This morning my husband tried to fix our dogs retractable leash.

I figured out how to do black and white on my camera.

My dogs decided to jump for me.

Pose for me.


My second favorite photo of the day (my first favorite is the first one of my husband).

This weekend I did lots of yard work. My garden was in a shambles! I needed to do something about it. My neighbor had recently renovated her outdoor space and I became inspired. One shovel, 15 bags of top soil later I did something about it!


Voila! I dug up all the crab grass that was growing behind this holly bush, laid down some bricks that I happened to dig up in the process, and covered with topsoil. Five little pumpkin plants are now in place with plenty of space to vine out!


My camera was super foggy this morning because of the humidity. Alabama! This tomato has grown all the way up to my flower pot! What do I do?! I guess let it keep growing.


This is a picture of a bean blossom. My beans have started loosing their leaves (I don't know if this is normal or not) but I didn't start to worry because I saw new little leaves coming in. Lo and behold, bean blossoms appeared this morning. I suppose it was just shedding an old skin? Ready for a July crop perhaps?! I hope so. I didn't get nearly enough beans the first time!


Mmmm a relatively good picture of my Okra! I've already harvested two of them but I'm waiting for this guy and another to get full before I cook with them. What are you going to do with only 2 Okra? I mean really.


My zucchini has been slacking off on me lately so I picked up one more plant while we were buying supplies for digging up the yard. Hopefully this guy will do something amazing since he's the first one planted in the ground! I think the others just didn't like being in containers.

Here's my front walk, a very foggy picture indeed. I dug up the grass on the right side as well which now matches my neighbors (and that looks really nice). The next step I suppose is to buy grass feed for the left side of the yard so I can have pretty grass instead of crappy grass :)

In other news, I bought a plane ticket to Phoenix for a very special wedding in October! There's no going back now and I'm super excited! Yay for imaginary friends.

I'll entitle this one Wordless Wednesday. But I will give away some things. This is the project/quilt I've been working on FOREVER for my dear friend and college roommate, Lynnora, for her wedding. Wordless Wednesday follows!

Lately I've been inspired by this blog ohsheglows. I visited it to find out more information about eating without processed foods and was fascinated by all the things she had written about. Her life, her bakery, her food journey, etc. Right up my alley. One of the things she did was called Whittle My Middle and I'm following that this summer, or for the next month. Weight lifting has died down for the summer since everyone's schedules is different. Let's face it, working out isn't very fun when you're alone (except running), so I needed something new to spice up my summer, a small goal to make things more enjoyable. We'll see what happens :) Who doesn't want some definition on their stomach? That's what I thought.



Another new thing, I bought a mattress and it has been heaven! HEAVEN. Jaime doesn't think so yet, but he'll get around to it. I also bought jersey sheets that he claims have given him carpet burn on his elbows and knees (just what does he do when he sleeps?). I know it's probably difficult to see in the pictures but the old mattress dipped in the middle (that's a difficult thing to photograph).


The new mattress is amazing and I have never felt better while sleeping. Ever. I'm so excited that I have it, and I'm sorry that Jaime doesn't like it yet but I'm sure he'll come around. If you haven't slept in two days then I would assume that eventually your body will take over and you'll fall asleep. When that happens I am sure he will wake up a rested and more well rounded individual. I'm sure.


Oh and with dinner tonight we're having some green beans from my garden. This will be my first time cooking and eating the beans we've grown :) Yippee!

Jaime's been on my case about being a "real musician". He recently told me that he talked to my father about it and that they both agreed that I should spend more time learning songs by ear and working on "saloon style" playing. I really don't like this idea. I mean, I like the idea, I guess I just don't like the process. It's difficult for a classical pianist to just.. 'groove'. Maybe it's just me.

I had similar struggles with sight reading until I just sat down and made myself do it. I know that Dad and Jaime are right. I just am uncomfortable. It's like breaking in a pair of very stiff shoes. Playing without music is hard! It's so much easier to just get the music out and figure it out correctly the first time. If you mess up then it sounds bad and no one wants things to sound bad. But if you only sight read music then you'll never learn the chords. I'm a horizontal musician, I understand Bach, counterpoint. Brahms? Rachmaninoff? No. I don't know what's going on and memorizing them is even more difficult than sight reading them. Learning chords is not my cup of tea but it's good for me to grow as a musician.

Yesterday I made it through 2 songs.. almost. One I couldn't quite remember this morning so I don't know if it counts. And the other I played very well but when Jaime asked me what key it was in I couldn't tell him. I still can't. You start with a C chord (actually I think the song is in D but I wasn't listening to it when I figured it out so I started on C) and the melody line actually starts with E but then you play all the notes that are in the Eb scale. Tell me how that works out? I'm the music teacher and I don't even know. My only guess is that it modulates back and forth from C major to C minor. 4 years of college training and that's what you get.

Other news... how do you know when beans are done growing?

This is my okra. I hear they can grow up to 4 feet high. Maybe I should transplant?

Being on vacation for over a week did wonders to my garden! They say that a watched pot never boils, well a watched garden never grows! Unless it's squash, they grow tons, and fast! In these pictures you will see just how fast and how much my garden has grown :)

Turnip Greens. The Mustard Green's sprouted and need to be composted.

Yesterday I went to the dentist and I bit the hygienist working on my teeth. I didn't even know it but I had clamped down on her hand while she was flossing my teeth and she had to tell me "you're biting me". I recently found out that you don't have to have some tests done at the doctor, like i could tell my doctor that I didn't need such and such regular whatever. I think next time I'm at the dentist I will ask them to not floss my teeth. I floss on a regular basis and it doesn't make me bleed. I do not think that bleeding is a sign of good flossing techniques and I will probably bite her again if she gets the floss out.

Look at that green bean!!

I've been reading Madeline L'Engle's The Irrational Season. I finished her first book in the series, The Circle of Quiet, while I was on vacation. This book is so perfect for me in so many ways. I wrote a while ago about my thinking through religion and God and all those fancy things. The Irrational Season seems to fit in right with what I'm going through and it is such a relief to read. I've never had a Christian influence question such questionable things before and I feel so much comfort knowing that it's ok to ask questions and as L'Engle says, it's ok to not have answers. I've decided that I would like to visit some Anglican churches and maybe some more Episcopalian churches too.

Yellow Squash growing faster than the speed of light!

The bees seem to be doing their job. I didn't hand pollinate this yellow squash yet here it is. I've also noticed that the cantaloupe has really encouraged the bees. I see them wandering around every morning while I'm getting my coffee ready. My kitchen window is just to the left of the railing that the cantaloupe is on and I'm really exited about having a pretty view while I'm cooking.

Cantaloupe vining up my railing!

Tomatoes

In case you're wondering I did have my Moe's Wednesday with Lauren but I made healthy choices (minus the cup of queso). I'm not sure what I'm going to have for dinner tonight, I'm still working on that whole "be creative" part of cooking. I am afraid that my creations won't turn out very tasty. It's a risk I'll just have to take!

Zucchini Flowering

Bell Peppers :)

This summer is already going by so quickly. I hope it slows down soon. I looked at our calendar and we've already got two weddings to go to. One is in Kansas! I can't wait to see all my college friends. Speaking of weddings.. Lynnora has a gift coming her way soon. I have to work on that this week and next week to get it all finished and ready to go. I'm so pleased with it so far though. So very pleased. Sewing must have taken off for me because I have several other projects I'm working on right now as well.

Basil and Cilantro

I'm starting to feel the relaxed feeling of summer, I'm starting to realize that I can do things in my free time and be just as productive if not more than I am at work. This free time is letting me work on the new blog with Mom and get sewing projects done. I can't even begin to tell you how happy that makes me. Oh and one last tidbit. I just downloaded a new album on iTunes that I heard from this guys blog. I love it. Love it. Jaime hates it, but I don't very much like Scholomance so I guess we're even. The album that I downloaded is Go by Jonsi. Amazing :)

Lastly... The brussel sprouts have been attacked for weeks by worms. They come out of no where and no matter how long I spray them with organic bug killer or pick the bugs off myself they find their way back. I know brussel sprouts are yummy, that's why I planted them. I didn't know worms liked them just as much as I do. It's a pity. I might be able to save one plant but that's about all. The rest of them look like this little guy. Naked.

As I promised my mother and I have started a food blog about Michael Pollan's rules in his In Defense of Food book. I'm looking at it as a variation on Clean Eating because that's basically what it is and it's way easier to type Clean Eating than it is that whole Michael Pollan blah blah in defense of food blah blah blah. You should check it out. We'll be posting our progress and recipes that we've tried so be patient as we fill it up with lots of good information :)

It's called MotherDaughterEatWell.blogspot.com

Go to it here.



Oh my.. you know it's late (even if it's only 9pm) when Charles Ives comes on your iTunes singing They are There..

And I made more cookies :) They are under my MP list of foods I can eat. AND! My amazing and wonderful aunt in Indiana mailed me my quilt back all quilted perfectly and beautifully. What a treat it is to see what she does to my creations. Well.. she makes them way better that's for sure. I'm SO thankful for her. I can't wait for Lynnora to see it :)