My Quest For Green Things...

Now, I am not the green thumb in our family--I usually forget to water things. :oP


My husband on the other hand keeps the green things we DO have in our house nicely watered. When he was a little boy growing up in Poland, one of his jobs was to water all of the plants in their house, and apparently there were many.


So, needless to say, I choose plants and shrubs that are as maintenance free as possible and my dear hubby and daughter water them each evening during dry spells. :o)


I wanted to add some things to my front flowerbeds this spring and so when my parent's church had their annual plant sale this past Saturday, I was excited. They had some 1,400 plants and shrubs--all transplants from the church members own collections, one women in particular contributed the majority though. (What a job! But it's obviously something she really enjoys.)


I love bluebells, so I was thrilled to get two of those for the front of my flowerbed. (They're past their bloom for this year, but they should be nice next year.) A nice hosta, weeping jenny, coreopsis, geranium, four vinca vines, and twenty dollars later I was a happy girl! Not only was the price right (for 10 plants!!!), but all the proceeds were going to one of the missions organizations the church supports so it was a good cause too.



Here's the new planter pot (all plants from the sale) I put on my front porch...



...and the two larger vinca vines I bought for the back deck.



I bought these geraniums the other weekend at a local greenhouse. They're called "Global Sangria" and I LOVE their deep magenta color.



Now I'm just waiting for our association to send the guys out to dig up the montrous yucca plant that is taking over my other front flowerbed. It'll have huge white flowers on those towering shoots soon, but it's a beast of a plant--you have to get every little bit of root out or it'll come back in full force the next year.



I already have a flowering shrub in mind that won't get too big: a "Minuet" Weigela. Here's what it looks like.




And, so I remember what is where, I've decided to do what my friend Danielle suggested recently on her blog. Check out her Garden Journal & Notebook idea here.

Sad Sight

Thank goodness strawberry season is here because I just finished my last jar of peaches...and there are only 2 jars of pears left!



I think I'm going to have to can 2 bushel of each this summer. I wonder if prices will be as high as they were last year.

She's A Handful Alright!

Despite it being a particularly hard season of discipline with Natalia, there are moments like tonight that make us laugh.

Don't you just love how kids are so clairvoyant? No filter, just plain honesty about what they think and feel as it happens.

We were having some thunderstorms (aka "funderstorms" minus the fun for Natalia) this evening, so instead of a walk after dinner we opted to stay indoors and engage in a rousing game of Candyland...you heard me right. :oP

Natalia got out the board and all of the pieces necessary for her and Daddy to play while Adam and I spectated. As he goes to deal her the first card she says, "I have to win Dad, okay?"

:o)

Wait! Here's the kicker!
Later, as they are both nearing the end, Pete's dealing the cards and she is carefully moving both of their pieces to the appropriate color(s). As she goes to move Pete's gingerbread guy, she ducks her head a bit and asks in a shy little voice, "You wanna' little bit of cheat?"

Got to love those endless teaching moments!

What A Growing Boy!

Adam had yet another haircut this afternoon...it was actually round 2 of the same haircut. He just got tired of me fussing around his head yesterday before I got the top done. He had a cute little mohawk thing going on.

I say yet another because it's got to be about his 5th haircut. He has got some thick hair, let me tell ya!

So, after a splash-fest in the tub to get all the little hairs off of him, I decided to get a few shots for his 5 month picture. Enjoy!

Just Another Week...Oh, And Some Bibs

We had some really nice sunshiny days early on.

Natalia would be outside ALL DAY, EVERY DAY, if she could. I would too if all I had to do was put puzzles together. :o)

Here are some classic Adam shots, sucking on his lip and kicking back in the Bumbo.



And, a few of you were asking about the bibs I mentioned making. Here are the details if you're interested:

I picked up a thick, plush bath towel on sale at Kmart. Then, using a bib that fit Adam well around the neck as a pattern, I cut out about 16 bibs. **NOTE: Be prepared to have "snow" all over the place when you do this!**

I also bought 6 packs of wide, double-fold quilt binding at the fabric store. Each pack had enough to edge 2-1/2 bibs. (You'll see that on some bibs I took the "binding scraps" and sewed them together to stretch my dollars and make it an even 3/pack...even if they weren't the same color.)

Then, I chose to use jumbo snaps instead of velcro tabs. (It's just my preference. If I miss putting a velcroed bib into the separate mesh bag in my laundry load, it has sometimes snagged other things. Grrrr.) I found 2 inexpensive packs at Walmart that included tools, and once I figured out which each of the 4 snap components went together, it didn't take long to finish this final step.



Sewing on the binding took some practice. If you've never used binding before, make sure the slightly wider fold is on the bottom, and go slowly. I backstitched at each end but just snipped off the edges. The binding ends have frayed alittle since their first washing, so if you really want to you could turn under the ends.

All-in-all I spent about $20 on 16 really thick and absorbant bibs. (I used a 20% off total purchase coupon at JoAnn's on the binding...that really helped.) And I like that they match any outfit since they don't have any decoration on them. Since I don't have much uninterrupted time to work on projects these days it's hard to know how long I labored. It was spread out over a couple of days.

To sign off, I'd like to thank my mom and dad once again for giving me the sewing machine for my 21st birthday. At the time it was a complete surprise and I never imagined how many times I'd use it in the years to come. I love getting something that has a practical purpose, especially if I have a real need for it, and this has certainly been one such gift!

Anyone else channeling Martha Stewart these days? What fun sewing/crafty projects have you been working on lately?

Sweet Conversation

This morning I observed my daughter pretending to talk to someone on her play cell phone. She does this quite often, and it's fun to listen in on her imaginative conversations.

This morning when I asked her who she was talking to she replied matter-of-factly, "Jesus." After I finished chuckling to myself I waited to see where her conversation would go. (Birthday parties, seeing her cousins or grandparents, and going to the grocery store are her favorite subjects.)

"Jesus, the girl at the playground yelled at me and told me to 'go away'! Can you help me?" she asked earnestly.

I knew of the incident she was talking about, and it was so sweet I couldn't help but get alittle teary. See, we've been talking with her a lot lately about being kind, even when other people are unkind. We tell her that it's hard for Daddy and Mommy to do that too, but we can always ask Jesus to help us. Her "make believe" phone call to Jesus encouraged me to keep pressing on...it's been a particularly challenging season in disciplining her.

It reminded me of the passage in Matthew that calls us to be like little children, being dependent on our Heavenly Father. How quickly we revert to our independent ways and bypass the grace that God gives to the humble.

Truly, there is no room for self-sufficiency where Christ reigns as king. Not in my daugher's heart as she seeks to respond with kindness; not in my heart as I seek to train her in godliness.

Update

It's been a busy couple of weeks...namely because I've been preparing for this past weekend's yardsale. My friend Lisa invited me to join her at their neighborhood sale on Saturday and I think everybody and their mother was there!

After hauling all of our stuff to East Earl at 5:30am I told her if I made a hundred bucks I'd be satisfied. It was NOT EASY getting everything ready with two different nap schedules (er, should I say "nap free-for-all's"), but once it was all priced the hard part was over. But, by 8am I had made at least that and till it was all said and done my total had almost doubled! I was a happy camper.

What is left will be put out for attempt "numero dos" in two weeks. This time I won't be leaving my yard.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

As if that weren't enough to fill my week, this past Friday night I hosted a Tupperware Party. We had fun and I was happy to add a few more storage pieces to my pantry. I love organizing, especially closets! (Just ask my mom about that. HA HA)

Adam is shoving everything into his mouth these days and is starting to reach for things with precision. I made some new super absorbant bibs for him recently out of a thick bath towel, some binding ribbon, and jumbo snaps. They are a constant fixture on him now since he drools so much.

I promise, I DO feed him! Constantly it seems...though I am happy to report that he slept through the night nearly this entire past week! I won't count on it being a sure thing, but will certainly enjoy it while it lasts. :o)

And Natalia is asking to hold Adam more and more lately. Here she is in all her big sister glory...