Camping- Yes or NO!?

One thing that my family and I do enjoy is camping. My husband and I have been camping, well, we got engaged one week while camping with his family. So we have been camping together (separate tents!) since before we were married.

It was a small (3 small person) tent, we got that for one of our wedding gifts I think? Along with a lot of great camping equipment, like the pans and the dishes. Then when we camped for 2 or 3 summers and has a little mister along with us, we realized that sleeping on rocks was NOT comfortable, and we should get an air mattress! So, we upgraded. We also upgraded tents to a 2 room tent. I know, big time, right? Then when little mister #2 came along, we were a little more cramped. So little mister #3 meant, an upgrade was mandatory. SO we upgraded to the pop-up camper.

Oh yeah. We were big time. It was great not having to set up a tent anymore, and great to be able to sleep on a (thin) mattress! But, for me, even the pop-up has grown too small. There is NO room for anything. We now have a mister #4, and with all of our stuff, we are cramped. And it feels like living in my bedroom that I had growing up, you know there is enough space to walk and clothes and supplies EVERYWHERE ELSE.

SO that last 2 summers, my in-laws have been so wonderful as to let us use their pull behind camper. There aren't any bunks for the kids (which I would LOVE) BUT it is much better. We can actually put things away and I feel like things can be cleaned up. (I hate feeling like you just have to LIVE in chaos! Organized chaos is MUCH better!)

As part of camping, we like being able to go for lots of walks, bike riding (we live on a very busy road, so these are luxuries!), we like the camp fires and fishing. I like the chocolate left over from s'mores, so I can eat later... That's our secret! ;)

So, that is how we have been camping! Do you camp? DO you enjoy camping? Tell us a little about your camping!

Planting Seeds

2 weeks ago, you may remember I planted (for the first time) some seeds for flowers, so I don't have to spend tons of money landscaping this spring. After only 5 day, there was some seedlings coming up.

Here are my seedlings today:

Pictured on the left are Coneflowers and on the right are Shasta Daisies! I also have Phlox and Lavender coming up. Today (hopefully) I will be planting my tomato plants!!! I also have some chives and Marigolds I need to plant soon. I am also going to get some more things to plant for the garden, like melon plants, but not until later. This has been so fun. I check on them (the seedlings) several times a day, still water them twice with warm water, and I have not brought the plastic up so it isn't sitting right on the top of them, but still keeping them warm.

Early Planting

I posted a few weeks ago (here) about my plan to plant some flower and garden veggie seeds to (hopefully) get plants cheaper then having to buy them from a greenhouse.


Well, last Friday, I planted some of my flower seeds. I got an organic starting mix, and used my egg cartons. I ended up putting a heating pad under them (thanks Danielle!), and I put some desk lights on them (for more heat), and covered them with a clear plastic (like a drop cloth). In the past week, I have learned a lot. I have been spraying the seeds/dirt with warm water. I also place the plastic directly on top of the dirt, because the dirt was drying out quickly. My heating pad will only stay on for an hour at a time, which does not help keep them warm overnight, hence the desk lights. I keep those on all night.


Here they are, after I planted them:


And this is what I discovered this morning!


I was so excited. I thanked God that He actually helped me make this work! I now pray that I can continue to take care of these little guys, and help them grow big enough to plant and therefore save money!!! Last count this afternoon, I saw 3 little seedlings trying to come out, in less then a weeks time! I will be planting some garden plants like this in about 2-3 weeks!