Procession of the Species

A smallish town near where I live has a parade every year to celebrate Earth Day.  It is called Procession of the Species. 

This Saturday was a beautiful day.  Parade participants and parade observers where out in droves.

Anyone who wants to can participate.  Registration costs two cans of food for the local food bank.

A spider.  A BIG spider.

Some bees.  Playing instruments.

A butterfly.

Another butterfly.

A duck.

Dancers.

And finally.  Sea Cucumbers.  'Nuff said.

Baby Shower Diaper Cakes

I was cruising around and found this awesome post on how to make a Diaper Cake.  Coincidentally, I had a baby shower to attend this past weekend.  So, putting two and two together, I decided I need to make a Diaper Cake for the shower. 

It was fun.

It was pretty easy.

Everyone liked it.

Here it is:

 

I ended up covering the cardboard in foil, which made it look a little classier.


Next baby shower you get invited to, give it a try!

Happy Monday Morning

This is Bubba.

Bubba knows that life is good.

Bubba wants you to have a great Monday.

My favortie corn bread

Yesterday I shared my favorite chili recipe.  Today I'll give you the awesomeness that is my corn bread, which perfectly compliments the chili.

I love this recipe because it is so easy!

Ingredients:

1 cup flour
1 cup corn meal
2/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup milk
1 egg
1/2 - 1/3 cup applesauce

Heat oven to 400 degrees.

Sift dry ingredients together into a bowl.

Mix wet ingredients together. Add to dry ingredients and stir.

Pour into greased pan.  I use a 9x11 glass or Corning ware pan, with a spray of Pam.

Cook at 400 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes.  I cooked mine for about 5 minutes to long... but it still tasted good!

I love this cornbread because it is so sweet and moist - and has very little fat!  All it needs is a little butter - it is so sweet, you don't even need honey.  And it compliments chili perfectly!

5 minute chili

This is my favorite chili recipe.   I make it about once a week. 

Tomorrow I will share the cornbread that goes with it.

I love this because I can put it together in less than 5 minutes in the morning, turn on the crock pot, leave and come back to a house that smells AWESOME, and feed everyone a healthy, hot, fast meal.

Ingredients:

2 cans beans (I use 1 can black beans, 1 can kidney beans)
1 can tomato sauce
1 chopped onion ( I use 1/4 to 1/3 cups - or a handful - of dried minced onions)
1 Tablespoon chili powder - or to taste
Salt and Pepper to taste
1/2 to 1 lb ground meat (I don't eat beef, so I use either chicken or turkey)

Pour all the ingredients into the crock pot.  If you are going to be gone for more than 6 hours, add 1/4 cup of water for each hour.

(I make this at 5:30 in the morning and we don't eat until about 6pm, so I pour in the black beans, with their juice, then fill the can with water and pour that in, to get all the good stuff out of the can.  I then do the same with the kidney beans.)

Stir.  Add the meat. 

(I usually have between 1/2 to 1 lbs of ground turkey or ground chicken in the freezer.  I just add the frozen meat to the chili.  When I get home it is cooked and I use a knife or big spoon to break it up into small pieces.)

Put lid on crock pot, turn on low and walk away for at least 6 hours.

To serve:  Ladle chili into bowls, sprinkle grated cheddar on top, serve with a green salad and a big piece of cornbread.  YUM!

April Budget

Here's the first half of April's budget.  It looks like we've blown the budget, but really we haven't!

Income			Payments
G.	3227.68		Garbage
Moi	80		School	650
Moi	1841.76		Credit Card	500
Moi			Gym	57.5
Total Income	5149.44		Car Insurance	502.84
			Swimming	45
			Mortgage	1429.6
			Elec/Water	288.63
			Cell	169.22
			Cable/Intenet	175.97
			Parking	25
			Groceries	568.28
			Various	1725.19
			HELOC	136.25
Running Balance:	-1124.04

As you can see, my second check is not accounted for yet.  I've also got about a thousand dollars of expenses (school, tax prep and home improvement) that are being paid out of other accounts.  But in the interest of seeing how well we can live off of just our salaries, I'm putting them in the budget.

Here's the breakdown for "various" so far this month:

I probably went over board on Kidlette's Easter basket, but I had fun, and she'll enjoy it.  I also included a couple of things for G., for his Easter as well.

How's your budget shaping up for the month?

The importance of Aunt L.

I come from a very small family.  My mother was an only child.  For all intents and purposes I don't have a dad.  I have one sibling.  I'm estranged from both my mom and my brother.  So, when it comes to my side of the family, Kidlette is kind of out of luck.

G. has two awesome brothers, who both adore Kidlette.  He also has a great mom and dad, who are very involved and caring grandparents.  There she lucked out.

What I have is a great friend.  She is like the sister I never had.  She is a great listener.  She is very caring.  She is the only person who cried when told I was pregnant with Kidlette.

We call her Aunt L.  She did a terrific job raising her daughter, and I've taken a lot of cues from her.  She is my daughter's guardian.  She is an important part of our lives.

I believe that a child can never have too many caring adults in her life.  My goal with Aunt L. is to give Kidlette someone outside of our family structure who she trusts and who will listen and who loves her.  Right now Aunt L. is someone who will let her stay up late and eat ketchup sandwiches.  At 13 Aunt L. will be someone to talk to when she can't talk to me.  At 18 Aunt L. will be someone to trust, if she can't trust me.  At 20, 23, 30... I hope and believe that Aunt L. will be as important in Kidlette's life as she has been in mine.

I didn't have anyone like Aunt L. in my life as a child, and there were times when I could have really used a sane adult.  This is my gift to my child.  And this is my gift to my friend - I love you and trust you with my child.

Do you have an Aunt L. in your life?