Wordless Wednesday: Peter's Airplant...

Yard Work and a Question...

Today I have been doing yard work like crazy! It's been the perfect day for it. So what have I been doing? I re-potted a Gerbera Daisy that was given to me as a thank you gift Thursday. Then I planted my Oregano, that my friend Rachel brought me. Did some moseying around in the backyard then I headed to the front where I trimmed a couple trees, including my beautiful Japanese Maple in front of our house. I also started in on this HUGE bush/hedge that lines one side of our driveway. It will be a couple day chore though as it is heating up nicely out there!

We took a break and headed to the Grower's Market, where I bought some Kale plants. I have been wanting to add Kale to our diet and figured that I would be more likely to try it if it is growing in our backyard!

On the walk home, I spotted this tree and I am pretty sure that it is a Dogwood Tree. I am not sure though, so I took some pics to show you, my readers! Here they are:

So, am I right? Is it a Dogwood?

Picture update on our backyard!

So I promised pics of our backyard and here they are:

Here is the fence I had to put up...

Then I realized that I needed to put some burlap on it cause my baby plants were not fairing so well...

They get the wonderful morning sun though....

What's over here?

Why....it's tomatoes and pumpkin!

Compost pile...

The privacy shield I was talking about...

From the sidewalk side...really looks nice and gives us privacy...

Working on a flower arrangement...

Finished product...

The lovely shade cover over our patio that I mentioned I wanted to do. 

Hubby so sweetly did it for me! I sure love him!

Outdoor Dining...

Love this area!!!

Backyard Work...(Update: Some pics added)

I woke up this morning and thought, "Wow...it is going to be a perfect day today. Let's get started!" So we got breakfast and chores out of the way, then headed out to the backyard. I had one of the girls bring out a Bible story book and we started our day right there in God's outdoors!

While some of the girls did school indoors, one of my girls joined me outside to do her school work while I worked. Every now and then we would find something interesting to share with the others. It was alot of fun!

So what was I doing outside? Well....I have a dog. Also an outdoors cat. I would put pics up of their cute selves, but I am on my husband's computer and am not finding any pics on here....(I will add some later!) (Added!)

At any rate, my dog is part chihuahua and part "doxie". A sweetheart, but in case you don't know, "doxies" like to dig. We have never had problems with her digging under fences or anything like that. She is very happy in her backyard with her peeps. However, she does like her holes. Well, she decided that she was going to dig in my potato barrel. I was NOT amused! I decided to put some old chicken fencing up around my raised beds and barrels. I think it will work great, but it was WORK. Whew!

I also planted the rest of my veggie seedlings! I have a few flower seedlings that are not ready to plant, but other than that, I am down to the plants I will be directly sowing into the soil. I love how God made His system of providing food for us!

Then I took the weed-eater to the whole backyard. Didn't take long and that was another workout! Add in the raking of the grass and boy was I ready for lunch afterwards!

After lunch, I hung up a privacy curtain in our walkway in the backyard. This would be really hard to explain without you seeing my yard. To give you an idea, we live smack dab in town. Basically we are surrounded by school buildings, our church, businesses as well as a couple sweet neighbors! On three sides of our yard, there are bushes, a fence and a building. In our walkway, there was no privacy and people could see right into our backyard. Anyway, I now have this nice privacy curtain hung up. I really like how it looks!! In fact, it looks like it has been there all the time.

We also set up a table for our future BBQ's/picnics and doing school outdoors. After that, we set up some other things to get our living area ready for the next 6 months. When I say we live outdoors during Spring/Summer/Fall, I am not joking! We take it seriously! An extension of our living space and of course, the garden is out there.

I forgot to mention that I also ironed and put up some darkening curtains for the sliding glass door heading out to the patio. In our main living space there are sliding doors and a HUGE picture window that need help in the summer to keep the heat outdoors where it belongs. These curtains help keep it cool in the house, not to mention that they are one of my favorite colors! :)

Tonight, I am hoping to get our awning set up and possibly my clothes line!!! Can't wait!!! I will try and take some pics tonight and add them to this post so you can see what I am talking about and maybe it will make more sense! Pictures always help me!

Whew...I Am Worn Out!

I didn't understand when I was younger and my grandma would tell me how when they were putting a garden in, the house just seemed to limp along. You maintained it, but it was never completely clean. I understand now! After all, you can only focus on one thing at a time. Today we got a break from outdoor work as it is really cold out. So we are working on different projects in the house. For me, it was tackling my desk that had piles of junk mail and books from this past week sitting on it. Rather an eyesore! For the kids, it was tidying up their rooms and helping clean up our messes in the living areas of the house.

Just to give a head's up, I won't be actively posting over the next ten days or so. I might post once in a while, but certainly not like I have. We have another week and a half left of our break and it will be rather busy. When I come back, I may double up some of my posts with my Homeschooling Happy Hearts. As alot of the homemaking things we did and are going to do, tie up with homeschooling!

So have a wonderful Easter week coming up! Remember our Lord and Saviour who died and rose again to set us free!

God bless!

Baby Plants!

Want to see an update on our seeds we planted a few days ago? Click here!

TODAY: Planting Starters, Pizza Dough, a Challenge and so much more...!

We had so much fun this afternoon that I HAVE to share, complete with pictures. So enjoy!

So I admit, when we get the "bug", we get the bug. We haven't had a garden for two years for reasons out of our control. This year, we were so antsy that we decided to start our plants indoors!

Spooning the soil into containers...

Some of the plants, ironically, none of this are the ones we started. But I wasn't in charge of the camera the whole time! LOL

Ahhh....some cantaloupe and bell peppers...I can taste them already!

Jalapenos and small sweet pumpkins. 

(This variety is great for pie and canning.) 

I had lots of help...

Fancy watering pot, eh?

My Kindergartener showing off her printing skills! Not bad!

My First Grader helps as well...

First person to tell me what kind of seeds these are will get some in the mail! Put your guess below!

My hubby fixed up this lovely spot for my seedlings...

"I'm gonna watch them grow...!"

My wonderful hubby made pizzas with home-made dough for dinner!!

Yum, yum! This one is ours, can't wait to taste it!

And THAT was our afternoon in a nutshell of pictures!