Lovin' the CSA Life!

Everyone been enjoying the amazingly beautiful Spring weather??? I know it dipped a lil' chilly the past few days, but from what the weather man says we're heading back for more 70 degree days soon. YAY! That means Tyler, the  kids, and I have been busy in the yard getting it ready for lotsa summer fun. Last weekend was spent raking piles & piles of leaves and stacking enough sticks to build the 3 lil' pigs a new abode. Or enough sticks to keep our fire pit nice and stocked for a yummy s'more season. This weekend we get to stake out the garden and remove all the landscaping stones from the front yard flower beds. Sounds like too much fun to contain one's self, doesn't it?!?! {Hubsy is in 7th heaven with all the yard puttering, while I keep trying to think up clever excuses to go into the house.}

My best excuse has been the new addition to our clan: Father Dougal McGuire. He's an 8wk old beagle cockapoo mix. Born 1/30/12, and as of Monday weighing in at 6.4lbs. He is a spoiled pooch who has stolen all our hearts; most especially Tyler's. Hubsy SWORE up and down that no dog would ever be sleeping in our bed. Dogs belong on the floor, he says. They're dogs; not people, he ranted. Yeah, right! Guess where you'll find Dougal every night??? Sleeping between Tyler and I, snuggled up on Ty's arm. I'd post pix, but our lil' darling has yet to hold still long enough to capture a good photo. I'm hoping to get Dougal into my studio this weekend for his first official photo session. Yep- we've become those weirdos about our dog.

What about our CSA, you're wondering? Well, if you missed the Open House at the Monona Terrace, I feel badly for you. It was amazing. The kids had a blast getting faces painted, playing games, and sampling yummy recipes from the CSA cookbook. Tyler and I were overwhelmed by all the fantastic farm choices. There were so many farms we wanted to join, but we could only pick one. We settled on JenEhr Farm out of Sun Prairie, thanks to the help of Sarah. She was fabulous at answering all our questions and even gave us a welcome bag full of tasty goodies from the farm. It had spinach, celeriac, a Black Spanish radish {also known as a winter radish}, and garlic in it. Thanks to the CSA cookbook we purchased that day, we had feasted on the whole bag for dinner that night.

We also visited JenEhr this past Sunday for Spinach Days. Farmer Paul gave us a great tour of the farm and we got to pick up more yummy veggies, as well as some chicken. The kids were thrilled to eat a whole Sunday dinner directly from their farm. And, they ate everything...yep, my picky eaters ate everything...even the stuff they deemed weird. The 3 lil' ones can hardly wait to start getting our weekly boxes. I'm excited that our farm offers strawberries and blueberries, too. It's gonna be a great summer of gourmet eating around here!

Here are a few of our favorite recipes thus far from our CSA adventure:
Mashed Potatoes and Celeriac 
1 good sized celeriac bulb, peeled and cut into chunks
1lb potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
4 cloves of garlic, peeled
1/2c heavy cream, buttermilk, or 1/2 & 1/2
4tbsp. butter
salt and pepper to taste
Combine the celeriac and potato chunks into a pot, along with the garlic, and fill it with water until the veggies are just covered. Bring to a boil, until celeriac and potatoes are just tender. Drain, and return veggies to the pot. Add in the cream, butter, salt & pepper, and mash.

Spanish Radish and Carrot Salad
1 good sized Black Spanish radish, peeled
4 whole carrots, peeled
8oz. feta cheese
1/4c olive oil
2-3tbsp. rice vinegar
2tbsp. dill
1tbsp. parsely
salt & pepper to taste
Shred radishes and carrots with a grater {or if you're lucky like me, your Ninja}. Toss with remaining ingredients. Chill.
*My kids ate seconds and thirds of this...which if you know them, is a HUGE shocker!!!*

Carrot Cake
3/4c. white sugar
3/4c. brown sugar
1/2c. canola oil
1/2c. coconut oil
1 snack sized container vanilla yogurt
3 large eggs
2c. all purpose unbleached flour
2tsp. ground cinnamon
1tsp. baking soda
1/2tsp. salt
3c. shredded carrots
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 13x9" pan. Beat sugars, oils, and eggs until blended. Add remaining ingredients and beat, except carrots, for 1 minute. Stir in carrots shreds. Pour into pan and bake for 40-45 minutes. Cool about 1 hour and frost. {I use my secret cream cheese frosting recipe, but this cake is so sweet and moist you could even just pour a light glaze on it.}

PS- the deodorant recipe I posted works AMAZING! I will never go back to store bought again. Just as an FYI, melt your coconut oil and pour it into your dry mix slowly.

Stink Stick Trials

Remember way back, when I got that bed from the ReStore and promised photos once it was done?! It's been finished for a while now, but I never did get around to the photos. Until today...

TA-DA!!!

<3 how it turned out!!!

I have a few projects lined up for around the house today that I have been meaning to get to. Unfortunately a nasty bought of the stomach flu at our house postponed them all. {I wanted to have everything done before Cousin Erin's arrival this weekend.} There has been more puking in this house in the last 5 days, then the last 2 years at our other house. How we survived with only 1 bathroom and 7 sick people is beyond me. But, I know this much...a 2nd bathroom is at the top of our house project priority list! There was a lot of yelling, crying, desperate pleading, and outright threats to vacate the bathroom ASAP. I won't go into detail about how bad it got at one point, but we have learned one thing...the family that pukes together, stays together. For no other reason than to make sure those stories NEVER make it out to the general public!

I came across a new shampoo recipe with coconut milk I plan on whipping together today, as well as a homemade deodorant people all over the internet are raving about {for both men and women!}. I was especially interested in the deodorant, because I am allergic to the aluminum in most store bought kinds. I had been getting some great natural stuff at Whole Foods for years, but it's getting harder and harder to find. I figured best to try out this homemade stuff to see if it really works before the heat and humidity of Wisco summers hits.

Coconut Shampoo:

1/4c. coconut milk

1/3c liquid castille soap (I'm using my lavender stuff)

1tsp vitamin E, jojoba, or almond oil

10-20 drops essential oil (I plan to use a mix of rosemary and lavender)

Homemade Deodorant:

1/4c. baking soda

1/4c. cornstarch

2tbsp. coconut oil (you can find it in the natural foods section, and use it in place of shortening when cooking. It's solid, but has a low melting point)

10-20 drops essential oil (tea tree or lavender are best, as they have antibacterial properties)

*Mix the baking soda and starch together well in a bowl. Add the drops of essential oils. Lastly, stir in the coconut oil. The recipe says you could use more or less, depending on the consistency you would like. You can either store it in a jar and smear it on {YUCKY}, or form it and put it into a clean recycled deodorant stick. From what I've read, you should keep it in the fridge during the summer so it doesn't melt. It supposedly goes on smooth, doesn't leave marks on clothes, and offers long lasting protection...even on guys. We shall see!*

I also plan to spend some time down in my art studio this afternoon shortening some curtains for my kitchen windows and doing some melted crayon Star Wars paintings to finish off my boys' awesome bedroom. Larry the Storm Trooper is gonna be pretty sad having to stare at the blowing up Death Star painting that will hang across from him on the wall; we hear he had friends on it. :( 

Oh, did I mention that several of the seeds we started this weekend have already sprouted? The packages all said it takes 7-14 days for that to happen, but we started seeing them poke through in just 3. CRAZY!!! So far we have little pumpkin, tomato, cucumber, green onion, hot pepper, kohlrabi, lemon cucumber, basil, chive, thyme, cat grass, cat nip, wildflower, poppies, black eyed susan, painted daisy, red hot poker, and hollyhock seedlings. Wow, that was a mouthful! As Tyler said this morning; looks like we're officially gardeners. 

It's FINALLY Spring-ish!

Well, apparently I really suck at regular posting to the blog. I mean to sit down and write something, but inevitably some kid calls for me or I realize there is a load of laundry I forgot to throw in. Maybe it's time Tyler make good on his plans to write once in a while. :)

As usual, we have been busy with tons of projects. Spring it seems has finally arrived in Wisconsin- my windows are even open today. However, I say that tentatively, knowing a snow storm could hit at any moment. And, can I just say how much I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE daylight savings time?! I really do. It's light out longer; and it means sleeping with windows open, sipping sangria on the porch, and nights of grilling on the patio are soon upon us. YAY!!!

Last weekend Tyler got busy and made our vermicomposter bin. I had meant to take pictures to post as directions for anyone who wants to make one, but he did it while I was busy making vegan cupcakes for our daughter's sleepover. Honestly though, it's soooo simple I bet a monkey could do it. Seriously! First order your red wiggler worms online. Get two of those plastic storage tubs; one needs a tight snapping lid. Drill about 6 small holes into the bottom of the bin with the lid. Line the bottom with cardboard and place it inside the other bin without the lid. Next add a few sheets of shredded/ripped newspaper to the bottom of your bin. Spritz it with a spray bottle so it's nice and damp. Don't soak it! Your wormies will be very unhappy if their environment is too wet or too dry. Add a layer of nice organic top soil (about 4-5c). Last, top it off with whatever rotted veggies forgotten in your fridge crisper, egg shells, coffee grinds and filters, apple cores, etc you have saved up. We added our worms into the bin once everything was in place and gave the whole thing another good spritz of water. Now it's up to the worms to do the rest and make us great compost for our garden. Make sure to check your bin every few days, spritzing with water as needed and adding your household scraps and newspaper shreds. We're keeping our bin out in our 3 Season room until it is warm enough for them to go outside.

{Note: Don't put meat, eggs, dairy or fatty/greasy things into your vermicopmoster. It will make your wormies unhappy and cause a foul stink}

Where did we get out wormies you wonder? Vericompsters require Red Wiggler worms, so you can't  go dig some worms up outta your backyard. I called the UW-Extension of Agriculture to get their advice on where to go. Every company I saw on the internet I could order Red Wigglers was either from Canada or down South. I wanted local, and I really wanted not to have them shipped. The UW-Extension did help us find a worm farm in Wisconsin, but I ended up having to order them. We used Wisconsin Worm Farm (www.wisconsinwormfarm.com). You order your worms by the pound, and there are approx 1,000 per pound. Yep, 1,000. The total price, including shipping, was $31.34. I ordered them Friday afternoon, they shipped Saturday, and by last night our new pets were all happy in their new home. Now the hard part...coming up with 1,000 names and keeping them all straight. ;)

We also got the garden started this weekend in 4 72 ct. seed starter boxes. Our hopes and plan for this garden have grown a lot larger than originally thought. For two people who have never had a successful garden before, we are most likely over doing it. Our veggie garden plans include:

kohlrabi, lemon cucumbers, a carnival sweet pepper mix, heirloom tomatoes, regular cucumbers, zucchini, scallions, garden beans, casper pumpkins, and a hot pepper mix. Our herb garden plans include: lavender, chives, sweet basil, cilantro, thyme, and catnip & cat grass for our lovely kitties. We also seeded some flowers for our front yard and window boxes. Those include: black eyes susans, red hot pokers, ornamental grass, painted daisies, sunflowers, and a wildflower mix. Fingers crossed we are even mildly successful growing any of these this season.

A reminder to all our Madison readers that the CSA Open House is coming up this Sunday at the Monona Terrace from 1-4pm. Join a local farm and get a box of veggies delivered to you each week during the growing season. Several farms have events and picnics for members, and some even let you camp on the farm over night. There are also options to get cheese, eggs, meat, and fruit, or get your veggies delivered every other week. The CSA coalition offers assistance for those who are low income & even take food stamps for payment. You can also agree to work one four hour shift a week at many farms to receive your share free. Several health insurance companies offer their clients rebates for joining {Dean, GHC, Unity, and Physicians Plus}. Check out the CSA website for more info about the farms, pricing, and rebates {www.csacoalition.org}. And good luck choosing a farm, cuz they are all awesome! We've been trying to pick just one for over a week.

Lastly, thinking about putting in a rain barrel like us to water your garden over the summer? May 12th at the Alliant Enegy Center you can go purchase one from the city of Madison. The sale runs from 9am-3pm. The rain barrels are $55, and come with everything you need to attach them to your gutter. They even have a faucet you can attach a garden hose to. 

Diving In Both Feet First

Decided to take a lil' break from painting a life-sized storm trooper to do some blogging.


I've had several requests on Facebook and through email, as well as some badgering from family members, to post my recipes for dishwasher detergent and laundry soap. So here they are-


Laundry Soap:                                                     
2 bars Castille or Fels Naptha Soap grated                        
2c. Borax                                                            
2c. Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda                 
1c. Baking Soda
*Use an old laundry scoop to measure, or about 1/4c per load.


Fabric Softener:
6c. Distilled Water
3c. White Vinegar
1 bottle Sauve or White Rain Hair Conditioner {any scent}
Add water and vinegar to a pot and bring to almost boiling. Remove from heat, and stir in the bottle of conditioner. Let cool and store in an old fabric softener bottle, or other pourable container. Use exactly the same as store bought fabric softener.


Dishwasher Detergent:
2c. Borax
2c. Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda
2. Lemi Shine
1c. Kosher Salt
*Use same amount as commercial detergent. Add 1-2 drops dish soap to really dirty loads. Throw in 1/2c. white vinegar, too.




I should mention that I make my laundry soap in bulk and store it in my old 5 gallon Costco laundry bucket. With 5 kids we are ALWAYS doing laundry, and I don't want to ever run out of laundry soap when I need it.  We also have a household full of people with sensitive skin, so I tend to use the Castille Bar Soap (organic baby formula). You can get the bars at Woodman's or Whole Foods for around $1.29 a bar. I know some people use Ivory Soap, too. There are recipes for liquid detergent out there, but I personally have never been a fan of that. I prefer powder, and find it works better with our hard water.


Some of you may be wondering what we did with our romantic kid-free weekend. No, I will not over-share. ;) Really, we did a lot of errands! We visited the UWP Meat Market Outlet in Middleton for the first time. We used some Christmas money to stock our chest freezer. Tyler is especially excited about the 7lb pork loin he gets to cut up into chops for the grill and the 20lbs of meatballs we got to go with my homemade marinara sauce. They have a great inventory, at really low prices, if you have the space to store everything and the time & energy to break the meat down into family-sized servings. We won't have to buy any meat from the store for the next several months. YAY!


We made another trip to Menard's to get everything we need for our garden. Today we will be building our new worm composting bin to fertilize the garden. According to my father-in-law, next week we need to start several of our seed varieties in the seed trays. I am no gardener, so I'm a little nervous about how successful this will be for us. I have high hopes, despite my last two garden attempts ending up solely in death. This year we are going to give a go at growing  zucchini, cucumbers, a carnival sweet pepper mix, beans, and white casper pumpkins. We also got a pack of fun hybrid sunflowers for our lil' ones to try growing and chives, cat grass, and basil for Tyler. I wonder if we are being a bit too ambitious this year?!?!? Oh well, I'm not usually happy unless I've gone way overboard anyway.


Our final errand was to the Habitat Re-Store where we found everything we needed to build the separation wall for our oldest kiddo's room, off the rec room. He was a bit tired of sharing a room with younger brothers and getting a lil' too old to anyway. Now he gets a portion of our rec room, once we hang the partition, as his very own room. He is more than excited!


Sadly we were so tired after all the running around, we decided to forgo a night out at our beloved Old Fashioned to stay in, cook, and watch a BAD movie on Hulu. I made us a Potato, Leek, and Chicken Pie...which was DELICIOUS!!! We shared a bottle of wine and snuggled on the couch. Believe it or not, it was really nice. The simple quiet moments truly are my favorites!

Didja Miss Us???

I bet most of our readers thought we had given up...
It's been so long since the last post, I almost don't know where to begin. I guess I'll catch everybody up to speed. 


I am over my disgusting strep infection. We are happily settling into our new house, and loving every minute. We've unpacked about 70% of our stuff in the week and a half we've lived here. All that's left of our refinishing projects is the master bedroom dresser and painting the storm troopers onto my boys' dresser. We've already hosted a party here, and have plans for our housewarming shindig soon. Tyler is just about over his gross sinus infection (Thank GOD!!!). My photography company, Lola Mae Images, is almost fully booked for summer weddings. I have one slot left in July and one for August (hint, hint), and the summer of 2013 is booking nicely, too. But, most exciting...Ty and I have no kids this coming weekend!!! We can hardly wait to enjoy 3 whole days just the two of us. (Hopefully, it doesn't lead to baby #6!)


We did get a little off track with the project during my illness and the move. I will admit I got myself McDonald's chicken nuggets after my second trip to the doctor. I wanted them in the worst way (they are my sickness comfort food), and Ty said unless I was really dying he wouldn't let me have any. I did what any other woman would do, I got them myself. I never told him, though- so he'll find out reading this, just like y'all. ;) I'm not gonna lie, they tasted so damn good, too..I think the guilt and shame of breaking the rules made them tastier! As a family we have been HORRIBLE about remembering to take our canvas bags out shopping with us. It's embarrassing, really. Thankfully we do use the plastic bags for cleaning out the cat box and Madison now accepts them in the recycling bins. Still there are no excuses for that one, we have at least 20 of the canvas bags...we just have to be better about remembering them when we leave the house. We ended up having to buy boxes for the move from U-Haul. That was really tough on us; it was like waving a HUGE flag of defeat. Sadly, Tyler's company just wasn't providing enough to get our house packed up, Craigslist was having a dry spell on boxes, and we were running outta time. We did agree we were going to keep them in storage after our move, which we have. That is, after we cleaned the storage nook out & got rid of the old crusty socks and used condoms from the previous owners. (yes, you read that right...no, I don't know why they had those items in there. Let's just say someone removed it all for the promise of 3 measly Cheetos, and leave it at that. Ugh!) And, we also gave a bunch of our boxes to our moving helper, for his mom to use in her move. Last confession, we bought some new products from Menard's. Yes, I'm hanging my head in shame. Although, in our own defense, we bought a 5 minute shower timer device and a low flow shower head to conserve water. 


Are you wondering what we've done right???? I bet you are! :)
Well, no chemical cleaners or products have entered this house since it has been ours. I left all the old stuff at our condo for the new tenants to enjoy. This house has only had my homemade products used to clean. It smells so nice, and everyone has had much less trouble with allergies. We have figured out how to use our programable thermostat, to help conserve energy. During the hours we are all awake and home, the house is set at 67; when we are gone or asleep, it's set at 60. So far, so good. We have turned our water heater down to the lowest possible safe setting, so as not to waste natural gas or get legionnaire's disease. All our dishes are hand washed, using dish detergent I made. They are rinsed by filling up the other side of the sink with cold water and adding a cup of vinegar. We only wash our clothes in cold water, using the energy saving modes on the washer and dryer. And of course, the detergent and softener I make. (plus a cup of peroxide in the white load to keep it bright) Once the nice weather arrives, we will use a clothes line out back to dry most things. We installed that low flow shower head we bought at Menard's, and only take 5 minute showers. (Unless I am shaving, then I get 10 minutes.) Plus, we recycle like crazy these days. 


With Spring right around the corner, we are beginning to make plans for our garden to supply some of our own veggies and herbs. We'll be hitting up the Willy Street plant sale on April 18th for our plants. Tyler is also getting ready to build our worm composting bin to fertilize the garden, as well as a rain barrel to water it. We also have a date to attend the meeting at the Terrace on March 18th, to sign for locally grown produce and farm products to be delivered to us during the growing season. 


Whew...I got it all out. Now time to go pick up my lil' ones from school. New posts and pictures of the house coming soon. 

Death's Door...

It's been far too long since the last posting. We haven't abandoned the project or anything. Life has just gone into hyper-drive lately. We move next week, and I have spent all of this week battling an antibiotic resistant form of strep throat. It's from years of getting it chronically as a kid. Sadly, no doctor has ever agreed to take my damn tonsils out. So, I promise to get back to more regular posting as soon as I feel semi- human again. I've got some great fabric softener and laundry detergent recipes to share!

Estate Sale Addict...

I think we have created a monster...our youngest boy has become absolutely addicted to estate sales. The first time we took the 3 lil' kids to one they were completely freaked to be looking through a dead person's stuff {much like me}. It took CP all of five minutes of being at one to decide he LOVES them, though. He has a good eye for bargains, too. We hit 2 sales yesterday, and he was crushed there weren't anymore. There were even tears over it. The promise of more sales in the future and a trip to the new house pacified him quickly.

We acquired some great finds at yesterday's sales. We purchased some photo lighting for our friend Kelly. Tyler found a rubber mallet to repair the dents in our metal sleds and some tool for car tires. I got 10 full place settings of fine Japanese china for $50. {I'd post pictures, but it's all at the other house}. We also purchased a fabulous vintage 50's hutch for our kitchen and a dresser.

{The original owner's pic of our new hutch. LOVE it!}

Obviously the lack of posting on our part shows how busy we have been with all this moving. It's such an exhausting process! Friday we spent the day cleaning the new house...using all our eco-safe homemade cleansers, of course. The kids had a blast playing in the backyard, while we scrubbed. We had to drag them away kicking and screaming. Same thing yesterday. I assume today will be a repeat story. 

If you have hard water or get lyme build-up on your faucets, I cannot say enough how amazingly hot vinegar works to remove it! Just pour the vinegar into a plastic bag (reused/recycled, of course), rubber band it around your faucet and let it soak for 15 minutes. 

Here are my other cleaning recipes: {I mix them in glass bowls and funnel the mixes into spray/squirt bottles.}

De-Greaser:                                                     All-Purpose Cleaner:                       

2c. hot water                                                     3 tbsp. white vinegar

1/4c. lavender castille soap                               1/2 tsp. washing soda

1/4 tsp. lavender essential oil                            1/2 tsp. castille soap

                                                                         1/4 tsp. essential oil scent of choice

                                                                         2c. hot water

Bath, Tub, Tile Cleanser:                             Toilet Bowl Cleaner:

2/3c. baking soda                                             1/2c. baking soda

1/2c. lavender castille soap                              1/2c. borax

2tbsp. white vinegar                                        1/2c. castille soap

1/2c. water                                                       1/2c. water

a few drops tea tree oil                                     10 drops tea tree oil

**these two I put into squirt bottles, as they are thick and it works better for cleaning**

That's all I've got for now. I'm getting the evil eye from Tyler to get my butt back to packing...