Easter and gardening

Happy Easter a few days late! I hope all of you had a blessed one. We had a really wonderful day. The weather was supposed to be terrible, but it ended up being beautiful and in the 70's. We went to an Easter breakfast at church, and the food was SO good. It was pot-luck style, and everyone brought either an egg casserole or a fruit salad. They also had pancakes, sausage, and donuts (Of those 3 things, I only ate the sausage). Then we had a wonderful Easter service. After church, we went to Jeff's parents for lunch. Then we went outside and played softball in the yard with Evie. It was a lot of fun, and so nice to be outside in the beautiful weather. Here is a picture of us from Easter morning.














We are on day 135 of homeschooling (we go 180 days). It is going well, and I am still planning on homeschooling through the summer a few days a week to get our days all in. Evie loves to pretend to be Mary Ingalls (she can't be Laura, she informed me, because she is blonde). She dresses up like this a lot for homeschooling :). Here she is reading in her Mary outfit.




















We have been learning about China and Tibet for the past 2 weeks in homeschooling. I got a huge laugh when I was showing Evie a palace that was built in Tibet in the 14th century for the Dalai Lama. The book explained that the people of Tibet looked at the Dalai Lama as a spiritual leader. Evie gave me this crazy look and said, "It isn't a real llama is it?" I could not stop laughing.

I'm getting really excited about planting my garden. I think I am the only person I know how plans out her garden on graph paper! Lol! See??



















Over the weekend, Jeff dug out a large area against one of our fences. He put landscape bricks around it, and we are going to plant strawberries. We bought 50 plants. 25 of them are everbearing, and 25 are junebearing. I can't wait! We also bought asparagus, rhubarb, and grapes. We are going to put a grape arbor up against the garage wall. We are planning to plant dwarf apple and pear trees too, along with possibly a few peach or cherry trees. I figure if I can't live in the country, I will bring the country to me :).

My seedlings are doing well. They are growing faster as they get more established. Here is the setup Jeff made for me that we keep in the laundry room in the basement. The one grow light is raised up on one side because the seedlings are getting so tall! There are 4 trays total, with about 96 seedlings! One tray is nothing but herbs. I'm also growing a tray of herbs upstairs, along with some ground cherries. I'm going to be busy once planting season comes!














Here is one tray of my seedlings up close. These are mostly tomatoes, and broccoli. I can't wait to plant them all!! I'm believing God for an amazing garden this year! Last year I prayed that God would bless my garden with abundant produce, and He did more than I could ever hope for. I'm believing for the same thing or more this year!