Our Outdoor Sink On Cinder Blocks

This is my outdoor sink.

First off, I must apologize for not blogging any time sooner.  I have not wanted to keep repeating myself, especially about my diet and weight loss efforts, which, by the way, have stalled; however,  I think I've got a cool subject to cover.

As you can see, I now have an outdoor sink.  

I've been wanting this set up for quite a while, and my hubby did it this past weekend.  I should give some background about this project, though.  My hubby's friend was updating a house rental, and my hubby stopped at a yard sale and bought a used, stainless steel double sink that the friend could use.  We had lived in that rental for a few months, and I remembered the old, white single sink with the built-in counter on both sides.  I knew how I could incorporate it into my outdoor area so...

my hubby and his friend did an exchange.  

Yes!

This is a side view of the sink standing on 8 upright cinder blocks.

With this sink, wash up will be easier after gardening.

I asked my hubby to install a shelf underneath the sink.  If you look carefully, you will notice that there are two horizontal, parallel 2 X 4's holding up a piece of plywood.  I wanted to have a space to hold watering cans, pots, and soil.  It's still a work in progress to move things out of my sauna-like metal storage, but the sink setup has very promising storage of its own. 

This is the underside of my outdoor sink.

I wanted to show the underside of the sink.  My hubby found old, plastic pipes, including elbows to direct the dirty water into a container, which is located to the left.

This is a closeup of the left side of my outdoor sink.

The dirty water drains out into a 5 gallon Home Depot bucket.  I will reuse the dirty water to hydrate my parched plants.

My outdoor sink faucet was hooked up to the outdoor faucet.

The special feature to the sink is that my hubby installed a metal, flexible hose so that water can come out of the faucet above the sink.

I knew that it was possible to have a sink outdoors!

I had faith that my hubby could put it together.  All it took was some imagination to dream the possible.  This idea was inspired by a picture I saw on Facebook about a couch made out of cinder blocks.  I believe it was from an article in the Better Homes and Gardens website.  I think someone had pinned it on a board at Pinterest.com.

Well, thanks for reading about our outdoor sink.  I hope it has inspired you to create your own cinder block projects.  

How about you, my readers?  Have you created anything special with cinder blocks or other such sturdy material for your oudoor areas?

This blog entry will be placed under Family Fun Fridays.

Spring Gardening: Update on Health Habits for April 2012

These are plants that were started indoors.

Been wanting to let you all know about our gardening.

Indoors, I started some seeds for various plants including tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, and herbs.  I love springtime.  We get to grow what we eat.  Best of all is that we shop right in our backyard.  After all, who can afford the gasoline to get to the local farmer's market?

My hubby tore apart old flooring from a storage shed.

My husband salvaged some wood.

My husband's workplace had a storage shed that deteriorated with time.  It was to be torn down.  My husband and some of his co-workers took whatever they could.  For example, some took old wiring.  My husband took some of the walls and floor.

We made these garden beds this past weekend.

By now, you must be asking yourselves, how does this all relate to  health habits?

Well, the work related to gardening is intensive.  It tests one's patience.  It takes planting seeds and waiting for them to grow.  It takes putting hammers to nails to remove them so that we can have boards to create the bed frames.  It takes shoveling soil into the frames for new garden beds.

I had immense movement of my body.  

On Saturday, the whole family was involved in using hammers and crow bars to take apart sections of an old storage shed.  My husband rented a large trailer and hauled the wood to our house.  My three older children and I hammered out the nails.  Mind you, this all happened in 90 degree weather.  Even the youngest one collected the old nails and stored them in a white bin.

Then, on Sunday, my husband bought nutrient-rich soil from Fertile Garden (here in San Antonio).  While my husband nailed some beds together, the children and I shoveled as much as we could of the 1 cubic yard of soil into the new beds.  Just like Saturday, it was extremely hot.  

We took precautions due to the heat.

My husband brought out some heavy duty fans on Saturday.  We made sure to drink lots of water both days.  On Sunday, my husband set up our canopy over the empty beds.  That way, we would have shade while we shoveled the soil from the trailer onto the beds.  We even had ice cream as a treat.  In all, we basked in a lot of Vitamin D, while constructing our garden beds.

Now, I have a dilemma.  

Should we place the plants in the garden beds or wait?  We have been having heavy rains, and I am afraid my smallish plants might get drowned.  Also, we might be going on vacation soon and don't want to neglect watering the plants properly.

I do hope you liked this different take on spring gardening relating to my health habits.  I could have related the same information about how much weight I've lost (or not) or how much water I have consumed.  I thought this blog entry merited a different format from enumeration of accomplished goals.  God bless you for reading about our garden.  I'll post updates about our garden throughout the year.

How about you, my readers?  Are you keeping up with any health goals for the month of April, related to your New Year's resolutions?  How do you plan to improve your health at this point?  Are any of you gardening?  I encourage you all to consider gardening.  It's a great opportunity to get some exercise and to grow some organic vegetables.  

If you need to improve your health, in any form, please ask God to help you; He will, if you pray for His guidance.

This is an entry for Medical Mondays.  For past entries, click here.

Disclaimer: The viewpoints that I discussed here are just my opinions.  Please consult your physician before altering anything relating to your health.  I am only suggesting here to take charge of your health.  Don't just leave your health in the hands of your doctors; become your own advocate.  You know best how your body is doing.

How's My Vegetable Garden?

This is our garden as of yesterday--2011.

On Saturday, April 16th, we had planted this garden.  We had planted tomato and bell pepper plants.  What you now see above is the cucumber plants that are creeping out of the square garden.  We had planted the cucumbers as seeds on April 24th.  Cilantro did not fare well inside so I need to try a different method of planting that.

Vegetable gardening is something we've been doing for a few years already, for our health.  If you want to know how we did it this last time, you can view the entries by clicking the above highlighted blog entries.  Some of the plants were bought and some we had planted from seeds and transplanted.  I can't claim to be an expert as my cilantro seeds bear out this truth.  I can say that I am not a quitter and will continue to do new experiments and projects, as far as gardening goes.

Garden planted on April 16th.

Cucumber seeds planted on April 24th.

Cucumber plant grown from seed--date April 30th.

I thought I would update you all on how our garden is doing, since our garden is for our health.  Yes, it's thriving, thanks to my hubby.  He's the one who's been watering the plants everyday.  We live in Texas and are experiencing a drought.  Our city, San Antonio, is currently at stage 2 water restrictions.  

Pretty soon, we could be experiencing 

stage 3 water restrictions.  

I'm gonna show you what that means to our plants:

My shadow encircles a light green tomato.

A green bell pepper is hiding.

This is a closeup of one unripe tomato.

Crunchy leaves manage to still hide our growing tomatoes.

A visible tomato is at the bottom of picture.

Well, you can see that our garden is coming along nicely.  Yes, it is hot in Texas.  We are fortunate to have a long growing season.  With the daily watering, my hubby has kept our garden alive.  I do think we need to add mulch because it might get hotter in the summer months.

San Antonio has experienced 100 degree weather already.  How much hotter is it gonna be in the official summer months is anybody's guess.  I want our garden prepared.  I'll update you all again.  I might even try some other experiments for cilantro, as I did some research about that.

Incidentally, we ate two bell peppers, from our garden, in our cheese enchiladas yesterday.  They smelled and tasted wonderful.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this many-pictured blog entry. I enjoyed compiling it for y'all.

What about you, my readers?  Are you gardening?  What are you growing?  How's the weather where you live?  Is the weather helping or hindering your gardening?  I hope you will consider growing something at least as an experiment for your children.  It's a lot of fun.

I pray God grants you all His wisdom and peace.

This has been part of the Medical Mondays series.
  

You can view the related blog entries at:

Gardening Vegetables and Fruit

Planting Cucumber and Cilantro Seeds

 

D is for Using a Digital Camera as a Tool to Teach

 

I'm currently participating in an ABC's for homeschooling challenge.  

Since it falls on Tuesdays, I am adding a technological slant to the challenge.  

I hope you stay tuned and enjoy my entries.

I started out my blog for various reasons.  The most important reason is that I wanted to record life lessons for my children.  I have found, through blogging, that pictures can carry the messages a long way.  Visual cues provide visual learners a way to relate to the information with a much more keen interest in the content.  I, myself, am a visual person so I understand this concept.

Digital cameras can be wonderful teaching tools.

In my blog reading, I have sought out blogs that provide rich images of how mothers organize their own homes.  I am loving this springtime cleaning season.  Many mom bloggers are taking before and after pictures of their decluttering and reorganization of specific rooms.  I love seeing their ideas come to fruition.  The explanations provided entice me to try out some of their ideas, often with my own tweaking.

You might think that I am only referring to myself and my enjoyment of taking photographs.  I have been fortunate enough to have taken some lessons in photography in my junior high and high school years.  They have shaped the way I take photographs.  I don't claim to be an expert.  I just know what I want to convey through my pictures.

Picture-taking is essential for me for several reasons.  Yes, I capture memories.  Yes, I love to record vacations and milestones.  Who doesn't?  I, more importantly, want to teach with my photographs.

Picture of organization of a bedroom, essential to homemaking

For example, to teach homemaking to my children, I am taking before and after pictures of my decluttering efforts in my own home.  I want to show my children about the importance of organization for a home to run efficiently.  It is important that they learn the skill of organization for when they have their own homes.  I am taking the time to jot down notes and adding before and after pictures to my blog entries about organization; I want to provide my children with examples of cleanliness in a home.  It might give them inspiration to reorganize their own bedrooms after seeing what I can do.

Picture of a cooked meal is a wonderful teaching tool.

Another way I use photography to teach my children is in the area of cooking.  I am enjoying blogging and taking pictures of meals (and their ingredients) that my children can make for themselves.  I have blogged about making soups, salads, and tacos.  I have made a point about making meals that are colorful for the eyes, too.  A melody of colors in a meal can lure people into eating your delicious, healthy meals.

Pictures of gardening help teach about science.

Of course, I must mention gardening.  My children should know about plants for science.  Is there a better way to learn about plants than to plant seeds and watch them grow?  I love the fact that out of seeds something big, juicy, and delicious grows out of the earth to eat.  My children have gardened for several years, but with pictures, those memories have been recorded for later viewing.

Well, thanks for reading this entry.  I hope I have provided some advice on how to use a digital camera to teach in your homeschool.  Even if you don't homeschool, all adults and children can use digital cameras to capture memories to teach others on any given subject, including family history, for example.  I hope you will give it a try, if you haven't already.  Photography can provide a different dimension to learning for your children.

 

How about you, my readers?  Do you own a digital camera?  Do you let your children use it?  I encourage you to use a digital camera to create opportunities to provide visual aids in your teaching.  Photography, in itself, can be quite fun, too!

I pray that God gives you all, my beloveds, His wisdom and peace.

This has been an entry for the Technology Tuesdays series.

Gardening Vegetables and Fruit

Bell pepper and tomato plants needed replanting.

We had a busy day.  I usually like to post as early as possible, but I wanted to blog about our garden which was not ready.  Days ago, my hubby had placed cinder blocks in the shape of a rectangle in the area that we had chosen.  We had even put some garden soil inside the rectangle yesterday.  We just needed a few bags of extra ingredients to finish it up.

Before: Garden soil was bought at Keller Material.

In the afternoon, we went to Home Depot to buy 3 bags of  cow manure, 2 large bags of Miracle Gro organic garden mix, and 1 large bag of cedar mulch.  I also thought to buy 3 pairs of neon green gardening gloves for the three older kids.  Kaelyn had small red gloves. The lonely plant is sage that lived on from last year's planting.  The plant survived freezing and hot temperatures!

Cow manure mixed in the garden soil.

Miracle Gro mixed in the soil.

The kids and hubby mixed in the cow manure and Miracle Gro.  They used rakes and shovels.  I asked them to put on their gloves.  (I don't like the idea of the kids touching manure with their bare hands.)  Then, it was time to plant the bell pepper and tomato plants.

I tapped those baby plants out of their small container.

I estimated where I wanted the plants.  They have to be about a foot apart.  I used empty pots to plot the locations.  I pushed the pots into the ground to "stencil" where the plants were to go.  The kids then dug the hole in those spots.

I placed each baby plant in the hole and the kids did the rest.

I turned the plants upside down and tapped hard at the bottom of the small containers to tease them out.  I placed each plant in the holes that the kids made.  The kids then buried the plant.  We've been through this before so they know to tamp down the soil.  After that, came the mulch.

Cedar mulch keeps the moisture from evaporating.

The kids, hubby, and I mulched the plants.  I asked the kids to first surround the plants.  We started with handfuls of mulch.  Hubby shoveled mulch into the garden bed.  Then, he dumped the remainder of the bag.  We finished by spreading the mulch with shovels and rakes.

After: Mulch surrounds the tomato and bell pepper plants.  

The last ingredient was the water.  Thirsty plants require water.  Water makes the tomatoes plump.  With mulch, you don't have to worry about the plants going too dry in the heat.  We need to mulch for the Texas heat.

Hubby watered the plants.

 

  

We made sure to put our tools and gloves away.  It's important to teach the kids to put away the shovels and rakes.  It's not enough to teach them how to garden.  Little details like that can help to know where the tools are next time.  We will be using the tools again for another vegetable garden.   

Gloves go into a hanging shoe organizer.

I'm so proud of my kids and hubby.

Lastly, we had a little treat because the kids did such a good job.  I had bought some badminton gear.  We played until we got tuckered out.  Not even the darkness could dissuade us from playing.  We enjoyed our family time together.

Badminton gear--some I bought today, as a special treat.

Well, I hope you liked this blog entry.  I wanted to show how easy it is as a family to garden.  Gardening is good for your health because of the good foods you get out of it.  You exercise and get to shop in your own backyard.  Later, I hope to show how to tend and harvest the garden.

How about you, my dear readers?  Do you like gardening?  Are you gardening?  If so, what?    I would highly encourage those who haven't to start small.  Container gardening is possible for those with limited space.

God bless you all with His peace and wisdom, my beloveds.

This has been a Saturday Spreads entry.

How I Lost Thirty Pounds

Me at my heaviest.

 About four years ago, after having gone on a trip to the beach, I saw some photos of myself.  I was amazed at what I saw.  My lower calf legs, which were my pride and joy, were too chunky.  Sure, I had been suffering with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and anxiety at the time, not to mention shortness of breath, every time I walked at all.  I just did not realize how much my extra weight really showed.

I decided to weigh myself and set on the course to weight loss.  I'm not saying that I went all out to try to lose the weight at once.  I knew that I had gained and lost weight before.  I had already had all four of my children by the year 2005.  I had already experienced the yo-yo of weight with all of those four pregnancies.

I chose a few methods to help me lose weight.  I read information on the internet, listened to doctors on television, and read books.  I compiled my ideas and added a few.  Here is what I came up with (in no particular order) that have helped me lose a total of 30 pounds:

1. I put on my tennis shoes.
 
I think this is the most important one.  I got this idea from a cleaning guru.  This person, the Fly Lady, recommends that you put your shoes so it can trigger in your mind to get up and do something in the cleaning arena of your life.  I just added it to my priorities because it did cause me to get up and clean, which involves movement.  When you clean, you sweat and exercise.

2. I drank less soda.

 I have struggled with this one recently.  When you take into account how much sugar there is in one can of soda, you would think that the mind would rule over the strange taste buds.

3. I ate less junk food.

 This one I struggle with nowadays; however, with food prices going up, this is one thing, including pre-packaged and highly processed foods, that I am hoping to give up.  I already announced this at a family meeting after dinner a few nights ago.

4. I ate more fruits and vegetables.

I made smoothies with anything imaginable.  I mixed yogurt, frozen strawberries, and fresh bananas.  I used whatever frozen fruit I had available and added cinnamon, flax seeds, and/or powdered supplements I thought that my body needed at the time.

5. I exercised with the help of the Wii.

This was a lot of fun.  The games include balancing a ball and dropping it into a hole, jogging in place, and using a hula hoop.

6. I used light weight dumb bells, a large exercise ball, and resistance bands, while exercising.

I often viewed exercise videos, which included using dumb bells.  Whenever I watched television, I used the dumb bells and resistance bands.  I became good at multi-tasking with the large ball by sitting on it, while reading my emails on the computer.

7. I drank more water.

I made it a point to leave bottles of water everywhere I might sit.  This encouraged me to drink more water than ever before.  I still have this good habit, four years later.

8. I drank water while cooking.

Okay, this one was easy.  Once I got into the habit of drinking water, I started to drink water while cooking because I would often became thirsty.  Also, this keeps you from over-eating when it is time to sit and eat dinner.  Your tummy is already somewhat full.

9. I danced while cooking.

I turned on the radio and danced to the oldies, disco, contemporary music or anything that was fun.  I found music videos at www.youtube.com to dance to with my hubby, after dinner.  I still do this on occasion.

10. I planted a veggie garden.

This is a big one.  When you garden, you are doing many positive things.  You are creating a self-sustaining object--you are feeding yourself off of the land you cultivate and plant.  You also exercise and sweat off the pounds and toxins.

 

This is me now.

I'm not a health guru by any means.  I have kept off the weight, yes, but I still have more weight that I need to lose.  I need to pick up these habits again (or gain some new ones) to lose even more pounds.  I'm looking to lose an additional 13 pounds for this year. I want to feel healthier and not just slimmer.

It is hard to lose the weight with all of the temptations and cost of food rising.  I have a husband who loves, loves, loves Pepsi and brings it home with him.  He is also guilty of bringing me junk food.  I am guilty of asking him to bring it home.  What is the happy medium for us both?

I know my husband wants to please me and comfort me.  I would rather make more smoothies with fresh fruit.  I want to make more nutritious meals, too.  I could enlist the kids to create menus that include vegetables, too.  Is that too much to ask for? 

 How about you, my readers?  Did you vow, at the beginning of the year, to lose weight?  to get healthier?  What's stopping you?  Let's do some research but then act on whatever we learn.

God bless you all with peace, my beloveds.

This is a Medical Mondays entry.

Disclaimer: The viewpoints that I discuss here are just my opinions.  Please consult your physician before altering anything relating to your health.  I am only suggesting here to take charge of your health.  Don't just leave your health in the hands of your doctors; become your own advocate.  You know best how your body is doing.

 

I Was Bored--It Must Be Spring Fever

Yesterday, I was feeling so utterly bored!  Yes, I had many things still on my plate--many writing projects still to do.  I still had chores to do, but I was bored...so I decided to fill my salt shakers.  I got my supplies together--shakers, salt packets from restaurants, and tray.  I started to tear the little suckers, and it felt great.

Being able to tear something, again and again, felt exhilarating.  It's like I did some damage and something constructive at the same time.  I did some mundane chore, without having to do any deep thinking.  In the midst of that, I still had the pile of clothes to put away.  I still had to make my bed, too.

Did I mention that it was already two o'clock in the afternoon?  Did I say that I was still in my pajamas?  Oh, yes, many of us have had those days.  It doesn't matter if you are a stay-at-home mother or a work-out-of-home mother, we all have had a day like this.  I think it might be an indication that we need to spice up our days a bit.

Perhaps it is the spring bug biting me.  You know, it's like when you are aching to go outside and enjoy a wonderful spring day, frolicking in the green, green grass.  Oh, yes, I can see us all wearing white--sundresses, white pant, and white t-shirts, and running in the sand in the beach on a bright, sunny day.  Recharging our batteries is sometimes necessary.  We need to rest our bodies, minds, and souls; then we can conquer the world when we land back into reality again.

What's to stop us from enjoying the warmer weather out there? Time?  Money?  Do we really need those things?  No.  How much does it cost to drive out to our local park, if the weather is right?

Whatcha gonna do, my readers?  Are you gonna take me up on my challenge?  Go out there and have some fun!  I know what I'm gonna do--I'm gonna plant me some tomato and cucumber seeds for my garden this weekend. 

Have yourselves some pre-spring fun for me.  I already started by grabbing my mp3 player, cranking it up whilst I made my bed and put away my pile of clothes, all the while dancing like a crazy buffoon.  Hehe!

God bless you all with peace, my beloveds.