Chore Chart & Cards...

I figured it's never too early to start the girls doing chores right?! But my issue was how was I going to make them understand what they had to do. Well, I got this great idea from one of the moms in the playgroup...chore cards!!

I hand drew pictures for the girls to understand what their responsibilities were along with the words explaining what they were. In the top right I put one of two things: a heart or a money sign. The heart represents a chore they do to help themselves or help someone else (Sadie in our case, by feeding her). In other words, something that needs to be done to be an asset to our family and that they will not get financially compensated for. The money sign on the other hand, represents something they can get financially compensated for (Kaila is thrilled about this).

Here is how we keep track of their paid chores, so at the end of the week they have a pay day. I haven't decided yet how much they will get paid...I'm thinking either 3, 6, or 9 cents a chore. My reasoning for making it a multiple of 3 is because we will be teaching them to split their money evenly into three categories: saving, spending, and giving.
I am so happy this idea was shared with me and that's why I wanted to share it with everyone else. It is working really well for Kaila, and Kenna is starting to get the hang of it. In the morning as soon as we come down the stairs, I give Kaila her chore card packet and she immediately starts doing everything on her own!! It's amazing!

Here's proof that it works. I showed them the card that said they were to dust, gave them the dusters, and they were off! Except Kenna took a break to smile for the camera...lol!

Proud to Present...

My first Zucchini & Cucumber!

Yes, that's in inches...

This is the same zucchini from a previous post that became ripe, but I stumbled upon the cucumber on accident while looking at the garden as I was walking into the garage. I was in total shock when I found it because of the fact that I had no idea it had been growing there and the size of it!

Garage Sale!

This past weekend we hosted a garage sale at our house with Amy and Mel. It was a great opportunity to get rid of some stuff that we no longer needed and to make a few extra dollars. It feels good to know there are people out there that can make use of your things.

Stuff...
...stuff...
...and more stuff.

The three of us together made $170.66 on Friday and $106.90 on Saturday for a grand total of $277. Amy was the top money maker with $124.90, Mel made $54.25 from some old windows she sold, and I made $98.10. It was good money for a fun two days of work!

It's Growing...

The plants are finally bearing fruit:

It's a baby watermelon, the size of my fist...

So yesterday morning I noticed that the zucchini plants were leaning almost flat to the ground. It looked as if a big dog ran through our garden. Then as I took a closer look, I noticed that the zucchini leaves had a fungus growing on them, so I thought maybe the fungus was killing the plant and therefore it was drooping. But when I took an even closer look, I noticed that the cucumber plant was wrapping its vines around the zucchini and pulling it down. Needless to say our garden is growing out of control, but still bearing fruit which is the most important part.

I found this zucchini by accident while trying to clip some leaves off that have the fungus on them. I also had to give them a milk bath to keep the fungus from getting any worse.

I also found this guy, a baby cucumber, only 2 inches...

1st Harvest...

When Shannon was here we decided to harvest the Komatsuna leaves and make a stir fry recipe we found online. Shannon was the main chef and I, her sous chef, so she says...lol! Our stir fry turned out really good and even Cisco had nothing but good things to say about it (and you know he has zero tolerance for anything green). And the taste is very true to it's name; it tastes like spinach with a kick of mustard.

The Komatsuna leaves with some green onion & basil...
Mustard spinach, ground turkey, and pine nut stir fry (yum!)...

My Garden Exploded!

When we came back from Disney World, I seriously thought we pulled up to the wrong house because before we left a lot of the plants in our garden were only inches high, and when we came back it looked like this:


Needless to say, I couldn't believe my eyes, literally EVERYTHING had grown more than I thought it would in less than two weeks. I left Mel to water my plants (thank you Mel!), so I thought she had done something to them ;) But come to think about it, I did fertilize the flowers and put cow manure (trying to stay organic) between the plants before we left.

Now, 2 weeks later, it looks like this (just took this picture minutes ago):

Below are pictures I took of some of the plants right after we got back from Disney World 2 weeks ago:

When I first planted the Marigold, it only had one flower. I guess the fertilizer did wonders for it.
Petunia & Gerbera - Thanks to the fertilizer the gerbera has kept blooming!
My three Tomato plants that are actually flowering now, so the fruit should be coming soon.

The big, bushy Zucchini that is also flowering and taking over.
The Komatsuna or Japanese Mustard Spinach that was our first harvest from the garden.
The Cucumber is also flowering.
The 2 little Lettuces that have so far survived the rabbits by growing next to weeds.
Carrots - I wish I could see what they look like underneath.
Watermelon - also has flowers.
Sweet Basil - Have been using a lot of it.
Lavender - I'm thinking this is lavender and not just weeds...we'll find out.
Bunches of Cilantro - We now put cilantro in almost everything.

Project Gardening - Part 2

I finally got around to planting the fruits, veggies, & herbs on Wednesday. First, I put up the fence thinking it would be able to keep the bunnies out, but once I got it up, the gaps were a lot bigger than they looked in the store. So we shall see when things really start growing (hopefully!), if we'll have issues with the bunnies eating our crops.

The completed garden...
A closer look...
We actually have some growth...green onion!
(it really didn't grow that fast...I planted the stalk)

All in all, I planted 15 things: tomato, green onion, spinach, zucchini, cabbage, cucumber, cauliflower, lettuce, carrot, broccoli, watermelon, parsley, basil, cilantro, & lavender. I hope I wasn't overly ambitious about fitting all these things into our tiny little plot. I might have been, so we'll see if they grow or not. Plus I put the seeds directly into the ground and didn't germinate them in a pot first, making their chances a little slimmer. I do have one advantage though, I did grow up on a farm, so we'll see if all those years of planting, weeding, watering, you name it, has made my thumb as green as I hope it is ;) If anything, it'll be a great learning experience for Kaila who loves to help out with the 'gah-den.' Anyway, wish my plants luck!