Showing posts with label goals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label goals. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Home and Garden Update!

Sometimes I feel like I say everything that's on my mind on facebook so I never blog! but I think I'll still try to post stuff about the house and about my garden on here :-)
Here's a few new pictures of things in the garden and around the yard. I've tried to do organic seeds this time, just to see how it goes. I will try to give descriptions under the pictures.

Our Cats Claw vine! We have heard that it is extremely invasive and that we have to really keep our eye on it because it will start to creep under window panels and doors and that it will start to grow all over the floor of our balcony if we don't keep it trimmed! Kinda looking forward to all that!!

Our Cats Claw's claws, haha. Its so cute to me how it has these little claws that help it climb up the wall!

Our Chamomile! I'm very excited about this! It smells so good. I harvested a bowl of it today and I'm going to try to make a tea out of it later...we'll see. Not a big fan of tea, but maybe if I make it myself, I'll like it more.

Mmmmm Yellow Squash! Lots of little blooms all over this little square foot! Excited to see what it brings this summer and fall!

Parsley! This is doing great! Some flowers were sneakin up on me, but thankfully I snipped them off before they went to seed. Once they go to seed, the leaves turn yellow. Thats what happened to my Cilantro and I ended up pulling it up.

Thyme!! Its growing a ton! This Thyme originally started from one little clipping off of someone else's garden. It took a while to mature, but now its doing fantastic! Its so good in some Italian recipes!

Pumpkins!! I really dont know a whole lot about pumpkins but as soon as I get some growth, I will flop them over the side of the garden bed and give them room to grow! I'm hoping to at least have a few to carve this Fall!

YUMMY Zucchini! I LOVE zucchini! Especially when its freshly harvested. I cant always tell the difference in flavor from things at the farmers market, but zucchini is one thing that I believe tastes significantly better. I barely have to cook it and I love it!

Crisp Cucumbers! This is growing so rapidly!! I LOVE cucumbers not only in salad, but also as a delicious tangy and spicy snack! fresh squeezed lemons or limes on top sprinkled with salt and chili powder or Pico Pica! YUM!

Lettuce! I have a few different kids of lettuce growing. Mixed, romaine and good old iceberg! It did well the last time I bought it about 4 inches tall already developed a little bit, this time I did it from seed! Excited to see how it goes! hopefully my neighbors trees and the tall cucumbers in front of it will protect it from the hot summer sun!

Juicy Watermelon! I CANT NOT WAIT for this to grow! I'm really hoping that by mid August while its still hot, I can harvest and chop it up during a summer BBQ!

SWEET CORN!! Oh this is growing so fast!! I cant believe it!! My research shows that I should be able to harvest some of this by July! Again, CANT WAIT to eat these during a warm summer BBQ!

Onions, Oh onions! Why do you make me cry! Literally! I don't know whats going on with them. I think they were a bit crowded so I thinned them out in hopes that they have more room to expand and turn it to yummy round ones!! The ones I thinned were actually looking pretty good! They are in my fridge ready to get chopped up!

Carrots! This one is the tallest so far. I had to plant more seeds this time because the previous batch just didn't want to germinate!! BOOO! Lets see how these do! We eat A LOT of carrots in our house some I'm hoping to master these little stubborn brats :-)

MINT! Holy smokes mint! You are a champion!! Today I tried to make some mint iced tea....not sure how much I liked it. going to try and perfect that. If anyone has any ideas about what to do with this or if you love mint and want some, please let me know!!

MORE PUMPKINS! I wanted to plant a few things in different sunlight so that I can see what the best results are for next time!

Heirloom Tomatoes! I am PRAYING that these will figure out how to grow! they're taking their time, but I LOVE these kind of tomatoes and I am really wanting to make salsas and sauces for canning! Wish them luck!

Peaches! My peach tree is so dinky for now but it has a little handful of peaches on it! Looking forward to standing out here on a warm day eating fresh peaches! ALSO preserving them in jars like my grandma does! OH they are so good! We don't even like normal canned peaches anymore because we've had the real deal! Andrew said..."Thanks a lot grandma for ruining all the other peaches for me! I'm too spoiled now to eat anything else!" hahaha. Excited to make fresh cobbler and peach pie as well!

Apricots! Cant wait til these are overflowing too! We'll throw some in the dehydrator, can some make some jam and whatever else we can! Oh and of course we will enjoy eating them straight off the tree!

Itty bitty little cherry tomato growth! Again, these little guys are taking their sweet time, hopefully getting nice and sweet.
My lonesome little pomegranate! It is the first and only thing we have planted in the front yard. It was given to my by a friend at church. I think he actually got a branch from his own tree growing in a pot! He gave it to us during the winter and I left it in the pot on a sunny part of my house until a few leaves were sprouting from it. As soon as spring came I planted it and its doing fantastic! I'm sure by next year, we'll have some awesome growth!
Homemade compost bin! Below you will see a few detailed pictures. I found this food grade 50 gallon drum on craigslist for $20. The rest of the supplies cost close to $40 because we hardly had any of them. It cost way more than I thought it would, but it was a fun project (not sure Andrew would agree, lol). The boys go out and roll it all the time. Its getting quite heavy. Every once and a while, we add some left over soil to it and we add all of our fruit and veggie skins, pits, leftovers and garden clippings (NO WEEDS)






Fun little solar powered lantern hung from the patio! they are so cute!! I'll take a nighttime picture soon too!

A couple different views of my new and improved kitchen! Over the Memorial Day weekend, Andrew and I busted out about 10 hours of taping, painting and touch ups! It was long and daunting, but SOOO worth it! I'm in love!! The windows in the kitchen will also be spiced up with some funky yellow and white damask curtains (once I can buy the fabric!)


So this tall connecting wall looks kinda funny right now but soon I will put a tall vase with tall iris' in the corner of the cabinets on top and it will more softly separate that paint. Then on top of this wall will be a couple long narrow rectangle pots where I will have vines and flowers growing and lanterns of different shapes and sizes will hang from the ceiling. Its all in my head for now :-) Pictures to come later on!

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Bringing in the new year!

So here it is, 2012, and I am really ready to make some new big changes in my life. So far we are doing great! We've hardly missed a night this month of family scripture study, family prayer and we haven't missed doing one Family Home Evening! The reading is tremendously helping our kids learn how to be faster readers and even Jordan (age 3) wants to get in on it every night. They are comprehending so much and that makes me so happy! Since the beginning of the year, I have prayed and read a chapter in the scriptures each morning and wrote in my journal each night. For 2 weeks now, I have done a vigorous 10 minute workout each day of the week along with an extra 10 minutes of warm up, cool down and stretching.

I've always had a hard time finding out how to live a balanced life, as with all of us. I always make up excuses that there isn't enough time in the day. But I have really begun to grasp the idea that there are 24 hours in a day for a reason. I can honestly say that I highly doubt we'd do any better at accomplishing more if there were 34 hours in a day instead. We'd just have another 10 hours to goof off and procrastinate. My goal is to accomplish my life long goals every day before anything else and since I have began to practice this goal, life just seems easier.

"Give us this day our daily bread......" Matthew 6:11. As I read in January's issue of the Ensign my eyes were really open to the simplicity of life. It doesn't say...."Give us this month our monthly bread" or "yearly" or even "weekly", it says "daily". ONE STEP AT A TIME! Editing pictures, facebooking, mopping the floors, doing laundry, scrubbing toilets, grocery shopping, paying bills, etc are NOT daily tasks! They may be frequent tasks, but they aren't something I want to do everyday for the rest of my life. BUT there are a few things that I can say I'd like to do almost everyday if not everyday for the the rest of my life. Those things for me would be: Morning prayer, morning scriptures, making my bed, quick exercise, being of service to someone, nightly family scripture study, nightly family prayers, nightly journal writing & nightly personal prayers. For some reason when I focus on just completing these morning and nightly routines, everything else falls into place. My house stays cleaner, my work gets done, my errands get done, my social life is still active, my brain is more clear, I'm happier, I feel better all together, my marriage is stronger than ever and my kids are behaving better. Its pretty miraculous! My morning prayers are focused more on the day I have in front of me and my nightly prayer is focused more on giving thanks for the day I got through and asking for guidance on how to do things better tomorrow. Stress seems to be almost entirely alleviated because all I have to do is get through today.

The moral of my story today is that yes, we can and should plan for the future. Get those goals and tasks down on a paper. Know where you want to be in the future and have that in your head, but today, live as if you were being tested on today and today only. Past issues will begin to be resolved and the future will begin to smoothly unfold with the grace intended. I cant say that I will always be able to take this advise myself, but I CAN say with a surety from past experiences, that this is the best way to live.


Tony- 10, AJ- 7, Jordan- 3
Taken December 26th 2011

Monday, August 23, 2010

Things I wanna do...

in no particular order....

1] Right now I have a big desire to witness the northern lights with my family and get it on camera! Hope that will happen when we go to Canada in December!

2] Stay in the Treetops Hotel in Kenya Africa with my family. Your room is high above the ground and they have different animal feeding times so you get to see all of the exotic animals out your balcony!

3] Go on a cruise pretty much anywhere at this point one with kids...one without

4] Photography in magazines (fashion/ photojournalistic)

5] A couple Cd's in stores (Christian music)

6] Couples mission for church with Andrew (anywhere Heavenly Father takes us)

7] Go on a Safari with family

8] Sky diving with Andrew

9] More books in stores

10] Go to Antelope Canyon, Az.

11] Visit Fiji (hopefully where our friend went on his mission)

12] Go to Ireland (the beautiful greeeeeeeeennnnn everywhere and castles and stuff!)

13] pretty much a lot of traveling....Visit somewhere in every continent even in Antarctica (Ice Hotel!)

14] Visit Temples all over the world

15] Go on a helicopter ride

16] Walk in as many places as Jesus walked (while on earth)

17] Own a lake house in the mountains...with boats, sea-doos and stuff

18] See the pyramids in Egypt

19] Cancun with my family

20] Send ANYONE in my family (parents, siblings, in-laws, etc.) on there dream vacation

21] have a paid off dream house....Dream house: master bedroom, room for each kids, kid play room, office, nice kitchen, studio (photography), beautiful 2 level backyard (top level with pool and big tree with treehouse, slides, swings from it) (bottom level with club house, garden, fruit trees)

22] have extra money to give whenever

23] Cadillac STS V

24] buy Andrew the motorcycle of his dreams

Im gonna have to get back to you on the rest.....I want to list 100!