Happy 14th Birthday, Molly!

Ohhhhh Molly Lynn Elizabeth, are we ever in the thick of the teen years!

But I say that with all the love in my heart. You are everything I wasn't at 14. I was quiet, meek, and kept my thoughts and feelings to myself. You are bold and lively and not afraid to share what you are thinking and feeling here at home. I love that about you. I want you to be bold. I want you to be fierce. I want you to feel your feelings and express what you are thinking. I am so thankful you feel free to be your true self. I am so thankful for all the times you come to me to share in on your life. 

I know you continue to struggle to find yourself within your peer circle; teenage girls can be mean, and there is no shortage of them in your life. But I am continuously proud of you that you remain one of the kind ones. One of the caring, compassionate, and non-judging ones. A true good human, despite all the meanness you have encountered the past few years. I am so proud of you. I am so excited to continue to watch you grow into yourself as you enter high school this fall. 

Happy 14th birthday, Molly! I love you deeply. 

With love,                                                                                                               Mama Hauck

Happy 16th Birthday, Anthony!

My word. 16. 

How has 16 years come and gone so damn quickly? 

Anthony, I get all choked up knowing I only have two more years with you in our home. I think about how much I've missed out on this year because of not feeling well due to chemo, and it greatly pains this Mama's heart. I never want to miss a single second. 

I am so proud of the man you are growing into. You are so kind to your peers, empathetic, understanding, non-judgmental, hard working, smart, deep thinking, funny as hell, and just all around the best damn human that I know. Seriously. You are eager to learn and grow as a human and I couldn't ask for anything more from my children. 

I greatly enjoy our conversations. You are constantly blowing me away with the way your mind works and what you think. I am forever thankful for the close relationship we have, and the fact that you come to me to share your life with. 

My heart just bursts with so much love and pride knowing I get to call you mine. 

Happy 16th birthday, Anthony! Time to officially go get your license! EKKK!! 

With love,                                                                                                      Mama Hauck

June Garden Update

Time for a June garden update! 

The garden is doing amazing, thanks mostly to my dad. I do get down to the garden more now, now that I've wrapped up my chemo and I'm not laying in bed feeling like I'm dying most of the time. 

The beets came in a bit sporadic, but they are growing well. I pulled one to see how they were growing, and I think things are looking good! 

 

We've got four rows of corn planted. Two in one bed, one in the bed with the green beans, and one in the bed with the squash. Here's the bed with two rows. We are well on our way to "knee high by the 4th of July!" lol

The green beans are doing great. We've got the bush beans, as well as the poll beans. The poll beans are on the wooden trellis. We'll probably support the bush beans with some tomato cages once they get bigger. I'm SUPER excited for when they start producing. 

My raspberries plants have exploded. They have seriously grown so much. I did a bit of reading though, and because they are first year, we probably won't be getting berries on them this year. That's ok though, I just want them to get well established and hopefully next year I will be swimming in berries. 

My strawberries are doing well, and every few days I get a handful of berries to munch on. Here pretty soon we need to cover the bed with bird netting though. I'm starting to lose some to the birds, and I hate sharing with them! 

 

 

We've got two different kinds of squash planted. Acorn and I think spaghetti. We've had a lot of flowers pop up, and I was excited to see the start of a little squash! 

Growing snap peas is always one of my favorites because I get to pick and snack on them daily throughout June. They are usually wrapped up by mid July, as they don't enjoy the heat very much. So I try to get as much as I can out of them in June. 

We added two new raised beds to the garden and planted pumpkins in one of them! They're already doing great and I'm excited to be growing pumpkins again. It's been a few years. We have cantaloupe seeds and plan to get those in the ground of the other new bed here very shortly. 

Anthony's two tomato plants he got from his friend have survived his planting, lol, and are growing great! 

I'm excited to continue to watch the garden grow, and to start harvesting beets and green beans soon! 

With love,

Mama Hauck