~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~
Every Thursday, here at Like Mother, Like Daughter!
{pretty, happy}
My sister-in-law found herself sitting on a runway in Oklahoma City when her flight to another city was diverted there to refuel because of storms. She texted us: “How far are you from here?” and when we offered to pick her up, she talked the flight attendants into rolling up a set of stairs, and she just hopped off the plane right there on the tarmac. How cool is that?
(No, I'm not nostalgic at all for pre-kid air travel. Why do you ask?)
And how fortunate for us — we don't often have family just drop by with an hour's notice. We could get used to it!
The kids are always ready to cooperate for a spontaneous family photo.
{funny}
Habou sent Pippo a big book about insects, which he has been poring over in ever such comfortable positions. He's also been plying me with interesting facts about wasps and scorpions. (And goodness knows I love talking about bugs, especially scorpions. Thanks, Habou.)
I asked my handsome assistant to step in to provide some scale for this massive tomato plant growing in our kitchen box, because it's proving very difficult to capture its size on camera. But it's just one plant! The ones we planted in the actual garden got rather drowned in the flooding and are now only about a foot tall. But this one, which we unceremoniously plopped into the dirt, has turned into quite the monster.
I'm still hoping it might bear fruit for us, though so far no luck. Lots of blossoms, but they don't seem to be amounting to much. I wonder if it's just too hot? It seems otherwise happy, obviously.
{real}
(She's trying to decide here what she thinks about firecrackers.)
We managed to make it through four and a half years of parenting without having to take a kid to the emergency room or urgent care, but our streak is emphatically over. In the last month, we've had a dislocated shoulder, a possible concussion, and a broken foot. To top it off, (and I'm sure this has nothing to do with all the time we've spent in doctors' offices in the last few weeks) we've managed to pick up what the doctor told me is one case of strep throat and one of hand, foot, and mouth disease.
Oof.
It's been quite a run. But I'd be ok if this were our last hurrah.
[inlinkz_linkup id=543645 mode=1]
Moira says
Rosie, for the tomatoes, they probably have too much water. We are in Illinois, and we have been getting a ton of rain. Have you all?
I wouldn’t water them at all and see what happens. The year my tomato plants did the best is the year I forgot to water them. I noticed plants like a good soaking, and then they like a period of drought to really flourish. Hope that helps 🙂
~Moira
Rosie says
The box is protected by the overhang, so it doesn’t get as much water as the rest of our yard when it rains. But that being said, we have definitely got a lot of rain lately, so it’s possible this plant has still gotten more water than it’d like. I’ll make sure it has a chance to dry out a bit.
Laura says
Sometimes spontaneous visits from family are the BEST!
My boys love any and all books with insects too.
Our copy of “Curious George” looks a lot like yours – crumples and all.
Chere Mama says
I really like your family picture over the water! Good luck with the insects! My son’s obsession was “big diggers”. We stopped for bulldozers, tractors, you name it. At one time I knew all the names, even the obscure ones! His favorite movie was one of pure genius by some dad out there. The whole thing was the answer to a question by a little boy at the beginning: “I wonder how they really build roads?” And then they brought in all the machinery and showed you. It was a hoot!
Rosie says
Nothing has educated me in truck and train (and now, bug) terminology like having a little boy!
Wanda says
Oh I’m so sorry about the breaks and illness! My youngest broke a foot at 2 years of age as well:(((. It is hard to tell from your picture which direction your “little” tomato plant is facing, but perhaps it needs more sun light? Plants that blossom and then fruit usually need 6-8 hours of sun/ day. Calmly retreating now back into my chair with coffee:)))))
Blessings!!!
Rosie says
Hmm… well, it faces west, and is definitely in the least sunny part of our yard. (We hadn’t really intended to plant tomatoes there – just plopped an extra plant in the box when it was left over!) It does still get quite a bit, but maybe it’s just not enough.
Melissa D says
We’ve had lots of rain in ATL and my tomatoes have barely fruited. I did water them once with a mild epsom salt solution (1 TBS in a gallon of water) to help them flower more with a magnesium boost, which helped. And if you don’t see many pollinators, you can sort of shake the bush or its supports to fling the pollen around and help them pollinate. The lack of butterflies and bees in my garden that is explicitly planted to host them is really worrying this year. Am I the only one?
My cucumber vines are as big or *smaller* than when I planted them. WHY.
For your tomato, maybe you could clip off some of the taller branches and try to root them by themselves, and I read that picking off the suckers (the little leafs that form in the crotch between fruiting/flowering branches) helps, too.
Rosie says
Poor cucumbers! Most of our garden is a wash (literally) from all the rain – it drowned nearly everything we planted this year, and some of our perennials from last year, too! So sad.
Lisa G. says
Maybe the tomato could use a bit of potassium? See what you’ve got around the house. Years ago when my brother was getting busier and finding it harder to do the gardening, he put some tomato plants in pots, but still had some in the garden. The potted ones got much larger than the garden ones. So, they seem to do well in containers, size-wise.
Too bad about your children having so many medical things. Maybe, as you say, it all happened at once and things will be calm now.
Annie says
Sorry about all the ER visits! No fun (although Molly sure seems to be enjoying herself!)
My gardener friend recommends aggressive pruning (everything below 18 inches) to make the fruit more abundant- it worked for me. Of course, then you’ll have a LOT of tomatoes to process…
Rosie says
I think we’ll try this. So far our harvest has been one (1) tiny tomato, from one of our poor (but persistent, apparently) drowned plants. And at this point, it looks like that will be it unless something changes!
Mary says
Your kids make a hospital trip look fun. hehe I’m sure it wasn’t at all.
I love the family pictures. The views are incredible.
Saiorse says
My dear friend had 2 of her 3 kids break their arms in the first week of summer. She threatened to ban the third from moving for a bit there!! We had a lovely streak of no ER visits broken by my son managing a concussion – not whilst playing Lacrosse but rather from slipping on a wet running board while wearing cleats. He is rather unimpressed with the order to be still for 7-10 days. I am equally unimpressed.
Rosie says
Oh my, I don’t blame her! I’m tempted to invest in a padded room addition to our house, myself…
Leila says
Saiorse, keep him as still as you can — the second concussion is deadly! But recovering from one is fine. Just a little more time now…
Mary says
So sorry about the ER visits! I feel like I’m going to jinx myself but we have five boys and in eleven years of parenting haven’t had to make an ER trip yet. I’m just waiting for the day because it really doesn’t make sense.
Love the impromptu visit! That looks like so much fun!
Rosie says
Oh wow, that’s very impressive. Hope you keep it up!
kayleen says
Oh no! I’m so sorry about hand, foot, and mouth disease the most! We had that last year and it. was. awful. I think two of my kids had a particularly nasty strain because they were so miserable!
I am crazy about that picture from behind of you looking over the water. So pretty pretty!
Rosie says
Oh, poor them! Thankfully, it hasn’t been too bad over here. I know it can be miserable!
CLJ says
Rosie, I LOVE the red shoes you are sporting in the family photo! What brand are they? (Couldn’t tell from the picture of your beautiful family!) I have three children (2 boys and one girl) born within months of your own, except my oldest is a year younger than Pippo. We have never been to the ER or Urgent Care yet, but it seems highly unlikely that this could be the case for long! Hope all of your sweet little people feel better soon!
Rosie says
Thanks, I love them too! They’re Salt Water sandals – they’re cute and comfortable and make me feel a little bit like a 7-year-old girl in the best possible way. I haven’t been this happy with a pair of shoes in a long time.
Anastasia says
I love the family picture too, and the salt water sandals! My favorites. Here is to good health returning and staying for a good long visit.
Woman of the House says
So sorry about Molly’s foot and all the other mishaps! I hope you have some smooth sailing for awhile now. 🙂
Emily says
Oh, I am so sorry about the broken foot! I made it almost 33 years without breaking a bone, and I managed to trip on a toy and break my foot 10 days ago (and re-broke it yesterday in the 5 minutes I was out of the boot all day). It’s the first broken bone in our family, and I’ve been feeling very sorry for myself, but this is a good reminder that it would be even harder to keep my kids off their feet for 4-6 weeks.
And I can totally relate to the way little boys pore over books and inhale the facts therein. Most recently, my son has internalized all of a book about baseball (while I will happily go to games as a family, I don’t want to know about the batting averages of players in the 50s) and another on types of aircraft (my interest in airplanes is, I admit, lacking, being limited to how fast they can take me home to visit my parents). I’m thinking on this week’s trip to the library, I need to send him over to the nature section so that he’s memorizing something more substantive!