Rhubarb!

Lots & lots of rhubarb! A few weeks ago I posted a picture of my rhubarb that was just starting to come up:

We've been super busy the last few weeks, & not home much. We barely had time to eat, much less check the garden (the rest of which is still bare). Here's what I found when I went out last weekend:

Yep, that rhubarb grows FAST lol - you gotta be quick!

So I picked as much as I could carry back to the house with me, because of course I didn't bring anything to carry it IN. 

I quickly looked through my rhubarb recipes & decided to just make some compote. My grandma used to make this & my boys LOVE it. It takes very little time, & I happened to have a whole bunch of strawberries sitting in my freezer. 

You simply cut up all the rhubarb (I tripled the recipe, if you are thinking it looks like a LOT lol)

Add strawberries, sugar, water & lemon peel. 

Cook over medium heat until it boils, then reduce to low heat.

When it's done, add vanilla & VOILA - a yummy side dish that the kids will love! Mine is all gone & I just made it on Saturday. My older son is in track - & when he comes home from practice or meets he is generally not very hungry. This is the perfect something for him to have. It didn't get quite as thick this time around as it usually does, I think because the strawberries were a bit iced. Taking that into consideration, I did use a bit less water but I think I should have used a LOT less water. BUT - it was still good. Did I mention it is GONE?!

STRAWBERRY RHUBARB COMPOTE

2 cups rhubarb, cut into 1/2" pieces
2 cups strawberries, halved
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
2 tsp finely grated lemon peel
1 tsp vanilla extract

Place rhubarb, strawberries, sugar, water & lemon peel into pot. Cook over medium heat until mixture comes to a boil; reduce heat to low. Cook 7 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until rhubarb is fork tender. Remove from heat, stir in vanilla. Refrigerate. May or may not last longer than 2 days :)

I am on a roll!

Hello all, & happy WEEKEND! It was a beautiful day today - I had no idea it was supposed to be in the 80's - but it was sunny & not rainy & perfect! This spring has been CRAZY here in Wisconsin. Just last week I had my electric blanket on. And the heat. Good grief! 

Are you wondering about the title of this post? I am on a roll because I made ANOTHER card! That's the third card this year! LOL. (Never mind that I used to make 3 cards in a week!) I sold some Magnolia stamps recently, & as I was going through them all to decide what to sell & what to keep, this cutie popped out at me. I love this one - it has to be one of my favorites. Don't know why, I'm not really into fishing anymore - but I used to go all the time with my hubby. Ah yes, nothing like getting up at 4 a.m. - putting worms on a hook - sitting in a boat for hours on end - having to KEEP QUIET so I don't scare the fish away LOL - then smelling like fish the rest of the day. Good times :)

Anyway, on to my card:

I also sold some papers recently - but I will never part with my Basic Grey pads - especially the older ones. This is Boxer & it is pretty much gone, except for some scraps :(

I feel like I've lost the ability to color. I thought it was like riding a bike - but as I peek at some blogs, I see there have been some new discoveries in the realm of coloring. Mine's a bit blah - but I still like the card overall. 

This was a dollar stamp from Michael's, from about 5 years ago. Back when they made the square wooden ones. Love this stamp, definitely one of my most used sentiments. 

I really go back & forth with the whole stamping thing. Some days I look at my stuff & I just want to get rid of the whole lot. But, then when I sit & actually start to go through stuff -- like the Magnolias -- I find it really hard to part with some of it. Some days I think, what's the point? I'll make a card & it will sit, collecting dust. But, then I think at one time in my life it was very therapeutic & if I didn't spend at least a few minutes a day doing *something* card-related, I thought I would lose my mind. I've gotten rid of a lot of stuff, which has really helped. I think I was overwhelmed with all my choices before. If I pare it down to the bare minimum, I don't have to make so many decisions. Decisions are stressful, you know :)

I will leave you with a couple of pictures I took on this fine summer day - Saturday is my day to walk around the yard & catch up on what I missed all week while I was at work!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend! 

Indigo bunting

Look who came to visit me on Mother's Day :)

I think the Indigo Bunting is one of the prettiest birds we see here in SE Wisconsin. 

I first saw him about a week ago, but by the time I got my camera a mean ole Blue Jay bullied him right out of the feeder :(

Um ..... you have something on your beak!

Happy Mother's Day!!!

to all the fabulous mothers & grandmothers out there! Hope you are spending your day doing something FUN!!!

A weekend of birding

I don't know about you but I am sooooo glad to see spring. It was a long winter here in Wisconsin. Unfortunately, the northern part of Wisconsin & parts of Minnesota got walloped with snow last week. My condolences to all of you!

I kept my camera close to me these last few days, because the FUN birds have arrived. If you are friends with me on Facebook, you have already seen these because I'm obsessed with posting my bird photos, LOL. But if not - enjoy :)

 A rufous-sided towhee. I had never seen one of these before, although I'm sure they've been around. It took my husband & me a while to identify it. You should have seen me looking at the picture, looking at my book .... looking at the picture ... looking at my book....

Of course, cardinals are NOT new to me & they are here all year round. But I really like how this shot of a female cardinal turned out. You can see what she's eating for lunch. She needs a napkin :)

I assume this is her boyfriend :)

A rose-breasted grosbeak - these are so pretty & believe it or not, there was another male sitting on the other side of the feeder. At the same time! They were giving each other dirty looks, but they didn't fight at all. Good thing, or I would have had to give them each a time-out!

This shot was actually taken at my mom's house. We will get the Baltimore Oriole - our feeder is out - but we haven't seen one yet. She also has an Orchard Oriole, which I have never seen & is actually the one I wanted to get a picture of but he never showed up. That's just fine..... I think this one is prettier anyway :)

We should be seeing an Indigo Bunting any day now, & some years we've seen a Scarlet Tanager. And I just put the hummingbird feeder out over the weekend so we should be seeing those soon. My goal this summer is to get a GOOD shot of one of those fast moving critters!

I have cleared out SO MUCH of my stamping stuff, I can't believe it! Not only is there more space, but there is also more $$$ in my bank account. Kind of nice to be the seller instead of the buyer for once, lol - I can't believe all the money I spent on STUFF! I've held on to  my basics though - I will never get rid of my Penny Black stamps - I'm keeping most of my High Hopes stamps - most of my Magnolias - & of course my pencils will stay. As long as I have those (& probably some card stock would be good to hang on to LOL) I can dabble when I find the time. You know. At 4:00 on Saturday mornings. 

Have a super week!

Mandarin Orange Cake

So I was chatting with a co-worker recently about desserts - one of our favorite topics - & we started talking about orange cake. I told her I had some orange frosting & was looking for an orange cake mix. She told me she was also looking for an orange cake mix for her Mandarin Orange Cake that she used to make all the time, until it became impossible to find the mix. Oooooo.... that sounds better than what I was going to make. So that day after work I went to a higher-end grocery store, since the usual Walmart & Target didn't carry it. And VOILA! I found it! But you do NOT want to know what I paid for it! 

Anyway, she gave me her recipe - I made it - um .... GONE in 2 days! So..... I am sharing with you..... if you are able to find the Duncan Hines orange cake mix (or any orange cake mix, but I don't know anyone else who makes it), then you must try this!

MANDARIN ORANGE CAKE

1 box orange cake mix
4 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
1 (11 oz) can mandarin orange segments with juice
1 (8 oz) container Cool Whip
1 (20 oz) can crushed pineapple with juice
1 (3.5 oz) pkg Instant Vanilla pudding mix

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease & flour a 9"x13" pan. In a large bowl, combine cake mix, eggs, oil & mandarin oranges with the juice. Beat until smooth. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until it passes the toothpick test. Allow to cool.
To make topping: In a large bowl, beat Cool Whip, pineapple with the juice & the dry pudding mix until blended. Spread on cake. 


That's it! Sooooo good when it's cold! A perfect summer dessert ~ thanks for sharing, Kim :)

For those of you who guessed I made a card ....

you are correct! I did, in fact, make a card this weekend. Here's how it went down: 

Friday night I was going through my stamps to see what else I wanted to list for sale. I came across my Penny Black stamps. Ohhhhh how I *heart* the PB's, especially the hedgies! I set those aside & went on with sorting. 

Saturday morning I was up at about 6. I KNOW!!!! How rude is that?! I heard my husband get up to go to work & I just couldn't get back to sleep. So I thought I'd go down & do some more sorting. But then I thought "my kids won't be awake until at least 8:00. That gives me 2 whole hours!". So while I DID do some more sorting, I also decided to make a card with one of my very favorite hedgies. To celebrate the fine spring weather we are finally having!

Please remember I am wayyy out of practice & I have no idea what is popular these days. I don't follow challenges anymore. I rarely get to read stamping blogs anymore. I don't go on SCS anymore, except to post what I have for sale. So I felt a bit blind. But ... I do like how it turned out. I could maybe have used some springier, brighter papers, but .... it is what it is (I've said that a lot over the years hahaa).

I have sold some of my Copic markers, but I'll never get rid of my Prisma pencils! They will always be my favorites. But I think my Goo Gone evaporated, lol - I had just a few drops left in my container & I *know* there was more than that when I last colored!

I even found a dollar stamp from Michael's that I had never used. Spring Fling - yep, spring is definitely flinging around here :)

And in case you want a peek at what I had to work with -- this is just a sampling of what my space now looks like:

If you recall, last summer my son wanted to steam clean the carpet in the basement, but my stuff was everywhere. He said "You have too much stuff! You will never use it all!" & that is the moment I decided he was right. Too much stuff. I hadn't touched it in months. It was time to get rid of it. Obviously I haven't gotten rid of it all, but I've done pretty well. But just try to find some pearls in that mess!!! 

I'll be back in a few days with a really yummy recipe I just have to share with you!

Have a super week!

New name, & FINALLY a real spring day!

I decided since I haven't been called "mommy" in about 8 years, that my blog can no longer be called "Mommy Time". It has been promoted to "Mom's Time".  Mom has about as much free time as Mommy did. I went from running after toddlers all day to driving them to their many activities & sports. I will, however, forever be known as MilwaukeeMommy - that is my username on just about every forum I've ever been a part of. I think my Ebay user name is the only name that is different, only because I wasn't clever enough to think of it back when I started selling many many years ago. 

So we finally had a SUPERB spring day here in Wisconsin today! And a SATURDAY, bonus!!! I took a few pictures today. Ok, I took a LOT of pictures today. Here's a day in the life:

They survived! My hyacinths rarely reach full bloom. They peek out so early, then we always get hit with yet more snow. We did get snow, just a week ago, & these were covered. But no damage done. This picture was taken early in the morning, by late afternoon they were OPEN! Why didn't I take a picture? I have no idea! Tomorrow....

The first varmint of the season. Where are you headed, little critter?  Go ahead - go in my garden. There's nothing there yet. Ha!

Well ok, there's a *little* something. Here comes the rhubarb! Can't wait!

I love that my boys were out bright & early today. I love it even more that they didn't argue at all! Hardly. 

Baseball season starts in just a few weeks ... gotta get some practice in!

I really  hope that's not the ball he was trying to hit on the ground in front of him. 

That one was definitely outta here! The next Ryan Braun ....

They even helped with some yard work. Aren't they awesome kids?!

We have a bluebird house in the middle of our yard. We've gotten a pair of bluebirds every single year that we've had it. I've heard from many people that the same pair usually come back to the same house each year. 

Isn't he gorgeous? I think he's watching my boys play baseball!

Now he's looking at me, wondering who the kook is sitting on top of the swingset snapping so many pictures of him. 

We ended our day with dinner on the deck. Perfect end to a perfect spring day!

If you're still with me, thank you :)  You may have heard I got a new camera last year & I *heart* it so much! My kids just roll their eyes when they see me with camera in hand!

And stay tuned .... because I just *may* have done something this morning that I haven't done in a while .... & I just *may* post the details here in the next day or two :)

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

More for sale

Well, I sure hope "spring" by you means green & flowers. Here in Wisconsin, it looks like this:

It rained every day last week. My son's first track meet was canceled. Too wet. Plus, there's a nice sinkhole in the middle of the field. Um ... yeah ... that's ok, we'll wait. 

I just wanted to mention that I added a few new things to my "for sale" page. It's up at the top of the blog ^^^^^^^ - just click on "for sale" & it will take you to a different page. I still have more to add .... just not a ton of time to sort through stuff. I will be adding some Nesties ..... and more Copics .... and more stamps ....every time I go downstairs to sort through more stuff, I end up feeling overwhelmed & walking away. That is NOT going to get my stuff sold, lol. 

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Great deal at Beach Camera!

If you are wanting a camera like mine, Beach Camera has a great deal going on! 

This is where I bought my camera last year. Now, I buy a LOT online, but I was really nervous about buying a camera online. But they had a super great deal, & I read only great reviews about them, so I did it!

HERE is the link to purchase the Canon SX50 --- this is the newer model that came out a few months ago. I'm sorry, I don't know if it's better or what it has that mine doesn't. There aren't many reviews on the Beach Camera site, but I'm sure if you Google it you'll find plenty!

If you want to stick with what I have, HERE is the link to purchase the Canon SX40. Trust me, you will NOT be sorry! 

I'm happy to help you spend your money! You're welcome!

(I did not receive any compensation for this post, I just really really love this camera & the service I received from Beach Camera!)