2021 in Review

Y'all! Hiiiiiii! Enough is enough already.  I hope to be back in this space more regularly - shooting for twice a month, but at the very least once a month (is that timeframe considered regular??) Anyway, I've been reflecting back at 2021, so thankful for our blessings, for our health, family, and even for the hard stuff.  That being said, I do sorta hope that 2022 is less eventful! 

A look back at the highlights of each month....

January: we got to fly to visit Grandma and Grandpa (and Aunt, Uncle, and cousins too) in Barrington, IL.  And also SNOW!

Henry is 17!

Happiest of birthdays to my Henry.  Henry, everything you do, you do you do BIG.  If it catches your interest you go all in.  I love your tenacity and hard working approach to what you take on, whether it's audio engineering, harmonica, morse code, Rubik's Cube, Braille, or mastering the perfect grilled cheese sandwich (three types of cheeses, honey, and occasionally some ham).  I love your sense of humor, and I love your tender heart.  I love YOU big, kiddo.

(This year's cake was homemade lemon with lemon cream cheese frosting.)

The Summer of the Burger

Granted it’s nothing out of the ordinary to have a burger every week, but it has been a really fun (new) summer tradition for us to grill burgers on Saturday nights. We try and go with a different theme every week, often copycatting our favorite burgers from Red Robin and Whataburger. Every week Havalah preps all the veggies, I do the sauces, and Jon grills the burgers. We usually pick some variety of french fry to bake as a side to round out that restaurant feeling. 

Some of our favorite toppings (besides the traditional tomato and lettuce )include:

•grilled onions & mushrooms (w/ Swiss)

•pineapple marinated in a copycat Red Robin teriyaki (w/ provolone)

•guacamole (w/ cheddar or provolone)

•refried beans topped with a crushed tortilla chip (w/ cheddar) This one is another copycat recipe from a burger place in San Antonio.

•peanut butter (this sounds SO weird, I know, but trust me) (w/ cheddar or provolone)

•crispy onion straws or oven baked onion rings (w/ bleu cheese)

•pimento cheese w/ extra veggies

I often have my burger on gf (oven toasted) bread - which is just as yummy as the traditional bun (this was a hard switch for this burger bun loving girl, but it really is good)!

Basically the taller the burger the better 😋

My garden, summer 2021

Ahhh, the gardening highs and lows. I think this year I ended up having more highs than lows??? Ever since my friend, Whitney, suggested keeping a garden journal I've been able to keep track of what works, what doesn't, and what I'd like to try going forward. See last year's garden update here. 

What worked:  My pots turned out well this year.  I figured out which annuals like both pots and full sun (vincas and begonias were the real heroes), and relied heavily on colieus, and elephant ears. (A few weeks ago, a neighbor gave me around 20 elephant ears, which ended up being exactly what I needed to give the pots some height.)  I tried to follow Joanna Gaines' tip which was to have a thriller, filler, and spiller in planters.

This was my second go around with the Loofah plant.  Last year I dipped my toes in this process, and got a few small fruit, this year I'm on track to have quite a few.  What will I do with all of them? I have no idea, haha.  Let me know if you want some seeds!

I also moved my wildflower garden from the front beds to the one right off our bedroom in the back of the house.  Although I love seeing the zinnias when I pull into the driveway, by mid summer the bed looked pretty ragged.  So the Zinnias, Queen Anne's Lace, Cosmos, and a few others I don't know the names of, are all in the back yard now.  

This was also my first year doing cucumbers and basil.  I planted pickling cucumbers, which as it turns out, aren't as good for snacking.  Basil was easy and fun.

This was also my first year with Caladium bulbs. I purchased 75 of them from the local garden club and they've been a great, leafy filler.  It'll be fun to see if they come back next year, or if I need to put new ones in.

What didn't work: I lost a LOT of perennials after the Texas freeze.  Last fall I had planted nearly 40 flax lilies, and all but a handful were lost.  Also not thriving are all my citrus trees.  They've started sprouting, but a friend said not to count on the fruit being nearly as good.  Something to do with the trees coming from a graft, and the sprout coming up from below the graft.  So, I feel like I'm losing time waiting to see what happens there.  My gut says to bite the bullet and buy all new trees...but...I haven't done that yet.  Stay tuned 😜

Also I wished that we had put down mulch last spring.  I am outside watering 2-3 times a day to keep things alive.  By this point in the summer I'm kinda over that.  When we lived in the Seattle area we had a big truck load of bark mulch delivered, but with that mulch came carpenter ants.  Quel nightmare.  We called the local place (here) and asked about ants, and were told that it would probably happen again, and to be ready to spray the mulch.  Ugh.  Anyway. I love the look of mulched gardens SO MUCH, plus all the water retention benefits.  We'll see what happens. 

the silver licorice plant took off this year

Five Happy Things - late summer edition :)

Hey hi! I'm coming off a wonderful week having had my sister, Mary Beth, in town. I think we covered all our bases including doubling up on Tex Mex, shopping, and talking about how much we miss each other, hahaha.  But seriously.  It was so nice to have her here and get to hug her neck.  

We made the drive to Waco for a quick visit...starting things off at Magnolia Table.  Avo toast for MB, light breakfast for H (toast, avocado, tomatoes and an egg), and breakfast taco and cold brew for me.