last

Yesterday was the last day of school. Our kids were just a little excited. Here are a few shots of them just before they left for school.

(Not sure why he’s all hunched over here?)

Happy summer everyone!

P.S. The yellow skirt is made from this pattern using non-fray chiffon. It was easy to make (but time consuming) and is ever so adorable!

garden

I have a confession to make (this just might get me written out of my father’s will… yikes!). I HATE gardening. Yup, can’t stand it. All that kneeling in the dirt, pruning, weeding, cultivating, dead-heading, transplanting and watering drives me CRAZY! Actually, it’s more time consuming with a side of allergic reaction (I literally get hives if my arm brushes a leaf when I pick tomatoes) + “where the heck did my kids get to in the two seconds it took me to pull out this dandelion?”. At this stage in my life, gardening feels like one more thing I have to do. I can hardly keep up with the usual demands let alone find time to prettify a patch of dirt that my kids will inevitably trample.

That being said, there is a garden at the side of our house that I’ve invested considerable time into. It’s the little plot we like to call our vegetable garden. As much as neither Mr. T or I enjoy gardening, we have dreams of growing fantastic vegetable/herb gardens (we’d also like to keep some chickens but that’s a story for another day). We love to cook so the thought of growing our own produce excites us and our children. It takes the ideal of eating local to a new level (UBER local as our oldest once put it!).

Try as we might, in the three years we’ve lived in this house, we’ve never had a truly successful vegetable garden. There is an awkward little tree that blocks the fullness of the afternoon sun. There are numerous rocks and chunks of brick left over from when they built the house scattered though out the garden. The dirt doesn’t seem to be deep enough in parts (last summer our carrots grew 2 inches wide and only a couple of inches long). Don’t get me started on the weeds. No matter how many times I pull them out, they always grow back. More than anything, the soil in our would be bountiful vegetable garden needs replenishing. There just doesn’t seem to be any nutrients left in it. It is spent. The entire garden needs to be dug up and turned. The rocks need to get pulled out. We need to fill it with new soil that is full of life- soil that will feed our garden instead of just holding up the roots. But that my friends, is going to take a heck of a lot of work. And time. And energy.

A couple of weekends ago I found myself working in our little vegetable garden that could trying to get it ready to plant. I was completely frustrated and nearly in tears. Every time I stuck my shovel in the ground, I struck a rock. It took me over an hour to weed what seemed to be a very small section. The kids were running wild and I ended up getting sprayed with the hose. My nose and eyes were dripping because I’m allergic to nearly everything outside in the spring. I was a mess.

As I stood there ranting to myself, dirt under my nails and streaked on my face, it struck me that our garden is a picture of my inner life right now. I am spent. Depleted. I’m worn out like overused soil. I’ve been giving and doing and pressing on but haven’t taken any time to replenish myself for YEARS. I’ve got rocks hidden in my depths and weeds in my heart. I desperately need to dig in and replenish my spirit. I long to produce a bountiful harvest in my life but nothing much is going to grow in this tired soil. Just like our vegetable garden, that is going to take a heck of a lot of work. And energy. And time. But I know that there is no other way.

daddy

On Sunday we celebrated this guy.

It’s not hard to think of reason’s to celebrate him. Mr. T is a great Dad. He loves his kids and they love him right back. For part of his gift, the children made him a jar filled with slips of paper that completed this sentence… “I REALLY love my Daddy because”. Here’s a few of the things they said:

* He clicks his tongue really loud and it echos a lot.
* He tooc me to the mooves (took/movies)
* He read a me and kissy me!
* He listens to me when I’m talking to him.
* He wocs me to scol evreday (walks me to school everyday)
* I wuv Daddy. I just do!
* He hugs me when I’m sad.
* He’s fixing the basement right now.
* We hav the sam ies (have the same eyes)
* He is precious to me.
* He does tickle me and make a me laughing weally a lot.
* He prays with me.
* Daddy is my boyfriend!

Here’s Mr. T hanging with the kids at my parent’s house.

P.S. Thanks for spending the day with us Dad! I hope you’ve managed to digest all that steak by now. Love you lots!

love

This guy made me a Mom.

I’m so lucky.

paw-sicle

Mommy, I gots somesing in my pochet.

Der’s somesing wet in der. I gonna get it!

(Giggle, giggle) It’s my paw-sicle Mommy! I fought I lost it! (Giggle, giggle)

I eatin’ it now! It’s good and it makes my tongue go all funny pink. I wike paw-sicles Mommy! May I has a freezie now?

rhythm

Mr. T was away at railsconf last week. He’s back from geekdom and life is falling into a more normal rhythm once again.

This morning I was delighted when he picked up his guitar and played for a while. I love listening to him and seeing the little ones follow his lead.

jump

I had a fun morning with my little man yesterday. He jumped on our little trampoline while I looked on and laughed. The sun was bright and warm, my tea was hot and his laughter brought joy to my soul.

I do so love that little boy!

celebrate

Oh my, the last few months have been crazy. Crazy-good, crazy-bad and everything in between. We’ve even started looking a little kookie!

One of the things we have been doing a lot of is celebrating.

Our daughter turned six.

We had a lot of fun putting her rainbow party together.

We made fun cupcakes.

And pompoms.

And had friends over for crafts and treats.

We had a pizza party with all of the grandparents and made the pizza’s ourselves - including an amazing gluten free one. That was lots of fun and a little crazy too since I had very recently dislocated some ribs and was HOPPED UP on pain meds. Fortunately, I had a bunch of people willing to drive me to various stores over and over to pick up all of the things I forgot like mozzarella cheese, toppings and tomatoes for the sauce!

Shortly after our rainbow festivities, we celebrated Mr. T’s birthday.

A new grass trimmer, angel food cake and an enormous steak and he was a happy man!

A few days later it was my turn to be celebrated on Mother’s Day.

I love those kids of mine! I’m so thankful to have them to celebrate.

What about you? What have you been celebrating lately?

fishin’

Last Saturday I took the kids fishing behind our house while Daddy finished plumbing and drywalling the new bathroom downstairs. It was a beautiful day and even though we didn’t catch any of the plentiful catfish rumoured to be in the pond, (I’m not sure if it was the hot dog bait, rock throwing toddler or the perpetual lure changing that held the fish at bay.) we had a blast. The kids had so much fun, they got Mr. T to take them fishing yesterday morning. With Daddy’s help (and a little bacon!), they had success!

(click on images to enlarge)

As for my recent absence, let’s say that I was gone fishin’ too!