Summer Night

Just a little crochet on a (very) warm summer night. We're sitting in the backyard, Tony sporadically reading me passages from Bahnsen's book "By This Standard." Dinner consisted of quinoa tossed with herbs, black beans, and garden tomatoes, drizzled with olive oil. Avocado and cucumber were great side kicks. With the temps reaching over a hundred degrees today, we wanted a cool, light dinner. The high temperatures is predicted to remain for several more days. This morning I created a little sheet fort for my garden. Offering some shade to my beloved plants. I am definitely not ready to part with my tomatillo plants. We are both happy the weekend is here. The days that we get to spend all our time together, adventuring and creating memories. :)

In the Garden

variety of lettuce

tomatilla's (it is so neat to watch these grow. Green lanterns fill the plant and the tomatilla's grow on the inside. I can't help but think of the movie Tangled every time I walk through the garden. 

happy gardener + freshly picked onions + shadow

paper flowers

indian flowers (a little touch of Surf City beach in my garden) 

cherry tomatoes

onions 

baby habaneros 

lettuce seeds

fennel flowers :) 

A Rainbow of Sprinkles in May

May was sprinkled with all kinds of goodness! 

lots of rainy days that beckoned me to wear my pretty raincoat

sunshiney days scattered throughout

homemade bread from a new neighbor friend

a picnic with my husband

where we spent the day in the shade of a tree

reading, listening

laughing

huge blueberries sprinkled in our cereal and smoothies

the beach!!! 

time with this little boy, waiting for his baby brother to be born

lots of colorful veggies - this was for lettuce wraps

spontaneous mid-week getaway

a little blanket for a new little boy

all the small pleasures in life

indian food .... sooooo tasty!! 

spring time favorite - watermelon beer

a baby niece that will be making her grand arrival come October :)

shopping for said baby niece ~ little skinny jeans

and too many, not necessary cute shoes to choose from

digital chess games with Tony ~ he kicks my butt every time

and a surprise tea party for my beautiful niece Cayleigh!!

It was a full month!! We've been working on our e-commerce sites a lot. I finished reading Making the Most of Life by J.R. Miller and Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (Tony & I read that together). I've found the perfect ciabatta bread recipe that has turned out super scrumptious every time. Enjoyed meeting with a couple sweet friends to discuss the book Made to Crave. Tababta workouts, work-work-work, birthdays, Ron Paul voting, lots of togetherness time, crocheting little hats and blankets, tamale making, wind chime hanging, yard mowing, sunflower planting, coconut curry soup eating, and much more I'm sure. :)

I'll leave you with a golden nugget of truth from my favorite author:

"The matter of shoes is important. Especially is this true when the roads are rough and hard. We cannot then get along without something strong and comfortable to wear on our feet. One would scarcely expect to find anything in the Bible about such a need as this. Yet it only shows how truly the Bible is fitted to all our actual life to discover in it a promise referring to shoes.

In the blessing of Moses, pronounced before his death upon the several tribes, there was this among other things for Asher: “Thy shoes shall be iron.” A little geographical note will help to make the meaning plain. Part of Asher’s allotted portion was hilly and rugged. Common sandals, made of wood or leather, would not endure the wear and tear of the sharp, flinty rocks. There was need, therefore, for some special kind of shoes. Hence the form of the promise: “Thy shoes shall be iron.”

...But the word is not merely a prophecy of rugged paths; it is also a promise of shoeing for the road, whatever it may be. One who is preparing to climb a mountain, craggy and precipitous, would not put on silk slippers; he would get strong, tough shoes, with heavy nails in the soles. When god sends us on a journey over step and flinty paths he will not fail to provide us with suitable shoes."

J.R. Miller http://making-the-most-of-life.jr-miller.com/24-iron-shoes-for-rough-roads.html

Mother's Day | Her Birthday

This is my beautiful mommy, the one who everyone thinks is just my sister. But instead she is mom to four of us, all in our 20's. I'm hoping she shared those forever-young genes with me. ;) There aren't words to express how grateful I am for this lady. She is not only my mom, but also my friend and a sister in Christ. And I love her dearly!! She has poured so much of herself into loving her husband and children. I count her as a great role model, an example to learn from. And boy do I have so much to learn from her!! :)  She is super sweet, crafty, a lover of children, a marvelous cook, and baker of yummy cakes. One of the nicest people you'll meet and she's my pretty "little" Mommy!! Yay!

And there was lots of celebrating her this month. Mother's Day we all went to church together and then out to eat at a local Mexican Restaurant. Brittany and Chrissie were able to join her one day at the nail salon where we treated her to a pedicure. Just this week we sang Happy Birthday to her. Everyone gathered at our house for a surprise meal of veggie lasagna, ciabatta bread, veggie sushi (appetizer), salad, vino, and chocolate cake with peanut butter/chocolate frosting. We lit a box of candles and she made a wish as we sang. :)

The Swallowtail

Each year, as my {huge} fennel plant bears new shoots swallowtail butterflies are seen flying around my garden. And a couple weeks later I spot them. Itty bitty caterpillars. Once they're spotted, I check on them every single day. I watch them shed a layer of skin, crawl up and down the stems, and munch, munch, munch away at the fennel leaves. Very hungry caterpillars, indeed. They grow real fat and then build themselves a little cocoon where they stay snuggled up for a couple weeks. They attach their "home" to something sturdy with a very tiny tiny piece of silk thread, and it seriously looks like it will not hold up, especially through all the windy rain storms we've had lately. But it does. And before you know it a beautiful butterfly is birthed and the whole process starts over again. :) 

Hello, brand new butterfly ~ welcome to my little garden. :)
click here to view videos of monarch butterflies taking their first flight. Very cool!! 

One day I hope to have a large butterfly garden with all kinds of host plants that attracts a wide variety of butterflies - like parsley, dill, carrots, fennel, and milkweed. Oh, and lots of pretty flowers. :)