Oh, To Be Caught Up...

...not sure it will ever happen, but if we can just get Jacey sick tomorrow then we might be able to cross one thing off our list. No more will I feel blessed and grateful to slide by winter with no flu bugs, because I think I would rather the kids miss out on a cold school day than a summer one. Sitting in sacrament meeting today Dax leaned on my shoulder and said "I want to go to sleep" fine by me, the kids have been up WAY past bed time this last week and since we are always so punctual with that one single activity it really throws their bodies off. Halfway through the first speaker he looked at me with those sad eyes and said "I don't think I feel good". I don't think I have jumped up so fast. We were out the door in 3 seconds flat. Luckily he didn't actually get sick until after we had been home for quiet awhile. So I am indeed truly very sorry if we shared our germs with anyone else, but if we did just know that it has gotten shorter with each kid. 24 hours, 12 hours, 6 hours...hopefully Greg, Jacey and I sneak by without anything.

Greg had to clarify that his calendar at work was right, he is actually working 5 days this week. Summer is just FLYING by and I am so sad. We only have 2 more months and we have yet to reach 80 degrees (although looking right now next week is promising). Swim lessons start tomorrow and I am just about as excited as the kids are to get to the pool (minus my water Zumba last weekend-which was a blast by the way-none of us have braved the chilly air yet). I have girls camp next week, and then July sets in with the need for at least 3 trips to Utah I am thinking I might just stay at my mom's for the month. So busy, but so much fun!

I replanted 17/20 tomato plants on Friday and hopefully they start growing a little bit. They are looking a little weak. They were old starts and really needed to be in the ground a week ago, but I just didn't dare after loosing so much. I really am thinking though that maybe a small garden wont be such a bad idea this summer. I should probably be eating some lettuce and maybe even some spinach by the time I get back from girls camp...so excited!

hmmm what else can I catch you up on? I guess that is about it for now...

It Really Is Spring...

...the signs are there!
First our Poor Man's Fertilizer (thanks Kristen for cluing me in I did some reading and learned some cool things about this last snow of the season) this is what my yard looked like on Saturday. By Sunday it was all gone and my grass looks so green (well compared to the brown that was under this snow)
after the snow melted the HUGE worms started coming out...that earth has some good stuff in it. Hard to tell with this picture, but this big boy is as fat as my middle finger (tried to get my hand in the picture but without a wide angle lens my arm just isn't long enough)
MUD, MUD, MUD and MUD!!! oh and pot holes, be careful crossing the intersection, you might just fall in and get lost.
pretty sure I won't have to worry about the birds this year! I am also pretty sure that Colton's first official more than one syllable word will be outside, the kid loves it and he loves to walk in the strawberries...thought it was absolutely hilarious when I would growl and chase him...ooops I think I ruined that one.
my house is being overtaken by plants and a LOT of them!
if it will fatten up worms what will it do to little boys?
I finally had a second to take down my snowmen and "I LOVE WINTER" decorations.
THUNDER STORMS! Did you hear them rolling? That doesn't come with winter storms, and so it really must be Spring.

Creating Our Own Spring...

...seeing how the last half of our Spring Break was spent watching snow fall at least once a day we had to get creative during those few bouts of sunshine.

this is what you do when you don't have a sidewalk
and mom doesn't want the chalk on the front porch

and then when you run out of wall you gather up all the
rocks
garbage wood
and anything else you can find

we started our garden today
and ate mud (since there is plenty of that to go around)

Okay, Fine...My Family Sneak Peeks

...we actually headed back out today because it was about 15 degrees warmer and the wind was not restyling our hair for us (although I wonder still about Dax's). Got some SUPER cute ones but will only put up a couple tonight I still have other sessions to edit before my own (see I even put myself off).

Do I not have the CUTEST kids in the whole world? LOVE THEM!
I think the baby has learned to sleep with his eyes opened...he was pretty dazed come the end of our session.

Who Needs Scentsy...

...when there are tomatoes to be done? WOW, my house smelled so wonderful all day yesterday, and I am happy to report that my garden has served us very well this year! I bottled 8 pints of salsa, 4 pints of spaghetti sauce and 4 gallon bags (4 cups each) of stewed tomatoes...this was just yesterday which was our second tomato day with at least one more in the forecast. All from 3 Grape, 10 Roma, 1 Early Bird and 2 Big Ones tomato plants.

oh YUM! I have to say this picture must have been taken at the beginning process of tomatoes because my stove was DRIPPING in tomatoes by the time the day was over.
what a cute nut, and the best peeler around!!

How To: Peachy Day...

...start off with a sink full of peaches...

...add a little messy haired muffin that just so happens to LOVE peeling peaches



make a gigantic sticky mess!

after a week and weekend of canning peaches for cobbler, freezing peaches for smoothies and afternoon snacks we are in the process of making fruit leather. In this pot I have about 13 cups of peaches, 2 TBS lemon juice, 3 TBS honey

cook it until nice and soupy about 20 min.
this will be enough for 3 pans but I only have room in the oven for 2 at a time.

Line your cookie sheets with plastic wrap-it needs to be microwave safe
puree those peaches until smooth
pour 4 cups onto each cookie sheet

make sure your plastic wrap does not fold over or touch the rack or side of the oven
set your oven at 130* mine only goes to 150* so I propped my door open with a towel and will continue to watch it closely for 10-12 hours
let your little boy enjoy some of the peach puree` and get as sticky as your kitchen is
then put him in the tub and let him splash all he wants because when he is done you can wipe up the water and the sticky messy will come up too.
let your little buddy play naked-just because
ahhh a sweet peachy day! Nothing better!

now let's just hope that our leather turns out as nicely!

Busy-ness...

...gotta love a productive day! One would think that once the summer was over our schedule would open up and we would have nothing to do all day, but it is actually quite the opposite. We will be SOOO very busy the next few weeks that I am (secretly) dreaming of cold weather already....NNOOOO never mind I can't believe that I actually just said that...I can take the busy-ness and will love every warm minute of it.

So today's agenda consisted of the following:

We finished up the sun dried tomatoes (well finished up until we pick the next bunch) and then did some salsa...I have at least one more batch of salsa and at least one more of spaghetti sauce and another of crushed tomatoes...thank goodness for a good crop! Today alone I picked 2 gallons of romas from the garden and there are a TON of orange and green ones left for a couple more days.

I started to dry my herbs...although I might have to re-learn how to use dried herbs I only ever use fresh (minus cumin-not sure how to do that one yet) these days. Oh and I think I figured out and stopped my bug eating basil problem. I sprayed vinegar (another good use to add to my list) around the pot NOT on the leaves just the pot and I noticed a huge difference within a couple days. Oh and the pot that I brought inside to try to salvage is doing great but I found 4 cocoons under the rim...maybe that was the problem. They kinda make cute decorations huh?!
while the salsa was chilling Skye and I made our FHE treat (yeah we are a day behind, but at least we are trying our hardest to be consistent)
for FHE we picked a HUGE box of peaches from our 1/3 peach tree. Remember last year I cut 2/3 of it off and we didn't get a single peach I was so devistated, but decided to give it another year before cutting it down and starting over...well I am so glad I did we picked about 15 gallons off that funny looking tree...and they smell delicious! I can't wait to dive into them tomorrow.

I started to edit this fun session-it was like a reunion getting with these guys again, I had such fun times growing up with most of the adult kids. Hollie, Brandi, Jeremy, Chet and I all graduated together-Hollie and I have known each other since Kindergarten (or shortly there after). It had been way too long since we had seen each other that most of the kids were new to me. Hopefully we can get together again soon and play! I had so much fun catching up... so this is pose #1 and would you believe me if I told you that I did not have to head swap a single person? I won't tell you if I did or didn't I will let you decide...
I finished this session...what a doll!

and now that the blog is done I think I will go clean my kitchen...or I will just say that is what I am going to go do and really go kick my feet up and relax with my guy.

Sun Dryin'...

...but since our sun isn't hot enough these days it was more a oven drying day today. First time I have attempted to make sun dried (can I still call them that) tomatoes. You see I have an over abundance (should have only planted 1-2 plants) of cherry tomatoes and I am sorry I just can't eat that many salads so what better use right?! So this is how I did it...probably the easiest yet longest process out there. Simply cut the tomatoes in half lengthwise (you can de-seed if you want-I didn't) place them cut side down on a cooling rack on a foil lined cookie sheet (if you don't do it this way you have to remember to flip them later on)

Put them in your oven set to 150* (aka "warm") or the lowest setting you have (watch them closer if you can't set your oven this low). Then you let them hang out for about 8-12 hours depending on the size of the tomatoes. Mine went for 10 hours. The downside to this is your oven is on all day long (set low enough that it doesn't heat the whole house) and you also can't use it for 10 hours. I am doing a second batch and putting it in when I go to bed so that when I wake up it is all done and I can actually make use of my oven if needed.

I chopped up some of my basil and placed them in a jar with evoo and can't wait to try them out soon!



If any of you have some recipes I need to try, or ones you want me to try please feel free to send them my way!

Don't Even Think About It...

..."there's a bunny in your garden!" Oh no, there better not be a bunny in my garden! I have worked too hard with blood, sweat and tears to have even the small garden that I do have this year and we are just now starting to enjoy the fruits (and veggies) of my labors, and I REFUSE to share with a little homeless bunny no matter how cute my kids think he is! It appears to be living under this pine tree, but it also apears to be a more domestic bunny compared to the Jack Rabbits around here...so if he is yours COME AND GET HIM! If you want a new pet COME AND GET HIM, because I swear if my garden disappears by any hand other than my own we will be having bunny stew for dinner!

so onto a note of more appreciation for God's Creations how pretty!! The storm was COLD but I will take the end results-as long as that snow stays up high for a couple more months!

My Garden...

...are you all surprised that it is the last week in July and I have yet to have a "my garden" post? Well between the earwigs, morning glory, a long cold spell that lasted all of Spring and a little baby let's just say the garden is not thriving like it has in the past years.

My squash plant is about a foot big (not the leaves-the whole plant) I am guessing that under my front window is just not a good spot since the potatoes didn't do well last year either. It doesn't get a lot of sun so maybe I will just have to expand my strawberry patch.

The strawberry patch did AWESOME once we put up the pinwheels to keep the birds out (not the Skye bird). It did great that is until the neighbors puppies (yeah 2 of them) decided to go tromping through the beautiful plants. Good thing their harvest was over.

The potato garden (back in the back where the squash was last year) last week looked so GOOD with huge plants and a couple of blossoms even well it now looks like the dogs might have found that one too. The earwigs are eating the leaves and the morning glory is just about to overtake them. I have to go out every other day and unstrangle the plants from the vines...CURSE THEM!

The fruit trees are doing well, we even have a couple of apples this year. I thinned them out a lot since the tree is still young, but we should have a few to eat this fall. The peach tree is hanging on for one more year and hopefully the fruit get big enough to make it worth our while.

My other front garden patch really never got started. I did plant the peas and spinach, but the morning glory did take over that one and going out everyday would not have been enough so we are mowing it down with the lawn and hopefully putting down an everything killer so we can plant next year with less problems. (Although I am skeptical since the whole lawn seems overtaken with the blasted pink/white flower)

Thankfully my salsa garden seems to be doing well. Minus the late start it got with the cold spring we hopefully will be eating tomatoes by the middle of August (guess those Early Bird/4th of July plants are only early if they have early heat). I am crossing my fingers that the romas will not suffer the blossom end rot like they have the past 2 years since that is what most of the plants are.

My herbs are so YUMMY and I am loving having them. I learned a lesson in herb drying oregano + 96* + me not home to water them and move them out of the heat = a pot full of dried oregano. I will have to replant that pot once I use up the dried stuff. The earwigs seem to love basil leaves to dang it! I am currently on the search for a way to eliminate these little buggers they drive me CRAZY! I do have to say they are AWESOME at keeping the mosquitoes away. We haven't had to use our candle all summer we just sit around the basil plants.

So there you have it...hopefully I will have some better updates and some fall preserving posts.

Saturday is a Special Day...

...it is the day we get to play in the gardens! We had lots of weeding and some more planting to get done today and the kids were more than happy to help...I think they like dirt as much as their mom! We got most of it done, but will have a little bit more to finish up on Monday for FHE I think.

Skye's favorite thing is tomatoes and when I told her that is what would grow on these plants she decided that it was HER garden and SHE was going to weed it. I helped a little, but she really did an awesome job. She even got the roots of the weeds.

after it was all weeded she insisted on helping me plant the rest of the basil to keep the bugs away and to help flavor the tomatoes and peppers.

Jacey helped with the planting too, but took a break to help with Colt...what good helpers I have! and my oh my isn't that the cutest chair? I LOVE it, still, but I really need another one so I can have porch company.

Dax was poking a stick in the ground and I figured he was just playing, but he informed me that he was WORKING, he was smashing the earwigs and ants...good boy! You are hired!

And little mr. Colt is feeling so much better and sat on the porch and cheered us on, while chomping his little fingers.

Greg mowed the lawn and the kids realized they have a funny dad who talks out loud to himself while mowing the lawn. We couldn't understand him, but he talked out loud the entire time. They got a kick out of it!

What a perfect day! We had to run some errands and ended up at Story Book Park for a dinner picnic and some play time...no pool today and we survived without it!

Garden's Growing...

...slowly and not quiet for surely but hopefully with a little warmer weather it will start to show some good signs. I didn't ever get around to planting the rest of it (carrots, beets) cuddles came first. My potato greens are showing through the ground, the squash seems to be getting smaller rather than bigger, the peas are starting to stretch out and there are a few blossoms on the tomato plants. My herbs on the other hand are thriving and we are loving them all. I don't know how to get my point across and better...fresh herbs are the BOMB-DIGITY! Since we were not able to celebrate Father's Day with Greg yesterday we had his dinner today and man alive it was yummy!

Salmon with dill and chives, guacamole, and tomato and onion salad...YUMMY!