On the Road...

... again... someday soon... Winter has me dreaming!  Here's a fun map of where we've been - check bighugelabs.com to make your own fun stuff :)

Our Road Show

Make yours @ BigHugeLabs.com

The gig is (almost) up!

So, it's Christmas, more or less!  And our five year old boy is thinking.  A lot.

The other day, he tells me he "just knows" that Santa will bring him a specific toy.  "Hmm," I said, "but you just wrote him a letter, and you only asked for ONE toy, and that wasn't it.  How can he bring you a toy if you didn't ask him for it?"   He thought about that, and then explained to me (!):  "Well, Mom, doncha know that Santa watches me all the time?  He knows if I'm bad or good.  So he knows what I want, too!"

This Santa business- I don't know how long it can last, if he's thinking like that.  At FIVE.  We were with some good friends the other day, and I loved watching their 3 kids write their letters to Santa.  The oldest started with "I still believe in you, even though I'm 10 and some of my friends don't."  Heartwarming, yes?  Then she closed with "and I know I've been good, so I deserve some presents."  I had to snort my coffee so I didn't laugh out loud.  She really is sweet, and the rest of the letter was not demanding at all, which made the ending so surprising!   Her younger brother, on the other hand, was not demanding at all in his gentle suggestions for toys.  He ended the letter with "and I hope I've been good enough."  Clearly aware of his areas for growth :)

Last week, the kids had a *scheduled* 2 hour delay, that I missed the memo on.  So after walking to the bus stop, then driving to school, then standing outside for 5 minutes... someone clued us in, and we decided to head to Starbucks for a treat.  Today, we had a *winter weather* 2 hour delay- and I totally got the memo on this one!  So we bundled up and carefully trudged out to the bus stop.  The girls were more or less lined up, chatting with each other.  The boys found a pile of snow/ice to destroy by stomping or grabbing and throwing.  On the way there, Kaden mentioned how walking on ice "was kinda like skating" and how he couldn't wait until recess, so he could throw snowballs.  "Hey bud, I don't know if they let you do that at recess.  I've never had a snow recess, so I don't know how it works."  He looked at me very seriously.  "I've never had a snow recess EITHER."  Then he smiled, "so I guess we'll find out TODAY."

This weekend was also the feast day of St. Nickolas.  Kaden was thrilled to see him, even before he realized there was chocolate coins involved.  We were around most of the morning, long enough to see St. Nick 3 times. One of those times, it was his dad playing St Nick.  When St. JimNick entered the room, Kaden stared at him for a minute, then started stroking his own imaginary beard (no lie, he does this often when he's thinking).  HEY! (he jumped out of his chair and yelled) YOU REMIND ME OF SOMEONE.   "Santa Claus? I'm the original one, you know."  Kaden shook his head, "no, that's not it.." and thankfully his teacher jumped in and moved the class along.

Later that day, Kaden told me he thought Jim was dressed as St. Nick.  "He had the same shoes, Mom."
Jim piped up:  Just a coincidence.  
Kaden:  "And the same voice..."
Jim:  a lot of people sound alike, buddy.
~ pause ~
Kaden:  and the SAME GREEN EYES, Dad!  (then he smiles and starts nodding his head)
Jim: (flabbergasted)
Me:  well, the way to tell if Daddy is St. Nick's special helper, is to go see St. Nick again.  If you see St. Nick and Daddy *together*, then they can't be the same person, right?!
Kaden:  hmmm.

Thankfully, I knew we had one more St. Nick sighting to go- and it wasn't Jim.  So we were sure to have Jim in the same room with Kaden and St. Nick.  We haven't heard any further arguments, but we're not sure he's convinced either!!

North Pole Breakfast?!?

File this under "Keeping up with Pinterest Jones"...

I was somewhere - online - and someone (also online) mentioned a North Pole Breakfast.  I had no idea what it was, but the accompanying photo of powdered donuts made to look like a snowman was pretty cool.  So off I went to pinterest...

Twenty minutes later, I have a vague idea of what it is...

A) a non-healthy breakfast that the Elf on the Shelf brings to welcome himself into your home (and if that doesn't spell T.R.O.U.B.L.E, people, then what does?).

B) a non-healthy breakfast undertaken sometime during the Christmas season, for the fun of it.

C) a semi-healthy breakfast specifically on Christmas, or as an "event" with invited guests...

D) any mixture of the above.

E) whatever the mistletoe you want it to me.

Anywho, I'm not up for adding another event to my December calendar.  Unless, possibly, we have some cousins over for a fun breakfast- at dinnertime.   BUT I'm thinking, it's more likely that I'll be able to add *some* sort of North Pole element into our breakfast once a week.  On a day I'm not working, of course.  My favorite ideas involve Christmas Tree pancakes, rudolph mini donuts, peppermint bark donuts (mmm), snowmen pancakes, and - this is awesome- reused frappacino bottles to make a drinkable snowman.

I'm tempted to post the inspiration photos I found, but then I wouldn't post the "what it actually looked like" photos.  For whenever I get around to doing this.  (I've already missed the deadline to make pilgrim hats for Thanksgiving and St Nick cookies on his feast day- whoops!)   Besides, you NEED another reason to go search pinterest, doncha?

Anywho, is this North Pole Breakfast just a Pinterest fantasy?  Or have any of you done one? or something like it?  Send me your ideas.

It's Chri---- Wait!

It's Advent! Which has become one of my favorite seasons.  Even if half the world ignores it.  Even though "wait" is one of the most frustrating responses to my prayers.  Even when I rush through it and forget all sorts of things, or when my plans downshift suddenly and disappear.  There's something... comforting about this kind of hopeful waiting.  All the church-y songs have such a great wellspring of hope in them...


 

This will be our first Christmas without my brother Steve.  Which seems unbelievable, really.  It's amazing how much I miss him, when we didn't *see* each other regularly... but we did talk often.  And he loved Christmas.  A few weeks ago, Kaden asked us, "Remember when Uncle Steve drove his motorcycle to see us for Christmas? (pause as we say yes, and he gets a faraway look in his eyes)   That was nice."   It was, buddy, it really really was.  And the memories are nice, too.

Today I found out a friend of mine lost her younger brother.  He died unexpectedly due to heart failure...  at 34. I didn't know him well, per se, but I knew he was one of the good guys.  My heart goes out to their family... and another person goes on our prayer list.  It's really odd to have so many friends who have lost brothers- at different ages (late 20s to early 60s) and in different circumstances (most accidents or undiagnosed health issues)... none of them were expected.  Not a club I imagined joining.

Today (yesterday, actually 11/30) started the St. Andrew Christmas Novena.  In the past, I've never been big on novena prayers.  But I just finished one for our new-to-us parish namesake, St. Catherine Laboure, and I've missed it the last few days.  So when I heard about this one (again), I thought- this is the perfect one to do for all the brothers who've passed.  (St. Andrew being the brother to St. Peter).  Although, honestly, I'm not aiming for saying the short prayer 15x a day, but rather 3x (at meals) (actually, that might be 5x daily, given my pregnancy habits).  If you have any intentions you'd like me to remember, just send them along (email, fb message, comment below- however :).

For Steve, Rick, Chris, Andy, Vince, Jim S. and Henry...

THANKSGIVING! THAT'S WHAT HOLIDAY IT IS.

Quick Takes Today:

1)  The next holiday is Thanksgiving.  I know this for a fact, despite the fact that none of the stores have ANY decent selection of Turkey or Scarecrow bulletin boards.  That I need for the school party Monday.

2)  I also know this, despite the fact that the party is called a FALL party, and not a holiday/Thanksgiving party.  What was that thing Seinfeld had? Festivus?  Why don't we just introduce the 5 year olds to that?

3)  I'm actually pleased that I found out about the missing turkeys today, instead of Sunday night.  This is my version of planning ahead.  I get bonus points for spending umpteen hours on Pinterest 'researching' fall crafts.  And then another hour looking up fall GAMES after I realized that's what I signed up for.  And then another 30 minutes tonight reviewing BOTH crafts and games, when I realized that no one else had signed up for the craft slot.

4) Signup Genius is awesome.  Except when it isn't.  That's pretty much my philosophy on all technology.

5) When the weatherfolk say there's ARCTIC anything in the forecast, it makes me dream of a sandy white beach Christmas.  Hey, maybe that's where all the turkeys and scarecrows are?!

What Holiday is this, again?

I had to laugh out loud when I noticed my last blog post was about Halloween.  Mainly because we seemed to burn out on the holiday fairly early this year.  Is it me, or does it seem like the "getting ready for the holiday" starts sooooooooooooo early, that by the time the actual day/fun times roll around, everyone is like "whew, that's over."

And Thanksgiving is so late this year!  It feels like that.  Anyway, we are studiously ignoring Christmas songs, ads, and decorations... trying to focus on Thanksgiving crafts and games and fun.   I did, however, start "the list" - we usually do *some* crafting for gifts, but I've been hibernating more than usual this year.  So who knows. Maybe we'll get it done, or maybe we'll cut way back again.  I'm not sure we even sent out Christmas cards last year!!  (Anyone remember?)   We'll see.

And a few posts ago, I asked for opinions about Fall Crafts (for Kaden's class party at school)... only to realize this week that I actually am doing GAMES.  Whoops.  So, another reason to spend a few hours on Pinterest.  (Though it is confusing, looking for Turkey games one minute and easy crafts another, lol).  So far, we've come up with Fall Bingo (which I'll probably adapt to include some of their sight words or just letters, because I'm such a nerd)... and pumpkin bowling... and a cooperative version of 'Pin the Tail on the Donkey' - where every kid gets a part of the scarecrow to pin, but we'll still blindfold them before sending them up!  

And!  I realize I need to take more pictures.  Though the new tech toy in the house is an iPad- from work, and I'm trying verra hard to keep it work orientated.   But I have a learning curve (a digital storytelling project is due soon, which app will work? ack!)... and Plants vs. Zombies was too tempting. At least for this week!

So, what holiday are YOU prepping for - or enjoying- right now??

Halloween, Potatoes, and Parenting

Halloween is over! Just like that, it's November.  But there's still some decorations up, and some conversations going on... like this one:   Give Them Potatoes.    It's an interesting one (thanks to my nephew for originally posting on FB), talking about different ways Christians can think/act about Halloween.

I was raised Catholic, in public school, back in the day when there *were* Halloween parties and costume parades and very little PC about parties.  (And since it was public school, I don't remember any of the 'dress-up-as-saints' parties either!)  The whole Christians-shouldn't-celebrate-evil thing?  It never came up.  Sometimes, with this sort of stuff, I think Catholics are a bit more... tolerant?  practical?  In the sense that we take death and the existence of evil in stride:  sure, it's there, but nothing's more powerful than God.   So we just leave it up to God.  Now, I'm sure other people have other interpretations, and I actually didn't want to re-hash the Halloween thing...

Because what struck me the most about the debate of whether to let kids trick-or-treat, or how much to expose them to _____ (death/ghosts/zombies/evil/etc/etc/etc).... is that it's a bit like a lot of other parent debates.  How do we protect them without over-protecting them?  How do we expose them to the big world without overwhelming them?   How do we teach them to handle disappointment, or death, or bullying, or scary things... if they never experience it in some way? In other words, how do we raise our kids to be self-sufficient within their own capabilities and limits?

I know, I know... this is nothing new.  The age old parenting issue, and maybe a bit of our own issues with life in general.  Pope John XXIII once said that he thought the great challenge of life was not grabbing hold, but letting go.  (Richard Rohr also has some interesting takes on this, with the main spiritual goal of the first half of life being to learn how great we are by building our talents and experiencing success, and the main goal of the second half of life is learning how to fail and let go.)

And someone- forgive me for not remembering who- once said that she thought God gives people children so they can raise the kids to learn about and love God... and then she had kids and realized that God gives people children so the parents can learn about how to love God!   All this is swimming around in my head, and my heart (okay, my uterus too)...

There's no answers today- these sorts of questions are the stuff I think about most weeks...  I do think it's all connected, though.  There's a third way, in between ignoring Halloween and celebrating evil, in between sheltering our kids or abandoning them to the world, in between doing what everyone does and doing nothing everyone does.  More than one "third way", I think, because while I think the Golden Rule applies to everyone, a lot of the specific 'how' it gets done would be dependent on the family's quirks and individuality.

Confusing enough for you?   Let me know if you have it figured out, I'm open to hints... or more conversations :)

Funny Things my kid has said sometime in the near past, that I can still remember

Really, this blog ought to be written by Kaden, since he's obviously the most clever and cute of us all.  And perhaps it could be within the year, since he has the idea of "texting" and can spell out his name on a keyboard, and adds nice smileys too.  But then again, he'd probably write all sorts of things about what I say, or tell him to do, or how much I yell at him (all the time, apparently).  Huh, maybe that's not such a good idea after all.

Anyways, here's the best of lately:

• Nana asked him how the Halloween parade was.  "Great!  Look at all this candy I got!"  Well, she said, what else did you see, besides candy I mean.  "Girls dancing," he replied immediately.  (This in a parade that featured a zillion fire trucks and 2 dancing groups.)  What else, Nana asked.  "Little kids watching a movie, and scouts and football players.  It had all sorts of people."  Didn't mention a single fire truck.  Isn't this the kid that was obsessed with them just 2 years ago?!

• Later, when asked if he would share some candy with me, he said, "No, I can't share any with you because candy isn't good for the baby."

• After Jimdad teased him, Kaden yelled across the house:  "We don't LIE in this house!!"

• "Mom, is watermelon a fruit or a vegetable?"   Good question, I'm not sure.  "Fruit.  Definitely a fruit."  Huh, could be.  How do you know?  "Years of practice."   

• After I told him to pipe down in the backseat since he didn't have a drivers license yet, he replied, "Yes, I do. I have one from Chuck E. Cheese.  So I CAN tell you how to drive, Mom."

• "What's a butler, Mom?"  A person who takes care of stuff for you, like around the house.  "Hmm.  I think we need 5 butlers, one for each of us and the baby too."

• "When I'm bigger and you're still alive, I'm getting a convertible."  That's nice, hunny.  Wait, why when we're still alive?  "So I can give you a ride around.  I think you'll like it."

Vote- Fall Crafts?

Happy Fall!  Time for you to enlighten me with your worth-more-than-2-cents-opinion.   I need a fall craft for a group of 5 year olds, nothing religious, and it can't take more than 15 minutes or so..... so, please vote on one of these (see poll to the right!!)  OR send me another suggestion (comments or email).


Option 1:   Handprint Owls 
This is really cute.  http://kidsactivitiesblog.com/17575/handprint-owls
Materials:  Cut and paste, with construction paper.  Prep time:  a bit, since I'd need to pre-cut the smaller parts (beak, feet, eyes).

Option 2:  Hand/Arm/Fingerprint Trees.
I really like the idea of this on canvas, but probably would keep it simpler / cheaper.  Materials:  Paint and construction paper. Prep: minimal, since the kids do most of the work!  Cleanup would be a bit more!

Option 3: Apple Stamping 
Is there a version of this with mini pumpkins or gourds?? With this one, I like the idea of using paper bags, as it can be useful later too, and not just decoration. Materials:  fall veggies (apples, pumpkins, squash, corn?!), construction or other heavy paper, paint OR large stamp pads.   http://happyhooligans.ca/fall-colour-apple-stamping/

Now that I'm thinking about it, I could do any of these on a kids apron, or beige kitchen towel, or paper bag... or even laminate them into place mats to make them more versatile than just a paper craft.  Hmm- what would you LIKE your kid to bring home as a school craft??   Any ideas for take home crafts that that don't involve just paper or decoration?  Create your own toys? Storytelling rocks?  Magnets?  Anyone?

Short Walks, Big Talks

On the walk to the bus stop this morning, Kaden was asking about the tree leaves.  Why are some green, and some are turning yellow and red?  When will all the trees have all their leaves gone?

So I started telling him how some trees are evergreens, so they stay green no matter what.  Like palm trees, I said.  "Or Christmas trees!"  I chuckled a yes, saying Christmas trees were usually some kind of pine tree.  "It's a good thing they stay green," Kaden started laughing, "Or we'd just have a bunch of STICKS in the house for our ornaments to hang on!!"

Things to blow your mind (if you're 5)

So!  Part of Kaden's school work is to count coins.  He dumped out his piggy bank, and we're sorting 'quarters, dimes, nickels, pennies'.  And then... he finds a foreign coin!   We thought it said "20 Franc" but it turned out it was "20 centimes."  So, instead of being worth 20 dollars, it was worth 2.5 cents.  (Not that it can be used as official money anywhere.)  (Except Haiti, maybe.) (Come to think of it, that's probably how we got it.)

Anywho, while I was researching (okay, okay, googling)  all this out... Kaden sold the coin to his Nana, for 28 American cents.   What a deal.  For him, obviously.  But I'm sure you knew that.

****

Another day, Kaden was trying to play a computer game (pbskidsgo.com maybe?) and needed some help.  He kept asking Nana, and she kept saying she didn't know how to play.  He started to get upset.  She said, "Honey, look at me.  (pause while he looked up).  Listen carefully:  I don't know how to play that game.  We didn't have games on the computer or video games when I was a kid."   His hurt look quickly turned to astonishment.  "What?" he says, "Why not? Were you too poor?"

The conversation quickly derailed into all the things that hadn't been invented yet, when Nana was a kid (cell phones, microwaves, digital cameras)...  I think she blew his mind.  I was quite amused when I heard the retelling later... until I realized I'm old enough that most of the things she mentioned hadn't been invented when I was a kid either!!  yikes!

How much money ya got?

If you've been reading along over the past year or so, you know there's been a few major changes in our life: geographically (a move 5 states away), emotionally (my brother's unexpected death), physically (pregnant) and financially.  According to this scale, I'm about 80% due for a health breakdown!!

I probably haven't talked a lot about finances- for a variety of reasons, including that this is America and we only talk about achieving the dream ;).   I'm not too comfortable posting details online either.  The basic gist is that our income has taken a dip compared to two years ago, and that it's wobbled along the way.  There's not one factor (is it ever just one?), and we're not in dire straights, thank God.  But we are paying attention to money in a much different way than we did before.  I don't say this for sympathy (probably another reason not to talk about it!) but just as a way of saying: this is how it is, for now.

Tonight, JimDad and I were talking about a few unrelated things, and started remembering our time doing a year of full time service (in a faith based Americorps program).  We worked 40 hours a week at a non-profit in St. Pete (FL).  In exchange, we were part of a cool group of people who gathered for retreats and fun. Oh, and we received a 2 bedroom apartment with utilities, health insurance, and a stipend of $400 month (each).

Now, we didn't get to choose the apartment.  It was in a.... er, sketchy neighborhood.  The walls were so thin, sometimes we debated if we should call the cops on our neighbors (do we smell pot? is he hitting her?).  We didn't have to call the cops, since they made a drive thru of our parking lot every weekend.  One weekend, we saw ambulance lights and went outside- turns out some guy was drunk and tried to jump/flip from the 3rd balcony to the 2nd balcony- only he missed, and fell into the bushes on the ground floor.  Amazingly, he was okay.  We found all this out by neighbors calling back and forth between buildings.  Quote of the night?  A neighbor remarking "who needs cable when you've got entertainment like this!"

It wasn't awful, by any means.  Our eat in kitchen was in the back, and the window over the sink looked out onto a fenced in Buddhist Temple - no lie!  We could watch the monks walking the property or praying next to the amazing huge backyard pond.  One weekend, there was some kind of festival where they had canoe races!  Yes, a boat full of monks tipped over!  I've always regretted that we didn't walk around the block and say hello...

And the health insurance was pretty basic- it covered us fine, but we did need to visit the Health Department once or twice.  Not a place anyone willing goes.  And the stipend worked okay, as long as we thought about it (we started making Christmas gifts in October!).  We didn't have much to splurge, but we didn't have car payments either- and we had worked for a year or so to build up some savings so we had a cushion.  Which was awesome since our very first weekend in "the city"... our car was broken into and we had to replace the window.

Anyway, we weren't talking about all this specifically.  What we were remembering the most was how we could tell what general economic plane people were on, just by their reaction to what we were doing.  Generally, we got to know folks (co-workers, clients) before the volunteering thing came up.  And it's not *exactly* volunteering, since we were being reimbursed in other ways!  .

There was one of two reactions to our situation.  One:  Wow! How can you survive on just $800 a month?
Two:  Wow!  You don't have to pay rent or electric the whole year?

The first reaction was from comfortable folks.  You wouldn't know they were comfortable, per se.  They might be complaining about lack of money, or maybe they were a refugee from another country, or had some other rough upbringing.  But they were definitely used to a certain standard of living!  Some of the other volunteers were in this strata too- the ones who had trouble not eating out with co-workers, or who kept their monthly hair and nail appointments.  Once we get used to something, it's hard to give up for any reason (health, finances, morals, whatever).

The second reaction was from folks who were struggling.  They might not talk about it, or maybe they did complain about money too.  But they were just amazed at thinking what they would be able to do with $800 a month if they didn't have to pay for rent or utilities or health insurance.  You could see them calculating in their heads, a little smile on their lips, before they asked for more details about the program.

Anyway, we were just talking about all this to help us put this last year into perspective.  And then I remembered this website I had seen, where you could enter your annual income and it would tell you where you ranked on the world's "richest people" list.  Try it yourself- http://www.globalrichlist.com

We don't do it often, but it's a great tool for perspective.  That, and remembering the fun of the crazy, young, newly married days.  Things seemed less complicated, which definitely tells me I'm getting old.  But knowing that we had little in the way of 'stuff' and lots in the way of fun/ fulfillment/ friends and family... it's a great boost for any current slump.   That, and the blessing of having friends older that we are, who can write a short note to say "we've all been there, it will be fine, YOU will be fine."  

So how much money do we got?  Enough.  Enough for now, and enough to share again.  Thanks be to God.

"All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well" - Julian of Norwich

Apple of my Eye

We headed to a local orchard last weekend, to pick a half bushel of apples.  How many?  Er... a gigantic bag full?  Enough to eat some, bake a pie, make 6 pints of applesauce AND have a dozen left over - which will soon be turned into cider.   Soon-ish, anyway.

JimDad was on the hunt for the perfect apple:  big and red.  He would always spot the 'perfect' one near the top, and try to convince Kaden to climb / jump / fly up there to go grab one.

Wonder boy was much more comfortable with two feet on the ground.  He loved going under and through the trees, and at one point declared himself the "lower picker upper".   

He was also less concerned with finding a 'perfect' apple, as he was with grabbing ANY apple in his reach.  We did convince him not to grab the half rotted ones, and to try to find ones with more red than green.

It was fun all around.  Though it is getting chilly for our Florida blood, and so we probably shouldn't be headed out for field expeditions in shorts.  Slow learning curve we have sometimes!

Worth it, though.  Since we're here, we might as well embrace Fall !

Philosophy... or Fair Trade Coffee?

I've been in a bit of a philosophizing mood lately... (quick, put on an Indigo Girl song!).  None of it extremely productive.  I was remembering college days, when we had (almost) no experience and lots of time to sit around a solve the world's problems.  By sitting around!  for hours!

Anyway, there's half a post rattling around in my head, about 'wanting more' and adjusting expectations and.. oh phooey, it sounds more like a middle age lecture than an insight.  Sigh.   Well, it did coincide with a neat memory of finding a cookie in the pocket of winter jacket.  I'll go think some more, and maybe it'll finally come out a bit more coherent?

In the meantime, how about a chance to win some Fair Trade Coffee?  It's the Green Mountain brand, and it comes with one of those single cup coffee machines.   Good luck!

(oooh, there's another post:  Fair Trade Coffee and all the other ways I'm a sellout lately!)

Garden- for real, this time.

Okay, so I finally got some photos!  A few friends have been curious about the patio garden we have.  It's not incredibly productive, but it has been fun.  And I feel like my Dad would be proud of some of the stuff I'm trying (sub irrigation).  Anyway, I'm describing the garden here, and welcoming any feedback for improvement-- or even what to do in the winter here in the (almost) Artic Circle.

Above, a photo of most of the plants.  Left to right, there's a wooden box planter that Jim built for me.  It's 3 foot long, and about 12-16 inches tall.  In front of it, there's a Lowe's bucket that has various uses- right now, its storing garden tools.  Behind the bucket and to the right of the wooden planter are TWO large plastic bins (maybe 16 qt?).  Then, along the brick wall is a plastic shelf (5 shelves, over 6 ft tall).  There's a few decorative plants up top- a bromeliad and a donkey tail cactus.  Not pictured, to the right of the shelves, is a wooden desk my dad built and I use as a workshop area for potting or puttering :).  There's a houseplant arrangement on that area as well.

Above, a close up of one of the watermelon.  We've about 3 this size, and I think that's as big as they'll get.  We bought the smaller ones since they're better for containers, and I've loved watching the vines grow all over.  I've used both the shelves and a few strategically placed sticks to guide the vines back onto the porch.

Above is a closeup of one of the watermelons when it was first starting.  Kaden- heck, all of us- have really gotten a kick out of watching stuff grow from seeds to green leaves to tiny something to: food!  Look closely in the back left of that photo and you'll see what looks like trash... a plastic water bottle.  It's actually part of our irrigation system.

 Above, here's a photo of the sub-irrigation system BEFORE we planted anything.  It was quite fun researching this and then figuring out how to make it work (I used pinterest for the initial research).  I got a few 2 liters from some family members, then asked at a garden place for the smaller trays they were going to throw away.  A detailed explanation is here.  Basically, the plastic forms pocket for air and water under the soil, and the roots can suck up what they need without drowning. Except, I didn't drill any overflow holes, but I just checked the water level from the outside (also didn't pretty-fy the outside of the clear plastic, lol).

One of the bins had carrots and watermelon - plus somehow a parsley plant that snuck in.  The carrot greens were gorgeous, and the carrots were small and tasty- but I don't have any pics of those.  Above, is about 3 watermelon vines, with celery sticking up the middle.  I'm trying to get it to go to seed so I can collect for next season (or maybe spices?!).

Here's a close up of the celery flowers.  The neat thing about this plant is that I bought organic celery at the store, and when I was done with the stalks, replanted the bottom!  Details here.  The celery certainly wasn't as  large as the store version, but it was rather tasty- even Kaden had some, and he normally doesn't eat it.

Above, a photo of a wine box we got at a really cool Habitat ReStore (find one near you) and planted tomato, basil and nasturtium in it.  Below is a close up, but since it's late in the season the basil is leggy, the flowers are half dead and the tomatoes are gone.  Look closely to the left most stalk and you'll see a nice yellow tomato blossom- I'm tempted to see if we can nurse another fruit out of it, but it's a bit late for that.

Oh, and the sticks above are just part of our collection...  pay no attention to them...

I had a brief fling with miniature gardens this year.  The end result being that I had extra decorative stuff laying around.  To clean up, I made some of the plant pots a bit more pretty-fied :)

Oooh, here's a close up of our pepper- above.  What you can't tell from the photo is that this is a CHOCOLATE pepper.  I can't remember what that means.  Will it taste chocolatey?  Will it turn chocolate brown if I let it ripen fully?  The other thing you can't tell from the photo is how excited Kaden gets over this- almost every day.  I'll be lucky if I get a taste!

Above to the right, a wee pine tree seedling.  It's just started to have the needles turn yellow, but I'm not too focused on it yet.  Mostly because I have no idea how to over-winter it (no room to bring indoors).  In the middle is a fine rosemary plant- I love to put clippings in the car as an air freshener.  And to the left is the parsley plant- this thing will grow no matter what.  It's good for my green ego.

Above, another shot of the pepper plant- here you can see it's surrounded by a (chocolate) mint plant too.  I keep cutting the mint back to try and give the pepper some room.  You can see how well that's working!

 And here's the most adorable sight so far-- a baby bunny.  This one made it, thank goodness, but its siblings weren't as lucky- a lawn mower ran over the nest, we think.  But seeing this one hop around really made our day (and night!)

And finally-- a photo of our fresh basil, fresh tomato sandwich.  Add a little provolone to Italian bread, warm and... sigh.  I'll leave you with that good taste in your mouth!

Growing....

Well, I wanted to do this neat little garden update, complete with photos.  It's exciting times here because it's getting so close to yummy harvest.  So I'm pretty sure I took some photos.  And I'm pretty sure Kaden took some photos.  But I can't find any of them :(

It's a balcony garden, and kind of neat because we've had a great response with the few herbs and tree seedlings.  The tomato (yes, sole one!) is finally starting to turn red.  We got a few earlier from that plant and they were good (so says my mom, I don't eat them).   The peppers are FINALLY having little tiny peppers, after an entire! freaking! summer! with nothing coming from its blooms.  I'm excited about that because they are *chocolate* peppers, and we'll see what THAT means finally.   The sunflowers never, ever, took :(  I probably should have planted them along the building instead of on the porch.  The celery is giving me some seeds, so I can finally collect those and take it out.  The carrots are finally growing orange, so not far now Papa Smurf!  The watermelons are going nutso, little sugar babies and blossoms growing all over and very exciting for all of us.

You know what ELSE is exciting?  A few times this past week, Kaden has been eating something and decided he liked it enough that we should plant some in our garden.  So far, his list is green beans, corn and peas.  And more watermelon.  I'm excited.  Too bad none of those will survive in a Fall garden here.

You know what I just noticed?  In this post, I've used the words FINALLY and EXCITING a lot. So far it's been unintentionally!  But now I'm going to go underline them all.  Hee hee.

You know what else I think of these days, when I hear the words FINALLY and EXCITING and GROWING?

This.

Excitement! Getting to know Neighbors!

So!  Earlier this week, we had a wee bit of excitement.  No fewer than SEVEN firetrucks in our neighborhood.  You would've thought it was a block party, there were so many people hanging out, milling around, chatting.  No one had any clue what was going on, but we were all chatting away anyway.  After about an hour, all the trucks left (waving at our little guy and making him sooooo happy).  Another hour later, I hopped on facebook to check the fire dept's fan page- and sure enough, they posted the event.  Thanks to an alert neighbor spotting smoke and calling 911... the FD had to bust in a door because no one answered... and it turned out to be a small kitchen fire and the chef asleep in the next room.  Excitement for the day!

That's not the only way we meet neighbors around here.  Besides the normal "hi" when we pass each other on the sidewalk, we sometimes have someone stopping by when I'm watering the garden.  It's a patio one, and they're all in boxes- more on that for another post- so it looks "interesting".  The best part is there's actually herbs FLOURISHING, so they get attention, and our watermelon vines are going *all over* now.  Here's a pic of our smallest one, less than 1/2 inch long.  The largest is probably a 5 inch diameter- I think they were sugar babies, so it probably wont' get any bigger.  There's another 3-4 in different sizes growing.  Much fun, and a good discussion piece!

Random Fun

I don't think any of these photos happened *recently*... but they did happen in 2013.  So there.  We took advantage of having free weekends (wha?) and did some touring.

 Like to a pretzel factory in Lititz! Fairly neat place, even if it was a historical factory and not really used (much) anymore.  Way cool to see the ovens and huge paddles used to bake the tasty treats.  Not cool at all to have to work there, back in the day!

Of course, there's Hershey and Chocolate World, which we may or may not visit too often.  It depends on who you ask.

I didn't think this would ever happen, since the kid has not voluntarily fell asleep since he was about 3 months old.  But sure enough, I sent him to read a book on his bed... and ta-da! or wa-la! whichever.

 And then there's Superfireman Guy.  He's like a fireman, only a superhero too.  Because he can fly, and water shoots out his hands, like spiderman, only it's water not webs.  What, you didn't know that?

And these last two?  Well, I just love my kid.  I'm pretty sure he's hiding under the table, waiting for us to notice him.  He may or may not be fully clothed.  My guess is not.  It's apparently a lot of fun to run away and hide instead of putting on PJs and going to bed.  Just an observation, I haven't tried it myself.  Just clarifying, for you weirdo types.