Little Eyes

Amy (of A King’s Table)recently posted a poem that touched me and totally reminded me of my boys. 

I printed it out to frame as a birthday gift from my four year old to his bigger brother. 

I thought maybe he could draw a picture at the bottom.  But then I saw the eyes in this picture and knew I had found the perfect illustration for the poem.

BIG BROTHER

My little eyes are watching

All you say and do

And when I grow up big and tall

I want to be like you

My little ears are listening

To everything you say

I am learning how to grow up

To be like you someday.

So, be careful how you teach me

To be the person that you are.

You're a night in shining armor

You are my shining star.

-Author Unknown

 

SOMEone Enjoyed the Bird Seed My Husband Bought!

Alright.  I was just about asleep (no easy feat for a type A personality with a mess in the entryway) when I heard knocking at the kitchen window.  I squinted at the clock.  Ten past midnight?

“Psssst!  Honey, are you awake?”  I ask.  No response.  I thumped my husband on the chest.  “Honey, there is something at the kitchen window!”  No response. 

Hmph. 

I stumbled out of bed and down the hall and TRIPPED over the blessed bin of coats in the middle of the floor.  I knew I should have stayed up and put that stuff away!  

I limped over to the kitchen window and tentatively pulled back the curtains.  Well, hello there. 

I hope he is enjoying the bird seed my husband bought.  Maybe I should have just set the bag outside the front door and let HIM take care of it!  LOL! 

For more great pictures, check out Wordless Wednesday!

Definitely Human

In the interest of touting my humanity (heh-hem), here’s what my house looked like (still) after I got home from the middle school orientation tonight.     

My washing machine started pitching fits around 4:00 and actually popped a circuit.  It cut out my internet (the router is on the same circuit) until my husband got home and figured out the connection. 

It might have been a fluke.  Or my machine might be dying.  Or maybe it was a God thing to get me off the keyboard and back to sorting?? 

It didn’t matter much in the end since we had to head out.  The piles remained.

Hopefully, my washer will be in a better mood tomorrow and will help me finish this job. 

Because the piles are mocking me. 

Yet, I’m the only one they seem to be bothering.  Everyone else went to bed oblivious to the unfinished work.

How can they sleep????  LOL!  My type A personality is such a thorn in my flesh sometimes.  Really!  I’m heading to bed, too, just to prove I can leave a mess unattended.   The trick will be falling asleep!!  I need psychiatric help, no doubt.

Label Now For Transplanting Later

I have quite a few clumps of Irises which need to be divided and transplanted after they ‘re done blooming.  The only problem is, once they are done blooming, I quickly forget which clusters are what color.

On Sunday, I picked up a book at the library which is full of great gardening tips.

One tip said to take a sharpie and write the color of the iris on one of its leaves to help you remember which are which later.  (Duh!  Why didn’t think of that??)  The author said the writing would last just long enough to still be visible when you are ready to transplant.  LOVE that!

I immediately took my sharpie on a walk and gave my neighbors something new to chuckle over.

The book is called 1,001 Gardening Secrets The Experts Never Tell You, by Gayle K. Wood.  Great book!

For more great WFMW tips, visit We Are That Family!

If Your Husband Buys You Bird Seed…

This post will not come with a photo, because what I’m looking at is not pretty.

It all started with a large bag of bird feed my husband bought for me the other day.  Wasn’t that sweet?  He set it by my front door. 

When I came home from taking the boys to the bus stop, I saw it sitting there and decided to put it in the front closet, where I keep the bird seed.

When I opened the closet door, I discovered a mountain of coats on the floor, which certain unnamed boys have apparently been building for quite some time.

So I began to hang them up. 

Only some of the coats were dirty, and some were getting too small, and some had been rejected because of style (yes, we have arrived at that point).

I may as well sort them.

Hats and Mittens surfaced in the pile.

Might as well sort them too.  And wash them.  There’s nothing worse than opening up the hat and scarf bin in the fall and being accosted by that stale snow smell.

What?  What are work gloves doing in here?  No wonder the boys couldn’t find them the last time they went out to get wood.  These go in the garage.  In a hanging pocket organizer.  Each pair in the pocket with the name of the boy who owns them.

So I take them to the garage.  No way.  Yuck!  On the dusty yucky floor where I’m sure spiders are waiting to jump out and scare me, there are a trillion boy-size work gloves.  Some are half under the freezer. 

The pockets directly above them are empty, of course.  I pick up a handful, mindful to look for creepy crawlies, and start to sort them on the freezer.

The freezer. 

I should get meat out for dinner before I cover the top with the gloves I am sorting. 

I toss the gloves on the rug in front of the freezer.

I open the freezer. Ugh.  I really need to sort this stuff out and find out if there is any more ground beef in the bottom (we bought a side of beef last fall).  My husband said he couldn’t find any.  And yes, he said he searched.  But we’ve been married, hmmm, 13 years, and, well, I’ve learned that there is a difference in how we search. 

Oh, wow, this stuff is freezing my fingers!  I need my gloves.

Back into the house I go, to our winter glove drawers by the door.  My drawer is missing my gloves.  Now where would my gloves be? 

I purchased this neat wooden stack of drawers several years ago, and labeled each one with the name of a boy (though, about now, I am wondering why in tarnation I would do such a thing). 

I check the other three drawers (owned by the same unnamed boys who made the coat mountain).

Ugh!  You’ve got to be kidding!  Candy.  Wrappers. Toys.  Water guns.  Ah-hah!  My gloves!  Make that my glove, singular!  Grrrr.

I go back out to the freezer to sort one handed. 

A pile of pork here.  A stack of frozen pizza there.  A stack of veggies over there.  Roasts in that pile.  Eeeyoooh, what is that stuff?  Trash in an another pile. 

Ahh. Yes.  Nine more packs of hamburger. 

And…One.  Two.  Three.  Ugh, seriously?  Four??? almost empty containers of ice cream?  And that’s not counting the big tub of vanilla they begged me for during my last trip to Kroger.

I think we’ll have this “tenderized, round steak” (whatever that is), and ice cream for dinner.

I put the stuff back in the freezer, with the hamburger on the top.  For obvious reasons.  And lay the tenderized thing on top of the washer.

Now where was I?  Oh yes, that nasty pile of work gloves.

Oh, but wait.  I’d better rotate the laundry through the machines. 

Stink.  My baskets are full.

I take the clean clothes down to the bedroom. 

May as well quick put these away. 

I find a few more coats in the bedroom closet I bought on sale at the end of last season.  I wonder if any of them will fit the boys yet…  It would be great to weed out a few more of the pretty-much-outgrown ones.

I haul them out and down the hall and make another pile in the front entry way.

Oh, no.  Sigh.

My four year old has been playing in the piles.  And trying them on.  And carting them all over the house. 

He’s also found a stash of ball caps from the back of the closet.  I know.  Because he has THREE of them on his head.

Maybe I should put a couple nails around the top of the closet to get our collection of hats up out of reach out of the way.

I go to my kitchen “tool” drawer. 

My three containers of sorted-by-size nails are dumped in the bottom beneath gobs of string, long twist ties, and bit-less screwdrivers, etc. 

Sigh.

I sit on the floor and begin pulling stuff out.  I stuff the string in a bag.  The twist ties in another.  My four year old comes over to root and wants to help.  We sort the nails, find the bits, and begin to put the drawer back together.

The phone rings.  I struggle to stand up on my now sleeping feet in order to go find the phone. 

It’s a friend.  I needed a break.   I need to sit—my feet are all pins and needles.  I go sit at my desk and check my email while we chat.  It feels good to sit.

Oh, Avon is having a sale.  With Free shipping.  Wooh-hoo! We really need some Skin-So-Soft Bug repellent with sunscreen for soccer.

I get off the phone and search Avon’s sight.  Drat!  Out of Stock.  Figures.  There is a crash in the kitchen.

I head back out and find the contents of the tool drawer back out on the floor, the nails in one big pile, a puddle of milk, and a very sorry looking little boy.  Sigh.

I go to get a paper towel.  The role is empty. 

I head out to the garage where I keep the extra.  I really need to go potty.  Now. 

I stop at the bathroom, go to finish the paper work, and find the role is empty.  Nasty things go through my mind. 

I search for the extra roll of TP on the shelf by the toilet.  Oh no.  You’ve got to be kidding.    The spare roll took a recent bath in either the sink or the toilet.  I don’t want to know which.  More nasty things go through my mind.    Thank heavens there are a few tissues left in the box.

The phone rings.  Again.  Figures.

I rush out of the bathroom, search the living room and remember I left the phone in the kitchen.  Darn. 

I navigate my way through piles of jackets, coats, hats, nails, tools, FISHIES??, birdfeed and milk.

It’s my husband.  “Hi, honey”, he says.  “Whatcha doing?” 

One glance at the house and I take the fifth.

“Could you do me a favor?”

“Maybe,” I say.

“Could you check and see if I left my wallet on the dresser?”

I checked.  It was.  That was a good thing. 

Or bad, if he needs to buy gas to get home.  Bad, because that would require an extra trip to Indy for me. 

Very bad, because…

Because it’s 2:00 in the afternoon.  I have piles of stuff in the entry, the living room, the bedroom and, well, everywhere. I’m not sure what I’m doing with that tenderized thing on the washer.   We have soccer practice after school, AND Middle school orientation this evening. And, I’m still sitting in my p.j.’s, feeling totally immobilized by the scope of the mess, and blogging instead of searching for the order in my world.

LOL!!!!!

So, I’m skipping the “tenderized” meat thing.  Leaving the piles, and getting a shower. 

We’ll just have ice cream for dinner. 

And if I hear one complaint about the state of the house, may God have mercy on their soul.

I guess the morale of this story is, if your husband buys you birdseed, maybe you ought to ask HIM to put it in the closet.

New Fixtures From Menard’s Closeout Table

This weekend was beautiful!  We spent the majority of it outdoors, either at soccer practice (yes, we started soccer), or transplanting some trees and flowers that needed more room to grow. 

The evenings were perfect for taking walks, and then sitting on the porch swing and enjoying our new light fixtures.

Our old fixtures were a mess.  Some had broken globes, rusted metal, and even corroded sockets with bulbs we couldn’t get out.  Roughly half of them worked, and would you believe several were even mounted upside down???  Maybe because they cut the hole too high?  Anyways…

I’ve dreamed of replacing them ever since we bought the house, yet have been pushing off making such a big purchase.  (We have 8 around the house—2 on the porch, 3 on the garage, and 1 at each of the three back doors.)

Several weeks ago,we came across these fixtures on the clearance table at Menards.  For only 5$ each, we found just enough matching fixtures to replace all of our lights!  We even picked up several additional smaller versions to mount on our workshops.  We were delighted with our find!

My husband mounted the new fixtures and installed new energy efficient bulbs.  Now, our new lights not only look ten times better, they save us energy over the old incandescent bulbs!  Yeaaah!!

On the porch, they cast a nice warm glow after dark—yet they aren’t too bright to leave them on for a late night spell on the swing.  Though a little brighter, the trio on the garage cast a welcoming, yet not overbearing, light on the driveway. 

I guess the moral of the story is, dare to dream, and don’t forget to check out those back-of-the-store clearance tables! 

You just might find your wish list items!

Hooked On Phonics Deal Alert!

Yesterday I had a busy day.  My middle boy was home sick with a second round of pink eye.  It turned out to be a good thing, though, because we were able to spend big chunks of time studying for his Math, Spelling, and dreaded Social Studies tests.  All three promised to be difficult today.

But I think he was ready when I sent him off to school.  And his eyes were feeling a teensy tiny bit better.  Those drops are an amazing thing. 

But, sadly, I missed my computer time.  That happens.

I’m also behind on just about everything a mom needs to do, I have my husband home today, and I really need to get back outside to help with some yard work. 

But first, I wanted take the time to tell you about this

Super Deal at Hooked On Phonics!

If you visit their Overstock Department, there are some great sales going on.  I’ve never used their products, but I ordered some this morning for my four year old.  Why?  Because on top of their sale. . .

there is also a 50% off code:  SLICK50.  Just enter it at checkout and the cost of your order is cut further by half!  How can I go wrong?

Here are the three I ordered:

Learn to Read Pre-K: regular $64.95, sale $19.95. After coupon code: $10!

Hooked on Phonics Learn to Read K-1st grade: regular $139.95, sale $39.95. After coupon code: $19.99!

Hooked on First Grade activity pack: regular 46.95, sale 14.95.  After coupon code $7.50!

So, for around $50 (including tax and shipping), I’ve got what I hope will be a great program to start over the summer and continue on into the fall.  He and I are both excited about it! 

I’m not sure how long this incredible deal will last.  But I ordered mine this morning without a hitch!  If you know of someone with little ones getting ready to read or needing to improve on their reading skills, you may want to pass this info along to them!

You Can’t Keep Friends Apart

My four-year-old loves our three cats.  He would follow them to the ends of the earth, or vice versa.  Remember last weeks pictures of our walk?

Well, he went out first thing the other morning and I called him back because it was so chilly and wet. “Stay inside for now.” I said.

Not fifteen minutes later, I heard him talking to the cats outside again.

Frustrated, I opened the door ready hand out trouble and this is what I found.  It took me a minute to spot him.

“Hi, Mom!  I’m staying in!”

Where there’s a will, there’s a way…

For more picture fun, visit Wordless Wednesday and Wordful Wednesday! 

Honey Ginger Pork

I shared this recipe a few months back.  But since I’m making it tonight, I thought I would share it again.

This is an incredible (and easy) pork recipe which gets raves every time I serve it. It is also adaptable to different cooking methods and time frames as well.

Note: My boys aren't real fond of the ginger taste, so I often reduce the amount down to around a half teaspoon. A little ginger goes a long way.

Ingredients:

• 4 Pork Chops or Pork Loin Slices
• 1/2 to 1 Teaspoon Ground Ginger
• 2 Garlic Cloves, minced
• 3 Tablespoons Soy Sauce
• 1/2 Cup Honey
• 2 Tablespoons Butter, melted
  

Melt the butter in a small sauce pan. Add the ginger, garlic, soy sauce and honey, and stir.

Marinade the meat from two hours to overnight. Bring the chops to room temperature, remove from the marinade, and grill. You can put the leftover marinade in a sauce pan, bring it to a boil and use it to baste the chops each time you flip them.

Or,

Put the chops in a baking dish, pour marinade over top, cover, and cook for 1/2 hour at 400 degrees. Uncover, cook another 15-30 minutes till done, turning several times to coat and glaze each sided of the meat. This is how I’m doing it today, because its so cool outside and a little oven heat will feel nice.

Of course, anything that has honey in it is right up my alley. It's like having desert...for dinner!

It goes wonderful with rice or mashed potatoes and a tossed salad.

For more great ideas, check out:  Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, Kitchen Tip Tuesdays, Tasty Tuesday!

The Most Impactful Video I Have Seen in Ages

I’m guessing that by now, most of you have seen the video of Susan Boyle singing on Britain’s Got Talent.

If not, I can’t recommend it enough.  I’ve watched it a dozen or more times, and still, I get tears in my eyes—every time.

My boys watched it with me on Saturday, and to see their faces was priceless.  From there, we launched into a discussion on judging others that they won’t soon forget.  Guaranteed!

I don’t know how to embed a video, so I’ll just leave a link. 

I hardly ever follow links to videos--my connection is too slow, and I hate to take the time.  But I’m so glad I followed this one.  It’s about 7 minutes long.

If you haven’t seen it, go! Take the time.  Watch it with your kids.  You won’t be sorry!

Then come back and let me know what you think!

Happy Monday!

Catching Up

My husband got home last evening and we had a great time catching up.  This is one of the pictures he took.  Isn’t it beautiful?

Over dinner, he told the boys how some of the police in Germany drive Porsches.  How cool is that??

He and my oldest son diverged into a lengthy discussion of conversions…Miles to Kilometers, Kilometers to Miles, Dollars to Euros, Euros to Dollars, etc.  Numbers and decimals were flying left and right a good distance over the rest of our heads.

I had to chuckle… My husband was home.

He described some of the places he went,  restaurants he ate at, and shops he visited.  His pictures were fun to see.  I loved the garden pictures, and this shop would have been my downfall.  

He told me he wants to take me over there someday.  Isn’t that sweet?  I was with him right up until he started talking about the hotel room he stayed at and showed me this picture.

This would be the shower, taken through both the shower door and the bathroom door…BOTH made of clear glass.  LOL!!  Not in this lifetime!  I may go, but I’ll be the smelliest tourist on the streets unless he can find me acres of shower curtains!

Just A Few More Hours Till We’re All Back Together!

If you missed the goings on around here, my husband is overseas on business.  It has been a LONG week without him.  Thankfully, I haven’t burnt down the house, or had any major mishaps. Yeaaaaah! 

I did have to enlist the help of a neighbor once, though. 

This morning, my boys discovered a possum that had met his demise on the road in front of our driveway.  Yuck!

I almost had the hole dug out back to give him a proper “funeral” when my oldest discovered that it was a she.  And she had a pocket full of babies that had wiggled out to nurse.

Now, I have no love for possums, and would have been fine burying this one.  They are ugly and mean.  Only I couldn’t deal with the pink little babies wiggling at her side.  So off we trudged to the neighbor’s to beg for help.  Thankfully, he was nice enough to come out and take care of things.

I miss my husband.  Have I said that? 

We did talk several times this week.  His coworker graciously allowed him to call from his own cell phone.  And then yesterday, we finally got MSN Instant Messenger set up.  (He had it on his old laptop.  But a recent crash necessitated him getting a new laptop—minus many of his old programs.)

It was great to hear his voice!

What the picture above doesn’t show is how my little monkey paced excitedly in circles as he chatted with his Daddy.  Tonight as the little guy was getting in bed, he said to me, “Mom, can we get Daddy back?  I want him here.” 

Me too!

My husband leaves Germany in just a few short hours, and will be flying into Chicago sometime tomorrow morning.  Then, he’ll catch an afternoon flight back to Indianapolis .  We can’t wait to see him!

Maybe I should have served up Possum Stew for his Welcome Home dinner!

Kidding! (Of course.)  Yuck!

Anyways, thank you all for your thoughts, hugs, and prayers! 

Grilling Goodness

New Questions and a Mr. Linky are posted each Friday by Tina at Golden Goodness.  Everyone is invited to share their answers.  So, come and join us!

1. Do you prefer reality TV or dramas or comedies?  Doesn’t that require FREE time??  Lol!  O.K., if I’m not watching a Disney movie or a romantic comedy, I’m pretty much stuck on Fox News (if I’m wielding the remote).  But my husband and boys largely dominate the scene with the History Channel leaving me just as content to tuck myself into a good book.

2. If you could have free cosmetic surgery, what would you have done?  Hmmmm.  Hike up the wrinkles on my forehead?

3. What are you itching to get but you have 'bitten the bullet'?  Oh, I dream of a carpet shampooer!  I talk to it each time I pass the isle at Walmart, and promise it a new loving home very soon.

4. Do you have a bad habit that you hope your children don't pick up?  Blogging.  KIDDING!  I don’t know.  Maybe staying up too late and reading into the wee hours.  But I think it’s already too late for my oldest.  He constantly smuggles books and flashlights under his covers.

5. What was your favorite meal growing up?  Not really a meal.  But I loved Creamed Corn.  I could eat the WHOLE can.  Funny.  Now I really don’t like it.

 
6. What meal did you have as a youngster that you don't have as an adult? Liver and Onions, Spam, Scrapple

7. What is your earliest memory of a "vacation"? Where'd you go?  We always went tent camping with our big green and yellow canvas tent.  I remember hiking through countless trails next to waterfalls with a bazillion stairs to climb, and pausing on every cross walk with my brother to wave for the camera.

8. What was the "Best Thing" you ever got for Christmas, before age 12?  That’s tough.  I think I’d have to go with the Jamie, the Bionic Women, even though she was much bigger than my Barbies.  That stunk.  But, then again, I could easily go with my Barbie Camper, Boat, Car, or Horse.  I liked them an awful lot, too!  Those were the Good Old Days (btw), before talk of Barbies and Tattoos.  Lol!

Playing a Poor Hand

My oldest found his DS nearly broken in two, the top screen hanging by a thread (or wire, as it were).  Since no one had a clue what happened, we deduced that it must have been that Nameless Fiend who roams the house looking for milk to spill, messes to make, and toilets to “miss”.   

In looking at it, I determined the hinge was beyond repair.  There was only one solution to keep it alive.

Can you say Red Neck?  My son took this picture of me Duck Taping his DS together.   I don’t think it is a long term fix, but it’s the best I can do. 

If there was one positive thing that came of this unfortunate event, it was the attitude that my oldest was able to muster.  I was proud of him. 

Although initially looking for blood, he eventually achieved a thankfulness that it still worked at all.  He planned to tell his friends at school he now had a Red Neck Ds.  In fact, he asked that I cover the whole outside with tape.

So this picture represents quite an achievement for him.

Life is not a matter of holding good cards.  It’s playing a poor hand well.                                         Barbara Johnson 

He’s currently designing his own “skin”.  I wonder if there is a market for custom Red Neck DS skins. . .

Candid Carrie’s Friday Foto Finish

Want To Take A Walk?

My husband is beginning his second day of meetings in Germany.  We miss him!   Five more days till he comes home. 

One of the things I miss most is our evening walk around the yard, where we look for new growth and blossoms, and talk about our days.

So, I thought I’d take some pictures for him, and invite you to come along this time. 

Come!  Let’s go for a walk!

Our Purple Plum Trees are all fluffy and beautiful.  They’re at their peek.

And these beautiful blue Irises popped open this morning in spite of the gloomy weather.

Our Crab Apple trees are simply beautiful, too.  Their bright flowers are rich against the greening up grass.

And look at the Lung Warts!  They’re are just beginning their show.  I love how they go from blue, to purple, to pink, to white.  Talk about a creative God!

The peepers in the bog are singing, the water is still dripping in the gutters, and our neighbors are using a chain saw.  I love the sights and sounds of Spring!

I love being able to take a walk with my husband half way around the world.  The icing on the cake is inviting you along.

I’m so thankful for the many encouraging comments and emails you all have left this week.  Really.  I’m so glad to have met so many wonderful friends.  I hope to invite you on more walks as spring turns into summer!

Thanks for sharing my life, and for walking with me!  It’s always more fun with a friend.

I’m sharing this walk with friends from three places.  You have all been a blessing to me over the last few weeks.

     

Efficient and Consistent Landscape Lighting

Solar landscape lights are popular, but they simply don’t work (literally) for us because of the shade around our house.  So, we have been waiting for someone to come out with LED low voltage lights for several years.

Well, we’ve finally found some at last!  My husband spotted these new LED Low Voltage Landscape Lights by Brinkmann in the gardening section at our local Walmart.  They are only in some stores, and the supplies and styles on line are limited.  So don’t wait to look if you are interested!  (If you live near us, I’m sorry—we wiped out their meager stock of the brushed stainless ones.)

Most of our old green lights were tattered, and only a few still worked.  I’ve been wanting to replace them anyway.  Here’s a new one side by side with an old one.  What do you think?  

Depending on how many you need, they are sold in sets as well as by the light.    Be careful, they aren’t packed as well as they should be, and we had to make exchanges because of some broken ones.      

Brinkmann also makes spotlights which can be linked in the line-up.  You can have up to 15 lights (total) per transformer.  And these little guys are bright!    

They are easy to connect and move around.  Plus, with LEDs using roughly 1/7th the energy of incandescent bulbs (according to my very smart husband who knows far more than I), these little lights can be left on from dusk to dawn and still save us money!

We weren’t sure how much light they would throw, but wow!  They are pack a punch!As you can see, Lucky (our cat) managed to get herself into my picture again.  See her in the tree covering up the peak of my porch?  She about scared me to death when she raced up that tree!!! 

Our only complaint about the design of the pathway lights is that you can see the LED itself—which tends to be a little bright from some angles.  Not quite as bright as this picture suggests, though (it’s hard to get just the right exposure).  We plan to plant some low-growing hostas in strategic places to filter the light.

I know it is a small thing, but I really do feel better having more working lights around the house—especially with my husband flying half-way around the world tonight. (I miss you!)  

Have a tip of your own?  Come join Works For Me Wednesday over at We Are That Family and share it with us!

DIY Outdoor Coffee Table

If you’ve been reading my blog, you know that I’ll use logs for just about anything if it will save me from having to buy something.  We have plenty of logs.

These two pictures show umbrella stands and end tables (so to speak) on the stone area we use as our patio.  I talked about how to make them here.  We’re saving to get a real patio poured someday soon.  But my project for this week was for the front of the house.

   

We recently hung a swing on our front porch, and I felt like we needed a foot rest/coffee table/catch all to go with it.  I looked everywhere for something that would work.  But, I found little I liked, and nothing in the price range I was willing to spend.

So, I decided to make my own--after the fashion of our patio umbrella stands—one that wouldn’t tip over easy or crack with the weight of a boy sitting on it.

This is what I came up with.  My husband cut the log I picked into two equal parts.  Then I took a plank (which I got in the scrap bin at the lumber store) and cut it to the length I wanted.   I rounded and sanded its edges, stained it with cedar stain and finally, screwed it to the logs using really long screws.

The result wasn’t half bad, and I didn’t have to buy a thing!

I’m thinking it will last much longer under my boys’ abuse than one of those cheap little plastic tables.

The height is nice, too.  It’s low enough to put a foot or two up and and still swing a little.   Yet, it’s high enough to set a glass of lemonade or a checker board (or Star Wars figure) on and play.  It will do for us! 

Lucky (our kitty) and her buddies like to lay under it, too.

This post is being linked to the following parties, so don’t forget to see what others are talking about and/or link your own ideas up as well!  I’m looking forward to seeing what you all are up to!

  

Do You Know a Good Babysitter?

Knowing my husband would be leaving for Germany tomorrow, and seeing that rain was predicted today, we tackled outside jobs over the weekend.

It’s a good thing too, since the forecast was right.

One of the jobs my husband tackled was tilling the garden.  We are making it larger this year, and we picked out a new spot which gets more light. 

Still, a few trees needed to come down.

You can see one of the large stumps directly behind the top of the left front evergreen on the other side of our driveway.  You can see the garden right in the middle.  The rain is making quite a pond out of the right side of it.  I’ll need to keep that in mind when I plant.

While helping to drag limbs and clean up the felled trees last night, I got several little splinters.  I found another this morning just before I took the boys down to the bus stop.  So I sat down to my desk, turned on my magnifier/light, and removed it real quick.

When I got home and sat back down at my desk, I thought, “What smells hot?”

It wasn’t until I noticed the light still on, that I realized what had happened.  In one of my many smooth moves, I not only forgot to turn off the light, I swung it back over towards the wall and it sank into my new monitor—LITERALLY!!!

I know the bulb gets hot, but Good Gravy!  I consider myself blessed that I caught it when I did!  My four-year-old exclaimed, “Howey Cow, Mom!  It made a hoew up dere!”

As I contemplated the event, three thoughts crossed my mind.

1. Guess there’s no chance this won’t be broadcast to whoever will listen for a few days.
2. I wonder if I’ll be able to keep from burning the house down while my husband is away?  (Maybe he should hire a babysitter!  Lol!)
3. I wonder how I’m going to clean that gunk off the bulb?

Grilling Goodness Blog Party

I almost forgot!  I wanted to go to the Grilling Goodness Party today!

Each Friday, Tina posts questions, answers, and a Mr. Linky so that we can play along and get to know other bloggers better. 

Here is the list of questions along with my answers for this week:

1. What's one of the best things you've seen lately?  I’m going to go with a family movie.  Bolt was really cute.  our whole family enjoyed it, and there were a couple laugh out loud moments that my husband and I just about split a gut over.

2. Has Spring brought you something you don't like?  Cold weather and snow.  I’m anxious for flip-flop weather to come and stay.

3. What kind of sandwiches do you like?  My favorite is an American Hoagie from a Pennsylvania Deli called Nuse’s.  Every vacation when we head east, we eat there several times.  Just thinking about it gives me a hankering…and you just can’t get a good hoagie in Indiana.

4. Do you carry GermX with you at all times?  Not with me.  But we do carry a bottle in each car.  We usually wash up after shopping trips.  NOT that it has helped protect us from everything that comes along.  We’ve had our fair share of the colds this season.

5. Does each person in your house have their own hamper or do you have a central hamper for everyone? We have two.  One for our room (which our youngest uses), and one for our older boys to share in their room.

6. How often do you balance your checkbook?  My husband does it roughly once a month.  But that’s a hard one, because we do very little with checks, yet check our balance often online. 

7. What's the hardest thing you've done lately?  I’ve been trying to sort through the pros and cons of requesting early entrance for my little guy to kindergarten next year.  He misses the cut-off by ONE day.  He wants to go, knows his letters and numbers, and even some words, but maturity-wise, he’s still a young four.  Having taught, I know how much difference the gift of an extra year at home can make in how well little boys (especially) do in school.  So, I’m leaning towards NOT sending him.  But my mind hasn’t settled the issue yet, and we are still discussing it and praying over it.

8. Are you a texter?  No.  I’ve sent them in a pinch.  But I certainly don’t live by them.  My husband made it possible for me to type texts to his phone from my computer since he is often unavailable, and that is pretty easy.  But I have no patience to type stuff into my phone using those teeny tiny buttons. 

Am I showing my age??

The Monkey Wants to Talk To You.

Why is it, whenever you step into the shower, your preschooler always needs you?

It never fails, as soon as I get behind the curtain, there is banging on the door.  Sometimes it is accompanied by crying.  Sometimes yelling.

Today, I heard, “Mommy!  Come!  The Monkey wants to talk to you!”

Usually, I open the door and he throws the little Screaming Monkey on the floor so that it makes that ear splitting scream.  Have you ever seen one of these?  If not, count your blessings.  (All I can say is, if my brother’s only son wasn’t all grown up, I would be giving him his own arsenal of lovely toys.)

Anyway, the knocking continued all the way through my shower.  All the way through my drying off.  And all the way through my dressing. 

Any mom of preschoolers knows that it does absolutely no good to tell them to wait.

When I opened the bathroom door, I was, indeed, met by a

MONKEY!

For the record, I have no idea where he got the monkey feet idea!

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Prayer For Hurting Families

Two families in our area have lost loved ones this week and my heart is going out to them.

A little boy in my middle son’s class lost his father over Spring break. He’s hurting, and so is my son--for him. I don’t know the family, or whether or not they know the Lord. But I’m praying for them.

Then, over the weekend, a father and his eight year old son went home to be with the Lord when their truck overturned in a creek. The father was a youth pastor. They left behind a hurting wife, and mom, and two older children, not to mention countless hurting friends and other family members. The funerals are today.

God doesn’t promise that we won’t have pain in this life, or grieve the loss of a loved one. But he does promise to be there for us. To comfort us, and walk with us.

Will you pray with me today for these families? Pray for comfort, for rest, and for God to surround them with with his loving arms. Pray that the message of this Easter will bring a new and real hope to those left behind.

Thank you Lord, for sending your son, for His gift of forgiveness, and for the assurance of New Life in Him. Thank you for the hope that we have of seeing our loved ones again in Heaven.

Help us to reach out to those hurting around us. Help us to be Your arms as we reflect Your love in our hugs. May those who are hurting without You find You this Easter. Reveal Yourself to them, comfort them and instill in them the Hope that Jesus bought with his Life.

Landscape Cart

This year we purchased this humongous yard cart to help move mulch. I was skeptical as to whether it was “over kill”. The store had smaller carts that would have saved me a little money. But my husband insisted that this was the cart for us saying, “Bigger is better!” (Insert manly grunt)

But now that we have it, let me tell you, this thing is the cat’s meow! Even fully loaded, it handles easily. It’s well balanced and doesn’t pull on my back like some carts. In fact, all three boys rode in it out to the car when we bought it!

We like its flat front, high clearance, solid wheels and how far it reaches out over the flower beds. My husband could wheel it in over plants and I could simply rake out how much mulch I wanted--where ever I wanted it.

And the padded handle? That’s just icing on the cake.

We’ve done the tractor and wagon thing, the wheel barrel thing, and even the bucket brigade thing. This is by far the most efficient method we’ve ever tried. Did I tell you we get mulch by the dump truck load? We have LOTS of flower beds!

This cart was definitely worth the hundred dollars we spent on it at Rural King. Other Farm Supply Stores will probably be carrying it as well.

I’m thinking it will be wonderful for cleaning up leaves in the fall, too.

Stop over at We are That Family for more great Works For Me Wednesday tips!

An Evening Walk

Some people have a dog.

We have Lucky the cat.  She follows my son everywhere.

Even on walks.

Never tiring.

They are best buddies.

 

 

 

Check out Special Exposure Wednesdays.