Happy Mother's Day

My family has always made Mother's Day special for me. In the past few years we haven't always been all together but they still find a way to make me feel like a special Mama. They all still tell the sad tales of woe of having to go to Bordine's with me on Mother's Day to help find and then help plant the plants and flowers we bought. Most Mother's Days were just time spent together, nothing fancy. We didn't go out to dinner, just cooked at home. Just like tonight. H took charge of the steaks, Tyler handled the potatoes and salad, Scott took care of clean-up. And H even attempted dessert! Can't wait to dig into that later. Tyler bought me these lovely tulips and I received wonderful cards from everyone. I am one lucky Mama. Such a great family. Here are a few things I've seen around the house this past week. The weather has been absolutely gorgeous! Until today. Today it was gray (with a tiny bit of sun), chilly (only in the high 40's, low 50's) and a bit rainy/snowy. Not cold enough to stick (the snow) but I will definitely be covering plants up tonight! Plants like these peonies that have grown like crazy this past week. H got the flower boxes up last weekend. Yesterday I bought some pansies and I'll plant them in there later in the week. The geese paid a visit last week and the dogwood is blooming. Yesterday was sunny and we enjoyed a few minutes out on the deck. The potatoes and porch lettuce are doing well. I'm keeping my tomatoes under the porch until the weather warms up a bit. I spent a little bit of time this weekend baking. I'm getting a little package ready to send to a special little someone! That's all the news worth reporting. The tender plants are covered for the night and I'm hoping that will be the last time I have to do that! Have a good week!

I Do Believe Spring Has Finally Sprung!

What a beautiful week we have had! The sun has been shining most days and we haven't even had any rain, though we could use it. The week was fairly quiet though Thursday night held some promise for a little while. Three of the teachers in our building were nominated and made the finals for Teacher of the Year. The ceremony was at 5:00 that day but I wasn't able to attend. We were all supposed to meet up afterward to celebrate. Sadly, none of our teachers won but we celebrated anyway. One of the aides in our building did win the Betty Campion Distinguished Support Staff Award so we celebrated her too! A good time was had by all! Saturday was filled with chores around the house. I started the laundry and worked out in the yard a bit. I finally got those lillies planted. I harvested a little of that porch lettuce Saturday night and we added that to our dinner. H was working on a project. He found that our old ones were rotten and falling apart so he decided to build some new ones. He's mostly finished, the paint is drying, and he still needs to attach the pickets but that will probably have to wait until next weekend. I tried not to be on my feet all day, like I usually am on the weekend, because Saturday afternoon was my first 5K Walk! It was at a local county park and while I was hoping the path would be mostly level, that didn't turn out to be the case. The course was tough with 3-4 steep hills and not the lovely paved path we had started on. The runners took off first and the walkers started right behind them. There were four of us who stuck together for the walk, Loretta, Dorene, Diane and me. A couple other teachers did the run portion and we only saw them at the start because by the time we finished (I believe we were last, though I can't confirm this) everyone had pretty much gone home. With a couple stops to catch our breath on the hills and a few photo opps at the mile markers, we finally finished at around 1 hour. We were all happy just to have finished our very first 5K Walk! Today was a gorgeous day but I spent much of it inside, shopping, I went to Kohl's to try to find a couple more pairs of pants and shirts to get me through to the end of school, then on to Sam's Club for a big shop. We were out of lots of stuff and the freezer looks so empty! When I got home I had just enough time to plant my potatoes. I have decided to plant them at home this year, using the pot method. The bugs out at the garden were just too bad last year. By the time I was ready to harvest the tops were pretty much eaten off. The harvest wasn't as good as it had been in past years either. I'm using Scott's laundry tub that Tyler drilled holes in, half filled with potting soil and composted manure. When the potatoes begin to sprout you keep filling it with dirt, covering the potatoes. It's in a good spot and they should do well unless those darn chipmunks or squirrels get wind of what's growing! Then I'll be in trouble and we will be purchasing our potatoes from the farmer's market in the fall. Life around the house has benefited from the warm temps. My peonies have grown, the trees are trying to bud, the ducks are still hanging around. I have no idea what this guy is doing but something in the pond must be yummy! the geese are honking and last night I couldn't resist recording this sound so you could hear what I do every night when I go to bed. A spring lullaby. It's going to be a busy week. I have after school tutoring, I'll have to try to fit in a walk every day, and Thursday night is our school talent show and Bunco. Not sure if I'll make it to Bunco as we are selling candy at the talent show as a fundraiser for our Leader In Me program that we'll be working on all summer and will begin in the fall. Have a good week!

Bowling Champs, Planting and Can Spring Be Far Behind?

Yes, we are the Champions! It was a bit anti-climatic since we really already knew a month ago that we had won but there was still money to be won Friday night. Sadly H and I didn't win any. My bowling was far below average except maybe one game. Bill and Judy, our partners, bowled best that night and won extra money. They and H were feeling no pain by the end of the evening! Here's the beautiful trophy that is ours to keep until next year. We will keep it until December and then give it to Bill and Judy for their Christmas and New Year's celebration. When I looked back at the plaques on the trophy I see that we won this trophy the first time (with different partners) 20 years ago! We also won it again back in 2009 with Bill and Judy. Yesterday was a beautiful, sunny, warm Spring day and we got a lot done around the house. I took my herbs outside on the deck to enjoy a little of the sunshine. Zoe was enjoying her time in the sun too! It was a good day to take my geraniums outside on the lower deck. I've been bringing these in every winter for the last 5 years or so and because the basement gets a fair amount of sun they continue to bloom all winter long. The ducks made an appearance yesterday and I found another little turtle. This one was even smaller than the one from last weekend. I tried to take a picture but with my phone and it turned out all blurry. I quickly took him down to the pond and tossed him in. There must have been a nest around here somewhere but I don't know where it is. I've found both turtles in approximately the same spot though, in the middle of the back yard. I had to go to the plant nursery to buy soil so I took a quick look around to see what else I could find. These lillys were on sale for just $5! What a deal. Hopefully I'll get them in the ground later this week. When I got back home I was able to pot up my porch lettuce. We'll be able to have lettuce for a month or so now. I picked up these tomatoes also but it will be another month or so before I can put them out in the garden. I figured I better get them now or they won't be there when I'm ready for them. Speaking of the garden, H and Tyler went out there yesterday for me to make the bed four sided. H brought some boards out, attached them to the existing boards and now we will hopefully be able to keep the grass out. I went out there this morning to plant a few things and to see how my garlic is growing. Tyler told me yesterday that it was coming up. It's off to a good start! Today I planted some lavender that I got at the nursery yesterday and also planted my onion sets, carrot and radish seeds. I also planted some extra lettuce seed I had and some green bean seeds from last year. If they don't came up it won't really matter. I just thought I would give it a try! There's the lavender, the green plant. Carrots and Radishes to the left, green beans and onions to the right. I left just as the rain was beginning so hopefully everything will get a good soaking. It's a light but steady rain and has been coming down all afternoon. It's a perfect day to stay inside and enjoy a nice warm fire that just takes a little chill off since thankfully it's not too cold outside. And just watch the rain do it's work on all the things that are coming up. The weather for the coming week is supposed to be warm, in the 70's most days. Finally, capri and sandal weather!! Have a great week!