Spring finally showed up!

It's spring!!!  It's spring!!! Finally!!!!!!

 I realized that with this pregnancy there hadn't been a single belly picture.  I guess it's true that with each child there's less and less time to commemorate.  Whoops.  Anyway, this is week 27, the beginning of the third trimester.  

 Noah loves his little cars and plays with them every day.

 Katelyn picking "flowers" (weeds) in the backyard.  I did teach her how to actually weed by pulling them up by the roots and she was a good helper the other day.  Weeding the garden is just not so comfortable for me at this point.

 Oh this little boy.  He's a handful and such a joy all at the same time.

 Katelyn loves this time of year.  She wants to be outside all day.  It's nice because the kids are both old enough to play outside without me having to be out there all the time.  I can watch through the window while making lunch or dinner and they are happy to entertain themselves.

 We have had some BEAUTIFUL days in the last week or so.  This is the perfect time of year to be in Kentucky.

 Katelyn found a four leaf clover.  It's the second one she's found in the last couple of weeks. She searches hard for them.

 We did get one of the garden beds weeded and got broccoli and cabbage planted.  It was a family project and everyone helped.  Noah likes to water and he hasn't pulled up any of the plants yet, so that's helpful.  :)

 Yesterday morning Katelyn and I had a mommy/daughter date and went to see Disney on Ice.  It was super fun to just get some one on one time with my big girl and she loved the show.  She got to pick out a treat (Twizzlers) and she picked out her fanciest dress to wear.

 We stopped at McDonald's on the way home and got ice cream cones today.  It was a beautiful day to sit out on the back patio with a treat.

 Have I mentioned lately that Michael is the best daddy??

Noah started eating his cone from the bottom up.  This is where it got messy.

Tomorrow is the anniversary of the day I first met Katelyn.  Her "gotcha" day.  I can't believe it's been six years.  Where has the time gone.  We went out for Chinese food tonight.  It's such a blessing to get to celebrate her and the family that God has given us!!!

Cooking and Gardening

Two of my favorite things...cooking and gardening. Here are a couple of the yummy meals we've had recently.

This is grilled pork, applesauce I had made and canned, kale "chips" (kale with olive oil and salt on it and then baked until crispy) and a roasted sweet potato, potato and butternut squash medley. The butternut squash was from our garden.

Michael and I both love Thai and Indian food so I combined both one night. I made chicken pad thai (which Katelyn loved also) and curried sweet potato filled samosas that I baked instead of fried. Yummy!!

The butternut squash just started growing in our garden. We had tilled our compost pile into the soil in the spring and this was came up. I've harvested 20 squash from about three separate plants. I've got them put up and we'll use them all winter to roast and I'll bake, puree and freeze some to use later in soups and breads. This was a fun surprise this year and one we're loving!

Before the frost hit I harvested all the tomatoes that I could. They are currently laid out all over the counter. I got a big batch of ripe tomatoes before this one and I canned 12 pints of diced tomatoes. We canned and used LOTS of tomatoes this year and they all came from the 50 cent half dead plants I bought at Lowes on clearance. We got a whole lot out of the $4 we spent on tomato plants! What a blessing!!!!

More tomatoes!!! (Really they're everywhere around here.)

Today it was in the mid sixties. A beautiful day for sure. We got some rain earlier this week and so the soil was soft. Before it gets really cold out we decided to have a productive day in the yard getting ready for winter. We pulled everything out of the gardens, raked all the leaves into the compost pile, weeded out old planters on the porch and threw the dirt into the raised bed (and finally threw out all of our old porch containers...new ones to come in the spring), put up the patio furniture, hosed down the patio and put the hose in the garage. We need to mow one more time and rake in the front yard but other than that, the yardwork is done until spring!!! (Good thing because this pregnant mama is about done being able to do all this stuff!) Katelyn was very helpful though. She collected tomatoes that had fallen and she found a worm that kept her busy for a VERY long time. :) She said...."Oh, I love bugs." She was FILTHY by the end of yardwork day.

A productive fall day for sure. I feel so much better!! There is much to do inside now before the baby gets here....Let the nesting continue!

Time to can

Since the kitchen was being overtaken by a beautiful harvest of tomatoes (not shown here is the colander full of cherry tomatoes that we eat with everything), I decided that it was time to do some canning.

I needed my counter back, so this became...

11 quarts of spaghetti sauce! It turned out really good. I even used the immersion blender to get the perfect consistency...(see mom, I told you I needed it for Christmas...I use it and everything.) I don't think we'll be buying pasta sauce any time soon. Of course I did this middle of last week and I already have half a counter of tomatoes again. I think this week's canning project is going to be tomato jam. I found a cool recipe and it's supposed to be good with crackers or on grilled meat...I think I'll try it and let y'all know.

The garden

Well our garden is flourishing and it is certainly not because of anything I've done. We've had so many big storms followed by hot humid days and the tomatoes in particular are loving it!! Unfortunately, I've been feeling so yucky that vegetables of any kind don't really sound very good to me but...we've got em.

At least Michael and Katelyn are loving the tomatoes.

Thanks to the compost that we tilled in with our soil we have some surprise guests in the garden this year. A couple of butternut squash seedlings grew and grew and now they've taken over half the garden...but I did nothing and we've got a great crop of butternut squash growing.

Our other surprise guest was a cantalope plant and we've got a couple of nice melons coming in. Yeah!

Katelyn helped me pick a bowl full of cherry tomatoes today. She loves these things. She says, "They explode in your mouth."

She's such a good helper.

I bought these tomato plants that were on death row at Lowes for 50 cents a plant. I got 4 of them and 2 basil plants for $3, picked off the dead leaves and planted them. I paid $2 for a 4 pack of the cherry tomato plants (3 survived). So for $5 and the surprise guests from the compost we have a good garden going on back there. :) I think I need to be feeling better in the next few days so I can can some tomatoes. I don't think we'll be able to eat all of these this week. And there are lots more coming in! Most of these were off one plant. Good grief.

And the cherry tomatoes are delicious! Just ask Katelyn.

A yummy day

I love Thursdays because Katelyn and I get to hang out all day. We don't have any agenda necessarily except to have a girl day. Katelyn says, "No boys allowed."

I had a coupon for a free pizza so Katelyn and I went out for lunch. $1.69 for my drink is not a bad lunch total. :) Katelyn loves cheese pizza. When I ask if she wants anything else on it she simply says, "No thanks mom. Just cheese and sauce." She always knows exactly what she wants, I'll give her that.

This afternoon Katelyn played outside for a bit.

The thing in her hand is a magnifying glass. She was running around looking for ants. She loves ants. When she finds one she picks it up and lets it crawl on her arm. Ewww...

I was finishing up dinner and looked outside and Katelyn and Michael were dancing together in the backyard. He always hums a waltz when he dances with her and sometimes I'll catch her during the day humming the same tune while she plays. So, so sweet.

Normally Katelyn could care less about dolls and her stroller. But today she marched the whole setup outside and tore around the backyard like an off road vehicle. Hillarious. I wonder if she's too young to do the mowing?

This was our dinner. Michael and I went out the other night to a great local restaurant and had a grilled zucchini "burger" So tonight we recreated the burger ourselves. The slices of zucchini were marinated in some sundried tomato vinegrette and then grilled. I sauted onions, mushrooms and bell peppers and put them on there with some sliced tomatoes and a piece of mozarella cheese on top and threw it in the oven for a few minutes to melt the cheese. Then we put lettuce and wasabi mayo on it. SO GOOD! The broccoli is from our garden and we just steamed it. Delicious dinner!

Because we tilled our compost pile in with our garden soil we now have some mystery plants growing out in the bed. I'm pretty sure this is butternut squash (We ate a lot of it this fall/winter) but we will see. It's growing really well so I just left it.

The cabbage is beautiful right now.

It's been so hot this week that we are having to hurry and harvest the broccoli because it is starting to bolt (go to seed and flower which will make it inedible.)

I really love having a garden. This is a very yummy time of year!!!

WELCOME BACK SPRING!!!

Oh spring...welcome back! We have missed you so!! We spent today preparing for you... In your honor, most favored season, we hung clothes on the line and spent all day outside in the dirt. So long winter. You have overstayed your welcome and now we must say goodbye!

What a glorious day!!! We went to the library. We went out to lunch. We went to Lowes. I love going to Lowes. Oh the possibilities. Then we came home and got to work. The first thing Michael did was put the clothesline back up...and I promptly put clothes on it. I LOVE MY CLOTHESLINE. Our sheets smell so good. I can't wait to go to bed.

We mixed all of our compost into our garden spaces. What a rich pile of goodness our decayed fruits, vegetables and yard waste turned out to be. All I have to say is save your money buying some fancy composter. Just throw it all in a pile in the corner of the yard and turn it occasionally with a shovel. Perfect. There were so many worms in our compost. Our garden is going to be very, very happy this year!

Katelyn was in HEAVEN today. All of the dirt and worms. She searched for worms all day. We found the biggest worm I've ever seen! Here's Katelyn with a wheelbarrow of our compost. She said, "I love decay." That's our girl!!

Katelyn just kept moving from patch of dirt to patch of dirt. She's going to be sad when things are actually planted there and she's not allowed to play in it.

Is this not a picture of complete contentment?? She was happy as can be. We were outside for hours today and Katelyn loved it. You should have seen the bath tub tonight after Katelyn got out of it.

Romping through the dirt. It took this child 30 seconds to fall asleep tonight. :)

And then of course she was hungry and needed a snack. She ate like a horse today. She had a snack right after she ate her whole plate of dinner. If you ask her what her favorite things to do are she'll tell you, "Eat and play." What a life!

We were super productive today and our soil is ready for some planting. We got broccoli and cabbage plants to get the back corner started and I'll plant lettuce and maybe some spinach seeds back there too.

My tulips and hyacinths started coming up along the side fence so I was clearing out dead leaves and grass that was all around them and I got motivated to cut out a whole little flower bed. I'm going to plant some annuals after the spring flowers are done and edge it all with some kind of rock or stone.

The spring flowers are coming up. It won't be long now.

I resigned from my job this week! With Michael's new position we are able to have me home with Katelyn now. I'm SO excited to have more time with her...more time to do the things around the house that never seem to get done. More time to garden and can. More time to invest in my family. I'm more excited about this spring and summer than I've ever been. God has been so faithful to provide all that we need and I am counting my blessings a whole lot these days.

This week's randomness

I know this is hard to see...but this is what the backyard and garden look like...seemingly dead, right?

...but no, this is what I harvested out of the garden on November 2nd!!! Peppers, eggplant and tomatoes. CRAZY. The garden is the gift that keeps on giving. It's been so dry here and I stopped watering a month ago...but still the little garden keeps on ticking. We had frost on the windshield this morning so I'm guessing we're done now...but who knows? We had fajitas tonight with red, yellow and green bell peppers in it from the garden!

Katelyn regularly talks about Grammy and Papa. She made me draw them the other day. I think this picture looks remarkably like my dad. Katelyn thought it was funny. :)

With my new job I definitely have less time with Katelyn during the week. So today we had girl time. We went out to lunch, to the library and to the grocery store. Tonight Katelyn got to watch one of her movies from the library and do art. She really loves to color and paint. Her coloring skills are improving. She's really working at staying somewhat within the lines. It's good that she's embracing this indoor hobby. It's going to be a long winter.