our garden: putting in the prep work

I know I made the jokes about the fake farm on Friday, but I wouldn’t mind a mini farm. I could never be a true farmer. They are in a class of their own and I have so much respect for true farming. I’ll never be a farmer. Or a farmer’s wife. I wear cowboy boots, but I don’t own a horse…wish I did. I do have 3 boys that think dirt is the world’s greatest toy and two girls that really like strawberries (well one likes them in her smoothies anyway). So, we are getting our garden going again. The past few years our garden has suffered tremendously, but we are trying again. This weekend we started working on getting the beds and dirt ready. We still need to add more boards and extra stuff to the dirt, but it is a start.

Gardening takes time and work. And around here for the garden to actually grow anything it will require kids helping. Thankfully, they are pretty excited to get back into it. It helps having a sister and brother-in-law to call for tips. My sister is running a gardening series on her blog. You should check it out. They are smart garden people over there. We just try to copy and hope something actually grows.

Random Photo Tip: Can you see in the picture below how her pigtails are in focus and her face is blurry? I focused in the wrong spot and the aperture setting (f/2.8) I was using meant it had a very small area of the photo that would be in focus (depth of field). Bummer, that I did not get her face in that focus area. If you are shooting with a small depth of field, but sure to nail your focus area so you have eyes in focus and not pigtails!

Little One has grown to really like Poppy. Currently she only says two words: “Uh oh!” and “No!” I tell Poppy “NO!” a lot…now Little One will walk up even to a sleeping Poppy and say “No!” This girl has a long way to go in regards to speech and talking. She’s made so much progress and continues to surprise us and her therapist. Cute quiet stuff.

“Try to swing and kick me over.” ~ FireCracker to her big brother. Oh that girl.

There was a request on Instagram to see some new pictures of this guy. He is the strong, quiet type. The boy in the middle that in many ways holds the family together.

That last photo totally captures him to me. It is impossible not to smile back at him when he flashes that grin.

Happy Monday!