Making Future Weekend Plans

We spent breakfast on Saturday morning trying to decide how we were going to spend the day. I am now about 5 weeks or so till my due date, so even though we really wanted to do something outside, I kinda put a damper on those plans. Finally my dad suggested we head out to a fairly local state park just to check it out. What a great idea!!

By the time we left there, we had weekend planed for the rest of the summer and into the fall! It has a lake that is great for swimming, camping, even boat rentals. Miss O is super excited. She loves to go swimming and wear her "baby soup" as she calls her bathing suit. However we are going to have to wait  till a little later in the summer before we can make our first trip out there. The monsoons are about to start and none of us want to get caught up in that while camping! Plus, being pregnant make me a major wimp when it comes to the heat!

Feeling Blessed

My family has always been extremely important to me, and moving away from Tennessee nearly broke my heart. Thankfully, my parents did not want my children growing up with out having grandparents in their lives, and decided to come on out West as well. I feel so blessed to have these people in my life. Each one has a personality and quirks that I just love. I am a lucky girl!

Happy Friday everyone! I hope you all have wonderful weekends!

This Week In My Garden

Last week in the garden June 17

This morning in the garden June 25

Well, I have to say, I have neglected the garden a little this past week. I am well into my third trimester and the heat is starting to get to me a little. However, as you can tell from the pictures it seems to be doing just fine. I am going to have to get out there sometime this morning and do some picking. The okra is doing great! (It also taste great!) Actually everything is producing very well with the exception on the poblano peppers. The pepper plants are really big, but there are no flowers or peppers on them! Crazy!

We are all enjoying the garden so much, that we will for sure expand it next year, so we can grow more! There are a few sunny spots in my yard that are just calling out for some raised garden beds.

 

If you are taking notes and pictures of you garden, and would like to share, please feel free to leave a link in the comment section.

The Calm Before The Storm

Until about half way through this second pregnancy, I would wake up when Miss O woke up. It did not matter if she woke up at 8, I would stay in bed until she was awake. Then there would be a mad unorganized rush of getting myself and her ready. I was usually in a bad mood because I had not had my coffee yet and would still be sleepy, and lets face it, I am just not that much of a morning person.

Then I started thinking about what life will be like when this new baby gets here, and I decided that the only way to make sure I was going to get some time to myself was to make it. I started waking up around 6. This gives me time to have coffee, take a shower, be dressed, and have some time to work on projects, all before Miss O is awake.

Even though I am that person who will get up and walk all the way across the room just to hit the snooze button for about an hour straight, complaining the entire time, this time to myself in the early morning before all the craziness starts has become my favorite time of the day.

Happy Tuesday!

Save The Tomatoes!!!

Every morning I was getting up, and heading out back to check on my tomato plants. I would get super excited to see red tomatoes on the plants, but when I got closer to pick them, I could see that something had been munching on them! This happened with every red tomato. It was driving me crazy!! So my brother and I  built this nice cage made out of chicken wire around the plants. When we realized that those beautiful red tomatoes were still getting eaten, we added some netting over the top. Problem solved!! The tomatoes are now mine!

When we built the cage, we made it so the sides can open and close, however, afterwords we realized that we should have given ourselves more room to walk around the plants. It is a little tight in the tomato cage, especially for me and my giant pregnant belly.  Oh well, we will know better next year!

 

 

A New Found Love of Books

For those of you who know me, you know that I love to read, and love to surround myself with books of any and every kind. Before Miss O was born, this was just a trait I assumed she would have as well, so you can imagine my disappointment when I could not get her to sit still or even listen to a story. We have filled up her bookshelf with all kinds of great kiddo books, but there has never been an interest. For awhile book were just for chewing on in her opinion. Well over the last few months something has changed, and the pictures above a now a common sight! Miss O will bring me book after book, and back herself right up into my lap asking me to read to her. When books are finished she will ask me to "read again, read again". She will point out animals and objects on the pages of the books and it makes me so proud. I have even been known to drop everything that I am doing, and read to her when she asks! I know, I know, I am spoiling her, but I just can't help it.

 

If you have any suggestion for some great kids book that I must read to Miss O, please let me know. I am always open to book suggestions. 

This Week In My Garden

This is what my garden looked like last week June 10

This is a picture from my garden this morning June 17

We are slowly starting to harvest and enjoy some of the many blessing from this small garden space. We have picked an abundance of eggplant, and the plants are still full of veggies and new flowers. We have also enjoyed two big bowls of green beans cooked southern style, complete with bacon fat for flavor! Yum Yum. It turns out the okra was not ready by the time my brother went home, but more and more of it is ready each day. The jalapeno peppers are really starting to show up, but we have not seen a poblano pepper yet. I did however realize a mistake I made.....I thought I bought sweet banana peppers, but it turns out I got sweet bell peppers! No big deal though I like them all. 

 

We are doing ok so far as pest go, well the best you can in the desert. So far we have not been the ones enjoying the beautiful red tomatoes when they are ready. (some adjustments have been made to our tomato protection system, now we just need to see if it works) Also a bird keeps pecking the eggplant, oh yeah and for awhile something was eating the leaves of the poblano plants. We never saw anything on them but you can see were bites have been taken out.

 

Even with the pest and learning set backs, the garden is growing way better than we thought it would. We all feel very blessed!

 

If you have a garden, and would like to share your garden pictures and stories please, feel free to leave a link in the comment section. I would love to hear how your garden grows.

Finished, and WIth Plenty of Time To Spare

When Miss O was born, we went out and bought an expensive bedroom set with all the fixings. The blanket turned out to be for decoration only, and the curtains are wadded up in the top of her closet. There were also pieces included in the set that we did not want or need. This second time around we decided to do something different and  make this stuff on our own. Well, so far so good. Here is the finished blanket for his crib! I was originally going to try to make a quilt, but the idea of picking out different color choices really stressed me out.  When we got to the fabric store and I saw a bolt of quilt top already made, and in the colors we wanted, I decided to make this project super simple.  Miss O is in love with this fabric, and as you can tell every time it was in the floor, she had to be on top of it.

My next project for his room will be the curtains, and I already have the fabric picked out for that. Looking back, I wish I had made the stuff for Miss O's room as well, but at the time it was way beyond my abilities. It is nice to have my say on what I want everything to look like, and to have it fit just the way I want.

Discovering the Wild West With Grandpa Part 2

I do believe that pictures will be better than words to describe all that we have been getting into with Grandpa on his visit out here. Enjoy!

Discovering the Wild West With Grandpa Part 1

My Grandpa, who is 90 years old has been visiting since Memorial Day weekend. Even though he hated to see all of us move away from the South, he loves to West. He dresses in bolo ties, western shirts and pants, and sometime even cowboy boots. He even loves all the old western movies and music. So, over the past few weeks we have been driving all over the desert showing him the sights. This is just a collection of random photos taken over the last few weeks of his visit. Enjoy!

This Week In My Garden

Here is a shot from last week June 3

This is from yesterday morning June 11

We are finally getting to enjoy some of the things growing in this wonderful garden of ours.  The green beans and eggplant are amazing!

 

The okra has made an appearance, and my brother is hoping it will be ready to eat before he heads back to Tennessee. The corn now has tassels, and you can see baby ears of corn with silk.

 

We are starting to get some red tomatoes, but we have some kind of critter getting to them before us. I thought it was birds, but my neighbor said she thinks it is squirrels and lizards. My brother and I have built a fence to keep these animals out!( more on that to come) However, I have not been awake long enough to go outside and see if it worked!

 

What a blessing this garden is turning out to be!

 

If you have a garden of your own, I would love to see pictures and hear your garden stories. Please feel free to leave a link in the comment section.