My projects (keep multiplying)

This is my friend Grace and her family.  (Minus her daughter in law, who I imagine was taking the photo).  She asked her kids, for Christmas, to give her the gift of time.  She really wanted them to block off a weekend and help her build a deck.  They obliged, and this is the result.  I love this idea so much!  She bought the supplies, her son Stanely, who is an engineer, designed the plans, and they all worked together to make it a reality.  And they spent time together doing it!  What a great gift!  Of course, - projects are my favorite thing, and this project turned out really awesome!

Grace and I decided to get together for lunch today, since we both had the day off.  After spending most of our adult lives living 2 hours apart, I love that she now lives exactly 57 minutes away.  I love that we can meet in Lawrence (halfway for each of us) and do lunches, shopping and whatever else with very little effort and planning.  It is awesome!  I very much enjoyed spending my day off visiting, eating good Mexican food, and running a dozen errands.  Chatting and shopping, planning and plotting, and of course, solving the world's problems.  It was a great use of my day off!

Also, we made a little trade - this is a photo of me driving away with the stash I got in the trade!  I got 3 end tables, 1 coffee table, 4 metal chairs and an area rug.  Grace got an 18 pack of eggs, a solar light and a jar of wild blackberry jelly!  Yes, I know I ripped her off, but we were both happy about it! 

A car load of projects for me!  The girls are each getting a bedside table, Cameron is getting a coffee table and an end table for his new apartment, and the metal chairs are for my patio oasis!  The area rug is going in Preston's room to cover the carpet that Saige ruined with paint when she had that room!  I am going to be sanding down and painting all these pieces.  Plus a couple of other things I had been meaning to get to - so while I have the mess made, I will just do it all!  

I am thankful that this time of year, when I tend to spend a lot of time outside, the girls are willing and able to help out with cooking!  I love having Quincy home.  I really missed her!

I sent these "before" photos to Cameron - I somehow thought he might be a lot more excited!  :)  When he sees the finished project, he will cry with excitement, I am positive!

I have been busting my hump to get some blackberries growing in my little raised beds.  This week, as I was mowing, I discovered a patch of wild blackberries!  They were absolutely loaded!  I tasted a few, and they had great flavor!  Harper and I picked some and I made jelly.  I am planning to pick a few more and make syrup for pancakes and ice cream.  I may also freeze some, but the berries are smaller than the ones you grow, and they easier to just juice out.  It was an exciting find, but I forgot how the thorns really stink to deal with!

The kids don't love gardening, but Maude does!  She hangs out with me every time I go out!  She sometimes breaks into the garden under the snow fence and tries to help more than I need her to, but her heart is in the right place! 

Mallory stopped by as I was loading my car up with water to take to the plants at the end of the driveway.  Mallory didn't want to run over Maude, so she put her in the car and brought her to me.  When I was watering my stuff, she had her head out the window whining!  So funny!  She absolutely cracks me up.  She sometimes is so naughty, but I find it almost impossible to be mad at her because she is just so dramatic and hilarious.  

The peach trees are doing really well.  I sent photos to my mom to get advice on what to do with the leaves that are growing up the "trunk" of the trees.  She seems to have a green thumb and endless useful advice.  I know it will be a long time before I get any fruit off of these little baby trees, but I am just so thrilled that they are growing.  

These are my Mother's Day apple trees that Jim and the girls got for me.  They are growing leaves at the ground.  I am not sure why, but again, I am just happy that they are alive.  

And Maude is happy about it too!

I got 2 free apple trees from a neighbor.  They look dead, except that some of the branches are green.  I just keep watering them, and today, I noticed that there are small little leaves coming out of the trunk!  I about fainted from happiness!  The other one doesn't have this going on, but the limbs still look green to me, so I am just going to continue to water it!  Someday, maybe I will have some apples!

This is the raspberry that I was so upset when I went out and something had eaten every single leaf off of it!  It is coming back really well! 

I have only ever had good luck growing cantaloupe one year.  The fruit got to be about baseball size, and then the neighbor decided to "help" us and mow the yard.  He mowed them off!  I know he didn't mean to, but I was so upset!  I am cautiously optimistic that these will be giving me cantaloupe soon!  I have a recipe for smoothies that you freeze and I am excited about trying it!  

I got 2 sets of raspberry plants recently.  A few from a woman in Lawrence, and then a friend in town gave me a few more.  The ones I got in Lawrence are looking really good!  There are even a few raspberries!  The ones I got from Overbrook don't look good at all.  It is my understanding that they grow in from the root, so I just keep watering them too!  

Similar story with my blackberries.  I got a few bare roots really early from Tractor Supply and Sam's.  Those are doing well.  I got a few from the same lady in Overbrook, but I think it might have been too hot to transplant them or something.  They are pretty rough, but again, I am hoping they will come back from the roots, so I keep watering them.  Of course, I ended up with wild blackberries, so maybe I didn't need to try so hard!

I got some strawberry plants form a woman in Topeka who was ripping out her bed.  They looked terrible for a few days, I really thought they were going to die, but now they are starting to perk up.  Jim expanded my strawberry raised bed, and I am thrilled about it.  

The bedding plants I purchased early in the spring are starting to have strawberries.  The problem?  I keep eating them right off the plants!  I can't help myself!  

I am trying a few new things this year.  I have planted 4 rows of green beans.  I noticed today that they are starting to bloom!  I am telling you, nothing makes me happier than successfully growing things!

My tomatoes and peppers are getting little vegetables on them!

You'll have to excuse my hands - I can explain the weirdness.

Baby zucchini!  I have a new recipe for mock pineapple that I am going to try....and I can't wait til the zucchini are ready so I can see if they will actually fool my people!

Grace trade project 1 - the cool metal chairs.  I bought some "happy mango" colored spray paint.  I did not buy enough cans!  But I got them started, and I love how they look!  Luckily, Jim never minds running into Menards, so we will just grab more paint!  I have a chair downstairs that I want to paint to match these!  I am also planning to use my summer liquor store checks to get myself (and anyone else who wants to sit on my patio) a fire pit table.  I also want a small, round metal table - I have seen what I am looking for, but I think I will attempt to locate one at a thrift shop.  I am excited about having another reason to go hunting!

I did have a little crisis, as we currently have hackberry moths which hatch out once a year - and they apparently really liked the color as well.  I had to unstick a few from the wet paint!

The reason my hands are purple.  I have 3 chicks who for some reason have sores on their little legs.  I thought about what I should do for them, and decided to set them up a little "hospital" room.  I know from experience, if a chicken sees a sore, or weak one, they will peck at it until it dies.  I also remember dad always putting blue coat on everything.  Chickens, cows, pigs, whatever had a sore anything got a good slathering of blue coat.  I stopped off and bought a jar of it.  I coated the little chicken's sore feet with it.  But little chickens don't necessarily like being coated, and as a result, I ended up coated as well!  I hope they will recover and go back with their friends soon!

And because the above wasn't enough, I ran this evening over to the house of a woman I know.  I went there to buy some sweet potato slips.  I did get the sweet potatoes, but I also bought a jar of fresh milk she gets from her Holstein cow.  I saw that you can make butter with your kitchen aide mixer.  I am going to try that!  I also plan to make either cheese or tapioca pudding.  Or both. If it works out, I might just start making a weekly trip over to her house.  Although, going over there with her just gave me more ideas - I mean, she has probably a 7 acre garden.  I probably need to expand.  She has a beautiful Holstein cow - I probably could use one of those.  She irrigates with a system of rain barrels.....Jim would love to help me with that.  As I said, going to her house was a terrible idea!

She did give me good advice on getting sweet potatoes to grow, and how to harden the plants - which I am doing now.  I will prep an area for them tomorrow and hopefully get them in the ground this weekend, after they have hardened sufficiently.  I have never attempted this, so I am hoping to accomplish something new.  Plus, I love sweet potatoes!

There is more, but I feel like I ran out of time to photograph everything today!  It has been a good, but tiring day off!

 

Stuffs

 

Evelyn had her last regular season game last night.  She will still have a tournament, but we don't know much about that yet.  She had quite a fan club there - 3 great grandmas, aunts, uncles, grammy and poppy and of course Wrenley who was yelling "go sissy!"  

I was happy that my mom is getting around well enough to have Mallory bring her to the game.  I have been pleased with how well she has done.  The surgery is no joking matter, but she has done all the things she needs to do to be better.  It is a slow road, but her pain level, and mobility should be so much better when it is all said and done.  

Evie's team ended in a 0-0 tie.  I am happy that they called it that way, because the way things were going , if they had to play until someone scored, they would have been there for days!  They just could not get anyone home!  She had fun, and tried hard.  I really like how they are running their season now - they play multiple games a week, and then have the tournament in June.  Ball season completely done before the 4th of July.  It is good for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is that it gets really hot in July - but also I think it gives families an opportunity to go on vacation, or have more time for doing other things.  I think sports are good, important even, but having time for other activities is also important.   

Plus, now that Wrenley has figured out that Poppy is always a sucker for getting concession stand food, we could go broke if the season goes on much longer!  :)  

Today marks Cameron's one year work-iversary.  He texted me this photo this morning - and said  "one whole year of being a corporate sellout!"   I got a chuckle out of it.  I hope he knows how proud we are of him.  He has learned new skills,  become comfortable with those new skills, met a ton of people, told hilarious stories, and taken steps to make himself good at his job.  I don't know how often it is that people take the time to really listen to the things people say, and remember them - to actually get to know your customers, but Cameron does.  I have been consistently impressed at his ability to not only talk to people, but to actually remember stuff about them.  When I visited with him at LSU, he knew everyone on campus, and not just their names, but he knew stuff about their lives, where they were from, how many kids they had, where they worked before, what they liked/or didn't like.  It is a skill that is remarkable, in a world that doesn't spend enough time getting to know people on a personal level.     I know that life hasn't gone exactly the way he planned, but he has used the hard times to improve himself, and is working his butt off to make a good life for himself.  I am well pleased with you boy!

Father’s Day

Yesterday was Father's Day. As dads go, our family is top notch.  I grew up with a dad who was hard on us, expected us to do the right thing simply because it was the right thing.  He Taught us to work hard.  And play hard.  He taught us the value of respect and the value of family.  I appreciate most of these lessons more now than I did when I was growing up. 

Jim’s dad raised him in much the same way.  Respect, honesty, hard work and doing what is right.  They were different as men, but the same in values.  

And my kid’s dad.  My forever best everything.  He has tried to put the same values and respect into our kids.  He raised them to be honest and helpful, with a touch of safety and rule following.  I often joke that Jim is my exact opposite.  And for the most part, that is true, but the things he adds to our family are the exact things we need here, and I am forever grateful for that. 

Jim is a lover of teaching kids to do things.  He is patient and allows them to make mistakes.  (mostly patient).  I have sometimes cringed as he allowed the kids to use power tools, help him with projects I never would have imagined they were "ready" to tackle, and answered their questions honesty, sometimes leading to them having more information than what was probably needed.  I love the way he is confident that he can teach them and jumps to it.  Which is part of why I love these pictures that Andrew sent of him helping Wrenley fish.  

Which brings me to the next father on my list, my son-in-law, Andrew.  He is a good dad to his kids, puts up with all the girl drama from my daughter, and keeps them all well supplied with all the things they "need."  He is also a great friend to Jim, which in my eyes is awesome.  I tease Madison a lot about her dad "stealing" her husband, and about being a fishing widow.  In all honesty, I appreciate Andrew, who is always ready to help with anything we need, drags Jim out fishing, keeps our mower going, and has rescued all of us more times than I care to admit.  I am happy he is part of our family, and happy that my grandkids have such good dad!'

Might have to rat these boys out a little though, as I was out working in the yard on Saturday morning and came in to find Jim and Andrew scheming away.  Madison had to work - so Andrew decided to take the girls camping at the county lake.  He then asked if Jim could "help him out by coming over there with firewood and a few other supplies."  I reminded Jim that they had already used this excuse before, and that they might have to get more creative!  In all honesty, I think it is awesome how they cook up fishing plans, take the girls, (and would take anyone else who wanted to spend hours fishing), and then they hang out, with their mutual lists of things they are working on catching.  Jim wasn't home when I got home from work.  He was still out fishing.  When he got home, he was excited about a second trip for Father's Day!  Never enough fishing.  

 

When the kids showed up for Sunday lunch, Evie was all excited to tell us how she had lost her first tooth.  My first thought was - FINALLY!  She had been wiggling that tooth for months!  My second thought was NOOO!  She isn't old enough for this!  I know how this works - they start school. lose teeth, get busy with friends, learn to drive, and the next thing you know, you are moving them to college.  IT IS TOO FAST!!  Time really is a thief.  I cannot believe she is already here.  She should still be the little baby with the rolls and sweet little giggles.  SLOW DOWN!  

Cameron came down for lunch, and it was really nice to see him - and I think he had fun getting "dunked" by the girls.  We were having fun in the pool, when Jim came to ask if I would mind watching the girls because Madison had to work, and he and Andrew wanted to go to fish at the spillway.  I told him I didn't mind at all, but that I was hoping that Andrew might help him put the blades back on the mower first.  I have never seen a mower get repaired so quickly!  Mower fixed, they were loaded and out the door.  Cameron hung out for a while with us, and then decided to go meet up with the boys for some fishing.  Madison left for work.

Wrenley decided she needed to do her makeup.  Isn't she beautiful? 

Outside time needed!  We played with baby chickens, which Evie has decided she will protect to keep us from having them for dinner! 

We took some pony rides.  Coco was much more interested in munching clover than he was in giving rides.  The girls were fine with that - they kind of freak out when he moves!  Evie is getting so long, she almost touches the ground on his back!  He is a really good little pony - very gentle with the kids and fairly forgiving of Maude who was up under his space.  

We played on the swing set.  Wrenley exhibits zero fear. 

Quincy was coloring on the sidewalks with chalk with the girls, and then was showing them how she used to climb to the top of the swing set and jump off.  Then Wrenley decided to try it!  Quincy said "see mom, this is why I will never have kids, because I can't keep them safe!"  At least she acknowledged there are problems!  :)  

Cameron gave his official clipboard to Evie.  She had fun using it as a reason to boss people around! 

Preston called and talked to us for a while.  Sunny sent me some pictures from their weekend.  I know they are doing good stuff, but I miss them.  I can't wait to see them soon!

Harper, Saige and Quincy helped me with the girls.  We had lots of fun, and they were getting pretty tired when Andrew texted to tell me they were on their way home.  I let the girls brush the pony a bit more, we put the goats back in (we let them out to graze a bit), and we went inside and had snacks.  No Jim or Andrew.  We did a few more things, no boys.  I finally texted them, and got no response.  An hour went boy.  I was sort of starting to worry, but not panic - when in they came.  They said they finished fishing, and headed home, but then decided to drop a line in the creek below our house with the 4 worms they had left.  They started catching crawdads.  So in they come oblivious to my worry, with a bucket full of crawdads.  I told Evie it was like when we were in Louisiana, and we would be fixing them for next weekend for dinner.  She was horrified!  Andrew took the girls home, and Jim and I spent the next 2 hours cleaning out the old hot tub "fish pond" so that Jim could keep his new pets in there!  I had been meaning to do that any way!  We caught and counted the fist - even after I accidentally froze their tank last winter, there were still 16 goldfish!  Now they have some new friends, and the tank is clean so I can see them all - everyone is happy!  

It was a good Father's Day and a good weekend!  I hope the girls slept well - I know I did!  :)