I'm watching a torrential downpour in Savannah, GA, where my parents live, and wishing this rain would cover our garden daily in Austin. We've had too many days over 100 degrees, only a few scatterings of rain, and all the lakes are down 20-30 feet. Now thinking, since my garden is probably done for the summer, working on ideas for a small scale Aquaponic garden - which uses a whole sustainable water system where fish waste is used by plants to grow. Some of the main problems with my garden in Austin, is that it is just too dang hot right now to keep any plants alive. I will water my garden in the morning and the ground will be cracking at the end of the day. Even watering twice is barely keeping my garden alive. Vegetables consistantly need a lot of water, I've realized. Watering twice a day for 15 mins each is not economical, and probably during the water ban, not legal either. Aquaponics would be a good solution since the water is re-cycled through the garden back into the fish tank. The gravel (soil) partially filtering and cleaning the water as well as feeding the plants. UTube has been my mentor for Aquaculture. Here's a "Good" clip: 

Here's a few other good websites and UTube channels for more info:
http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/index.htm
http://www.gardengirltv.com/water_gardens_aquaculture.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dz6m5370RB0&feature=channel
More in-depth Aquaponics issues:
http://www.aussieaquaponics.com/apps/blog/

After a few months of faithfully watering and checking the progress, the sun prompted the plants to explode into these giant plants producing their first fruits. Yellow squash is growing incredibly well, if we don't pick it it keeps expanding to enormous proportions. Every other day we get 2 or more. We've given away several every week! Waiting for the tomatoes to turn red. It got a little crowded so I picked 4 tomatoes early, when they were still green, so the plant could put its energy into the the rest of the tomatoes. I picked my first cherry tomato, but not much to eat when there's just one. Cucumbers have been very successful, I've gotten 4 or 5 so far. Corn is growing well, and so are the beans, but no fruit yet. Carol gave me a mint plant which is growing well, adjusting to the super hot sun in our back yard. The strawberry plant is taking the heat into consideration. Lettuce is abundant, the watermellon, chard, eggplant, and okra are still progressing, no flowers yet. This is our first real garden, it's been really exciting to see it  progress and the kids have had fun digging the beds, watching them grow from the seed into these huge plants.

Modern Classics (Book 1)

Donna Hay

The New Cook

Donna Hay

2 Thes 1:11
So we keep on praying for you, asking our God to enable you to live a life worthy of his call. May he give you the power to accomplish all the good things your faith prompts you to do.

Isaiah 2:2-4 (NLT)
 In the last days, the mountain of the Lord’s house
      will be the highest of all—
      the most important place on earth.
   It will be raised above the other hills,
      and people from all over the world will stream there to worship.
 People from many nations will come and say,
   “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
      to the house of Jacob’s God.
   There he will teach us his ways,
      and we will walk in his paths.”
   For the Lord’s teaching will go out from Zion;
      his word will go out from Jerusalem.
 
The Lord will mediate between nations
      and will settle international disputes.
   They will hammer their swords into plowshares
      and their spears into pruning hooks.
   Nation will no longer fight against nation,
      nor train for war anymore.

2 Chronicles 16:9 (NLT)

Listen to this passage

Joshua loves writing notes to us in the mornings. He wakes himself up at 6:45am, he wants enough time to wake up before school starts. He eats breakfast, gets his schoolbag together, puts on his shoes, and wanders around the house for a few moments before he gets a ride to school. In those moments wandering around the house, he writes us little notes - like to how warm-up a pop tart for Noah, or a long 4 page sticky note attached horizontally about how his teacher wanted us to bring his hermit crabs into school, or to have a good day. They're studying about crayfish and they wanted to do a Venn Diagram comparing and contrasting the hermit crabs with crayfish.

"Mommy, you're my Mom," Noah said with such euphoria, "you look so nice with your dress." Even though it was a long tank shirt, I savored the compliment. I remember looking at my Mother's pretty silk dresses, and remember thinking my Mom was so beautiful. She was always nicely dressed, with airy fabric, cinched at the waist with a delicate thin belt with a tiny gold clasp, much more formal than my own home-style outfits of late...

These are moments that are quickly gone, dissipated like mist as you watch them grow up, the memory is replaced by who they are today. My Grandfather captured moments in poems, haikus, short poetry in 4 or 5 short lines. I wish I could read Chinese. These days are like precious gifts, their value increases as more time passes.

There are 7 kids at Ortega that are just waiting for Mentors! If I could paint a starry-eyed picture of uber-cute kids with great anticipation in their faces knowing it would persuade you to Mentor, I would. The kids we have at Ortega are incredibly sweet, a lot of them have difficult circumstances at home. Mentoring would just involve one hour a week. Just talking with them and see how they're doing over lunch, recess or class time, has been one of the best investments of time that I have experienced. The kids really need one person just to talk to, and they are so eager to talk and see their Mentors.

This is our second year now, along with Jim, Steven, Adam, and Evan. Michael has followed his Mentee after he graduated from Ortega to Keeling Middle school. I'm really proud of each of them to have continued to meet with their students again this year. We are only signed up to commit to our Mentees for a year, but you can continue to meet in the following year if you choose to do so.

In the grander scheme of things, giving a child the opportunity to explore what they are interested in and figuring out what they're talented in, can make a huge impact on their lives. Just seeing what your life is like, the kids are observing interaction, learning communication skills in relating, they are building their confidence and learning healthy boundaries. They soak up more than we can know. It really takes more than one adult to raise children. I like the African proverb, "It takes a village to raise a child."

Joshua and Noah's Mah-Mah and Yeh-Yeh bought them hermit crabs for Joshua's early birthday gift. One is for Joshua and Noah to share, and one is for Zachary. These seem to get along a lot better than the first two. One of the first ones was smaller and lost it's claw. We didn't see any fighting, just saw the whole arm had fallen off one day. So Mah-Mah brought them back to the store to pick up another one which is the same size as the other one.
Hermit crabs are pretty cute when you see their faces. They're fun to watch, too, and even easier to take care of than goldfish, apparently. These hermit crabs like to climb, and they're most active at night. They're always digging, sifting through the sand for little peices of their snacks and food. Supposedly, they're a bit messy, dragging sand through their food and water, but the green one went for a drink, got his little crab legs wet, and all this sand got stuck to it. Not liking all the sand stuck to his legs, he worked diligently to get it off.
The red one, tried out the new shell that Joshua bought for him to move into when he gets bigger. I can't believe that I caught it on video! It was if he was trying a new car. I saw him checking out the shell, checking out the shape and color, flipping it over and looking inside. Finally, he took it for a test drive. The ball shaped shell is not as long as his red one. Maybe he didn't like the shape, or the fit or something. He decided against it and proceeded to situate himself back into his own shell.