What's Bakin'?

I've recently been a a baking spree! I had some blueberries to use up, a birthday cake to make, and tried my hand at some bread yesterday. The bread is what I am especially excited about! My friend, Traci, let me borrow a book called "Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day"....I know, I was a skeptic, too, but I tried it out and it is awesome!! I am looking forward to getting my own copy and continuing to try the recipes. The idea is that you make dough once, refrigerate it, and take off what you need for up to two weeks AND you cut out a lot of steps, like kneading for one! We had some of my family over for lunch yesterday and they loved it! In fact, we are cooking out again tonight and I have two more made...yum! Anyway, wanted to share my finished product because it is possible to make interesting looking (and yummy) bread at home...can you smell it??? I love the smell of baking bread, and cookies, and muffins, and....well you get the picture, I really like to bake because it's a stress reliever and I like to share my creations! I would recommend this book to anyone who has a kitchen! Enjoy!

Green Stuff

Ok, so I am recently inspired to live simpler and greener...I just feel really called to simplify everything I do, beginning with small things.

I began with using the reusable bags when shopping (at least 95% of the time) and using a homemade multi-purpose cleaner made from--1/2 water, 1/2 vinegar in a spray bottle & 4-5 drops of tea tree oil (I found it at Walgreen's, it is the disinfectant part) mix all in, shake it up and you are ready to clean away. (Thank you, Morgan!)We also began recycling, which doesn't sound like a big deal to those who have curbside recycle bins, but in the country we have no such thing, so I sack it up til Wednesday and take it to the recycle center that is open at Unarco (the place where they make shopping carts here in Wagoner), which take about everything recyclable 1-4 every Wednesday.

So, this week, I am going to get a few things to make homemade bug repellant and also a homemade furniture polish. After much Googling, I found recipes I am willing to try. I actually have bought a natural bug repellant in the past that worked great, but it's pricey, so want to try my own.It was great for Cooper and it smelled nice, too, not to mention it had no scary chemicals in it. I found some very interesting sites by just searching "homemade bug repellant" and for the other, "homemade furniture polish". I just don't like the spray polishes that well and want to be cheap.

Here are the things I am going to try in the next week to see how they work for us:
#1 Bug Repellant (this is supposed to work for most pesky biting things!)
Witch hazel with a few drops of tea tree oil, lavender oil, peppermint oil- mixed in a spray bottle, shaken well before each use. You apparently don't have to use all of the oils, you can pick one, but these are the ones I thought would make the most pleasant smell since I'll be wearing it.

#2 Furniture Polish (for wood)
4 Tbsp. Lemon juice, 2 tsp. Olive oil, 3 Tbsp water- mixed all in a spray bottle, shake well before each use. I won't mix up a lot of this at one time, because I think a little will go a long way. I also found that you can use jojoba oil, but I have all of these ingredients already in my kitchen so want to test it out.

The essential oils seem a bit expensive (or at least tea tree oil was), but after using the tea tree oil cleaner already, I've found they last for a long time......stay tuned for my results and feel free to try it with me!!

Camping

We took a couple days off to go camping last Thursday and Friday and came home Saturday. We went to Robber's Cave State Park in Wilburton, which we had never been to before and we had a lot of fun taking it easy and checking out the scenery. Luckily, we decided to wait til Thursday morning to leave after we got some nasty storms Wednesday night. On Thursday, we checked out the park area, including making a trek to the cave and visiting the Nature Center. Friday, we took a little drive to Pocola, Oklahoma and picked our own strawberries at Wild Things Farm. We love camping together and making memories that will last forever!

Wildflowers

These are some wildflowers that Coop and I picked when we were driving around the pasture this sunny afternoon. He thought it was great fun to watch me pick them and had to see what I would do with them when I brought them in. I love to have fresh flowers in the house and they don't get any fresher than this! I love living in the country!

Honey-Do's & Attic Treasure

My dear husband marked off a couple things on his "honey-do" list this morning. Really, I do have a list, I just try not to nag, the list is mainly so that I don't forget to tell him when I find something or break something that needs fixing. Today, he hung my curtain rods for valances and my boards for my office area.

This little toy box it probably close to 50 years old....it was my mom's and me and my sister and brother all used it (and wrote our names along with our pets' names inside the lid). I remembered I had it in the attic since we moved last year and decided it would be fun to give it a use and bring it back inside. I thought about spiffing it up a bit more because the corners of the lid are worn, but after a good wipe down with murphy's soap and a little sanding off some glue and tape, it looked much better and I kind of like the character of it with the scars and the little cowboys are so adorable. Cooper already has plenty of toy storage and there are just regular hinges on this, so I decided it would make a great little window bench in my dining area. It is still functional for storage, so if Cooper decides to be nosy, I may have to put a latch or some piano hinges on it to avoid smashed fingers. I'm not really sure if I will get a little cushion for it or not, I haven't decided. The funny part was, I was just telling Dennis the other day that I couldn't remember where I had stored his model train, so he could get it out to show Cooper, and guess what was in the toy box?? You got it....the Lionel Train set!

Happy Mother's Day!

The very tan one is my mom, with me as a baby...we lost her to cancer in August of 2007, I sure wish she would've been able to see her grandson, Cooper, he was born just a month later. Now, I'm Mom, too. Happy Mother's Day to everyone....if you have lost your mother, be thankful for the time you had her and remember all the things she taught you, and if you have her, be sure to appreciate her and thank her for bringing you into the world and being who she is.

I beg your pardon, I never promised you a rose garden.....

Our veggie garden is growing and I finally have flowers again!!! I planted a few potted flowers the brighten up the front door. But, my pride and joy is the start of my rose garden!! It was my Mother's Day gift, I guess for myself...I bought them, got all the things I needed to plant them correctly, dug the holes and put those little plants in the ground myself....I have a great sense of satisfaction about that! I plan to add some cuttings from my great grandmother's roses this fall.