Come to Think of it, How Do I Do It?

Madeline is a very clingy baby. Which means it's hard to get housework done.

I feel like I get nothing done. I have more clothes needing folding than I did with a newborn and my kitchen is grimy. I hate running out of room around here and feeling like we need to move to a bigger house. I hate our half painted exterior (we started removing the shutters and painting our house last year). I hate my unorganized basement and half hung curtains down there and a much needed plumbing repair for the washing machine outlet. I hate all the things that are undone, the a pile of to-do lists, our annoying goat fence repairs...I hate writing about it. I hate complaining. I hate being unappreciative. I hate using the word hate.

After reading what I just wrote above my frustration begins to wane. I am forced to remember how fortunate we are, how this home is large and we only think it's shrinking because we keep adding kids to it. I remember that we go to the grocery store and we afford plenty of food. I remember the kids are in gymnastics and homeschool groups and they go to homeschool dances and summer camp. We are healthy. We are so blessed. Life with nine kids is not easy, and this past year I have realized it more than ever. But we do love it even if it means that things stay undone and get neglected...even if it means I can't finish projects, even if it means I don't have time for painting or fixing up the laundry room. Even if it means stuff goes undone while babies get nurtured. Sometimes though, I have to tell myself that its also okay to get frustrated and fed up and not to feel guilty about it, I'm human!

When I have mini freak outs of 'I get nothing done' I have to recenter myself. I'm raising people. And thats a lot. So, when I feel like I'm losing ground and I just have to realize it and think about it. When I go shopping I say a prayer of thanks that we eat well. While driving the kids to gymnastics I think of my husband at work and remember that this is one more reason why he works so hard for us. (He has said so too.) Every time we get gas I appreciate we have cars. Every month, at least once or twice, I thank my husband for taking care of us. My worries start to seem small when I remember what real worries look like. 

How I Really Do It 

I get lots of people telling me they don't know how I do it. "It" meaning how I handle all the kids, housework, insanity, long hours, the screaming ( happy and sad kids scream!), the crying, the very little 'me' time, cooking, cleaning (oh dear God, cleaning is most of what I do!), and last but not least, the overall expense involved in raising a gaggle of kids. 

I used to just chuckle it off and give a half hearted "Yeahhh, it's a real hoot!" Or, "They keep me very busy!" and move on. 

It got me thinking a while ago though, how DO I do it? Pretty much what keeps me going, besides the fact that I love my kids and want them to have the best childhood possible, is that I have a really supportive husband. If I could stand there and explain this to every person who asks me how I do it this is what I'd say: I'm not in this alone. Ricky is fully present in our lives as a husband and father. He's almost always present with us when he's home and if he's not home he's always just a phone call away. We have a really close relationship, and he's in nine kids just as deep as I am. 

I absolutely love being a mom and wife, but part of the reason I love it so, so much is that I never feel alone or taken for granted. Ricky and I don't have "who has it harder contests." We have both joy and sympathy for each other on a daily basis. I'm so proud of him working hard and accomplishing what he does and I'm thankful he's a great dad and husband. I honor and cherish him and he does and feels all the same ways for me. I always get more than one kiss goodbye. He is optimistic. He's easy to love. He's a good dad. He loves me at my best and my worst. He supports me. He respects me. He's nice to me. He's funny. He laughs. That's how I do it. .

One thing that helps me through tough days is that he's always there for me. I can get a hold of him anytime when he's at work (unless he's in a meeting of course). Anytime I want to tell him anything, if I just want a sympathetic ear to quickly share my hardships with, he's there. If I'm cranky and un-showered. If the kids are screaming and crying in the background. If the baby just fell off of something. If I'm sick or tired. If I just want to tell him that I wish I had another job for the day where I didn't have people screaming, roughhousing, throwing food, emptying toilet paper rolls, clogging the toilet, losing a toothbrush down the drain, scattering potatoes all over the kitchen floor, coloring on the wall, making "potions" with spices in the kitchen, unmaking beds, playing with mud on the front porch, throwing a mud ball at side of the house, all while the baby is latched on me like a sucker fish as the kids fall off swings and get stuck in trees. I can tell him. Sometimes I want to escape the people who eat 20 lbs of oranges, three loaves of bread, and four dozen eggs in four days.... So I call him. He listens. He lends support. He agrees. He asks me what he can do to help. He's my rock. That's how I do it, and that's how I keep doing it. I'm allowed to have every emotion I have. And he listens.

Then there's the times that he laughs at me as I rattle off hilarious or ornery things the kids are up to. There's also the times he tells me I'm cute as I explain to him the quirky mishaps I have encountered throughout the day. I love his strong supportive voice, his calm demeanor, his attention to detail, his chuckling laugh - I know co workers must hear him laughing sometimes. I adore that laugh so much. I can feel the stress wash away from me and I start to smile because I can hear his laughter and love for me shoot right through the phone line and into my heart. This is how I do it. It's him. He doesn't just say he loves me, he shows it in everything he does. I see it in his eyes. I hear it in his voice. 

He calls me. Sometimes he will call me just to hear me ramble for a minute. I love that. So he'll call out of the blue sometimes and I'll just talk... he also knows it's a way I get some adult interaction and I can share my joys or frustrations.

We are a great team. Last weekend was full of so much crazy. We laughed it off all day. Every whine, scream, wrestling match between the kids, food on the floor, clingy baby, messes, poop, spilled drink, a certain kid defying us, we rolled with it all weekend. We often look at each other and wonder why we did this to ourselves. We often long for some alone time. We get interrupted by kids frequently. It's hard. It's realllly hard. But I'm not alone. But not only all that, we love kids. We love watching them, nurturing them, laughing at their antics, we love providing a loving home and building this legacy together. We love having a built in party on birthdays and holidays. We love it. We love each other. It makes it all so easy even when it's hard.

If I could, I'd stand there and tell complete strangers all of that when they ask how I do it. Or, when some people give me dirty looks or make rude comments because they think children are a burden and that one (or two) people could not possibly provide for or enjoy that many children, I'd like to tell them how wrong they are.

Happy Father's Day Tribute

My Dad
I love my dad. The other day I called my Dad to tell him something that was clearly important to me. My cell phone kept discontenting during our conversation. (Even though it was fully charged and I had great service it kept dropping the call every 30 seconds to a  minute! -it's just an old flip phone and needs replaced.) As we talked and got cut off I had to call him back five times before the phone call stuck. Each time I called him back he picked up the conversation where it had left off. He didn't once tell me to call him later or act like it was an inconvenience to him. When I would dial him back he just said his next words to me, not even a hello was needed. Today when I called him to wish him a Happy Father's Day I told him that I had been thinking about that phone call from the other day. I told him that that phone call was an example of what kind of Dad he's always been; always there no matter what, good or bad, easy or hard, he takes the time. He makes time for me, even halfway across the United States, even when he's busy, even during a work day, even when the situation isn't ideal. He's always there. He's always been a part of his kids' lives, admits his mistakes and loves unconditionally. He's a lot of fun, too. Those things make a great dad. 


Ricky's Dad

I love my Father-in-law. He's a kind hardworking man that values family. Ricky comes from parents of extreme love and devotion and it's no accident that he models that in his family life. I have so much admiration and respect for both my husband and his family. What I enjoy especially is that as my husband has gotten older I notice he makes sweet facial expressions that I recognize that are from his dad; it can be a look, a smile, a laugh, or a nod of agreement. It warms my heart. My Father-in-law smiles at his grand-kids with his eyes, face and soul...It's the same way my husband looks at his kids and at me. Thank you Dad-in-law for being such a wonderful person, good husband to your wife, good role model, loving dad and grandpa. My father-in-law should know how much his son has learned from him and models after him. 


My Husband

I love my husband. He works hard if he's at work or if he's at home. He has 9 people expecting 100% from him; 7 kids, 1 wife, and 1 job. He doesn't let any of us down. He juggles life beautifully and solidly. He loves deeply and contently. I never feel second best. Every marriage vow he made he has fulfilled with perfection. When I met him I told him two main things to try and scare him off. One was that I like a lot of attention. (I told him I'm an Aries, I like to be loved and cared for deeply and I like someone to keep up with my fast paced ideas and adventures.) Two: I want a lot of kids. He said he'd like to sign up for both of those things; he said it sounded fun. :)
One of the hardest things to do is to grow with someone instead of away from them. This is something that makes our marriage great. We have grown together and complement each other nicely. We bring out the best in each other. By bringing out the best in each other we bring out the best in our kids and in our parenting. We have such kid focused lives but we never lose sight of each other. We would have never had so many kids or be this happy if we hadn't believed in each other from the start. Thanks my love, for being an awesome dad to our kids! 

Happy Father's Day to these three

 important men in my life!!!

Working through the fits... without hitting our treasure of a little boy

Sebastian is a fierce, tough, man-boy. He's very, very dependent, very confident, and he has an ego to take care of. All of this makes dealing with him and his fiery personality very, very trying! He's the poster child for "boy." He is the stereotype toy companies are selling to when they make building toys, tools, trucks, cars, swords, plastic guns, plastic knives, and mini John Deere ride-on's. My kid was born the stereotype, and he's adorable. This kid has his own set of real tools and could use a screw gun and a hand saw by himself at exactly three years old. He's my little dude. He was just born this way. Apparently he was born with my childhood temper as well. I know because in time-out the other day he dumped the contents of my desk onto the floor as well as lots of folded clothes waiting to be put away. He also hit a picture off the wall and the glass in the picture popped out.

I took a picture to show him later so we could talk about it when he was calm.

Little turd even knocked the chair over

Tonight Penelope was taking pictures with my camera when Sebastian decided he wanted a turn. He tried to take the camera, he threw a fit, he yelled. We tried to reason with him to wait for a turn but he just didn't want to take a turn. He had been happily playing "pirate" and was in a great mood but suddenly he was just caught in one of his real defiant moods. He wanted the camera and he didn't care who he hurt along the way to get it. I put him on the bed in our room and told him to sit; he wouldn't sit and started yelling so I held him against his will. He screamed, yelled, and freaked out. I gave him space but he continued to yell. I left the room and Ricky took over for a minute. He told Ricky to leave and Ricky said what we always say to that, "It's our room we aren't leaving, you can go to your room if you want though." He kept freaking out. (We've tried leaving; it never helps he just throws stuff.)

So at this point; Choice 1: We can either spank which does nothing but frighten, and it also makes kids feel weak and us look like big bad asses (in every sense of the word). Choice 2:  We can look for an opportunity or a way to get him out of the completely insane, uncontrollable, anger-fit he is having so at some point we can have a rational discussion about what happened with the camera (which has long been forgotten about in the fits of anger).

Quickly it became a face to face battle of Sebastian screaming and Ricky telling him we weren't leaving the room because he hurts our room. Sebastian was SO mad he started verbally threatening our bedroom, he said, "I'll knock down your pictures!" Ricky sternly said, "NO! You WILL NOT." Sebastian and his dad then had a stare down. Sebastian's blue eyes gleamed with defiance. When Ricky didn't blink or say a word Sebastian closed his eyes and thought a moment; when he mustered up the nerve he opened his eyes slowly and then blinked three times before opening his mouth, then Sebastian said, as if saying the most important thing ever in his short life, "Yes. I . Will."

He was confident, he was cool, he was serious.
So at this point we beat 'em till they know who's the boss, right?

Wrong! :)

I actualy started to crack up cupping my hand to my face; Ricky hears me and his straight face starts to quiver until his teeth show and a tiny laugh sound comes out. We run to the next room to compose ourselves and just laugh with each other.

I had no idea Penelope was still snapping photos but Ricky told me she brilliantly snapped a photo the second after Ricky and I took off into the other room to laugh and regroup.

Ricky sat on the couch and I returned to Sebastian without a plan. He was slightly calmer (no yelling) -his dad and I broke the ice with our laughter I'm sure. Sebastian not knowing what to think or do looked at me sadly. He looked tired. I felt an impulse and went with it.  I exclaimed, "Wow Sebastian, you are the bravest kid ever. You acted brave and tough and strong for what you believed in just now." He looked at me with a mixture of surprise, pride, and relief. He cracked a very small smile. We hugged sweetly and then went in the living room to finish watching America's Funniest Home Videos with the family. Sebastian crawled right up on his dad's lap and we all snuggled down.

After the show was over Sebastian asked about a turn with the camera. We told him no because of the fit he had. He paused and then said, "Ok."

Three year olds can be hard work...but they are worth it.

 I love NOT HITTING my three year old...

even if he is an ol' scurvy dog.

cooking and eating of odd things

I’m disappointed I don’t want to cook our beef tongue. I just can’t do it. My dear husband loves tongue sandwiches. He tells me of a place down the street from his work that apparently has the best smoked beef tongue sandwiches on earth. He cannot believe I won’t try it. (I've never even seen them, so I don't even know what they look like.)


I eat all kinds of things. I’m a huge fan of sushi. I’ve eaten escargot more than 3 times. I’ve cooked weird octopus/squid seafood chowders (oh God the smell is bad). I love raw oysters. I’ve had alligator, buffalo and elk; Yum, Yum and Yum. I tried frog legs and squirrel; despite what my husband says neither tastes ‘similar to chicken’. (yuk)

As you can tell I’m not afraid to try things. But this beef tongue thing gives me the hebbie-jebbies. He didn’t understand when I tried to explain about feeling the texture of tongue on my tongue. He says the smoked ones he eats are sooo soft. Um, my tongue is soft too. Yuk! I’m curious but I just have reservations. I think I have it wound up in my head that biting a tongue is going to be thick and moist and fleshy and soft –like biting my own.

Maybe it's like placenta. Did you know you can eat placenta? Maybe that's TMI for this blog. Or is it..humm?

We have a beef tongue in our freezer from our cow amoung other things. I’ve never tried liver and onions so maybe I need to fry that up first. Ease my way into the tongue. We also have ox tail. And I was all jazzed about making ox tail soup when it went in our freezer a year ago but now I have my reservations. Again my imagination is running away with me…I picture this hairy piece of tail that I’m going to cook down into a sweaty broth of a soup. Aren’t imaginations fun?

I tried the turkey’s heart at thanksgiving. There’s a reason kids fight over the wishbone, wishbones are fun. Turkey hearts and giblets are pasty and gross. :)

Super Dad

My husband takes care of me. He’s my protector and provider. He loves me, he loves his family and in everything he does he thinks of us first. In return I take care of my husband, I love him and I take care of our home and our children. In everything I do I think of him and the children first.

While I’m quite aware that it takes a lot of commitment and sacrifice to raise any family it takes even more so to raise a large family. (It takes more of a lot of things: more time, energy, house work, faith!) I am not surprised by my will power to be the best mother I can be. I am not surprised by the hours it takes to homeschool, bathe, feed, clean and cook for a large household. What I am surprised by is my husband’s complete attentiveness to his family. I am surprised that he doesn’t get overwhelmed easily and I am in awe that in this day and age I have a man who loves and protects his family so selflessly and joyfully.

He is a husband and dad that arrives home from work ready to help. Some days he has a relaxing break from the work day, for at least a little while, but some days there is no such thing. When he walks in the door laughing and happy kids usually greet him, but sometimes crying fits and a frazzled wife greets him. He jumps right in to whatever the evening has in store like he’s hard wired to do so. He is a dad that: changes diapers, wipes noses, pushes his girls’ curly hair from their eyes so they can see (and so we can see them), takes the trash out, brushes kids teeth, reads stories, lays with the little kids at bedtime, and if needed he does light clean up (just enough so I don't get frazzled) and puts the chickens in the chicken house in the evening. He is a dad that helps bake and cook and clean, sometimes out of necessity and sometimes out of just wanting to be with me. If I can’t get his business clothes laundered for work one week he does it without hesitation on Sunday night, though usually I manage that in just fine. And one more thing, a huge thing to me: He grocery shops. If I can’t get it done he’ll either do it after work or go with me shopping over the weekend. Usually he prefers to go shopping with me than to stay home. How did I get so lucky? I have no idea. Grocery shopping for a family of 8and a half people is a huge deal and time consuming!

At the beginning of this pregnancy my husband and I shared in the shock, wonder, amazement and craziness of our life with so many kids. This will be the seventh child we will marvel at, love and raise together. During the morning sickness stage my dear husband let me sleep until 9 or 10am on weekends, often bringing me breakfast in bed. He even smiled at me understandingly if once I was awake at 10am I decided I was too sick to actually get up…so instead I watched infomercials until noon. On weekdays he brought me cereal in bed at 6am, either right before or right after he showered, so I could get ahead of the sickness and be ready for a day of home alone with kids.

When trimester one passed I picked the pace back up and felt tons better. We fell back into our more usual roles and I didn’t need to be helped as much. He got busy at work and I got back to business at home. Life for the past four months has been busy and hectic for us both and a lot of attention has been shifted on summer fun, yard work and our kids. (Also lots of effort spent on getting back on a schedule since my morning sickness sabotaged our old schedule!)

Now that I’m further along in my pregnancy I’m groaning heavily as I flop in and out of bed, pee every 10 minutes and waddle around the house. My husband senses the difficulty and suddenly has started paying attention to laundry I need carried downstairs, kids that need extra assistance and a wife that appreciates help getting up and down. Sometimes even in the middle of the night he’ll sense me getting up and he’ll offer a firm hand to steady myself on or push on my back as I sit up for extra support. The extra attention feeds my soul and fills my heart.

Writing this today I remember about 5 years ago that I got flustered and stressed from taking care of the house and kids. I remember ranting and pointing my finger to him for more help. He calmly but sternly asked me in a very realistic way why I let myself get to this point, why I hadn’t asked him for help because he just didn’t know I needed help (he pointed out guys don’t always notice the households obvious shortcomings and need to be showed). I said that I didn’t want to bother him (I think at the time I assumed he’d help me if he wanted to, and that since he wasn’t helping it would be a bother to ask him, or maybe I'd be a nag). I’ll never forget the look on his face or what he said that day. He said, “Do you think my kids are a bother to me? Do you actually think you guys are a burden or something? Is that what you think of me?” And that day changed everything. It changed the way I asked him for help, the way he helped me, and it also changed the way I viewed him as my husband. I had once, but never again, sharply underestimated his commitment to our family.

Sometimes I wonder how he works so hard. How he keeps going on being so great to us even when times are tough and days and nights get long. Then I realize it’s the same way I do it… hard work and love. What a blessing family is!

June

It takes me 2 hours to water everything I have planted. What was I thinking!?

I am now in pregnancy trimester 3 and couldn't be more excited! I'm growing a lil' baby and lots of plants outside all summer long. I think growing babies is easier though. I love doing both a lot though.

I just got Sebastian asleep for a nap and he has his tongue sticking out while he's sleeping. LOL. Funny kid.

Penelope was stuck up a two story slide yesterday at the park. I climbed up a ladder and offered her my free hand. I said, "Just come to me I can hold you and bring you down." And do you know what she said to me? She said, "Noooo you can't get me wit' one hand!"
Thanks for the vote of confidence, kiddo! Sheesh. :)

Ricky came home yesterday and surprised me with a window unit for the kitchen. We don't have air conditioning in the kitchen so it gets hot in the summer. And then when we cook, bake or can it's really a steam oven! I actually haven't really wanted AC in there. I know crazy. It was just one other thing to buy and run on electric and I was concerned how much it'd block my window out (I have 2 windows though). So we've briefly discussed pros and cons in the past but never really decided on buying one and I didn't think we'd buy one this year. Well he comes home with one last night. Let's think this over: He's been working 12 hour days, his car AC hasn't been running and is car is acting up, his birthday is next week... and he thinks to stop and get ME air for the kitchen? He says to me, "Well on the way home I was thinking you are in the hot kitchen more than I'm in my hot car."

What a total sweetheart.
As luck would have it yesterday I got his car an appointment for the fix-it-shop (for Monday) and arranged my schedule so he can use the Kid Bus while his car and air is getting fixed up. Greatness and happiness abounds in a loving marriage.

Well I'm in the middle of cleaning the kitchen (I've been trying to mop for over a week lol) and I'm overhauling the dining room clutter mess --which is more like a craft, piano, playroom with bookshelves and a big table. So I'm going to go fix my house... maybe I'll post pictures in a couple days.

Oh and I need to change the laundry over...

Summer is in full swing...go go go go

Yard work, Six flags, back to back birthday parties, sleepovers, Renaissance faire, a second move (we never moved the contents of our basement), library programs, laundry, dishes, kids, school work...what's school work?

We do manage to get reading/journaling/spelling in somehow. Oh and basic math about 3x a week (we need more progress here!). Just today I ordered these history comic books ! I'm really excited (Join the homeschool buyers co op for free online for 65% off the set)!! Our plan is to cover one comic book a week together with the kids. I also just saved a zillion instant viewing educational movies on netflix to keep the kids busy for quite a long while. I'm going to compile a list and post it someday.

GOALS FOR SUMMER:
Math with dad on weekends! Must do this!
Comic Book history every week w/corresponding movie/lesson
Netflix educational movie 2-3 x week (at least 1-2 as a family movie)
WRITE EVERYTHING down (log better than ever)

IN OTHER NEWS:
-The public school down the road is ignoring my phone calls (I'm requesting supplemental classes (art, music, P.E. for all, and reading for Sage)
-Layla will go to half day pre-k this fall (only 0.4 miles away from our house!)
-I finally signed up to be a HSLDA member
-Kids are signed up for drama camp!

Summer School

Is it really summer? Because the kids have been doing nothing but exploring their world and asking lots of questions about life, science, social studies/history, art, religion, and more. Learning all the time (unschooling/homeschooling) means summer holds the same learning power as the rest of the year. Actually I'd have to say we are much more productive learning in the warmer months of the year. The colder months seem to bring us more wasted time, dark evenings, and lazy days than spring, summer, and fall.

The kids have been enjoying weekends with dad being home. They have had many meaningful discussions. I over heard some world religion ones, mentions of physics, Albert Einstein, Issac Newton, and some other guy --the name escapes me right now. LOL.


What sparked at least some of those subjects was Charlotte enthusiastically pointing out that this months issue of Muse Magazine had pages about Leonardo Da Vinci. What tickled her though was the page number for the section about him was written backwards. "Just like his notes he wrote backwards to keep secret!"


I love being a part of their discovery and learning everyday. I didn't always think this way, but now I see that public school keeps a part of my children that I wouldn't get. Just like daycare gets a part of baby or toddler hood from children. (yes I know some people need to use the services of childcare, I'm grateful I don't though, and I have opinions about it's misuse and overuse). I never wanted my children in daycare, I always thought about how much a parent (and child) misses by not being "there" constantly throughout the day. I now feel that way about public schooling too. I see things in a different way now that I have been homeschooling for years and I now know first hand that children do learn all about interesting important things without structured, planned lessons. My children are more excited about learning then I ever was! I am so excited for them.

Layla keeps up with the good questions too:
Layla asked me, "What is under the toilet?" So she headed off a conversation about septic, waste disposal, and health. This morning she also woke up sleepy eyed and crawled into bed with me like usual and said, "Mom did I brush my teeth?" "Yes Layla you did last night." She rubbed her eyes and said, "Oh good thing, cause in my dream I was eating food."

Hahaha. She is SO good about her teeth and tries to keep them brushed very well! And she is SO funny.

Last week ~ and Father's Day

The above picture is of the kids doing sand art outside last week.

Last week was a great week. Aside from a seriously needy Penelope and grouchy moody Layla (both kids have been sick) last week was so productive. At the time I was having a hard time dealing with the girls, but in hindsight we accomplished so much and the week unfolded into a routine of homeschool, housework, outside fun, arts, and gardening.

I taught the boys how to clean the bathrooms, all the kids have newer "more advanced" household chores. I've struggled with taking the time to show them how to do more housework because it's just faster if I do it myself. That sort of attitude just hurts them and me though!

Father's Day was spent grilling on the new BBQ we got for dad and playing outside. We had what we called an old fashioned Father's Day; playing in the garden hose, kiddie pools, grilling, making organic homemade vanilla ice cream, and we left the air conditioning off and used a box fan in the house to keep cool. By 4:30 P.M. However, this barefoot and pregnant mama had enough of no air and turned it on. We then settled down on the floor and watched a season of Punky Brewster. We love getting old shows from netflix. They are so much fun for the kids (and us) plus we can introduce them to good story plots and wholesome lessons. They just don't make TV like that anymore.

Ricky seemed to have a very nice Father's Day. I'm so glad. He is such a great dad to these guys. They are lucky children. And I, a very lucky woman.

Lasagna Garden

We didn't water yesterday... and by yesterday evening the temperature dropped significantly outside and a beautiful thunderstorm rolled in. So did wind. Ricky and I found ourselves running around the lasagna garden picking up newspapers that were blowing far away into the woods. Ricky started spraying the dried papers with a hose because it wasn't yet raining. Once the rain started and he sprayed they were weighed back down and they stayed put. (I was supposed to put hay on them already but haven't yet! Once I do they will stay put!!)

The day before yesterday the kids and I finally planted our starter plants. We planted tomato, cantaloupe, watermelon and zucchini. We have seeds to plant today if the storm blows through (it's still storming this morning). We hope to get some sunflowers, cucumbers, green beans, and lettuce in the ground. Since we are planting so late I'm going to order some fertilizer from Gardens Alive in hopes for a bountiful harvest this year.

Photo Below: Lasagna garden layered with newspaper, cardboard, old leaves, old cloth diapers and retired corn from our play-corn-bin. We will add hay this week. You can spot a row of tomatoes to the far left. When you are ready to plant in your garden you just dig up a spot and go! We have nice top soil under here already, but if we didn't we'd have to wait for this to break down more. Next year when we start at a new spot it won't be this fast because we will be starting with little soil. The debris helps stomp out weeds (it suffocates them) while creating a nice home for worms and mulch for the garden.