Summer Growing!

I'm truly sorry for the abandoned feeling my few and faithful blog followers must be feeling.  The end of school, and beginning of summer really took over the Beeler house and made it impossible to get blogging done.  With so many important things to do like play in the sand, jump on the trampoline, and eat picnics outside we've scarcely even had time to be inside!  We do find our way in to rinse off and drop in bed every night and *usually* eat breakfast inside!  Our vitamin D levels are high, as are our spirits, and we're all sporting nice tans already.

The last post I wrote was about Natalee planting pretend flowers at school.  True to my word I took her and we purchased pepper plants and flowers and planted them directly into pots.  As I imagined, Xavier was interested but Natalee was enthralled.  She cheerily filled the pots, dug in the dirt (not sure that was totally necessary to the process), and helped dump and replant the things we had chosen.  She was in heaven picking her little plants, too, even on a rainy Sunday, and excitedly skipped up and down the aisles choosing her flowers and peppers.

Natalee has been diligent in watering her pots and has some beautiful peppers growing.  Her pots of petunias (not pictured below) are also waving out quite nicely and the red and white colors she chose look beautiful at the end of our sidewalk.  In the picture below: on the top step is my little aloe plant, Suzy, that I'm trying to convince not to die, and then a marigold pot that was a gift to us.  Natalee's green peppers (2 plants in each pot) are in the green pots and her yellow peppers are in the yellow pots.  She has 2 pots of impatiens at the bottom of the steps.  Also, Grammy Sara has a couple of pots out front that we babysat for her while she was in Florida this week.  At the bottom of the step there's a five gallon bucket that was a gift to us from a local boy scout (thanks, Hayden!) with a tomato plant, pepper plant, and 2 onions.  Yay! 

  

And then there's Laverne and Shirley.  Laverne and Shirley came to me from the big town of Bloomfield.  They are..... {drum roll please}..... beautiful #1 oxygen making Boston ferns!  I've been looking for Boston ferns since I went to the SPD/Autism/ADHD conference back in January and made goals for myself.  While I hadn't given up wanting them, I'd given up finding them locally and was prepared to search bigger cities when we were out and about.  Imagine my surprise when my friend, Lori, called me and said she was at her local grocery store and they had beautiful Boston ferns!...for $10.  Whoa, dude!  I was ecstatic.  Even more so when Lori agreed to go back to the grocery store the next day and get me another so that I would have a pair (she's a good friend).

Introducing...

Laverne

and Shirley.

Mike was kind enough to help me name them and he put ceiling hangers for them out on the porch so they can soak up some sun, and inside the house (one in the dining room, one in the play room) so that they can come in and make beautiful, delicious oxygen for us.  I'm in love with these two pots of leaves and delight in watching them alternate between hanging out on the porch and cheering up our home inside.  They experienced their first rain storm on the porch last night and faired fine.  When I went out to get them I ended up deciding to leave them because they were holding their own against the wind.  Right now they are mostly outdoors but you can bet that this winter they'll be hanging out inside in the learning zone (dining room) and learning through play zone (play room) to keep our minds sharp!

Our next adventure is going to be to make a small green bean plot and may try to secure some mineral tubs for more tomatoes and peppers.  Gardening seems to be therapeutic to Natalee as she's always very calm and able to communicate when we're planting, weeding, and watering, so even though I'm clueless we're going to press forward and learn together!  Here's to a blessed summer of new experiences!