To be Continued.. or TBC

Life is very busy right now. Four kids is catching up to me. The garden is in full swing and requires so much work (but work I enjoy). So forgive me that there haven't been a lot of new posts and it may be a few more days. But boy oh boy - we sure are enjoying ourselves around here.

Gotta get out before the heat

Today it is supposed to be over 100 degrees. This is quite the heat wave for us thick skinned PacNW people! So I need to get out into the garden tout suite (very quickly) before the sun really hits. The plan was to plant up some potted tomatillo plants I received from a generous neighbor - but with this heat - I think I should wait a day or two before transplanting.

Today I think I will dig up the rest of the spring plants, prepare soil in boxes for fall planting (till, weed, and water), and tie up the lumbering cucumber plants.

Can't wait to show you what is happening in my garden this week! To Be Continued......

Morning Musings

One of the best ( and I mean the best) parts about being a stay-at-home mom and having the kids home for the summer is this. I wake around 6am, make a super super hot latte, turn on the sprinklers in the front yard, open my office window that overlooks my beautiful porch planters, listen to the sprinklers in the front yard, feel the cool and slightly damp morning air blow in the window, drink my latte that is so hot it burns my tongue and read blogs while I hold my sweet baby daughter and listen to her coos.

If I had to rush off to work, I couldn't enjoy leisurely mornings like this; I would be too frantic. And I have to remember bits and pieces of the goodness of my choice to be a stay-at-home mom because around 4pm when the 2 year old is screaming, the baby is crying, the older boys are trashing the house, and I still have to fix dinner and the house is too hot hot hot and the dogs are following me everywhere and panting drool on my feet and the breakfast dishes are still on the counter and the boys are asking me "Where are my shorts/socks/underwear/shirts?" and I have to tell them that they are dirty in the MOUNTAIN of laundry waiting to be washed and I still need to go out and water the flowers so they don't die in the heat - Boy, going to work in an aircondioned office sounds pretty good right about then.

Mid July Garden - bright color in the garden and a few of my tips

First of all, let me thank you for coming to my garden blog post from Tuesday Garden Party last week and commenting - I really love to hear your comments and tips. I promise I will be better about replying back!

This week in the garden, I finally feel like all my hard work is paying off. I enjoy myself in every moment I spend out there. Even my lazy dogs enjoy the peace even if they had to give up their poop patch to attain this garden.

Something that I love in my gardens are bright pops of color. When you have green vegetables and plants as far as the eye can see, it is nice to have a little bright orange or pink thrown in to the mix to make you smile.

I've never been afraid to plant a container, and that is saying a lot because my mom is a fantastic whiz at container gardening.Seriously, she takes it to a whole new level. So even though I often cannot replicate her containers, I will take bits of inspiration from her.

For instance, she always plants perennials in her containers and when they come back in the spring, she will plant annuals around them. It makes the container instantly seem very full and lush and saves you $$ on buying annuals.

Last year I planted a corkscrew grass, mint, some diathus, and annuals in a pot. The mint, grass, and diathus all came back in full force.

And it was great to have the mint contained, but giving height and greenness to the container. I'm enjoying my peppermint tea at night courtesy of this container!

Also, in my herb box, I find it necessary to keep a small pair of scissors right next to the plants. I use a $0.99 kid pair that I place right on the corner. I don't know about you, but I will be in the middle of cooking a dish and then I'll think, "Oh wait, I need thyme" and I'll run out and find that it is really convenient to have the scissors right there waiting for me so I can get back inside quickly.

As mentioned, I love pops of color in the yard. In my particular backyard garden, the bed that borders along my back fence is always covered in shade. So that is a perfect opportunity to plant impatiens. They produce bright color like no one's business all summer long (if you keep it MiracleGrowed a least once a month). Plus I love the contrast of ferns, impatiens, heucheras (coral bells), and clematis vines. When I'm working in the vegetables, it keeps me lightened to look over and see COLOR!

You may think, Wow - she sure spent a fortune and went to town with the impatiens. Actually, I only spent $10 on the entire bed of flowers! Fred Meyer ( a local grocery/all purpose store in the Northwest) has a Memorial Day sale every year where they sell flats of flowers for $10. There are easily 30 plants in the flat, but they are freely planted, so you have to cut out the starts with a knife. Not a big deal for me. And like i said, if you Miracle Grow them every month, by mid-July you get full, lush colorful plants! (and quick disclaimer - MiracleGrow only touches my annual flowers - never anything edible!)

Last tip I have to mention, you must remember to wear protection from the sun. My sunhat is always poised next to my back door for when I want to run out. I was diagnosed with skin cancer two years ago on my nose and it required 4 hours of MOHS surgery to remove it. Be sure to prevent sun damage by wearing a hat or sunscreen every time you go out. 

I do and so does my garden helper beauty.

Nobody puts Baby in a corner

But if she lived in our house, she would be put in the closet where she can take a nap in perfect dark and silence. A house full of loud children and dogs leads mothers much like myself to take desperate measures!

(note to self: take bra off the crib before you take the picture)

Pictures for my mom

Mom -
Okay, here are a few great pics of the kids per your request. They are pretty cute.

Here is Lane's smile. Just yesterday she started cooing and gooing and talking to me. Oh, my heart just absolutely melts.

These are my new favorite outfits that I was telling you about yesterday. I made the headbands.

Last week during the 100 degree heatwave, the boys found a way to incorporate everyone in the fun.

Mid July Garden - I'm in heaven

Last week in the great Pacific Northwest we finally went from 60 degree weather to a piping hot 100 degree week. Although I would normally be complaining about this change in events, today I am not because my garden is loving the change in climate. So let me detail some of the highlights for you.

The salad box. Most are bolting (flowering) so it is time to say "Goodbye and luv ya" and "Hello" to the compost pile.

As we meander to the other successful parts of the garden, let's pause for a moment to take in my pint-sized garden.

Remember, a year ago, this was poopy grass in a very small suburban backyard.

This year, it is full of greens and colors and delicious goodness.

And all the dog poop is nowhere in sight (unless our dumb doofus dog accidentally poops on the path, but I digress)

So here we are in the bean patch. These jumped overnight from little bitty plants to full blown ready-to-produce bean machines. Oh, by the way, I prefer bush bean plants vs. pole beans

The pepper box. Crap, I forgot the varieties I have planted and I'm not going to go outside right now to read the labels, but I have five of them. Okay, here is my question - how do we get nice big peppers? We have a few flowers blooming, but they look pretty small. Any ideas?

Zucchini is exploding. I was concerned we wouldn't have enough plants so I over planted the seeds. Per Jami's advice (of An Oregon Cottage fame), I thinned out the plants to two plants per hill. And now, there are about five zucchini per plant. We'll have it coming out of our ears soon!

The tomato plants (remember we have nine of them) are growing five inches a day. Okay, not really, but pretty close. In the picture below - that is my kitchen window and the tomatoes are below it. One morning I SWEAR I looked out of it and the plants were just peeking at the bottom of the window. Later that day when I was fixing dinner - WHOA - two or three of the plants were halfway up the window. Thank you 100 degree weather! (and thank you central A/C)

The eggplant plant. This one is called - wait - I can't remember and as I mentioned before I don't want to go outside and look at the label. Oh drat - well I'll tell you next week. But until then, look at the cool eggplant!

Purple bush beans. Yes, this picture should be up at the top of post where the other bush bean patch picture is. Yeah well, the way Blogger arranges the pictures on the post is quite confusing to me and I don't want to figure out how to get it back towards the top, so anyway, long run-on sentence later, you get this picture of purple bush bean blossoms right here.

Blueberry plants. Any ideas why the leaves have black spots on some of the leaves?

At the end of my garden tour, I have to include a picture of my garden beauty. Every morning, I bring out the baby to sit in her bouncy seat on the deck while I water and prune and she just sits and coos and enjoys the air.

When you are a baby and you get to hear birds singing as your lullaby, the tree branches and leaves swaying in the wind as your mobile, and water running as the white noise machine - life does not get any better for a baby girl. Garden days are the best. I'm in heaven.

Big Breath - here we go....

You and me Jillian. You and me.

Here we go. I'm six weeks postpartum and time to begin working off  (and working out) this fluffy body. On the program: eating 1600-1700 calories a day, doing "The Shred" six days a week, cardio for 30 minutes six days a week (after I lose 10 pounds I'll do 45-60 minutes cardio).

I have 20 pounds to lose.

Here we go. Wish me luck with my new program because I had a lot of fun for the last nine months eating carbs, sugar, 7 meals a day, going back for seconds or thirds, walking ten minutes and feeling out of breath so I stopped, etc.

Here we go. It's time to get back to "Shannan" again.

The two year old terriorist

Help! I'm being held hostage by a terrorist. He's two years old. And boy is he cute - I mean, look at the above picture. But boy oh boy, when he decides to unleash his nuclear attacks and roadside bombs, he can be a crazy madman. It's typical, I knew it would happen, but now that he is actually doing the things I anticipated - I'm thinking, "Holy Cow, why did I do this?" He can start early in the morning screaming about where to put his precious chocolate milk. When I'm feeding the baby, if he decides he wants something and I can't deliver, he will hit me and the baby while we are stuck in nursing position (see, terrorist behavior). His newest weapon of choice? He refuses to go to bed at night. And his father feels bad for him, so he pulls him out of bed while he is screaming bloody murder. can you say, "creating a monster?"

Lucky for me - the great God above gives me strength but between me and you, I could use a visit from Jack Bauer and CTU to help me deal with the terrorist. Chloe - are you out there? Can you give me a new program?


(okay, so maybe I've been watching past seasons of '24' lately)

"I do it"

When someone holds the baby - most certainly Chase will want to hold her too.

Luckily he only wants "his turn" for twenty seconds and then he happily announces "Your turn Mommy"