Happy Birthday to Me!

Well, today is my 29th Birthday and my gift to you is (drumroll please).......
UPDATING THE BLOG!
I know, I know it's just the best gift ever. =) I have tons to update, so later on this afternoon I am going to update everything since the last update- which is tons and tons of fun stuff.
So, as soon as the garage door guy leaves and I feed the kids lunch I will be back on here to give you fun stuff to read.

Garden Update

We have now planted everything in our garden. (Yay!) We started most everything from seed except for a couple of jalapeno plants, lettuce, tomatoes, zucchini, squash, a few storage onions and one cucumber. I am going to try and update as things grow, so we can have a good review of what we planted this year, so we'll know what worked and didn't work for next year. Here's what we've planted:
Row 4-parsley, basil, onion and jalapeno

Row 3- Pickling cucumber, okra, pole beans, jack pot zucchini, patty pan squash, chocolate peppermint and chocolate spearmint

Row 2- Pumpkin and Potatoes

Row 1- Tomatoes (roma, big beef, early girl and sweet 100) and Lettuce

Everything is looking good so far (fingers crossed), so hopefully we'll have a good harvest and I'll be able to can like crazy. My plans are to can the pumpkin, tomatoes and anything else I can think of. We will also definitely be pickling the cucumbers and okra (so yummy!). We are very excited and can't wait for our harvest!

This week at the garden:

J watering the starts we planted








Me and my sleeping
little C Behr











The rest of the kiddos
playing in the Kid Area

Wordless Wednesday- Caught!

Happy Earth Day! (link love)

Happy Earth Day!

In honor of Earth Day I am going to share some links with you that are "green" related. Please visit them all, they are great!

The place where we buy all of our green cleaners and house supplies -
www.melaleuca.com (if you are interested in buying any contact me and I'll get you set up)

40 Ways to a greener home
http://simplemom.net/tips-to-go-green-at-home/#more-2086

Daily Green Hour
http://simplekids.net/green-hour/

Jack Johnson- The 3 R's
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6IbRSRe8MQ

Billion Acts of Green (add yours to the list)
http://www.earthday.org/

The Green Guide
http://www.thegreenguide.com/

Care2
http://www.care2.com/

Mother Earth News
http://www.motherearthnews.com/

Raise your own chickens (can't wait until we can do this!)
http://www.grit.com/daily-commute/Save-Money-in-2009-Raise-Your-Own-Chickens.aspx
http://www.wikihow.com/Keep-Chickens-in-a-City
http://www.backyardchickens.com/

Pick your own
http://www.pickyourown.org/

Find a Co-op, Farmer's Market and more
http://www.localharvest.org/

If you know of anything I forgot or you want me to add something leave a comment.

Our Garden

The kiss of the sun for pardon,
The song of the birds for mirth,
One is nearer God's heart in a garden
Than anywhere else on earth.
~Dorothy Frances Gurney, "Garden Thoughts"


Last Saturday, we got to see our Community Garden Plot. We were lucky enough to get a plot this year, we tried last year but it was all full. This year they changed things up and did a lottery and miraculously our name was drawn! We have a great spot right along the edge of the gardens and next to the shed where they keep the "community" tools. We can plant anything we want in our garden and it is all ours to keep. Plus, that primo spot is ours until we don't want it anymore. So, since Jarrod couldn't help us with the plot this time, we decided to just go ahead and get the hay off the top. Kaitlyn raked for a little while, the other kiddos loaded the wheel barrel,I took the wheel barrel to drop off the hay, and the kiddos unloaded it onto the pile (it had to be spread over the pile). Then, Kaitlyn and I switched. This week we are going to add some compost and make our rows so that we can measure them off and decide what to plant. I kind of did a tentative planting chart, but I have since decided to skim it down a little bit b/c I don't want to do too much and end up disappointed. We are soo excited and can't wait to start planting! We are going to do some starts (we'll get those at the Farmer's Market next month) and some seeds (I'm not too sure how the seeds will do- I usually do better with starts). Here are some pics that Jarrod took that day.


Why try to explain miracles to your kids when you can just have them plant a garden. ~Robert Brault

Our Garden Plot

Kid's filling wheel barrel

Raking with Coen

Easter

This Easter was a good one. On Friday I made Hot Cross Buns. They were yummy! I am really loving Pioneer Woman's recipes. On Sunday we woke up and the kids got their baskets, we went to church, then Cracker Barrel for brunch and then home to see what the Easter bunny left. The girls found their eggs crazy fast while Jude took his sweet time. He was more interested in finding an egg, opening it and then eating what was inside. Thankfully the bunny only left ten egs each (he didn't want to overdo it) so it didn't take too long. We hunted in the house since we don't really have a yard, plus it was a yucky day. Here are some pics of the kiddos in their outfits. All in all it was a fun relaxing day and we got to celebrate Jesus' resurrection. He is risen!

Eventful Morning

So, my morning was absolutely crazy. We were on-time everything was going great. The kids were drinking their green smoothies. I went upstairs to see if Emma had a maroon shirt to put on so that she had on Griz colors when I heard Kaitlyn say, "Emma you better clean that up, get a towel". Then Mia comes running upstairs covered from shoulders to toes in green smoothie. Emma had somehow spilled her smoothie across our entire couch, over the recliner to my desk. I'd say about a good 8 feet. She swear she was sitting, but it looks like it was tossed. Anyway, I cleaned up Mia then Emma, Kaitlyn cleaned the couch, Mia put on Jude's shoes and I went to grab Coen so we could walk to the bus stop. When I went to grab Coen his precious little face smiled up at me and I noticed that he had puked all over himself. His whole side was covered, so I had to change him too. By the time I looked at the clock we were 1 minute late to our bus stop. We didn't make it to the other stop, so here I was car-less with one kid that had testing today and another that was singing in something at 9am. I finally got a hold of my husband and we got the kids to school on time (thankfully their bus gets them to school really early so we had some time). Man, it was a stressful morning!