Hanging Basket Fun!!

Last Sunday Brett and I decided to play hooky from church in the evening and head out to Al's Garden Center for their annual "plant your own hanging basket" weekend. Last year Emersyn and I planted a basket together, remember I blogged about it here?

Brett and I planted our first basket three years ago and have decided to make it an annual tradition. It is so much fun and also, much cheaper!! The pre-planted hanging baskets range from $30-$40 easily. The basket that we planted was only $15.99 and a portion of it went to charity. Sweet! You get to pick out the plants and arrangements that you want and customize it. In the picture above, you can see Emersyn and I reading over the instructions and formulating a game plan. :)

While I was picking out some plants Emersyn decided to do some exploring. Naturally she was drawn to the cleaning supplies. My daughter cracks me up.

"Mom, can we clean this place up a bit??"

Emersyn is my little neat freak, I love it. I fear that she won't cooperate as a flower girl in the upcoming weddings because the thought of scattering flower petals will surely give her nightmares, I am certain. I can imagine her scattering the petals and then dilligently picking each of them up and screaming bloody murder when we try to get her to keep walking down the aisle.

Come to think of it, will you pray for us on May 7th and July 2nd?? Ha ha.

Okay, time to put the dirt in the pot!

After planting the plants and adding fertilizer (Ems didn't help with this part, I was nervous to have her around the poisonous fertilier) here is the finished product! She looks pretty pleased, don't you think!

Such a fun evening!

HAPPY EARTH DAY!

Gardening Update

My plants are alive and growing!! I am so impressed. Wanted to give you all an update because I am SURE you have been on the edge of your seat, thinking to yourselves...."I wonder how Patti's plants are doing?" 

This cherry tomato plant is a little cranky because I forgot to water it in the last couple of days. I think it is going to forgive me though, been giving it some TLC this morning. 

This is the larger tomato tomato plant. :) You can see the large tomato starting to grow. 

Cherry tomatoes. I can't wait to eat them!!

More cherry tomatoes.

Emersyn and my hanging basket that we planted together. I just love it!! 

For all you master green thumbs out there...do you need to protect tomato plants from anything? Do you need to fertilize them? 

Thank you for being a part of my journey to become more domestic. :) 

Celebrating My Heritage!

For Mother's Day, my sweet Auntie Marti sent me some violets. They did not arrive in a vase via a delivery company; instead, they were sent overnight via USPS and were wrapped in wet papertowels and a freezer baggie. These aren't just any violets, however. They are part of my heritage....

Along with the violets was a sweet note, accompanied by a piece of paper with old photographs. This is what part of the note said....

"The pictures enclosed are of your Great Great Grandmother's house and your Great Grandmother's house where your Grandmother Inglis (my dad's mom) was rasied. Both homes still exist in Sacramento California...... One of the great joys and traditions that was passed from mother to daughter in your family was the love of flowers and plants. These violets that I am sending you came from your Great Great Grandmother's home on 2nd Ave. They were given by her, to her daughter (my Great Grandmother) and lovingly planted in her yard on McKinley Blvd. Your Grandmother Inglis loved them so much that when she grew up and had homes of her own, she transplanted them from her mother's home into her own homes in Sacramento. She shared them with me and now they are blooming each spring in my garden as well. They bring me so much enjoyment that I wanted to share them with you."

My Great Great Grandmother's Home

Great Grandma Hyacinth Margaret and her mother, my Great Great Grandma Margaret Mary. Circa 1950. Love the white shoes, so sassy!

My Aunt sent me "flowers" that are over 100 years old, essentially. Amazing.

I planted them and I wasn't sure if they were going to make it. You can see them below with my tomato plants, the violets are in the pot without the cage. They struggled initially but I think they are going to hang in there. Aunt Marti assured me that if they didn't make it, she could send me more. I breathed a sigh of relief when I heard that.

Whenever I see those violets, I am reminded of my heritage and the legacy that has gone before me. I am responsible for creating my own legacy now, one for my daughter and her daughters.

It is so easy to get caught up in the now; not taking time to do things that invest in the future or in eternity. I bet that as my Great Great Grandmother planted her beloved violets, she had NO clue that they were destined to end up in my garden. Or rather my pot. :) (Hoping that the gardening genes will kick into effect anytime now....still don't know what the heck I am doing!!)

I want to "plant" something for my Great Great Grandchildren and beyond to reap. Not literally a plant, unless that green thumb miraculously hits me. But start sowing a life rich with virtue and traits worth inheriting. Start paving a path of prayer and intercession for my daughter and her future children and their children.

This way of thinking WILL inevitably change me. And only for the good. Every single night (here come the tears, darn it!!!!) I go into my sweet little girls room and stare into her precious sleeping face and think, "how on earth did I get so lucky to have her???".

It makes me want to start "planting". :)

What are you "planting" for your future legacy? :)

"Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God."

Titus 2:4-5

Wordless Wednesday

Family Day

Tuesdays are our family day. Right now, our crazy schedules only allow for us to have one day off together, which can be a bummer. BUT “for such a time is this”… I am content and looking forward to a future where we can enjoy TWO days off together, or maybe more, who knows. In the meantime, we are blessed with fantastic jobs that have great benefits and get to call a sweet little girl named Emersyn our own. What could be better?

This past Tuesday was full of fun so of course I have to document it! I am so excited, for Emersyn’s first birthday we are going to print out alllllll my blog entries and have them bound in a book. I think this is a service that Blogger offers, I am not sure but I know it is out there. Blogging is my alternative to scrapbooking. As much as I would like to get my craft on, I am a realist and often I don’t have the time, patience, or want to spend the money on supplies.

Back to Tuesday. Brett always gets Emersyn ready on our day off and on Sunday mornings when we go to church. I love that. But I get to pick out what she wears, every day of course, unless Brett wants to but he usually doesn’t have a clue. So I picked out Emersyn’s sweet dress from her Grammy, her leggings from Auntie Debbie, and her jean jacket from Auntie Marti. (Can you tell my child is spoiled blessed?) Brett got her ready and took her downstairs. Since it was a nice day, Daddy thought Emersyn might need her favorite accessory…..

I think her head has grown since we got these glasses for her...they are a little snug on her face which causes them to push down like granny reading glasses. :) She is stylish nonetheless!

After taking a million pictures of the exact same pose (do any other parents do this too, hee hee?), we headed off to lunch. I have been craving Claim Jumper. I just love their lunch combo of an organic spinach salad and a mini bbq chicken pizza. It was Emersyn’s first time there, or first time there in a high chair anyways. They were SO baby friendly! They had a placemat that stuck to the table (smart!)….


AND they brought her a “complimentary baby plate”. SCORE! It had an apple puree, mandarin oranges, lunch meat, and cheese on it. Emersyn ate it all, except for the lunch meat, she could chew it up well enough.

After lunch we went to the mall where we picked up a new lens for our camera. The nicer the lens you get, the more stuff you can do with it and since Brett got a little bonus from work, we decided to put it towards one of our favorite things…pictures!!

After the mall we went to Al’s Garden Center where we had a less then pleasant experience with the staff. (Don’t get me started, I already wrote a nice long letter of complaint) We did however get some plants.

Emersyn thinks her fingers are edibles. :)

"Here Daddy, you taste!"

We decided to plant some tomatoes and a blueberry bush. The blueberry’s aren’t planted yet, we need to do some research on the appropriate soil for it first. I am so excited to watch our tomatoes grow! We did a full sized variety and also a cherry variety. Home grown tomatoes are soooo good and I have been wanting to grow them since we were first married, ONLY about 6 years. :)

Lastly, here is a cute pic of my little lady bug taken with our new lens…I dig the blurry background.

Happy Thursday!