Trader Joe's and an Easter Tip!!!

I have a confession.....I do love me some Trader Joe's. But before any of you start thinking I am a total health food nut I thought I should add one of my favorite pictures to this post. Below shows that I am a firm believer in balance. A trip to Trader Joe's and then lunch at Johnny Rockets - perfect day! Trader Joe's is a mini field trip. While browsing the aisles you can munch on samples, and guess what, no annoying sample ladies!! And you can always get a cute little cup of coffee - for free!! Even more exciting is that you can put real organic HALF and HALF in your little cup of coffee!! A delight!! But my all time favorite thing to buy at Trader's is a floral bouquet and at Easter they have an awesome assortment.

Trader Joe's flowers are the best! They offer a bunch of unique and different arrangements and the flowers last forever!!

There are so many offered that it is really hard to choose. So, I suggest that you go and get your little cup of coffee first and then browse the floral aisle.

After picking out your flowers you'll want to look around the store. I can suggest the very healthy cage free eggs and the ever so healthy cereal, Joe's Fiber Os. But I highly recommend the dark chocolate blueberries, the peanut butter pretzels, the chocolate chip dunkers, the ginger cat cookies, the pecan pralines and the dark chocolate covered raspberry jellies.

Balance. Balance is the key.

Muffin Tin Madness

You all know we love homeschooling around here. But I do admit that some parts of our school day get - well, shall I say boring. Some of you might guess that math or language would be boring. Some of you might guess that science would be boring. And some of you might even guess that just Anna and I being alone together all day might be boring!!! Shame on you. NO - the boring part can be Lunchtime!! Imagine, everyday....at home....with one kid......turkey....grapes....no lunchroom gossip......well, we have a remedy to shake up some of those lunches...........
Muffin Tins!!! I found this idea over at http://michellesjournalcorner.blogspot.com/. She uses muffin tins on Mondays to make fun and exciting lunches. Her kids are much younger than Anna but Anna and I thought the concept was cool and decided to try some this summer. Above is our lunch with garden veggies and dip, homegrown blackberries and yogurt, trail mix and some turkey on multigrain sandwich thin. Love those sandwich thins!! Below is my surprise breakfast for Anna.

She woke up to three different cereals, blueberries and melon! She was so excited about this! I think the mini assortments of cereal are cute!! Notice the letters reading breakfast of "champions"!

If any of you have any fun suggestions for future muffin tin meals let us know. Variety is the spice of life!!!

Garden Wisdom

Here is the Garden Wisdom for the day..................START ONE!!
Don't these asparagus spears look tasty? We have been harvesting these babies for two months and let me tell you - they are yummy!! Boil for one minute, drain, submerge in ice cold water, dry, dip in ranch dressing, and enjoy!! Makes me cry just thinking about it!
Asparagus not your thing? Try this easy crop - lettuce. You don't even need a piece of land. Just plop those tiny seeds into a patio planter and enjoy!!! While your planting the lettuce you might as well put in a pepper or tomato plant. When everything ripens you'll have salad right outside your door!! Miraculous.

Don't forget the kiddos. What kid doesn't want to play in the dirt? Anna has gone garden crazy. The pic below shows her putting in one of ten pepper plants. She was wondering if gardening seemed a bit "nerdy". I told her who cares when asparagus is $1.29 lb. and we are getting it for FREE! Garden nerds RULE!!

Planting Season

I think every kid should experience growing a garden. It is one of those 100 things that every child needs to do before they grow up. Anna had a friend over in the fall and she noticed a small pumpkin sitting on our kitchen counter. The friend was in disbelief that we grew it in our own yard!! She thought pumpkins could only be grown on huge farms and bought at the market!!

This week we had some warm dry weather so Anna Leigh enlisted the Grams to help her plant lettuce. Grandma and Grandpa offer the best gardening wisdom so we are very fortunate to have them right in our own backyard!! Actually, they offer some of the best wisdom in regards to just about everything so we are super lucky that they live right next door!!

Anna will probably plant tomatoes, peppers of all varieties, zucchini, yellow squash, wild flowers, and of course pumpkins (with Gramps!) as the planting season continues. I'll keep you posted with garden updates!