Swimming

After a five-year hiatus,  our family is once again part of a swim team.  It is an organized sport that everyone in the family can participate in, and more importantly, it is an incredibly efficient and fun way to learn an important life skill.  Here are a few photos from the past two months at the pool.....

When we started swim team, Luke could barely swim at all.  But thanks to coach Jesse and Connor, here he is diving in and swimming 25 meters at the second meet of the summer.

Michael improved incredibly in the first weeks also.  He often spent his free time at the pool swimming extra laps to build his strength and endurance.

We are so proud of Caroline and the way she has worked hard and persevered to improve her times dramatically each week.  She is in the red cap taking off for a 50 meter backstroke.

Maddie and her friend Olivia at a recent swim meet.  They had fun racing each other in breast stroke.

Joshua could only swim with his vest on at the beginning of the summer, but his patient coaches Connor, Jesse, Liza and Maddie got him swimming on his own very quickly.  This photo is of Joshua and Connor at a "mini-meet" for the 6 and under swimmers.

Joshua diving in for his 25 meter freestyle.

Nice side breathing, big J!

Joshua readies for his 25 meter backstroke with Coach Liza in the land with him and Coach Jesse in the foreground.

Josh is very proud of his ribbon!

Susannah wants to do everything her brothers and sisters are doing, of course, so she is working hard to master all the strokes :)  Butterfly is her favorite.

Playing with all the goggles and caps is Susannah's favorite activity (besides sleeping) when we are home.

The "Trooper" award goes to Joshua and Susannah who have spent many, many long and sweaty hours this summer watching their brothers and sisters swim at swim meets.  And they have hardly ever complained!  I could learn from them (sigh).  Great job!

How Does Our Garden Grow?

Our garden always begins in January.   While the ground is covered with ice or snow and the leafless trees look so forlorn, I am sitting by the fire looking through seed catalogs and dreaming of summer.  By early March our garden is beginning to grow.  As the seeds we carefully placed in our Jiffy-Pots in February begin to sprout and grow, our schoolroom turns into a mini-greenhouse!   We've found that the key to starting seeds inside is grow lights....

The pepper tray.  We are growing lots more peppers this year due to the fact that most everyone around here loves spicy food.  We are experimenting and trying to find the HOTTEST hot pepper to grow.  Right now we've got Cayenne, Serrano, Anaheim chili peppers, Caribbean Red, Habanero, Chinese 5-Color (the children's favorite because they change color!).  Plus we are growing many sweet peppers as well.

Tomatoes are always a favorite!  Last year our crop was disappointing so we are hoping for better this year.

The garden in March.....

By mid-March, the garden outside was starting to come to life.  Seeds we planted in the fall were sprouting, and plants that lay dormant through the winter came to life.  We ate many luscious salads this spring with the abundant greens from our garden.  

The spinach was Susannah's favorite.  She would go out to the garden every day and pick and eat her spinach.  Joshua grew to love it also.  They also ate mint from our numerous 

varieties in the garden: apple mint, spearmint, the the favorite of course:  chocolate mint!

This is garlic that we planted in October: Elephant, Inchillion Red, and California Select.

The garden in April.....

We added new topsoil/compost mix to all the boxes, as well as an organic fertilizer mix described in the book Gardening When it Counts, by Steve Solomon.

Below are rows of newly planted potatoes...Rose Gold, Caribe and in another patch this size we planted Yukon Gold.

The garlic continues to grow and should be ready for harvest in June when the tops start to die back.

The garden in May.....

By the end of May, the Yugoslavian Red lettuce was heading beautifully.

Thanks to regular and copious spring rains, our sugar snap peas did beautifully this year.  Joshua and Susannah came out to the garden each morning with me to pick peas.  Most got eaten before we ever made it inside!

We planted lots more beets this year by request from just about everyone....

We usually eat them roasted with some olive oil.  This year we also learned to like the beet greens as well... sauteed and sometimes topped with a squirt of red wine vinegar.

Potato patch at the end of May.  We hilled them weekly with topsoil/compost mix or horse manure and finally with straw.  They'll be ready for harvest at the end of June/early July.

The beginning of our watermelon patch.....

Susannah enjoying some apple mint......

Tomato plants (in the back of the box) and peppers (in the front) are looking great for late May.

Everyone is looking forward to canning lots of pickles this year......

Our lettuce did fabulous this spring, probably due to the frequent rainfall and cooler temperatures.  This has been a wonderful spring for gardening!

The carrots did extremely well also.

To be continued..........

Happy Birthday Susannah!

Susannah, June 2011, 23 months

Who knew such spunk could be wrapped up in such a tiny little person?

Two years ago, July 6, 2009, our sweet little Susannah was born to us and she has been pure joy to all.  Affectionate, smart, silly and saucy are just a few adjectives to describe our petite darlin'.

Though I'm still not quite sure she knew what was going on, she enjoyed her birthday immensely.  She wore the "birthday hat" given to us years ago by our special friend, Betty Hogan.

We ate homemade pizza for supper and Susannah requested a chocolate M&M cake, which she thoroughly enjoyed.

Her brothers and sisters made sure she received some fun presents.

She loves to sing....some favorites are "I'll Fly Away", "Jesus Loves Me" and "The Wise Man Built His House Upon a Rock".  Some favorites words "wait!", "stop!", "quiet!"

Susannah, March 2011, 20 months

Susannah, April 2011, 21 months

Susannah is a delightful two-year-old and we are so grateful for her!