This week was full of packing, sorting, and gardening. Still, we managed to have some frugal fun. My niece, Rachel, dropped by her mom and dad’s while we were over there, and kindly showed Patsy how to do some Cat’s Cradle string formations. In this picture, Patsy is making the Eiffel Tower with string and her teeth. (I won’t tell the orthodontist) 🙂 Patsy loves Rachel very much, and is in fact chosen to have Rachel as one of her new middle names when she gets adopted, so she was especially excited to see her. In the car on the way home, she mentioned how glad she was that Rachel had come by. I was glad to see her, too. When the kids grow up, it’s harder to get enough time with them.
Rob taught Ja’Ana how to till. We’ve had this tiller for over 30 years. Rob tuned it up and replaced a filter. We have 3 tillers. This is the biggest. It still tills great. It’s the one he uses when we have a large patch of ground to till. My brother-in-law had tilled the garden once with the tractor, but it’s been a while and it needed to be done again. My brother-in-law also did some tilling between rows with one of the smaller tillers.
Lovana and Ja’Ana planted more tomatoes and some peppers. They put a scoop of compost from our house, along with some organic fertilizer we had on hand in the bottom of each hole.
We planted green and yellow beans,tomatoes, peppers, Sweetmeat squash, Mammoth sunflowers, mixed flowers and zinnias, cucumbers, zucchini and other summer squash, Yukon Gold potatoes and removed the walls of water and caged those 4 tomatoes. My sister will plant corn tonight when it cools off. It got so hot, we stopped and ate lunch, and we went home. The early garden vegetables are doing great.
We are going to have so much produce to eat, and some of the early items like spinach, boc choi and lettuce are getting close to being ready.
We made our mothers pots of flowers for Mother’s Day. We re-used some pots we had on hand from previous years. We also had the soil already. We were able to combine errands and pick up the flowers.
I took the rest of my un-needed home-school books in and got $90 for them from the used book store. I got J’s Biology curriculum for next year and a vocabulary. I still had some credit from another time and used that, too. (Biology is expensive, so I’m thrilled to have been able to get it) I have $40 left on credit there for another time. If I never need to spend it, I can get a pay-out from them in cash, which I have done on occasion.
I made some basil salad dressing with the basil my aunt brought me to put in the windowsill when our house was being shown. It was the recipe from the current issue of Taste of Home magazine and was delicious. I did not have a green onion, so put a small regular onion in instead. I think I forgot the lemon juice, but it still tasted delicious. It was far cheaper to make then to buy an equal amount of salad dressing from the store.
I’ve been using up more items from my storage in preparation for my upcoming move and have not had to shop in May so far for groceries. I will have Rob pick up a few items tonight when he gets Lovana from work, though, but I don’t need many.
I received a check from some work I did a while back and put it into my “fix-up-the-new-house” bank account.
We received a card in the mail with a $100 gift card in it from an anonymous person. We are very thankful. I set it aside with the other gift cards I am saving. I plan to use a bunch more in a couple of weeks when we are in the midst of the move.
So awesome that you are teaching the girls how to grow a garden! You are teaching them how to provide food for themselves later in life. Wish I had a garden – or a green thumb to grow one.
It was something my parents always had me help with, but I never really learned how to do it until I was doing it for myself. I read a lot of books over the years and have tried a lot of different things out. I still love to experiment. I hope that the girls will know how, even if they never garden, and that the ones who enjoy it will have a useful hobby like I do.
I think once we are in a real home and out of this camper, I will try my hand at planting a few things. I absolutely LOVE fresh veggies. Grandpa always had a garden, but when he passed – my mom and aunts didnt keep it up. Funny how I can remember walking around the corn stalks when I was 5.
It takes practice, but read all you can about gardening now,while you can’t, and then put it into practice once you can. At least you’ll have knowledge to start with then. I read book after book, but still was a terrible gardener at first, but now, I’m much better at it. I have used lots of ideas from the books, though, I just didn’t get good at it until I did it for a while. Each place we live has different things that work differently, according to the elevation, dirt quality, etc. I just got good at this garden:) It’s sure been encouraging to see how my sister’s garden is growing, though. It is much more like what I had before we moved here, and grows more easily.
Great advice! Maybe a trip to the library is in my future.
You are a true pioneer woman. Pushing forward and working hard. I know your future will be bright.
Thanks. I do feel like I’m packing my covered wagon for a long journey! I can slightly relate better to the pioneers after this experience. The difference is, I know I have it WAY cushier than they did:)
I bet you had a beautiful Mother’s Day! What love in your family. So dear to read about. Some day I hope to have a tiller….and a large garden too. First the garden I guess! I grew up with all our neighbors have large gardens, taking up half their large yards. I will have to get and try that basil salad dressing my Taste of Home!
I’ve got to say, that salad dressing is a winner. I’ve been eating it daily. Yum!
Because we’ve seen our share of hard times over the years where family is concerned, I think we appreciate every bit of love that we have for each other. We don’t take it for granted.
I love my garden. I hope you get one one day.
Hope you had a wonderful Mother’s day. I’m sure your Moms were happy with the pretty flowers.
I didn’t realize that your girl would change her middle name; will she keep Patsy? I don’t know the history behind her adoption, but I’m glad that she has a safe and loving home with you now.
Great job with the garden. I will have to check out the basil dressing from taste of home.
Hope you have a good week.
Patsy is our 8th adopted child, and is actually the child of our 2nd adopted child. Some of our older children have really struggled with life choices. Things weren’t working out for her at home, so the state intervened, and she was put into foster care 3 years ago, February. We were notified because we are her grandparents, even though we had seen very little of her over the years since she was little. We went through all the trainings, etc. and she moved in August, 2-1/2 years ago. We spent the entire summer transitioning her, as she did not remember us. We became her foster parents, and did not know how long she would be here. Every attempt was made to return her to her parent, but it was determined she needed another solution. So, we applied and were accepted to adopt her. We have been approved for over a year, almost 2, (so had to do updates on our paperwork), and she has been legally free since Sept. It just takes a long time to get everything through. So, we are thrilled that it’s finally happening.
We have always adopted older children, not babies, but she is the oldest, by far. They are usually 5 or under when we get them. She was 9. I have let every one of them choose a family name, starting with “R” for a new middle name. They can keep any and all other names if they want or drop them if they want. I have always called the child the same name as they have always been called. Lovana’s true name was Caltrice, for instance, but she had always gone by Lovana. So, her new name became Lovana Rose Caltrice. Patsy wants a longer name, so she has chosen Patricia Rachel Mae. Mae was part of her middle name before. We will still call her Patsy. She wants a “big” name for later, and can change and be called Patricia if she ever wants to. She said she may want to become an animal cruelty officer when she grows up and rescue animals and no naughty person would give up an injured animal to some one named Patsy. But, she told me, if someone was told to give it to Patricia–they would:) I had to chuckle.
You have to change their names legally anyway to get the last name fixed when you adopt them. They might as well get to feel like they have some control over their lives and not many kids get to change their names and have any say-so in the process!
I think that is wonderful! So glad that Patsy and the other children found loving parents! I think that Patricia Rachel Mae is a beautiful name, and I’m sure that she will thrive under your care.
Thank you for all that you do for these children. May you be richly blessed.
Thank you