Gardening fun!!

So this summer, since we are finally in a house, I really wanted to have a garden. I knew it would be small, but you have to start somewhere. We decided to plant red potatoes, peas, carrots, and sunflowers.

Now I am terrible about remembering to take pictures, so I didn't get any of the actual plants (which were all in containers since that is what I had to work with). They all grew really well, and it was hard to keep the kids from the vegis that grew (especially the peas - the kids ate the pods before I could stop them, they were quite sneaky some days), but we had enough to make one meal out of the surviving vegetables.  So for our first harvest of the season, we chose to make pot roast.

Our favorite kind of potato is red. They really have the best flavor.

 

I will admit that waiting for the carrots to grow big is hard. So we excavated these ones early because I LOVE carrots straight from the ground.

 

Dinner was really really good that day. Knowing that we, as a family, grew half of what we ate made it even more special to us, but it really was a very tasty meal. I can not wait 'till next spring when we can start our garden again. We learned a bit and learned how to fix the problems that may come up for next time. Also, we are hoping to expand our container garden and add more delicious goodness to it. (P.S. - gardening in Texas is harder than I thought)

-Sarah

Jacob's garden

Good times....

Since living in a house, we have been having a lot of fun adventures.  Jacob loves to explore and asked if he could have the old fence post that we had to replace (because our dog would have escaped if we hadn't). I asked what he wanted it for, and he said he just wanted to experiment with it. 

I let him loose and thoroughly enjoyed watching him have fun.  He started by taking the hammer to it and pounding it over and over.  He said he was trying to break it. I told him that it wasn't working, and to try and think of another way he might accomplish his goal.  He stopped and thought about it, and I could see the "light bulb" go off in his head.  He then asked if he could use the brick in the garage. I told him of course, unsure of where this was heading. He then proceeded to put the fence post over the top of the brick and stood on top of it. Nothing happened, he then ran over to the side of the yard and ran as fast as he could and jumped on top of each side of the fence with the brick in the middle....eureka!!! It broke and he again repeated the process till he had the post into three pieces. 

I asked what he planned on doing now that he had demolished it. 

"I know exactly what I want to do with it.  Can I please have some nails and paint?" Intrigued, I said yes. He asked if he could go into the garage and "work" on his own.  A little nervous and curious, I agreed.

 After a while he came back in with a huge grin and showed me what he had created.

He has always wanted to grow peas just like grandpa does and now, that is a goal I can help him accomplish. We started these peas about 3 weeks ago and they are growing madly.

It has been such a blessing being able to watch him grow and blossom in ways that he couldn't do before moving into a house. I wish I had video taped this whole adventure, because it was very entertaining to watch. He has such passion and flare in things he loves. The next project he wants to do is to build his own telescope. So we are in the process of learning how to build one.

-Sarah