Farm to table: Moore style

Last year for Earth Day, I went into Sam's class and helped with a seed planting project.  The students planted cucumber, cantaloupe and tomato seeds. They got to take these plantings home, plant them in their yard and hopefully have a harvest during the summer.  We also went to a local restaurant's garden and planted tomato plants for the restaurant to use in it's dishes. Well, I was floored by how many kids could not grasp this idea and had never had the opportunity to grow something.  They REALLY didn't know that it was possible to do this in their own back yard.

And, as you all know, (all 4 of you who may read this) our move last May took us from a residential neighborhood to a farm-type environment.  We're on about 4 acres, but believe me, this home has made us feel like we're on a 100+ acre working farm. Last summer, we got our first taste of growing our own fruits and veggies and the luxury of farm-fresh eggs.  It was great being able to run outside and see what there was for us to eat that day! We really feel so fortunate to have this wonderful experience for Sam and Lily!

So for 2014, I'm getting them involved in the whole process of growing a garden full of things that we love to eat.  We made a list of what veggies we want to grow, I researched the planting and germinating times and have now turned my office into a seed sprouting operation!

These are the first seeds that we planted.  We have several more veggies, but Mr. Farmer's Almanac says to start with these.

We set up shop on the kitchen table and got down to business.

We gave the seeds a happy home in my sunny office....

and lo and behold...look what we already have, just one week later!!! 

Putting our green thumbs to the test~

Laurie

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Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and I'm still a slow-poke!!!

 Well, the holidays have come and gone and what a wonderful break it was! The kiddos were out of school for almost a month and we were able to fit a lot of fun family times into those days!  Still recovering from my foot surgery, (have finally been able to start light exercise this week!), I was still moving around pretty slow, but that didn't keep the fun away.

We kicked the break off with making and decorating cookies.  Sam and Lily always love this and they were very delish!

Does this batch make you smile or what?!?!

My family came to celebrate the weekend before Christmas!  Sam and Lily love having all of their "Givens" cousins under one roof!

Some of John's family comes over for a Christmas Eve and Christmas morning celebration! And once again, I barely have any pictures to show.  This is Sam and Lily before the Christmas Eve service.

And the Christmas morning walk!

It was so fun to decorate the new house! 

We headed up to our cabin for New Year's Eve, then onto Chattanooga to celebrate a late Christmas with all of John's family.  I felt lucky that we got to stretch Christmas out to a 3 week celebration!

Zac is a great traveler except for one thing...he somehow thinks he's a lap dog.  And whose lap does he tend to sit in?  Well, let's see...

2013 was a great year full of some wonderful changes for our family!  We are so excited to see what lies ahead in 2014!

Happy~

Laurie