Compost

Thursday mornings we are up and out the door early. So last Thursday it was breakfast on the go. I packed up our stuff and ran out the door. I passed the food back as I was driving and everybody ate. After Ella was finished with her banana she turned to Isaac, who had just finished eating his banana, and told him to throw his peel in the compost. It was a very proud moment for me. You see I'm big on composting. When we got home I asked the kids to unload the breakfast trash and I asked for the banana peels. Ella told me "We put them in the compost." "How" I asked her, "we just got home." "Me and Isaac made a compost pile in the car." she told me. She was so proud of herself. She had the biggest smile on her pretty little face. So I just smiled and told her that I was very happy that she is composting but if she could do it in the back yard that would make me even more happy. So she quickly moved her compost pile to the back yard. I love that girl. These kids ROCK!

We have larvae

So this morning we went out to check for larvae and tada we have em!They are kinda ugly. So we'll have more "ladies" to help in the garden. It was cool this morning so I am kinda worried about my growing watermelons. They are getting bigger every day. This is the watermelon Ella was holding the other day.And look at what I found today!Another watermelon! I do have to move this puppy on the inside of the garden since its just hanging there. We picked one cantaloupe and several bell peppers.

Sayonara Aphids

So along with my bloomin garden and the hustle and bustle of cool bugs coming around, we encountered our first "bad" bug. Well not just one, but tons, of aphids! They are tiny green dots that eat your beautiful plants. I found them one morning and decided to wait and see what happened. Little did I know that these little things would quickly multiply to tons of little green dots on my plants. YUCK! They gave me the ebbie geebies!!After confirming with my hippie daughter, Alexis, that they were aphids we called all the local stores for lady bugs. She also informed me that aphids are asexual that's why there were so many. Home Depot, Lowes, and Callaways didn't have any! So I called the nursery I should have called called first.DUH! That place has everything and more! Of course they had my ladybugs. So I headed on down and bought a container full of them 1500 to be exact. I took em out of the refrigerator and put those little ladies to work. The kids were so excited! Isaac held the container and quickly put it down and told me his body was itchy. I think the lady bugs gave HIM the ebbie geebies. The hippie wanted them to crawl on her, surprise, surprise.Notice Isaac was no where to be found. Did you know that "the ladies" can eat up to 50 pests per day? Just look at them work.After a few days of feasting and drinking water the container said they would begin to lay eggs. WOOHOO! More ladies to help in the garden, how exciting. So one morning when hippie was checking on the ladies she ran in and told me they were all mating. Avery (8yo) said, "their what?" So I explained that in a couple of days we'll have more ladies! We all ran out to see em. After their mating party we saw that they stayed a couple more days.We're still checking daily to see if we spot any larvae which look like like alligators with orange spots that will turn into lady bugs 2 weeks later. I'll let you know if we spot any. Meantime we have said Sayonara to the aphids, and we couldn't be happier. By the way we couldn't miss a learning opportunity so we are now studying about the ladies that were so helpful. I'll post pictures later.

I have melons!

Cantaloupes people, geez, get your head out of the gutter. My garden is a bloomin with cantaloupes, watermelons, bell peppers, jalapenos, and a pumpkin plant that has recently taken off. Just look at these puppies!See how these are just hangin there? Isn't it amazing how God created these climbing vines to be able to hold such a heavy fruit? I keep watching it to see if I have to sling them but nothing yet. Lexy is so excited, her favorite fruit is growing in our own backyard!Next to my cantaloupe plant I have a watermelon plant. It has a bunch of small fruit, isn't just the cutest thing you ever did see?However, within a week this little watermelon turned into this. I don't know how big it'll get before fall really gets here, but we'll see. Check out these bell peppers.And can't forget the jalapenos.Our plans are to cut into the cantaloupe this weekend so I'll keep you posted on how they tasted. I love having my garden. The kids have learned so much and have been so interested in it, I'm planning on having them pick their own plant for the Spring.

Our School Room

My "Handy Manny" built us the coolest spot for our school room. He sacrificed half of his man space (the garage). He built a wall, painted the concrete garage floor and put in 6 can lights. He also installed our rug that outlines the floor and secured it down so it doesn't move. He textured the walls and put a fresh coat of paint on all the walls. Installed beautiful trim on the bottom and has made all the doors weather proof. It stays cool so far, we will see in the winter. The kids are so excited to get started everyday and learn in their room. I sometimes catch them in there just a playin away. So here ya go...the pictures. This is our bookcase that we named Senor Bookcase. We store our library books in a seperate bin on the floor. The kids are responsible for keeping them in there since we check out tons of books, I can't be gettin them all mixed in with our books. I'm still working on the calendar on the floor. One day it will be hung with the Month and days all correct and lookin pretty. On the next wall close to Senor Bookcase is a wall with some of Avery's art work and Isaac's cross. That is the door that leads to the rest of the garage. Next is my favorite wall. It's the only one painted blue, my favorite color, it has art work from Lexy and Avery. We installed a rope with clothespins to hang the art work with. As soon as the littles start making art stuff to hang up we'll change them out monthly. See our table? I found it on Craigslist for $50, it came with 5 chairs, but I only use four.Next to our table is Lexy's spot. She has her own computer and she decorated her spot with her framed art work.I keep our curriculum and other stuff in this armour, my elyptical is on one side and the kids kitchen is on the other. I'm waiting for my world map and my US map from Mardel to come in. Above the kitchen is where it will go. That's it! We have lots of open space for the kids to play. As the year goes on I'll post pics of the kids using their cool new space. Our school room took my "Handy Manny" one week to get it up and ready for us. We love it! Thanks Honey, you ROCK!

I'm baaaaaack!

Wow, I can't believe I have not blogged about anything since our big championship win. We have had some major changes around here. First my sweet husband lost his job in June and the initial shock was unbearable. After seeking some amazing, Godly counsel, I refocused and became the biggest cheerleader ever. I knew it was my job to encourage this man Jesus gave me. So after reading several scriptures I was able to cheer him on, and with that he started his own business. We have been so humbled by the Lord and his favor has been on our family. I took the advice of a friend and have now recruited the children to pray for their father for his needs. Work being the main one at the moment. Its really neat to see our kids fervently pray and believe with all their heart that if they ask, Jesus WILL answer. Just the other night I heard our littlest talking, after being tucked in, so I went in her room only to find her on her knees at the foot of her bed praying for her Daddy. So I joined her and we both prayed for him. Jesus has brought our family closer. We pray for everything around here. He is our provider.

The other biggest change around here is that we have decided to homeschool our oldest child. She was in a private school since the 2nd grade and I really thought the girl was going to HATE us for pulling her out. After MUCH prayer and again Godly counsel we told her our plans for her and she was OK with it all. She is in the 8th grade now and I never thought I'd say this but....I love her being at home with us. I always had the little three at home with me, so it felt like I had two sets of kids. One that went away for school and one that was always with me. Now I know I'm not perfect, but I really want to teach her everything. Not just academics but how to be a wife, friend, and mom. I just want to be the greatest influence in her life right now and not a group of hormonal boys and girls. She is enrolled in a co-op once a week and a world view class once a week. We had orientation for the world view class and we both had a blast. She made friends quickly and the parents were so nice, we both had never experienced such kindness so quickly. She told a friend of ours she was excited about homeschooling! Jesus has really softened her heart, and I am so thankful. She has been such a joy to be around. The littles love her being around them all day. Tonight she asked if she could read to them before bed. I was SHOCKED! I had only dreamed and prayed for her transition to be this smooth. Jesus you ROCK! Tomorrow pictures of the new school room!

WE WON! WE WON! CITY CHAMPS!

My sweet little boy Isaac started playing t-ball this year. This was our team's first year to play and we had no idea what we were doing the first couple of games. However, I took on the role of score keeper, and team mom! Tino was assistant coach and our little boy was catcher! Isaac took on the name "Chicken Little" because well he looks like Chicken Little when he goes up to bat! He's a lefty so everytime I tried to station myself to take pictures of all or our batters I could never move and interrupt the game just to get on the other side and get a good picture, so that's why you only see his back. Our season record was 9 wins and 3 losses. After a season filled with rain, game cancellations, and lots of learning, I am proud to announce that we won our first ever city championship! I still am in amazement! Our boys played hard and gave everything they had. Yes even at 5 they understood what they were supposed to do and boy did they come through! We beat the undefeated Sidewinders. Here are some highlights!

Superhero!

This morning I was a little worried since I didn't hear the kids playing. No sound is NOT good, but in this case it was. I found Ella and Jacob, my nephew, in the toy box looking for super hero stuff. This is what they looked like when they were all done. Ella dressed them both.

Ballet Recital

Last weekend was the girls' ballet recital. This was Ella's first year to be in ballet. Well actually her class name is "creative movement", its not even ballet yet, how funny is that? This is her bun, this thing took me 45 minutes to do, she waited so patiently. I was her class backstage mom. This is her at the dress rehearsal. Her class were the pink lollipops. She was not scared at all, even when she was on that big stage. See all the girls lifting up their lollipops? Well the teacher taught them to hold it up like saying "look at my lollipop" and the girls would say it, it was so precious. This is Ella waiting to go on stage to perform. Avery's class were the Candy Land Kids. This is her four year of ballet. This is her at her dress rehearsal.Most of our family came to the recital. This is Tino's older brother and his family.This is Tino's sister's family. These are Tino's parents.These are my parents. These are all the kids that came to the recital. we had a great time and the girls did so good, I'm so proud of them both.