Getting Ready to Garden-Bunnies Beware

I know-it’s only January 3rd. But, it’s never too early to start planning your garden. I’ve been thumbing through my Gurney’s and Baker’s Creek Catalogues, spending hours plotting and scheming.

I’m such an organizing freak, that I made an excel spreadsheet outlining what plants and seedlings I would be buying, along with the planting schedules, cost and soil needs.

I know-I’m a Class A Nerd. And I’m ok with that.

A wonderful reader-Janice-sent me Baker’s Creek Heirloom Seed Catalogue last year-along with a bunch of seeds. I was so ecstatic to try things last year that I normally wouldn’t, that I went about my garden tossing seeds *to and fro.

Who knew that Biceps and I would love okra so stinkin’ much. I’m planting double this year. And, I’m adding cauliflower. Yum.

(*Actually, all seeds were carefully placed into the soil and no seeds were harmed during my skipping and frolicking while wearing these cute green clogs.)

Look at this beautiful soil, just ready and willing to grow yummy vegetables.

My Spinning Composter is filled to the brim and ready to fertilize my soil-naturally.
My Rain Barrels are full and ready to offer free rainwater for the garden.
The dutch clover is protecting my soil from erosion and is going to be a lovely green fertilizer come this spring.

Now, all I have to do is wait and soon, I will have this. But for now, I will enjoy the canned produce, yummy salsa and jalapeno jelly from last year’s harvest.

And, I will wait patiently (somewhat) for the new planting season-when I brush off aforementioned cute green clogs and get down and dirty with my seedlings.

So, bunnies-BEWARE. Your time of bouncing through my vacant garden willy nilly is coming to an end. Enjoy it now, furballs. Enjoy it now.

How are you planning for your garden?

On TV with Oranges and Sweaty Pits

Guess what I’ll be doing this morning? I will be LIVE and sweating it up, once again, on Fox23’s “Great Day, Green Country” as I share my recipe for Skinny Orange Julius.

I have been asked to share my weirdness and my recipe on LIVE television with the world. (Well, at least the world that lives in or around the Oklahoma area).

They just don’t realize what they’ve done.

I wanted a skinny version of one of my favorite drinks-Orange Julius.  You can find the step-by-step tutorial, along with a printable recipe for Skinny Orange Julius here.

This recipe is a great just as a beverage, but can also be frozen and eaten as Orange Sherbet-(a skinny alternative to icecream)!

It’s a tasty, low calorie drink and it’s super easy to make. You can either check me out this morning around 10am on Fox 23 “Great Day, Green Country“, or come back here later in the day and I will have the video posted for your viewing pleasure. Either way, you get to watch as I nervously try to perform basic human functions.

Enjoy!

♥♥♥♥♥

Here are the links to my other appearances on Fox23’s Great Day Green Country:

Homemade Cleaning Products
Homemade Beauty Products 
Homemade Laundry Items

Here are links to my Homemade Household Cleansers and Beauty Products:

Homemade Hygiene Products
Non-Toxic Beauty Products
Non-Toxic Cooking Spray
Anti-Bacterial Spray
Easy Laundry Soap
DIY Brass Cleaner
Organic Vegetable/Produce Cleaner
Homemade Household Cleaners

And here are a few Homemade Food Items to easily replace store-bought items:
Simple, Tasty Granola
Easy Crockpot Yogurt
Simple, Homemade Butter
Cooking and Freezing Beans, avoiding BPA
Homemade Hummus
Garden Fresh Salsa

Thanks so much for stopping by and spending time with such a weirdo. Make sure you become a Facebook Fan or a Linky Follower to keep up to date with what this weirdo comes up with next. Have a great day!

Happy New Year! Party hard-I guess?

We’ve never really celebrated New Year’s-at least, not like they do on tv. I have always romanticized what it would be like to be in Times Square watching the ball drop, bundled up in a very stylish white winter coat, with my one and only.

However, to spend that amount of money to get to some place I’ve been a zillion times before on tour, to be around that many people I don’t know (or trust), knowing it will be freezing cold…

…my pj’s, bed and fireplace sound pretty good. My New Year’s memories may not compare to a New York one, but they’re mine and they’re of course-weird.

One of my favorite New Year’s memory was the night the phone book burned. Why do phone book companies insist on not only forcing me to take their phone books-but also leave a total of 4 books on my two front porches? I had had enough of the phone company’s shenanigans.

So, a few years ago, my little brother, his wife, my dad, Biceps and I loaded up into their tiny white car and drove to a vacant lot. We sacrificed one phone book by lighting it on fire. We then drove in circles around the phone book as we watched it burn, screaming and hanging out the windows until the fire was out.

Beat that Times Square.

And many years ago, after spending hours putting on the tire chains, my sweet father loaded us kids up in the wagon-just so we could drive into town to attend a church friend’s party. It took us at least an hour to go a couple of miles, but we sang songs the whole way and still made it in time to eat way too much candy and be sick and miserable the next day.

I call this the year of the “Candy Hangover”.

And last but not least, Bicep’s band was hired to play a New Year’s show one year while we were out on tour. It was for a lock-in at a large church-complete with awkward teenage flirting, pizza and nerf guns. They paid us well, so we couldn’t turn it down.

But as the world wore sequined dresses, tuxedos and drank champagne-I was watching my hubby on stage, as he entertained screaming pubescent fans. I enjoyed my orange Fanta from a red plastic cup off to the side, knowing cold pizza awaited me for dinner.

And I loved it.

So, while the rest of the world is getting krunk and doing things tonight they’ll regret tomorrow…Biceps and I will attend a small party and then come home to our two kitties, our fireplace and our pj’s.

Call me lame, but this is how I party hard. And, I don’t wake up the next day with a hangover or regrets. Unless it’s a “candy hangover”…and then yes, I am guilty of such actions.

How to fight with your spouse (and win)

After almost 12 years of marriage, I’ve learned how to fight to win.

I am not a licensed counselor, nor do I have anything remotely to a psychology degree. In fact, I am the furthest from touchy-feely as you might get, if you are merely looking at my credentials.

I am of German descent, took on the beautiful German language as my minor and majored in International Business. I like repairing old vintage cars, chopping crap up and using my physical strength to demolish lath and plaster.

I was determined to own at least one Fortune 500 company or if nothing else, take over Richard Branson’s Virgin empire.

Snuggling was foreign to me until I married Mr. SnugglesExtremeMan, hugs had to be forced until they were normal and I don’t kiss anyone on the cheek.

All of that said, when we were first married, I had no idea how to properly fight with my husband-other than fighting to win. It was my nature to be right, to protect my rights and to win. I learned very quickly just what “winning” does to a marriage.

It divided us, it alienated us from one another and it caused barriers. When I “won”, or when he “won”, we both lost. I remember once being so angry that I threw a pair of wet jeans at him that I was hanging up to dry.

They plopped onto the bathroom floor about a foot in front of me. He just stood there, open-mouthed, unsure of what to say. I felt like a little girl who had just had a temper tantrum.

It was embarrassing.

Sometimes I could manipulate him with guilt, sometimes I would use a few tears to sway him my way, or maybe I would just bring up all the mistakes he’d made in the past. It seemed to temporarily win the argument-but we both knew what I was doing and the problem was never really solved.

One day, the thought popped into my head that perhaps my way of fighting was inappropriate. After all, Biceps never raised his voice to me. He never reacted to my insanity. He calmly and rationally explained his viewpoint and then waited for me to talk in circles for the next hour, riding the roller coaster of my emotions.

He is a very patient man.

So, I started thinking. Was “winning” the argument really worth it? Did it draw us closer together when I proved that I was right, or did we not talk to each other for the rest of the day?

Were we a “team”, the two of us becoming one like we had promised in our vows-or was it me against him?

After reading this scripture, “…Rejoice! Strive for full restoration, encourage one another, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you.” 2 Corinthians 13:11, I realized during our arguments, there was NO ROOM for God within the mess I had just made.

Ew. Gross. Ick. I stink.

Years later, I have come up with a system to ensure that both Biceps and I “win” when we argue. I (try to) run it through this filter before I approach a subject that is causing our relationship friction:

1. Is what I’m about to say helpful and healthy, or is it hurtful and harmful?
2. Am I reacting to something or have I committed it to prayer first?
3. Am I putting Bicep’s well-being before mine and am I honoring him by wanting this issue resolved or is it just so I can “be heard”?
4. Do I have a solution to the problem that I am bringing to him?

And if I can’t check off these four things confidently from my list, I don’t bring the subject up until I am able to do so.

If I can remember to do this and not attack during the heat of battle, we calmly and rationally discuss the issue at hand. It has single-handedly put a stop to the hour long (or more) fights, the ridiculous Rebekah rants and the non-solution endings to our arguments.

And it draws us closer to each other and closer to God. Pretty simple, but I’m pretty stupid sometimes and have to learn the hard way…

And that’s how we both “win” our arguments with each other.