he's a bit shady, I know
Monday, May 29, 2006
The other night we had a pair of nighttime visitors. Two racoons found our recycling irresistable. They didn't care about me either. They were inches away from me, with only glass seperating us, and they completely ignored my pounding on the door. Stinkin' coons. Matt is thinking about setting a trap and making a coonskin hat. I will leave THAT up to him. As long as I don't SEE it in it's transitional state.
Thursday, May 25, 2006
YAY! I was able to finally scan the veg. plans (still don't know what I did to make it work!) I am hoping to get about 20 tomato plants. 5 or 6 cherry tomatos, 7/8 Roma's, and 6/7 slicing. I will also be purchasing a flat of green pepper plants and a flat of HOT pepper plants. I am growing some pepper plants with seed also but sinceI have never grown pepper plants from seed before, I want to ensure that I will definately be harvesting SOME. The rest of the garden will be put in as seed. Last year I was able to start quite a few of my plants from seed indoors-but with moving and Peanut, that didn't happen. I am trying to brace myself NOW for the cost of the tomato plants...
Back to Where we Started
This weekend we are travelling back in time, to the land of our former home. It will be a short and sweet visit, as all others (until Matt actually gets vacation time next year) from Saturday afternoon to Sunday afternoon. Saturday we are heading to Elmira and to a park festival (with fireworks! One of my FAVORITE things). Sunday is church in the morning then heading to Little Meadows. Gotta split up grandparent time equally, after all! Corynn is anxiously awaiting the visit because she tells me often how she thinks she should see everyone much more. I only hope this weekend doesn't result in an "I'm staying HERE" breakdown. That would be BAD.
I spent yesterday afternoon thinking of my endless possibilites for the house. I drew up some plans for our vegetable garden and my herb and flower garden, something I have been meaning to do for quite some time. I spent so much time on my patio set, in fact, engulfed in my own planning, that I got sunburned! I am envisioning sheep and goats in the next year or two. We will be cutting down all those chokeberry bushes and replacing them with BLUEBERRY bushes, and planting apple trees (hopefully toward the end of summer?). I would also like to plant some lilac bushes near the entrance of our driveway. Several years ago, Matt built a pergola over the garage for a family from our church and did such a nice job, I think I might get him to make me one too. I took a picture of it after he did it, I will try and scrounge it up. I think that might be JUST the thing to dress up the garage side of the house. I will probably plant clematis to climb on it. These plans are all just that-PLANS. They won't actually take place for a while and I need to remind myself of that. Sometimes I get so GUNG-HO and impatient!
For now I need to focus on creating supports for the gardens. I will be getting some rain barrels to help with the watering of my gardens and I am going to be working on making a large composting bin. With the soil so terrible that we need to bring in our own dirt, we will be needing some SERIOUS help if I want my gardens to thrive. That is where little bunny FooFoo comes in, the composter, and eventually our sheep. Lots of fun stuff to think about...now if only the bossman would haul in the dirt!
On a different subject, I am almost embarrassed at the great spoilage Matt showed me for my birthday. The start was rocky but the finish was a grand finale. I think that Renaissance readers will benefit also from one of the gifts, the results of which are posted below. Drawn out garden plans and of course, pictures from the drawing machine at Chuckie Cheese. While silly machines and video games were greedily eating away at other peoples' tokens, I was tossing my precious treasures into this drawing machine. All tokens were .25 and I used nearly a handful. HOW, may I ask, could I pass that UP?!?! Seriously though, when we installed our computer, our old scanner did not work and so I had no way to scan the pictures I take with my Canon. That made me more than a bit sad. I can see how a scanner/copier would be an asset for homeschoolers too. But, while a simple scanner would have worked, NO-mi esposo went above and beyond the call of duty and got me a whole PHOTO CENTER. I am like my own Eckerds!
So that's the scoop. (BTW~I started having operator trouble with the vegetable garden plans so you will only be able to see the herb and flower garden. If I can figure it out, I will post the veggie's too!)
I spent yesterday afternoon thinking of my endless possibilites for the house. I drew up some plans for our vegetable garden and my herb and flower garden, something I have been meaning to do for quite some time. I spent so much time on my patio set, in fact, engulfed in my own planning, that I got sunburned! I am envisioning sheep and goats in the next year or two. We will be cutting down all those chokeberry bushes and replacing them with BLUEBERRY bushes, and planting apple trees (hopefully toward the end of summer?). I would also like to plant some lilac bushes near the entrance of our driveway. Several years ago, Matt built a pergola over the garage for a family from our church and did such a nice job, I think I might get him to make me one too. I took a picture of it after he did it, I will try and scrounge it up. I think that might be JUST the thing to dress up the garage side of the house. I will probably plant clematis to climb on it. These plans are all just that-PLANS. They won't actually take place for a while and I need to remind myself of that. Sometimes I get so GUNG-HO and impatient!
For now I need to focus on creating supports for the gardens. I will be getting some rain barrels to help with the watering of my gardens and I am going to be working on making a large composting bin. With the soil so terrible that we need to bring in our own dirt, we will be needing some SERIOUS help if I want my gardens to thrive. That is where little bunny FooFoo comes in, the composter, and eventually our sheep. Lots of fun stuff to think about...now if only the bossman would haul in the dirt!
On a different subject, I am almost embarrassed at the great spoilage Matt showed me for my birthday. The start was rocky but the finish was a grand finale. I think that Renaissance readers will benefit also from one of the gifts, the results of which are posted below. Drawn out garden plans and of course, pictures from the drawing machine at Chuckie Cheese. While silly machines and video games were greedily eating away at other peoples' tokens, I was tossing my precious treasures into this drawing machine. All tokens were .25 and I used nearly a handful. HOW, may I ask, could I pass that UP?!?! Seriously though, when we installed our computer, our old scanner did not work and so I had no way to scan the pictures I take with my Canon. That made me more than a bit sad. I can see how a scanner/copier would be an asset for homeschoolers too. But, while a simple scanner would have worked, NO-mi esposo went above and beyond the call of duty and got me a whole PHOTO CENTER. I am like my own Eckerds!
So that's the scoop. (BTW~I started having operator trouble with the vegetable garden plans so you will only be able to see the herb and flower garden. If I can figure it out, I will post the veggie's too!)
Here are the plans for my jarden del herbs. :-) As you can see, at the corner of the house I am going to be putting a rain barrel to collect (you guessed it) RAIN! I tried to spread the flowering herbs throughout to add color and interest. The back of the house (by the wildflowers and lavendar, Corynn and I are going to plant sunflowers. I ran out of room on the page! BTW~I used my new birthday Pastel SHARPIES to draw this! hehehe
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Just a few 'no point' shots
Days of complete and total compliance are soon over-she might as well enjoy them while they last...
Started cloth diapers on Andrew. I waited until Corynn was abit older to start her. With Andrew I am trying it out early. I am not such a devoted cloth diaperer, nor do I do it just to say I do it-so I will continue to use disposables when we are gone on trips and at night. It's just easier traveling with disposables. My children don't like being wet-and with Andrew sleeping through the night for about 2 1/2 weeks now, I am not going to do ANYTHING to screw THAT up!
Monday, May 22, 2006
What a fun weekend I had!
John and Holly came to visit and we had such a great time visiting-and actually got things accomplished! While the men worked on installing electricity into Matt's workshop, Holly and I worked on reupolstering one of my chairs. I only need to get some trim for it, and I will post some pictures! It looks SO nice! And it was nice having someone who has done it BEFORE to walk me through it. We got the materials to do another chair I wanted to refinish but I may wait for her to come visit again before I attempt that one-as it is a much more difficult chair. It all depends on how brave I am! :-)
The best part of the weekend was DEFINATELY thanks to Holly's ambition. She suggested we go pick up our patio set. They had brought their car (a pretty small little thing too!) but that did not deter her. I KNOW that if it had not been for her insistency, Matt wouldn't have been up for it. We drove seperately and we were able to fold the seats down in their car to fit it. The guys went to Lowes for electrical supplies and we headed to JoAnns. When we got home, the 'girls' set up the patio set while the guys did some 'construction'. We had dinner, which consisted of london broil and spiedies on the GRILL!!!! Potato skins, fruit salsa and cinnamon sugared tortillas, and pasta salad. For dessert: the best ice cream cake ever! I made it using a recipe out of cookbook my mom got me for my birthday-I will post the recipe some time this week. It was DELICIOUS if I do say so myself! You HAVE to try it-it is VERY easy to make.
After dinner, we moved on to our respective projects. And then a movie- Just Friends. It is hilarious. REALLY funny stuff. The whole visit was great-they left around 3:30 Sunday afternoon.
I am SO excited about my patio set. It is SO pretty and so COMFY and just so relaxing! We 'upgraded' with a different umbrella that I liked more. It was just $20.00 more but SO much nicer-and it really matches well the rest of the set. It has very pretty scallopped edges and uses more pinks than browns. Our patio set breaks up the brick corner perfectly and maybe if I can butter him up, Matt will let me get this beautiful blooming habiscus plant from walmart. It matches PERFECTLY and would create a real 'living space' on the patio. It was the best going away present the church could have EVER given us. TRULY. More than we could have ever wished for. You will see me out there sipping my homemade peppermint iced tea on a daily basis, for sure!
Before I end this post to get my day going, I wanted to tell you about my grocery endeavors. Ruth taught me how to use coupons to get things for FREE. No strings attached. Below is a picture of my first SUCCESSES! Giant has triple coupons every now and again. You can TRIPLE coupons up to $1.00 value (only seven times though). That means, that it will increase in value to $3.00. So anything UNDER three dollars-you get FREE. After the first seven, all other coupons will DOUBLE. Below is a picture of all the 'freebies' from last week's shopping trip. I also got really GREAT deals on other things. When I went, I had my seven coupons to be tripled plus two more of things I needed. I have never DONE the coupon thing before so I was so proud of myself for being so efficient and organized. Then I took a look around. Women were EVERYWHERE with huge coupon filers and other coupon holders. I even saw one woman with a binder open on the seat part of the cart-in the binder were clear page protectors on which she had made pockets to hold all the different kinds of coupons. These women are professionals! I never knew couponing could be such an 'extreme sport'. I doubt I will ever get to THAT point, but I will definately have a handful when it is triple coupon time. I can't resist freebies!
Now-for that iced tea...
The best part of the weekend was DEFINATELY thanks to Holly's ambition. She suggested we go pick up our patio set. They had brought their car (a pretty small little thing too!) but that did not deter her. I KNOW that if it had not been for her insistency, Matt wouldn't have been up for it. We drove seperately and we were able to fold the seats down in their car to fit it. The guys went to Lowes for electrical supplies and we headed to JoAnns. When we got home, the 'girls' set up the patio set while the guys did some 'construction'. We had dinner, which consisted of london broil and spiedies on the GRILL!!!! Potato skins, fruit salsa and cinnamon sugared tortillas, and pasta salad. For dessert: the best ice cream cake ever! I made it using a recipe out of cookbook my mom got me for my birthday-I will post the recipe some time this week. It was DELICIOUS if I do say so myself! You HAVE to try it-it is VERY easy to make.
After dinner, we moved on to our respective projects. And then a movie- Just Friends. It is hilarious. REALLY funny stuff. The whole visit was great-they left around 3:30 Sunday afternoon.
I am SO excited about my patio set. It is SO pretty and so COMFY and just so relaxing! We 'upgraded' with a different umbrella that I liked more. It was just $20.00 more but SO much nicer-and it really matches well the rest of the set. It has very pretty scallopped edges and uses more pinks than browns. Our patio set breaks up the brick corner perfectly and maybe if I can butter him up, Matt will let me get this beautiful blooming habiscus plant from walmart. It matches PERFECTLY and would create a real 'living space' on the patio. It was the best going away present the church could have EVER given us. TRULY. More than we could have ever wished for. You will see me out there sipping my homemade peppermint iced tea on a daily basis, for sure!
Before I end this post to get my day going, I wanted to tell you about my grocery endeavors. Ruth taught me how to use coupons to get things for FREE. No strings attached. Below is a picture of my first SUCCESSES! Giant has triple coupons every now and again. You can TRIPLE coupons up to $1.00 value (only seven times though). That means, that it will increase in value to $3.00. So anything UNDER three dollars-you get FREE. After the first seven, all other coupons will DOUBLE. Below is a picture of all the 'freebies' from last week's shopping trip. I also got really GREAT deals on other things. When I went, I had my seven coupons to be tripled plus two more of things I needed. I have never DONE the coupon thing before so I was so proud of myself for being so efficient and organized. Then I took a look around. Women were EVERYWHERE with huge coupon filers and other coupon holders. I even saw one woman with a binder open on the seat part of the cart-in the binder were clear page protectors on which she had made pockets to hold all the different kinds of coupons. These women are professionals! I never knew couponing could be such an 'extreme sport'. I doubt I will ever get to THAT point, but I will definately have a handful when it is triple coupon time. I can't resist freebies!
Now-for that iced tea...
The happiest day! I FINALLY got my patio set, thanks to John and Holly. We almost blew away during dinner, and the guys practically froze, but I HAD to use it once we got it set up! I LOVE IT SO MUCH!!!! I will be sitting on it EVERY DAY...and more likely, EVERY MEAL! Now I REALLY want the rain to stop!
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