Our Dinner Garden

So it's finally begun.  Last night I took a basket out to the back garden to cut enough for salads for the hubs and I.  I even snuck over to Karlie's garden and picked a few pea pods to throw in there.  By the weekend, I know I'll be planning meals around what is ripe. 

Satisfaction is setting in. 

See the okra coming up on the left?  See my big beautiful tomatos?  There's also cabbage, peppers, yellow squash, zucchini, acorn squash, cucumbers (they are trying to take over!), lettuce, salad mix, spinach, and green beans.  Yum, yum, yum. 

See the big flowers in the back?  Yep, that is my sunflower patch that stretches about 150 feet - mixed with okra of course.  Who needs a privacy fence?

This is Karlie's garden.  It stretches the length of our back porch, maybe 3ft deep by 10ft.  We've already done 3 rounds of radishes for her, and here you can kind of see her pea plants and carrots coming up.  Nope, we don't really get peas - she picks them too fast for them to actually grow peas in the pod.  Such a hardship when your child wants to go outside and pick her own healthy snack, isn't it?

Tomato patch on the side of the house.  I've only got about 6 big plants now, but there are 12 more that are struggling to catch up.  Last year from this little patch alone we had tomatos until the end of October.  My fingers are crossed that they keep going!

My pitiful attempt at an edible landscape.  It just doesn't get enough light here!!!  Actually, parsley, peppers, squash and cucumbers are doing great.  Too bad that is only half of what I put in there!  I think that I'm going to go ahead and start more lettuce here, and see how it does.  No use not trying, is there?

So, now that I've shared what I've been woking on, I'd like to share what I've learned this year.  First, never plant cabbage seeds directly in the ground (well, it doesn't work well here), start them in something first.  Second, and most importantly, keep and boil egg shells with water to make your own fertilizer.  It is just as good, if not better than MiracleGro.  I know the hubs and I have never had results like we do in the back garden before!!!

Mommy's New Song

All my girls have a song.  Of course this started with Karlie, and in the pursuit of distraction, Maggie and Ella's songs developed as well.  The best part about everyone having their own "song" is that eveyone knows their own and feels super special when we sing them.  Here they are:

Karlie Bea, Karlie Bea, Karlie Bea's ......a......bumble.......bee......BZZZ(of course at this point she gets pinched).

Maggie May, Maggie May, you woke up bright eyed today...

Ella, Ella, you've got something to tell us.  Ella, Ella, you're going to wup all the fellas...

So, Karlie, being the musical little thing that she is, made up a song for me:

Mommy, Mom.  Mommy Mom.  Mommy Mom sings us songs.

How great is that????

Where's Aunt Suzie??

My Aunt Susan on my Dad's side came to visit recently.  She is one of those fearless people who travels all over the world, with no permanent address, following her hearts desire.  Luckily for me (and my wonderful husband) her heart's desire was to come to my house for a week and help with the baby train since she was not able to do so when they were born.  Lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky ME!!!!!!!!!!  So, I make a list of things I'd like to get done while she is here and anxiously waited her arrival.

Here she is with the twins.  As you can see, or may know, 2 active babies can be quite a harrowing experience.  Throw in the almost 3-year old and it can be down-right impossible to get anything done.  Karlie, who was introduced (again) to her Aunt as Aunt Susan, right away decided her name was Suzie and she was Karlie's friend.  Now of course, after hearing "Suzie, Suzie, where's Aunt Suzie" for a week, she will be forever coined Aunt Suzie at our house.  I may be wrong, but I think we were a little overwhelming those first couple of hours, but by the end of the day Aunt Suzie was the one all my girls wanted to impress, not Mommy (you other SAHMs know what a relief that is!)

ANYWAY, the point of all this story-telling is Aunt Suzie gave me a new found energy I realized I had been sorely lacking.  She re-newed my energy, my patience, and most of all, made me feel like a grown-up again.  Just having her here for those couple of days not only allowed me to finish putting in the gardens and the numerous other things I wanted to do for spring, but showed me to slow down and really take the time to enjoy our time now.  On top of all of that, it made me realize how very alike we are - strange how that can be when you only see someone a few times a year (if you're lucky). 

So, Aunt Suzie, I just want you to know that laundry and dusting were on my list today, and since I vacuumed too, I put that on my list and crossed it off and thought of you.

We miss you so much!!!

Updates

So, I finally have a computer that works.  Been some trouble in that department.  I have to say that it was incredibly frustrating to keep paying that internet bill too, when it was absolutely not being utilized.  It did make me realize that I am overwhelmingly happy when I do not have to do some spreadsheet for my husband or any of the other ten million things that we all use a computer for on a daily basis.  I think that technology is great, but wow it adds an un-needed stress to life at times.

The girls are all doing wonderful.  Maggie and Ella are BUSY!  They clap and blow kisses, play peek-a-boo, try to take that first step and get way too excited and fall.  Maggie loves music, dancing, singing and playing on her piano.  Ella is my athlete - she will chase a ball for hours, and she pushes herself to the limit physically as much as possible just to see what will happen.

Karlie is in the "Why" stage.  I have to say that this is the best stage yet.  I know people get annoyed with this one, but it is absolutely my favorite.  You can control the direction of the conversation, the baby is learning, and you don't have to hear "no, I don't want to!" all day long.

My gardens are all planted.  For those of you that don't know, I have a horrible aversion to staying inside all day long, and now that the weather is beautiful I am in heaven.  I have been waiting and waiting and waiting to get them in.  I have an edible garden in front, my tomato patch on the side of the house, a large garden out back, and another small one beside the porch for radishes, carrots, peas, etc.  Actually, we are already on the second batch of radishes which I continue planting all summer because Karlie eats them so fast.  And I think that I've decided to do another sunflower patch along our back fence just because.  But finally, I can come inside with dirt on my hands and sore muscles and know that I've actually accomplished something.  Plus, what it is about making things grow, and more importantly growing your own food, that is so satisfying? 

All the babies are so happy too.  They eat grass and dirt and love exploring eveything they see.  Karlie has always been an outside girl, so she jumps out of bed ready to go outside every day.

Life is good at our house.

Mommy's Bandaids

The babies and Karlie play all the time now.  It is heart-warming and nerve-racking at the same time.  The babies follow her all over the house, and she herds them together when the mood suits her. 

Sunday the babies are creeping all over the house and end up in the bathroom.  So Karlie runs in and shuts the door, trapping them all in.  The hubs and I decide that until someone starts crying it should be fine because there are child locks on everything.  Well, so we thought.

So Karlie, being the super tall, inquisitive thing she is, decided she could climb up on the toilet and grab things out of the cupboard above the toilet.  Well, she found "Mommy's bandaids."  Yes, that it how I've been explaining away my little gift each month, and up until now it has worked great.

Well, Karlie decided that Maggie and Ella needed bandaids.  Lots and lots of bandaids.  Bandaids on their heads, Bandaids on their legs and arms.  Karlie herself had bandaids on as well. 

So we opened the bathroom door to discover 3 babies, all covered in "bandaids" sitting talking to each other, having a great time.  Karlie looks up and says, "I fixed our owies Mommy, look!"

The hubs did not think that it was as funny as I did.  It reminded me of that email of the little boy naked covered in pads that went around years ago.  I was on the floor laughing it was so funny.  Personally, I think that it was just one small glimpse into having a house full of girls.

So, we let the babies out of the bathroom, also known as bandaid hell, seemingly unharmed by their sister's doctoring, and of course Mommy's bandaids have now been moved.

Creepers

It's official...We've got creepers.  Not slow, make your way towards an object like a baby just learning to crawl; but go all out, screaming for joy at our new found talent creepers. 

Maggie's been crawling for month's now.  She did the rock back and forth, scoot, normal learn to crawl thing.  Then once she learned, she would go, go, go...then lose her balance and end up on her back.  This was a serious problem for her as she was so intent on crawling, she didn't think to just roll over to get going again.  Instead she laid floundering on the floor until she got help.

Ella just started crawling last week.  It was a Friday night, and after weeks of watching her big sister and somehow doing some strange acrobatic roll, twist, and scoot to get where she was going, she finally decided she would crawl.  We rolled a ball past her, and she took off like she's been crawling for weeks. 

Now both girls are pulling up, taking steps, and generally into everything.  Maggie still takes the time to take a step, do something new and see what will happen; and Ella just decides she can do something and does it. 

Strange how different babies learn, isn't it?

A Big Thank You

So, I've been out of the loop for a bit - been sick, crazy busy, blah, blah, blah.  Trying to get back on schedule, deal with a whole new world of creeping babies, get our old house rented, etc, etc. 

But I need to take a moment to say thank you to all the fam in the 'ham. 

This past weekend the hubs and I were so very overwhelmed with all of the family coming together, dropping what they were doing, and helping us out.  We ended up packing up the baby train to basically clean up, paint, replace and fix everything our old renters tore up in our house in order to get it rented again in as little time possible.  In doing that, we needed HELP - help with babies, help with the house, a place to stay, blah, blah, blah.  You get the picture. 

ANYWAY, everyone came together to help, we got most of it done, and hopefully the house will be filled with "good" renters this time. 

So, Angela, Kelly, Nancy, Alan, Dad, Aunt Susan and Joephus - Thank you so much for all of your help.  You have no idea how much we appreciate it.

It is times like these that make you feel truly blessed.