A Growing Weekend

It was a busy but rewarding weekend. We put in all of our gardens this weekend - veggie, flower, & herb. I have a great sunburn, bruises (thanks to blood thinners), and scratches all over. What can I say, it was a labor of love.

Veggies - tomatoes, yellow & green pepper, jalepenos, broccoli, yellow summer squash, beans & giant pumpkins. I thought I had gotten zuchini so I'll be going back for more. We ended up with some extra room so I'm to go shopping for the extras now that the basics are in. We had to make wire cages for most of the veggies thanks to the plethera of deer, bunnies, and other creatures that live in our wildlife park that we call home.

Our little "helpers" had fun planting and making a mess.

Tilling up the new garden.

Plants - I stashed away my favorite perennials at my MIL and friend's gardens. I have a mothers garden filled with flowers that my boys give me for mother's day. They get to pick out whatever they want. Sometimes it's an "interesting" choice... When I went to dig out my plants my MIL gave me all kinds of flowers from her garden that needed to be split, moved, or removed. I think it gives her a way to be generous and go get more new stuff ;)

The view.

Getting started. Landscaping really made the house look like a home.

Herbs - I put a special mini garden right by the patio outside the kitchen. I love cooking with fresh herbs. I cook far more healthy when I do. With a patch easily located I can grab them and go. I have rosemary, thyme, basil, oregano, parsley, & cilantro. The neighbor is giving me sesame. The plant is used in a lot of asian cooking. This garden saves me LOTS of money.

Yummy herbs. Fresh all summer and freshly dried all winter.

We also made it to pressure washed the driveway, went to church, a grad open house, and had friends over for dinner & games. A full and wonderful weekend.

Summer Fun

What fun (and inexpensive) things do you during the summer? We are a bit short on vacation time thanks to the house, so I'm looking for fun stuff to do this summer that doesn't require a lot of time or money...

Any veggie gardeners out there? What are you planting?

Wonderful Weekend

This really has to be one of our best weekends ever. We had lots of time with friends whom we haven't seen in a very long time, hanging out with the in-laws at their cottage (putting in the docks & fishing), got stuff done around the house, and then there was Monday. I got the WHOLE day off to myself - no kids, no hubby, no work - just me, Logziella, & all day to scrapbook.

It was WONDERFUL. It was relaxing, talking, eating yummy food, drinking coffee, and watching 3 movies. I can hardly get in 1 (a month maybe) these days. I got 8 pages done and I'm mostly happy with them. There are things I'd change, but not bad for the first time I've really done in a really long time.

My Boys

I keep forgetting to post these pics - Ryan's 4-year and Ty's 21 Month (should have been 18 month, but facial injuries and illness delayed us). The pictures turned out well and I had a really hard time deciding...


This is right before the wrestling match started.


This is right before "swing my little brother around" started.

Discovering Pockets

This is why we call him "little man"

Why won't my boys sit still for me to take pictures?

This is Ryan's smile for the camera face.

One last pictures of my curly head boy before his first haircut.

A brief time without any major facial injuries on one of them.

My big guy. Can't believe he's 4...

Belated Mother's Day

We finally got together tonight with my side of the family to celebrate mother's day. Yes, I know that it was a couple of weeks ago, but schedules, sickness, etc and we ended up with tonight. The meal turned out perfect - steaks on the grill, lemon cream pasta, green beans, greek style salad, and strawberry shortcake. Ate a little bit too much, okay WAY too much. Happy mother's day to you mom!

Today was Ryan's last day of pre-school. Not sure who's gonna miss it more - him or me. Trying to get a weekly play group together with some of the kids from his class to keep us all from going stir crazy.

This weekend we are taking time out for friends and family. Our to do list is exceedingly long, but it's gonna have to wait (except for cleaning out the garage). We're gonna try to catch up with friends that we've not seen in a long time. Makes for a full weekend, but that's okay. I'm really excited to get away on Monday ALL DAY with Logziella to scrapbook. With moving, building, kids, etc I've hardly touched anything in the last 1 1/2 yrs. Hopefully this will get me back into the swing of things.

Have a great Memorial Day weekend. Enjoy friends and family, but don't forget to remember those who have sacrificed so much for all of us. Prayers go out to so many who have lost loved ones. Also prayers for the family of Steven Curtis Chapman who lost their young daughter in an awful accident this week.

So Gross

Went to get little man out of his crib this morning and got a lovely surprise. He had evidently been awake for a while playing with what he found in his dirty diaper. I managed to make it past my gag reflex and grab his nasty little hands before more damage could be done. Of course I just put clean sheets and animals in the crib yesterday. Luckily I had washed his other set already. Unfortunately I had just put a load of clothes in the washer before finding this disaster so the mess has to sit for a bit.

Then we jumped into the car and ate breakfast there (didn't schedule major cleaning into my timing this morning) to meet a friend at a scrapbook store. Once there I spent half my time there in the bathroom. My 2 boys racked up 3 trips with the older boy yelling that "the poop is coming" at what seemed to be the top of his lungs. At least some of the women in the store seemed amused. Me, not so much.

Bathrooms

Can anyone tell me at what age little boys start to get better aim in the bathroom? I'd like to start counting down the days/months/years until cleaning the bathroom gets easier and less disgusting.

I have also discovered a rare known fact about laundry. If left alone long enough it reproduces. I've successfully left the laundry alone for a whole week and you should see how it multiplied.

Productive & Painful

We had a LONG weekend. Not the long and enjoyable kind, but the long and tired kind. Hopefully this post won't be as long and hard - but no guarantees.

We started on our lawn this weekend. After a couple of hours of raking on Friday night we came to the conclusion that we were in way over our heads. Our ground is mostly clay and hours of hard work had yielded little. So we rented a tractor with an attachment to scrape everything up good (best money we've spent on the house so far). But we couldn't get it until Saturday afternoon. Boys and their tractors...

So Andy got up early Saturday and went turkey hunting. Ryan and I were sitting on the couch watching a cartoon when Andy knocked on the door holding a turkey. You would have thought that it was Christmas as excited as the two little boys and the grown up boy were. Ty thoroughly enjoyed watching the whole butcher process. Ryan was a little more timid, but eventually watched. I stayed in the kitchen just shaking my head.


After the turkey and breakfast we set up to put top soil in the flower garden area along side the house. That's when we found out that the excavator only used the clay to backfill the house and left no sand or top soil on top. We spent a couple of back breaking hours shoveling.


After that we got to go work at a friends house. We work with Junior High kids at church and every two years we go on a missions trip. This summer we are taking the kids to go work at a summer camp (kitchen & grounds work). To raise money for the trip we take on work projects and also gives us a chance to build as a group and teach kids how to work hard if their parents haven't gotten through to them on that one. We usually end up doing everyone else's spring yard clean up on top of our own...

After getting our kids in bed Sat night we proceeded to plant the lawn in the dark. I'm a little scared to see how it comes in. But at least half of the yard is seeded. The other half starts tomorrow after the rest of the top soil comes in.


Sunday was church and more work on the lawn. Today I did a work out with friends and another work project. My body is done. My shoulders don't want to move and my leg muscles are sore. At least we are earning money and I'm getting in better shape!

It was nice tonight to not be coming in at 11:30 PM. Instead of yard work I baked all night for a shower I'm throwing tomorrow night. Yum - pineapple upside down cake and mini cheesecakes. That kind of good tasting work I don't mind as much.

Happy Monday to ya!

Fickle

Life is fickle isn't it? You think that you want something, desire change, looking forward to something new. Yet when you stand on the edge of the unknown, or seriously soul-search, that fear creeps in. Change is scary. There are so many things out of control and I'm a bit of a control freak. Okay I admit it - a LOT of a control freak.

I'm in my thirties and still don't know what I want to be when I grow up. I enjoy being a mom, yet at the same time feel like there is more that God wants to use me to do. My boys are growing up so fast and the reality is that it might be time to soon pursue something professional again.

Being out of the office environment for a while makes me even wonder what I would do. I've done a lot of things over the years but in a very specific field which doesn't necessarily transition to other industries or companies.

I guess for now I'm gonna sit back and see where God leads. If He really desires something from my family, than He'll make that apparent. That and maybe I'll take one of those what are you good at tests... but I'm scared it might tell me nothing ;)

Two Things I Hate

Hate is a strong word. I typically choose to not use it... or try not to.

However, I have developed a great hate of Windows Vista. Failure once again with the computer being set back to factory settings (just did this). This time I at least had a back up of everything (except my internet bookmarks - that was a bummer), but I still have to reinstall EVERYTHING. But I'm getting to be a professional at it, so it goes much faster. Hopefully by the end of the week, maybe I'll be functional again.

I hate the curse that Eve brought on us women. It's a good thing that Heaven is a perfect place or I'd really have to let her have it for eating that darn fruit.

Combining the two things I hate has made life so pleasant.

Mother's Day Wish

Mothers - here is my Mother's Day wish for you...
Non-Mothers - keep reading, I have a wish for you too...

I wish you memories of dandelion bouquets when your son rips off the petals of your prize flowers.

I wish you remembrance of when your baby wouldn't sleep when you can't get your teenager out of bed.

I wish you the joy of childhood hugs around the leg to make it through the years that your grown up kid keeps you at arm's length.

I wish you all the sleep, strength, resiliance, joy, brain cells, and ingenuity that it takes to be a mom. May the stress of the moment not dictate your response, but rather the true love you have for your child.

For those of you that wish to be a mom - I wish you the security coming from God's peace. He knows you heart's desire. He loves you and has great plans for you. I wish you all the endurance to run the race He set out for you.

Happy Mother's Day and happy everyday that comes between now and next year's celebration.

A Crappy Field Trip - Literally

I should have been smart like many of the other moms and just sent my son with the teachers on this field trip. But, being the good and protective mom that I am, I packed up my two sons and headed out to "Dairy Discovery."


We had hardly opened the car door when Ryan yelled "What's that smell?" He's been asking that for the last couple of months since moving. Welcome to the country. The 1200 cows on the farm should have been a clue.


We started out in the milking parlor. I grabbed my friends son to come with us to help out the teachers and headed in. Didn't realize that Tyler would FREAK out and scream the whole time. Which was compounded when the cow coming in relieved himself and poop splattered on us. Not much, but more than enough to gross me out and make Ryan FREAK out. I now have 2 screaming kids. So we try to push our way out of the parlor so the other kids can hear. If I had moved 2 seconds earlier we would have been COVERED with pee from another cow. I'm really done at this point and we are 5 minutes into the tour.


Tyler continued to cry and want to be held for the next hour and a half. I really don't need 30 extra pounds to carry around (I already have that myself). He was even scared by the baby calves whom we were given the chore of feeding a bottle of water. Again Ty screamed the whole time and Ryan was scared after the calf pulled the bottle out of his hands and into pen. I'm consoling two crying kids and still trying to feed the dumb calf.


The highlight of the day - the corn crib. It's like a sand box made of corn. It's the only time I saw Ty smile the whole time. Still have a few kernels of the corn floating around in the back of the car.

I think I've earned Mother's Day this week.

More Pictures

Last week we had a beautiful and warm day and Logziella, myself, and the kiddos hit the streets for a community garage sale in a nice neighborhood. It was a lot of fun and the kids did so good. I was so proud of Ty cuz we spent the morning garage saling while Ryan was in school. I spent a bunch, but I got SO much.


Ty, Ryan and Kenzie all squeezed in the back row and learned more about "sharing their new toys" even if they didn't want too.


Logan got the privilege of holding on to the new globe.


"Look bloggers - no hands!" Good thing there was no traffic and it was a country road.


One of the most exciting things I've ever watched - cement drying. Really, I'm not joking. Can't wait for the kids to ride bikes tomorrow and to park in my garage next week!!!!


It was boys night out. Ryan got to go hunting for the first time for turkeys. So two of my turkeys got decked out in camo and hit the woods. Not sure which one was more excited. Andy could finally walk out the door and go hunting rather than driving a distance. Think he was more excited

Hunting with a 4-year-old went about as good as it could. Both boys are in love with the decoy. Tyler is excited to pretend to shoot at it... I'm getting a glimpse at my future.

Tomorrow is a pre-school field trip to the dairy farm. This should be interesting and aromatic. But then again, we now live near a dairy farm and Ryan frequently asks me what that smell is. Welcome to the country my boy.

Life in pictures

I finally got a bunch of pictures uploaded - so I thought I'd give you a little glimpse of the last month and a half since we moved in. There are more to come but this is the beginning. I'm procrastinating on calling the insurance company once again about prescription coverage and making 100 fruit kabobs... I can only procrastinate so long.


This is what our side yard looked like right after we moved in. So much for Spring in MI!


This is Ryan's room - it took a lot of work to clean it up for a picture. Man I wish I had a wide angle lens... I'm gonna add lots of pictures/prints of firetrucks & trains when I get time and money.


This is one corner of Ty's room. Again a wide angle lens...


Ty's room is going to be a safari room. I have a bunch of safari wildlife pictures to print. Just deciding if I want to print in color or black & white. I'm going to make banana leaf valances and have some monkey placemats that I was going to put up, but I think I'll make a pillow out of it.


My favorite room in the house. I love my kitchen. I spend lots of time there and have tons of room. A pantry and a dishwasher - that' pretty close to heaven on earth.


Daddy took Ryan out to practice with his bow and arrows that he got from his birthday.


Ty's Easter Basket. I stash stuff aside all year when I find great deals and pull them out the next time I need a special something (birthday, Easter, Valentine's, last minute kid parties, etc)


Ryan's Easter basket. Didn't have two baskets, so a tool box we got for free at a conference worked well.


The backpack is almost as big as he is, but Ty wants to do everything like his brother. Need to find him his own little backpack that doesn't tip him over.


Pre-school field trip to a local botanical garden for the butterfly exhibit.


Evidently it is fun to watch a movie in a laundry basket.


The construction workers were generous to let my very interested, anxious, practically begging boys sit in the skid-steer loader. Big dreams for a little boy.


We got frozen out at our friend's 5-year soccer league game. Didn't realize I needed to pull the snow suits back out. Couldn't find all the cold weather gear, so Ty got Dad's hat. Sad - it fits pretty well.


Playing on the porch during a rain storm with friends. The boys desperately wanted to play in the mud. Luckily the lightning gave me a good excuse to say no.

Ty's first hair cut. He's getting so grown up. There wasn't much to cut, but enough to make him look older.