The garden continues to grow

Michael earned major husband points over the weekend by tearing out a bush that was blocking the sun to the garden, and was just plain ugly. Now we have more room for another raised garden, and the plants are growing even faster since they get more sun.

I am still amazed at how many bean and pea plants we have. I have given away over 100 starts of each, and I still have about another 40 of each to thin out.

The kids are truly loving helping to water the garden. They aren't very good at pulling weeds, but they love to help water the growing plants. They are pretty disappointed when it rains. Sarah and Kathleen say is it God watering the plants when it rains, but they are almost wistful, like they think he is taking away the best part of the garden. lol

The lettuce is growing well too. I actually pulled up another head of lettuce for a salad for dinner. It is so nice to have fresh, crisp lettuce that tastes good. The kids always drown it in ranch dressing, but at least they are eating it.

On the right-hand side you can see the carrot row, and I am going to need to thin it again this weekend.

On the left-hand side you can see some of our very healthy tomato plants. All 7 of them already have a number of buds on them, and we have had to put cages around 5 of them already.

This doesn't look like much, yet. It is one of the two potato beds I planted. They are not raised beds, and are in a part of the yard that I haven't done much with. I am hoping that by being fairly far away from the rest of the garden that the potatoes wont' take over. I am not sure how well they will grow. All the potatoes I planted were ones that had started sprouting because I didn't' fix them fast enough. So, we will see if the fingerling potatoes and the Yukon golds turn into yummy dinners later in the summer and fall.

My kids are poets, and they know it....

This is Kathleen's new poem. She is very proud of it.

Oh, how this goes,

this is so lovely.

I have been happy

for a lot of days.

I have always wanted a grape.

Thanks.

Kathleen Palshikar

Joshua and compliments

Okay, this will be short, but I thought it was funny. Joshua is always wanting me to check his blog for "compliments." It wasn't until today that I realized he thought comments was compliments. When I explained it to him he said he didn't care which he called it, because everyone who left a comment would leave a compliment anyway. Isn't it wonderful to be so young and sure everyone loves you?

A Peaceful Sunday

In some ways this was a busy, hectic day, but not completely. The big difference was that this week I did a lot of planning ahead, which made some of the typically hardest parts easier.

For a while Jayesh and I have let the kids sit with whichever parent they wanted in sacrament meeting, as long as they are sitting with that parent when Sacrament meeting starts. Typically Jayesh is late, so the kids then sit with him on his weeks, but he is early on the weeks I have them, so they go sit with him again. The last few weeks the kids have been pretty squirrely, and not being reverent.

So, this week I talked to them ahead of time and told them that I wanted to try and experiment and have them sit with me, and to decide that ahead of time. We got new colored pencils and crayons, as well as some activity books and new coloring pads ready. We said a prayer before we left. While they were cranky about sitting with me, because I don't let them get up except to go potty once during the meeting, they settled down just fine. They all were reverent the whole time, and Kathleen and Sarah both put their sacrament cups in the tray, instead of holding on to them through Primary.

When we got home we also had a family meeting to talk about the house rules, and come up with some ways to help the kids remember to clean up after themselves. We settled the longstanding dispute about who gets to sit on the end of the table by deciding that Josh gets to on odd days, and Sarah gets to on even days. (Kathleen never wants to sit on the end anyway.)

We also talked about how the kids were feeling like I was yelling a lot, and that it comes from them not listening and responding when I ask them to do things politely. We decided that I wouldn't yell, and if they don't respond when they are asked politely, that we will go straight to timeouts or loss of privileges. They got to ask all of their questions, and have so far been doing pretty good reminding each other to pay attention.

The rest of the evening was very peaceful. The kids all got their 30 minutes of computer time, and got off the computer when the timer went off. They took their baths and cleaned up their rooms when we asked them. They even helped put away all their folded clothes without any whining. I was really proud of them. They were all in bed by 7:30 pm, and asleep within about 10 minutes. These are the kinds of days that make it feel worthwhile to be a mom!

Cranky day

Well, I think everyone here has had a cranky day. The kids didn't have school, and the weather was rainy and cold. The girls had tutoring this morning, which they enjoyed, but which also wore them out.

Joshua had a chiropractor's appointment, and we finally found out why his knees hurt him so often. He has flat feet. The chiropractor said he really should see an specialist to have insoles made for his feet. His shoes already wear differently, and his legs may be slightly different lengths. Yet another trip to the doctor with the kids. *sigh

Michael has had a tough week at work. His company laid off 10% of the workforce, and there are a lot of "clean up" things that Michael has had to do in conjunction with that. Also, since they laid off the other guy in the IT department, he has a lot more work to do. There has been a lot of tension in general, and we are still hoping that one of the job opportunities he is pursuing will come through soon.

I had a migraine last night, and am still not entirely back up to full strength. Adding to that the fun of keeping track of all the fertility things, and I have been pretty stressed out and cranky too.

So, the whole family has been cranky today. Hopefully tomorrow will be better!

An eventful evening

I took Joshua, Sarah and Kathleen to see The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe at the high school tonight. They really enjoyed it. The girls got a little overwhelmed during the fight scenes, but Mom and Mark were sitting behind us, so they each commandeered a grandparent lap.

Joshua and I read the book over the weekend, so he knew the story and it was fresh in his mind. He came home anxious to read the rest of the series. I am glad he is interested in stories that aren't computer games, so I will read them to him. :)

It was really nice to have the kids chattering all the way home about the play, and the story, and their favorite characters, instead of fighting over who has the better house on toontown.com

Please vote

While I know that not everyone is an Oregon voter who will read this, I feel like I should remind everyone that it is election day here, and if you haven't voted yet, you should.

Sarah and I went out this morning and hung door signs to remind people to vote, and Kathleen and I are going to man the booth at Clackamas Community College for an hour this afternoon where people can turn their ballots in and then we get to take them to the county elections office. It isn't much, but Sarah sure enjoyed "helping people vote" and I think Kathleen will too. I want them to know that voting is important.