Gratitude Sunday

I am grateful for my beautiful daughter, who sleeps so peacefully regardless of where she lies.

I am grateful that the work on our house is finally completed and we'll be moving back home this week.

I am grateful for the support of my family and friends in the last few months. This has been really tough.

I am grateful to be moving home in time to plant my garden. Sure, it's a little late for the cool weather crops. But I am still grateful!

I am grateful that we had a safe place to stay during the repair of our home. And I am grateful not to live in this apartment any longer.

The last 3 months...

Things have been hectic. Miss Mariella turned ONE in November! Here she is, enjoying the banana cake that I made for her. Life with a toddler is crazy...I find only a few quiet moments here and there to myself. I will blog regularly again one day...but not now!

And then....this happened:



Two days after Christmas, a tree fell onto our house. Not our tree. We are currently living in an apartment while major repairs are done to our house. All three of us were together, in the room where the tree hit. We were very, very, very lucky. This is the sort of thing that reminds us how blessed we all are to be here, every moment.

I am currently trying to plan how I will garden, since right now we aren't sure if we'll be back in the house by spring planting time. The good news- it has been so mild this winter, spinach that I planted in the cold frame made it the entire winter!

Butternut Bonanza

While I may go down in history as the worst and least prolific blogger EVER, I can proudly proclaim "I am GOOD at growing Butternuts!"

I will admit to all of you, however, that I did not intend so many squashes. My mom and I used seeds that we saved from last year's harvest. Being new to saving our own seeds, we didn't note that we should have been paying attention to what varieties we were attempting to save. I planted three hills of Acorn Squash seeds saved from last year, and three of Butternut. I got SIX hills of Butternut. Apparently the hybrid acorn squash reverted to its parent plant, which must have been butternut.

I count 14 harvested so far, with six more or so still ripening in the garden.

I couldn't be prouder.

August!

August is just flying by!!
Miss Mariella is now 9 months old, crawling fast and pulling up to stand. She is not content to sit still for even a moment.

My garden is now in the "hurry up and wait" stage...waiting for all of the squashes and pumpkins to ripen! I discovered this squash hidden underneath my day lilies, had no idea it was there until last night.

My life...

Small squashes...

...make big Hubbards (I hope!)

It was time...

...to harvest the first zucchini! Having planted TWO zucchini plants, I am suddenly reminded of why I really only need ONE zucchini plant.

One smart plant?

Rather, one confused plant. Notice not one of the three large plants has any blossoms on it. The little guy with the blossom was a seedling that I had thinned but decided to re-root itself. Guess this plant has a strong will. It's earned the right to stay in the garden :)

First peas...

Around the Garden

I finally had some time to grab some pictures of what is happening in my little garden this year. I have a tendency to want to plant everything and then am disappointed when not much grows. I decided instead to plant just a few varieties of things I knew we'd eat. In the raised beds I have zucchini, yellow squash, hubbard squash, acorn squash and pumpkin. I've also got basil for making pesto, and one red pepper plant. My Mama visited last weekend and got all of these beds nicely weeded for me- don't they look great?

We're in the process of replacing our old white lattice fence with a hand built wooden one. Doesn't the wooden fence look so much better? I think it is so beautiful.

I repurposed an old trunk and its drawers for planting in. Below are lettuce and peas.
I didn't plant this lettuce this year...I planted it last year and it never came up. Apparently it was just waiting for the right time to show up!
And here are my baby peas! I usually plant Sugar Snap, but this year I planted a regular shelling pea instead. Anxiously waiting to see how they taste.

And here is my little helper, riding in the front pack carrier while I took pictures. (It is very, very difficult to take a picture straight down of a little wiggling baby!)

{this moment}

Today I'm joining SouleMama for {this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Joy

I can honestly say that I have never had as much joy in my life as I have now. Joy in watching my beautiful girl learning something new every day, joy in feeling like I know myself better now than I ever had before, joy in all of my accomplishments as a mom and as a person. I laid out in the yard on Sunday, in the sunshine, and nursed my little girl right there under the trees. In that moment, I thought to myself, I have arrived as a mother and as a strong, beautiful woman. I have never been so confident in myself as I am right now, today. I am joyful today. Tired, but joyful.

Outdoor Girl

As I had hoped, Miss M loves to be outside! She sat on a blanket and played while my mom and I got some much-needed weeding done in the veggie beds. I'm sure she'll be helping me with the garden soon enough. I wonder what she'll think of the pumpkins and squashes when they are ready for harvest?

Everything is growing!

I'm still here, folks. Sorry for the (lengthy) gaps in blog entries. I had such high hopes when I started this blog, and then life just sort of happened!
All sorts of things going on around here. Miss Mariella is now 6 and 1/2 months old and there is just no stopping her! She's rolling everywhere and working on getting up on her hands and knees to crawl. Boy, will I be in trouble. The house is far from child-proofed! Hard to find the time while working full time and taking care of her. She is such a joyful, easy going baby. Every day I am amazed by how much she is learning and how fast she is growing.

I was able to find the time to get a small veggie garden planted. Peas, zucchini, Butternut and Hubbard squash, and pumpkins. Hopefully I'll be able to harvest some veggies and make some of Miss M's food. I got a late start this year...we had such a late frost last year that I wanted to make sure I didn't lose any little seedlings to cold weather this year. I shouldn't have worried...it hit 90 degrees last week. I think it will be a long, hot summer.

Hopefully I'll be able to get some pictures of my garden up within the next week or so. If anyone is still out there and following...thanks for being so patient! :)

Wow, time flies! She's seven weeks old already. I promise to update this blog more, now that I'm getting *some* sleep!

Big news!

Mariella Katherine Little Evans was born 11/19/10 at 11:37 p.m. I was induced at 36 1/2 weeks for preeclampsia. That's a story for another day! She weighed 4lbs, 15 oz and is as healthy as can be. Welcome, little one.

The month of October...

I'll be 34 weeks pregnant on Monday. My brain has been going in a thousand different directions for the last month and I've totally neglected this blog. I'm sure that won't get any better anytime soon, but I'll try :)

Busy, busy, busy!

It seems I've been really sparse on the blog postings lately. I never was a prolific writer by any means, but two weeks is just too long between posts! My apologies- baby seems to be in all of my thoughts and I find it hard to concentrate on anything else.

My parents came down from New Hampshire this past weekend to help me paint the nursery. While here, I asked them to help crack open the 7 pound Hubbard squash. I didn't think I had a knife big enough. I'm glad I asked for the help- it took the two of them, a large knife, and a hammer to get into the thing! It is absolutely beautiful inside- perfect! I'll save the seeds and then make a squash puree for a pie.

As unsuccessful as my garden was this year (Final tally: two Hubbards, two zucchini, three cherry tomatoes, two turnips, and four small pumpkins), I feel extraordinarily blessed with everything that I have and everything I accomplished.

I can't wait to teach my little one all about gardening.

The last veggie

This is the very last hold out in the garden. All of the other veggies have been picked, the vines have started to wither and fall is coming quickly. I hope this Hubbard has time to ripen! It's not nearly as big as the other one (7 pounds at harvest) but will make a nice baked stuffed squash. The big one is destined to be a pie, I think, if I can find a knife big enough to cut it open!

Spotted in the garden...