Our First Vegetable Garden

This year we planted our first vegetable garden! 

We're almost three weeks into it so I thought I'd give a little update.

We picked up a simple raised bed garden kit from SAM's, which was perfect for what we wanted to plant. I used Gardner's Supply Company's Kitchen Garden Planner to decide on what plants we wanted to plant, as well as to determine good placement. We also consulted some friends who have been gardening for way longer than we have!

I really love that there are pre-planned, themed gardens on Gardener's Supply Company website. Having a purpose for the food you are growing helps to keep you motivated and also prevents waste. 

I call our little garden my salsa garden because I have big plans to make (and possibly can) some fresh salsa if we have enough produce. We planted tomatoes, bell peppers (red, yellow, and green), jalapeno peppers, banana peppers, cilantro, parsley, and cucumbers.

Most of our plants have been coming up nicely. 

We've only lost one cucumber plant so far, but we still have hope for the other three. We've since replaced it's spot in the garden with some green onions. Our next project is to create a trellis for the remaining cucumber plants, which would allow them to grow up instead of out.

Our tomatoes are caged now, and we're seeing some little baby tomatoes popping up on the vine! So exciting!

Roma Tomatoes

Parsley

Bell Pepper

Having a garden has been a great experience for our family so far.  The boys help to water it, and Silas knows the names of the plants. I'm hoping this will inspire them to eat their veggies as well! Kevin and I have also enjoyed learning about gardening together and having fun around a common interest. All in all, I think it was a good decision! I'll update more throughout the summer.

How does your garden grow?

 

Food & Fun (January 11)

Yesterday was a whirlwind of a day.

The boys woke up with the energy of a thousand horses, and I had lots of cleaning and preparing to do for our annual church leadership dinner.

And, we moms know, those two things just don't mix. When the boys are home I spend 99% of my time cleaning their new messes, and 1% of my time trying to work through normal everyday messes. I always tell people, my house is usually "picked up," but it's certainly not clean. I need reinforcements to actually clean.

The boys had an early morning Wiggles dance party.

Which is where my wonderful husband comes in. He gave me two options: (1) he could stay home and help me clean or (2) he could take the boys out of the house so that I could clean alone. As any mom with an ounce of sanity left would choose, I chose option number 2. So I packed the boys bag, shipped them out, and got to work! I had some grocery shopping to to, and after that I came home and geared up to clean. I typically don't wear shorts in the winter time, but desperate times call for desperate measures. And, of course, I never clean without my earbuds in.

I can't keep any mirror or glass in my house clean to save my life.

 As far as food for the day, I had a granola bar and coffee for breakfast (6 PPV), and then a Crunchy Peanut Butter Cliff bar for lunch (7 PPV). The Cliff bars are high in points, but I used it as a meal replacement since I didn't want to take the time to clean any more dirty dishes prepare anything. It gave me the energy I needed to make it through the afternoon.

It was a busy day, but all the hard work certainly paid off! We had an awesome time of fellowship with some of the sweetest people we know! Kevin and I are blessed to have such committed partners in ministry. We ate together, shared together, and played a really fun game together, which was probably the highlight of the night.

We played the LOGO board game. We split into 4 team (namely The West Side, The Best Side, Bankrupt, and The Missing Link), Mrs. Dixie MC'd, and I kept score. We laughed till we cried.

For dinner I had a little spaghetti, a little fettuccine, a side salad, a piece of garlic bread, and some corn. For dessert I had a little boullie over angel food came and a cupcake. I didn't track anything, but I practiced portion control, which is what Weight Watchers is all about. Some people shy away from Weight Watchers because they worry about times like these when tracking is impossible. For me, I consider time like these the true test of my commitment to a healthy lifestyle. I practice what I've learned and call it a day.

Hope you're having a great weekend!