Mary Mary Quite Contrary

Anyone remember our pathetic attempt at a garden last summer? Radishes the size of fingernails ring a bell? If not, no worries - we've tried to block it from memory too. We were first timers who jumped into this whole pseudo "farm" idea head first and really had ZERO clue what we were doing.  

Well friends, the tables have turned in 2015.  We put some raised beds that came with our property to use this year - filling them with an amended compost mixture and dividing each of them up into square foot sections to maximize our growing space. I cannot even tell you how night and day the difference is from the sad little plot that we planted last year.    

I took all of these pictures about a week ago and cannot believe how much everything has grown since then!  

 Mmmmmm watermelon....NomNomNom! I'm so excited for these to start producing fruit!

 This bed has a little bit of everything - cucumbers to the left of the trellis, broccoli to the right, and an insane number of chili peppers and jalepenos because if you buy a 6 pack of plants you absolutely must plant all 6 (yes, Matt?)

We've got a long row of green beans planted on the left side of this long trellis.  They get plenty of sun but seem to be taking their sweet time when it comes to growing.  If nothing else - this garden is testing my patience!  Toward the back of the bed we have both green and purple kohlrabi and then a few tomato plants.

We're intentionally tomato-heavy in the garden this year and I have some pretty grandiose visions of a pantry full of tomato juice/sauce.  I have no clue how to can, but I've recruited one of the most knowledgeable ladies that I know to come visit for a weekend later this summer to teach me a thing or two. I promised to pay her in blackberries!

 This has been our go-to bed so far this summer as its filled with lots of early producers. Sugar snap peas are a huge hit with the Ritchie boys and are gobbled up as fast as we can pick them. We've also got radishes, carrots, green onions, and some more broccoli rounding out the space.

Ahhh--then there is this girl. Our crazy, overgrown blackberry "bush" is slowly but surely being tamed into what it is SUPPOSED to be.  Old fruiting canes have been removed, making room for lots of sunshine to hit the ones that are producing berries.  Supports have been erected to keep the tips of the plant from rooting themselves into the ground.  (I sound like I know what I'm talking about, right??  Don't let me fool you!)  I'm kind of making things up as I go and am eternally grateful to the internet for kind-of-sort-of teaching me how to tame this beast! I must be doing something right, though, as we've got TONS of flowers and berries that are starting to transition from green to purple. This is by far and away my favorite part of our little "farm."

So there you have it...our second attempt at a garden. If you had told me 5 years ago that I would find this much joy in gardening, I probably would have laughed in your face. But my oh my, just looking at this picture makes me smile. Maybe its the slow pace of it all. Maybe its the quiet. Maybe its the excitement on our boys' faces as they find things growing in the space. Whatever it is - our hearts (and tummies) are happy.

A Monster Truck 3rd Birthday

Last Sunday SUNDAY Sunday we invited family and a few friends out to the Ritchie Arena for a rough and tough monster truck birthday party. Apparently 3 is the year that kiddos start having an opinion on birthday party themes - and while monster trucks probably wouldn't have topped this mom's list, Harrison's mind was made up and I was happy to oblige.  Anything to make that boy happy!

A monster truck cake felt a little overwhelming and beyond my abilities, so this year I turned to the amazing Omaha Cake Gallery to create something special for Harrison. They did SUCH a good job and he LOVED it!

  The weather on the day of the party was perfect and the kiddos got to spend the afternoon outdoors enjoying it.  There was plenty of splashing in our water table, running thru sprinklers and soaking up the sunshine. Summer birthdays are the best!

 There might be just a tiny bit of sunscreen in his hair!

Eventually it was time to re-fuel with some cake and ice cream and to open presents. I'm sure you can tell by the pictures below, but the cake tasted even better than it looked.

 A new "pack pack" for the win!

 It was a prime day for kite flying so one of his gifts got put to use as the day came to a close.  It was a first for both of the boys - and for me too! 

"Whoa! My Dave kite looks like a jellyfish!"

Oh sweet boy - I hope that you had an amazing day. We had so much fun celebrating YOU and the 3 years of smiles that you have brought to our lives. So much love.

Birthday "Ventures"

This past week Harrison got to go on a special birthday "venture" with his NamNam, PopPop and Uncle Babe, and he hasn't stopped talking about it since! 

"Mama, I went in that boat!"

"Did you know catfish have whiskers just like a cat?"

"That silly catfish didn't have legs!"

"NamNam always takes me on ventures and gets me ice cream."

Thank you NamNam, PopPop and Abe for braving the heat to spend the afternoon with our birthday boy!  He loves spending time exploring with you.  There's no better gift, in my opinion, than the gift of time spent together.  

Capturing the Ordinary

Hello world! I come to you tonight from the comfort of my couch, courtesy of our brand new MacBook Pro! We bought our desktop computer about 6 years ago and over the course of the last year it has become more and more frustrating to use. I'm sure that the 13,000+ (EEK!) photos aren't helping the situation...but that "ancient" piece of equipment is undoubtedly starting to die a slow and painful (more for us than it) death. Its made blogging super painful at times. We've had our new laptop for less than 72 hours and I'm already in love. I'm so excited to find my groove here again -  telling stories, sharing pictures, and documenting our most special and most ordinary moments together as a family. 

Tonight's memory is one in the ordinary category - a Monday night at home with my boys. It was a night full of outdoor adventures. We visited the garden and ate sweet peas straight from the vine, created (and jumped in) mud puddles, played baseball/basketball/golf in the front yard, and ran as fast as our little legs could carry us.  

There's a lot of beauty in ordinary things...

My heart is full.

  

Monday, Monday

The Ritchie's have a pretty consistent routine for Monday nights during the summer. Daddy gets some much deserved time on the golf course. I get date night with my 2 littlest dudes. I'm not going to lie and say that our Monday nights are always smooth sailing. As a matter of fact, there is almost always a bit of chaos involved as I scramble to get food on the table, tend to each of their individual demands needs, play peace keeper, give baths (because they usually are about 4 days overdue), and tuck them both into their respective beds...but all in all I think we do pretty well. 

This weeks Monday was harder than most.  I could tell from the minute that I picked Harrison and Max up from daycare that they were thoroughly worn out and even the simplest request on my part resulted in tears on theirs.  We powered thru dinner, took a short walk so this mama could get some fresh air, then loaded into the tub for a quick scrub before bed.  By that time - I was just as tired as they were and had full intentions of breezing thru our bedtime routines and crashing on the couch.  But then, just as I settled in to rock with Max for a bit, my sweet boys decided to reward me for all of the aforementioned chaos.  We all squeezed into Max's rocker and sat in exhausted silence together. Yes, you read that right. Silence. It was pure craziness.

In that moment I forgot about the mess in the kitchen, the laundry that needed folded, the flood of water on the bathroom floor. I no longer wanted to rush to put the boys to bed...but instead begged for time to stand still. Being a mom is hard, but it is also hands down, without a doubt the most rewarding job ever.  I'm thankful for every minute with my little yahoos.  The good. The hard. Everything in between.