Garden Times

It felt like an accomplishment to teach the kids about preparing and planning and planting and harvesting and composting and weeding and canning this summer. There's so much to learn but I'd say it was a substantial start.

 

Had to get a shot of Tim working in the garden. He shows up for the major weeding sessions. We all noticed how much faster and better he is at weeding than us. 

Thie kids couldn't wait to show Baba our onions. Jacob eats onions like apples.

 The problem is his breath after...

 Ezra loves to say to me, "Not the greens one right mom, just the orange ones." 

He loves the cherry tomatoes.

We all agree that cabbage is the most beautiful.

This is our first year canning pickles.

 Tim keeps daring us to open up pea pods and say there's no God. So funny.

 We came home from vacation and discovered we have a rooster! 

Scarlet often disappears to the raspberry patch.

 We won't be able to see her but we'll see the whole patch just swaying and shaking and then we know she's in there somewhere.

 Scarlet impressed me with her garden stamina. She's not always a "stay to the end" worker but she is when it comes to gardening. She'll say, "what's next mom?" or "what else can I do?" It was nice to spend the gardening time with her

 Jane whipped up some raspberry jam on her own this year.

 Sometimes the kitchen feels more like a factory.

 Jacob found gooseberries in the front yard. We have a few bushes of them. 

They look like teeny melons.

12

 I used to miss the newly wed stage which now I think is hilarious. Love after 12 happy years is becoming more magical by the minute. 

Happy Anniversary!

This guy is the best decision I ever made. 

I was 9 months pregnant and dying to never be pregnant again but now it's cute and kind of sad that part of our marriage is over. Kind of.

We look like babies!

If we only knew... 11 years of no sleep and diapers coming our way...

2002

2014

I like this excerpt from Elder Holland's talk However Long and Hard the Road:

Even love at first sight—if there is such a thing—is nothing like love after nineteen years, seven months, and eleven days, if my marriage to Sister Holland is any indication. Indeed “the best is [always] yet to be” (Robert Browning, “Rabbi Ben Ezra”).

In that sense Troilus, whose impatient love for Cressida makes him something of a basket case, teaches us a valuable lesson. “He that will have a cake out of the wheat must tarry the grinding,” Pandarus says to Troilus. “Have I not tarried?” Troilus pouts.

Pandarus: Ay, the grinding; but you must tarry the bolting.

Troilus: Have I not tarried?

Pandarus: Ay, the bolting; but you must tarry the leavening.

Troilus: Still have I tarried?

Pandarus: Ay, to the leavening; but here’s yet . . . the kneading, the making of the cake, the heating of the oven, and the baking; nay, you must stay the cooling too, or you may chance to burn your lips.

[Troilus and Cressida, act 1, scene 1, lines 14ff]

The baking of life’s best cakes takes time. Don’t despair of tarrying and trying. And don’t “burn your lips” with impatience.

Charlie Barley

"Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world."

-Albert Einstein

 Charlie has been working on his novel for a long long time. I came across his dedication- I could not have chosen a better best buddy for him myself.

He and Brady will read their stories to each other over the phone. A lot of editing goes on during these conversations.

Charlie set up his own geocache. It's so fun to visit it and check our log book and stock it with prizes. He called it Charlie Brown in case you want to look it up.

He loves to wear all his weapons at the same time.

Pillowcases and Sunshine

Jane made these dresses- another surprise for Scarlet.

She also made these cake toppers for Mark's wedding

 Her rainbow loom skills are out of control! Peacocks and dragons!?

"Naytriss"

If we love our children, we must love the earth with tender care and pass it on, diverse and beautiful, so that on a warm spring day 10,000 years hence they can feel peace in a sea of grass, can watch a bee visit a flower, can hear a sandpiper call in the sky, and can find joy in being alive.”

- Hugh Iltis

I was picking rhubarb with Scarlet and I squealed about a bug and she says, "Mom, you're not very naytriss are you. Me and Jane feed frogs to the ducks, have you even even held one of our chicks?" By "naytriss" she means, nature-ish. 

The firsts from the garden.

I used my oil infusion from last summer and made a fresh batch of green salve this spring. Then I harvested new weeds to infuse oil for this coming year. I have plenty of comfrey, plantain, mullein, chickweed, and yarrow right in our yard which is handy dandy.

Jane knows where the geese lay eggs in Grammy's neighborhood. She remembered from last year and they were in the same place again.

Janey is so good about cutting fresh flowers for the house. I love it. This is a bouquet she put in Scarlet's room to surprise her.

The garden is growing!

I love these shots of Hazel in the daisy patch. I took her for a walk alone one morning. It's always a treat to have her to myself for once.

The first of the peas.

Tastes so much better from the garden!

These two made sweet little fairy gardens together.