A Smoothie Love Story

When green smoothies hit Pinterest, I was skeptical. It wasn't until a friend posted a photo on FB raving about how her children were TOTALLY cool with sipping spinach through a straw. So, I gave it a try. I whipped one up, called it the neato "Hulk Smoothie" moniker and set it in front of Josh. It wasn't until he was halfway through that I bravely asked him "Sooooo... ya wanna know what's in it?"

Why not leave well enough alone?! Right?! I know. But, it miraculously worked in my favor because homeboy did not care that there was spinach in there. These days he asks me to put the spinach in there and when I tell him we're out, he's the one that adds it to the grocery list. I shit you not. If you know Josh, you know the amount of insanity that this situation holds. 

Anyways, I still usually don't put spinach in them anymore because often when I buy it, it gets slimey before we can use it; the two recipes I'm about to share don't have it either. You could easily add it - just add maybe 1/4 or 1/3 cup more liquid (water, juice, almond milk, lake water, whatever. Don't add lake water.) 

I have the recipe saved in my notes on my phone & I'm totally taking the easy way out and just posting a screenshot of the note.

Toot Toot: Wonderland Edition

I cannot remember how old I was, but my Nana once gave me a copy of Alice Through the Looking Glass. It has always been one of my favorite tales - an escape into another's wild adventure. As an adult I remember small details from the story: A girl, Alice, who has presumably fallen down a (tardy!) rabbit's hole and proceeds to drink some magic potions, join a Mad Hatter for a tea party, and meet the Queen of Hearts. Oh, and something about a sly kitty cat and chubby caterpillar that smokes. These are things around which my mind has formed my own story and will now be the centerpiece of...

My bridal shower :) 

A few lovely bridesmaids are working their imagination around the clock to come up with the dopest Mad Hatter Tea Party inspired ideas that they possibly can. My Type-A brain has set up a shared Pinterest board and an Etsy board for us to share ideas and to use as inspiration for projects, one of which I'm about to share! (This is just the one project so far that my MOH has let me do [thank you!] because I'm 94% done with wedding stuff and am antsy to help with this shindig!) 

Toot Toot: Parenting Edition

Y'all, I have an almost 10 year old. Look at him washing my car. He's so grown up. He's been begging to do this, by the way. By the time he was 70% done he said he'd never ask to do it again. Well, let's see how bad that sucka wants $3. woot woot!

I know this doesn't mean much for people with children that are already double digits but ... well, I've got nothin' to follow that up with. I've always encouraged Josh to be independant; admittedly for my own selfish gain. Making his own cereal = I get to sleep in late(r). 

Well, you give 'em a little independence and then tell them "no" a few times when they ask you to buy him something and ALLofaSUDDEN he wants his owwwn money. Ugh.

Gardening With (but without) Nana

Yes, more NANA! 

Full disclosure: None of these lovely ladies are my loveliest Nana.

I'd mentioned before about Nana moving closer to the rest of the family and cramming in quality time. Well, having a Nana that is a Master Gardener visit your finnicky yarden = lots of mental notes! 

Turns out we gots the crappy soil and we should pull back all the mulch this fall, work in the good dirt, and stand in delight in the spring. Just that "simple." She's full of good information, this is just the tip of iceberg. 

However, the bit-of-info I'm most recently excited about is rooting hydrangeas. While in Litchfield Beach this year, Aunt Heather's bubblegum pink hydrangeas were blooming and even if I couldn't transplant them via cuttings, I at least wanted to enjoy a few blooms at home for a few more days.

I'm glad I remembered to ask Nana about transplanting them because it turns out it's supposed to be pretty easy!

F Words: Figs & Fun!

Nana is the best nana I've ever had. Grown-up-Jessica especially agrees. Before she (Nana, not G-U-Jess) left recently to move closer to the rest of our family, we crammed in a lot of quality time! And while I think we might argue about who received the better end of the deal, I know I did :) 

Almost a month ago Josh and I went over to alleviate her fig problem and made a couple of delightful dishes with them, and froze the remaining THREE pounds of figs. Yes. 3 pounds - and that was being picky and throwing out the barely-over ripe fruit. So much yum growing on that tree!

Josh's first recipe request was fig newtons. The recipe I found on MyWholeFoodLife.com indicated they would not be as sweet as packaged Fig Newtons but I tried them anyways, knowing Josh would prefer them sweet.