Blogging? What's that?!

Easter Table Decorations: The vintage floral candles and pottery rabbit are yard sale finds - and the flowers from our yard.

Twenty days without blogging! That's a lot for me. But how do you blog when you 1) don't feel like it and 2) really don't have anything to write about!

Our normally tiny creek

Spring has sprung here in Ohio - or it will drown us trying. We've had a record (as in - history breaking record) amount of rainfall -- 11 inches this month so far, with another 6 inches anticipated. The tiny creek behind our house sounds like Niagara Falls at times, but a constant flowing water sound at all times. It's a beautiful sound. Our basement has seen some dribs and drabs of water, but we haven't yet had to bail it out, so that's a good thing.

Now that our den is finished, I'm ready to move on to our Family Room for a major overhaul. Jeff and I are still in the discussion stage on this one. I'd like to do old game boards on the long wall, add some crown molding and high baseboards, and cover at least some of the brick of the fireplace (it is just too large for the 14 x 18 room). I also want the recliner o.u.t. Gone. No more. Whoever invented big huge ugly recliners with rolled arms? Ugly ugly ugly and it needs to go. I'm scanning the local auctions for a coffee table that will double for storage, but no luck so far. We have good friends coming for a visit in November, so the family room WILL be done by then (and possibly the kitchen as well!).

We had a lovely Easter dinner yesterday, with my daughter and grandson present. I'd have loved to have my son and daughter-in-law (who, by the way, is pregnant with my second grandbaby - due in September), but that wasn't to be. I baked a ham which I just happened to find at Aldi's (where I actually never shop, but a $5 coupon lured me in, and I'm glad it did!). I made the macaroni and cheese I've mentioned in a previous post, and seriously, it is still the best macaroni I've ever eaten. This time I cut back on the Pepper Jack cheese and used some Fontina, along with the cheddar. Yum, yum and more yum. I wish every one of my blog readers would try this recipe. You will never use another mac & cheese recipe! Anyhoo - along with the ham and mac and cheese we had green beans, corn, rolls and butter, and sweet little pink cupcakes for dessert. For the ham I made a raisin sauce. It was just the right amount of sweet, and so easy to make! Here's the recipe:

RAISIN SAUCE (for ham / pork)
1/2 cup crushed pineapple with juice
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup water
1 tbsp corn starch
a pinch of cloves

Put pineapple with juice and brown sugar in saucepan and heat until sugar is dissolved. Add a pinch of ground cloves. Add raisins and cook for a minute or two until raisins are "plump". Mix cornstarch and cold water in a small bowl, then add to hot raisin mixture. Stir constantly until thickened.

How easy is that?!

Right before dinner, Mr. B., the fussiest eater in the entire world, asked me if we were going to have "that red circle stuff"? Hmmm... turns out my daughter was able to translate that one -- cranberry sauce! I was lucky to have a can in the pantry, so cranberry sauce was added to the menu. He actually ate the mac & cheese, corn and cranberry sauce, and tried one bite of a roll. No yogurt or oatmeal in site (his food of preference).

The only other thing that's new for me is sewing... sewing.. and more sewing. I was approached by a local shop about making some crafty items to sell. I'm in! I'm making some wallets, cute pot holder/dish towel sets, and baby blankets so far. I have four or five baby quilts that are made but need bindings, so I may finish those up as well. I'm also thinking placemat sets and a few summer handbags. Not sure what else. I'd like to have 24 to 30 pieces done and ready to sell by the end of this week! So I doubt I'll be doing much blogging this week!

I feel badly that I haven't been out to read other people's blogs in awhile. Forgive me. Hopefully I'll get back to my reading very soon. I was reading blogs on my cell phone, but had to remove Google Reader because it was eating up the little memory my cell phone has. So it's reading on the computer or not at all these days.

The last big decision that's going on around here is about the vegetable garden. I go through this every year. Do I want a garden this year? If I spend all the money to put it in (Ohio has horrible clay soil - I always have to add in peat moss, top soil and compost or my plants will be sitting in soil as hard as cement once the heat of the summer rolls around), will I keep it up? Is my back going to let me keep up with it all? Decisions, decisions....