I work so hard on are now dug up and covered with dirt. Besides that, this week my shingles on my roof are getting replaced AND two of the old windows are leaking water into the house....

I know I should be able to handle the stress a lot easier but how? How do you let it not bother you? I'm losing sleep dreaming that my house that I have already spend SO much money fixing up is caving in on me.

I wonder if buying a brand new house in the suburbs would not have saved a lot of time and stress? Don't get me wrong, I love where I live. I love the history and special features that an old house possesses. The trim, the original wood, and the stories that the house has but it is affecting my wallet and my well being.

What do you do in times of stress?

What do you do to de-stress?

Have a great weekend!

xo

Reason # 204 Why I Love My Small Town

By now I am sure that you know that I love living in a small town. Besides the privacy and constant feeling of safety there are other perks that you maybe not be aware of.

Ever since I was a little girl my parents brought my brother and I to church. My dad plays the organ every other month and so church and religion has always played a special role in my life. It is a smaller congregation but there is a lot of heart and hard work that goes into keeping the church running.

Some of the strongest/most talented women that you will ever meet are our Quyon/Wesley United Church Women. These women organize, set up and cook for many events to raise funds for church charity events. They are the role models that young woman should look up to. Faithful, charitable, hard working women.

One of the Ladies getting organized

A few years back they started organizing a monthly event called "Soup & Sandwich". For only $6.00 you are able to go to the basement of the church at lunch time for Homemade soups, sandwiches, desserts and coffee or tea. It is so much more than ordinary soup though. There are usually 3-4 different kinds of hot, homemade soup.....chicken noodle, hamburger, vegetable...oh my.

Then those sandwiches. Have you ever noticed that sandwiches taste so much better when someone else has made them? Egg, ham, tuna, etc. The possibilities are endless. It's the perfect little triangle sandwich that only church ladies can make perfectly.

After you have stuffed yourself full of soup and sandwiches you head over to the dessert table to make the difficult decision of which of the 3 homemade desserts you will choose. I always try to convince my mom and Jill to pick the opposite dessert then what I have so that I can get a taste of all 3 kinds...:-)

$6.00 is such a small cost for such an incredible meal but it makes my heart glow to see the local town people coming in to enjoy the lunch as well. Farmers, school teachers and retiree's, everyone enjoys it. It is events and church ladies like this that makes living in a small town so special.


Church Basement during Soup & Sandwich

Today will be the last Soup & Sandwich until next January and I am going to savour every last bite! Yum!

xo

Dare #29

I don't know about all of you but I passed a really busy but very successful weekend. I measure a successful weekend by how much I get accomplished.

Here is your dare this week:

Give yourself a pedicure this week or get someone else to do it. Get those toes ready for flip flop season!

These are my flowers from last week dare. Aren't they pretty? They smelt so good.

Have a great week!!

xo

Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day everyone!

This usually isn't a holiday that I celebrate but how can I not when I live in the greenest place imaginable, surrounded by turf fields and trees!!

The picture is of someone at our pool party last year hitting some golf balls into our "back yard". It's so great to have so much room around to walk, play, and have privacy.

Thank you Mother Earth for the beautiful piece of land that I live on and I promise to take good care of it.

xo

Technology is grand!

I can be somewhat of a neat freak at times. I'm not obsessive in no means but I like things to be tidy. I hate having to rush around putting things away when I know company is coming. I hate it even more if someone shows up and the house is a mess. Therefore, I quickly learnt how to make sure that the house was always in "presentation" order. I have a well planned system that ensures most things are in there place and the appropriate cleaning is done at the right time......O.K maybe I am a little obsessive........

Now that you have my not-so-much but actually completely obsessive behavior in mind let me tell you what I encountered yesterday morning....

Technology is great!!!

The spring/summer months here at the farm are crazy! I'm at work for 5:30 (ish) AM and work until 5:30-6:00 PM most nights. I make supper and then I am tucked into bed by 8:00 PM sharp and the day starts all over again. That leaves me about 2-2 1/2 hours of "free time" every night. The LAST thing I want to do is spend those 2 precious hours cleaning and cooking. At the same time there is this awful thing called a conscience that tells me that I have to. So, why not have a happy medium?

When I was at work yesterday my dishes got washed, my floors got vacuumed and my supper cooked it's self!

Let me introduce you to the appliances that save me from suffering from early heart failure.

My Dishwasher

This machine I don't think I could live without. I spent some years in college and after living without one and thought that I would never need a dishwasher. I was wrong....oh so wrong. When I don't have a lot of hours in the day the last thing I want to do is spend that precious time on cleaning dirty dishes. And I cannot go to bed with dirty dishes in the sink, I just can't. I turn the machine one before I go to work and when I get home, VOILA clean dishes.

My Crockpot

The crockpot was another foreign appliance that I just simply didn't know how to use. Then I received a few recipes that required a crockpot and my wonderful brother and sister-in law got me one for Christmas. Since then once a week I have a crockpot meal on a night that I know is usually busy and I don't feel like cooking. I simply dump everything in the pot the night before, plug it in in the morning and VOILA a delicious cooked meal when I get home.

My Roomba

I know it looks like something out of a tacky infomercial but this thing really works! My dad bought it for me last Christmas and at first I thought it was a joke. But it has been a real time saver. I have to move it upstairs to do all of the bedrooms because it does not go on stairs. The good part is that it fits under most furniture so there are no more "dust bunny" encounters once every 6 months. The yuckiest floor in my house is usually the kitchen. It is constantly full of crumbs and dirt from the front door. The solution: I turn on the Roomba when I'm going out the door and when I get back it is docked, charging and the floors are spotless. The difference is unbelievable. No more sweeping the kitchen/front door every night!

Sometimes I do feel lazy because I'm letting this technology take the place of doing it myself but at times I feel overwhelmed by all that has to be done in one day. I feel as though I am getting pulled in a million different directions and I think without this little bit of help from technology I couldn't do it, sanely.

xo

Dare #28

Welcome back to the work week yet again. Although, for me it feels like the weekend hasn't started. When I work on Saturday sometimes I wonder if I even had a weekend. Either way, I'm gearing up for a busy week at work, soon we'll be harvesting sod!

Here is your dare this week:

Dare #28

Treat yourself and buy a fresh bouquet of flowers and then put it on your table. Make sure it is colorful and flowers that you like. Then, sit back and enjoy them and think of the summer to come!

Have a great week!

xo

Easy Chicken Curry

Anyone that knows me, knows that I am a huge fan of chicken curry. I first discovered my love for the spice when I was in Guelph and was forced to eat a dish of chicken curry. From the time I had my first bite I was hooked. It took some convincing but I finally persuaded Ryan to give it a try....now he likes it too! Here is a fast recipe that I have incorporated into our 6 week meal plan.

Ingredients:

- Chicken (we use two breasts) cubed

- Carrots, peeled and sliced

- 1/2 onion

- 1 can of coconut milk

- 3 tsp of curry powder

- 1 tsp of garlic powder

- Nann Bread

- Rice

1. Begin frying onions and chicken until brown.

2. Once brown, add sliced carrots and fry for an additional 5-7 minutes or until carrots are tender.

3. Add coconut milk, curry powder and garlic powder. Cover and cook for an additional 5 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, warm up nann bread and cook rice. Usually you have basmati rice with curry but minute rice tastes as good and is much faster and cheaper.

5. Once ready serve curry on top of rice and nann bread for dipping.


6. Enjoy! :-)

That is it! 6 steps...not bad. You'll see in my picture that I chopped the chicken, carrots and onion the night before. This made for SUPER easy assembly the next night at supper. With the busy summer taking meat out and preparing it for the next night cuts out alot of time! I'm so glad Ryan and I were able to add a more exotic dish to our meal plan that we both can enjoy and make for under $10.00!

Chicken- $3.58

Coconut milk- $2.30

Carrots- $0.24

1/2 Onion- $0.40

Nann Bread- $2.85

Rice- $0.40

Total: $9.77

xo

Happy Birthday Little Buddy

Three years ago today my little buddy was born. Ever since he has been a great companion and friend. Read all about him in this post.

When Ryan and I started dating Tucker was already a part of my life so Ryan had to get on his good side. Now they're the best of buddies and even if Ryan doesn't like to admit it I know he loves him.

For those of you wondering, "Beans" is a term on endearment that I tend to use instead of peanut, sweetie, etc. When I first adopted Tucker I set up his first veterinarians appointment. I had already started calling him by his nickname and when the vet asked me his name I said Tucker. Then she asked me his last name and in a moment of confusion I said Beans. Ever since then he has been my Tucker Beans!

Happy 3rd Birthday Tucker Beans!

Love you!!

xo

Dare #27

Even though the weather wasn't the greatest this weekend my mind was still on summer. I got to clean out a couple of flower beds over the weekend. I was wearing long john's and a tuque during the process and the thoughts of flip flops and shorts kept coming to mind.

With that in mind here is your dare this week:

Dare #27

Go through all of your summer clothes and give away/throw out the ones that either don't fit you, are too worn, or you know that you won't wear. Then re-fold everything so that it is nice, neat and organized when you are ready to wear them. Time to start thinking about summer attire! Woo Hoo!

xo

Where the green grass grows...

Life here at the turf farm has gotten very hectic! The early spring has made the phones ring two weeks earlier than normal. People are buying seed, fertilizer and looking for sod. Everyone wants to have a nice lawn but a lot of people don't know what to do in order to "de-winterize" the grass.

Grass is an extremely hardy plant. You can walk, run, stomp, rip and cover it with snow/ice and it still comes back to life in the spring. I, for one, am amazed by it's ability but then again I am a turf geek.

Once all the snow is gone let the ground absorb some of the water before doing any work. Once that water is well saturated go out with a rake (I use a large plastic fan rake) and do a pass. This process removes some of the dead leaf and allows for more space for new seedlings to grow.

Apply 3 lbs/1000 sq.ft of fertilizer to your lawn after you are done raking. This blend should have a high amount of Nitrogen (the first number). The nitrogen source should be fast release because you want to give your grass a kick in the butt! A slow release lasts very long in the soil which is great for the long, hot summer days but not for spring. Urea is a good form of fast release fertilizer. A number that we use here at the farm is; 22-4-8.

**NOTE** Many people think that fertilizer needs to be watered in but that is not the case. It will release by itself with wind, rain, and traffic. Also, fertilizer IS NOT a pesticide. You, your children and your animals can go on your lawn right after you apply fertilizer.

Lastly, if you want a beautiful spring lawn there is one last step. Apply 2 lbs/1000 sqft. worth of seed to your lawn. The blend should have a high percentage of Kentucky Bluegrass (if that is what your lawn consists of). The little bit of grass will fill in any spots that may not have survived the winter. You can use your fertilizer spreader to apply the seed. Most fertilizer and seed bags have rate numbers on the back to help you calibrate your spreader.

That is it! 3 simple steps to achieve a beautiful lawn in the spring. These steps are important because how you look after your lawn in the spring will determine how it looks for the rest of the summer. Enjoy your lawn!

xo

Romance on a budget!

This past weekend Ryan had a challenge. That challenge was to plan a romantic activity for us that was under $20.00. We had completed this early in the winter when we went skating on the canal. It is now a competition on who can plan the best activity for under $20.00.

Here is what he came up with.....

Ryan went a planned a picnic lunch for us. He went and did all the grocery shopping and cooking himself. He packed it all up in a picnic backpack that he borrowed from my brother.

Ryan with our picnic


Then he drove us out to the Luskville NCC trail that takes you up the Mountain beside a waterfall and then looks out at the top to all of the Pontiac.

Infront of the falls.

The view.

And the food was just as good as the view! We had chicken Caesar salad wraps with real bacon, cheese and crackers, carrots and dip, wine and for dessert.......

Strawberries dipped in chocolate, yum!

He did really well and it was very romantic. We got out to enjoy the fresh air, good food, beautiful view of the Pontiac and of course each other's company. The bonus was that it was so inexpensive, romance for under $20.00!

xo

Dare #27

Oh, how I love long weekends! This will be the last long weekend before our busy turf season and that is why we have both the Friday and Monday off (yay!). With all of this time off I have thought up a really mean dare, one that will be very hard to complete.

Dare #27

Don't eat any chocolate this week.

This one is going to be really hard for me. I have was so lucky to get so many yummy Easter treats! See if you can resist the urge!

xo

Happy Easter Everyone!

Rabbits soft and cuddly

Baby chickens, too.

Easter eggs for baskets

White and pink and blue.

Easter cards of greeting,

music in the air,

Lilies just to tell us

It's Easter everywhere.

Ryan and I last year with the bunny cake I made.

To you and yours,

Wishing you a very

"Hoppy" Easter!

xo