Smiles for a cloudy day

We need a few smiles around here today. I'm off of work and everyone (but me), including K, is sick. There's been a lot of whining, crying, and general grumpiness associated with today's sick day. It's been a bummer! But I was browsing through some recent photos and found some good smiley face shots. They're lifting my spirits already. Hope the good vibes can spread around.

Have a great weekend and pray for the plague to be lifted from this house ;)

Graduation Day

On Monday my two girlies graduated from Kindergarten. It was an exciting and busy day! It was sad to realize that they aren't babies anymore but exciting to think of all that awaits them. Most of the pictures turned out really blurry but a couple are good enough to post.

In addition, it was also Awards Day for Holdyn. He received a medal for being on the A-B Honor roll all year long. We are so proud of him, he worked really hard this year!

All in all, this has been a challenging year of all 5 of us. We've all learned new things and had to stretch ourselves but we're happy and glad we're together!

Look out 1st and 3rd grades, here come the Vaughns!

Calling All AL Bloggers

Hey all you Alabama Bloggers! Get yourselves today over to AlabamaBloggers.com and check this site out. Rachel has had a great idea and I can't wait to see how it all turns out. Imagine, a place for all Alabama Bloggers to blog together about whatever strikes our fancy. Fabulous, just fabulous! Check it out and join in the fun!

My Baby Boy

We lead them and give instructions...

We walk beside them as they begin...

We follow as they grow...

Then we let them go.

PS Yipee! This is my 100th post!

A Budding Photog.

This is Evie. She loves to take pictures. She got a camera for Christmas that was a total dud. I found our old Sony 2 mega-pixel camera in the closet and gave it to her. These are some of her shots...

Marshal, the Lab.

Twin, Kallie's pretty pout.

Field trip to Noccalula Falls, Gadsden, AL.

"There's no place like home! There's no place like home!"

Thrifty Thursday - Monday version

Thursday passed me by. I started a new job, my first office-type job in 8 years! And while its been exciting and fun its also been exhausting and time consuming. So, quickly before I jet off again I thought I'd share a tip or two.

Today I wanted to talk about PRIORITIZE.

--Decide what's important to you and spend money there. Look for ways to save in other, less important areas. I prefer organics but they cost more so I found this list of the 12 most important fruits and veggies to buy organic.

Called the Dirty Dozen, you can find the list here.

Have a great week, much love!

Big Fat Flop

So, as you know if you've ever read this blog before, our lives here at Vaughn Farms are all about experimentation. We just jump in to new things feet first and sort out a lot of details later. Whatever, it makes life interesting and we try never to be wasteful of money, resources, etc. Most times we're successful and things turn out okay. Sometimes, like today, things turn out to be a BIG FAT FLOP. And I mean like a fat man belly first off the high-dive flop.

As you also may remember we're experimenting with goat meat. Until today its been fine. I've mixed the ground meat with ground beef and no biggie. Well, I found this Martha Stewart recipe for "smoky beef tacos" and thought I'd try it with the shoulder roast I got from the goat.

I put the meat, spices, ancho chiles in chipotle sauce, and some other things in the crockpot to simmer all day. The meat cooked perfectly and it all smelled divine. Time for the taste test...

I pulled out the few bones in the roast. So far so good. Next I shredded the meat, looks yummy. I speared a bit of the tender meat with a fork for a taste...hmm, very faint, slight whangy flavor. I think I can handle that. It tastes mostly like beef roast. Then it hit me...like a flamethrower to the throat...too much ancho chili...way too much...way, way too much.

MY MOUTH IS ON FIRE!!!!!

And I can feel the chili burning my guts. We cannot eat this for dinner. Thankfully, K is at Wal-Mart picking up a few things on his way home. Doubly thankful, he's a good sport and just laughs off my escapades like Ricky laughs at Lucy.

So, frozen pizza it is. Oh well, if things never failed I'd probably get bored. Right? Right? Riiiiight, I'll just keep telling myself that. ;)

PS Marshal is enjoying the "smoky tacos" as we speak. See? No waste.