What's up Doc!?

Does anyone know how excited I am about the carrots we pulled up in the garden today....? Nope, probably not! But yes, I am sooooooo excited! We have tried to grow carrots time and time again and I don't know if it's our lack of patience or what but we have never been successful. This year we planted the seeds, watched them grow, but overall tried to forget about them.....And Voila!

This will feed us salads, stews, and soups, oh my....

Conquering #3

Number 3 on my 30 before 30 list is:
3. Find and take a trip to a Sunflower field.
Well do you know how hard it is to find a Sunflower field!?!? I know they exist. We actually found a small "field" right down the road from us. Problem is, the field is in the front of someones house....The more I thought about it, I'm just not too sure how they would feel about my rolling up into their front yard to take pictures. That's when I put myself up to the challenge and decided to grow my own. This spring I planted 24 sunflower seeds in a very small patch of my yard. I think in total about 14 came up and as of right now we have about 6 that have bloomed. I am just so excited that I am beside myself. This sunflowers are HUGE! I believe they were supposed to get between 9-12 feet and I believe we have just about reached that.

Look how perfect and beautiful!!

Nature at it's finest!

and last but not least.....my teeny weeny sunflower field! I conquered # 3 on my list!! :)

30 Day Photo Challenge~ Day 20 & 21

Day 20-Water....
E is getting to such a fun age! He's turning into a little boy instead of a baby. You can actually ask him questions like, "Are you ready for your bath?" or "Are you ready to go to bed?" and he'll take off running towards the bathtub or grab your hand and lead you to his room. He's really sweet and it's very exciting for me to watch him grow and learn. He absolutely loves his bath and when he's in it I make sure to get all the un-fun stuff out of the way, like the cleaning and washing of the hair, butt, and itty bitty toes, that way he can spend the rest of his time having some fun in the water!!

CAUTION: COMING INTO ENEMY LINES!!
Day 21~Macro

This is a picture of one of my most dreaded enemies that actually enter our garden. SQUASH BUGS! I don't have a huge problem with them, at the time....but the problem is, they can be incredibly hard to get rid of. If you're even attempting an organic garden and start becoming infested with these little fella's then you might as well give it up. So far so good-I've been able to swipe off all these nasty little eggs to keep the nymphs under control.

30 Day Photo Challenge~ Day 18 & 19

We've had a great weekend. I've seen the inside of my kitchen more this weekend than I have in a really long time. I now understand why women didn't work back in the day. I understand where the saying, "I've slaved over a hot stove all day!" came from. I have canned until I can't possibly can anymore. It's been great fun and I plan on writing a post and sharing some pictures just as soon as I get time.
In the meantime, I'm running behind on my photo challenge. I did manage to get my picture yesterday-I just didn't get a chance to post it. So here's to day 18 & 19. Eyes & Summertime.
These are my sweet baby E's eyes. I love this little man...Such a sweet sweet soul he has!

And our sunflowers...WOW! They are amazing. They have grown well over 9 ft tall...Now I'm just waiting until they actually bloom. This little guy (and I call him that because he is only upwards of 5 ft tall) looks as if he's going to bloom any day. The sunflowers remind me of hot...sun...summertime. I couldn't resist taking a picture of them.

Here is a picture showing the height of the flowers!!

30 Day Photo Challenge ~ Day 17

It's been quite the busy day. I woke up this morning thinking it would be like any other Friday but after being at work for only an hour I get a call that E's temp is running around 102.3 and that he needed to be picked up. Not what I wanted to hear! After taking him to the doctor just to be told what I already know-he has another ear infection, we then came home and started getting busy. I'll save all the details for another post because you know I took pictures along the way! In a nutshell though I made my first ever blueberry jam and dill pickles. I also had plenty of time to get some cleaning done and to work on day 17's picture. This one was hard. Day 17 is "Bokeh." Basically if you don't know what that is-its a fancy Japanese way of saying blur or more specifically something like a uniform disk blur. Anyways, here you have it-Day 17...
It's a picture of one of our many peppers growing out back.

Makin' Jelly

It's been a pretty cool day.....We were sitting at Nanna's house with Uncie Tye and Aunt Jeni, who we hadn't seen in a while...I was looking through a canning book and stumbled across a recipe for some Jalapeno Pepper Jelly. I'm not sure if you've ever tried that jelly but it is SO GOOD! As soon as I saw it I decided that this would be my challenge for the day. We have plenty of homegrown Jalapenos and we have no clue what to do with all of them. I've never made jelly and of course I haven't canned the first thing but I figured it couldn't be that hard....Right!?

Daddy & K picking some peppers, potatoes, and zucchini.

Today's photo challenge for June 12th was "Sun Flare".....Perfect!

Preparing the peppers.....Maybe I should have worn gloves. My fingers still burn!

Cooking the "jelly." I truly had no clue what I was doing. Looks pretty though, right!?

WOW, that's a lot of sugar!!

Stirring, stirring, stirring....the whole mix.

Jars are loaded with the jelly. Now it's time to boil them.

What a mess!! This seriously took more pots and pan then I could have ever imagined!

The finished product. I'm so impressed, proud, excited...can I just go on and on!?!?
One Jar for Nanna who helped supply the jars, lids, and the pot.
One Jar for my Dad...Happy Father's Day!!
One Jar for our neighbors Mr. John and Mrs. Betty who we love.
and the rest for us....YUMMY! :)

Garden Journal-June 10

Our garden is growing leaps and bounds. It's amazing to look back at the pictures from May 1st and May 15th and see the growth from then and now.

Our goal was to have enough food to not just enjoy throughout the summer but to also be able to eat some homegrown organic veggies throughout the rest of the year. Above is a picture of our harvest from last night. So far we've been able to put away about 350 sugar snap pea pods, about 25 zucchini and 15 squash, we've eaten fresh from the garden several cucumbers and peppers (I can't wait to make some pickles), and just last night we picked about 55 pole beans. I was chopping them up to prepare them for blanching and freezing.

The sunflowers are just UNREAL! I remember a month ago thinking they were so tall when they had almost reached K's height. Now they have surpassed the whole family and our privacy fence. I can't wait until they actually bloom!

The watermelon are one of my favorite things to look at daily. They have taken over their area of the garden and looking for them is like playing hide & seek. We have about 8 on the vines. The one pictured above is our biggest. It's about the size of a small football already.

We have probably close to 40-50 tomatoes. Wowzers....And to think I don't even eat tomatoes. The rest of my family does though. I'm going to have to get with my friend over at Mallard Cove Mommy to find out the best way to can them.

The rest of the garden is doing just as well. Here is a small peek of some bell peppers, eggplant, and squash. We have little baby okra on our okra plants as well.

Before I left the garden for the morning I also had to take a picture of our little visitor we had last night. I  must say that I am quite honored to have his visit considering it'll be another 13 years before we are graced with his presence again. :)

Garden Journal-May 15

May has been an incredible month for the garden. My plans were to do a garden update once a month so I could see the growth by month but with all the changes I couldn't help myself. One of the first things we do before leaving for work in the morning is go out and check on the garden...and in the afternoon one of the last things we do before heading in for the night is check on the garden again. You would be amazed at how much can change just in the 12 hours that pass by.

One of my pride and joys is the Sunflower "field" that I'm growing for myself. It's not going to be a field by any means but it's going to be the closest I can seem to get to actually finding a true sunflower field. I'm pretty excited about how well the flowers are doing so far. We started them from seed straight into the ground and they have already grown to almost the height of K.

Another one of our biggest successes so far have been our sugar snap peas. We have been able to harvest enough to eat them fresh in salads and stirfry and also freeze some for the fall and winter. It amazes me how much the kiddos like them raw straight off the vine. Here is a picture of K stuffing his mouth full of the peas. Isn't that an awesome sight!? :)

...and of course I have to give credit where credit is due. So far we have been chemical free and I can of course give some thanks to the beautiful "good" bugs that have found our garden a home and help to patrol the area for all the not so welcomed guest.

"There can be no other occupation like gardening in which, if you were to creep up behind someone at their work, you would find them smiling"~Mirabel Osler

Green

I noticed over at Live Every Moment's blog today she was having a Green theme and I couldn't help but to grab my camera and head on out to snap some pictures of my garden. Green is absolutely my most favorite color. Green is not Green with envy to me....Green is new beginnings. Green is life. Green is full of energy and resources. I love Green.
I decided my subject for the green theme would be my peas. They are out of this world! They have officially grown taller than me. It just goes to show what a little TLC can do for any living thing. We are going to have our hands full of quite a few fresh peas and not only are they great to eat but they are beautiful to watch in the growing process.

1. The Gorgeous Flower

2. The Emerging of the pea:

3. A Glimpse into both stages:

Garden Journal-May 1

We are just so excited about our garden this year. I went out first thing this morning and took some pictures that way as the summer progresses I can see how the plants have grown. What's doing well....and what did not so much. We've expanded our garden this year to include the whole back area along the fence so we know have quite a bit of room. This year growing we have:

• 25 Asparagus. We bought two year crowns and this year have let them grow into a fern. I look forward to hopefully being able to enjoy then with dinner next year.
• 2 Cucumber plants and 3 Pickling Cucumber plants
• 2 Cantaloupe
• Several different types of peppers. I think over all we have 19 pepper plants-all ranging from sweet, to spicy, to just down right hot! The sweet banana peppers have already started to make an appearance.
• 4 Watermelon plants
• 4 squash and 4 zucchini plants.
• 11 Okra plants
• 4 different types of tomatoes
• I had planted 24 sunflowers but it looks like only 14 have actually come up. These are my pride and joys. I have always wanted to visit a sunflower field but can't find one so I created my own. These beautiful flowers should grow to be about 12 feet tall and supply us with hundreds of sunflower seeds to harvest.
• 54 pea plants. These peas have grown taller than me now. Just amazing.
• Bush Beans-I'm not even sure how many of these. We have them spread out all over the garden.
• Carrots
• 3 Luffa plants. If all goes well I'm hoping to make homemade Christmas gifts which will include luffa bath sponges straight from our garden.
• 1 Eggplant
• 1 Giant Pumpkin plant-I would love for the boys to be able to pick their own pumpkin for Halloween from our backyard.
• 4 Cabbage
• 4 Collards
• 2 different types of lettuce
• Onions
• Potatoes
• strawberries-we already have about 7 of them!
• and then the dwarf trees I bought this year that won't produce for a while. Lemon, Lime, Orange, Banana, and coffee. We also have been growing a pineapple plant for several months now that we simply cut off the top of a pineapple we were eating and stuck it into some dirt. It has already tripled in size.

As you see we have quite the garden growing. Just call us Farmer Schrocks. :) I have my basket all ready for when it's time to head out and harvest our prize possessions.

Strawberry!?!?

This is a farm not even two miles from our house....I love it. I drive past it all the time.
This past weekend we went there to get fresh milk from the dairy farm....Fresh eggs from the chicken farm....
and fresh strawberries....

.....from the strawberry patch. We came home with our car full of fresh treasures!!

What I Can Give...

....I can't always give my boys the biggest and most expensive toys...

....I can't always give them the cleanest and most organized home....

I don't have the option to stay at home with them and watch them grow from sun up until sun down....

They don't get to go to Chuck-E Cheese every weekend or see all the new movies in theatre....

....maybe at times I let them watch too much TV just so I can have a quiet moment every now and then....

Some things I can help give them though are the love of nature, their love of growing their own food, their love for the simple things in life...

....The love they have for each other....What little time all four of us do have together is made sure to be quality time...

....That smile on E's face is priceless. The laughter coming from the yard while playing on a $5 purchase from the flea market is priceless....

***"I am beginning to learn it is the sweet simple things in life which are the real ones after all"~Laura Ingalls Wilder