Our garden is growing quite well this summer. Though we think we overdid a bit by doubling the size of last year’s garden. Next year, we’ll plan out the gardens a bit differently. The tomatoes, squash, peppers and weeds are all growing quite nicely. Unfortunately, over a period of two weeks the weeds grew so much in our garden that you could barely see the pepper plants.

Garden sitters to the rescue who came out and weeded one of our gardens and gave us our garden back. Now we’re harvesting cherry tomatoes, Mariana tomatoes, Jimmy Nardello peppers (I love how curly they are) and Carmen peppers with Brandywine tomatoes perfect for picking tomorrow.

This has been a summer of new eating for us. Health issues have forced me completely revamp my diet. I can’t eat any processed foods of any kind – no processed flour, no sugar. It’s all whole foods for me along with some new finds such as sprouted beans and grains. It’s been a trial and sometimes I really miss chocolate, and it’s difficult when we go out to miss out on the bread or chips. I remind myself why I have to do this and know it could be worse because overall, things are well and I’m enjoying cherry tomatoes and peppers from our garden every morning with my scrambled eggs.

The weather the last couple of weeks has been completely irritating. If it’s not torrential downpour and flooding, it’s hotter than should be legal with humidity through the roof and heat indexes at 100°F. With all of the rain we’ve had our garden is growing like gangbusters. We have pea plants that are at least four feet tall, blossoms on the cucumbers, the corn is about three feet tall and tomato plants that were two feet tall last weekend are suddenly nearly three feet tall. We couldn’t ask for better growing weather, but with all of the great growing weather comes weeds. It’s been so hot and we’ve had so much rain, we haven’t had time to get out and weed the garden.

Last weekend as I was trying to get a little weeding done, I noticed that we had some very ripe radishes, a couple of onions and several pea pods.

The flower gardens have also been doing well. Some of my favorites that have been blooming over the last couple weeks are the:
Coreopsis,

Lily,

Phlox,

and in our front yard garden, the Portulaca.

It was a lot of hard work but I know we’ll be rewarded greatly later in the summer. We were also able to harvest some lettuce that self-seeded last fall and came up this spring.

The plants in the “old” vegetable garden that was our only garden last year are coming along quite nicely and I’m hoping for some great crops from it. Earlier this spring, we planted corn, cucumbers, carrots, onions, beets, radishes and peas.

Also this weekend, Bryan installed his collage artwork at one of the local libraries for their Art in the Stacks program. The artwork looks so great and it was great to see the larger pieces in a space that fits them.

Last year I missed the azalea bushes blooming but they paid me back this year with several weeks of amazing color.

The allium was beautiful this year. The first year to have it in my garden.

And the iris have been a wonderful surprise. We planted them last fall and I wasn’t sure if they would survive the winter since we planted them in mid-November.

I had no idea what color they were since I’d received them free from someone and the color markings had long worn off. We still have quite a few that haven’t bloomed so I know we’re in for more beautiful surprises. A yellow one with a white inside opened up a couple of days ago.

In the back flower garden, last weekend I put in white daisies, cosmos, canna lilies and dahlias. The daisies are beautiful and were the perfect Mother’s Day gift for my mother and Granny.

Last week I took an applique class and was amazed how much easier it was than I thought. I probably won’t make all of the wall hangings my grandmother made but it’s a great skill to have. My little bee wall hanging will definitely be finished and put near my sewing table.

March 27 was such a wonderful day. I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the DNA Children’s Literature Festival hosted by our wonderful local children’s bookstore, the Reading Reptile. Seeing and meeting authors is always an amazing experience.

What struck me at the end of the day was how inspiring, different and similar each author and illustrator is. They each have their own style and their own way of putting books together, all with amazingly wonderful results. I was so touched by Patricia Polacco’s family and personal stories that have become her books The Keeping Quilt and Thank You, Mr. Falker.

After meeting Adam Rex, who illustrated one of my recent faves Billy Twitters and His Blue Whale Problem, I’m definitely going to have to sink my teeth into the ARC of Fat Vampire that I have in our book basket. I just loved his odd and strange sense of humor.

March 29 – Sorry, I just realized I forgot to mention the other authors – Kate Klise, who I realized after I got home that I own her book Shall I Knit You a Hat?; Brian Selznick, author of The Invention of Hugo Cabret; Judy Sierra, author of Wild About Books and The Sleepy Little Alphabet; and Uri Shulevitz, author of How I Learned Geography. Being fairly new to the children’s lit world, I came home with some new favorite authors and more to check out!

The first week, I knitted almost exclusively on Bryan’s mittens. They still need a thumb and to be stitched together across the top.

The second week, I worked on the saddle shoulder cardigan doubling the length of the first sleeve. One day when it’s sunny I will get a good photo of the sleeve and body of the cardigan.

Several evenings when I didn’t feel like knitting, I worked on a quilt that I started several weeks ago. I’m two strips away from finishing the top. Later this spring, I’m taking a machine quilting class and am excited to learn free-motion quilting. I know how it works but am not sure enough to use it on a quilt.

The last day of the Games, it felt a bit odd to plant seeds for our garden. As the seedlings have come up and the weather has turned a bit warmer. I am looking forward to spring more than ever.

I love the Winter Olympics but am so relieved when spring is around the corner. It’s been a rough winter for us, though I know some had it much worse.

If I get the mittens finished, I hope to get some more of Bryan’s Saddle Shoulder Cardigan knit.

I’m keeping a book log over on my reading blog, Reading Up a Storm.

Last night I had the privilege of participating in a Mock Caldecott Award at the Johnson County Library. Librarians from the metro area and the public were invited to participate.

At the Mock Caldecott, the winner was:
Alphabeasties by Sharon Werner
with honors going to:
The Lion & the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney
Coretta Scott by Ntozake Shange, illustrated by Kadir Nelson
Billy Twitters and His Blue Whale Problem by Mac Barnett
Duck! Rabbit! by Amy Rosenthal

(book images from Goodreads)

In no particular order are my favorite books from 2009:
Hate List by Jennifer Brown
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan
Th1rteen R3asons Why by Jay Asher
Poppy by Avi
If I Stay by Gayle Forman
Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen
The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams
Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
Helen’s Eyes: A Photobiography of Annie Sullivan, Helen Keller’s Teacher by Marfe Ferguson Delano

We started the year knowing that within days of the year starting we’d be apart for several months. Bryan moved into the house that’s been in my family since it was built in 1931 and a few days later started his new job as an assistant manager at one of the Kansas City area libraries. A weeks later I started my final semester of graduate school. It was an exciting time but also nerve-wracking wondering if I would find a job.

Through February, March and April, I visited Bryan a lot. Each month we knew that our time apart was getting closer to the end. April was an exciting month, I participated in the annual Storytelling Festival at the Graduate School and a few days later interviewed for a job. I was offered the job as a Youth & Teen Librarian and couldn’t pass up the opportunity. It was a relief to have a job before graduation.

May found us saying goodbye to many dear friends that we’d made in the Champaign-Urbana area. I graduated with my Master of Science in Library and Information Science. I was a real honest to goodness officially certified librarian! The day after graduation, we packed up our apartment and headed to Kansas City. The movers moved the rest of our stuff in on Tuesday and I started my new job on Wednesday.

This summer we spent a lot of time in the garden and enjoying the fruits of our labor. So many amazing tomatoes, peppers and fresh herbs. We’re still enjoying butternut squash that we picked in November. There are definitely plans to expand the garden next year.