Healthy Living

As some of you may recall, at the end of June I was quite sick during my visit to Chicago.  And I will be using this as an excuse for my absence as of late on here... just so you know.  Well, what started off as a lost voice and a nasty cough, spiraled into pure misery.  I started feeling sick on a Sunday (June 24th) and finally my husband dragged Finley and myself to the doctor on Friday (June 29th).  Those five days prior were filled with the following symptoms:

• Persistent cough
• Lost voice
• Sore throat
• chills
• hot spells
• high fevers (103+... at one point Finley was at 104.5)
• headaches

5 days this went on and Finley and I could just not kick it.  Diagnosis: Pneumonia.  Are you kidding me??? Finley and I both had to go on antibiotics.  Today we are finally feeling better and freed ourselves from this illness.

In my entire life, I have never been this sick.  Personally, I was upset that my body (nor Finleys) was unable to kick whatever virus or bacteria that was invading me.  I would normally consider myself a very healthy person.  I have had no major illnesses, surgeries, and even my pregnancy was smooth sailing.  So what was it that allowed us to get so sick??  So now I am more conscious than ever about healthy living.

It's clear that for too long I have ignored myself.  It's also clear that it's time for me to nourish myself back to health.  Just where to start...

Any suggestions?

Summer Harvest

In June we were able to harvest our strawberries and raspberries.  Now that July is here, we are seeing lots of growth, lots of failures, and finally the beginning of the summer harvest.

Here is what I harvested today: 1 Broccoli, 2 zucchini, and a handful of blueberries.

The harvest may be small, but it's a miracle in my eyes.  With the battle of pests and all, I was really expecting nothing.  Last year we had beginners luck with such a great harvest, but this year we really got the lesson that, well, gardening is just plain hard.  We've lost 30+ tomatoes to blossom end rot already, a bunny (I suspect) ate off my only growing cucumber, we lost all our swiss chard to earwigs, and our strawberry/raspberry harvest was very minimal. 

Despite my garden woes, I'm going to feel blessed today with the harvest I did get.  And I guarantee you that I will savor every bite of that broccoli and zucchini.

Hello Chicago

On Monday the family hauled in the car and headed down to Chicago.  A blog friend of mine, Rachel, was going to be in Chicago with her family and we just knew we had to meet up and hang out.  It isn't every day that you meet such a wonderful family.  We clicked right away, but unfortuntely, I had lost my voice the previous day and it was showing no signs of returning.  Me with no voice made it sooooo hard to talk like I really wanted to.  So I tried to talk as much as I was physically able and spent the rest of time adoring her little boy, Bennett.  That little dude is so sweet, so smart, so funny and he's not even 2 yet!  He and Finley hit it off instantly too.  He seemed to be quite enamored while Finley played hard to get.  It was great to watch.

So what did we do with our day together in Chicago??

Ally had her very first ride on the subway.

We went to our very first Cubs game at Wrigley Field.  (We opted to leave the Brewer attire at home)

Finley looked... bored.

We took in the breathtaking view from our hotel room.

 We did a silly photo shoot.  If it wasn't for the glare or the half smile, wouldn't you believe she's really falling???

Realizing I had no pictures with Rachel, we took this one as we were on our way to our cars to say Goodbye.  Note to self: remember to take more pictures, especially for important events such as this!

My hair is frizzy, I look frumpy and sweaty and gross, BUT if you look past all that you will see that Rachel and I have something in common- she has an awesome set of dreads.  I admired them pretty much the whole trip.

It was a short day and I wasn't feeling 100%, but I'm so glad we got to meet up.  Rachel is a wonderful person as well as her husband and son.  I had so much fun getting to know them and enjoying Chicago as the backdrop.  Now I have an excuse to go to Portland sometime.

Grandpa's House

This past Sunday the whole family (my family, my brother and his wife, my mom and her boyfriend, and my aunt) decided to head up to Grandpa's house.  He's been recovering magnificently and thought it would be a nice day to chat, eat some good food and hang outside and enjoy the weather and land.

It wouldn't be a family event if Ally, Finley and I didn't wear matching shirts we created a couple days before.  Give a Hoot, Don't Pollute... got it??

Ally lazily and with pure hippie style lounged on the pond.

We went fishing.  I must admit that I internally struggled with this considering our vegetarian ways.  We sent them all back into the pond, but still.  Who wants to get hooked in the face.  I certainly don't.

If you can believe it, Ally caught the biggest fish of the day.  She was a natural!

I caught a small one- very small one.  I had no luck.  Except I did catch two Bullhead fish (who apparantly sting) and one swallowed the hook too deep and died.  My heart broke a bit.  It died for no good reason. :(

My mom caught the smallest fish of all.  It's really quite amazing that you can even catch a fish that small!

Finley just explored.  But for some odd reason every time I saw her she was wearing one less article of clothing.

Until she decided being free and naked was the way to go.  Btw, score on pictures I can use to embarrass Finley in the future!

The two kiddos fast asleep moments from leaving Grandpa's house.  Woodstock quickly joined them.

Chicken Coop Inspiration

I finally did it!  I finally convinced Andy to let us have chickens on our little humble homestead!  He's certainly not gun ho on building one though, but I pretty much want to start building a coop... like yesterday.  Ally is pretty excited too.  Today she drew up a chicken coop that we could build and she has been asking if we can build it while she is here for the summer.  It's wonderful to see her want to take part in family homesteading activities.  So I'm afraid Andy has no choice, majority rules, we WILL be building a chicken coop this summer.

And what better way to get some chicken coop inspiration?  Pinterest, of course.

What could be better than a 60's/70's inspired camper chicken coop??  I'm in love.

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 This coop seems simple enough, but I love the garden beds cornering the chicken run.

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This looks like a general store... kinda cute!

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 The run would be much bigger, but I like the cottage look.

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 I like the flower box under the window, might have to do that with my coop.  See? Inspiration!

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This one is super cute.  Chickens, I'm sure, would appreciate the white picket fence.

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I must admit that all these coops are a bit aggressive considering our mediocre (or less than mediocre) carpentry skills.  But inspiration can bring you a long way, right?

What coop do you guys like best?

Family Fort Night

On Sunday, Father's Day, Ally was itching to camp in the backyard.  Normally we welcome such a fun activity, but the weather was supposed to get pretty stormy so we had to put an axe to that idea.  But then I thought, why not camp inside??  I knew we couldn't put a tent up in our living room, but we could gather every blanket, pillow, stuffed animal we pleased and toss it into the living room creating a one big giant bed... thus was created (with quite enthusiasm from all of us) Family Fort Night.

We made signs.

We made the "bed".

We ordered Pizza and had a bonfire.  It just isn't camping without a camp fire, right?  Don't worry, we had s'mores too!  (Not my most healthy moment)

Then we all went inside and instantly got into our pj's.  We decided to wear our "attempt at bleach tie-dye" shirts. 

We cuddled up in our fort and watched Men In Black... The first one, we're old school like that.  We even braved through some thunderstorms in the middle of the night.

It was a really great night- a really great Fathers Day.  It was fun to be so excited about spending the night together just being family.  I have a feeling there are many more Family Fort Nights to come this summer.

June Garden

As of the beginning of June everything has been planted/transplanted in our garden and so far so good!  I've overcome 2 weeks of bug invasion (cutworms, inch worms, earwigs, and slugs) by hand picking and slaughtering the beasts myself.  Picture an image of me out at 10-11pm with a flashlight carefully inspecting each and every plant... fun stuff.  Now I'm just waiting for our batch of cabbage loopers for me to destroy... we got hit pretty heavy with them last year.  Despite the bugs, our garden is glorious and beautiful (in my eyes).

Curious to see what our garden looks like in June?  Swell!  You know you had no choice in the matter, right?

Front of house... what the passersby see

Lettuce in the flower box next to front door

4x8 raised bed of Broccoli and Cabbage.  2 plants died, but I'm still happy!

4x8 raised bed full of 21 tomatoes- heirlooms and beefsteak. 

4x8 raised bed of 12 tomato plants and 12 pepper plants (I am still trying to find more room for 6 more pepper starters I have)

4x8 raised bed of 10 squash (summer & zucchini), 1 cucumber and 9 blue corn

4x4 potato bin full of, you guessed it, potatoes!

In the front we have finally added landscaping consisting of all our herbs and more.  3 basil, 2 lavender, 2 sage, 5 thyme, 1 mint,  2 chives, 2 oregano, 6 kale, 3 swiss chard,  and 2 rhubarb

Front 4x8 raised bed with 8 Broccoli and hundred (hopefully!) carrots

I pruned these raspberries to a foot high and now they almost cover the window!

Garlic and Onions

2 Blueberry bushes... sadly the blooms keep mysteriously shriveling up so pretty sure we will not be getting any blueberries :(

5 strawberries and 1 blackberry.  Had to pinch of the blooms this first year, but hopefully we'll be rolling in the berries next year

A long row of sweet corn

Our tiny 2x3 strawberry patch where we got about a dozen super sweet juicy strawberries this year.

It's small but growing steadily.  You can't expect much from a June Wisconsin garden, but thanks to seed starting in our basement we are ahead of the game this year. 

How are your gardens coming along?