Howell Living Farm

 A few weekends ago the girls begged me to take them to the Farm....Howell Living Farm.  It's about 15 minutes up the road from us and the girls LOVE it.

Here are some pictures I took that day.


 I love the Tutu's and boots!

TTFN

Kristen

Cooking

I'm not a great cook.  In fact, I really don't like cooking all that much.  We are boring people.  Grace doesn't eat much more than Mac N Cheese, Chicken Nuggets, and Pasta.  We don't have a lot of variety in our daily meals..which leaves me uninspired to cook.

However, this summer I grew a garden...just a small one.  With one pepper plant, one tomato plant, basil, parsley, and strawberries.

Look at my tomatoes!

Ok, so it isn't the best picture.

But I did manage to get like two big bowls of tomatoes.

 So I decided to make sauce....
I blanched the tomatoes to remove the skin and then cooked it down and added some of my fresh basil.

It's not really enough for sauce but I can use it as the base for a bigger pot.

I also made baked oatmeal the other day.  I found the recipe on Pinterest. 

  It contains banana's, blueberries and raspberries.  Oatmeal, milk, egg, and cinnamon.  I didn't have regular oats so I used steel cut oats instead.  Not really sure that was the best idea tho.  It came out good....well, more OK.  I have since purchased real oats for the next back (and some really easy oatmeal cookies).

I'm sorry I haven't posted as often as I was hoping.  I've been taking a lot of pictures tho and have a ton of posts in my head.

I hope you enjoy.

TTFN

Kristen

A Re-Introduction

Hi all....well, all that read me.......and I hope that number grows soon.

I am Kristen.  I live in Central NJ.  I have been married for 14 years to someone I knew from high school.  It hasn't all been great and it hasn't all been easy but we have stuck together.  We were together for five years before we got married too!  So that makes 19 years we've been together.. He is a great husband and a great father.  He takes care of his family and does amazing things around the house.....usually after working hard at a job he really doesn't enjoy.  I take him for granted sometimes....but I do love hkm

We have two beautiful little girls.

Grace is 7.5 and in Second Grade.

She is very tall for her age, sweet, shy, snarky and loves to snuggle.  She would be content to sit and watch TV all day if you let her.  Grace loves to ride her bike and her scooter.


Ava is 5.5 and just started Kindergarten

She is sweet too but has a mischievous side to her.  She has not slept well since we took her pacifier away at the age of 2.  She learned to ride a two wheeler in 5 minutes.  She loves to sleep with me or her sister.


Our family lives here:

This is actually an old picture of the house...the flower beds are much more full now but I can't for the life of me find a picture on my computer.

We have lived in this house for almost 13 years.  I'll take you thru a tour another time.  I will be updating many rooms and will be asking for a lot of support and ideas.

Let's see...more about me.....

I have a BA from the University of Rhode Island in Political Science and History with a Minor in Russian Studies.  I received a Masters of Business Administration from Rider University.

I worked for 11 years with one company before I was laid off about three years ago.  After almost a year of being without a job I found a decent job, again in finance, right before Grace started kindergarten...so I was lucky enough to have the summer with my girls.

I lost that last job back in March.  I really didn't like it at all.  I wasn't happy.  I don't really want to work.  I have been blessed with staying at home again this summer, taking my girls to the beach, Sesame Place, the park, swimming.  It was the hardest thing I've done (being a stay at home mom) but also the most rewarding.

I hate finance but I don't know what else I'd like to do.

My hobbies include sewing/quilting, photography, reading, decorating.  I don't do any of them well (well, I do ready well...but not often enough)...but I try and I usually like my results.

I'm getting my hair cut and colored on Friday so I will update a new picture of me.

I have some posts in mind about nail polish, an orange bench, tomatoes...not all at once.

Thanks for stopping by.

TTFN

Kristen

Time for a change

Since my girls are finally back in school and I have some extra time on my hand...I thought I'd take a stab and some new things for me.

I have some projects I want to do around the house; painting, staining, stenciling, that I'd love to share with you.

I thought about doing a "What I Wore post" once a week.

A what I cooked post.

Maybe a photograph post (before and/or after I teach myself how to use my camera in manual mode).

In a nutshell, I'd like to revamp my blog a bit....make it more into Something, rather than me just whining or crying all the time.  I can't guarantee that that won't happen but I'd like this blog to be more about something than nothing.

I will be asking for help along the way too.  I'm definitely not perfect and occasionally ask for help.

So...will you follow me?

Should I change the name of my blog to something different?

Stay tuned...hopefully Wednesday I can start something new and wonderful!

TTFN

Kristen