True to Form

When Bobby's traveling for business, I tend to spend money, declutter, and blog a lot.

He's in California this week. Check, check, and check.

Spend money:
Paid for the gutter work $$$. Paid for the electrical work $$. Lined up the guy to remove our popcorn ceilings $$. Reserved a place to stay for three days while the house gets de-popcorned $. Purchased a new pair of sandals for James once I realized the new pair of sandals I had already bought him for this summer was a whole size smaller than his current size $. It was a typo, not a growth spurt, and he's been cramming his feet into them for a month. Poor guy.

Declutter:
Took a van load to Goodwill. My only mistake was letting James witness the act. I managed to stop the tears (and buy his silence) with a package of fruit snacks $ from a vending machine. I pray this will never come back to bite me.

Managed to find a good home for our old microwave, James' too-small sandals, and possibly the can roller. Anyone want a bike rack for their car? It hooks on to the trunk area. I've had it for almost 10 years and finally decided to take it for a spin. Well, true to my style*, I managed to overload it with four bikes and drive it over some terrific speed bumps, thus denting our rear door (argh!). Maybe you'll be wiser than I was...

Blog a lot:

My first attempt at creating beautiful flower pot arrangements. I was aiming for "thrill, fill, spill" and got mostly "spill." Love seeing the colors on my patio, though.

My giants and dragons (giant zinnia mix, snapdragon assortment). They look a lot better in person. I promise.

I let the kids pick all the pink snapdragons. They were thrilled.

James not only got on the climbing wall for the first time this week, but he managed to get to 10 feet before looking down and freaking himself out. He climbed a little higher (15 feet) once to retrieve a Batman action figure that the instructor/guide had planted there for him.

*Over stuffing burritos, over loading suitcases, trying to stack just one more thing on the top shelf of the fridge...it's called "Mommy-itis" at our house and I've got it bad. "Daddy-itis" is the inability to see the thing you're looking for especially if it's right in front of your face. Bobby has it the worst, obviously, but Alice has developed a pretty nasty case of it herself.

Hand to Mouth and Matthew Joy

It's peak raspberry season at our house and the kids are literally out there several times a day stuffing their faces. It's insane. I joined them this morning (someone has to pick the high ones, right?) and ate berries until I started feeling sick, then I picked just as many for Matthew (who is a bottomless pit for fresh raspberries). It's been a dream come true! Pick, eat. Pick, eat. Pick some more, eat some more. Hand to mouth. Raspberries are more fragile than strawberries, so they don't transport well and they're harder to share...or so I tell myself ;) I would stop to take a picture of it, but feel compelled to pick delicious berries whenever I'm out there. You will simply have to content yourself with a random picture of three darling boys in a deck box:

In other news, I wanted to note here how happy Matthew makes all of us. He's awfully cheerful about the smallest things, which lightens the mood significantly:

• He raises his hands in the air and shouts, "Yay!" at the end of every prayer. Even in church.
• Bobby walked into the dining room with a bowl of watermelon and Matthew pointed at him with both hands exclaiming, "Meleeeeeeeeee!" Then when Bobby put some in front of him, he squealed and said, "Yah!"
• We offered him a bath and he did a happy dance on the spot singing, "Basssssss! Bassssss!"
• Every white car he sees is apparently Daddy's car. We hear a lot of giddy "Da-deeeeee! Da-deeeeee!" I wonder if Matthew really thinks that is Bobby driving around town all day. 
• He loves a good tickle fight. He's even started tickling other people. He's pretty good at it.
• He crouches a little and walks like an old man with a cane when he's being "sneaky."
• The kid tells jokes. Anything to get the other kids to laugh. He gets the biggest reaction when we're playing the "Can you say" game. "Massew, can you say 'W'?"..."bubuh-doo"..."Bwah ha ha haaaaaaaa!" After a couple rounds, Matthew will start spouting gibberish and the kids will fall out of their seats laughing. Those are some of my favorite moments. Ever.
• He pretends to eat things, just for the reaction, which is hilarious.
• He honors different family members by choosing their lap for family prayer, or asking them to hold him when he's sad. That makes so many people happy!
• Every slight decline in the landscape earns an enthusiastic, "Weeeeeeeeee!" from Matthew as he goes down. It could be a freeway overpass or a wheelchair ramp. Doesn't matter. He's excited.
• He's got this funny habit of saying, "Ta da!" when he finds something. I challenge you to add "ta-da!" to your daily vocabulary and NOT feel more cheerful. You can't.

Everyone loves Matthew. He's so dang happy.

So glad to have him.

Rocket Mix

This spring, I purchased a packet of snapdragon seeds called the "Rocket Mix" from Johnny's Seeds. Here's what the picture looked like:

Awesome, right? I started them in March, babied them through April, transplanted and nurtured them through May, and finally started seeing tiny flower buds in late June. They started to swell and I dreamed of all the beautiful colors that would soon surprise me. Finally!

Then one morning I looked outside to see a bright pink snapdragon flower in my garden.

I was filled with disgust.

That surprised me. Disgust?! At a flower?!

It turns out I really, really, really don't like pink snapdragons. And those are the ones blooming first.

*sigh*

I knew I wasn't fond of pink, but disgust is ridiculous. Just laughing at my picky little self right now.

Pans in the Fire

The kitchen remodel is making progress. Our counter tops are being made and due to arrive in a couple weeks (despite Home Depot's error that put our account $3000 in the red!). The flooring guy can come back now that we've straightened out Home Depot's mistake with the transitions. The electrician comes tomorrow to finish a couple things and give us a quote on the under cabinet lighting. I'm kinda giving up hope that the kitchen will ever really be done. Just seems impossible.

The kitchen remodel spun off two additional projects (so far) that are also making progress this week:

• New soffit and fascia were installed and now we're getting gutters and gutter guards installed a few at a time...don't know exactly why it's being done that way, but maybe that's why my friend could get it done so affordably.

• Removal of popcorn ceiling in kitchen living room, mud room, and adjacent hallways. I'm trying to schedule a start date for this. We had the popcorn ceiling tested and it contains less than 1% chrysotile, which means it is legally asbestos-free. I would prefer a 0% level, but I don't know if the lab we used is legally allowed to say "0%" chrysotile, even if they found none, because they might be held liable if ANY were found later on, etc. Anyway, removing a popcorn ceiling creates a HUGE mess. Enormous. It will make our house less functional than losing the kitchen. I will probably be prepping the house with plastic sheeting and duct tape just to keep the mess from spreading into the other rooms. And I'm thinking we might check in to a hotel for a few days because the mess will cut us off from our bedrooms, bathrooms, and living areas. ALL the hallways are affected. Staycation, anyone?

It's a part time job staying on top of all this.

And THEN there's the garden stuff. I got a little ahead of myself and purchased a few plants that I hadn't researched very well yet, with the intention of putting them along the split rail fence. Turns out, that fence is not a good fit.  Stuck! Gotta carve out a couple new beds or plant and pray. Or both. It's getting a little too hot to put in new beds now...ugh.

The best news of the day, though, was finally cashing in on Robert and James' bickering. We recently instituted a new Love and Logic policy for those two: I charge one extra chore for every 10 seconds I have to listen to them pick at each other. Yay! They got to clean out the cruddiest, most neglected toilet and sink in the whole house (I hate cleaning that bathroom, and it shows!). I got to hear a few more seconds of petty bickering while they cleaned, but they stop now whenever they hear me counting down. Gotta love this Love and Logic.

The boys, in a more cooperative moment, testing out how spacious our new deck box can be.

Dear Bobby

Dear Bobby,

It's the day after Father's Day and there's a blog post entitled "Dear Bobby." You might think that this would be a tribute to you as a husband and father.

Well, it turns out I'm far too selfish to pull that off.

This is a little note to get you thinking about the perfect birthday gift for me in a couple months. It might look exactly like this, but with kids I know and love on it:

And yes, it was originally published as a Father's Day gift idea.

Fully aware of the irony,
Susan

P.S. A half dozen of these little beauties would go pretty far, too.

A Trip to the Beach

We got back this week from a delightful vacation to the south shore of Lake Michigan. I find travelogues tedious to write and boring to read, but if I don't document it here, then I'm liable to forget all of it, and that would be such a terrible waste!

Home sweet home. Just off the beach. Spacious, classy, and oh-so-quiet.

The view from the 2nd balcony.

I took the kids to the beach within an hour of arriving. Sure, it was bedtime, but we were on vacation!

Soft, sandy beach.

One major advantage to our location was how much privacy it afforded.

James has been talking about his 4th bday party for months. He keeps asking for a "pinata on the beach." We decided to make his dream come true a few months early :)

This vacation went from good to AWESOME once a few special people arrived.

Robert rinsing off sand at the house's outdoor shower. Brilliant!

This is us after our kayaking adventure. Again, this trip would have been only so-so if we didn't have Aunt Erin. Alice and Robert were pretty much attached to her hip the whole vacation. As for kayaking, James was beyond terrified at the notion of riding in a boat. I had to vice-grip him to my lap until we were out from the shore. Once he saw we weren't going to sink, he calmed down a little, but he freaked out again if I ever stopped paddling...as if the paddling were keeping us afloat.

Sunset from the balcony.

I can't stress how perfect this location was for us! There was a big, beautiful living area that acted as the hub for all of our activities. The fridge died, unfortunately, but there was another one on the bottom floor we could use until repairs could be made.

The pinata's last few minutes as a whole creature. It was strong enough for the two youngest kids to ride, but we managed to bust it open in about 10 minutes.

So...many...treats...

Minute-to-win-it challenge: Toilet paper mummy.

Minute-to-win-it challenge: chocolate unicorn!

On Monday, we took the train from Michigan City, IN, into Chicago to visit The Shedd Aquarium.

Of course he insists on having his own seat!

My mom calls my dad "Jer" or "the man", so I had to snap a picture of him by this sign. My dad was a good sport coming to the Shedd Aquarium even after hurting his back the day before. He was in pain the rest of the trip, but he tells me it was still fun :)

This is us as we got off the train after a long day at the aquarium. There was a brief moment during the ride when all three boys were asleep.

Can you see the kite? It looked so much bigger in the store. Now, it's just a teeny speck in the vast blue sky. James is holding it in this picture.

Bobby took the fam to a nifty ice cream shop in town. Totally worth it! What a gem.

Doing a little hike at the Indiana Dunes State Park. We attended a very interesting class on scatology entitled, "Who Pooped in the Park?" I highly recommend it, even if you've moved beyond the anal humor phase.

James in the lake. The water was freezing, but the kids got used to it in just a couple minutes. There was no end to the rock treasures they found.

Bobby and James. Love these guys. On our last evening at the lake, we three went to the beach while Erin played a particularly exciting game with Alice and Robert involving a chocolate bar, dice, and a pair of oven mitts.

After the sunset on our last day, Erin and the kids lay down on the back balcony to look for the first star.

Lessons from the Master Gardener Walk

Lesson #1: take friends.

Lesson #2: take a camera.

Lesson #3: document the things you saw that might help you with your own yard projects, and promptly forget everything else :)

I like the idea of fencing the backyard from the driveway. It's something I'd like to tackle in my own yard soon.

Hibiscus! Beautiful, glorious, hibiscus. Gotta keep it in a pot this far north, but maybe I love this flower just enough to bring it inside every winter.

Hanging baskets on fences. I have a long, long back fence that could use a little more interest.

Mulch paths defined with log portions. Something to think about.

It's called "Indian Pink" and it grows these bright colored flowers in deep shade.

This is a stone walkway with something besides grass between the stones. Doesn't need mowing.

Allium. First time I've ever seen it. Apparently, this firework of a flower pops out of the ground in spring with no leaves whatsoever. It's just a 12-24" stick with a big, blue pom pom on top that turns into a stiff little brown flower and stick that stays around until you cut it down. The current trend is to keep the brown bit around a bit and spray paint it silver or gold or something else dazzling. My friend tells me she saw someone paint them red, white, and blue for the 4th of July. How have I never seen this before in my life?

I like the row of annuals in front and a row of taller perennials in back with a mix of colors and textures in between.

I just obtained a hardy kiwi vine which tends to grow like a honeysuckle. These folks plopped their honeysuckle in the middle of the grass and turned it into a neat focal point. It's something I'd like to consider before planting my kiwi vines along the cedar fence, especially since the kiwi can grow up to 20' in a single season (optimal conditions, of course, but still a daunting possibility).

I forgot to take my phone to every garden on the walk, so I asked my friends to take pictures of a couple things for me:

• I finally pinned down the name of that neat little spiraling arborvitae shrub I've been curious about
• One gardener put up a tall, beautiful fence about 6 feet in from her actual property line fence to create a hidden place to store stuff and work on all the messy bits of gardening (wheelbarrow, compost, mulch, extra pots, odds and ends). I would LOVE to carve a niche to tuck away all of my garden's messy bits somehow. It was such a seamless setup!

Coming Home is tasty

We just got back from a week-long trip to the south shore of Lake Michigan. It was lovely. A relaxing and fun beach adventure for everyone. I will probably post more about it soon. What I wanted to share in THIS post, however, was how excited I was to come home to this:

James snuggling one of the tiniest chicken eggs I've ever seen.

One of the hens is laying! It's one of the new birds...a Golden Buff. Maybe it's time to name them. Anyway, not only did we get a cute little egg, but the yard and garden are producing edibles! We picked raspberries, sweet snap peas, broccoli florets, collard greens, and cocktail cucumbers. The giant zinnias are so big and bright! They make me happy. I cut a bouquet and delivered it to a friend. Irrigation is a wonderful thing.

I'm so glad I planted those seeds and built that trellis and laid that soaker hose and hauled that mulch and pulled those weeds. June is truly my most favorite month to be a gardener.

These are the first blooms. Many more now. More colors.

"Girls, Meet the Other Girls"

My friend hand-delivered (literally, the chickens sat wrapped in towels on her children's laps for the 25-minute ride) three young pullets to my coop this afternoon. They are Golden Buffs. My two birds are Black Australorps. They are very obviously different and the birds can tell. They don't like each other yet :(

My 'lorps have been sticking to the back corner, only coming out periodically to fight for food and water access. They're making a new kind of cluck that I've never heard before. I've been throwing in treats all afternoon (slugs, half-rotten strawberries) just to mix things up a bit and get them in a better mood. No dice.

*sigh*

Maybe they're too old to integrate properly. Hope not. Let's see what the next week brings.

Remodel thoughts

I don't know who else to hash this out with, so I'm gonna put it up here.

WARNING: this will probably bore you to tears.

Remodeling the kitchen and creating a mudroom has had ripple effects. I expected a few, but this is getting a little out of hand.

• Discovering water between the flooring layers in the kitchen has finally forced us to address the gutters, soffits, and fascia issue outside. Those get a facelift next week while we're away.

• The kitchen ceiling (and half of the mudroom) is currently a layer of new drywall and mudded joints. Perfectly smooth. Ready for texture and paint. That's in stark contrast to the popcorn ceiling that runs through the rest of the house. I had a drywall/ceiling/paint professional come by today to offer some ideas on how to make that look better. Well, everyone is against popcorn ceilings these days. He recommended taking it out of the living room altogether and applying an orange peel texture instead. I asked about the potential presence of asbestos and he said asbestos wasn't in acoustic ceiling applications like this one. Hm. That's the FIRST time I had heard anything like that. I'm extremely skeptical. Luckily, I had an asbestos testing kit on-hand. Minutes after he left, I took a sample and sent it away for testing. I'll have the results in a week or so. If he's right and there's no asbestos in this particular type of popcorn ceiling, then I'm not that bothered by it staying. If he's wrong, and the ceiling contains asbestos, then I'm more motivated to see it go, but not willing to finance it until it starts to deteriorate. The guy was helpful, though, pointing out a few spots where it appears to be weakening. I'll keep an eye on things and eagerly await the test results. 

• Living so heavily in the dining room has taken its toll on the carpet. We initially wanted to redo the dining room for aesthetic reasons, but now it's getting pretty gross in there, and I'm looking for flooring and paint options that are much more scrubbable.

• The kitchen opens up into the living room, which now needs some decorating help to make it a cozier space. Functionally, it has turned into half of a living room next to a major superhighway. 

• And now that the kitchen is updated, I see so many other places that could use a little update. Nothing will be as expensive or extensive as the kitchen: front hall light fixture, paint, move a bookshelf, new knobs/handles on a dresser.

Farm update

The raspberry canes are COVERED in small, green berries...

I am literally living two realities: 1) Don't count your berries before they ripen, and 2) It's gonna be a Gma/Gpa Evans raspberry patch kind of summer! Well, for the kids, anyway :)

In other news, a red fox (or two or three) made off with three of our hens last night :( Greedy little group. They exploited a weakness in the door of my impenetrable fortress. It's a good thing that foxes don't leave any gore behind. Just feathers. The kids were a bit shocked, of course, and Alice was in tears when she discovered that "Zippy" was one of the unlucky ones. Zippy was the only hen we could distinguish from the others because of her malformed feet. She remained the fastest, trickiest hen of the lot despite her physical defect. None of our hens are old enough to lay eggs yet. Another month or so. Anyway, the kids felt a little better when I told them it was probably a family of foxes ("babies" being the key word here) that benefited from this disaster. I wish they had feasted on rabbits, instead...

My friend has already offered us a few young hens of her own to fill out our flock again. They will be a different breed called Golden Buff. Hybrids. Great brown egg layers. I have tasted the eggs that come from my friend's farm and still preferred the eggs of my own birds, but soon I will have a direct, genetic, side-by-side comparison to see if it's all in my head :) Sounds fun.