Easter Polish style Salad

Everyone has their own traditions when it comes to the holidays this is one of mine

a Polish style Salad that we have on major holidays or parties.

Here is what you will need:

I used Trader Joe's Organic veggie mix

but you can just boil 2 to 3 carrots, add peas and corn to the mix 

this made a total of 3 cups

next I boiled some potatoes (3 small ones) and cut them in cubes

using my onion chopper "not just for onions anymore"

these are my colored eggs we did with the kids earlier (click here)

so its not ham its just the color of the red onion skins that went through

I used 6 eggs

2 small apples

again nicely chopped

some good old style Polish cucumbers in brine (2 big ones)

chopped 

mix everything together with....

2 big tablespoons of mayo and sour cream, mustard to taste and some garlic salt, 

I forgot to include peeper so you can use that as well, all to your taste

and here is the finished product (similar to a potato salad)

the crown cut cucumber is what I remember as a little girl

 when my mom used to top her salads in all kinds of creative ways. 

Thanks mom for teaching me this great recipe.

Enjoy!!!

Easter Egg Coloring

We made another attempt this year and colored our eggs naturally
so here it goes...

I boiled my eggs first b/c that's what some sites suggested is to boil them first

for my colors I used

Red onion skins

Yellow onion skins

Beetroot Concentrate

and some blueberries with blackberry mix.

  

I added 4 cups of water to each product and boiled it for 15 minutes...

then I took all the stuff out 

and simmered just the liquid with 2 tablespoons of vinegar for 10 more minutes. 

My eggs are ready for coloring...

I wanted to give this a shot and wrapped one egg in a string to see what happens... 

we left them in for about 2 hrs to get the color nice and dark...

and sure enough they came out dark LOL 

there was really no difference in the onion skins for us

so maybe we needed to use more or less who knows...

but my awesome dudes loved the eggs anyway and colored them with joy

I let them use glitter glue, oh boy! will see how good of an idea this was once we peel the eggs

oh and this is the outcome of the string

and here it is our finished and colored eggs,

aren't they wonderful? LOL

I hate laundry

 I hate laundry, clean or dirty,

no matter how much I try it's still there and it hunts me everyday.

This is the dreadful "clean" pile that has been move around 

so many times from one area to another I just lost hope. 

Oh, at times I just dress my family directly from it.

This is my husbands master piece, gotta love it 

I think he missed the laundry basket by a few feet.

OK "kids please take your pajamas to the laundry basket when you get dress", 

I think this one missed the basket by about 15 feet total.

This believe it or not is my living room area, kids and hubby, 

around the corner is the laundry room so that gets more points then the pics above

 b/c its closer then the rest.

I am sure that all this would take me probably 10-15 minutes in total, b/c I would have to fold the dreadful pile, but sometimes it just seems that there is no time for anything. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know I could skip writing this post and fold the laundry but hey you wouldn't be able to read it.

My Real Life Parenting

Welcome to my blog!!! As you can see I am a fresh blogger and this will be my first entry. Here it goes... a little about me. I am a stay home mom of two awesome dudes 3 and 5 at the moment. We are all about natural living, gardening and homeschooling, as wonderful as this might sound (to some of course) we are also your average family with problems, chaos and a messy house (which the kids and hubby and me a little but just a little, LOL, create). We come across issues and problems like any other family. I cook, clean, garden, teach and try to make sense of everything around our lives. I will try to present my real life and not a section of the best corner I found in my house, I know we all love to look at pictures so I will try my best to get them in. Trust me I hate a messy house, but do I have one? yes! and the reason is "kids" and my husband whom I love, but boy does he contribute to the kids mess. Oh!!! but if you announced that you are coming over, trust me, I will get this power speed to clean the house so fast that you would never tell it was ever messy (I wish I always had that power in my life but like I said I am your average mom that does get tired like any other mom). I will also post pictures of our homeschooling life which comes very hard for me but works best for our family. You might also see a mix of our daily life's and some gardening so hope you enjoy and wont get too bored too quick.. Here it is, My Real Life Parenting...