Our Garden..a labor of love!

And what labor of love it is! Okay, this is our first garden, and we are learning! But I promised myself I would try my best to take care of our garden and water the plants and veges...I am known to forget about watering sometimes..soooo. After my dh build this wonderful garden, I am determined to make this work! Off to the land of growing our own vegetables and fruits, organically. So far, it has been a blast. The girls absolutely enjoy it. Next project, finishing the landscaping and building a compost bin.

Worms... Adding the good guys!

Well, this is our new garden! I really love it. We added some worms to the garden a few days ago and the girls loved this project. We had fun learning all the benefits of all the "good" and "beneficial" insects and so-called wiggly creatures that we can add to our garden to help us make the soil so rich and full of nutrients. Hopefully, with time, they will come on their own. But for now, we will have to help out some. We also added some worm castings ( worm poop! ) molasses and something called Anti Fuego for some fire ants I have already discovered. This stuff is comprised of molasses, orange oil and humate ( poop and organic matter ) that is a soil conditioner, but also organically, and safely deters those little guys out of there. Next stop, adding beneficial nematodes ( good microscopic worms that feed on the bad guys ) and just helping enrich the soil.. Ants usually like soil that has no nutrients, so the richer the soil gets, less ants we will see.
We placed the worms on the soil and then covered them up so they would not get burned by the sun the next day..we did find one little friend dried up the next day ( I think we forgot to cover him up since we were doing this and it was getting dark out!
We also had fun picking wild blackberries in our own backyard! They grown so well in Texas you can usually see them growing along fences and in pastures. What a fun day...

Prosphoras...

I am posting these pictures of my parents prophoras..this is a bread that you get in church and you usually place a writing of names of people you would like to remember who have passed and who you pray for who are still living. The names are read in the altar and the priest uses some of this bread for communion. We eat this bread at the end of service and usually cross yourself before you eat it. My parents volunteer to make this bread for church and it really is a simple bread, but takes lots of effort to make. You can tell how beautiful they came out and my parents really do put a lot of work,love and prayer into making these!
Enjoy the pics....

Christ Is Risen!

Indeed He Has Risen!! Joyous Easter! We had a wonderful Easter this year and this time we spent the night at a hotel after church ( which ended at 4 am ) and headed there to celebrate. The girls were out for pretty much the morning service so they slept in the car until we had communion. My hubby had to go on a trip so we got a hotel that was close to the airport and so we had a chance to get some rest before his early flight....
This year I went all out..I made Kulich ( sweet traditional Easter bread ), Paska ( sweet cheese spread ) Piroshki ( little stuffed bread ) and Olivyee ( Russian salad )...I did these in steps this week so I would not get burnt out closer to Easter. Years past, I did these on the day before or day of midnight service, which ends up crazy and me feeling so tired...this was the way to go. I made the Kulich on Monday and placed in in the freezer until Friday night. I made the Paska on Wednesday so it had time to let the water come out of the cheese. And the Olivyee and piroshki on Friday. We also decorated eggs on Friday. I went to work on Saturday and shortly after I came home, we got off to church. Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!
Blessings this year!

The Path to Sustainability!

Yeah! We decided to place in a garden..two by the way..one small and another large. My hubby did such a great job building both of these. These pics were done a couple weeks ago so I will post the new garden with actual vegatables aready growing. It looks amazing and we are having so much fun with it. The backyard looks great. My husband did some major landscaping work and I had lots of fun finding the right flowers ( the easy ones that don't die so easily! )

Farm Day!!

We went to Sand Creek Farm located in Cameron,TX. They have a once a month farm day and we had a blast! We made butter, picked eggs from the free roaming hens, saw piglets, tried some delicious raw milk from the grass fed cows, tried some yummy Gouda cheese and had a tour of the farm on a horse drawn ride. The family that owns the farm decided moving to a farm after their first child was born. They wanted to raise their girls ( they have 4 now and one on the way! ) on the farm and learn how to be Stuart's of their land. I could not help and notice how special this family was and see how these girls will grow up one day and really be able to survive anything! They have planted their own gardens on the farm, helped with planting the new crop of potatoes and help milk some cows! I would love this lifestyle at a much smaller scale. Sort of the Little House on the Prairie in me..but, I surely do not have a green thumb..I can't even grow herbs and sometimes forget to water my own plants...but my, would I love to learn how. Here is our much eventful day...

The horses ...

Some of the milking cows..

Here we are picking the eggs.. some eggs had a double yolk and were very large.

My dad shaking the cream into butter!




They had three dogs on the farm, the smallest one named Lucy, happened to be the most energetic and thought she was a bit bigger than she really was..nipping at the cows to get out of our way on the ride..

Here is my dad and you can see Lucy here ( she is the black dog ).

We did leave with some raw milk ( so good and good for you too! ) Gouda cheese, Kefir, organic maple syrup, and we made sure to get some raw milk ice cream :) Enjoy!

My Store...

Cloud 9 Baby, is the name of our store. We have a natural parenting store and sell cloth diapers, baby carriers, organic products and products that are either sustainable or made in the USA. What I love about the store is that I believe in the products we sell...what I love most about having the store? Meeting my customers. I have met such wonderful people it has made coming to work here a joy. I have bonded and even cried with other mothers. To the many laughs I have had and the touching stories. To picking up a warm hug from a customer's child...my customer's have become in a way, friends that I look forward to see. I love hearing about their families,what they have been up to, and what their plans are. I realize and have always realized... we are all people that have a story. The story of our lives make us the people who we are. And to my customers..many thanks for making this store so wonderful to come to...it makes it so, worthwhile.