Baskets and Boxes

The last little bit of Easter pictures:  J's basket.

The perfect box for a 5-year old:  Just big enough to lay down in, and shallow enough to still be able to watch TV.  Bonus:  it also keeps his snack safe from Milo, who has no manners when it comes to food.  

Home Hunt

While J and I were in the backyard gardening, his mom was fortunate enough to see the Easter Bunny hop into our woods.  It turns out he had hidden some eggs in our front yard!

Found one!

Uncle helping 'sight' J to one he spotted.  

That bunny hid one in a tree!

Some were hidden in new green foliage.

Naturally they had to be lined up to be counted...

Love this.  Not sure if there was something on his foot or if he was just posing.  

"One, two, free, four...."

And then it was J's turn to hide them so his Mommy could look for them.  Only he decided she had a time limit.  

Hustling to find an egg.  Nah, just coming back from a run. 

Helping his Mommy hunt.

The dogs got to come out for a bit and run free in the front yard.

It was a very good day, this Easter.  

First garden post of the year

When J was here Easter weekend, we started our gardening.  He has always seem to be interested in growing things, and we want to make sure it stays that way.  

Adding the soil to a couple of indoor pots.

Favorite picture of the day.

Aforementioned dirty hands, which he does NOT care for at all! 

Planting celery I grew from the base I of some that was store-bought.  

Rinsing those hands for the umpteenth time.

We planted some lettuce plants we bought from our local organic farm and the celery plants.  Some of the lettuces are going to make it, and some aren't.  I got sidelined by the last cold I had plus two sprained ankles, and they got a bit past their prime unfortunately.  

The Hunt

J participated in an Easter hunt in my town this year.  It was very well organized, and with a large amount of children hunting, I suppose it all had to be done this way.  But I kinda hate how egg hunts have changed from when I was a kid.  Back then they, you know, HID them.  To be fair, I never went to a large city-sponsored hunt, just ones given by my church and others by my extended family on a large piece of vacant land with trees and other places to hide the eggs.  Maybe they were doing egg hunts in cities this way even way back 35 years ago.  

I suppose you could look at it as a hunt for the prize eggs amongst the regular eggs.  

The hunting area for the 4-6 year olds.  

The prizes for his age group.

The waiting area.  It was a bit like being caged up.....

The frenzy of hunting.  There were plenty of eggs and candy for all the children, and thankfully they had a rule that parents could not help (except for a few children who had disabilities.)  J is in his mom's blue jacket in the center of the picture. 

The loot!  Oh, it was hilarious.  J got a few eggs but concentrated on picking up all the loose candy he could find, specifically 35 packs of Smarties.  Smart kid that knows what he wants!  

J and K looking through his basket for a possible prize egg.

He got a glitter star inside an egg, which meant he won a prize!  

J's prize basket.  A lot of fun stuff, including several things to be used in the pool this summer. 

Afterward, J had a few minutes to play at the playground. 

Calling out to the other kids....

And for good measure, a picture of my 11 year old Macy, who has stood guard over J since he was just a few weeks old.  She is a bit grumpy in her old age at times, but we still watched her guard her boy this past weekend.  

In My Kitchen

I'm a bit under the weather right now.  Nothing serious, just a cold, so I've still been doing a bit in the kitchen.  Along with just trying to serve good, (mostly) nutritious meals in my house, I'm also trying to use up a lot of things.  I'd like to streamline my pantry a bit if I can.  

Yesterday I discovered that somehow there were still two acrylic contains in my bulk pantry.  I thought I had given all those away, but I suppose I just missed these two.  I've moved over completely to glass jars for my bulk items.  

These both had dried beans in them, and although I knew they must have been there a while, I decided to give all those beans a good soak and see if they would 'cook up' properly. 

Awaiting their new home with someone else!

One contained 2 cups of black beans.

The other contained 2 cups of pinto beans.  The small white navy beans you see below were from a non-bulk bag I found in the cabinet.  

I cooked the navy/pinto beans, then added the fixings for chili (tomato paste, diced tomatoes, crushed tomatoes--really just whatever tomato products I have at the time--onion, bell pepper, chili pepper, and TVP that I am also trying to use up.)   I wound up with 3 pint and 3 quart jars of chili in my refrigerator when all was said and done.  The black beans were cooked up separately and will be bagged and frozen in 1-cup servings for use in soup or chili in the future.  

Yesterday was also the day to make up a new batch of oatmeal.  We add nuts (usually walnuts), ground flax seed, hemp seed, dates, raisins/dried cranberries, a bit of salt, and cinnamon to ours.  I believe Mr. GV also adds some agave.  Yesterday I added some goji berries, since I found a partial bag in a cabinet.  

No picture to go with this, but we are working our way through Mr. GV's stash of tea bags as well.  I admit, a couple years ago when I found that Big Lots had organic tea bags in a brand that Mr. GV likes, I stocked up.  Maybe too much, because it has taken quite some time to get through them, even with 2 servings equaling 3 teabags.  

Junior Gardener

Our local organic farm offers a club for children. Each month they do a different craft and learn about an aspect of nature.  J has always seemed interested in how plants grow, and loves scientific information, so it seemed a good fit for him.  

The first meeting for the year was in February, and it was snowing just a bit as we drove there.  J got to catch some snowflakes on his tongue.  

Listening to information about herbs.....

Getting some help making his soap

So proud!  He made 2 bars of soap and a lavender sachet/necklace.  

Dogs and Veggies

My dogs enjoy a good raw vegetable every now and then.  Large organic carrots make a great substitution for chew bones.  

Milo likes to beg for his veggies.  Here he is with a piece of collard he was about to run off with.  And he is particularly fond of baby carrots, so anytime I am getting Mr. GV's work lunch together, I have to hand over a carrot or two.