End of May Garden Update

Abundant growth!

The tomato plants are producing, and the big sticks (along with some bamboo poles) are holding them up well so far. The hybrids have at least 6 green tomatoes per plant and the heirlooms have about 4 per plant.

A cluster of Big Beef tomatoes.

Swiss chard, carrots, mystery volunteer plant, curly lettuce, buttercrunch lettuce, and spinach. I've enjoyed three batches of steamed and buttered chard, several collections of spinach (for salads and soups), and SO MUCH LETTUCE that I've given away 3 full bags.

Big single zucchini. This thing's leaves are bigger than dinner plates and the leaf stalks are an inch thick. Wow!

4 butternut squash vines (with itty bitty baby butternuts on them!) - they're creeping around the zucchini now and I'm considering putting up a trellis for them to climb.

Cluster of 4 zucchini plants. From all of my plants combined, I collected 6 zucchini for grilling tonight - yippee!

Yellow beans and green beans - these now have baby beans on them.

This girl's got moves, yo!

While David folds cloth diapers on our bed, he introduces Teresa to Christian rapper Lecrae (via his iPhone). Our precious little girl busts out some new moves:

Honey Do lists work

So the day before he went back to work for 3 days straight, David asked me to make him a "honey do" list. I wrote down about 7 things, one of which was "look for camera and/or start making replacement plans." After a brief post-lunch rest, David PLOWED through that list. He was amazing. When he started the camera search, he decided to look in the hall closet. Therein hung his winter coat, which is certainly too warm for these days in Charlotte but not too warm for a cold night camping...the last time he wore it was in Virginia. Guess what he found in the pocket?

Our camera is back!!

Here are some pictures from the camping trip:

Hanging out with Aunt Shannon

Running away from Aunt Katy

Sampling camp food with Aunt Jenny

Riding with Papa for a hike

Snoozing in the tent

Missa Cantata slideshow

David trains the altar servers for the Latin Mass at our parish. He also serves as the Master of Ceremonies for the sung Mass, the Missa Cantata, when our pastor offers it a couple times a year. A photographer from our diocesan newspaper captured some great images of the last Missa Cantata, which celebrated the Ascension of the Lord one week ago today. It's currently playing as a sideshow on our diocesan website. I'll post it below as well - hopefully this video will remain after they remove it from the diocesan website main page.

Missa Cantata from David Hains on Vimeo.

The background singing is the schola. Don't you just love seeing the boys serving so reverently together?! And I'm very proud of my husband, who pretty much "runs the show" but deflects any praise that comes his way. He works so hard to put it together (as does the awesome schola) and everyone who enjoys attending and participating in the Missa Cantata is grateful.

Pictureless

I would like to post some updates but I am somewhat stymied by the loss of our camera. It wandered off somewhere between Hungry Mother State Park in Virginia (where we camped with family two weekends ago) and our home in Charlotte. Is it in the woods? In the little country church where we stopped for Sunday Mass before we returned to North Carolina? In the Subway where we grabbed a quick lunch? Or here in our house, packed away with camping gear?

We just don't know, and I am very sad. All those nice pictures from the camping adventure, and now all these recent photo opportunities missed. We have not yet decided how to proceed (search again? buy a nice new camera (dipping into savings)? buy the cheapest camera that will do the job?).

An expansion in our recycling services

I am so excited. Our county is expanding its recycling services! Some time in the next month we will get a new green rollout cart for our recyclables. Starting the first week of July, a truck will come to pick up those recyclables every other week.

Here's the best part (copied from the info website):

With the improved Recycle It! Program, you'll be able to recycle more items. In addition to the materials currently accepted in the recycling program, the City will begin accepting aerosol cans and all plastics except No. 6 in the recycling carts.

The following items will be accepted in the improved Recycle It! Program:

• Aerosol cans ^NEW!
• Aluminum
• Cardboard
• Glass
• Juice boxes ^NEW!
• Milk and juice cartons ^NEW!
• Paper
• Plastics 1-5 & 7 ^NEW!
• Spiral paper cans
• Steel cans

I have been eagerly awaiting the opportunity to recycle more of those pesky plastics. No more yogurt containers in the trash! And we drink a lot of milk and orange juice from cartons, so it will be nice to send those in for recycling, too. Go Mecklenburg County, North Carolina!!


Reminder: According to state law, plastic numbers 1 and 2 and aluminum should always be recycled and never discarded in the garbage.

Little bean

Teresa, that is. For the record, we took her to the doctor's office for a growth checkup this week. She was able to stand solo on the big scale this time - all 18 pounds of her. That means she's still in the 1st percentile for weight. But she IS growing, and this is the period (initial mobility) when little ones tend not to grow as much because they're burning so much energy learning to move. Our nurse practitioner told us she is no longer concerned.

Thanks be to God! I was dreading the possibility of having to take Teresa back to the gastroenterologist. But no, we just need to keep trying to stuff her face with all kinds of fatty things. :)

Age: 14.5 months
Weight: 18 lbs (1%)
Height: 30 in (45%)
Head: 18 cm (50%)

Cherry blossom photo shoot

That's what her cute little dress says, anyway!