First salad of the season.  Red and Green Leaf lettuces, Chard, Spinach, and Arugula.  Kids and I made homemade croutons, topped with cheese, ranch, and sunflower seeds.  Yummy!

Couponing

I have been taking a couponing class at my church and it has been so exciting.  I had to share two transactions I did yesterday.

This is my 18 cent transaction!  So far the best I have ever done!

 This is my 99 cent transaction.  My calculations put it at free but I think I forgot about tax and something else happened.  Going to take the receipt to class next week so I can figure out how it worked the way it did.  Still though 99 cents is good in my book!

All right back to your regularly scheduled blogging.  I was so excited I had to share!  lol

Busy week and Summer Camps!

Its been a busy week and my poor blog is once again neglected!  I really wanted to keep up with the Kindergardens series but seems I am all ready behind.  I am going to be playing around with my blog design so if things look funky here please be patient with me.  I am really not liking the feel of it lately.  Have a lot of gardening posts to do and am super excited about how my garden is doing.  Its spring so all I think about is gardening!

I have also been busy helping our 4-H group with their website.  Please go check it out at Camas Camp-n-Ranch.  It is an excellent farm, my family loves it out there.  If you are local make sure you check out their facebook page and their summer camps.  Please pass the information on to anyone else locally you know!  They have 3 different themes as well as horse camp in July.   

Large Family Logistics - Book Review

I finished up Large Family Logistics by Kim Brenneman last month and thought it would review it here.  The first part of the book is about the Proverbs 31 Woman.  I didn't know this was in there and was almost giddy with excitement when I saw that.  Proverbs 31 is one of my favorite parts of the Bible.  I love reading about the Proverbs 31 woman and spent a good deal of time reading this section, taking notes, and reading in my Bible.

The remainder of the book is split into two parts.  Part one being more philosophical and offering encouragement.  Part two being the how to application of how she does things in her household.  I sat down with the book with the intention learning.  As I read I took notes and looked up any Biblical references or verses she noted.  Any ideas I thought would work for my family I wrote down in a notebook and ones I thought might work I noted and tweaked a bit.
  
There were some specific chapters and sections that I really enjoyed.   I started to implement some of her ideas right away, such as the office and paperwork ideas.  Others I have implemented over time.  I keep referencing this book which is a plus for me.  I like books that make me want to look at them again rather than just collecting dust on my shelf.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for practical ideas of how to handle the day to day in a house with lots of kids.  Though I think had I read this when I was a mother of one it would have made things a lot smoother going from one to two, to three, and then to four!  lol 

You can purchase the book at the above link or its also on Amazon.  Her blog Large Family Logistics has some good posts, though posts are more frequent on her facebook page which is linked on her blog.  If you have read this book or plan to I would love to hear what you thought about it!

I do not know the author and have not been given anything or asked to do this review.  This is just my thoughts.

Making Newspaper Pots

Last year I saw a post somewhere about making newspaper pots.  They used a store bought tool to do so and I have thought about that tool often when transplanting.  I seem to never have enough pots for my transplants!  As I was re potting tomatoes and peppers I ran out of pots and decided to try making my own.  It worked wonderful!

What you need:

Newspaper

Cup

Soil

Seedlings

Flat or plant tray

I couldn't find any newspaper in my house and as I was searching the garage my eye fell on this roll of newsprint.  Perfect!  I got it from the newspaper office.  The local paper here gives away the ends of the rolls and I usually grab one or two for crafts and such.  It was absolutely perfect for this purpose.

Roll of newsprint

Step one: Cut newsprint into pieces.  Size will depend on the size of pot you are making.  Make your pieces double the height as you will be folding them in half.

Cut pieces

Step Two: Fold your piece of newsprint in half lengthwise.

Cut and folded piece

Step Three:  Get your cup.  I used a plastic cup I had laying around my greenhouse.

Cup

Step Four:  Line your paper up on your cup to the height you would like.  I did fairly large as I was transplanting tomatoes and wanted them to be deep.  Place the folded side on the top of the cup as this will be your top edge.

Placing paper on cup

Step Five:  Roll paper around cup keeping top edges even.  It will not be tight around the cup if your cup is smaller at the base.

Paper rolled around cup with top edges even

Step Six:  Turn cup over and fold the bottom like a present.  It will be bulky and try to unfold.  I ended up placing it flat in my hand and squeezing around the bottom the cup and crumpling the paper a bit.

Bottom folded

Step Seven:  Take the pot off the cup and continue to hold the bottom so it does not unfold.  Place a small amount of damp soil into the bottom to help it keep its shape.

Soil in pot

Step Eight: Place pots into flat or plant tray.

Finished pots

Step Nine: Transplant as normal.  I labeled each pot with a small piece of tape and placed the tape on the rolled edge.  This wasn't necessary to hold the pot together but I had several different varieties in each tray and did not have enough plant markers.

Finished transplanting

Make sure to water them and then you are done!

What's in the Garden?

Seedlings in the Greenhouse

Morning Glory

Onions

Winter squash or pumpkin

I am anxiously awaiting warmer weather.  Most of the cool weather crops are out in the garden beds.  The warm weather crops have been transplanted and are growing more and more each day waiting to go outside.  Excited to see what comes of this years harvest.  What's in your garden?

Family Hike

KinderGARDENS 2011

I have never participated in KinderGARDENS and I think its an excellent idea.  You can find more info at The Inadvertent Farmer.  For my family teaching our children where their food comes from is very important.  Knowing that the carrot they are eating was grown by someone.  Grown from a seed, watered, weeded, and cared for rather than just magically appearing in the supermarket for us to buy.

Are you a first time gardener who needs help and encouragement or are you a veteren gardener that can help others here?

I am not a first time gardener but I don't consider myself a veteran either!  I look forward to learning from these blog posts and hope I can add to the discussions as well.

Are you gardening with your kids or grandkids or are you doing a school garden or maybe gardening with college kids?

I am gardening with my children.  We have four ages 3, 5, 8, and 10.

Are you going to expand on last year's ideas or are you going a whole different route?

We moved in February so have a brand new canvas to start on this year.  Our garden will consist of two 4 by 15 raised beds as well as an area of hill I am fencing off for the larger plants.

What are your kids dreaming of doing this year...remember to involve them in the planning stage, after all that is why we're here!

My kids have all ready planted a few things.  Flowers and pumpkins.  Both of my oldest children have hopes of growing pumpkins and watermelons for 4H to take to fair.  I usually give each child a garden space but I am not sure what this will look like this year.  

Anyone doing a hobbit house?  Ohhhh I hope so!!

I am planning a tee pee this year for the kids.  I have started some vining flowers and a mini vining pumpkin that will grow up the sides.  Also will add beans, peas, and sunflowers to the mix.  I tried this last year but I never got farther than setting up the tee pee poles!  Its high on my priority list so hopefully I will accomplish that this year.  :)

Chicken Show - April 2011

Maddy participated in a chicken show in April.  Her first of the 2011 4H year.  She did a wonderful job.  I love seeing her out there.  She looks so grown up to me in these photos.  :)

 I didn't take a lot of other photos.  There were tons of chickens on show for the kids to look at.  Naomi and Marah just love looking at all the different kinds of chickens.