Ten on Tuesday

Guess what?  This post isn't going to be about GAPS or my health (for the most part!) I know, some of you are very sad about that but I also know some of you are relieved.

Let's catch up on the other areas of my life, shall we?

1. ) We have been enjoying our summer already.  We've been out of school for about four weeks and have loved our break.  We have played around the house, done some spring cleaning, done some crafts, watched movies, planted our garden (that was a HUGE one), done some good ole' sleeping in and more.

2.) Speaking of our garden let me see if I can tell you what we planted this year (all organic too). Acorn squash, zucchini squash, yellow squash, peaches (which we lost all of due to a late frost), sugar pumpkins, cantaloupe, spaghetti squash, cherry tomatoes, Roma tomatoes, beefsteak tomatoes, garlic, strawberries, broccoli, kale, butter lettuce, romaine lettuce, mixed lettuce, cauliflower, sweet peppers, jalapenos, cucumbers, beets, sweet potatoes (going in soon), Fuji apples, blackberries, raspberries, sage, thyme, rosemary, lavender, marigolds (to protect a lot of the garden), chocolate mint, lemon mint, spearmint, chamomile, dill, cilantro, morning glories, and oregano. Whew! It took some weeks of prep and time but it is all well worth it. I thank God that I am physically able to do the gardening.  Two months ago, it would not have happened. I couldn't have handled it.

3.) We went to the zoo here for the first time.  The boys and I had a ton of fun enjoying the animals and the sunshine.

4.) Max, our cat, has been getting into mischief.  We let him out everyday but recently he started to dig up some of my plants!  He has been quarantined to the house now.  The picture below is of him covered in spider webs after snoozing under our shed. Gross!

5.) Cody and his brother have had fun playing super heroes and dressing up.  This is the latest superhero - "Underwear Man." Oh boy.

6.) Here he is being silly with decorative tape for crafts I got at the dollar bin at Target.  It is his mask.  He wasn't too happy when he pulled it off and it was stuck in his hair.  Oops.

7.) I have to confess. I think I have a new addiction.  Well actually I don't have any addictions to be honest BUT this could become one: thrift store shopping and going to garage sales.  Oh my goodness they are so much fun!  Steve and I had some kid free time the other day after a doctors appointment and we stopped by one of our local thrift stores.  We had a blast.  HE even loved it.  I think it is so cool to be able to get books for .65 or a plant container for $1.  My latest find was this trampoline for the boys at a garage sale.  It is almost brand new and they are like $50-60 bucks in the stores.  We got such a good price and the boys have had so much fun on it. I also found the perfect school room table and chairs and plan to refinish it. That will be another post but I can't wait to show you the before and after.  Like the Duggars say "Buy used and save the difference." It truly is a great philosophy.

8.) We have been getting our raw milk and eggs from a local farmer who has been wonderful to us.  We get a great price and go every week to the farm.  The milk has the cream on top and I always skim that off to use in coffee or some kind of creamy dish. It is also good whipped up to put on fresh fruit.  The latest thing we did with it though was make butter. I can't believe I haven't done this before.  It is seriously SO easy. I couldn't taste it but the boys rave about it. I also think it was a great experience for my boys to learn that this is how it is actually made.  We also had leftover buttermilk for gluten free buttermilk pancakes. Yummers!

9.) This is what my morning juice from my juicer looks like. I had to share because I think it is so pretty. It looks like the sunset.  Carrots, celery, beets, kale, parsley and dill.  A few other things sometimes too but that is generally my "coffee" in the morning.

10.) My brother came to town for a week and it was such a blessing to see him.  It had been way too long (3 years) since I last saw him.  I did miss my sister-in-law a bunch though.  She wasn't able to make it and I was looking forward to catching up with her.  I hope to be able to see them again toward the end of the year. We showed my brother around and had great weather.  It was nice for him to be able to see my extended family too and our grandma who is 92 in assisted living. I can't wait to see them again and I pray it is this year.

Have a great week!

~Blessings~

Late Summer Harvest

Our gardening season is slowly coming to an end. Sure we can plant some more for a fall harvest but I am not sure we will get around to that with homeschool, co-op, church, health issues and "life."  Maybe though.

It has been fun to see little tiny seeds grow into to overflowing green plants that give us food to eat.  The boys have helped me water, weed and harvest consistently.  Cody just loves going out to the peas to stand there and eat them directly out of there pods.  It is cute.  The peas on the table he says "yuck" but peas on the vine, "yummy!"  Cracks me up.  He also has taken a liking to strawberries.  He wouldn't touch a strawberry before the garden (because of the texture) but now he eats them out of the garden!

I thought I share with you the last of the garden pictures for the season.

Harvesting the carrots.... this got to be pretty funny, you will see why...

Hmmm..... our soil must have had issues. :-)

Weird...

Three for the price of one!

This our corn.  We can't harvest this yet, it is not quite ready.  I cannot believe how tall it gets.  It got a lot taller than our Sunflowers.

We had a huge harvest that day! :-)

These bell peppers were interesting. Some of them started out a blackish purple and now they are turning green and red. I will probably be canning these into roasted peppers since I can't have these until next year because of my ALCAT regimen.

I have been using Kale in stir fry's and smoothies.  It is such an awesome superfood!

Our peaches are coming along nicely!  This is the most anticipated fruit for me.  I can actually eat it (in moderation) and it is my favorite fruit.  For such a baby tree it sure is giving us a lot of fruit this year.

We have been harvesting lettuce for a lot of the summer and it is at it's end now.  It was sure nice to have organic lettuce on hand whenever we needed it though.

Here is our bounty on one of the days we harvested. We are still waiting on our potatoes which are going to be ready soon.  They are "bubbling" over at the top of the soil.  Thank you Lord for blessing our garden this year.

The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. Isaiah 58:11

~Blessings~

 

Summer 2012 Recap

Summer is coming to a close for us.  Even though summer isn't truly over until next month we start school next Monday so I count summer to be over.  This was our first summer in our new home in our new state.  We sure had a blessed time and I truly thank God for His amazing grace and all He has poured out upon us. 

Join me in looking back on some of the "Lazy (or not so lazy" days of Summer 2012)...
(Bear with me - I am a scrapbooker and can't just choose one picture from each event. Pictures are fun anyway!)

Finger Painting

Cherry Festival

The carnival part of it. My cousin John went on a ride with Corbin.

Cody picking a little ducky.

Cherry dark chocolate ice cream.  Read about it here.

Homemade smoothie popsicles

Pool time with friends

Fourth of July

I didn't make these look as good as the links on pinterest but they still tasted yummy!

Burning our last sparkler from our wedding 8 years ago!

Made edible playdough... it was yummy.

Slip N' Slide

Watering the garden everyday and enjoying the harvest from the fruits of our labor.

Green beans

Peas

Roma Tomatoes

Max loves to water with me every night.  He goes to every plant with me and follows me around.  He is so cute.

Going to the water park right by our house for the first time.  We had a blast!

We made our own Gummies.  We learned about seaweed and carageenan which is an ingredient gummies are made from. Actually you can find it in a lot of products - even salad dressing!

Running in the sprinklers

We went on our first real train ride through the mountains. It was beautiful!  We got to wave to all the rafters in the river along the way.

The boys had fun at our table in our train car.

We had Corbin's 7th birthday! Super Mario Themed was his request.

Lastly, we went on our first camping trip here. Actually it was our first camping trip in three years - since I was pregnant with Cody!  We went with our church to "Family Camp."

They had a family activity where the kids got a handful of whipped cream and a popsicle stick.  They got to smear it on their Dad's face and "shave" it off with the popsicle stick. Steve was a trooper for this one!

We had worship everyday by our worship leaders (it was awesome) and Steve got to lead our devotional one night on Initiative and taking our part as the Body of Christ. Our church also provided smores every night for the camp.  That was a huge hit!  We had a potluck dinner one night as well.  I can't wait for next year.  It was so much fun.

Fishing in the river one day during our camping trip.

This was Cody literally 5 minutes after we got into the car to head back home after our camping trip.  He was pooped!

We had an eventful summer.  It has been fun to look back on some of the fun things we did.  I have to say that I am looking forward to the return of the school year.  More structure and routine and hopefully a little less busy.  We will see?

Ecclesiastes 3:1 ~ To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven...

Thank you Lord for a great summer season!