30 Days of Gratitude: Day 8- The Pumpkin Patch

Before it gets too far into November, I have to post pictures of our trip to the pumpkin patch.  Luna wore a little pumpkin hat that my mom knit for her last year and it was so cute.

We also got to pick some golden raspberries, they are yummy!  I love that we get to actually go to a real pumpkin patch.  So many pumpkin patches are grassy fields that randomly have pumpkins strewn about.  I love that we have to chop them off the vine.  Luna was more into the vines than the pumpkins, silly girl!

So there are the photos of that day, but today I'm thankful for:

Not having to cook tonight because someone brought some yummy shrimp and chicken from Bangkok Thai.

That Excedrin Migraine works so well, I love it!

A girl who is starting to walk.  She is taking little steps.

30 Days of Gratitude: Day 7

Thankful for:

An upcoming siblings vacation over Thanksgiving to a cabin on a river near the coast of Oregon.  I will turn 28 there.  My brother and sister-in-law will drive north, we will drive south, and my older sister will fly.

Planning events to do for my December advent activities.  I'm going to work on it and then I will share them with you, if you want to try them too.

Excited to be going to Minnesota for Christmas

Waiting for the snow to fly.  Looking up ski conditioning exercises.  Looking forward to downhill and cross country ski this winter.

Planning on cooking this week.  I'm restocking my pantry.  I want to spend some time baking.

God's outpouring of love.  I'm feeling really blessed.

Thankful for a husband who skipped band practice tonight because I needed him here.

Thankful for a cutie who loves green smoothies as much as I do.  Two days in a row she had a whole glass.  Do you think it's true that babies will like what you ate when they were in your belly?  I drank these green smoothies daily.

Having a kinda crummy day, but still rejoicing!

When clearing out and organizing we found our high school yearbooks.  I had to read the cheesy things we wrote to each other.  Sam had written that we will look at them later in life and think of how weird we were in high school.  Yep, it's pretty true.  So thankful that 12 years later we're still together.

30 Days of Gratefulness: Day 6, My Garden

I am thankful that despite the fact that our tenants were doing all the gardening at our house, I was still able to have one across the street at a community garden.  It was just built this year.  I love the neighborhood we live in, it's growing and new and exciting things are happening all the time.  We got to rent this plot for only $20.00.  They had water right there and we got to know some of our neighbors.  We met another VW Van lover who lives right around the corner.

It was so fun to check on the progress every day.  It is such a miracle to watch food grow from seeds.  

Doesn't food that you grow taste so much better?  Yum!

I'm still pretty new to gardening, but it was fun to give it a go.  We planted white beans, green onions, broccoli, carrots, bell peppers, lettuce, heirloom tomatoes, cilantro, basil, butternut squash, and some cucumbers.  We bordered the garden with zinnias.
Some notes:
The butternut squash took over by the end of the season and overshadowed and killed the carrots and lettuce.  We could have picked the squash just before it got ripe to let it ripen inside.  Maybe it could grow on a trellis?  It was so exciting to see them grow.  We waited patiently to pick them only to find out the squirrels beat us to them!

We had a little weird thing happen.  Right after we planted, someone stole our basil plant and replaced it with a puny one.  Someone planted a nice big pepper plant in our plot.  Someone or something pulled up the cucumber plants.  I guess this is what happens with a community garden.  Not too bad considering there was no fence.

I had so much fun sharing my zinnias with kids strolling through the garden.  Flowers are always a good idea.  One little girl got to pick some and she planned on giving them to her mom who was in the hospital.  I want to also plant dahlias next year, even though they come up later.  A little sunflower plant would be fun also.

The green onions did great.  The broccoli got huge.  Eventually it produced, I'm not sure why it got so tall.  The tomatoes did ok.  It will be better to plant earlier next year.  The peppers did well.  The basil and cilantro grew great, much better than how it grew in the pots.  I still think it's worth it to buy a good basil plant, I have trouble growing them from seed.

Things I would like to plant next year: kale, jalapenos, fingerling potatoes, garlic, shallots

All in all, we only got a little bit of food, but it was a good learning experience and I think next year will be even better!

30 Days of Gratefulness: Day 5

Today I'm having to dig a little deeper for the gratitude.  We are feeling overwhelmed by the amount of work that needs to be done to our house.  I am thankful for the opportunity to work on it, and I am hopeful.  I stood at the top of our stairs in our attic and imagined myself sitting at a table overlooking Spokane and painting.  It will be wonderful.  And I imagined the tall steep stairs painted with a fun quote.  I'm hoping to get the attic cleared out soon.

 I am thankful for a washer and dryer.  This is so huge.  We got an awesome one  that can add steam to the washer and dryer.  This makes washing the diapers a breeze.  It's also fabulous for making sure thrift store scores are clean.  I did the smell test, and I thought it passed, but by the time I got an orange beach towel home it was a little musty smelling.  I washed in a regular washing machine and had it out in the sun for a while, but it still smelled a bit.  After running it through the sanitize cycle in our washer it smells oh so fresh.  It also has a huge capacity, so I can really wash a lot of clothes at once.  It's also awesome because it doesn't use much water at all, which makes the tree hugger in me happy.  We save $80 a month by having a washer and dryer, and I get an extra day at home each week.  Good bye laundromat.

I am thankful for friends who happen to have awesome furniture in their garages.  (Thank you Courtney)  I am having fun folding fabric and storing my milk glass collection in an awesome green hutch.

 I'm thankful for skype.  It makes it easier that my family lives so far away.  Luna will grow up thinking people live in the computer!

I am thankful for Luna's little friend Gage.  They are finally old enough to start playing together.  They were killing me with their cuteness!
I am thankful for a girl who went to bed early (8:00 pm) and the extra hour we get tonight.  It is the best night of the year in my opinion!  I need the extra hour tonight for sure!

Aren't you proud of my blogging frequency?  I'm thankful to be back in the swing again.

30 Days of Gratefulness: Day 4

Today I'm thankful for:

A few minutes to doodle and collect my favorite fall quotes in my first ever giveaway win!
Sipping Sweet Ginger Peach Black tea with local honey

Using my ultra fancy crayons, they just glide on the page like butter

 Thankful today's cloth diapers aren't anything like my momma's cloth diapers (yes we're giving it a whirl again now that I've got a washer and dryer- we just started yesterday, this will probably warrant a post in itself.)  A little girl who's busy, too busy for focused pictures!

Enjoying the little, tiny gourds and pumpkins we found at green bluff.  Loving my cozy house

Being flexible, canceling tentative plans because nap time was a little more necessary
Realization that I can wear the leg warmers I knit with my boots (I loved them, but was stumped as to how to wear them)

A funny bath mat that Sam bought for me

An evening among friends with big hearts

30 Days of Gratefulness: Color

I am so thankful that God made beautiful colors.  I realized I never shared after pictures of my dining room painting.  I was waiting until I replace the lighting, but that may take a little while, so I'll share it as it is.  It's so hard to get a picture, I need a wider angle lens for my dslr.  I love color.  I love red, bright blue, and green.  It's so fun.  I love 50 cent thrift store mugs.

I'm thankful for color.
I'm thankful for spray paint.
I'm thankful for green couches.
I'm thankful for thrift stores.
I'm thankful for the 60's and 70's.
I'm thankful for cheerful mugs.
I'm thankful for round little bellies.