How does YOUR garden grow?

So, I've been chatting on this forum called The Easy Garden for some time now. They have some really great people there that are very helpful! I was having an issue with my big box bought tomatoes, everyone tried to help me solve the problem with their best guess. It was almost like a game of Clue... but nobody (card character or otherwise) died. One of the lovely ladies started a Weekly Weigh In to see how much food we are growing. While we don't have anything to harvest for a weigh in yet, I do need to start documenting the garden more!

You, loyal readers, know about Ivy Hill, our little patch of Earth to grow food. It has come quite a ways in the last few weeks! Here are a few new pictures!

Here's the over all. Corn in front, then pumpkins and watermelon, peppers and another mound of pumpkin and watermelon, cucumbers and beans, tomatoes and what should have been onions and carrots, Strawberries in the farthest bed and then behind that 2 blueberries!

Hot peppers! I'm not exactly sure WHERE we're going to put these! I'm leaning towards on the front porch maybe. If we plant them in the garden then our sweet peppers and hot peppers will cross pollinate leaving us with neither hot nor sweet peppers next year! LOL

Here are some herbs! We have basil, oregano, and cilantro. I believe these are going to get put out in the garden. I did notice a few more pepper plants trying to make there way thru the surface (we resowed about 2 weeks ago!) so I might wait a bit longer yet. If nothing else, I'll get some more bigger pots for them to be transplanted into. 

The newer tomato plants that our neighbor gave us. They started out rather small! They're getting pretty big now! I was pretty surprised! I can't wait to have some vine ripe tomatoes!! Mmmmm!!

Cucumbers are starting to look REALLY good! Of course, these are the only 2 that made it, but, I think for not having a CLUE what we were doing... I think we did okay with these! LOL I think we're going to go ahead and start a few more as well by this weekend. I want to direct sow, Sam wants to start them inside. I guess we could do both and see what works for us. (I'm rooting for direct sow! LOL) I also think that the spot we had designated for the "sprawl" cucumbers we might replant the herbs in. 

This loverly specimen (picture taken this morning at about7AM) now have a lovely yellow flower hidden in it's leaves! :-)

Sams watermelons! There were 6 flowers on this when I went to check on them. There are already a couple that have had their flowers fall off and have teeny tiny watermelons! So exciting! It's our first bit of "food"!

Some of our corn is starting to get tall! There are a few of them that are starting to really shoot up there and are almost hip level already! 

The 2nd round of plants are all (at least I think what will come up) up but are only a few inches tall. 

Our strawberries are doing REALLY well! Quite a few of them have runners! I can't WAIT for next year so we can actually EAT some of them! LOL

Here are the sweet peppers! There are a a few more that are popping up now... even tho we planted them about 2-3 weeks ago! Crazy stuff!! 

And of course the blueberries!! The one in front we got as a teeeeeeeeeny tiny lil thing the beginning of April. We then couldn't get it in the ground for a little while and they almost died before we got them in the ground. One died after we got it in the ground so we bought another from Lowes, which is in the background. Both are doing well actually. 

Our little grapes! There are 3 others just like this one, some as full, some not. I just love the contrast of green tho. The purple thing in the back is the dogs Kong... LOL 

Our apple heavy trees! I can't believe they're actually producing already! They seem so small, but this is the 2nd time that they've produced anything. I just hope that the tree is strong enough to keep all those apples up there! Maybe I'm not giving our little trees enough credit... but still!

Our lone pear is still chuggin away!! You go pear!!

I think the birds ate most of the mulberries this year. :-( It's okay!! Next year!!

Bugs marigolds!! They're doing pretty well. I can't wait for them to bloom! When they start to die I'll cut the flowers and save the seeds for next year. :-)

There it is! Things have done quite a bit of growing in the last few weeks since I posted pictures last. 

New Years Resolutions

So, it comes down to the time when we all make these grand plans on how we are going to change in the next 365 days towards the better for ourselves (hopefully) and for our families (if we have them). Most of the time I really don't make any resolutions. I figure, if I don't make any, I won't have any to feel bad about not keeping. Lets face it, we, as humans, are creatures of habit. We fall into a habit and it's a lot of hard work to get yourself out of the habit of doing it. They say that it takes 21 days to break a habit. Most people quit their resolutions within the first 2 weeks. Just 1 week shy of becoming a habit. Terrible. They also say, that if you write it down, and profess it to someone that you trust, that you are more likely to follow through with your plans. I like the sounds of that.

So, without further ado, here are my Resolutions for 2011

1. Be better at cleaning the house 
* Do dishes before bed. * Laundry is done by Saturday. * Clean bathrooms every week. * Vacuum floors twice a week. * Make bed every morning.
2. Build my Faith again.
* Read Bible evey day. * Go to church every Sunday.
3. Be better organized.
* Keep work spaces in order. * File bills when paid. * Keep clutter off of surfaces.
4. Start paying off debt.
* Cut down expenses as needed. * Look into part time job.
5. Build Charwood Candle Company
* Do a giveaway on popular Blog (on LATW as well). * Find less expensive suppliers. * Get Etsy store front open.
6. Exercise every day
* Get Sam and myself up every morning at 5AM for at least 30 minutes of exercise. * Take dogs on walks in the evening.

On that note, I'm going to end this now, so I don't break my very first resolution! It's Saturday, so, I need to do laundry! :-)

Not having a good day!

My day started out fantastic. It really did! I got up, I got the kids off to school with no hitches. Everything was going fantastic! I worked out to my new workout video Turbo Jam (which is FANTASTICALLY fun btw!). Things were still good. Still doin my thing. Still be-boppin along being my happy go lucky self! I ask my work out partner if she still wants to work out this morning. Yup! She sure does! Things start going down-hill from here.

I call the DMV to make sure they have transfered my plates from my old car, to my new car. The car that I've had for going on 3 weeks now. The car that I've fallen completely, madly, deeply in love with. (It has a CD player!) Wouldn't you know it, my plates are still registered to old car. So I ask the lady if I get pulled over, I'm in big trouble, yes? She says, "Yup!" My next move is to call the dealership we got it from. I ask them if they've done anything to get my tags switched over because I needed the new registration to get my base sticker. I REALLY didn't feel like getting a new little slip of paper all the time because they were too lazy to do their job. They tell me that it will be fine, that a cop isn't going to give me a ticket because I have 30 days to get the tags changed over, blah blah blah. Well, I'm not sure how things work where we bought the car from, but here, cops can be real jerks. The fact of the matter is, my tags say they belong to a '05 Hyundai Elantra, but they are ON an '09 Kia Sportage. It's illegal, and they CAN write me a ticket for it, even if I have the papers showing them that I just bought the car less than a month ago. I then tell them that I didn't mean to be a #$)&^#( but if I got a ticket, I was sending all the paperwork and whatnot straight to their office and they were going to pay all of it, and get me a lawyer. It probably meant nothing to them, but in that moment I felt very powerful.

While on the way to my w.o.p.'s house, I'm on the phone with my Momma. Momma is always fun to talk to! Well, I keep feeling like I need to itch my leg, so I scratch, still itches, so I look down (yes, I'm driving, yes I know it was bad...) at my knee area to see if something was under my steering wheel scratching me or something. Wouldn't you know it... it's a tiny little brown TICK!!!! Yes. A tick. I'm not normally a person that freaks out about bugs, or snakes, or "creepy crawlies" in general, but, there are a couple that freak me out beyond belief.

One is the June Bug (or June beetle... whatever). I think that the reason I hate them so much was because I was staying at my Dads one summer, and he had one of those electric bug zappers, (Yes... I'm old... thanks for reminding me!!) and one of them caught a June bug. OMG! It took it FOREVER to zap that lil thing! And it was smokin and and zapping and making all that noise and light. It was terrible. So, from then on, I always thought of them as these extremely tough  bugs. Bugs that take forever to kill. And the FLY!!!! (We'll go into that another day...) How could you NOT get creeped out by them. LOOK AT 'EM! EEEEEEW! (Okay... I'm done...)

The other is the tick. Not just any tick tho. I can handle them when they're on other people or on animals, but it was ON ME!! ON ME!!!!!!!!!!! Oh God. I'm so lucky it was just a tiny little thing. I'm so lucky that it wasn't sucking the life blood out of me because I would have put my brand new car into another car trying to get it off of me. I'm SO lucky that I picked it off, rolled down my automatic window (if it woulda been a crank, I woulda died!!) and flicked it out. UGH! *shiver* Now, every time I have an itch, I'm expecting there to be a tiny tick there. *shudder* 

Work out goes well. Her cat scratches my leg, not a huge deal. I get back into my car (after checking for ticks...) and drive back home.  I take my shower, which kinda sucked because I got this FANTASTIC shower head that has several different sprays and a massage spray... man... it's fantastic, BUT!! Now when I go to wash my hair, I can't move it to spray on the back wall of my TINY stand up shower stall! How am I supposed to put conditioner in my hair? Or shave my legs? STINKS!

The last thing that happened to me today (so far.....) is that hubs calls and tells me that he thinks I need to get a part time job. *sigh* Don't get me wrong, I don't have anything against having a job. A job pays you with money. Money is good. I like money. Money can buy me new socks! (Oh how I love new socks!) But I also love being able to stay home, and make bread, and exercise, and work on prospecting for my Beachbody business, and be here when the kids get home and help them with their homework. If I'm working outside the home, I can't do those things. Oh yes... I know... millions of people do it all the time... blah blah blah. I just don't want to. *very sad face* I was getting used to being able to take a nap at 11:30 if I wanted to. Not that I ever did... okay maybe once or twice... but! The point is, if I WANTED to..... I COULD! 

Why can't I just win the Powerball and never have to worry about working again? Why must it be so difficult to be comfortable these days?? Maybe I should just sell a kidney or something.....

A-Quiltin' We Will Go!

So, it's no secret that I read a TON of blogs (82 and counting!)! Usually my morning routine, after getting the kids off to school is to read thru all of the blogs that have posted over the night, and periodically throughout the day. That's a lot of blogs I say, but each and every one of them has something that I want to learn, or improve upon, (Well, except for those few that are family and friends!) I added one yesterday about how to improve your marriage. Sam and I have a pretty good marriage these days, but, it NEVER hurts to find ways to improve things!

So, the other day, I found this FANTASTIC site called Cluck Cluck Sew, and she had this really cute quilt on there, and talked about Charm Packs and all kinds of things that I had NO IDEA existed. Allison is really nice too! Anyways! I was talking with Sam last night, and I told him that I would like for us to MAKE a quilt TOGETHER! So that way, we are spending time together, he gets to use his fantastic artistic ability, (who knew a colorblind guy could be so great at art?!), and we get a new comforter for our bed (which we REALLY need)! Oh, and it doesn't hurt that I'll be getting to use the fantastic sewing machine that he bought me last year! (Sadly, I've only used it a handful of times!) He thought it was a FANTASTIC idea! HOORAY! So, I guess that only leaves us to plan the pattern (anybody have any ideas for simpler quilt patterns??), pick the colors, buy the fabric, make the blocks, sew all the blocks together, get batting, and find someone to teach me the rest!! LOL

I think that this will be a fantastic adventure that Sam and I are about to embark upon. Never know, maybe I'll do so well at it, that I'll make one for Monkey and Buggy! I thought about making a Purple and Gold quilt for Monkey, maybe with some ECU Pirates fabric thrown in there as well. Never know! I think Momma has something up her sleeve for Monkey with purple and gold. I have no idea what, but I think she does. (I could be wrong tho!) For Buggy, it would be super simple... pink and purple. She's ALL girl! I'm not exactly sure WHERE she gets it from. I'm almost the opposite of girlie! I don't wear make up that often, I love t-shirt and jeans, heels are very uncomfortable to me, and I HATE doing my hair, but every once in a while, I like to get dressed up, look really nice, and be girlie (like, once or twice a year, seriously.).

Okay! Well, I'm stalking the UPS man today. My new workout video in on his truck! I'm off to do some recruiting, clean the house, figure out what I'm makin for dinner, work out, and have a hot shower with my new shower head! YAY! (Yes, the simple things really do bring me the greatest pleasure!)

*whisper* Have you heard what her hobby is?! Weirdo!

So, as I said yesterday, I have a "strange" hobby. Most people don't understand why I love my hobby, or even find it interesting, but I have so much FUN with it!

I know what you all are saying right now.. "Can you just get on with it?! Tell us what it is already!"

Okay. My strange hobby is.... aquatic snails. I know it sounds really strange, but they really are so interesting to watch! I know you think that they don't move very fast because their land cousins don't, but, they're pretty quick! They also do lots of funny stuff. They will go up to the very top of the tank and "parasnail" to the bottom. They also like to play in bubbles. Another friend of mine does this too, and one time we were watching her snails get on top of the bubble wand, have it float them to the top, have the filter push them to the other side of the tank, and then parasnail to the bottom and do it all over again! It was really cute!

We've even named our snails, we have Talula, Stripes, Heart, Krabs, Spunky, Rainbow and Sandy. Talula, Heart, and Sandy are all Ivory (white), Stripes, and Krabs are purple, Spunky is blue and Rainbow is gold. Now, I have at least one female in there, and she(they?) have been laying eggs at the top of my tank. When they do, I take the eggs off the side of the tank, wrap them in a paper towel and put them in a zip lock baggie with a damp paper towel and put them in our other tank under the lights. The damp paper towel helps keep the eggs moist so that they can incubate and hatch baby snails! I have no idea how many baby snails I currently have, it's a bunch tho! I've managed to hatch 3 clutches (that's what you call the eggs) and I would guess there is somewhere between 50-125 baby snails in there right now! I have 2 more clutches incubating, and another was just laid last night. I have some people that are very interested in obtaining some of these snails and others I can sell online and to local pet stores.

I know that my hobby isn't for everyone, but I love it. I find them fascinating little animals, and they have so much more personality than fish! I admit, we have 2 tanks, a 20 gallon and a 30 gallon, and the 20 has 7 snails and a Betta (named Blueberry) and the 30 has 3 adult guppies, 3 juvenile, and 7 or 8 guppy fry with a bunch of baby snails and Spike the plecostomus (algae eater). The guppies are Bugs, the Betta is Monkeys, and the snails are mine. I guess that leaves the pleco to be Sams. I think they share the same attitude... hide until the sun goes down. LOL

Anyways, I think that's all for today! I've got a busy day of laundry and dog bathes for today!!  

Trapeza-wha???

So, Tuesday I had tea with my favorite guy that isn't related to me by marriage or birth, Bill. While on the way to pick up Bill from the car dealership where his brand new truck was being worked on (That's a whole 'nother story!), I noticed that my neck hurt. I thought "Geez! I must have slept on it wrong. Oh well!" I took some Tylenol when I got home, and it seemed a little better. That night in bed, I had Sam rub my neck and shoulders. He did a fantastic job, and I promptly fell asleep with a nice kink-free neck and back. Wednesday morning, I wake up at my usual 5:30 to get Monkey off to school and then wake Bug up at 7 to get her ready for school. When all the kiddos were off to school I sat here for a little bit and decided that I was tired of how the book case looked and I wanted to rearrange it. That way, when I finally get around to putting the laptop on the desk, or when we get a new tower for over there, or even a chair that's slightly comfortable, I won't have to look at a horrible looking bookcase all the time. It was then that I noticed that my neck, back, and shoulder were REALLY hurting! I decided to go to the doctor about it, and sure enough, I had tweeked my Trapezius muscle! So, the extremely attractive Doctor told me that I should rest it for about a week and hold off on any upper body exercising. Now, for those of you that know me, know that I've been trying to lose weight like CRAZY the last couple months. So far I've lost 10 pounds in the past 30 days. (WOOOOOHOOOOOOO!) So, the super hot Doctor telling me that I had to take a week off just didn't make me happy! I did some cardio yesterday tho. It felt great, even tho I felt like I was going to die while doing it! LOL

The next post I do, I think I'm going to post about my hobby. Everybody that doesn't partake in this hobby is going to think that I'm a fruitcake (most people do without even hearing about my "strange" hobby!) when I tell them what I do for fun, but, I think it's fun, so that's all that really matters! :-)

Until then, keep on keepin on!! (A little Joe Dirt for ya!)