Last week, most of my family (dad stayed home, we can hardly get him to travel anymore) headed to Florida for my Aunt Mary’s funeral. It was a bittersweet time of seeing family that we don’t often get to see and saying goodbye to our precious Aunt. She will be missed, but never forgotten and it will be so different not to have her at our family gatherings this year. This was my mom’s sister-in-law, married to her brother and they were very close. Mom doesn’t get to Florida all that often anymore, so she really enjoyed getting to see many people that she knew and grew up with too.
We celebrated Mother’s Day with mom (Mark went with me for BBQ at their house and we also saw his mom) and then mom and I drove down to Florida the next day with my brother-in-law.
Lauren and Renee drove from New Orleans, since my sister was down there helping Lauren out after baby Iris was born. Baby Iris is 4 weeks old now and growing so much already. She’s a little peanut and so cute. Looking at her, she reminds me so much of Parker and it is hard to believe Parker was ever this little, but she was. We got to meet the baby for the first time at the hotel and great grandmother and baby got acquainted for the first time.
Mom and baby Iris, her namesake. There was eye contact and a few little smiles. Babies are so sweet with their newborn squeaks, they sound like little kittens.
Selfie with Baby Iris
I didn’t take my big camera, so relied on my iPhone to take these first pics, but I hope to get better ones when Lauren comes up to Georgia in a couple of weeks. Since she is on maternity leave, she’ll bring both girls up for a visit soon. Can’t wait for that! More baby time!
We could just eat her up, the precious thing! She’s got a headful of dark hair and her daddy’s genes all over again.
Mom, of course loved it!
She is so sweet and precious and we are in love already with baby girl Iris!
I thought y’all might like to see a picture of all my cousins. This is most of my first cousins on my mom’s side of the family. There are 4 missing, I think. The siblings are all standing together in pairs, can you tell that we are related? It was good to see them all and get together for the first time in years. We don’t often get to spend time together.
From left to right: Keith and Kendra, Carla and Howard, Renee and I, Brenda and Dennis (who lost their mom), Jan and Jacque.
In garden news with my dad, you may remember just a few short weeks ago, the garden was planted. You can barely see green shoots popping up on the backside.
And now it looks like this! These pics were taken Mother’s Day Sunday.
Daddy is so proud of his garden. This is a row of Irish potatoes, looking strong and healthy. We’ve gotten quite a bit of rain, so it’s growing well. He runs his tiller down the rows to keep the weeds down and as things spread out he hoes it with a hoe.
This row is squash and zucchini.
Parks Whopper tomatoes on the next row. He’s a proud gardener and he should be. I don’t know anyone who does it better than he does.
He’s got corn and beans on the far rows, with a few other things in between too. I’ll keep you all posted on how it all looks and when things start coming in. We are salivating waiting for the tomatoes to come in at the end of June or first of July.
He planted pole beans on fencing this year.
And his muscadines and scuppernongs are doing well as they always do. He babies them and cuts them back every winter so they will grow out and produce.
The main thing he does in his garden is to fertilize regularly with 10-10-10 fertilizer and keeps it hoed for weeds and makes sure it gets plenty of water. He and my brother-in-law added composted leaves to the garden over the winter and dad tilled them up in his dirt and he thinks that really made a difference this year too. He planted Parks Whopper tomatoes because he heard that they are more disease resistant than the other kinds he had been planting, so we will see how they do.
Can’t wait for a Caprese Salad and fresh bruschetta this year! We dearly love those tomatoes! I wanted to share my dad’s garden, because I know how much you all love him and my mom. Thanks as always for reading and stopping by my blog!
Great post. Yes, tomatoes are the best!!
The corn litigation ad makes it very hard to read this post!
Karen
I had an ad blocking the post . I turning my IPad to read vertical and it made it smaller. Did you try that? Nice story.
I am reading on a desktop and ads keep blocking the post. I got rid of one and another appeared that I could not X out.
Sorry y’all are experiencing some ad blocking problems. I’ve got my ad guy looking into this. I can’t see it on my Mac at all. I have ads in content, between the paragraphs, but they aren’t supposed to block anything.
love to see your mama with the babies and your dad in his garden. makes my heart happy.
Thanks for sharing !!!! Love the pics!
I don’t understand that last comment, it wasn’t on my computer. I was just thinking how it was hard for me to concentrate reading today’s blog thinking about future blogs of your Mom’s wonderful cooking using
the goodies from your Dad’s garden. I know I’m bad, it’s only 7:20am but your family does know how to
celebrate family with good food! 🙂
Sorry. I had an ad blocking some of the story and thought you wer talking about that.mi se now you mentioned con! I love hearing and seeing about the garden.
Sorry for the typos.. I am sure you grt my point . *were, now I see.
Always love seeing your Daddy’s garden. Makes me smile.
Your parents are amazing and God has truly blessed them!
Love these sweet family posts! Congrats on the new addition AND the spectacular garden ~ I see lots of delish summer eating in your future!
xo Heidi
Thanks for sharing the pics of your family. My favorite is the selfie you took with Iris. You both are beautiful. Your Daddy reminds me so much of mine. He loved his garden too! He would have so many tomatoes that he would take them to Wednesday night dinner at church to share with everyone. I know you treasure the time with your parents. My Daddy has been gone for almost 2 years and I miss him everyday. Thanks for all of your great posts!
Your family posts are my favorite and your Daddy’s garden. Pray I have 1/2 of the energy of your parents when I get to their age.
I had a car dealer ad vertically covering the middle of the whole thing. I tried to make your post narrower and slid it back and forth to read the words.
Your family is so beautiful, and yes I can we the family resemblance with the cousins…especially in your smiles. Your dad must be planning on feeding half of Marietta with his garden. I’d be looking forward to a ‘mater sandwich!!! (I didn’t have the problem with the ads blocking your post btw)
Gosh, Rhoda, I’ve been away awhile and didn’t even realize Iris had been born – congratulations to the family! This was a great post. Sad to hear the news of your Aunt, but happy your mom & dad are faring well. Enjoy that garden with your parents and time spent with Lauren & the kiddos when they visit!
Your Dad’s garden is so pretty. I know you can’t wait to enjoy the harvest.
Thanks for sharing the pictures of your family.
Please ask your dad to share his favorite tomatoes to grow. We try to find heirloom varieties to plant here. I guess it is out of the question to get him to Ohio for a consultation!?
Kellie, I did share what he planted, Parks Whoppers. He has heard great things about them.
I don’t know how they can be better than the Better Boys but, I can’t wait to try them and see!! He is such a wonderful Gardner and amazes me with all he does. Iris, also!! Love the pictures of her and Baby Iris!!
I can’t wait to taste them either!
I enjoyed reading your post. Your dad reminds me of my granddad when he used to plant a big garden. You have such a wonderful family. Thanks for sharing! I had no problem reading the post (laptop, Windows 7)
Let me say again how sorry I am for you and your family’s loss, saying prayers for strength and healing.
What a fabulous post!! Love all the photos of baby Iris and your family. I was amazed to see the resemblance in the cousins photos. Y’all look so much alike it could be a photo of sets of twins!! Happy for you that you got to visit with so many of them even though it was a sad occasion.
The garden photos of your Dad are fabulous as always, wish I had his green thumb!! My two 4’x4′ raised beds produce more tomatoes, squash, cukes and green beans than the two of us can eat and I’ve had lots of cherry tomatoes already, the neighbor’s love them!! Thanks for a great post Rhoda!!
I look at pictures of your sweet dad and mom and have to smile. My dad was a hands on kind of fella, very good with wood working and upholstery. He had a green thumb, but never planted a garden. Your pictures of your dad make me miss my dad all the more. He has been gone now for 9 years although it seems like yesterday. My mom is still here and is a blessing. I get calls to come and get a cake she has made or some wonderful meal prepared by her precious hands. Enjoy your dad and mom and cherish each and every moment. Thank you for sharing your wonderful life through pictures and words. Blessings to you and your precious family.
Your family posts are just spectacular. You are so blessed!
Rhoda,your blog is by far the best one that I subscribe to. Love you family posts, Your dads garden is awesome! Keep up the great work!
Thank you, Pat! I will keep on sharing them all. It’s what I have to share and I’m grateful for my family.