Pinewood Derby

Danny participated in our local Scout troop's Pinewood Derby race this past weekend.

He did GREAT for his first time!

Dan took fourth overall in his division and won a medal for most patriotic paint job for his car.

He's already making plans for his car for next year!

Ash Wednesday

I was blown away by the announcement by Pope Benedict XVI that he would be abdicating his Chair at the end of the month. Questions and fear plagued my simple little brain...until I heard these wise and kind words from Cardinal Arinze. 

 He sums everything up simply and beautifully:

 And  today is the beginning of Lent - a time for strengthening and purification. Yes, dear Cardinal, I think the Holy Father is teaching us more than we realize!

Bloomin' Broccoli!

We've been having a really warm winter here in south Texas

 (sorry to all my peeps up north!)

so I wasn't too surprised to see that my broccoli had gone to bolt!

I'm sure it wouldn't have done any harm to eat it, but it was just so darn pretty!  So I cut a head off and stuck it in a pitcher of water to enjoy inside.

John Paul says he enjoys broccoli this way MUCH MORE 

than eating it!

Getting garden ready!

Last weekend we had a garden workday.  

I hauled everybody outside to get our garden boxes ready for this spring's plantings.  But then it quickly turned into garden play day...

The power drill got Kyle's attention and he reinforced all the boxes with "L" braces.  I think I can get one more growing season out of these boards before they will have to be replaced.

It was such a blessing to have the boys out there to help!  This mama's back doesn't hold up to much bending after 20 years of being a nurse...just sayin'!

John Paul and Danny did quick work of spreading thick newspaper and then a good 4 inch layer of hay over the boxes.  Truth be told, we should have done this back in November.  The garden is very forgiving, though, and we should be fine for May plantings.

And of course, the Divine Miss M was there to oversee it all!

In the fore ground is a finished box 

(that's motherwort still growing in the front right hand side!), 

and a weed ridden bed in the back ground.

I also ordered all my seeds from 
Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company.
I'm very excited about some of this year's seeds (you can click on any of the listings below to see what the variety looks like and read customer reviews!)  Some of these are very exotic, like the Chinese Red Noodle Bean, and I cannot wait for the kids to experience the growing and eating of these varied, heirloom, and non-GMO vegetables!

Calima Beans

Hutterite Soup Bush Bean

Chinese Red Noodle Bean

Beit Alpha Cucumber

Boston Pickling Cucumber

Fengyuan Purple Eggplant

Little Gem Lettuce

Emerald Okra

Lightning Mix Peppers

Emerald Giant Bell Peppers

Purple Beauty Bell Peppers

Caserta Zucchini

Candy Roaster Squash

Vegetable Spaghetti Squash

Rio Grande Verde Tomatillo

Black Cherry Tomato

Ingegnoli Gigante Liscio Tomato

Solar Flair Tomato

White Horehound Herb

We play with our food!

For Christmas, Uncle Scott bought Mary Grace a plate with the face of "Wooly Willie" on it. You know the one, it's where you move metal shavings around with a magnetic pen to give him different looks.  With this plate, you use food to dress up Willie!

Turns out my bigger boys have been playing with Willie at meal times!  They load up their plates and work their way down to his smiling face.

Danny gave Willie some sun glasses and a beard out of pancakes.

Then the glasses get moved to hair on top of Willie's head.

Then Danny eats his beard and shoves the hair to the sides of Willies head and says...

...and this one looks like daddy!