Summer happenings

This summer has been a happy mixture of fun and crazy. We have been lucky to spend a lot of time with our extended family visiting the Oregon coast, riding horses at the Carefree Ranch in North Carolina, swimming in the Atlantic Ocean for the very first time, and hiking up the gorgeous Black Butte summit.

We have also been in the process of buying a new house which has taken since the beginning of June and has been both a huge blessing and a huge challenge. We are hoping to move this weekend, and are super anxious and excited to have a little more space for our growing boys.

Garden 2010: part 4

Turns out pruning my tomatoes was the right thing to do, especially because my yard is situated in a not great way for the tomatoes to get all the sun they need to grow, grow, grow. I have been frustrated for years at the shade my house casts on my garden plot during the early morning hours. If I was going to live in this house forever, I would definitely change things, but in fact, we're moving in one week, so I'm about to start over in a new yard anyway. But for now, the tomatoes are as big as I have ever had, and hopefully the people who end up renting my house will let me come and harvest.

I need some advice from some fellow Tuesday Garden Party visitors about my squash. Every year, although my vines seem healthy, the actual squash just seem to wilt away before they have a chance to get large. This applies to winter squash as well as summer squash. Suggestions?

Linking up:

Garden 2010: part 3

Last year I was introduced to the concept of pruning tomato plants. The suggestion came from a fellow gardener when we were having dinner at her house and I expressed my awe at her amazing tomato yield. She suggested I prune the plants, which was something I had never considered. This news was received too late in the season for those tomato plants (which, you might remember, were ravaged by a large rodent anyway), but I resolved to try in 2010.

Before

If you look at your tomato plants, you'll see many green shoots that don't have blossoms attached, and those are the ones that can be safely plucked off. By removing this greenery the plant has more energy to give to the blossoms, and eventually the fruit, which should, in theory, produce a higher yield.

I'm no expert. Like I said this is the first year I'm trying it, so I'll report back my findings. I'm also staking some tomato plants for the first time instead of caging them all.

After

In other garden news:

• we have been in snap pea heaven for over a month now and there are still many, many more to be picked and eaten
• being first-time potato farmers this year has made us anxious to know what's going on underneath all those leaves, so we plucked one and found two little new potatoes, which were roasted and eaten. yum.
• for the first time ever we are having success growing carrots. hooray!

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Linking up:

Little jugglers

Watching a local juggler and reading library books about juggling makes the Fuller boys want to learn how to juggle.

So a request was made for some juggling balls.

I always love a project that doesn't require a trip to the store for any supplies. This one used old socks and white rice. Just don't look too closely at the hand stitching.

Little chalkers

While we were gone to D.C. I thought it would be fun for the boys to have something new to do while Gma and Opa were here. Inspired by this post we decided to make big outdoor chalkboards for our little artists.

We bought a large--8' x 4'--piece of hardboard and had it cut it in half. We chose hardboard because it is smoother and cheaper than plywood ($11 compared to $35). One can of chalkboard paint, two coats of paint, and one day of drying later, they each had a 4'x4' board of their very own.

I've never met a kid who doesn't love chalk and a chalkboard--including me--and these will be used and used during these gorgeous, dry, Oregon summer months.

Project diaper bag

I am in desperate need of a new diaper bag/purse. Mine is dingy, too small, and I've been carrying it for 13 months now--Henry's whole life. His life seems to be going by very quickly, as babies' lives do. The bag on the other hand?--should have been laid to rest a long time ago.

After searching around this internet trying to get ideas and inspiration for what to make, this bag just blew me away. And it is only $44. I mean, for the amount of work it takes to craft this bag, she is practically giving it away, I swear.

I'm going to try and make my own version--it won't have those amazing snap pockets on the front because those are very difficult to make look good. And I'm only going to include one handle. But of all the bags I found, this one was the most inspiring. And man, are there a lot of ugly ones out there.

I found some fabric today but now I'm not sure if I can pull it off. It is dark purple and not something I would normally choose. I want this bag to be done before I leave in two weeks for North Carolina, so I'll report back.

If you need a bag, you should check out her shop. The bags are made in and shipped from Thailand, so shipping is a little pricey, but the bag prices are so reasonable it seems worth it.

What took so long?

Jeff and I just returned from our first trip without children in our almost 10 years of marriage. For the past four years now, he has taken a group of eighth graders to Washington D.C. for a 5-day whirlwind tour of the all the historical sites there, in Gettysburg, and Philadelphia. It has taken him this long to convince me to come, and now, as the title says, I really wish I wouldn't have waited so long.

I've visited many of these sites before, but this time around, being at historical sites such as Mount Vernon, Gettysburg, The Capitol and Independence Hall had a very spiritual effect on me. Because I had no children to worry about, I was able to wander the museums and soak in the history at my own pace and it was awesome.

My parents came and stayed with our boys and I will never be able to convey how grateful I am for the peace of mind that provided me, which only aided in the enjoyment factor of this trip.

Being with all those eighth graders and watching awkward flirting had an interesting effect on me. I kept feeling like I was, like them, fourteen again, and trying to impress and flirt with Jeff. I kept having to remind myself that, oh yeah, he already likes me. Ha.