Fruits of my Labor

In June my mother-in-law came out from Florida for a visit. Seeing as I had an extra pair of hands I jumped at the chance to go pick out some plants for the "front yard."

(I put this in parentheses because we live in a condo complex so our front yard is actually the community land that I reclaimed for our growing purpose. I pray and hope that everyone enjoys ours plants and flower more than they enjoyed the dry, weedy, dirt patch that was previously there!

So to the nursery we went! We got soybeans and rubharb, a mini orange tree and a tomato plant, two watermelons and one honeydew. all of which my generous mother-in-law purchased for us. Yay for Moms!

The orange tree flourishes. (It is a bit hard to see with the zinnias growing in front of it. it is a dwarf tree after all. It the one with the new growth, the brighter green leaves and branches .)

The soy bean met a early demise when I pulled it thinking it was dead when it fact it was just ready to be harvested.

The rhubarb was destroyed from below, which I discovered when the whole thing wilted like an old salad!

The tomato is either going to take over the world or to solve world hunger (if we can just figure out the shipping costs).

The watermelons were very slow to produce but finally we got one lopsided melon that will be opened when sister bear gets home from school!

And the Melon, the inspirations for this post, produced three melons. The first one we harvested too early, being first time growers and not having any idea what we are actually doing! The second one I just tucked into this morning. I devoured the whole thing in less then 10 minutes. Thankfully I am the only family member who likes honeydew so i am allowed to do that. The third little melon was pulled out before it had a chance to grow (we are currently making room for our fall planting adventures).

So all in all. I'm hooked.

Five months later. Despite the wait, water usage, time and energy, money for dirt and plants, I'd say I am satisfied with our first attempt at growing our own food.

I guess you could say it was one delicious melon and it has me wanting more

May fall bring more gardening adventures, hopefully ending in something edible!

A hobby

I never thought I would find myself in this place.

Alone at 7:53 in the morning.

Desmond has ate and come and gone twice already.

Aubrey is currently experiencing a miracle. It appears

to me that she is going to hit the 8:00 mark for sleeping in.

I cannot despite trying very hard think of another day

since she was a wee baby that she has succeeding in

blessing and freaking her Mom out more.

How can she still be sleeping? Crazy.

So it looks like I need a hobby. After being basically stuck

in bed and then the house for over a week I am in need of an

outlet.

I'm just not sure what to pick.

I could finally learn to sew and stop "neglecting the

gift that is within me" like the quote on my sewing

machine warns me against. I've always loved the idea

of making clothes for my kids. Problem is all the girl

loves are pajamas. Maybe some loving crafted little tops and

dresses could convince her to actually enjoy getting dressed.

There is a photography class next month that seems interesting.

It might allow me to capture beautiful pictures of this quickly

passing season, instead of poorly lit oddly angled shots I take now.

Knitting was on my list of things to learn. Problem is

every time I start I pick up the needles to practice

I end up with weird scarves that bulge in and out and

not adorable little baby sweater. Odd how that works.

The point of the hobby was to get my creativity flowing and

give me a sense of self that wasn't wrapped up on

being a Mom.

But . . . as I look back on my list here every hobby

involves my kids. Baby steps I guess.

Well it is 8:09 and Aubrey has joined me, time to go snuggle.