Fruit and Friends

The benefits of living in orchard country: fresh fruit right off the tree! Our friends invited us to come and pick cherries with them yesterday morning. 

It was already scorching outside and it felt wonderfully cool under the shade of the well endowed branches.  Hannah's headband (her creation) reminds me of my Uncle Denny who is an expert in VW van repair and only ever wears flip-flops. Every time I looked at her I had to smile.

Ultimate concentration was required by Laurel who was learning how to spit out the pits.  I hovered nearby until she got the hang of it.

Fruit picking with kids means two things- the adults do most of the picking...

and the kids do most of the playing (and eating)!

But we did end up with lots of lovely cherries to enjoy now. Share your favorite recipes please!!

Veggies in the Making

Good morning garden, how's it growing?

The process of starting this garden has been a long one!  The spring weather was less than accommodating and we got off to a very slow start.  But a little sunshine goes a long way!  Now we are seeing...

tiny tomatoes,

giant bean poles,

rows of radishes,

and climbing cucumbers.

My grandfather-in-law taught me to train them up this way:

Makes for longer cukes and prevents them from getting curvy.  Space saving too!

Here is the secret fertilizer recipe I promised- also courtesy of my g'pa-in- law.

4 oz baby shampoo

12 oz of beer (you should probably take a little swig before you dump it in :)

1/2 cup of molasses

3 T Miracle Grow

Mix all these ingredients in the bottom of a 5 gal bucket, then fill the bucket with water to the top.  Stir it up and pour it over your plants (example: about 1 gal per tomato plant).  Let it soak into the ground and then water as usual.  I use this mixture about every 2 weeks. 

Here's to the fruits of our labors!

Prelude

Ahhhh!  A completely, totally, wonderfully relaxing weekend.  It was lovely.  Three whole days of just hanging out.  We did catch the fireworks from our neighborhood perch. Half-way through the show the girls started turning into pumpkins before our very eyes!  No one was feeling very patriotic at that point. The nights just keep getting later and later around here. Yesterday morning Emma and Hannah made Carl and I breakfast in bed.  They served us toast that was buttered then sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar and topped with peanut-butter.  A very interesting combination I must say.  Also on our plates were some "circle meats" as we like to call them, microwaved to perfection! It was all very comical as Carl and I used our worst manners and complained about everything in effort to show them how hurtful it can be when the people you lovingly serve are ungrateful.  We had them running back and forth from the bedroom to the kitchen fetching more of this, and fixing that. Lesson learned- maybe.

So I know that I have been a pretty lame/slackerish/lazy blogger for the last few weeks.  I have been pre-occupied with making a fairly big decision- to homeschool the girls this fall.  I would love to tell you all about this new venture and how I got to this point...but I am not feeling super articulate right now.  I am still very much sorting it all out, doing LOTS of reading.  The little free time I have had has been spent doing research. Once I get my ducks all in a row I promise to fill you in.  I also plan to show you around my garden (it is finally growing) and share with you my secret fertilizer recipe.  Exciting I know.  Little snippets of crafting are starting to emerge.  I am re-organizing the family room downstairs making way for a classroom of sorts, also getting a new sewing table.  Pictures of all that to come.  Then, because it just will not go away, I will share my thoughts on being 30 (almost- 5 more days to go).  See, there is lots to talk about and show you.  I promise to get back in the saddle this week!