Greenness

Wow, all that rain we've had followed by some sun has caused my garden to finally get going.  I went out into the back yard last night and couldn't believe how green and full everything looked!  I pinched off a few tomato flowers since the plants aren't quite ready to start producing fruit yet and I did a little weeding although I need to do a lot more.  The zucchini seeds have sprouted in both areas but the summer squash have failed to sprout for a second time.

Here you can see my Swiss Chard, my red lettuce, baby lettuces, and of course, my tomatoes.

I think what I'm most excited about though are my snap peas:

I grew them from seed and they are starting to get those tendrils on them that will allow them to start climbing up my little lattice.  The kids keep assuring me they will eat them.  I hope so.  Jason and I certainly like them (especially with hummus) but you never know with kids.  I keep hoping the principals regarding teaching kids about gardening will hold true and my kids will like vegetables that we grow.  Bryce is a tomato-aholic ever since he was Piper's age and was eating the "to tos" right off the plants.  I just wish I could get them to eat zucchini.  Time will tell.  I'm looking forward to a salad comprise of baby lettuces from my garden too.

Mudder's Day Weekend

I know this weekend was sunny, but good heavens it was windy. Ugh. Annoyingly so. While not truly cold, it was so freaking windy that it felt cold and put me in kind of a bad mood all weekend. Although I wasn't feeling 100% all weekend either as I had some kind of mild weird stomach thing going but that has thankfully rectified itself this morning, but it kind of made me semi-grumpy for the past 2 days.

Mother's Day started on Friday morning when we gave my MIL a gardenia plant for mother's day. I've gotten into the tradition of always giving our moms live plants for Mother's Day (probably because it's something I know I would like) and usually do a hanging basket but when we saw these amazing gardenia plants at Lowe's, I changed my mind. I know my mom loves gardenias too and thought my MIL would as well. They just smell soooooo good. I printed out lots of instructions to help them grow their new plant too. They had so many blooms and buds on them, I hope they are easy to grow!

Then that evening my sister, SIL, and daughters attended the Mother/Daughter Banquet with my mom at her church. My sister and I have very vivid memories of attending the same event with my mom when we were younger and so there was some nostalgia in going with her for this, especially with my own kids. I felt lucky to be going to a Mother/Daughter banquet with both my mother AND my daughters. I was glad that Chrissa and Kelly were there too. Caroline and Piper enjoyed when they played a little music and got to run around with some other cute little girls that were there with their mother & grandmother too. While all the girls were out, the boys had their night and when we returned to my house the boys (Jason, Bryce, my dad, and brother) had had a pizza, beer, and Wii night. No beer for Brycey though, he doesn't like the stuff. ;) Then all 3 kids entertained us dancing around to some music videos and we all got a kick out of Piper's cute little dance moves. We gave my mom her gardenia that evening too and she told me how they remind her of when they bought their first house because the woman living there had them.

Saturday morning was the usual but we got moving because Jason's brother, Jeremy, returned to spend the day finishing the Pergo with Jason. I took the kids to the library and then to my mom's to spend the day out of the way. This is where the wind really ticked me off. They wanted to be outside but then they kept running all over the yard and while I trust Caroline and Bryce to do that, I can't with Piper so I have to follow her. (She wants to go where they go.) And the wind just kept blowing stuff in my eyes and blowing my hair around - I didn't have a hair band with me - and it was making me mental. I also wasn't feeling great and the kids kept saying they were either bored or hungry. Finally at 4pm, I turned the TV back on and Olivia was on and gave me an hour of peace. We went home at 5pm and the men were almost done so we waited and then made a quick spaghetti dinner with what little food we had left in the house.

And then, at last, it was Mother's Day. At 7am, I was awoken by Caroline shoving a card and present in my face. She was just soooooooooo excited to give it to me and I groggily opened it and read the cute little card. It was one of those hand print sheets with a poem on it along with her named signed. It was even laminated so it looked really nice. She was especially pleased with the lady bug card she had made. I think Ms. R deserves credit for giving the kids such nice projects to do. So I gave her a big hug and kiss and then closed my eyes again. Within 5 seconds I hear Caroline say, "Bryce, what are you doing?"

"Mommy's not awake." he said standing in the middle of my bedroom looking all sleepy.

"Well, just tap her, she'll wake up." (Jason and I got a laugh out of that.)

So Bryce came tapping with his gift of a cute little card and his version of the hand print/poem display. His had a different poem and was on a piece of felt. Very cute and well done.

And then both of them were laying on top of me showering me with hugs and kisses. I kept hearing about how I was the best mommy in the world and how much they loved me. Definitely a nice way to start my day even though I was tired from staying up past midnight. Bryce kept talking about how he wanted to make me pink milk for breakfast, but since it was grocery day we didn't have much milk so I politely declined his offer. They were just SO excited it was Mother's Day. It was really adorable and I know I will remember it as they get older and this changes. I'm trying to soak up these adorable things they won't be doing forever. (And randomly I had these big white frames with matting under my bed that I'd gotten from Ikea a few years ago and never used.  The handprint displays fit perfectly and I will be able to add 2 current photos of each of them underneath to hang on the wall in my bedroom.  My mom has something similar that my brother did and I love it.  I'm looking forward to having these hanging in my room for years to come.  I'll have to post photos when I finish.)

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. Jason took the big kids with him to the grocery store so I only had Piper while I cleaned up the kitchen and did a few chores. Having only 1 kid is definitely a treat. Once they got back though things went downhill a little bit as the exhaustion from staying up a little too late was kicking in hard on Caroline and Bryce. I tried laying down myself while Piper napped and was told over and over how bored they were but it was still so damn windy I wasn't feeling much like going outside. We watched a movie and then once Piper woke up, we went outside for a little while.

Then Jason and Bryce made dinner while Piper watched Olivia and I played Barbies with Caroline. Jason and Bryce made two new recipes that turned out to be VERY good. Spinach & Feta Pasta and Baked Pineapple.  I have always loved baked pineapple but my mom's recipe calls for eggs.  This one had good reviews so we tried it.  The only thing we did differently was to use crushed pineapple as opposed to the chunks.  We'd probably use less butter next time too.  The pasta though, yum.  Jason's first bite led him to decide it's something we'll put in our regular cycle.  However, the kids were less than enthused.  None of them really liked the pineapple (WHAT IS WRONG WITH THEM???  But at least I have leftovers of it to look forward to!) and they only begrudgingly ate the pasta.  Caroline was hitting her exhaustion wall at this point and it turned into a full fledged fit.  Sweet.  Jason also cleaned up dinner which was definitely appreciated as my stomach still wasn't feeling good and I was tired.  Of course I was dealing with a screaming Caroline who had to finish out her fit on the steps.

Then we spent the last hour before bedtime watching Bryce and Piper run after each other and wrestle.  Those two are so funny lately - it's like Piper finally has a "use" for Bryce.  She used to shy away from him and only play with Caroline but it's like she's decided that Caroline is her playmate for dolls/Barbies and Bryce is her rough and tumble friend.  Of course I'm watching them and trying not to freak out that she's going to break another tooth or cut her head open.  Once Caroline calmed down, she joined in the hi jinks. 

Then it was off to bed with the kids and I caught up on my SNL and Duggars DVR.  I woke up feeling much better this morning and truly rested for the first time in a while.  Did I mention I stopped taking the Zyrtec, hence the rested feeling, I think?

Pergo = Tired

So tired.  Jason and his brother, Jeremy, went crazy on the Pergo this weekend and installed it through the foyer and through 2/3 of the kitchen.  They worked for like 9 hours, two days in a row.  So while I wasn't a part of the actual installation, my duties were to keep the kids occupied and out of the way.  Managing all 3 kids on my own isn't remarkable in and of itself but managing all 3 on the hottest weekend of the year so far, trying to keep them outside, and without much water for the better part of the day yesterday was definitely an undertaking.  Oh and I managed to get my vegetable garden planted along with all of my front porch and deck planters planted too.  Whew.

Yesterday morning I got the kids out and we went on a mission before 9:30am.  We headed to Home Depot for gardening supplies and I went prepared with my Ergo so that I could get a flat bed and not have to worry about Piper.  With Piper in the Ergo on my back, Caroline and Bryce following along, we steered that flat bed all around and we conquered the gardening department and walked out with two seriously huge bags of potting soil and about $100 worth of plants.  Caroline was my purse holder the whole time since I couldn't really carry it with Piper on my back and a flat bed doesn't have a spot for your purse.  The big kids had a grand time helping me pick out all our plants. Caroline kept telling me that plants made her feel healthy and energetic.  Ha ha ha ha!

Then we ventured to get Piper's haircut since she was looking quite shaggy and then to pick up sunscreen since we needed a new stash to get through the sunny weekend.  When we got home the water that had been scheduled to be off until noon was still pretty much off - there was enough of a trickle to fill up a bucket in about 10 minutes but not much.  Thank goodness we'd filled the bathtubs the night before so we could flush toilets with the reserved water.  Of course it was already hot so the kids started asking about getting into the pool.  I answered that question about 353 times.  The water was supposed to come back on at noon but I think it was after 2 before it came on full force again.  In the meantime I filled the kids' sand table back up with sand so they would be entertained while I got my front porch plantings done.  Then, once that was done I started on my new deck planters that Jason got me recently.  They hug the railings so you don't have to worry about them getting blown off every storm like my old ones that just sat on top did.  At this point the kids were starving so I made lunch and put Piper down for a nap.  Then the kids continued to badger me about the pool and I started on the garden.  Even though we'd done the worst of the work a few weeks ago, new weeds had sprung up and the ground was getting packed down again so the kids helped me start to weed and then gave up.  I turned the entire garden over and got all of my tomato, red lettuce and swiss chard plants planted.  And at that point, thankfully, the water was back on so we filled that pool up as fast as we could and the kids were thrilled even though the water was frigid.

The kids splashed while I finished up my deck plantings - I got some citronella plants to ward off mosquitoes this summer.  Then Piper woke up, splashed until about 4pm at which point we all went in for showers since I was taking the older 2 kids to see a show at Aunt Kelly and Uncle Kevin's school that night.  And then, because the kitchen was in complete disarray, we broke down and picked up McDonald's for dinner.  The kids were thrilled that the Pergo job meant a night of "Old McDonald's!"  We scarfed down our food, headed to the show (where the kids got the VIP back stage tour when the show was over) and enjoyed a night at "the theater." (Aunt Kelly and Uncle Kevin are theatre teachers at a local high school and this was a production by the graduating seniors - a very talented bunch!)  I was fried when we got home and passed out on the couch as soon as the kids were in bed.

Today was more of the same but given how sore and tired I was, I didn't try to accomplish much other than keeping the kids out of the way.  We had the pool filled up by 11am and the kids splashed most of the day away.  I did manage to get back out to the garden to plant my zucchini, snap peas, and cucumber seeds.  And because I was feeling vegetable deprived and didn't want fast food again, I made dinner mostly on the grill to stay as far out of the kitchen as possible. The kids are in bed now and Jason and I have picked as much up as we can.  He still needs to do the part of the kitchen where all the appliances are and the powder room although there is no rush on the powder room since it's kind of it's own entity and not in the way.

But already it looks tremendous! I am thrilled by how much nicer everything looks (and how horrible the table/chairs look in comparison.)  Now I just want to redo the powder room completely and go shopping for our new dining set.

Oh and on Friday the ice/water mechanism on the fridge stopped working.  The fridge was bought back in September so it's still under warranty.  Of course Jason has already cursed me for settling on the Samsung and not going with an older brand - but it has recently won a lot of awards!  I hope this isn't the beginning of problems with this thing.  I love it except for the ice maker.  Let's hope it's not going to be too involved to fix the damn thing.

And with that, I'm ready for bed.  I'm sure another night's sleep isn't going to do much and I'll arrive at work feeling rather tired again.  But at least it's been a productive weekend.  Although our usual household tasks have lagged a bit.  But, that's homeownership for you.......the job is never done (and if it was, you'd be bored - at least that is what I keep telling Jason.)

I Can't Remember Everything

It seems the kids always want to do things at inopportune times.  Like tonight, Caroline wanted to play on the computer at 7pm - that's bathtime.  Jason told her, remind me tomorrow after your homework and you can have some time.  "Ugh, I have to remember!!" was her response.

And then this weekend, we kept passing a house that had plastic eggs hanging from their tree and I told the kids, remind me tomorrow and we'll decorate our tree too.  They forgot and so did I.  So tonight at dinner, Bryce remembers.  Mind you it's 50 degrees, cloudy and windy.  Sorry buddy, no eggs tonight.  Remind me tomorrow!

It's not that I can't remember things for my kids - I remember the big things quite well - school assignments, lunches, doctor's appointments (which reminds me, I gotta make that allergist checkup, Erin, you going soon?) - but I forget these little details sometimes.  And it's those details that are the bigger deals to them.  They don't notice that you remembered to wash their muddy tennis shoes they worked in the garden in so they can wear them on gym day.  They don't realize you remembered to fill up their allergy medicine prescription so that they won't have nasty allergy symptoms all day.  But they sure do remember when you forgot to DVR the new episode of the favorite show they wanted to watch.

Typical kids - because I'm sure they would notice if I forgot to pack their lunch or made sure they had an extra set of clothes at school - but it's the smaller details that often thrill them more too.  Remembering something special to pack in their lunch definitely gets rave reviews (and big hugs and kisses too).

Beat & Dirty

I picked up 5 big bags of Leafgro on my way home from work yesterday to help get some organic matter into our garden.  We had a very low yield from our vegetable garden in 2008 and decided to take the year off last year.  So we did a soil check and found that the thing lacking was organic matter.  Then given the advice from the gardening expert at The Urban Farmhouse (my sister), we picked up some Leafgro from a local nursery.

First we had to dig up the top layer and get all the green growth out of it.  I had put a bunch of dead leaves on it in the fall to get some compost going but there was still a lot of weeds in it.  Then once we finished that exhausting task and cutting out the Black Locust tree roots (they grow so fast and thick!), we got the kids to help us spread the Leafgro and work it into the soil.

Thankfully while we were digging, the kids played happily in their sand table although they were completely covered in white dust.  Piper surprised me the most staying at the table the longest.  Although it was pretty funny because she was so covered in white sand dust, she looked like a little ghost and when she ran, she had a dust cloud behind her, much like Pig Pen from Peanuts.

Finally, while Jason sprayed the garden down, the kids and I planted snap peas and Mesclun greens in our seed starters.  In a few weeks we'll replant them in the garden and then plant our tomato plants and zucchini seeds.  We're hoping for a banner year!  We decided against bell peppers since they don't yield much and my sister also said they're not worth the world.  Snap peas are our new veggie this year, so we'll see how well they work out.

I would have taken photos but given that Jay and I were covered in dirt, it didn't seem like a good time to be taking photos with an expensive camera.   The kids have all had showers/baths and now Piper is napping.  Jay and I are exhausted since aside from digging all morning and pulling up roots, we are both still getting over this damn cold which is taking a lot out of us still.  Unfortunately, Caroline and Bryce seem to have their normal amount of energy which means they are driving us a little crazy in our weary state.