Fun in the Garden

Our garden is growing!! We have seen such a change in our little garden over the past few weeks. It has been warm here and our garden has loved it! We planted a little later than we originally intended, but it worked out perfect.

Last week Mark went out and picked fresh onions for us to enjoy at supper. They were so tasty! It's so fun knowing that we grew them and maintained them ourselves.

Our other veggies are still growing, so we are looking forward to having fresh cucumbers, beets, beans and turnips soon!

Beets

Cucumbers

Beans

Onions and turnips

The winds have been pretty gusty here over the past few weeks and a couple of our little bean and cucumber planted didn't make it. Mark worked hard to make a little wind barrier (an idea from Mark's sweet aunt and cousin) and they are doing great. I have never felt winds as strong as they are here in Southern Alberta! Crazy!

Our turnips were getting super thick so we thinned them a bit this week. We are also watching them closely for caterpillars and other little worms that tend to seek them out.

In other news, I went to a garage sale down the street this past weekend and picked up the cutest little plant holder for the front porch. Only $3! I made it my own by removing the original sign and adding a chalkboard that I already had. I love that I can write different little sayings on there now!

Hope that y'all are having a good week! It's in the 80's here this week, with a few days in the low 70's. How's that for summer temperatures?! I'm going to really have to adjust when I go home to Texas in 3 weeks!!!!

The Love of Teaching

I'm fairly certain that some people are just born to teach. It's something that you just have in you, built in and it never truly leaves you. Ever since I can remember I have wanted to be a teacher. Growing up, I was surrounded by teachers who were truly passionate about their work. They absolutely loved what they did and still do, I'm sure of it.

Mrs. Stewart and her birthday spankings:)
Mrs. Woodruff reading to us from her light blue comfy couch . I will never forget that bright pink lipstick she wore and how her lips looked as she read The Boxcar Children to us with such vivid expression!
Mrs. Jones and her Shirley English Method lessons. Also the motivating music she would play for us while we wrote our hearts out!

I honestly could list a memory about every single one of my teachers because they were just THAT wonderful! These memories stick because of the passion these women had for teaching. What a true gift!

I was truly blessed to have taught at the most wonderful elementary school for 6 years. I had the most amazing co-workers that poured their hearts out in the classroom each and every day (and still do!). When Mark and I decided that we would make our home here in Alberta, I knew that I would miss teaching a lot. I don't think I realized exactly how much though.

As I settled in here, I knew that I wanted to do some volunteer work in our local elementary school. I can't even begin to describe how God has blessed me throughout the past year through various volunteer opportunities! Just a few short months after being here I received the opportunity to volunteer teach a bible time class for 45 minutes each Friday right here in our town's PUBLIC elementary school! I enjoyed every single minute of this and loved those kiddos a ton! Shortly after beginning that, I also started volunteering at another local school reading with students for an hour twice a week. God knew exactly what I needed and provided for me in a BIG way!

This week is the last week that I will be volunteering before school lets out for the summer. They go a little longer here than we did in Texas, but I am a huge fan of the longer breaks they have throughout the year:) I am going to miss being in the school this summer, but I am excited to see the things God has in store for me next school year. I won't be able to work here for a while, so volunteering is absolutely where my heart is right now!

I made a little treat for the kiddos in the classes that I volunteer in.  I can't wait to see their faces when I take it in:)

Happy Almost Summer! 

Firing up the 'ol Grill!

While it's not quite summer here yet, we have definitely been taking advantage of the warmer temperatures! Since putting down the sod in our backyard and starting our garden, we have been spending quite a bit of time outdoors. Grillin' is one of my favorite summer activities! While I don't man the grill, I sure enjoy the finished product!

This past week Mark decided that we should try out something new on the grill. One thing I have never tried on the grill, but always though looked SO good, are kabobs. We did a little research online and Mark found a really good marinade recipe for the steak that we used.  If you want to try it out too, you can find that here. I picked up some skewers at the dollar store and we were ready to go! Other than the marinade recipe we just kinda went with it and created them how we wanted. We chose to use onions, zucchini, assorted colors of peppers, a small tomato for the end and our yummy marinated steak.

The main thing that we learned was that in order for the pieces to stay on the skewer well, they had to be cut at least and 1 1/2 inches wide. If they are smaller they tend to split (especially the onions) and fall off. We had fun assembling them together and building each kabob to be super yummy!

I snapped a few pictures along the way. They turned out too pretty not to share!

We definitely plan on doing this again this summer. It was quick, easy and soooo good!

Have a great week!