Mother's Day thanks to my kids... (picture heavy!)

First, I want to wish a Happy Mother's Day to my own mom - there's not one day that goes by that I don't appreciate all you have done for us. I'm still trying to figure out how you did it and lived to tell about it! You are the polar opposite of me in that you have infinite patience and quiet wisdom, listening patiently to my OCD rants about the kids misbehavior, deployment issues, future plans, and everything else, and manage to have a calming effect without me even realizing it! (Get ready, deployment starts soon and the frantic calls to my mommy will start again!). Know that I appreciate all of it, and am so thankful my kids have you for a grandma, they miss you lots!

Here are some pics that remind me of all the reasons I am thankful to have my kids in my life this Mother's Day, in no particular order:

faces like this

...and this

... and this!

being there for your first hospital stay

and your first bee sting

and your first lesson in dressing for a Minnesota winter

watching your face the first time sledding with Aunt Sara

your first hike together with your brother

your first exposure to child labor!

the first time you sauntered by with one of these

teaching you to ice skate

your first time canoeing

your first time "up north at the cabin" and your face that stayed grubby and happy the entire week!

your first fish caught

watching you and your friends

the first time you realized your grandpa is a rock star

your first time kayaking with me

your creativity

the first time you held a chicken

your first strawberry pickin'

seeing your excited face after your first sleep-away camp

your first crab

helping you through Daddy's deployments

wiping the tears away when daddy deploys

watching your excitement at daddy's homecomings

watching you have a quiet moment with your brother

and receiving Happy Mother's Day wishes from you!

I have a lot to be thankful for this Mother's Day, and even though you guys make me crazy, thanks for bringing me along for the ride on all your "firsts"!

Happy Mother's Day to all of you, whether you mother children, pets, or enrich the lives of others by sharing love and caring with them.

Catching Up

Yippee!  Sailor/Farmer is back home again (for about a month) !  Even though he wasn't here to orchestrate a stress-free Mother's Day for me, we managed to have a good time anyways.  I took the kids and packed a picnic lunch and we headed to the beach for a couple of hours.  Without the husband to tell them how to act on Mother's Day, I had to improvise a bit.  When they started acting up and getting whiny I explained to them that they HAVE to act good on Mother's Day and when I was asked "why, Mommy?" I pulled out the big guns and told them that Santa watches them very carefully on this particular day!

While Charlie missed alot while he was gone, he managed to get here in time for the first peas being harvested from the garden.  Not a ton, but enough for dinner that night.

No time for rest, though...I am going through my first traumatic gardening event, and it's with my tomatoes!  Yes, the heirloom tomatoes I nurtured from seed for the last half of winter, and then GAVE AWAY the surplus that I didn't use...(note to self!).  I will give you the horrid details and then let you see for yourself.  There are 3 new raised beds this year, filled with delivered compost that hold ALL of my tomatoes.  They were planted about a month ago, and seem to be frozen in time.  They have not grown, but are not wilted, either.  The leaves started becoming a dark green, then yellow mottling that looked alot like sunburn.  I thought this was the case for awhile since the day after I planted them was the start of a week of mid 90's temps that lasted about 6 days that caught everyone around here by surprise.  They never seemed to recover.  The past few days shows mottling, the undersides of the leaves has deep accentuated veining.  I am about ready to pull them and take one to the extension office, but am not hopeful, since I have read a ton of tech manuals and disease id's and know about as much as they do at this point!  I freaked out over tomato mosaic virus, the worst, but know that it is rare and they were not exposed to tobacco contamination unless the virus was in the compost that was delivered (this virus lives in the soil for 10 years, yikes!)  I have also seen some pics that sort of resemble mine that describe a phosphorous or manganese deficiency, but I believe this is unlikely since I have been using seaweed/fish emulsion and top dressing with my own compost and all my other beds are really healthy.  Anyways, any ideas???  I know I should probably just rip them out and start over before whatever it is spreads, but it's so hard to do!  Here's the evidence...

One of the Brandywines:

Close-Up of Brandywine leaf:

The Black Krims and Black Truffles in the next bed are starting to show signs as well:

Pic showing tomato size after being in ground for over a month:
I should mention that the 2 extras I had that I planted in my old beds are doing well and are getting huge, and the ones I gave away to friends are doing great.  Is it possible there was something contaminating the fill for the beds I had delivered???  I hate to think of having to remove all the fill and dispose of it.  I guess if you garden long enough, something is bound to happen.  I may laugh about it one day, BUT NOT TODAY!