Garden Update

Dave & I both grew up with parent's who garden and we must've inherited their green thumbs because we've had our own little garden of some sort in every home we've owned together. This is our biggest so far because we've lived here the longest. It started as one bed then every couple months it seemed he was eager to add on another. It is a joint effort but he keeps up with a lot of it when he's home and is always asking me how the garden is when he's away. Thankfully, he reminds me to water it too!

After running around all day yesterday and a serious thunderstorm last night I hadn't checked on the garden in at least two days so I was pretty surprised how huge the squash and tomato plants looked all of a sudden.

Then, after I noticed one of the potato plants was dead I looked down and saw potatoes lying right there near the top of the soil! These plants all came from one icky potato that was sprouting roots in my pantry. I figured I'd just cut it up, throw it in the soil and see what would happen. I had no idea if potatoes grew well in TX or not. Turns out they do and here is our whole bumper crop... we ate them for dinner sliced thin and sauteed in Meyer Lemon Infused Oil.


This last picture is of the first garden bed he built for us here. Its kind of the rogue garden, full of herbs I planted 3 years ago, Moonflower vines & Morning Glories that come back from seed, and my experiments like the above-mentioned potatoes and a few thriving tomato plants that came from a handful of moldy grocery-store cherry tomatoes I buried out there rather than throw in the trash. You can often find Cali in one corner of this garden munching on chives.

For more info on growing new plants from kitchen scraps (like my icky potato or moldy tomatoes) check out the book Don't Throw It, Grow It! You'll never look at your produce bin the same way again. Just to clarify, I don't own this book but I did glance through it at the store and it had tons of cool (although sometimes complicated & time-consuming) ideas.

Sea Mural

After playing Endless Ocean on Wii this morning we were inspired to make this ocean mural. Just some markers, crayons and stickers. Of course I did the incredibly life-like drawings of all the sea creatures but they did a great job adding in the water, sea weed, and other decorative elements. I really liked the creative way Cali colored the whale.

A-10 Demonstration

Since my Dad is retired Air Force, my brother is a Navy aviator (and his wife too!), and my husband an Army aviator I've seen my fair share of air shows and been around plenty of aircraft. I think this was my first A-10 demo though, very cool!



And Cali insisted I take this video of her showing her enthusiasm for the air show. She is attempting to do some of the dives and rolls we saw demonstrated.

Airshow

An annual event we've never made it to before. Wish Dave could have been here, he would have loved it. The kids had a great time and were so excited when I told them we were "going to watch airplanes do tricks." We took lots of pictures for him to see though...


For more info visit http://centraltexasairshow.com

Nature's Playground

What to do on a Saturday morning? Well the weather is nice (humid but not overly hot and not raining) so we went to one of our favorite parks. Cali grabbed our exploring gear on the way out so we headed down to the creek first thing.

If you want to make your own explorer's kit grab the following and throw it in a bucket:

• a small net (for scooping up minnows or tiny frogs)
• cups for scooping water (or holding above mentioned creatures)
• a small shovel
• binoculars
• magnifying glass
  
• bug jar

Water shoes are a great idea too so they can wade in the edge and not hurt their little feet. I put sneakers on D because he hates getting park mulch in his sandals, I wasn't thinking we'd walk in the water today but I should have known better with my two. Its just too irresistible. Speaking of which, an extra set of clothes and some towels could come in really handy.

While you're out there enjoying the great outdoors it would also be really nice if you picked up a few pieces of trash you see lying around. Better yet, take a bag with you just for this purpose. Clean up your favorite park and set an awesome example for your kids while you're at it.

Silly Tag Reader

We got a great deal on the Leap Frog Tag Reader after Christmas and she just loves it. She spends a lot of time with it, especially when she is not napping or not tired when she goes to bed. Today I gave her this new Funny Phrases puzzle and we both had some good laughs playing with it.

FTF

1. Jillian's 30 Day Shred - I found this on my Time Warner Cable Exercise on Demand channel (Ch 221 here) and have done it 6 days in a row now. It is the perfect workout for us very busy mom's - only 20 minutes! And in that 20 minutes you will be dripping sweat and aching from every muscle in your body. Jillian doesn't mess around, there is "no resting", no walk-it-out, or counting each rep, you simply workout hard using every muscle in your body for 20 minutes straight. Each set is only 30 seconds or 1 minutes long and you alternate between cardio, strength moves, and abs. There is even a short warm-up and cool down included in that 20 minutes. Beware that your body WILL be sore all over and you might feel like falling over or quitting at some point but to get that good of a workout in 20 minutes you just can't beat it. I've made a rule for myself that I must do the workout before I can sit down and watch my evening TV shows. Even as busy as I am there's no "I don't have time excuse". It is by no means an easy workout but for anyone looking for a fast, efficient workout this is it. She evens says you can lose up to 5 lbs per week. If you don't have Time Warner the DVD should be easy to find at your favorite store or online for under $15.