The Lady Beekeeper | A refined beekeeping experiment

Upscale Upcycling

Posted on April 23, 2025 by lexicolton

Happy Earth Day! Listen to how good my children are, I have to brag for a minute. Julius was disappointed that Earth day was on a week day because we would not be able to celebrate. Patricia told me all about the Earth day craft she was going to make at daycare to celebrate Earth Day (she made it up herself, not a planned activity). When I got home from work Patricia was so excited to show me her creation. She also made a hedgehog where the spines are her hand.

The person in the left is picking up trash which is good. The right picture is a trash can being put on the earth which is bad (mad face).

After dinner the kids were pumped to go out and collect trash to clean up the Earth. They were really great helpers (before we left, they proclaimed they were super cleaners and shouted it for the neighborhood to hear). We got a few “good job” honks from auto passerbys which was fun. After all was said and done we filled two huge garbage bags before we had to turn back for bed time. I mean, such joy this brings me I cannot even begin to describe.

I feel like in honor of Earth day I have to share a recyclable craft! This one is kind of silly. You see my kids are allergic to a lot of types of sun tan lotion, but not the mineral based types. We’ve been buying Blue Lizard brand for a while because they are somewhat eco concious. That said, there is so much waste from sun tan lotion. The giant bottles tend to be sold out all summer and we end up going thru about 6 of the small bottles (or more) a summer for the family. The cool thing though is that the bottles CHANGE COLOR with UV radiation. So of course I had been saving them up for ages to use them for a craft…

The first step was to attempt to wash the leftover sunscreen out of the bottles. This proved extremely difficult. I ended up cutting the bottles in half and washing them out by hand.

After they were clean and dry I drew a template for a charm I wanted to cut out and drew it with permanent marker.

It was really hard to cut these out because the plastic was rather thick! I ended up cutting them out with scissors.

To make them fancier I added a rhinestone to the center of one side using E1000 (applied outside with my ventilator on).

Then I used a dremel to add a hole for a split ring to pass thru.

After I drilled a hole in the heart I added the split ring and put them in baggies with some rainbow beads that I got from Michaels and some stretchy bead cord.

At Patricia’s birthday party everyone made their own necklace! Honestly I think it’s really cute and matches a lot of stuff so I wear my example one a lot!

Patricia and Julius’ necklaces getting some sun

Posted in Crafts & Sewing | Leave a comment

Drink Up Witches

Posted on April 15, 2025 by lexicolton

Oof. Need to get off the internet. Like completely. Don’t worry, I won’t leave you guys high and dry, you guys can start reading my diary instead. Just c’mon over it’ll be great. Maybe I’ll make popcorn and print off my old dead journal from the 2000’s too. This actually is shaping up to be a great idea, let me workshop this a bit.

So I always have a backlog of things to post. Sometimes the projects don’t get posted because I feel like they aren’t ready and I want to do a second iteration on them and then post. Sometimes they don’t get posted because some other more exciting things come up and they fall down the list. And sometimes things don’t get posted because they are wildly seasonal and I feel weird posting them 6 months after the holiday has passed. Well, I decided I needed to dig thru some material from my favorite season, the time when merriment abounds and whimsy fills the air; the most wonderful time of the year. That’s right Halloween.

That’s when I realized I hadn’t posted some key Halloween projects! I don’t think I even posted my tutorials on how I made Will & my Halloween costumes, nevermind my super adorable witch hat that I need to rock more often! Yeesh! But this post is just full of joy and happy pictures. By now you all know I love tea. You also all know I love tea parties. The kids and I find an excuse to have a tea party a month. It should come as no surprise that I had one for Halloween.

This one was a rather simple one. We all wore hats (well Patricia wore ears). I served crumpets, egg salad sandwiches (cut with pumpkin cookie cutters), and pumpkin muffins with cream cheese frosting. The kids got to choose from some of the Harney and Sons tissanes (Julius’ is indigo punch – you might recognize the tea bag from a virtual Ladies’ Night circa 2020, Patricia’s is raspberry), while Will and I had hot cinnamon spice.

Side note – my grandma loved tea and used to end all the family dinners with tea at the end. I loved picking my tea cup and tea for the evening. I felt very fancy. That ~~might be~~ is almost definitely why I like tea so much. Expect me to explore this in a future post…

Posted in Culinary Delights, Parties | Leave a comment

Oh What a Night

Posted on April 10, 2025 by lexicolton

It was a busy week! Cub scouts + Ladies’ night! I had a blast at Ladies’ night. It was nice to talk to some of my female friends about the current state of the nation. We’ll work back up to conversations on dismantling the patriarchy even if things seem pretty glum now. I joked that the with the FDA being dismantled by those who don’t understand science that it’s a wonder no one is hoarding canned goods! Kathy suggested our new Ladies’ night we should learn to can our own canned goods. And then I suggested we should start the Women’s Liberty League to learn to counteract all the stupid/bad things the current administration is doing. We were only semi joking but I think maybe we could combine tongue in cheek crafts like making pussy hats with useful things like maybe make literacy kits for those districts in MA impacted by the federal cuts. Something I’ll need to mull over.

My kids were amazing helpers this weekend. They helped me clean the whole house and the house hasn’t been so clean since they’ve been alive! (Except that time my mom cleaned.). The back room of the basement is even clean! Despite my kids being amazing helpers I still managed to get frustrated. Patricia is so curious and not a great listener so she breaks things a lot. She’s only 4 so I really need to cut her some slack. This morning though I discovered that she covered the side of her toy shelves in that super strong sticker paper from the foil art kits. I got very mad until I made her cry and realized I was being a total jerk about something that was extremely unimportant. In which case I told her how it was something I shouldn’t have gotten mad about. What a jerk. I don’t know why I can’t keep my temper sometimes. (Honestly it doesn’t help that I’m not a morning person.) My resolution this year is to stop yelling and stop pointing blame. Both of which are useless traits that I don’t want my children to pick up. I know we’re 4 months into the new year already but no time like the present to start! I need to hold myself accountable!

Okay enough about my problems! Let’s discuss how we can make shower bombs that will enhance that precious moment of me time and relaxation in the shower! Everyone agreed this ladies night craft was an easy one. (Sometimes I go a bit overboard.) I bought everything in bulk (except the baking soda which I got from Hannaford’s) from this company Bulk Apothecary (because I’m avoiding Amazon as much as I can.) They are a small business but they made sure my order made it to me in a timely manner! I spent about $80 on supplies (including shipping) for shower bombs but I have enough supplies to make like 500 more so I feel like it was a very good deal. Oh and we used plastic egg cartons for this craft so it’s even eco friendly! I tried a couple formulas but found the best was just to make sure you use no water whatsoever in the mixing so no reactions start. This recipe is what I used as my basis but you’ll noticed I made some changes. This version was not crumbly and held up well in the shower too…it didn’t fizz to nothing instantly.

Before we started our craft though we had dinner which was homemade sourdough, impossible lasagna and salad (very simple but IMHO delicious). I made a batch of brownies and chocolate chip cookies too for dessert.

After dinner we got down to business and made our shower bombs. My recipe below makes about 5 egg carton sized shower bombs. So we each made a few batches and shared them around. Now that I have all the stuff I’ll make the next few batches with scent mixes.

DIY Shower Bombs

Ingredients (for 5 small shower bombs):

1/2 cup baking soda
1 tsp of essential oils
91% isopropyl alcohol
1/4 cup citric acid
1 plastic egg carton
glove (you’ll want to wear a glove)

1. Measure out baking soda and essential oils into a small bowl and mix.

2. Add 3 to 4 squirts of isopropyl alcohol (probably like 2 tsp) and mix. When mixture is wet enough to hold together in a clump when squished in your hand and dropped you’re ready to move on. If not add a bit more alcohol and continue on. (Note: isopropyl alcohol does not contain water which is why I used it.)

3. Add in citric acid and mix thoroughly.

4. Pack mixture into egg carton pressing down firmly.

5. Let dry for 24 hours. Gently remove from egg carton and place in a glass jar to preserve scent.

To use: place one shower bomb in shower out of the direct spray while you wait for the water to heat. Enjoy the aromatherapy experience.

Posted in Crafts & Sewing, Parties | 4 Comments

Paint Your Heart Out

Posted on March 31, 2025 by lexicolton

Sigh. Tax season. My least favorite time of the year. We forgot to do the taxes this weekend so I stayed up late last night doing them. I honestly don’t know why I spend so long filling everything out, I always end up taking the standard deduction. Anyway, I’m tired and grumpy!

The good news though is I finished part 1 of hanging a bed from the ceiling of my car in my micro camper. (I’ve heard that’s what the cool kids are calling it when they turn their regular old car into a camper.) Unfortunately I thought the kids would be just as thrilled as I was about it. So Amy and I booked a couple campsites nearby for this summer and I told the kids how excited I was about this project and Julius’ first response was “aww but can’t we camp in a tent?!”

In other news, there is something the kids and I are BOTH thrilled about. You may remember that I showed these cute little paint it yourself cookies for Patricia’s birthday this year, and since then I’ve made another batch for my book club. I think the most difficult part is creating the stencil. The dragon stencil I made was a bit too intricate, plus my cricut mats are not sticky at all anymore, which means the second pass always causes things to shift around. I think I need to invest in some new mats or a way to make them sticky again (maybe I can just use the spray adhesive I have).

Watercolor Coloring Cookies

What You’ll Need:

7mil Food safe Mylar, cricut & pattern (or a pre-made stencil)
5″x5″ Square cookie cutter (I made mine)
Batch of sturdy roll out sugar cookies (I use this recipe, it’s amazing)
Royal Icing (I use Wilton merengue powder to make mine)
black gel food coloring & cocoa powder
M&Ms
Small paintbrushes

1. If you’re using a premade stencil, skip ahead. If not, you’ll want to place your 7mil stencil paper on your cutting mat (make sure it is very secure) and then select mylar as your cutting material. You may need to experiment a bit to get it to cut all the way thru. sometimes I’ve had to run it thru twice (without unloading) to get it to completely cut thru. Weed your stencil and wash.

2. Flood your cookies with white icing & at the bottom insert desired colors of m&ms. Do this quickly before the icing starts to dry. You can fit about 5 “paints” on your cookie. Let dry completely. (Store your royal icing for later.)

3. Let cookies dry completely (this was overnight for me).

4. Add cocoa powder (I used 3 tbsp for 1 cup of icing) and black food coloring (a few drops) to the rest of your royal icing to form a dark colored icing. Adding the cocoa powder means you have to use less black food coloring to get a nice contrasting color.

5. Apply fully dry stencil on top of fully dry cookie. Pipe a blob of frosting to the top of the stencil and using the head of a rubber spatula, gently but firmly drag the icing down over the stencil, covering completely. Be careful not to move the stencil while doing this. (This is very similar to how you do screen printing). Remove the stencil gently. Let dry.

6. Once dry you can package in little bags with your paintbrush. I will admit I absolutely love these. It’s a craft AND a snack. I always have as much fun painting them as the kids do. Seriously this is like my favorite thing to make now. If there is a bake sale I know what I’m making next time.

Posted in Culinary Delights | 2 Comments

Bravo

Posted on March 26, 2025 by lexicolton

What to post about, what to post about… well… maybe I should admit to my latest obsession. I have been sick, and while sick I have been doom scrolling the internet. To avoid talk of politics I’ve been sticking to Pinterest (thank goodness politics haven’t leaked onto there yet!) Somehow (maybe because Amy and I have been talking about camping) I started dreaming up ways to sleep 4 people in the Rav4. Impossible you say?! Maybe! But I’m going to try anyway. This puzzle is consuming my every waking hour outside of work. Even right now I’m thinking “if I make hanging beds out of steel bars, how will I pad them to avoid scratching the windows?”

The kids have also been sick. They are troopers though. They luckily both recovered pretty quickly. Patricia was devastated we made her miss her friend’s birthday (because she’d thrown up just 10 hours earlier mind you!) Julius stayed home from school for strep one day last week but he totally entertained himself the whole day except for a short period where he asked for help with the robotic hand he built (mainly by himself). They are such good kiddos. I pointed out to Julius tonight that one of the lion scouts was crying because he didn’t have a balloon and Julius played with his for a bit more and then decided to give his balloon away. He is the absolute sweetest I love him so much.

We got an email this week from Julius’ teacher that he was picked to read his poem for the Superintendent this Friday! I’m so proud of him! Julius also participated in the talent show this year. He was the only solo act and he played “Jolly Old Saint Nicholas” on the piano while wearing a beard and Santa hat. He looked very silly and he did a great job performing. Julius is such a good sharer that we always worry about him getting short changed. My mom has been taking Patricia to gymnastics on Mondays now (because of that bad day I posted about…) Julius was very sad because Meemah bought Patricia munchkins the first time (we said no munchkins next time). The second time Meemah bough munchkins for Julius and Patricia, but Patricia ate both sets of munchkins (we said doubly no munchkins next time). Since then Meemah has been sticking to healthy snacks, but Julius felt short changed because he didn’t get any munchkins. So I decided as a congratulations gift for his performance we’d get him munchkins. But, since I always have something else planned, I made them into roses.

I will say that dipping munchkins into melting wafers (guess the package didn’t say white chocolate, Will wanted me to know that) and making them look better than just lumpy masses is a bit difficult. I will say I used several different tricks to get things right (including how to mix regular gel food coloring into white chocolate without ceasing it) from frantic googling and reddit reading. I don’t have sources, but thank you redditors everywhere, you are the real heroes.

Munchkin Rose Bouquet

What you’ll need:

6 munchkins (original flavor, though I bet the chocolate ones would work)
white melting wafers (whatever the heck those are)
Pink and green gel food coloring (or oil based food coloring and skip the vegetable oil)
vegetable oil
6 skewers or cake pop sticks (you’ll have to saw off the sharp parts!)

1. Melt half the bag of the melting wafers according to package instructions.

2. When fully smooth and melted add a few drops of vegetable oil and drop a few drops of pink gel food coloring on top.

3. Stir until smooth, then dip one end of the skewer into the melts. Stick into a munchkin. Repeat.

4. Once dry (should be pretty quickly) dip first munchkin into the melts, and tap the excess off gently. Repeat.

5. If they are still lumpy (probably), dip them again (you may have to microwave the melties for 30 seconds to keep them melty.

6. This next part is tricky, put the pink melted goo into a piping bag and cut the tip for about a 1mm hole. You will need to do this fast or the not-chocolate will set*. Make a spiral shape on the top of each munchkin and down the sides towards the skewer to make it look like a rose.

7. Melt more melty things. Add oil and green food coloring as in step 1 & 2. Put into piping bag with 1mm hole cut.

8. Pipe green around the stem of the roses and pipe leaves onto a silpat (or parchment) sheet. Affix the leaves with more green melty stuff.

9. Let set completely then wrap in tissue and brown paper (hiding the sticks)

*If the not-chocolate starts to set, pinch the tip of the piping bag (so water can’t get in) and then hold under hot water until it melts. (Kneading until it’s all melted). Dry quickly and continue.

Posted in Culinary Delights | 2 Comments

Secret Love Notes

Posted on March 20, 2025 by lexicolton

Hi Friends! I know I’m late again! I was working on some things for my family book club and had to get them in the mail to have any hope of getting them there in advance of our Monday virtual meet up. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t been thinking of you all! I got a pin maker. So shoot me a message in the comments with any pins you think would be fun and I can maybe make your dreams come true…

So I promised last week to tell you about my crazy idea for Julius’ Valentine’s. Julius’ 1st grade teacher is the science focused teacher. He loves all the science experiments she does and you may remember that he invited his whole class to his birthday which was science themed. His teacher had everyone bring in their lab coats and goggles from the party for a class photo. Basically they all love science!

So Julius said he wanted to give a science experiment out for his birthday. I decided a fizzy potion experiment (made with household ingredients) would be fun. Of course I tested it out on Julius and Patricia by putting it in their Valentine’s mailboxes. It was just mix the two ingredients (citric acid and baking soda) to form a fizzy chemical reaction and some explanation of the science. Julius thought everyone would love it.

But then I started thinking about it… Giving the kids two baggies of white powder… Might not be the best idea. I did end up contacting his teacher to ask (because a friend convinced me people might make a mess before they got it home, not, surprisingly, because it looked like I was giving the kids drugs) but then wimped out and just decided on a different valentine. Instead we did secret message Valentine’s using red cellophane. They came out cute! Julius was a bit bummed he didn’t get to give out the chemical reaction though…

Secret Message Valentine’s

What you’ll need (for 24 Valentines):

2 sheets white cardstock
6 12″x12″ sheets Valentine’s themed cardstock
cricut pattern here
Secret encoding sheet
6 red acetate sheets
ribbon

1. Have your child write a note in light blue marker in a post it note sized square. (My son wrote his on the laptop.) Then scan to your computer. (Note: Julius’ Valentines say friendship day because that’s what his teacher called it.)

2. Make an even sized grid of the post it note sized squares in word so you can later cut them out. (Use my decoder sheet to line up where the photos should go.) Print on white cardstock

3. Insert page you just printed back into printer face down. Print secret encoding sheet on top.

4. Cut sheet into squares. Hole punch one corner of each.

5. Use a cricut or other die cutter to cut out the heart shaped decoder (you will need 2 cut outs per person).

6. Cut a piece of acetate to fit in the heart shaped window of the decoder. Using a glue stick glue the acetate to one side of the decoder (on the wrong side of the paper). Repeat for second side.

7. Glue all around the edges and handle of one side of the decoder (again wrong side). Sandwich both halves together.

8. Use the ribbon to attach the decoder to the secret Valentine’s message.

9. To decode the message simply place the red acetate decoder on top of the squiggles.

Posted in Crafts & Sewing | Leave a comment

Dough much fun

Posted on March 12, 2025 by lexicolton

Eep! We’re totally 1/3 of the way thru mending March and I can’t think of anything I’ve mended yet! I did take out some things to mend though. We’ll see how far I get with those. If you have things to mend, now is the time to do it!

Life is still a whirlwind here. We slept over the Mystic Aquarium this past weekend with the scouts, which was quite fun (despite the absolute lack of sleep combined with daylight savings start). I thought fixing the clocks to something was a totally bipartisan issue (I have not heard anyone NOT complain about the clocks moving) yet no one has tackled that one. I’m in the “I don’t care whether we adjust to daylight savings or not as long as we stop the changing” camp. Not only are the changes a complete train wreck every year, twice a year (especially when you have pets or kids), but it makes our meetings misalign with everyone else in the world. How annoying. Am I preaching to the choir here?

Patricia and Julius both still crack me up when I least expect it. Last week Patricia had Dr Seuss themed Spirit week. For wacky Wednesday she wore Valentines pants, a Halloween dress, and braided a candy cane into her hair. It was very wacky (much more creative than I would be). When she came home from school this happened:

Me: Patricia, where did your candy cane go?

Patricia: Oh! I ate it for snack!

For some reason the imagery of Patricia taking her hair accessory out and eating it (plus that fact that she tricked me into giving her a candy cane) tickles me.

Patricia is also doing really great reading with the Bob Books right now. I always forget the kids can read, and I had to remove some (of my favorite) lewd magnets from the fridge the other day that they noticed and were asking me about. Then for Valentine’s day Will got me a candle that said “Smells like she’s reading fairy smut again”, which is wildly appropriate. Julius clearly had read it several times and asked me one morning:

Julius: Is fairy smut a real thing?

Me: Yes, but it’s an adult word.

Julius: Like saxy*?

Me: Exactly.

*Note: Julius asked about the word sexy the other day, probably because they use it in Gangnam Style but he mispronounces it and I choose not to correct him.

Speaking of Valentine’s day I cannot believe I haven’t told you about what we gave out to the kids’ classmates. I will tell you the story of how unhinged I am next week. For this week I will tell you that we made Patricia’s classmates scented play dough! I think they came out really cute. Patricia was very proud to help me make the dough and decide on the scents. I will say the lemon came out WAY BETTER than the vanilla. The vanilla scent doesn’t come thru as much as the lemon. I used the same play dough recipe I used to make gingerbread play dough and it comes out soooo soft.

To scent them we added about a tsp of extract to each half batch. Next time it might be better to try something more strongly scented like essential oils. Of course I saved play doh containers for this and added the ingredients and a note to say homemade so they aren’t confused. Patricia dictated the note to write on each one and we I put them with a cookie cutter in these cute little paper lunch bag I picked up (not for this) and sealed them by hole punching thru the rolled down bag top and securing with ribbon.

The key to fitting the playdough in the tubes is rolling it into a log then cutting it into 2.5″ pieces. It looks exactly like a fresh pack of playdoh!

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Super Organized

Posted on March 3, 2025 by lexicolton

I’m sick. So I’ll keep this post short. I have been trying to reorganize closets and the basement for the last couple weeks and things are finally looking better. It’s so gratifying to see a pile of disorganized stuff turn organized. I tackled the kids’ bathroom closet yesterday which had a bunch of bathmats I haven’t used in years and so many kitchen towels that I had no idea what season was what. I actually had tackled this problem several years back and put them in a couple containers organized by 2 different seasons but I couldn’t fit them all in the two buckets and everything was hard to get to because I had to remove the bucket to get to it. Everything slowly moved down to a second shelf outside of the buckets taking up even MORE room.

This time I moved to clearly defined stacks of Halloween, Thanksgiving and fall, summer, everyday (and bees), Valentine’s and St Patty’s Day, easter/spring. I also put dividers between them to make the stacks more defined. This may sound obvious but I put the fold of the towels outwards so I can tell where each towel starts and pull it out more easily from the stack. I then moved the cleaning supplies into the old bins I was using for the towels. I really hope this helps keep things organized. I also gained quite a bit of space that I might end up using for more guest sheets and guest towels. Bonus! I wish I had a before view because it was horrendous.

I give those labels a week before the kids figure out they can pull them out. (They are just 1″ thick strips of cardstock)

Posted in Home Improvement | 5 Comments

Itching to Tell You

Posted on February 24, 2025 by lexicolton

Oh boy what a day. I have been pretty stressed at work lately and today was no exception plus I had to leave early (ideally before 4) to get Patricia from school to get her to gymnastics. I don’t know why but I can never get there on time. It’s just that 4pm is like the worst possible time for me in my day. The West Coast is just getting back from lunch and Costa rica is going home soon so (like me) they are trying to wrap things up. I ended up getting asked some questions 20 minutes before I needed to leave. It was a disaster most were not quick answers. I told them I had to run and left to get Patricia at like 405. Her daycare is close so I got there at 411 but of course there are no parking spots. I park in the back and go to her classroom. She wasn’t in there but I picked up her stuff quickly and left.

I get to the other classroom and she (for once) doesn’t ask to finish reading the pile of books she has, finishing coloring an entire picture or finish a 36 piece puzzle so I feel like we’re doing pretty optimally on time all things considered. So she runs to her room (while I’m yelling at her to do walking feet and sheepishly apologizing while getting glares from the admins). She remembers she left her tiger and pillow which are both in her nap bag outside the room. Perfect, no distractions from her wanting to hug each classmate before she leaves. But tiger isn’t there. She runs into the classroom, locates tiger and only hugs 2 people before leaving.

We get in the car (pretty optimally timed again because she lets me buckle which is sooo much faster). By this point it’s 4:21. (1 minute past her class start.) Not so bad, the gym is the same distance as home. Oh but wait, we’re parked in the back so we have to go all the way around the building onto a one way road in the wrong direction, turn around in the hospital parking lot next door and loop around that back to the rotary which adds 2 minutes. (The owners at the Inn near the daycare refuse to let us exit out the shared back exit of the Inn and parking lot because ~~they’re assholes~~ they feel it is disruptive to their ~~completely empty parking lot~~ ~~alleged~~ customers. That would save me 2 minutes though every single day (and 2 minutes for Will every single day). Which is what… 250 days * 2 minutes/day… 500 minutes?! Yeah nevermind going with ~~assholes~~ extreme curmudgeons again.

Anyway I digress! I make it to gymnastics, check Patricia in and get her into the class by 4:31. Only 11 minutes late… Sigh. I’m muttering to myself the whole time that I can never get there on time and the other moms are listening and commiserating and making me feel better (even though let’s be honest I have a very obvious time management problem).

Then Patricia comes up to the window to get a drink and is scratching her head a bunch. So I’m thinking ‘please lord of heaven or hell or any other immortal universe that cares to listen don’t let her have lice again’. And Patricia thru the glass sees that ‘oh no is it lice’ look in my eyes and she walks out to see me. The she proffers her head for me to check. So I start looking thru her hair then quickly realize what I’m doing in front of all these other moms and I say ‘I don’t see anything you’re fine’. But now I’m embarrassed and all I’m thinking about is lice so I mutter to no one in particular ‘she’s had lice several times’. As if this is somehow going to make it better. Then I remember she only had lice once… which probably wouldn’t have been much better of a comment anyway but the damage is done. Now all these moms are probably thinking I sent my daughter into gymnastics with lice even though it’s probably just dry skin (she has terrible eczema as does Julius). One of them even made a loud comment like “well I really hope it’s not that” and made a pointed look at the other mom who chuckled and shook her head. Mortifying. Then I had to sit there for 20 more minutes pretending like I didn’t care about anyone else’s opinion and pretending to work while actually stressing out over how Patricia and I are never going to make new friends because of lice and trying really hard not to scratch my own head which was suddenly very itchy.

How have I become such a weirdo hermit in just a few years?!

Well, all that aside I’ve got a new plan. My BFFITWWW says this vegetarian pie is delicious so maybe I can make new friends by giving them pie! Forget “marry me” shepherds pie this is “Be My Friend You Won’t Regret It ~~even though I’m a weirdo who brings up lice in public~~” Shepherds Pie.

It’s not much to look at, but trust me, it’s tasty. Actually I just realized it’s even vegan if you don’t put dairy in the potatoes!

Be My Friend Veg Shepherd’s Pie

Ingredients:

16oz Mushrooms, sliced (I like baby bellas)
1 Onion, cubed
1.5 c lentils (ideally french green lentils but brown will work)
.5 tsp mushroom powder (you could probably omit this)
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp gravy master
1 bag of frozen peas and carrots
2 Tbsp veggie boullion and 5 cups water or 5 cups veggie broth
3 bags garlic instant mashed potatoes (I know, I know homemade are probably better)
1 Tbsp corn starch

Saute mushrooms and onions in olive oil on medium-high heat until onions are soft and mushrooms are browned and releasing their juices. Add lentils, mushroom powder, soy sauce, gravy master and veggie boullion & water or broth. Simmer for 25 min. Add carrots and peas and simmer an additional 5 minutes or so until peas and carrots are cooked (add more water if things are starting to look dry). Salt and pepper to taste. Add 1tbsp corn starch mixed with 1 tbsp water and simmer 5 more min.

While the lentils are simmering, prepare the mashed potatoes following package directions. If they only call for water I prefer to substitute milk for some of the water after your water has boiled.

Finally assemble in a 9″x13″ casserole dish. First pour the lentil mixture on the bottom and spread so it’s even, then add mashed potatoes in a layer on top until completely covered. Take a fork and rough up the mashed potatoes a bit. From here you can refrigerate overnight if desired.

Bake in 400 F oven for 20 to 25 minutes until lentils are bubbling and the top is browned a bit.

Posted in Culinary Delights | 5 Comments

Valentines for my Valentines

Posted on February 17, 2025 by lexicolton

Hello dear friends! Trying to get a blog post in. Despite having to work some of the weekend it was a good weekend overall! We started off with some Valentine’s day dinner! This year we opted for crepes! The crepe filling I made was incredibly easy. I sautéed mushrooms and onions then added in baby spinach until it wilted and finally melted cream cheese in it. It was amazing. I usually make something similar using béchamel sauce, but this was way faster since I didn’t have to measure anything for béchamel. We had both savory and dessert crepes and the kids seemed to like both. (Though Patricia ate most of hers with just cheese inside and Julius ate most of his savory crepes plain with cheese on the side.)

Because I had to work we decided not to go skiing in Maine. Julius was absolutely heartbroken. To make it up to him I decided to plan some Valentine’s events the rest of the weekend. We had a Valentine’s tea party for a late lunch on Saturday. I have a LOT of heart cookie cutters, so I really put those to good use. For tea sandwiches we made cream cheese & cucumber (classic) and chickpea curry (I think it doesn’t taste great on bread though). Julius helped me fold napkins into hearts and did a really good job. Oh! And the kids made us Valentine’s cookies for the tea party. I gave them homemade sugar cookie dough and cookie cutters for Valentine’s day. Of course they also wanted to get out other cookie cutters so Julius also made a boat and Patricia made a dolphin. They were quite pleased with them and they tasted excellent with tea.

I also caught up on laundry this weekend! For the first time in like 8 weeks the dirty laundry baskets are empty! (Well they were empty until the kids put today’s clothes in them. And the clean laundry baskets are full, but I’ll take what I can get!) I have to focus on the little things given all the craziness these days. Oh and I should report back that the truffles were some of the best we’ve made! The lavender were amazing (I will need to remember to make a double batch next year), and most of the chocolate was perfectly tempered. The peanut butter ones were delicious and I don’t think I got to try a chocolate one but Julius told me the inside was “really good”. As part of their gift I made the kids little Valentine heart boxes on my Cricut that perfectly fit one of each truffle inside. I actually made the pattern last year but it seems I never posted it! I will tell you that it came out better this year. Last year I used tape glue to adhere everything and they fell apart instantly. This year I tried a hot glue gun and it worked so much better!

Small Heart Truffle Boxes

What you’ll need:

1 sheet of 80lb cardstock
cricut pattern here
glue gun
mini muffin cups

1. Follow the instructions on your cricut to cut your box (make sure to select cardstock). You will want this to be right side DOWN so that it can score properly and so it can trace out a heart guideline.

2. Punch out your pieces.

3. Fold the side pieces on the tabs under.

4. Make your top piece by hot gluing the side pieces on starting at the top center of the heart. Line up the edge of the tabs with the outside of the black line drawn with your cricut.