Back to School... or should I say, "Back to Home"?

Or 'Back to the Basement'?! Regardless of how you say it, it is that time of year once again-- time to get back on a schedule and start hitting the books... Summer is on it's way out (not that I'll miss it's blazing heat and thunderstorms!) and I am looking forward to FALL!

I didn't take any of my typical first-day-of-school pictures with the girls-- however, these pictures of them cooking for our anniversary dinner happened to also fall on our first day, so I guess they will have to do.

Our 5th grader (with her apple pie):

Our 2nd grader (with her potato gratin's--recipe courtesty of The Next Food Network Star show winner!):

We are continuing with much of the same curriculum this year. Math for both girls stays the same but some new changes are taking place in grammar and vocabulary for Abbie, spelling for Emma and writing for both girls. Our core is again from My Father's World and we will be starting in our 1st year of a 4 year cycle of world history. This year we will be studying history from "Creation to the Greeks". Because of the time period covered in this curriculum, we will naturally be focusing quite a bit on Biblical history as well as many of the traditions and celebrations of the Jewish people. Part of our 'hands on learning' will include preparing and participating in the Jewish holiday and holy day celebrations such as Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkoth, Passover and Purim.

(Notice the happy look on Michael's face that I'm taking a picture of people at the table! My mom will be proud!)

Our first Jewish tradition to celebrate was the Sabbath. Fortunately, we have a book that details all of the preparations and prayers that are a part of this event. We didn't have a typical Jewish meal (no gefilte fish for us, thanks!) but we did bake homemade challah bread and make potato latkes (which we do enjoy!). While it felt a little awkward because it was our first time and we didn't exacly have a feel for the flow of the events, it was definitely an interesting experience to see all of the detail and symbolism that goes into a weekly celebration. We were all really ready to eat by the time we got through all the ceremony!!

(The challah loves and covering made by the girls)

In other news, the garden is still producing tomatoes by the basketful. I've canned a total of 7 quarts of marinara sauce and 4 pints of salsa... and now I'm just putting tomatoes in the freezer (because I've decided that the whole sauce making/canning thing is just too time consuming now that we're back in school!!). Here are a few more pictures...

I've decided that pioneer life was certainly much harder than I've ever imagined-- it took me ALL DAY to make my few quarts of sauce. I'm certainly glad my family's survival through the winter is not dependent upon my gardening and food storage preparations!!

A bountiful harvest...finally!!

We've had moderate success with our little garden this year. All of our carrots came up-- they were small-ish, tasted okay but turned soft within a day (Any expert opinions on the cause of this?).

We had a few zucchini before I gave up trying to win the 'battle of the squash bugs'. (Sorry, no pictures-- I totally thought we took some but I cannot find them!)

The sweet onions grew from green-onion size to about racquet-ball size. (Again, no pictures?!)

The banana peppers and jalapenos have done pretty well. We are still waiting on our first red pepper. The herbs and marigolds are also still thriving. The strawberry plant yielded a few berries.

And the tomatoes-- well, there are right around a billion of them on the three ENORMOUS plants that have outgrown their cages (which then had to be tied to the fence post to hold them up). The only 'problem' with the tomatoes is that they have all been green for just about forever. Someone told me that it has to be warm at night for them to ripen and since July had quite a bit cooler temps. than normal, I guess they were just taking their sweet time.

However, the 'ripening time' has finally arrived. Over the past two weeks, we've picked well over 75 tomatoes off of our plants! Woohoo!!

I made a big batch of homemade marinara sauce last week (using our tomatoes as well as our own onions and basil) and after making 2 lasagnas, had enough leftover to can these two quart jars (plus 1 pint that I gave away). I am extremely proud of my two jars!

The good news is that I think I have enough to make another big batch... and since I'm not making lasagna this week, I might even get 4 quart jars. It takes a LOT of tomatoes to make sauce!! I'm not sure we'd make it through a long winter with the fruits of our labors but it sure has been a fun learning experience for everyone.

Thank goodness we only live 5 minutes from Publix.

First fruits...

Per my mom's request, I am doing an update about our 'Square Foot Garden'.

After a late freeze killed off our first batch of tomato plants, we replanted and things are now growing nicely! We are excited to see our seeds sprouting, fruits forming and flowers blooming.

Here's a look at what's going on:

3rd Strawberry

Zucchini plant

1st tomato (Roma)

1st Phlox flower-- I can't believe it bloomed when it is barely more than a sprout!

Sweet onions

Carrots

Don't even THINK about it, Jake!!

Emma & Jake

The only thing that doesn't seem to be growing with any great speed are our basil seeds... I'm thinking the purchase of an already growing plant may be in order?? Or maybe it will take off once warm weather arrives for good? Who knows...

These are not from our garden but they fit with the fresh produce theme of this post... here are some pictures from our annual trek to Washington Farms to pick strawberries. We picked around 6 gallons this year and made our first venture into canning-- strawberry lemonade concentrate and strawberry vinaigrette! (Thanks, Heather, for the inspiration and thanks, Sara, for the instruction!!)

How does YOUR garden grow??!

The Timms family is beginning a new adventure-- a home garden! I've dabbled the past two years with containers of tomatoes and peppers and have decided to make the (small) plunge into a bona fide garden this year with my two assistants!

Bringing the water (please ignore the weeds!)

I decided to do a "Square Foot Garden" for several reasons: #1 it requires no tilling up of the hard Georgia clay and pulling out of Bermuda grass, #2 it requires no tilling up of the hard Georgia clay and pulling out of Bermuda grass, #3 it is supposed to be fairly maintenance free (other than watering), and #4 did I mention there was no tilling involved??!

Measuring the 'squares'.

In all seriousness, Square foot's claims of easy & practical gardening make a lot of sense and have a great appeal for someone who would rather do just about anything than pull weeds (or Bermuda grass)! My father-in-law graciously agreed to make the garden box for us and I chose a 4 ft x 4 ft square for our first try at real gardening.

16 squares ready for plants!

We planted several tomatoes, a few peppers (sweet & hot), some marigolds (to keep the bugs away from the tomatoes), a few phlox (from Emma's co-op class), carrots, herbs, sweet onions, one strawberry plant and one zucchini!

Our finished garden-- some seeds, some already started plants.

The girls are super excited about this so I hope that it goes well! I'm a little bit apprehensive about it but am willing to give it a try. Hopefully by mid summer we will be rolling in tomatoes and peppers and onions and will have all the salsa & spaghetti sauce we can manage! Perhaps then I'll have to learn the fine art of canning...

Dog protection! !!

(Although so far, he has surprisingly left it alone! Maybe I should plant veggies on my porch cushions and he won't chew them??!!)