3 Day Juice Fast

This week I did my very first liquid/juice fast for 3 full days. One of the hardest, yet rewarding experiences I've ever done in my life. 

While on the juice fast, I did some research. There's a documentary called Fat, sick and nearly dead. where he does I think a 100 day juice fast. It's amazing to see. I also found many people on youtube that did 10 or even 60 day juice fasts! That's hard to believe. Many stated that day 3 is VERY hard. So I found it encouraging that I'm not the only one who had a hard time on day 3.

Hope you've had a great week:) Hope you found a green moment during your week.

The YEAR of Less

I have found this inspirational blog called The Year of Less.
http://theyearofless.blogspot.com

She focusses on:
- consuming less and having less
- consuming consciously
- eating real food
- reducing their environmental impact
- spending their time intentionally
- pursing greater self-sufficiency
- giving more

It seemed like her vision is a lot like mine. I am definitely try to consume less, consume consciously, eat more real food, reducing my enviromental impact, spending my time more intentionally, pursing greater self-sufficiency and giving more! What is not to love about this blgo! A year of less is great because she posts every weekday. I definitely look forward to what she is organizing each day!

I have already done:
Eat Your Pantry Month
- http://theyearofless.blogspot.com/2012/09/day-42-eat-your-pantry-month.html

Bath & Body Products
- http://theyearofless.blogspot.com/2012/08/day-39-bath-and-beauty-products.html

Purging the Kids Toys
- http://theyearofless.blogspot.com/2012/08/day-33-purging-childrens-toys.html

Cleaning out the Inbox
- http://theyearofless.blogspot.com/2012/08/day-31-cleaning-out-inbox.html

Cleaning out the kitchen
- http://theyearofless.blogspot.com/2012/08/day-26-decluttering-kitchen-part-one.html

Purging the Books (I donated most of them to my church)
- http://theyearofless.blogspot.com/2012/08/day-23-purging-books-gulp.html

The Bath Toys
- http://theyearofless.blogspot.com/2012/08/day-16-minimalizing-bath-toys.html

My Closet
- http://theyearofless.blogspot.com/2012/07/day-3-minimizing-our-wardrobes.html

I should've taken pictures of before and after each of the challenges I completed above. Perhaps I will from now on.

I don't always agree with everything she does, but I always find each day inspiring! I never know what she'll blog about next. I love reading more about someone who is living this green journey and is inspire so many others. The best part is: she's Canadian like me!

Check out her blog, I guarantee you'll be inspired!

To Melon or Not to Melon? --that is the question

To Melon or Not to Melon? -- that is the question

I bought a small starter cantaloupe plant from our home depot a few months ago. It actually was one of the first fruits/veggies I ever purchased to plant. I had no idea how it was going to grow. I had no idea how long it would take to get cantaloupes. I just was excited every day to walk out my door and look in my garden and watch the changes. Then one day the cantaloupe plant took over the entire garden! It's a vine and it started wrapping itself around all my other plants including my rose bush. A couple weeks later we walked outside and I spotted a golf ball sized cantaloupe growing on the vine! So exciting! It was no where near the size of cantaloupes you see in the grocery store...but this cantaloupe was special since I grew it!

We waited patiently for it to grow and after a crazy week of rain my cantaloupe was moldy and rotten. All that work, for NOTHING:(

So this past week I went out to the garden and not only did I have one cantaloupe growing, not two, not three but four!!!!! Not only did I have four cantaloupes growing (of various sizes) but the vine was turning brown. I know that sign. I've seen my squash plant, and cucumber plant vines turn brown. It means it's about to go. What I don't know is WHY the vine all of sudden starts to die and turn brown.



So my choices with a vine turning brown with my four cantaloupes on it:

1. If I leave the cantaloupes they'll probably die too with the vine.
2. If I pick them, they might not be ready to be eaten.

So it didn't seem like I had much of a choice, keep the cantaloupes, or loose them. So I picked them all...and I was glad I did. The vines were completely brown and dead.

I brought them inside and decided to cut one up. I asked my hubby if he'd like a piece and said "I don't like cantaloupe." I couldn't believe it, we had been growing these for MONTHS and MONTHS. I responded "I don't like cantaloupe either! I bought these because I thought you did!"

So I had been carefully growing these beautiful cantaloupes for....wait for it.......NO ONE! hahaha!

I think I might cut them up, freeze them and put them in smoothies. I gave one away to my dad since he does like cantaloupes.

Lesson learned:

• I now know how cantaloupes grow
• I now know I should probably only buy fruits/veggies to grow that my family enjoys and that doesn't include cantaloupes.

Bad week better with the Pumpkin Patch

Have you ever had one of those weeks where things didn't go well? You anticipated everything to go smoothly, and then it felt as if the world was crashing? ....Well that was my week. By the end of the week I was just ready for some family time. Where better to have family time, than a pumpkin patch? It is definitely on our families Autumn bucket list. Last year we went to Holland Farms for the first time as a family. I decided then, that this would be a great annual family tradition. They have hayrides, a corn box, a petting zoo, a hay maze and a double slide down a huge hill! It's a great place to go as a family. Pumpkins are $5, or you can get a wristband which includes all of the activities plus a pumpkin! A great deal, either way!

The weather was absolutely crummy this morning in North Florida, with rain most of the day. By the time my hubby got home from work the skies had cleared and the sun was shinning. The drive out in the country to the farm is about 20 minutes. I love hearing my kids get excited about seeing cotton growing in the fields, spotting cows, or horses. My sweet two year old would cry as we passed the cows saying "they're going away!" He just loves animals.

When we pulled up to Holland Farms I noticed, that they had really upgraded their farm a lot since last year. They had a new barn, new fences, and a permanent location for the corn box with a cover. If you haven't seen/heard of a corn box, you don't know what you're missing! It's a great big box full of....you guessed it: CORN! The kids had a blast playing in the corn.

We buried the kids in it!

My two year old made "corn angels"!

It was so much fun, I had to jump in to!

I think my hubby had the most fun! I love these pictures of him.

They had these great wagons you could take out to the patch to bring your pumpkin back in. Our little ones enjoyed the ride.

Before we found our way to the patch we stopped at the slide. My son went down it with my hubby. We didn't think the the slide would be wet, or full of that dirt that you see all around it. Let's just say my husband didn't want to stop anywhere else after the pumpkin patch in public....the backside of his pants looked slightly, um let's say embarrassing. 

Here's my handsome men heading out to find the perfect pumpkin.

Each kiddo got to pick out their favorite pumpkin. I wonder what their strategy was to finding the perfect one? As you can see my 2 year old found the biggest one in the whole pumpkin patch!

He decided to take a ride back with the pumpkins, in all fairness it was a REALLY long walk back.

Before making it all the way back to the barn to check out, the kids went through the hay maze. My two year old was pretty smart to follow My five year old, and they made it through in no time!

Next was the petting zoo. Can you hear him say "GOAT"?

We got a couple small pumpkins too. We might do a fun craft with these when we get home. I'm thinking maybe painting them fun colors?

The best part of the Pumpkin Patch Adventure? Since it started out a rainy day, the place was practically empty! We had the place to ourselves. Last year, when we came it was packed with people! Let's just say this is the perfect place to go when I needed a little "pick me up". We had a blast, until it was time to go home.

He cried all the way home saying "farmer"! Bless his little heart.

Farmers Market Finds

Early Saturday morning I headed to the Palofox farmers market, downtown Pensacola. The market has grown a lot since the last time I visited a few months ago. It seems like it's doubled in size. Not only are there homemade breads, organic breads, sweets, homemade popsicles, traditional vegetables, funky vegetables (i.e. vegetables I've never seen before), different kinds of honey, soaps and even all kinds of "artsy fartsy". My absolutely favorite is finding fresh vegetables and purchasing them directly from the farmers. It's such a great feeling purchasing your food and knowing exactly where it came from. There's such a neat buzz at the farmers market. I love it.

Here are my fresh finds from the market this weekend:

a big bushel of Baby Kale    $2.00
All those green peppers        $2.00
3 cucumbers                         $3.00 ($0.75 each)
yellow zucchini                     $1.00
Small butternut squash          $1.00
Button squash                       $1.00
Fairytale eggplant                 $0.50
_______________________________
TOTAL                               $11.25

Now what to do with the squash and the eggplant??? Not sure..sinee I've never used it. Those green peppers however are going into some salsa and pasta sauce. The kale is going to be part of a salad and/or putting in some juice I'll be making. I already used the cucumbers in a big greek salad.

Is that a goat in your garage?

Is that a goat in your garage? If so you must've read "urban farming"...is what it said on the back of the book jacket of the latest book I just finished reading.  What an intriguing thought....a goat in my garage, really? What kind of a book is this, that would inspire me to get a goat? --I thought.

I ordered it from Amazon for $16. It's a helpful book based on the experiences of a family who wanted to live more off the land than to spend most of their money commercially in the stores.  The chapters go through each kind of food we normally eat or purchase from the grocery store and how to make better choices. In the beginning of each chapter Annette (one of the authors) lists her original grocery list and now what she purchases at the store. For example in the grain chapter:
Original List:

• baking powder
• baking soda
• bread
• breakfast cereal
• crackers
• croutons
• flour
• frozen pizza
• frozen waffles
• hotdog buns
• oatmeal
• pancake mix
• salt
• yeast

Revised List:

• baking powder
• baking soda
• local grains
• salt
• yeast

It's so neat to see the progression she has made towards a greener life. Some of the chapters include: grain, chicken & the egg, dairy dilemma, growing your own, eating seasonally, preserving harvest, raising small animals for meat, soaps & sundries, just to name a few!

I loved reading about her journey. I am on the same journey of greener living. I never thought of myself as an urban farmer. However the title grabbed my attention because I want to live my best life with what God has given me. I find that local organic food can be pricey at times. I know it would be cheaper to grow my own....but the question I found myself asking as I read this book was "how far was I willing to take this?"

In every chapter there's a spot called "Opportunity for Change" for example in "The Chicken and the egg" chapter the are 3 different opportunities for change:

1. buy organic free range eggs
2. buy organic pasturized eggs from the farmers market
3. get your own chickens

I found myself evaluating why we do what we do, and what's the best choice for my family. For example with the eggs. We already are doing #1, we buy organic greenwise eggs from publix.  We definitely could buy eggs from the farmers market, it's just a 45 minute drive from our house on a saturday morning. The third option my husband and I actually talked a lot about after reading this chapter. Could we get chickens? What would our neighbors think? Would our two miniature schnauzers try to eat them? Would they keep us up all night? Then we thought, it would be neat to see the chickens grow, get fresh eggs....but the chicken would probably make a mess, they probably stink, they're probably a lot of work...so the conclusion we made was: we'll continue to buy our organic eggs from the store. Perhaps we'll try #2 and actually buy them from a farmer, or from the farmers market. We'll see! So it's a no on chickens (for now).   What I loved about this book is it had me considering all the options, and not feeling like I have no control of where I get my food and how it's processed. I can be part of process!

The idea of a goat in the garage is hysterical! The goat provides milk, but she warned about the goat being destructive and pulling siding off your house. I am absolutely 100% sure we're not getting a goat.

However she highly encouraged knowing where you food comes from and being part of the process. There are many ways she's doing this, that I can't do (or I choose not to do). I am really excited about the following ideas that I want to eventually try at my house in the coming months.

Here's what I plan to do:

1. Getting a wheat grinder attachment for my kitchen aid mixer to grind my own wheat KitchenAid Stand Mixer Attachment Grain Mill - KGM (Google Affiliate Ad)
2. buying eggs at the farmers market
3. Canning. I'm so excited to try canning (tomato sauce, salsa, jam, fruit, applesauce, pickles to name a few)
4. turning most of my land into a space to grow food. Like fruit trees, vines growing that grow grapes or kiwis, a plentiful herb garden. (she has a whole chapter to help you figure out what produce your family eats most of, and then figuring out how much you need to plant each season. That's such an organized way to garden! I love that idea)
5. composting (i'm still really not sure about this one. I know it's good for the soil, I know it's good to use my leftover table scraps...just not sure about the bugs and stink! I can buy a bag of manure that'll hopefully have the same effect on my garden for $2 at home depot)
6. making my own tea from my garden

So even though there are some ideas in this book that I can't fathom doing (like killing my own hog for meat). I can appreciate and respect the path she's on. I love hearing the heartwarming stories as she experienced trying to live a greener life. I love being on that same journey and I too am going to continue to expand my horizon and find more ways to have Green Moments.

Want to learn more? Annette Cottrell has a blog: sustainableeats.com

Read 30 books in a year

I love to read. Unfortunately that is probably one of the things I've always looked at as being a luxury since becoming a mom. I usually feel like I should be doing anything else really before I sit down to read a book; like cleaning, working out, playing a game with my family, going for a walk, or even watching a TV show with my husband or family so I can spend time with them. I love reading, it just has become an activity that's been on the back burner. When I turned 30 I decided I would read 30 books in this year. I don't know how many books I've honestly read each year in the past, but I'm sure it hasn't been anywhere close to 30. Perhaps a dozen or so?

Here's a list of what I've been reading this year:

1. Heaven is for real By: Todd Burpo
2. Bellingrath
3. Ultimate Guide to the Daniel Fast. By: Kristen Feola
4. 1 Corinthians - Bible
5. II Corinthians  - Bible
6. Galatians  - Bible
7. Proverbs  - Bible
8. Relationships 
9. Ephesians  - Bible
10. Philippians  - Bible
11. Colossians  - Bible
12. Mantle of Esther
13. I Thessalonians  - Bible
14. II Thessalonians  - Bible
15. I Timothy  - Bible
16. II Timothy  - Bible
17. Titus  - Bible
18. Philemon  - Bible
19. Hebrews  - Bible
20. Black heels to Tractor Wheels - Ree Drummond
21. Food from my frontier - Ree Drummond
22. Crazy Sexy Diet - Kris Carr
23. Eating Clean Idiots Guide
24. Gerson Therapy - Charlotte Gerson
25. Angels & Deamons - Benny Hinn
26. PH Balance
27. Hungry for change James Colquhous, Laurentine Ten Bosch
28. Crazy Sexy Kitchen - Kris Carr (this book will be arriving at my door October 30th)
29. Urban Farm Handbook - Annette Cottrell & Joshua Mcnichols
30. Blog Inc - Joy Deangdeelert Cho

This was one of my favorite challenges I did this year. I enjoyed making reading a priority. Reaching 30 books was not as challenging as I thought it would be.  This is definitely something I am going to do annually. It's amazing what you can accomplish when you are intentional!

30 Dates in a year

Before my husband I had children we had these preconceived ideas that when we became parents we would still lead the same lives we did before kids. We figured we'd go on dates every week, we'd still go to Paris (like we promised each other we would before we had children).  We figured nothing was going to change....my how we were wrong.

Going out without the kiddos is a lot harder than we thought. When the kiddos were first born we discovered they have so many needs only a mom can fulfill. At age 2 1/2 they're able to tell you all their needs, or what has gone on with the babysitter while you're gone, so it gives me a bit more peace of mind then. Our children turned 5 and 2 this year, so we were hoping to get out of the house more, and spend some time without the sippy cups, diaper bags, wipes, extra outfits and all the other things you have to take with you to help with a little one.

So when I made my 30th journal full of big dreams for the year, I decided to see if Juan & I could actually go on 30 dates!  On Friday September 28th 2012 we actually went on our 30th date! It's not even November 16 and we made the goal!

1. Nov 16 - Birthday Date to PF Changs, shopping and then Portifino
2. Nov 17 - Movie Date
3. Dec 12 - Lunch at Olive Garden Olive Garden $25 Gift Card - Corporate Gifts (Google Affiliate Ad)
4. Dec 26 - Movie & shopping
5. Dec 29 - Anniversary Dinner
6. Jan 17 - Shopping & lunch at Chili's Chili's $25 Gift Card - Food Gift Cards (Google Affiliate Ad)
7. Feb 14 - Dinner & Fireworks at Polynesian at Disney World
8. March 8 - Parasailing
9. March 8 - Double date with friends
10. April 18 - Starbucks & movie date
11. April 27 - Jordan Valley Restaurant, shopping, Starbucks and cruising through the VW dealership
12. May 21 - Movie, TJMaxx and going grocery shopping (big treat to do without kiddos)
13. May 25 - dinner
14. June 4 - Movie date
15. June 11 - lunch at olive garden
16. June 29 - Caraba's coffee & shopping
17. July 9 - Movie Date
18. July 27 - Movie Date
19. August 14 - Lunch on the cruise boat
20. August 15 - Dinner on the Cruise boat
21. Aug 16 - Dinner on the Cruise Boat
22. Aug 17 - Afternoon in Nassau
23. Aug 18 - Dinner on the Cruise Boat
24. Aug 19 - morning date walking around the cruise boat
25. Aug 20 - Bingo & won a free cruise while cruising on the cruise boat
26. Aug 21 - Dinner on the cruise boat
27. Aug 31 - Movie Date
28. Sept 11 - Date Night out
29. Sept  21 - Dinner at Chili's & shopping
30. Sept 28 - Ichiban & Starbucks with friends

It's not even November 16 yet and we've already reached our 30 dates! Of course we go out for dinner all the time, and do fun things as a family but this is just a listing of the times we got away just the two of us. I have to say not only has this been great for our marriage, but for our family. It's so easy to get caught up in the responsibilities of life, that I have to admit that in the past we haven't always put each other first.  We've let the business of life sometimes take over. The dishes need to get done, work, bills, taxes, dinner, living healthier, bathing the kiddos, packing lunch etc. etc. etc. You get the point...
This past year was a great example to us that we can take the time to put each other first. This is definitely going to be something we'll continue to do each year!

30 New Things I wanted to Try this Year

When I turned 30 this year I decided to dream big and make huge lists of adventures I'd love to tackle. Click here to read about that. Things I had never done in my life. Below is the list I compiled November 16, 2011...I'm hoping to complete ALL the items by November 16, 2012. I'm getting close, only over a month left to complete them all.

1. Get a Macbook computer (it's a dream list..why not dream big!  I ended up getting one for my birthday in November 2011)
2. Read 30 Books (I only have 3 more)
3. Try 30 Recipes ( have 6 more recipes to try)
4. Watch 30 Movies (in the theater, or on video. 5 more movies)
5. Go on 30 Dates
6. Add 30 new healthy lifestyle ways
7. Loose x amount of weight ( you didn't think, I was going to tell you how much...did you? :)
8. Stay at Disney's Polyneasian Resort  (february 2012)
9. Go on a Carnival Cruise as a family of 4 (august 2012)
10. Go Parasailing (march 2012)
11. Go Zip lining 
12. My daughter starting Kindergarten (august 2012)
13. Saw a Meteor Shower for the 1st time (Dec 14, 2011)
14. Went to my 1st Quincinera for my neice Yari  (Jan 2012)
15. Went to a natural skin care class at Everman (Jan 2012)
16. Started my healthy living class
17. Went to an Organic Gardening Class at Everman
18. Renovated our laundry room from top to bottom
19. Got a kitchen aid mixer (it's been on my dream list FOREVER! I found mine from Kitchen aid as a refurbished one)
20. Went Vegetarian (April)
21. Started Juicing (April)
22. Went on a Non-Disney Florida Trip to Busch Gardens, sea world, weeki wachy springs (may)
23. Growing Vegetables: cucumbers, tomatoes, melon, green peppers, red peppers, yellow peppers, broccoli, lettuce, key limes and lemons.
24. Growing Veggies by seed for 1st time
25. Making detergent
26. Joined Pinterest
27. got an Iphone 5!
28. Signed up for Birch Box
29. Tried Sushi for the 1st time!
30. ___________

I'm amazed at all the new things I completed in a year. What an adventure it has been. I have a few more items on the list that are not completed...The goal is to have 30 new things completed by November 16th.  I have one more thing I'd like to try this year that's not filled in. Any suggestions?

epic FAIL!

I definitely tried to have a green moment this week, by redoing some cheapo particle board furniture from Walmart. It turned out to be an EPIC FAIL...Here's what happened:

Let's just say all the wonderful advice I read on the Internet about not having to sand furniture before priming and painting was a complete LIE! Can you believe that people on the Internet don't always know what their talking about? haha. Maybe it just was too good to be true. I just was trying to save some time and energy and I always find that sanding is just so exhausting. You know what is exhausting?  It's painting my laminate bookshelf with the Glidden gripper primer, and then my high gloss french grey paint....and then watching it peel right off so easily by something bumping up against it. That was exhausting! It was awful. So I'd repaint a section and the same thing would happen again.

I first wrote about this type of way of finishing wood projects when I was turning our baby's crib into a crib.  I was planning on the bookcase being mostly this beautiful french grey color with the background being a pop of orange. It was going to look so beautiful...frankly I'm sick of painting. 

I saw an awesome idea on Pinterest of using fabric as the background pop of color, instead of painting the whole thing again. Perhaps I'll peel off the rest of the paint and get some fabric instead. 

I'll definitely continue to try to find other ways to have green moments...this just wasn't one of them.

The Year of 30

I am quickly approaching my 31st birthday this November. This past year has been the most fulfilling, adventure packed year of my life for sure!  A lot of my friends who were approaching their 30's were not excited about leaving their fun 20's behind them. I don't think I've ever dreaded the 30's. I looked at it, as a time where you have most of your life together, you know who you are and where you're going.   So I was looking forward to that milestone of turning 30. I decided I wanted to do something GRAND for the big day. I wanted to celebrate turning 30 at Disney, on a cruise, or doing something amazing. Unfortunately a couple weeks right before I got into a horrible car accident. Our SUV had been totaled, and I had to go to therapy for my back, neck and shoulders daily. Money became tight, because we had almost paid off the SUV, and now we were getting ourselves into a car payment on another car. It was a bad situation all around. I had built up in my mind of this day of turning 30 as something humongous, a right of passage as an adult. Since the special day wasn't going to happen, I was completely bummed. My wonderful family, pulled together and threw a small party at the house. It just wasn't what I had envisioned. I have to admit, I had gotten myself into a funk and wasn't sure how to get myself out. I was praying one morning, and thought what if instead of putting so much pressure on myself to celebrate one day in such style, why not make this the year of 30? Then the dreaming began to start. I had always heard of bucket lists (not these kind that I make for the seasons with my kids). More of a life bucket list. I found myself dreaming BIG, larger than I have before. I started writing down dreams that I thought would be wild to accomplish. I thought let's just see how far I can get with these dreams. If I accomplish them, then great I'll check them off...if not, then that's okay I've got a goals to reach for. So I started many lists for the year:

• Go on 30 dates with my husband
• Watch 30 movies
• Read 30 books
• 30 new healthy habits
• Try 30 new things
• Try 30 new recipes

I'll be sharing in a few more posts about these adventures.

Let's just say I've accomplished so many new amazing things this year, I've already ordered my journal for my 31st year. I know it's been proven that you accomplish 80% of what you write down. I am proof that that's true. I dreamed so big and I can't believe that most of my list is accomplished. I still have a few items on it that I haven't checked off, however I have a month 1/2 left to complete it.

 I honestly can't wait to start dreaming for my 31st year! 

Candy with no junk?

This time of the year, yummy candy is EVERYWHERE...wouldn't that be nice to have some candy with no junk? I've admitted my addiction to sugar before. It's definitely something I think about everyday to eat the sugar, or not. Perhaps I could save up my sugar cravings for something like this:

Have you seen this candy in stores? I haven't...and would love to try it. 

a day without juicing

A few months ago my good friend Rachel gave me a juicer. It was such a blessing! I juiced EVERYDAY for a couple months since she gave it to me. I would juice enough juice in the morning for 2 juices. One to drink right away, and the other I would stick in a mason jar in the fridge for later.

Yesterday I didn't get a chance to juice until I got home at 9:30 pm. I found my body craving it. I'm not sure what it is about it that my body loves. I know that it's packed with so many minerals & nutrients.  Anyone who knows me, knows I'm an avid coffee drinker. It's strange that I find I get more energy from my kermit the frog colored juice than I do from my coffee. 

So I threw in the juicer:

- 2 green apples

- 4 leaves of romaine lettuce

- 1/2 a lemon

And I'm in heaven again..... :)  thanks Rachel!

Lemon Tree

Have you ever walked into a store for one thing, and walked out with something completely different? I was walking into Home Depot last week for paint, to paint my crib to bench. While I was waiting for my paint to be mixed I moseyed on down to the garden section. I always like to see what new types of fruits of veggies are in season to plant. As I'm on the journey of learning how to garden, so I figured I would check out their latest selection for fall. I walked by the fruit trees and most of them are pretty good sizes and are $120 a piece. I've always wanted a fruit tree, but I can't afford that price tag. Especially since I'm not a seasoned gardner; I'd hate to buy something that pricey, only to kill it.

All of a sudden, low and behold: I turned a corner and there was the cutest little lemon tree, with five lemons already on it!  The price tag read $18! How on earth was a lemon tree for sale for only $18? I thought with five lemons already on this tree, it must be in good enough shape. If only five lemons make it, it would be a fun experience to learn about growing lemons and enjoying a few. That would make each lemon cost $3.60, but it'll be fun! (this is what I was telling myself as I was trying to decide if this lemon tree was going home with me).

As I checked out,  the wonderful check out Home Depot ladies oohed and ahhed over my lemon tree. They said "if I had seen that tree, I would've bought it for $18"!  As soon as they said that I felt overjoyed that I won the prize. It solidified that I needed this tree, and it was meant to be. haha.

I asked the wonderful check out Home Depot ladies, "Do you know anything about growing, planting a lemon tree?" They mentioned I need to keep the lemon tree away from frost. That I should not plant it, until after the last frost. I should plan to move my lemon tree inside by the first frost, to not loose it. I'm wondering if that's why you see people with blankets on some of their plants? Maybe I could get a "lemon tree blanket" that I keep in the garage, and when the weather gets chilly I'll run out and cover my little lemon tree?


If my lemon tree takes off. I'll be making lemonade, lemon meringue, and definitely be adding lemons to all my juices I make. I can see myself as a grandma having my grandkids come over and fill a basket full of lemons for them to take home. Okay, well I'm getting carried away. Let's just cross our fingers that the tree makes it through the night and I get to enjoy at least five lemons.

Here's my lemon tree shoved into the front seat of my car. You can see four of the lemons.

I love this picture shows how small it really is, next to my five year old and my two year old.