Mother's Day, Foliage, and Food

My Mother's Day at home was thankfully quiet and I got a few fun gifts from the boys! Jacob made me this special rock with his picture on it, as well as a card and a little plant! Bradley bought me a card and a yummy smelling hair conditioner. Nick got me some awesome smelling body spray and lotion as well as my favorite drink. He gave me a foot rub later than evening also!

My flowers are coming up beautifully here, and this is a pic of my happy apple trees and lilac tree! The apples are already growing and we can't wait to get a huge harvest this fall! Thankfully they survived some damage to several branches received by an errant snowplow over the winter....

I try to keep some yummy and semi healthy breakfast treats in the fridge for the boys to snack on before school. The last thing I made was some granola bars! They have pb, honey, rolled oats, cheerios, flax meal, raisins, and chocolate chips in them.

I also made another loaf of wheat sandwich bread

...and another big batch of "refried" pinto beans! We eat a lot of these since I cook a lot of Tex-Mex

And with warm weather that means grilling outside! And you can't have a cookout without some coleslaw.

To reduce food waste I save all extra/stale bread and heels in the freezer, then when I have enough I chop them up and season to make homemade croutons! They last for awhile in the pantry.

With some lovely warm weather outside I had a good hike to get warmed up at Letchworth! It was beautiful and so green there.

I've waited way too long to get these started, but I finally made a fresh batch of mead and grape wine to ferment! I also made a couple liters of homemade ginger ale. Delish and bubbly!

To help celebrate Bradley making all A's on his college classes I took everyone out for pizza and bowling last week! The boys had fun and are getting better!

Check back soon for pics from our Memorial Day weekend outing!