Harvest

Well,here I am,finally putting up pictures from the garden..We have been drowning in tomatoes for the last couple of weeks,as you can tell from the picture above.I am preparing to can these, hopefully tomorrow.
Sebastian, Jade and Matthea all have enjoyed their garden this year. Each one of them planted sunflowers to place in their garden beds. Above is a photo of Matthea's sunflower. We'll be gathering the sunflower seeds and storing them for next year. Jade has already collected seeds from her morning glory and her dill plant.We will collect seeds from select tomatoes as well. They are all so proud of their accomplishment and how their food has been a part of most of our meals!
This photo, of the two carrots intertwined, is from Sebastian's garden.Pretty cool.
We had a few other veggies that decided to grow "together". One of Jade's tomato plants had several tomatoes that did that. The tomato plants were about to overtake our garden. They grew so fast and so big.I have been out there,I don't know how many times, to stake and re-stake those darn plants.Jade has been a big help with that. I had Craig out there too the other day. Unbelievably, it really takes a toll on your back.I think Craig's back is still hurting him,well,mine is too.
Jade has a cucumber plant that really took off.She's had a lot of cucumbers already and there are several more that are maturing.I don't know how much longer we will have for production.The weather is saying that we are going to have some cold weather here in a couple of days.Wednesday is suppose to get down to 30 degrees overnight and only have a high of 45 degrees.Yikes! That may just kill everything.

This photo, above, was taken before the other ones. This was when the plants almost overtook the garden and we were at war with the tomatoes, with stakes in hand!! It's been hard trying to keep up with all of this without Craig here. Yes, he's been in Jackpot this whole time working on that trailer.Poor guy,I had to take away his help,(Sebastian), because of school. So, he works on the trailer a little before and a little after work and then he comes here to do some more back breaking work on his off days.He is wore out,let me tell you. Hopefully this is his last week to work on it.He should be done with it. We have several people interested in buying the place.So, hopefully we won't have to hang on to it too long.

Now that school has been well under way, every minute is precious around here. There just isn't enough time in the day. I finally have Oliver into a schedule.It just had to be done. He's never really been a good sleeper for us. So, when Charlotte arrived, things got a little out of sorts here.Craig and I were not getting enough sleep.Charlotte was sleeping for us just like you would expect a newborn to.But, Oliver was still a problem trying to get him to unwind and fall asleep.He would be up,sometimes, until 11pm or midnight!!! Charlotte would already be asleep,but then be getting up around 1 or 2am for a feeding.So we decided to just put him down in his crib when it was bedtime and let him cry it out. We started putting him down at 9:30 at first and then each night move back the time a little bit.He's now going to bed at around 8 or 8:30.It worked like a charm. We did that with his naps as well.Because we would have the same scenario during the day. He would get so tired and cranky,but had such a hard time falling asleep. We just couldn't have that going on during school,for our sake and especially his sake.

This photo below of Oliver was taken during all of that transition time.You see,for those of you who don't know, Oliver has NEVER liked a pacifier.It wasn't even a little dislike for him. It was a major "I don't like that thing put into my mouth" kind of thing. He would scream and gag if we tried to put it in his mouth. But, when we started to put him to bed at a normal bedtime and I also weaned him from breastfeeding at that same time, he started to use one of Charlotte's pacifier's. Initially we let him do it. I guess because we felt bad for him. But after 2 weeks of using it.We realized he was beginning to use it ALL the time. He even developed a little sore spot on his upper lip from it.
He would take it out to say something and plop it back into his mouth. Here you can see him giving Charlotte a kiss in her swing. He has his pacifier in his hand. He took it out, kissed Charlotte and plopped it back in. It didn't take too long for him to say goodbye to the pacifier. We just had to be firm with him and after about a week, he was over it. I think he may have been just finding his place within the family. He was no longer the baby,but, yet still a baby.
What a cutie.I think you can actually see his little sore spot on his upper lip in this photo of him with me. Now, his interests are picture/word books. I still have some of Johnny's picture books that I used to teach Johnny how to read with. Oliver just absolutely loves them.He's been watching the other kids with their books and he wants to "read" too. It didn't take him long to remember some of the words to the pictures and now he'll point and say a few. He even likes to mimic the kids doing school. So we've taped a roll of brown paper to the table for him. He likes to sit there with a pencil or crayons and scribble away. Matthea and Jade even showed him how to erase! We had the paper taped to the coffee table at first.But that wasn't the same as being at the big kids table! So he's with them at the dining table. If I can figure out how to post a video on here, I will upload a video of him having a meltdown because we were putting away his crayons.We told him that it was nap time and that we had to pick up the crayons and put them away. OH MY! Did he fall apart!!!
and well, I couldn't make a post on my blog without adding some newer photos of Miss Charlotte! She is such a joy! She has started sleeping through the night now.The first night, that she slept through, she slept 12 hours! But, she has been sleeping for about 9 or 10 hours every night now.What a relief,to actually be getting some sleep around here.
The funny thing,after having 6 children, I am actually considering trying cloth diapers. I think I tried using them with Jade.But, I didn't really have anyone show me HOW or even look into anything NEW out there.So I gave up. But, networking with other people, I came across someone using cloth diapers and a whole new world of cloth diapering IS out there. So, I may be doing it with both Oliver and Charlotte. We'll see. I'm going to order a try it out kit and, well, try it out! I've had two in diapers before. Doing it again, makes me think twice about how much this is really costing us!
Anyway, Charlotte is almost 3 months old now and she is a TALKER!! She loves to make her cooing sounds and she'll let out a few squeals that will hurt your ears! If she can engage you for a moment she will be happy to "tell" you a few stories.She will talk away! It's so cute.
She is also, officially, our only thumb sucker! This may turn out to be a problem if this continues and turns into a hard to break habit. She doesn't mind using a pacifier,but, when she is really tired and in bed she'll just spit it out and stick in the thumb.
So much time has gone by since we have moved to this part of the country. It's been two years now that we have been out here. God has done so much for us and we can sometimes lose sight of what our focus should be. With all of our "busy-ness" we have not made enough time for our spiritual growth. This has been weighing heavy on my heart. My prayer for this week is for my family's spiritual well being,to be nourished by the Word , to re-connect with God and for us to strengthen our relationship with Him on a daily basis.
We've had a successful harvest so far, this year, in our garden. May I be as diligent with the garden within my family and take extra care so that there is a more abundant harvest for generations to come. For His Glory......