Lettuce makes an entrance

Our garden is growing.
Day by day it is growing bigger and better
and it brings joy to my little ol' heart. :)

See the peppers...

And the tomatoes are starting to fill out...

Look! Cherry tomatoes!

Hubs will soon be able to gobble them up.
(I don't like tomatoes. Actually I'm a little allergic to them...
too acidic. But that's not a big deal. I love catchup!)

The corn continues to show improvement.
The saying is that it needs to be "knee high by July".
Think it'll get there? Maybe. :)

And the squash is bloomin now!
I think it really has enjoyed all the rain we've been getting.

AND......

Drum roll please!!
The extreme joy of my heart
sings out a song to the heavens!

We have a bunch of little lettuce bundles starting up now!

Just look at the growth, the leaves digging themselves out of the earth!

I was about to give up completely on them and now look... amazing!

I am terribly impatient.

Thankfully though, God doesn't make me wait too long. :)

I can't wait to have a fresh salad made of everything from our garden.
God is so good!

Catchup

It's finally almost the weekend. This week has been terribly busy again for both hubs and I. Other than our normal jobs, we've been working out, I played two outdoor games back to back last Saturday and then indoor on Sunday, working out in the garden and on the yard, helping out M&S on getting their place in order for one of their friends' wedding reception party, and I've been working on identity materials for my design & photography business any free moment I have. I really want to get it all in order but there are so many details and so little free time. But life is good.

I'm tired.
It has been a very tiring day.
Work has made it a very tiring week already... and it's only Tuesday!!
I'm still not done working.
Still at least another hour to go.
I'm typing while I'm waiting for a file to save.
Hubs isn't home yet.
He's had a long day too.
His truck broke down.
So did the second one.
Three trucks and 6 hours later, he finally "started" his day.
I wonder if I need to make dinner.
Eh, there's leftovers we need to eat. :)
I'm tired anyway.
Too tired to cook.
I need a nap.
But then I won't sleep tonight...again.

Ambitious.

We've been crazy busy around here! The past few months have kept us entertained with preparations for our garden. We're so excited to have the opportunity to grow our own veggies and can't wait for them to start producing!

Hubs tilling up the Garden.

Bricks going into place.

Lots and Lots of bricks!

And soil.

Sectioning the space and planting.

Only a few short weeks later and the plants start popping outta the soil, making my heart sing to be seeing progress. I really dislike waiting!

We've got corn...

Zucchini...

Peppers...
among many others.

Here is the full garden, well most of it.
Oh, and my ambition:

BLUEBERRIES!

I couldn't help myself. They were on sale and I just had to try them out. I really want to get blackberries and raspberries, but alas, I think I am a bit too late. The stores are all out. Maybe next year! :)

A Favorite Website

I just love the Pioneer Woman. She is so talented in her skills and adds such humor to her stories and explanations of everyday life out in the country. She has the life that I hope to engage in some day... although maybe at a slightly smaller scale. :)

But if you haven't yet checked out her site, you should! There are all different features on her website...
Confessions - which has stories and descriptions and substance and just plain tomfoolery. Then there is her Cooking section that's filled with fabulous recipes and full out photo depictions of the cooking process. She even has guest cooks and bakers that visit her ranch! There's a Photography section where PW and her contributors give ideas into improving your own photography skills. A Home and Garden section premiers their new Lodge, her vegetable garden, household tips, and other wonderful tidbits of attempting to tidy up your life. Last but not least is a Homeschooling section. Living out in the middle of nowhere, it makes sense for them to homeschool their children...I mean, what other choice do they really have? But nonetheless I am so proud of them! What better way to teach kids about life than to stick them in the middle of real life (along with following the government standards of schooling too of course).

I was homeschooled all the way through and I would love to provide my own kids with the opportunities that I had with the freedom of homeschooling. Not that there isn't structure in the process... many people have a misconception of homeschooling...that we just play all day. But that's not true. My brothers and I were able to get started and get through our lessons and be done before lunch, instead of sitting in a classroom with 20 other kids and it taking the teacher the whole class time to explain what homework you had to accomplish that evening.

Anywho, that's another whole discussion...

Back to PW. :)

She has so many readers already and they mostly appear when PW has contests on her site. She's a very generous person and has some amazing stuff that she gives away, so I don't blame people for wanting to be a part of it! The most amazing thing about her though is that she reads every single comment that comes through her site! I know this from experience... she just had a contest for an ice-cream party and I was late getting in a submission, but she still mentioned me!! See:

Even though I didn't win (I never win anything, seriously! The only contest I've ever won was when I filled it out for someone else. Don't judge. I was 10, okay?! And I used my dad's name.), I am thankful that at least my submission was read. That means someone cares! :)

But PW... even if you never had a contest on your site, I am still a faithful fan! I love your writing, your humor, the photos of your ranch... it reminds me that my dream of having my own farm is still possible!

Craving....

oh I wish for you. Why do you have to hurt my pocketbook so?

Do you like steaks, kid?

Ha, I just had someone come to the door and ask if my mom or dad was home. The girl was a bit embarrassed when I told her I was the lady of the house. :)

It was funny.

But then a guy joined her and they tried to push their frozen steaks in my house. I really wished at that moment that I hadn't just put the pooch in the backyard.

I stepped onto the porch and shut the screen door, announcing in strong body language that they were not allowed inside my house. I told them that we were hoping to buy our own steers in the next couple weeks (God Willing) and didn't need to buy any steaks from them. The guy started dropping his prices like crazy until I told them a final "no" and went back inside the house - I was nice about it, but I've got work to do for goodness sakes. They packed up their stuff, mumbling under their breath that I was lying, and took off down the street.

And just for the record... we ARE trying to get a couple steers. I really hope it works out.

But sitting here now, I really wish I had just told them that we currently don't have freezer space for a big collection of meat. Maybe then he would have thrown a freezer in the deal. ;)