5

Pete and I dropped the big kids off at school then spent a couple hours in the garden. It needed some weeding and it was a cool morning so it was the perfect chance to get it done.

I cleared out two plots in an hour and prepared one for more carrot seeds. My first attempt at carrots didn't take off. Neither did the beets for that matter, but I found 4 beets amongst the weeds yesterday. I should have had 50.

The corn is fragile. The ants are all over that patch and keep mounding around the corn and knocking it over. I'm trying to find some more organic ways to get rid of ants but I really just want to pour ant killer down their holes.

The potatoes are HUGE! The plants are all knee high. I really need to get some straw and lay it down. I'm going to start seeing green potatoes if I don't and I really don't want that.

The radishes are going nuts. I'm pretty sure I could probably harvest a number of them right now but I want them to be just a bit bigger.

My cucumbers and squashes are getting big. It will be a while before I see anything on their vines but we are getting there.

The tomatoes as putting out flowers. I pinch them off because I want the plants to be a little taller before I will let them start growing tomatoes. The leaves are rusting so I need to be careful watering them. Yet another reason to get them taller, splashing from rain won't effect them so much.

My pumpkins FINALLY sprouted this week. A few never took off, so I'm starting N some seedlings at home to put in the empty mounds. But I'm pleased to see the few that I do have up.

I've given up on the lettuce. At this point it is too late anyway, so I am looking for some sweet potato slips to put in. Potatoes seem to do pretty well out here. 

The onions are sparse. I was hoping for a good crop but only a third of what I planted sprouted. I might see if I can get a few already started at the store and fill in my poor onion plot.

David's sunflowers are struggling, although he has two that are getting pretty big. I need to have him weed out his row more, I think the sunflowers are competing too much with the other weeds.

My peppers are starting to flower. Peppers are tricky for me, and I really don't think these guys are big enough to start growing peppers, so I might pinch off those flowers for the moment too. 

After our time at the garden we headed home for a bit. I cleaned up and we went to the library.

I got the kids signed up for the summer reading program, picked up an audio set, and let Pete play on the computer for a bit.

Peter fell asleep on the way to pick up the kids after the library. That's always rough. He woke up peed and disoriented and cranky. He wouldn't eat dinner, which was really rushed, so on the way to Andrea's dance class I grabbed a McDonald's meal for him. I don't usually do that, but he was so out of sorts that I understood his plight and got him the meal. It didn't take long and he was totally happy. I think his blood sugar was just low and he had needed a quick pick-me-up to get right with the world. Poor kid.

Andrea loved her dance class. She showed me her hop-123s when we got home and is super excited to practice. I really hope she's a terrible dancer. Irish dance gets expensive the more advanced you get and I just don't think we would ever be able to give our kids the opportunity to really be stellar at these things they want to do. David is really interested in learning to play the bagpipes. 1) Where on earth would he practice??? 2) The pipes and lessons are expensive! Yeesh. As much as I'd love to see David in a kilt with a set of pipes I can't imagine the price tag! Ha! Luckily I managed to convince him to wait on that one. He has to play the piano first. That is free!! :D

So after dance class we used the last of a Cold Stone gift card my mom gave us and got ice cream. It was a good treat to end the day. We got home and everyone was super happy to go to bed. I got some laundry finished and got to bed myself.

It was a good day. :)