Thy Garden Overflow-eth (with zucchini)

My garden is backwards. When it was rainy here my garden struggled along and the few squash I had rotted. Now that it is 1,000 100+ my garden is thriving like no other. Or maybe that's the kind of weather zucchini like. I don't really know, I just plant things and hope for the best!

And for those of you who don't want to scroll down a few posts who don't remember what our garden looked like just a few weeks ago, here it is

Tis just a lil' thing

And here it is today!

Big Mama-Jama

One thing I have learned is that next year I don't need to plant 8 yellow squash and 8 zucchini plants- 2 or 3 of each will be fine. I will also have a second bed for the vine-y plants (squash, pumpkins, etc) and put all my peppers, tomatoes, green onions in a bed all by themselves. By some miracle the tomatoes I started from seeds are still growing and are now sprouting flowers, but the peppers were overtaken by the pumpkin plant. Survival of the fittest I guess. And speaking of pumpkins, we have one-

Hellllooooo pumpkin!

And we have another teeny, tiny one I just noticed today.

Awww... a baby...

We may be carving our pumpkins in September, but my kids are too young to call shenanigans so it's all good.

Here are the little squash on the vines

Peek-a-boo, I see green onions!

I also planted some green onions that I was sure were gone, but I parted the Vine-y Sea and found them. Just like I had left them weeks ago.

So I yanked those suckers out to have on our baked potatoes tonight

Failure to thrive 

My Garden Bounty

And if we could please have a moment of silence for our fallen friend.....

RIP Cilantro, you will be missed in all future guacamole....

The right half of this box was cilantro, the left half of this box is a weed

And the irony is that I planted the cilantro in a window box so I could bring it inside when the weather started to get hot since cilantro is a big baby when it comes to the heat. Ah well, maybe I will try again this fall. 

Luckily the basil is doing well and so are the cherry tomatoes. 

Yum...basil...

This is a bad photo because I stepped outside with out shoes on and the concrete was HOT!!!

And now I will bring this boring post to a close!

BE the gazelle...

Today I vow to be the gazelle. Well, maybe not THE gazelle, but A gazelle. Haven't a clue what I am talking about? Allow me to explain.

Dave Ramsey. At the mention of this name, you are either nodding your head and mentally high five-ing me OR you are shaking your head in disgust.  Dave is sort of a love him or hate him guy, there isn't really much in between. Previously I was of the hate him not so fond on him mindset. Sell your house and your cars? Great idea Dave, now these people will be broke, homeless, and lacking transportation.

Then our church offered Financial Peace University and we heard testimony of couples that had gone through the program and (ta da!) had found financial peace. I looked it up online and still felt it was a bit extreme, putting every penny towards your debt and anything extra at the end of the month goes to that debt too. Where is the wiggle room? It seemed like a fad diet- looks great on paper but can you realistically put it into practice? Sure it is easy to vow to never eat out and never buy yourself another pair of shoes again, but life happens. I mean, we aren't swimming in debt. Aside from my school loans and our house we are debt free. We paid cash for my car, we do not carry credit card balances. We're ok... right???

In an effort to bridge the gap and learn more about this Dave and his program, I got his book "Total Money Makeover" and read it front to back in 3 days. Here is what I learned: 1.Dave has been there. He has been to the bottom and gotten back to the top, I give the guy a round of applause! 2.He is funny, I found myself laughing aloud while reading, which I wasn't expecting. 3.While I still feel his plan is a bit extreme, it can be modified (although his book pretty much says the opposite. I feel now that I have read the book, I get Dave on a different level. We're homies. Brotha's from otha Motha's, if you will. I am sure if we were in person he would give me the green light to just go ahead and alter his plan slightly 'cause we're tight like that...) 4.Debt is debt. And I have been in denial (De Nile, it's not just a river in Egypt!) about my student loans and just how big they are. I have called the school and offered to return my degree as I am not using it, but they spouted off some lame excuse about, "That's not how a college degree works..." Whatever. So, after taking some artistic licensing with Good 'ol Dave's plan, we will officially own that Art Degree in 14-15ish months. And to give you some idea of just how much this lovely art degree is worth, I could buy 33 iphones, 10 Samsung 51" Plasma TV's, and a zero turn John Deere mower with a 62" deck. Faaaaannnnnntastic....

So, while I won't be the gazelle, I am going to be a gazelle. I won't be the leader signalling danger to the group, but I won't be the slowest gazelle that gets eaten either. We will tighten our belts a little, set a budget, and hopefully be better off in the long run.