How does your garden grow?

Yes, I'm still here.  No, I don't have any one/good explanation as to why I've not posted in so many months.  Yikes.  I have been waiting to share a few things till they're fully completed and wrapped with a shiny bow, and sometimes, things take longer than originally anticipated...and in the meantime, since we're busy working on these projects, I run out of time to tell you about anything else.

One of the things I've been wanting/meaning to share about is our flower beds and garden.  I tried to take pictures throughout the growing season of allll the things we planted.  Some of these continued to flourish well into fall, and then Thanksgiving and the holiday season hit...and for once, I didn't have the post started and ready to add finishing touches to once we had a hard freeze and things stopped growing...so...you get to read this in the dead of winter.  Maybe it was for the best, and this can serve as a reminder of the warmth and color that is to come.  Haha.

You might remember another post about these projects from a couple years ago.  Since everything was well-established this year, I thought I'd fill you in on how everything filled in!  ;)

Anyway, this will be mostly pictures along with some brief explanations.

We inherited iris from a few different people.

(This variety was one of my grandma's favorites.)

They didn't bloom last year, so it was fun to be surprised by what came out this year!

"Don't you think daisies are the friendliest flower?"

This sweet rose bush came with the house.

A neighbor gave us some "surprise" bulbs, so we were surprised by these daylilies!

Sweetspire

Our first bee balm blooms.

This stuff blew our minds...it covered probably twice as much ground by the end of the season.
PLEASE let us know if you want any starts - we have two patches this size!

These lilies were not a surprise.  ☺

We thought we'd lost the mums after they were confused by a couple unseasonably warm days in the dead of winter, but two of the three pulled through!

Our neighbors shared some hostas shortly after we moved in, and they've done so well!
I even used some of the leaves and blooms as decoration for a church women's event at the end of the summer.

Of course, I didn't get a picture of the full bed...mostly because things were in full bloom at different times (which was intentional), but you get this idea!  Now, for the garden:

Just a bunch of baby plants out there!

Our first harvest!
(We got maybe five more snap peas after this...)

My little helper, who had previously turned down cucumbers, appointed himself as "Quality Control" for the entirety of the season.  No argument here...this is one of the reason we planted a garden.  ☺

We probably should've counted the amazing number of cucumbers our five plants produced over the course of the very wet, not-too-hot spring/summer.  No, I never put up any pickles - we just gave a bunch away...and ate a lot.

Tomatoes were a welcome addition to our produce collection once they finally started turning!

We had no problems with deer this year, PTL!

Our one watermelon vine!

Pulled these off right before the first freeze.
There were MANY more on the vine, at one point - we'd taken several off early on and left a few on to chance the freeze.

Not too bad!

I think I've already told you about this little surprise petunia, but as a refresher:
I thought it was a weed, at one point.  It was a tiny little leaf of a plant growing among (obvious) weeds in my annual pot, and I almost pulled it in preparation for more annuals this year.  But...I decided to leave it, and I'm so glad I did!

It just kept on growing...

...and surviving...

...and blooming...

...all the way through the end of October!  I've never seen anything like it.  It was the best surprise!

There you have it.  Like I've said before, one of the purposes of this blog is to document pieces of my life for posterity's sake.  So, while I don't expect you to have been waiting on pins and needles to see how all our new plants fared, I do appreciate the interest (some of) you have in the less-exciting details of our life. ☺♥

Gardenly(?),
Kensy

Favorites of the day:

Baja Shrimp Tacos from Twisted Fresh

Favorite Things parties! 
And my favorite thing for the parties this year?  Handmade greeting cards! 
I made 8 sets of 10 over the course of several months to take to two different parties.

everything about this...but really, my husband
I snapped this picture a couple months ago.  It's what I came home to after a morning of playing on worship team at church...and after a night of being up with a sick kiddo (his/our first run-in with "throw up").  Not only did Bryant stay home to care for Jacob that morning while I was gone, but he also did the laundry, baked bread, and did all the dishes. ♥
This is just one shining example of how well he cares for us.

Our Village

When I was in the 5th(?) grade, I was asked to accompany the school choir on a song called, "If It Takes a Village."  (This is the closest I could come to finding a recording...that's not a home video somewhere at my parents' house, that is.☺)  As a result, every time I hear the phrase "It takes a village," whether it pertains to child-rearing, ministry, whatever, I sing it in my head.

The last several weeks have been...hard.  I'm not sure that adjective encapsulates everything that we've been dealing with, but it is as good a descriptor as any.  It's seemed that as soon as we put out one fire, another one starts (not literally, thankfully, though the way things have been going, it would not have surprised me to see some actual, unexpected flames).

I'm an optimist, as you've probably gathered, and my husband is a constant helper and fixer, so we were able to keep our chins up and take on each new trial as it came.  The trials just kept coming, though, and it became harder and harder to maintain a clear mind and a positive outlook.  With the help of the Lord and our village, however, we've come out mostly unscathed and are (fingers crossed) regaining some sense of normalcy around here.

The people in our "village" did not ask for acknowledgment, and in fact, I know one in particular would cringe at the thought of being publicly recognized for kind deeds done.  As I look back on the hard things these last several weeks have brought, though, I can't not remember and acknowledge the things people have done to make our life easier in the midst of it all.  They've seen needs and met them without being asked.  They've voluntarily cared for us in ways we can never begin to repay.  They've come alongside us physically, emotionally, financially, and spiritually in such tangible and practical ways, and I'm simply in awe of the generosity, kindness, and love we've been shown.

Our "village" has truly been the hands and feet of Christ to us, recently.  They always have been, of course, but I think I have possibly taken it for granted, or maybe just not always recognized it so clearly when life wasn't so "hard."  I'd like to take this opportunity, however, to acknowledge some of the specific ways we have been blessed by others in the recent past.  Our "village" is made up of both family and friends, and some of them were part of multiple deeds listed here.  Please know this is not a comprehensive list, by any means.

Lately, people in our "village" have been known to:

• invite us over for leftover cupcakes, because they knew how sad we were to miss the party.
• clean our house while they're there to let the dog out.
• make serious headway on our basement remodeling project while we were away for the weekend.
• sit with me while I make and accept the hardest decision.
• babysit our kiddo for free while I was away making that decision.
• watch our kiddo during piano lessons because plans changed last-minute.
• ask us to come swim because they enjoy watching our baby play in the water as much as we do.
• offer to come for a visit the week before we throw a birthday party, so they can help.
• put away leftovers after a party without being asked.
• bring me a sweet commemorative gift in honor of our kitty.
• invite us to stay at their house till our AC is fixed immediately upon telling them it broke (several people did this, and we actually took one of them up on it).
• cook meals for us while we're staying at their house.
• give input and genuinely care about our son's mysterious rash (it turned out to be nothing serious).
• give us Freon for our AC.
• bring their special tools to help fix our AC.

We're safe, healthy, cool (praise the Lord), and grateful.  If you did something on this list for us, thank you.  You know who you are, and if I haven't said it enough already, you've blessed us beyond measure.  If you feel I'm leaving something/someone out, please, please let me know.  It would be impossible to list everything anyone has ever done for us, but like I said, the large and small things people have done for us, lately, just added up so quickly, I couldn't help but share.

Gratefully,
Kensy

P.S. Immediately prior to posting this, my computer died (because it wasn't plugged in, though I thought it was) - wouldn't that have been the cherry on top of all this?  Ha.

Favorites of the day:

the splash park

garden-fresh cherry tomatoes

the fact that our baby boy loves to read to himself

He Loves *2* Clean!

We officially have a two-year-old, as of a couple weeks ago, and we recently had a belated birthday party for him!  Due to his love of vacuums, sweeping, dusting, etc., we (I) decided his party theme should be “cleaning.”  Strange, non-traditional, uncommon?  Yes.  Fun, silly, apropos?  Also, yes.  ☺  I figured this would likely be the last year I chose his theme, so just thought we'd have some fun with it.

I tried to carefully document the party in order to share it here, for several reasons.  I am not sharing this to elicit any comparison, shame, guilt, judgement, whatever...  I truly enjoy doing this kind of thing, so while I may lose some sleep in order to put it all together, the creative outlet it allows is life-giving, to me.  I totally understand others would rather buy a cake and call it good - totally fine.  You do you.  The reason I'm sharing is because I spent a lot of time compiling and coming up with the party elements, and if documenting and sharing them means some other mother-of-a-toddler-who-loves-to-clean has to spend less time doing so, it's worth it to me.  I've also had several questions about the party, upon me (or guests) telling others about it, so thought I'd try to answer all the questions in one place.  

So, here's some "show and tell" for you!  Hope you enjoy.

The shirt:

This is one idea I can take credit for (with the help of my Cricut, of course).  I'm really glad he was turning two, because I don't know what I would've done with a "3," "4, " "10," or any other number.

He also received a really cute birthday shirt from his Nanny that he got to wear on his actual birthday.  The "2" fabric had cleaning supplies on it!  So fun.  

Shirt courtesy of Nanny (Greatstitch)!

The decorations:

I kept these pretty simple, because we were mostly outside for this celebration.  Once again, however, my (generously-gifted-to-me) Cricut came in handy to make some garland (so did an ultra-helpful friend who spent time putting it together for me)!  The party hats were leftover from last year, the HBD banner may be as old as I am, the flowers were from a sweet friend a couple weeks ago, and the star lights were a post-4th-of-July clearance find last year, and this seemed like as good a time as any to break them out.

The activities:

One of the first ideas I had for this party was sponge relay races.  This one came to me when Menards had a pack of sponges free on rebate.  I'd nannied for some kiddos who attended a Montessori preschool and remembered "water transfer" being one of their activities.  So, I thought we could do this on a bigger scale and make it a game.  With several toddlers involved, it became a free-for-all, of course, but they really got the hang of it and enjoyed it!  I wasn't able to get many good pictures of this activity, but they just "transferred water" between the kiddie pool and a couple dish pans - all of which we already had on hand!  (We've since played with the sponges in the pool and the bathtub - this one was definitely a "win!")

We also did spray bottle art!  I recall seeing spray bottles as part of the decor and/or favors for one of the Pinterest parties I perused.  This made me wonder if using them to create artwork was possible, and after some more research, I found a few ways to do so.  Because I already had it on hand, I chose to use a hefty dose of coordinating food coloring in each of the colored Dollar Tree spray bottles.  Guests created designs with tape, sprayed them with their color(s) of choice, then left them to dry in the sun.  The (Amazon) canvases weren't exactly what I'd expected, and the project as a whole didn't go quite as I thought it might (the end results even turned out differently than my example piece - haha), but it was still fun and enjoyable, and they turned out kinda cool!

The favors:

These bunny birthday grahams were the perfect treat to serve as "dust bunnies" in the favor bags!  Also, you know I couldn't resist the mini bunny fruit snacks!  I think I'd seen a "dust bunnies" label on food in one of the few cleaning/vacuum party listings I found on Pinterest, but it was on something non-bunny-related...maybe cotton candy, or something that looks more like real dust bunnies...?  Anyway, I amended the idea a bit.  Everyone also got to take home their spray bottle art canvases.  I'd intended to send each of the kiddos home with a spray bottle, too, but of course, didn't remember this until after they'd left.

The food:

Again, some of these labels came from Pinterest ideas, and some came from my own head.  Mac & Cheese is one of the birthday boy's favorite dishes, so that was the first thing on the menu.  I tried a new recipe, and luckily, it was a hit!  So thankful for those who helped prep, make, and clean up in this department!

The cake:

This one was also an original idea, but here's why: I was avoiding making a vacuum-shaped cake at all costs.  I just didn't want to figure out how to construct it, store it (in summertime), cut/serve it, etc.  I know I could have - I just didn't really want to.  So, instead, I found a dollhouse miniature Dyson on Etsy (totally worth the few dollars for me to not have to build a vacuum).  I didn't know what I was going to do with it till I was literally frosting the cake, when the idea to have it vacuuming crumbs in the shape of a "2" just came to me!  The sponge-in-bucket-of-sudsy-water cupcake idea originated when I was looking at the free Menards sponges and realized they looked like Rice Krispie treats.  I can't really tell you how I got from that piece of an idea to the end result, though - haha.  It just kind-of all came together, and I was really pleased with it!  Of course, the birthday boy could've cared less how the cake looked - he would've been thrilled to get to eat cake in any form or fashion - but it was really fun to make this theme cake, even though never did I ever expect to be placing bubble sprinkles with tweezers the night before my child's second birthday party... ☺

This party was simply some good clean fun! ;) 

Celebratorily,

Kensy

Favorites of the day:

super generous friends

post-pool showers

these guys
(and this ~$3 tanktop - JCP!)