Mother Nature...Seriously.

On Grace's birthday, Jan. 27, we had a snow day from school.  She was ecstatic!

TODAY it's Evan's birthday, March 12, and school was closed again for a blizzard.  He was ecstatic too, but REALLY?!!!

To get over my disappointment in Mother Nature, I'm posting some pics of things I would like to use in/change/try in my garden and flower beds this year...I mean, if we ever get to that point in our weather!

(Yesterday was 50 degrees, and the snow we've had all winter was melting.  Today, in the 20's with a blizzard...we must be living in a snow globe!)

Anyway, here are some ideas found on Pinterest.com.  (The links may not directly relate to the image shown, but are linked to the site where they came from.)

My patio needs some help this year...and this one is beautiful.

Every year I move around, split, change the perennials in my flower beds, maybe this year I'll add some pots...

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and some lavender in galvanized buckets...

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and maybe move my chippy white metal gates (or find a metal headboard) to the flower beds.

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For my porch or patio, I would like to add some points of interest.  Like painted chairs...

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or galvanized trash cans (I picked some up at an auction last year)

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I did find some pictures of things I already have myself, but it's good to see how I can use them now...

like the wheelbarrow we have that has seen better days, but would work great as a planter...

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or the vintage tricycle I bought at a garage sale YEARS ago...I just need to get a bike basket...

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I even have an old chandelier to try this with.

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All in all, I'm excited to start planning for these things for summer.  Getting my hands in the dirt of my flower beds always seems to center me.  I'm reshaping the small bits of nature I'm in charge of each year. 

Now, to get all THIS snow to melt!

Hands in the dirt

Today our temps were in the middle 20's.  It literally felt like a heat wave!

We haven't seen double digit numbers for a long while. 

The sun was BRILLIANT today, and warmed our whole house.  We opened all the curtains and let it in.

It felt great!

It made me want to get started on the seeds I always plant in the basement. 

It was such a relief to get my hands in the dirt again.

Every year I use the same trays and the same small pots, I just recycle them.

I planted 3 kinds of tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, basil, peppers, and cat grass for Oreo.

Once everything was planted and watered, I took them down to the basement and set them up under the light Brent rigged up several years ago. 

I will lower the trays down under the light as the plants get bigger.

Things like peas, lettuce, corn, and all my perennials, I plant directly in the garden, but the other things I start indoors.

Today made me so eager to get things rolling...then I looked outside and saw all the snow drifts, and how my garden is completely covered with snow.

Oh well, it'll be here soon enough and then I'll be complaining about all the weeding to be done.

What swirls through my head

I'm ITCHING to get in my garden.

I NEED to get peas and potatoes and some other early cold weather vegetables planted.  I'm waiting for Brent to get it tilled.  We have heavy clay that gets rock hard.

I'm dreaming of getting it all in the ground, knowing what work I have waiting for me this summer when it's all up and it's time to can/freeze it for the winter.

Ideas from Pinterest go on my gardening board daily.

Things like this...

I'm imagining different colored sunflowers mixed together.  Now, just to find the tank...
Since I LOVE the smell of lavender, and I already have some galvanized buckets, I'm thinking these need to be made.

 I also have an old radio flyer wagon on my porch, and the kids are selling geraniums for 4-H, so there you go...

 In my garden, I have a section just for cutting flowers.  My favorites because they are so hardy and pretty, and last up until fall are zinnias.

I'm a big fan of these flowers too, but I'm not sure what they are.  (if you know...enlighten me!)

When I find an old sink, this would be great for my back patio...

with an old coke crate to go with it.

In general, I LOVE flowers, I love the dirt, and I love the feeling that I'm growing something good for my family.

I think this motto pretty much sums it all up!

Do you garden?

What is...

What is yellow, sticky, has hair, and takes forever to put away?

SWEET CORN!

Yep, we're in the midst of it.  The other day when my sister was here from South Carolina, she helped me do 2 1/2 5 gallon buckets worth.

Last night, Brent and the kids went outside to take the remaining ears off what is in the corn patch.

They ended up filling 12+ more 5 gallon buckets!
Ugh.
I was in the house shucking it as fast as I could, and cooking it at the same time to slice off and put in containers.

We started around 6:30 and by 10:30 I was still working on it, with 6 buckets in the basement to go.

That's for today.

This year Brent planted more than ever... because it seemed we never had enough to last all winter.  He planted SO MUCH this year, I don't think we're gonna have that problem.  So far, I have 35 containers made and in the freezer with more to make.

For all the work that goes into freezing sweet corn, it is awfully good to eat throughout the winter.
At least it wasn't ready the week of the fair like it was last year.  That was too much!

Anyone putting anything in their freezer now?

Up next....canned pizza sauce.

Saturday...it's what they are for...

I started the morning with 3 cups of coffee.

I DO NOT have a problem.  It's just that some days, I desire more coffee than others.

After my 3rd cup, I headed outside to water my flowers around the house.  (Yes, we are STILL experiencing a drought.  We are officially 8 inches of rain behind where we should be at this time...or so I  heard.)

I had to water with a watering can instead of the hose because the hose was attached to the sprinkler watering the sweet corn.

I made about 10 trips inside to fill up the can and go back out.

That's ok.  It's good exercise.

After that, I headed out to the garden.

To my patch.

They say daisies are the "friendliest flower," so what does that make zinnias?  The "best friends" of the bunch?  The "tried and true, never let you down flower"?  I think so.  They hang around till the very end of the season, and they just keep on bloomin.

I LOVE THEM.

After I cut some and brought them inside, I did some laundry, washed some dishes, and went to town making 9 more things for my etsy shop.

If I didn't have a certain child asking if I would take her and her brother swimming, (like 20 times), I could've maybe cranked out a 10th item.  Just kidding.

Now, it's supper time, then time to weigh the pigs one more time before we take them into our County Fair next Friday.

Later, a magazine, or book, or maybe my decorating binder will call my name as I aimlessly flip through TV channels.

This is what Saturdays are for, right?

Swimming in Sweetness

I use each and every summer to grow a garden that helps me have enough food to eat fresh and preserve for the coming winter.

Since I don't have any fruit trees of my own, however, I have to buy some of it elsewhere.

When I made my yearly call in April to the small orchard where I get my extra produce (Lodi apples for applesauce and peaches) I was told with the crazy spring we had, and all the freezes we had late in the season there would be NO apples, pears, OR peaches for me this year.

It's a matter of fact.

I heard the same thing about the concord grapes I make grape juice with.  I have my own vines, but we're just getting started, and I buy elsewhere to supplement all that I make.

What a blow.  What a shock.  Poor farmers who rely on this income yearly.

I felt slighted, and I had no reason to.

Each and everytime we heard the weatherman say there could be frost, Brent and I religiously went outside with the old sheets I keep for this very reason, and covered the strawberries and grapes.  It was a pain in the butt!

We covered every night but one.  Then we got a frost late in the morning, and it took all the grapes that I had started to get.  Everything was gone, shriveled up, brown.

I was heartbroken.  I was mad.  Just one time we didn't cover...

Fortunately, my grapes came back...but the apples, peaches, and pears are not in abundance for anyone this year.

I did find some the other day at one of the farmer's stands that I have frequented in the past.

They are from South Carolina and they are called Big Smile.  I tried them last year for the first time, and they were pretty much the same quality and taste as the Red Haven peaches I typically get in August.

Since I knew about the bad luck the farmers had this spring, I bought 1 bushel.  I knew I had to put something in my freezer for the winter.

Aren't they beautiful!

The smell when you walk in the kitchen is intoxicating!  And the peaches keep coming up missing.  I think I have peach thieves in my house!

So, for the last couple of days (that's right...peaches can't all be ripe at the same time unfortunately!)  I've been covered up to my elbows in peach juice, slicing and putting them in containers to freeze.

I have a secret recipe (that won't be secret any longer...) from one of my good friends.  She gave it to me a couple years ago, and I swear by it.  It's delicious, and when you pull the peaches out of the freezer in the middle of January, they taste completely fresh!

To get started, you'll need:

6 c water
4 c sugar
1 3oz. box peach jello (can be sugar free)

Warm this all together in a saucepot on the stove.  You don't have to get it boiling, but everything needs to be dissolved.  Then, you must let it cool completely!

Slice up your peaches and put them in whatever container your heart desires as long as it can be used in the freezer.  Leave at least 1/2" headroom at the top.  Pour your "peach juice" (above recipe) over the peaches,  leaving 1/2" headroom.  Put the lid on and pop in your freezer.  They taste amazing.  My son likes to eat them partially frozen, but I like mine thawed all the way.

We've been eating fresh lettuce, peas, zucchini (I also shred and freeze this) and soon cabbage, but the next I have to preserve is probably tomatoes and corn.

What are you enjoying eating right now?

P.P.S.  Somehow I totally screwed up my old format of my blog, and now it looks like this with a wonky header not in the middle.  If anyone knows how to help me fix this....PLEASE let me know!

-----signed,
           Desperate!

Found objects

It's Saturday.

I had errands to run.  It's the only day of the week with no softball practice, or games, or PTO meetings, or church bazaar meetings, or...well, you know.

It's my one day of the week to catch up on cleaning, or outside chores, or, well...everything that doesn't get done on a weekday.

I wish I could just sit around with a book and read every Saturday.  It would be heaven.

But it's not reality, unless I'm sick.  Which I wasn't today, so it was errand and hard work day.

Grace went with me in the morning.  We got gas, went to Menards for more insulators for my tiny tomato plants (which went in the ground today...along with peppers and cabbage that I grew from seeds in the kitchen window), the library to return books, the resale shop where I sell our clothes, and then I asked if she wanted to stop at Goodwill.

Well,  her answer is ALWAYS the same.  Um, Yes.  Hello.  It's shopping.  There might be something for me.

You know the drill.

When I drove up, I noticed it was a 50% off day.  This can be a good and bad thing all rolled into one.

You see, we pulled in about 1 hour after they opened. On 50% off days they can be extremely busy, like no carts available busy, or...like today.

Today, it was a good thing.  It wasn't too busy, and I stumbled upon some GREAT things.

Now, stop right there.  I know what some of you are thinking.  "What in the world are you gonna do with that stuff?"

That's WHY I surf Pinterest.com People.  For ideas for stuff like this!

Now, I'll be honest...the Penmanship book.

I really don't know what this will be used for...unless I sell it in my ETSY shop when I get it opened.  It was vintage looking and full of unused school lined paper.

The small tin...
It will become a very cute little pin cushion with vintage fabric.
The knives...

I just stumbled upon the idea for them last night in a magazine I was purging.  Old stainless steel knives were used as plant markers.  Just use a small sharpie marker to write (in beautiful script of course) the name of the plant, and stand it upright in your pot.  Adorable.  Could also be used outside to mark rows in the garden.  $.25/each, and then at half price...come on!  Now, I may be wrong...but were these not the same exact pattern of the knives I grew up using Mom?

The small file folders...

I just saw an idea for a small vacation scrapbook made out of file folders stapled together, or bound however you wanted.  Each folder had a page for each member of the family to tell their favorite things from the vacation.  Great idea!

The frame...to be used...I'm not sure how, but it will get a dose of spray paint once I decide on the color.
The large piece of Styrofoam will be used to stand up the rings I'm making for my ETSY shop.

I also scored a new pack of scented vacuum bags, a large container of small paper cups for Evan's state project  on Wednesday, an Elle shirt for me, and some brand new Velcro curlers that Grace wants to try in her hair.

I used my $5 off coupon, and my total bill....$4.75.

Seriously.

Made a great start to my day.

Then I came home and worked my tail off in the garden, and got a farmer's sunburn to prove it!

How was your Saturday?

It's all I thought it would be...mostly

Like so many times, I set my expectations too high for my time off of school.

I make lists.

I cross things off lists, and write more lists.

I think of everything I've let go by the wayside since Christmas break, and I write it all down to accomplish over Spring Break.

It's foolish.

I feel foolish.

However, SOME of that stuff got done this week.  And isn't the fact that I got to do this

a little rewarding.  You see, I didn't have to travel down to Florida or Texas, or even California to experience weather in the 60's, and 70's.  It was nice and sunny here everyday.

We got our 4-H pigs

and the kids got them out almost everyday to play around with them.

Grace and Ev each had a friend over to spend the night and then we all went to the mall the next day.  (Whose idea was THAT anyway?  :-)  )

My garden got planted

with three rows of peas

17 red potato mounds..and

47 onions and 2 rows of lettuce.

I planted some pansy's on the porch

and just enjoyed all the sunshine and my time outside.

It was a good time to relax, it was a good time to regroup, and it was a good time to get excited about what Summer Break is going to be all about.

It was a great week even though we didn't make it past Elkhart County.