Blue Christmas

I am trying to figure out what to even say. This year has been brutal. We have faced the loss of seven people. We have faced the moving away of loved ones. To top it all off, we've had some searing bad news this week. We are hurting so badly that there isn't room to breathe. I am trying so hard to hang in there, but if I am 'hanging in there' at all... well, it is by a thread.

Christmas is *my* season. This and Independence Day are my two favorite holidays. Throwing Christmas for my daughter took me through some dark and depressing winters. After depression finally went away, Christmas kept it from returning every year during the dark season. Christmas doubled in joy after my second little was born. It is a big and beautiful season. Simply put, Christmas is how I save myself. 

Not this year. I am "Christmassing" my butt off, to no avail. I have bought presents for everyone. I was even excited about my purchases. I am planning dinner and a day full of joy and relaxation. I pumped out Christmas cookies like a factory this week. 

When I stopped, I stopped hard and face-planted into full-blown depression. I cannot squeeze out any Christmas cheer. I cannot fake smile. I can barely function. This year, all I want for Christmas is the peace of sleeping through it. 

I am trying to refocus. I am trying to see it from my children's excited eyes. I am trying to see it from my own excited eyes from the past. It isn't working. The only thing I feel right now is intense sadness. That, and hollow. I feel so freaking hollow. 

So, anyway, I clearly need some prayer. 2017 feels like the year that stole everyone. I feel ravaged, when I only want to feel grateful. I have always loved Christmas, even before I *needed* Christmas. Now I feel so lost... I just don't know. 

Christmas this year is different. Thanksgiving was so empty and now Christmas looks to be, too. I think I am only writing this to put it out in there in hopes that expressing it will make it go away. I want my dad back... and Pappaw, and Grandma, and my uncle, and all of them. I want reality restored and everyone happy and healthy. That isn't possible. Sometimes, I guess you just have to hurt a thing through. That's one thing I have down pat right now. That is one thing I am capable of. I can hurt. 

Faith Like Dad's

I keep remembering as we walk through this valley of the shadow of death that my dad left us a legacy and his testimony. We can say forever that he spoke of God's redeeming love, that he saturated himself in Scripture, that he hid God's word in his heart and meditated on it right to the very end. 

In a world where God is mocked as a fairy tale or a crutch, I have seen Him carry a man into unconditional love. I have seen faith carry a man with grace and dignity to his grave. I know faith.

Religion seems so ugly these days. People are so hot from all different walks of faith that religion on the whole seems like an unnecessary load of hatred. Who could possibly want that? But when you look at people for whom it was a personal relationship, like my dad, you can understand what it is *supposed* to be. 

My dad never wavered in his faith or his beliefs for a moment. His doctrine remained fixed to the end. He spent years behind the pulpit and could preach a hellfire and damnation sermon with the best. Yet, by and large, people remember him as a man who was always willing to help and who always had a smile and a positive attitude... a gentle giant to the end. His love spoke volumes louder than any sermon he ever preached. 

This year was the first birthday in my entire life without his birthday greetings and booming "and many more" at the end of the song, Happy Birthday. That was incredibly hard. I will never again have my beautiful, strong dad on this earth. I miss his laughter in a way that aches so that I fear I may never be able to breathe correctly again. However, I *do* have his testimony. I *do* have his story. I will shout it and I will share it, every chance that I get.

Faith matters because in the end it is about you and God, one on one. Who cares what the religions of the world look like, if we miss that fundamental truth? Faith is what sustains you and brings you peace when you go through horrifying things like he did. ALS is an ugly way to die. It is horrific from start to finish. How could he get through that with grace and dignity? And yet, he did. These bibles show the years of time and use he put into reading and studying Scripture. They are evidence of how important his God and his faith were in his life. Faith may not matter to the mocker but it is everything to some.

We may not see God anywhere in the masses of people arguing online but I tell you, I saw God in the room with my dad all day every day, just as He was visible during other intense trying times in our lives. *That* is what it all comes down to. Faith is nothing at all, if it is not personal.

*Photo credits to my sister, Yaya. <3 

Tomatoes :)

Here are some pictures of tomatoes. :) We've been harvesting primarily cherry tomatoes so far this season. We've brought in a handful of large tomatoes. Two red, two yellow, and one big rainbow (red/yellow blend). My tablet broke a while back so I've only had the (old) digital camera for taking snapshots. That is why I have only a few photos and not every kind of tomato documented. <3 

This small handful was from July 7th, when only a few tomatoes were ripening at a time. Pictured here are chocolate cherry tomatoes and morning sunrise tomatoes (yellow). Both are quite sweet in flavor. In the case of the sunrise, the deeper the yellow, the sweeter the tomato. In my opinion, these taste like they've already been made into a sauce.



 Due to camera shortages (I was still looking around for the digital at the time), we missed nearly the entire month of July. This picture was the first we'd taken in quite a while and it was somewhere around the 28th/29th. 

You can see that by this point, we were bringing in several types of red cherries, yellow and white cherries, and our resident chocolate cherry tomatoes. Each one is delicious!

 This tomato has me stumped. I did not plant any varieties that are supposed to be solid yellow and yet, this is our second or third. This one is smaller than the other two. Each of those would make great slices on bread. This would take two slices instead of one. These taste exactly as you expect a tomato to taste. If you close your eyes, you'd swear it was a run-of-the-mill vine-ripened red tomato.

Since I was running short on pictures, I took a snap of the inside of the yellow tomato. Excuse the disposable plate. It is not pretty, I know. As you can see, the yellow tomatoes are plump and juicy. :) The flavor is almost sweet but still retains enough of that earthy vine-ripened taste one expects to find. As an aside, I can never eat enough tomatoes while they are still warm from the sunshine! :) 

This is another batch of (mostly) cherries that we've brought in. Again, you have a mix of white, yellow, red, and chocolate cherries in an assorted variety. We are bringing in something between a handful to a bowlful at a time. Generally, we eat a handful or two in the morning and bring in a full bowl at the end of the day.The larger tomato was picked too soon. It ripened to a bright orange/near red. 

Muncher the Butterfly :)

This is Muncher. :) He is a black swallowtail caterpillar that I found eleven days ago when I was harvesting some parsley. Correction, Giraffe harvested it and I was snipping it into pieces. :) Giraffe adopted him immediately and we looked up what kind of caterpillar he was and what he eats.

He was so tiny back then! I should have taken his picture on the spot. 



As you can see by the above photo, we initially placed him in a jar with fresh parsley to eat. Not too long after that, he was moved to the butterfly cage. 

You can also tell from these pictures that he grew a lot, quickly! Like the story "The Very Hungry Caterpillar", he had a voracious appetite! We gave him fresh parsley daily. He would eat at a rapid pace, resting in between as his body grew.

Saturday morning (July 29th), I noticed that he had begun to attach himself to this wild carrot stem. 

If you have not watched a video of the black swallowtail caterpillar life cycle, I would suggest you do. It is a magnificent thing! This video shows in detail what the process of caterpillar to chrysalis looks like. It is both gross and fascinating to witness. :) 

We left Muncher to his/her own devices while we went along with our school day. He/She changed far slower than the caterpillar in the video I linked. 

Each time we looked over at the butterfly net, there was still a curled butterfly in its original skin. The next morning, we were happy to discover that the chrysalis had been fully formed overnight! :) Now we wait to see if a male or female black swallowtail butterfly emerges. :)

Straw Bale Garden Update: July 21, 2017

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are hitting a very productive time of year with our straw bale garden! :) <3 I am bummed that I do not have pictures to show you! My tablet kicked the bucket a few days ago. I have taken photos on the digital camera but I haven't downloaded them yet. Here is a (hopefully quick) description of what where we are in the gardening process. :)

Zucchini
We have been in the "great zucchini boom of 2017" for quite a while now. In spite of the fact that we have known squash borers in our yard, they have continued to do fabulously! We only had one plant last year, which bloomed and died quickly. I was determined to out-zucchini the squash bugs this year. That apparently worked! lol The plants we raised from seeds are massive! I mean it, truly ginormous! 

When it was time to harden off and plant the zucchini, we were careful to plant them deep inside the straw bales. This was an attempt to protect their young necks/stems from the bugs. (I had read online that this may help keep borers away from the tender young stems.) We did the same with the single zucchini plant we brought home from the farmer's market. The payoff has been an abundance of zucchini, which we eagerly share with anyone who will take them. :)

There is one small thing... due to the size of the plants (and the tangle of other surrounding plants), we do not always find the zucchini in time. Add to that the fact that some of them grow *into* the straw bales and we keep ending up with huge zucchini! We are regularly pulling zucchini that are around 16" long and four pounds. Our largest (before today) was 4.5 pounds. Today, we pulled an 8.8 pound zucchini and one that is 7 pounds on the dot. Holy cow! lol

Spaghetti Squash
Our spaghetti squash are going crazy! The vines are winding around the tomatoes, over bales they aren't planted it, and even up my porch! haha We have one off of the vine already. The rest are fat, long, and ghostly white! :) <3 We will be cooking and buttering these babies in no time! 

Tomatoes
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKK!!!!! We are eating tomatoes of many colors! Everything is growing! We have burgundy and green chocolate cherries, red and yellow sunrise bumblebee (also a variety of cherry), and large red and yellow big rainbow tomatoes. There are bright yellow tomatoes, deep orange tomatoes, plain ole' red tomatoes, and tomatoes which will eventually ripen and turn pink. (Those are my brandywine!) 

Right now we are in the beginning stages of the season. There are ripe tomatoes every day but they are mostly the different cherry and early girl varieties. Aka, small tomatoes. ;) We have brought in large tomatoes only twice, so far. Those are not ripening every single day yet. Even so, the vines are heavily laden! 

Oh, I am beside myself with joy!!! My dad would be *so* proud! I can picture him walking through this year's garden, harvesting and crunching on fresh veggies to his heart's content! I miss him *so* much! :') :') :') I will always treasure the memories of him walking through the garden last year. I will always wish to God that he were present to walk with us still.

Herbs 
Today, I clipped off more green basil, purple basil, and some parsley. Giraffe was beside herself when I found a black swallowtail caterpillar munching on the parsley. These are among our very favorite butterflies! She has brought him inside to continue his life cycle. We are all very eager to see him wrap himself in a chrysalis and then turn into a butterfly! Don't worry! We've brought him in plenty more parsley plants to eat!

Green Beans
We are just now beginning to harvest green beans! :) So far, we've brought in just a handful (since we're really busy this weekend) but there are more out there waiting to come inside. :) We learned today that Pomeranians are *huge* fans of fresh snapping beans! lol

Others
Okay, so I am completely running out of time here! haha The celery is growing well. Lettuce varieties are doing well. I am going to start another seeding of both lettuce and radishes in the next week. My cabbages are lovely! I have three beautiful purple heads that are growing well! <3 The green cabbage hasn't taken off well. That is on me. I planted them so late. Carrots continue to grow. It will be quite a while before we are snacking on them. (Another really late planting!) Green, red, and yellow peppers are flowering and growing wee little peppers. I adore my little peppers just as I do my children. (Not kidding!) These fat little pepper babies bring me such delight! 

Potatoes are growing but haven't flowered yet. Pumpkins are growing. We will be trimming down the plant soon so that all resources go to just two pumpkins. The butternut squash we planted in honor of my dad is vining but hasn't produced yet. (That was also planted weeks later than the rest.) 

Giraffe's cantaloup are still growing and flowering but no pollination has occurred yet. She will be quite upset if they don't begin to grow soon. She did a phenomenal job growing them last year. Our pollinators have really fallen away. This is a concern and an inconvenience to the life of our garden. :( 

I have a vine growing that could be either cukamelon or watermelon. Time will tell, on that one! My cucumbers did poorly this year. I will rethink their placement next year and put the time and effort into them that they deserve. I have greatly missed having fresh sliced cucumbers every day. 

Strawberries are growing and fruiting. Those were an incredibly last-minute addition not long ago. We are just waiting for them to ripen. The lilac  starts and other flowers are growing in different places in the yard. They are all very welcome additions. 

Have I forgotten something? Hmm... Oh! My cauliflower plants are being insane! They are all three growing really well, with huge leaves. That said, there is not one cauliflower head among them! I've never grown these before so perhaps this is normal. Maybe not, though. I need to invest some time and research into this.

The broccoli is not being so snooty. We've been using it for a week or so already. The last head I brought in was our biggest. :) No surprise, it is a favorite of caterpillars. We have found an abundance of caterpillars and slugs this year. They have done plenty of damage but nothing we cannot handle. :) In all, we seem to be keeping ahead of them enough to enjoy plenty of produce.

Anyway, I cannot remember if I have forgotten more. I am sure there are other things growing out there that I cannot recall right this moment. lol I am in quite the hurry and have to run! This will do for now. :) We are having a booming year in the straw bale garden, in spite of the immense lack of effort once we planted them all. Yaaay!!! I haven't even broken out the diatomaceous earth yet. Gracious! We've only fertilized once. (Ooops!) You can see that this is such an easy method of gardening that even a complete dummy can manage it. ;) :) 

I will do better, soon! I promise! lol

Straw Bale Garden - June 27th

Good day! I took some pics this morning so here is a quick update. :)

My huge mess of a garden is continuing to grow! (At least we finally mowed the lawn, am I right?!?!?!) You can see that the tomatoes are growing up the trellis to the right, falling into the lawn in the middle, and that zucchini, squash, and cantaloupe are taking over the right side of the trellis.

I should note that we did tie up the fallen tomatoes in the middle shortly after I took this picture. 

I'm not sure whether you can tell or not, but you can see a couple of the random "accidental" plants growing in this picture. Those are the plants that came up from the seeds my little Koala dropped around the place. Especially visible is the zucchini in the middle of my yard just above the cabbage in the center of the picture. 

There are also bean plants growing to the bottom right of those center tomato plants. She dropped those on the ground in front of the tomato bales. Apparently, those seeds like it there. ;)

Here are some of the plants from the right side of the garden. There is no trellis here. Maybe next year!

Spaghetti squash is across the back. Carrot seeds are to the front left. Bush beans (long green snapping beans) are center front, and the leaves of my broccoli plant are visible to the right. Not pictured are the potatoes which live deep inside the back of these bales. This is my first time planting potatoes. They have not come up yet. Fingers crossed!!

This looks like absolutely nothing, am I right? We mowed over several of the zucchini plants growing up out of the yard. Two are left. This is the second. There are also baby tomato plants in there. Can you see them? Those are probably also going to get mowed over. For now, they were gone around carefully with a weed-eater. 

My bell pepper plants (emerald and also california wonder) are finally growing for real. They seemed to struggle this entire spring. I have not yet figured out what to place in the bale beside them. I am looking for a good companion plant. (Hopefully something that will do well but will not vine off into my neighbor's yard!) 

You can also see that the different varieties of spinach are growing well in the foreground. ;) Giraffe planted those herself! They are in the planter we first grew tomatoes in on the small deck of our second story apartment. :)

My herbs are doing alright. The basil bolted, of course. Then a heavy rain came through and knocked it over sideways. :/ 

There is another plant growing in that straw between the green basil and the purple basil. It looks like a straight stick with greenish-reddish leaves. I have no clue what it is. I should probably pull it but I am curious to see what it grows into.

This is my Giraffe's tomato plant. She planted it in this bale away from the trellis. It got quite tall and heavy. now it has slumped forward down onto the lawn. I really need to get on it and stake the poor thing up somehow.

I didn't take a lot of pictures this morning. The strawberry is doing well. We planted it over by our lilac starts (which are also doing well). 

The lettuce varieties are all continuing to produce delicious treats. 

The celery continues to grow, unmolested and with little attention paid. We water and fertilize but otherwise leave it alone. 

Cabbages are doing great. The pumpkin and watermelon (or is it cucamelon) are growing. 

Cucumbers continue to disappoint. The vine is still single and the produce has been quite small. I need to seed in more of these little guys. Last year, we were up to our eyeballs in cukes. 

Spaghetti squash is off and running, with many little guys growing on the vine. The squash borers have already gotten to this vine. :( :( :( I'm hoping that it can put down additional roots in the grass and save itself. I am not sure that it can. :( 

Butternut squash has been planted for my Dad/in his memory. We have four wee plants setting root into bales right now.

I have yet to see the carrots sprout but I am sincerely hoping that they will. If not, I may have to give up on them for the year. I do know that bird are *really* fond of carrot sprouts. It is entirely possible that they are getting to my carrots before I am out to see if they've sprouted. I haven't been able to get a mesh plant cover yet. I really need to.

Anyway, that's what is growing in our neck of the woods. :) I have long since quit naming each variety of every plant that we have. If you are curious you can always check that link here. 

Happy summer, everyone! :)

My Big, Fat, Sloppy Garden - June 19th, 2017

I'm going to jump right in, okay? I planted my garden this year, in part to assuage some of the intense grief I have been experiencing. That same grief has made me lazy about doing what I need to make it a beautiful garden. For instance, there are posts and trellises which still aren't up. I need a new soaker hose installed and have yet to buy one. I need to tie tomatoes to the existing frame so they grow upward, rather than fall on the ground. 

Additionally, I sort of know where my plants are and sort of don't. The kids put them in so only the tomatoes are 'where they belong'. lol Add to the grief the fact that my blood sugar is wildly off. I have been crazy-dizzy and sleepy trying to bring it back down. There is a lot of work to be done and I have not had the oomph to do anything but let the dern thing grow! Hence the title, "My Big, Fat, Sloppy Garden". It is just that! Yikes! See for yourself!

A view from the front reveals tomato plants simultaneously growing up and falling over. Yipes! You can see that giraffe's zucchini (in the back bales) is massive. The spaghetti squash are growing down the side of the bales. Yes, even the lawn needs mowed! I couldn't afford it two weeks ago. I hope to this weekend but that is iffy.

This side is Koala's. She has cucumber, watermelon or cucamelon (we're not sure which is growing, since only one plant showed up), cucumber, zucchini, and beans. Giraffe's pumpkin is growing out to the rear right of the pine tree. That tree was tiny when we first moved in! I've been dropping our produce scraps under it every garden year. You can see it has taken off!

This is a rear view of my messy yard and garden. :) There are more tomatoes, zucchini, spaghetti squash, cantaloupe, zucchini, pumpkin... a variety, basically. I do not come down the hill at all. Giraffe 'owns' this entire side of the garden. :) She is quite proud of her work. Really, who can blame her? We started nearly all of this from seeds!

Our herbs continue to grow... even if our basil has completely bolted. You can see here that Giraffe's wild flowers are growing, as well. There are too many in the pot but they are pretty to look at, even so.

My cauliflower is pretty much covering everything small that I would show you in this photo. You can see that we have been hit with cabbage moths, butterflies, and worms. They are full-on happy to be living in our yard, let me tell you!

To the left is a green bucket full of lettuce. They are all up by the house because they need shade. Our sun is relentless from sunup to sundown. 

In front are two smaller buckets. The gray holds green romaine lettuce. The blue (under the cauliflower leaves) holds celery. I also have a tub full of radishes growing around the cauliflower plants.

This bucket was only supposed to hold my green acre and red acre cabbage. However, it is fairly obvious that my little Koala saw fit to tuck tomato seeds in there! I keep telling myself that I will murder this tomato plant and get it out of there! Then I take a look at the stellar thick stems and I lose heart. How can one murder such a strong plant? 

My three red acre cabbages all have these beautiful little heads now. They are (in my opinion) the most beautiful members of my garden!! 

The green acre cabbage is just now growing. I fear they will not have a good chance to really take root. The cabbage bugs have been brutal. Also, this morning when we were seeding carrots into an empty bale, I saw my little pie sneak a few into this container! CHILD!!! lol

You can see that my planter of spinach has really boomed over the last week. They so enjoyed the rain! I am clipping them off as I need them. I truly love baby spinach! 

You can barely peep my pepper plants in the bale behind the spinach. They are finally growing better. Fx'd!

I am including a couple of photos of my basil. yes, I know that it has bolted. Even so, you can see that a fuzzy bumble bee is happily pollinating each flower. 







Such a happy little guy, no? :)

This pic is a closer look at my red acre cabbage. Can you see the beautiful baby head? :) I have three total. They bring me *such* joy! The dirt in these planters were dead when I got them. I prayed for them to revive as I tenderly fertilized and worked the soil in each. My heart blooms like the plants each holds. I'm so glad that I could use them! I love you, Dad! I miss you! <3 

I know that I did not cover all of the varieties of veggies and fruit again. Let's be honest; that's not going to happen! lol Maybe I will get the energy (or stop being so dizzy) and go out to hit you with one plant at a time later. At this rate, I doubt it. My garden this year has a mind of its own. The plants are mixing and intertwining. Their only thought is to grow. Who am I to interfere with that? 

I'll leave you with this. It is the picture of only one of the zucchini plants growing 'wildly' in my yard. By wild, I mean that they do not belong there. haha My little Koala helped seed directly into bales after we had placed our other starts out there. Both zucchini and tomato plants are now adorning my lawn here and there. What did I expect to happen from one so small? Yes, my garden this year has a mind of its own. I am 100% okay with that. :) <3 :) <3 :) <3 :) <3 :) <3 

Garden/Spring Update June 11, 2017

Things are really growing in the small backyard of this small but contented family! <3 :) 

This is a bucket of lettuce. There are many kinds in here, as you can see. We have been consistently eating them and they are still booming! haha

I looove having these on sandwiches, tacos, burritos, as a salad, and any other thing you would add a 'green' to. 

The flavors and scents range from sweet to herbal. My daddy would be *so* pleased to see his buckets so full of life! There is not one bucket he gave us that is not booming!

Giraffe's zucchini plants have really taken off! We planted almost everything in our garden this year from seeds. It is extremely gratifying to watch them grow and produce!

The first zucchini came in from the garden the other day. (Not pictured.) It was at *least* around eleven inches long and was also nice and fat!

We cannot wait to share our bounty with our favorite neighbors! It is a highlight of our summers to share the bounty of our garden with them each year. They love zucchini the best. We're ON it!! :D

Tomatoes are also on the way. There are many little flowers blooming and a few tiny fruits themselves. :) 

Our markers got misplaced, moved, or weren't placed at all so each plant is going to be a surprise to us when they ripen. 

Will this one be red? Brown? Yellow? Yellow-red? Large? Medium? Tiny? Huge? It is hard to tell! 

It is late to add to our crop but I am eager to get more plants started. I want to make sure that every single variety is well represented! I am most eager to sample the steakhouse, sunrise bumblebee and big rainbow!

Some of the plants are small and just starting out. These were seeds sewn directly into the straw of the bales.

We kept an eye open for what was growing well and what wasn't. On my dad's birthday, little Koala and Giraffe went through the garden, adding seeds wherever we had empty spaces. Some of those are just now showing up. 

They planted everything from more watermelon to cucamelon, pumpkin to pole beans... you name it, we have seeds for it planted in here somewhere! :D This is SO much fun! We will continue the process of seeding and planting until the garden is nice and full. :)

My spinach is growing well and tastes delicious! I believe that we have a variety of four types of spinach this year. These were planted by Giraffe on the same day in which I planted all of the lettuce and the red cabbage into other buckets.

You can see that we need to thin it out a bit. That is exceptionally hard for me to do, though! lol I tend to eat the leaves when they are still small 'baby' spinach. I'm sure I will try to grow some guts and thin these beautiful babies out. 

I love the lettuce and spinach mix we have going this year! I know that I am a broken record about it, really, I do. This just brings me such joy, generally. This year, it brings much-needed relief to my heartache. 

My herbs are still growing well in the cast-off straw from last year's bale garden. 

You can see that my basil (far left) is starting to flower. This has never happened to me before. I need to look into that. 

Purple basil is in the middle and looks lovely. Parsley is far right. I am most enthusiastic about using this herb. :)

Cantaloupe and cucumbers also coming along. This year they are primarily growing out the back of the garden. I have two rows of bales, where last year I had just the one. 

I would still like to tie these up to the trellis. Last year, the cantaloupe and cucumbers helped hold up tomatoes. I never had a problem with one strangling the other. They made great trellis mates. I may have to go again.

Here is a better picture of some of our little cucumbers that are growing. Again, these came from seeds we planted! Yay!

I also have to tell you something else... these belong to my littlest little! She has two bales that are hers. In them, she is growing cucumber, zucchini, cucamelon, watermelon, and beans. 

I let her choose what to plant and where she wanted them. It has been both sweet and joyous, watching my little baby tend to the garden in her own little way! 

It is never too early to teach children the value of life... all life... and to encourage their love of cultivating it! <3 <3 <3 

My peppers are struggling, I'll be honest. I have two Sweet California Wonder. These are what you might recognize as the multi-colored bell pepper. There will be red, yellow, and green when they finally grow tall and well. 

I also have two Emerald Green bell peppers growing. I couldn't tell you which set of two this is. You can see that they are quite tiny. I am going to be fertilizing them soon and keeping a closer eye on their progress.

Peppers are meant to be planted two plants at a time, as companion plants. This helps them to flower and produce better, and provides them better protection. When they are larger, I will be staking or caging them, as well.

This is one of my Red Acre Cabbage plants. :) I planted these seeds much earlier than my Green Acre Cabbage so they are larger. 

I absolutely love the purple coloring and veins stretching through the leaves. I truly cannot wait to have entire heads of red and white cabbage! This is one of those 'first time' veggies that has me beside myself! hehe

This set of buckets contains another mix. There is celery growing in the small blue bucket. I keep telling myself that I will move that poor thing to a bale somewhere! lol 

The celery plant has been hidden by the massive leaves of my Snow Cauliflower. You can see that it is the star of the show in that particular green bucket. The bucket split but I am unwilling to lose it, since it was my dad's. I red-necked that thing together with some duct tape and am going to keep growing in it! haha

The smaller, lighter green leaves are from my radishes. I am growing these every three weeks. They do very well every time, so far!

I still have another 40-ish pictures. I won't be able to share every plant in the garden this year. 

I am going to end this by abruptly switching tracks on you. Okay? lol

We have continued to use our new popsicle molds, much to the children's delight! Mine too... who am I kidding?

This week we did some that were strawberry, some strawberry-peach (in strawberry-banana jello), and a special more diabetic-friendly combination for me. 

Instead of jello (with its high sugar content), I added peaches and strawberries (which have their own sugar) to blueberry tea. I found this to be an especially good idea for me. I will continue to make tea pops for myself through the summer, with and without fruit. :)

Father's Day is coming up. I am a wreck of emotions this year, given that I've just lost my dad in March. However, mixed in there is the deep love I have for my husband and partner in life. He is a million kinds of wonderful. I look up to him in a great many ways. 

He is kind, strong, compassionate, gentle, loving, assertive when he needs to be, and a strong defender of his family. We are best friends and lovers, individuals and equals. I am very secure with this man. That says a lot for me, as I struggle with feeling safe anywhere in general. 

God has been kind, in sending me someone to walk through both the beautiful and the ugly of this life. I recognize the great fortune I have in being his and do not take it lightly. From the bottom of my heart, I love you forever, Hubs! 

Happy Father's Day!<3 <3 <3 

DIY Popsicles

This morning I made popsicles for the kids to enjoy!

My family loves fresh fruit. When it comes to peaches, I purchase as many as I can because it typically takes a while for them to soften up. 

"Typical" flew out the window this past weekend. When I picked up my online grocery order, the peaches were already incredibly soft. We had too many to eat in one sitting. By this morning, they looked baaaaaad. I had a lot of peaches that needed to be used or thrown out RIGHT NOW. 

Not one to throw out useful fruit, I told the girls that we would slice them with bananas for breakfast. You should have seen Giraffe's face! haha

As luck would have it, I was online around that time and noticed that one of my packages from Amazon had been left in the mailbox yesterday. It was my new popsicle kit! :) My plans shifted immediately from using the peaches for breakfast, to using them to break in my new pop molds! :) It was so fun I just have to share!

Since we were already going to pair peaches with bananas, I decided to keep that the same. A quick look in the cupboard confirmed that we still had apricot jello from last November. (I add it to my cranberry sauce.) The three flavors seemed compatible enough, so I sliced up the peaches and bananas. You can tell how ripe they already were.

This is not a pretty picture. haha I assure you, though, that the smell was heavenly! I quickly mashed the peaches and bananas. You can see that I smashed some pretty well and left others in bigger chunks. I figured that the chunks would help with the texture. The idea behind mashing them was to help the flavor and juices incorporate when mixed with the jello.

I only used one cup of water with the jello mix, heating it in my tea pot. Once the mix was dissolved into the water, I added it to the fruit and mixed it together. This is what the mixture looks like after the jello was added. Again, I am aware that it is not a pretty sight. Please excuse that.

Filling the molds was very easy. I chose a wide-mouthed spoon (pictured above) and simply dripped the mix in. I was careful to include extra portions of the soupy part so there would be plenty of that 'popsicle' mouth-feel. All that was left to do was pop them into the freezer and wait! :) 

Who are we kidding? Waiting is the hardest part for both of the kids! haha

This is where I tell you that we took the little bit of fruit/jello mix that remained and used it to top Cheerios for breakfast. That was met with rave reviews in the form of silence. Both little mouths were busy munching! :) My little Koala said afterward that it was the 'yummiest thing I ever eat'. haha

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*** Note: It has been around six hours and I just checked the peach/apricot/banana pops. They are stiffening up but are still too soft to come out of the mold smoothly in one piece. I assume that if I had placed an extra cup of water or juice to accompany the jello/fruit mix, they would have been frozen solid by now. Since I already know what they taste like, I can confirm that they will be well worth the wait! :)

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Update: We ended up waiting until the next day to eat the popsicles. By then, they were ROCK SOLID!!! haha I ran a little bit of hot water over the plastic casing and they slipped right out. They were not only beautiful... they were DELICIOUS! :) The apricot flavor lends itself nicely as the perfect compliment to the peach flavor. The bananas had not browned or decomposed at all. They were these soft, beautifully preserved, fresh chunks. Oh my word, it was SO good! I highly recommend these treats!

What We've Planted (Updated)

I am just going to copy/paste the list of what we intended to plant and mark where we are on each item. :) That will be the easiest way to let you know what is in my garden. 


Tomato Varieties
Early Girl                                                                            _ MANY! :)
Steakhouse                                                                         _ Several!! :)
Big Rainbow                                                                        _ Several!
Sunrise Bumblebee                                                              _ Several@
Mirabelle Blanche                                                                 _ One... but iffy
Red Cherry                                                                          _Several!
Brandywine                                                                         _Yes, YUM!!
Beefsteak                                                                            _ At least one
Abe Lincoln                                                                         _ Many
Chocolate Cherry - - NEW ADDITION to this list!     _ One :)
White Cherry  -  - - NEW ADDITION!                      _ One :)   


Squash
Spaghetti Squash                                                                 _Needs resewn
Dark Green Zucchini Squash                                                 _ Three kinds!
"Big Max" Pumpkin (supposedly huge *and* edible)                _ One
Small Sugar Pumpkin                                                            _None yet

Melons
Congo Watermelon (Supposed to be huge!)                            _Need resewn
Hales Best Cantaloupe                                                           _Growing very well!      

Cruciferous Veggies
Snow Crown Cauliflower                                                        _ Yes! :)
Waltham Broccoli                                                                  _ Yes!!
Cherry Belle Radish                                                 _ On our 2nd sewing!
Golden Acre Cabbage                                                            _ Not yet
Red Acre Cabbage                                                                 _ Yes, yay! 

Carrots
Tendersweet                                                                         _ Sewing soon!

Peppers
Sweet Emerald Giant (green bell pepper)                                _ Yes!
Sweet California Wonder (mixed colors)                                  _ Yes! Doing well!

Cucumbers
Tendergreen                                                                         _ Yes!
Muncher                                                                               _ Yes!
Straight Eight                                                                       _ Yes!
Slicing                                                                 _ Yes!
Beans
Top Crop Bush Beans (long green beans for snapping)             _Germinating

Lettuce
Black Seeded Simpson                                                          _Yes!
Ariana                                                                                 _ Yes!
Summer Bibb                                                                       _ Yes!
Red Romaine                                                                       _ Yes, yay!!
Romaine (green) - - NEW ADDITION!                                     _ Yes!

Spinach
Bloomsdale                                                                          _ Yes!
Giant Noble                                                                          _ Yes!!
New Zealand                                                                        _ Yes!

Basil
Sweet (green)                                                                       _ Yes!
Purple                                                                                   _ Yes!

Parsley
Curly Leaf                                                                            _ Yes!! :) 

Celery
Tango (green stalk)                                                                _ Yes!!

There you have it! Somewhere around 40 types of veggies and fruits are or will be in my bales and buckets, so far! :) I still have around half of the bales empty and waiting for me to add to them! Woooo hooooo!!! :) I am praying *so* hard for a great bounty from all of this love and effort! :) :)