Favorite & Least Favorite Things

My garden is coming along. although nowhere near the lush and overflowing garden of my dreams. I just don't have the green thumb some people have, but at least I no longer kill plants with a mere touch.

I was so excited earlier this week to see my very first ever broccoli crown in my garden. Last year I planted six broccoli plants and got nothing. This year I tried nine and was ready to give up hope since broccoli is supposed to be ready in April. I planted them in February like the old timer at the Farmer's Market told me...Here it is the end of May and I have three crowns of various sizes. Lets just hope they don't go immediately to flower if it finally warms up around here.

The other areas of the garden are coming along. The squash & bean plants seem to be doing well enough. I got no squash, even zuchinni, last year so I am hoping that this year will be better.


The black beans above are from plants Emily decided to plant late last fall. They started coming up early this Spring and we already have pods. They have done really well sharing the pots with the leaf lettuce that Emily also scattered this Spring. Emily may have the green thumb in the family.

My tomatoes are showing a bit of distress, and I have no idea why. There are a couple baby tomatoes already, but the plants don't look well. And, my green pepper plants don't seem to be growing. Not the fruit, but the plants themselves. I've always had good luck with pepper plants, so I am at a loss.

The head lettuce is at the end of their season and ready for me to cut out. The leaf lettuce is still good, and since are in a partly shaded spot may give me a few more weeks.

The garden has been one of my favorite things to watch these past couple of weeks.

Also this week I've had to do one of my least favorite things: interviewing and collecting quotes from contractors for home improvement projects. We are getting gutters put back up, the chimney needs repairs and we are replacing a few of our windows. The chimney guy has given us a great deal and he was easy since we already knew who we wanted to us. DH has chosen the gutter company and all we have to do is give him a call and set up the day to have it done. The windows are giving us fits, probably because it was somewhat unexpected. I ended up breaking the glass in a window that cannot be repaired, so we are replacing all the similar windows. Quotes are all over the place and comparing them is difficult since windows can vary so much in quality.

Between meeting with contractors, I've been organizing and pulling out unnecessary homeschool materials. I have even sold some...DH was floored when I told him that I was actually getting rid of some of our stuff. It is all with getting inline with our new approach using books, online resources, manipulatives and unit studies. We will pretty much only have a 'curriculum' for Mary's math this next year.

We are glad the week is almost over and DH will be home for a long weekend. No soccer games this weekend, so the time is all our own!!!

Peace,

Amy