Our Memorial Day Weekend Project Part 2

I said that I would post some pictures of our filled pool. However, I did not realize that those photos haven't yet been downloaded to my computer and of course I don't have time for that right now. I have however posted pics of it being filled and then of Jordan getting to take a little ride in the "big digger" with his daddy. I wish you could have seen his face. He kept rolling his tongue around in his cheek as though if he were to smile as much as he wanted to, his face might crack.

This weekend we will be working on creating some decking and safety measures to keep baby out of the pool area unless we grant him permission. Right now we are using a step ladder that is moved away when not in use. As I'm sure you've determined on your own, this is NOT a good way to be getting in and out of the pool. Oi! Unfortunately, the cost of PT lumber has gone up considerably since we last did any sort of decking project so we want to be sure what we do is done well and done right so that we can enjoy it for many years.

Will keep you posted!

Our Memorial Day Weekend Project

Putting up a HUGE pool!!!!! Everyone picthed in and helped. Thanks everybody! I'll try to post the pictures in chronological order. Will post pics of the finished product tomorrow.

Pic 1: Daddy is showing Jacob how the level works.

Pic 2: Still leveling......

Pic 3: Unrolling a VERY heavy pool wall.

Pic 4: The wall is up!

Pic 5: Jared washes down the inside of the walls and levels and smooths out the pool bottom before the liner goes in.

The only thing these pictures don't show you is how DIRTY we all were. I still can hardly believe that we had the site leveled, the pool errected, the liner in and the pool filled in 48 hours. That's teamwork!

Lots to Say

This will probably be a somewhat long, but hopefully not rambling post as I was sick for about 48 hours and haven't had a chance to share the going ons of the Scott house for several days.
Jakey did pick our first ripe tomato the other day and we have since enjoyed 2 more by the way of BLT's. I did not however get a pic of him picking it though as my camera kept shutting off on me. Grrrr....I think the batteries need to be changed. Now that the first few have ripened so many more are beginning to blush at us. I see homemade salsa in our future!
The results of the gardening survey are in. With 11 people casting their vote, the majority of you said that no, you haven't ever grown a food garden, but would love to. Thanks to all of you who participated.
It has been so nice just walking out to the garden to get lettuce and tomato's for salad or our BLT's. Last night Jacob, my little assistant chef helped me in the kitchen making vegetable stir fry with pork and noodles, sushi and spring rolls. He cut veggies, toasted sesame seeds, fanned the sushi rice as we cooled it, made the spring rolls in the toaster oven and then set the table. I love working with him in the kitchen and he loves being there.
Our project for the Memorial Day weekend will be putting up a beautiful 27' round, top of the line, above ground pool that we just purchased off of craigslist.com yesterday. The owners had only used it 3 months before the husband was transferred. They have moved with it twice and now their back yard isn't big enough for it. The price was fantastic! It even came with a creepy crawly automatic cleaner! I will take and post pictures of the progress. This will be the 3rd used pool we have put up in our 18 years of marriage. We should be getting fairly good at it by now.
It is 8:08 am and Jordan (almost 2) is standing beside me already asking for a popscicle. He says, "pop-hee-hee". When I say,"No, popscicle" he says, "Oh man....". Cracks this mamma up every time. :)
In the midst of our joy and excitement over the Lord providing our family with a wonderful pool, our hearts have also been saddened for the family of Steven Curtis Chapman who lost their youngest adopted daughter on Wednesday night when their teenage son accidentally struck her with their SUV in the driveway. I cannot imagine their grief. Todd and I had the privilege of seeing him in concert the beginning of May and so much of the concert focused on how God had blessed the life of their family through the adoption of their 3 little girls from China. He talked about how their adoption experience is a constant reminder of what God has done for us in making us joint-heirs with Christ because we have been adopted as sons and daughters of the Living God. We will be praying for this family for comfort, especially for the son who was driving.
Lastly, if you have about 8 minutes I want to encourage you to watch the video titled "Absolutely Amazing" over on the right side of my page. See it over there? It was shared with me by a friend and I couldn't help but post it here for you to see. Your heart will be blessed and encouraged by it, I PROMISE!!!
I am so glad that it's Friday and a long holiday weekend is ahead of us. I never got to the berry picking this week but maybe I'll still be able to get some before the season comes to an end.
Have a great weekend everyone!

It's Raining!!!! :)

I am sitting here in my very dimly lit kitchen enjoying the darkness that has fallen over the house because guess what.......! IT IS RAINING!!!! THERE HAS EVEN BEEN SOME THUNDER!!!! It hasn't rained here since late March or early April. I wish it would do this all day. Everything has bee so dry and dusty. (Ooooo...there was more thunder:) ) My garden won't recognize this water source!
Speaking of the garden, today or tomorrow we should harvest our first ripe tomato. I will let Jacob do the honors and be sure to get a picture. He has had such a hard time being patient as they have been large and green for what seems like forever to him.
It is officially time for school to start. It is so hard for me to stay on track with finishing up our studies as the school year draws to a close. The garden is always calling to me as well as other projects that are needing to be done. Lord, help me stay on task. June 4th is just around the corner. I can make it!

Simple Woman's Daybook

Outside My Window . . .the bird feeder is very busy this morning. Chickadees, Tuffted Titmice, and Cardinals are having their breakfast.

I am thankful for... my husband who works so hard.

From the kitchen... some sort of chicken stir fry with fresh veggies from the garden and homemade sushi.

I am wearing... my pajamas.

I am going... hopefully nowhere, oh wait, no, I have to go to the post office.

I am reading... Square Foot Gardening and Let it Rot - A Guide to Composting

I am hoping...to have all of the laundry washed, folded and put away by the end of the day today

I am hearing... Jessie tell her sister Juliana that the song she is singing, she is singing incorrectly and the washing machine draining (3rd load this morning) and the dryer tumbling.

Around the house...as always, there is cleaning, straightening up to be done. Seven people and two dogs live here for goodness sake. Cleaning is a way of life around here!

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week. . . go blackberry and blueberry picking, make some freezer jam, list things on Ebay, help hubby and dad build a coop for my chickens.

Here is picture thought I am sharing... it's at the top of this post. Still learning about this blogging/posting stuff and at this time I can't quite figure how to get my dirty, little-hotdog-eating-boy down here.

Unexpected Blessings

I just wanted to say thank you to all of you who have so kindly welcomed and encouraged me as a new blogger with your comments. A special thank you goes out to my friend Cora who so graciously introduced me to her blogging friends and has become my "go-to blogging guru". I appreciate your help.
In addition to the unexpected blessing of meeting new friends through my blog (I honestly didn't really think of that aspect when I started) I had the unexpected blessing of finding some peppers, tomatoes and tomatillos growing in my compost pile this morning. They were hiding under the cantaloupe and honeydew vines that have sprouted there. (I know this is NOT the intended purpose for a compost pile but since I already have a pile of usable compost ready, I have decided to let these volunteers do their thing). Anyway, I carefully lifted the little seedlings out of their dwelling place and transplanted them in their own little square in the garden. They may or may not do well, however, it was just a pleasant little surprise this morning to find them growing there. My husband jokingly said that maybe next year we should just spread compost piles everywhere, throw in our scraps and let nature do it's work. We even have potatoes growing in our pile!
Just as each little plant that I uncovered and moved this morning is special and unique, so are each of you who have stopped by my blog and left kind words. I look forward to discovering the special and unique things about each of you as I move around to your blogs.
Thanks for the welcome,
Tracee~mammaof5js

Gardening and Math?

This year we decided that due to rising food costs we were going to try our hand at gardening once again and this time we were going to invest the necessary time and money into the prep work so that our garden would, Lord willing, produce a harvest of veggies rather than weeds and an insect buffet as had happened in the past. We did lots of research and decided to go with the square foot method. So, for all you homeschoolers out there who are wanting to put in a spring garden while at the same time learning about not only botany but math, I encourage you to read on.

Square foot gardening is based on most beds being 4' x 4' giving you 16 sq. feet to work with. That right there is a small lesson in AREA.

After daddy built our boxes my 6 year old son and 8 year old daugter measured (there's a lesson) and marked of our boxes at one foot intervals all the way around. They then hammered in nails at each mark and used string to make a grid giving 16 squares to plant in. Here's where some practical math skills come into play. One box we planted full of bush beans and black-eyed peas. Here's a question:

If we plant 4 seeds in each square and there are 16 squares in this box, how many bean plants will this box hold?

More problems:

*4 squares are planted with cucmbers. If each plant produces 8 lbs. of cucumbers during the growing season, how many pounds will we have harvested?

One 4X4 box is planted with tomaotes. If each tomato plant produces 10 tomatoes, how many tomatoes will we have harvested?

I'm sure you are seeing my point. If your children like mine say things like, "Math is dumb. I'm never going to use this stuff....", it is easy to show them how practical math is for so many things.

We have also been doing the Exploring Creation through Botany study this year from Apologia Ministries. What great prep work for our gardening project. Back when we started the study we didn't have any plans to garden this spring. God is so good to have prepared us this way. We've been seeing what we learned about His glorious creation at work throughout the whole process.
Psalm 19 says, "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands."

I'd like to paraphrase and also say that "The plants and vegetation declare the glory of God: the flowers proclaim the works of His hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowlege. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the end of the world."

Getting the hang of this blogging stuff!

After lots of time spent on this today, I think I am finally getting the hang of how to do this. I even have music playing, are you impressed?We have been very busy around here this spring. March brought the celebration of Jacob's 7th birthday, our 18th anniversary and the work of putting in a garden. After lots of research online we decided to use the square foot gardening method. (Check out http://www.squarefootgardening.com/) It gives you lots of production in a small amount of space with the added benefits of very little weeding and prep work as well as the ability to be utilizing every square foot of garden space all season long.

Come April it was time to celebrate Jared's 15th birthday as well as help him get prepared to take the test for his learner's permit. (Yikes!) Our garden was beginning to finally look like one. Little green seedlings were poking there heads up through the soil. Blossoms, where one day fruit would appear were shining their bright faces. Each morning brought new joy for my two little gardeners and me as we walked around the garden looking at what God had grown overnight. Then it happened, the forecast called for an unseasonably late cold front. Temps here fell into the 30's overnight for 2 nights in a row! Thankfully our tender plants were spared much damage. Whew! We also got a new family member. Her name is Ebony and she came to us all the way from the Poynter farm in TN. Isn't she cute?

It is now May. We have celebrated Juliana's 9th birthday twice. Once at Adventure Island with friends and then again this past Sunday when we had a double celebration with family for her birthday and Mother's Day. Jared drove for the first time this past Sunday coming home from church. There were several times during the drive that I realized I was holding my breath and my stomach felt as if I had been doing crunches! The garden is beautiful! So far we have picked and enjoyed green beans, salad greens, cucumbers, onions and yellow squash. I expect our first ripe tomato within the next week. Jacob is beginning to think that the kind of tomatoes we are growing are GREEN tomatoes.

Learning to Blog

I wanted to find a way to allow friends and family to keep up with what is going on around here at the Scott house. After looking at many different sites and hearing all about the various options from my computer saavy daughter, I finally decided to go with a blog. This will allow me to post pics of us and what we're up to these days. Some of you may be beginning to forget what we look like, having not seen us for such a long time. I hope this will enable us to stay connected.