Going for the record

I think this is a record-breaking lack of blogging time for me. Wow, has it really been almost 4 months? Let's just say that I went through the worst blogger fatigue I have ever had. I have no desire whatsoever to talk about anything political, so I am happy to share about our life in 4 months :).

Despite the worst drought I have ever seen, God blessed us with a great garden. We had some crazy zucchini, and lots and lots of peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, beets, and beans. Evie had playdates and fun playing outside. She and SiSi went outside a lot together. This is what happens when I am not watching them play...

A little FYI...she sat there with the glasses on, just looking around like this was the most normal thing on earth, for about 15 minutes. I could not stop laughing.

Speaking of Miss Evie, she is getting quite talented at picture taking. I think she did a great self portrait. She looks so grown up!

 

My sister Julie and brother-in-law Steve flew in from Texas to visit us, and to surprise my parents for my Dad's 70th birthday. I hadn't seen my sister in 4 years, so there were a lot of tears when we first saw each other! My parents came over for what they thought was a dinner with just the 5 of us. They were so surprised when they saw Julie and Steve, that my Dad seemed dazed the rest of the night :).

 

 

We had such a nice time with Julie and Steve! They stayed a week with us, and we were so sad when they left. They are coming back into town tonight, and staying with us for 2 more weeks! I can't wait!!

 

A highlight of these past 4 months was a date weekend that Jeff surprised me with. We have very rarely gone somewhere without Evie, so it felt super foreign to me at first. We stayed at a really nice motel, then the next day we went to see my favorite comedian, Tim Hawkins! Jeff had gotten special tickets, so we were able to sit 3 rows from the stage. When he first came out on stage, he walked in the crowd and laid down in the laps of the people in front of us! It was pretty insane being that close to the stage, and so fun! 

 

 

There were 3 comedians total, so it was a night full of lots of laughs. It was awesome, and I laughed so hard that my face hurt afterwards!

 

 

Back on the home front. We have a new superhero. Wait! It's a bird! It's a plane! No it's...

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SuperZeke!!

 

 

He is trying to catch a toy in midair in this picture. My crazy cat has a jumping range of about 5 feet. It is insane how high he can jump! He is a little maniac cat. He runs around the house with his tail foofed, and he will run too fast and slide into the wall. He cracks us up on a daily basis. He and Daisy have become fast friends, and sometimes it is downright comical how they are with each other. One minute, they are fighting like crazy, and the next minute it is a kitty lovefest with them licking each other's faces. We find them laying together all the time. As you can tell, Zeke is far bigger than Daisy already. We think he may have some Norwegian Forest Cat in him. The breed gets to be about 20 pounds or more, so we think he is going to be a big guy!

 

We had quite a scare about a month ago, as Daisy got out of the house and was gone for 3 days during very cold nights with rain. Evie was crying hard every day, and we all missed Daisy so much. Zeke kept walking around the house yowling for her. We went to the shelter, and Jeff made flyers to pass out. She ended up showing up on our front porch late one night, and we were praising God for bringing her back safely! It ended up being a blessing in disguise. The night she came home, we kept her with us, and didn't put her and Zeke in the basement like we normally do. The following night, we put them both in the basement again, and in the morning Daisy was gone again. I went out back onto our deck and shook a can of food, and I heard Daisy crying under the deck! Daisy loves to go into the rafters of the basement, and she found a way out. Jeff found a huge gap between the basement wall and the house. It had had a flimsy board covering it, and the board had fallen off. We had a chipmunk in the basement a few weeks earlier, and I couldn't figure out how it got there. I'm so glad we found out! If a cat could get through the hole, so could a rat, possum, raccoon, etc. Jeff sealed the gap very securely. I had to laugh a few days later after I had put the cats to bed. Jeff was out of town on business, so I was staying up late (I don't sleep much when he is gone). I heard Daisy whamming her body against the board, trying to get out of the basement again. She quickly figured out that it wasn't going to happen :).

 

Evie went to one of our neighbors and picked out her pumpkin for Halloween, then carved it on the front porch.

 

For our church's Trunk or Treat, she went as Queen Esther. I thought she looked super beautiful.

 

Her new fun thing is tea parties...with SiSi. SiSi will just lay there and wait for her tea and crumpets :).

 

That is pretty much our 4 months in a nutshell, not counting going to the beach, Evie playing flag football, and canning season. Too much to write in one blog post!

 

How does your garden grow

I have that little poem in my mind. You know, the one that goes "Mary Mary quite contrary, how does your garden grow. With silver bells and cockle shells, and pretty maidens all in a row." Evie learned the poem, but didn't realize it was "cockle shells". I laughed so hard when she walked through the kitchen saying, "With silver bells and taco shells...." :). My garden is growing nicely. We have had such goofy weather, that some of my plants don't know what to do. One day it will be 90 degrees, and the next day it will be 75 degrees. My tomatoes are doing well. Here is a view from one end of the garden....

And here is a side view of my peas and beans growing up the fence. You can also see my celery, and part of my broccoli...

The broccoli and cabbage plants. My cucumbers are beside the broccoli, but you can't see them in the pictures very well.

The plant closest to the left is the Sweet Dumpling squash, surrounded by radishes. Next in line is the zucchini (Black Beauty), the next is Butternut Squash, then a variety of zucchini called Zucchini Rampicante. The only one that won't grow vertically is the Black Beauty. The rest we are going to grow up an 8 foot fence contraption that Jeff is putting together :).

Aside from the garden, our crazy Daisy has started to become an acrobat. I first noticed it when I walked in the living room, and she was in the window sill of our half moon window. I thought it was a toy Evie threw up there at first! It is about 7 feet up there, and that has become one of her new perches. I wish I had a picture of it! Last week, we walked into the dining room, and saw her sitting up on top of our plant shelf! I have to stand on a ladder just to get to it! This is her coming down from it...

Now she is just walking the tightrope of our super thin metal curtain rod. We still haven't totally figured out how she is getting up there. She is either climbing the curtains, or the screens. I trimmed her claws again, so we will see if she decides to do any more acrobatics!

Jeff's birthday was last week :). He didn't get to take the day off of work, which I was sad about. Evie and I decorated the house, and made him a cake. We went out to his favorite Mexican restaurant. I'm so thankful for my wonderful hubby!

April, I wanted to post this for you, since you are I are eating about the same way right now! It is a recipe for pita bread, and it is really good! Super easy too! I doubled the recipe, and it worked out well. I didn't use a big enough pan, and the dough overlapped a bit, but they still turned out. Here is the recipe:

Pita Bread
•1 egg
•1/4 cup of water
•1 tablespoon oil or melted butter – I used coconut oil
•1 tablespoon coconut flour, firmly packed – firmly packed is very important
•1/4 cup almond flour, firmly packed
•1/8 teaspoon baking soda
•1/8 teaspoon salt – use a good quality salt

1.Preheat oven to 350.
2.Whisk together egg, water and oil.
3.Add dry ingredients, whisk well to combine.
4.Pour into 2 equal portions onto a well greased sheet tray or even better lined with parchment
5.Spread each portion to a 5-6 inch round. – Don't spread out too thin or they can break when filling it, so make your first batch max 5 inches and go from there.
6.Bake for 18-20 minutes, it will be darker in color, and slightly crisp around the edges. – The person I got the recipe from cooked his for 25 min and they came out perfect.

Mine turned out great. A little funky shaped, but tasted great. Here they are stuffed with tuna and veggies:

Urban gardening/homesteading

It is that time of year that I love, when everything starts to grow! I love all the seasons, but spring and early summer are fun because of all the things that start to come up. I think I truly am becoming an urban homesteader. I would love to be able to move to the country, but that isn't an option for us right now, so I am bringing the country to me. I'm trying to cram as many edible things as I can into my 1/2 acre of property.

We planted these strawberries last year, and they are doing well so far. They were a mix of June-bearing and Ever-bearing. We have been picking a handful a day. I hope they start producing more, but it looks like I will definitely have to buy some this year instead of relying on my patch. Maybe next year though :).

We planted 6 blueberry bushes two years ago, and they are small, but are loaded down with blueberries. You can see tiny berries on this bush below. I can't wait until they get huge and produce a lot of fruit!!

We expanded our garden this year. Thankfully we haven't gotten so many weird looks this year like we did last year. It cracked me up how people stared. They looked at us like we were digging a bomb shelter! It seems like people in subdivisions have forgotten what gardens are. Of the 50 or so houses in our little subdivision, we are the only ones with a garden. There is one woman who has a garden, but it is not in the subdivision, but on acreage next to the subdivision.

I started many of my plants from seed, and they did so/so. My tomatoes did great, and I planted 12 of them. The broccoli and cabbage also did great. My peppers and celery did really bad, as did my herbs. Next year I am just going to buy them. We found a guy who grows his own heirloom veggies, and he has a small greenhouse. I bought my celery and pepper plants there, and last year I bought tomatoes from him. They are always super healthy plants, and so much easier than trying to get mine to grow. I would love to have a greenhouse, but we don't have the room or the money. In the garden, along with my tomatoes, peppers, cabbage and broccoli, there are carrots, turnips, beets, peas (they are the ones near the middle growing up the fence), cucumbers and celery. We are doing a lot of things vertically this year. In the back yard, I went a little squash crazy. I planted 4 different kinds, all are going to be grown vertically. Here is a picture of my big garden.

Jeff is talking about making a root cellar to store our veggies for winter, so I won't have to can or freeze everything. I am also learning about how the pioneers used to preserve things, before canning. They did what was called lacto-fermentation. The lacto doesn't refer to dairy, but refers to the lactic acid that results from the fermentation process. The pioneers didn't have pressure canners or regular canners, so they fermented a lot of foods. It actually is really easy and very healthy. I fermented pickles and sauerkraut last year (I did a few jars), and kept them in my fridge. They can be stored in a root cellar too (most root cellars stay at around 50 degrees). They are supposed to be loaded with probiotics, and the salt in them preserves them. I was amazed at how crisp and fresh they tasted, even after 8 months!

We have had lots of fun animals and critters around. Our Orioles came back and made another nest in our Sycamore tree. I keep trying to take a picture of them at our Oriole feeder, but haven't been able to get one :(. Both the male and female have come to the feeder at the same time, and they are so beautiful! Our ducks are also back, but haven't been swimming in our pond as of yet. The tree frogs are everywhere, and we can hear them chirping. They love hanging out under the cover of our hot tub. Evie found this one :)....

Our school year is almost done. We have one month left. We were going to be done the first week of June, but we took a week off. We will only have 6 weeks off in the summer, but I have a plan for next year. I want to start the first week of August, then take a week off each month and 2 weeks off at Christmas. I figured that we will have our 180 days in by the 30th of May if we do that. I love the idea of being able to have a week off every month! I think it will avoid burnout for me.

Evie started soccer, and is having so much fun. They did soccer pictures a week ago, and we were able to take some great pictures instead with our camera. I didn't want to spend $30 for 6 wallets and a 5x7, which is what the package prices were. I thought this picture turned out great. There were several other really good ones.

My birthday was on the 9th. It was the big 4-0. It feels strange just typing that. When I was a kid, 40 seemed so old and decripit. Now here I am! Not that I am old and decripit :). I actually had a wonderful birthday. I didn't want a party. Jeff took the day off of work, and he and Evie showered me with lots of love. The night before, they made me go to my room and relax (oooohhhh the torture!) while they secretly decorated the house and made me a cake. I figured out what they were doing when Evie came in to ask me how I was doing, and her face was covered with chocolate :). lol! They decorated with purple balloons and streamers. Purple is my favorite color :). On my birthday, I opened my presents. Jeff got me a really sweet book with pictures of our family. I cried when I saw it because it was so sweet. It was an actually book he had printed out. He also got me this.....

I LOVE my swing! I am out there several times a day, swinging whenever I can. It folds out into a bed too, but I haven't done that yet. It is so relaxing, and a wonderful place to go out and read. Evie and I have homeschooled out on it too, which is great.

We are making changes to the backyard. Jeff privacy fenced in a larger section of the yard. It looks so nice, and really makes our back yard look bigger! We have a chain link fence across the other side of the back yard, and we want to fence that in with a privacy fence too. Then it will seem like our own little oasis back there. Jeff said he was completely fine with me getting a few chickens (Yay!), so I can do that once we fence in the rest of the back yard with privacy fence.

I wanted to post this picture because it is SO funny. I use a hot water bottle every day on sore spots, and put essential oils on beforehand. The hot water bottle helps the oils sink in better. I had heated up the bottle with hot water, then stuck it on my bed. Then I went to go get something. When I came back, I found Sierra laying like this....

And no, I didn't put it like that, she did! I guess her legs or paws were sore, or she just liked how warm it felt. I love the guilty look on her face :)!

Okay, this blog post is ginormous. I will end it with a picture of my beautiful irises. Oh how I wish they lasted longer, and that I could bottle their scent. The scent of them reminds me of fresh grapes cut from the vine. During iris season, I definitely take time to stop and smell the irises!

Myrtle Beach

I guess I need to update my blog, since it has been awhile. Book sales have been slow. I was hoping for a huge amount of sales, but so far I have only sold about 50. Not exactly earth shattering. I need to figure out a better way to promote it. It has been out for over a month now. Maybe it will just take some time.

Gardening season is underway. My seedlings did great this year. My tomato plants are so big that there is no more room under the grow light. They are past knee high! They seriously need to be planted, but we keep getting frost, so I haven't planted them yet. My pepper plants and celery plants are tiny though. I will still plant them, but they are little bitty. The cabbage and broccoli plants are huge too, and are going to be planted soon. I have been really happy with my seedlings this year, except for my peppers and celery. I think they will still grow, despite being so small. The weather here has been sooo strange. I have strawberries on my plants.....and it is only May. They are green and the size of marbles, but they are still there. That is about a month early. In February, it was so warm that Evie was outside in a swimsuit playing in the water. For this area, that is insane. It got into the high 80's in March, and in April it frosted almost every day :(. Not good. The grape and apple crop this year took a huge hit.

We went to Myrtle Beach, SC for spring break, and got back about a week ago. It was the longest vacation we have taken in quite some time. We were gone 10 days. It was a lot of fun, and we had great weather. We went with Jeff's parents, and we drove. It was a really long drive!!

Here are some pictures from our trip.....

We stayed at a gorgeous resort that was part of my in-laws timeshare. This was our view from our balcony, in the suite we were staying in. It had a full kitchen, and 2 full bedrooms. The pools at the resort were so pretty, and we were within easy walking distance to the beach (which was private for resort people only).

Evie loved the beach. She had never seen the ocean before, so she loved it. We went looking for shells almost every morning.

I had never seen a jellyfish up close before. I was glad it wasn't alive, seeing as I was that close to it! There was lots of them that would wash up on shore, and they would either be dead or dying.

One of the many times we went miniature golfing. They had such fun places there!!

 Jeff and I celebrated our 18th anniversary the day we got back from our trip. We got to have a fun date while we were in Myrtle Beach, while my in-laws watched Evie :).

One thing about Myrtle Beach...it is SO windy! There seriously wasn't such thing as a good hair day while we were there. If I lived there, it would be really hard to ever wear my hair down. I had that beachy, wind-blown look the entire week.

Christmas

I hope all of you had a very Merry Christmas! We had a very nice one, although it wasn't white this year. This was the first time I can remember where we didn't have snow.

For Christmas Eve, we went to my parents house. This is our usual tradition, and it is always special. It was sad that this year my sister and her husband couldn't be there. We missed them!

Here we are, getting ready to hear the Christmas story.

I love Evie's face in the background!

I love this picture of my Dad, about to read from the Bible.

After reading the Bible, we opened our gifts.

Then we ate a wonderful meal. My Mom always has the most gorgeous table decorations!

This picture of Evie cracks me up. She is very intently watching "A Charlie Brown Christmas" :).

This is another tradition we do. After Evie gets in bed on Christmas Eve, we read "Twas The Night Before Christmas". She doesn't believe in Santa anymore, but she still thinks it is fun to read the book.

Here are Jeff and I on Christmas Day! We are trying out a new camera to see if it works. We were bummed that the pictures we took that day weren't very clear.

Here's my sweet Evie girl on Christmas. She looked very Christmasy in her red sweater.

We had another wonderful meal with Jeff's parents after church, at our house. We ate first....

Then read the Christmas story from the Bible.

Then we opened our gifts.

Jeff and his Dad both matched on Christmas. I thought this was a great picture of them both (even if it is a little dark).

I hope you all had a blessed Christmas!!