Versatile Blogger Award

I have been nominated for the Versatile Blogger Award by not one but three lovely ladies!  JazzWife, Natmane and Coilybella.  Thank you and I'm honored that you ladies would think about me and pass this award to me.  

 

I have been really busy.  Between attending my grad classes, going to work, mommy time with my son, hubby time (you all know what I mean), cooking, house work , and shopping my life is very busy.  I hate to appear to be ignoring my blog and all my blog friends, but I'm trying to get ahead on my school work because I will be going to Arkansas the first weekend in October for a family reunion on my mother's side of the family (her father's side).  Anyway back to the award.

Here are the rules for nomination

Thank the Blogger who nominated you

Share (7) random facts about yourself

Nominate (15) fellow blogger that you recently discovered or follow regularly

Inform each nominated blogger of their nomination by posting a comment on each of their blogs

Add the Versatile Blogger Award to your post 

Seven random facts about me:

1.  My father was in the Air Force and I got to live in Spain for three years as a child.

2.  My husband is my best friend and I put my marriage first even before my relationship with my son. (Don't judge me, if you have a strong marriage your relationship with your children will be strong.)

3.  I don't listen to secular music in my car.  Only instrumental/classical and christian music in car.  This has made me a kinder more flexible driver and my doctor says it has lowered my blood pressure.

4.  For the first time ever, I bought a new car recently.

5.  I love my dogs, but after having my son, in the future it will either be children or animals not both.

6.  I hate wearing the color green.  It makes me look sick.

7.  I have divided my garden and planted my flowers in my neighbors gardens without asking.  I'm called the "gorilla gardener" in my neighborhood.

 

Okay, so I'm not going to nominate 15 other bloggers.  I just don't have the time to look up everyone who has done this and not.  So, this is what I'm gonna do.  If you have read this and not been nominated, I'm nominating you.  I promise, I will tomorrow night read whoever does this in response to my suggestion. 

Until next time...

Blessings 

 

Zucchini bread kind of weekend

Tomato thief caught red pawed and looking guilty.

The evidence, half eaten tomato.

Hello everyone!  This weekend has been busy.  I got all my homework done on Saturday leaving my Sunday wide open.  I finally got some tomatoes worth canning and to my demise I found that two of my very large heirloom tomatoes were half eaten and left to rot on the ground.  At first I thought "do squirrels eat tomatoes?".  Then I caught my little dog Peanut Butter nibbling on a tomato right on the vine!  Can you believe my mutt is eating my tomatoes?  Hello!  At first I was really mad, but then I had to get my camera and take a picture of her looking all guilty and of course the evidence of a half eaten tomato.  My son chased her around the backyard saying over and over "leave the tomatoes alone Peanut" and "not yours".  It was so cute!  My son chasing the dog and the dog looking and acting like her paw was caught in the cookie jar.

Anyway, back to my zucchini.  I made six loaves of zucchini bread today and I still have enough zucchini to probably make six more loaves.  I bought about twenty dollars worth of supplies to make my zucchini bread.  So, if I get 12 loaves that's $1.66 per loaf.  Not bad.  I found a recipe that I liked and I swapped out using whole wheat flour instead of all purpose.  I found that when you swap out all purpose flour with whole wheat flour you need to add some water to moisten the batter.  Well, it only took the hubby one batch to demand a loaf for work.  So, two loaves became four, then six and tomorrow I'm making two more loaves because I still have some zucchini left.

Zucchini bread cooling.

Here's the recipe I used.  Let me know if you try making this bread.  If you prefer to use all purpose flour just omit the water.  Until next time...
Blessings!

Mom's Zucchini Bread

Ingredients

• 3 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2 1/4 cups white sugar
• 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
• ¾ cup water
• 2 cups grated zucchini
• 1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

1. Grease and flour two 8 x 4 inch pans. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
2. Sift flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon together in a bowl.
3. Beat eggs, oil, vanilla, water and sugar together in a large bowl. Add sifted ingredients to the creamed mixture, and beat well. Stir in zucchini and nuts until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pans.

Bake for 40 to 60 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack for 20 minutes. Run a knife alone the edges then remove bread from pan, and completely cool on rack.  Bread can be frozen.

Click here to watch the video to make zucchini bread. 

One wash n go ... three great looks

Hello everyone!  I started my grad classes this week and I'm blown away with all the reading I need to do.  My independent study will be more work than taking a class, but I didn't want another evening class.  Seeing my hubby and spending time with my boy is too important.  I woke up at six this morning and realized that this was the end of my third week of being back to work.  I observed that it was dark outside and that three weeks ago the sun was up.  I went snow boot shopping with my son today and the high temp today was only 68 degrees.  So, for me summer is officially over and winter will be here sooner than I want and fall (even though it's beautiful) is just a reminder that winter is almost upon us.

Anyway, I did my usual wash n go this week and I got three great looks out of it.  The first two photos are my wash n go from my nephew's birthday party on Saturday that I posted this past Monday.  I simply pinned the sides with a barrette on top of my head, made a pompadour with my bangs, and added a flower (of course).  Besides a low grade headache four hours later, this was an easy quick style and I will do it again.  Next time, I will figure out how to do this without the headache.

This next group of pictures is day two and day three hair.  The top row is day two.  I decided to twist my bangs that were in the pompadour into about nine small twists before I went to bed.  I sprayed a little water and slept in my silk scarf.  In the morning I took my twists out, pulled my hair into a puff, and add my new purple flower.  Cute style and I got a lot of compliments on my new flower and earrings.

For day three hair.  I didn't do much.  I didn't re-twist, I just went to bed with my silk scarf, pulled my new headband on and fluffed my hair.  I also got some compliments on this look.  I love how my hair is bigger, but the curls are still popping!  If you look closely in the back my grays are sticking out.  I don't care.  I even have a few in the front.  So.  I love this new headband.  It's just tight enough to hold my hair back, without slipping or causing a headache.  I love the fact that my hair is long enough to have bangs!  The extremes in MN tempatures this week had me in shorts and then wool socks today.  I'm loving the fact that I can wear my hair up or down so I can be warm or cool.

My son and his zucchini.  I love this picture.

On a totally different topic.  A neighbor of mine shared some zucchini with us and my son wanted to be a big boy and carry it home.  This large zucchini was too heavy for him, so I had to help him out.  I had to get a picture of him with this zucchini.  I plan to make zucchini bread this weekend, but first I got homework and reading.  Until next time...
Blessings!

Pinned Up Sides

Wearing my flower and butterfly earrings for the party.

Hello everyone!  This Labor Day weekend was my nephew's 5th birthday.  My son and I fought Friday night traffic to ND for the party Saturday afternoon.  I decided to stick to my routine and I washed my hair Saturday morning.  I did a copy cat style that I saw on Minasek's blog by MsVCharles on You Tube and I really liked how it turned out on me.  Minasek didn't like the results she got, but I liked what she did with her hair even though it wasn't the same look.  I simply pulled back the sides on top of my head and pinned with a barrette.  Then made a pompadour in the front and added a flower.  My mom even complimented me on my curls!  Which is very rare for her.

Anyway, this was an easy wash n go updo that was easy to turn into a high puff the next day.  I'm noticing that now my hair is long enough for high puffs, updo's and ponytails that I'm experiencing some low grade headaches.  I guess going over a year of wearing my hair down, my scalp is not used to the hair being piled up, pinned back, or pulled up.  Any suggestions to remedy this problem?  When I install these styles I don't feel like my hair is tight at all, but a few hours of wear seem to cause a low grade headache.  Until next time...
Blessings!

Side view and loving those curls.