Gardening

It's about time we turned this

Into a bed of growing things.

Here's hoping for some yummy produce in a couple of months.

Happy Mother's Day, Part 2

After eight years, we finally got this:

It makes all of us so happy. We can now SIT outside. A novel, novel thing.

Herb Day

We didn't put in our garden yesterday for many reasons. But, we did hit Herb Day at the Farmer's Market, and came away with a ton of flowers and herbs to plant around the house. I didn't take pictures of the planting part (partially because my hands were dirty, and Russell -- who is really the documentor of the family -- was gone to a service project), but here's the before picture.

It's starting to feel like summer around here, and I couldn't be happier.

Time for a Change

I've had the photo display above my bed for five years now, and one day, I looked at it and realized that I was tired of benches and lampposts. I thought about what I really loved and what I wanted to look at and this is what I came up with:

It makes me very happy.

Time for a Change

When Megan came back, we had to find a place to put her (obviously). We tried in her old room, but Alison had a bit of a panic attack, so we figured out that what would work best was for Megan and Kristen to room together. (So far, it's worked.) The only downside was that we needed to make space in the closet, where I'd been storing all the picture books we don't really read anymore. That's what started the dominoes. After an afternoon of hitting every store in town (well, it felt like it) looking for a small bookshelf, I realized we had exactly what I needed downstairs. So, I moved that one upstairs. Which meant (unless we wanted to get rid of books, which we didn't), I needed a new bookshelf for downstairs. And that lead to, well, this:

I've dubbed it the collections room, since it has most of the things we collect in it. As for the postcards, Caitlyn helped me figure out something to do with them:

Sometimes, change is good.

Fence Building, Part 2

One of Russell's students came back on Monday to fix the last section of fence. I didn't know about this until I saw the pictures, but I guess Kristen and Alison helped them out. 

Pretty cool.

Fence Building

As you may know, neither Russell nor I are very handy. In fact, we're probably the opposite of handy. Which is why, when our fence fell down a few weeks ago, we were thinking we'd have to hire out a contractor and spend oodles of money on getting it replaced.

Then Russell mentioned something on Facebook (it does have its uses) and three of his students (two football players and a business major whose foot is in a cast; he fell out of a tree) volunteered to come do the work in exchange for food (though I think we'll pay them something). They said, "We're not doing anything else interesting this summer." And so this week, we got a new fence.

I told Alison and Kristen to stay out of their way, and this is what they came up with to do:

The finished product, this morning in the rain:

While the back is done -- there's a gate in the middle so we can still leave out the back to walk to school -- we're still working on the damaged sections of the sides. They were going to come by and finish the south side today, but it's raining so that's going to have to wait. And our neighbors to the north said they'd do the work on that side if we replaced the materials that were damaged, and they're slowly working on that. But, it's good to have the main part done.

I'm grateful Russell has made some good relationships with young, healthy, willing, good young men and that they're willing to help us inexperienced bookish people out. There's some good people out there.

We Put in a Garden

Just so we have a record of it. Most of these pictures are of us weeding and planting our strawberries in the front patch. But, Caitlyn also bought a ton of plants for the side as part of a project to create a flower garden. And, we did get some tomato and pepper plants in the back.

Also, for the record: Kristen has been an amazing helper with the garden, going out and weeding with either Russell or me, without any complaining.

A Whole Lotta Dirt

So, back over spring break, we bought bricks to surround the area where our tree used to be, with the intention that we'd buy dirt and plant stuff. Then life got in the way.

FINALLY, we had a free weekend, found someone to deliver a pile of dirt

 

4 1/2 tons, to be exact. (Though we only asked for 3!)

And we moved it around.

Those are the four main flower beds that desperately needed it. We're sure our neighbors appreciate that our yard isn't (as much of) an eyesore anymore.

Our goal for next spring: plants to put in the beds!

Russell's Death Trap

Or, at least that's what we've taken to calling it.

Our playground was falling apart, so last fall, Russell took it down. But he didn't get rid of it. So, it just sat there, piles of wood-like substance, under a tarp all winter. Until spring, when Russell had an idea: he could build a playhouse for Alison and Kristen with the scraps. I gave an okay, and then basically stayed out of it.

Since I've been working this summer, sometimes for a full 8+ hours, Russell's been staying home, and the girls convinced him to start working on it. It's not done yet -- there are a few details here and there (like building a bench into one of the sides and I want to plant some climbing flowers along one of the sides just to prettify it) but the basic structure is finished.

 And you know what?

He done good.

The lower platform is strong and sturdy enough to hold at least a couple of kids, and aside from the potential of people falling off and breaking something, it's a great playhouse. And, so far, the kids are really enjoying having it around.

The Awesome Harry Potter Room of Awesomeness

So, Alison and Kristen had asked for a room redo and I promised I would over spring break. Well, since spring break started Thursday, Friday I was set to start. Right?? Well, first we needed a plan. The three of us checked out piles of library books, and sat for more than an hour looking over colors and ideas and we just couldn't agree. Until Alison suggested, "What about a Harry Potter room?" Kristen was enthusiastic! I was... well... anxious. Could I do it?


The answer is yes. (It just takes imagination and a bit of organization and hard work.)

We decided the best thing was to paint one wall in each house color...

So we have a Gryffindor wall:

And a Hufflepuff wall:

And a Ravenclaw wall:

And a Slytherin wall:

It was the little touches, though, that really made this room really cool. Megan had the brilliant idea to write the poem from the Sorting Hat in Sorcerer's Stone on each wall. It took some doing, but it turned out really, really cool.

The other little touch was my idea: to put a full-length mirror on the wall, and call it the Mirror of Erised. It turned out pretty well, too:

The only things left are to get a purple valance for the window, paint the chair that belongs in their room purple, and perhaps put the Hogwarts crest on the roller shade we bought. But for right now, it's done. And everyone's happy. But that's because it's the Awesome Harry Potter Room of Awesomeness.

A good way to spend a couple of days, I think.

In Memorium

Remember our lovely tree, our beautiful tree? The one that the children figured out how to climb? The one that we had recently tied a rope swing to? The one that shaded the house beautifully all summer?


Well, it (finally) rained -- a massive thunderstorm -- last night, and when we woke up we found this:

(at least it didn't fall on the house!)

We'll miss you, tree.

Belated Birthday Photos

I'm finally getting around to putting up pictures of my birthday presents (none of which I actually got on my birthday, so I guess it's okay...):

The bookshelf in the living room. I have to touch it every once in a while, just because it's so nice:


I'm not sure how well you can see this,but it's the new curtain rod and curtains that Russell slaved over putting up last week. They're quite nice, too. (Now to paint...)


And just because I'm obscenely proud of this:

I came up with the idea, took the pictures at Friends last summer (not that you can see them or anything), and made the arrangement (and put them up) all by myself. I love looking at them. :)

It's the little things in my world.

Da Mirror

My Mother's Day present:

Un étagère

That's French for shelves over a toilet where we now have enough space to put everything, yay! (They pack a lot into those French words.)

Because Mom wanted to see a picture of it. :)

It's Blue (Da Ba Dee?)

We repainted one of the bathrooms over spring break... it was a very messy, very long process, one in which we (or our hands at least) turned blue!


Megan did the most helping, but she also took the pictures (because my hands were blue!), so she got Alison helping (a little bit).


The finished product:




And the theme song (which also explains the post title):