What's growing in our garden

Okay, so it turns out that we're not so bad at this gardening thing, after all. The green bell peppers are doing wonderfully. The peppermint really is growing like a weed. We had gotten this tiny pot of peppermint from the grocery store and it specifically stated not to plant it, and I assumed you shouldn't plant it because it doesn't grow. Then Mike planted it without my knowledge, and it's thriving! Yay. The onions were planted some time last year. They had died, or so we thought. We never even watered that particular earth bucket, and were surprised when onion shoots came up. Now we are watering them, and hoping for a nice crop. The brussels sprouts are doing really well, too. We also have tomatoes growing, but they are not doing that well. They all seem to look really good and healthy at first, but inevitably begin rotting right there on the vine. They did this last year also. We do have some white flies and need to figure out how to get rid of them. We still have so much to learn about gardening. I'm happy enough with the results we are getting now.

A monster for Zoe....

Mike saw a book on knitting monsters and thought we had to own it. He bought it and even asked me for knitting lessons so he could make a monster (he's partial to monsters). The knitting lessons never went beyond the first one, and I decided I was interested enough to learn the magic loop method by making a monster myself. He (or she, we're undecided) is still missing his grin. I bought some white felt for it last time I was at Michaels and then totally misplaced the bag! So, this little monster will need to wait a little while longer before he can have his face completed. Mike and Zoe are both absolutely delighted with this little thing.

mittens!

While I already had Lilly in the front yard modelling her hats, I also made her wear a mitten I just finished yesterday (have started on the second). I used Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's Cloisonee pattern. As you can see, the mitten does not fit Lilly. I really just wanted to see if I could make sense of the pattern, so I didn't worry about little things like gauge. ;-) Now I'm stuck having to make the second mitten using the same size needles, but that's alright. These mittens work up fast, and are bound to fit somebody in this house!

Herminone hearts Ron hat

Here is my daughter, Lilly, modelling my just-finished Hermione-hearts-Ron hat in a cheap acrylic yarn (the green), and a nicer wool (the red yarn). It is a fun pattern - I also made it in brown and in blue.

We spent this past weekend in the backyard. Mike and his father spent all of Friday and some on Saturday fixing our fence (it was leaning). Mike then continued to work in the backyard with the kids. Christopher did a lot of weedwacking, Annika and Lilly raked weeds, and Zoe played on our dirt mound and took advantage of the swings. I'm totally excited about what plans Mike has for next weekend! He's made so much progress over the last few months. Now that the kids are older, they can help us so much more with home improvement projects. The weather right now is also perfect for this kind of work.

Cat on Annika's homework

Here are a couple of pictures showing what happens when George, our family cat, decides he needs attention during school hours. Annika had just sat down with her math homework when the cat jumped onto her desk and made himself comfortable. His fur is soft like velvet, so we do enjoy petting him, but in the middle of homework? Seriously, George! Although, Annika probably welcomed the distration.....

a picture of Zoe

Zoe had just held up her arms to me for a big hug and I asked her to do it again for the camera, but she much preferred to just smile at me instead. :-)

Lilly in her uniform

Lilly looking beautiful with her new school uniform. In the second picture from the top you can see her carrying her lunchbag, which is actually an old bag from Japan that I used when I was a child! I love that it is still useful after so many years (it spent quiet some time in storage at my mother's house). It is just the right size for her green lunchbox. Lilly is also carrying an old homeschool book we used for history lessons - it is the first book in the "Story of the World" series, and she's now reading it for fun. I had told her how much I enjoy reading about history myself, and so she decided to give it a try as well.

In my basket and a recently finished project

On the left you see a cowl I recently finished. I fell in love with the colorway when I saw it at my local yarn store and knew it was just perfect for knitting up Amanda Blake Soule's cowl pattern in her most recent book. I used 2 strands of Manos de Uruguay for it, a soft merino wool.

On the right is what I have in my basket right now. The pattern is free on ravelry, it's the Hermione hearts Ron hat from the Harry Potter movies. I'm using Nature Spun Sportweight from Brown Sheep Company and have already made several hats. It's a very relaxing project.

Lilly's lunchbox

I've had a lot of fun picking out a new lunchbox for Lilly who has recently decided to try attending a school for the first time. So far she is mostly loving the new experience, and I've been having some fun putting her lunches together. Without further ado and because I don't really know how to arrange pictures on blogs, I will just post a few picutres showing her new lunchbox which she got to decorate herself, and one of her beautiful napkins that a friend of mine sewed up for Lilly.

Flowers on the table

A friend of mine recently shared with me how simply putting some flowers in a vase and keeping them near you can brighten up your day. It seems obvious, but I had never given much thought to buying flowers for myself. I found that they are quiet affordable at Trader Joe's, and so now I make a point to pick some up every time I shop there, about once or twice a month. Even my husband and children like seeing the flowers decorating our dining-room table.

Hmm, I tried to make a longer post by adding other pictures but it turns out it's not that simple, at least not for me. So, it appears I have a lot to learn about posting pictures and that's okay, especially since nobody reads my blog, lol (which is also okay since a lot of time has elapsed between posts).