Spring is Springing!!

I am soo excited. We just came in for a snack after being outside most afternoon for the third nice day in a row!! Woo Hoo! I think spring might be here.

And the most exciting part is in the garden. Every day while we've been out, I've taken Layla (she's my little gardener) around the front flowerbeds looking at the crocuses that are blooming (and being eaten by nasty rabbits) and the tulips and daffodils that are sprouting.

But, today, we ventured to the side flowerbed that I completely tore out last year and planted all new perennials. I planted them...watered them some and then basically abused/neglected them through the hottest part of the summer. I thought for sure they were dead...never to be seen again...only to have to repurchase again this year...but miracles do happen and that is one of the beauties of perennials. They are almost all sprouting!

I can see life on both of my bleeding hearts, black-eyed susans and one of the coneflowers. I'm not really worried if the other coneflower didn't survive. A first year success rate of 83% is extremely good for this experimenting gardener and coneflowers are relatively cheap - I could even try growing it from a seed

Speaking of seeds, you should see the top of my gardening bench right now. It is covered in seed packets - Everything from vegetables and herbs to flowers, perennials and annuals! All are just waiting for me to buy some shallow pans to put the pots on in our portable greenhouse (thanks, Mom!).

The pans should be purchased tomorrow, or maybe Friday and then the planting will begin! We visited Menard's and Wal-Mart this week to purchase seeds (still need to check out Meijer), we'll be recycling cardboard egg cartons for seed starting pots and I purchased entirely too much potting soil last year so we already have that on hand to begin this gardening season!

Last year I decided to tackle two flower beds a summer (ripping most everything out that was left there by the previous owner and replanting). We were blessed with many ok-looking, well-defined flowerbeds completely surrounding our house when we purchased it. However, some of them were very messy and I just couldn't handle it. Plus, I have many pictures of flowers I want growing around my home and not very many of them were included in the purchase price of our home!

So, I began with two last year. The front raised beds and the west side bed. As you can tell from above, I am almost completely pleased with the side bed and the front bed as well. In my mind, flower beds are always a work-in-progress, but they look good enough for now and I will add as I come across the things I'm looking to fill in on sale (think hydrangea

This summer, we are tackling the flowerbed to the east side of the deck in the back and the small bed on the west side of the garage. Our first task is rip out most of the African grass that is currently surrounding the deck. We like some of it as it provides lots of much needed privacy from some less than desirable neighbors, but there is entirely too much of it taking up precious real estate meant for butterfly and hummingbird attracting flowers.

Besides, the side of the deck also has a huge evergreen that provides privacy from another neighbor's back yard. So the African grass there really serves no purpose other than to create lots of work and an even bigger mess, as it dies every winter, sheds every spring and litters everyone's yards with long, blond, stringy plant matter that must be raked almost as much as the leaves in the fall. That is on the “honey-do” list for this weekend – digging up the grass that is, not raking, I’ve been doing that all week

And, we have mounds of daylilies coming in the other bed on the list for this summer. They will be dug up and offered up to those willing to come get them through Freecycle.org. Or if you live close and would like some, here’s your chance.


Of course, I just saw a sale on hydrangeas, which is one of my “dream” plants for the front bed, so I might just have to buy that and rip out something there this weekend, too, to make room for a hydrangea

I was going to post some pictures of all of these beds, but there’s not much pretty there right now (a couple crocuses, but that’s it). So, I’ll leave it all to your imagination and that way when I post pictures later this summer, you’ll be surprised, hopefully in a good way.

So, those are my gardening plans and the spring bug that is inside of me to dig my hands in the dirt is getting antsier (is that a word) every day. What are your plans for gardening this summer?

Happy St. Patrick's Day

May God grant you always...
A sunbeam to warm you,
a moonbeam to charm you,
a sheltering Angel so nothing can harm you.
Laughter to cheer you.
Faithful friends near you.
And whenever you pray, Heaven to hear you.

The sun is warming us immensely today! I'm so glad we did all of these festive crafts/treats earlier in the week so I didn't feel the need to be inside creating today!

The two cutest leprechauns I've ever met.

This was one of our craft projects for this week. It came from this book, but in reality I did all of the work on this one. I tried to let Peyton and Layla decorate the hat, and they did, for all of two minutes before a huge meltdown yesterday afternoon. Let's just say, we were all extremely tired from a long, busy weekend away and crafts were not in order, instead we all needed a long nap! But, I had to finish the craft so they had a costume to wear to a party we are going to this evening with our youth group. This is the only picture I caught before Peyton wouldn't stand next to Layla anymore...I'll try for another one or two this evening. They both really seemed to like wearing the mask, just not next to each other.

Here's a peek at the other festive things we did for one of my favorite holidays!

Here is the "fruit" part of our lunch today. Jello shamrocks. They were supposed to be in two layers of green; that didn't turn out, but they were still yummy!

We made these castles late last week. Again I got the idea from the book above. Both Peyton and Layla had a blast painting them green. Layla's did have a flag but it didn't last too long. I also decided to leave out the green grass we were supposed to glue to the cardboard. I couldn't find it easy enough at the moment and then when I saw how Peyton was taking it everywhere with him I was glad there wasn't the mess Easter grass can create. He loved it so much he had to take it Grammy and Grandpa's house this weekend.

This was pretty much a Mommy creation. I spray painted a terra cotta pot black, filled it with filler and then Easter grass and then the purchased "gold" candies. I was hoping Peyton would help me with the rainbow, but he was not interested so I just did it and now he likes to look at it! I didn't buy enough "gold" so I hope there'll be some left when Daddy gets home this afternoon.



Here is the last creation for today! Peyton helped me make Blarney Stone cookies yesterday. They are supposed to have a Hershey's kisses on top (in reference to kissing the Blarney stone), however, to cut back just a little on all the sugar I'm giving my kiddos today I decided to skip that step.


Now, I must be off to enjoy the sunshine more! Peyton is golfing while Layla naps and I'm going to fold laundry on the deck while I play spectator to Peyton's round of golf. All before it rains more tomorrow!

Sea Weed???

One recent morning in the drama that almost always occurs trying to get a certain little boy to eat his breakfast, that little boy asked for Daddy's favorite for breakfast. Unfortunately, Daddy was not home to help interpret and so I probed further trying to please him so he'd eat breakfast before heading off to school...

Me: "Oh yeah, what's Daddy's favorite"

P: "Sea weed"

Me: "Oh, really?!?!" Thinking, yeah right, you're Daddy isn't adventurous enough in the area of food to even think about trying something that eccentric (see Daddy's favorites and notice sea weed is definitely NOT there). And, also thinking, what in the heck does he mean.

So, we head to the pantry.

Me: "Show me Daddy's favorite"

P points to the box of Shredded Wheat and I totally get it. Add the last two bite size pieces (who leaves only two bite-sized pieces in the box? We're still trying to figure that one out) to the bowl of Apple Cinnamon Cheerios and Voila! Peyton is eating his breakfast without sea weed and another morning of near chaos is averted for the moment.

Introducing...Shannon

This was the hardest one to do, hence, it's last. It's so much easier just to write some basic things about my and so this might get long, but it's only fair for me to do the same thing I've put everyone else in my family through this week. So, here goes....

Color? Purple
Food? Mexican
Show? What Not to Wear
Character? anything but a cartoon
Song? In the Bulb there is a Flower
Book? probably whatever I'm reading right now and The Bible
Sport to play? Soccer
Sport to watch? Football
Holiday? Birthdays
Snack? Chocolate Ice Cream
Favorite thing to do with Peyton? anything where I can see him learning
Favorite thing to do with Layla? play with her hair after her bath
Favorite thing to do with Daddy? see Daddy's introduction

I have lots and lots of hobbies. Most of them revolve around the house in some way. I love to sew, knit, decorate, garden (flowers and vegetables), cook (mostly baking), and read. I am blessed to stay home with my kiddos most of the time, but that means I have to do all of this and more on a budget which I usually like and enjoy the thrill of finding things at garage sales and thrift stores and re-purposing old things is usually fun, too.

I also try very hard to keep in good shape, which for me, right now, means lots of running. I've attempted to train for a half-marathon and found out my limit is not that high at this point. It's still on my bucket list, but not in 2009. I made 10 miles once and vowed not to try that again for a long time, but I still think of it often and when I hear about registration being open for another race I always have to think twice and remember back to that fateful day in the summer of 2008 when I attempted 10 miles. Someday, maybe when one of my kids wants to run with me!

That's all I can think to tell you right now, but I'm sure more will come out as this blog takes shape. After all, this space is all about us and the things we love to do, day-in and day-out as well as the special occasions in our life. Things are always changing and growing and that is what makes life exciting!

Introducing...Jeremy

According to Jeremy, his favorite...

Color? Blue
Food? Big Fat Steak
Show? The First 48
Character? Peter Griffin
Song?
Book? Men With Balls
Sport to play? Golf
Sport to watch? Football
Holiday? Thanksgiving
Snack? Pringles
Favorite thing to do with Peyton? play ball
Favorite thing to do with Layla? make her laugh
Favorite thing to do with Mommy? better not write that here

Let's see...what else should I tell you about him. He adores his two children. Most of the time, they have him wrapped around their pinky fingers and most of the time, I'm ok with that. He loves to wrestle with Peyton and give horsey rides to Layla.

When it's too cold outside to golf, he's inside bowling.

He loves to cook, especially weekend breakfasts or when we decide to have breakfast for dinner. He could grill out all year long and has been known to attempt to smoke ribs in single digit temperatures!

From time to time (read short spurts with multiple year spans in between) he likes to paint. We have several of his pictures hanging on our walls.

Introducing...Layla!

Here are her favorites! This "interview" was a bit different from Peyton's. Most of the time her response was "i dunno" followed by several seconds of silence and then a phrase that may or may not have pertained to the question I was asking from across the room. So, this list is a collaboration of what she said and what I observe to be her favorites.

Color? She said purple, but blue is the first color she always names when asked to name the color of something

Food? Jelly, definitely!

Show? Clifford, most of the time, or George

Character? According to her, Dora, but only because Peyton was also assisting with this question and answer sesssion

Song? Twinkle, Twinkle...she wakes up singing this song, but she is our singer so this is likely to have changed by now

Book? "Caterpillar" (The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle) last week, What's Wrong Little Pookie? by Sandra Boynton this week, but Dora was her answer this particular day

Sport to play? we aren't quite there yet...she said bowling

Sport to watch? again, it's not really a good question and Peyton had a lot of influence, but she said bowling

Holiday? She said something weird like Christmas, but if Peyton didn't understand the question, I'm pretty sure Layla was making up something

Snack? grapes

Favorite thing to do with Mommy? Music...we love Kindermusik class every Tuesday morning with Miss Lorie

Favorite thing to do with Daddy? talk on the phone and just recently started have decent conversations with him

Favorite thing to do with Peyton? Ring Around the Rosie