Fiesta Loaf - A Mexican Inspired Meatloaf Recipe

Messy Messy Fail - I knew I shouldn't have let the boys paint on the kitchen table, sitting on the fabric seat cushion.  

Tidy Victory - Zout to the rescue - I swear that stuff can get ANY stain out.  What do you use for a stain remover?

Happiness Is Homemade Link Party #231

Messy Messy Fail - I have been stung now twice this week while it in the gardens weeding.  I don't think I've ever been stung twice in my life, but then twice in one week.  Is this a sign?

Tidy Victory - The island garden outside of our breakfast nook is pretty cleaned up - now I just need to find some fun perennials to get in there to replace the weeds that I pulled!  BTW they weren't actually weeds, come to find out it was Snow On the Mountain but it's still pretty invasive!

Happiness Is Homemade Link Party #230

Messy Messy Fail - You know it's funny - I think I do pretty well with houseplants and outdoor gardens, but I CANNOT keep succulents alive!  I bought the UPK'er a cute T-rex planter for his birthday with a green little succulent plant.  Thriving, living, bringing joy - yesterday I found it leafless.  Now this has been happening over the course of the last month when I first discovered it was failing quickly, but nothing I did could revive it.  New purchase at Home Depot today for 3.99 - a blue aloe.  I thought that looked like a dino-y succulent.

Tidy Victory - We had a successful blueberry harvest from the 9 bushes on our new property, and two have still yet to turn blue (there are both early AND late blueberries).  Friends came over to help because I KNOW I could never use that many blueberries.  I gave them some more rhubarb too, because that is still thriving. #welcometotherhubarbjungle 

Happiness Is Homemade Link Party #229

Messy Messy Fail - We recently sold my 2017 Champagne Camry (I called her Cecilia) and upgraded to a new 2018 Pilot.  We really like having the extra space but it feels so strange driving so high up off the road now!  Unfortunately, when I was cleaning out all my old CD'S (yeah remember those?!?!?) for the Camry before the new owner came, I left them in a plastic bag in the garage and the soon to be UPK'er found them.  He thought they were frisbees, my Radiohead The Bends CD in particular, and it now is quite scratched up and no longer usable.  

Tidy Victory - So I THREW IT OUT!  Aren't you proud of me???  The dump can have my Radiohead CD!

Happiness Is Homemade Link Party #228

Messy Messy Fail - For our recent family vacay, I was determined to bring our Sony camera to take some nice pictures on the beach.  Our iPhones take nice pictures, but there's nothing like a picture from a hand-held digital camera.  Too bad I forgot the power cord and I had about 12 minutes worth of power left.  

Tidy Victory - The rest of our Outer Banks vacation was fabulous - gorgeous weather on the beach with family.  A little vitamin D, read a good book, lots of good beer!  I highly recommend any vacation to the OBX, and the booking company we use is Surf or Sound.

Happiness Is Homemade Link Party #227

Messy Messy Fail - The weeds overtaking my garden are seriously insane.  At first I thought it was astilbe, but then I realized astilbe doesn't grow EVERYWHERE like this plant seemed to be.  One good plant identifier app later - we are plagued with bishop's weed, an invasive plant that spreads widely underground, so pulling the plant out doesn't do much good.  Not sure how I can take care of this one, it's seriously everywhere!

Tidy Victory - We got some seeds finally planted in the raised bed last week - some quick growing lettuce, carrots and pumpkins.  I've never had a veggie garden before, so we are taking it easy and just experimenting to see how it goes.  So far I see little pumpkin plants coming up!