JUNE!!!!! Broken arm and thriving garden pics

Oh my. REALLY?  It's been 6 months.  Whoops.  I have lots to update on ... For now though, you just get a glimpse into our month of JUNE, 2012!!!

Micah broke his arm.  He didn't just break it.  He broke off the bottom of the humorous. Not funny!

He ended up with surgery.  After 10 days of having the splint and sling he went in to get the splint taken off and a real hard cast put on.  

The nurse cutting off the cast.

 Micah had 3 pins/screws put in during surgery.  They were left external so that when they are removed next week they will just pull them out (ACK!)  You can see the importance of having them covered as they sure stick out!!!  There are these bead like things on the ends of the pins.  His arm is still VERY swollen and disfigured in these shots.  Where the skin looks wrinkly is where the swelling has actually gone DOWN since the break.

 He was pretty scared.  Poor buddy.

 BUT, it's all better now with the glow in the dark hard cast on!!!!  He now has it covered with pictures and get well wishes from friends and family. It's also a slightly dingy brown color! ha ha ha  IT does still glow in the dark though so he's still happy with it!

My good friend, Shannon, and I have taken on the challenge of a full on garden this summer.  They recently bought a house 5 minutes from us and they have lots of space so we decided to bite the bullet.  Here's the whole garden.  The brown stuff you see between rows is grass clippings. We're using it much like some use hay.  It's doing a great job as a weed barrier and some of the plants are reallllly liking the heat and insulation!

 Whoops. My pepper plant is side ways.

 Tomatoes. We have more on the other side of the garden as well.

 One of the 2 onion patches.

 These are the turnips I think.

 Our lettuce (mix)

 Carrots are on the right. Cabbage on the left.

 The radishes and carrots ended up flooding out after planting we think so they are all mixed together! ha ha

Snap peas!    And bush beans to the left.

 CORN

 Second planting of lettuce.

 Eggplant

 Squash of some kind.

 THIS corn was TRANSPLANTED from the other end of the garden.  It's actually "popcorn" corn.  We accidentally planted it a bit too close to the other corn and were warned they'd cross pollinate. Who knows what we will end up with :) It's all a great adventure.

 Our GIANT pumpkin plant. There are lots of buds.

 Close up of the mixed up veggies! :)

 We got given 2 flats of celery. After reading about how hard it is to grow we started to laugh. But we thought, "It was free. Let's try it!"  So, here's the celery. :)

More Corn shots.  In the spaces you see (ahem, we had help from kids in planting) there has been a second planting put in and they are coming up.

 Cabbage close ups :)  SMILE.

So, there ya have it. That's our garden .... :0)  We're pretty proud of it, so far!!

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad

My parents celebrate their anniversary today!!! I consider myself to be so blessed to have parents that have stayed faithful to each other for so many years!! Thank you Mom and Dad for being an example of what a Godly marriage can look like.

SNOW!

Well, we have snow. We got an inch or so a few days ago and another inch or two this morning. As much as I hate the paraphernalia that goes with snow/winter (boots, coats, scarves, mittens, gloves, snow pants ...... etc) I do love the quiet that comes over my house when all the kids go outside to play outside in the white powdery fun. The hangers have come out and will perpetually have a hanging place in the kids bathroom as that's just about the only place for wet stuff to get hung once coming inside!

This last week was conference week at school. That means that the kids had half days Mon-Fri so I was picking them up by 12:10 each day. Next week is Thanksgiving so the kids only have school Monday and Tuesday.

Conferences went well. Micah is in 1st grade and is excelling in everything. He's solid academically but still needs to work on his handwriting. He's in a hurry too much. He's a huge community contributor and is excellent at helping, volunteering, and assisting others. He's also eager to share his thoughts .... so not interrupting others is an area he needs to work in. He's very self driven and is in competition with everyone.

Carissa is in 2nd grade this year and loves to write. She's her Mother's daughter. She is doing well with writing and reading and loves science. Her area of weakness academically is math. She is struggling a bit - but is making marked improvements as we continue to work on stuff at home more. She's the perfect little helper and student at school. She's got a great teacher this year and is happy to be in the same class with 2 of her best friends. She's making her reading goals for each month and is very proud of that.

Noah is in 4th grade and is also doing well academically. He's showing his strengths to continue to be in math. His weakness is in writing (grammar and mechanics and desire). He's a good speller, but even there has shown sloppiness a little bit. He's in a hurry and doesn't double check his answers. He's a smart one, so easily bores and fidgets as a result. It's always a challenged to encourage his BEST and be happy with that .... but not settle for mediocre work when we know he can do better... He's nearly 10 so we're starting that journey into the tween years soon and all that comes with that. He's recently learned some new words at school (swear words) and has been honest about how he's learned them. He knows them to be "bad words" so hasn't used them, but rather, asked questions about them. I'm thankful that he's feeling comfortable to ask us and not feel like it's too taboo to go there with us. It's partially saddening to know he's learning/hearing words and things that seem more mature than he is. We just hope to keep the channels of communication open... so we can continue to parent and teach him (as well as the others) what is good and pure and right.

A couple friends

The women's conference at our church was last weekend. My friend, Shannon (below) is one of our pastor's wives and she and I have become good friends. :)

We also played a little dress up and wore silly costumes to get our pics done. Shannon is in the middle and on the far right is another woman from our church named Jeri. She's a fantastic woman whom I adore. She serves on the prayer team with me at church.

Just a little fun :)

Apples, hair cuts, and frigid nights....

Well, let's see. October has been a busy month and it's barely started! As soon as we hit pay day I went and got my hair cut. I've been saving up for it and planning this cut for about a month. I am really loving the cut and am getting many compliments on it (which, who doesn't love, right?). Eric even thinks it's cute so I think I made a home run!!! woohooooo!!!

Last night a friend and I went to the Casting Crowns concert in Kennewick. It's about an hour and a half from where we live so we went early and had dinner and then hit the concert. The opening bands were great and it was a good night to just be with Paula and stand amid thousands of other believers and lift our voices and hands to God. Paula sings on my team at church. She's a mom to 3 and a grandma to 3. She's young at heart and is fun to hang out. The more I get to know here the more I adore her. :o) We figured everyone probably thought we were mother and daughter last night. Ha Ha.



During one of the songs an artist came out on stage with a blank canvas and some buckets of paint. Below is what he ended with. It's amazing to watch it come together!!!!

Last week I was given 5 boxes of Honey Crisp apples. Since then I have been processing apples. I've made apple sauce for the freezer. I've canned apple sauce (in pints and hoping to ration in).

I have dried apples in my food dehydrator. One batch with a sprinkle of cinnamon and a couple batches without.



The canner lady :)

I even prepped 3 apple pies. All I have to do is add a little butter and a pie crusts and I'm good to go!!!

It's been a productive week!!!!! :)