Whew! Lots of catching up to be done!

Gosh, it seems so long I have had a chance to post a dang thing. Life has gotten very busy for the month of May and now Memorial Day is almost here!

I was so far behind on my menu planning that I was totally winging it; not to mention my freezer in the basement has a seal problem and is collecting ice crystals that I should probably sell as snow cones soon! I have another freezer given to us by my father in law, in our barn waiting to be brought over to the door and shimmied down to the basement. All be it a very difficult job in its self, I really have no where to move things in the way to Jockey freezers!

Anyways, I am happy to report I took advantage of a warm day and sat out on the picnic table and made my menu's for May, June and part of July. Even happier to report that my grocery shopping today was everything I would need to prepare meals for these menu's! I can smell some savings!

 

Grocery shopping today was extremely stressful though. I have reached that point with my soon to be 2 year old daughter that she starts to grab everything with in reach, toss anything you may have in your cart- outside the cart or at any object close by; lets not forget the bellowing through the store. I just wanted to get the hell out of the store(s) as quickly as possible, thus forgetting some things along the way. She is so sweet and cute, may people stop to say hi or make little conversation to her; but my cute smiling baby turns to her poopie face- furrowing her brows deeply to turn someone to stone!

Yup, that's the look! Though she is not related to Daemon or needs an exorcism, the terrible twos seem to want to kick in now, much to my dismay.

Now that the Ohio weather has started being non-cooperative by turning it down to 48 degrees as a high, I took out the meatloaf I pre-made and froze for dinner tonight and I am thinking cheddar mashed potatoes sound very yummy.

This is Rempel Family Meatloaf which is the only meatloaf my whole family will eat! The best when you follow suggestions and make with a glaze on top that follows: 1/2 C. Ketchup, 1 tbs Vinegar, 1 tbs prepared mustard & 1/4 C. white sugar. YUM!

This weekend (Memorial Day weekend) is the only time we have to get the farmstead planted. We widened the plot this year, I added many yards of sand to this clay soil and some Lyme to help break up the new area. We got half the fence posts up already and just waiting for a dry day to get the rest pounded in to keep the deer and rabbits out.

My master list of planting looks like this tentatively as we are also doing some container growing as well and I have several sunflower plants to get planted yet as well as potatoes, herbs and onions!
Though it gets stressful on my part with a toddler trying to keep up with the farming and canning, the rewards over the winter are so worth it.

I shouldn't complain as my family has farmed for many many years till they couldn't farm anymore or passed on and my lil suburban farm is a sneeze in the dirt compared to what they do!

I think I may consider going to the local Memorial Day Parade on Monday as well. I have always tried to set an example to my children to show respect to those that served our country as they are true hero's (like my grandfather was in WWII); and besides we like to see all of our friends marching from our American Legion we belong to!

The only thing I know that won't happen this weekend as the weather is to be cooler is swimming in the pool as we finally got it open last weekend. As every year, the first ones in were our dogs and considering it was 90 degrees, they were very happy to test the water.