{Garden Early June}

I am just loving having a garden this year! I tell ya it's not been easy what with every kind of pest problem you can imagine but my little plants are troopers! I've had some completely shed all leaves and still come back a few weeks later with luscious green leaves a bearing fruit! My biggest failures have been my corn and green beans. Corn I've done before, so I'm a little shocked actually a lot shocked since even the nursery can't figure out what happened but I have short 2 foot stalks some dying but a handful with multiple ears growing on it...I mean like 5?! I take it that's Heavenly Father's way of forcing my kids to eat more "green" veggies. Although my sad, sad green beans aren't doing so well themselves. I killed them with water, revived them with a short drought, watch the bugs take over, burned them to death with a pesticide (i normally wash away bugs but I was going out of town) then decided to "experiment but cutting the vine were just below what I like to call "the grave stem" (where most of the dead was) and see if it would flourish below. Nursery said I was crazy for cutting a vine plant...um not so much, it worked!! Only down side is it will not grow taller so we get about 3 green beans at a time and well that won't even feed the toddler! So cheers to pretty, green experimental, useless plants! Not completely useless...they feed nitrogen into the soil so I plan to till them in when the season is over.

Let's see what else...Oh! I'm SO OVER worms! I mean seriously?! Have you ever stared at one of those 3D illusions posters that just looks like a paint splattered square so long that you just smile and say oh look there it is?! Yeah well trying to find an inch and a half long worm that's about as thick as a single strand of horse hair is like trying to see the 3D building pop out at you. Especially when your tomato plants are 4 feet high and 2 feet full! I even tried to pay the teenager a quarter per worm...he basically told me he didn't need to inner tubes that bad!

Then there's the sunflowers. I needed to move them because whatever stunted the growth of my corn stalks didn't effect my sunflowers one bit and they were towering over them. My corn needed sun! So I dug them up and moved them. When the hubby came home and saw them nicely in a row along the house bent over in half he told me I was nuts, I even believed him then 2 days later I woke up to upright sunflowers that had actually bloomed! Yay for sunflower seeds! (i have edible plants)

So that's my adventures so far. Haven't really eaten a thing off any of my plants but who knows. My second round of crookedneck squash is flourishing and my zuccini's are getting big! Here are pictures of everything about 3 weeks ago. I wanted to post new photo's but it's WAY to hot outside to care enough to go take a picture so here you go.

And here is a beautiful photo of my only two Fuji Apples that mysteriously disappear :(

{service}

It's not often that I post about myself on this blog because a busy mom trying to capture every moment of the lives of her ever growing children tends to stand on the side lines cheering for her young ones. And even more so it's not too often that I allow others to see anything other than the strong woman I have become but I feel inspired to share a recent email with you.

I recently read that a friend was taking time to clear her head. When I sent her a note of concern asking her if she was ok she wrote, "Yeah... Just trying to figure out what to do with my life. Hate my job, feeling trapped, not sure what makes sense... ya know?"

This was my reply.

I do know. All to well! I've been feeling the same way for a long time. Recently I decided to throw myself into service and just have faith that I'll find the answers. I was told in a personal blessing many years ago that through service to others especially those I'm not directly responsible for, I can become more Christ like than anything else I will do. I believe that when you're feeling inadequate or a little lost there's a reason. I also believe that through helping others you will find happiness and joy which promotes clarity and allows recognition of indirect answers you've forgotten you needed in situations where its most unexpected. More often than not the simplest act of service can bless the giver as much or more than the receiver.

In my recent efforts to "clear my head and figure things out" I began to realize that maybe I'm not doing my part. I don't know if you're religious at all but have you heard the term "Faith without works is dead"? It, simply put, means you can pray for a job all day long but if you're not out looking for one the lord isn't going to guide to the right opportunity.

Since I'm not exactly sure what it is I need right now I've begun to pray for opportunities to serve. Just yesterday I sent a little text to someone and ended up with a phone call from a worn out mother who just needed help getting her house clean. I took James over for 2 hours and let him play with her daughter while I helped her get her house in order. The time went so quickly as we chatted the morning away behind dish rags and vacuums. Yes I needed to clean up my own home but she needed me to clean hers more.

Did I get the answers I needed? No not yet, but I was happier yesterday than the day before. The answers will come, most likely when I've forgotten I need them. Who knows maybe someone I serve will make a comment that not so much gives me answers but instead sends me down a road elsewhere that will give me the answers. That's how I got into photography. I did NOT want to go back to school after I lost my job a few years ago but I kept getting the feeling I really needed to. So I did. I got all set up to get my CPA. Then something strange happened. It seemed like everywhere I went someone complimented a picture I had taken of Wyatt or a bird in a tree in Mammoth. Slowly but surely I realized I wasn't there to get my CPA I was there because i needed to get a basic knowledge of photography. Had I known that before I started school I would of just said "hey I don't need school to be a photographer" and probably would have gotten so overwhelmed trying to learn how to develop film on my own I'd give up and miss out on an amazing opportunity.

I'm not a "working photographer" at the moment but the timing to gain knowledge was right then and the time will come again when I'll find myself on top of a huge mountain overlooking a valley of yellow and purple flowers with a large format camera in my hands, a pocket full of film and an envelope addressed to National Geographic Magazine just waiting for me to fill it with something breath taking!

Close your eyes. Take a deep breathe. Then open them and look at the world a little differently. See the service needed. A hug to a lonely widow, a pat on the shoulder for the defeated, a bucket of weeds pulled from the neighbors garden, a smile to a stranger, a phone call to an old friend....they're all around you. Just look. You'll find more than you ever imagined. I promise.

Hugs,
Keriann

It is not a normal habit of mine to share personal conversation so openly. Maybe sharing this is an inspired form of service. Maybe it will spread out to the heart of some else who was in need of the words shared between this friend and I. Whatever the reason, I'm grateful for the opportunity.

{Disneyland w/ grandpa}

Right before Easter my dad came to visit just because he missed me, I me us :) Thanks to an awesome cousin and her friend we were able to go to Disneyland! I think the last time I was there with my dad I was about 14 years old! We had just as much fun as the boys!

This is what James looks like when you tell him he's going to see Mickey Mouse

Grandpa and James on the Alice in Wonderland ride...James was definitely full of "wonder"

Bumper Cars!

James seriously loved the spinning rides...the faster the better

Me and my boys..love them so much!

Grandpa got all the boys a cool hat...mom was already cool without one :)

We rode the cars in Autotopia a few times. The 2nd time Wyatt wanted to drive on his own so the only picture I got was the backside of his car but if could record it all I totally would have. Grandpa was playing tricks on Wyatt and almost even got him a ticket! You aren't supposed to bump the car in front of you but grandpa figured hey if I know the kid in the car it should be fine so at the end of the ride he kept right on Wyatt waiting for the car in front of him to get ahead then when he final had his shot he hit the gas. Wyatt caught him at the last second and hit his gas trying to escape the crash only to rear end the car in front of him just as the attendant looked his way! They laughed and joked with grandpa about writing Wyatt and ticket! It was hilarious!

So one of my most favorite things at Disneyland as a kid was Captain EO! I was so excited to see it again! James loved the glasses but kept taking them off so grandpa held them on him for the whole show. We laughed so hard watching James try to grab the big space rocks floating at him! Then laughed even harder when Wyatt jumped out of his seat the first time they made the ground shake! It was quite the adventure!

Mom and Grandpa needed to sit for a few minutes so we went to Mickey's play ground

Once we were all rested we decided to check out Mickey Mouse's house

At the end of Mickey's house we found a very exciting surprise.....MICKEY MOUSE

James was so so happy. I mean like really really happy. It was the highlight of his day

We also got to see the incredibly amazing World of Color show. Mommy was ecstatic about that one! When the show was over we had had enough so we packed it up headed out and sadly left the

"Happiest Place on Earth"

We really wished daddy could have come with us but somehow we managed to muscle up some smiles and have fun anyway. See ya next time Mickey!

{auto shop!}

Dad/grandpa came for a visit in April (i know i know seriously delayed post). We always love it when he comes to visit. The boys have a blast playing with grandpa and laughing at everything. We all do. We laugh a lot when he comes to stay with us. I seriously love that my dad is such a big kid. I'm blessed to have grown up in a family that "plays" no matter how old we get. It is fun watching him try to keep up with our sleeping habits though :) I love our "after hours" conversations too! I was really excited that we got to surprise grandpa with a day at Disneyland thanks to a cousin with a friend that works there. And I was even able to get some work done on my truck. Thanks dad for the super fun and productive visit.

Grandpa and the boys helping clean the back driveway up. Can't work on a dirty truck

forget the father daughter dance...i get father daughter mechanics instead

{big C little C}

My most worn out book as a kid was Green Eggs and Ham which my mother had memorized before I was old enough to read it myself and it seems Dr. Suess has found a fond spot in the hearts of my boys as well.

Disclaimer: this is a "Mom brags how intelligent her kid is" moment so beware this post may be somewhat prideful hehe

This morning James brought me his Dr. Suess Alphabet book to read to him. It was a rather frustrating reading time as he kept turning the book upside down. "James," I tell him "Mommy can't read the book when you keep moving it". He just looked up at me with this innocent look and kept pointing to the page...

That's when I realized he was not making it difficult on purpose! He was actually rather clever! Do you see the Big C little c page? "What begins with c?" it asks...a Camel on the CEILING!! It's on the ceiling silly mom! It's upside down!

But not anymore! James out smarted Dr. Suess! :)

Can we say intelligent?!!

{growing up}

James want me to see he was practicing getting dress by himself. He's trying to master the jacket!

{a visitor}

Got ya!!

(finally!)