Wednesday, January 28, 2015

As I Promised

The other day I promised to take a picture of the progress of my onion seeds,well I took the picture as promised, but forgot to post yesterday. So, here's a picture....look closely and you'll notice nothing has changed....12 days later and still no sprout in sight. Oh well, this is a gardener's life and patience is key,but I have to be honest...it's so hard to be patient when other seeds have sprouted....do you feel the same way when you're starting seeds,or is it just me?

Monday, January 26, 2015

The Emergence

Excitement has begun for me after finding this in the egg cartons over the weekend. If you look closely, you'll see two adorable broccoli sprouts in the photo,however there are actually three sprouts,but I couldn't get all the sprouts in the picture. The sprouts actually took 8 days to emerge,and I'm ready to get these bad boys ready for the garden. Now, I'm still waiting for the onions to sprout;I'm not exactly sure how long it'll take for the onions to emerge,hopefully this coming weekend I'll see some sprouts. Tomorrow I'll post the pictures of what my onion carton looks like...until then....happy seed starting everyone!

Monday, January 19, 2015

A Day Fit For A King

Happy MLK Day to everyone! I had to find a song and video that highlighted what this man and the Civil Rights Movement continues to mean to me. Dr. King stood for something that was bigger than himself and was willing to give his life for the movement.For his sacrifice and the many others before and after him, I am eternally grateful.

-peace-

Friday, January 16, 2015

My First Seed Starts of 2015

Just put some onion and broccoli seeds,in some egg cartons to get a jump start on the gardening season. I'll update later on about my progress and until then....welcome to the garden season!

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Lavender

'Grosso' Lavender
Add caption
My astrological sign is Gemini and supposedly the plant that is most like a Gemini is lavender.  I'll take that....I love the smell of lavender!  Of course this isn't set in stone,it was something fun and interesting I found online, and I'm sure another site would say something else, but nonetheless it was fun and interesting. Sorry, I don't remember where I found the site,but I wanted to share my info.

Daydreaming

Here I sit inside my home on a cool January day dreaming about my spring garden. I'm daydreaming about raking back the old autumn leaves that lay on top of my small backyard garden. I wonder what will be revealed. Will the soil still be holding a lot of nutrients from the fall garden or will I need to amend the garden a little or a lot? Will the soil be rich and loamy and plant ready or will there be pockets of the garden that's compacted and not yet ready to nourish tender roots.

These are just a few of my thoughts about my garden space as I come into the new gardening season, I wonder not only about what to grow for the season, but I wonder about my soil. What are you thinking about as you enter a new gardening season?

Thursday, January 8, 2015

Warmth and Turkey Stock

Brrrrrrr.....it's cold outside....and when it's freezing....and a turkey carcass is sitting in your fridge,then stock should be made. Making stock is an excellent additional way to help heat up my home and it smells incredible too.I didn't add all the extras like: garlic,carrots and onions this time,but the smell was still amazing because the turkey I cooked earlier in the week was well seasoned,and I believe the little pieces of meat left on the bones  actually seasoned  the stock.  If you've never made your own stock or broths,I highly recommend it. D.I.Y.ing it is very cost-effective on a family budget and beats the flavor of anything you buy at the supermarket.If you would like to try making your own stock try this recipe www.marthastewart.com/332746/turkey-stock.               

Monday, January 5, 2015



What Vegetable Are You?
Spinach You are well accomplished in your field and are sufficiently secure and proud of your individuality. You think about alleviating the pain and sufferings of mankind. You wish that people who waste their time talking about Joel Stein raised their voices and acted against the banes of our society such as, illiteracy, hunger, poverty, war, torture, which are prevalent even after so much advancement in science and technology
Facebook quizzes & Blog quizzes by Quibblo

Day 9 - LES BROWN - Self Commitment

Wow,Les Brown is such a great motivational speaker! Just listening to this speech has made me think about making a true commitment to this gardening blog of writing on a more consistent basis, and I also want to commit to myself that I will stretch my mind, and my spirit with future endeavors in my life.

As a person, who is a wife, mother of five and a former child care provider, I know I love taking care of people, watching them grow and helping to just plain educate when I can, and today besides committing myself to this blog, I want to commit myself to fulfill my dream of becoming a Doula.

I've spent many years being a committed wife, mother,and child care provider-- now I fee the time is right to step out and do something new. I haven't been a child care provider in 4 years;I decided to step away from a particular client(hated to do it,but it needed to be done),and thought I'd take a break to expand on my hobbies (which I did), and to spend more time with my kids. Believe it or not, just because you're running an at home business doesn't mean that you're going to be at every soccer game, Girl Scouts group meetings or just taking your kids to that Friday night $1 movie that all of y'all planned on seeing. Well, maybe some people who work from home could, but when I was a child care provider, there were some after school  activities and organizations that my children couldn't participate in because a client would be late or needed extended hours for whatever reasons at the last minute.

So, as you can see, things can get pretty unpredictable in that line of work at times, and when you have your own children who want to do after school stuff and can't because I'm making money.....and my client is relying on me for child care, then sometimes your kids can't do certain thing, so when I had to part ways with a client,I decided to focus on supporting the activities my children wanted to do.

My kids got involved with the scouting,soccer, chorus, a running group and many other clubs, and I also  found myself being able to attend a lot more field trips. I've always been involved with their education and tried to participate at the school as much as I could;however, not having the responsibility of another person's child on my shoulders while I'm trying to be fully engaged with my child's passions and hobbies has been a relief for me over these past 4 years.

Now that my children are older: one a freshman in college,two in high school(freshman and sophomore), a 7th grader, and a 5th grader, I think it's time for me to make a commitment to myself to finally try something a little bit different(work wise),that will combine my passions of working with young families, being frugal,health and green living all together. So today, I make a commitment to work towards becoming a birth and postpartum doula.

I want to help empower women about birth and their bodies(and be that support, if they don't have any), and I'd love to help my clients settle in as new parents to one child or help them through the process of moving from one child to two. I want to help show a young family how they can live off of one income (if they so choose);I would love to teach a new mom how to wrap her baby, how to keep her breast from becoming engorged, and how to eat healthy without breaking the bank.

At the start of the New Year, I didn't make any New Year's Resolutions because sometimes I don't do them at all and other times I start it, but don't finish it through the year.So, here  I am today ready to say, I SELF COMMIT! I commit to my career goals in the future and I commit to this blog, agreenhaven.blogspot.com. 

What will  you be committing to this year and why?

Friday, January 2, 2015

Happy New Year

Welcome to 2015 and Happy New Year to everyone! I would've posted something yesterday,but I was out with the family at the movies and out to dinner. How did you spend Jan 1, 2015?