Summer Yum

The last few years my garden lacked a good yield. Partly due to my lack of attention in the garden (sore back which leads to inability to weed, water, and tend the garden) and weird weather. I can't say the weather has changed much this year but my back is behaving better. For about a month I have been getting various types of squashes. They are yummy.

















Finally, the tomatoes are turning red. Both of these in the picture should be ready eating (I mean picking) within a day or two. Last week I started eating my little golden cherry sized tomatoes- yum, they never make it inside.






















The garden is very green and lush. My tomato plants are tall, maybe 4' tall. The one thing that is different this summer is I have been fertilizing the plants once a month. Ohhhh, they like getting fed. Now if the weather would turn a tiny bit warmer, the tomatoes will turn from green to yummy red.















My front yard is exploding with color. Anyone need some English lavender? I will harvest some soon. I love color in my yard.

The huge bummer in my garden this year was the NO fruit production from the apricot and plum trees. Both received a very good trimming in February. Maybe the trees needed a rest this year. I still have in my freezer fruit from last year. Time to jam and pie!














I so love daisy's. They remind me of God's unfailing and tender hearted love He has for me. Unlike what the world says about daisies, "he loves me, he loves me not. . . ." With God choosing me as His own, dying on the cross for me, it is, "He loves me, He will always love me. . . ."- and that will go on for eternity!

It's All Worth It!

My pool is such a hassle. Hassle is an understatement too. My pool needs constant love, care and so much time. Chemicals, brushing, filter cleaning, skimming, vacuuming, and the list goes on. I hate dealing with the surprise that it is green and cloudy. At some moments in time I have thought that I would like to be done with it and fill it in.
UNTIL, I have family or friends over and they truly are enjoying the pool. This past week was such and example. Jen and the kids were up this week and we were in the pool for 4 or 5 days straight. The kids seem to just love being in the pool. This past week, everyone was in the pool. My mom, Jen, Trin Trin, Joe Joe, baby Eric, Amy, my cousin Cheryl, Olivia, Angie and I have all been in the pool. What fun we all had. Today is the first day in 6 days that I have not been in. Think I will pull the cover back and get in (after the Giant's game).

So, even though the pool is a complete hassle and uses up a good amount of my time, when people I love and care about enjoy my pool, it is all worth it.

A complete side note here about the pool: on Tuesday Amy brought over baby Eric to get him used to the pool. He cried and cried just getting the tips of his toes in. The next day, Amy had him in on her legs, he fussed a little. On Thursday (and Friday and Saturday too) he got completely in the pool. He so enjoyed himself. He laughed at his cousins and did not mind a little splash on his face.

I thank God for the blessing of a pool and to use it for His glory!

image taken from google images

My Home's New Look

My parents and my grandma decided that I needed a serious update of my sofas. The old sofas served their purpose and I got 8 1/2 good years out of them and that was 8 1/2 years longer after my sister had them for a time and her college roommate had them before that. The pictures don't really put the new look in the best light, I took them early this morning before I went to church. They are so beautiful and completely change the look of my great room. I am so very blessed. Thank you Mom, Dad and Grandma, I love them!

I'm Around-Just Busy

Posting has once again taken a back seat to my busy life and lack of energy to do so. Would love to say that posting has stopped because of the Giant championship that came to San Francisco that I mentioned on my last post but it truly has been busy. The blog will not go silent, it will resume soon. When I have trouble getting my clean laundry folded and put away and not spending as much time reading my Bible and praying, that is when I know I have no time for blogging.

My "loves" are in town this week and my time is spent playing, pushing swings, pretending I am the puppy vet, reading books, and so much more, all good fun!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with family and friends celebrating the birth of Christ, the Savior!

Here are a few family holiday photos.

Jammin'

Soon as a cool and free day comes around, I'll be making jam, jelly, and syrup. My freezer is packed full of prepared strawberries, apricots and plums. Not all the frozen fruit will be used for jam and such but will kept frozen to make a crisp or pie. YUMMY! In this picture you can not even see the 3 gallon bags full of strawberries, they are behind the apriocots.

Back to the Blogging World

Thank you for hanging in there with me, I hope I have not lost some of you. The desire is back to spend some time blogging. I have posts lined up in my brain and I will try to do some "ketchup" and squeeze them out as time allows.


There have been birthday celebrations, mini trips, preserving, changes in seasons, pounds lost, miles walked, books of the Bible read and so much more. My little sister has been urging me to get out a post and I thank her for her encouragement and motivation. So, here is just a "briefing" of some of the highlights that I have time for this morning (Jen, Joe and the kids are in town for Thanksgiving and almost every daylight moment is spent with them).




A few weekends ago we celebrated Trinity's 4th birthday. She is growing up so fast. She is such a beautiful little girl. In the below picture we are waiting for Trin's friends to show up at Pump it Up.

Trinity is learning how to ride a bicycle with training wheels!

Trinity fondly calls Joey "brother". Brother is taking a ride on his scooter, with assistance.

Back in mid-October we celebrated Grandma's 95 birthday. This is our 4th annual birthday celebration up in Apple Hill. Grandma is still doing wonderful and defying age.


At the place I like to buy apples and pears, there were all of these old box labels that I thought were cool.

I'm learning how to take pictures and interesting shots.

This cart could barely contain all the goods that I purchased. Along with good eats for the next month, I canned 28 quarts of apple sauce. YUMMY!

Pool Frolic

The new pool has been broken in quiet well. Love using my home for gatherings and parties. The first set of photos are from my dad's birthday and the second set is from the 4th of July. Thank you to those of you who prayed that my pool would be finished by the 4th.

Day 8 Pool Project- LAST DAY

The pool is being re-filled as I type out this post. Not quiet enough water to swim yet, enough to wade. The surface got a good acid wash and several washes. All the acid and rinse water was sucked out. My feet really liked the feel of the surface. Not rough at all and pretty smooth. After being in the pool for a few hours teaching swim lessons will be the real test on my footsies.

I sure like the combination of the surface, tile and the copping.

Filling the pond. It will take awhile. The company estimated 24 hours. My hope is for less but I also don't want to worry about the pool all night long.

I think the surface kinda looks like a somewhat black sand beach. Use your imagination.

All of the final details were put in place today. The light was installed, the eye balls put back into their sockets, the concrete finished and deck-o-seal put between the last section of concrete and the copping. Tomorrow, I will check out the chemicals, start up the pump and get the cover on so it will be a decent temp for Saturday's party. The final photos will be of the pool completely filled and people swimming around.

Thanks for hanging out with the blog with each day of the project. Now it is time to come over and hang out in and around the pool.

Day 6 Pool Project

Yeah, I know have a real step to walk out my slider down onto. Very exciting. It's still quite a step down but better than down on the ground. Somehow, my by cat, Lassen has been in all of the photos that I have taken of the step.



The concrete is all back in place now. It makes all the other pieces look like then need to be redone, but that is NOT going to happen any time soon.


The pool company has to come out and saw into the new concrete to make the distance between the pool copping and the concrete exactly the same as the rest of the pool. I wonder why they did not leave the space in the first place. I am not a concrete pro though so their reasons are the best reasons.

I am getting pretty excited for this project to be over. Even though we are day 6 of the project, in actuality from start to now it has been 10 working days or 2 weeks. Monday is the plaster with the pebble, Tuesday acid wash and start filling the pool. Almost there.

What a praise it was that my sister Amy was able to come over and be here while the work was being done yesterday so that I could be in Fresno to babysit my niece and nephew. Makes me break out in my favorite song at both of my sister's weddings, "We are family, all of my sisters and me". Thanks again Amy, you were a life saver (a minty wintergreen or a fruity orange).

Day 5 Pool Project

The two super hard workers were out again to finish the tile work that was not finished the other day due to running out of tiles and they put the grey deck-o-seal in between the concrete and the coping. This finishes everything off nicely. The only problem is there is a section of concrete that has not been laid yet and now that area does not have the deck-o-seal in it. Seems like the company is not doing this all in the correct order but what do I know. I am really hoping all of this will be done for a party I am having on the 4th of July. Actually, not only done but done in time to heat the water up to a good temperature so people can swim if they want. If the Lord wills that not happen, I am good too with having water balloons or other water fun.



I love the way my skimmer looks. Everything is all centered up and even. There is something to the clean lines and symmetry.

These are the plans as I see them, but the Lord might have other plans. Tomorrow is concrete and the new light. Monday is plaster day. Tuesday cure day and maybe deck-o-seal guys come back out. Wednesday is acid wash and brush day. Thursday is fill day. That leaves Friday and Saturday before the party to heat the pool.

Pool Resurfacing Project

I often wonder if the home projects/improvements will ever come to an end and I have come to the conclusion that they will not. As long as I own my home, there will be something that will have to be done, even if it is not on the project list. 2 years ago, I did not have the project of resurfacing my pool but it is a project that has to be done at this point. The plaster in my pool was pulling away from the gunite creating a huge jagged crater in the shallow end and many more that just had not erupted and broken open yet.

After many estimates and research on the internet, I found the company that I want to go with and signed the contract a few weeks back. The pool is going to have a completely different look and look really good. There is great excitement to a new look and I have come to grips with the price of the project.

I will try to blog the work that is being done by each day of work to show you all the progress of the project. When it is all done, come on over for a swim or a lounge by the pool sucking on an ice tea.

And the Greatest of These is Love

For my last birthday, my mom got me this oil painting of a country church (called Amazing Grace). I love it. The picture is hanging on a small entry wall into the kitchen from the entry way and hallway. My photo looks a little crooked because there was a wall right behind me and I had no space to take the picture, it really is straight and level. Some friends picked up a catalog at a home and garden show for a company that does wall expressions, or other expressions for things around your home. I so loved the concept of putting an expression on my wall to go with the beautiful picture. Every time I walk out my front door or my garage door, I will be reminded to put on a heart of love, Christ's love.

Like A Spring Rain

"So let us know, let us press on to know the LORD. His going forth is as certain as the dawn; And He will come to us like the rain, like the spring rain watering the earth." Hosea 6:3

Whenever it rains in the springtime I am reminded of a song that we sang at the Grace on Campus Bible Study called Hosea 6:3. Today a good spring rain is watering the earth around the Bay Area. I love this little song because it is such a nugget of truth. He is more faithful than a spring rain that waters the earth. This verse starts with a prompting for us to know, to press on to know the LORD. . . and here comes the promise, He will

come to us like a rain, a spring rain

that waters the earth.

My roses have opened up and I am seeing their incredible beauty for the first time. These rose bushes were planted late last summer (they waited patiently for 6 months to be put in the ground) and now they are showing off who they are. The first rose I think is a Nancy Reagan and the second rose is a Tahitian Sunset.

The last photo is of a plant called Ruby Slippers. Before I re-landscaped my front yard I probably had a dozen Ruby Slippers. They were incredible bloomers for about 2 months and then the plant died out and looked horrible. I took them out despite my mom being totally against it As you can see, despite being

removed, one plant was a fighter and grew

back quite well.

The rain today was a complete blessing for me. There was some tension that rose up at work over the past week in my department between a few people and we had a serious sewer issue arise (literally) in the locker rooms. With those two issues and the possibility of rain, as the department chair I made the decision that all the PE classes would go to the theater and watch a couple of movies that we had not finished and give teachers an opportunity to work extra on the grades we are submitting this week and to allow a little respite from the bad behavior of the students. I think today was a breath of fresh air for all of my department. "Like a spring rain, watering the earth".

Spring/ Summer Garden

Before I could plant my summer garden, I had to pick some of the yummies. Sadly, I had to take out the sugar snap peas to make room for the rest of the garden. It pained me so to do this because there was still a good yield. In fact the pile you see here filled a gallon zip lock bag 3/4 of the way full. The carrot is just a baby but wanted to show you where they are at and I was able to get 3 gallon bags of lettuce.

For the last 3 years, evil has taken root in my vegetable garden. There he is, tucked right next to my fence and next to my carrots, Mr. Poison Oak. Each year I have carefully removed him, dug him out from the roots, carefully removed him with double rubber gloves (that I quickly take off from the inside out) and he still comes back. The evil thing about him is that he has given me a nasty rash the last two years. I might be free and clear this year because it has been 5 days since he was once again asked "to leave AND NEVER COME BACK, thank you".

My herb garden is doing wonderful right now. If you live anywhere in the area, you are welcome to come over and take some fresh herbs for yourself and your cooking. The herbs that are doing great are: rosemary, sage, thyme, peppermint, cilantro, oregano, chives, parsley, and tarragon. The herbs not doing so well: basil (for some reason it has never done well in my garden), and dill. Now if my tomatoes were ready to go for canning, I would be able to make and can my own salsa, tomato soup, and tomato sauce but the tomatoes are no where near to being ready for such a honor. They have at the least 50 days up to 75 days. The planters boxes for the herbs are on the West side of my house.

Some of you might wonder about where I grow my garden. Here is where I grow most of my vegi's. My yard is lower than my neighbors so my garden is the walk down step, about 2 1/2 feet. The plot is about 30' x 5' and runs North South and is on the East side of my house. Every time I plant I rototiller the ground, put in a compost mix, NCSP organic compound and a box of Dr. Earth Fertilizer (is high in chicken manure) and roto 2 more times. This year I am going to put my tomatoes in big, and they have to be big to work properly, containers. I wanted more room in my garden for other things and not just tomatoes. I will explain what I planted this year starting from the bottom. Starting at the bottom I first have what I planted in the winter: there is the red onions, yellow sweet onions, white onions and green onions, then you will see my carrots and 5 different varieties of lettuce. If you look closely you will see that all of my onions just got hair cuts and had their greens cut off. There is no purpose in keeping them long, they will cause the onion to come out of the ground. You might also see small flowers surrounding the entire garden. These are Marigolds and they help keep out the bad bugs. Now onto what I planted on Friday: two tomatoes, 5 bush bean plants and 5 different types of squash. My 5 remaining tomatoes are sitting on the edge of the wall waiting to get put into large pots.