Just Peachy!

I keep thinking that today is Friday.  But it's not.  It's only Wednesday (isn't it?  I don't know anymore.  I feel a little lost!)

Anyway, for some reason I woke up in the best mood this morning!  I was dancing in the sunrise!  Well, ok, not the sunrise, but not long after.  I was so full of energy and ready to get 'er done!

Sooooo....

Today, after I took Jimmy to work, I came back home and everyone was whining and crying about something.  Someone looked at someone wrong or someone wasn't sharing the blocks or Jesse knocked over someone's tower...on purpose!  But I was determined not to let that get me down and not to let that chase me out of the house like it usually does.

Usually if the kids are acting like that, I pile them all in the car of stroller and we go somewhere.  This house is so small, and in the summer it's so hot that after a while, we just get tired of being all on top of each other and at least in the car, they can't reach each other and if I turn the radio up loud enough it can kind of drown them out.

Plus, the AC in the Suburban is nice and cool.

Unlike in the house.

But no!  Not today!  No whinies were going to get me down!  So I told them get your shoes on, we're going outside.

But what are we going to DO outside!?!?!  

As if they don't play outside every day anyway.

I honestly don't care what you do outside, said I, just get your shoes on and out the door.  In fact, I said, I don't even care if you have shoes.  Just OUT!

And out we went.  (Jesse was sleeping, so it was do-able with the other 2.  Elizabeth was inside cleaning her room in anticipation of going on a long weekend get-away with Jordan)

So, I took Gabe and Jo, kicking and screaming all the way, out into the back yard where my mother-in-law and I proceeded to cut the brush off the fence on the driveway side of the house.  Then, I cut this ridiculous wire thing that has been rusting on the fence since we bought the house 14.5 years ago!  The mosquitoes were we were working were horrible, so Yolanda and I both had on pants, but Gabriel didn't, and, of course, he refused to listen to us tell him to play in the back with Jo on the swings, so his little legs got bitten so badly!  (But I know that he has no reaction to the bites, so I was not worried, and the little welts were gone by evening.)

Anyway, finally Jo and Gabriel started playing nicely together, so without warning I rewarded them with a Starburst that they had been wanting that for some reason had been hanging out in the fridge for quite some time now.  I am hoping that the praise and positive attention I gave them will help them be able to play better over time.  Hoping.  Against all hope, but still hoping.

Then, it was in the house to feed the baby and make lunch.

Then, Annie came over and I left the kids inside with Elizabeth and Annie while they finished lunch and Yolanda and I dug potatoes.  It was a sorry looking batch or taters we got out of our little plot this year.  Not nearly as many as last year.  I tried and different variety this year, so I will go back to the originals next year, for sure.

Then it was off to nap for Jo and Gabriel, and Jesse fell asleep, too.  Well, actually, Gabriel fell asleep, but Jo didn't and started screaming and crying that she was not tired and didn't want to sleep, so she woke everyone up again after about 10-15 minutes.

But, I was not to be deterred today!

I called a friend who has a pick-up and he came by and took some big toys out of the yard that I have been needing to donate for some time now.  Ok, for some years now.  Ok, like maybe 10 years or so.  But hey, they are those Little Tykes plastic toys, so they look the same as they did when someone gave them to me after their kids used them outside for 5 years or so.

Ahhh, but that's not it!

THEN, after dinner and assembly line bathing, the kids were playing with Jimmy and Elizabeth in the living room and Annie and Yolanda and I actually FINALLY got to can some peaches!

Here are the peaches, ready to be peeled.  They are so delicious!

(Here is Jesse.  He is delicious, too!)

Boiling water...and more water!  The one on the right is for processing, the back for sterilizing and the front  left for blanching.

I think that our peaches were not as ripe as they could have been.  They were really super sweet, but still a bit firm.  They didn't peel easily after blanching, so we had to actually cut the skin off.  Anyone have ideas on how to not have to do that again?

Anyway, here they are, sliced and heating up.

Filling the jars...

Processing...(I love the color refracting through the bubbling water.  Too cool.)

One finished product...

All of them together.  I hope they sealed well.  This is the first time  I have done peaches.
On the right is the peach juice that the peaches made when they were heating mixed with the left over hot apple juice that I used in the packing.  

Anyway, all together, I would say that it was a very productive day!

Getting Elizabeth's last school book in the mail today was just an added bonus!

The Be-Sneakered Zebra

So, after recovering from this yard sale...

where we made almost $300, and after Annie dug up

these potatoes

from the garden with Jo and Gabriel helping

and after Gabriel ate some

dirt,

 we were all relaxing in the living room in a small pile.  (In case you haven't noticed yet, we always seem to be in piles...can you find Elizabeth?  She's there...and she's not the one with glasses...that's Annie)

Anyway, the point of this whole thing was to draw your attention to the zebra that Gabe is bouncing away on and, for a brief moment, Jo is not trying to shove him off of to get her turn.

You see, I bought this zebra when Jo was Gabe's size at Target on clearance for $4.95...it was 75% off.  Then, Jo didn't really like it, she's never really been an active bouncer, so I sold it to a lady down the street for $10.

Then, it turned out that I took that same lady's daughter to VBS with us last week, and she had the sneakered zebra sitting on her porch because she was getting rid of it because her son has outgrown it.

So, she told me to take it, (did she remember I was the one who sold it to her?) and Gabriel now has a bouncing singing snorting zebra with sneakers on that is one of his favorite toys that I earned $5 on.

Not that $5 is much, but that's not the point.  Actually, I'm not really sure what the point is, but I think it's kinda funny.

360 Degree Yard Tour

So, I was going to link up to a blog that  I ran across it on Pumpkin Pie Painter and it looked like so much fun but it was closed.  I decided to use the idea anyway.

The idea was to take an area of your house or yard and taking 360 degrees of photos.

So, here goes!

I am starting facing the house on the left side and spinning around the yard leaving out the non-garden parts.

This is our pea/bean garden with the notorious teepee trellis that my mother-in-law and I made.  (That's Little Boy nosing his way through the garden and into my picture!)

Next, omitting pictures of our driveway with the Blue Beast sitting in it, we circle around to the front of the yard along the front fence.  There are our 3 blueberry bushes.  You can see that one is already setting fruit, while another has flowers.  The last is still just green.  I am a little surprised that they are doing so well because 2 of them were transplants that my father-in-law moved, and let's just say that he doesn't always worry too much about taking the roots along with the plants.

Then, on the other side of the sidewalk and omitting our sagging gate, you can see our newest addition, our potato garden, which just got planted yesterday in the morning.  Gabriel and I worked very hard on that one.  We are lacking mulch and edging, but at least the taters are in the ground!

Keep spinning to the left and you can see our 2 grapes vines that just went in last week.  They also seems to be getting ready to set fruit, which I find fascinating.  I wasn't expecting anything until at least next year!

Another turn to the left brings into view our tomato/pepper garden.  The turtle was my hubby's addition, and all that is left is to plant the marigolds along the front edge close to the tomatoes.  Marigolds are supposed to be good at helping keep pests off the plants, or so I have heard, and I am partial to them anyway because I remember planting them and then collecting the seeds off them every year with my grandmother when I was little.  My mother-in-law does not agree with this.  In her country, El Salvador, marigolds are only used in cemeteries and for dead people, so she is not too keen on them.  She calls them 'sin buche' or 'without neck'...strangled, perhaps?  I am not sure for the reasoning behind that...




Oh, but she did stick some potatoes in the front corner, but they were just potatoes that she got at the store and they sprouted before she could eat them.  Supposedly the potatoes at the store like that are treated so they won't have many tubers.  I guess we'll see.  We can compare them to the ones that Gabe and I planted in the front that were real seed potatoes.  I'll let you know. 

Another turn takes us to Georgie, who was hard at work weeding the beds but had to take a break.  (This red table was another one of my failed projects.  I found it in someone's trash last year, and I thought that it would be great for the kids to paint however they wanted to and then they could use it outside or on the porch for their lunches or crafts or whatever they wanted to.  But it turned out that I was much more excited about the project than they were, and I never had the time to do it, so...need I say more?)

Little boy again on the front stoop...

Taking a detour out to the sidewalk...check this guy out!  Tomatoes in no time!  My mother-in-law said that tomatoes won't grow in pots and I said they will, so we got 2 cherry tomato plants and put one in the ground for insurance and the other in the pot for proof.  It didn't grow last year because I put it in a terra cotta pot and then she left for 3 months so between working full time and having the baby and the toddler at home with us while we worked, watering went by the wayside.  This time, though, she's staying here all summer and I put it in a plastic pot to retain the water, so I think we will have much better luck.

And that's pretty much it! 

Thank you for joining me on a tour of my gardens!

Beans, Beans, the Horrible Fruit...

Spring has sprung the grass has ris'

I wonder where them flowers is

The flowers in the ground are stuck

I wonder should we pluck them up!

I think of this little ditty every spring when things are just starting to get green.  My mom used to recite it to me when we used to walk to school together in the early spring.

(The title of the blog is another rhyme we used to say...do you all know that one?)

Anyway, gardening is in full swing around here.  I know that I am supposed to draw plans and keep notes and all, but I haven't done that yet.  If I have a few minutes to either plant my stuff or to make notes, I chose to plant.  I will probably be kicking myself later...

Early Sunday evening, my mother-in-law and I had an impromptu planting session.

Yes, she is using a post hole digger to plant small seedlings.  We cannot for the life of us find the long handled shovel.  How do you lose a whole 5 foot shovel with a red handle?  I have no idea, but somehow, we managed to do it.  What can I say?  We're talented at those kinds of things.

 This one needs a little more dirt around it, but you can see our newspaper pots beginning to be composted!

So this is how it turned out.  At the base of 3 of the ummm....sticks are peas and at the base of the 4th stick is a bean plant.  In the front are 2 jalapeno plants (those are Gramma Uita's...no spicy stuff for me, thank you very much!) and in the empty space in the back is a lonely squash plant.  Our 'trellis' is tied together at the top with an empty mandarin orange bag.  But honestly, I do think it will look really cool when it is covered in peas.  I'll keep you posted.  I actually do not like peas.  The kids love peas and Jimmy will eat them, too, so I planted them.  Whenever I cook them, I make just enough and then put them on everyone's plates and somehow there just is never enough for me, too, and I just have to sacrifice and eat carrots or a salad or something.  Elizabeth has caught on, though, and will often offer me hers to share.  I politely decline and let the poor child eat all her peas by herself.  Oh, the sacrifices one must make as a mother! :-)

(I know that the sticks look a little rough, but let me tell you, they had the possibility of being much rougher.   Those were some branches off of a wild and crazy bush-tree thing that grows in the corner of our property, and it they were all twiggy and a little out of control.  Gramma wanted to leave them that way...in all of their hairy glory, but after looking across at all the neighbors neatly pruned, trimmed and edged lawns, I figured that perhaps we could take a few of the more branchy branches off and just leave a few larger branches on to tame things up again.  Not that I am trying to compete with the Joneses, nor do I really care what other people think, but it is out of respect for the fact that my neighbors and any company they may ever have has to look at our jungle all the time, and I do believe that in the city, there needs to be a respectable limit to our strangeness.)

We also got our 2 blueberries from last year transplanted and the new one that I just got planted in a row of 3 along the front.  Here it is with a few flowers on it already.  We obviously are in desperate need of mulch!

 The other garden on the other side of the porch, which is all we have used in past years, (the stick garden is all new this year) is laid out with tomatoes, green bell peppers, a bush cucumber and a random spare bean plant.

Those got planted today.  Well, some of them did but then Gabriel tried to help a little too much and it got out of hand.  Maybe the rest can get in tomorrow. 

Gabriel also helped Buelo get the grapes planted today.  I have never grown grapes, but Gramma wanted to try them, and so did I, so we put in 2 vines and we'll see what happens.

Gabriel is just so helpful!

Georgie didn't really do much of anything.

Jo got in some play time with the neighbor girl, Sarelly, (I know, it's a horrible picture.  I think the phone rang...)

And then Gabriel sailed away.  When I asked him why he was leaving and where he was going, he called out over his shoulder...

It's 5 o'clock somewhere!

A Prayer for Peace

 Psalms 51:10

A psalm of David

Create in me a pure heart, O God

and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

The sun struggles to shine as she bends her curly head over her job, just as my heart struggles to find peace.
The day has not been a good one for me.  The walls of boxes are closing in on all of us and tempers are high because it seems that there will be no respite, and fear creeps up and wraps its cold, unforgiving fingers around my heart.  How can I show love and patience to my children when I can't find peace inside myself?

It is that time of year again.  The time of year to sow new seeds and to sow new hearts.

I pray just, as David begged of God in Psalm 51, that God will create a new heart in me and renew a steadfast spirit within me.  Please Lord, I want to be steadfast; an unmoving pillar that does not stray from Your holiness.

My small one leans toward me to pluck the seeds from my hands just as she plucks at my heart and my emotions.  These seeds will feed her later in the year with fresh, body-nourishing food. Please, Lord, let the peace, love, joy and spiritual training that I give her now feed her spirit in the years to come.

But she can't do it alone, and she looks to her ever patient grandmother for help and approval.  Just as we all need someone to lean on now and again and we all look for approval.  As she grows, I pray that I can turn her eyes to look for approval from God, not from man, who will surely lead her astray.  Please God, help me to fix my eyes more firmly on You so when my children follow my gaze, You are who they see.

Such a big job to tend all these little seeds with which she has been entrusted...with which I have been entrusted.  My children, tender saplings, on loan to me for just a short while from the Creator.

  Lord, please help me to teach them well, to warm them with your Words, to place them in fertile places where they will have full potential to grow and bloom and produce much fruit.

Our little ones...so easy to please with a loving word and acknowledgment of a job well done.

Lord, during this Lenten season, please let me find in my heart the courage to ask for and to share the forgiveness and patience that You have shown me over and over.  On my knees I beg you to give me the strength to endure and take one more step and as I reflect on the steps you took to that hill so long ago.

Getting Ready for Spring

I know that I am getting a little bit of a late start and that I should have been planting my seeds a while ago so that they would be strong seedlings now and ready to plant in the garden, but honestly, there just isn't enough room in this house to put them where anyone could tolerate them for any amount of time.

So, this weekend (before Gabriel took his trip to the ER) Jo and I went to to Lowes and picked up some seed packets.  I have never dealt with seeds before in this garden.  I always just got the seedlings from the garden center where I used to work and went from there.  But this is the first year that the garden center didn't open up because it was run out of business by the Lowes, Home Depot and WalMart nearby, so I decided to give it a try. 

I only had a certain amount of money, as dictated by the butt-head, so I decided that instead of buying seedling pots, I would make my own out of newspaper.

I actually ran across this on another blog, but I can't remember which one, and try as I might, I can't find it again.  (So, if this idea was off your blog, please accept my apology and let me know so I can link to you and give you the credit!)

Anyway, this is how you can make some really great little pots that then you can plant right in the ground when it comes time to plant!

I showed my mother-in-law how to make one and she got all excited because I had gotten her some cilantro seeds, so she just started whipping right through them and made a whole bunch!


All it takes is a sheet of newspaper and a soup can:

Take the newspaper and lay it flat.  Then fold it into fourths the long way.

 

Then lay your can on the folded paper with one edge of the can lining up with one edge of the paper.

Next, roll the paper around the can, being sure to do it loosely enough because you are going to remove the can later!

 After you have rolled the whole strip around the can, it will wrap around several times, secure the edge with tape.

Next, set the can up on its end with the extra paper facing up toward you, and fold the paper down over the edge of the can like you are wrapping it like a gift.

Secure this with a piece of tape, too.  It doesn't have to be pretty, just relatively flat since this is actually the bottom of the pot.

The, slip out the can and there you go! 

A cute little inexpensive (free!) biodegradable, recycling project! 

  That's Jo's pansy plant she brought home from Sunday school...no, the seeds didn't sprout that quickly!

And these are the seeds I am going to try this year.  I know, I'm not very brave.  I think that we are going to get our tomatoes as seedlings this year.  I just need to see how all this works out for us!  I have never grown potatoes or carrots before.  Jo wanted the carrots and my mother-in-law wanted the potatoes, so we'll see what happens! 

Next is making the plan to see where all this will fit in the yard!

I'll keep you posted.

And lastly, a picture to warm your heart:

Oh,  no, wait...that isn't it...

There it is.

I was working this afternoon and I looked up from the computer and out the window because it was strangely quiet outside and LOOK!  They are together!  Without arguing!  This is unheard of!  

Anyway, it is times like this that make me realize that as much as I want to get my office out of my house and reclaim my living room, I also don't want to leave because I don't want to miss the little 

moments like this