Trying a Square Foot Garden...

This summer, I am trying something I have never done before...gardening.

When I was a kid, my parents kept a huge garden for a couple years. At the time, I didn't know how much work went into it and how much to appreciate all the fresh vegetables that grew. Looking back, I wish I would have taken more notes on how to plant and grow a nice garden! My parents did a phenomenal job!

At our new house, we don't have the space to plant a large in-ground garden. So, I am trying something called Square Foot Gardening. If you haven't heard of it, you can find more info from this website or this book by Mel Bartholomew.

So, the goal is to grow vegetables in self-built planter boxes (we chose to go with the standard 4x4) that don't take up a lot of space. We are doing two boxes this year (hoping to do more next year if this year goes well) as well as some separate tomato plants and a little herb garden.

To say I am super excited is an understatement! With the price of produce so high in the stores (not to mention the questions about how the produce is grown and treated now-a-days) I am very excited to grow our own produce! I bought heirloom seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. It was hard narrowing down what we wanted to try this year...it can get really easy to get carried away with all the yummy looking veggies! So, I tried to stick with the basics...since this will be a learning experience for me.

Chris has been a big help. He helped me plan the planter boxes and built them for me.

It didn't cost much to do this. Just the cost of lumber and the weed cloth you tack on to the bottom of the wooden frames.

Thankfully, Chris had all the tools needed for this little project on hand.

Here is the completed box! See how easy that is!

Rinse, repeat and you have two!

I was a little late in getting my seed order in, so my starter plants

(tomatoes and peppers) may go out a little later then they should. However, I am excited about their progress as the little seedlings sprout through the soil!

So, the next order of business is getting the soil mixture in the boxes (a mixture of different composts, peat moss and vermiculite.) Once the weather clears up, I plan to get that mixture in the boxes and start planning out my seed map and planting seeds!

Fresh veggies, here we come!

Project Saturday

I enjoy scrapbooking. I haven't done it as much as I'd like simply because I haven't really had the space or the set-up. Here's the thing with scrapbooking. Usually you need lots of room to spread your stuff out. So, if you're like me the last few years, this means...

pulling all the scrapbooking stuff out...

spreading it out...

scrapbooking for a little while...

gathering it all back together...

and then putting it all away....

Rinse and Repeat.

The set-up and take-down was such a long extensive process that I tended not to scrapbook because of it.

When we lived in Germany, I did attempt to set up my own space (pictured below)...but it was just to small and I found it hard to spread out.


Now, however, I have found my own little nook to set up a scrapbooking corner. And, because my nook is in the basement, I can even leave ongoing projects out instead of having to continually pull everything out and put it all back again. This is so exciting to me!!!

So, last Saturday I started setting up my nook. I still need to put some pictures on the wall, but at least I have the table, drawers and shelves setup. The only new purchase I made for this space was a large (6 foot) foldable table (about $35) to create lots of workspace.

Before: Here is all my scrapbooking things...organization is needed!

Before: Here is the nook I want to set up my scrapbooking things in.

During: Here are the boys playing the keyboard I found while working...motivational music never hurts! =)

After: Organization completed!

After: My new work space!

Now I just need to find the time to start a new scrapbooking project! =)

It feels like home.

This may be the first time in our married lives that we have all our stuff under one roof. Well...actually, we are still waiting on the delivery of a few items from when we were stationed in Georgia...but it's only a few items...ya know like the piano, weight bench , two massive wall lockers, the lawn mower...just a few small things like that.

When we moved our items in from New Jersey, unpacking was a breeze. Knowing that we would only live in Jersey for a few months, we had only taken the essential items. When we moved our items in from the storage unit...well, let's just say, there are still boxes and bins I haven't even opened yet. I have found things I didn't even know we had! So, the unpacking process has been slow and I have tried to take the time to sort out the items we need, the items we should donate, and the items that are just wore out.

When I look at the calendar, I can't believe we've been in our new house for almost two months now. In so many ways, I still feel like we've just moved in! And yet, I feel like we are home. We may not be completely unpacked, we still have a list of furniture we need, and I am itching to paint the walls...but this house definitely feels like home. I am so thankful that God brought us here!

Chocolate Cupcakes!

When we lived in New Jersey, our kitchen was a one-person-at-a-time-kitchen.

The boys would ask to help me bake, but there just wasn't enough room. I kept promising them that when we moved to our new house, there would be plenty of room for them to help me bake. Now that most of the boxes are unpacked and we are beginning to settle into our new house, I thought it was time to make good on my promise to them. So, Friday we decided to make chocolate cupcakes.

Though I knew it might be messy, I even let them try to crack the eggs...

...and messy it was! Both the eggs exploded and went everywhere (this is a very burry picture, but if you look closely, you can see the egg bouncing back out of the bowl!)

Will even had egg on his head!! (We had to take a break to clean up after that.)

Back from cleaning up all the egg and ready to finish up the cupcakes...

The boys were anxious for the cupcakes to bake...

After lunch, the cupcakes were cool enough for the icing.

Then, it was time to indulge!

Yummy!!

A New Year

I generally make New Year's resolutions...and I generally don't keep them... I know this when I'm making the resolution, but I tend to continue making them anyway. This year I'm going to try something a little different. I am going to make a handful of 2011 Challenges.

1. 365 Photo Challenge: This is a challenge my family is doing this year. You post a picture of something on FB every day (or every day you're able.) As many of you know, I love taking pictures. I'm usually the one carrying my camera around taking picture after picture. This is something I started to do a lot when Chris was deployed. I wanted to capture as many moments for him as I could. Even if he couldn't see them at the time they happened, he could at least see them in a photograph. Lately, I haven't taken many pictures. Not because I don't want too, but mostly because things have been so busy with moving, unpacking and settling into our new home. This 365 Photo Challenge is making me itch to pick up my camera again and start snapping away. Now granted, I am already late on posting my first picture (but this deals with another area I want to work on in my life...just because I don't meet my challenge/goal every day, doesn't mean I have to give up right away) so I'll start posting today!

2. Recipe Challenge: I love cooking. I love trying new recipes. I love cookbooks. However, I seem to run to the Internet for a new recipe (which works great) instead of sifting through my cookbooks. I will still get new recipes online, but I also want to start using the wealth of recipes I have in my cookbooks. So, once a week, I want to find and cook/bake a recipe from my cookbooks.

3. Focus Challenge: This will be my "inner-self challenge." I had a very hard time with focus and motivation last year. There are a million reasons for this, but regardless of the reasons, it's a frustrating feeling to feel "unfocused" and "unmotivated." In college, if I had a million-and-one assignments due at the same time, I would have this moment of panic. What do I do first?? The only way I could squelch the panic was to focus on one assignment at a time until they were all complete and turned in. Last year I had a hard time focusing on the important things in life. If I found myself overwhelmed, I felt like shutting down instead of focusing on what was important, what needed to be done, and what could wait. This is something I know I need to work on -and by the Grace of God - I hope to make progress on this year.

4. Reality Blogging: I hope to be a better blogger this year. Last year, I really struggled with blogging because I felt so unfocused. This year, I hope to blog more...and to be a more vulnerable blogger. I want to show the good times in life, as well as the struggles. This is actually harder (for me) then it sounds. If I share a struggle, I feel guilty because I know that my struggles may seem small to someone who is going through something bigger...and I by no means want to come across as complaining about my life. I know I have a very blessed life. However, the reality of life is....there are struggles, hard times and frustrations...big and small. This is real. This is real life. So, I am attempting to find my voice and share more about what's really going on in my life. This was a resolution I made last year, but was unsuccessful at doing. So, it's time to try again!

Happy 2011 to one and all!!