Friday, February 3, 2012

Potato Time

Perhaps I should rename this blog to something about gardening. It seems that's all I ever post about.  We do other things around our house too, like vacuum and cook, but gardening seems to be the most exciting! ;)

Today we planted potatoes (yes, on February 3--too cool or warm :).  I am so so excited about this!  We tried growing some last year but got started too late in the season and didn't get a great yield.  I'm hoping this year will be better.  I planted some in my raised bed and will also do the grow bags too.  Above you can see how I mounded the dirt to one side of the box.  I planted the potatoes on the lower flat side.  As they grow I can use the soil mounded up to toss back on the plants and bury them again.  For those of you not familiar with growing potatoes, that is called hilling.  As in, you make a hill on top of the potato plants.  Potatoes don't grow any tubers below the level of their seed potato, so you have to mound up the dirt on the plant to get more than just a few potatoes.  Always keep any surface spuds covered with dirt or mulch to protect them from the sun.

The thing that was the most fun about this planting, though, was how excited Ben was about it.  Follow this LINK for a video of Ben planting potatoes.  I have very fond memories of following my parents down the row with pieces of potato to drop in the holes they dug.  And I got to do it today with my boy.  Aaa!  I love it :).

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Today's harvest!

The first of my winter crops are coming on!  I can't wait to eat that broccoli and kohlrabi.  :)

Friday, December 16, 2011

Here's some Holiday Cheer!

So I guess I'm not really all that far behind.  I had to take the camera around a little this morning to remind me what fun we are having as we prepare for Christmas.

Here is my spruced up garland.  I don't get too artsy-crafty, so I'm pretty proud of this one ;).  You can see Ben's blurry running body in the background, and Bryan's crawling head going for the plug.  


We made cinnamon dough ornaments today!  I've been wanting to do this for a long time.  I can't wait until they are dry so we can hang them on the tree.  They smell so good!  I found an old jar of applesauce in my cupboard that was best by 2009...yeah, put it to good use here!
Ben loved helping me cut out the cookies.  I think he was a little bummed that we weren't going to be eating them, but he had a blast with the cookie cutters anyway.  Poor kid gets a little gypped because I almost never make cookies (the old gluten-intolerance...).




We also made peppermint bark.  We did this last year and loved it.  It's always been on of my favorite holiday candies, and it is super easy.  Ben's favorite part was smashing the candy canes and scooping the chocolate chips in and out of the container.  Here it is cooling - I'll break it into pieces and share with neighbors soon.

Another first for the season was caramel cracker-jack style popcorn.  I think it turned out pretty well!  I'm not usually patient enough to bake it for an hour, but I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it turned out to be.  I did it on a day that I had to be home anyway and it was no big deal!

Ben is totally in love with popcorn.  Must take after his momma.  We've been using popcorn as a potty treat.  When he does his business in the toilet we get to make popcorn.  We've made popcorn every day this week!! (part of what inspired me to try the caramel).

And here is what is going on behind the camera.  One busy baby!
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Thursday, December 15, 2011

Oh so behind...

I've been blog stalking a little tonight and enjoying all my friends festive and fun sounding holidays.  I feel so behind!  I just ordered Christmas cards today, so you will probably receive yours after Christmas....  I have a few more things to catch on Amazon 2-day shipping before the Big Man in Red arrives!

Isn't it the most wonderful time of year?

Truly I have been enjoying the holiday season.  I love all the music - and I've been playing my flute in a lot of it which is one of my favorite things, though hard on the family for Mom to be so busy.  The food, oh yes, wonderful.  Ben is enchanted with the lights and music and fun of it all.  He gets to meet Santa on Monday, so we'll see how much he likes him in person this year ;).

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas 2011


Stationery card
View the entire collection of cards.

Monday, October 31, 2011

Happy Halloween!

 These are our garden-grown pumpkins!


 Cow Ben

Duck Bryan

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

We <3 Costco!

Bryan got his first ride in the seat of a shopping cart today. He loved it!  It made shopping so much easier for me too.