Typical Suburban Family

Last weekend was so beautiful we thought we would catch up on all things outdoors.  And we did just that.

We loaded the kids into the Passat and headed to Home Depot.  Of all weekends to have my car still loaded down with conference boxes and unusable, I chose this weekend to do our gardening.

We managed just fine though and we were able to get all the dirt, plants, flowers and even a rototiller attachment home safe and sound.

Let the fun begin!

We had to do some weeding first to clean up the garden area and the flower beds, but before long we were making progress.  The boys had fun digging in the dirt and helping haul away the weeds with their little tractors.

Ryan was a huge helper and filled all the pots with dirt for me so I could plant the flowers.

Owen?  Well, he always seems to do his own thing his own way.  He lost interest in helping after about the 2nd scoop of dirt into the pot. 

Oh well.  I still had one helper boy!

After the flowers were planted we stepped back to admire our handy work.  Not too shabby huh?

Daddy had to do the rototiller in the garden so mommy’s big ol’ preggo belly wouldn’t allow for such a chore.

Daddy found the early stages of numerous little green friends from last year.  Ryan did a great job helping collect them to dispose of them far, far away from the garden (aka the trash).

After we prepped the garden area, Ryan and I got busy planting. 

I actually stuck him inside the garden and taught him how to make the rows and place the seeds.  By this point of the day I was getting tired and sore and the baby was kicking like crazy telling me enough is enough.

Ryan didn’t seem to mind though.  He enjoyed being my helper and being inside the garden; an area normally off limits to little children.

This year we planted cauliflower, broccoli, a bunch of tomato plants, cucumbers, onions and peas. 

We have a few more packets of seeds that we want to plant (pumpkins, sweet corn, and carrots).  I also want to pick up some red and green pepper plants for this year.  Now I just need to find an area to plant these additional items.

Since I will be home all summer on maternity leave I figured I might as well have a big garden!  I mean, not that I’ll be bored or anything.  I will be home with a newborn, a 3 year old and a 5 year old and trying to entertain everyone while not losing my mind.  Easy peasy right?!

Where was Delta through all of this you ask? Well, supervising of course!

Between work, the boys, the pregnancy, the holidays (yes, I’m referring back to Christmas and Thanksgiving!), My Hello Designs, and well, life in general, I’ve been MIA lately.

I haven’t visited many blogs and haven’t been as social online as I once was.  I haven’t been blogging much myself either.  I’ve missed birthdays and anniversaries (important ones too!).  Honestly, I haven’t even taken any photos over the last two months.  Anyone who knows me knows that something is going on if I haven’t taken at least 100 photos per month.  I’ve probably taken a total of 20 in the last 3 months and most of those were with my phone.  That’s just not me.

I simply haven’t had time nor energy to do all of it.

But…. I’m ready to get back on track.  My crazy work schedule is over.  I’m not as completely exhausted and ready for bed at 8pm as I was earlier in the pregnancy.  Spring is in the air and the days are longer with sunlight.  My cousin over at It Keeps Getting Better got a new lens for her birthday and has inspired me to start taking more photos again.  Thanks Ashley!

I’m finally feeling it.  I’m ready.

Oh, and I’ve started drinking coffee again which should help.

So, up on the agenda this weekend is… gardening… planting flowers… finish the room transition (except for painting)… finish the office organization (except for painting)… lunch with friends (because we are yet to meet their now 3 month old baby!)… and the Globetrotters!

And if all that wasn’t enough, I also plan on winning the lotto tonight.

We didn’t exactly invite them over for a backyard bash, but they were too cute to kick out.

These little caterpillars are called the Tomato Horn Worm and have made a home in my tomato plants.  At least someone is enjoying the garden this year because we sure didn’t get a chance to.

As of last night we had 5 of them living in our tomato plant.  If it wasn’t the end of gardening season I may be upset about these new found backyard friends, but since we’re heading into September, oh well.  Eat till your hearts content my little green friends.

We (and by we I mean Jim) read that you have to rototiller the garden to destroy any pupae that may be there so we’ll be doing that at the end of the season.  I am not welcoming them back next gardening season.

There is nothing like seeing the boys hanging out together at the garden eating fresh peas straight from the pods.  Unfortunately I wasn’t quick enough to get a photo of it, but I did manage to get a few snapshots of how out of control our garden is getting.

As I mentioned earlier in the season, shortly after planting the seeds, our darling dog, Delta right through it and messed up the nice neat rows.

When the seeds were coming up you could clearly see there were some empty places; some crooked rows; and some overcrowding.  Now that the seeds are plants it is hard to tell where rows are.  It’s all a big cluster with carrots growing in the middle of the squash and the onions mushed together in one row instead of two.  Oh well.

And since I’m still a newbie gardener (second year), I have a question for all of you pros. Or those that know more about gardening than I do.

How do I know when the carrots and onions are ready to be picked and eaten?

I can’t see them and I have no idea when to assume they are ready. With the peas, cucumbers, tomatoes and squash, I watch them daily and pick them when I see that they are ready.

So what about carrots and onions?

We will have peas before you know it!

I’m so excited that gardening season is here. It’s almost time to be eating fresh peas, cucumbers, tomatoes and such from the garden.

Our garden.

I’m giddy with excitement.

I started our seedlings inside this year.  Not everything, but some of them.

So far we have peas, cucumbers, onions, tomatoes, and two types of squash growing.

They are desperate to get out in the warmth of the Atlanta sun and warm weather.  See how they are stretching to the window trying to make their escape?

Have you started your garden yet? Link up with Aliceson over at Feet off the Table and let’s watch how each others gardens progress this year!  Bring it!

The last few weeks have been busy.  No wait.  That is an understatement.  They’ve been ridiculously out of control busy.

Everything that could add to our schedules has been added.  Work has been overwhelming.  Commutes have been horrible.  Stress levels are high.

We’ve missed sending cards and/or gifts for anniversaries, birthdays and even Valentine’s Day.  Heck.  I’ll even admit that I just sent the last of Christmas gifts out just a few weeks ago.

When will we ever be on time and on track?  Never right?

On the positive side though the weather has been amazing.  Simply amazing.  This is why we moved to Atlanta.  This is why I love the south.  Not because of this.

Over the weekend we enjoyed countless hours outside.  Daddy and Ryan went on a bike ride.  Mommy, Ryan and Owen did some gardening.  Ryan and Owen started a rock garden (since he borrows rocks from every where we go) and since we found a truckload (or so it seemed) of rocks on the hill.

It was what we needed.  A family weekend enjoying the outdoors.

I started an indoor garden of various vegetables to include onions, squash, peas, lettuce.  We have 50 different sprouts started plus 16 tomato sprouts.

Jim prepped another garden area where we plan to plant blueberry bushes and raspberry bushes plus watermelon.

Jim and Delta played tennis ball baseball.  Delta was so tired and sore that night that she moaned every time she walked.  She had a blast.

I started the never ending Spring/Summer project of clearing the hill of weeds.  I would post photos, but my hands and body were too sore yesterday to lift the camera.  Trust me though.  It was a lot of work, but I made a lot of progress.

I made even more progress today when I called a local landscaper to come and give an estimate to have them finish the hill.  My birthday is this weekend and I’m getting old.  Too old to clear the hill of weeds without being sore for days.  We’ll see though. I hate spending money on things we can do ourselves so unless it’s super reasonable (too reasonable to pass up) then I have a feeling it will be me clearing that darn hill.

Dang it.

I don’t mind maintaining it, but boy would it be nice to have a jump start on it.  A jump start that includes heavy machinery and several men and a truck to haul it all away in.

A girl can dream right?

Nice birthday present I’m hoping for huh?  It’s that or a new business suit.

I dream big don’t I?

After a stressful few weeks anticipating the change of schools, it was very uneventful.  And that is a good thing!

We talked about the new school, new friends and new teachers and prepared the boys for this change.  We bought their new dress code clothes and made a big deal about little things they could relate to (like the new play ground).

They were ready to go!  And they were excited!

They arrived at school and waltzed right in with no tears or tantrums.  They couldn’t wait.

As I drove to work that morning all of the stress I had been carrying around regarding school had left.  I felt a weight lift from my shoulders knowing that we made the right decision.

Owen’s teacher even called me in the afternoon to let me know how he was doing and how he adjusted to his first day.  Amazing.  I love communication like this!

And when I picked them up that day they couldn’t wait to tell me all about their first day.  Both boys were beaming from ear to ear.

They chattered all the way home.  They were in awesome moods – laughing and singing!

And when we got home Ryan couldn’t wait to show me what he got for me on his first day of school.  A present?  For me?

Ryan: “Momma!  I brought you something from my first day of school today!  It’s from the playground!”
Momma: “Oh really?  A present for me buddy?”
Ryan: “Yes momma!  Here!  I got you a rock for your garden!!”

Momma: “Thank you Ryan! But you know you’re supposed to leave these rocks at school right? You’re not supposed to take them home with you right?”
Ryan: “Right momma. But do you like them? I got you a whole bunch! A whole bunch for your garden! See?”

Momma: “Well thank you for thinking of me Ryan. But we’ll need to bring these back tomorrow ok?”
Ryan: “It’s ok momma. They have tons of rocks at school. I won’t take them all. My old school didn’t have rocks. They only had wood chips.”

And there you have it folks. In case you ever wondered what made a first day at a new school a good one…. it’s rocks over wood chips. I simply love this child.

I think we’re going to enjoy this new Montessori school.  Rocks or not, it’s what we were looking for.

We picked the last of our tomatoes and green peppers.  Winter must be approaching.

The weather in Atlanta has been beautiful this fall.  It’s been sunny and warm with cool mornings.  However, this last week the temps have dipped down to frost warning levels.

So I picked the last of the veggies in the garden to be safe.  I’m closing the garden for the season. I even had a little helper who enjoyed carrying the tomatoes from the garden to the house. The good news is that we only lost a few to being dropped on the concrete patio.

I have to admit that I really enjoyed it.  I had no idea what I was doing going into this whole gardening experience.  Do you remember me calling it a round tomato trellis thingy?  Ok, so lets be honest.  I still call it that.  Maybe I haven’t learned much over the last 7 months.

What I did learn is that I need a bigger garden next year.  At least double the size of the garden this year.

I also learned that I will not plant beans, corn or as many pepper plants.  I will plant more peas, more cucumbers, more tomatoes, pumpkins, watermelon, lettuce, squash and onions.

I will also figure out a way to set up a better watering system.  Maybe on a timer?  Or at least rig the hose to be closer to the garden.  It wasn’t much fun watering the garden at least once (and sometimes twice) per day during the really hot Atlanta weather.

I cannot wait until the Spring so we can start our next gardening adventure.  In the meantime, once they turn red, I have A LOT of tomatoes (20+) to be used up!

Although if Delta has any say in the matter, then she’ll be helping herself to a few.

What was your favorite garden vegetable this year?  Anything not on my list that you would recommend me trying in my Garden Attempt #2?

Just when I was about to give up on my garden, it started thriving again! We now have watermelons!!

They are a little small still, but I’m hopeful they will grow big enough for us to eat this fall. Aren’t they cute?

We also have lettuce growing like crazy. I have no idea at what point we pick them? Anyone have any advice on this? How do I know when they are ready to eat?

I planted the lettuce and watermelon late in the season (end of August) when I got annoyed with the bugs eating everything else. I wasn’t ready for the gardening season to be done so I took a chance and planted a few additional vegetables. And wa-la! We have veggies again!

The tomatoes are still growing and every time I look at the garden we have approximately 20-25 tomatoes thriving, but by the next day they are half eaten. I can’t get them past being small and green without something enjoying them. And it’s not me nor our tomato thief from earlier in the season.

Yes, that plant that is growing horizontal is the tomato plant. It grew taller than the tomato cage and then starting growing across the fencing. It’s a mess, but there is nothing growing on that half of the garden since we lost all of our peas and cucumbers so it works for the tomatoes.

I know the gardening season is coming to an end, but we had a great experience for our first year.  We learned a lot and definitely have a good plan already for next year. I cannot wait to do this again in the Spring!