My New Best Friend

Move over June Cleaver... I am tearing it up in the kitchen now. I work a LOT of hours through the week including odd hours at night, helping my husband with paperwork at his business, taking care of kids, yadda yadda. Sometimes I don't even schedule time to shop for groceries much less cook. So I end up staring blankly into the pantry and either give up immediately and go out to eat, call James and ask him to bring home something frozen, or throw together something pitiful. I hate to cook but not because I can't do it, but because I was not organized. People, I had spices that expired in 2001 in my cabinet and moldy things in my fridge. I buy healthy food with good intentions and then it goes to waste much of the time. So I came across this site, Relish http://www.relishrelish.com and was skeptical. I thought why should I pay $7 per month to have someone tell me what to eat and probably be some kind of recipes where I couldn't even find half the stuff on the list much less the time to make all this stuff. So I thought eh, I will try it for 3 months and see. I am going into week 3 now and there is no turning back. I am spending a little more at the grocery store now, but I am not eating out. I am feeding my family healthy stuff. Everyone is happy to see what I am making at night and the food is sooooo good!!! I am buying things that I would have never picked up before and my cart is filled with fresh fruits and veggies. I bought Bok Choy last week people! Never had it before or even knew what to do with it. The only down side is I am having to buy a lot of spices and things that I didn't have before which really isn't a bad thing, but I am spending more than I would like every week. I know it will get better once I get my spice "base" down. I love how you have 15 meals to choose from and you get an organized list and menu to follow. We are semi-vegetarian here (we eat fish and chicken) and have have had no problem coming up with a wonderful menu every week. Sometimes I choose something that may call for beef or pork and if it really sounds good, I substitute for chicken or turkey. We ususually have leftovers every meal so there is plenty for lunch which is really great. So, overall I give it a huge thumbs up and it is worth a try.

Our new goats!

I have been so busy with working around here that I realized I had not taken time to update this blog lately. Well, I did something to my back so here I sit :) I occasionally have this nerve at the bottom of my spine that gets pinched or something and pain shoots down my lower back and one leg and man it hurts. We have had our goats for a little over a week now. Ashton is our lighter colored goat and she is 50% Nubian and 50% Toggenburg. She has a super sweet personality and she is loud. She hollers Maaaaaaaa every time you step outside. According to her, she never gets anything to eat. Our dark goat is a purebred French Alpine by the name of Opal. She is the boss of the 2 and she growls at Ashton when food is involved. According to her, she never eats either :) They are both very tame and love to be petted and we are already in love with them. James who really did not want goats at all has become quite attached. He was out there building them a little shelter. They are very curious animals and the kids really enjoy them. We have plans to actually fence in a large part of our property so they can have lots of roaming space. They are both pregnant so come early March, we should have some new little babies.

Our chickens are growing as well. We still have all 9 babies (most of them roosters though I am afraid). They are big enough now where I let them out in the yard during the day. They are all hand tamed and I walk through the yard and I hear a mass of running chickens at my feet. I thought this picture was kind of funny since they were all in the middle of something. I love living here. It is so much fun!