Spring Dreams

Look!  Two days in a row of blogging!  What a treat!  Aren't you so excited that you could just pee your pants? 

I have Grace and Sophia here today.  Their new baby brother is jaundiced, so he has to spend the day in his little tanning bed in the hospital to get his level back down to where it should be.  Hopefully today will be all it takes and he can go back home by tonight.  But in the meantime, the girls are all having a blast together.  I've been hearing little snippets of play as they run by in various outfits.  Abby is a bad influence on Grace in the outfit changing scene.  Here are some things I've heard:  "Let's cut all the babies' heads off!" (yelled while waving a wooden sword around).  "We're running away from our pretend mom!"  "This is the best hamburger I've ever eaten in my life!"  (Grace told me this about my vegetarian black bean burger I made for lunch.  I was a bit worried about how she might react to it, but it was good)  "Quick!  Hide!  Take off your disguise!"  I love little kid imaginations - though I wasn't too sure about the chopping off the baby head thing. 

Last night, I made some acorn squash to go with our supper.  A friend of mine, Kim, suggested roasting the seeds like you would do with pumpkin seeds.  I decided to try that out last night.  I tossed them with a bit of olive oil, salt, and garlic powder and then roasted them in the oven while the squash baked.  It was yummy!  I stopped the kids (and Aaron and me) from chowing down on them long enough to take a quick picture of what little remained.  They taste kind of like popcorn!  So good! 

The only problem with eating the seeds is that I will no longer be throwing them into my compost heap and will have less of a chance of having more volunteer squash grow.  I'm still working through my pile from my volunteer vine this past summer.  I am down to about four more to go.  I started with close to 20.  Maybe I'll have to actually plant some of them now. 

I've starting thinking a bit in the past few days about spring time gardening.  I have a very small yard, so I have to make the best of the space I have.  I have things tucked away in all corners of the yard, but I still keep thinking of more ways to get more things in.  Things I'm excited about for this season:  STRAWBERRIES!  I planted a little patch last year, so I should reap a little harvest this year.  I adore strawberries.  I am also excited to hopefully get some asparagas this year too - I planted my patch two years ago and the stalks were too little last year, so this year they should be ready!  Aaron's not happy about that one, but I am!  I also planted blueberry bushes last year - I may get a small handful of berries on a few of the plants, but not expecting much. 

What are your must-haves for your garden? I must have spinach and lettuce - love making fresh salads every day, tomatoes, peppers, a few jalapenos (gotta have fresh salsa ingredients), basil, cilantro, broccoli, beans, snap peas.  Wow, this is a lot of must haves!  I also don't have to have, but really like having beets, kale, radishes, carrots, squash, cucumbers, onions and garlic.  If I had space for a huge garden I would also have a HUGE patch of sweet corn - I could seriously live off of sweet corn in the summer - just ask Aaron.  And I would plant muskmelons.  I did them last year at my in-laws and it was heavenly!   I wish I had a big yard.  Sigh. 

When does spring fever hit you? - For me - about the end of January (right now).  That's when I'm tired of running in the cold, tired of buying all my produce, and wishing school was done with for the year.  I still have a few more months to go before any of that changes.  I will manage.  I just daydream a lot about warmth.  And beaches. 

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