The small things in life

Apparently 5:30 is when we wake up in our house now-a-days. So not cool. And it's not a pleasant 5:30 wake up. Little one has been grumpy and fussy.... and it hasn't stopped yet.

The kiddo had an interesting evening. I was called just as my yoga class started, apparently he was having some equilibrium problems. Couldn't walk without falling and would collapse when he just tried to stand up. So my girlfriend and I rushed out of class and home. He was lethargic, sweating, and unable to stand up. Definitely not my rambunctious kiddo. My girlfriend is a trauma RN, so we of course pumped her for info and had her look at him while we waited for a call back from the nurse-on-call for our pediatrician. Since we had no idea what was wrong with him, we hustled him into the car and looked for our nearest urgent care. When we couldn't find it (even though there was a street sign for it) we just took him to the ER.

3 hours later (quite quick by ER standards), we went home with a kid who was normal. He vomitted during intake and slowly made it back to normal. Odd for sure. We are booking an appointment with his regular Peds doc just to make sure everything is really A-Okay. Thank goodness my girlfriend went to class with me, she stayed at our house and watched the little guy while we waited in the ER. I wonder what the heck it was! Hopefully we will know more after our doc appointment this morning. I was so glad to hear him ask endless questions last night and chatter and ask for nearly every card in my wallet.... Thankful for the small annoying things that make up my daily life. The Hubby said he has never been so worried in all his life. I agree. We were thinking brain trauma! What???? Why do we always assume the worst?

On to a lighter topic today..... it's gray and foggy again.

Still no pancakes. But, do have a container of preserves from my favorite brunch place tucked away in the fridge for a day when I need a pick me up. (warning! This site will make you drool) http://www.tartinecoronado.com/ I love running on Coronado Island just so we can go here for breakfast/brunch (depending on how long the run was). A nice crusty french baguette, some scrumptious butter, my fave preserves, and a cup of coffee.... now if I only had some quiet time to enjoy it.

This morning the name of the game is "is that clear liquid on my shoulder drool or snot?" Not a very fun game, but so far I think it has been primarily drool.... I repeat, I think. Between teething, a head cold and the inability to blow his nose, the little guy has been fairly miserable. Off to wrestle the kids out of PJ's and get ready to see the doc. Keep your fingers crossed she gives me "crazy mom" look and says kiddo is 100% A-Okay.

He's a Fun-gi

Who says you can't play outside if you are sick? Kiddo decided that just because he and his brother have colds, that's no excuse to let the mushrooms get the better of him. He put on his mushroom kicking boots and got to work. "Mommy, am I a cowboy?" I guess any boots will make you a cowboy.

But not all of the mushrooms got the boot, some were explored a little more and thrown away by hand. And some thrown and kicked down the hill, sorry neighbor! But really, that's what you get for housing the darn critter that is eating all of my produce. They finally cleared away the mess of weeds that backed into our fence, but no move has been made so far to erradicate the critter mounds that are back there.

And not to forget the little one, he enjoyed playing in the shade while big brother and I gathered fungus. Oh, and we planted yet another container of radishes....

Today I woke up and say a pretty sight, fog. I really enjoy a cool foggy morning. Makes me want to stay inside with a cup of coffee and a tall stack of pancakes. I did get the coffee, but not the pancakes. Oh well.

There are houses back there! I swear. Unfortunately this picture allows you to see the sad, dismal border garden. Just waiting and waiting for the seeds to germinate and for the critter to stop stealing all of the kiddo's goodies.

Well, that's all she wrote today.... what have you all planted in your garden for fall?

Garden Update

Can I really call it "Harvest Monday" when hardly anything came out of the garden? I've started getting the fall plantings underway, but since most of the time I have to plant seeds is rushed, I have no memory of what went where. So I can't re-sow more seeds until I figure that out. Add to the fact that the pesky critter who is stealing my strawberries and tomatoes is also grubbing on my pea seeds, my fall garden is not going great so far. But there is a light at the end of the tunnel, we have mild winters here in SoCal and the kiddo is starting pre-school soon (technically he was supposed to start this morning, but he and the mini me came down with colds) so I anticipate more time in the garden soon. Any-who.... Harvest Monday is hosted by Daphne's Dandelions, hop on over and see what real gardeners are getting from their gardens.


Kiddo has been noshing on radishes. They are growing really well, so he's a happy camper again. I think he has 3 containers on radishes planted. I might have to clear out some others and plant more to keep up with him. "Mommy, can we go and pick some radishes?" Such an odd and lovable child.

Too cute, he didn't share any of these.

Thai Chilis

Hansel Eggplants - I really wish these tasted better, they are really
prolific and pretty. Maybe I will give them a second chance and cook

them up again. I have been pawning them off on folks.

Hmmm.... more Fairy-Tale Eggplants in my future. YUM!

A pile of beans and a small squash plant.
No beans this week, I'm letting them mature and
saving seeds, I think.

A closer look at the squash plant. Overcome by powdery mildew.

One of my basil plants.

Critter damage. I'm buying a cage Friday.... bye-bye critter....

I didn't get a picture of it, but my Tuscan Kale is starting to look pretty! I have been semi busy in the garden as of late, lots of plants on their last legs have been removed and the soil was amended and replanted. I know that I planted beets, collards, peas, radish rat tales, broccolini, and asian greens.

And I am asking for some raised beds for Christmas.... but I think I might try to talk the hubby into buying them early so I can try to get some fall plants in them. Too pushy?

Want to know the best part about fall? No, it's not the cooler weather (which I LOVE), it's the fact that I am typing this up while watching MNF!

Ok, sick kiddos mean no sleep, so I am going to try to catch some zzz's. Happy Gardening!

Harvest Tuesday

Happy Tuesday! With the changing of the weather comes a slowing of yummies from the"summer" garden and waiting for the "fall" garden to start getting under way.The main goal for this week - get the goods out of the garden so we can eat them. Tomatoes are picked as they just start to turn and allowed to ripen indoors. And I have no idea why, but nothing was weighed the past two weeks! Lots of cherry tomatoes, the last of the cucumbers, some beans, eggplants, thai chili peppers, and a couple of figs.

My oldest has managed to get some more radishes from the garden again, so he's a happy camper again! I think his favorite growing seasons will be fall-spring when he can eat as many radishes as I can find space for. According to him they are sweet, not exactly what I think of when I think of radishes.

Big news from the garden... we successfully grew corn! WHAT??? Yeah, maybe not exactly big news since there was a photo of the corn above. The first picking was a little too soon, good, but very small ears. The ones we had on Labor Day though were YUM!

First harvest - the ears were a little immature, but yummy.

Second harvest was much better. We at least got great pollination!

And "harvested" nut not eaten.... mushrooms. Lots and lots of mushrooms. Check out the size of these babies.

Well, it's late, so happy gardening in the morning!

Harvest Monday August 23, 2010

Welcome to Harvest Monday, hosted by Daphne's Dandelions! Harvest Monday is an excellent opportunity to see who is growing what and find new and interesting varieties of plants to lust after....

We spent a lot of this week playing tourist. Yes, the week after my In-laws leave town we played tourist. I know that is backwards. But what can I say, the 3 year old picked our agenda. Tuesday we spent 6 hours at Seaworld and Wednesday we spent 8 hours at the Zoo. And what is the first thing Kiddo tells Dad when we get home? "Daddy, the Orangutan had poop on his hands..." *sigh* Kids.

Still battling the varmit and losing lots of yummy tomatoes. I think I might have to start picking them before they get totally ripe to be able to eat them ourselves! Here is what we did manage to bring in:

Harvest for the week:

Celebrity Tomatoes: 3 3/8 oz

Super Sweet 100's: 4 3/4 oz

Bush Burgundy Beans: 1 7/8 oz

Unweighed:

Black Beauty Eggplants

Scarlett Runner Beans

Fig

TomatoBerry

That basket is super small, so don't be fooled! AND.... my first FIG!!!!

And it was a beauty, and super delicious.

Some Scarlett Runner Beans --- Check out this big one!


Hmmm, green bean salad. Hot, tangy deliciousness.

Some more Super Sweet 100 tomatoes and Black Beauty Eggplants -
I snagged the eggplants and quickly threw them on the grill.

In my garden check-up, I saw something I had forgotten about... I planted a couple
of Okra in a container and basically have neglected them since. I found an okra pod.
Wonders will never cease.

Finally I managed to make some time to pull up dying and struggling plants, re-amend the soil and replant. It's only about a month late, but hopefully I will get a decent fall garden going. Arg, now I am impatient to see little sprouts and get some new plants in the ground.

Harvest Monday - August 16, 2010

It has been soooooo hectic here lately. And to tell you the truth, I'm really not sure why. We had an estimate done on remodeling our kitchen, recovered from the sticker shock and now I have to get more estimates...

We just returned from vacation, and apparently all kids (or at least mine) do not like to travel in backwards facing car seats. I have a house to clean, laundry to do and heavens only knows what else lurking and waiting. AND I have made no progress on the fall garden. But enough griping, it's Harvest Monday!!!! Let's see what happened the last 2 weeks. I have no idea if these numbers are for the last week or the last 2 weeks. I just know that this is my most recent tally.

Harvest totals:

Scalloped Squash: 2 pounds 1 1/2 oz

Tomatoberry Tomatoes: 2 1/2 oz
Super Sweet 100 Tomatoes: 4 1/8 oz
Cucumbers: 14 1/8 oz

Hansel (or is it Gretel?) Eggplants: 7 3/8 oz

Thai Chilis: 1 5/8 oz

Fairy Tale Eggplants: 2 5/8 oz
Japanese Eggplants: 7 1/4 oz
Beans: 2 7/8 oz

Scarlett Runner Beans and Burgundy Bush Beans

Cukes, Thai Chilis, Eggplant, SS 100 tomatoes

Scalloped Squash, Scarlett Runner Beans, Burgundy

Bush Beans, Cukes, Japanese eggplant, Fairy Tale Eggplant

My newest order of seeds arrived right before we piled in the car to head to the lake and I had to take them with me so I could drool all over what I want to plant. I have seeds, seeds, seeds galore, now I have to make time to plant everything. Did mention I am in the midst of training for the Marine Corp Marathon and I should be squeezing in a 14 mile run either today or tomorrow. Oh joy...

For the fall garden, I am thinking about planting Asian greens, collards, kale, carrots, peas, radishes, mustard greens, beets, spinach, lettuce, and maybe I will attempt a second crop of tomatoes. The darn ground hog/gopher has successfully eatten all of my heirlooms. I am not happy. Has anyone grown tomatoes as a second summer/fall crop? The seed description says that some CA areas can do this...

The container grown edamame are going great! I think we might have a great harvest in about 2-3 weeks. Very exciting. We munched on the ones originally grown a few weeks ago, and we all had 1 pod, except for the little one, he got 4! It was delish and we can hardly wait for the others to get ready for picking.

We have corn! The hubby said that he thought it would be cool to look out the kitchen window and see corn, so now we can. I have no illusions that these will break any size or beauty records, but it's fun, and that's all that matters. We have cute little ears and the stalks are tall!


And, to add insult to injury, the darn rodent/varmit has a new dirt mound within 2 feet of the rodent deterrent, time to seek other options. My Early girl tomatoes (in addition to the heirlooms) have fallen prey to this creature and we are no longer able to enjoy the fruits of my labor. Darned Varmit.

Harvest Monday!

It's that time of the week again when gardeners around the country show their bounty. Harvest Monday is hosted by Daphne at Daphne's Dandelions.

For some reason I always think that I will have more time to garden when my In-laws or parents are here since will have someone to help with a kid or two...but I never do! Probably because I take shameless advantage of them and go for extra runs or do some extra yoga sessions. We played around a bit this week and found different ways to get into side crane/crow.

http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/2478

And of course, good old crane/crow. I'm not going to lie, I have the ugliest crow pose ever, but I get up, and I can hold it, which is much better than when I started going to yoga in February. http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/468

So now that I've told you all excuses of why I couldn't get out to the garden much, let's see what we managed to harvest this week!

Cucumber: 15 5/8 oz

Magda Squash: 9 5/8 oz

Scalloped Squash: 13 3/8 oz

Ronde Squash: 1 7/8 oz

Hansel Eggplant: 2 3/8 oz

Black beauty eggplant: 11 3/8 oz

Jalapeno: 2 7/8 oz

Early girl tomato: 4 oz

Celebrity tomato: 3 7/8 oz

Super Sweet 100 tomato: 3 1/8 oz

Green Zebra tomato: 5 3/8 oz

A small but varied harvest.

Early girls, SS 100's, black beauty eggplant, cukes, squash, and Green Zebras

Magda squash, Hansel eggplant, Black Beauty eggplant,

EG's. SS 100's, Jalapenos, scallop squash and of course, cukes.

I could have used a different picture, but I kind of like the fact that he

was trying to sneak something off the plate!

What's happening in the garden:

Hmm, yummy, the Thai Chili's are getting red! Now I have to figure out the perfect dish to serve them with. The Pad Thai we had tonight might have been a good one... hind sight is always 20/20 isn't it?

The beans are starting to look "beany"!!! I found little beans on the Scarlett Runner beans! So cute.

And on the Burgundy Bush beans.

And new to the garden is........ a Fairy Tale Eggplant!!! Woohoo!!!! I love it when friends go to the nursery and go plant shopping for me while I am stuck at home!

As my oldest was digging around in the dirt, he found this little treasure.

I did the basic new gardener faux pas..... I stuck a sweet potato into the ground that has started to get sprouts. No research, no separating... just plop. I really didn't think I would get any sweet potatoes, but figured one of these days I would have to dig around and see if anything happened.... and look!!!! It's small, but I hope it has some friends down in the dirt.

And... well, that's all that's going on. I'm sure I should start thinking about fall plants, but I haven't done that yet. Ideas? Suggestions? Also, what should I put on my MUST SEE list for my trip to DC? So many things to do.

I'm going to leave you with this picture of my youngest.... Don't you just want to eat him up???