Boys will be boys!...

So, we went to the lake this weekend. We love the lake. Mitch, Jett and I were on the beach just after lunch on Thursday, soaking up the rays of a be-a-u-tiful day. Jett bolted straight for the water and we all enjoyed the afternoon.

Friday- not such a beautiful sunny day. Actually, it rained for most of the day. We did squeeze in a bike ride, a play in the park, and then when Uncle Brady and Aunty Carrie arrived, a yummy bush pie supper. The rain left some pretty huge puddles behind.

Saturday, was partly cloudy all day, but there was some sun to enjoy, too. We did enjoy some beach time and some of us even have some rosy colouring to show for it. Jetty's favourite part of the day, however, was the time he was given the go-ahead to splash in muddy puddles to his little heart's content.

Daddy and Uncle were enjoying afternoon naps, so Mommy and Aunty took Jett to the park. There had been several puddles around the playground, but some little boys had dug trenches to drain most of the puddle water into a hole they dug under the swing set: one deeper, larger puddle. I didn't notice the puddle that Jett wandered in to the first time, because my intention had not been to let my son get so filthy stinking dirty. But... when I saw his cute little toosh caked in mud and I heard the squishing sound already coming from his sneakers, I thought, "what the hey, let the boy live a little!" And live a little, he did! Jett LOVED the mud puddles!

Of course we commemorate the moment with a video :)

You could tell that Jett loved the squishy feeling at the bottom of the puddle. He kept dragging his hands through it then lifting his hands and squishing it out of his fingers.

Aunty Carrie encouraged Jett's muddy exploration and savoured the moment with him. SHE managed to keep her clothes clean, though.

When it was time to return to our trailer, Jett expanded his horizons to the many other puddles along the way. He actually had to stop and splash in EVERY puddle we walked near.

Carrying a very dirty little boy to speed up the journey, was a hilarious endeavour. Oh, how I love this boy!

Now time for the clean-up crew... We stripped him down outside and rubbed him down with a towel. He had, of course, filled his pants along the way, causing the task to be handled with greater precision. We found sand in several crevices where it should not be residing, but our mission was ultimately successful. He was cleaned, dried, changed and put into a new sleeper for the drive home.

I may not win the "Mother of the Year" award for allowing my 14 month old to engage in such reckless behaviour, but see below. He is fine.  Yay for puddle jumping!

The Garden Report..."It's Alive!"

        So, it's been a little more than two weeks since I planted my garden and I must say, so far so good! Everything is up! I was diligent about watering it daily and by about a week and a half most seeds had sprouted and poked through the earth. I haven't really had to water anything for the past week because the Good Lord did it for me. Judging by the amount of water I found in Jett's wagon, we got well over 2 1/2 inches of rain. Now that the sun is out and it is nice and warm, I think everything is growing like crazy... including the weeds. I need to get down on my hands and knees to do some weeding, but I think I'll wait until the garden is a little bit drier. I'm hoping to be able to use our rototiller between several of the rows. Hopefully I left enough space!

        Here are a few shots of the whole garden from different angles.

        Here are my precious plants... they're growing up so fast! :)

 BEANS! - I planted three rows of beans; both green and yellow long varieties. These sprouted incredibly fast. They may have been my first seeds that broke through the earth.

 CABBAGE - I bought a few cabbage plants that were already started. I think that they have at least doubled in size over the past few weeks.

 CARROTS - Little itty bitty carrots. They are small but plentiful. I think I will thin them out some when they are a little bigger.

 CORN - I planted three fairly long rows of corn. The ones above were already started when I planted them. The plants below, were planted from seed. They are about half the size of the other ones. We'll see if they catch up!

 CUCUMBERS - I sort of ran out of room in my garden by the time I got around to planting the cucumber seeds. They are squeezed in beside the corn - likely not ideal. Also, in the past I have planted cucumbers in mounds, but this year I bought cucumber seed tape. So, the plants are in a row. We'll see how they turn out! Mitch doesn't like cucumbers, but I LOVE fresh cucumbers with a little vinegar on them!

 DILL & PEAS - In the pots, I planted my dill. I have experienced the aggressive take-over tendencies of the dill plant in the past, so I am hoping these pots will restrain the dill beast somewhat. The peas are in short rows, fairly close together (again, I did not plot out my spacing very well). I'm wondering if I'm going to end up with a large bush of peas by the end of the summer.

 ONIONS - Now that I think about it, I may have lied about the beans being the first seeds to come up. These onions sprang from the ground within days of planting. Some of them are already a foot tall!

 POTATOES - Both the picture above and the one below are of my potato plants. I could not find seed potatoes this spring, so my mother-in law graciously gave me some that she had left over. There weren't as many shoots off of them as some that I've planted in the past, so I was a little worried that they wouldn't come up, but low and behold, they are up! Well, most of them, anyway. I planted 12 and nine of the twelve now have plants above ground. There are cracks in the ground around the other three, so I still have hope that they'll pull through!

 PURPLE CABBAGE - If my cabbage plants produce well, we'll likely have more cabbage than what my husband would think is necessary, but I am excited to make some good borscht!

SPINACH - I can't wait for these leaves to grow a little bigger so I can stop buying my greens at the store. I also planted some lettuce and swiss chard to add to our salad mix.

 TOMATOES - I realize that this looks like a ridiculous number of tomato plants, especially considering my husband will not eat them raw, but I have never had a lot of luck in the tomato-growing department. I'm hoping that having them closer together than I have had them in the past may work some magic. I sure hope so, because I want to make some salsa!

 WATERMELON - I have never successfully grown a watermelon, but supposedly they do grow here. So, I'm trying again. Come on little watermelon plant, GROW!

ZUCCHINI - I planted 4 of these plants and they have been increasing in size at a very steady rate. I was recently informed that you can usually get enough zucchini off of ONE plant. So, I may be knocking on doors trying to get rid of zucchini at the end of the summer! We'll see...

Anyway, I realize that there's a lot more summer and a lot more growing that needs to happen yet, but I am happy with my garden thus far.

Easy-Mac Show Time

Well, as many of you have observed over the past few months, I have been developing a growing obsession with making videos of my sweet little movie star, Jett. I quite enjoy being behind the camera and then editing my clips on iMovie on my Mac and later adding music via iTunes.

My excuse for spending so much precious time on these video's has been, "Jett is going to love these some day..." or "We have family who lives far away and would appreciate these glimpses into his life." But, if I'm honest, I know deep down that mostly these videos are for me. It is ME who loves watching my son grow and develop little by little, and it will be ME who is still watching these videos 50 years from now.

One major benefit from making these videos, though, has been the time that it affords me while Jett sits and watches them. If you have read any of my previous posts, you know that I have a very busy little boy on my hands. While he is getting better at playing independently,  it can be difficult to get anything done during the day. He actually loves to watch himself in these movies. It is the longest period of time that he will sit still in a day: having a snack and watching himself on screen.

It has been fun to "show off" my son as I have been substitute teaching this spring. I have only subbed at VCA and it has been great fun interacting with the students and staff in a place that is very comfortable to me. The kids are excited to watch Jett. Some classes actually beg to watch more of his videos now. (Of course, that COULD just be their way of trying to get out of work...)

The other day I was subbing for a grade 9 computer class and they were making infomercials using Adobe Premiere. It humbled me to realize that my movie making skills really are limited to the user friendly programs that Mac puts out. I had NO IDEA how to help these students navigate through the Adobe movie-making program. It also kept freezing up and losing student's work.... Grrr. I really do love my Mac. The secret is out, though. I'm really not that talented; I just have a magic computer to guide me through the process.

Several of my movies I have posted on Facebook, and some I haven't. I actually can't remember which ones I've "shared".  So, if you have a few minutes and are interested in my budding movie star, (he looks great on camera) than I hope you enjoy the next few clips.

I Paint My Thumb Green...

I don’t think I was born with a green thumb. I’m not a natural gardener, in fact, I’ve killed countless houseplants and any garden I’ve ever planted has been mediocre at best. My husband already claimed that my garden will fail; before the seed was even in the ground. Last year, was a wash as I was caring for a young baby; or at least that was my excuse. Mitch did end up putting in some potatoes last year, without any help from me. Yet for all my gardening insufficiencies, I have always enjoyed the “fruit” of gardens, and so this year I will make the effort to grow a good garden.

Here is the "before" picture.

I am a 4^th generation farm wife on the Schultz Family Farm. The Schultz wives have always had very good gardens. In fact, our entire back yard used to be a garden. I’ll try to give you an idea of how large an area that it is the following photo. I feel as though I may be dropping a legacy…

My garden is SIGNIFICANTLY smaller, although it is still bigger than many whole back yards in the city. I have actually given in to the encroaching grass (my ever present enemy) along the one side of the garden and allowed it to become about 6 feet narrower than what it was a few years ago.

 I bought my seed and some small plants last week because I had intended to plant my garden on Thursday evening when Jett was asleep. However, the clouds in the sky had other plans and the cold weekend pushed me to wait for today; a gorgeous day. Here are the plants and seed that took up space in my kitchen for a few days.

 Jett was outside for pretty much the whole day. I roto-tilled during his morning nap, and began planting during his afternoon nap. I am thankful for a wonderful mother in law who lives next door because I realized early on that my busy boy did not make a good gardening sidekick. She watched him for a large chunk of the afternoon so that I could get everything in the ground. I did get some fun pics and even some video footage of my little "helper" though.

AND... drum roll please.... the "AFTER" pics:

It feels very good to have this garden planted and I'm happy with how it turned out thus far. I think I may par for all of the bending etc. I did tomorrow, but I think it's worth it. Only time will tell if my loving husband is right. In his defence, he DID tell me it looks good. :)