fruits and vegetables of our labor

the daisies are so pretty. i'm gonna try to dig them up and take them with us to the new house. they would look so nice along the side by the driveway but i have my doubts that they will survive. we will see
the string beans were delicious and jeffery eat the tomato right off the vine after the picture was taken.

we cant' wait for more veggies. cucumbers are getting there and carrots will be ready soon too.

been busy...

i've been busy and have not kept up with the day to day. this has been the reason why. we move mid July. my 'bigs' get registered for moorestown high tomorrow and the varsity football schedule is already on the refrigerator. now, if i can just figure out how to finance all the furnishings of a new home along with the grocery bill for two teenager boys, i'll be good. all my men under one roof again. it has been a long time coming.

my boys

they will be men in their own right before they realize what they truly mean to me. of course every mother loves her kids, but my boys mean something very special and very different to me.
jeffery was born during one of the most difficult times in my life. he gave me a reason to lift my head each morning. he saved my life.
aaron was a surprise. we didn't plan on him and today we know that nothing could have prepared us for him. he is a representation of what forgiveness can truly do (a quote i stole from my sister) without forgiveness, aaron would never have been. he changed my life.
they hear me say it all the time. they even repeat it back, "yea yea mom. we know jeffery saved your life and aaron changed your life." i know this to be true.

the garden's done...now we wait

i think this garden has turned into my therapy....that are a new obsession.

i trip to home depot last week revealed that enough nutrient rich garden soil to fill the whole plot would cost about $80. so i moved to plan C...C for cheap. after some reasearch i found that coffee grind and egg shells are good for the soil. Off to starbucks i went.

every starbucks store has a grinds bucket. just ask and you can get a bag full of grinds. they only save the dry espresso grinds and they are perfect. http://www.starbucks.com/aboutus/compost.asp

next, egg shell. i tried to tackle this on my on. my kids love deviled eggs. however, crushed shells from a dozen egg comes out to be only about a tablespoon of powder. so i went back out in search of egg shells. the dinner down the street was happy to save their shells from saturday morning breakfast for me. i rinsed and microwave the shells to get rid of any salmonella and the kids crushed them up into about 8 cups of egg shell powder.

so i spread three bags of coffee grinds, egg shells and a few bags of manure and humus in the garden. out of the three, coffee, eggs and poo, i was glad to find that the coffee smell over powered. the whole yards smell like a coffee house. my hands and feet are still stained from the grinds.

and then i plants...our seeds sprouted pretty well. corn, carrots, cucumbers, peas and green beans...spinach is still sprouting...it looked kind of puny once i was all done but know or at least i hope it will flourish in no time.

getting the garden ready

markelle was agreeable to help...not sure he knew what he was getting into

should i have taken my rings off?

three hours of digging and pulling the grass up...finally finished

now we're ready to plant...

yeah SPROUTS!

getting in touch with my inner farm girl

here is the first in what i hope is many successful installments chronicling our first real garden. the boys helped, starting with first eating the pizza that used to be in these boxes then they got to play in the dirt, poke the seeds down and now.... we wait.

"carrots and p's"

can't knock the hustle

i can't count the number of times that i have been the one running behind a shopping cart chasing after crazy on a whim of finding joy. to be a first hand witness to mental illness is humbling. to willing enter into the world of someone living with mental illness is a scary, exciting, intimidating, amazing, horrible and incredible all at once. i have learned my greatest life lessons as a visitor and honorary member of that world.