Gnome-ing It Up.

I kept my offspring alive for a whole year!!! 

To celebrate, i threw a party.

Soren's birthday party was woodland themed. I know i wanted it outside, and since I'm obsessed with woodland forest friends, we already had all of the decorations! A bonus was I helped throw a baby shower the night before, and had some leftover food. Score! My Sister made his owl cake and all these pictures are compliments to Meagan O Photography. I have such talented friends!

Can i just say, i have the coolest kid in the world. He always wakes up happy, loves all my jokes, and runs and hugs me whenever i ask. What more could a mommy want?

His favorite things to do include eating, setting the thermostat, and dancing to Taylor Swift.

His favorite word is YES! he says it 100 times a day. 

                                                           He prefers African Americans.

I don't deserve him.

GNOME HATS

I made Gnome hats for Soren's Party favors. The kids were adorable, if you want to learn...  

 

So, making each hat took about 14 ½ minutes. However it took like 2 hours to get the original shape right and the sizing right for babies, kids, and adults. These hats are reversible. Get two pieces of fabric.Fabric often has a 'good' side and a 'bad' side. The fabric i used here was interchangeable- that makes it easier. 1/3 a yard will make 2 pieces (of the same) fabric. so you may as well get 2 different fabrics (1/3yard) pieces and make one for a friend.

1. Cut a shape that looks like the first picture. I did it this way rather then cutting 2 separate panels because it keeps you from having to put a seem up the front of the hat (note, you can fold the fabric and do the gnome hat shape from the profile perspective- picture 2)
2. Fold in half ( inside out-good sides together) seem down the side only ( side the maker is pointing to)
3. Repeat for both fabrics.
   At this point you should have 2 different color hats. Turn both inside out (should already be)
4. Now that they are inside out turn one upside down and set on table, then take the other one, place on top of it, so that the fabric shapes match up, You should be looking at the ugly side of both. (the good sides are touching and inside) Seem around the the entire shape (leaving about 4 inches whole open)
5. flip everything through the whole you left. Now you are looking at the good sides. Tuck one of the hats inside the other, seem up the whole and WALLAH.

             

To my job.

  I blog mostly about my life at home. However, circumstances at my job have escalated my time spent there, and discontentment has crept into my daily perspective. This is absurd due to the fact that while currently demanding, I have the second coolest job in the world...

 4-Her's at the Plant a Row for the Hungary Garden

I get to teach kids about gardening. Who does that? My actual job is an environmental educator with the 4-H program in UGA Extension Office in Fayette County. Most people have no idea that my office even exists which is a darn shame...

Booth Middle School Garden

The cooperative extension offices of the University of Georgia started in the early 1900s to help people me knowledgeable about farming. Now, there is an office in every county in Georgia (and America) Who's soul occupation is to service the community in their farming, gardening, and horticultural needs, and to motivate the youth in that community to learn and engage in the world around them thought th 4-H program. Nice thing is, we are free. Yep! Thats right. Your hard earned tax dollars at work.

 

So this mean I get to go into the school systems and teach kids about all sorts of things, recycling, water conservation, soil sciences, ecosystems ect. And I get to do after school clubs teaching everything from cooking to goats, and community service! So as my job is a little more time consuming than I would like at the moment, I'm remembering how faithful God is, and how much he has blessed me.

Before - pile of with weeds       After: respecable fall garden

                              

Green House Curb Appeal

Me and Jesse finally re-landscaped the front yard. We bought (stole) this house as a forclosure 2 years ago and the yard was in bad shape. The bushes were over 20 feet tall and completly covered up the sidewalk. So we choped them down with a chainsaw so we could make it to the front door. We also tore off the stucco and added hardi-plank.

While we were paying off our student loans we couldn't spare the money. When we became debt free this spring the weather was so hot in early may, that we didn't want to loose our new exspensive bushes to Georgia's Heat.

So Fall rolled around and we were so exited. Our yard has looked horendous for two years! So we rented a 2-man power auger, planned our landscape, bought our bushes and wallah! We were going for a cottage-like look- wear everything is messy and whimsical. Everything we bought was an evergreen or a perrinial. we wanted lots of messy color and didn't want to depend on flowers.

 We choose Loropetalum as our backdrop plant against the (green) house because it is deep purple. Then we interspesed Nandina (red) Artemesia (silver) and put Golden-mop Cypress (yellow) on the edges (with an ornamental grass in various locations). Then we mixed in lots of messy perinials of all colors - Russian Sage, Guaru, Coreopsis, Veronica ect. We chose variagated Jasmines for our windowboxes and Swamp Jasmine for our trellis. It will take about 2 years for it to start looking like a 'cottage garden'. But i am very happy with how it all turned out!

                               Before                                                                 After

Dre- How I've Grown.

people are by far the hardest crop. Did you know that it is estimated that 80% of people do not emotionally mature after the age of 20. That means most of us are college sophomores walking around, raising kids, and doing who knows what else.

Along with that, I bet most Christians do not Spiritually grow after an age of a year. Everyone know the excitement of a new believer. But if we are infinity unlike God, why aren't we infinity excited to grow and change to be more like Him?

What crappy plants we are. Since Gardening, all the 'plant parables' are making much more sense.

So lately, I've been thinking...
Me and my husband are in process to going to the overseas to ministry in 1-2 years. So this adventure getting closer, has caused some self examination. I certainly don't 'feel' like a missionary. Who cares how I feel, do I act like a missionary? I don't mean this in a legalistic way, although I love me some missionary skirts, I mean when you are in another country and your soul occupation is yo show other Christ's love, what would you do?
Then I was like, well my soul occupation on this earth is to show others God's love. What do I do?
Hmmm.
The Reminder. Why we are here. To know God and to make him known. All the rest is scenery, my job, laundry, cooking, clothes, even my garden if not put towards that end is scenery.
So obviously the past couple weeks I have been thinking on this. What does it mean to love others like Christ? A few things came to mind, one of which is God made our problem his problem. He was in perfect heaven, but thirsted for a relationship with us. He made our problem his problem. Just because someones problem isn't directly effecting you, doesn't mean it's not your problem. As children of God, pretty much it's ours. The word 'problem' may discourage some, but being a very task driven problem solving person, this idea appeals so me.
The 'Garden' aspect of this is coming, keep reading.
So all that being said, I was thinking about this and driving in Atlanta, and I see a homeless guy. Thinking thinking, not my job to ponder if he is a good for nothing drunk or lying, it is my job to love him, to see his problem as my problem, to 'give to whoever asks'. I don't have any cash. Someone gives him a granola bar, and he thanks them and tears into it. I look at my passenger seat thinking, what can I give this guy? I do have a basket of fresh produce I was going to give to a friend. She'll live. So I roll down the window and ask “could you have any use for these” holding up a variety of okra, beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, and squash. He answer “honey, I don't have anywhere to cook it or store it, it would just get stolen or rot”.Sad. The light turns red, I say I'm sorry I don't have cash, and the light turns green.

Sad. My eyes start to water. Food security. It's a crazy thing. Not only do I have LOADS of food given to me by God's earth, and this man has nothing. He doesn't even have the opportunity to eat fresh food. An alarming reality.

Plant a Row for the Hungry or P.A.R. Is a cool thing that our Master Gardener in Fayette County do. It's donating a row of crop to a food shelter. They took it a step furthure and have a community Garden and donate the whole lot to charity! Over 25,000 lb a year!
Video and Story
http://www.11alive.com/news/local/story.aspx?catid=40&storyid=150660
Newspaper
http://volunteerpublishing.net/harvest-of-hope-group-raises-28000-pounds-of-produce-for-needy
Fayette County 4-H and Master Gardener Website
http://www.ugaextension.com/fayette/mg/MGProjects.html

Mr. Bray at the P.A.R. Garden -

taught me everything i know about gardening

Drying Herbs- Rosemary & Oregano

So I know there are like a million books are on this subject but, I have found that the more time you spend outside, the closer you feel to the community around you. We straight up live in the burbs of southern Clayton County. Am I thinking that my little sustainability project is going to bring me closer to my other .54 acre neighbors, not really.

So we have these guys living two houses down. They have 4 kids and he has awesome dreads and his name is Jeremiah. The only interaction I have with this guy is a conversation about his dog Polo (which is pleasantly screamed around the neighborhood) who likes to flirt with my Pomeranian Wicket. So since we started the garden, he is fascinated by us and one day talked to me for an hour about his own gardening woes. He is a chef, and he really wants to grow his own stuff, but the deer ate it all: So we chit chat about my deer fence for a while.

Yesterday, he comes up to us and is like, “yall’s garden is the shi*, so I’m going to copy you”. Then he says that his herb-turned-weed garden has way a lot of rosemary and oregano and do we want some. I’m in heaven because this fulfills my green dream of community agriculture and the wilderness idea of ‘foraging for wild herbs’ all at once! So I picked a boat load of herbs, and now I am drying them. The rest I transplanted into my own garden. SWEET!

DRYING HERBS

All I did was separate them into bunches, cut off the dirty ends, and string them up in a cool dry area. I am experimenting by putting some on my screened in porch and some in my hallway inside. My hallway (where my herb shelf is-thanks mom) is actually the consistently darkest part of my house that is also well ventilated. Another plus is that it in the middle of my downstairs living area so my house is smelling Rosemary sweet and Oregano Savory- better than a grade plug in could ever smell!

Green House Manor

Jan 1, 2011. I wish I lived on a farm: sunshine, hard work and a life free from asphalt and air conditioners, problem is I live in the suburbs in south Atlanta on less than an acre.

I could complain about it, or I could defy culture (and some county zoning laws) and pretend I live on a farm anyway!

Now, I can’t rip up our driveway, and my husband is sort of attached to our air-conditioner. Since he works hard, I’m not going to fight that battle. Vaguely, I want my home to be old school, like when people would cook thier meals, grew thier food and economized as a way of life. That’s a hefty goal, especially since I am a full-time mom, a full time pastor’s wife, a part time 4-H teacher, balloon artist and seamstress. That’s 1 person = 3 ½ times. Oh yes and I have no money. So how will I begin? I’m glad you asked. I am going to plant a garden.

photo: our Green House. (and a cute kid i found at wallmart)