I have babies!

The garden has babies, I should say... it's flourishing, and I am still in shock. Oz laughs at me, but I've never had anything grow and STAY alive before, let alone actually blossom and turn into something. I planted some squash a couple of years ago and got a few flowers, but never had anything actually grow that you could eat, and it certainly wasn't the size of the plant I have now!

That'll be the squash there in the middle. When I planted it, you could step right over it and have room on either side... not so much now, eh??

This is my first baby cucumber... it's adorable! I never knew they had all those little spikes on them. Grow baby grow!

My pole beans are actually climbing their poles now... it's amazing how fast they grow once they grab on. A week ago, this thing had just wrapped around the bottom.

My strawberry plant is actually producing strawberries. I didn't think I'd get any this year because, well, they're first-year strawberry plants, but those sure look like babies to me. Fingers crossed the bugs stay out of them!

This is one of the half a dozen squash I've got growing - this is actually one of the smaller ones, but I couldn't get a good shot of the bigger ones. The biggest one is about as long as my hand already. Woohoo!

One of the tomatoes. We planted three varieties of tomatoes - four Romas (see below), one bush tomato that hasn't started putting on fruit yet, and this one, called a "Cherokee Purple." I'm curious to see how it'll turn out!

My Romas are producing a bunch already, too. I'm so worried about bugs now, but at the same time, it's awesome to see all these little tomatoes growing. Before, I was worried about pollination, but I guess I didn't need to. These babies are everywhere!

I didn't kill the okra after all, but I'm so glad it's getting warmer outside. The cool, wet weather wasn't making it very happy!

Last but definitely not least, these are the kids' pumpkin plants. They're not in the garden; I put them in the same spot that I successfully grew the pumpkin plant last year, snug between the now-dead peony plants. They're taking off, too!
I can't wait until everything gets big... I REALLY can't wait to make some homemade spaghetti sauce with homegrown tomatoes, herbs, and maybe even a homegrown bell pepper... ohh the love of gardening has bit and bit hard... I can see why people love it!

Oklahoma Travel

This year, we're not going to take a big family vacation like we have in the past. Last year, we went down to Houston. We had a blast! But the drive... ugh... and then we flew up to Pennsylvania in the fall to visit Oz's dad and stepmom. So I was 'big'-traveled out. I wanted to stay closer to home, save a few bucks on hotel expenses, food expenses, etc. So this year, instead of taking a big trip, we're touring our home state, learning about all the fun stuff it already has to offer!

We've already done stuff like the sheep-shearing weekend, the Amish Cheese House, and I took the kids down to see the azaleas in Muskogee while they were in bloom.

This weekend, we decided to go visit Oklahoma City and visit the Omniplex, though I think now they call it the Science Museum Oklahoma. It'll probably always be the Omniplex to me.

Regardless, the kids LOVED it. I had thought it would be busier than it was, seeing as it was a holiday weekend, but I guess all the crowds were headed to the zoo next door, so the INDOOR museum wasn't busy at all! Oz and I split up for a while since the kids are interested in different things, but we wound up back together at random intervals and I was able to get some good pictures.

M2 loved hearing her voice in the echo tube. I mostly think she just likes hearing her own voice. ;)

Oz couldn't resist trying everything out himself. Fidget.

M2 also loved SEEING herself. She played in the mirrors for ages.

M1 couldn't get enough of the cloud rings in the weather room.

He and Daddy also climbed into the tornado chamber together. That number on the read-out is the wind speed. M1 came out saying tornados weren't so bad. It put me in mind of that skit by Ron White: "It's not *that* the wind is blowin'... it's *WHAT* the wind is blowin'..." but I didn't go there. M1 is typically very afraid of the thought of tornados, so to hear him be okay with it was reassuring!

They also had a special exhibit at the museum that we bought passes for. It was sponsored by Odyssey Explorer, and it featured a bunch of actual treasure, most of it brought up from a Civil War era ship, though some was from a ship much, much older. One of the treasures was an actual bar of Spanish gold! It was amazing to see how well everything had survived. It was all in gorgeous condition. These are actually made of glass.

After we left the Science Museum, we visited my mom, who had fixed lunch for us, and then we took her to see the Myriad Gardens. We didn't pay to go into the conservatory since it was a nice day (and I hadn't done my research beforehand to realize we *would* have to pay - oops!), but the grounds were still lovely.

The kids loved the koi and the ducks that were scattered around the water features.

All in all, it was a great day! The kids were absolutely exhausted by the time we got home, but it was well worth it to see the great treasures that Oklahoma holds for us. I encourage you all to get out and see what your state has to offer!

Why I Have Neglected This Blog...

I haven't been posting on here for a while now - about a month, or so Blogger tells me. I haven't forgotten. I've just been busy. I have discovered that doing things by hand is definitely time-consuming, and I'm getting more of the idea of why moms a century or so ago didn't have much in the way of time. Thank heaven for children who are able to amuse themselves.

Not to say I'm doing EVERYTHING by hand...

though sometimes it seems like it, especially when I have to soak the laundry because the kids have just eaten popsicles with cherry-red coloring in them while wearing blue and white clothes!

I don't feel very patriotic while doing laundry, no matter what the colors are.

I've also been busy with THIS...

That's right. You may drool. It's homemade bread, specifically whole wheat with flaxseed in it. It took all of my willpower not to just devour the entire loaf whole while I was taking that picture. I love fresh bread.

The garden is also thriving, which mostly I attribute to all the recent rain more than any actual skill on my part, though trying to keep up with the weeds is just about a full-time job.

I discovered THESE on my tomato plants today.

These aren't the only ones, either. There are actually many many more on most of the plants. I'm going to drool over tomatoes now. I love fresh tomatoes even more than I love fresh bread.

The thriving garden... please ignore all the weeds. I *do* actually weed the garden at least twice a week, but you gotta love it... when the garden grows, so do the weeds! Note to self: Next year, invest in mulch.

See the basil? I also love fresh basil. And fresh tomatoes. On fresh bread. I need to get some balsamic vinegar and teach myself to make some fresh mozzarella. THAT would be heaven.

Again, ignore the weeds... I just had to get a close-up of the squash plant. Yes, it is the only one I planted. I have no desire to inundate people with hordes of squash.

The other half of the garden...

I've also been experimenting with drying the herbs. Turns out I can do that pretty well! This is a dried basil leaf... might handy to know how to do since I have no great desire to try to overwinter the herbs in my house.

Now... this is another example of how I spend my time these days, here in the "country." M1 ran excitedly in the house today wanting to show me a "collection" of things he'd found outside. I was thinking various weeds. Apparently HE meant a dried earthworm, a dead June bug, and some sort of squished caterpillar.

Gotta love the country life...

And now you know why I've been neglecting this blog.

I promise not to do it again. Until it happens. And then I apologize.

Yard work

When you live out in the country and own a large yard, it's a necessity to own a riding lawn mower. During spring and summer months, we have to mow nearly every week unless it's extremely dry (and if it's extremely wet and we CAN'T mow, I resign our yard to being a jungle and move on). Part of having a riding lawn mower is teaching the kids to be responsible around it and learn to drive it so they can start mowing the lawn at our earliest convenience. I figure we've got another five years before that particular convenience is available, but that didn't keep Oz from putting M1 on the mower and letting him push the accelerator.



Getting started was somewhat difficult.

M2 was appropriately freaked out by the thought of her brother driving ANYTHING and climbed to higher ground immediately.

She's a wise child.

That look of intense concentration is due to the fact that he was attempting to max out the speed on the mower.

Stopping is a lot easier when it simply means taking your foot off of the gas pedal - thank heaven he didn't have to try to press a brake. That boy's adrenaline was into serious overdrive.

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Then it was time for a garden check! So far, I only have one plant that's looking puny - one of my cucumber plants is looking a bit off, but the other one is doing just fine.

Here's the pictorial update:

The basil is REALLY starting to grow! M1 keeps asking me when we're going to pick some and cook with it. I told him I want to give it another week or so to make sure the roots are seriously into the ground before I pick anything off, but it's looking good!

We caged the tomato plants a couple of days ago. Didn't want to hold off much longer since they're also really growing well. I got some good advice on a gardening web site that suggested planting some of the actual tomato PLANT into the ground as well as the root system. You'd never know there's probably three inches of plant underground now! That Roma on the left side of the photo is nearly up to the first rung of the cage.




SEED! I grew these from seed!!! These are my green bean plants, and I've probably got close to 10 of them poking out of the ground now. I'm going to wait until it finishes raining tonight or tomorrow and then go thin them out. I may hang on to the ones I pull, though, lest I kill the rest. I'm still nervous about growing anything from seed. Historically, that's where my plant-murdering tendencies come out the most.

My hens and chicks. Oz's grandmother gave us this plant last fall since the container had broken. I need to repot it but wanted to see if it would make it through the winter first... and it HAS! I'll probably put it in another pot this week and find a place for it.
I'm just so excited - spring has definitely sprung!

Sheep shearing and Amish living

Last fall, M2's preschool class went to a place called Shepherd's Cross for their pumpkin patch. It's a lovely place, even if the religious side of things does get a bit overwhelming (don't get me wrong - I'm not against a religious bent, but when you're trying to talk to 4-year-olds about how pumpkins grow, you don't also need a lecture on how this is similar to growing in Christ), and they had mentioned something about sheep shearing in the spring.

So a few weeks back, I visited the web site and saw that the Wooly Weekend was coming up. Originally I was supposed to be out of town this weekend and was hoping Oz would take the kids, but the plans fell through and I was able to go along.

I wasn't able to get any good shots of the actual shearing from the angle I was at, but here's a photo of the ewe getting her hoofs trimmed. She kept bleating for her lamb, which was REALLY loud.



She was a good sheep, though - two years old and very well-behaved.

Here are some of the other ewes they were going to shear today... with some of their lambs.

One of the lambs - aren't they adorable? These were Suffolk sheep. They're black when they're born but turn white with black points by fall. Some of these were so little they still had tails!

These looms were upstairs. I finally know how one works!!!

See the vertical yarn? That's the warp. You tie it on first. It threads through holes in the racks (they have special names that I can't remember, so I'm calling them racks). Then you put some more yarn on the shuttle (on the right where you can see the yarn heading away from the product) and it's called the weft. To weave, you push on a lever up at the top of the loom. This lifts one of the racks and lowers the rest. You put the shuttle underneath the raised warp, push the threads together to make the fabric tight, flip the next lever, and repeat the process till you're done!

And here I always figured it was a lot more complicated. Goes to show how my mind works. Or doesn't, depending on how you look at it.

They let the kids do some handweaving, too, which they enjoyed.

I had to take a picture of this weeeeeeee tiny little lamb.

The resident sheepdog didn't like that very much.

Random duck on the property as we went to check out the herb garden they had growing there. That was M1's favorite part. M2's favorite part were the resident barn cats. Go figure - didn't we go to see SHEEP??

I had to take a picture of the kids before we left.

After we left there, we went down to Chouteau to the Amish Cheese House. It's well worth the drive. I picked myself up an Amish cookbook (that's right... Amish), the kids picked up some candy, Oz got cheese (derh), and then... then we had to go get some sweet rolls.

I'd take a picture of them, but I don't want anyone storming my house in the morning. ;) I'll let you know how they taste.

Thoroughly ducked

I have to say that before today, I was a duck virgin. Never been ducked. I really imagine most people haven't. I'm kinda special that way.

The thing is, though, that I have WONDERFUL friends. We love each other in our own very weird way, and one of the ways we show this love is to prank each other on our birthdays. We've had a lot of fun with this. My birthday last year was kind of the start of it all - I went out to dinner with these girls, and while we were in the restaurant, the car was "Peeped" with a whole string of Peeps... from my peeps. It was great. So I knew my turn was coming again, and I knew that I had to take my daughter to gymnastics this morning.

And I knew that when I got home, there would be SOMETHING.

Reeeallly wasn't expecting this.



These ducks in the pictures are really only the tip of the iceberg. Supposedly, there are precisely 105 ducks in my yard. "Yard" is also a relative term. There are some hanging in the branches of the tree... sitting by my front door... stuck on the fence out by the road (I'm sure there are many amused drivers out there today)... they're everywhere. Stuck in the handle of my screen door were two duck Pez dispensers that I will actually share with my children. And on the table on the front porch sat THIS darling:

My friend C has really outdone herself this time. Those ducks? White chocolate. The eggs? Chocolate Easter eggs. The green is coconut, the walkway is more Pez, and the lake is blue icing. I have been TOLD the cake is devil's food.

Did I mention it's raining today? My ducks are getting their feet wet, but in true duck fashion, they're mostly just letting the water roll right off of their backs. Some of them are turning into puddleducks.

I can't wait till my husband gets home. If I had to guess, his reaction will be something along the lines of, "Duck me!"

Thank you, ladies, for making me feel so loved!