Time for a garden update! This year has been exponentially better than last year in the garden. We have made a bunch of changes. We’ve increased the garden space to 300 square feet, although it isn’t all planted at the moment. A huge and WELCOME change was in the area of watering. My dear husband installed a drip system on automatic timers for me. It’s saving me about 8 hours a week in watering! Thanks babe!!!!

In the following picture are:

Okra, and tomatoes, yard long beans, peppers,melons (growing everywhere!) basil, arugula, salad greens, daikon radishes, pepper plants and cucumbers.

This is my permaculture inspired herb spiral. Love this thing! I plan on making at least one more.

Colors colors colors!!!!!

I love gardening. Not very good at it. I'll admit that easily. But I love the results. I love the colors of nature. I love cooking with produce I just cut fresh from my backyard. Thought I would share my latest bounty from the garden!

Look at all those beautiful colors! In case you are wondering, there is 4 different kinds of basil, 2 kinds of sweet peppers and jalapeno peppers!

So we've been weighing our produce and tracking it. It's not been a lot so far- but it's so much more than last year!

Allan brought Petal in and set her at the table for dinner. While I was dishing her food up, she decided she just couldn't resist the bright green peppers!

I'm sooo very glad she reached for a sweet pepper and not a jalapeno! That would NOT have been a good start to dinner!

Looks like she's enjoying her pepper!

Happy Dad's Day~

I will admit. I'm one of the lucky few. One of the lucky few who has a great daddy, and an amazing daddy for my kids. In a society that devalues the role of the father, I'm eternally grateful for the strong men who walk out the patience, love and perseverance that it takes to be a father.
In honor of today I'm going to show of some photos and videos of my hubby! What a great example of Heavenly Father he is to our children!








Making their first snowman!

Finished!!!!

Checking the soccer scores!!!!

The all important NAP!














Go Cart Racing!!!












It's easy to take you for granted dad! Thanks so much for being there, and making an unforgettable impression on your kids!

Petal dancing

Petal is starting to enter the toddler years! She LOVES music. This morning she started dancing to the songs from her toys

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Giggling at last!

My dear Petal is such a gentle soul. She has be a study in contrast after our experiences raising Mickle. One of the greatest milestones is hearing your little one laugh with abandon. We've all be trying hard to hear that with Petal. She smiles like her soul is going to break free, and her face is going to split- but is normally silent. Although she does adore her nana, and the first substantial giggle came in her nana's arms as she was bounced up and down. Her loudest and longest to date- was actually at some friends house, and I caught the latter half on my phone camera.

Here's something to smile at!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuMwZbg9W3o

Undo...please????

I am sick. No literally, I feel ill. I'm obsessive about cost. Really, really obsessive. I'll spend hours and hours researching the best price on something before I buy it. I hate the thought of wasting my monetary resources.



Which leads me to why I'm ill. We've been without any form of Microsoft office for at least a year now- seems sooo much longer, esp in light of having to work on projects for school. No outlook for e-mail and calendar management, no PowerPoint or Word for projects, ect ect. Every time I looked into it, spending several hundred dollars just was not even something I was willing to do. Which is why I was ecstatic when I found a website selling Office professional for a great deal(just one level below the "everything" version). Office Professional had pretty much everything we would need ( no "one note"- but I had never really gotten the hang of that program). On the Microsoft website office pro retails for $500. Are you kidding me??? $500???? I'm sure some places sell it less, it always works that way right? But there was no one I had seen that had a truly great deal. Until 2 days ago.....


http://www.academicsuperstore.com/ had the office professional for $99 !!!!! It required you be a student, and be able to prove such. Not a problem since I'm in culinary school. Well, after a quick glance around the internet, and not seeing it for less than $250 -anywhere.....I pressed the "purchase" button. I spent the next 2 days practically dancing around the house- thrilled to be getting my beloved programs back, and a deal to boot.

Back to being ill..... Got my office pro in the mail today. Waited until Allan got home to open it and start the installation process. After having some trouble getting it installed properly- I went to the Microsoft website for some assistance. And saw it......Office Ultimate (the everything version) for students......$59....(insert sobbing). Sooo frustrated right now. If I had seen that only 2 hours earlier I could have sent the office pro back. But, not now. Even though it's not installed on my computer, it's been opened. So I'm stuck with it......stuck with knowing that I spent $40 more for a product with less features.

I'm feeling sick......

Firefighter

Conversation with Pickle

"When I get bigger I'm gonna put my hose on the fire hydrant and make sure it works right. Then I can use it to put fires out. I will drive there in my fire truck"........................"Mom, where do you buy a fire truck?"

"You have to be a fireman to buy a firetruck"

"Oh"

"Where do you buy firefighter clothes"

"You have to be a fireman to buy firefighter clothes"

"But I am"

"You are what?"

"I'm already a firefighter"

"You think you are already a firefighter?

"Yup....I just need clothes and a truck, and to grow up taller"

LOL!!!! Love that positive thinking!