I don't care about Mother's Day

Sounds a bit harsh, eh? Actually, I'm just being hyperbolic (which, oddly enough in my head, I just pronounced hyper-bawl-ic.). But the reason why I am not too concerned with tomorrow, is because as today--as a mother--my day was near perfection. (I'm happy to celebrate my mom and my mother-in-love tomorrow, but let the record show - I'm complete).

Holden and I had a baking day on Friday -- we were out of frozen cinnamon rolls, so this morning we got to nosh on fresh ones with ooey-gooey cream cheese frosting for breaksfast. (I think I've mentioned I make these at least once a month, and then freeze what we're not using and treat them like Rhoades.) With breakfast we had bacon, OJ with lots of pulp (just how I like it), and organic watermelon and strawberries Danny had picked up from our food co-op (Bountiful Baskets this time).

Danny had moved the lawn by the time Zoë woke up for the day at 9:45 (I know, dream baby right?) And we were out the door to Costco just after 10ish (love the WVC locale because even at 11am on a Saturday (after coupon mayhem has begun) it's not crowded... we bought more marigolds for the garden, superhero books for Holden, lots of butter, eggs and white flour (yes, white flour... at least it's milled locally). And a bunch of other things because how often can you really visit Costco without dropping at least $200.

Z fell asleep again in the car on the way home from errands and I spent the day in the kitchen while the boys installed my much anticipated drip-system for our front yard garden-boxes. LOVE LOVE LOVE. Holden loves being outside, and though I know things take longer with him around, Danny was a super sport about it -- and Holden was in heaven "helping" his Dad. (We only suffered a few causalities -- mostly just marigolds.... oh, that could be a cool band name "Mostly Marigold"... not quite riot grrrl, but definitely female infused indie-vibe.

I digress.

I was a maniac in the kitchen. Key Lime pie & Strawberry-Rhubarb crisp for dessert at my sisters tomorrow. Plus, I made just over 10 pints of strawberry freezer jam (I keep saying next time I make jam I'm going to use pectin because it's soooooo much faster, but then I go through this whole debate in my head about using the least amount of preservatives possible... and technically there's already pectin in the fruit... and so I end up cooking my jams for hours trying to let them boil down and gel. Which according to Mark Bittman happens at 224degrees; but my stuff spent over an hour at 200... then I gave up. It's a really rich dark red, almost like Smuckers... next time I'm just using pectin (and not cooking it...I SWEAR).

While Danny finished up the drip system and Zoë laid on a blanket outside practicing her "rolling," Holden and I worked more on his garden.  We gave him another little plot in the back yard... he picked four marigolds and placed them strategically (I've got to get a picture and show you), and then planted chives, squash,and basil. Somehow I read the package wrong on his squash, and where it said seeds inches apart in hills, I thought that meant the hills were four inches apart... instead of the 3 feet!!! So we've got basically a package of seeds in a 1'x1' square of soil. So awesome. I can't wait to see what happens. Last year he did something similar with the Zuchinni and we still got a few good veggies... I'm just loving the process.

In fact, I'm kind of digging the process of this while motherhood thing. So sure, celebrate me tomorrow, but today (the present) is a present indeed.

Kicking Off the Weekly Garden

I feel like my thoughts need a word cloud because this morning's picture (see above) has a bunch of different things racing through my head - in no particular order:

• I have never been great at taking before and after pictures with our home improvement projects. Hopefully, since this is so early in the season this will be a good measurement for how the garden's growing. 
• The lavender (second row, planter box on your left) already smells divine. It's so low maintenance (now in it's third year)...one of the best investments we've made in our yard.
• You can see Holden in the back of the garden, tending to the lettuce and radish seedlings "I watered all those villains"he just told me -- looking over my shoulder as I type.
• I love that Danny built me these planters. To me it makes it feel like the whole family is involved in the *sacred space (I had Zoë in the Ergo pack strapped close to me tummy-2-tummy while I took this pic and we worked outside this morning)
• The tomatoes will return to their rightful spot in the large planter in front. I've got six varieties we're planting from starts this year, including an heirloom Mr. Stripey.
• The rhubarb already needs to be picked (all we do is harvest the stuff. My grandparents planted it years ago, and it just keeps surviving and thriving.) 

Holden's Garden

Next to the lavender (with the pea-pod tee-pee) is the spot I have officially delegated as Holden's garden this  year. It already has carrots growing -- left over seedlings in the soil from last year), I planted a couple of marigolds for pest control and the oregano plant from last year also survived the winter and is growing like gang busters. He scattered peas and we set up the tee-pee, and in a few weeks I'll let him go to town with squash and pumpkin seeds and we'll let nature take it's course.

*Grandma's Legacy

For those of you who may not recall the history of this place, this space is indeed sacred. We bought the home from my Grandparents - a couple of months after my grandma passed away. The yard, amazing in it's time housed multiple fruit trees, raspberry bushes, a grape vine, a dozen (or more) rosebushes and much more (rhubarb being another one of many delights).

Unfortunately, after my Grandfather passed away, it was just too much to keep up - and by the time we bought the place, it was in serious need of some T.L.C. We've made changes bit by bit...with little kids and a life much different than my grandparent's led, we don't have the time (or experience) to dedicate to the yard and gardens like they did. But I think the changes we make are in the spirit of making the place beautiful, being more self-sufficient and teaching our children about where food comes from with patience and a respect for the earth. (All things I think my gramdparents would appreciate).

In fact, there's a couple of spots by the planter-boxes where roses seemed to have made their way up through the soil. I like to think it's a reminder from my grandparents...perhaps even their way of sending approval for what we're trying to do. 

A Harvest Day and a Staycation

So it's a little bit odd for the Mangums to enjoy a "Stay-Cation" on a 3-day weekend. But it's already proving to be a fabulous holiday. Yesterday we kicked off celebrating the labor force by making pinecone birdfeeders with the cousins; and then hit up Friday Night Lights at Cottonwood High School to support some kids from the neighborhood.

As I'm writing this, Utah State is beating Auburn 21-14 at the half (though it's not the first time USU has given a ranked team a scare). I like the Aggies (I mean, they're no Utes), but I can't remember wanting them to beat a team so badly since they claimed a "W" over BYU last year.

But before we camped out in front of the big screen in our basement to usher in Fall (Danny has gotten me addicted to College Football), we visited Salt Lake's Downtown Farmer's Market for breakfast pastries and a grip of fresh fruit (pie cherries, a watermelon too heavy for me to carry, plus fresh peaches and apples); and Holden and I trekked to the great outdoors (ok, just our yard) to do a little reaping of what we had sowed earlier in the season.

We picked the beets he planted, and I plan on roasting them to eat today. He ate a carrot (dirt and all) from the planter boxes, plus cherry tomatoes and then we dug up potatoes. This was by far our favorite part. Thanks to PBS Kids (yes my child watches TV now), he has learned from Dinosaur Train's "Dr. Scott the Paleontologist" about fossils...and as such, he told me he was "Digging for Dinosaur bones" as we played in mother earth in search of potatoes. We talked about fossils and dug some more. He searched for "T-Rex" and then would light up with excitement when he'd uncover a potato.

I know I talk about having a garden for environmental reasons, etc, but more than anything, I feel like some days the time we spend together out there is such a special time. There are so many positive things that come from our garden space. Potatoes are so cheap and easy -- but they seem to be the highlight of the garden this year. We're definitely planting them next year... he'll need to show his sibling how an expert digs for dinosaur bones.

Holden Helps the Guys

It's officially summer time at the Mangum household. How do I know? Because my hair is getting washed almost every day from time in the swimming pool, there's usually dirt in my fingernails (even with the pool time) and my son seems to look less like me each day as I turn a deeper shade of brown and he is doused in California Baby Sunscreen ensuring none of his Mexican heritage shines through (seriously, could the kid be any whiter?)

We spent the morning in the yard: shoveling, watering, digging and even tasting (we have RADISHES! Wahooo!)

The landscapers have also been here a few times already this summer and the yard is coming along splendidly. They were here last night finishing up the border around our front lawn and getting the bark laid to help aid in weed protection.

Whenever they are here, Holden is convinced he needs to "help the guys." THat's what he was saying right before Danny caught him on the iPhone doing this:

Today he helped in a different way. After I had prepped the last few areas for beets, pumpkins and cucumbers, Holden helped me sow seeds of love and then some.

It started out fine. A long thin strip just smaller than an inch deep to drop in the beet seeds. Before I could blink, it moved from meticulous movement to handfuls of seeds being thrown over a 6 foot strip of earth. Holden's "beet row" is going to be a glorious mixture of beet greens and root veggies. I gave up caring that wasn't going to look exactly as I had planned. I know it will be perfect.

We moved onto the squash and the two "mounds" I prepared for hills of 6 seeds each, turned into two entire packets of seeds being dumped into a little patch of ground about 4 feet long and a foot or so wide..

It's going to be epic.

I love my little gardener.

Green Thumbs & Dirty Fingernails

I'm guest blogging over at Make & Takes today for my monthly bit on living more sustainably for you and your family.We're talking about gardening with kiddos. There's a great pic (if I do say so myself) of last year's lavender garden and one of my faves of Holden with one of his little gourds. His hair is also ridiculously blonde.

Hope you'll check it out.

More Carrots

Holden likes to pick the carrots, and I like to take pictures of him picking them.


Also, I know that it looks like he has a ginormous diaper on, but it's his awesome training pants. Huzzah!

Let's Revisit

How crazy it is that this.....




Or these....

Can become these...
Or this...
Or THAT?!?!

I did not think that Holden and I would enjoy our "Pumpkin Patch" so much. We've got three varieties all growing and showing actual fruits (are pumpkins fruits?): orange ones for cooking (fingers crossed), white ones for carving (hopefully), and some of those little gourds for decorating (easy enough).

And eventhough I keep telling Danny that all of the 'growth' along our west facing/(hmm, south facing?) fence happen to be pumpkins, he still likes to tell me that we have watermelons and honeydew growing.

He may try to hide his excitement about the garden, but it's hard to contain exhuberance like ours when stuff is growing like a weed (except it's not a weed. It's pumpkins... remember?)

If You Carrot All...

Today's harvest... delightful carrots! I had no idea I would take so much joy in seeing something grow from seed, etc.

Yes, those are orange AND purple carrots. Holden is noshing on a purple variety. He loves to carry the carrots and beets after we've pulled them.

He's also been dining on the heirloom cherry and bite-sized pear tomatoes as well. Though he prefers the cherry variety. Unfortunately he also loves to pick unripe green ones.

For the record, I showed Danny the pumpkins that were coming in and he asked me if it was a honeydew.

The man has just not got our vision (but we love him anyway.)

Braggart

Just wanted to throw out there that tonight I made stuffed peppers for dinner and the Chile sauce included an Anaheim chili from our garden.

We also pulled beets from the garden, roasted the roots and cooked the beet greens like Swiss chard. I felt kind of cool....

And just to keep the yin in this yang, etc etc...

I ought to confess I have managed to gain back a bit of the weight I lost earlier this year. I blame summer's obligatory home made ice cream; and I keep making that damn keylime pie (I keep trying to perfect a graham cracker crust from scratch), oh and I continue my love affair with chocolate chip cookies (there's probably a few other things I ought to mention too.)

You'd think I'd be looking 'fit' as I'm training for a marathon and all, but apparently I'm not at the point where I get to eat whatever I want... I feel like that guy from Biggest Loser that gained two pounds training for the marathon last season. Jillian would be going all psychoanalysis on me trying to figure out what happened to make me hold onto this resentment (aka fat cells), and such like...



Maybe I can blame it on my father. :)

Last word - Speaking of my father...

Maybe I shared this before, but the other day my Dad told me he got online to look at my blog and thought 'Why would anyone be interested in this?'

That's a question you'll have to answer for yourself.

Mary Mary Quite Contrary, How Does YOUR Garden Grow?

Perhaps I've mentioned Danny's story about when we were first engaged and he told himself (silly man) that he was getting the whole package if only he could wean me from my love of $500 designer hand bags? So I'm pretty much over the Burberry, but I've traded out passions for organic seeds and garden soil. (I am sooooo good at spending money, if only I could get paid to do it!)

So yes, we've been working on making our gardens grow here at the Mangum-Suite-Mangum household. And I will be the first to admit, I cannot believe it is actually working!

A few weeks ago, I took the following pictures:

Our tomato plants have more than doubled in size and are even bigger today!

The lavender garden is working out splendidly.
I shall have my own collection to use for fancy spa cookies!

Here's a closeup Martha Stewart style.

Beet Row.
And please notice the mint in our lawn. I refuse to let Danny 'treat' it;
because I love how it smells when he mows the lawn, it's the one part of our lawn that stays green through the entire summer AND it's a great to have on hand for my spa cookies. :)

Do you know what I love about growing your own lettuce?


When you eat it, it actually tastes like (wait for it....)
LETTUCE!

I know I shouldn't be surprised, but I just couldn't get over the fact that I actually grew something that was edible (not just wheat grass!)

Here's a closeup you could put some ranch dressing on... actually, it's too good for ranch.

The roses deserve a post all unto themselves... but I will say it's been heavenly cutting fresh flowers for the house. They are not my doing -- credit goes to my Grandma for the success and hardiness of the roses.

My little sister planted strawberries when they were living here. I added to her collection, but only one of my plants took. Like I said, I took these pictures a few weeks ago, so now those little green berries have long since turned to red and been devoured by the birds. Holden and I finally got to taste one today (so generous of the birds to let us indulge). Delicious!

More updates to come!

Pie or Garden Adventures Continue!

Remember yesterday when I told you about our secret garden, and how we discovered RHUBARB?!?! (If you don't remember, or didn't see it, you can just click on that link.) But here's a picture to remind you:

Anyway, we decided to put that hardy plant to good (and delicious) use, so we picked it and brought some of it inside.

Some of it was almost as big as Holden.

I got it all 'prepped' with plenty of help from Holden (some of that help being him in the form of naptime while I worked on making the dough for the crust), added apples, spices and loads of butter and sugar!!!

We let it spend some time in the oven: juices bubbling, aroma wafting

and ended up with my FIRST RHUBARB-APPLE PIE!!!

I have a confession... it was delicious. I invited my in-laws over and my sister and her family to share in the goodness, because if not, I probably would've finished the whole thing off... seriously. Pie for breakfast, lunch and dinner.



PS. Thanks to Q's mom for teaching me to make pie.

I Looked Out the Window & What Did I See?

Definitely popcorn popping, but this is our plumb tree... I missed the opportunity to take a picture of the apricot tree, again... but trust me, it was brilliant.


So this is not my kid, but I think it's worth checking out.






This week in preparation for Earth Day, Holden and I spent some time working on and in the yard:

• Weeding the first patch of official garden space that will house the tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers
  
• Visiting Western Gardens for organic Bumper Crop, organic fertilizer, seeds, seeds ( and more seeds) and some help with the Wasp problem (While this is the year I make peace with the Bees, I am not so open-hearted with the wasps and hornets)
• Checked out about 25 lbs worth of Library Books (ok, 12 I think?) with titles like "Composting," "Organic Gardening" and "The Complete Herb Book." I will not be reading most of them cover to cover; but I am already learning so much.
  

So welcome spring. We're hoping you'll stay a while!

Just in case you don't know the words to sing along:

I looked at the window and what did I see?
Popcorn popping on the apricot tree.
Spring has brought me such a nice surprise!
Popcorn popping right before my eyes.

I can take an armful and make a treat
a popcorn ball that would smell so sweet.
It wasn't really so, but it seemed to me
Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree.


Happy Earth Day Tomorrow!