Monday Garden Club

Get your gardening gloves and knee pads ready. It's time for another installment of Monday Garden Club.

The garden is growing by leaps and bounds these days. The weather finally warmed up and we've had just enough rain showers that everything is lush and beautiful. Even my Mortgage lifter tomato seems to have perked up!

sugar snap pea plants

And the best part of a garden, the fresh produce! Ready this week were:

Spinach...

Lettuce...

Radishes...

Strawberries...

These strawberries were actually from the pick your own strawberry farm down the road. My garden has only yielded about 3 strawberries so far, not even close to enough for our habit.

I also was the lucky recipient of a grocery bag full of fresh oregano. I separated the stems into bunches, tied them with some twine and hung them up to dry. I should have enough to last me quite a while. Now for all you gardeners out there who wish to participate, either leave a comment on what's growing in your yard, or post a Monday Garden Club update on your blog. Don't forget to drop your link in the comments, I'll add you to this post.

Participating Bloggers

Wild Child at Naked Opinions

Weekend Photos

Here, Irma Irma

If you have been reading my blog for any amount of time, you know about my love affair with our little local newspaper, The Squeak.

This week there were two great ads I couldn't pass up.

Here we go...



Yes, I admit that I feel bad that Irma (the fat, gray cat) is missing, but seriously how do you lose a gas powered lawn trimmer? Perhaps the former owner was using it on a Sunday and the neighbors took action. ...Just a thought.

Wardrobe Wednesday

I found this fabric at the craft store a few years ago and I'm hooked. These adorable dresses are so simple to make that I bet a monkey with a stapler could come up with similar results. The top of the dress is elastic so all you need to do is measure, cut and sew one straight seam. I went the extra mile and added shoulder straps, for a more modest look.

Yes, these photos are from today and yes that is Mae (and Binny) running around outside. She still had a low fever this morning but she says she feels fine. I've been giving her Tylenol to keep her fever down but other than that she seems normal. Mae's doctor called this morning to check on her too which eased my mind.

This afternoon, the girls and I went to the Farmer's Market in town and bought some asparagus and a few cheap perennials. They both wore the black sundresses out and not one person asked me if they were twins. That must be a new record. When will old ladies with nothing better to talk about people get it that just because they happen to be wearing the same dress, that doesn't necessarily mean that they have the same DNA?

And because I'm feeling nostalgic today, here's a photo of my dad and the girls wearing the same style dresses 2 years ago

Short and Sweet

Well, the doctor's office called back and wanted to see Mae this afternoon to check her out. Her doc wasn't there so she ended up having to see someone else. He thought her glands were a bit swollen and said her tonsils looked red and puffy (I also looked in her mouth and thought the same thing). They did the always fun throat swab thingy to check for strep and it came back negative. I'm not surprised by that finding because that was the very bacteria (Strep A) that Mae was being treated for, but doc. wanted to rule it out. Her lab test results from yesterday were excellent so hopefully this was just a fluke. So, for now we'll just wait and see what happens next. Her fever has gone down and she says she feels better so that eases my mind, but still I get nervous when she has a setback like this.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, read my post from earlier today.

Done, Done... Or Not?

Finally, the day we were waiting for came. Well, actually 2 days we were waiting for. Yesterday afternoon Mae's PICC line was removed and today is her last day of school. What a relief it is to not have to pump her full of thick yellow fluid that makes her pee smell funny and the chore of cleaning everything with alcohol wipes and feeding her lots of pro biotic yogurt. Finally Mae can make that playdate with her friend to jump on the trampoline and have a wheel barrow race in the green grass. Her little arm is all red and raw from being under a bandage for 4 weeks, but no more tubes, only a tiny band aid covers the hole that was for 4 weeks the antibiotic super highway that made my child well again.

I am ever thankful to our wonderful no nonsense pediatrician and Mae's great attitude and bravery through all of this. Don't get me wrong, there were days that were not fun for anyone, but we all made it through. Mae will go back to see her doc in 2 weeks to have her blood levels checked to make sure that the infection doesn't come back, but we are hopeful. Later this summer we will make an appointment with the pediatric immunologist down at Children's hospital for some more extensive testing to see if these infections are stemming from a bigger problem. For now we are looking forward to a fun healthy summer, starting this afternoon. I couldn't think of a better way to kick off summer vacation!

One more thing. It can't all be sunshine and roses right? The explanation of Benefits from Mae's hospital stay, ambulance, Children's hospital, home nurse, etc. started rolling in. For the 4 days she spent at Children's hospital, not including any of the doctors or special tests, just the room and board was $17,484.42. Thankfully we have insurance. I don't know what we'd do without it.

UPDATE: I wrote this post this morning while Mae was at school (last day!) and was waiting to hit publish until she got home and I could take a photo of her minus the PICC line and ace wrap. Before the noon release from school, Mae's teacher called and said Mae is running a 102 degree fever. What the fuck!!!! Pardon my foul mouth but seriously I thought I was going to collapse to the floor when I heard this. Binny and I got in the car and drove to school to pick her up. Her teachers sat with her in the office until I got there and looked as sad and heartbroken as I was over this turn of events. I brought her home, gave her some Motrin and called the doc. Now I'm just waiting for a call back. Not over yet...

Monday Garden Club

Get your gardening gloves and knee pads ready. It's time for another installment of Monday Garden Club.

So, the gardener thinks it's great that we live on a busy road because he can put things out on our lawn for sale and they usually sell within a few days. His version of Craigslist, I guess. This weekend he put a crappy old sailboat out that has been taking up valuable space in our shed. A guy comes to buy it, notices our huge garden in the front yard and offers my husband worm castings in exchange for the crappy old boat. We were only asking $250 for the boat so that doesn't sound too unreasonable to me but the gardener declined and said he'd rather have the cash. The guy came back with his wife and made an offer of $175 and the gardener took it but forgot to ask for a bucket of worm castings. Guess who's in the dog house?

Now that I have that out of my system, on with the show!

Gladiolas

Rear garden

(sunflowers, tomatoes, peppers, etc.)

zucchini

Radishes with a big nasty thistle right in the middle

lettuces

Spinach, almost ready to pick and eat!

Pole beans almost ready to start climbing

Sugar snap peas

Kohlrabi in the front and pickling cucumbers in the back. I had to replace several of the cucumber plants due to frost. :(

Foreclosure procedings have begun on my poor Mortgage Lifter tomato.

The other tomatoes are doing well.

First of the ripe strawberries. I hear it was delicious!

Raspberry bushes full of blooms

Now for all you gardeners out there who wish to participate, either leave a comment on what's growing in your yard, or post a Monday Garden Club update on your blog. Don't forget to drop your link in the comments, I'll add you to this post.

Participating Bloggers