Garden update and a birthday.

I am so happy about my garden! Every morning when I get to the kitchen I open the blinds and peak out at my gift of growing and smile. The SUN has even been around lately on and off (mostly off) and my little plants are soaking it up! I love to go out there just to look at it all. And I've added to my little patch. I've now got four tires, yes, old used tires, anyone who's been to my house knows that we have plenty of THOSE hanging around here, and well three of them will be growing potatoes. If you want to know more about that here's a link. The fourth I think will be strawberries... but I'm not sure yet. I'm still thinking that one through, though I need a more permanent herb garden I don't necessarily want them showcased in old tires. So we'll see. But my Garlic has taken off like gang busters, as you can see above. The onion starts have established themselves well and the lettuces, chard and carrot seeds have srouted up. The peas have come up too which suprises me, I thought they were gonners for sure after all my beans, save ONE, that I planted indoors never bothered to show. What am I doing wrong there?! The squashes haven't shown thier little leaves yet i wonder if they still have a chance or whether the slugs did them in... I've tried to be really careful about those ever since my first NW garden experience was 80% eaten up by slugs while they were sprouts. Do NOT want to do that again! Here's a beautiful sight... for northwesterner gardeners that is...;) Yes that is a DEAD slug. Right next to my pea shoots... WoW, did I ever save my little plants from certain death!

On another note, I had a birthday. My Husband and kids are into sneaking this year. Somehow they were able to bake a cake in the same house as I was with out my even knowing it. (!) I don't know if this is a good thing for my husband to be training our kids to do! (Appearantly it was mixed together in the office, with Gideon shuttling the ingredients back and forth behind my back. They also made cookies for FHE to mask the smell of the cake baking!)
Growing up in a household of 11,(9 kids and Mom and Dad), birthdays were GOLD! You were the star and everyone had to be nice to you, and that was a change when usually you have to fight just to make sure someone didn't steal your food off your plate at dinner. So I used to get really upset at Dan if my birthday wasn't a BIG deal (he took the hint fast and they almost always have been.) Well, I'm glad to say that I've mellowed. Now it's more important to me to have big birthdays for my kids. What I do still LOVE is that my family call or email or send a card. (And now, that 11 number is really advantageous ;)!) But it really touches my heart, cause I know how chaotic family life can be and that they took the effort to make that contact really means a lot. Heaven knows I'm bad enough at that. And most of them have more kids than me and still manage it! Here's a big thank you to all the brothers, sisters, Mother's, Father's, Mother-in-law's and general family (and friends) who take a moment to think of me on this anniversary of my entrance onto earth. I love you too.