Garden saga, part 1

Inspired by this book, we decided to build a raised bed garden this year. Christopher worked hard building the garden plus a little bit extra and we ended up with a nice 4x12 bed. He also built a small 2x4 bed for some friends to put in some herbs.

While looking around for some soil - we wanted a mix of good compost and top soil - we came to the problem of how do we (with a fairly small car) haul well over 1,000 lbs of dirt back to our house. The big bags of soil are usually about 40 lbs and we'd need like 30. That just seemed like a lot of work and one could argue that a pregnant lady shouldn't lift that much (although the dr recently told me that I don't have a lifting "restriction" at this time in my pregnancy). In addition, buying compost in bags can be fairly expensive. So I found a local company that sells a compost and top soil mix especially for vegetable gardens. The price seemed reasonable and they delivered.

The two week wait seemed super long when I wanted to put our plants in the ground.  But the "soil guy" delivered our black gold yesterday and Christopher then hauled the dirt from our parking space to the garden using a 5 gallon bucket. Who needs a wheel barrow??

We had started some herbs and a couple of veggies from scratch:

Our helpers while planting. The red dog is our little friend, Lucy.

Progress!

I had planned our garden on paper but, unfortunately, the wait meant more time for me to dream about what else we could do and I bought a couple more plants and seeds that didn't really have a home.

Around this time I wondered if everything would fit. It didn't.

So yesterday the plan was altered slightly and I still have to go out and create a map of what actually went in. Who plants things is rows? Not this girl! We'll see how that works out. Oh, and those are strawberries on the side!

We are going to see if some herbs will come back as perennials with some love and mulch over our cold winter. (There wasn't really room in the garden for them anyway.) Most of the smaller plot is barley seeds for beer.

 Speaking of beer, Christopher's hops are racing up their poles. We will eventually run string from the front porch down to the poles and the hops should go up it. Hops don't produce much the first year but he should get plenty next year for all his brewing needs.

 It looks like today will be a nice day and there are still a few things to do. I have several herbs in small containers that need to find a home and I'm going to prep some soil in the front to plant carrots, beets, garlic and maybe lettuce, all from seed.

Birthday Surprise

The last time my husband told me that he was "cooking something up" for my birthday, he got a bunch of our friends and family together and they gave me the MacBook that I am typing on.

This time was a little bit different.

Maybe I should have figured it out when he told me that all our friends (who are students) had a mandatory lecture the evening of my birthday. Marquette usually doesn't have mandatory lectures, especially in the summer.

Maybe I also should have figured it out when my sneaky husband told me he wasn't going to said mandatory lecture. 

Or maybe I should have figured it out when my husband cleaned the bathroom and lite candles while we were talking with his family on google chat.

And maybe I should have known that something was up when he told me that my birthday gift was in the backyard, where we had just spent the afternoon working on our yard and garden.

But I didn't and he surprised me and we had lots of our friends over for ice cream.

It was a pretty great day.

Spring time at Crooked Lake

- It's Loki chasing the chipmunks and making friends with the neighbors dog.

- It's kayak runs with three layers and a life jacket.

- It's cake and ice cream.

- It's finishing a good book by the lake.

- It's my dad wearing white socks with his sandals.

- It's my mom making me a birthday dinner even though I'm going to be 32.

- It's sleeping under the (fading) stars put on the ceiling by my aunt and uncle.

- It's eagle watching, loon spotting and otter spying.

- It's meals and games around the round table my grandpa made.

- It's coming home with (much) more food than we brought up.

About 21 weeks pregnant. Perhaps I'll just do baby bump pictures up North. =)

Pregnancy: 20 weeks

After he woke me up barking, Loki has decided to redeem himself by being all cute and snuggly on the couch next to me and I just can't bring myself to get up and do the housework that is waiting - not just yet at least.  So...

This week marks the half way point of my pregnancy and that's pretty hard to believe. We had our ultrasound last week and the baby looks healthy. Baby was active and moving around quite a bit.  For those of you wondering, Christopher knows the gender but I do not as he wants to know and I don't. I know that may not work for most couples but we think it will work well for us. So far so good anyway! You can try to get it out of him -- I think he'll be a vault! In fact, if I wasn't going to deliver this baby in a couple of months, I don't think I'd ever know what it is. =)

sucking it's thumb

Lots of people want to know how I'm feeling and I've been feeling fine. The first few months were a little rough but nothing horrible and after about 16 weeks, both the nausea and the extreme tiredness were gone.

We have several fun things planned for the summer and I think time will just fly by til October when we get to meet him or her.  My due date and maternity leave correlates well with the fall semester when Christopher will teach a couple of classes as an adjunct at Marquette as I'll (hopefully) be off the entire semester.  I'm going back to work part time after my leave and I am very excited and grateful to be able to work less. I'll probably stay on night shifts and we'll see how that works for us.

So we are slowly accumulating baby things and are coming to grasp with the fact that we'll be taking care of a tiny human in a little over four months!

There is grace enough for every day

{I probably should have posted this several weeks ago when I wrote it but I didn't ...}

There is grace enough for every day

When flags across the country fly at half mass and first responders make the ultimate sacrifice,

there is grace enough for those days

When three abused children die in a house fire in Milwaukee (an small news story which tugged at my heart) and the earth moves in China,

there is grace enough for those days

 When my husband yields his desires to my own and when we exchange hurtful words and ask for forgiveness,

there is grace enough for those days

Sometimes knowing grace is easy - in the embrace of good friends, in a warm dog sleeping on my lap or in the tulips that unexpectedly break through the soil. 

And sometimes knowing grace is hard - when people grieve, when children die.

But the grace given is never-ending. It is as simple as it is complex. As overt as it is hidden. 

Our job is to not discount that grace; to only see it when it comes easy. 

Acknowledging grace is a form of worship, giving thanks for what comes.

There is grace enough for every day ... sometimes you just have to look for it.