Our gardens are in full swing as we speak, and we are spending a lot of our time in the afternoons picking and canning and freezing.  I love that we are able to do this and feel so fortunate to be surrounded by nature where we live.  To me, nature is such an expression of God’s beauty and creativity.

“But ask the beasts, and they will teach you; the birds of the heavens, and they will tell you; or the bushes of the earth, and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this?” Job 12: 7-9

I love to bring nature inside and use it to decorate, especially in the kitchen.  It’s free, it’s easy, and it’s beautiful!

Here’s what I have around the house right now:

Rosemary and basil snipped from my the cutting garden are gorgeous when they are bunched up and placed in a stemless wine glass, and a pile of tomatoes adds color to my kitchen window.  I stacked some apples next to some sunflowers on the kitchen table for an almost-fall decoration.

Another plus to this: your herbs and produce are within easy reach, and they smell fabulous!

I really enjoy participating in the Weekly Photo Challenges that WordPress hosts.  I can’t usually come up with a picture to add to the mix and I am certainly inferior to the talented photographers that participate, but I do love taking pictures and connecting with other people from all over the world through these challenges when I can produce something.

This week’s photo challenge was “Containers.”

The definition of contain is “to hold or include, to have capacity for, to keep under proper control, or to prevent or limit the expansion of something.”

On Friday, the day when a new Photo Challenge is released, I could think of nothing around me to photograph to submit. When today rolled around, however, my eyes were opened to so many containers.  Maybe being “contained” all day in the house with the kids is good for my creative brain!

Here’s what I came up with:

This is our chicken coop that Jason has spent HOURS of his life on! Our first batch of chickens, which I got for my birthday in April, was massacred a couple of months ago by several different animals that found their way into the coop. Jason has spent a lot of time “fortifying the coop,” so hopefully these chickens will make it!

Here is one of our little chicks that is contained within the coop. We have 2 Americanas, 2 Silkies, and 4 Rhode Island Reds. I thought they were so sweet until the night before last, when one of them bit me and another one flogged me while I was trying to get them up for the night!

A pile of watermelon and cantaloupe from our garden. In spite of the lack of rain (until today) in our area, our garden has been very plentiful this year! Watermelons contain such…goodness!

These are our rows of green beans, which Jason has worked SO hard on. They contain a great surprise….

…beautiful, colorful zinnias! The kids and I planted zinnia and sunflower seeds in between all of the green bean plants in hopes that they would grow tall and the beans would run up the flowers. However, the flowers didn’t grow as fast as the beans. I love walking through the green beans and catching glimpses of colorful zinnias.

And my last container….I recently rearranged our living room, putting this beautifully old trunk that my mother-in-law gave us in the center of the room. Whenever Charlie and Maddie’s friends come over, they have to see what is contained within it. Much to their dismay, it is full of blankets! I should fill it with some sort of treasure one day, just to give them a little fun.

I enjoyed this weeks photo challenge, and I hope you did, too!

The kids and I are LOVING this break from the snowy, wintery weather.  It has been 70 degrees or close to it for a few days now, and we have been outside a lot.  I know it’s only February, but I am ready for winter to be over!  I don’t know how you northerners do it…

Charlie, Maddie, and I started some broccoli seeds today so the plants will be ready to transplant in the spring.  We talked a little bit about Jesus’ parable of the sower and the seeds (here are some great ideas) then planted our seeds in a little greenhouse.

A little brother/sister love! Maddie lost interest in planting pretty quickly, but Charlie was really into it.

Charlie the farmer. He was adamant, however, that he would not be eating the broccoli when it is harvested!

Charlie’s precious little hand is the perfect size for planting tiny seeds.

I am looking forward to showing the kids when the sprouts come up, and hopefully we’ll have some fresh broccoli this summer!

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Hi everyone!  So glad today is Friday and we have a great weekend ahead of us.  I am especially glad that our new refrigerator was delivered today.  After several weeks of going back and forth to our garage fridge to retrieve juice every time the kids needed something to drink, I am SO HAPPY!  What an ordeal this has been, but I will save that story for another day.

We were late planting our garden this year so we are just beginning to harvest our fruits and veggies.  We have been eating fresh squash, zucchini, cucumber, and tomatoes every night, and today I enjoyed my first tomato sandwich of the summer.  It was so good!

Jason is keeping a close eye on our canteloupe and watermelon, and I think we will get to pick one this weekend.  Can’t wait.

My cutting garden is also very plentiful right now.  I so love to go out back and cut a bouquet of flowers for the house.  Jason built my cutting garden for me one day when I was at work and he had the day off (about 7 years ago), and I have gotten so much enjoyment from it!

Here’s what I cut today:

I am not sure what this red flower is, but it actually comes back every year. I added some rosemary. We got this vase in Tijuana several years ago.

This is a mix of zinnias, cosmos, mexican sunflowers, and black-eyed susans.

I love this print I just got. You guys should check out https://www.etsy.com/shop/LiveAtHome and their gorgeous prints.

Anyway, great day for me!  God has really blessed me.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Whew!  We made it home from the beach, and man do I need a vacation!  Being at the beach for a week with the family is wonderful, but it is hard work for the mommies involved.  Thank goodness Mama and Casey were there to share in the burden!

I know Jason is exhausted.  He hauled all of our things back and forth from the beach every day and afternoon with hardly any help, not to mention all of the time he spent trying to catch some fish for our dinner.  He is snoring on the couch as I type this up!

While I, of course, love being on vacation, I really love coming home from vacation.  I enjoy our home and my bed and our pets. It is always fun this time of year to return home and see how our garden and flowers have grown.

I spent some time cutting flowers from my cutting garden where I have zinnias, cosmos, mexican sunflowers, and some other random wildflowers growing.  I also was happy to see that all of my hydrangeas are blooming.  They range in color from bright pink to dark purple to a really bright, almost electric blue.  I cut a bunch of the blue for my bedroom.

I love hydrangeas!

I am going to definitely have to do some work in our garden this week, but it is totally worth it.  Our squash has finally begun to come in so we had some to pick when we got home today.

I went to Mama’s to help her pick green beans, and also lucked out and got some tomatoes, cucumbers, and carrots!

Charlie and I snapped the beans while he watched his Superman cartoon tonight, and I can’t wait to cook them tomorrow!

We had a wonderful vacation, but I am glad to be home so I can get some rest!