We had to wait very patiently for the official tomato planting day, which around here is mid-Spring in late April/early May. It’s so darn hard to practice patience when you’re passing tomato plants left and right on sale everywhere on the weekend, but we managed. In the meantime, we planted some seedlings to transport and watched those grow inside: zucchini, pumpkins (for outside of the planter), and watermelon.

And when it was time to plant… here’s what went in:

6 tomato plants. 2 zucchini plants. 1 lone watermelon vine. I can hear Miss L salivating and anticipating her summer harvest already!

I also decided to install two gutter gardens above her planter box to give her a few more things to watch. We made seed tape for arugula and another favorite food, kale, and left it to its devices.

So much green in one little corner of the garden. And it’s all Miss L’s real estate! I can’t wait to share the harvest with you!

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I’ve been pretty excited about all of these awesome subscription boxes, because they combine two of my favorite things in life: getting mail and random new goodness. So, you’ve got beauty boxes, activity boxes for kids, and now, there are GOODIE boxes!

No seriously! It’s like someone was paying attention to those “tasty goodness” posts of mine and decided to just box it up as a gift.

As a subscriber to the Goodies Co. Taster’s Box, you receive a monthly box of 5-8 snacks for only $7/month (includes shipping). I just spent $10 at the market yesterday buying 2 random bags of rice chips that they and some random new sauces I saw, so this is such a bargain for treat hunters like Mr. M and I!

Customers are asked to review products they’ve received, and can accumulate points to redeem for a free Taster’s Box and other rewards. Since trying new snacks can be risky and time-consuming, the Goodies Co. Taster’s Box gives everyone a chance to discover their tastes!

In our household, whenever we have visitors for a few hours or a whole weekend, we end up buying some random new snack to try as a “welcome!” present. Now we can extend that hospitality to our friends no matter where they live, and keep the gift going for many months on end!

It goes without saying that both Mom L and Mother M will be enjoying these goodies in the upcoming weeks as part of their Mother’s Day treats, but I hope that the idea will help you out with your gift giving needs in the future as well!

Thanks to Goodies Co. for sponsoring today’s discussion!

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I’ve been wanting to add some color to the backyard landscape, and looked into the idea of some solar lanterns to hang on the fence and in a couple of trees. But when I saw the prices at upwards of $15 each, I quickly stopped looking. It only took a random glance at these cheap $1 solar lights from Dollar Tree (when I was buying bubbles) for my brain to think of a way to hack my own solar lanterns. An online order to the bay-area based Paper Lantern Store later… we were in business! And my hacked version = $3.50/lantern!

Here are the easy steps to making your own solar lanterns:

Supplies:

nylon hanging lanterns (source: http://www.paperlanternstore.com/)

solar lights (source: Dollar Tree)

wire

needlenose pliers

Disconnect the light from the base.

Wrap your wire around the light, just below the battery casing.

Tuck the wire in and pinch it. Then wrap the wire over the TOP of the battery casing and to the opposite side of the light. Cut and attach it to the wire circle.

You’ll end up with this little hanging basket for your solar lamp casing.

Slip the light into your hanger.

Begin to assemble your nylon lantern. Stand up the metal frame in the middle of the lantern, and hang your light up. Pop up the lantern around your frame and secure it.

Your light will be hanging below. For extra security, use the needlenose pliers to bend the metal hanging into a hook.

Hang your lantern outside… you can use the hook at the top directly, or tie another wire to make an eye loop for hanging.

Then… wait for the dark…

… and enjoy the glow!

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This is the look of pure bubble making seriousness.

$3 for two giant bottles of bubbles and 1 bubble wand. So worth it!

(p.s. I bought the little plastic drink jug at Target for $3 as a bubble jar refill station)

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Happy May Day everyone!

Omelette from Madeline Sharafian on Vimeo.

The post a puppy-made omelette appeared first on KimberlyMichelle.

When my current iPhone 4s rubber case started getting too loose to be useful anymore, I decided that I’d go ahead and gift myself an Uncommon case with a Miss L twist as well, but a little different this time. I went up to the craft room and sorted through her piles of artwork from school and home, and landed on this piece she had made using my Crayola air brush sprayer. 

I went ahead and scanned it, then uploaded it to Uncommon’s website, and at the end of the week, this is what arrived!

I opted for the Clearly UN Deflector case, which made my white background visible but still wrapped the design around the phone.

And on my phone, it looks even better!

It barely took Miss L a minute to recognize her artwork. “Mommy! You got a new cover for your phone! And it’s my drawing!”

That smile completely cemented the decision as a good one. Now I have a custom case like no other out there, and it’s all thanks to Miss L!

If you want to treat yourself to a new iPhone case from Uncommon, now is the time to do it! They’re having a buy one get one free (BOGO!) sale from April 22 – April 24th.

That means you can treat yourself to a case and gift one as well… maybe one for you for Mom’s Day and save the other for June and Dad’s day? Or grandparents? Or… well anyone else really!

And… if you want to spoil yourself even more, you can enter a contest here to win a $50 gift certificate to Uncommon for yourself! Just use the Rafflecopter application below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

*I was provided with a custom iPhone case from Uncommon in order to facilitate my review. No compensation was received. All opinions are my own.

The post kids art and getuncommon = a perfect match appeared first on KimberlyMichelle.

And they make me remember that anyone can be a bully at any time to anyone.

Will you pledge to end bullying with me? All it takes is your name and email address to show your support… nothing else.

These last few weeks, the Rutgers coaching situation brought up conversations of “character building” in sports. That being tough on your kids as a coach will make them tough. But bullying… it’s different. It tears apart your foundations even when you don’t want it to. It’s not one little incident but something that wears on you consistently and won’t go away.

I started playing softball when I was 9 years old and kept it up until high school. It was “the cool sport” for girls where I grew up. Everyone was fishing for a softball scholarship before they even got to high school, and my classmates built batting cages in their backyards and spent hundreds of dollars on weekly batting and pitching coaches. In the end some girls did get to play D1 ball, go to the Olympics, and many more barely got scholarships at D2 schools. I just liked playing the game, and being a part of the ballpark on a sunny Spring day.

That was, until I had a bully for a coach.

He was a father of a girl that was a year below me in school. I was taller than him at the time, so let’s say he was not over 5’8 and I weighed maybe 110 lbs. I was gangly at that point, but still was a decent player. I thought it was the year that I’d get a chance at being the lanky 1st baseman who was 6” taller than everyone on the field, but despite what I thought was a good effort, I was sent to the outfield with all the girls who were a year younger than me. And I did well playing left and center field, and batting consistently. But I didn’t have a lot of fun. The head coach would make little comments about any little mistake I made, even if I only made one that day. He’d use me as an example to the rest of the players of what not to do. And my love for the sport slowly started fading away.

Then came the spillover. I missed a call with the short stop during a game and a run scored in a game and we lost. It was a bad play on both our parts, which is why they have a stat for “errors” in the game. They happen.  The next practice, my coach stood on the field and started hitting fly balls at the outfield non-stop and screaming at me to catch them. Sure we were rotating to catch them, but when it was my turn he’d hit it purposely short or over my head and SCREAM at me to get it. Just me. If I dropped one, he screamed louder. Then, after the drill and practice was over, he walked up to me and screamed obscenities in my face. I kept my calm in the moment and swallowed down every tear. I packed up my gear and walked the short two blocks home.

And I told my parents I wasn’t playing softball ever again. I didn’t want to go to school and see the faces of all my teammates, who probably thought I was as worthless as he did. I didn’t want to get into the batting box and strike out and meet his expectations. I wanted to give up and crawl into a corner and hide.

My parents were in shock when I explained why. I remember repeating the story because they just couldn’t hear what I said. They made calls that night, and the next week, and went to the board meeting to discuss what happened. They asked that the man be removed from coaching again. It didn’t happen. They encouraged and supported me to go back and play in spite of the coach because they didn’t want this ugly bully taking the game away from me. They didn’t want this coach to ruin my love of the game, but I couldn’t walk into that dugout or talk to him without shaking inside. No matter what he said, or any other coach said, I played with fear in my heart for that happening again. Logically, I knew he was a scared little bully of a man/father/coach. But as a kid, he took all elements of “fun” out of the game.

And all those people my parents talked to? They didn’t stand up for me. They stood up for this silly institution in our area and the little club that these fathers had created to get their daughters a softball scholarship. Heaven forbid the season be a little messed up, or someone be miffed, by removing a grown man who cussed out a little girl on a softball field.

As Miss L grows up, I know I can’t protect her at all times, or fix the world around her. But I’m taking a pledge today to against bullying in every form because I don’t want to repeat mistakes I’ve seen made in the past. I want her to live in a better world, and this is just one way toward that.

Thanks to TakePart for sponsoring today’s discussion.

The post just say “no” to bullying… appeared first on KimberlyMichelle.

Last week, before Easter arrived, Miss L and I went out in the afternoon sun to take photos. I had been virtually inspired by a super talented neighborhood blogger, Ashlee, who had held a pop-up portrait session in the same field just a few days before.   The deal was that if I got to take some photos of her in her Easter dress, then she could wander around and take photos of the fields and the yellow flowers. Well… taking photos of an adventurous and squirrely 3-year-old in a field of flowers with a setting sun is not an easy task… but  I’m happy that we got some precious moments captured in my frantic button pushing.

On the other side of the camera, Miss L revealed her talents for photography that far exceed my own.

Now if we could only convince some kid-camera makers to include a stability option… we’d be golden!

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If you happened to call upon our house for a visit this week, and asked for a playdate with a puppy, you might be sorely disappointed. The second that Lincoln bounded to the door, with Memphis not far behind him, you’d dispute his status as a puppy. You’d argue that you’d seen the cute photos of a fluffball and wanted to see that version of a sub 10 lb cutie. Instead, you’d see a puppy that has outgrown his sister and won’t stop growing for another year.

But trust me. He’s a puppy. He whimpers and gnaws.

And gnaws some more. He only comes when he’s called every 3rd time, and we’ve all developed a new deep and powerful, “NO!” in our vocabulary.

But he’s also a teddy bear, of the Gund variety of softness. And his sweet disposition is already shining through those mischievous puppy deeds. His bear paws are massive, especially when he steps on you… just to make sure you’re really there.

And Memphis has a seriously great new friend. The epic tug-of-war matches being waged in our living room might rival most betting fights in Vegas. But there’s also snuggling that will melt your heart.

And there’s been no love lost for the original puppy loved in our house. Memphis gets just as much love and attention as before, and still has sleeping rights in Miss L’s room.

Life is certainly crazy with a puppy in the house, but what’s life if you don’t throw it for a loop every now and then?

The post Two months with Lincoln appeared first on KimberlyMichelle.

It’s official name is “Tortilla Pie” (per the original recipe in Gourmet Magazine, 2005). Last week, I sold it to Miss L as a “Super Quesadilla” and she was happy with that name as well. Whatever you want to call it, this is as easy as a weeknight recipe gets for serious comfort food. I used to make one in grad school, and eat it for 4 days straight and I was perfectly content and happy and craving more the next week. It’s that kind of silly yummy recipe.

The best part is that you can zing it up with your favorite components really easily. Want spicy salsa? Go for it. Want a different cheese? Add it in! You can customize it all you want (my favorite version involves Trader Joe’s Pineapple Salsa and Monterey Jack cheese) for your tastes. And when I figured out how to make enough for TWO pies (one for now, one frozen for later), well… it’s just one less meal to worry about making in the upcoming weeks.

Tortilla Pie

 

Print

Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

12 mins

Total time

22 mins

 

Author: kimberly michelle

Cuisine: Mexican

Serves: 4-6

Ingredients

• 1 (15-oz) can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 package frozen corn kernels, thawed (recommend white over yellow)
• 1 cup mild tomato salsa
• 1 (8-oz) can tomato sauce
• 2½ cups cheese (your preference of Monterey Jack, Cheddar, Pepper Jack), coarsely grated
• ½ cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 2 scallions, thinly sliced
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 6 flour tortillas (burrito size)
• 1 lb ground turkey (browned)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

Instructions

1. Brown your ground turkey and season with salt and pepper.
2. Put oven rack in lower third of oven and preheat oven to 450°F.
3. Stir together beans, corn, salsa, tomato sauce, cheese, cilantro, scallions, turkey, and cumin in a large bowl.
4. Use olive oil to grease the bottom of your pie pan (oil mister works great!). Put 1 tortilla in the bottom, then spread with about an inch of filling. Place 2nd tortilla on top and press into the bottom layer. Repeat layering with an additional inch of filling and gently pressing again to help layers adhere.
5. Bake until filling is heated through, about 12 minutes. While it’s baking, take the time to assemble your second tortilla pie! When done, simply wrap in plastic and foil and put it in the freezer for another day!
6. When it’s cooked through, either transfer with a large metal spatula to a platter, then cut pie into wedges with a serrated knife, or cut it inside of the pie pan and lift each slice with a pie cutter.

3.2.1230

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