HSV Garden Challenge ~ Final Post

This is the final post in the HSV Garden Challenge for this year.

We got a late start in putting in our garden. But, with perfect temperatures for much of May and June, and with the right amount of rain and daily watering, our garden progressed well.

We tried some new things this year, with a bit of success. Although we didn't get a lot of potatoes, they were fun to plant and to dig out of the ground. I don't know that we will go to the trouble next year. But, they did give us something interesting to discuss when we were having our Key Ingredients school day.

I put in two different crops of tomato plants this year, in two different places. (Last year, because of the heat, I did not get ONE tomato!) I planted two organic tomato plants in one spot, a tomato plant from Lowe's in another spot, and next to it, a cherry tomato bush. One of my organic plants has LOTS of fruit. So far only two have ripened and I can't wait for the rest. The other one has not produced one piece of fruit. I cannot explain that.

The plants from Lowe's are doing exceptional! I have plucked off ripened cherry tomatoes for the past month and eaten them on the spot. There are about 100 unripened right now that are going to overtake me soon! And my regular tomato plant from Lowe's has lots of fruit waiting to ripen. I can say that I do not see the benefit in the organic tomato plants. They were a lot more expensive and are a lot more finicky!

My corn is doing REALLY well this year, and I think it is because of the placement. No cobs yet (but I really just plant corn for the stalks to decorate for fall anyway.)

I planted carrots, and ONE germinated. Who knows.

My jalapenos are doing wonderful and Rick is getting ready to have them for every meal! They are his favorite thing and they are HOT this year!!!

I planted two zucchini hills and one crooked yellow squash hill. They have grown nicely and we have already enjoyed some fresh zucchini. I am hoping for lots more that I can shred for our breads and muffins this winter. But, those darned SQUASH BUGS are making their presence known. I am going to get some neem oil today and pray that they don't dessimate one of my favorite crops.

And that's our garden. We are in the 100's here in Oklahoma now, and probably will be for the next two months. I am watering once, sometimes twice, a day, trying to keep them from scorching. So far, so good.

Next year I plan to pretty much plant the same things, but move them around a bit. And, I would like more color to my garden so I will incorporate more annuals to liven things up! I'm always learning!

The kids have shown a little more interest this year. But the one thing I have loved is that now they recognize MY love of gardening, and mention it to others. If nothing else, I am glad that they get a glimpse into what makes their mommy happy. I think that sometimes us moms feel like we do so much for our families that they don't really know US. I am trying to reveal myself to my family more and more.

Nicole's Daybook

Outside my window... it is another miserable, steaming hot Oklahoma summer day. We did get a small reprieve yesterday with a quick soaking rain.

I am thinking... about how unorganized I feel about our upcoming school year (that starts in less than 3 weeks).

I am thankful ... that Rick's back is almost completely healed.

I am wearing... gray sweat capris, a Grand Teton National Park t-shirt and gray flip flops.

I am planning...  for my planning day on Friday. My friend Megan and I are going to spend the day trying to get better prepared for school.
 

I am creating... 4th of July activities for tomorrow. We are having a school day! (Only a homeschooler, right?)

I am going... to do some cleaning today and, hopefully, some READING!

I am reading...  Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey by The Countess of Carnarvon, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel by Deborah Moggach (SOOO good!), Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv (Lord willing, I will be able to read some today.)

I am hoping... that my sister gets good news at her doctor's appointment today. Hoping for that baby niece to arrive in the next couple of days!

From the learning rooms... We have actually accomplished a bit this week, so far. Yesterday both kids read for about 30 minutes. I am going to have them read some more today. Then we are planning to go back to Bass Pro Shop for to attend the Camping workshop this afternoon. And tomorrow we are logging a school day by learning all about Independence Day.

Noticing that ... the type of food you feed your pets really affects their health. No more cheap food for any other them.

From the kitchen... tonight it's Calzones! (FYI .. I usually have excellent luck with Aldi brand foods. In fact, some of their brands we actually prefer over name brands. But their large "take and bake" pizzas by Mama Cozzi are YUCK! Dawson said they remind him of the pizza at Boy Scout Camp. I am hoping to redeem myself with homemade Calzones tonight.)

Around the house... are pots full of pretty flowers and greenery. Despite the heat, everything still looks so lush and pretty. I've got to keep on top of the watering, though.

One of my favorite things... is watching Dawson work hard this summer and earn money. He is showing himself to have such an incredible work ethic and I know that his boss is thrilled that he hired him. The work is hard, but the rewards are great.

A few plans for the rest of the week... This afternoon we are heading back to Bass Pro Shop for another workshop! Tomorrow is the 4th with Dawson working and the little kids having a school day (it will be fun, I promise). On Thursday Dawson has his only day off this week, and his buddy Wesley is coming over for a couple of days. On Friday I am spending the day with my friend getting organized for our upcoming school year. And then we are headed to Missouri that evening to see the new baby (hopefuly she'll be here) and go to my parents' lakehouse.

From my picture journal.

Some splash pad fun to beat the heat.

Lots of women Daybook. See what they have to say at The Simple Woman's Daybook.

Menu Plan Monday

It's that time again, where I need to do something to keep us on a plan. Summer gets willy-nilly and dinner time comes and it's hot and we've had a late lunch and it becomes easier to say, "Just have a bowl of cereal." And I don't like that. I want us, especially Rick who has worked all day, to have a home-cooked meal of some sort.

Enter my Acronym system again. (I also use it for cleaning.)

As I already had some requests for this week, and we will be out of town again next weekend, the Acronym schedule will start next week. Here is how it will go:

Mexican Monday

Tasty Italian Tuesday

Whatever Wednesday

The Favorites Thursday

For the Grill Friday

Sandwiches Saturday

Super Easy Sunday

You would be surprised how much easier it is to plan meals with this little system.

This week we are having ...

Monday ~ BLT's and chips

Tuesday ~ Calzones

Wednesday ~ Grilled onion soup burgers, jalapeno poppers, and onion rings

Thursday ~ Spaghetti and breadsticks

Friday, Saturday and Sunday ~ Rick and Dawson will be here on their own, so I suspect there will be pizza, ramen and Taco Bell involved.

School and Fun All in One

Eli and Brynne actually had school today. We had been wanting to go to some of the FREE Family Camp Workshops at Bass Pro Shops. Since it is so hot, today seemed like a good day to do something indoors. We attended three workshops that included doing activity sheets and completing scavenger hunts. With all of the other activities we did, it was a full five hours of science fun! So we counted it as school. There was lots of learning going on! And they got to top it off with s'mores.

Prepping for ANOTHER Possible Weekend Trip

I was so looking forward to my first weekend home in a month, until I talked to my sister today. She was told by her doctor that if she progresses anymore between now and Friday, they are going to send her to the hospital and induce her. Her due date is July 7th, but she has had all kinds of weird things through her pregnancy and she has significant swelling. SO, the kids and I are preparing to tear out of here on Friday if they give her the thumbs up. They will possibly admit her on Friday, so we'll go for the birth and then stay for a couple of days to go to my parents' lake house. Whew!! It seems I just get the suitcases unpacked that I pack them up again.

Off to do laundry!!

Nicole's Daybook

Outside my window... it is miserable hot! High of 104 again today. Boo hoo!!

I am thinking... about how I just really need/want to get into a regular daily schedule for myself. My quiet time, Bible time, exercise time has diminished to nothing. I crave making that a priority.

I am thankful ... that Brynne is better today. She was miserable yesterday, laying on the couch all day, and even took a nap from 3:00 p.m. to about 7:00 p.m. AND then went to bed and to sleep at 9:30 p.m. She woke up feeling much more like herself today.

I am wearing... mowing clothes: gray Nike running shorts, a black cami tank top, hat.

I am planning...  school. Really, I am in panic mode because I haven't done anything and the little kids start school in less than a month. I haven't ordered curriculum. I am behind and feeling it.
 

I am creating... Brynne's other balloon flip flop. I did one on the drive to St. Louis, but didn't get to the other one.

I am going... to try to get back into an easy home schedule. I have been going ... going ... going since school got out and I am in desperate need of some normalcy.

I am reading...  Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey by The Countess of Carnarvon, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel by Deborah Moggach (SOOO good!), Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv (** Haven't done any reading over the past week or so. I am wanting to finish one of my books this week!)

I am hoping... that Rick's back gets better SOON!

From the learning rooms... One last week of not much. I really intend to get us into a better daily reading schedule!

Noticing that ... we have wasps everywhere! And, Dawson killed our SECOND black widow spider the other day.

From the kitchen... we are using what we have this week. One night it will be chicken. One night it will be pork. One night it will be tilapia. One night it will be either ground beef or ground turkey. One night it will be shrimp.

Around the house... is just filth! How can we be gone from our house for a week and it get so dirty??

One of my favorite things... is my home. I am so glad to be back here this week. Looking forward to hunkering down for a few weeks.

A few plans for the rest of the week... Today Brynne has Keeper's Club, Dawson is at work all day, and we are making a trip to the library. Tomorrow we are planning to go to the traveling Smithsonian exhibit called "Key Ingredients". On Thursday I am planning to take the kids to a free workship and craft day at Bass Pro Shop. And on Friday we might go to Big Splash. The first weekend in several weeks ... NOTHING!!!

From my picture journal.

Eli and Brynne at the top of the stairs leading up to the St. Louis Arch.

Lots of women Daybook. See what they have to say at The Simple Woman's Daybook.

Wow. It's so great to be home.

We got home from our vacation last night at about 6:00 p.m. We unloaded everything into the mudroom, where it all still sits. I did put away all of the refrigerated food items, but that's about it. We just lazed around the rest of the evening, getting caught up on Sister Wives episodes.

Kyndal arrived to spend the evening with us before she left for church camp this morning. Antonio went home, and Dawson disappeared into his Nerd Cave.

We were all ready to sleep in our own beds.

And then at 6:30 a.m. this morning, Brynne came into our room crying that her neck hurt, like really bad. She was running a fever of 102*. She had that really sick look in her eyes. And she scared me to death. (She's had cold for the past week.) My greatest fear is meningitis.

Rick woke up with a severe case of the chills, too, after his really fun week with a pulled back.

I dropped Kyndal off at the church at 7:30 a.m., and then took Brynne to Urgent Care. Thankfully it's not meningitis. But, she has a staph infection from a sore in her nose, extremely swollen lymph nodes, and strep throat. She and I went to get her prescriptions filled, and then went to pick the little dogs up from their boarding vacation at the vet. With shots and everything, that bill wasn't pretty.

After they mauled me to death all the way home, we arrived to find Rick sick in bed. We walked in the door and one of the dogs immediately puked in the middle of the floor.

And the suitcases are staring at me in the mudroom.

And it's only going to be 104* today.

I need a vacation.

St. Louis Vacation Day 4 ~ Magic House and Fitz's

To keep us from getting too grumpy from cramming too much into one day, today we decided to forego our visit to Grant's Farm, sleep in a bit, have a slow morning, and just go to Magic House. Magic House is another really fun St. Louis museum, geared more toward educating the little ones and imaginative play. I tried to warn Dawson and Antonio that they might be bored, and to be respectful of the little kids at the museum. But, true to their personalities, I think they had more fun than the little kids. Well, maybe not more, but they certainly weren't bored!

Poor Rick only lasted about 30 minutes or so before he had to give up and go spend the rest of the time in the car. His back was really hurting him today.

We had a really fun day, starting with The Magic Treehouse exhibit. We joined Annie and Jack on three of their adventures ... to the Civil War, to pioneer days, and the Plymouth plantation.

Eli and I dressed up as Jack and Annie

Happy First Thanksgiving!

Land Ho!

Then Dawson and I divided our time between Eli and Brynne. That was nice because I could concentrate on just one of them and what they wanted to do, and the other went with Dawson and Antonio.

Court is in session.

Jack climbing the Beanstalk

Brynne's favorite places were the vet clinic and infant nursery. Is that a prediction of her future?

Eli's was the construction zone and Oval Office. Is that a prediction of his???

We revisited the Lewis and Clark exhibit that premiered 8 years ago when we were there the first time.

Everybody had a really great time and really weren't ready to leave.

We came back to the hotel for a bit, and then got ready for dinner. This was to be our only night to eat out. Fitz's is a really great burger joint combined with it's root beer bottling company. You can watch them bottle the root beer right there while you eat.

Rick couldn't make it, and Eli decided he was needing some hotel time, so we left them behind. Dawson, Antonio, Brynne and I sat outside on the patio and listened to some great live music. We all had burgers and sodas and then enjoyed some famous root beer floats.

We brought Rick and Eli to go food and got back to the hotel early. We are currently just laying around ... Dawson and Antonio are playing the Xbox in their room. Eli and Brynne are playing Stack the States on the iPad, I am blogging, and Rick is laying in our room watching t.v. No, we can't detach ourselves from our electronics for long, I'm afraid.

We are checking out in the morning, after a final swim, and heading home. It's been a really fun vacation, but we are all ready to get home, I think ... especially Rick. I am praying his back starts to get better soon. I know that he has been miserable, but he has hung in there with a semi-smile on his face because he knows how important this vacation has been to the kids. They have had an excellent time ... exactly what they were hoping for. We definitely could have stayed for at least another two or three days. We didn't do all there is to offer, like Grant's Farm and the Science Center. Maybe another time.

St. Louis Vacation Day 3 ~ City Museum

The day we had all been waiting for had arrived ... we were going to City Museum! If there is ONE thing you HAVE to do in St. Louis is to go to City Museum. It turns fully grown adults into squealing little girls as they climb, slide, and explore.

Before we could go have fun, Rick and I decided to take a trip to Urgent Care for his back. Thankfully it is just a strain, and he was told that movement and exercise were about the best things he could do for it. He was given some muscle relaxers, but the relief he will get from them will be minimal.

Onto City Museum ...

Pictures cannot even begin to express how cool this place is. It is four stories of climbing and sliding adventures indoors. And then outside is Monstro City that is another three or so stories of outside climbing and sliding fun. THEN there is The Roof that has MORE slides (a 10-story twisty one), more climbing, and even a ferris wheel on the roof!

I had to get involved in the fun. (Really, I was just trying to convince Brynne to try it. I am too old to climb in those tiny places. )That is the ROOF you see there. I had climbed up high. I had to turn around and come back down, though, because the only way out was through a tiny hole I was not even going to attempt.

All of the places you can climb is amazing. You might crawl through a tunnel on one side of the room and pop up out of the floor somewhere else. One time Eli was climbing around in some tunnels in the air and he showed up behind me. I said, "Where did you come from?" He said, "Underground." Huh? I have no idea how he got there.

Cages. Where all children should be. Just kidding!

Eli was directly ABOVE me, way up in the sky to ride down the three-story slide.

This is up on the ROOF of the City Museum. He's up there HIGH!

Dawson and Tonio are up in a cage in this dome. I would have been claustrophobic climbing up there.

Dawson coming down the Roof slide.

A lot of my pictures are of Eli, because he was a crazy man running around. I followed him all over the place! There was NOTHING he was too scared to try. Brynne, on the other hand, had a lot of fear. Art City was more her pace.

Dawson spent a lot of time in Art City, too, making this Spiderman mosaic.

Eli and Brynne's FAVORITE place was the skateboard park, where skateboards are not allowed. They ran and climbed on half-pipes and other fun things. (In fact, Brynne is REALLY sore this morning.)

See that bus way up there hanging off the roof? Eli was up there "driving" it.

Here is how high up it was ...

Speaking of heights, I did convince Brynne to ride the ferris wheel with me. This was our view.

But, it goes FAST and made her sick to her stomach and scared the crud out of her. Truth be told, I was a little freaked.

After five hours of play, and a few minor injuries, we were exhausted and read to go home! We came home and showered and had lasagna for dinner, and then crashed to get some rest for our last day of adventure in St. Louis. We were planning to go to both Grant's Farm and The Magic House, but decided not to over-do it and skip Grant's Farm. We wanted to make sure we saved enough time for dinner at Fitz's.