Organified

I'm sure I've said this before, but I'd love to start growing my own vegetables. My grandparents used to have a vegetable garden overflowing with squash, zucchini, tomatoes, new potatoes, lettuce etc. and there was nothing better than picking vegetables with my grandmamma during the day and having them for dinner that night. Even as a little girl, it just felt right and it tasted so good. Their refrigerator and freezer was always stocked full of fresh veggies, and they were able to give away so much food! We also had a plum tree growing in our backyard when I was little… it was huge and it produced so much fruit every summer! I can still remember the way it smelled in the backyard, sweet from the plums that fell and squished into the ground… mixed with the scent of honeysuckle. We'd be outside late, jumping on the trampoline, and it was still light out. When you got hungry you could just walk over to the plum tree and have a fresh plum. Our neighbors would come over and pick some to take home with them, too. Those memories bring a smile to my face!

I would just love to be that person that’s always giving away their tomatoes & squash… “we have too much, here, take some okra!” Plus, if you’re growing it, you know where it comes from and what’s in it. It would be great to be self sufficient in that area and be able to freeze vegetables for the winter as well. I’m pretty sure that’s what people did before Kroger and Sam’s came along… and I wish I could get back to that.

These pics are of the sunflowers (and a friendly grasshopper) I grew in my front yard this summer. I was so proud of them!

Firsts

It's June 1st! The Summer months are finally here, and I love it. Even though I am an "adult" without a summer break I still love the long daylight hours, sitting outside at on hot nights, baseball, getting together for cookouts, and of course, vacations. Speaking of, it's 26 days until ours, not that I'm counting down every second until it gets here or anything...

On Saturday night I experienced a first - boating on the Mississippi River. I've done the whole Riverboat ride thing before (and been to the casinos on the river of course) but had never been really boating on the river. It was much more fun than I expected! We ate pizza, watched a gorgeous sunset, and laughed as our men tried to fish by the light of Memphis. Stephen did manage to catch the boat windshield on his line but that was about it! I don't know what they planned on doing if they caught a 40 pound catfish, but luckily that didn't happen.

This is also our first summer in our new house. I now have my first yard to care for and my first front porch (actually 2 front porches, how much more southern can you get?!). I've enjoyed tending to the few flowers that have bloomed out front. Never having had a green thumb, this is a really big deal for me. At some point I want to be super adventurous and try to grow a vegetable garden, but I think I'll pace myself and save that first for next year...

(summer sunset views from our upstairs balcony)