I Love Summer!

Hi!  We've been busy here.  I love having warm weather!  It just gives me such an appreciation for the beautiful world around me.  It's so inspiring to see all of the trees with leaves, the bright and cheerful flowers in bloom, the birds sitting on their nests, and the plants sprouting up in the farm fields.  There is nothing like spring and summer in the Midwest region...it still has a feeling of the good ol' days.  It gets hot, but usually it's not unbearable.  Corn, wheat, and soybean fields surround you.  In the middle of the summer, during the hot, muggy days, you can smell a storm coming--a fresh, wet smell that swirls around you and mixes with the smell of the corn fields, and then I long for a covered porch with a swing to sit and watch the storm rage.  I like to let my imagination take me back to days in which I did not live, and imagine what it was like in the summertime long ago.  I like to picture in my mind an old, weathered house with a big front porch, a family sitting around a table at dinnertime eating a delicious dinner cooked on an old wood stove, and maybe a radio broadcasting a baseball game in the background.  The house is surrounded by fields of tall corn, and the stalks rustle in the breeze while the family talks about the day they had.  Wouldn't that be great if we could still have such quaint gatherings?

But I digress, and return to the present time.  As I mentioned, we've been busy here!  Where to begin?  I'll begin last Thursday.  I came home from work and began preparing dinner, and my dear husband came in and told me that he had heard on the radio on the way home that the local Farmer's Market was having its grand opening night that night, and did I want to go?  OF COURSE!  I love going to the Farmer's Market here, but it's actually at a really odd time--Thursday nights from 4:30-6:30.  It's hard for me to remember.  So, we hopped in the car and headed over to the fairgrounds.  There were only a handful of vendors there, since it's a bit early for most produce, but I did leave with some great treasures: a parsley for my patio, a jar of raw honey (which, by the way, is the best honey I've ever tasted!  I had no idea that heating up honey for processing takes so much flavor out.  I'm now hooked!), and handmade soap.  As my interest in organic gardening and homesteading has grown, and I've read more about these things, it's becoming more and more obvious to me that a lot of things that we buy at the store are incredibly bad for us, despite their convenience.  Now, I'm not to the point of swearing off sugar and such, but I'm leaning farther and farther away from purchasing processed items and chemical detergents and hand soaps.  Unfortunately, I have little choice right now, but maybe some day I'll be able to make my own bread doughs and preserve my own garden produce, and eliminate the need for buying these things from the store.  I'd also love to find a local farm that raises and butchers their own meats, and would be willing to pay extra for fresh meat instead of purchasing it from the grocery.  All of these things in time, I suppose.  I still have student loans to pay off before I can consider quitting my day job and devoting my time to pursuing my passions. 

Friday, as I was getting my husband's lunch together for work, I noticed that my African violet had buds on it.  Now, to most people this is not a big deal.  To me, however, it was huuuuge.  You see, I've had this violet for at least 3 years now.  I bought it in the wintertime not long after we moved here, because I wanted a houseplant.  I know, deep reason.  Well, I brought it home, and it bloomed for a little while, then suddenly--no blooms.  Ever.  I replanted it in a bigger pot and set it in the sunniest spot in our house.  Still nothing.  It remained very healthy, with thick, healthy green leaves, and eventually got too big for the pot again.  So, I replanted it yet again, buying some African violet potting soil and feeding it with two different kinds of African violet plant food.  Still nothing.  So, I decided that I at least had a nice-looking houseplant.  So now you can see why I was so extremely excited when I looked at the plant on Friday and saw buds--and not just a few, like you see in the photo.  Three clusters of blooms, hidden in and around the leaves!!  I'll be sure to post pictures once they begin blooming.  For now, here's a picture of some of the buds.

Saturday, I went out to check my garden.  It had been over ten days since I planted the seeds.  Plus, I purchased  a tomato plant and needed to plant him in the bed.  I found to my pleasant surprise that several things had sprung up!  I have two pumpkin sprouts, several bean plants, four ears of corn, and I'm seeing growth on my peppers and cucumbers.  So exciting!  I love watching things grow!

(Hmmm.  Here is where I would normally insert photos of my garden for you to see the progress.  As I tried to upload the pictures, I got an error message saying that I've exceeded my storage limit for photos in my account, and that I'd have to buy storage space.  I'll have to look into this further, but I guess for now, you'll have to use your imagination, since I don't make money from this blog and don't really plan on buying space.)

Sunday, hubby and I started a project here in our front yard.  We took up a patch of grass and are in the process of changing the space into a garden bed.  We've received several plants from others and needed a place to put them, plus we decided to use the grass as sod along the front curb that the city replaced last summer and grass has never grown back.  We'll see how it grows.  I'd love to post pictures here, but...well, see the paragraph above.  We haven't finished yet, but we're close.  I thought I'd finish tonight but I'm so sore from the work yesterday that it hurts to move.  I'm walking around like a 90 year old woman!  Everything aches.  But it should look good when it's done; you'll just have to take my word for it!

Our future flower bed, about 14' x 7'.

Hubby dug this whole patch up--thanks for all of your hard work!

He encountered many roots.

Stage one: complete.  Stage two: after a trip to the store.

Hubby working on transplanting the dug-up grass patches.  We'll see if they take.

Update!  I have found the reason for my picture dilemma.  I'll be working on this over the next few posts, because I guess I have to shrink my photos quite a bit more than I have been.  Oh well, at least it means I don't have to buy storage!

Honey is so sweet.  I've never liked it until I tasted the raw honey that we just bought.  It's no wonder that it's spoken of so highly in the Bible.  So, in honor of honey as they ate it in Biblical times, and our upcoming anniversary, here is a verse from the slightly racy Song of Solomon: “ How beautiful is your love, my sister, my bride!  How much better is your love than wine, and the fragrance of your oils than all kinds of spices! Your lips, my bride, drip honey; honey and milk are under your tongue, and the fragrance of your garments is like the fragrance of Lebanon."  Happy anniversary to my love and my best friend, and may we have many more decades of milk and honey together!

A Little of This, A Little of That

Garden Planted
Last week, I was alone, as my husband was away on a business trip.  I took the opportunity to get some things done around the house that I'd been meaning to do for a while, and on that list was my garden.  We had a hot stretch of weather, so I tried to pick the cooler dry day of the week to get out there, but it was still in the 80s when I went out last Wednesday evening to work my garden and plant some veggies.  As you can see, though, I was able to get almost everything in!  I purchased my peppers and cucumbers from the store, but I planted a patch of beans, four ears of corn, and a row of pumpkins.  I am waiting to plant my second patch of green beans until after the first patch sprouts, and I'm hoping to get a prolonged bean crop this way.  One interesting note: as I was digging holes for my cucumber plants, I began to notice some fine roots around the bases of the limbs we used for trellising.  Apparently, the branches are still alive and trying to take root!  Did not expect that.  Hopefully, it won't last and they will eventually dry out and give up.  We'll see!

Can't wait for everything to grow!

Little red pepper plants

Cucumber plant!

Saturday Fun 

When hubby did return Friday night, we made plans for Saturday!  We spent the morning at rummage sales, and it was a beautiful day for it.  I found a lady who was selling parts of her plants from her garden, and purchased an iris and a shoot of bee balm, which I hope to plant near my garden to attract butterflies and such.  We also found a neat little camping lantern at another sale, and were happy with our finds.  After that, we got some lunch, went to the grocery store, and came home to work on our neglected yard.  We are thinking about replacing our brick patio with a poured concrete one, because we seem to get a lot of weeds and have ants tunneling underneath.  It would be considerably less maintenance to have a concrete patio area.  After the yard work, we ate dinner and had a nice fire in our outdoor fire pit.  That was the night of the mega moon, and it did look bigger than normal.  Over all, we had a great day together.  I'm just not the same when my husband is gone--he is my best friend and favorite companion, and I miss him terribly when he's away.

Garage Sale Plants

Roaring Fire

Burning Embers

Mega Moon

Vacation Plans

I mentioned in my last post that we'd made plans for our anniversary trip.  We've decided to go to Cincinnati for several days, and we'll be staying at a beautiful B&B in Kentucky called the Willis Graves House.  We'll be staying in the log cabin, and I'm so excited!  It looks so rustic and perfect.  I'm especially interested in finding out just how a steam shower works.  We were referred to this B&B by the innkeeper of the Ivy House B&B, who said that if we were ever in the Cincinnati area, this was the place to stay.  I looked it up after we got home and fell in love.  I knew eventually that we'd end up in Cincy for something, so I kept it in mind, and it worked out to go down there for our anniversary.  We'll be seeing two Reds games, and we plan to visit the zoo and The Creation Museum.  Hopefully, we'll also have a day to do some antiques shopping and just take it easy.  I'm very excited for our trip.  I enjoy it when we can get away together and see new things.  I'll take lots of photos, of course!

Mother's Day 
This Sunday is Mother's Day.  To the mothers in my life, and all of the mothers out there, I hope you have a great day!  Thanks for all that you do for your children, even though it might take them years or decades to realize all that you sacrificed for them.  So take the day off and go shopping.  You deserve a day of pampering!

Have a virtual rose plant!

Since we will be traveling in a few weeks, I know that we'll run into all sorts of people--some nice, some strange, and some just mean.  Many will not be Christian.  Most likely, 80% of those you interact with (outside of church) are not Christians, and/or have no Christan background.  I have a hard time connecting with those who don't share my beliefs, and therefore have a hard time creating meaningful conversation with many people.  It's really something I've never been great at--I would not call myself a people-person at all!  I can work on it, but it's a character trait, and likely will never change.  I would just end up being like one of those people who make awkward, strange conversation at parties with other guests--you know who they are.  As a result, I am the kind of person who has a small but loyal group of friends.  So when I saw this passage today, it caught my attention: "Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person." (Col. 4:5-6).  This is something I should be striving for, not shying away from: for while actions are necessary to share Christ with others, sometimes it is our words that can carry the most weight.  Words have so much power!

The Little Things

Howdy!  How does time fly by so quickly?  Hubby informed me that it's been twenty days since my last post.  So, to the one person who checks my blog frequently for updates, I apologize for the delay in posting.

There's nothing better than taking pleasure in the little things in life.  So, I've decided that this will be the topic of this entry.  There are no big things going on right now, and I'm okay with that.  In a few weeks, my hubby and I plan to take a trip to celebrate our eight year wedding anniversary, but I'll tell you more about that another time.  It's so hard to believe that we've had eight years together, and despite the ups and downs, they have been the happiest eight years of my life.  I wouldn't change a thing.  And most of the time, it is the little things about our life together that I love most.  So, I present to you: The Little Things.

One day, as I was getting ready for work, I noticed my husband's bar of soap on the ledge in the shower.  It's not uncommon for him to use absolutely as much of the soap as he possibly can.  Here is a great example:

When I saw this, I started laughing very hard.  It was wafer-thin.  I kindly set a new bar of soap out for him to use the next time he was in the shower.

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When the weather warms up, I don't like to wear socks.  I like to paint my toenails fun colors and go out in sandals whenever I can.  When the weather was in the 80s back in March, I had cabin fever and was wearing sandals for several days.  So, I decided it was time to break out the nail polish and paint the piggies:

I went with a periwinkle paint and a multi-color sparkle top coat.  Sadly, the weather turned cold again and I've had to keep my toes covered ever since.  The paint job has held up remarkably well, though!

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I read online somewhere that you can grow lettuce indoors all year 'round, as long as you are able to keep the plants in a sunny spot.  Our house doesn't have any great spots for growing plants, except for one window in the kitchen that I've put a low table in front of to keep plants on.  I planted four romaine lettuce plants in a glass bowl and set them out:

Sadly, not long after this was taken, the plants gave up and died.  But there's hope in the future, though--in the background are seeds for other delicious goodies I plan to plant, possibly this coming week.  So rest in peace, lettuces.  I'll plant my garden in your honor this year.

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Our back yard contains one large lilac shrub.  I say shrub, but it's taller than the roof line on our house, and it's getting hard for me to reach the blossoms.  The lilacs bloomed extremely early this year, so by the time I found them open, half had already passed their prime.  But I managed to find one good bunch that hadn't faded quite yet:

At a few stores, I have been having the good luck of finding old bottles.  I have never been interested in old bottles until now, and I'm starting to love the look and character of the old glass.  I have a collection of four now, and the one in the picture is from my collection.  It's an old blue Philip's Milk of Magnesia bottle.  I loved the color, and it looked so great with the lilac sprig inside.  I tied the last of a spool of purple iridescent ribbon around the mouth of the bottle and had myself a nice little fragrant centerpiece.  The lilacs only lasted a day inside, but they looked and smelled like the spring.  

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One day this week, we woke up to a surprise.  In my half-awake state, when I got up for work, hubby, who gets up a half hour earlier than me, grumpily told me to look outside.  I did, and this was what I saw:

The first picture is of the two trees in our front yard.  The next photo is of the view down the rest of the street.  Some kids must have been bored the night before, and decided to leave those of us in the neighborhood with a festive toilet paper surprise.  It was annoying, because they make the mess and we all have to clean it up.  But we know from past experience that they could have done much worse.  Living in the country with a booby-trapped moat can't come soon enough for us!  Oh, did I say booby-trapped moat?  I meant duck pond (insert evil laugh here).

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My hubby decided to take a day off of work and spend the day with me today.  We decided to take a trip up to one of our favorite hangouts--the Toledo Zoo.  We had a great time and a beautiful day to enjoy together.  Here are a few photos from our day trip:

The polar bears were particularly active today.  There are three in the exhibit, but the two above were having the most fun.  Check out the teeth on the bear on the right in the bottom picture!

It's not easy to look this good all of the time.

 

 Just too pretty to pass up taking a picture.

I'm not so sure that this zebra is happy to be a part of the carousel.

The new tiger cubs...being cute is hard work.

The giantest crab I've ever seen.

 Even weirder close up.  "Look out, I peeench."

The Conservatory.  50 degrees outside.  100 degrees inside.  Not kidding.  Hot for even me.

 

 I didn't know you could grow Cheetos in a pot!

 A springtime stroll through the beautiful gardens.

 Mother Tiger, enjoying the peace and quiet of napping cubs.

 Come on, let us in!  We want to watch TV!!

Twweeeeet!  I'll give you the bird stink eye if I want to!

And thus concludes my observations of the little things that make life interesting.  I hope you've enjoyed them, too!

God loves it when we delight in Him and His creations.  Every time I look around, I marvel at the world that surrounds us.  If you stop and really think about it, it's astounding and reassuring that my Creator is an awesome God.  I have no doubt in my mind that He created the heavens and earth, and not some big bang.  I will never be convinced otherwise.  Romans 1:20 says, "For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—His eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse."  Psalm 37:4 says, "Delight yourself in the LORD; and He will give you the desires of your heart."  I will delight always in the beauty of God's creation, and it will always be a reminder of what a great and awesome God we serve!

Easter Fun

Not a whole lot going on right now.  I am sick with yet another cold.  Third one since Christmas.  It's getting old.  We had my husband's parents over last weekend for a visit, so I decided to be creative.  We were planning to grill shish kebabs, and I wanted to make some deviled eggs.  I saw this idea originally on Pinterest, so I decided that this would be a great time to make them.

I started out with six eggs.  I bring them to a boil, then cover the pan, turn off the heat, and leave them sit for twelve minutes.  Perfect boiled eggs every time.  (After they are done sitting in the hot water, I take them out and put them in the ice water to stop the cooking process.)  While waiting for the eggs to boil, I gathered my other items: Miracle Whip, McCormick food coloring, paprika, cider vinegar, and a bowl of ice water for the boiled eggs.

After the eggs are done, cut them in half and pop out the yolks.  I didn't match the bowl and the egg yolks.  That was just a neat coincidence.

I filled 12 oz tumblers with about 8 oz of water, added two teaspoons of vinegar to each glass, and dropped in the food coloring.  I think I started with three drops in each glass, then added three more.  I should mention that I don't think I've colored eggs since I was young...I know it's been since before I went to college.  So this was actually a learning experience.  Or, at least, relearning.  On a neat side note, if you put the egg whites in the water while the food coloring is swirled, you will get a sort of tye-dye effect.

So, I started out with the primary colors.  I dropped the eggs in and stirred to mix the water and food coloring.  I let the eggs soak for about five minutes each, then I placed them on a paper towel covering a plate to dry and absorb the extra coloring.

Then, I added food coloring to the existing colors to make secondary colors: orange, green and purple.

I let them sit and dry for another five minutes.  Don't let the different colored eggs touch--they will absorb the colors of the other eggs.

As the eggs dried, they darkened in color.  They continued to get brighter and more vibrant the longer they sat.  While they were drying, I mixed the Miracle Whip in with the egg whites (1/2 cup).  I spooned the mixture evenly into the egg whites, then sprinkled them with paprika.  Then I placed them on the serving plate, and voila!  A fun and tasty treat.  This would be something that you could make with kids--I'm sure they would like it.

On a side note, should you get any food coloring on your countertop like I did, there is a simple way of getting the dye off without permanently staining your surface: sprinkle baking soda over the stain, grab a small brush, wet it down, and start gently rubbing the stained area.  The color will immediately absorb into the baking soda, and come right off of your counter.  Pretty cool!

This weekend is Easter, or in some churches, Resurrection Sunday.  It is, of course, a celebration of Jesus' victory over death and the opportunity for us to be forgiven of our sins forever if we only accept Christ into our hearts and lives.  Once we do that, we are His forever.  As Galatians 2:20 says, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."  If you haven't asked Christ into your life, now would be a great time!  You never know when tomorrow won't come.

I love how the jet streams in the pre-dawn sky created a perfect cross above the church.