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Gardening - Back to the Beginning

Spring time is almost here. The vast sunshine we've had all week tells me so; along with the near 80 degree temperatures today, the little buds on our Bradford pear trees, the bright green weeds waking from their slumber, and the dandelions stretching upward to the sky. Sigh.

Spring time heralds in a new season of gardening and yard work. Tony and I have already spent time outdoors planting new gardenia bushes, lots of peas, as well as starting a new compost pile. We also invested in some of our very own garden tools and new gloves for the both of us. Mine are pink and girly of course. It is just the beginning of our third little garden and we are dreaming big. 

But before I dive into all the details of our third garden, I thought it would be nice to share how this adventure in gardening all began and why we will continue to pursue and cultivate four green thumbs. :) You see, we are now nearing our sixth year of marriage, and what a joy it has been. Upon our marriage, we moved onto some old farm land that had been "farmed out" of a lot of its nutrients. Grass was planted and some hedges were planted along the front of the house. For the first couple years are yard was just that simple. It was mowed about once every two weeks and we thought that was too much work. :)

July 2005

In 2007 the grass we used to have all died out and we were left with a great variety of weeds. You can kind of see that in the picture below. Around the same time, Tony's parents gifted us with "tree money" ~ so we planted 2 Bradford Pears, a Japanese Maple, and a Tulip Tree.

June 2007

Shortly after this picture was taken, we literally killed nearly everything in the yard--on purpose. Have you ever heard of a product called KillzAll? Well, it does just that.

September 2007

 Our sweet niece rightly called our yard a desert! Couldn't have said it better myself. It still surprises me that our trees and monkey grass are still alive. Although I'm very confident that the spraying of deadly chemicals into the soil seriously stunted their growth. Imagine that. :) During those years, we truly {and wrongly} believed that the only worthwhile pursuit was a life of "event evangelism". Our calendar, budget, and database of pictures reflected that belief. From that worldview sprouted many misconceptions -- one of those being our view of work, specifically in regards to this post, yard work (or the lack there of). We wanted a pretty yard that maintained itself (aka: no work).

So we planted clover throughout our whole yard! :) We had read that clover only grows about 5 inches high, meaning that it didn't have to be mowed often. And as an added bonus, it replenishes nitrogen levels in the soil {very providential seeing that we had pretty much just stripped our soil of the little nutrients it had}. The clover grew beautifully in parts of the yard .... but not in others.

Late September 2007

May 2008

 So, it still required mowing. :) And because the clover holds so much moisture, it was actually harder to mow.

2008 was a very, very big year for us. That's the year we learned a lot about true nutrition -- feeding our bodies the whole foods that it needs; up to that point we had been consuming the standard american diet. God also graciously convicted us of our pessimistic, Pharisaical perception of life. We realized, that as Christians our faith in Jesus is to impact every single area of our lives; the way we work, eat, celebrate, spend time with family, wash the dishes, worship, evangelize, mow the yard, etc.We realized that our whole life is a witness of God's great redemptive grace. And in that truth we rejoice muchly!! It's the year we discovered some of our favorite ministries (Mars Hill Church and Vision Forum) and even more-so began to embrace our times of togetherness and with family. This is the year that Tony started back to school and that I became a full-time homemaker. A big year filled with many changes.

Somewhere along the way we learned of the Dervae's family -- specifically their video titled "Homegrown Revolution." They are able to grow over 6,000 pounds of fruits and vegetables a year - on only 1/10th of an acre. Watch and see...



Very motivating, huh?. :) This all naturally led up to the start of our very first little garden in 2009. The consumption of fresh fruits and veggies is vital to everyone's well being. And how much better can it get than from your very own backyard?

Our Little Garden 2009
We started out with just one 8x2 box, which quickly expanded to a section of earth beside it. We had ordered all heirloom seeds. Much of my transplants actually died because I did not understand the concept of "hardening off." Lesson was learned the hard way. :) We built our shed, had our first infestation of grasshoppers, and lots of pretty marigolds. The corn and bush beans were a complete failure. Peas, arugula, herbs, and zuchinni all did fairly well. Tomatoes and cucumbers did okay. By August, most of the garden was cleaned up and covered with hay for the winter.

Our Little Garden 2010
Heirloom seeds were ordered and planted directly in the ground. I didn't plant as much as the previous year. We had a variety of herbs, lots and lots of arugula, a good harvest of peas, some eggplants, and lots of tomatoes. I kind of threw all spacing instructions out the window and overall didn't put as much effort into the garden. I think it was mostly due to our insane schedule last year {it really was a busy year}. The local farmers market was very good to us though. In the garden, I adopted some fence posts for my tomatoes to grow up on to, didn't put any ground covering down, and left it to itself most of the Summer. But even without me, it did fairly well. And I was still picking tomatoes, eggplants, and herbs well into the fall.   

So that is the beginning of our little garden adventure and I look forward to sharing our progress with year number three. :) Happy gardening to all my dear readers!!

Triple Chocolate Cake

This scrumptious little cake was the grand finale of our Valentine's Day meal. Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" chocolate cake, topped with Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" chocolate frosting, and a square of Baker's semi-sweet chocolate grated on top. It was sooo good! To make it even more special, I baked it in my new six inch cake pan. I've convinced myself that this was a very wise investment ($6), because now I can make cute mini-cakes just for the two of us without having a ton leftover. :)  The finished product was displayed on my heart shaped plate to honor this day of LOVE. Oh, and I must say that it was made with fresh ground flour. Since the beginning of our grain mill adventure I have been on the hunt for some good cake recipes. I tried a many, but none of them turned out just quite right. This on the other hand was fabulously moist and came at the recommendation of an online friend {thank you online friend!!!} It paired perfectly with our glass of white wine and fun conversation.

Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cake
(with a couple revisions and I halfed this recipe to fit our six inch pan)

2 cup sugar
1 3/4 cups fresh ground flour (store bought will work fine too)
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk (I used half & half)
1/2 cup melted butter
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans.

Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, butter and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.

Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely before frosting

Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Frosting

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
2/3 cup cocoa powder
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup half & half
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency. Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla. About 2 cups frosting.

Loving My Husband in Practical Ways

Saturday we celebrated 97 months of togetherness. :) We had feta cheese omelets for breakfast, finished up an assignment for school, then made our way outside to tackle some yard work all the way 'til sunset. We got all cleaned up and cozy and cuddled on the couch with homemade pizza, salad, awesome home brew, and a movie. I love that man of mine so very much!!! 


On this here Valentines Day, I'd like to share some practical gestures we make to show our love and appreciation for one another. 

Be together - if he's doing school work in the living room, I'll sit nearby (reading, crocheting, and make myself available to help him). Or if we're in separate rooms ... I try to make it a point to go "visit" him every half hour or so. Just a quick kiss or hug, peek my head in the door and ask, "How's things going?" "I love you!" "Is there anything I can help you with?"

Remember the firsts - a few times a year I'll go through and read some of our first e-mails that we wrote each other and look at the first pictures. Great refresher!

Spontaneous lunch dates - I usually pack a lunch for Tony to take to work. But sometimes I'll meet him at his workplace and we'll go to lunch together. He's the one that usually prompts these spontaneous dates. I try to be flexible with my schedule and let my "plans" go sometimes in order to do this. But he is totally worth it!! 

No silent treatment - over a year ago, I heard a lady talking about giving our husbands the silent treatment. I was totally guilty of this! She said it is treating our husband as if he were dead - you want nothing to do with him - he is dead to us at that moment. That really convicted me and ever since, if I feel a silent treatment coming on, I'm quickly reminded of this statement and battle against it. My husband is not dead in those moments. Communication is what we need in those moments. Quick I'm Sorry's, quick forgiveness, and lots of grace! 

Reminds me of a book titled, "When Sinners Say, I Do" by Dave Harvey. Great reminder of how much grace we both truly need to extend to one another. 

Never, never go to sleep angry.

Listen and read things that encourage loveliness.

Occasionaly I'll write a simple, "I love you on a napkin in his lunchbox" and even more rare, on the bathroom mirror with lipstick. Just Because!

Make it a point to exercise - be pretty - dress up for no reason - wear heels - no special occasion is needed for any of those!

When he gets out of work for the day he always calls me to say he's on his way home. I'll typically take those 20 minutes to do a quick refresher to the house, freshen up my attire or make-up. And maybe light a good smelling candle near the front door. 

Sleep - we both need it, and try to be intentional about a regular bed time.

Pick up his "favorite" things at the grocery store.

Remind him that I'm on his team!! 

The Peasant Princess series by Mark Driscoll is awesome!!! These sermons are always on my iPod touch and I re-listen to them frequently. 

Sharing the same interests - learning to love what he loves. 

Taking interest in his day. Letting him get home and just unwind for a little bit before I tell him all about my day. 

Listening to thought-provoking sermons and discussing them. 

Okay... I'll stop there. :) 

P. S. Okay, one more thing. High thread count sheets are a must for the marriage bed!! :)

Generations of Homemade Pasta

January 2004 at Grandma Smith's

Homemade pasta is always a super special treat at our house. I pull down the family cookbook and flip to "Grandma Smith's Homemade Noodles." I love recipes that have a heritage behind them. I only met this dear lady once, but I can tell you that she raised a pretty sweet daughter, who in turn raised a pretty sweet son! ;) And for that I'm very grateful!! As I work the dough, bring my water to a boil, and set the finished product on the table, I can't help but imagine her setting this same meal before her husband and three children. And how Tony's mom carried the same tradition, and the torch is now passed to me. Here's how I make them... 

Yummmy

Whisk together 4 eggs in a large bowl.

Stir in 2 cups flour and 1/2 tsp salt (I use fresh ground flour, but store bought works just fine too).

You will end up with a nice round ball of dough. Knead it for a few minutes.

Then roll it out fairly thin on a floured surface.

Now for the fun part, cut them as thin or thick as you'd like with a pizza cutter or back of a butter knife..

Let them dry for a couple hours (or no time if you're in a hurry). ;)

Drop them one by one in a pot of boiling water and simmer for about 10 minutes.

Serve and enjoy!! :)