Our day started early with Boss-man getting up to help me try out a new breakfast dish. (Ok, really it was more like me helping him... that man is an AMAZING cook!) We had homemade cinnamon rolls! It was actually a lot simpler than I thought it would be, just time consuming. We made our regular biscuit dough (which for our family is always a double batch!), rolled it out flat, coated it with the filling (mix 1 stick melted butter, 1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar, and 4 tablespoons cinnamon), rolled it up like a jelly roll, then sliced it into 1-inch buns. We baked them at 375 F until they started to brown a little on the edges, then spooned a glaze over them. They were delicious! We served them on my big pizza platter, and by the time I thought to grab a picture, this is all that was left!
After breakfast, I headed over to the local farmers' market and picked up some sugar snap peas, which were the only thing available when I got there. Those go in the freezer for me to pull out for stir fry through the year. When I got back, I tended my own little garden. I have baby tomatoes now! On my 16 plants, I counted 22 little green baby tomatoes! I am beyond giddy about this, since this is my first real garden. I posted on here last year about trying to start one... yeah, those poor tomato plants never made it to the great outdoors. This year, I used plants instead of seeds. I'll get there eventually. In addition to the tomatoes, I also have 4 jalapeno plants (only one has bloomed so far, and it has the cutest little itty-bitty peppers starting to show up on it!), 8 heads of romaine lettuce (planted 16), and a row of carrots. I had much grander plans for the garden, but at least I have SOMETHING this year, which is more than any year before. My goal this year is to prove to myself that I can actually keep something green alive. :)
Friday is "Library Day" for us, so after I finished up in the garden, we went over to the local library for story time. I picked up a copy of "Growing Up Duggar" and hope to actually get a chance to read it this weekend! We shall see.
While Miss P napped after lunch, the big three sat down to do their school work. After that Boss-man and I went out in the yard to clean up the jungle in front of our house a bit. We ended up doing more than just "a bit."
A rake, a broom, a shovel, a scoop, pruning shears, a hedge trimmer, and a reciprocating saw later, my front yard looks nicer than it has in the three years we've lived here! We took down three shrubs, two small trees that had grown up where they weren't supposed to, and an evergreen ground cover that the previous owners had planted right in front of the house that was overtaking my walk. It took about five contractor-size trash bags to clean up all the vines and brush and such that we raked and trimmed and pruned. There were also several stones lining where the walk comes off of the driveway that we pulled out. I want to put an arch over the walk instead and plant grapes to go over it. Eventually, gradually, I intend to start practicing permaculture on our property.
After cleaning up from a dinner of cheesy hashbrown casserole, fried okra, and corn, we went back out in the yard. This time, though, it was with blankets. All six of us were lined up, lying on blankets, watching the stars. Miss P was so adorable! She was snuggled in between her sisters, sucking her thumb and ready to go to sleep. She didn't, of course, and after about five minutes of lying down was up and walking all around us, bringing her daddy and me clover blossoms. We saw a couple of "shooting stars" and talked about comet tails and asteroid belts. There were a few lightning bugs out, and we even spotted a bat! At one point, Boss-man went inside and came back out with his tablet so we could use an app he has for locating things in the night sky. The kids were beyond excited when they realized that the red "star" they'd noticed was actually Mars!
Yesterday was one of those days when I was hard-pressed to believe that the breakfast of homemade cinnamon buns had actually happened on the same day. All in all though, it was a wonderful day of family togetherness.
