Adopting a Barn Cat - Meet Radley - Rural Thursday

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you know about the problems we have had with mice getting into our vehicles.  The tally in my minivan for the year is seven.  That's right.  I even took the car into Firestone and asked them to look it over - to see if there was any obvious entrance.  They couldn't find anything.  I've tried reader suggestions (from all your awesome and helpful comments) but they still keep coming back for more.  We've had a seat belt shredded, my headphones ripped in two, and a GPS cord device knawed.  I've vacuumed out the car and wiped it down with disinfectant more times in the past 6 months than I can count. 

And so I thought maybe it was time to adopt a barn cat.  Or twenty.  Okay, we'll start with one.  We went through the Barn Cat Buddies program and if you live in southwestern Virginia I highly recommend you check them out.  Low cost adoption, and the animals are sterilized and have their vaccines.  Diane, who runs their program is so fantastic and she will happily answer any questions you have about placement.  So our whole family headed over to meet a few of the cats last week and we decided on a little timid orange kitty, who had been living in the shelter for almost a year.  A lot of the barn cats aren't necessarily friendly, or tame, but they do need a safe place to live where they can happily work as mousers for your family. 

We brought our little orange kitty home and while she came with the name Radiance, I will probably shorten that to Radley.  After all, she kind of reminds me of the reclusive yet watchful and brave Boo Radley from To Kill a Mockingbird.  Radley has to stay confined for 3 weeks until she realizes that this is her home.  I put her in our bedroom, where it is quiet and she won't be terrorized loved on by the boys.  Each day I speak to her softly, and she will allow me to pet her head, but she won't come out of her cubby hole. 

I brought her out for the first time a week into her stay with us.  She was nervous, and camera shy, but she did purr a little when I scratched her chin.  I just love her golden eyes.

However, I think she was pretty anxious.  Considering that in the 2 minutes I held her on my lap to pet her, she lost 90% of her fur and is now bald.  Okay, not really, but I certainly gained a lot of hair:

Hopefully Radley will warm up to us a bit.  Or at least perk up once she gets to go outdoors, to run around our four shed buildings and hopefully chase mice.  She's a sweet girl.

Today is Rural Thursday, hosted by Nancy at A Rural Journal and myself.  If you have a blog post about the rural life (even if you are not living rurally) come link up with us.  We'd love to read about your hiking adventures, your pigeons and your daffodils, your explorations with a camera.  Just grab the code below the button and add it to your blog post.  Then come back and add your direct link to the post in the linky.  Don't forget to go visiting - we'd love for you to hop to at least 5 other folks who link up, and leave them some comment love!

Uncommon Goods $50 Gift Card Giveaway!

Have you heard of Uncommon Goods?  They have the coolest things on their site, and recently they sent me an assortment of spa type goodies to try out.  They must've known how stressed I've been lately!  I received their Comfort Foot Slippers, a Care journal, and a rather unusual tea cup.

The tea cup is really interesting.  It has a side where you can place loose tea leaves, pour the water over, and it will strain and pour into the other side.  Once the tea has steeped as much as you'd like, you can tip the cup over so that it will stop steeping.  I didn't have any loose tea leaves, but it worked just perfectly with some peach herbal tea.  The Care journal is full of little inspiring quotes every other page like, "You are richer today if you have laughed, given, comforted or forgiven".  Nice food for thought, isn't it?  Plus, I love how it easily fits in my hand - perfectly sized.  The premise of the journal is to Care about building a better world.  Right in line with my personality! 

The foot slippers are also unique.  They are not meant for walking, but rather for pampering sore feet.  Perfect for my long run days.  You stick them in the microwave for 90 seconds to get them toasty, then slip them on and let the herbs do the work.  That's right - they are stuffed full of herbs like lavender, chamomile, peppermint, cinnamon, and more.  My tired feet were so happy (and oddly enough, so was my cat Claude, who seemed quite charmed by their herbal scent). 

There are so many fun presents to please the hard to shop for on the Uncommon Goods website - check out their birthday gift ideas and even gift ideas for Mother's Day.  And of course, I was drooling over the gift ideas for gardeners like this totally adorable little birdbath:

 And this sweet little wooden ladybug house:

Okay, just one more thing (you can find this under the Dining and Entertainment section) - I can't resist showing you this funny face mug:

How can you not want one?  So wouldn't you love a chance to win a $50 gift card to Uncommon Goods - to pick out something unique for yourself or a loved one?  Just click on the "Read More" under my name to enter.

A New Line of Decor in My House

I was sitting on the couch, taking a quick (and much too infrequent) breather when I noticed something strange on the sliding glass door.  What on earth is that strange circle, I thought to myself. 

My first thought was that it might be a sticker, but as I squinted from the couch, and realized what it most likely was, I groaned inwardly....

Apparently, we are now decorating our windows with bologna.  How this escaped notice for so long is beyond me.  I'm pretty sure I had given the twins a Lunchables as a treat four days prior to my noticing bologna on the door.  Ewwwww.  And I'm pretty sure it was not on the door that whole time.  Which means it was stashed, somewhere (???) and retrieved later to hang on the door.

And yes, I do need to clean the glass.  But there's really no point.  See, it gets little fingerprints again the very next day. 

Two Bears Farm is now leading the world in a revolutionary new line of home decor.  Cost effective, too, to decorate your walls with bologna.  Much cheaper than Rembrants. 

Happy birthday to my Dad today!  I hope this made him smile :-)

Lots of Spring Green on Muffin Tin Monday

It's Muffin Tin Monday again!  This past week I was busy creating meat and mushroom pies from our grass fed beef.  We thought they were pretty tasty.  I served the meat pies with oranges, a salad, corn, and water.  Have I ever mentioned we have really tasty water?  It is well water that fills from mountain springs, and it's really delicious!

I did lots of green, since my St. Patrick's Day muffin tin was a bit of a flop.  I think this one looks much cuter!

On a side note, I have turned off anonymous comments for a short time. I am getting way too much spam everyday from anonymous commenters, and I've grown tired of weeding through so much in my spam folder.  Hoping that turning it off for a bit will stop these folks from coming to my blog and leaving 10 comments a day on various drug websites.  Sorry for any inconvenience!
To see more fun ideas of meals for kids, check out Muffin Tin Mom.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Wishing everyone a Happy St. Patrick's Day today!  No green beer for these two, but if they're lucky, they may get some green mint cookies...

Tropical Traditions Virgin Coconut Oil - Giveaway

Recently Tropical Traditions sent me a quart of their Gold Label virgin Coconut Oil to try.  Having sampled a couple of their other products, I knew that I was in for a treat.  I opened my jar and took a whiff and it smelled full of coconut goodness.  While perusing the Tropical Traditions recipes for ideas, I was immediately drawn to a recipe for movie popcorn.  Seeing as how I basically never get to go to the movies now that I've had kids (and we're on such a tight budget), movie popcorn seemed like the perfect special snack.

Supposedly, movie theatres use coconut oil to make their popcorn so tasty!  I never knew that.  I immediately whipped out our Whirley Pop and put in 3 tbsp. coconut oil plus 1/2 cup of popcorn.  Soon, the smell of popcorn filled the air, and it wasn't the normal smell of when I make popcorn.  Oh no, it smelled just like movie popcorn.  I kid you not.

Following the guidelines of the recipe, I drizzled it with some melted butter and salt after it was popped, and then dished out bowls for myself and the boys.  And you know what?  It tasted just like movie popcorn.  That decadent combination of salt, butter, popcorn and...coconut oil! 

I confess I ate 3 bowls.  Pierce ate 2.  We may need an intervention.  And yes, we'll be making this again, many, many times again!  I can't wait to try coconut oil with more dishes in the future.

Want a chance to win some?  Click on the "Read More" below my signature to enter! 
Disclaimer: I received a quart of virgin coconut oil for review purposes.  The opinions written above are my own.

Things Are Getting a Little Seedy on Rural Thursday

It's planting season!  Paul was kind enough to till the garden a few times, so I was able to stock up on all the goodies I want to plant this year.  Yes, I'm excited.  First, I started these seeds - lettuce, tomatoes, spearmint, cilantro, jalapenos, rosemary and green peppers.

Then I planted two blueberry bushes, rhubarb, and asparagus.  The latter two I planted last year, but they didn't take.  So I'm trying again, in a new location.  I thought I was in pretty good shape with all the running and weights I do, until I had to dig that stupid trench to plant the asparagus.

And finally, I picked up beets, garden beans, sweet corn, peas, summer squash, and zucchini.  I'll plant the peas once Paul tills the garden once more.  The others I'll plant in late March, directly in the garden.  This will be our first year trying to grow corn.  I've heard a lot of horror stories about it, but my boys just adore corn.  So we're going to give it a shot.

I hope you'll join in on Rural Thursday today, hosted by Nancy at A Rural Journal and myself.  You can blog about any topic that fits in with a rural lifestyle - even if you don't necessarily live in a rural location!  Recipes, pets, flowers, nature walks - these are all great topics for Rural Thursday.  Just grab the code beneath the button and copy it.  Paste the code into your blog post, then come back and link up the url to your actual blog post.  Try to visit and comment on at least 5 other blogs who link up.  I look forward to reading your posts!