Honestly I am not.

I know women, and you know who you are because you are thinking to yourself right now, "I love bargain shopping," who are so incredibly talented at it they get money back from stores but I am not skilled at it by any means. I am generally the girl who just doesn't shop for a long time and then "happens" to fall into a good deal.

This happened to me last week.

Last week, I bid on an eBay item. Not just any eBay item but our homeschool curriculum for this upcoming school year. We were still deciding on what complete curriculum we wanted but since school starts next month, I went a'bidding on eBay to see what I could see.

Now, I like complete packages of our curriculum and complete packages can cost a whole lot more. New this stuff runs $800+! Yikes! I found this one though, it was a low starting price and had no reserve. I watched it for days. Finally, the last day, someone else bit.

I am now remembering all my husband's teachings on how to win at eBay. He always says the last hour is the one to watch. I couldn't. I had to leave with 40 minutes to spare. Up until that point though, I watched, I refreshed, I watched, finally, I bid.

For days prior I had calculated exactly what the package was worth, what my absolute maximum was, with shipping included, etc. I had two figures in my head what it was worth, what I thought it was worth and what I thought God could get it for. I had the later because we still hadn't 100% decided on this curriculum and I thought, if God wants us to have this at a good deal we will.

When I put in my "highest bid" I put in the lower number and left the house for my appointment.

4 hours later, when I returned home, I found I had won. But I had won not with my lowest highest bid but with a mere $81. And to boot, 2 of the books I already have and can resell and my cost is down to $43! $43 for hundreds(x4+) of dollars of books! Amazing!

Praise God! 

Do you know what I found on Saturday morning in our garden? It finally happened! During the day Friday or late Thursday night, one of our cabbages was taken. Yep. Our cabbage literally had its neck cracked. Unfortunately that means that someone knows where our garden is. Keep in mind though, I am 100% ok with this. (Now if I wasn't then I would have to deny that God knows all things and is always good.)

Other news at the garden is that the mosquitoes are unbearable! Whatever it is that started it, I don't know - but they are in force and fierce. It was so bad Sunday we had to cut our visit super short as we didn't have any bug spray on but Ezekiel did get to water his carrots that are oh-so-tall just not very long.

Sunday though, Ezekiel sure brought in the harvest, first tomatoes and then peppers.

A kind neighbor offered to share his bumper crop of zucchini with Jeremiah too!

Very strange bugs at the garden these days too. Every day I spy new bugs I have never seen before. Don't worry, I am not freaking out about it. Though, I am really happy the garden is not at my house because of it. However, I think I will ask Jeremiah to do a photo shoot of the bugs. Right now there are at least 10 different ones I can think of that I have never seen.
Ew is still what I think though. Ew, ew, ew... but again, I am not freaking out. Happily though, Jeremiah loves bugs and this will be perfect for him.

Unbelievable is the fact that our cantaloupe plant is doing amazing! Now if you remember it used to look like this...

Due to whatever feats of the imagination it now looks like this... at least 2 feet long and growing... just in the wrong direction, but that is ok!

Really cool for a 20 cent plant! Even the boys are amazed by its progress. Don't know if it will produce anything for harvest but it is still exciting!

Another crazy thing is our Tumbling Toms look like death. (No photo yet, the mosquitoes, sorry!) Doing everything by the book, they still have gone completely brown. The brown is not stopping them from producing cherry tomatoes. Having a little talk with a gardener, she said hers are perfect, healthy and green. It could be just me. Really, anything staying green in our garden is a miracle.

The other neat thing is the 20 cent tomato plants we bought are working great and producing already. You'll remember way long ago<

Are you getting tired of these updates yet? I suppose if you are you just don't read for the day... oh how I long for a good diaper story to tell you all... sigh... maybe I will start writing secret messages in each post and see if you can find them?

Phew! Tough getting to the garden these days! Not that we don't want to go or don't need to go, just lots of stuff going on! This definitely puts one on the side of having a garden in one's own yard! Oy!

We did make it out there today though, we've haven't been since Friday. Some exciting and bummer things going on, but overall very good! We harvested cherry tomatoes galore! SOOO many! I ended up baking a pan full with fresh minced garlic, diced chives, diced basil, cracked pepper then a 1/4 c. olive oil sprinkled on top... and a few slices of thin onions and baked it for 30 minutes. It was delicious! It was perfect on top of pasta!

On the garden side of things, the only bummer is one area of one cherry tomato plant that is on the ground went yucky. Still dozens to eat, but bummer for the yucky ones. Ezekiel was my main man once again, he was an awesome harvester!

We did get 3 more big tomatoes, but I am still worried about the plants. One side looks like wilted bunk and the other, a lush of green heavenly! Both sides are producing huge green tomatoes that, I was told should be turning red in the next few weeks in abundance? Honestly, I will believe it when I see it.

Happy days, our eggplants are in! Well, coming in. They are the size of my palm and growing! We have one on each plant. Yum, yum, eggplant parmigiana here we come! Oh and stuffed eggplant? Yummy! More reasons we need those tomatoes red! :)! Plus, I found this tomato, basil and brie recipe that they say is best when your garden has too many tomatoes you don't know what to do... I am so excited for that day!

Ezekiel keeps picking carrots at random as well. The fact that he can't see them is driving him crazy. The one he picked today was little but yummy. He gave it 5 stars.

OH! And here are some shots of some of the storm damage of last week. The tree is now completely gone, they ripped it out, stump and all. Mrs. Moon's popcorn stalks we're pushed over, crushing all the veggies in between and the neighbor with the tall corn... well it looked like someone put a gentle bend on them as they got pushed over.

Ezekiel, "I am going to marry a girl prettier than a tree with pink leaves!"

Jeremiah, "Do I have to kiss my wife?"

Miriam, "Come on people! Let's clap!"

Josh, "Miriam, what's the matter, what do you want?"
Miriam, crying, "I want a Hewie-pop."
Josh, "A Hewie-pop?"
Miriam, "Yeah... and a necklace."

Ezekiel, "Ok, ok... here I have a joke for you... Why did the duck go to the library... wait, I mean... What is a duck's favorite cracker... I mean, what is a duck's favorite snack..."
Josh, "Flag on the play... I am calling a joke penalty. No more jokes for 30 minutes or until such time as you can present said joke properly. You are in the joke penalty box."
Ezekiel, "Aw man!"

Miriam, "I'm spinning in circles! I'm spinning in circles! I'm spinning in circles!"

Ezekiel, "Can I be a member of the chess club?"

Jeremiah, "What is the highest rating for food?"
Mom, "5 stars."
Jeremiah, "Then I give cucumbers 1 star."

It's weird, you think that you would respond differently, but then something like this happens and you are shown that reflexes aren't how you think they should be.

It was 1 AM and I woke up to the sound of a loud truck and it's boom box right outside my bedroom window. Josh wakes up too and we look outside to see a over a half dozen trucks from fire, police, electrical, etc in our front yard. We aren't deaf, we just live on a busy street that firetrucks love to use as a fast way to their destination, and we hear them all the time.

I rush out the front door, trying to figure out what is going on, Josh rushes out the back door. Josh finds the neighbor's house on fire. I was able to find the neighbor's.

Turns out, thank God, they were both not at home at the time. The one got home after midnight to see smoke pouring out of his bedroom windows. The house normally houses 4 college guys and thankfully, 2 were out of town for the summer.

Last thing we heard before going to bed was they didn't know what started it. Unfortunately, their whole house interior was paneled in wood, walls and ceilings. It smelled like a really intense bonfire. The whole bedroom half of the house is destroyed completely. I am assuming it was the construction of the home, it was a flat roof with no attic space, that made it really difficult to get all the hot spots out and they were out there all night putting out the fires. (The report says they were done at 2:17 but we went to bed at 2:30 and they were still working on it and at 7 this morning the house looked a whole lot different than when we went to bed.)

Here is our neighbor's house this morning. What is really a bummer is the parent owner's were just starting to really get it looking nice. (That is our house on the right of the photo.) The college guys only had 10 days left on their lease and all their earthly possesions are now destroyed, they literally only have the shirts on their backs. Please pray for all the insurance stuff to come through in their favor in some way.

I tell you what, I am inspecting all our smoke detectors and maybe even going to add a couple more today... how about you?

OH NO!!!*

You know all the great rain I talked about?  Well, not only did it rain, but it stormed.  I should have made it clearer to God**, but I was jazzed about the rain and I was not jazzed about the storms.  Storms are not good when your husband is a WISP.  Storms are also not good when your garden is a community garden out in the middle of a big empty field.

We went to the garden today to see all our veggies happy and healthy... We were first welcomed by a knocked over tree by the park... then walking past the other's gardens we saw that all the sunflowers were knocked over... then we saw all the corn flattened... then we saw the beautiful cucumber fencing collapsed... what was out little garden going to look like?

The cilantro bushes were all knocked over
The bean bushes were flattened
The cucumber plant was sickly yellow
The tomato plants were flattened
Bummer.

I went ahead and harvested a ton.  I picked a big Ziploc bag of beans, a small mound of cherry tomatoes, and 4 cucumbers and 1 of Leslie's zucchini... oh, poor Leslie's zucchini!  She officially did get a squash worm borer and she actually went into the stalks and cut out the yucky things and killed them!  What a woman!  The poor plant looks like a goner but she has done everything right to bring it back to life!  Here's praying!

Our tomato plants have just mounds of green tomatoes on them!  I am hoping to fix all their fencing tomorrow morning.  I need tools and more fencing and rope to fix them.  The wind was so strong it pushed our cages in such a way that they are really bent and smashed into the dirt.  Definitely some work ahead of us for sure.

It reminded me of how earlier in the season poor G-Bob & Elaine had hail and it completely demolished their beautiful garden, Elaine said it never recovered.  I hope that is not the came with ours and all the other gardens out at the lot.  I will try and remember the camera tomorrow to show you the after effects from the photos I took a few weeks ago.

Here is one after shot I took though, not of bad, but good.  Our harvest today.  The big zucchini is one Leslie let me pick from her plant.  (Thanks Leslie!!)  The cucumbers are still a minimum 14" and our green beans are over 7."  Ezekiel also picked a carrot, just to see how they were doing.  Not done yet, but looking good for sure!  They are now so tall since the rains, the storm did no damage to them for sure!  OH!  And I did get 2 onions out!  Ezekiel picked them, he was so excited he couldn't wait any more on them either.

*If you have ever watched IT Crowd, please insert Moss's voice there. 

**This too, is where I am glad I believe God when He says He will work all things for good.  Praise God that He can even work these storms for the business and for our garden for good!

When you are finally having a good hair day with your new bangs & hair cut AND you are dressed in a cute top, belt and jeans... do not, and I repeat DO NOT decide then to go outside in the nasty, humid, hot, sticky outside and proceed to weed wack the forest that is your retaining walls AND clean out the leaves from the window wells AND weed whack all around the whole house AND bag up all the clipping, leaves, weeds, etc.

Have you forgotten your genetic makeup? Do you not remember that you sweat like a pig?

Have you forgotten how sweat does not just form on one's forehead and arms, but also all over one's body when you are really, really, working hard in the really, really humid weather and by the time the 3 hours is done you will be covered in a nasty layer of sweaty wetness making your outfit have no choice but to head for the laundry?

I know what you were thinking... the boys are playing so nice in the backyard, Miriam is sleeping, is it finally not raining, the grass and weeds around the house are over 2 feet tall... but really, really woman... go inside and at least change first!

Yes, I am proud of you for wearing protective eye gear that did keep that staple from getting lodged in your eye and instead just lodged in your once-cute-hair. Yes, I am proud of you that even though they were your only pair of nice jeans, that you were wearing jeans to protect your legs from all the other sharp objects of massive thistle weeds and trash leftover from roofing that came flailing about as you weed whacked areas that have not been weed whacked in over a year.

Was it really worth it?

I know you, you are saying "yes" with a big smile aren't you? You loved every hot and sweaty moment of it! You are so happy the forest is gone, you don't care about the hair. You are so glad to have cleaned out the window wells because in the process you found 2 dead moles that have been reeking havoc on your yard you don't mind the stains on your only nice pair of jeans. You are so happy the 3" diameter tree is gone from the window well you don't mind that by that after taking a shower you did not look as cute as earlier.

But I know the best unintended result you enjoyed?

The fact that you drank SO much yummy homemade iced coffee during the day that WOMAN you needed a good 3 hour work out to burn off the hundreds of calories! What were you thinking there? Let this be a little mini-note-to-self to you... don't make a batch of iced coffee and proceed to drink nearly the entire thing UNLESS you have looked at the calorie content first. Thankfully, you had a yard to clean today... you may not be so lucky next time and have to... gasp... run or something!

Now that I am owner of a garden, the sound of rain in the summer is music to my ears!  Our garden has needed a good rain for the last few weeks.  Hooray for the rain today!  Keep it comin'!

I heard from Maren that cilantro needs to be tended in some fashion.  Bummer!  They are bushes!  I have researched that I should have done something to them long ago and they are now just making seeds.  Bummer again!  I had bought seedlings super cheap and just thought they'd grow.  i now know that I should have planted seeds and that I should have sown them every 2 weeks.  I also now know they bolt in warm weather.  I also now know that I could harvest coriander but I have no idea what I would use it for yet.  They do make the garden smell pretty though and I heard their smell is a nice insect repellent!

We have SO many cherry tomatoes!  Our tumbling toms are producing so many!  I harvested a bunch last night and there were just as many, if not more, waiting to still be picked!  Not to mention another 6 dozen green and growing!  I hear that cherry tomatoes can be good on pizzas and I am hoping to try that soon!

I am a little bummed that I did not get 2 Roma plants like I thought.  One that I picked up in the Roma section is definitely not a Roma plant.  I don't know what type of tomato plant it is, but something like a Champion I think.  Either way, I got 3 red Romas the other day, how exciting!  One of our tomato plants has yellow leaves on the west side.  I need to research why that is now too.  I have heard it is either lack of nitrogen or a type of fungus mold.  I think I will ask the gardener this week what to do.  Our eggplants have it too on the west side.  I don't know if it a coincidence or not?

Toad family in the cantaloupe.  So, Hunter Thomas was frognapped or eaten by a bird from the home Jeremiah made him.  However, I was watering the cantaloupe plant, which is growing quite nice, and lo-and-behold there was a big Mama toad sitting there.  I think they must like the bedding around the cantaloupe and have made it their home.  That is fine by me, eat all the bugs you want toady and get nice and big!

We are harvesting beans galore!  I can literally stop by the garden for our daily veggies!  How much fun!  The boys really like the beans too.  Josh stir fryed them for us last night, and they were OH so good!  Our edamame are still having bug issues.  I have now resorted to killing the bugs by hand, er... foot, as the case may be.  

Cucumber swords are growing!  They are so long the boys think they are swords!  Ouc cucumber plant is trying to take over!  I have it caged, but it is not big enough!  It is now stretching over to the nearby tomato plant cages and grabbing hold and is on his way to the eggplant cages.  What do I do?

Bountiful harvest!  Last night I went to pick up some beans for dinner and ended up with more than I could handle!  A cucumber and pepper just fell into my hands and the cherry tomatoes were so plentiful I just couldn't resist.  I ended up using a big cabbage leaf to transport them to home. 

Leslie is growing squash and they are so pretty!  Her zucchini plant too is producing like crazy!  My zu

That's right folks!  You can find all the stunning, awe-inspiring images in the July 2007 album of our photos, but here is a run down of the weekend.  I will try to do it mostly with images, just to keep the boredom to a minimum, :)!

We took the MN challenge this weekend, and failed, again, both ways.  But Miriam played oh-so-nice with her little ponies and created some fanciful story that if we were closer I am sure we would know just what she was talking about.

We went up there to participate in a Go-Kart Race Fundraiser that Josh's dad was sponsoring on behalf of a dear friend of his that passed away earlier this year.  What a great fundraiser!  53 teams of 5 people each got to race for a minimum of 1.5 hours, or more if you won!  It was very competitive and lots of fun for the drivers.

Our team was Josh, Karl, step-sister Rachel, step-brother John and Rachel's boyfriend Brian.  Our team name was FODS, Friends of Dave's, the gentleman who the race was in honor of.  (I got to make all us non-drivers t-shirts, what fun!)  The drivers did great, and I think I figure they got 15 out of 53.  Josh's dad was in a special celebrity race and got first place all his own!  Here are the kids congratulating him!

Everyone came out for the day, even GG Bob & Elaine.  Did you know they just celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary?  Amazing!  Do you know that they went out mini-golfing to celebrate?  Oh to be young like them!

Miriam, Jeremiah and I also got tattoos.  Miriam wanted to get the same kind as me.  She just wasn't excited to get her photo at the time, but she was really proud of her tattoo.  Yes, her face is covered in lots of dirt and her shirt is covered in cheetos.  What are you going to do?!

Oh, and what the hey... here are a few more of my favorites!

Miriam and Ezekiel, head-to-head.

The Cuties up a tree.

Jeremiah and his bullhead.

Josh and Karl with their game faces on.

Me and my old lady bangs with the cuties Miriam, Jem & Mare-Mare.  Oh, who am I kidding, I am old, it is not my hair!  AHHH!!!

The Fab 5 and our team spirit.   

A short trip to the garden today was well worth it! Here is a photo walk through... sorry if this makes this page load slowly.

We have flowers on the eggplants! Yeah!! They are on 3 of 4 of the plants. We fenced them in a few weeks ago because we heard a fence helps hold up the eggplants. They have been growing tall as plants for a while but this is the first sign of new life on them for sure!

Ew! This little stinker and his brother are having their way on the edamame. I need to get some new bug stuff for these little bug-ers for sure. Ew!

Yeah! We are finally seeing beans that look like beans! My bible of gardening book said a few beans today means a whole lotta beans tomorrow. Now, if you remember we planted two rows of beans, two different types. This type is getting ready to go for harvest while the other type is sitting pretty still waiting for godot? Either way, it is definitely nice so that way we don't have too many beans at once.

I have been nervous about our onion patch for a while. A couple weeks ago I was reading in our garden bible book and it said that if the leaves turn brown then the onion is ready. I then saw a brown onion and pulled it... no not ready but yucky! Some bug had gotten to it and it was rotten. Then, I saw another one in the red onion line that was brown, I pulled it... no not ready but a Siamese twin. I have been giving these guys a lot of extra attention lately hoping they will hang in there. I love onions and I will be really bummed it they don't work. I did notice some yellow ones that are looking healthy and big so we'll see what is happening on the bottoms in a little bit.

I should have put my hand in this photo. This cantaloupe plants leaves are no bigger than a dime. This is one of the 20 cent plants we bought on clearance a few weeks ago and are trying to bring back to life. It is actually working. I do not know if it will make it to harvest, but It is going to be fun trying to revive him!

About the size of my pinkie. The odd thing is, the plants leaves are only the size of a cantaloupe. I have no idea what this tiny zucchini is thinking, but we are going to see what will happen in the next week. In any event, our 3 zucchini plants look ill, we are thinking they have squash borers. I can't find the entry hole, but we are still looking. We never put a collar or aluminum foil around these guys so any bug is possible.

Miriam just loves getting wet at the garden these days. She just finds the biggest body of water and climbs on in.

One thing we have grown is cucumbers!

Mrs. Obvious Time!

On Saturday I got up with the sun to go and tend the garden for a while by myself. It was fun because of not only tending the garden but I got to commune with the Son at the same time.

A lot of different obvious things struck me, so you will have to indulge me while I point out these obvious-ities.

Mrs. Obvious #1 : Weeds and sin, again. And again, I assume most Christian gardeners would correlate these things, (and I keep thinking about a lot of the same things, but I think also I am getting old, and with age I need a lot of reitteration). I spent a lot of time weeding. Some were obvious and others small and others large and others try to disguise themselves as a real plant and others that anywhere else, they would not be such a weed. While weeding around the mess that is the tomato plants, there are grass weeds growing trying to go unnoticed and under the radar.

And grass is not a bad thing, as long as it is not in the garden. Some sins are like that too. In the hands of one wo/man, they are not that bad, but in the hands of another can be hazardous to their health. For me, I kept thinking about all those gray areas of life and it truly brought to life Romans chapter 14. And while the whole chapter is great I will just add...

Romans 14:12-13 "So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God. Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother's way."

Mrs. Obvious #2 : Thinning and discipline, again. I thinned Ezekiel's carrots on Saturday too. It was something I was not wanting to do. They all looked so healthy and green and growing so tall and strong. They even smelled like real carrots! But I knew I had to do it. While I was pulling them out I kept thinking about how it is like when God disciplines us as His children.

(Sometimes I wish discipline would be as easy as being a kid again, immediate consequences and it's done. Discipline as an adult is so much more involved and complicated. It seems more painful because it takes longer to work out, or it involves other adults who have hearts and feelings as well.)

The thing I was reminded of is how it is painful to God when He disciplines us. He doesn't revel in our hardships, but He knows the good on the other side is so worth it. I hated pulling out the good little carrots, but they were ultimately going to stunt the growth of everyone else. I needed to thin them out so the ones could grow strong and bigger. It was so painful to me, but oh for the good of the carrots. As it is with God and us, enter Hebrews 12, specifically...

Hebrews 12:11 "No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it."

Mrs. Obvious #3: Our garden pales in comparison to the others, but thankfully it is still growing! When I first got to the garden on Saturday I strolled up and down the other 70+ lots, counting how many bunnies I saw, etc. I was amazed by some of the other gardens! Some had fancy fences, little treasures, lots of flowers, etc. Not only that, but the plants themselves were enormous!

I took a bunch of photos on Sunday of some of them to show their hard labors! It once again made me happy that I have not killed this garden yet. While I could compare to them and get down on myself, I am honestly really thankful we have made it this far. (I mean really, do you know that Nathan once left me in charge of all his beautiful dorm plants and I single-handedly killed them all?)

1 Corinthians 3:7 "So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things