Beginning of June

Beginning of June, Selah participated in her dress rehearsal for her hip hop dance recital that she was sadly going to miss, due to us leaving town. But she had so much fun and loved every minute of it! (She's on the far left in these photos and quite the good little dancer!) She already can't wait for dance to start back up again in the fall.

My mom & Wayne got their pool up for the summer and the kids wasted no time making use of it.

This little wheel has been an awesome tool in our home this summer! I remember my Aunt having something similar, and when I was a kid I tried to mentally tuck the idea away to use with my kids one day. It wasn't until I was recently on Pinterest that I saw something similar to it and it triggered the memory. So I created this chore wheel with my kids' help. And I was SO proud of them for jumping on board and taking more ownership in the home. That's the beauty of them getting older. I really appreciate their help to run our home more smoothly! They do these chores daily, and then rotate each week. One thing I've noticed is that Ben doesn't want to make a mess, or others to, when he has to clean up that area, ha! ;) I like that they've taken pride in their jobs and it seriously makes me just want to squeeze them tight and sing their praises. 

(Each kids takes on a main room and completely tidies it up and vacuums it, then they move onto a bathroom job, then a kitchen job. It takes them 30-45 mins at the absolute most.)

My cousin Chelsea got engaged to her longtime boyfriend, Matt, and threw a party out at the farm. We're happy for them!

The kids did "potato sack" races & other games.

As we were leaving, the sunset was so beautiful! It's always a treat to be at the farm. A piece of our hearts will always be there.

Our friend Dave came to visit from the East Coast. We met up in Portland for dinner and dessert. We always have the deepest conversations about the great ponderings of life with him! (He's our clever friend that retired at 35; we've had fun learning some things from him.)

A pic I forgot to include in a previous post, from a family lunch. I sure love my siblings!

These onions grew along the edge in one of my raised beds this spring. I never planted them, but I got to harvest them and enjoy them. I had half a bed of kale that came up that way as well. Just dormant seeds in the soil that sprouted. I always think that's such a fun surprise. :)

Our neighbor had a band saw that he was giving away and he asked if we'd like it. We said we'd love it so he helped us move it into our shop (which was already full of tools that my Grandpa gave us when we bought the place). Our kids had been wanting to (design) draw swords on boards and have Josh cut them out. The band saw was the perfect tool for the job and Josh sanded their swords down after cutting them out.

Ben's was finished first...

Our table grapes are starting to grow. They're sweet like candy when they are ripe. We have the green, red, and purple varieties - those are their official names, right? ;)

Our blueberries are starting to turn blue. Next year I'll be sure to net our plants. We see that the birds are eating half of the ripe ones before we can get to them. The raspberries we've harvested so far this year have been SO sweet!

Our snap peas are still going strong. Uh-oh, I sense the over-sharing-garden-lady side of me is already oversharing... can't... help... it.

The kids have been loving the lilies around the house.

Our Zinnias are beginning to bloom! The boys each planted a large planter of them. Selah planted sweet peas flowers, which I love.

Anyone know what these are? They bloomed in our front yard.

The sunflowers I planted along the garden fence are popping up...

Basil is my favorite smell of summer!! I like to grow a lot of it. At the end of the season I like to put whatever I don't use into the freezer to be used all year long for my favorite salad dressing recipe!! You'll want to make this:

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar (raspberry balsamic vinegar rocks too)

1/4 cup olive oil

small handful of basil

1 small clove garlic

2-3 tsp sugar

few dashes of salt & pepper

Throw it into a mini food processor to emulsify. It's so good you could drink it. ;) It's great on grilled chicken too.

Flowering thyme.

I've been pulling off twigs of rosemary from the bottom of my large plant and putting their stems in water or soil until they root and then I've got a new plant! I'm amazed by how well it has worked.

Our green beans have gone crazy! Green beans will always make me think of our neighbor at the farm, Josh Adair, who would let us come pick a bag full after he was done canning a year's worth. I sure loved him.

Tonight, as I was in my garden, I was wondering if certain dinner combinations had to do with what our great grandparents were growing in their gardens back in the day, and what was ripe at the same time? Take spaghetti, green beans and salad for instance. Their gardens were probably bursting with tomatoes, onions, basil, rosemary & thyme (garlic in storage) to make their sauce. Lettuce, cucumbers and tomatoes for the salad, and green beans for a side. And it's easy to bake a loaf of bread to have some garlic buttered bread on the side. This is why I love gardening so much. It feels so connected to past generations in a world where so few things do anymore, and a garden feels like such a gift from God! No matter how many times I plant a seed and watch it grow to abundance, it still feels miraculous.

Tonight we sauteed garden onions, garlic and freshly picked green beans, then added in fresh basil at the end. I kept thinking that if I'd had bacon grease to saute' it all in and goat cheese to crumble on top it would've been summer perfection!

We planted what felt like a few beet seeds a few months ago, and ended up with about forty beets! Oops! A handful of people in our church have gardens, and through the summer there's usually fresh produce for the taking in the foyer, so I know that I can take our excess there to share as well so that it won't go to waste.

Whenever I see how much produce we have in such a small space, I wonder what life would be like if everyone grew veggies along their backyard fences? When you cut this lettuce, it just grows right back.

The kids accidentally left our fence open a couple months ago and a deer ate a handful of my plants down, this tomato being one of them. But it made a strong come back and will still produce tomatoes! I planted about five back ups and they all took off, so we will have no shortage of tomatoes. :) 

We saw some deer running in our backyard, and then out from behind the ferns emerged this cute little fawn!

He debated visiting our patio area.

Remember those tiny turkeys I posted a photo of recently? Well, I forgot about these pictures from last fall. These were summer babies that became adults in a blink and were so large by fall. These flocks like to roam our neighborhood. I saw one neighbor using a leaf blower to keep them off of her property last fall. ;) 

We don't mind them roaming our forest or drinking from the creek, since they usually just pass through, but I know they can cause damage to plants and trees if they roost.

So many birds around here! ;) Selah and her silkie fluffball.

And our rooster who is signalling his departure... the more he crows the sooner he goes. ;) Sorry buddy!