Garden time!

I love to hate this time of year. I love the idea of having a great (or somewhat decent) garden to eat from, but after I get started, I get really easily bored with having to get everything ready to grow. I love things that keep coming back...like my Spring flowers! They are awesome!

Two years ago, I decided to try something new. I was at Kmart and picked up one of those silly little boxes of asparagus. I thought I'd give it a try. Sadly, I didn't really read the box until I got home. So, it was then that I found out that I wasn't going to be harvesting some awesomely huge amount of asparagus anytime soon. In fact, I probably wouldn't be getting any at all that first year! That was exactly what happened.

The first year, the plant just kind of rooted it self and grew and grew, but nothing that really looked like asparagus. It looked more like a fern. When that first season ended, I was bummed that I didn't get anything out of my asparagus. Even though the box said that it would grow the next year, after we had our regular winter snow, plus a day with 2 feet of snow...and I'd done nothing to protect my plant....I knew nothing was going to come of it.

Well, I was wrong! As it turned out, letting that fern grow was really a good thing for my asparagus. The second year, I had a couple things that looked like asparagus, but not wide or tall enough to make it worth harvesting. So, I let it go again.

This year, I didn't know what to expect. About 3 weeks ago, I started noticing that my asparagus was growing! I did a little online research and found that asparagus can actually grow and grow well in the Spring.

Yesterday, I decided to go out and make a few cuts to mix in with our breakfast! I was super excited to be able to!

Supposedly, I'll be able to cut and recut a couple times this year. I am so excited to be able to eat right out of our garden! I can't wait to see how everything goes!

If anyone has grown asparagus before and would like to leave a tip for me, I'd love to take them! I really the type of garden that just learns as I go and as I need to know.

Swim time!

Well, by some accounts, it was snowing just 20 minutes from my house yesterday. That did not keep us from going to the YMCA for a swim!

I've told you that I'm pregnant. I'm about 9+ weeks now. I just had two of the worse weeks ever. I was tired, sick, and impatient. I'm not saying that is all over, but I woke up yesterday feeling pretty good. I made breakfast for my family - waffles in the waffle-maker. That always seems to make everyone very happy. I got about 3 loads of laundry out of the way and thought I would be ready to rest come nap time, but neither me or my kiddo were going to sleep.

Around 2:30 we totally gave up on the naps. By 3, we were packing to go to the YMCA. We are so grateful to always have a place to go to run off steam. As soon as we got there, Matthew started cooing "bask-kick-aball". It's neat that he is excited about going there too!

We were in the pool within about 5 minutes. Matthew loves swimming! I credit that to starting early and swimming often. I took Matthew to the pool for the first time when he was about 6 months old. I remember being very excited to take him, because I already knew that he was going to love it. I knew he was going to be a water baby from his very first BATH.

I remember that day, because I was so nervous about bathing his little body, I expected screaming from him. Instead, he was calm and quiet. Maybe he thought he was back in the womb. Who knows?

Since that first trip to the pool, I decided that the best thing to do would be keeping him in the water as much as possible. When we joined the YMCA the September after he was born, I had him in the water a lot. At one point, I was shooting for 3 times a week.

When he turned a year, I was excited to finally be able to put him in a class. They have a Mommy and Me type swimming class. I thought it would be good to take him to something that might help teach him how to move his body in the water (since he did not like to be held in the water at all). Well, what a surprise to me when the class was for children ages 1-3 to get them acclimated to the water. I was pretty embarrassed that my child was the only one that was splashing around and getting all of the scared three-year-olds soaked! I almost took him out of the class halfway through, but decided that I wasn't giving up. I was actually able to learn a lot of good things. Most of what I learned were ways to hold him so that I could get him swimming on his back, jumping in the water, and paddling. All great things to know.

I keep forgetting to take my camera to the YMCA, but eventually, I have to have a picture of my little one swimming like a fish. He does wear a Nemo life jacket, but his arms and legs never quit! It's an amazing site!

What are the chances that baby #2 is going to take to the water like Matthew did?