Our First Harvest

Ladies and gentlemen, we have our first harvest of the season! The central head on my only remaining broccoli plant, along with one yellow squash, and a single snow pea were ready for harvest today. I could not have been more excited! I tasted the broccoli tonight and aside from having to be very careful to pick off all the caterpillars that had made their home in amongst the florets, it was quite possibly the best broccoli I have ever tasted. I can't wait to try the squash and once a few more snow peas are ready in the next day or so, I can't wait to give them a try too. I think this whole gardening thing is turning out to be a success.

Summer Goals

I know we are still quite a few days away from the official first day of summer, but I feel the need to do some summer goal setting now.

• I have never been a huge fan of swimming or laying out or typical outdoor summery things, but I have always loved Summer Reading Challenges. So my first summer goal has two parts.
• A. I would like to read at least 5 books. That might seem like a small number, but I think that might actually be sadly realistic.
• B. Our library put out a list of 100 Books Every Child Should Read Before Kindergarten. I thought it would be fun each summer from now until Seth starts school to try to read through all of them. I don't think it will be hard, because we read at least one or two books everyday anyway. We already own a lot of them and we can just pick up a few each week at the library when we go to story time.

• At least for the month of June, I am going to try to do the Sit-Up Challenge. I saw it floating around on Facebook. I didn't join any groups, but I thought it would be interesting to do. Basically you do sit-ups every day and keep track of how many you do.
• Get back to drinking 64 ounces or more of water each day. I used to carry my water bottle everywhere when I was teaching. I always drank plenty each day but for some reason I have stopped. I want to get back into that good habit.
• During the month of July, I would like to participate in No Spend Month.
  
• I would like to learn how to do canning. I just might need this skill if the garden continues to thrive.
  

Local Bounty: Sour Cherries

After our afternoon of cherry picking at Jackson's Orchard, these local beauties went from the tree...

to our house...
where the pits were removed...
and they were turned into my first cherry pie!
It's not so pretty and let's just say it's not too sweet either (soooo sour),
but it was fun to make.

Cherry Pickin'

Today we went cherry picking! Our trip to Jackson's Orchard was not a "let's go get some cute pictures at the local orchard and maybe get some cherries while we are there," it was more like "let's go pick some cherries during the hottest part of the day before they are all gone and we'll snap a few pictures here and there hoping to not capture the sweat and semi-grouchy state we all seemed to be in while there." So we didn't get any great pictures, but we did get some cherries. They only had sour cherries left and there weren't that many of them to be honest. But it was a fun "first" and one of the many trips we will make to Jackson's Orchard this year.

Seth sporting his sunglasses like daddy up in the cherry trees

Seth holding a cherry

When it comes to being outside, Seth is an observer and is very stoic.

Not First Tooth, But First Teeth

Last week our baby boy seemed to avoid putting things in his mouth and his drool increased in crazy amounts. Sure enough we were entering into the world of teething. After about three days of increased fussiness, the introduction of baby Orajel, and not sleeping well, Seth went from this...

to this...
That's right, folks. Not just a first tooth, but Seth has his first two teeth coming in!

A Bedroom Makeover in the Works

If you come to our house often, you might notice that I try to change the decor often. I love to change small things around the house for each season. I love not spending a lot of money to make a warm and inviting home. I am a sucker for rooms on the Pottery Barn and Crate and Barrel websites/catalogs and I use them for inspiration often. It's a flaw, I know, but that's who I am and I am slowly growing to be more content.
I try to restrain myself from looking, but a few weeks ago I spotted some bedding that I loved and I knew I just had to save up for it. There was just one problem. It wouldn't go with the current colors of our bedroom. There was only one solution, a wall needed to be painted. Let me explain.
When we moved into our house almost 3 and half years ago, we painted our bedroom a wicker color, the same color as our living room, the top half of our dining room, the hallways, and the bathroom. I love, love, love this color. It is a neutral that works with almost everything in the warm tones which Bryan and I tend to like. This color allows me to change accessories easily to appease my need for change. To try to add a burst of color on our bedroom walls, Bryan suggested that we add an accent wall and he wanted it to be a burgundy red. I thought it was a marvelous idea. He very rarely says something that he particularly wants, so we went with it. Finding the right bedding to go with it has been difficult. We went with a beige colored bedding since the wall color was so bold. I added red curtains and we called it good. It wasn't my dream bedroom, but since we didn't have a bed, that's right a bed (we have used only a mattress and box springs for a long time now) I was fine with it.
Why do we not have a bed, you ask? Good question. My unstable bed that I had before we got married finally collapsed shortly after we tied the knot. A new one would cost money that we didn't have back in the day,then it wasn't a priority for a long time, over time Bryan said we should just be fine with what we have, we couldn't find one that would fit, and so on. We made our own makeshift headboard a long time ago, but after falling off the wall so many times, we abandoned it when we moved here. So a box springs and mattress (not even a frame) has been what we have grown used to over the past 6 and a half years.
Recently, the urge to get a bed has been back on my mind. Now that we have most of the projects in our home done, other than the counter tops and the interior doors painted, I don't feel so bad about wanting a real bed. (We will leave out the fact that we still don't have a garage, since the little one came along and blew all the savings for that one.) The bed that I would love is way too much money at Pottery Barn. The bed that I am saving up for is actually a headboard at Target. Hopefully within the next few weeks I will be able to get it. As for the bedding though, thanks to a sale, I had enough money saved from tutoring and from Bryan graciously selling his Playstation 2 on Ebay to buy it. It should come in next week. The red wall is now wicker colored like the rest of the walls after Bryan begrudgingly allowed me to paint (he still loved the red wall, but he is a wonderful husband and gave in to my nagging). So a frugal bedroom makeover is in the works and I am so excited.

LOST Finale: Dinner and Dissatisfaction

LOST, a show we have been watching for five years now, ended last night. We got hooked on LOST after our friends Justin and Shelley loaned us Season 1 on DVD shortly after it came out. I remember watching Season 1 just about non-stop. I think we finished it in less than 3 days.We have been loyal fans ever since then. We have anxiously awaited each season and we have loved every minute of it, that is until last night. I am not sure what we expected, but the show ended and we were left with a feeling of dissatisfaction and disbelief. I don't want to get into specifics because it is too overwhelming for one, and two, I have thought about it for too long already. It was just a television show!
This season however Tuesday evenings became more than just a night watching a television show. We grew closer and closer to our friends and LOST watching buddies, Casey and Jo. We opened up our home (ours only because of a sleepy baby boy) each and every week. We ate, laughed, talked, and enjoyed time with each other before the show even aired. So although it wasn't the ending that any of our watching group wanted or even liked, I am thankful that we stuck with it until the end because we have much closer relationships with each other.
Now that it's all over, we no longer have a specific reason to get together on Tuesday evenings. But, I have a hunch, and I hope it's correct, that it's not the end for our weekly meals and get togethers.

As for last night's finale dinner, we had:

Sesame (Sayid) Chicken Kabobs

Vegetable Kabobs

Fish Biscuits (although they turned out more like blobs)
Casey and Jo brought:
Mango, Pineapple, and Kiwi Salad and

Dharma Sodas

which we drank out of our Dharma glasses
(given to us by Matt, Bryan's brother, a few Christmases ago)

...and of course, we had to have a cake with an Oceanic airliner crashing into it.