Growing

We have been happily harvesting various lettuces, spinach, and onions from our garden for a few weeks now. This was our first garden ever, and I can't remember if I've mentioned it here before or not, but we have had the best time watching everything grow. In addition to the lettuce, onions, and spinach, we have carrots, various peppers and herbs, tomatoes, beans, peas, and cucumbers. We planted everything but the tomatoes from seeds, and the girls especially enjoyed watching things sprout early on.... now it is almost old news to them. The feeling that I get because I haven't had to buy lettuce at the grocery store for almost a month now will never get old to me. I am so excited about going out into my own back yard and picking tomatoes off our vines!! Yippeee... that'll make the home made red sauce that Scott has almost perfected even more delicious, I bet.

In order to make our two small little 4x4 square foot gardens grow, we have enlisted Ella's help with the watering. She does great except when she turns the hose on her sisters. As a result, Kate is now afraid when Ella has the hose in her hands. Here she is helping with one of her daily chores.

I am also fascinated by how much this little lady has sprouted and grown lately! Really they all have, but I'm going to start a series of short posts with Ella because she came first.

Ella has recently become interested in spelling. The whole 'spelling things out when we don't want her to know what we're talking about' phase is coming to an end very, very soon, I fear. Often based on just the first letter she can guess what we're saying, or spelling rather. She knows so much more than I even imagined. As you can see in the pictures, she has recently acquired the very necessary skill of being able to use her crayons and other objects to spell out her name. I keep finding markers, crayons, and colored pencils in these little ELLA piles all over the house. For now I still think it is adorable.

Yesterday while we were resting on the couch together she looked at me and asked, "How in the world did God make me?" I told her that was a very good question and figured I might get away with that. A few minutes later she said, "Guess I'll just have to ask him that along with all kinds of other things when I get to heaven." Like I said, she is one smart cookie!