Blisters, Buff Arms, and Bargains

Saturday was a great day. I needed a great day.

Jeremiah couldn’t come home this weekend, which sucked, but it also meant that I got to sleep in uninterrupted, which was very nice.

I had asked Rachel the night before if she wanted to go to the farm and garden with me and I was psyched when she excitedly agreed.

Rachel and I spent 3 hours in the glorious weather digging trenches to create raised beds for our garden plot. It was hard work, but it felt wonderful. We weren’t sure what we’d be working on so we didn’t bring any gloves, which led to a nice big blister on my right thumb, but the manual labor made me feel strong and capable, something I feel the opposite of quite often.

We were hoping to get most of our planting done yesterday, but it was rainy and COLD again, so the planting has again been delayed. Friends of my down south are already harvesting some crop for goodness’ sake!!! Can’t we at least get ours in the ground?

We are still figuring out what veggies are going to go in our plots. Here’s what I’ve got so far: Green and red peppers, jalapenos, acorn squash, summer squash, water melon (the little kind), cantaloupe, cucumbers, zucchini, peas, lettuce, and ???? So many choices, such a short growing season. Any suggestions?

Okay, so on the way home from gardening Rachel and I stopped at a multi-family garage sale and I found some incredible treasures including a brand new “Cars” comforter for Jeremiah, a beautiful wooden marble maze (which Gabe has not been able to put down), a Carrom game set (a childhood favorite), VHS copies of “The King and I” and Shirley Temple’s “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farms”, some Christmas music, a cute outfit for a special little friend, a beautiful platter and ceramic hot pad thingy,  and a playstation game. ALL FOR $21!!! YAY!!!!

Kaleb was very proud of “his little bargain shopper”.

I am really loving garage sales this year, especially since I have purpose now in the things I am looking for. I love being able to look through the kid’s clothes and actually find things that will work for our little guy. It’s a joy that I didn’t know I was missing. Now, if  I could just find a decent couch.

4 comments so far (is that a lot?) | Tags: bargain shopping, Gardening

5 Quick Takes Friday

7 Quick Takes Friday is a blog carnival hosted at www.conversiondiary.com . Head over there to read more great quick takes.

—1—

I am psyched about getting to do some gardening tomorrow! The weather is supposed to be cool, but not raining, so maybe we will actually get some of our sprouts into the ground. The temperature has been dropping below freezing at night all week, so planting has been necessarily delayed.

Jeremiah will be so excited to get to go play on the farm again. He really gets along with our garden host’s girls well, and there may even be two boys his own age there tomorrow. YAY!

—2—

I was in a huge panic Wednesday when I came home and discovered Pe’s eyes swollen shut from an allergic reaction to bug bites. No one was in the house and there was no note. AHHHH!!! Found out later that Rachel had put anti-biotic ointment (what???) on her eyes and that she didn’t think it was that big of deal so she went to a coworker’s son’s baseball game. Gabe was sanding the fence. Anywho, Pe could have gone into anaphylactic shock very quickly, but thankfully it was only her eyes that swelled. I gave her some benadryl and put hydrocortisone on her bites and she is now fully un-swelled.

For your information and for the safety of all our beloved poochies, please read up on canine first-aid. You never know when you might need to use it.

—3—

We have been dealing with some major honesty issues with our eldest, but we hopefully had a breakthrough last night. He actually displayed some emotion, anger even, for a split second! But then it was gone and we were back to starring at a stoic, blank, unfeeling face. I am hoping he follows my suggestion for getting garage done today so he can earn some mega points.

—4—

I made name meaning posters for both of the boys. Each poster has their name, their name in Hebrew, and the meaning of their name. The background is an artistic interpretation of their names in Hebrew lettering. I was rather impressed with myself, and Kaleb was impressed too. I printed them on photo paper so they would be vibrant and put them in some beautiful frames I found for CHEAP. They are now displayed on our mantle and they look FANTASTIC!  I was very excited about this project. Probably because it is a type of nesting, making our family feel like a family.

Anywho, I am also working on doing a similar project making posters of different encouraging scripture verses. Kaleb has been very determined to surround Gabe with our vision and God’s vision for him, and that gave me the idea for the posters. I am using some great stock photo backgrounds that I found on http://www.sxc.hu/ . Fun fun!!!

—5—

We are planning a family trip to a nearby city to do some clothes shopping. I am so excited!!! I need new clothes very badly and Gabe has a clothing allowance to spend. We were planning on going tomorrow, but Gabe’s recent behavior has not been conducive to fun family outings. I am waiting to hear from Miah’s caseworker to find out whether he can come too. We will be staying in a very nice hotel with a family suite (5 beds) and a pool with a water slide for CHEAP because my hubby stays there so often for work. Even though I am heavier than I would like right now, I am still ecstatic to get some new clothes.

Okay, so that’s five. It’s all I got right now. Maybe I will think of two more to add later.

1 comment so far | Tags: Gardening, parenting, the critters

A Gardening Opportunity

A local church has opened a community garden. The coolest thing is the garden is going to be only a few miles from our house! Miracle of miracles!!! A family owns a farm and they are going to be the facilitators of the garden. Participating families are being asked to contribute $15 (total) and work at  least 1 day a week to share the work load. At the end we will all share the crop. I am SOOO excited!!! I have always wanted a garden but have not had the time or equipment to get one started. I am also really excited to get to work alongside other families. The main work day is going to be on Saturdays, so Jeremiah and I will have something to do while the others are still sleeping.

Sadly I have to inform him that Naia (our black and white kitty) ate “Bob”. His precious tomato plant.

So far the garden veggies are going to include corn, beans, zucchini, three types of winter squash, cukes, peas (all 3 kinds) onions, potatoes, broccoli, salad greens, cooking greens, carrots, beets, cabbage, tomatoes and peppers. Also watermelon and cantaloupe! YAY!!!

Anywho, that’s my happiness for the day.

1 comment so far | Tags: Gardening