First Harvest!

In my last entry (over a month ago!) I showed you my tiny Earthbox garden and confessed that I had apparently botched a foolproof system when I planted my summer squash right in the middle of some fertilizer powder. Well, maybe the Earthbox system really is foolproof. I sure am glad I refused to uproot the squash. Just look at it now!

Are Those... Squashes? Why Yes, They Are!

And here is a beautiful, shiny zucchini:

And some teeny, tiny strawberries:

There's also a four-inch cabbage growing right in the middle of some very bug-eaten leaves, but I don't have a picture of it yet.

Speaking of bugs, I had my second run-in with chiggers last week. My first encounter was on our camping trip last spring. Oh, boy. do those itch. I had about ten giant welts right along my pantie line. Apparently those tiny invisible bugs spend the whole day crawling up your body and stop when they hit resistance (like an elastic band). Then they burrow in and secrete this poison that melts your tissue and causes insane itches. The welts lasted for weeks and weeks. In fact, I feared I'd be permanently scarred.

So you can imagine how careful I was a couple weeks back on our annual camping trip. I needn't have worried. This time we went to a city park. It was all manicured grass. Our site backed up to a giant parking lot! A whole different kind of camping.

Little did I dream that I would get bit by a chigger in my own backyard a week later. The grass (weeds, mainly) had grown way too tall with all the rain. Now, every time I go out to fill the Earthbox reservoirs, I have to wear my old runners, saturated with concentrated Deet spray, and then I have to shower as soon as I come inside.

But it's all worth it. Look at how the garden has grown over the last five weeks:

See the Bug Holes on the Cabbage (Far Right)?

All that lush foliage isn't just pretty to look at. It's actually fruitful. Tonight I picked my first harvest:

But I don't know what I was thinking. I picked it after dinner. I should've waited until I could cook it immediately. Or I should have picked it before I made tonight's pizza. I love grilled zucchini on my pizza. Oh well, I bet grilled zucchini will be great on leftover pizza tomorrow at lunch.

I'm so happy! I am Sarah, and I garden.

Let the Spring Come

If you've been reading long, you may remember my former passion for gardening and all the mishaps we encountered along the way with The Family Garden at our old house. For the last couple of years, I'd been wanting to start a new garden, but the very thought of it made me tired. Bill had done all the hard work the first time, plus all the watering, and I'd found it difficult to keep up with the weeding. Honestly, I've always had a black thumb. So gardening was one of the things I let slip when I started my life as a too-busy, always tired single mom.

One thing I picked back up this semester, with great joy, was ladies' Bible study at my church, We've been doing a very different sort of study called 7: Staging Your Own Mutiny Against Excess, by Jen Hatmaker. The study challenges us to examine seven areas of excess in this entitled, self-indulgent culture: food, clothes, possessions, media, waste, spending, and stress.

If we had more time, I'd tell you about all the changes that little book has inspired in me. For now, I'll just say that it's very convicting. Even the chapters that I thought surely didn't apply to me--such as Spending--really made me take a hard look at how I live and how I think about myself, my family, and others.

The chapter on waste was another that I didn't think I needed so much. After all, I already recycle, I don't buy bottled water, I do buy organic produce, and I shop in the bulk section at my beloved Sprout's Farmer's Market. But I found that I did have a lot to learn, and plenty of room for improvement. I particularly loved the way Jen separated ecology from politics and reminded us that God has commanded us all to be good stewards. She posed some tough questions, like "Why don't we care for the earth anywhere near to the degree we do our bodies?... Why don't we fuss and examine and steward creation with the same tenacity?... Do we think ourselves so superior to the rest of creation that we are willing to deplete the earth to supply our luxuries?"

I made one commitment that week: I've gone back to reusable grocery bags. I'd started using plastic again because those bags are very convenient for cleaning the cats' litter boxes. As I thought about what I could change, I realized that I could just use one trash bag per week, storing it in the old litter tub where I stash the full grocery bags. It's a little smellier that way, but really not a big sacrifice.

The video that week got me thinking about gardening again, not just because we could potentially eat vegetables straight from the ground, but also because there's just something about gardening that fosters a love for the earth. That's what I want to teach my kids.

Despite my willing spirit, my weak flesh was pretty stressed over all the work this would entail. How would I have time to plan it all, let alone carry it out?

About That Bread Machine...

AWE-some! In case you were wondering how my loaf of bread turned out the other night, when I was writing my last blog entry, here's a picture of it in all its glorious perfection:



It was perhaps the nicest loaf I've ever made, even nicer than all the loaves I've lovingly shaped by hand over the last couple of years. It was so light and fluffy, I could scarcely believe it was 100% whole wheat (freshly ground in my Nutrimill grain mill, of course).

Since then, I've made three more loaves, including apple cinnamon bread. My Zojirushi Mini is so small I can leave it out on the counter all the time--which annoys Bill just a teeny bit. See, its footprint is only a bit larger than the toaster:

If you look closely at the picture, you'll see that it has a Jam button. Naturally, I've already tried it. I made strawberry jam the other day. I just dropped in the mashed fruit, some demerera (natural) sugar, some lemon juice, and a bit of Sure-Jell pectin. Then I turned it on and waited one hour and 20 minutes.

It was a little thinner than I'm used to, and not quite as sweet. But really quite tasty. Next time I'll add more pectin.

I still have to try the Cake setting: banana nut bread, apple cake, and zuchinni bread. Next will be the pasta setting; I'm a little scared about that one.  Oh, and I've got my eye on a gluten-free recipe from the Zo Mini manual; it calls for brown rice flour, which I can grind up in a jiffy using my grain mill. I'm curious whether the bread machine has the touch that I seem to lack when it comes to baking gluten free bread. You'll be the first to know when I find out.

This thing will keep me busy for weeks--or at least days. You've got to get you one!

Beets, Glorious Beets!

Here are a few tidbits about what's been going on around here. (By the way, you'll be happy to know these stories have absolutely nothing to do with poop!)

For a couple years now, I've been having fun grinding up all manner of veggies and fruits and hiding them in everything from pizza to brownies. But it's gotten harder now that Allyson is bigger; she shadows me and follows my every move in the kitchen.

Last week when we got beets in our organic produce co-op delivery, I racked my brain for a way to serve them so that someone other than myself would eat them. I came up empty, so I drug out the food processor and turned them into a gorgeous purple puree.

"What's that?" Allyson asked as I surreptitiously scraped the last of the puree into little baby food containers for the freezer.

"Why, it's beet puree!" I announced cheerfully, like a 1950s TV commercial announcer.

She scrunched her brow. "What's it for?" she demanded.

"Oh, I don't know," I evaded. "Maybe I'll make some more pink pancakes with it."

"Mmm! I love pink pancakes."
 
"Only I don't have any ricotta. I'll think of something," I promised. And then I went online and found this recipe for chicken nuggets with beets:

Can You See the Pink?

It was a very messy recipe, a pain in the behind, really. I mixed the beet puree with a beaten egg, dipped the chicken breast pieces in it, and then tried to make my healthy whole-wheat breading stick to them. My fingers were stained crimson for several days afterward. And while the nuggets in the online picture looked like perfectly normal nuggets, mine were decidedly pink even after I browned them in a bit of olive oil.

"What's for dinner?" Ethan asked as he breezed through the kitchen on the way to the pool.

"Chicken nuggets," I said.

"Really? Awesome!"

I smiled, knowing he thought I'd broken down and bought the greasy kind you get in the grocery store freezer case. When I called him out of the pool a few minutes later and handed him a plate to eat on the patio, he exclaimed, "Hey, why are these pink?"

I sighed. "Beets."

"You made chicken nuggets with BEETS?" he repeated. "Why would you do that?"

"Just try them," I coaxed. "They're really good. You can't taste the beets at all."

"Yeah, try them, Ethan," Allyson called around a mouthful of nugget. In her mind, their pink hue was actually an asset.

Ethan nibbled his first nugget cautiously, and then popped the next two in his mouth and practically swallowed them whole. "Can I have more?" he asked.

Before I had a chance to bask in my victory, he made it even sweeter. Standing at the pool gate and waving a nugget in the air, he yelled, "Hey, Christian! Try one of these nuggets my mom made. They're pink!"

His friend climbed out of the pool. He hesitated for a moment, and then took a nugget. "Mmm," he agreed. "That's good."

Ethan and his friends didn't bat an eyelash the next evening when I offered them pink banana muffins. In fact, they liked them a little too well; between the three of them they polished off six muffins in three minutes. Naturally, Allyson was even more thrilled with her pink muffin.

Beet & Banana Muffins

Besides the muffins and the nuggets, we also got two days of pink oatmeal out of the beets. I saved the water from the steamer's drip tray and mixed it into the boiling water. The juice didn't change the taste of the oatmeal, except maybe to add a hint of sweetness--plus a LOT of nutrients. Most importantly, the pink oatmeal made Allyson feel like a princess!

Isn't the Juice Gorgeous?

Pink Oatmeal

Allyson really wanted me to show you pictures of the pink pancakes I made with our last beet delivery, but I couldn't find the picture. "Be sure and tell them about the pancakes," she said. "Those are my favorite."

Bountiful Harvest... Almost

In other news, we harvested the seeds from Allyson's very own sunflowers recently! It had never occurred to me that we could actually eat the sunflower seeds until our neighbors came by for a swim--the same neighbors who gave us the pumpkin pie Christmas before last. Shawn said the sunflowers reminded him of growing up in the country, and he told us how much his family enjoyed the seeds.

We let the sunflowers dry on their stalks, and then Allyson and I spent a couple of hours at the picnic table, meticulously working the seeds free from the dried flower heads. The proliferation of seeds in one flower was staggering, but we soon found that others had beaten us to much of our harvest. About two of every three striped hulls had a tiny black hole at its base, and the inner seed was either completely gone, or rotten.

Some of the little thieves were still crawling among the seeds, so I had to be very cautious. Allyson didn't mind the little beetles at all.

Getting the seeds out of the flower was the easy part, we soon learned. Extracting them from their hulls was much harder. We could think of no other way besides splitting the hulls with our fingernails and nudging the tiny seeds into a bowl.

After a couple more hours of labor, my too-short thumbnails were literally bleeding. I consoled myself with fantasies of the whole-wheat walnut and sunflower seed bread I planned to make with our harvest. But do you know that all those hundreds of seeds from two flowers yielded less than a quarter cup of seeds? I had to supplement with seeds from the grocery store. Still, the bread was so yummy.

Yesterday Allyson and I went to Sprouts Farmers Market, and I spotted raw sunflower seeds in the bulk section. As I dropped scoop after scoop into a bag, I marveled at the ease of of it, the luxury. And I didn't even so much as chip a nail! Still, I imagine they can't be quite as tasty as those seeds from our very own backyard. No, definitely not!

Adventures in Baking

You're not going to believe this... I've had my Nutrimill Grain Mill for THREE weeks now without posting anything about it.

After all those months of saving, it's even more fabulous than I expected. You just drop the whole grains in the top, turn the dial, and lovely soft flour drifts into the bowl. It's about as loud as a vacuum cleaner, but you only have to listen to it for a couple of minutes at a time.

I've ground hard red winter wheat berries for bread...

and popcorn for fresh cornmeal (which makes the most incredible cornbread imaginable)...

I've ground brown rice and even garbanzo beans...

Yes, that garbanzo bean is on my floor. I was weighing out the dried beans on my kitchen scale and somehow bumped the bowl. Garbanzo beans went flying all over the kitchen and even into the dining room.

Allyson came in and helped me pick up all those beans, which I hoped to salvage since I'd just mopped the floor that day. I rinsed them in very hot water and set them in a sieve on the counter top, covered with a clean plate to keep away the flies that are already invading our kitchen--no more, I hope, since Bill just hung one of those old-fashioned screen doors that slams itself every time you open it. I had scarcely finished grinding the rest of my rather expensive beans when Bill "tidied" up by setting the sieve in the sink and proceeded to pour soapy water over the beans. Sigh... You know how I hate wasting food!

Rising to New Heights
There was lots more food to be wasted that evening. I combined my freshly ground rice flour, garbanzo flour, xanthan gum, and corn starch and whipped up some of Gentle's gluten-free bread. Here it was before it went in the oven:

It was rising way too quickly, and my oven takes a good 15-20 minutes to heat up. By the time I put it in, it was already over the top of the pan and still rising... and rising. Here's how it looked when I took it out:

I kept taking it out, testing the temperature, and putting it back in. After an hour and a half, it still hadn't reached 190 degrees, and the probe kept coming out gummy. I finally gave up. I let it cool and then tried to slice it. Here's what it looked like after it fell:

Full of Hot Air
Turns out, it was completely hollow inside! All the batter had fallen into a gooey mess on the bottom inch of the pan:

I guess I'll wait a couple more weeks and then give it one more try. I think the main problem was that my pan was too small. Bill later bought me an actual 9 X 5 loaf pan for my birthday, and my old pan could fit right inside it. There had been so much dough that I put some of it into a mini loaf pan, and that loaf came out almost as delicious as Gentle's. I gave two tiny slices to Allyson and polished off the rest of the loaf myself.

A Little Toaster Mishap
When there was just one slice left, I had an uncontrollable craving for gluten-free toast. I gingerly dropped the tiny slice into the toaster slot. When it popped up, naturally it fell through the grate and got stuck in the crumb tray. I unplugged the toaster and turned it upside down, shaking it violently. No luck. So I inserted a knife down the side and gradually worked piece by crumbly piece back through the metal cage and into my mouth. (Yes, I ate that toast! And it was yummy.)

But it left a residue on the heating element, and when I turned the toaster back on to see if I'd wrecked the coils, it made two tiny fires! I waved the smoke away and prayed the smoke alarm wouldn't go off and wake Allyson. It took a few days, but finally the toaster stopped smoking, and it's no crappier than it was to begin with. 

After wasting a whole evening on my gluten-free experiment, I was feeling pretty downcast. Luckily, the new pan came through for me; my next loaf, made from freshly ground wheat, turned out gorgeous. It looked like it had come from a bakery, and tasted even better. I also made some dinner rolls which we served at Easter, and those were pretty darn tasty.

And I made these hamburger buns on Thursday:

This was my fourth attempt at hamburger buns--at last, sweet success! Previously my buns had looked more like hockey pucks, though they tasted pretty decent.

All in all, I've been extremely pleased with my grain mill. We're savoring the taste of the fresh flour, and reaping the health benefits of all that wholesome wheat germ and bran. And since I can now buy my grain in bulk (25 to 50 pound bags!), the mill should pay for itself in no time. I aspire to bake all my family's bread as soon as I find the perfect, easy recipe or get a better bread machine. Currently I'm kneading the dough in my Kitchen-Aid mixer and shaping it by hand.

I wish you could all come and eat bread with me!

In Case You Were Wondering

I tried out my cloth pads, and I loved them! They were everything I hoped for and more--and that's saying a lot! I will never go back to disposables.

For the benefit of any of my male readers who haven't already bailed out, I won't go into a lot of detail, though I could wax eloquent about all the benefits. I'll just say that they are incredibly soft, like little pillows, and they are super absorbent. Washing them was no big deal, and they still looked pretty afterward.

I love the pads so much that I'm practically a cloth pad missionary now. I've literally carried them around in a bag to show many of my female friends and family members. (I didn't do that when Bill was around, mind you, or he would have disowned me.)

I can't believe how good Gentle has been to me. She made all of these, and brought them to me in a pretty gift bag:


On the left are the waterproof circle liners and folded flannel and fleece inserts. In the middle are four all-in-one pads, two with cotton and fleece and two with bamboo and fleece. (I think the bamboo is the most absorbent.) On the right are two extended waterproof circle liners and eight pad inserts.

This one is my very favorite. These colors are way off due to my crappy camera and the low light conditions, so it's actually much prettier in person. Can you tell how cushy it looks?


After all that laughing when we first came up with the idea, Gentle and I gave some serious thought and prayer to starting our own business. But it turned out that making the pads took a lot longer than Gentle expected, so maybe this isn't the right time given her busy life caring for two preschoolers. Someday we'll do it, though. And you'll be the first to know when that day arrives.

First Harvest

I've been remiss in chronicling our garden's progress these last few weeks. Here's what you've missed....

When our seedlings outgrew the tiny cells in their big grid, Bill painstakingly transplanted them into slightly larger pots, and they flourished in our kitchen window seat for a couple more weeks.

Original Planter

Ready for the Garden

In mid-April, we finally transferred them into the little garden plot in the corner of our backyard. It was an idyllic day with warm sunlight and a gentle breeze that felt like God playing with my hair. Just across the fence, the neighbors were playing soft, summery music by the pool--something by Eric Clapton, I think. The music had that dreamy, echoey quality that reminds me of drifting in the lake on a float, hovering on the edge of sleep.

Allyson Sporting Her Gardening Gear
A Gift From Nana (Bill's Mom)

Unlike last year, I decided to go ahead and get my hands dirty. I was surprised at how satisfying it was to plunge my hands into the moist, clumpy earth. Working alongside Bill and Allyson, I tenderly cradled the green bean seedlings, easing them into the shallow indentations Allyson had made and mounding dirt around them. (Ethan had long since lost interest; he was lurking in the front yard watching the girls who'd gathered across the street.)

We planted pumpkins, carrots, green beans, summer squash, bell peppers, cantaloupes--they did finally sprout--and lots of tomatoes.

Allyson's Idea of Helping

It's been a couple of weeks, and all the veggies look happy. On Sunday, we had our first harvest: seven utterly perfect green beans.



Allyson and my nephew Sam got to pick them, and I steamed them along with a big batch of green beans that we'd gotten from the co-op.



Just as I remembered from last year, our beans had a luxuriant downy feel, and we thought they were just a hint more crisp to the bite than the beans we'd bought. I served all of them with a touch of real butter and freshly chopped dill from my hanging baskets, which Bill planted for me a couple weeks ago.

My sister Emily and her family came out to pick up Sam, and they stayed for dinner (cabbage rolls, my first!). I was afraid I'd made too many green beans, but we made short work of them. Sam kept begging for more the way Allyson begs for candy.

We were grateful for our tiny harvest, and we're optimistic that there's more to come. The tallest tomato plant has eight yellow blossoms, and I'm checking each morning for those first tomatoes. Maybe I'll actually get to make my own sauce this year!

A New Garden Adventure Begins

I've discovered the secret to perfect, robust, healthy produce: join an organic produce co-op!

On Super Bowl Sunday, my friend Donna brought the most delicious carrots I'd ever tasted--they were so good I didn't want to adulterate the taste by using any dip. She told me she'd gotten them through a co-op in our area.

After a couple of weeks, we picked up our first biweekly bin of produce from a lady just a couple of blocks from our house!


For $50, we got:

• 7 kiwis (Ethan's favorite)
  
• 1 cauliflower head
• 3 lemons
• 2 Haas avocados (Allyson's favorite)
• 3 bunches of leeks (a giant, mild flavored green onion)
• 4 navel oranges
• 2 tomatoes
• 2 red onions
• 2 juicy, sweet red bell peppers
• 10 Braeburn apples
• 12 bananas (4 pounds)
  
• 2 Granny Smith apples
• 9 large carrots
• 2 heads green leaf lettuce
• 5 pounds of russet potatoes (we cut up a couple and planted them in a bucket)
  
• 1 bunch of Swiss chard
• 4 ounces local salad greens (Mizuna)
  

Everything was juicy and delicious, and it was fun figuring out how to cook it all. I sauteed the chard with garlic and onion and buried it in a delicious lasagna, and I used the leeks in a cream sauce over scalloped potatoes and sweet potatoes. I'd never dreamed I could get my family--or myself--to eat these vegetables! I can't wait for our second delivery this Saturday.

So does this mean we're done with the Family Garden? No, of course not! We had way too much fun last year to give it up. Thanks to some tips from my mother-in-law and my friend Helen--both highly successful gardeners--I have hopes that this year it will be productive as well as entertaining.

We've actually been preparing the soil for several months by doing our own version of composting. I tried to convince Bill to go to a composting class at a nearby farm, but he scoffed, asserting that he could figure it out on his own. All week long, we collect egg shells, banana peels, and little bits of veggies in a big coffee can, and then Bill buries it in the garden on the weekend. The only flaw with this plan is that, nine times out of ten, Lola immediately digs it up and strews garbage all over the lawn. Just as I'd suspected last year, the little wire fence is no match for her.

At least some of the compost must have found its mark, though, because this year there are far more worms wriggling in the rich, dark soil. Allyson is still fascinated with worms, but she's a bit more timid about actually holding them. She says, "I'm afraid they'll tickle me."

Last Wednesday evening, she got to help Daddy dig up some dirt and mound it into little biodegradable cardboard planters.


Allyson was thrilled with the opportunity to use the adorable pail and shovel she'd received as a party favor at her friend Grace's birthday. She discovered another fun use for the shovel today: digging up worms and grubs in the garden--which Bill fed to Lola (ugghhh!)


Ethan's contribution was making a grid to label all the little planters.

In Case You Wondered, Allyson Picked Out Her Own Clothes That Day

And my contribution? Taking pictures, of course. But soon I'll be on daily (obsessive/compulsive) weed control.

Now, we wait--and try to stop Allyson from doing unauthorized watering with her pink polka-dotted pail. The planters are soaking up the sun in our kitchen window seat for now, but in a few weeks we hope to transfer the young seedlings into the garden plot, which Bill is enlarging to make room for the cantaloupes and pumpkins we're adding this year.


The pumpkin seeds were another gift from Grace's party, and Allyson is already making plans for the pumpkins--like pumpkin oatmeal, our favorite.

Ah, the glory of spring!

Their Journeys Through Life

One of my favorite hobbies, which I also consider a ministry, is helping people compile their life stories. I started by transcribing my maternal grandparents' autobiographies. After I had typed all the text, my sister-in-law Diane inserted many pictures, mostly from old slides. Then my brother Rick created the book cover according to our instructions. This was such a rewarding family project, and the finished book, Our Journey Through Life, turned out great!

Grandpa and Grandma's Wedding Rings,
On Grandma's Silk Wedding Blouse

You can check out Grandma's book here, and buy it or download a free PDF copy if you'd like. If you do read her story, I know she'd love to hear your comments. You can enter comments on my blog, and I'll pass them along to her, or you can post a review on the book's website.

Jack and Jeanne
Not too long after we'd finished Grandma's book, I was praying about what I could possibly do to minister to others. I was part of a nursing home visitation program through my church at the time, and I was so excited when the answer came: I could collect and transcribe the residents' stories! I interviewed several people, but most had only a few stories to share. Then I met Jack, and boy could he tell a story! I was spellbound as I transcribed his World War II stories.

Over the course of a year, I compiled Jack's autobiography in my spare time. This involved many visits to the nursing home, almost always with Allyson in tow. Jack's wife Jeanne fell in love with Allyson, and the feeling was mutual. Allyson always sits in her lap, and Jeanne usually gives her a cookie or some strawberry yogurt from their tiny refrigerator.

Jeanne and Allyson

Nearly all the residents love Allyson. At first she was overwhelmed by all the hands and voices reaching out to her, but she's gradually gotten more comfortable there. Even the grumpiest men brighten when she waves at them, and even the ones who can no longer speak can clearly express their joy. (It reminds me of the last time I saw my grandfather. He couldn't talk, but he reached out for baby Allyson with both arms. I set her on his lap gingerly, still holding her lightly, but he wouldn't have dropped her; his grip was surprisingly strong. His entire face was lit up with joy, and tears streamed down my cheeks. I am so thankful for that memory.)



Jack's book took me so long that we both probably figured it would never be finished, but the day finally came a couple of weeks ago. Though he couldn't really see it, he was so proud when he held the book in his hands for the first time. I hope his family enjoys the book for generations.

Jeanne and Jack on Their Wedding Day

Click here to view, order, or download Jack's book.

Now I need to finish my parents' autobiography and start another one at the nursing home. I'm praying for God to lead me to a person who is longing to share his or her story--maybe a woman this time.

Would YOU Like to Write a Book?
Publishing a book these days is surprisingly easy. I used a site called Lulu to self publish both books. The cost was quite reasonable, and the best part is that it required no up-front cost. Each book is printed and sold individually, with all costs paid by the buyer. You can choose whether to mark up the price or sell it at cost, and where to send any profits--even to a charity, if you like.

I strongly encourage you to publish your own family stories! I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have.

The Lettuce Is Up!

Yesterday, after just four days, we were amazed to see tiny sprouts in the lettuce rows. Aren't they cute?

Lettuce Sprout

It was fitting that the little shoots came up yesterday because my Mother's Day gift consisted of various gardening tools: a tiny rake, pink gloves, a little trowel, a spray bottle for my pesticide concoction, and a fancy sprayer for watering/showering/misting/power washing. (It looks like you could power wash with it, but I'll try not to wash away our sweet little sprouts.)

Ethan was so excited for me to open my gift. He'd picked out the sprayer himself, and he couldn't wait for me to see it. While we tried to enjoy the fancy breakfast he and Bill had prepared, he hounded us continually. In fact, he was just as anxious for me to open this gift as he had been about opening his own birthday gifts a week before. Of course, I was delighted when I finally gave in and opened the present at 10:05 AM.

Ethan and I are both excited to try out the new toys, though I'm a little nervous, too. I hope I'll be able to distinguish the weeds from the veggies. I'm sure Allyson would love to get her hands on the tools, too, but I'll try my hardest to keep our little garden safe from wayward trowels and spades....

This afternoon, we spotted the newborn bean sprouts! Woo-hoo!

Green Bean

Allyson asked if we could eat them, but I told her it would be 71 more days. (She loves green beans.) This evening she had the pleasure of calling Nana--who flew back home this morning--to tell her the good news.

I'm sure Nana must have been impressed. I'm pretty sure she said it would be several days before anything else would sprout. I guess our garden is just a little exceptional!

Veggies and Creepy Crawlies

Today was a perfect day. Bill's parents are visiting from Vancouver, British Columbia, and we had the most fun here at home. We planted a vegetable garden in the corner of our backyard!

First Bill and his dad, Jim, built a little wall of paving stones and filled the area with 35 bags of gardening soil. This was the most fascinating part for Allyson. She was delighted and amazed with all the creepy, crawly creatures that Bill's shovel turned up. There was a writhing mass of ants, wriggling worms, a slimy slug (that Bill picked up with his bare hands!), a partly severed centipede that ran in circles in the wheel barrow, and a good-sized frog.

Allyson was not afraid of any of these. In fact, she picked up several rolly-polly beetles and a worm. She held them out to me and Bill's mom, Sandi, but we preferred to examine them from afar.



Bill managed to catch the frog, and while he was showing it to Allyson, it let out a gush of fluid. "It peed on me!" he said with a grimace.

"You'd better hope it's pee and not some toxic fluid," Sandi said.

You're not going to believe what Allyson said next. (I find it hard to believe myself.) "It's the frog flu!" she shouted. Obviously, we've been doing way to much joking about the swine flu around here.

Once the soil was prepared, the whole family headed to Home Depot to buy seeds and seedlings. By this time, Ethan was home from school, and I was surprised at his enthusiasm. I never knew he'd be so interested in planting vegetables. (Hopefully he'll be just as interested in EATING them in about 75 days.)

We bought two kinds of tomatoes, banana peppers, yellow bell peppers, yellow squash, green beans, two kinds of lettuce, and carrots. Ethan picked out the banana peppers since they are his favorite, and Allyson carefully selected pot after pot of tiny seedlings.

After an ice cream break at the Sonic drive-in, we came back home and planted our veggies. Everyone except me got filthy; I busied myself taking pictures and fetching supplies, ice water, etc.

See Ally's Dirty Face!

Under Nana's watchful eye, Ethan gently nestled the seedlings in their new beds. Then he made about six furrows for the seeds. Ethan meticulously spaced the tiny seeds, but Allyson dropped them in bunches.

Ally and Nana Planting Carrots

Sandi and Jim struggled to plant the tomatoes in the funny Topsy Turvy upside-down planter. The TV infomercial claims that planting is effortless, but we thought it was pretty darn confusing. Bill hung the planter from the pergola, where I hope the dangling tomatoes will be out of the dog's reach. (I still have flashbacks about the violent death of TWO tomato plants last spring.)

Tomorrow I'll concoct a noxious brew of onions, garlic, jalapeno peppers, and dish soap to keep away the pests. I can't believe I'm this enthused over an insecticide recipe!

Now we wait. It seems impossible to believe that soon we'll be eating vegetables from our own backyard. Ethan and I are so excited! Maybe this will teach us both some patience.

The Finished Garden