gardening in small spaces

our space isn't really THAT small, but we rent, so I don't want to plow the whole back yard.
I couldn't find pics of the hanging garden stuff in other posts, so I am putting them here- so I know where they are in my blog if anyone happens to ask.

I started m y sugar snap peas (and a few other things) in well-rinsed milk cartons.

What Brand are you?

The boys are working on memorizing 1 Corinthians 13. (which means I am, too) They are doing pretty well. I found that having them read passages over and over and over and over on our drives to and from Base works well. And I print the verse out with more and more blanks for missing words. I want them to have this memorized before they go to camp in July.

I rode my bike to the pharmacy to get my Fioricet. I was under the impression it was ready for me, but it's not. I'll go back this afternoon. I want to have my Fioricet with me on this 2 weeks in Ohio. Though I love rain,I hate the humid heat and the mold it brings- I get such bad migraines from it all. I don;t want to spend my vacation in bed with pain in my brain.
We have a few Sunflowers in bloom. One is about ready to be beheaded. The one that looks about 7 foot tall is blooming. I'm afraid when its flower opens all the way and gets heavy with seeds, it will fall over. I'll try to get a picture of it this afternoon. Right now the sun is behind it and glares in the photo.

I need to find some cheese cloth to hang the head to dry out while we're gone.

My neighbor will be coming over to water plants and feed the cat. I told her to just pick/eat whatever is ready while we're gone. The sugar snap peas are taking off. I pick a few every other day. Some of the green tomatoes are starting to turn to almost yellow. I wonder if the neighbor will get to eat my 1st ripe tomato of the season.

Yesterday the boys made a fire out back and were cooking marshmallows. Ki stepped on a glowing hot poker.

He used aloe from the plants outback. He's finally walking OK again. I think he hopes he has a scar for life. My son has been branded! He's a Knock-Off Hurley brand, I think.



I had planned on knitting a lot on out flight to Ohio. We leave tomorrow. We'll be gone June23-July7th. I'll have my laptop, so I hope to find time to update occasionally.
ANYWAY, it's an overnight flight, so I'll just sleep, not knit.
I'll bring my Dishcloth Project with me on the plane though. In case I find the time. The DNA project will be for the hotel where I can spread out on the bed.

Here is my Doctor Who Discloth. It's the TARDIS. Or will be. I have a few other patterns I want to do for my Doctor Who Dishcloth Collection. this yarn didn't show the pattern quite as nicely as I wanted. I t is Cotton. I might try it in a wool blend next time. Soksey though it was time for a head rub when I got the camera out so he's in a few pictures from today.

Berry Baskets

I Knit a Trivet. It was a practice in some new techniques (seed & Basket Weave). It was good. Good for the practice and it was also very good for learning how to read my stitches, how to recognize previous stitches, how to recognize right legs, and how to recognize and fix twisted stitches.

I also practiced TINKING. Reverse Knitting to just go back a few stitches.

Ki liked my small trivet and used it as a placemat this morning. I call it Berry Basket Trivet, due to the Basket Weave and to the Seed Stitches that look like a Raspberry to me.

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On Wednesday we leave for our 2 week Vacation to Ohio.

YAY!

But it is an Overnight Flight, so I probably won't get any knitting accomplished on the flight. I'll sleep.

I should have plenty of time to knit while doing nothing at the hotel while Brian is at meetings.

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I picked 10 Sugar Snap Peas Yesterday! MMMMM---MMMMMM---MMMMMM!

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Today we are going to a friends for lunch. Then home to PACK

Blast from the Past.

For Today... June 18, 2010 [with Oct 2008 stuff, too](click the above picture to read more Simple Woman Daybook entries by other women)


Outside my Window... [today] The water sprinkler is feeding the grass it's daily dose of water. Not many avocados left on the tree that over hangs the wall. The sky is white-grey with the Santa Maria Morning Cloud cover; which rolls away to reveal bright sun by about 10 AM. "June Gloom" [Mid October 2008]There was an extra heavy dew/mist this morning. We get our Morning Garden of Eden Dew here. Some days it's so heavy you can hear it dripping off the roof and through the trees and it sounds like rain- almost.

I am thinking... [today] about our trip to Ohio next week. Getting Excited. And I still can't find the gift I bought for my mom for Mother's Day. UG. [mid Oct 2008]Having a teenage girl living here this week and next will be interesting and hopefully fun.


From the learning rooms... [today] Ki and I are learning how to make FRUIT LEATHERS. No 'intentional learning' today. Gavin is learning how to drive. He drove about an hour on the way back from L.A. (with Brian). I will be looking into requirements for Gavin to take classes this fall at the local college and I'll be installing a SAT Prep course on the laptops for G&C. But that'll be after our trip. [oct 2008] I posted a list 2 days ago of the boys intended work. Gavin did 2 of his Physics Experiments yesterday and will hopefully be ready for his end of chapter test later this week. Physics has become a weekend/evening class now that he had advanced enough to need help. Brian does it with him a couple nights a week on Saturday or Sunday. This week for Social Studies the boys are researching different Political Parties for their Elections class. I think I have 2 more classes of ASL to teach.

I am thankful for... [today] I'm thinking I'll use my Oct 2008 answer: Brian's great job! He took a Business Trip to L.A. and was able to take Gavin with him! father-Son time. w00t! And he has a Business trip back to Ohio, which is probably the only reason we can afford to go back and get to stay in a hotel for a week while there! [Oct 2008]My husbands great job. He had 15 workdays of leave he has to take of between now and Dec 31. That's almost every other workday.

From the kitchen... [ today]Fruit Leathers are STILL drying. We started them yesterday. My oven's lowest is 170. F.Ls need 140. So I turned the oven off overnight. (you;re supposed to leave them in the warm oven overnight)... and now, I see Oct 2008's answer and I want to make Amish Bread Starter! [Oct 2008] 2 bags of Amish Friendship Bread starter. I forgot to take my 4 bags to the Homeschool Group Friday. I decided to just keep 2 and throw 2 away. Tomorrow we'll have the V.H's over for Tacos when they drop Dynasty off to stay a week.

I am wearing... [Today] Brian's Sweater & Jeans. with a tank top under the sweater, b/c when 10:30 hits, the clouds will have burned away and it will probably be warm enough for it. [oct 2008]new slippers from Target. I had worn holes in my other ones.

I am reading... Books in the Kathy Reichs Series. These are books on which the TV Show BONES is based. But it's NOT "Bones".. good books still, but don;t read them fully expecting them to 'be' BONES. [Oct 2008]about the Green Party, the Libertarian Party and the Democratic Party.


I am hoping... [Today]Eat Fruit Leathers today. [Oct 2008]to have a smooth week with our house guest.

I am creating.. [Today] I am procrastinating a scarf that I want to knit. I am about done with the swatch (the practice section) Mostly, though, I am just creating a mess. [Oct 2008]I am waiting for the sewing table to get cleared off so I can create there.

I am hearing... [ today] about the same as the Oct answer- with the added sound of the cat eating and the hum of the fan in this laptop. [Oct 2008] cars, trucks, keyboards, Connor&Gavin, birds, some humming sound....

Around the house... [Today] - We got rid of the rug in the front room. I always walked around it instead of having my feet touch it, so it was basically just a big obstacle in the middle of the room. AND- the sink is fixed. And the Dishwasher is fixed- but won't really work well until we get a water softener which we won't be getting, so it doesn't matter. [Oct 2008] All the questions are getting redundant now. Last week I used our dry erase board as a calendar for the week. Each day with school times, plans we have, place we will go, dinner, etc- the boys really liked it so I'm doing it again this week.

From the Garden... I just added this question. It is replacing "1 of my fav things". Picked 3 huge strawberries today! The 4 largest tomato plants are covered inn blossoms and small green tomatoes. The squash plants have all had flowers. I have a big handful of Sugar Snap Peas to pick today (or tomorrow. I might give them one more day to get extra fat & juicy) I have weeding to do and h ave to make sure the plants are ready for the neighbor to come water them.

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week... [Today] It's Friday. The rest of the week is todayand tomorrow. House cleaning and bike ride today. Tomorrow I'm going on a Lunch Date with some moms from Vandenberg. Debb is moving to Germany next week, so we're all going out one last time before she leaves. I'll even Flat-Iron my bangs and maybe wear eyeshadow!

[Oct 2008] continuing the: Getting up around 7:15 daily, earlier breakfasts, that was great for everyone except Ki who was overly tired and having meltdowns at the end of the week. So we are back to the older two getting up early and letting Ki sleep until 8:30 and Breakfast at 9, unless G&C ate already. Continue the Individual classes for each boy, ASL, PE and elections class, and Gymnastics. This weeks PE class is a run/walk to support the troops. I will be biking to the Farmers market on Wed. **BIGGEST PLAN this week- Dynasty comes tomorrow and stays for 8-9 days. Brian will take her to school and pick her up.

Injurious

I bet I could start a Daily Blog entitled; "Injury of the Day". If I miss a day of injury, I'm sure one of my boys will be able to fill in for me. While doing the Self Check out thing at Albertson's I sliced my thumb. It was a small slit, but hurt. I was pinching something and it slipped and my fingernail sliced accross my thumb. It just kinda hurt, nothing new, so I continued my Scan & Bag. Soon though, I noticed blood droplets forming on my thumb and getting on my frozen veggies. I tried putting it in my mouth (the thumb, not the bag of frozen veggies). I quickly discovered Scan & Bag is pretty much a 2 handed job. We're up to but drops running down my thumb now, so I ask the Cashier for a band-aid. Poor dude. You'd think he'd not seen blood before. It was just a couple drops on a thumb. He brings this huge BRIGHT BLUE foam bandage. I'm scanning, bagging, towelette wiping, and bandaging all at the same time. I didn't want to hold up the line. When I was done the Head Self-Check Cashier asks if I need help out; like they always do. I tell him no I'm fine, he asks about my cut (wow, it's not even big enough to be called that really) and asks if I'm sure I'm OK and I'm sure I don't help taking my 3 bags of groceries out.

I don't think the loss of 3 drops of blood is gonna make me too dizzy to push a grocery cart.

*****

Today I took picture of my 13 year old by his Sunflowers. One of them is probably 7 feet tall!

I ate 3 strawberries from Gavin's plants today. Tomorrow I might eat 3 more......

Or I might save them for Gavin.... Decisions! Maybe I'll just eat one tomorrow.

** I really really really need to do some work knitting on my DNA Swatch. I'll do that tonight I guess. I think I need to go buy some cheap circulars to use on the plane.

**
Did I Mention that Brian took G with him on a TDy to L.A. So he's by himself all day while Brian is as meetings, probably getting lots of extra computer and TV time. He said he might go hang out at the pool today.

Vitamin C

I have some citrus trees outback. A Key Lime Tree. We made a DELICIOUS Key Lime Pie last year.

I have a lemon tree with gnarled, deformed lemons that on rare occasion actually ripen.

I have small, regular lime tree. Last year it only had a couple limes and they never got big enough and kinda shriveled or just fell off. The people before us in this rental house didn't water and didn't do any plant care (the later is just a guess, the former was evident by the large amounts of brown, dead grass and plants)

I was watching some of my limes and keeping the tree watered. I pruned it last year and trimmed overly grown or overly spider-webbed branches. Some of my limes got to be 'lime size' and started to lighten. Which I took as a sign they were ripe.

My first ripe limes. I picked a few to cut and try.

I cut one open.

It did not smell like a lime.

It did not look like a lime.

It did not taste like a lime.

Apparently I have an ORANGE TREE that was so neglected it only got to the small green fruit stage last year before they all died and fell off.

MAYBE I will get some REAL ORANGES this year!!

A lot of the neighbors have orange trees that seem full of orange oranges all year.

And some tomatoes that are almost ripe!

Beach, Wind, & Sand

BEACH TRIP!! Halfway to the beach my cell phone rings. Ki answers it, has a somewhat confused look & says; "Dishwasher???"

-- OOPS! I forgot the dishwasher repair guy was coming this morning. He's at the door knocking, apparently. I tell Ki to tell him to just go ahead and go in and fix it. Ki tells the man; "We're not home. You can just go on and fix it anyway."

:pause:

Ki= "Sometimes you have to wiggle it" (the door) "bye"

*** does that make me a bad renter? ***

The beach was sunny and warm! We met our friends and laid out all the beach paraphernalia. Warm Sun. A light Breeze. Beach. Water. Dead Crabs and crab parts.

15 minutes or so later......

No More Sun.

Lots of cold Wind.

More Dead Crabs.

A guy is walking on the beach with his daughter. The other moms there recognize them from the charter school (My boys & I are the rebels. the only homeschoolers in our group not going to the charter school).

He asks is his daughter can play with the girls in our group (the little girls seem to recognize each other and were playing together). We said "Of Course" and invited him to come join us if he wanted.(we had a bit of a lean-to [to block wind] and cupcakes [to eat]).

He said no thanks, and something about how he's not a single dad so doesn't really fit in with us.

he did not recognize us (well, them. not me)

We all found that to be an odd statement and each had our own theory as to why he'd introduce himself as a non-single dad. This became out topic of conversation for a bit and when he came back, Theresa asked him why he introduced himself like that... if he thought we looked desperate or something....

*** *** *** *** ***

my dishwasher will never work. (well, the dishwasher in this house that we rent, to the House Owners Dishwasher)

Unless we spring for a water softener. I doubt this will happen. I guess I need to wash dishes more often.

Tomatoes/Moles/Math

Soksey caught 2 moles in the backyard. He's been stalking them for weeks. He finally caught 2 and presented them to Gavin today, neatly displayed on Gavin's bed.

The boys pet the cat, let him smell his kill, then fed him treats to reward his skill and heroic behavior is ridding the yard of the rodent delinquents that have made a molehill of half the yard.

I hope we don't miss out on too many of our tomatoes the 2 weeks we are gone. We have about a dozen little green ones and a few more that are larger and turning orange - on their way to red. Then we have dozens and dozens of blossoms!

And my sugar snap pea plants are also covered in blossoms. I better not miss out on too many of those either.

I have some limes ready to pick and my key limes should ready to pick enough to do something with in a week. I'll have to find some recipes. Maybe a pie again... or lime mousse....

I did this years High School Transcripts for G&C. Sometimes I think Gavin may have done enough computer programming for a whole years class. And I wonder is researching weapons can count as a semester class- he sure does enough of it. I chalked it up to Social Studies and History. Which I list as very general classes (just Social Studies and History) and figure they do enough Hodge-Podge, random research in those areas it counts as a school year course.

here is what I listed for Gavin (some of these full year, some of them single semester)

Algebra 2 (which he actually has to finish this summer)

Physics 1

Driver's Education (he took an online course, I think the DE courses at the schools here count as 1 semester, so that's what I counted it as- though he completed it in 3 days)

Astronomy

Shop/Car Maintenance (I figure all the car work he's done with his dad and the engine model he made, and all the power tool usage he's done- count towards a semester of 'shop/car maintenance'

10th Grade English (whatever. I dunno.)

Physical Education

Computer Science

Art (he's been teaching himself anime this year, plus done a few painting classes, and a sketching class)

History

Social Studies

Home-Ec

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Connor's is Similar.

I need to get them doing more volunteer, organizations stuff .... I hear colleges really like seeing that stuff on transcripts.

Summer Plans

With May Term at an end, it is time to decide what's next on our educational front, hopefully lots of beach days and hikes. But the hard reality is that I have 2 boys 'in high school' that need a decent high school transcript for college. They have their goals set to go into robotic engineering and know that entails making sure they keep up on maths and sciences in high school. Gavin needs to finish up his Algebra Course & Connor needs to finish up his Science Course. So that's on their agenda for them this summer. These are courses they choose to do and then did not complete.

Another College Prep they are working on is preparing for the S.A.T. They have been taking the Daily S.A.T. questions online as a start. This October Gavin will take the P.S.A.T. Maybe Connor, too. So I purchased a SAT Prep Study course for them to help them be a little more ready.

That leaves Ki. Ki has already mentioned that he needs to do a little math over the summer. He knows how he is with math. He knows that if he goes too long without keeping up on math skills that he regresses a lot, so it's worth it to him to do a little math over breaks so he's not as regressed and frustrated in math later. Tomorrow I'll talk to Ki and have him make a plan for what he thinks will be a good course of studies over the summer.

Bible Verses. I have a list of Bible Verses for the boys to memorize. I'll be memorizing with them or helping them memorize. I memorized lots of verses as a kid' at school (Dayton Christian), for church, and on the Bible Quiz Team. Having those verses 'hid in m heart' has been such a great help, guide, and comfort. I want my boys to have that, too, so I try to help them memorize some verses since they don't have A.W.A.N.A.S. or a Christian School. It's all on Brian and I, which is how it really is anyway. It's the parents job to teach their kids or make sure they get taught; no matter how that works out for them individually.

Ki wants to go to the library tomorrow and get some books to read, so we'll do that & return the Mythology Books.

I need to talk to the neighbors about feeding the cat and watering the plants while we're gone.

I'm tired. I feel like I have things to say, but I forgot them. There is more to my life and my kids than just a litany of plans and schedules. How about a snapshot into a conversation....

I was talking to them the other day about girls and dating. I just wondered what they thought about the whole thing. I never hear mention of girls from them and Gavin used to say he didn't see a need to date until College since he didn't plan to get married till after college.

Connor says having a girlfriend would be more work than he'd want. Showering more often, wearing clothes that match, not scratching his head like he has lice, and actually having to listen to a girl talk and have to talk about what she wants to talk about. I guess it's good he knows he's not ready for a girlfriend, because he's obviously not, LOL. I'm sure there will come a time when girls are important enough to comb his hair and wear clean clothes.

Gavin mentioned it might be nice to have a girlfriend, but it's probably not the time and something about not understanding what girls talk about.. but next thing I know he's all excited to tell me about the early Russian manned space vehicles having hand guns. It was seriously a mid sentence topic change I think. So I guess spaceships and guns are still more impressive than girls.

Ki said he doesn't have a crush on a girl. He probably doesn't want to wear clean clothes that match either.

* Ki's CLASS * MayTerm Myths

May is Over. Ki was a bit sad on Friday when he realized there are no more school days in May. He said he wished it was May Longer so he could do more MayTerm.
His Lap book is finished. "art" is not his thing. I try to get him to expand a bit, use some color, add some detail, make things at least almost coordinate. He did better. He used some colored paper here and there and used color pencils instead of just mechanical pencils.

(You Can Click On the Pictures to see them Larger)

THE OUTSIDE SAYS: "GRAECO-ROMAN MYTHOLOGY"



The book OPEN. The white pocket in the middle holds 4 CARDS on a chain. it's a VENN DIAGRAM- but in circle attached to a chain.

Title Circle says: Creation Story.

YELLOW are facts of the bible Account on Creation.

RED are from the Mythological Creation Story

ORANGE are things the 2 have in common.

LEFT- you can see some of the BiFold Cards. a picture on the outside- Bible Verses that go with how GOD is like each specific Myythological god on the inside,

MIDDLE- the Blue Star says GEMINI. Ki's chosen Mythological Constellation Story from the ones he read about


WHEN opened,the Star has a Picture on the Constellation on the bottom Piece and a short Synopsis on the backside of the top Star.

During the time in History when Rome Ruled the World, the Romans adopted a lot of other cultures, beliefs, gods, etc from many other Countries. The Romans especially liked the Greek gods and the stories that went with them. They named some of their gods to line up with the Greek gods. A lot of Greek and Roman Culture was intermingled. This can be seen in the parts of the New Testament. That's why we decided to study Graeco-Roman Mythology first (before Norse or Egyptian, etc); so we could read in the Bible about some of these things. So that's the list of the 'similar gods' in Greek and in Roman.

To keep in God's Word while studying Mythology, Ki made bi-fold cards that on the outside have the symbol of one of the mythological gods and on the inside it has that god's name and then a Bible Verse about The One True God. He did this with 5 different mythological gods, showing how the one God of the Bible encompasses all that the Many Graeco-Romans tried to have their many gods be.

We read in Acts 17 about when Paul was in Anthens and say all the temples to all the gods. The Greeks even had a temple to the UnKnown God. We read these verses when studying about the PANTHEON. the temple in Rome to "ALL GODS" ('pan'=all; 'theo'=god)

ALSO in his LapBook- Ki has a Memory Match game. It's Astro-Myth-Match. He cut yellow Circles and on them he wrote the names of planets and moons (their names are taken from Roman MMythology) and their matching Card is what they are the Roman god of.... Like Mars if the Roman god of war.


- - in this picture is 'god of speed' and then further down is "Mercury" - - -

~~~~ Ki read a lot of the myths, about Roman Culture, about greek and roman word roots we see in mythology and in words we use today, and he made Graeco-Roman recipes.

Ki wants to show his lapbook to the pastor and to James, his youth group pastor.
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Knit 1, Purl a Cookie

My posts have not had Much Ado Bout Boys lately, despite the title of my Blog. My Apologies. That will slowly be corrected over time.

Ki saved his last 2 cookies for Brian and I. YUM. Homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies! (that I made in the first place)

Gavin is working of some computer programming for his End of the Year School Presentation.

Connor fed his cat Lime Yogurt again today.

Now that we have the Boy Stuff taken care of, let's move on to the Non-Boy stuff......the girly stuff.

June is DNA SCARF KNITTING month. Lots of weird and varied, funky cable and twists stitches. I am knitting a swatch first- to practice (learn) these new techniques.

Or does it look better when using a Flash?



On Memorial Day I sewed. I sewed a bag to hold my Knitting Supplies. It is my Sewn Knitting bag.