Squash harvest 2007

Snack Attack!

About a month ago I had this fantabulous idea about how to encourage my kids to eat more healthy snacks. One day I had given the kids a granola bar for their morning snack, and Frugalgirl1 (who is turning 7 today! Happy Birthday!) had the gall to ask me "How many granola bars can we have?"

I had always limited things like that to one per day anyway, but I had a brainstorm that I finally put into practice today. I'll report back on the progress.

I've divided up snack foods into 3 categories--green, yellow, and red. Green snacks are unlimited. At snack time, they can choose any green snack. Green snacks are fruits and veggies. Now, some people may disagree with my choice, but I have also included cheese and bread in the green snack category. The bread can't be covered in jam or honey; it has to be plain or with butter.

Yellow snacks have to be purchased with a yellow snack ticket. I have alloted the kids 3 yellow snack tickets per day. I handed out a week's worth. I am encouraging them to limit their yellow snacks to 3 per day so they will still have yellow tickets at the end of the week. Yellow snacks include almost everything. Granola bars, crackers, popsicles, muffins, etc. They are generally healthy foods but not the best choice.

Red snacks are the things I don't want them to have every day, like candy, marshmallows, cupcakes, etc. I have given them 3 red tickets for the whole week.

Maybe I should have given out fewer yellow tickets to begin with, but I am kind of hoping they learn to eat fruits and veggies instead of crackers.

on to other random topics...



We had the hay cut, baled, and sold in a period of 4 days.



This picture was also taken on July 3 and this morning I picked the first zucchini. There will be more in a day or two. Let the grilling of vegetables begin! I can't even wait!

Knee High by the 4th of July

Better than fruit snacks

What more could you ask for?

What's up?

I love walking out to the garden to see what has come up since yesterday! Since I last reported, here's what's up:

Cucumbers
Yellow squash
Zucchini
Pumpkins
Watermelons
Butternut squash
Cantaloupe
Beans
Lettuce
Chard
Spinach
Onions
Corn

The only thing that hasn't come up yet is the honeydew. This morning I planted cilantro, basil, and parsley in the herb bed. I can hardly wait!

One more picture, and a contest!

Here's one more shot of something growing in my yard. The first person to correctly identify it wins their choice of a pair of soft-soled shoes or a skein of hand-painted yarn. The only hint I'll give is that those buds are about to be flowers, not fruit. Good luck!

eta: not to sound confusing, but the flowers will be fruit eventually, but to me the picture looks like berries right now.

What's up?

Radish seedlings, the first of the summer garden!




The garden. Go to flickr for details.



What's growing...
pears

raspberries

peaches

irises

strawberries

Promises

The problem with having so much to blog about is I'm too busy to actually blog about it.

I know I've been scarce lately. It started at the end of April when Frugaldad went to Singapore for 12 days. Since I'm not crazy enough to announce to the internet when my husband is out of the country, I kept my mouth shut. There were no major medical emergencies (one of the girls kicked the other in the mouth the last time he was gone and I almost had to make an emergency trip to the dentist) and no major catastrophes (I even started two irrigation turns all by myself), but by the end of his trip I was really tired of being the only responsible adult around here. I was mostly tired of doggie duty.

I have some great pictures of the stuff that is starting to grow in my yard, and I have spent the last couple weeks working in all my spare minutes turning my garden from a weed-infested wasteland into a beautiful plot of seed-planted goodness. I tell you what, it is a crying shame that I didn't take any "before" shots, because it was almost too depressing to even start the job. Thanks to a Mantis, and some carefully placed sprinklers, I was able to get all the weeds out.

I hate to toot my own horn, but this is the first year in seven that I have had my entire garden planted this early in the season. Usually something gets pushed to the bottom of the list and either doesn't get planted until mid-June or doesn't get planted at all. This is also the first year that I did ALL of the work myself. Frugaldad usually helps with at least the bed prep, but between the trip, the illness that plagued him when he got home, and taking Frugalboy on the Father/Son camp out last weekend, he wasn't available. So I did most of the work during the heat of the afternoons because that is when I was home. I got all the weeds out. I raked all the beds smooth. I put hay down on all the pathways (well, I guess Frugalgirl2 helped me a little one morning with the hay) I spread all the mulch (minimal kid help there, too) and I planted all the seeds (I guess the girls helped a little with that, too. But in all honesty, it would have gotten done faster if I had done it myself, so I ought to get extra points for letting them help me.) And in seven years of gardening, for six of those years I have started in either new ground, or rearranged the planting beds enough that it was like starting over. We decided to change the direction of the beds again this year, so I was starting over. Again.

I have worked hard, and I am proud of myself! And I know I will be even gladder in a couple months when I am able to start eating beans and squash.

Tuesday was Frugalgirl2's birthday and she is quite a beautiful ballerina.

Stay tuned for pictures!