Tag Archives: love

May 23, 2011 · 10:24 pm

Gardens Grow With Love!!!

I love when it is time to garden again. I enjoy having a garden, tending the garden, photographing the garden, and best of all harvesting the garden. This is my second season using the two large raised beds my hubby built me last year. We have had so much rain that it has been hard to get things started but we did get the soil turned over and most of the veggies planted. I have a few more to put in and some patio tomatoes to plant since I accidentally bought too many tomato plants. One can never have too many tomatoes so I bought some patio containers and will grow them there.

I also am growing my herbs in containers on the deck. Last year I had my basil, parsley, peppermint, spearmint and oregano in the garden but this year I put it in pots. I am still in the process of transplanting the perennial and spreading mint from the garden to the containers because of the rain thwarting my best efforts. The local nursery did not have the zucchini and yellow squash plants in because of the rain, so I will have to try next weekend for them. I did manage to plant a variety of tomatoes like big boys, beefsteak, early girls, cherry, yellow heirloom, and probably at least another variety I am forgetting. I did not plant any hot peppers this year because I did last year and my husband who they were for did not eat them but ate the sweet peppers. So now I have a great variety of sweet peppers like sweet cherry peppers, sweet banana peppers, and a variety of purple, green and red bell peppers. I have purple and white eggplants, cucumbers, butternut squash, jack be littles, Howden pumpkins, blue lake green beans and sugar snap peas.

In the herb department I planted rosemary, cilantro, oregano, sweet mint, peppermint, spearmint, basil, thyme, dill, lavender, Italian parsley, and probably a couple of others that I am forgetting right now.

I am planting rhubarb for the first time this year, and we are starting a variety of grapes as well. We would have everything planted if the rain would stop but we are doing what we can and we are not that behind.

Delicious grapes

Christmas Day!

Well, Christmas Day was a blast. The little ones were definitely all aglow when they saw what Santa left under the tree. We, left out some homemade cookies and milk in front of the fireplace for Santa. The big kids got some nice gifts as well, most of which they opened on Christmas Eve (no fair). Alexandra got a huge bottle of Chanel Chance, Yankee Candles, Footie PJs, Charlie Brown Christmas hardcover special edition book, and a lot of clothes, plus she is getting new tires for her Rav 4. Ray got new tires for his car (boy were they hard to wrap), lots of clothes, leather gloves, and other stuff. Michael got a ton of clothes, hats, gloves, DJ Hero set with the turntable for PS3, some video games for the whole family for the wii, the dance ones that are great for exercise. Ethan loved the workbench with real working tool sounds and effects, they both loved their Bruder trucks, Zhu Zhu pets were another hit with the kids and dogs alike. Believe it or not the little ones got so wrapped up in the presents they opened we still have wrapped presents under the tree which they open everyday. The other big hit was their acoustic guitars and Singamajigs. Ethan got the Tag Junior reader and books and he really likes that. Santa brought Mommy a new speedlight for her camera, an extra camera battery, and this neat camera lens travel mug that looks just like a camera lens, bracelet and necklace. Daddy got a Dallas Cowboys throw, Superman PJs (lol), the new Jimi Hendrix box set (West Coast Seattle Boy), new sweat pants, a mousepad of a favorite picture of him and the little guys, and things I cannot even remember. Santa also stuffed all of our stockings with goodies as well. Later in the evening we had a great dinner with a delicious beef roast with organic carrots and fingerling potatoes, a roasted turkey breast, and lots of sweet goodies for dessert. Later in the evening our cousins stopped by to visit with their two kids. It was a very long but very blessed day to spend with family and enjoy the greatest gifts of all, each other and love.

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Tagged as children, Christmas Day, Family, food, love, Presents, santa

June 6, 2010 · 5:17 am

Embracing Dandelions!

All Winter Ethan has been waiting for the “wishy flowers” aka Dandelions. He has tried to blow on many other variety of flowers but nothing gives him the satisfaction of seeing the little seeds take to the air with a simple puff of his own air. Little children love to cause a big change. This is the reason they love to throw rocks in the water because they can cause such a big reaction. Well, when that first Dandelion went to seed and he saw them again he was elated and spent a great deal of time going from one to the other and spreading their seeds. Now, many people would be mortified to find these “weeds” on their lawns, in fact they labor over eradicating them from their property. Not here, here we embrace Dandelions.

I am proud of our natural, organic, chemical free lawn and that comes with Dandelions. I cannot fathom how people put pesticides and chemicals all over the lawn that their children and pets walk and play on. I cannot even understand companies with the name ChemLawn. I mean really…let’s just pour poison all over our lawn. I know that my son revels in the Dandelions and that a perfectly manicured weed free lawn would never bring him that joy. Let’s face it, if Dandelions were hard to grow then everyone would want them. We however will just leave them and when we cut the grass they are gone for a few days and that is okay with us. After all God created them and we know he does not make mistakes. At our house we will continue embracing Dandelions.