Simple Woman's Daybook - May 31, 2011

For today, the last day of May.
It is very hot this week, today it's supposed to be
mid 90°'s with a heat index of 100° - 105°.

I am thinking... Mmm, not a whole lot this morning. A little of this, a little of that, and nothing hard-core or major. It's hard to believe tomorrow is JUNE already!

I am thankful for... Air Conditioning! And my HVAC Service Tech. husband who checked out our equipment yesterday and it's all working smoothly.

From my kitchen... The refrigerator is full of peas, peas and more peas. We've been shelling in the evenings until 11:30 or midnight and just shove them in the frige. I need to get them bagged up and in the freezer today. I might make another batch of bread.

I am reading... I started Loving God With All Your Mind by Elizabeth George (again). It's good. Hopefully I'll make it all the way through this time. I haven't had much time for reading lately!

I am hoping... That today will go smoothly and the house will look better at the end of the day than it has in several weeks.

I am hearing... The dishwasher, the washing machine, and Susannah :)

A few plans for the week... Pick peas tomorrow, grocery shop on Thursday, pick peas Friday, probably work in the garden Saturday either pulling weeds or pulling out the peas if they're finished by then. Daniel wrote "Date Night?" on the calendar for Thursday... I guess I should see if Grandma wants to keep Susannah :)

A picture...

Susannah, probably like every normal 14 month old, is fascinated with any writing utensil. If she finds a pen or pencil and a paper, she goes through the motions of putting the pointy end to the paper. I had the idea that if I let her draw (supervised) that maybe it would keep ink/lead off of things that it doesn't go on. So every once in a while I pull out her paper and pencil (a very SHORT pencil) that I keep in a drawer, and she sits in her high chair and "draws" for a couple minutes. Sometimes she gets some marks on the paper, sometimes she doesn't - she hasn't figured out how to hold the pencil consistently in a good position yet - but she has fun :)

Ask The Readers

Good morning faithful readers. This morning I am sending up some S.O.S. flares. I hope you can help me!!!

• Where can I buy rennet to make cheese? I'm looking to buy it locally if possible (meaning, not buy it online and have it shipped and taking several days to get here). I have some milk that I want to make cheese with. We have your usual grocery stores, along with Tom Leonards, Whole Foods, Trader Joes, Good Foods Grocery (local store) and... that's all that comes to mind right now. I'm in the Central - Va. -ish area if that helps?
  
  Update: I've found rennet. Whole Foods carries it! However they are out of stock today (will be getting more in a couple days), so I think I will freeze the milk until I (a) have the rennet and (b) have time to make cheese.
  
  
• HOW. can. I. keep. ants. OFF! MY! WASHLINE!!! ? I have put (used) motor oil on the bottom of the posts and it worked for a very brief time. Last night Daniel brought in the laundry and it was CRAWLING with ants. And he'd dumped it all on our bed before he realized it. I was not happy (about the ants being on MY! BED!). I don't know why, but the ants in the yard are TERRIBLE this spring!

If you have the answers or even suggestions, or just want to say "wassup?", just leave it in the comments :)

Thank!

The Little Peas That Could

Good morning!

Remember when I posted about my garden, and showed you my 6 beautiful rows of peas? These little guys?

Then I posted another update, and they had grown. See those pea fence panels (actually stock panels)? They are shoulder height for me, and I'm 5'3" with my shoes on.

These are my peas today (well, yesterday).
God is blowing me away through His handiwork with these peas. Yes, I prayed that He would make them grow tall and strong and bear well. He is answering with a resounding "YES!" I don't know that I've ever prayed over my garden as earnestly or seriously as I have this year. They have only done this well (or somewhere close) once before and that has been several years. Yes, there were many things I did on my part to give them the best opportunity to grow big and strong. I can water and fertilize the dirt all I want, but I can't make the plant grow. Only God can do that.

Picking peas this enormous is an adventure. The first two pickings I did most of it on my knees. The vines are entwined and I do not want to just ram my way through - that would damage the vines and they would most likely die. Picking peas this enormous is also like giving your 2 year old the toilet brush and hair dryer and asking them to fix your hair. You come out looking like a wild woman. I don't have a 2 year old, so I might be wrong. Just guessing ;)


Yesterday was my third picking, and so far I have frozen about 15 quarts. There are still LOTS of pods on the vines that need to mature, but the weather this week is supposed to be in the 90's each day. Peas do NOT like hot so I don't know how many more I will get before the vines die. I know one thing, though: God is good. So, so good. I am so thankful for each pea that He gives us from these vines.

On to the rest of my garden, it's looking pretty good! I am happy with my garden this year :)

Saturday I weeded the cauliflower and broccoli. Earlier last week I planted the Amish Paste Tomatoes and finished caging all my plants. Once the peas come out I will have stakes to stake the rest of the cages.

Susannah was happily playing in the shade yesterday while I picked. It was VERY warm and humid yesterday, so we both looked a little stroogly. At least she was cute stroogly and not scary stroogly like her mama ;)

I found a baby broccoli growing!! Yay!! I haven't found any baby cauliflower yet, but hopefully soon?

My Summer Heat Tolerant head lettuce. It needs weeded :) Saturday I also planted more beets and a little heat tolerant spinach. I don't know if they'll grow since they didn't last time, but I wanted to try again.

Saturday was a garden day for me. Daniel got the tiller to run like it's supposed to, and tilled up for my first corn planting. This is 2 double rows. There's about 2 1/2+ feet between each big row, and about 12" between the "doubles". I'm hoping to get more corn in more space doing it this way. I'll still have room to walk and pick from each side. As soon as the peas come out and we get that part tilled, I'll plant the rest of the corn.

Hard to see, but my Tenderette Beans came up! This is 1st year garden space, so the grass is growing abundantly and needs removed. The bean plants are a little sparse in some areas (3 double rows), but I'm leaving them as is and will plant a later planting if I need to.

Peppers :) The yellow peppers I replanted don't look like they're doing anything. I think I'm stuck with all green peppers this year :)

Zucchini and squash plants. I can't wait to eat some!!! I did plant Nasturtiums between the hills of Zucchini and Squash, it is supposed to deter the squash bug (or vine bore beetle? can't remember). I hope it works :)

I had replanted eggplant seeds a couple weeks ago after I killed the starter plants the plants died, and I think I saw a few of them growing yesterday! I will have to check again in a couple days to see if it's really eggplants or just weeds :P I also planted a hill of cucumber plants on Saturday, they are looking ok.

This year has been a big learning experience for me, but this post is long enough already I'll save all that for later :) Thanks for stopping by my garden! Please check out Phoebe's, Amy's and Connie's gardens - they're the real hosts!!!

Real Housewife Reveal

After I wrote this post, and then read what Amy wrote on her blog, I thought it would be fun to once in a while post a "real" post.

Yesterday I:
Started a load of laundry.
Made a batch of bread.
Ground up already cooked roast beef, chicken and corn for baby food and froze it.
Made a strawberry roll (the cake part).
Made a batch of Monster Cookies (Arrrg!!!)
Picked peas.
Shelled peas with Susannah climbing all over me and "helping".
Picked up shelled peas that she dumped on the floor.
Read a couple books (to Susannah).
Fed Susannah meals x3.
Helped her get a drink countless times throughout the day.
Changed 6-ish diapers.
Did online stuff (mail, blog, blog reading, facebook).
Asked Daniel to bring home a free pizza for supper.
Gave Susannah a bath.
Watched the NCIS and NCIS L.A. Finales.
Asked Daniel to put the wet laundry in the dryer right before we went to bed.
Folded and put away the 1 load of clean laundry that was piled on the bed.

Yesterday I didn't:
Take a shower.
Wash any dishes.
Pick up or sweep any floors.
Do any cleaning, period (except for cleaning out a couple diapers).
Do any baking or cooking that was actually for a meal yesterday (breakfast was leftover pancakes, lunch was leftovers from Monday).
I did brush my hair yesterday morning, but after picking peas I looked like this:... and didn't brush my hair again until evening time shortly before Daniel got home.
I didn't exercise.
I didn't take a nap.

Today the kitchen is piled high with dirty dishes (mostly baking utensils, bowls and dirty sippy cups). The floors are in bad need of a picking up and vacuuming. The trash cans are overflowing and the slop is starting to smell. Laundry needs folded. Laundry needs washed - and then folded. And put away. I need a shower. I hope to get a little more on top of the inside housework, but there's much of the day left yet, we'll see what happens... there's always the chance that something will come up that changes the course!