Our Winter Vegetable Garden

For those of you that read this blog on a regular basis, you know I have been working on getting vegetables to grow for the past several Summers. Our Summer garden was a bust. I did get to eat one tomato and something else ate the others. Same with the cucumbers. The biggest issue in the summer, is not only the heat, but the bugs that eat the plants. Since I am trying to grow without the use of pesticides it is quite a challenge. So, I decided we could try a Winter garden, when most of the insects and other pests are hibernating. I will tell you about each item below. I did not take pictures of our flowers, but most of them are thriving quite nicely. If I did not mention in previous posts, any natural garbage, like peelings, coffee grounds, etc, I save and then toss around the bases of the plants. This adds much needed nutrients to our awful dirt, without any added expense. Roses especially need extra potassium so potato peels and banana peels are awesome for them. We also have a rabbit, some of you know that, and when we dump his potty pan, we use it as a fertilizer for the plants. This actually works quite awesome.

Those are two of the four largest tomatoes.  I just found four or five more starting, and lots of buds.  Now this is peculiar to me, because tomatoes like it hot, hot, hot.  And while it has been warm here and there it definitely is not hot.  Tomatoes will not grow below 50, so at night I take the whole plant into the garage where it sleeps.  This plant is the same plant I had over the Summer months, and I just keep letting it grow.

That is a broccoli head starting to grow.  It is very small right now, but I am hoping soon we can eat it.  I had two other broccoli plants as well, but they didn't make it.  That too is quite peculiar, because I planted them at the same time, in the same dirt with all the same everything. 

These are peas.  I picked three today, that I will eat at some point.  There are at least ten others that are not quite ready to pick.  These were made from seeds, and peas seem to do quite well here.  No one really likes peas, but me, but these are sugar snap peas and I think they will note a big difference.  Peas will continue to grow, I am told, as long as I keep them picked.

These are carrots, again from seeds.  They are not ready yet, but I am hoping within a couple of weeks they will be.  These do quite well also, and we planted more seeds.  Behind you can see the beginnings of more pea plants that we planted just maybe a week ago.  There is also onions, but I am not sure if you can see them.  Hopefully they too will be ready in a couple of weeks.

That is one little tiny lettuce plant.  They say lettuce grows quite well, but it is very fussy.  It needs to be almost constantly moist in the dirt.  Though I do water every day, it seems to need more.  It is finally starting to grow a bit more now.  We planted these from seeds but only the one plant is growing.  I am hoping to get at least some lettuce.  We eat a lot of lettuce.

Merry Christmas from Melissa's Homeschool!

Whew I am always glad when Christmas is over! The past few years both of the kids have slept in late, and I was able to wake up and get oriented before they got up. Not this year! What is up with that? They are older, it shouldn't be hard to get them to go to bed and sleep in. Caitlin especially did not want to go to bed this year, and they were both up at six.

Here at our house we celebrate the birth of Jesus, but we also do Santa. I see no reason why you can't do both. In honor of the birth of Jesus, we did a Wise Man Christmas. I have said we would do this other years, and just could never do it. This year I stuck to the three gift rule, from Santa parents, and it was so nice. It didn't take hours to shop, wrap, hide and clean up. Plus, to me it is so special when you teach them that Jesus was given three gifts the day he was born, from the three wise men, and that is why you should get only three gifts. Of course, with all the other gifts from friends and relatives, they get way more than three, but from Mom and Dad Santa, there were three. We also did a family gift, which I will get to in another post.

I didn't get my favorite apps posted yet, but I will. And I have some other things to share as well. Things should be winding down now, and I will get to relax a bit. I have a report card to do, for DJ, and I am working on tons of craft ideas. I am also revising some of our curriculum, and I can't believe the school is half over already.

Christmas Is Almost Here, Already!

I really can not believe that Christmas is almost here, already. I think next year I will put my tree up earlier. It just doesn't seem like it has been there that long. I love my tree, and all the decorations.

Each year we take the kids to see Christmas lights. Last year we went to a very fancy one, where you could walk or drive, and we went on a horse carriage ride. It was fun, and it was very expensive! So, this year we went to the next city over, which happens to be Gainesville. We ate dinner at Applebees, not inexpensive, but we do that each year, and plan for it. This was my first time eating at Applebees. I think I like it better than any of the other places we have eaten. The Napa Valley Chicken and Portabello Mushrooms were to die for. We even had dessert, which normally we do not. Then off to find some lights. At first it was kind of lame, couldn't find much of anything. Then I remembered a friend of mine had said to go to N Florida Hospital, and walk around the lake. It is just a small lake, probably a pond, but the decorations were marvelous and Christmas music too. It was free, so that is always nice. It was freezing, however. I was the only one who didn't bring a coat, argh! Then we went to a fancy housing complex, trust me it is fancy, and they had a mini Candy Land display with Christmas lights. The kids got to play on the playground and it was nice and cute, small but lovely. Then home for a hot shower for me. After defrosting it was just about time for bed.

My husband and I both got tablets for Christmas. We have been using them though, LOL! I have to say there are some really cool apps, and then some really dumb ones. This weekend I will share some of my favorites that are educational and fun. If you have some apps you love, please share. Right now I am going for the free ones, but I have seen some paid ones that I am considering getting as well. Mostly educational ones. If I forget and do not get back on here, I hope everyone has a blessed and very Merry Christmas!

Do You Like Boogers?

If yes, then you should have been at my house since Saturday.  Both kids have caught a cold.  Matter of fact, every year in December, they catch a cold.  Wanna know why?  Because other people whose children have excess boogers, fevers, snot, coughs and congestion refuse to keep their kids home.  Then their kids touch all the goodies and utensils at parties and then everyone else gets it too.  So, this week my kids are ill and all the things we were supposed to do are not being done.  Why?  Because we keep our germs to ourselves.  Tomorrow is supposed to be a volunteer day.  I have no idea if we will be doing this either.  Depends on how much, or how little the boogers are.  I also have to finish Christmas shopping tomorrow, and out to dinner Friday and then Christmas lights.  I hope everyone is better by then.  Lucky for me and my husband, we have not caught it.  I did however have a massive migraine two weekends ago, and a killer toothache last weekend, so I have had my fair share.  So, my very crazy week has turned out to be a relaxing, stay in bed and rest kind of week.  I guess I will stop complaining now, LOL!  I hope your week is going well.