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Weekend Reading: October 23, 2010

by Mandi on October 23, 2010

source: our 4-year-old and her beloved baby doll

This weekend our oldest daughter is going to be a flower girl in a family wedding, and she is so excited about dressing up in her beautiful dress that she can hardly stand it. I, on the other hand, am wondering how in the world I’m going to keep three little ones four and under from disturbing the ceremony (which includes mass, so it’s going to be loooooong) without having to take them out!

I’ve also been meaning to tell you about a new set of sites from the founders of HowDoesShe.com! Visit I Share Printables, I Share Crafts and I Share Fun Food. I love these sites for finding the best free printables, crafts and fun recipes from around the blogosphere, all in one place. You’re sure to find a few new blogs to love along with seasonal projects and things you can use everyday. Bloggers, simply sign up on each site and submit your listings to be included!

Here are some of my favorite posts from this week. As always, check out what I’m reading to see the other posts that make me stop and think. You’ll find new posts all week long!

Be sure to join this week’s Scrapblog challenge and show off your memories!

Motherhood Your Way {For You…and Him}

How to Rekindle the Spark in Marriage. You Can’t. | Simple Marriage

How NOT to Greet Your Husband at the End of the Day | Steady Mom

Life Is A Lot Like A Pencil | The Wisdom Journal

Finances Your Way {For You…and Your Little Ones}

10 Frugal Tips from the Tightwad Gazette | My Dollar Plan

Raising Money-Smart Kids | Frugal Dad

How To Raise Little Entrepreneurs | Zen Family Habits

Success Your Way {For You…and Others}

5 Signs You Lack Mental Toughness | My Super-Charged Life

15 Surefire Ways to Impress Others | Becoming Minimalist

Why Winners Win and Losers Lose | Marc & Angel Hack Life

Have a great weekend!

Trish

We are Catholic, so the length of a Mass is something the kids are used to, but I gave my 4 y/o control of the camera to take pictures during the ceremony. It was so hilarious to see what he thought photo-worthy that I sent the link to the bride and groom.

Anonymous

We ended up moving to the back to the overflow room because the baby was very uncooperative, but I love your idea with the camera — that would have been so cute!

Pingback: 5 Great Finds: Free Printables, Mummy Cookies for Halloween, Parenting Teenagers, New way of selling clothes, Curtain Banks | Juggling Motherhood
teres

STAGG CHILI CREAMCHEESE DIP

in a microwave safe dish in the microwave OR in a loaf pan in the oven (dip tends to stay hotter longer if you melt it in the oven rather than the microwave), melt one brick of cream cheese into one regular 425 gram can of stagg chili (your choice of brand, heat, with beans or without, etc). stir well and serve with tortilla chips. YUM! if you have a fondu pot, put the dip into that after it’s all melted to keep it hot during the game. you can top it with shredded cheese if you like and/or add green onions.
http://www.saucydipper.com Sara Lancaster

I’m a big fan of an ordinary sour cream and chives dip with lightly salted potato chips. Sometimes it’s the simple things…
http://www.contemporaryhousewife.com/ Karyn

Chicken ‘n’ Dumplings, or other stews made in a crockpot. Have to say I agree whole heartedly with a grilled cheese, which does go nicely with tomato soup!
http://www.contemporaryhousewife.com/ Karyn

Chicken ‘n’ Dumplings, or other stews made in a crockpot. Have to say I agree whole heartedly with a grilled cheese, which does go nicely with tomato soup!
Chathamgirl97

My favorite winter breakfast is sourdough French toast with real butter & maple syrup.
We tend to make pots of chili, chicken pot pie & casseroles
In the winter. Also love hot fruit crisps for dessert.
Chathamgirl97

just baked a loaf of cheddar dill bread, an Apple cake & making a pot of beans.
Laura

creamy soups with vegetables and chicken – on the menu tonight is roasted corn and red pepper soup with chicken (and delicious amounts of heavy cream and chicken broth of course).
Ericag93

lentils and rice cooked with taco seasoning! it’s the best!
http://twitter.com/kalynbr00ke Kalyn Comings

Mac n’ Cheese…..mmmm… want some right now!
Banaizzyb

My answer is usually the same whenever asked, “What is your favorite food?”. That is , “Anything I don’t have to cook.” my favorite comfort foods are chili, chicken pot pie, egg biscuits, and a big ol bowl of veggie beef soup. My favorite can soup chicken corn chowder.
Anonymous

The picture above is of grilled cheese and tomato soup, love those! Also love mac and cheese. Planning to make a pot of cauliflower/ham soup today as the weather outside is *frightful*, lol!
Bernice
A break from our regularly scheduled programming…
Selenamoffitt

I use 1/2 water and 1/2 vinegar spray for just about everything. It does AMAZING things for my glass and mirrors! Also, hydrogen peroxide is good on a rag to disinfect toilets and meat juice splashes in the kitchen.

As for floors…that’s the hubby’s job…which means it gets done…but infrequently CAn’t complain!

Anonymous

I’ve heard that spraying counters with vinegar and then following that with
hydrogen peroxide (after they’re full dried) is as effective as straight up
bleach for disinfecting! So simple.

Anonymous

it is amazing what you can get done in 10 minutes if you set your mind to it. *Pretend* you have company coming and need to get things presentable. Then you can do like the author says, spend the rest of the time doing something you enjoy!
Bernice
Being productive in stressful times

Anonymous

Yes! I much prefer to speed clean and just get it done with!

Laura

I suggest you try Norwex products. Their cleaning cloth is amazing. Google it…. find someone near you that sells it. You will never look back! (I used to use vinager, ect, it just doesn’t compare.) You only need water.
http://www.workathomemarket.com HP @ Work At home

I’m a bit of a “dust” fanatic. In hard to reach crevices, or spaces that are hard to clean, a cue tip dipped in water, and even a little soap can help clean up in a pinch.
shris

Hm.

As a semi experienced back yard gardener, I can tell you you’re not leaving enough room between plants if you put cucumber and zucchini and tomatoes in a 1×1 square each..

Cucumbers in my garden two years ago…each plant spread out with six foot long tendrils trying to root.
Tomatoes in cages were 3 feet in diameter–even the grape tomatoes–sometimes four feet..
Zucchini have individual *leaves* that are more than 1×1..and they spread to about four feet across or more when full grown..
Strawberries can spread too, if you let them. And winter squash get even bigger than summer squash plants, I think.

Maybe I’m not training my plants properly, but I’m thinking you’re going to need to transplant your stuff farther apart after a month or two so they’ll all get sun and you’ll be able to see your produce to pick it..

Gotta plan for the fully grown size of your plants if you’re going to have good success.. I haven’t read the book about square foot gardening, is there a way to keep a big plant from getting big? Or are you supposed to let them trail over the side?
http://www.UrbanOrganicGardener.com Mike Lieberman

Nice. Great job in getting started Mandi. You’ll figure things out as you go along. Keep good notes (which you are doing by blogging about it) and see what works.

What I’ve learned is that there is no “right” way. Do and learn from your own experience. If some plants don’t make it or you pack in too much, you learned a valuable lesson there that you can use moving forward.

Look forward to reading about your progress.

http://yourway.net Mandi @ Life…Your Way

Thanks, Mike! I think the “no right way” is the part that’s hard for me. I like exact instructions with no gray area, but gardening seems to be a lot like cooking, where each person develops their own style and personality!

http://www.UrbanOrganicGardener.com Mike Lieberman

It certainly is the challenge. With all the books and advice that you are going to receive from various sources, there is lots of differing viewpoints and methods. That unto itself is overwhelming, which is why I believe that you should just do and figure it out as you go.

When I first started, I was looking for the perfect scenario too. I spent 3 weeks doing nothing, but researching and chasing my tail. I was getting nowhere. Once I started, some of that anxiousness subsided, I killed a few plants and haven’t turned back.

You got this!
http://www.UrbanOrganicGardener.com Mike Lieberman

It certainly is the challenge. With all the books and advice that you are going to receive from various sources, there is lots of differing viewpoints and methods. That unto itself is overwhelming, which is why I believe that you should just do and figure it out as you go.

When I first started, I was looking for the perfect scenario too. I spent 3 weeks doing nothing, but researching and chasing my tail. I was getting nowhere. Once I started, some of that anxiousness subsided, I killed a few plants and haven’t turned back.

You got this!

Jewel7138

This is great!! I have a condo with a small porch and right now my tomatoes are in planter which worked and they are still alive, but would love to do the method that you are doing so I can get more going. I have been looking for suggestions and tips and I think your post did just that. Thanks!!
Crttnchrist

Can I ask a question? Are you getting non-GMO plants? If so, where? ….that’s one reason that I wanted to get seeds this year was to avoid GMO plants/seeds.

http://yourway.net Mandi @ Life…Your Way

I’m not specifically focusing on non-GMO plants at this time. I’m taking baby steps as we make changes, and that’s still down the road for me.

Anonymous

This is an awesome idea! I have heard of container gardening and raised beds, but this looks doable for most people who would like to garden but don’t have space. I have a brown thumb and have never had much luck (not really tried!). I did finally buy a basil and parsley plant, so nice to use fresh off the plant when cooking!
I may have to look into at least planting one or two tomato plants, we eat lots of tomatoes!
I will be sharing this post as it is a great idea!
Bernice
Getting more work done in less time

http://yourway.net Mandi @ Life…Your Way

Oh, fresh herbs — that’s on my someday list too!

Amy

That looks like the size of my strawberry patch itself!

http://yourway.net Mandi @ Life…Your Way

I had a huge strawberry patch two years ago, but I couldn’t keep up with it.
So I’m starting small this time instead!

http://twitter.com/AmyLNorton Amy L Norton

I sure wish Sean would come make some of those for me! LOL! Looks good, Mandi. As a fellow gardening fail over here, I am also feeling *this* is the year

http://yourway.net Mandi @ Life…Your Way

Here’s hoping for both of us!

http://profiles.google.com/adriggers April Driggers

I would LOVE to be able to do this… since we just had our last frost (I HOPE) perhaps we can add this to the to do list for an upcomign weekend when we don’t have any baseball games. We tried a garden (and growing the seeds on our own) a couple of years ago but the only “plot” we had was the side of the house and well, since THAT side doesn’t have gutters on it..when the rain came, it moved half of the stuff and so we didn’t know WHAT was growing WHERE. That and being on the side of the house, it didn’t get nearly the amount of sun it needed.

I’d like to do this and add some kind of trellis to ONE side of our fence so that the viney plants can take over but my husband would probably have a cow with the thought of somethign shady destroying the grass beneath it. I’m like… we don’t walk onTHAT part of the grass ANYWAY! Maybe I’ll have my mom come over and help me do this and then he’ll just have to accept it! Ha!!!

Thanks for the inspiration!!!
Michelle

I really like your tabletop garden and may try to convince my husband to build one My mom normally does a big garden and I also love shopping at the farmers market so I haven’t tried one at my home yet although I think it would be great. Best of luck and I’m looking forward to hearing about your progress!
http://joyceandnorm.wordpress.com Joyce and Norm

These are fabulous ideas!
http://twitter.com/ClosetWorldCA ClosetWorld

These are some great tips to keeping your computer/laptop organized. I think it should be done every time you do office cleaning as well.
Anonymous

I did not know this — thank you so much for sharing that tip!
Aprilh

I didn’t know that either! Awesome!
Aprilh

I didn’t know that either! Awesome!
Josh

I came here to say the same thing. 1×1 is not enough for vined plants, and you have 5(!!) different ones. When I put 4 tomato plants in my full in-the-ground garden, they dominated the entire garden. The vined plants will overrun everything else. If you cage or tie up your tomatoes (like you should), there’s a good chance it’ll drown out the sun to the other plants, and planting strawberries close to other fruits is usually a bad idea.
http://yourway.net Mandi @ Life…Your Way

Thanks for your input; I guess I have more reading to do. But I know
for sure that people grow these plants in a square foot garden, and
even when I did a quick Google search for square foot planting charts,
it says things like 1 tomato plant per square, 2 cucumbers per square.
So I’m not sure if maybe the space requirements are different Ina
square foot gardening?

I’ll definitely be looking into it more!
http://mommysmiddleground.blogspot.com Jessie

You can probably do it if you plan carefully. Put the zuccini, winter squash, and cucumber at the edge so it can overhang. Maybe put a few tomato cages in the ground for them to trail down onto and to support the fruit. Put the tomatoes at the back where they can use the house for support and they won’t shade the smaller plants as much. Make sure to stake the tomatoes really well to keep them as upright as you can so they don’t overhang the other plants too much. You don’t have to plant them exactly in the middle of the 1′ square, plant them toward the back edge, the roots will spread where they need to go. Strawberries and marigolds are pretty small, so you can allot 6″ there and use the extra space for spread from the other veggies.
http://wanderluck.wordpress.com/ Kate

Careful planning is always your friend in intensive and square foot gardening! Grouping your vined veggies together on a trellis – why not build a ladder support of 2×4′s and 1×8′s, or heavy twine on one of the long sides for a climbing wall? – could minimize shading of your shorter plants and a hostile takeover of the bed. I’d also like to suggest dwarf varieties that may further minimize vine and leaf spread.

We’ll be doing intensive gardening on a larger scale this year – we have a 50×25′ plot mapped out, and I’ve been given the “go-ahead” to do it my way. I’m planning a combination of methods to make small beds-within-a-bed so we can reach the beds and the plants without climbing over tomatoes or bush beans. Am already looking forward to lasagna gardening for 2012!
http://yourway.net Mandi @ Life…Your Way

Hey Jewel! I have not planted anything yet; however, I am planning to look at the growing needs of each of those to map out where I plant them!
http://yourway.net Mandi @ Life…Your Way

Thanks, Kate & Jessie — I really liked both of your suggestions and will keep those in mind as I try to figure out the best way to do this!!
http://yourway.net Mandi @ Life…Your Way

And Kate, your garden sounds AMAZING!