Lotta belly

I thought I was getting so big in the picture below. Now I just laugh and think how comfortable that would be to be that small.

22 weeks

29 weeks

31 weeks

34 Weeks (just a few days ago) I sent this pic to Sara in response to her random "I can't believe you are pregnant" text)

My how the comfort level has changed. I have so much catching up to do on the blog but it has been 10 weeks (I will be 35 weeks in 2 days!) since I posted a belly shot. So I posted four. I am overwhelmed with how much I have to catch up on but my mile-long to-do list doesn't prioritize blogging up very high on the list. It will come though I promise.

I'm Moving...

I purchased a domain for publishing all of my plant/hobby information. It is a work in progress, but I have the blog portion of it up and running. I have copied the blog posts on this blog that have to do with plants over to http://moderngreenthumb.com/blog/. I will be updating future posts having to do with plants and hydroponics to this new site.

25 Weeks Mexico Style

Pregnancy brings a whole new appreciation for a lot of simple little things. Last Saturday marked 25 weeks and we were living it up at the beach in Mexico (or MET-SI-TOE as half of us started to call it by the end of the week, thanks to cute little Andersen). 

A few things (pregnancy related and not) that I was grateful for last week:

1. Digging a hole in the sand for my belly and lying on my stomach on the beach. Heaven. So simple, so perfect.

2. Floating in the ocean and not feeling an ounce of the extra weight I've gained.

3. Being with the entire Jesperson Family in Puerto Vallarta for an entire week of play and relaxation.

4. Finishing a book and knowing that I DO have the ability to finish one I start. (I am cursed with this inability to finish a book I start, no matter how into it I am. Not anymore:)

5. Letting my niece and nephew feel our sweet little girl kick and get so excited.

6. Being with my hubby 24/7 for an entire week. I never get sick of him and it always takes a few days to transition back to real life after that.

7. Getting to take pictures like this to remember it...

25 Weeks

More Mexico and catching up to come!

EXTREME HEAT! Use caution when entering.

 I started growing two new types of peppers this last month. I am growing two Caribbean red habaneros and 2 bhut jolokias. Both of these pepper are supposed to be off-the-charts HOT. In fact, the bhut jolokia is supposed to be the hottest pepper in the world. Here is a copy of the Scoville scale (how the heat of peppers is measured) from wikipedia. I have highlighted the peppers that I will be growing. As you can see I will be enjoying a lot of heat this winter.

Scoville heat units	Examples
15,000,000–16,000,000	Pure capsaicin
8,600,000–9,100,000	Various capsaicinoids (e.g., homocapsaicin, homodihydrocapsaicin, nordihydrocapsaicin)
5,000,000–5,300,000	Law enforcement grade pepper spray, FN 303 irritant ammunition
855,000–1,463,700	Naga Viper pepper, Infinity Chilli, Bhut Jolokia chili pepper, Trinidad Scorpion Butch T pepper
350,000–580,000	Red Savina habanero
100,000–350,000	Habanero chili, Scotch bonnet pepper, Datil pepper, Rocoto, Madame Jeanette, Peruvian White Habanero, Jamaican hot pepper
50,000–100,000	Byadgi chilli, Bird's eye chili, Malagueta pepper, Chiltepin pepper, Piri piri (African bird's eye), Pequin pepper
30,000–50,000	Guntur chilli, Cayenne pepper, Ají pepper, Tabasco pepper, Cumari pepper (Capsicum Chinese)
10,000–23,000	Serrano pepper, Peter pepper, Aleppo pepper
3,500–8,000	Espelette pepper, Jalapeño pepper, Chipotle, Guajillo pepper, New Mexican varieties of Anaheim pepper, Hungarian wax pepper, Tabasco sauce
1,000–2,500	Anaheim pepper, Poblano pepper, Rocotillo pepper, Peppadew
100–900	Pimento, Peperoncini, Banana pepper
0	No significant heat, Bell pepper, Cubanelle, Aji dulce

What am I going to do with these peppers? I am always looking to try things that are hot. I also have a fascination with the ability to give these plants light, food, and water and they produce something that can cause me pain (in the form of heat). To me that is awesome! I am looking forward to trying them to see if I can use them for eating or if I am too much of a wuss. My backup plan is to use them in a garlic and pepper mixture that you can make to spray on your bark in the spring to keep deer away from your plants. Last spring we had a terrible deer problem especially with our magnolias. I am going to see if this actually works or if it is just an "internet tale."

Here are 2 pictures of the plants. You will notice some browning on the edges of the leaves. When they were smaller I had thrips that were in my cumin that crossed over to my peppers and began feeding on them as the were new and tender. Since then I have solved the thrips problem and learned quite a bit about plant pest management (I'll have to write about that later).

Bhut Jolokia

Red Habanero

Cumin Update

I started growing cumin in my indoor vegetable garden near the end of September. It is now about 6 or 7 weeks later and we are starting to get some mature fruit.

The flowers on the top of these seeds have fallen off and the fruit is growing larger. As the fruit matures this branch will start to dry out.

This picture shows the progression of the cumin flower.

 In the picture above the top cluster has new purple flowers that have opened. The bottom cluster has flowers that have darkened and started to shrivel. The flower will fall off of the top of the fruit and leave the fruit to ripen like in the first picture.

Grow Room

This is the grow room as it is now. 28 cumin plants all growing together in the foreground. In the back left is the lisbon lemon tree (more about this in another post) and in the top right are 2 habanero and 2 bhut jolokia pepper plants (again more in another post).

We have tried some of the seeds even though they are still maturing and sure enough we get a rich cumin flavor.

22 Weeks and Organizing Challenge Days 2 and 3

I'm starting to notice more and more the patterns of when I feel our baby girl every day and they are pretty consistent. And I felt her from the outside for the first time this week! Every day I try to get Jonny to feel her right after I feel her. In fact, his hand is on my tummy right now trying to feel her for the first time:) It's coming soon, I know it.

22 Weeks

For Day 2 of organizing Jonny and I did some financial organizing here. We love how easy it is and how we are able to keep track of everything, set budgets, see trends, and categorize everything to see where our money is going. It's great. Highly recommend it. 

Day 3 brought me to the desk (well actually the table we are using for a desk. Living in Jonny's parents' basement leads us to use what is around, instead of buying anything. We literally do not own any furniture besides our bed and a few pieces my dad made me that we are going to use for our little girl's room, so like 4 pieces of furniture total). Nothing special about this area but it does all we need it to.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

The majority of the organizing had to do with paper. Oh so fun. Lots of shredding things that we don't need anymore and redoing our filing system since it was not exactly up to date. at all. Whatever needs immediate action goes on the desk in the little shelving unit and the rest goes in the filing box. Organizing paper can get overwhelming and I don't really like it at all. So my philosophy is to save as little as necessary and scan everything you can to eliminate as much as possible. With the technology we have these days, there is no reason we need a ton of paper cluttering our lives. I'm excited to get a more permanent system but for now, that keeps everything manageable.

It's true I've got the nesting bug. There is no where for me to set up a nursery in our apartment so I will just have to make sure everything else is done and there is a little room in our bedroom for a rocking chair, pack n play, and call it good until we move. 

Oh yeah, and as far as my green smoothie report, we are 3 for 3 so far:)

How to pollinate an indoor lemon tree & Time Lapse

In searching for how to pollinate plants indoors I have not found many examples that show the flower up close. So... I made my own.

I also experimented by putting my camera out one night as a flower was about to open. This is the time lapse I captured.

Finally, here are some shots of some new born lemons. By the looks of how many flowers we have on this tree we are going to have lots of lemons this spring. Mmmmmmmmm!

4 baby lemons surrounding a flower