A little more veggie...

Check out this article from my current favorite website:

http://organicgardening.com/feature/0,7518,s1-26-27-1690,00.html

Aren't those numbers insane? How hard would it be, really? Eating just one vegetarian meal per week. If every family in America did that, we'd be so much healthier, and our planet would be too! I'd actually like to get down to 2 meals per week that include meat. It's hard though - I was raised in a 'meat and potatoes' family, and meals seem sort of empty without some meat or another. It gives me something to strive for anyway. :o)

I'm drowning!

Seriously, I feel like I'm drowning in a sea of STUFF. I think I make a post like this every few months, swearing that I'm going to purge drastically and then stop buying things. And I fail miserably every time.

Ugh, but I feel like there's chaos all around me. Part of it is having two kids - kids need toys (though not nearly as many as they have!) and toys get left everywhere. Half the toys don't get played with because there are so many that others get forgotten for months (or years) at a time.

It's just this constant feeling of clutter. It makes me crazy. If you look in my closet, it's packed with clothes. The girls' closet is the same way. And yet, I buy more fabric, and make more clothes. I have so many things I've only ever worn once. That's really sad!

But I have this never-ending creative streak that drives me to keep on making things that will bring me moments of satisfaction, to be worn once and then stashed in the closet for once-a-year wear. Surely I could direct all this creative energy to something more useful.

I organize and reorganize everything, all the time. I'm constantly emptying a cupboard or drawer, throwing things away that we don't use or don't need, putting everything back neatly, only to find it in disarray two weeks later.

My mother keeps saying we need a bigger, newer house. What we really need, though, is less STUFF. If we didn't have so much stuff (half of which we have no use for!) we wouldn't need more space.

After spending a handful of years being very poor, I developed this sense of "keep everything, because some day you might need it." It's the Depression Era mentality. It seems wasteful to donate boxes of perfectly good Stuff to Goodwill. What if I needed this, or that (10 years down the road...?) Oy.

I think I would be best off spending a whole couple of days tossing, organizing, donating, and in general lessening the chaos that seems to surround me constantly.

...what a chaotic post. I hardly made sense. A reflection of the way I feel right now, I suppose.

Going Buggy

I think most of you know by now that I am irrationally terrified of bugs. Lately I've been doing great - the only thing I really try to avoid is wasps, which we have tons of, but I think that's reasonable. But now that I have a garden, I've come to see other bugs differently. I smile at spiders and welcome them in, knowing they'll eat some of the bad bugs. Crickets, grasshoppers, none of those things bother me too terribly. I've come a long way in a short amount of time.

But there are some bugs that really just make life miserable. The other day, I was unwinding the hose to water, and I screamed as I realized there was a black widow hanging on my wrist. Yep. It was hiding in the hose box and I disturbed it, apparently. I shook it off, and got some bug spray to spray it with. That was awful. Now I'm paranoid that our hose box must be a black widow breeding ground, so I watch every inch of the hose as it comes out to make sure I don't have any more run-ins with one of those. They're so creepy looking, and I really don't need to deal with a black widow bite.

And then there's the barrage of little tiny, but thoroughly annoying insects. For whatever reason, we have an ant infestation. Not so much in the house (thank goodness) but outside, everywhere, are ants. You can't stand still in one spot for too long in the yard or garden without ants climbing onto your legs. The pavers and stepping stones are just sort of black because the ants are so thick. I'll be walking through the yard for one reason or another, and see a big black spot on the lawn. At first it looks like something's there - a piece of trash or something - but then upon closer inspection, I realize it's a pile of thousands of ants. Cora is no longer blanket-bound; she has no problem crawling on grass. I can't let her crawl around out there though, they'll eat her alive.

Then add in swarms of gnats and mosquitoes, and yeah, it's pretty darn miserable to be outside now. I'm covered head to to in little bites - ant bits, mosquito bites, gnat bites. Cora's got several on her legs, though I've been making her wear long pants and sleeves if we got outside at all (which is splendid, let me tell you, since it's 96 degrees out at 7:30 in the evening.) Blah. I still hate bugs.

A happy discovery

My first red tomato!

One little grape tomato. LOL But it's the promise of great things to come.

The bush beans are starting to flower.


The peas are still trying to produce. It almost looks like they might survive the summer and give me a fall crop.

Chloe's corn is getting tassels now too, which means it may flower soon.

Miss Cora came to visit me at the fence while I was weeding last night.


So I had her pose with the tomatoes to show how big they are. The grape tomato plants are about as high as my shoulder now, and the others aren't too far behind.


And my first dahlia bloom. Isn't it gorgeous? this is the first time I've planted dahlias from bulbs (corms, actually) and they are so much bigger than the ones grown from seed at the nursery!

Country Jam notes

Ahhhh. 4 days of great music, skimpy clothing, 100-degree heat, and too much to drink. Who could ask for more? :o)

This is our third year at Country Jam together. Country Jam is huge - at least for our little town. Literally thousands of people, all packed into one gigantic alfalfa field to listen to great country music singers.

The line-up:

Marshall Reign
Western Underground
Collin Raye
Rodney Atkins
Lady Antebellum
Diamond Rio
Clay Walker
Josh Turner
Jamie O'neal
Jason Aldean
Tim McGraw
Chris Young
Joe Nichols
Little Big Town
Sugarland

Plus a few smaller-name bands/singers. Good stuff. We made it for most of the shows, but missed Sugarland, who is about to play as I type. :o\ Andrew has to be at work early though, and it's not worth sending him out to drive on three hours' sleep. So I'll just have to sit here and sing "All I wanna do-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh...."to myself.

We had a great time, but honestly, Country Jam just isn't the party for us that it was when we first went. That first year we went together we camped for four days, saw every single show, drank two big bottles of Jack Daniel's.... We're a lot more low-key these days. I say we're getting old. :oP

So, on to the pictures. Some aren't great but whatever, I'm posting them anyway.

Josh Turner:


Clay Walker (one of my favorite acts this year, a great show)




I used to have the BIGGEST crush on Collin Raye.


When I was twelve.


Tim McGraw. Awesome. Love him.



I made myself a top to wear. Okay really, I just chopped up a bandana, sewed it back together, and called it a top. Since I am not, nor will I ever be, in the kind of shape required to wear a bikini top like all the other girls out there, this was my attempt at tastefully clad in skimpy clothing.

Jason Aldean.


My hubby :o)



Our Country Jam beverage of choice



These little girls sang the National Anthem. They're called the Cactus Cuties, from Texas. They're between the ages of 9 and 14 and are pretty flippin' incredible. You can see them on YouTube, if you care to look them up. Totally worth the couple of minutes that it'll take.



The Navy Seals Leap Frogs did a jump. Pretty awesome to watch.

And a quick shot of Joe Nichols:


Isn't he cute?

Love the way he runs his fingers through his hair...



Mmmmm hmmm.


And I'm happy to report that both girls did just fine. They stayed with my mom the first two nights (my mother is doing just fine) and with Andrew's sisters the last two days. I think Cora missed me (Chloe sure didn't!) but she did alright for the most part. I'm glad it's over, in a way, because I hate leaving her. Especially today - at the in-law's house. Ugh. Happily, I was wearing a tube-top that said "Serve Friggin' Cold" today, which everyone at the in-law's house saw. I'm sure my mother-in-law was horrified, which added to the pleasantness of the day. ;o)

And that was Country Jam. Were talking about getting VIP tickets and camping the whole time next year. We'll see if we're actually up to it once that time comes around. I'm not as young as I used to be!

Feelin' guilty

I finished the other gift outfit last night. Aren't the cherries fun? I like them.


===

So this afternoon starts Country Jam. It's a big country music festival that goes on for four days. The first year, we camped out there. We're not so brave anymore. Or we're just old... Anyhow, my mom is watching Cora for two days, and Andrew's sister is watching her the other two days, and Chloe's staying with my mom the whole time except when Mark has her Saturday night and Sunday. My mom said she just can't do more than two days with Cora. It's really not very fun to watch a baby who cries the whole time her mommy is gone. :o\ I hope she gets over that soon. Chloe never did it, so I'm not sure how long it typically lasts. Anyhow, if anyone wants to tell me that I am NOT a bad mother for ditching my kids for 10 hours a day four days in a row, that'd be great. I'm feeling mighty guilty about it.

A quote from my husband

"You know how everyone always says you have a lot of energy? Well, most people don't have that much energy. It's not normal."

This after I kind of made him get up and do something for me instead of taking a nap on the living room floor. It must be hard to be my husband. :o\

The sweetest thing

Chloe wrote me a letter today.

This is one of those things that will stand out as extra rewarding about being a parent. After she gave it to me she said "I didn't know how to write 'you are the best mom in the whole world, so I just drawed a bunch of hearts.'" All you have to do is bake cookies with a kid and you get something as special as this. :o)

===

A couple shots from the front yard:


====

Two readers said they knew of little girls that wear size 12 months clothes, so I'm making them outfits. The first one is done:



I just love this fabric. These little outfits aren't terribly photogenic, but this one is the same pattern as the pink and brown one I made last week - open back, ties at the neck. Super cute. I love dressing babies in fabric that doesn't look terribly baby-ish. I hope the recipient likes it... haven't decided who's getting what yet. :o)

===

A little culinary tip: did you know you can eat beet greens? Not only can you eat them, but they're actually really good, sort of like spinach. Beets and swiss chard are actually the same type of plant, swiss chard just doesn't produce a root like a beet does. But yeah, I made a little side salad with beet greens last night, and it was a hit.

Tonight we grilled the beets, along with some green beans. I tossed them with a bit of tuscan balsamic dressing, fresh basil, thyme and chives, and some chopped almonds. Good stuff!

===

Alright, I guess that's all my rambling for now. :o)

A whole buncha pictures

My mom's cat had kittens, did I mention that? There are 5 of them. There were 7, but two didn't make it. I'm in the love with the calico. Chloe's in love with the pure white one. I don't think my husband is going to agree to two more cats. The one we have is a pain in the rear end as it is!



After breakfast with my parents this morning we went to an "animal expo". They just had all kinds of animals, farm animals mostly, and did demonstrations and such. It was a good way to kill a couple of hours, and Chloe and Cora both seemed to like it.

Petting a snake:


Riding a camel with Grammy:


And painting a horse. Right. At first I thought it was sort of cruel, but the horse seemed rather content, and I suppose it won't really hurt it...

And some shots from outside today. Chloe plays in the wading pool every day. I love when you buy something and you actually feel like you got your money's worth. That pool was worth every penny of the $11 or whatever I spent on it!


This is Cora's "I'm going to take over the world!" face:



And since Deb asked, some pictures of my garden. I was going to post pictures before, but I realized they aren't really much fun to look at. Probably sort of like reading about my garden isn't all that much fun either. LOL But anyway, here are a few shots:

The corn that Chloe planted (minus the 4 or 5 stalks that were knocked down by Izzy and stupid birds.) You can see the pole bean plants up around some of the stalks if you look close. They're growing fast now.

Peppers and tomatoes: (notice the empty spot by the fence? That's the one the dog knocked down. It's still alive though, so I'm giving it a chance.)




Another shot of the peppers and tomatoes from a little further away. The peppers are all green bell peppers. The tomatoes are (from right to left) grape, roma, and big beef. The roma's aren't terribly happy. There are two tiny, just-planted basil starts in front of them.


There's a big empty space after that where I just harvested a bunch of beets that didn't actually make roots. It'll be the carrot bed when it gets a little cooler. Then there's this:


The dark rows are where I just planted swiss chard and bush beans. The short green plants are bush beans that are already growing, and behind that are the peas that are just about finished. (Only about 5 pea plants grew. They were last year's seeds that Chloe planted. Enough for entertaining a little girl though.) Behind that was the spinach/lettuce bed. Since those are done (too hot here anymore for them!) I had Andrew toss the grass clippings there. I'm slowly using that as mulch, but can't do too much at one time. In the fall, it'll be the spinach/lettuce bed again. Behind the grass clippings was the radish bed, but since those are done now, I planted dill, thyme, cilantro and chamomile, though you can't see them in this picture.

All in all, I have about a 40 ft. by 5 ft. space, divided into 10 smaller 'beds' with stepping stones between them. Not a whole lot, but enough to grow plenty if I would've used the space right!

And that's all. My little girl is getting into EVERYTHING - ahhhhh!!

Happy First Day of Summer!

Can you believe it's already summer? My goodness, time sure is flying by. I spent most of the day out in the garden. I dragged the girls out of bed early and we were at the nursery by 8:10. I bought swiss chard 'bright lights' and some more bush variety snap beans. I also invested in a bag of compost, two basil starts and a packet of spinach for sowing in August, plus a container of liquid kelp extract for use as an organic foliar fertilizing spray.

I planted all the seeds with a mix of compost to see if they'll sprout a little better this time. I side-dressed the cukes, corn, pole and bush beans, peppers and tomatoes. I sprayed everything with kelp, used some grass clippings to mulch the cukes and bush beans, plus pulled a few handfuls of stray weeds I'd missed.

And, as much as i wish I could say I have patience, I don't; so I started planning next spring's planting. LOL I know I should save that for winter when I'm desperate to do something garden related, but i couldn't help it. I have a tiny little garden space, really, but if I interplant and catch crop, plus sow successionally, I should be able to grow every single thing I want to.

I'm so obsessed with gardening. I wish I would've started learning and reading BEFORE I planted this spring's crops - they'd be doing so much better than they are, and I could've gotten so much more planted in my limited space. But alas, it's all a learning experience, right? I'm having fun anyway. :o)

===