garden update

for those who care...

we now have:

-tiny baby beans coming on
-a few little green tomatoes showing up among the blossoms
-blooming eggplant
-blooming peppers
-budding potato plants
-lots of kinds of lettuce, spinach, and collards ready to eat
-basil about ready to eat
-budding squash and zucchini

I'm having trouble getting any of the melons to germinate. I re-planted the hills and out of five hills only one seedling came up out of two plantings. Not sure what's going on.

Help?

I don't actually know many people who garden, so I kinda doubt I'm going to get a response to this, but I guess it's worth a shot...

Does anyone know of a good website or other way to swap flower bulbs? I'm planning on digging up and dividing daffodils later in the week. There are TONS of them and I know I'm not going to be able to find places to plant them in our yard. Also, in the late summer I'll be digging up and dividing glads. Again, there are TONS of them.

All the flowers are in desparate need of division. I have no idea how long it's been since anything has been done with them, but I would guess at least ten years.

I could probably sell them on ebay or just give them away, but I would like to trade with someone instead. We have lots of flowers in our yard, but only a few varieties and I would really like to add some more colors and types.

I'm not looking for crocuses, tulips, or hyacinths since we live too far south--they're basically annuals this far south--but I would like to get pretty much anything else. I would especially like to get some lilies and cannas, or even glads if they're not pink.

Also, if anyone's interested in some monkey grass...I think I'm going to have to launch an all-out war on it before long. It's taking over.

The Quest For Bookshelves

It seems that no one ever gets rid of bookshelves. They get rid of china cabinets, tables and chairs, coffee tables. They get rid of mattresses and lamps and couches. They get rid of microwave carts, computer desks, and entertainment centers. But they do not get rid of bookshelves.

We've been looking for bookshelves for months now. Garage sales every weekend. (Isn't it wierd that down here they can have garage sales year round?) Looking through the classifieds every weekend. I was looking on Craig's List, but finally gave up on that because it took too much time and never had any affordable results.

Our house has lots and lots of furniture in it. We've been slowly getting rid of things and moving things out. But the only bookshelves we have are the wall of built-ins in Autumn's room and a small one in the office that has crafting supplies on it. Obviously not enough space for any two PHC alumni to hold their books (even after selling all the duplicates). Not to mention the fact that I have always been a book collector and have literally hundreds of volumes back home in Indiana that I have yet to move down here.

I wonder why no one gets rid of bookshelves?

Flip-Flops

These are my favorite shoes. When I lived in Indiana, I would wear sandals and flip-flops until it snowed. No matter how cold it got. Then, I would wear them again as soon as I could in the spring. Now, living in GA, I can wear them pretty much year round.

I've been wearing flip-flops all the time lately. I got pink ones in my Easter basket this year. :-) Yesterday, for safety reasons, I had to wear regular shoes to build tomato cages. And they gave me a nasty bloody blister. Ouch.

Busy

Last couple days...

Gardening, gardening, gardening.
Weeding.
Lowe's--shopping for gardening things.
Building tomato cages all evening until it was too dark to see anymore. And scratching myself up with the wires, though not as bad as last time.
Mulching the rest of the front garden.
Garage sales this morning. Still no bookshelves.
Finished a couple more layouts for Autumn's baby book--it's something to do when Matt's working late and I can't sleep. (Midnight tonight-ugh! And then he has to be back there again at 8 in the morning--double ugh!)
Housework.
Lunch yesterday with Matt's family.
Blocks around the potatoes to hold extra soil and manure.
Planted some more basil (the one herb that really really likes growing down here).
Today I've got a lot of running around to do.
Autumn couldn't sleep last night. I don't know if it was an upset stomach or what, but she (and I) finally got back to bed a little after 3:00. I need a nap.

Nothing New Under the Sun

A thought.

Are things in the world actually getting worse? Not that there aren't bad things happening, not that there isn't a lack of morality and character which should cause concern...but are things really any worse now than they have been in the past?

Are things really so different now than they have been?

Why are so many people (especially Evangelical Christians) so worried and seem to go about wringing their hands over the state of things? I'm not saying that we shouldn't try to change things for the better. But isn't this the natural state of a fallen world?

Why are we so surprised and shocked by the fact that there is evil?

PB&J

Several times over the last few weeks there have been days when Matt is at work and I have to make myself something for lunch. But I feel completely uninspired. So I'll often put it off till about 2:30 and then I'm so hungry I have to eat something. So I've found myself pulling out the peanut butter and jelly and making myself a sandwich. I haven't had PB&J in an incredibly long time. And every time I do have one, I take a bite and find myself with the same picture in my head.

Jessica and I and some of the girls my mom used to babysit, playing in the backyard in the treehouse or sandbox or naming all of the chickens in the chicken coop (not really realizing that they were going to become meat in the freezer later in the year) and my mom calling us for lunch. She would have brought out a big plate of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches all cut in half and put it on the old wood picnic table. And we would sit there and eat till we were full, with the backdrop of the huge old red "garage" barn and what I remember as massive amounts of wild lilies growing all around it.

And then lots of other memories crowd in. Playing under the grape arbor and tasting the grapes that grew on it (sour). The daffodils coming up all over the place in rows and old beds that no longer made sense. How there were so many that Daddy would have to mow them down in spots.

The miniature orchard in the far back yard that only grew wormy apples and the pretty wild pear tree on the edge of the woods that would drop the most delicious sweet brown pears on the ground.

The trumpet vine that had completely taken over the back screened in porch. It was climbing all over the house and my mom would fight with it every year, trying to get it cut back, but it always won.

Climbing back through the dust and cobwebs to the back part of the "garage" (I don't think we were supposed to be there) and finding all sorts of treasures. An old typewriter with keys missing. An old metal typing stool (which my parents still have) which we pulled out and painted white. Old furniture of all shapes and sizes. Everything coated with years of dust. I remember rabbit cages all up one wall.

Our fort under a very low-growing pine and how you would have to climb through the lower branches and get scratched up to get inside.

Big fat neglected dark red roses growing in the side yard on a small crumbling wood trellis.

Honeysuckle all over the grape vines that divided our yard from the neighbors'.

Climbing in the lilac tree when it was in bloom. The trunk was very thick and forked a few feet up, so it was great to climb in and the lilacs smelled awesome.

And more and more and more...

Every single time I eat peanut butter and jelly.

How weird

about Tony Snow.

Names

The same for Autumn

1. YOUR ROCKSTAR NAME: (first pet and current
street name)

Rhenquist Draper

2. YOUR MOVIE STAR NAME: (grandfather/
grandmother on your mom's side, your favorite candy)

Jennifer (no candy yet)

3. YOUR "FLY GIRL/GUY" NAME: (first initial of
first name, first two or three letters of your last name)

Atho

4. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name,
city where you were born)

Elizabeth Macon

5. JEDI NAME: (middle name spelled backwards,
your mom's maiden name spelled backwards)

htebazile htims

6. SUPERHERO NAME: ("The", your favorite
color, the automobile you drive)

The Orange Exersaucer

Names

Taken from Aaron's blog...

1. YOUR ROCKSTAR NAME: (first pet and current
street name)

Shandy Draper

2. YOUR MOVIE STAR NAME: (grandfather/
grandmother on your mom's side, your favorite candy)

Kathryn Reese

3. YOUR "FLY GIRL/GUY" NAME: (first initial of
first name, first two or three letters of your last name)

Ktho

4. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name,
city where you were born)

Margaret Ravenna

5. JEDI NAME: (middle name spelled backwards,
your mom's maiden name spelled backwards)

teragram sivad

6. SUPERHERO NAME: ("The", your favorite
color, the automobile you drive)

The Green Grand Am (that one didn't really work, did it)

Yay!

Elisa liked them ;-)

Break

Taking a well-deserved break for coffee and some internet.

I've been desperately needing to get caught up on housework and I decided that today was the day for it. So far today I have: vacuumed or swept and mopped all but one room in the house (our vacuum is on the fritz so it's all been with the shop-vac which means backache), cleaned the kitchen, washed all the dishes, cleaned our bedroom, scrubbed everything in both bathrooms, washed the rugs, cleaned Autumn's room, finished the dining room, put dinner together in the crockpot, organized all Autumn's toys (she's in the process of making a mess of them again), changed three diapers, fed Autumn three times (once outside for a picnic, before the temp went over 90), organized the laundry, emptied the diaper genie, taken out all the trash for pickup, started dusting (haven't finished yet), talked with Matt's parents while they were here dropping off mulch, nearly finished the living room, changed clothes twice (Autumn likes to make sure you share some of her lunch), and about a zillion other little things.

Thankfully Autumn has been cooperative, except for getting out all of her toys as soon as I put them away. Sad thing is, I think I only have about half of my to-do list for today done.

When Matt gets off work, I'm going to try to rope him into helping me mulch the garden. We have 16 30-gallon trash bags full of mulch sitting out next to the garden ready to go on. I really need to build some big tomato cages soon, too. Most of the tomatoes are more than knee-high now--a couple quite a bit taller. And they're looking really good. :-) So much better than last year. The tomatoes and beans are blooming and the eggplant are about to. We have spinach, lettuce, and some collards to eat now and everything else is growing really fast.

Yesterday, we went over to Matt's parents and Matt and I shoveled up the bags of mulch for a while. It was messy, but thankfully not too dusty since we had rain a couple days ago. Then we had dinner and then went swimming. The pool was really nice, especially after all the work. Autumn really enjoyed her first time swimming. She loved it when Matt would swim under water then pop up and blow bubbles in her face. She giggled like crazy. (I'll try to get a few pics up later.) We're going to have to pick up a small pool for her for our yard, so she can splash and stay cool while I'm gardening.

This coffee isn't doing its job. And since I stopped for a break I feel like I'm going to fall asleep sitting here. I guess I'd better force myself up. Autumn needs another diaper change and some cereal. And I've got to get some more done on the house.

Some more old pics...

I've been realizing I really haven't taken pictures of much other than Autumn in the last six months or so...wonder why? ;-P

Just now...

Autumn rolled from her back to her stomach and then sat up. New trick.


Also, it rained last night. YAY!!!!

Autumn...

...likes big broccoli stems to chew on
...has red rug-burned knees
...gets very excited when her daddy gets home
...loves being outside and pulling up grass
...enjoyed the sprinkler
...loves johnny cash
...is loved lots and lots and lots

Yesterday

we finally got our wedding photos

nasty story

China executing prisoners for their organs?

sad, but funny

thoughts?

(this somehow seems like something someone from PHC would do)

http://www.break.com/index/suffrage.html

Just Because

More Easter Pics

I think I took about a hundred. I think I'm just camera happy.

and now...

I need to catch up on housework. I have a list about a mile long of all the things that need to be done. Anyway...

Tonight I was making dinner and I was thinking how nice it would be to have some fresh spinach to add to the pasta sauce, but since I haven't been grocery shopping in a while, I would just have to do without. I started saying to Matt, "I wish we had some...oh wait! We do have fresh spinach." All I had to do was go outside and pick some from the garden. And it was good. :-)

It's so nice to have a garden.

Finished!

The project is done.

Printing

Matt's watching 24. I'm in the office, in the office chair, rolling back and forth from the computer to the printer every few minutes to refill the photo tray. It doesn't hold very many sheets. At least it's not vellum anymore. :-) It is confusing though because the background colors of the paper keep creating the optical illusion that the printing is skewed sideways, but it's not. Only about 250 more to go.

Matt's mom and sister came over today for a while to help me and to play with Autumn. (I assembled invites basically from the time I woke up until we went to dinner, and now I'm back to it again.) We went out for Mexican with them for dinner and Autumn tried a little bit of rice and a little bit of my quesadilla filling. She liked it. She thought it was fun to try to chew the rice, and with only two bottom teeth, chewing kept her occupied for quite a while. She likes to try to grab everyone's food and drinks and anything else that gets close enough on the table.

She's getting a lot better about sitting up in a restaurant highchair. The first couple times she tried, she would lose her balance and tip backwards a little, and, not realizing there was a back to the chair, she would get scared.

As for me, things are still pretty lonely down here. We need to make some friends.

I read a book the other night. I Capture the Castle. It took me several one page days to get into it, since I never have time to read, but then I read all the rest of it in one night when I couldn't sleep. Thanks for the recommendation Lindy. :-) It was good because it didn't require too much thinking and was just enjoyable. I'm hoping I can get to the other recommendations soon.

Other than watering every day, I've been really neglecting my garden. When I get finished with my current project I really have to devote some time to weeding and mulching. It's not too bad yet, but there are tons and tons of itty bitty weeds coming up that before I know it are going to strangle out everything else. I've also got to figure out how to get rid of the huge fire ant nest over next to the fence or I'm never going to get the cucumbers in. The ants are mean!

The weather has been gorgeous, but I really want some rain.

198 sheets to go.

I'm really tired.

Georgia Peach

Autumn had her first peaches today. She liked them very much. Both to eat and to smear all over her high-chair tray.

and another

A favorite

Happy Easter

Mobility

Tonight Autumn started to move...backwards. She gets up on her hands and knees and scoots back and back and back until she runs into something. Then she turns her head all the way around to see what it is she has run into.

Also, I know I've been very negligent about posting new pictures. I've been very negligent about taking them lately. I'll try to do better. Should be easier after the next few weeks are over.

Autumn is really clingy today. I'm not really sure why. Right now, she's sitting on the floor in the living room playing with her rings and occasionally watching bits of The Office. She's wearing a sailor dress handed down to her from Aunt Miriam. As long as I stay near her, she's happy playing and cooing and talking to her toys. If I move away, even if I stay in the same room, the cooing turns into shrieks.

She has two teeth and they are very sharp. There's a mark on my arm where she bit me earlier. I yelled.

The Shipp's came by yesterday and left this morning. It was great to see them and Nora and Autumn seemed to enjoy seeing each other too. We didn't do a whole lot other than sitting around and talking, but it was good. We were able to spend several hours outside, which was nice.

Today's been kind of weird since I was up all night again last night. Thankfully, Matt didn't have to work until the afternoon, so he was able to watch Autumn while I got a nap. I was wide awake all night and this morning until about 8:30. Tired, but not at all sleepy. What was funny is that at about 8:30, the landscapers started mowing the lawn across the street and the mower noise immediately knocked me out.

I wish it would rain.

Just thoughts

Currently babysitting my printer, since it won't work right unless I watch it every moment. So I figured I might as well blog.

I really need to plant some flowers. We have three empty flower beds. Empty flower beds are depressing.

I also need to replant some of the vegetable garden. Despite the fact that I've been watering it nearly every day, I guess it got too dry during the time I was in Indiana, so some of the beans, spinach, and collards didn't come up very well.

Is it a problem that I find myself agreeing with the liberals on the whole immigration debate? I haven't spent a huge amount of time studying it, but it just doesn't make a lot of sense to me to have to track down, round up, and send home so many people. I DO think we need to secure the border, but even then it's not so much about Mexicans coming across as the fact that anyone can come across including terrorists, etc.

Gotta run and do some grocery shopping.

A machine with the ability to cleanly cut heavy vellum--good.
A printer that insists on smearing ink all over said vellum--bad.

Autumn's Room -- Now

The light's weird in these, and there's still a lot to do, but the walls are done! I thought it would never end.

Autumn's Room -- Before

There's still some stuff to do. Matt's mom is going to make pretty shades so we can get rid of the ugly blue blinds. We've also got some really pretty fabric for bedding, etc.

Also, need to get some things up on the walls. But anyway....here are a few before pictures...

Beautiful weather...

...ugly yard. The rain turned the last of the azaleas into ugly wet wads of bright pink tissue paper. And emptied the trees of their blossoms. But the weather is absolutely gorgeous now. Cooler and sunny! :-)

Rainy lunchtime

I'm feeding Autumn today's gourmet lunch--a mixture of baby cereal, vanilla yogurt, and applesauce--which, despite it's slimy appearance, must taste okay, since she's actually eating it. (For the first five days of this week, Autumn absolutely refused any food other than formula.) But she's very distracted...stopping every few seconds to examine her fingers, or her shirt, or to suck her thumb for a few seconds between bites. Then she decides that she actually wants the other thumb and in the process of switching discovers her fingers all over again. All this thumb-sucking while eating is also resulting in a very very messy baby and highchair.

It's raining. Finally. Maybe it will bring our grass back to life. We haven't really had any rain at all this spring and everything is so dry. Whenever a shower comes through it somehow skips our neighborhood. Even now, it's supposed to be lots of rain and very severe storms, but it's just barely sprinkling and it's been looking ominous all morning, without any actual storms. I'm tired of watering the garden every day. Maybe this will bring some of the droopy plants back to life, too.

Autumn had a rough night again last night. Her teeth are really bothering her and then on top of that Matt and I had the nerve to put her down to sleep in the pack 'n play in the living room, rather than in her crib. She punished me for it by screaming until I finally picked her up and then refusing to go back to sleep until about 2am.

The reason that we attempted to put her down in the living room is that we're finally trying to get her room finished. I worked on it for several days in a row a while ago and since then I haven't been able to do anything else in there. We worked all day yesterday on it. I painted till about 12:30 last night and then again this morning. Now just about everything is done. There's a little bit of trim to do still and some touch-ups. And lots and lots of clean-up. I'll try to post some pictures once we get rid of the drop cloths and things.

And as always happens when I get in the middle of painting, the rest of the house is a mess. So I'm going to be playing catch-up today. What I really want to do is curl up in my chair with a good book and just listen to the rain. I love rain. When it started this morning I had to go out and stand in it for a few moments.

There was just a big clap of thunder (the first). Autumn just about jumped out of her skin. :-) And spattered more food around.

I also like storms. Most people I know don't. But they're exciting.

I think I'm going to give up on getting Autumn to eat anymore and try to get her cleaned up. Now she's tired of her thumbs too and is just blowing raspberries at me.

Wish

I want more dogwood trees.

and a couple of autumn

Just a few pics from the yard

it's still pretty, but the azaleas are almost over. most of the blossoming trees are changing over to leaves. spring seems to be slipping past very very quickly.

"First he ate some lettuces..."

Today I made turkey wraps for lunch. And for the first time this year we got to use our own baby lettuce mix from the garden.

ARGH!

Why, in an era of cell phones, do people still stop by unannounced? And consistently, they do it at the most inconvenient times. Like when you have started 15 projects simultaneously and have laundry in various stages of being sorted and folded all over every surface in the living room, papers to file all over the dining table, dishes piled in the sink, the bathroom still a mess from your baby's last bath, and you're dressed in old, raggy clothes with paint in your hair because you're trying to steal the few minutes the baby is asleep to get a little more painting in.

Happy 17th Birthday!

(Wow! You're making me feel old!)

Happy 17th Birthday to my little* brother John-Michael.

*if he still counts as little when he's, what, 8 inches taller than me? ;-)

1/2 Year

On March 29th, Autumn turned 6 months old. She's not sure what to think of this news.

The tomatoes...

Are finally in the ground. As are the sweet peppers. And the eggplant.

For tomatoes this year I did Celebrity, Rutgers, Lemon Boy, Roma, and one Cherry plant.

For sweet peppers I did sweet banana, and green, red, and yellow bells. I couldn't find any of the purple ones. :-( (The hot peppers are going in the back yard tomorrow--if it doesn't rain.)

I think I may still have a little bit of space left over in the garden this time....hmmmmm....maybe I'll be able to find some cool heirloom tomatoes to try out.