I’ve written some more posts over on my blog at Blogger… check it out! I would love to hear from you!
http://midnightoilmomma.blogspot.com/
Searching for Significance
Friday Finds
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Posted in Musings and Mumblings
It’s Official
No I am NOT pregnant. that is not what I am talking about.
I have decided that I like Blogger way better than WordPress.com. So come and visit me over at http://midnightoilmomma.blogspot.com/
If you want to know as to why I have decided the move, just ask. I’ll tell you what I think 
Posted in Beginnings
The Test
So I decided to test out Blogger. I have a blog atWordPress.com, but I have been on several Blogger blogs and I really like the creative license the author has. I currently do not want to pay for a blog. If I want to have a little more fancy things on my WordPress blog I would need to upgrade my current version for a fee. I started doing a little more research about Blogger vs. Wordpress.com. I found a blog that showed an unbiased comparison chart between the two types of blogs (pulsed.blogspot.com). Plus, this blog had a debate about the two. This is where I read several comments. From what I gather, as far as free blogs go, Blogger seems to be the direction most people take. The ability to have different backgrounds, blinkies, design changeability, etc. is really appealing to me. So this is my testing phase. I know that I have the potential to loose readers, but I really do not think I had that many to begin with, since I just started blogging a month ago. So if you are one of my followers. I apologize now for my indecisive behavior.
Check out my blog at Blogger: http://midnightoilmomma.blogspot.com/
Posted in Musings and Mumblings
Sweet Sunday: Toothless Grins
I think toothless grins are the sweetest!
The Girls
What do you think is sweet?
Friday Finds: Raise It Up
This Friday is dedicated to raised gardening. A raised garden, is a garden that is built on top of the ground not in the ground. Sometimes the soil that is already there is used and sometimes it is not. It depends on your preference and the soil you have. There are so many different ideas on raised garden beds. Some are for decorative purposes, some are for those who have back pain, there some for teeny tiny yards, some for huge yards, some build them because they have terrible soil. There is something for everyone. You can make them small or big. Or buy them ready to go. You can have legs on them or on the ground. High end or from old 2×4′s. For flowers, or vegetables, or both. You can make it however your little heart desires.
from Scenery Solutions
Raised Bed Vegetable Gardens Colleen Vanderlinden
I am making a raised bed garden for a couple of reasons. 1. We rent. I didn’t want to tear up the yard and invest a lot of money into something I couldn’t take with me if we were ever to leave this house. 2. I have little ones 3. I don’t have a ton of time on my hands to take care of a big garden.
There are loads and loads of websites and books out there on raised bed gardening. You could possibly go mad with all of the information. Whoa, information overload. I just want something super simple that a mom of 3 can take care of by herself. What I have come up with is a conglomeration of a lot of different ideas.
I really like is a trough bed design from hex2006 on gardenweb.com Check it out: Raised Salad Box Design.
Trough Bed from Hex2006 on gardenweb.com
If you go to the site and read about this design you will find that you can conserve water from run off. It is also at a nice height so you aren’t hurting your back. the plants are able to breathe really well, so as to promote growth. You can make this as big or little as you like. It will not damage the ground it sits on much, if at all.
I also like Mel Bartholomew’s Square Foot Garden.
Square Foot Garden
Creating sections within the trough bed would work great! Here is an example of the square foot garden you can order from Mel’s site or make yourself. He states you can “grow more in less space,” with his method. Reading his book, I am becoming a believer. He says you can plant 4 plants per square foot. He found that a little old lady and a big hefty man could both easily reach 2 ft. So making a 4 ft. x 4 ft. garden area, that you can walk completely around without walking on, was the best solution. After selling more than 2 million copies, I think this man has this down to a science.
To grow carrots, Mel suggests to build a 1×1 square ft. box that is 6-12 in. tall out of plywood. Because carrots need deep soil. Along with carrots, I would like to have romaine lettuce, spinach, oregano, basil, red and green pepper, onion, & Roma tomato.
Even Oprah has a thought on raised gardening. She has a blog on Oprah.com called The Dirt. Okay so it is her gardening club. I don’t really see Oprah having too much time to garden. But you never know.
To do raised gardening you need to:
- Find a good sunny location
- Make sure you do not choose a location that floods
- Decide the size of space you can take care of
- Construct your bed – make sure it is level
- Fill the bed with good topsoil and compost
- Get in and get dirty with your plants!
Why Raise It Up?
- Raised beds warm more quickly in spring, allowing you to work the soil and plant earlier.
- Raised beds drain better.
- The soil in raised beds doesn’t get compacted, because they are constructed with accessibility in mind.
- It’s easy to tailor the soil for your raised bed to the plants you plan to grow there.
- After the initial construction process, raised beds require less maintenance than conventional garden beds.
Some websites to ponder over
- http://www.raisedgardenbeds.info/
- http://www.squarefootgardening.org/
- http://groundbreakingtips.com
- http://forums2.gardenweb.com
- http://www.oprah.com/home/The-Gardening-Club-The-Dirt
I hope that you have fun raising it up!
Please let me know what you think or what kind of gardening you will be doing this season!
DISCLAIMER - My thoughts and ideas are for information purposes only. This information is in no way meant to guarantee results, although I hope it does.
Meatloaf
It is probably unAmerican of me to say that I have never made meatloaf before. Or maybe it is unwifely (yes I know that is not a word). But anywho, tonight was the first time I made meatloaf. Of course, I tried my rendition of this traditional dish on my hubby and son first. A little nervous, I served it up and this is what became of it.
Meatloaf
Now I am just sorry I didn’t take a picture of it before it was devoured. I think I may have to make a double recipe next time so we can have some left-overs.
Here is my version of meatloaf.
- 1 1/2 lbs. ground beef
- 1 Tbsp. Worcestershire Sauce
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1 egg
- 1/2 C. dry bread crumbs (I used Panko Japanese Style bread crumbs)
- 1/3 C. finely chopped & sautéed onion
- 1 C. Milk
- Salt and/or pepper to taste
- 1/2 C. ketchup
- 1/3 C. Sweet Baby Rays Honey BBQ Sauce
- Couple dashes of sugar
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
- In a large bowl, combine the beef, egg, onion, milk and bread crumbs. Season with salt and pepper to taste and place in a lightly greased 5×9 inch loaf pan, OR form into a loaf and place in a lightly greased 9×13 inch baking dish.
- In a separate small bowl, combine the sugar, ketchup and BBQ sauce. Mix well and pour over the meatloaf. Depending on how much sauce you like you may need more or less sauce.
- Bake at 350 degrees F for 1 hour.
In the words of my son, “Yummy in my tummy!”
Pick Up Sticks
Spring has sprung. Although, with the hail that we just had, I am not so sure that I should be excited just yet. But I can’t help myself. It has been 6 years since I have had a nice long spring. While I loved living my adventures in Colorado and Alaska, spring was not quite what it is here, in Indiana. Colorado had a small spring and Alaska went straight from winter to summer. Or at least it seemed that way. It was like everything bloomed overnight (well, some would say it isn’t night just dusk). Which was amazing in itself. But a slower spring is nice. You can watch each day as things begin to grow up from the ground, or on the trees, or bushes, or even on the farms. Baby animals start to emerge. I suppose in some cases we start to see more infants too. Long winters will do that. ;-)
Camp Challenge, Alaska
In Alaska, I worked with my husband as Camp Directors. We lived, ate, slept camp. We were at a Christian Bible Camp called Camp Challenge. Every May we would have a clean up party. People who supported the camp would come out to camp and help rake, scrub, paint, and hammer everything back into place after the long winter. Now that we have moved from that environment, I still find myself wanting to get out and clean up. But this time I don’t have a clean up party to come and help. Although, I must say that my dad came one day last week and helped quite a bit.
Pick up sticks is the name of the game. 
I’m not so sure I liked that game as a child. So to do it as an adult on a larger scale. Ahem, my backyard. I’m still not sure that I like it so much.
We are renting a house. So with renting, I suppose you have the choice to tidy up the house if you want to. Because it is not really your house. You could just leave it as is. Well, that is not how my husband and I operate. We have to get our hands dirty. The renter before us didn’t do much, if any, up keep outside. So we have begun the gigantic process of trimming, raking, transplanting, and trimming and raking some more. I love our backyard for the space. I hate our backyard for the space.
Our backyard
So like I said, we have been playing pick up sticks. Only it is in our backyard. 
I am excited to have our backyard oasis once it is all finished. Although, we may need to call friends and family who love us a lot to have a clean up party. Wanna come and play pick up sticks with us?
ugggh it’s morning…
“Just a few more minutes please.” If I am getting up I need coffee stat.
That was me this morning. Wow. I just could not get my peepers to open. Not that I really wanted to, but little girls cries and a 4-year-old stomping around and clattering in the kitchen made me get up. I do not use an alarm clock. My alarm is my kids or my husband, asking me if I am going to get up today. I am just not a good morning person. I love my sleep too much.
My brother-in-law gets up, never fail, at least by 5 am. If not earlier. And it is dark thirty, 6 months out of the year, where he lives. But for 3 glorious months, it is bright as noon at 5 am. I don’t see how he does it. I am sure his wifey would love it if he would sleep in just one morning.
The terrible thing is, that I know if I got up a little earlier, I could get so many more things done for my day. Like the many dishes, a little workout, a little time in the Bible. Wouldn’t that be so nice. But my toasty, warm, snuggly, bed and pillow say “oh no not yet”.
I never have been a very good morning person. My husband has had to learn the hard way, to not mess with me in the morning. Let me be, please. Let me wake up. Do not talk to me unless I talk to you. I just need a little time to warm up. I remember a time when I was still living at home with my parents and my dad decided to come in and wake me up. I was used to my mom who would say my name over and over again in a very nice, calm tone. Well dad came in and flicked on and off my light several times. He never tried to wake me up again.
Most of the time I am just fine with my alarm being my children, but I know there will come a time very soon that I am going to have to set my alarm a little earlier. My son will be going to kindergarten soon. Until then, bring on the sleepy mornings.
B.O.B.
I love B.O.B. :-)
He makes my life easier. He is a smooth rider. He rolls with the best of them. He turns nicely. He moves with little to no effort.
B.O.B. is my stroller.
Meet B.O.B.
B.O.B. and the family
I am by no means a spokesperson for the B.O.B. stroller. Nor do I get paid to tell you how many ways I love my stroller. I wish I did because I would be rollin’ in the dough. Well, in my dreams, I am sure. But seriously. B.O.B. is one of the best investments my hubby and I could have made. And I say investment because B.O.B. comes at a pretty hefty price. I’m sayin’ he doesn’t come cheap. But when I can push my stroller up a hill with one hand and push my son who is on his bike with the other hand at the same time while running and not crash…I think you get what I am saying. (yes, I know that was a huge run-on, but imagine me saying it without taking a breath). B.O.B. is amazing. And has truly made my life easier.
When I found out that I was having twins, I knew my body would be forever different. And not in a good way. Fatty fatty two by four. That is what I affectionately call myself. I told my hubby that I wanted a stroller that I could fit both girls in, be able to run behind with ease, and fit it in my car by myself. That is all I wanted. Not too much to ask. Right? We searched and searched and found B.O.B. at our local R.E.I. and we never looked back. Now I am 5 months post babies and I am running with B.O.B. after my son, who just got a new bike.
Thank you to the makers of B.O.B.
