I'll be OK

Well, he's officially a big boy now.

My eldest just had his orientation day at school for kindergarden.

He was brimming with excitement to go and had a great time...

how did mom do?

Sobbed like a baby, luckily for him it was when I left the room.

Lucky for me, one of my friends was dropping off her second child so

she consoled and assured me everything would be fine.

  Thank you, Erika.  I don't know what I would've done without you!

I look back now to my childhood(and even young adulthood) and 

 remember telling my mom, "Cut the cord, mom."

Well, now I know how hard it is to do that.

The bond between a mother and a child...there aren't words to describe it.

Can you see what I see?

I just took off the plastic that was acting as a green house

for the tomatoes and peppers for the last week of colder weather.

Look what I found...

The first tomato of the year

I companion plant my tomatoes, peppers, and onions

so these too were under the plastic

and it seemed to help because they all sprouted.

This is one of the biggest onion so far.   

I went searching behind my retaining wall and look what I found?!?

Four plants of my Blue Hubbard squash.

I love this picture!

(It kind of reminds me of a hermit crab coming out of it's shell)

Here is one of  my Norland Red potato plants.

This is the first potato variety to sprout so far.

I LOVE Gardening!

Ode to Nana

Yes, that's a brown sleeve from the fudgecicle dripping down her arm.

Did I miss a little?

Thanks for the fudgecicles, Nana.

They were thoroughly enjoyed!

Something Old, New, Borrowed, and Blue

OLD

Here are my tomato and pepper plants,

which I've had in my garden since last week.

As you can see in the picture, I had to cover them due to the unseasonably cold weather.

NEW

When the cold weather hit last week,

I wasn't too dismayed because I wanted to bake!

I turned on my gas oven and nothing happened.  Ahhhh!

We ordered the part we needed and before my husband went off to work,

he fixed my oven so I could bake this morning while it was still cool:)

Not only does it turn on,

but heats up quicker and doesn't leave behind any gas smell when first ignited.

It's good as new!

 BORROWED

Mockingjay, the third and last book in The Hungar Games,

was a great trilogy that I've just finished reading. 

The books were filled with action, love, survival, and realizations.

I would highly recommend it! 

 BLUE

Well, if you can't see it, our new swing is blue.

 I can say there was a child on it every minute we played outside yesterday!

What a wonderful surprise from my caring husband.

It's In!

We finally have our garden in.

Zach helped me get the garden staked out and build up my rows.

Of course, I had other helpers as well.

My wonderful husband measuring my rows so their exactly how I want them.

Two feet wide rows for all vegetables except potatoes...

I always go bigger for my potatoes. 

He makes it  look easy, but don't let it foul you...we had to take some water breaks.

Zach did the one direction and I did the other.

We make a pretty good team!

Here is the garden with everything in. 

O.K. I know I wasn't going to put my tomatoes in until late May,

but the weather has been cooperating so I decided to put them in a little early.

Today is beautiful and all my plants look great! 

Zach picked up some of these tags for me that I can reuse.

I'm hoping to grow almost everything from seed next year.

Here is one of my basil pots. 

I have three more spots that I planted basil in.

I'm hoping it is heaping come fall because I didn't save enough last year.

Can anyone see what I see?

A whole bunch of soon to be frozen berries and jam!

I wanted to take a picture of a flower and Frosty wanted my attention instead.

My he's over being camera shy:)

Mother's Day

I was blessed on Mother's day weekend to be able to spend it with my mom.

We had not only beautiful weather, but a wonderful time.  

My mom and my little princess picked me some flowers.

Since we live three and a half hours apart,

we make exceptions when Nana brings treats...

like chocolate covered bunnies at 8:00pm:)

Who was having more fun or should I ask who got more wet?

While Nana watched the kids, Zach and I got busy outside.

The back of my retaining wall has so much space that I knew I could put to better use.

After clearing a pine tree, we were able to haul in the compost.

I ended up planting 20 strawberry plants with lettuce mixed in(good companion plants)

After receiving some Blue Hubbard squash seeds from a friend,

I decided to plant to those above the wall as well so they can sprawl over.

Here is the result of all the work.

Thanks mom for all the love and care you showed me my whole life

and continuing that love to my children.

Happy Mother's Day!

a dog, a date, and a garden

My hubby has been looking for a pet for a while now at all of the animal shelters

around the area and finally, we found what we were looking for...

Frosty!

Besides being camera shy, he is a wonderful dog:)

He is incredibly intelligent and is getting settled into our family nicely.

He loves to be pet.  Welcome to the family Frosty!

We're counting down the days Nana!

We'll miss not seeing you Papa, but just think our trip to the Island isn't too far away now.

Last night we tilled my garden!  I'm so excited to get going. 

It's already May and I don't have my potatoes in yet! 

The weather hasn't been cooperating that well to allow me to plant. 

Here's the tiller hard at work.

 I can't wait to get in there...although this year, I think I will have a helper.

The only thing my little girl wanted to do was to run into the ground we had just tilled:) 

Last, but certainly not least, my tomato plants! 

The stems are really thick, which I'm over joyed about. 

I have been very pleased I decided to try to plant the seeds I saved

and will continue to do so with more plants this year.