Front Box Before and After

Before

I love working in my yard. I've been spending a lot of time out there lately working on my front east flowerbed. Let's be honest, it's needed some help for years now. There used to be three of the ever green bush things, but two died, and so my bed has just been lopsided and homely for the last couple years. And I decided it was time to do something about it.

I'm kind of in to edible landscaping, if you haven't noticed. So initially I as just going to rip the every green bush out, and do something else. But I asked around in my Homesteading group, and someone pointed out that even though they aren't edible, it IS nice to have an ever green in the winter, so that there is at least some color when everything else is dormant or dead. I took that as good advice and planted a second ever green to balance things out. Then I went to town with the edibles. :)

My lilac bushes were already there on either end, but then just in from them I planted Poorman Currant bushes, which are supposed to be sweet enough to eat raw (although still pretty tart), and will get about 4-6 ft high. Just in from the currant bushes are the ever greens, then in the middle I planted two gooseberry bushes, which are supposed to do well in partial shade, and are supposed to get 6-8 ft. high. In front of the gooseberries and ever greens I planted french lavender. Around the lilac on the west I planted sweet basil. Around the lilac on the east I planted spearmint. And in front of everything I did a row of Marigolds for Memorial Day, because that's what we always do on Memorial Day as a tribute to my dad. Anyways, I think the bed looks awesome, and it will look even better once the baby plants get a bit bigger.

After

When I went and bought plant starts for my garden this year Ollie talked me into buying a few (12!) strawberry plants. At the time I didn't have any space designated for strawberries.....but I did have some extra wood lying around. So I proceeded to make a box for my strawberries. And I did it mostly all by myself too. :) I mean I had these two cute little helpers....and Aaron helped me get all four sides screwed together at the end....but this project was like 90% me. I cut all the wood and screwed together the pieces of each wall. I just needed a little help to get all 4 walls together and square and Aaron was nice to help with that. And bam! Now I have a strawberry patch. And if the stupid cats would quit using the bed as their personally lounge space, my plants might actually live long enough to produce some strawberries.

My garden is in! All the way. The things I started from seed, as well as the things I bought starts for. It makes me SOOOO happy!! Here's a picture from a page in my garden journal. I have never claimed to be a good artist. Hopefully my gardening skills are better than my art skills.

Cal likes to play in the sandbox while I work in the garden. He thinks the chickens are hilarious.

Harvest of spinach, lettuce, and swiss chard

I'm going to get a handful of raspberries this year!

My big cherry tree's got nothin' but the baby cherry tree has a few fruits this year.

My first time growing swiss chard

Harvest: some spinach and a few icicle radishes

I bought myself a late Mother's Day gift: this Austrian Copper rose bush. I'm in love. I can't wait until it gets big, and supposedly it will get huge, so that makes me happy. 

This is what it will look like when it gets big.

And our kitties are big enough to leave their mama now. We gave one of the girls to a good friend of mine, and I know they will love her.

I've got three left. Any takers?

Memorial Day: Stewart Falls

Stewart Falls

The big boys and Aaron got right up close.

Lincoln and Ivan

Ollie crossed the stream, and Aaron had to go fetch him back.

Adelia and Claire were cute hiking buddies

Ivan and Jeremiah climbed every fallen log they came across.

Cal was my buddy and as always a happy hiker.

Ollie found a walking stick

Rue is ready to start the hike.

We kicked off Memorial Day with a hike up to Stewart Falls. It seemed appropriate that since we couldn't go see my dad's grave and put flowers there, that we at least do something that honored his name (my dad's name is Stewart). Stewart Falls has been on my bucket list for a long time.

Aaron's sister Stacey and four out of her five kids came and hiked with us, which made the total three adults versus ten kids. Yikes. Ages of kids 12, 9, 8, 8, 6, 5, 5, 4, 2, 0. Yep, we're crazy. Haha!

The hike was about 3.5 miles round trip. And not too steep, although a couple parts were a little rocky and uneven ground. Every one and their dog (literally, Lincoln said he counted at least 20 dogs at the falls, and that's not including the ones we passed on the trail) decided to hike this hike with us on Memorial Day. I have never ever been on such a crowded trail in my life, not even when we were down in Arches over Spring Break. There was just a crazy amount of people.

But we still had a great time! Maybe I don't hike to enough waterfalls, but I was amazed at how much wind the falls created. I was sweating and super hot while we were hiking, but once we got close to the falls there was mist in the air plus the wind, and I was almost cold. We ate lunch by the falls. I think it would have been a little more leisurely if it hadn't been so crowded. As it was, we spent a lot of time trying to keep track of children, and we didn't stay as long as we had anticipated.

The falls was so beautiful though. Seriously a nice hike with a huge payout at the end. Definitely go see it if you are ever up that way. Just pick a day that isn't so crowded.

The kids were all great hikers on the way to the falls. Going back was a little harder. I was already carrying Cal. Then Rue got tired, so Aaron carried her. but the Ollie got tired, so Aaron carried both for a bit, and then had to switch back and forth carrying one and encouraging the other, which made the going slow. Stacey was fighting that same battle with Sam and Claire, taking turns carrying one and then the other. But the older boys were all about trying to speed hike outta there! So, I left Aaron and Stacey with the Littles, and Adelia and Cal and I tried to keep the big boys in sight so they wouldn't get to far ahead. I just didn't want them to end up back at the parking lot with no adult supervision on such a crowded day.

Eventually we all made it back to the car in one piece. I'll probably be a bit sore from carrying Cal on my back for 4 straight hours, but it was great conditioning for Timp in the fall, and it was a beautiful day, and a fun hike, and Cal was happy the whole time. So I can't complain.

BYU Astrofest and End of Year Piano Recital

I love living so close to BYU campus, and being able to attend all the cool events they put on. We made it to Astrofest this year, which is put on by the Physics and Astronomy Department. We made planet masks, folded paper airplanes, put together star charts, saw a show at the planetarium, earned a patch for scouts, looked at Venus through a telescope, saw the huge research telescope, and best of all launched rockets. :) Not a bad way to spend a Saturday morning if you ask me.

We could have probably stayed at Astrofest all day, except we needed to get back because Lincoln, Ivan, and Adelia had their end of the year piano recital. I'm low on pictures, because I was taking video and Aaron was taking pictures, and Aaron ended up standing in the back with Cal. But all the kids did a great job, and I was so proud of them. They each played one song assigned by their teacher and one song that they composed themselves.I love their piano teacher so much, she is amazing, and works so well with the kids.

Heart Things

We had a lovely homeschool Mom's Night Out tea party at Sherilee's house in April. She did such a nice job of creating a cozy, friendly, inviting atmosphere. I wish it was something we could get together and do monthly. I've made a goal that I need to add a fancy tea pot and cut place settings to my kitchen supplies. :) 

I am so grateful for the friendship and interaction I have with this amazing group of homeschool moms. I don't take many pictures of us all together (and even these pictures are missing quite a few people), but I always want to remember how much these woman anchor and sustain me. President Gordon B Hinckley once said, "Our women need fellowship one with another in an environment that will bolster their faith..." He was speaking of Relief Society, of course, but in this group of homeschool mamas I have truly found deep friendships and an environment that bolsters my faith; my faith in God, my faith in humanity, my faith in home education, my faith in family...essentially all of the things that I hold dearest to my heart, these women also support and cherish. They laugh with me, cry with me, put up with my bossy take-charge personality, they share their ideas, their skills, their time, and their love with me so that my bucket is full and I can turn around and continue to give to a family and a lifestyle that would otherwise suck me dry. I love and need these women, both the ones pictured and the ones not pictured.

Jen, Christine, Sherilee, and Wynter

Switching gears, Cal is eight months old. I've never had a baby who wasn't bothered by crawling through the grass. This kid is unstoppable in the backyard. He crawls around eating dandelions while I work in the garden or feed the animals.

Looking at the picture of Cal on the blanket, what do you notice? How about that huge monstrosity of a shed/garage being built so close to the fence that it feels like it's looming over me waiting for the perfect opportunity to reach down and swallow me whole. *Sigh* They've been working on it for weeks, and I feel like I'm being watched every time I go out in the backyard. Even if I wanted to rip out my fruit trees (which I don't) no tree grows fast enough to block it from my view and restore my sense of personal space. It's the first thing I see when I look out any of our south facing windows, and  it has a very tangible presence when you go out in the back yard. And (for the record) that's two sheds now, that border my back fence, they take up almost the whole length. But the new one is looking like it's going to have an apartment at the top of it; or, at least it has windows, so I will always feel like someone is potentially peeking at us while we're in the backyard, even when the workers get done building. Good bye privacy. Good bye solitude. 

Storage facility going in on my road. :(

I've had the overwhelming sensation of being crowded out lately, and I don't like it. The two sheds are just one aspect. Down the street from me they are building a massive storage unit facility. Just to the north a large apartment complex was just approved to go in. Also new to the North, where the pumpkin field used to be is a bank, a car wash, a cell phone store, and a soda shop. To the North West a grocery store, a hair cut place, Starbucks, and a sushi restaurant are going in (although Starbucks and the sushi place might be inside the grocery store, not quite sure about that yet). Directly to the West behind the new church and the new school, they are currently building a Rec Center. Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled to have a new swimming pool for my kids to swim at, and I totally voted for the Rec Center at the city elections. But my bet is that in the fields all around the Rec Center will be even more commercial growth in the next few years. And it's depressing. I don't want to live in the center of a city. Hell, I don't even want to live in "the city" at all! Forget urban homesteading, I want to rural homestead. If I had one free wish, I'd wish us away to a nice five acre spread back in my beloved Hooper. But that's never going to happen, because Aaron likes his job here in UT County. But I've found myself almost daily, driving tight a long the base of the mountains on the back roads of Mapleton, Spanish Fork, Woodland Hills, Elk Ridge, and Payson watching and wishing. We don't have the money to purchase a significant amount of land in any of these places (even a half acre is so far out of our price range it makes me sick) and Aaron won't agree to go any further away. So I'm stuck here, trapped in a way, wondering how long it'll be before they sell the field next door and snuff out any pretense of farm land and wide open spaces that there ever was. 

Sycamore tree is leafing out, and growing tall. I wish I would have planted a lot more of these, don't know where I'd put them though. 

This is the only bloom I got on my lilac bush this year.

Raspberries are doing well.

Got the bean tepees up, and planted the beans

Gardening has been a huge gamble so far this year. I was all set to buy my tomato starts and get them in early because the weather was so nice, but then I ran out of budget and needed to wait. Then the weather went berserk and we had a super late freeze, so it's probably for the best that my tomatoes still aren't in the ground. My peach crop is going to be pitiful this year. All the apple and cherry blossoms died, so no apples or cherries. But the pear tree is looking ok, and it has quite a few baby fruits on it this year. Last year it only got one. So this might be "the year" for pears, haha!. Amazingly, my blueberry bush is still alive. I thought it was dead for sure, but last week it leafed out. It doesn't have any flowers or fruits on it though. But hey! It's not dead. My spinach, lettuce, radishes, chard, beets, and carrots are starting to pop up their tiny green shoots. I can't remember where I planted what, because of course I didn't write it down, so it'll be interesting to see if I can tell what was planted where by the shapes of their leaves. Some of the beans have sprouted as well, but I don't know if the freeze these last two nights has hurt them or stunted them. Time will tell. I'm hoping to get tomatoes, cucs, and squashes in the ground this weekend. And I have one empty planter on my patio. I think I want to plant an herb, but I don't know which one. If you could only plant one herb, which one would you plant?

Look how stupid, it's snowing in the middle of May!

The kittens are doing well. Their eyes are opened, and Sunset brings them into the backyard to let them run around in the afternoons. My kids this is the delight of all delights. Especially Cal.

Soccer is over! Hazzah! Baseball has started. I feel like soccer is something we do just to pass the time and stay in shape for baseball season. :) Ivan might disagree though. Lincoln also participated in the city track meet. He got 2nd place in the softball throw out of all the 4th graders. Good job kid!

Lincoln is the first string catcher on his team.

My mom's birthday was the week before mother's day this year, so we went up to Hooper to go to church with her and celebrate her birthday and mother's day all together. I had a great time. I played catch with my brothers, and Mom kicked my trash in a headstand contest. Even though she's 56 she's still got it! (Aaron only got me in the picture, but I wish he would have gotten mom in there too.)

Tanner, Krystal, Kyle, Jackson

Krystal doing a headstand. I lost to my mom. 

The weather was gorgeous until it got crappy. But we were able to squeeze in a bonfire in the backyard, a family bike ride and several outings to the park.

Cal and Silas

Mother's Day was amazingly good this year. Probably the best Mother's Day I've ever had. Like I mentioned before, we celebrated with my mom a week early. We celebrated with Aaron's mom the Saturday before M-day, by going to a park, where the kids played on the play ground while the adults chatted. We ate yummy food. And Aaron and I even played catch.

That freed up Sunday to be empty. Haha! All I asked for for Mother's Day was a nap. The kids were agreeable to getting a picture before church, and even though they can never pose like normal humans, I love it. I feel like their personalities come shining through so well. I wouldn't trade this picture for a hundred "proper" ones. After church Aaron made us rueben sandwiches for lunch, one of my personal favorites. They kids all gave me adorable cards that they'd made at school, on their own, and in primary. I loved them all. Ivan's cracked me up when it said "My mom is as funny as a knock knock joke" Haha!! I guess that means I'm kind of lame? Or maybe cheesy? After lunch I went upstairs and had several quiet hours all to myself. I was supposed to take a nap, and I tried really hard, but the kids forgot and knocked on the door a couple times. It was ok though, it was peaceful to just relax in a quiet room by myself and not be responsible for anything at all. I had made a german chocolate cake earlier, but Aaron made the frosting and put the cake together for me. The kids decided that it needed candles? So we put one candle on it for every year I've been a mother. Random, I know. But it made my kids happy. Haha!

Ruby playing Muana in the backyard.