Middle of the Week

It's another Wednesday here. The middle of the week rush.

We have found ourselves with 4 children going on field trips, award ceremonies, and then 8th grade prom. WOW!

There is more next week too.

Meanwhile at home, we are working on getting the garden going. With all the rain we have had it has been difficult.

The barn/shed is built. We still need to tear down the old one so we can use the tin roof and old barn wood to finish it. Once it is completed it will look fabulous!

Now I need to find a recipe for honey bbq sauce. We are avoiding high fructose corn syrup and that means we have to get creative. :o)

Spring Break

Seems like it gets earlier every year... but it doesn't, I checked the calendar.

Our school district is on a modified 9-2 schedule where the kids go for 9 weeks out for 2 weeks and get 8 weeks for summer. It works great except for when mom forgets break is coming. LOL

Softball season is well underway. Britt is loving it although she's only played one game since she is on the JV squad. It will probably get better and we do have more JV games in the schedule.

At the moment everybody else is calm. We had the elementary school kids parent teacher conferences last Thursday and 2 out of 3 are doing great. The 3rd one needs to try more but is doing good. I suppose we all go through those times when we just want to get by instead of doing our best. Middle School has their conferences report card day... LOL

Our current project at home is building our barn (read storage shed)... we were hoping to work on it this weekend but it appears that the weather may hold us off. It's suppose to be cold and rainy. We are also expanding our garden and hope to get it prepped by next weekend. That way once the freeze dangers are gone we can get to planting the garden.

Um...um.... good

yummy apples.... actually not really.... these are baking apples... but still... the cobbler and the applesauce are gonna be delicious!

I can't wait to start getting on it.... gotta get my kitchen clean first though. :o)

This message was sent using the Picture and Video Messaging service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

To play video messages sent to email, QuickTime� 6.5 or higher is required. Visit www.apple.com/quicktime/download to download the free player or upgrade your existing QuickTime� Player. Note: During the download process when asked to choose an installation type (Minimum, Recommended or Custom), select Minimum for faster download.

What's for Dinner?

Squash, tomatoes and fresh garlic sauteed in extra virgin olive oil.

yummy!

This message was sent using the Picture and Video Messaging service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

To play video messages sent to email, QuickTime� 6.5 or higher is required. Visit www.apple.com/quicktime/download to download the free player or upgrade your existing QuickTime� Player. Note: During the download process when asked to choose an installation type (Minimum, Recommended or Custom), select Minimum for faster download.

and the Lord blessed us.

with 3 cucumbers..... I think we have 2 different kinds....

This message was sent using the Picture and Video Messaging service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

To play video messages sent to email, QuickTime� 6.5 or higher is required. Visit www.apple.com/quicktime/download to download the free player or upgrade your existing QuickTime� Player. Note: During the download process when asked to choose an installation type (Minimum, Recommended or Custom), select Minimum for faster download.

So... I took pictures.

These are yesterday's pictures of the garden. The top right is a Better Boy tomato. It has been that big for a couple days now, just waiting for it to ripen. Next to that is my biggest cucumber... I have got to check the seed packet to remind myself the maturity. I am really hoping to be able to make some pickles this year with the recipe my grandmother gave me. I will share it when I make them. The next picture is of some of the sweet potato vines. This is my first year ever even thinking about growing sweet potatoes.

Second row... all the way on the right, that is one of my grape vines. We just planted them this year so we aren't really expecting grapes. I am more interested in them getting established and giving us beautiful grapes in the future. Next to the grape is a picture of my grape tomato. We have baby tomatoes! Next is my humongous squash plant that the most squash came off of yesterday.

Third row, my biggest Lemon Grass plant, I have 4. I planted them in containers around my patio because they chase away the mosquitoes. Plus they are great to use in cooking or tea. Next picture is my Cherry tomato plant and below it is the first pickings. The foliage is so think I didn't think there was anything there. Then teh last picture is my Roma Tomatoes. They look deformed.

Fresh from the garden

Okay.... we have our first squash. Now what do we do with it? LOL.... I am probably the only southerner around that never cared for squash. In this quest to eat healthier I will learn to love it though. I have about 8 cucumbers 4-6 inches long that are still on the vine.
Tomato wise I have 7 better boy tomatoes that are big and green. I have 10 romas that I think are bigger than they are suppose to be. The grape tomatoes are little bity and I think about 6-10 right now. I had some cherry tomatoes but I think somebody got them.

And my question of the week..... how do you know when sweet potatoes are ready?

Lemon Grass! Take that Mosquitoes!

So, in a last ditch effort last week I ran by the Plant Ranch in
Dickson, TN to see if they had any Lemon Grass. I have been told by
many that Lemon Grass is wonderful in chasing away the mosquitoes that
our blessed spring rains have brought us. Iwill not complain about the
rain given last year we had a significant drought. I just don't like
the may flies.

Anyhow. Plant Ranch had 5 lemon grass plants. I bought 4. Then
realized I didn't have a place to plant them considering they look
like grass and well... we let the girls cut the grass. We are so
blessed that they can help with the yard work. So after church Sunday
we ran to Lowe's and got some wood (and saved time by letting them cut
it.) and some top soil to build some planter boxes/beds.

Jeff did a WONDERFUL job and since we were planting them in Morning
sun/partial shade I threw in a Coleus too!.. Jeff made two boxes I got
one in the picture, but they are on either side of our patio. The
large pot on the corner of the patio has red vincas and spikes in it,
so that carries the grass theme a bit.

Day 1 of our 2008 Garden

This year is the first year of our garden. We didn't get to it last year because we were still getting settled in at the beginning of growing season. We are still not quite ready but were determined to grow at least some of our own food. So, we have planted tomatoes, bell peppers, potatoes, spinach, carrots, snap beans, sweet potatoes, cucumbers, squash, and one grape vine.

We also put up a net type fence around it hoping to keep the dog and kids out of it. Of course afterwards we found out mom and dad still have their 3 foot fence and posts. At least we have a back up plan now... LOL. We are hoping the dog behaves though because we would have to come up with a gate if we have to put up the metal fence.

Now I just need to weed out the flower beds and get that taken care of before this weekend so we can get the last bed mulched. I am thinking about talking Jeff into doing one more bed for a small herb/flower garden in the front yard. I may be asking too much though. :-)

Off for today though... Benji has his Echo today and then his OT appointment. This evening Allie has her track meet. It was postponed Friday due to the weather.