Garden Arts & Crafts

Peanut butter and birdseed covered pine cones-fun fun!

Some Really Cool Things

...that are happening right now.

My kids and I are playing together and doing LOTS of art.

My house is becoming uncluttered and cleaner.

I'm having 3 water barrels installed.

My strawberries are beginning to bloom.

Sometimes it's the little things, the normal things, that make me so grateful and ultimately more content.

Wardrobe Wednesday

Super N where's your drawers?!

Artie

Artie has come out of hiding! And a ton of other things.

Artie=Easel
Hiding=Storage

The kids are lovin Artie. I'm so glad they dig drawing and painting.


Come out of hiding...oh yes I started unloading the storage sheds this past weekend. My house is now packed to the gills with stuff. I'm fighting a cold still, dealing with some personal issues that are draining and also watching my 2 nephews this week (except today) so I'm feeling a bit tired. I've had mad vision about all that I want to do but not much time, energy or opportunity. But what I have got to do this week is spend some fun time with my nephews.

My sister, a single mom, is in school from 9:30-1:30 monday thru friday right now. I took the boys, Eric 12 & Jonathan 8, for spring break. My sister and I have a somewhat rocky relationship and so I have not had much of an opportunity to spend as much time with the boys as I would have liked sadly. But this week I've got to talk to them about spending more time together and they said they would like that. I need to figure out how to incorporate it into my life but we are really just going to think of them as our kids. I'm thinking I'll pick them up once a week after school and bring them to our house and we'll all play and take walks or play outside and then they'll eat dinner with us and be taken home afterwards. Maybe once a month we'll have them spend the night.We're even thinking how we can perhaps take them on vacations with us periodically (we don't go but once ever couple of years but they've never been!)

My sister and I are complete opposites, I'm not kidding. My dad use to tell people we're like the colors black and white, completely different. But I love her and I've tried to keep in touch with her but at some point she didn't want that anymore. I have a lot of compassion for her and her sons which is mostly what has driven me to pursue them over the years. She was married at one point and the guy took off and basically started a new family with someone else. The boys know this, sadly. And of course I'm sure come the questions and conclusions mostly unspoken, "My dad doesn't love me anymore, he has new sons." It makes me cry just to type this because once again the pain in this world is...

At any rate, I hope to include more stories about our day to day activities with my nephews in them. And I desperately hope us pursuing them and loving them in this way will effect them in the long run.

As a teen I had a tumultuous relationship with my parents. At one point the city appointed two social workers to come and take me out once a week. We'd go to cofee shops usually but they'd also take me out to lunch or whatever. What I remembered the most about them is that they asked me questions and listened to me. They wanted to know about me. They taught me that there are people that really care about my likes and dislikes and just want to get to know me. They were so instrumental in my life.

I hope in some way that my little family has that effect on the boys, God I hope so and that is my prayer.

Btw, my parents and I are reconciled and we are close. I love them dearly but I personally had to resolve a lot of "things" for myself before I could get to the point of forgiving and acceptance. Just needed to throw that out there. And thanks for listening to my verbal ramblings about what's on my mind.

Momma's Easter Basket

Beth over at Manic Mother hosted a momma Easter basket swap this year. She swapped addresses of those interested and we put together a basket for the momma whose name we received. Suzanne over at Shabby Chicks received my name and sent me this fun filled pail of goodness! Thanks a bunch Suzanne! I think the pail will be recycled and used in my potting shed. And the chocolate and other goodness well let's just say my belly was happy, hah!

Common Soil Bacteria Can Have Antidepressant Effects

This is kind of cool. Perhaps maybe it's why I dig gardening so much too. Huh.

Tidbits

W: Momma I 4?

Momma: Yep you're 4 now.

W: I bigger?

Momma: Yep you're bigger.

W: My penis bigger?

Momma: Uh well yeah I guess it probably is.

(About a year and a half ago he called it his menis.)

Our Easter

Menu Plan Monday

Monday:
Brkfst: Hard Boiled Eggs & bananas
Lunch: quesadillas & apple slices
snack: orange slices & strawberries
Dinner: Chix Korma with brown rice & a sauteed peppers

Tuesday:
Brkfst: Oatmeal with cream, sucanat & butter & strawberries
Lunch: Pb & J & apple slices
Snack: Orange Slices & Strawberries
Dinner: Braised Ox Tails, Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes and broccoli

Wednesday:
Bkfst: Eggs sprinkled with cheese and dulce, bananas
Lunch: Cinnamon bread with butter & honey, apple slices
Snacks: popcorn
Dinner: Belated Easter Dinner- Ham, Mashed Swt Potatoes, Collard greens, rolls

Thursday:
Bkfst: Pancakes
Lunch: ham sandwiches & fruit
Snack: tortilla chips w/ salsa
Dinner: Meatloaf, Sauteed Spinach & roasted garlic potatoes (we didn't eat ML last week we got chipotle.)

Friday:
Bkfst: hardboiled Eggs and bananas
Lunch: quesadillas, orange slices
Snack: apple slices
Dinner: Homemade chicago style pizza
Snack: kettle corn
(Fridays are our Family Movie Nights where we eat pizza, then watch a movie and eat kettle corn. We watched Madagascar last week part 2 this week.)

Saturday:
Bkfst: Waffles
Lunch: Leftover pizza
Snack: ?
Dinner: Beef and noodle dish and broccoli

Sunday:
Bkfst: Oatmeal
Lunch: Turkey sandwiches with chips or veggies
Snack: ?
Dinner: Leftovers

What The Freak?

I was awakened by quiet children, walked into the room and found this. The babes found mascara and tackled the babe to paint his face. They're so darn creative, lil shits. I spent some time scrubbing it out of my carpet and off the wall. Oh yes and Baby J screamed as I scrubbed it off of him. But he wears it well aye?

A Day In The Life Of Other Mommas

I'd really like to know what you other mommas do on an average day. I am a very detailed person so if you wouldn't mind please fill me in on everything. You don't have to share about potty time necessarily, unless of course you're in the midst of potty training. But what I'm interested in is more of the specifics of your day. Do you have a schedule you follow day to day? Do you make sure there are specific things done before you go to bed to prepare for the next day? What activities do you participate in with your child or what activities do they do by themself? These are just suggestions but feel free to include them.

Please respond one of two ways, either post a blog entry about it or leave your thoughts in my comments section. If you choose to post it please leave a comment letting me know.

Thanks a bunch Mommas! You (other mommas) are my greatest resource in mothering and I appreciate that!

Baby J

Guess who turns 1 today?

I can't believe it's been a year, but then again I kind of can-chaos pure chaos this last year. I love this kid! He is such a silly monkey.

What I remember the most though...

When he came out I latched him on only to not be able to nurse him 2 days later. I had sore and painful, bleeding nips that caused me to go exclusively to pumping. This was devastating to me. But I persevered and got him latched on at 2 months and kicked the pump to the curb! Baby J though didn't give momma much of a break with screaming 3-4 hours a day, every day. We cosleeped with him, something I said I'd never do-my how things change! At exactly 7 months I reluctantly stopped nursing and he amazingly stopped crying. He became a happy baby, not sure entirely of all the reasons. And he started sleeping 10-12 hours a night.

Unlike my other babes he started crawling at 8 months and barrels through life pushing his way through. I swear he is as strong as my 2 year old! I'm excited for this year as he begins to walk and talk and interact more with the other babes.

Oh how I love Baby J. He smooshes his nose into my cheek to cuddle and he does this funny snorting thing when he's being silly. It is usually accompanied by him sitting cross legged on the floor and bouncing forward-such a goof!

Happy Birthday my 3rd babe I love you!

Wardrobe Wednesday

A wardrobe of picks if you will.

Oh No, Oh No, Oh No!

My glasses broke last night. The arm just fell right off. Oh no! They're only 1 year old. Oh no! What a bummer. Not a good time financially to have to invest in new glasses. Does anyone know of a relatively inexpensive place to shop for specs? My huz had to buy new ones about 2 months ago, they were $400! Oh my. I don't want nor can I afford really to spend that much right now, ugg.

Play Clay

Homemade Play Clay. I wish I would have thought to take pics of he and I making it, doh! Oh well. Take a look at his Space Ship. You don't see it? It's the purple blob, geez! The make believe mind of a 4 year old, how sweet is that?!

Menu Plan Monday

Monday: Curry Chix w/ brown rice
Tuesday: Meatloaf w/ Mashed Potatoes and broccoli
Wednesday: Salmon, blackened corn, seasoned brown rice
Thursday: London Broil, sauteed mushrooms in butter, quinoa w/ evoo and parmesan cheese
Friday: Tuna Casserole, peas
Saturday: Tuna Casserole leftovers, peas
Sunday: ww pasta w/ simple tomato sauce & turkey meatballs, broccoli

Breakfasts: steel cut oats with butter, 1/2 & 1/2, & sugar, scrambled eggs with bananas, yogurt w/ bananas, cinnamon & raisin toast with butter and bananas. Saturday & Sunday: Pancakes &/or waffles

Lunches: pb&J sandwiches, cinnamon & raisin toast with butter served with fruit, cottage cheese or yogurt with fruit. Saturday & Sunday: Lunchmeat sandwiches

After

This is the after photo of a trek to Target. W had birthday money to spend and it got late, the troops went down- sleep 1, babes 0.

What The Freak?

No this is not a public service announcement about drugs. I bought this carton of eggs the other day and these two guys were hanging out next to eachother as if they were brothers, yeah right. Look at the mammoth egg yolk! This sucker was for sure 2.5" in diameter as opposed to his wee itty bitty 1.5" bud. I had to take a picture.

Snuggles Upon Snuggles

Every once in a while the kids will take a break from beatin on eachother and scheming for reign and will do something loving and sweet. I happened to have my camera (well I threw my banana over my shoulder and dashed two rooms over to snatch it-ahh details) and caught this!

TMI Another Post About Poop

Okay in my desperation I've taken up, sometimes, trying to enjoy my nice & hot cup of coffee (that my hubby went out of his way to pick up from Starbucks) while having a good poop-another time in my life when all feels right in the world.

But then the ninja baby crawls in and while I'm busy responding to an email, a somewhat difficult task to accomplish because my life is chaotic at times and yes not only am I pooping AND drinking a cup of coffee but I'm ALSO on my laptop-a true multitasker! And yes I'm very diligent to wash my hands for those whose brain is aghast at my gross habits, you can close your mouth now, I'm shocked at what my life has resorted to at times as well.

Anyways back to the original complaint at hand. So ninja baby swoops in slaps my coffee cup before I have a chance to react and then it immediately poors itself allover my cute lil Shabby Chic Design book (normal pooping reading material and sorry Rachel Ashwell!) SHIT! DANG IT!
It's challenging to clean up coffee while your bucket is strapped to the comode and you have a laptop strapped to your lap, ugg. Tis life...with wee ones.

My peeps who are fellow gardeners that found me through my other blog, Potager Garden Girl, are wondering, "What the hell did I get myself into!"

Wardrobe Wednesday

All the goods in one that Gramma with the red truck brought Super N from thrifting that morn.