(This is 2 weeks old, will post soon again)
It's
official: Spring is here!! In spite of temperature swings, late frosts
(and more predicted), and crazy hail storms, we have had enough warm
days to really believe Spring is here. In fact, it's 83 degrees today,
and our plants are waking up out of dormancy! Since it's been so long
since we posted, we thought we'd give you an update on what we're all up
to right now, and how our potager (kitchen garden) is doing.
Daffodils and crocus coming up in front of the house!!
John
is still working part-time at both COSTCO and Home Depot. We are
praying for a full-time job at COSTCO sometime this year, preferably a
supervisor position. Since COSTCO is such a good company to work for,
getting a full-time job is really competitive and requires a lot of
patience. We are praying for favor and that it would happen this year.
John has been working in the wine department for several months, and
doing so well that when the foods supervisor requested he be moved the
the Foods department, his manager said no, since John was too valuable
in his current department. Then the Foods manager also requested John's
transfer, so it does look like he will be moving departments next week. I
figure it's a good thing they are fighting over him, and it shows what a
valuable worker he is. Everyone loves him at Home Depot, and they keep
offering him full-time jobs, but he's really holding out for COSTCO. In
the mean time, he has an excellent attitude in spite of long hours and
an irregular schedule and I am so proud of him!!
Felicity and John's first bike ride together!
I
am so blessed to be able to stay at home with Felicity full time. I
also teach lessons on Skype 4 to 5 days a week, which is great because
it allows me to keep my teaching skills current while still staying home
with the Babes and bring in a little extra income. I mostly teach
reading and writing skills to ESL students in Beijing, along with some
grammar and a lot of conversation. They are excellent students, and
we've had fun reading books like the Narnia series, the Hunger Games
series, the Giver series, and
Number the Stars. This semester,
I've also been teaching an intro to Acting class to my brother who
homeschools. It's an interesting challenge to have a Theatre class
through the computer to only one student, but it's been tons of fun!!
Believe it or not, our little Felicity Rose turned a year last month!
She
is walking and climbing all over the place, getting into cupboards and
drawers and food left and right, and making all kinds of messes. She
loves to carry her baby dolls around with her, constantly stopping to
hug and kiss them (apparently we kiss her a lot!) She is a danger to
other kids as she cannot resist accosting them with a big hug and kiss!
She loves spending time outside, eating dirt and rocks, and occasionally
uprooting Mommy's plants. Here she is, helping Dad build a table:
She
is such a little mimic, observing everything around her. She likes to
bark at dogs, tweet at birds, and point at everything that interests
her. We've had such a wonderful year, and can't wait to see what the
next one will bring.
Since moving to this house a year
ago, I have discovered a love for gardening and watching things grow,
especially edibles. I started out with two raised beds, and have added
bit by bit to where we now have a full-fledged potager, complete with
some fruit trees and bushes. My creative husband is excellent at
building stuff out of found or discounted materials, so we've done
everything inexpensively. My goal is to grow most of our veggies during
the warm months and have some extra to can, pickle, and ferment. I've
been sowing seeds for about a month, and with this warmer weather, I am
starting to see the fruits (or vegetables) of my labor. So far, I have
sow my cool season crops: two kinds of peas, three kinds of carrots,
beets, radishes, onions, shallots, lettuces, mache, spinach, Swiss
chard, kale, turnips, cabbage, broccoli, artichokes and potatoes. In
another month, I will sow and/or plant out the warm season crops. My
herbs are also starting to come out of dormancy or to grow, and we've
already starting enjoying those a bit. We also have a bed of
strawberries, 6 raspberries, 4 grape vines, 4 currants (2 red and 2
black), and have blackberries on the way. So fun!! Here are some pics of
everything waking up.
Homemade cold frame made out of scrap wood and plastic drop cloth.
Raspberries coming up!
I planted two kinds of seed potatoes on St. Patty's day, and here are the first leaves peeping up.
Peas growing beautifully after all the rain we've had recently.
Our two row covers to protect the strawberry bed, cabbages, kale, turnips and broccoli.
Overwintering onions
Both the black currants and red currants we planted a couple of weeks ago are growing beautiful green shoots.
Asparagus crowns
My garden helper
