Spring Cleaning Gardens

I tackled spring cleaning my gardens. Here are my veggies:

My radishes are doing awesome and so are my greens except for my spinach. My spinach is really made at me. So are the bunnies on my property. I found two babies in my peony garden. I hope their mommy comes and gets them soon. You don't need to go home but you can't stay here.
Playing along with Tackle It Tuesday with 5 Minutes for Mom .

Daffodils Already

It is unbelievable to have daffodils on the first day of spring in Wisconsin! Unheard of!!!

Playing along with Wordless Wednesday at 5 Minutes for Mom and Wordful Wednesday on parenting By dummies:-)

Spring Cleaning Reward

Simple Mom's Project Simplify is our choice week. When you are done with all the hard work of cleaning and organizing your house, don't forget to reward yourself. We bought overselves this: And of course, we needed a new entertainment center and that needed to be organized too so, it totally counts for this link up too:-)

Chili's Spicy Garlic & Lime Shrimp

I love it when you can bring a restraunt favorite home to cook and Chil's Spicy Garlic and Lime Shrimp is one of them:-) I am also doing my menu planning with I'm an Organizing Junkie. So, here is my menu this week: Also, $5 Dinners inspires us all to make low cost dinners. In that spirit, I am taking what Pick N Save has on sale, pairing it with coupons and coming up with the tastiest money saving around! Shrimp was on sale for $8.99/lb. (normally $13.99/lb.) at Pick N Save. I grabbed a bunch to make my featured recipe today: Chili's Spicy Garlic & Lime Shrimp Ingredients: 2 Tbs butter 1 clove garlic, pressed 1 lb fresh large shrimp, peeled (about 1 pound) 1 lime 3/4 tsp salt 1/4 tsp ground black pepper 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper 1/4 tsp dried parsley flakes 1/4 tsp garlic powder 1/4 tsp paprika 1/8 tsp dried thyme 1/8 tsp onion powder Directions: 1. Make the seasoning blend by combining all the spices in a small bowl. 2. Preheat a large skillet over medium heat. 3. Add butter to the pan. 4. When the butter is melted, stir in the pressed garlic. 5. Immediately, add the shrimp to the pan. 6. Cut the lime in half and squeeze each half into the pan over the shrimp. 7. Sprinkle the entire seasoning blend over the shrimp, and give it all a good stir. 8. Saute the shrimp for 5 to 8 minutes or until they begin to brown. 9. Be sure to cook both sides of all the shrimp. Servings: 4 Cooking Times Preparation Time: 5 minutes Cooking Time: 20 minutes Total Time: 25 minutes Nutrition Facts Serving size: 1/4 of a recipe (4.6 ounces). Percent daily values based on the Reference Daily Intake (RDI) for a 2000 calorie diet. Nutrition information calculated from recipe ingredients. Amount Per Serving Calories 212.35 Calories From Fat (33%) 69.79 % Daily Value Total Fat 7.9g 12% Saturated Fat 4.05g 20% Cholesterol 187.63mg 63% Sodium 609.33mg 25% Potassium 331.26mg 9% Total Carbohydrates 10.39g 3% Fiber 0.71g 3% Sugar 0.48g Protein 24.8g 50% Recipe Type Main Course, Seafood Source Author: Chili's Source: http://www.recipezaar.com/Chilis-Spicy-Garlic-Lime-Shrimp-76470 Recipe: $14.43($9.43 on sale) Serving: $3.61 ($2.36 on sale)


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Organized Linen Closet

I posted my disarray last week. Now, this is much better!

I even made a great table cloth hanging system out of an old drying rack!

Playing along with Tackle It Tuesday with 5 Minutes for Mom .

Organizing Your Kid's Art Supplies

Simple Mom's Project Simplify is covering kids toys/clothes this week. For us, my youngest's art supplies were a HUGE problem. So, we found this solution:


Now, she has a place for all her markers and crayons and paper and jewelry making supplies and other art supplies. It is AWESOME!!

Disarray

I guess I still have work to do:

Playing along with Wordless Wednesday at 5 Minutes for Mom and Wordful Wednesday on parenting By dummies:-)

Spring Cleaning Part 2

For the second weekend in a row, the family worked on spring cleaning our house. This time, we did the bathrooms and the kitchen. That included appliances, walls, windows, cabinets, linens and floors. It took us a little bit longer (i.e. all Monday) to finish. Not bad. Here is an array of drawers I organized:

Playing along with Tackle It Tuesday with 5 Minutes for Mom .

Spring Cleaning Part 1

This weekend, the whole family worked on spring cleaning our house. We did all three bedrooms and the living room top to bottom. That includes walls, curtains, windows, shelving, linens and carpet. We finished everything except for reassembling one shelving unit. Not bad. We were so busy, I only got before and afters of our room:

Before:



After:

Spring Cleaning Tips:

1. Set aside a good hunk of time and involve everyone. I personally made a declaration to my family that this was spring cleaning time and ALL were expected to participate. It ended up being really good clean fun (pardon the pun).

2. Grocery shop, bank, do bills and everything else you need to make sure that the cleaning is uninterrupted time.

3. Have all of your supplies assembled ahead of time including sponges, buckets, squeegees, furniture polish and cleaning solution. I personally clean everything (windows, walls and carpet) with a mixture of one gallon of hot water, 1/4 cup vinegar and a drop of dish liquid.

4. Make sure your vacuum and carpet cleaner are in fine working order because they will be working as hard as you are!

5. Utilize either your crock pot and/or freezer cooking meals while you clean. You don't want to waste time in a long involved meal or worse, eating out! You need energy from a good home cooked meal AND it is cheaper! Check out my list of crockpot meals here for ideas.

Playing along with Tackle It Tuesday with 5 Minutes for Mom .

Organized Bedroom Closet

Spring Cleaning starts this weekend for our family! To that end, playing along with Simple Mom's Project Simplify and showing my organized bedroom closet.

Here is my before:

And my after:

My shoes were a mess, my purses need to be restuffed with tissue paper and I did carry out 3 bags of clothes to either give away or toss. So, I think it was successful. What do you think?

A Message to My Family

I hereby declare by this decree that the weekends dated March 12th and 13th and March 19th and 20th are reserved for spring cleaning for the wife/mother/caregiver, husband/father/capital provider, daughter and care receiver. This reservation will include but not be limited to washing walls, carpets, cabinets and organizing basement and storage areas and outdoor cleanup. Expect purging of unused and deteriorated items.

Participation by the wife/mother/caregiver, husband/father/capital provider, daughter and care receiver will be required. No social or medical emergencies should be submitted during this timeframe. Submitting either will result in the loss of peace of mind of the wife/mother/caregiver and subsequently, future requests by the husband/father/capital provider, daughter and care receiver will be delayed.

Cooperation in this decree will result in a healthier home for all involved and a happier wife/mother/caregiver thereby making future requests by the husband/father/capital provider, daughter and care receiver possible.

I am submitting this decree to Tackle It Tuesday with 5 Minutes for Mom !

Spring Baking

May was a HUGE baking month. Here is some other things I made:

Mom's Strawberry Birthday Cake

Cookies for Author's Tea

Mother's Day Cupcakes

Check me out at Happy to be at Home. I have some really useful information about caring for elderly parents :-)

Here, it's time for Tackle It Tuesday with 5 Minutes for Mom and this weekend I tackled cupcakes for my mom.

Most people give cards to show love and gratitude. Me? I give desserts and Mom knows it. So, when I asked what she wanted for Mother's Day and her birthday, she said my lemon cupcakes. (Well, they aren't totally mine. They are semi-homemade.)


It's a box of lemon cake topped with canned lemon frosting topped with a fresh strawberry and powdered sugar. The tartness of the strawberry pairs well with the lemon and the sweetness of the garnish cuts through the pucker nicely. She loved them!

Spring was Flung and Now Its Sprung

This is my garden's very first sign of life this year!! Yippeee!!!

Grilled Citrus Salmon with Lemon Rice and Cucumber Salsa

This moist salmon dish is bursting with the wonderful tartness of lemon and lime. It is a pefect light lunch or dinner for warm summer days and nights when you don't want a heavy meal bringing you down. Thanks Martha Stewart for the inspiration and the sauce recipe!

Salmon

4 Salmon fillets

Olive Oil for rubbing

Salt and pepper for taste

Citrus Sauce

Lemon Rice

2 cups instant rice

2 cups water

2 tbsps butter

1 Lemon, zested and juiced

Cucubmer Salsa

1 medium cucumber, cut into 1/8-inch chunks

1/4 cup chopped onion

1 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped

1 Lime, juiced

2 tbsp olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

1. Rub salmon with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Place salmon skin-side up on a hot grill pan. It need to be hot to get a good sear for a crispy skin and to lock in the juices. Cook 5 minutes a side.

2. While the salmon is grilling, prepare the Lemon Rice. Add all ingredients in a microwave-safe bowl. Cover and cook on high for 5 minutes. Let sit for 5 more minutes before serving.

3. While the rice is cooking, make the Cucubmer Salsa. In a medium bowl, toss cumcumber, onion and parsley together. In a small bowl, whisk lime juice and olive oil together until it thickens slightly. Season with salt and pepper.

4. To serve, scoop a mound of Lemon Rice in the middle of a dinner plate. Top the rice with the salmon and drizzle with Citrus Sauce . Spoon the Cucumber Salsa around the rice and salmon. Garnish with additional parsley and grilled lemon wedge, if desired.

Serves 4