Staking Tomatoes

"Have you ever grown tomtaoes? You have to keep the plants up with a cage or stake so the tomatoes don't sit on the ground. If they do, they rot. You spend all this time preparing the soil, planting, weeding, watering, working, and then you lose the fruit of your hard work 'cause the tomatoes rotted on the ground without a tomato stake. " These words are from one of my Dave Ramsey friends, making an analogy between tomatoes and parenting. She hit the nail on the head with this one. My kids need staking! They need us to be their stakes so they don't rot on the ground. This is not going to be an easy feat; it's going to be hard and very time consuming!

I believe our experiment will start with Ryan and his girlfriend, who seem to be moving way too fast! I don't know exactly how we'll work this, but the plan is to be with them as much as possible when they're together. Less time alone means...well....less time alone! So by being with them, we will act as their "stakes" and hold them up out of the dirt. :)* Think it'll work? I wonder if we can convince Ryan to pay for mine and Patrick's tickets when we go with them to the movies?

In other news I finally got my mini-garden planted last weekend. Patrick and the kids surprised me by building me a planter box since I can't do much on my knees anymore. I planted tomatoes (they're not staked yet but they will be when the time comes....just like my kids!), zuchini squash, cucumbers, bell peppers, and various herbs. Take a good look at the picture, y'all. This will likely be the last time you see them GREEN. This is my third attempt at starting a garden; the 2 previous attempts ended up in the trash in the form of 30 peat pods that had sprouted beautifully, only to have me kill them all overnight! Hmmm.....maybe there's a thought for my kids!