Something I know {nothing} about

I was originally going to share a piece of my child development knowledge, but I'm saving that for another day. Instead I'll share with you the latest from my garden. 

Somehow my tomato plants went from this...

to this...

And I have no idea how. 

If I was going to tell you how to plant a successful garden I'd say put the plants in the ground and let nature take its course. Give them a little water each week, but don't go overboard. Too much fertilizer early on will stunt their growth, and similar to stubborn teenagers they will flourish only when you give them time and space to do things at their own pace. 

I really know nothing about growing a garden. I just happen to get lucky this year. If anyone wants fresh cherry tomatoes you're welcome to come down! At this point I have way more than I can eat!

You know what they say...

As soon as you stop trying so hard, it will happen. 

I'm talking about tomato plants. As soon as you stop watering and fertilizing and trying so dang hard to take care of them, they will grow. At least that's what happened to me. 

After completely giving up and not watering them for about two months, I walked outside on New Year's Eve, and look what I found...

 All I could do was laugh! 

I haven't touched them since, because apparently my presence causes them not to grow. They haven't ripened yet, and I'm not sure if they will, but at least I  can say have tomatoes! 

Life Update

- Have you noticed anything different? I'll give you a hint: it starts at the top of this page. It's my new design! I've been playing around with it for a while {I have a secret 'practice blog' that I've been using to try out new designs}, and I finally created one that I'm happy with. It would be a lot easier if I had Photoshop or InDesign like we used for the yearbook in high school, but I don't, so Microsoft Publisher it is! If I keep blogging long enough I may give in and pay someone to do it, but I don't think I'm there yet. I will do my best to get the new tabs at the top up and running soon!

- I need to apologize for the lengthiness of this post. I should know by now that if a post takes me that long to write and edit, it's probably too long. It really should have been three different posts. Bear with me. I'm still learning. And if you did start to read it and either lost interest or ran out of time, I encourage you to go back and pick up where you left off. At least read the piano bar part. That's the best part! And if you make it all the way to the end there may or may not be a fried s'more waiting for you. Yum!

- Next up, the garden! Oh, the garden. I think it may have died at one point? I'm not really sure. For about a month or so it completely stopped growing. I was watering and fertilizing, and it just wasn't growing. At all. And some parts were starting to turn brown. Then out of no where it started growing again! And one of the plants even has blooms now! So we will see. By the way... My dad's tomato plants are taller than I am, and my PaPaw has them randomly growing out from underneath his porch. He calls them 'volunteers'. I call it not fair. I think just his presence makes tomato plants grow. *Thanks to our sweet neighbors and their boys for watering while we were gone. If we ever actually get tomatoes we'll bring some over!*


{Notice the ones on the right are a lot smaller than the ones on the left.}

- I haven't updated you all on my running progress in a while. I'm still running, just not as often as I did before the 5k. When we got back to Corpus {after Brandon working in Dallas for three months} I was so ready to jump back into yoga. Finding a good balance between running and yoga was tough at first {I was trying to add yoga without cutting back on running, and I wasn't doing either one successfully}, but I've now fallen into a routine that works for me. And even though I haven't ran in another actual race, it just feels good to know that I could if I wanted to.

- I haven't done a fantasy football update for two reasons: 1. I don't want to bore you. 2. I have actually lost interest, myself. The first few weeks were exciting, but after that it's been the same routine every week, and I just really don't care anymore. I'm still the owner, but I've hired Brandon as my manager {he sets my line-up each week, with my input of course} and my dad as the head coach {he keeps up with how my team is doing and gives me updates}. It's a system that works for everyone. Oh, and I beat Brandon this week.

- Lastly, if you haven't seen Pitch Perfect GO SEE IT!! I've seen it twice. And I'm trying to think of who else I can take, so I can see it again. It's that funny!



I hope you're having a great week!!

Gardening Lesson #3

Since PaPaw lives too far away to come see my garden as often as I'd like {the ride in the car would be hard on his back}, I've been mailing him pictures of my tomato plants each week.

He called me right after he received the first set of pictures...

"That's a fine lookin' garden you got there, young lady!"

"Thanks, PaPaw! I guess you got the pictures..."

"Now Emily, you got some of my cages, right?"

"Yes, PaPaw."

"Now when you put them cages up you're gonna have to get some stakes and tie 'em down. If you don't that wind'll knock 'em right over! Just go to the store and get you some stakes. You'll need two stakes for each cage. And don't get the metal ones, they'll be too high {pricey}."

"Okay, PaPaw."

"And Emily, you'll need to get you some of that Seven Dust. That'll keep the bugs from eatin' up your garden."

"Okay, I'll go get some."

"And make sure you're usin' that Miracle Grow."

{three weeks in the ground}

{First blooms!!}

Stakes, Seven Dust, and Miracle Grow...

"Thanks, PaPaw!"

Gardening Lesson #2

The day after I planted my garden I went grocery shopping. As I walked through the produce I grabbed a few tomatoes and thought, "Oh, I bet these will be the last ones I buy this year!"

Silly me.

I called my dad after a week or so of watering, fertilizing, and watching my tomato plants grow.

"How much longer until I have tomatoes to eat?"

"Oh, it's going to be a while. Probably around twelve weeks."

"Twelve weeks?! That's like three months!"

I was shocked.

{After two weeks in the ground}

I guess I'll be going back to the store for more tomatoes.

Gardening Lesson #1

Before planting my garden I talked with my dad about the best way to get the soil ready. After several conversations I had a step-by-step plan, and Brandon agreed to help me.

We came home from church on Sunday {several weeks ago}, and Brandon went outside and got started.

I glanced out the window and noticed he was not doing it according to the plan. I rushed outside to stop him...

"B, my dad said that the first thing we need to do is..."

"Emily, what I'm going to do is just take off this top layer..."

"But B, my dad said that we should..."

"Emily, just trust me. This will work too."

And it did.



{After one week in the ground}



I am slowly learning that my dad's way isn't the only way.

Our tomatoes are in the ground!

We finally got our first garden {if you call three tomato plants a garden} planted!

I wanted to plant some vegetables in the spring, but since we were gone for three months that wasn't really possible.

What I really wanted was to plant some of my PaPaw's tomatoes.

You see, PaPaw is known for his tomatoes, his 'improved porters'. They're the best tomato you will ever eat in your whole life. They're small, like a cherry tomato, and taste the best right off the vine.

Even when PaPaw was eighty-something years old he was still planting massive amounts of tomatoes. We're talkin' eighty-five tomato plants. And that's not even all he planted! He had all kinds of veggies growing in his garden.

PaPaw is now ninety years old, and I'm starting to realize that he won't always be here to plant tomatoes for me. And I feel like it's my duty, my responsibility, to carry on the tradition. I feel like while he is still here I need to show him that I can do it.

So I've been talking with him about it for a while now. We've talked about when to plant, what to plant, and how far apart the plants should be. He even gave me his "Texas Weather Almanac", something I will cherish forever.

Now back to the garden...

According to my "Texas Weather Almanac" the tomato plants needed to be in the ground by August 1st.

We were a little late.

On August 3rd I went to almost every nursery in Corpus looking for tomato plants. No one had them. A week later we were in Yoakum, and Dad and I tried to find some. They were sold out. We finally found some this weekend, and I planted them as soon as we got home.

This is just my practice garden. In the Spring I will be planting the seeds taken directly from PaPaw's 'improved porters', and hopefully I'll be adding a few other veggies to the mix. But it's good to start small, right?

P.S.-Those tomato cages...they were my PaPaw's.