Fresh Garden Salsa

5 Early Girl Tomatoes
2 Roma Tomatoes
1/2 red onion
3 garlic cloves
4 cilantro springs
1 green bell pepper
1 red frying pepper
2 orangefrying peppers
1 dash salt
1 dash pepper
1/4 tsp cumin
1/2 lime

First cut up your tomatoes, peppers, and onion.  Place in blender with cilantro and garlic cloves.  Blend well.  Pour into a bowl. Stir in salt, pepper, and cumin. Squeeze half a lime over bowl and stir in.  Enjoy!

*Note: you can use whatever peppers and tomatoes you want this is just what came from my garden so I put the types here so I would remember which ones I used in my recipe.  For the next round of harvest I may try roasting the veggies to see what type of flavor that give it. Keep an eye out for that recipe, but it will probably not be for a few weeks, since I am waiting on my garden!

Tuna Noodle Casserole

2 cans Tuna
1/2 package 16 oz noodles
1 c sour cream
6 oz cream cheese
1/2 c 5 Italian cheese mix
1 c Mozerella Cheese

Ok this one is super easy.  Drain the water from the cans of tuna.  Cook the noodes according to package directions.  Mix the Italian cheese, cream cheese, and sour cream togther until well blended.  Add all to a big bowl and mix together.  Place in an 8"x 8" baking dish.  Layer with Mozerella cheese.  If you are going to freeze for later.  Now would be the time to do that.  Cover, label, date, and enjoy later.  If you are going to cook it now Bake at 350 for 40 min or until all cheese is melted.  You can add some veggies to the mix if you want to sneak some in.  On occassion I will add some spinach to it, just for fun!

Our Saturday!

It has been a couple of Saturdays since we have been able to share it together as I have worked the past couple.  We were so excited to spend some family time together this morning. 
We all woke up around 8am!
Daddy and Mommy had some coffee and Elijah had some milk. 
Athaiah talked to us all.
We read our Bible story.
Elijah got a hair trimmin from mommy

 

I trimmed all my tomato plants because half of all of them were dying because of how bad the heat is.  I just can't seem to water them enough.  I also pruned all the other plants and pulled up my pea plants(as they have died), and some of my green bean plants(they died too).

My garden looks a bit healthier now.  I then put some Epsom salt and some tomato food on my plants to hopefully save what is remaining and gave them all a good watering!

Picked tomatoes, man do I have a lot-this picture isn't even all of them.

Elijah drove around in his cozy coupe, while daddy was cleaning out the car, YEAH for a clean car!

Now it is nap time for the kiddos, so daddy is looking for stuff to sell, and mommy is looking at coupons for grocery shopping.  That about sums it up for our day so far, and it's not even half over yet!

Counting my blessings...

1. Both of my children slept until 9:30 today! (that has never happened)

2. I am capable to exercise

3. I was able to take advantage of my capability to exercise!

4. I have a wonderful happy baby girl who's smiles light up my world.



5. I have a wonderful boy who is growing into a little man who makes me smile and laugh and keeps me on my toes all day!

6. I have a wonderful husband who takes care of us all whom I love dearly!

7.  Probably the most important blessing-I have a Lord and Savior who died for me and saved me by grace because there is nothing I could ever do to deserve something so beautiful and sweet!

8. I have a job!

9. God enabled me to be a mother-something I always dreamed about

10. God has blessed us with a good church home and great friends

11. I have a garden that is giving me a bountiful harvest

12. I have a great family support system that I can always count on

13. I am able to prepare healthy and yummy good for my family (alright it isn't always healthy, but it is always yummy!)

14. I have the weekend off so we can spend some good quality time as a family

15. Because of our work schedules one of us is always home with the children so we don't have to pay a sitter or have someone else raising our children

16. Because one of us is always home we have been blessed to be a part of all the firsts for both children!

17. It's the little things in life that make me happy

18. Elijah makes me stop and smell the roses as he reminds me daily how fast time goes by.

19.  We get to explore new things every day through the eyes of children

20. It is so hot that we get to sit in the kiddie pool with the sprinkler on to keep us cool!

21. My children are both happy, good children-I'm one blessed momma!

22. My son still takes 2 2hr naps a day(at least) and loves to snuggle!

23.  We get to see family again in a little over a month!

24. I am blessed to have love marks-proof that I have children and I wouldn't trade them for the world

25. We are able to pay our bills every month!

I know there are countless others, these are just barely scratching the surface.  I was just feeling so blessed and thankful for the life I have been give today, so I thought I would share.  I really could go on forever, as in my life it is all the little things that matter to me, but I won't bore you with a list a thousand pages long!  I hope you all stop and count the blessings in your life.

Cloud dough

While researching activities to do with young children I found this recipe:

4 cups flour
1/2 cup baby oil

Mix together with your fingers until it to look almost like bread crumbs. I just mixed it up in a big bowl and then gave him measuring utensils to play with and he loved it.  I also buried some stuff in it and the thought it was fun to dig them up!


This stuff is the most amazing stuff ever.  It smells fantastic because of the baby oil in it.  It is soft as can be, I loved just running my fingers through it.  It will hold a shape for a little while and you can squeeze it into balls. Warning- It is messy, we put Elijah on a table cloth so we could contain the mess better, or you could always play with it outside.  I made this 3 weeks ago and stuck it in a Ziploc bag when we were done and it is still the same today as it as then, so it doesn't really go bad.  At least it hasn't yet.

Cucumber, onion, tomato salad

1 Cucumber, peeled and sliced
2 pearl onions(red) chopped fine
1 tomato sliced into wedges
8 yellow pear tomatoes sliced in half
3 cherry tomatoes sliced in half
Pinch of salt

Mix all these together in a bowl and add a pinch of salt.  It was a very nice refreshing way to eat some veggies.  The onion really helps give it some good flavor.

My most diverse harvest!

So I have not had too many things the past week come from my garden.  My green beans and peas appear to be about done for the season(I think the heat is getting to them).  My carrots are still growing, but appear to be getting close. My garlic are still growing as are my onions, although I have picked some onions on occasion and I use them for pearl onions and cut up the tops for green onions. 

But the other day I was able to pick the most variety of veggies so far. I picked 3 different kinds of tomatoes: yellow pear, cherry, and early girl.  I picked 1 cucumber, some pearl red onions, 2 orange peppers, and one of my broccoli stalks.

Eli loves to help mommy pick the veggies, he gets so excited to go outside and see what has popped up over night! He knows the tomatoes go in the window sill and everything else goes in the fridge and he tries to help me put them all where they belong, it is the sweetest thing to watch him get so excited about it.

I was so excited to have such a variety of vegetables, that I decided to use most of them for lunch that day.  So we had an onion, tomato, cucumber salad and then we had chicken fajitas that I used the peppers and some more of the onions for.  I saved the broccoli for yesterdays lunch and it was so good, I can't wait to harvest some more broccoli that is for sure.