Last week seemed to FLY by — in a really good way.
It started out with a 3-day weekend for Memorial Day. We enjoyed an extra day home together and attended a local parade with my family. We also spent some time with a few of Dave’s out-of-town-relatives who came to visit.
My main “project” this week was planting annuals. I planted a couple flats of annuals about a month ago, but I wait until AFTER Memorial Day to plant the rest because we have a little roadside stand a few miles away that sells extremely discounted flowers the week after Memorial Day… so I bought 8 more flats and Nora helped me plant almost 400 flowers!
The flowers are looking fabulous… and our vegetable garden is doing REALLY well too!
Some of you might remember the very small, VERY neglected vegetable gardens we planted the past 2 years. They were better than nothing at all, and we got enough veggies to make it worth our while… but this year is “the year” I’m getting serious about our vegetable garden.
It’s been 6 summers since we had a good vegetable garden, and while it’s fine that we took a few years off to renovate our home, completely relandscape our yard, and have 3 babies, I kind of forgot how much I love it!
Although our current garden still isn’t my “ideal” vegetable garden (and the pictures don’t really do it justice), it is the biggest and nicest garden we’ve ever had, and it has the potential to produce an insane amount of veggies for us!
This year we’re growing:
- Bib lettuce
- Mixed leaf lettuce
- Peas (2 kinds)
- Beans (2 kinds)
- Heirloom carrots
- Radishes
- Cherry tomatoes (red and orange)
- Roma tomatoes
- Full size tomatoes (2 kinds)
- Peppers (red, yellow, green, orange, and jalepeño)
- Cucumbers
- Pickles
- Zucchini (green and yellow)
- Summer squash
- Corn (2 kinds)
- Basil, oregano, chives, dill
- Sunflowers
- Zinnias
The only reason I planted radishes is because they grow SO quickly and I knew they would be fun for the kids to pick. I wasn’t sure if we’d eat them — but Dave and I have been enjoying them in salads and in vegetable stir fries for the past couple of weeks.
I doubt I’ll ever buy radishes from the store, but the kids sure are having fun picking them!
We have a bunch of lettuce that is almost ready to be picked (we should have planted it earlier but didn’t have our garden quite ready) and we’ve been picking little bits of basil, oregano, chives, and dill to add to our meals.
Also, our first planting of peas and carrots should be ready to harvest in another week or so — I cannot wait for the kids to pull up the carrots! Nora is convinced they will be purple, but I wasn’t able to find purple carrot seeds, so I hope she’s not too disappointed when they come up orange.
In case you can’t tell, I’m just a little bit excited about our garden! 🙂
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Another thing I’m excited about is getting our newest family pictures printed and up on the walls!
Here’s the post that shares how I made the wooden wall hanging over the couch… and since I know someone will ask, I should mention that my children NEVER mess with the frames in the hallway, even though they are so low.
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Over the past weeks, I have spent countless hours listening to Nora and Simon tell completely ridiculous knock-knock jokes that they think are hilarious. Neither one of them understands the point of knock-knock jokes — and although they get old REALLY fast, they are so silly that I can’t help but laugh.
Here’s a video Dave took of them telling their really funny jokes at dinner last week 🙂
And speaking of videos — I got a really cute one of James playing Peek-a-Boo (which is his new favorite game ever). He just keeps going and going and going, laughing every single time like he didn’t know we were going to say “peek-a-boo”.
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The weather here has been unseasonably warm (sometimes too hot for my taste) but we’ve definitely been enjoying the warm weather and spending as much time outside as we can.
Nora and Simon are pretty good at playing outside by themselves for short periods when I’m making lunch, putting James down for a nap, or switching out the laundry — it’s amazing how much they’ve grown up since last summer (when I would have NEVER let them be outside for even 2 minutes without an adult around!)
James is also enjoying his time outside — and I’m anxious for him to start walking so he won’t get SO dirty crawling around on our asphalt driveway. He can stand on his own for a few seconds, and he has taken 1 or 2 steps on his own, but then he falls. Soon!
What I’m Watching:
I haven’t watched one single thing on TV or the internet since my last Peek Into Our Week post. I have 3 episodes of Call the Midwife waiting for whenever I make the time to sit down again — but since I’ve been happily working outside until 9:30 or later most nights, I don’t have much time for TV right now!
Our Meal Plan
SUNDAY:
- Chicken packets
- Broccoli
- Applesauce
MONDAY:
- Breakfast with my family before the Memorial Day parade
- Pizza dinner with Dave’s family
TUESDAY:
- Grilled Chicken
- Mashed potatoes
- Stir fried veggies
- Fresh fruit
- Rolls
WEDNESDAY:
- Chicken Caesar Salad (with leftover grilled chicken)
- French Fries
- Fresh fruit
THURSDAY:
- Egg Casserole
- Fruit Pizza (recipe coming later this week)
- Smoothies
FRIDAY:
- Beef Roast (in the slow cooker
- Mashed Potato Casserole
- Beans
- Broccoli and Cauliflower
- Fruit
- Applesauce
SATURDAY:
- Quesadillas
- Chips and Salsa
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Just 4 exams for Dave this week and then our summer break officially starts (not that I’m counting down the days or anything!)
Lauren D says
You will have to check out Home Fires on PBS or free on Amazon Prime. It’s a WW 2 wartime drama of a women’s Club. I thought of you when they were canning and planting victory gardens!
Andrea says
Thanks for the tip Lauren! I’ll have to look into that — sounds like something I would love!
Melanie W says
Great post!
It’s funny but I let out a breath I didn’t even know I was holding when you mentioned you hadn’t had a big vegetable garden for 6 summers because of, well, life! I have a 15-month old and have been so discouraged with myself for not having a proper garden (which I also love planting and taking care of) since I first got pregnant. Somehow I guess I had convinced myself that I’d never get back into that groove, especially since we hope to have another kiddo in the next couple years. But just reading your experience with that shook off the discouragement and reminded me that it will happen again, when we’re all ready 🙂
So thanks for that!
Andrea says
don’t be discouraged! We put LOTS of things “on hold” for a good 5-6 years while we were renovating our home and having children. That’s normal (I think)! And yes, it will seem impossible to do anything again when you have another baby… and then things will SLOWLY start to feel easier and more fun again. And then, in a few more years, your little tikes will help you with the vegetable garden and it will be even MORE fun!
Melanie W says
I am really looking forward to the kiddos being able to help in the garden! It’s so easy to have tunnel vision right now, so this was a great reminder. Thank you!
Andrea says
It’s OK to have tunnel vision (I had it for at least 2 years!) once you’re on the other side though, things get really fun… you have lots to look forward to!
Carrie says
Purple carrot seeds are available on Pinetreeseeds.com. I love the inspiration of a tv character for a healthy food. Although we live in Mid-Ohio, We are growing lemon trees from seeds. My youngest son saw this on tv and was determined to grow them! No lemons yet but one of the trees is 4 feet tall now! We bring them inside in the winter which gets more complicated every year. Love to see his happy face though
Andrea says
Thanks Carrie! Enjoy the lemons 🙂
Nicole D. says
First, where are your shorts from in the parade pic? I love them and have been looking for a new pair of khaki shorts. Second, where do you buy your picture frames from? Picture frames can be so expensive sometimes when you need to get a lot that match. Thanks, and love the blog.
Andrea says
haha — the shorts are Banana Republic, but I got them for about $8 from ThredUp 🙂 Also, many of my picture frames were from garage sales or thrift stores (with artwork in them). I take the artwork out, spray paint them black, and then have a nice-ish frame!
The ones with the kid’s individual pictures are from Michaels. They were expensive — even at 50% off 🙁
Lisa says
Wonderful looking garden! I just discovered this year that radishes can be cooked (boiled or roasted) which removes almost all of their “bite” as a low carb potato substitute. The texture is a little odd, more water chestnut than potato, but might be worth a try!
Andrea says
Thanks Lisa! I’ve also been told this — so we might need to try it!
Elizabeth says
I was reading through to comments, cause I was sure someone would mention that! We have them in stew instead of red potatoes–not a bad substitute!
Debbie says
Oh my gosh! I don’t know what’s more funny, Simon’s laugh or Dave’s acting like he’s laughing. ROFL!
Anne says
You all are such a cute bunch. Love reading your updates each week.
Karen says
Loved everything about this post!!! Ha we finally bought my youngest a Knock Knock book. Kids crack me up. I need to go back and see if you have ever posted about flower gardening. Your yard is amazing. I have no idea how to add plants to our yard or even how to properly take care of annuals. I usually put them in containers and then toss them at the end of the season. We just have the basic shrubs and trees, but I never fill in the empty spots. I would love to learn.
Andrea says
Thanks Karen!
This is really only my 3rd year doing anything with Annuals so I’m learning as I go! I’ve learned A LOT the last 2 summers (mostly what NOT to do!) so I’m thinking this year will be the best year yet! Maybe I’ll write a post about it next spring after one more year of “experience”!
Suzanne says
Cute! We have the nonsense knock knock jokes at our house too! Our little guy thinks he’s hilarious! That makes me laugh and is so much fun!
Andrea says
yeah, Simon’s laugh pretty much makes everyone else laugh, and all Nora’s jokes make Simon laugh — so we laugh a lot (which isn’t a bad thing!)
JoAnn C. says
Oh my those videos are so sweet. How I miss knock, knock jokes and peek-a-boo from my nanny days!
Happy week to the Dekker family!
Christine @ The (mostly) Simple Life says
Your garden looks awesome! We skipped planting one last year and I’m so excited about ours this year. We have sugar snap peas, squash, pickles, roma tomatoes, green pepper, and jalapeños. It’s so fun to see how fast everything grows!
Andrea says
oh my word, I totally forgot to list our peppers in my list of plants we’re growing. We’re growing LOTS of peppers — I better go back and add them 🙂
And yes, it’s so fun to see sprouts popping up in 5-10 days!!
Abby D says
Love, love, love the family pictures! Your style actually inspired my outfit for our newborn / family photos this week. 🙂 I continue to enjoy your blog daily and learn so much from your posts. Thanks again for your work! Oh, and I can’t wait to see how the vegetable garden produces this year. That’s on the agenda for us next summer. 🙂
Andrea says
congrats on the new baby, Abby! how exciting!
I’m sure I’ll be sharing lots more about our vegetable garden over the next few months too!
Amber Woods says
Just like Nora, my Lily Kate really wanted purple carrots in our garden this year. I think it was on a Daniel Tiger episode. If you ever find them, please post about where you got them.
Andrea says
yup, I’m sure it’s because they grew purple carrots on Daniel Tiger. I’m guessing we could have ordered seeds somewhere online, but I wasn’t thinking that far in advance — maybe next year!
Paulette says
Youre probably tired of hearing me say it…love your blog. I never get tired of seeing pics and the videos were so good! Thanks for sharing your life.
Andrea says
haha — I’ll never tire of hearing you say that 🙂
Thanks Paulette!