gardens, coupons, and an organized husband...

sooo, if you were a faithful reader, I am sorry about not blogging for a bit, we had a HUGE event in our family with my husband coming from deployment. Because of all of his leave saved up he was able to take off about 40 days before returning to work this week. It is fun to play happy housewife again, and have a husband that comes home daily...Life is so much richer now...

Though I have not been blogging I have stayed super busy....

My gardens are going strong, and I am amazed...

Here is my super thirsty vegetable garden (plus blackberries). My husband built this garden box for me last night to frame it.

Here is a red bush I put in the ground. The master plan is it to grow and cover the air conditioning unit. This year
I have been planting roses, and perennials, but now our focus is on landscaping.  My husband is going to make a stone patio around all of this.

cucumber flowers, We love cucumbers at our house. This year it looks like we are going to have a large crop.

eggplant flowers, eggplant Parmesan??

I have also started to really love to coupon, I will post pictures of my coupon organizer in a later post.
Here is what I got at Walgreen's today for $12.00 with coupons!!

my proud $12.00 stash.

 I love showing all of these deals to my husband...

brand loyal to this sunblock that sells between $12-13 each...With the sale at CVS, and coupons, I got each one for $5.

and on a final note, I take a lot of pride of always staying on top of laundry with our family of six.  I don't usually put my husbands clothes away, but today I wanted to get it all put away...I came to his shirt drawer, with my stack of "loosely" folded shirts, and found this...with my folding I could only get about half of those shirts in there...I am certain this is a by-product of him living on a submarine for six months...

so, with all of that said, it feels  great to be blogging again!!
Happy Thursday!!

root down...

 Four months in to our new home and routine since our big move from Hawaii to South Carolina, and I am starting to get cozy (a.k.a--home rabbit). I am sure the neighbors are tired of seeing me hop around the yard watering flowers in work out shorts, knee socks, and a signature hat, but that is how it rolls here until after lunch. The morning is spent homemaking, and everything that in entails, and then nap time, school time, workout time for me, and dinner prep which usually involves the children unless I am a frizzled mess, and want to get it made ASAP. My goal is teach my children how to do and make everything to sustain a comfortable life, even if the world is turned upside down, at least to  be able to survive, and hopefully thrive.

So to get to the basics of survival let us go to flower arranging..(insert tounge in cheek here)

This my first flower arrangement made from flowers in our yard, roses, and lavender. I have read the rules for flower arranging are...If the vase is tall the flowers should be twice as long as the length of the vase, if it is short it should be the length of the vase plus the width. In this I did neither, but useful knowledge anyway...Another note when working with cut flowers is to change the water frequently, and then sprinkle the water with salt. The salt will help preserve the life and beauty of your cut flowers...

With the lavender I also took off all of the leaves

they smell wonderful, and I am going to dry them. Lavender is a calming and lovely sent. I have heard it is best to dry them in a paper sack, but since I did not have any, I wrapped them in a paper towel and put them in a plastic bag in my pantry...When they are complete I plan on making little sachets, to place in my pantry and bra drawers...I will probably also make one for my little girls as well. Never to early to teach them the loveliness of being a lady.

Here are some more of my backyard friends from the left, tomato, kale, pansy, basil, rosemary, mint, and lavender (I also have oregano in my front bed as a ground cover). The tomatoes are doing well after a little sickness from water. Apparently you should cover the dirt with rocks or mulch, so when it rains the water does not splash on the leaves and cause fungus (so, I better get on that).  Also with the mint, I love to make tea. You dry it the same way you do with lavender, and then boil it in hot water to make fresh mint tea. I like to use a metal strainer in the pot, so the leaves don't go in the tea, but there are more sophisticated ways of doing this. Mint also likes take over the world, so I am going to be planting it in the ground soon, also another excellent ground cover...

Happy Saturday!