still around...

Hey all... just in case you're wondering, I'm still blogging here. Goodness, it's been a long time. Spring has passed us by all too quickly and I can barely find time to get the regular things done around our home with all the extras going on lately. It all comes on at once!

If you follow along with us on Instagram or Facebook, you may have seen some of what has kept us so busy. Here's more of what we've been up to...

Aside from our normal weekly schedule of getting Kai to and from Kindergarten in the afternoons, visiting with both sets of Grandparents at least once a week, squeezing in play dates, and attending church functions 3 times a week, we've found room to cram some special activities in as well.

Spring is such a busy time all of a sudden with a kiddo in school. It seems they pile on events all at once. Last week Malakai's class had a field trip to Public Works. It was an open house day so there were a LOT of other field trips and families as well. I was able to take Malakai while Ben's mom watched Desmond and Aurelia. It was such a treat to help out with his class and have some time to just focus on him. It was also nice to connect with other parents, since Aurelia was born on the 3rd day of school I haven't been in his classroom as much as I had envisioned.

The following day we had a Jog-a-thon fundraiser for the school so I packed up all 3 kiddos and joined the other Kindergarten parents and students in the rain to help count laps as kiddos dashed around the track. It was such a blessing because although it had been rainy and was pretty wet, the rain let up for the hour that our kiddos ran. Desmond wasn't too into it, which really surprised me. I talked him into doing one lap around with Malakai and they walked huddled together the whole way around. Malakai did 19 laps in one hours, which I think is close to 2 1/2 miles.

We've spent a lot of time at our pediatrician's office lately. Unfortunately all 3 kiddos have been suffering ear infections. Aurelia has had 2 in the last 2 months, Malakai had one and Desmond had a double. Keeping track of medicines has been fun. I've been really thankful for my collection of essential oils right about now for general sickness, ear discomfort and seasonal discomforts alike.

Sadly Malakai will need surgery to have ear tubes put in to keep him from having so many ear infections. I had hoped we would get past this season with no more infections, but he had another right after allergies hit. I'm wishing we had done this last year, but we thought for sure he'd mature out of it. After school is out we'll get it all taken care of and pray that ear infections will be a thing of the past for him!

Lately I've been spending a lot of time gardening. We have quite a bit of green in our little veggie garden! I have 5 different lettuces, 2 tomatoes, onions, carrots, red peppers, cilantro, basil and strawberries clustered in big and small containers. We've already enjoyed a few salads out of our garden, the basil is new within the last few days, and sadly the birds got to the few red berries I had, but I'm hoping to beat them to the next round!

The only thing growing faster than our little veggie garden is our sweet daughter. She is doing so many new things! She's doing this hilarious scoot crawl and she is FAST. She is able to get into a lot of things and I've found myself cleaning the floors much more often. She loves to spit her food, even when she likes it. 

We've also been getting outside and taking advantage of the great weather we've been having as much as possible. Playing at the park or in our own front yard has been a lot of fun. Aurelia loves to watch the big kids play so we will often sit on a blanket together while the boys play on the playground. Her new favorite thing is to pick and try to eat the grass now that she can crawl to it. 

She used to hate the feel of grass but today I set her down so I could carry a watermelon in from the car and she was very excited. 

Hopefully I'll get to updating again here sooner than I have been. I have so much more to share and I still have a few informational posts about essential oils in the works too! 

growing my first garden: tomatoes

It's seems like it took my tomatoes forever to turn from green to even a hint of red. From reading local articles, I'm not the only one who had a long wait, we have our super mild PNW summer to blame. Finally, a couple weeks ago we had our first ripe tomato, even Ben (who loathes tomatoes) admitted that it tasted good! There's just something about sun-ripened tomatoes. Eventually more began to slowly redden.

Today Malakai ventured into the backyard where I haven't dared go for a while now with my back issues and such. I was greeted by a LOT of ripe tomatoes. I figured now was as good a time as any to pick them and figure out what to do with them.

I grabbed the largest bowl I could find and piled about 15 big "slicer" tomatoes into it. I was amazed by the amount of tomatoes that I suddenly had, but to share with you more accurately I needed a size comparison...

or perhaps this angle is more helpful...

That's a lot of tomato! I should take a picture with this bowl again when I reach my due date in about 4 weeks to see how much I grow. ha!

As soon as I set the bowl down in the house Malakai ran in yelling "mayos- mayos!" He kicked off his shoes and climbed a chair to grab one. He opened wide, bit down...and then spit out some skin and put it back, only to reach for another one...

{the tomato by his hand in the bowl has his bite taken out of it}

If I were to let him he'd probably bite into every tomato hoping to find one that tasted like ranch dressing or birthday cake. Sorry kiddo. Although we did discover that he'll eat them in small wedges if they have caesar or ranch dressing on them. Hey, I'll take what I can get when it comes to getting him to eat fresh food. 

I won't be canning them (maybe next year) so I'll make fresh salsa, sandwiches, + salads instead. I'll also be sharing the bounty with family + friends. I've got a couple different recipe ideas from my facebook friends, but feel free to share yours here. I'm looking for something simple and mild.  

Happy Friday Friends!

growing my first garden

Most of my growing up was on a large ranch just outside the city limits from where I live now. We almost always had a garden. We at least had pumpkins if only from tossing the previous ones out into a patch of dirt somewhere.

The last 4 years we've lived in homes with plenty of yard space for gardening, but I didn't take the time to try my hand at growing something on my own. Most of my hesitation came from having little to no success at keeping house plants or easy plants alive. I'd often forget about watering them or keep them in the wrong type of environment.

A good friend of mine has a very impressive vegetable garden and I finally decided to take a try at growing my own. We already had the raised beds, one full of strawberries that I decided to pay closer attention to this season. Of course the weather here didn't cooperate very well for strawberries and then I ran into a few pests: strawberry snails + sugar ants. I used google and surveyed my facebook friends who advised eggshells, coffee grounds, and human hair! Coincidentally I had just cut Kai's hair so I used all three and was able to save a lot of the strawberries. They turned out okay, but I've learned that ever-bearing strawberries should be moved to new spots and who knows how long those berries have been in the raised bed since they were here before we were.

On Memorial Day weekend I decided to plan veggies in our two other raised beds. A couple weeks before Ben was sweet enough to clear the beds of weeds and debris, then we worked together to add more nutrient rich soil. I planted Jack-o-lantern pumpkins, sweet dumpling squash, "slicer" tomatoes from starts, carrots, and sugar snap pole peas. I built a lattice out of bamboo arches and gardeners twine for the peas to climb. It only cost me $5 which was much cheaper than buying lattice or something premade for them to climb.

About 10 days after planting, the first sprouts started to come through. I was so excited that my garden was actually starting to grow!

Malakai and I would go out every morning and check on the veggies. He loves helping...



I was surprised by how fast things were growing, especially the pumpkin leaves, which were visibly bigger every day!

{I made markers out of a cut up milk jug}

Another week went by and everything continued to grow as I kept the weeds and pests at bay. I didn't use any chemicals, just suggestions I found through google and  knowledgable friends.

I did my best to keep up with the watering, but as our summer schedules got busier it got more difficult. Thankfully we've had pretty cool weather so nothing scorched. Ben then set up some sprinklers on a timer thanks to some timers that his dad let us have. Now we're able to water the garden automatically at 5:30am every day. On particularly hot days I turn on the sprinklers for a bit in the afternoon or evening too.

About 6 weeks after planting our garden had filled the raised beds!

{towering tomatoes + climbing sugar snaps in the background. spreading pumpkin + squash up front}

A little over a week ago it became evident that my garden was trying to take over the world...

{those tomatoes have cages in there somewhere + the pumpkin is creeping into the yard}

I had my friend Jamie come over to look at my garden and give me some advice. She was so sweet to help me out. She advised me on how to contain my tomatoes and how to tell when things were ready to pick. 

{peas + maters}

The next day I went to work on tying up my tomatoes with the gardener's twine I had from the structure I made for the sugar snaps to climb. I weaved some of the smaller branches back in to the cages and tied the heavier ones to the cages. Then I tied them up around both plants a couple times for added support. I also trimmed some of the limbs that would have just snapped from the weight of the fruit anyway. I also harvested 50+ sugar snaps. It took me about 45 minutes which ended up being a rather large and lengthy pain in the back. Gardening while pregnant isn't easy!

Earlier this week I picked another 50 or so peas and spotted a pumpkin forming! I'll be picking all the carrots this weekend + planting more in their place.

I shared the sugar snaps with our extended family and will probably have enough to pick new ones at least once, if not twice more. Now I'm just waiting on the tomatoes to get big and red while I pray that bugs + birds don't get to them first! Any tips are greatly appreciated.

I wish I could say that growing our own food has inspired Malakai to eat more veggies...but it's just not true for us yet. He at least tastes them before spitting them out, we'll keep trying!

What's growing in your garden?

Happy Weekend everyone!

Thankful on a Thursday: backyard blooms

I am the opposite of a "green thumb"...whatever that is (black thumb?). I cannot keep simple house plants alive, like a lovely winter cactus I had taken home from my great-grandmother's home to remind me of her after she passed. You think that I'd be able to keep it alive because 1. it had sentimental value and 2. it's a cactus, but somehow it still died.

Outdoor plants do much better around me, only because nature takes better care of them than I ever could. This goes for weeds + moss too which have taken root in our grass. Although, in our defense, our grass was messed up before we bought the place (yet we didn't know because it was overgrown, disguising the dead leaves that had killed patches of grass).  I digress.

We gained a LOT of foliage when we moved her last spring. It was so fun to watch things bloom and try to figure out what they were. We have two very large maple trees (a PAIN in the fall) and a dozen smaller flowering trees. One is a plum and one we suspect is an apple that no longer bears fruit. We also have a lot of flowers; tulips, hyacinths, many different colored roses, mini roses, petunias, a butterfly bush, wisteria,  a rhody and a few others I don't know much about.

For our housewarming one of Ben's aunts gave us some lovely yellow daffodils and lilies. We set the pots outside with every intention to plant them. Eventually it was "out of site, out of mind" and then when Ben was mowing the lawn last week he mentioned that the daffodils were growing. I missed getting a photo of them while they were still blossoming, but it cracks me up that nature did a better job taking care of these plants than I could.

{I mean...really?}

Here are some other, prettier, things that have begun to bloom and blossom in our yard recently.

{purple buds that turn into very pretty blossoms. anybody know what this is?}

{this one reminds me of cherry blossoms, but I know it's not. maybe?}

{pink + white tulips that did not bloom last year}

{our wisteria is running out of room to grow. We may move it soon}

{these poor strawberries are being strangled by weeds}

Perhaps some day I'll find enough time, motivation, and know-how to make things look a little better. For now I'm content looking at how pretty the flowers look without any effort on my behalf.

This week I am thankful for:

601. the lovely plants + flowers that defy the odds and bloom anyhow.

602. a week full of gathering with friends just for the sake of socializing and catching up.

603. God's promise of provision.

604. Ben's promotion at work! woohoo!

605. a close knit family.

606. meeting new people and making new friends through my church/job.

607. sweet little movements in my belly increasing every day.

608. the way my husband makes me laugh.

609. the joy of putting together Kai's Easter basket, including his first Bible.

610. lunch out with my mom + sister today, even if Malakai maybe might have been a cranky, screaming, thrashing, mess.

What are you thankful for?

to market

As usual, this past weekend was packed with activity. On Saturday while Malakai napped + Ben set up our sprinkler system out back, I stole away to the Farmer's Market for some fresh produce.

I contemplated going down the street to a farm just past our neighborhood, but when I saw on their website that they were having a big BBQ with live music, I thought I'd avoid the crowds and head downtown. Sounds a bit backwards actually.

The usual lot was so packed that there was a line of people just to pay for parking, so I searched for a metered spot. Found one by a cafe and paid for extra time since it looked to be pretty busy. In the past we've gone in the morning, so I didn't realize that by noon things were very busy! The Farmer's Market also happens to be in the same area as the Saturday Market, so about 4 city blocks are full of booths + people all day.

Something I really like about the Farmer's Market is that you can compare prices all in one place. I absolutely loath driving from store to store to find the best deal on anything. Most often I'll sacrifice a few pennies, or even dollars, to avoid driving to another store and getting in + out of the car over and over again. I think my intolerance of this came from being dragged around by my frugal mom for so many years. She could shop all day and then some, but I'm exhausted after 2 stops!

Another thing I love is how friendly everyone is. There is such a sense of community that happens while navigating your way through the locals on the same mission to buy food that someone has lovingly grown just down the street. The outside atmosphere and the bright displays of food + flowers is quite cheery compared to the florescent lights, elevator music, hurried people and shopping carts at the grocery store.

The bummer about the Farmer's Market though is that if someone runs out of something that you're waiting in line for, you've wasted your time. I had walked by a stand with some really ripe juicy peaches. They weren't on my list so I kept going. I came back however, because they looked so darn good. I stood in line and the guy in front of me bought the last box and I didn't see any other vendors selling peaches.

After walking up + down the block through the crowds and booths 3 times to compare prices I was done. I ended up with strawberries, blueberries + raspberries, as well as fresh lettuce + carrots. I really wanted tomatoes too but the only sellers that had them were asking a bit too much and they were already quite picked through.

It took me just 30 minutes to get what I needed and get back to the car where I had put some change in the expired meter behind mine only to find it ran out again and the car was still there. Oh well, I did what I could.

I got back home to Ben getting Malakai dressed for the day and prepared our lunch of fresh salad + berries. Something about eating food that has been freshly picked + washed just makes you feel good. It truly does taste so much better!

I'm newly inspired to rev up our garden {now that summer's over!}. I'm thinking of planting pumpkins in my empty garden bed and perhaps some sugar snaps along the fence on the other side of the house.

Where do you get your produce? Do you have a garden of your own? What do you grow there?

attempting to go on a date...

I can't believe it's already Tuesday. Usually I have Monday off, but my daycare schedule is a bit erratic with summer sneaking up on everyone, so I'm just now finding some time while Kai naps to update around here.

On Friday we had a big family get together for my cousin's high school graduation. He's the youngest of five. His sister, the oldest, just found out she is expecting her first so there was a lot of congratulating going on! Her little one will be the 2nd {to Malakai}born to our generation on this side of the family. I got her a little care package of oyster crackers {for "morning" sickness of course}, Burt's Bees Belly Balm {I used the belly butter for the itchy skin stage}, and an adorable little onesie that says "Wishes Do Come True" which I thought totally appropriate since they've been trying to conceive for about 2 years now. Of course to us it really means "Prayers Do Get Answered."

It was a late night out, and poor Malakai wanted to cruise all over the place but my aunt's house is far from baby proof. Plus there were so many people he was sure to get stepped on. He was quite frustrated by the end of the evening. 

Saturday morning we slept in as late as we could {8am!} and once Malakai went down for his morning nap we headed straight outside to get some work done. I cleared up the flowerbeds out front while Ben gathered his dad's tools and painting supplies that we borrowed when we moved in {TWO MONTHS AGO!}. 

It felt good to get something accomplished and spend the morning outside. I broke out this lovely ensemble to garden in:

I've had these overalls since 7th grade. A friend of mine had matching ones and we would often coordinate wearing them on the same day. I can't remember the last time I wore them, but I kept them for such an occasion. 

photo friday: what's growing at my house

I'm so not a green thumb. I've never been able to keep a house plant alive, and whatever grew outside just sort of did it's own thing aside from Ben occasionally pruning. I appreciate plants, I love flowers and am especially fond of flowering trees. I used to have a dark pink dogwood outside of my bedroom window in college and ever since I've wanted one of my own. For now I just envy the one in full bloom across the street.

When we bought our house (5 weeks ago!) one of the first things I noticed was that there seemed to be a lot of plants and a lot of different kinds. I had no idea what would bloom when spring arrived. Now that spring is here, I'm still not sure what is growing out there aside from the obvious pansies and wisteria.

There were also red tulips lining the front path that bloomed with the early spring fake-out, but froze and died fairly quickly.