first pickling

I'm reminiscing back to when the weather was above 40. I miss it. Regardless, we're moving right along to Thanksgiving and Christmas. Time never slows around here. But back when the weather was warmer, I pickled my first batch of pickles. ALL BY MYSELF. My crazy neighbor harvested a good load of pickles for me, but I finally did this process alone. I was pretty smitten with myself when all was said and done. Sadly, this is about all I did with regard to the garden this year. I'm failing. Sorry, crazy neighbor.  :(

Because said crazy neighbor is The Best Neighbor Eva, she brought me some goodies to help me make it through my first independent pickling session. And the best pickling kit ever. I'm so thankful to have her! If I remember correctly, the whole process took me 3 hours, not too bad.

the amazing kit

let the process begin - prepping

'helper'

ready for stuffing

{insert official name of this process}  ;)

Pickles were never so beautiful until this day. *Proud moment!* ;)

After the pickling was done, I ran some errands and came home to a lovely note from my crazy neighbor. She's too kind. After talking with her later, I found out 'we' canned 90+ pints of pickles… of which 8 were the batch I did... uhhh… good job, Courtney? Glad I could contribute ;)

32/52

"a portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2013"

Peyton: all I can think is he was demonstrating his 'pounce'
Lia: serious, as usual
Austyn: pouting over too many marshmallows
Tayt: consuming another marshmallow
Nash: blues
Drew: sass
Meg: learned a new trick and thinks she's pretty hot stuff

I'm just going to jump ahead to week 32. I'm basing this off the most current up to date 52 photo by one of my favorite bloggers. She has her stuff together and has this 52 stuff current. Ha! Me? Not so much. The last month, including getting ready for, going to, getting home from, and recovering after... Florida... has me behind on JUSTTTT about everything imaginable. Blogging. Checkbook. Yard work. Gardening (if you consider what I do gardening). Laundry. Dishes (washing by hand lately. a family of 9 should have a dishwasher. ours does not work) :(  regardless, you name it, it's not done. Speaking of, I need to make some calls for Peyton's football season. And maybe pay some bills so we can keep the lights on. KIDDING. Kind of ;)

birthday surprise

Our favoritest most favorite neighbor of all times celebrated a very large birthday a couple weeks ago and of course, her daughters, sons, and most favorite nephew and niece-in-law threw her a surprise birthday party in the field. Food and bags and gifts included :)

Her most favorite part of the evening mayyyy have been the tilling of the garden. I think she was pretty excited about this ;)

sorry for the shortage of photos... forgot to take my camera

Because she is our most favorite neighbor and we decided to step it up a notch from last year's Rubbermaid gift, we made her some signs for the garden. And here's a little DIY for all those interested out there. Many thanks to my mom for cutting all the parts and putting them together. Really... I didn't do much ;)

inspiration photo via weekendingblog.com

I changed it up a bit so they were more durable. I used thicker boards and dowels. Black paint instead of chalkboard paint. And white paint markers instead of chalk markers. Figured it would just wash off in the rain so these should last... forever. :)

Materials used:

* 3 - 1x4x6 boards (link as close as I could find)

* 3 - 1" square dowels

* screws

* black paint

* white paint marker

I put 2 to 3 coats on just to make them nice and pertee. Worked slick!

Due to the current abundance of rain, we haven't been in the garden in a few days but when things start coming up and looking more... garden-y... I'll be sure to get some more photos of these signs in action!

23/52

"a portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2013"

Peyton: fists of love from Meg.
Lia: animal lover.
Austyn: always reading or writing.
Tayt: boy.
Nash: learning how to pray.
Drew: learning how to potty.
Meg: crawl. pose. repeat.

(these are all taken with my phone)

I apologize this is so late. It's garden season. My camera was gone. And now back. So I'll have lots more good ones soon of all the kids. *sigh* Right now my bed is calling me. I'm pooped! We're definitely enjoying the warm weather. And I guess I won't complain too much about the occasional rain showers. They won't stop me. Mowed through them today. Until someone damaged the mower. I won't say who or how. Oops. Until tomorrow... :)

harvesting

We spent our Labor Day harvesting corn. Husking. Cooking. Getting it off the cob. Bagging. AND vacuum packing... fun times! The kids got involved so they weren't running around like crazy animals, and they may have enjoyed parts of the helping...

Homer the Husker

he helped with the husking. and he looks slightly like mini Me here...

cooking of the corn

ice cream was had

removing corn from the cob

bagging and vacuum packing our final product

Our freezer still has corn from last year but we use it a lottttt so I'm not worried. We should be fine for the winter :) thanks crazy neighbor for the plentiful stock!

hollyhock goodness

Confession: I know nothing about keeping plants alive, species, etc. These thingies were growing in front of our house and it took all I had in me NOT to mow the ugly beasts over... BUT turns out they. are. magnificent!!! Who knew?! Now I can't stop taking photos of them... ugh! enjoy :)

online community & green thumb

Since the beginning of my blogging, I have run across quite a few blogs I enjoy reading. Some I read often. Some I forget to read. Most I need to read more regularly to keep up. All of which, again, I enjoy.

Awhile back I ran across this post... probably during my never ending search for practical nursing tops of any kind ... or possibly through this blog.

I follow both of these lovely ladies blogs and also on Twitter and Instagram. You might call me an online stalker... but I promise not the crazy kind :)  As a family of 8, it is quite difficult and sometimes near impossible to find other families with similar beliefs and routines as ours, and it is very nice/fun/refreshing to find other ladies online to read about and relate to... regardless if I'll ever meet them or talk with them. Our small Instagram interactions I will take! :)

Now... anyone who knows me knows I am not much of a green thumb. Someone once told me it was impossible to kill an Easter Lily... that they are the easiest plants to keep alive... yeah, reference here.

In an effort to promote simpler, healthier living and a great product of a fellow "onliner," check out these amazing plants!

While I can't promise one of these plants will be in our immediate future... about 4-5 months ago we put ourselves on an *extremely* tight budget (as in Nash is in the middle of potty training and Drew is wearing strictly cloth diapers)... I'd love for everyone to check these out and at the very least consider adding one to your house. And seeing as it's oh... 28 degrees today, a nice fresh, green plant would really brighten anyone's day!

** also check out Maryam's blog post for 25% these wonderful plants!

cellar to be proud of

We have this crazy, wonderful neighbor who just keeps bringing over all these canned goods. She cannot be stopped. ;) In all reality, we are so very grateful for her ambition. At this point, I'm not sure our re-payment of children running loose at all times of the day is enough! I know she appreciates our cellar just as much as we do. Muchas gracias vecino!

trampled wheat

Our nightly routines before Dave's surgery usually included the kids and me helping pick something from the garden and then meeting Dave as he walked home from the shop to check out the hop plant Dave is aspiring to become rich from with his cousins...here are a few shots (SOOC) I took of the kids playing in the field just east of us. Let's hope they didn't trample TOO much ;)

 Look closely... there's a Smith animal hiding!