Blue Bird Beauty

Blue Birds remind me of my Grandma Marge. I saw two at her celebration of life on the fountain and ever since then I think of her when seeing another. This one came to my front window on Mother's Day, then again yesterday for MeKenzei's Birthday.

Couldn't have picked two more perfect times to appear

He is super quick though and hard to get photos of. I hope he keeps coming by. He has a friend just like the Wood pecker and I can't seem to get photos of both at the same time.

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Spring Garden Success

I was very nervous having a garden this Spring. Last spring we had so much rain that it did terribly. This spring the rains came again somehow we have been spared with the damage too much water can cause.

Bell peppers and squash are finally coming in, it is very exciting.

Too much rain did mean we lost the potato plants, so our crop wasn't great but it was enough to probably turn all these into seed potatoes and start again.

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Purex Fresh BlueBonnet Detergent Coupon Giveaway

Being a resident in Texas means that spring time is Bluebonnet season. Purex has joined the excitement with this new detergent. I love the scent of this bottle of Purex Fresh Bluebonnet Detergent. It truly reminded me of laundry as a child that was brought in after being hung all day on my grandmother's clothes line outside. It has a fresh scent and is not overpowering scent wise. This is truly important to my family.

We have some laundry obstacles in our house, one is the large amounts of rain we get here in Texas, that means a crazy amount of wash due to dogs and the mud created outside from all this wet weather. It also means I tend to wash a large amount of bedding as well. There is nothing worse than the smell of wet dog.

Of course my daughter may beg to differ as this boys gym clothes are pretty ripe. I am pleased to say that I ran both a load of towels and his gym clothes and you would never know how bad they smelled before. They came out clean, smelling fresh and it really met our needs.
Now about this giveaway. Currently Purex Fresh Bluebonnet detergent can be purchased here in Texas at HEB locations through participating stores. I have a couple of coupons to giveaway for those who would like to enter. The entries are simple and the contest lasts a week.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

All opinions are my own and I was provided a coupon to purchase my own bottle of detergent to provide this review. This is in no way related to Blogger, facebook or any other social media.

The winner will be contacted by email and mailed a coupon for purchasing of the new Fresh Bluebonnet Detergent.

Spring Summer Gardening

Last spring/summer we tried to put in a garden like normal and it did so poorly because we had such massive amounts of rainfall for days on end. Its tough to get a good crop if they are over watered. This year we have had some rain, but not quite so bad. We are also trying new crops like cilantro. We use quite a bit of cilantro, so I would really like to perfect this one.

Radishes are a plant that we grow every year, a little selfishly I might add. I am the only one that likes them. One issue we had this year is that it rained so close to planting the seeds that they are not quite deep enough to get the big full radish that I typically see. I hope to purchase some more seeds for a second and third batch. They grow pretty well here.

Cabbage is another new one. I haven't quite figured this one out yet. I saw that a friend from church was growing this last year so I wanted to give it a try. It seems to take quite a while to create the center cabbage head that you purchase at the store.

Potatoes are doing amazing. I want to try these outside of the garden in some bin type areas. It seems they love to grow really tall and we keep mulching part way up, one issue with having them in the garden is they provide too much shade to crops near by.  It is a good lesson.

Spinach hasn't done as well as I would have hoped, it is another new crop. We typically don't do too much in the spring time. I find that it keeps having issue with yellowing leaves, from too much rain fall. Next time we might have to add more sand so the soil drains more.

We eat a lot of Kale in soup. I am excited to see it really taking off. We have two varieties. The seed that we planted is not quite as big as these plants we purchased. It also has a purple leaf compared to this.

I am not a big fan of brussel sprouts. I do admit I have not had them as an adult. I do like cabbage so we are trying these out. My husband loves them. 

I absolutely love broccoli. We have two varieties this year. I love that I can finally see the flower part of it starting. I need to research and see if anything can be done with their enormous leaves. I know with the radish leaves we use them as rabbit food. They love them.

Of course I can't help but plant peppers and tomatoes. We planted quite a few varieties of each this year. I purchased Paul a few helpful items between Christmas, Anniversary and Valentines Day. We now have a newer canning system, dehydrator and I am working on a vacuum seal machine. I want to start making our own salsas to can and freeze, as well as things like spaghetti sauce etc. We are learning that our younger two do much better health wise when I cook more of our meals from scratch.

Squash is always something we start from seed. We have done really well in the past. This year we planted four different types. It is my favorite lunch during the summer. It is awesome to go out to the garden and pick a squash, some peppers and a tomato to cook up and eat over some rice or pasta.

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