tomatoes

Peeking at our baby cucumbers

Summer Gardening 2011

This gardening season has proven to be the most challenging yet! We are in a severe drought here and several days of record setting heat. Lets not forget the wind, I have heard from several locals that this is the worst they have seen the weather here in a long time. Mother nature is "schooling" me on not having a perfect growing season, which in all honesty has brought me to tears. Our tomato plants suffered 2 weeks of transplant shock, very little rain, lots of intense wind and heat. The leaves are curled up, some plants look stunted in growth, and the tomato production is slow. We suspect some herbicide damage has occured, but what can you do when you live in an area where farming is the way of life.  Our 13 yr old son, Jacob, planted sweetcorn this year and it close to being chopped down...but he is WAY too much like his mama and is holding out hope for a few ears of delicious corn. Jayden planted sunflowers, he has one that has survived the weather extreme's and grasshoppers ( I hate those things!!!). Damion has two grape-tomato plants, one is definitely doing better then the other; they are loaded with tomatoes though! My greenbeans are a bust, but I can't bring myself to giving up on them just yet. Yesterday the boys were peeking around the garden and discovered we finally have several cucumbers, and I discovered we have 20 plants. So if they produce well we will be making freezer pickles to enjoy. We have sat in our backyard several nights praying for rain, watching storms build in the evening sky only to have them move right around us. I have discovered that city water just doesn't give the garden all its nutrients, makes you wonder why humans drink the stuff!!! I have also added in some butterfly gardens, butterfly bushes and a waterlily in my rockgarden pond, they are struggling too. I have found that 'agastache' grows fairly well in my yard, it is also known as hummingbird mint. If you gently touch it you get a "minty" smell, so maybe next Spring I will add in some more varieties of it.

From City Mouse to Country Mouse

I  finally have some time to share this story on my blog, so here it goes! We recently took a mini vacay over Spring Break and celebrated our youngest son's 6th birthday in the city. I was uber excited to get out of the small town where there is nothing to do and is often referred to as hickville in my house. We loaded up our suburban with overnight bags and hit the road. Our first stop was the Cosmosphere in Hutchinson,Ks...Damion's birthday surprise from mom and dad. We had a lot of fun viewing the museum and of course taking lots of pictures, a hobby I am sure my guys wish I would get rid of!!!!! After the museum we decided to go ahead and drive into Wichita and find a motel room, so we could get to the Sedgwick county Zoo early in the morning...this was the surprise for all the boys. We got to Wichita and quickly was overwhelmed by the traffic....and realized we had no clue where we were even at! My husband kept up with the traffic pretty good, while I sat in the passenger seat shaking and holding my breath everytime somebody whizzed out in front of us. After two rounds of driving on Kellogg and a few near accidents I was honestly ready to click my heels three times and start saying "there is no place like home!" I decided to text Becky and get directions, her and Danny both saved the day by giving us directions to the zoo. We then decided after over 2 hours of  lost driving we better get a motel room. Of course we forgot that the NCAA women's tournament was in town and the nicer motels were full. We were directed to the Best Western Airport Inn and got a room. As we were unloading bags to our room we noticed security guards patrolling our hallway, my husband asked the guards what was going on and we were informed that they had rooms with individuals being deported back to Mexico. In all honesty my husband shouldn't of told me that!!!!!! After over an hour of reassuring I settled down and decided we can do this! We ordered pizza from Pizza Hut and started having some fun by going downstairs to the conference room where the game room was and the pool. This place was packed with softball tournament groups! I reminded my boys to use their manners and to be polite, but with every "please","thank you", "excuse me", and smile I began to think we were speaking a foreign language. The next morning we went to the zoo and had an amazing time, despite the rain and chilly temps. This experience in the city put many things into perspective, you see for quite awhile I just didn't feel like I belonged. After being thrusted out of my comfort zone on several levels I now can say this is MY HOME. I love laid back lifestyle, sitting on my bench and drinking my morning coffee, enjoying the quiet evenings and embracing all the sounds of nature, watching sunsets that take your breath away, random conversations with neighbors or people walking by, my kids riding their bikes and letting their creativity flow on a warm summer's day. Yes, I AM a country mouse, the city mouse has been long gone for quite awhile and that is OK with me!

Bread + Butter: Strawberry Strudel

Bread + Butter: Strawberry Strudel

Bread + Butter: Peep S'mores

Bread + Butter: Peep S'mores

Mom vs Kids 2011

I decided to go ahead and start watering flowerbeds this evening, while getting things hooked up I just couldn't resist starting a water fight with my boys! My 8 year old,Jayden, "double dared" me to get him wet, not realizing I had my secret weapon......THE FIRE FIGHTER NOZZLE.....this thing shoots water over 100 feet!!! Once I revealed it he went screaming across the yard, he realized mom already had this won! My youngest, Damion, came outside to join in on the fun, and he couldn't run away fast enough. Laughter and squeals of delight filled the Spring evening air...ohh how I have missed these moments! The funniest thing of all was watching Damion try to out run mom and his pants quickly falling to his ankles, in about 2 seconds a stark-white bare bottom was revealed to our neighbors!!! Lol.

Welcome

I have finally gotten my blog up and running!!!! Look for some new posts soon!!!!