Odds and Ends

I hung the bird feeders out yesterday.  I LOVE the new one!  It looks so lovely.....BUT (did you see that one coming?) I filled it yesterday and this morning, as I'm looking out the window right this minute, the bottom level is more than half empty.  Normally, I would be all smiles about this, but yesterday afternoon I happened to step outside and saw a squirrel having a feast, handful by dirty little handful.  I'm not happy about this.  I gave it a stern look and said, rather loudly, "Hey you!  Get out of there!!  I didn't put that out for you!"  It looked up at me with its beady little eyes, still thieving and testing my patience.  I clapped at it and it scampered away....with its cheeks full of my money, for sure.  The bird feeder is hanging from a branch and somewhat close to the trunk.  I'm thinking of moving it further out, but I have a feeling that it will do nothing to deter a determined little varmint from stealing an easy meal.  I'll have to think on this one...

In other news, earlier this week, Mr.P began reading his first chapter book, Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus.  We don't use that word in our house so the titled has been altered to ....the Silly Smelly Bus.  It's fun to sit and read with him because I'm able to read ahead a little so I know what's coming up.  He'll move along slowly, sounding out the more difficult words and needing my help on the even harder ones, but when he realizes what he just read out loud, I can see it coming together by his facial expressions.  My favorite times are the parts that make him laugh.  Here's an example from yesterday.  Junie B. is scared of the bus, but her parents are making her ride it anyway and she notices the door for the first time. 

"It wasn't a regular kind of door, though.  It folded in half.  And when it closed, it made a whishy sound.  I don't like that kind of door.  If it closes on you by accident, it will cut you in half, and you will make a squishy sound." 

He read this and giggled.  Then, as it formed a picture in his mind and it made more sense, he laughed a little more.  Seeing him made me laugh and we kind of fed off of eachother for a minute to the point where the book fell on the floor and his head was buried in my arm.  lol

I know I'm all over the place with this post, but Camri and her boyfriend planted the strawberries yesterday.  We did the Topsy Turvy, which is somewhat of a big red eyesore right now.  Hopefully the leaves start forming soon because right now it just looks like a big red barrel-shaped canvas.  I'll probably end up hanging it from the playhouse that Jeremy built for the kids.  Not sure if it will get enough sun, under the trees like that, but that thing is kinda fugly. lol

Oh, I saw a pretty red cardinal perched in one of trees out front this morning just before I was leaving to take Camri to school.  Maybe I should hang another feeder out there.  I'll put that on my birthday list ; )

Planting

I got the garden planted today and now I can't keep my eyes open.  I went right to work on it as soon as I got home from dropping Camri off at school and finished just in time to make it 10 minutes late to my spanish class.  Jeremy and I have talked about extending the garden by wrapping it around the side of the house but I'm not counting on that happening anytime soon, so I went ahead and filled the space that our garden usually takes up.  The soil is so soft in that area from so much use that it was no trouble at all digging into it with the shovel to turn it over.  I planted as much as I could in the space that I had.  Now it's filled with tomato plants, pepper plants, cucumber, and lots of different herbs.  Hopefully we'll get a truckload of dirt this weekend and we'll be all set to extend.  Then we can get the squash, zucchini, and the extra tomato and pepper plants put in.  Here is my only problem.  I ran into some grubs as I was turning the dirt over.  I didn't think much about them.  I even picked one up, cleaned the dirt off and studied it, with gloves on, of course.  Those little suckers are UGLY! lol  I just left them in the soil because I assumed they were natural little aeraters just like worms.  Wrong.  As Jeremy and I were talking about the garden over dinner, he asked if I came across any grubs.  Apparently, the little buggers chomp away at plant roots!  Why I oughtta.....!!!  I didn't realize this or I would have contained them and brought them to the pond on one of these gorgeous spring days.  I'm sure one of the ducks would have loved to gobble them up or one of the fishermen could have used them for bait.  The slimeballs got away for now, but  I hope they don't expect the same courtesy next year.

Oh, I also called my daddy about the mysterious package.  Seeds!  Some of them are Morning Glories and others are some type of gourds.  Morning Glories are pretty vines that offer big fat green leaves and the prettiest trumpets of flowers in purples and blues. I looked up pictures online and can't wait to get those in the ground.  He said that they attract hummingbirds, so maybe they'll come back to me after all!  He also said that the gourds from the seeds that he sent are perfect for making little birdhouses with.  Tune in this fall for a special birdhouse post, if all grows well.  Get it?  If all "grows" well.  (knee slapper)

Off the subject, but I thought this was worth mentioning.  I took Sabrina to the doctor yesterday for her 8 year old well check.  Each time the kids have their yearly well checks, I like to compare their weights and heights to see where everyone is/was at a certain age.  Normally, they are within a couple inches of eachother, but this time I noticed something kind of cool.  All three of the girls measured 51 1/4 inches at age 8.  Ha!  Vanessa, like her mommy, has embraced her shorter size, but Camri who teeters around 5'1 continues to vow if Sabrina is any taller than her, she will be very upset. lol  Bets on the table, please!

Spring Has Sprung

Spring has definitely sprung in Texas and I have the fever, for sure.  I know some of you don't care for the time change that comes with spring, but I don't mind it a bit!  We've been enjoying the extra light in our evenings.  For some reason, it makes the evenings feel longer and I definitely need that.  Mr.P and Sabrina are back to wearing one of Daddy's t-shirts when they can't locate any jammies, or if they're just too lazy to go find some, and that always means summer is on the way.  I've always loved seeing the kids run around in a cool, cotton t-shirt with their little legs and feet sticking out of the bottoms.  It's a sure sign of warmer weather, in this house.  With spring comes our garden.  I CAN'T WAIT to dig my hands in the dirt and plant.  We do the usual -- tomato, peppers, zucchini, squash, cucumbers, lots of different herbs and this year we are trying our hand at.......strawberries!  I've read that they spread, so to keep them under control, we plan on putting them in a planter.  I hope they thrive.  It will be nice to bite into a plump, juicy homegrown strawberry in a few months.

Last year, Jeremy drove us to a cotton field that he passes every day on the way to work.  At that time, the cotton was perfectly fluffy and ready to be picked.  I'd never seen a cotton field before and the kids and I were just bubbling over with excitement.  He was just planning on driving us by the field, but I just couldn't help myself.  I "politely" ordered him to pull to the side of the road so the kids and I could get a closer look.  I couldn't get out of the car fast enough.  It was just so cool to see a whole field of cotton puffs.  It was in the afternoon, but Jeremy said in the morning when the sun is shining on the field, it's very pretty.  I hopped out of the car and as I was studying this plant, I just couldn't help myself and plucked a fluff of raw cotton right off.  Jeremy, still in the driver's seat and already paranoid about being stopped in the middle of the road, was horrified at what I'd done. lol  And if that weren't enough, I told the kids that each of them could also pull off one fluff and then we had to go.  Jeremy, wild-eyed, was expecting Farmer Brown to pull up any minute in his cotton picking station wagon and haul us in to the local police station....or that's how he looked anyway.  His eyes kept darting around, looking for any sign of the fuzz, while he kept instructing (more like pleading with) us to hurry up. lol  I kept giggling and telling him to calm down...it was only 5 cotton balls and one plant makes around 4.  Each ball of cotton that we picked had seeds enbedded in it.  I carefully picked out each of the seeds and I think we'll plant them in the garden as well.  It would be cool if they produce even a mini cotton ball for us!

This year we got smart and instead of spending lots of money on plants, we spent a little money on seeds.  We planted them at the end of January and now they're ready to go into the ground.  My friend's dad, Popo, also gave us some nice hearty tomato plants that he grew from seeds.  His are much stronger and prettier than ours, so hopefully some, if not all, of our plants will take off.

I'm also looking forward to filling my hummingbird feeder and putting it out.  Last year, I saw no hummingbirds : (  The year before, I loved watching them, but for some reason, they didn't make a visit last year.  My daddy had the same thing happen, so maybe there was something going on.  Whatever it was, hopefully it won't keep them from making an appearance this year.  I also received a new finch feeder for Christmas!  I've had one on my birthday and Christmas lists for a couple of years now and I was finally good enough to receive one!  I can't wait to hang that one up also.  Maybe I'll get to work on that tomorrow...

Lastly, I received a package in the mail yesterday from my daddy.  It had these strange little woodchips inside and a note from him telling me to call when I received the package and he'd explain what they were.  I'm just sure it has something to do with spring!

Longer evenings, lighter clothing, birdies chirping, mowers buzzing, gardens to plant.....yes, spring has definitely sprung.

Cookies Are My Life

Hello, dear reader.  I've been hiding.  Do you know where?  Under 195 boxes of Girl Scout cookies.  That's where!  And those are only Sabrina's.  Whew!!!  Waaay back in August, Sabrina's Brownie troop leader so innocently asked if I would head the cookie sales for the troop when the time came.  Of course!  Far be it from me to say no to anyone in need, for any reason.  It's something I need to work on, but that's another blog for another time.  Little did I know what I was signing up for.  Scheduling booths for 11 girls and their moms to work at, keeping track of how many boxes of cookies each girl is selling (along with the extras that she orders), collecting money, making deposits, keeping watch of the troop cookies (not to be confused with each girls' cookies), being the supervisor over boxes being traded between girls and between ours with other troops, chasing down parents to advise me where they are with their sales, and I could go on and on and on and on.  This cookie business is a full time job!  This, coupled with my normal life, including but not limited to - spanish class, being room mommies for Mr.P and Sabrina's classes, Sabrina's birthday, volunteering at all 3 schools when I can fit it in, teaching religious ed., homework with the kids, housework and just doing mommy stuff like working on Valentines projects and keeping track of who needs to be where at what time has left my blogging days far far behind.  I think of you often, dear reader.  I think of how I need to update you on my life.  Yes it is a need, maybe not for you, but definitely for me.  This is not just another thing that I put on my list of to-do's.  It's therapeutic.  It allows me to stop everything and take note of where I am in my life.  And I like it.  I love it.

As for these cookies, I'm ready for this to be over.  It's consumed so much of my time that Jeremy every now and then refers to me as "Bob Cratchit." lol  Now that's not the sugary term of endearment I had in mind for Valentine's Day.....

Blessings

As I was doing my nightly routing, just before going to bed...turning out lights, checking that doors are locked, putting Bentley out, etc...I was remembering, once again, that one day I won't be stepping over toys or books or little shoes anymore.  That's always a sad thought.  I made my way upstairs, peeked into bedrooms, turned out nightlights, gave kisses to my dreamers who were oblivious to my presence and thanked God, once again, for blessing me so immensely.

Sick.

I'm sick.  Did you know?  Probably not.  It's not normal for me to put a FB or Twitter blast out when I'm not feeling well.  Thank goodness it's not that often.  This sickness is brought to me courtesy of Mr.P.  I knew when I shared a can of pop with him last week that I was playing with fire.  He had stayed home one more day after the holiday break had ended to fully recover from a stomach bug which had claimed his last couple of days of vacation.  It has now made its home in my warm belly and I am the ungrateful host.  I guess it's my turn to be sick.  It hasn't happened in a while, so I have that to be thankful for.  Jeremy is being hit left and right by allergies, cedar, in particular, but he's been a trooper!  He's been Mommy AND Daddy since Saturday evening....taking the kids to their cousin's skating party, making runs to the grocery store for things that he think may make me feel better (chicken soup, orange juice, ice cream, etc.), helping with homework, refereeing arguments that seem to break out on the hour (funny to listen to from the safety of my bedroom), trying to keep up with the housework, etc.  What a man : )  Hopefully this will pass quickly.  I could tell on Saturday that my tummy wasn't feeling quite right and by that evening I was popping ibuprofin to fight a fever.  On the up side, it's just my stomach pain and a few body aches that have me down.  No stuffy nose, sore throat or anything like that....thank goodness!  I'm leaving you with a conversation that took place between Mr.P and I about 15 minutes ago.  I'm upstairs in my bedroom and Jeremy had just left to pick Camri up from school.  Mr.P was downstairs.

Mr.P:  Daddy!!   Daddy!!!
Me:  He left!
Mr.P:  Well, can I have a cookie?!
Me:  Ask Daddy when he gets home!
Mr.P:  Why?!  You're the boss!!

Lol!  I love that kid.