Wednesday Night

I have so much I want to write about – parenting, materialism, living like Jesus, etc. – but I have a terrible migraine tonight, so it’s just not going to happen.

However, I can be rather non-profound and show you pictures of our plants and garden.

These are all my wave petunias grown from seed this year.  I was a little late getting them out, but the really perk up the front yard.

 

 

My lavender plant is very small, but coming along.

 

  

Mint (AKA – the Audrey II)  It’s growing like crazy.  I’ve already dried some leaves and am making mint extract.

Basil – It’s starting to flower, so I’m glad I’ve already got the leaves off and they’re almost dry.

Dill – I got lots of dill, which is good because I like it in scrambled eggs.

 

Catnip – I’ve already pulled off leaves to dry, but I didn’t know how pretty the flowers are.

 

 

Oregano – It was planted later than everything else, so it’s still catching up.

 

These are the hanging cukes and tomatoes.  We’ve had several cucumbers already, but the tomatoes are still green.  The Topsy Turvy bag does work better than the ice cream bucket and I think it’s because the depth of the bag allows for better root system development.  In any case, they’re growing.  Thankfully, the kids love cucumbers and tomatoes.

 

Our Square Foot Gardens were invaded by rabbits.  I don’t know if you can see, but there are holes in several of the carrot squares.  We’ve put the cages back up to protect them.  I actually had broccoli growing this year, however all but one of the broccoli plants had been eaten down to the ground.  That rabbit was sure busy.  We’ll be getting broccoli from the CSA, so it’s not the end of the world.

That’s what’s up in our gardens.  Thankfully, they don’t require much care.  What all have you been up to outside this summer?

7 Quick Takes Friday – July 16, 2010

 

1. I turned 43 on Wednesday.  My dear family got me books, books, and more books!!  And a Dairy Queen ice cream cake!  Does life get any better?

2. About a week before we left for camp this year, our cats had a little stressful event.  A neighborhood cat came up to our screen door and our two gray cats got all stressed out, but they started to take it out on each other after we closed the door.  They were screaming, hissing, and bowing up like we’d never seen!  We separated all three cats for several days, rotating them so that everyone got some time in the basement with the food and litter box as well as time in the other rooms where they could smell the other cats.  We also got a Feliway diffuser which diffuses “happy cat pheromones” into the air.  A good friend who is also a cat person fed them while we were at camp so they could also get some attention while we were gone.  Since we have been home, there have been just normal kittie tussles and no screaming fits!

3. More about cats – It does appear that Silver has reasserted herself as the dominant cat.  Sophie had been dominant for a number of years.  I think, though, that Silver is telling the other cats, “You don’t EVEN want me to go all crazy on you again!!”

4. I’m drying some of the herbs that I’ve been growing.  I said that the oven smelled herbacious, but PWM said it was herbalicious!  Either way, it smells good.

5. I think some of the recent headaches have been related to neck pain from the bad mattresses at camp, so I’ve been using muscle relaxants, ice, and my TENS unit.  Today, I finally felt better on that regimen.

6. We bought paint for the dining room today and I painted a little section of wall.  I’m going to love it!!  And the name of the paint color is “sensual”!

7. Grandma is getting her cottage next door all set up.  She has most of the furniture that she needs.  She puts some flowers in her front flowerbed earlier this week.  We’ve had her over for dinner several times this week.  I think this is going to work out well.

Check out 7 Quick Takes Friday to see what others are up to!

Gardening Update – June 12. 2010

It’s been raining just about all week which has given me migraines all week, but it means that I haven’t had to water the plants.  Of course, I’m starting to wonder if the animals are going to start walking by two by two!

Here’s what we’ve got right now:

Tomato plants - Two are growing in TopsyTurvy planters and two in ice cream buckets using the same technique.  There doesn’t seem to be any difference in outcome so far.

Cucumbers - These are the new cukes, not the ones that I started back in April that died.  They are growing in TopsyTurvy planters and seem pretty happy so far.

Petunias - These are all going out in the front planter.  I decided to plant them in these round and rectangular planters because they’re easier to deal with, but their final home will be out front.  I’m a little bummed that I didn’t start my petunias earlier because there are petunias blooming all over the place and mine aren’t.  Lesson learned – order seeds earlier next year.  Note – the little tiny plants are so small because Park Seed shipped those seeds several weeks later than the first set.  They’d sure better be pretty!

Oregano – I have more oregano that I know what to do with!  These two pots are the ones that I’m going to keep.  I have some starters still inside just in case these don’t make it!

Catnip – The plan is to dry the leaves and make knitted cat toys for my lazy cats.  And maybe Sophie will play with cat toys instead of trying to kill Sassy.

Spearmint – I think this is the same stuff as the garden mint that I had in Kentucky where it became the Audrey 2 on the side of my house!  Up here, though, it is definitely an annual.  I had a sprig last year from Grammy’s house in Baton Rouge and it grew crazy in a pot, but did NOT come back this year.  I don’t think it likes the below zero temps that we get around here.  Wonder why?

Basil – Looks beautiful!  I think Rosie Girl and I will get some very nice leaves from here.

Dill – Also looking good.  I love dill on my scrambled eggs.

Chives – This grows as an annual in our front bed (yes, the front bed needs to be weeded.)  Unfortunately, I keep forgetting to harvest the chives each year so it bolts.  But, it’s pretty when it does that, so I just enjoy the flowers.  We’re getting a chive plant with our first CSA box so I’ll try to remember to harvest the chives from that one.

 

Lavender – this is my front planter lavender plant.  I’ve also got some growing from seed that aren’t quite ready to put into pots.  I’ve never harvested the flowers, but I do want to because they smell so delicious.  In any case, they are lovely.

Yarrow – I love these yellow flowers, but they need to be pruned.  I keep planning to prune in the fall and then say that they will look pretty with snow on them so I don’t prune.  But, we get six feet of snow right there.  I should prune them.

 

Salvia – This had purple flowers earlier in the spring and was beautiful.  It also needs to be pruned.  I’m not really much of a gardener, am I?

Green beans – these suckers are just taking off like gangbusters!

        

Carrots – you can just see the little sprouts sticking their little heads up.

Broccoli – In the middle of each square is either one or two little plants.  That’s the broccoli.  The rest is weeds.  If it ever quits raining, I’ll weed.  When the sprouts are big enough to see, I’ll mulch.

Strawberries – Rosie Girl has some strawberries!!  I planted some flowers in some of the other squares, but Rosie Girl’s friend has offered her some strawberry plants, so I’ll let her have the squares for strawberries.  If it ever quits raining, we’ll weed and mulch.

Raspberries – Looking good!

That’s what’s growing right now.  I’ll get the hang of this gardening thing one day.  And if I ever find the Morning Glory seed packet, we’ll grow those, too!

So, what’s in your garden!

7 Quick Takes Friday – June 4, 2010

 

1. Wild Man has been to see the Blue Angels and the USS Alabama so far on his trip.  What a week!!  He video calls us pretty much every night if he has internet access.  He’s so excited and having a great time, but things are going to be a little more sedate as they visit family until they get to the Alamo in a week or so.

2. Rosie Girl has finished school this week!  Yesterday, she went to the High School picnic and got her yearbook and had it signed.  Today, she spent the whole day at school, going to her two classes and then spending the rest of the day going to classes with a friend.  Apparently, lots of folks were encouraging her to go to school full-time next year, but she likes her homeschooling schedule and is only going to stick with just Art and Choir at school with all of her other subjects at home.

3. I dissected a fetal pig earlier this week and demonstrated it to Rosie Girl as her final Biology activity.  She did the other dissections on her own, but the fetal pig dissection requires more skill and time, so I did the actual work and then showed her everything and we discussed the structures and their function as well as relating it back to humans.  Definitely my favorite part of the course!!

4. Yesterday, a friend and I drove to see the Milwaukee Public Museum’s Dead Sea Scrolls and the Bible exhibit.  I can’t believe that the exhibit has been there since January and we just found out about it this week.  Sunday is the last day of the exhibit, so I had to go this week.  It was amazing, and I will devote an entire post to it later this weekend, so stay tuned!

5. This weekend is Rosie Girl’s dance recital weekend.  She has had rehearsal every day except Wednesday and the performances are tomorrow and Sunday.  Busy weekend, but it’s worth it!

6. Sunday is my and PWM’s 18th wedding anniversary!!  Yes, we were married on D-day.  It’s hard to forget your anniversary if you get married on a day like that!  We will probably end up celebrating later in the week because of the aforementioned dance recital, but that’s fine with me.  It’s the previous 18 years that are important!!

7. Next week, I plan to purchase paint and start painting the dining room and kitchen!!  Rosie Girl has said that she will help.  We’ll be eating sandwiches for a week or so while we get it done!!

That’s what’s been up here.  Check out 7 Quick Takes Friday to see what others have been up to!!

What I’m Going To Do During My Summer Vacation

I get a summer vacation this year!!  How cool is that?!  Wild Man and Rosie Girl wanted their school year to coincide with the public school year, so they had fewer weeks off during the school year and we had to be more disciplined.  We gave up some of our relaxed approach to school in order to have an almost completely free summer.  (Almost completely free because Rosie Girl still has to finish her Algebra 1 course.)

So, what am I going to do?  Wild Man is off with Grandma and will start his trip from Tampa to California on Tuesday.  Rosie Girl has plans to do Algebra, write a novel, and hang out with friends.  Otherwise, we have a week at Family Camp planned and another week when my family will come up for a week in August.  Well, being who I am, I have to have a plan.  And, I do indeed have a plan!!

1. Paint the dining room and kitchen blue.  I’m hoping to get Rosie Girl and her friend to help me with this job.

2. Take the baskets off the top of the kitchen cabinets.

3. Bring the china up from the basement and put it into canvas or quilted cases and put it up on top of the cabinets.  I plant to keep a few pieces out of the cases and set up as display pieces.

4. Clean closets and the basement and give excess stuff to Goodwill.  (I may need to chain my books to the shelves because PWM gets a little zealous when he starts clearing stuff out!)

5. Knitting projects – hats for a friend who’s undergoing chemo, a summer sweater for myself, a summer sweater for my mom, start Christmas presents (no, it’s not too early – I gave my mother-in-law her Christmas present this year in March!)

6. Scan photos from my photo albums into the computer and then copy the photos onto disk.

7. Try to keep my plants from dying.

8. Lots of hanging out with my Rosie Girl.

That’s the plan.  Most of the schoolwork for next year is generally planned, so I just need to order it.  I’m not going to actually order it until July, so I’m not going to spend the whole summer planning the school year.  I actually want to enjoy my non-headache days.

Of course, the biggest problem is going to be that Wild Man isn’t around!!  Last night, we tried to do a cyber-hug over Skype.  It’s just not the same as in person.  Oh, well, I look forward to seeing all of his pictures and video-calling him all the same.  It’s going to be a good summer anyway!!

Do you have any exciting plans for your summer?!  Anything you’re particularly looking forward to?

7 Quick Takes Friday – May 28, 2010

I’m so glad to be home!  I had a great time visiting my parents, but it was HOT in Florida, and I was missing my hubby and Rosie Girl.

1. While I was in Florida, we decided to get Wild Man his own laptop.  PWM and Wild Man set up Skype, so we’ve been having video calls with Wild Man once or twice a day since I got home.  I’m going to seriously miss my Wild Man, but being able to video call him every few days will help.

2. Today is Day 10 without a migraine!!  WooHoo!!  Here’s praying that I can have a Day 11!!

3. Rosie Girl had her choir concert on the Friday while I was gone to Florida, so I was seriously bummed that I missed it.  PWM did videotape it, so I get to see it.  The real highlight, though, was that Rosie Girl won the “Most Promising Freshman” award!!  Congratulations, Rosie Girl!!

4. When it cools off in a couple of hours, I’m going to get some seeds planted in the garden and maybe start transplanting some of my seedlings.  I still don’t have a green thumb, but I’m making progress!

5. We’ve joined a CSA this year, so we’ll be getting fresh veggies every week from a local farm.  I’m hoping to broaden the spectrum of veggies that I eat.  I’m sure Rosie Girl and PWM are going to be thrilled with all the new veggies!

6. Next week is the dress rehearsal week for Dance Recital.  Rosie Girl is in the advanced tap dance and the Daddy-Daughter dance, and the week before recital is busy and fun.

7. Next week is also Rosie Girl’s last week of school, so she has finals at school for choir and art and will be dissecting a fetal pig here at home with me along with finishing up the rest of her work.  Next Thursday is the high school picnic after school, so Rosie Girl is going to attend that as well.  It’s been fun to see her get involved in school this year!

Check out 7 Quick Takes Friday to see what’s been going on with others!!