Very well, thank you!

carrots

snap peas

broccoli

snow peas from our winter garden

Five days of rain will do wonders for gardens.

But I’m still in shock that I can actually grow stuff!

Thank you all so much for your responses re: potty training. I really do know that it will work a lot better if I let her do it on her own time. But there’s that weird insecure groan that you hear in your head when you find out that some kid the same age as yours is already potty trained.

Anyway, just this morning, I took off Emma’s diaper before naptime, and she said, “pee-pee potty! pee-pee potty!” – ran over to her potty and sat down on it. She squeaked out a few “farks” as she calls them, and that was that, but I was still happy that she wanted to sit on the potty. Some days, she acts like it’s a snake ready to bite her rear.

And I know, it’s not proper for a 22-month old to say “fart” but it was one of those things she picked up from us, and it’s so cute to hear her say “Oh! Emma fark!” that we just let her. Bad mommy award.

Anyway, one of my comments was from Teresa @ For Crying Out Loud, and I am SO getting this t-shirt for Emma when it comes out …

Thanks, Teresa & Erin!!

So where have we been the last couple of days? Well, our internet was down yesterday, Ken was in Charleston on a business trip, and I have NO clue how to fix our computer stuff when he’s gone. He got home around 10:35pm and had it fixed within 2 minutes. Go figure.

Anyway, I used the downtime to work on our square foot garden, and I have it almost all finished! I decided to do tomato plants instead of seeds, so I just have to buy three of those, and then we’re all set.

We also have 2 thornless blackberry bushes and a fig bush to plant, but I’ll have to wait for Ken to dig holes. Probably this weekend.

All that’s left is putting a fence around the garden, and filling in the grassy area with some kind of mulch because it would be a huge pain to mow between the garden boxes.

Emma helped with the initial mixing of the dirt …

… but that might have been a mistake since she pitched a royal fit when I wouldn’t let her dig up everything this morning.

I already have a box sitting next to our patio that we were going to fill with sand this summer, but I think we’ll have to do that asap before we end up with no garden.

Speaking of outdoors, I also got 2 55-gallon drums off of Craigslist for $30 total (including delivery!) that we are going to use for rain water collection, which we will use to water our garden, and also for our compost pile.

Which brings me to my Thrifty Thursday tip for today — shop Craigslist, Freecycle, thrift stores and consignment shops. ESPECIALLY if you have a kid, because they grow out of their clothes so quickly, the clothes you find there are usually barely worn. I know that Emma had many outfits that she only wore once or twice. You do have to dig and hunt, and sometimes you leave empty-handed, but you just never know what you might find.

No, this is not going to be a weekly feature of my blog – but today was a great self-sustaining day.

a| the square foot garden we planted had its first little sprout today! Three of them, to be exact.

Um, I can’t remember what we planted where. I had this little drawing somewhere, but I lost it. Or E threw it away. I like blaming things on her, because everyone thinks she’s cute.

b| I also made my first loaf of homemade bread in the bread machine that my grandmother gave us. It turned out FANTASTIC! We actually just ate a couple of toasted slices with homemade jam that my grandmother made. OH SO YUMMY!! I foresee some weight gain in my future.

It was a good day!

I found this store on Twitter, and now I’m obsessed with her dolls. They are SO cute! And handmade, which is something I love to support since I am a work-at-home-mom.

Okay, so she’s currently having a huge sale (Sept 18th & 19th), and all dolls are $10 off – and if you’re crafty, you can buy the patterns for only $6. I hope all of my nieces like dolls. ;)

So I’m hoping to either buy handmade or make all of our Christmas presents this year.

Buying Handmade makes for better gift-giving. The giver of a handmade gift has avoided the parking lots and long lines of the big chain stores in favor of something more meaningful. If the giver has purchased the gift, s/he feels the satisfaction of supporting an artist or crafter directly. The recipient of the handmade gift receives something that is one-of-a-kind, and made with care and attention that can be seen and touched. It is the result of skill and craftsmanship that is absent in the world of large-scale manufacturing.

Buying handmade is better for people. The ascendancy of chain store culture and global manufacturing has left us dressing, furnishing, and decorating alike. We are encouraged to be consumers, not producers, of our own culture. Our ties to the local and human sources of our goods have been lost. Buying handmade helps us reconnect.

Buying handmade is better for the environment. The accumulating environmental effects of mass production are a major cause of global warming and the poisoning of our air, water and soil. Every item you make or purchase from a small-scale independent artist or crafter strikes a small blow to the forces of mass production.

I’m up late tonight, because I have a store stocking tomorrow, and I’m just finishing up everything. I still need to get pictures of the girly set I did, but I’ll have to wait until tomorrow morning for that.

I had a nice, long chat with my mom about living green, and I was surprised to find out how much she’s done to live more naturally. I think “going green” is the next big thing – celebrities are using cloth diapers, Sheryl Crowe only uses one square of toilet paper, and Julia Roberts composts.

I’m still working on Ken with the whole composting thing. I think we’re ideal candidates, because we have a lot of natural manure coming out of our two four-legged kids, and although we really don’t have a lot of food that goes to waste (again with those 4-legged kids of ours!), we tend to throw away stuff that could easily be composted. Veggie and fruit peelings, old food that has gone bad, food that Emma throws on the ground and Macey doesn’t see – so I think we might start doing some more research on this. At the very least, we can get a ton or two of dog waste composted every year.

And then I’ll use it in my raised garden, which I’m totally doing after seeing mom’s. It’s going to be awesome!