Wisdom of a two year old

Griffin just informed me...

"Snuggling is nice. Kissing is not nice."

I hope he thinks that for a VERY LONG time.

Hostas!!

One of the goals I had for the week was to move my hostas (as I mentioned yesterday). The "bed" they were in will be torn up when we tear down the building it is against and I haven't taken care of it because I know it isn't going to be there much longer. These were some seriously huge hostas and I didn't want to lose them though. I did get them moved today. Well, almost. I moved one (it divided into 5 plants) plain one and the 2 variegated (that I divided in half to make 4 plants). I still have a huge one (that would likely make 5 plants that I need to find a home for...plus 2 HUGE bunches of a bulb (whose name escapes me at the moment)...whew! Well, it is a start! Here are some pictures.

Above is the end of the house with the ground "tilled" to make it easier to dig. It didn't till that well but the digging went better than I expected.

In this mess of weeds are the hostas and bulbs that need moved...What a disaster!!!!! The red building in back will be torn down sometime this summer. I can't WAIT for it to be gone!!!

A few hours and a lot of sweat, the plants have a new home. I am going to stick a few bulbs that I have randomly around in there and mulch and put a rock border around them but I got them moved which was the big job.

Well, that is one thing checked off my list. It felt good to get out there and get to work. I really do enjoy gardening and have pride in the way the front of the house is coming together. I am looking forward to getting to work on the back once we get the dirt work around the garage done. The boys thrive when we spend time outside and are getting big enough to let them just play while I do some work. I have never had flower beds worth anything even though I tried and today it occurred to me this is the first spring where I wasn't taking care of a little guy or pregnant...that makes a big difference!!!

To everything there is a season...and this season I get to plant and garden!!! :)

Progress makes me happy!!

My little garden plot is silly in the eyes of some, I'm sure but it is just what I wanted. Only tomatoes (regular and cherry), purple & green peppers, cantelope, and gourds (for the boys). I will put in a couple little rows of green beans Wednesday.

Garage building is hard work and the boys have the hardest job of all...staying out of the way. So we "hired" them as interior decorators. This is Maverick's masterpiece. It will one day be the floor in the attic. Aiden and Griffin were less zealous with their paint usage.

Here is the front of the garage with one of the windows in place. There will be another above the other door. Yippee!!!

Here is the window at the top of the stairs! We are hoping for some cross ventilation...so far it isn't helping much and we will be adding a little a/c soon.

The closet under stairs. There is a door in place now but still no walls. It is going to be a nice size for storage. To the left of the door will be Shane's work bench for his tools and such. It will be nice.

Tomorrow I am transplanting my hostas from the flower bed that will be no more when the old shed is torn down to a new bed near the house. We (by we I mean Shane) tried to till the new spot and got a little of it loosened but it is hard dirt. He is less determined to have the hostas there than I am so I am going to hack the holes out with a big shovel and move them all by myself (just like the Little Red Hen). I'll make sure there are before and after pictures....of the plants....and maybe of me...it depends on how hard it is to stand upright when I'm done. There are 2 HUGE hostas and 2 big ones. I think I'll get 12-15 plants from them when I split them all up.

I am so happy to be outside and enjoying it even though it feels like July and not the end of May. It is so hot and humid. I am determined to enjoy it anyway!!!

Inside fun!!

Last night I was lamenting how lazy we are when we don't have school. The boys seem to lay around and whine and watch tv and it drives me NUTS!!! The house is over-run with toys, books, art supplies, anything their little hearts could desire (I would think) and they have nothing to do. I had decided last night that we would start school again and do some little lessons. Nothing like during our normal school day...just some "structure."

Maverick must have known I was not happy with laying around doing nothing because this morning he asked to play croquet. We have a child's indoor croquet set that I had forgotten we even had. I got it out and after they cleaned the library (bonus!!) they ahve been playing. We set it up with the wickets all spread out and they made it through them. Then they lined them up real close together to hit through them all at once. They are having a grand time!!!

Griffin taking a shot. He said it was "bad one"

Maverick gets a "hole in one"

Aiden takes a shot!

Well, then I got to thinking about yesterday and what they really did. In the morning, they built a fort with some fort building foam stick things that I can't think of the name of. They did watch tv in the afternoon but they played in the morning. Aiden drew several really nice pictures and learned to find "middle C" on the piano and play 3 notes with the music.

So, although, I'm not sure we won't do some "school" at some point over the summer, I feel a teeny bit less lazy! Now, I have like 5 loads of laundry to fold and put away...I got caught up on washing laundry yesterday but now it all needs folded and put away. I HATE HATE HATE this job.

Let's Play catch up!

We have been working on the garage. There is now a staircase to the second level and there will soon be 3 windows installed up there (which we are hoping will cool it down considerably). I only wish it would stop raining long enough to get the dirt work done so we could actually park in there. It would have made the fact that the van door got left open last night (there is a dispute over who should have closed it) and it stormed all night not such a big deal. As it is the yard is still a swamp AND my van is soaked on the INSIDE!! This does not make for a happy momma!

According to the weather, I need to get used to the rain for a while. I am buying some plants for in the veggie garden this weekend and I guess I'm gonna "mud them in." :(

Last week we had a Cinco de Mayo party with some friends on Thursday the 6th. Yes, I know we missed the date. We also discovered that Cinco de Mayo is promoted in the States mostly by Corona and that in Mexico isn't that big of a deal holiday. Makes me kinda think of our Labor Day. So we didn't get any Corona (which is a shame cause I do really like it) but we had fajitas and tacos and all the "fixin's. " I made homemade guac and homemade refried beans which are actually quite easy and were yummy! Then we let the kids bust open a pinata. Let me tell you, those suckers are TOUGH!! We started with blindfolds and spinning, then just blidnfolds and no spinning, then no blindfolds and Shane finally took a whack at it and it busted. The kids had a great time...and so did Shane. LOL!!!

For Mother's Day, we had a cookout here and it was really nice. The weather was beautiful so we got to eat outside. And we saddled up Max and everyone took a ride. We played outside and we played cards. It was a nice way to spend the day! Shane and the boys got me stepping stones that have each of the boys names on them. They are really cute. They can also be hung on the wall and I may opt to do that. Mom got me a pillow that says "A mother of boys is busy from Son up to Son down" How true is that?!?!?!?!

So here is one picture of the kids with the pinata. And yes they hit the pinata with a sword. It is made of rattan and we already had it "laying around" the house. Weird, I know! But it is what it is. :)

Now that I have a camera, there will be more pictures coming. I'm still learning how to use it though. :)

Sad State of Affairs

We have only an antenna..no dish, no cable. I like it this way. We get 4 channels...NBC, CBS, FOX (I think), and PBS (we get 3 different PBS stations). We actually watch PBS often. The boys enjoy PBS kids during the day and I enjoy the shows on "Create" (think like a low budget DIY network). We watch Lawrence Welk (yes, I like Lawrence Welk-Shane suffers through) and Globe Trekker on Saturday nights when there is nothing else going on.

The boys have favorite shows on PBSkids. There are shows we do not watch, like Dinosaur Train. They love Sid the Science Kid and SuperWhy in the mornings (while I'm getting breakfast and checking email). In the late afternoon, when I am prepping supper, they like to watch Word Girl and The Electric Company. Sometimes I let them watch a show just after lunch and before Griffin takes a nap. Today I wish I hadn't allowed that. There is a "new" (or new to me) show at that time. I think it is called Peep and the Wide World (or something like that). It make Boobah and Teletubbies look intellectual. It is the DUMBEST show I have ever seen. It even ranks lower than Spongebob and I HATE Spongebob!!!

So, Peep, as far as I can gather, is a baby chick. He looks like a yellow Bingo dot with legs. He has a friend named Quack, who is, theoretically, a duck (their names are the best clues as to what they are). It is confusing because Quack, the duck, is egg shaped and purple. He does have duck like feet and 2 lines by his mouth that could pass as a bill if Maverick drew it (on a bad day). Since when are ducks purple and shaped like Humpty Dumpty? Today, Quack got out of his pond and was walking to see Peep but there was a rock in the way so he couldn't see Peep. He decided they couldn't be friends anymore. It was SO DUMB!!! I did not watch the end so I don't know how the "problem" was solved. I think Peep got help to move the rock...maybe it rolled over Quack so the show will be over...but I doubt it.

By watching this show today I learned that
a) ducks are purple and shaped like eggs
b) when there is an obstacle in our way we should just give up
c) I should really give money to my local PBS station so they can make better programming
d) I don't want to give money to my local PBS station since they think this is better programming than running more reruns.
e) we are going to read more between lunch and naptime


Now I must go...Lawrence Welk is coming on. :-) just kidding, it comes on at 7 on Saturdays.

New Camera! or "Why it is sometimes nice to take your husband shopping"

Yesterday, I got a new camera. Shane wanted to help choose one but I went and "scoped" them out first. And I picked what I wanted. It is a Nikon Coolpix point and shoot. It was $129 at Walmart. I felt pretty good about that. I knew we wanted a fairly inexpensive one since, honestly, my cameras seem to take a beating.

Shane tried to talk me into a few others and I said I really really wanted this one. He said ok so we were walking to the counter to ask a lady to unlock the case and get one for us when Shane stopped and said "What is wrong with this one?" We looked at it. It wasn't on display and it was in a darker case. It was also a Nikon and it was only $99. We asked the lady to see that one.

What was the difference between the 2? Well, one was silver and the other red!!! They were the EXACT same camera in different colors with a price difference of 30 BUCKS!!! Well, although the red was really pretty cool, we are now the owners of a new SILVER camera. And we got rechargable batteries for the camera and the Wii remotes and STILL had money to "spare."

We are going to go outside and play in a little while and I'm going to learn how to use the new camera. Pictures to come later. I'm also gonna paint some outdoor furniture since it is finally not raining. Keeping my fingers crossed that lasts!