What I Loved About Last Week 7th Edition

Here's what I loved about the week of April 30th - May 6th.

1. The scent of roses wafting through the house.  When we have the windows open, I often catch the smell of the rosebushes in the front of the house.  I don't like the smell of rose-scented things (lotions/soaps/perfumes) but there is nothing like the smell of a fresh garden rose (our yellow ones are especially fragrant.)

2. My Kitchen Aid Mixer.  It was our wedding present from my parents and although it's almost 7 years old, it still works (and looks) like it's brand new.  The kids and I used it this week to make pretzels and it made the whole process SO simple.  Well, as simple as baking can get with a 6 year old and a 2 year old bicker over pouring in every. single. ingredient.  Not that that frustrates me or anything.

3. Mulberry Vinaigrette.  Andy was feeling all hunter-gatherery and foraged some Mulberries from a vacant lot that backs up to ours.  Then he made them into the most delicious vinaigrette to eat on our home-grown lettuce.  Pretty cool if you ask me.

4. Ira. Ira. Ira.  One morning before school, he was looking at some papers on the desk.  One of them was a sign up sheet for Room Mothers.  At the bottom it said "Please circle which grade you would like to serve" then had each grade listed out: K, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.  So he says to me, "Mom!  Look what the teachers are doing this year!  What grade do you think I should be in next year?  I'm pretty smart."  And in case that isn't clear as mud - he thought that he was going to get to pick what grade he'd be in next year.  Love that kid!

5. Diary Fieldtrip.  Each year Andy's mom's kindergarten class takes a field trip to their dairy farm.  Before Andy was in Kindergarten, he got to go along.  Before Ira was in school, he got to go.  Now Ruby gets to go.  Marilyn delights in showing off her grandchildren and her students love getting to meet the kids behind the stories she tells at school.  Not to mention it's just a little more in-depth of a look at the dairy than we get when we go to get milk each week.  The kids get to see a cow being milked, feel a milker, feel fresh, warm milk, see and learn about the milk tank, bottle feed a calf (pronounced "kev" for those who've never been around a dairyman), take a hay-rack ride, climb in a tractor, a combine, and a swather, and eat an ice cream sandwich.  Ruby was a little shy at first, but after awhile she was marching around acting like she owned the place.  She put her finger in the milker twice (that's a big deal, a lot of kids are scared of that) and ended up being in each of the 3 kindergarten classes' pictures (with "Crampa Beel")  She's such a goose!

6. Swimming.  It was hot on Friday, so I set up the kids' pool for the first time.  They LOVED playing in it.  Seriously, they were in there for no less than 2 hours.  I foresee LOTS of swimming this summer for those two.

7. Cream in my tea.  I've been skimming the cream off the top of our milk and using it in my tea in the mornings.  It adds such richness!!  I always wondered why my friend Jolene's tea tasted so much better than mine (despite the fact that we had the same tea.)  Turns out, cream vs. milk makes a BIG difference.  Yummy!

8. Playing Monopoly.  Monopoly has LONG been my favorite game to play.  When my younger sis and her hubby come over, we like to play games.  We usually rotate between Canasta, Pitch, International Rummy and Monopoly.  For the longest time we avoided Monopoly because it took FOREVER.  Well, it turns out, if you play by the REAL rules (not house ones like putting money in free parking, selling houses/hotels back for the same price you bought them, giving immunities when trading properties, etc.) it actually doesn't take any longer than any other game.  So we played on Friday night.  My brother-in-law royally trounced all of us, but it was still tons of fun.  I got out first, so I made the pizza (because it's not a get-together with my sister if we don't make a second dinner at 11pm.)  Life is good!

9.  Saturday.  It was just a great day.  Andy and Ira got up early and went fishing.  They brought home enough fish for lunch.  After lunch, I got to go shopping for new clothes by myself!  Andy watched the kids and put in the rest of our garden (tomatoes, peppers, herbs, melons, cucumbers...)  I shopped 'till I dropped and for once had WONDERFUL luck.  I feel like a new woman!  It's so nice to have "pretty" clothes to wear each day.  Maurices and Vanity were where I got most of the clothes.  Those stores just "get me."  I never have luck at the department stores because I feel like all the clothes are either way too young (and tight and short and skinny) for me or way too old (and baggy and dull and big.)  Although I did pick up a few pairs of shorts at the dept. stores (and another 2 lightweight cardigans - that I now have 4 of because I love them SO much - the picture in the link really doesn't do them justice) I got about a dozen (I really needed clothes) short sleeve/sleeveless shirts between Maurices and Vanity.  Vanity also had some really GREAT camis/layering tank tops that were both long and had modest necklines.  I am excited that all the clothes I found are both stylish and modest.

10. Birthday party.  We celebrated my Mother-in-law's birthday on Sunday and had a wonderful time.  The kids got to play with their cousins, we ate lots of delicious food, and just had a great time in general.

What I Loved About Last Week 5th Edition

Here's what I loved about last week (4/16-4/22):

1. Paying off Andy's student loans!!!  Quite some time ago (probably close to two years ago) I mentioned on the blog that we were putting away our extra money each month to pay off our student loans.  When Andy got furloughed, we decided to just keep the money in the bank in case we needed it.  We never did have to dip into it and last week were able to pay off his student loans.  HOORAY!!!!  It feels so good to have that debt off of our backs!  Next up in the debt snowball:  my student loans, followed by our house!  Then we'll be debt FREE!!!!!

2. Ruby galloping.  So often throughout the day Ruby gallops instead of walks.  It is the cutest little thing.  A video would probably be more convincing, but for now, you'll have to take my word.

3. Butterflies on our Salvia.  Talk about the glory of God's creation.

4. Rummage Sale finds.  Twice each year, several of the "supermoms" in our parish host a Rummage Sale to benefit the missions.  They collect items on Monday then have a sale on Tuesday and Wednesday where everything is 10 cents.  I was able to find a pair of uniform pants for Ira and two school sweatshirts in the next two sizes up for him.  I also got an adorable dress and 3 pairs of tights for Ruby as well as some sewing notions, some Little Golden Books, and some kitchen utensils.  I think I spent $2.10.  Seriously?!  Does it get any better than that?

5. Rubyisms.  Ruby has been delighting us lately with all her little sayings, so I thought I'd share them with you.  She calls granola bars "monkey bars."  Her sandals are "shoe schlops."   Dump it is "bonk it."  Band-aids are "ban baids."  An umbrella is a "bunumbola."  When you ask her where something is she says, "I don't knoooooow.... I lose it again?"  And she calls the little pocket in the door of the car "the bathtub."  Ruby - where's you're binky? "In the bathtub."  She's such a goose!

6. The new Muppets Movie.  Ira received "The Muppets" for Easter from Andy's parents, but we wanted to pre-view it before we let him watch it.  It truly is a wonderful, wonderful movie.  We laughed a LOT, I cried, and we even re-watched several scenes after the movie was over that were just too funny not to rewatch.  It's definitely a movie we would let Ira watch.  There were just two things that I thought they could have left out: they said the word "butt" once and "idiot" once or twice.  We'll probably watch it with Ira to make sure that we can voice our disapproval over those words, but overall, wow, AWESOME movie!

7. Ruby helping Andy make biscuits.  It's their little thing together and it is so darn precious to witness!


8. We got the 5th bed for our garden done on Saturday.  I tell you what, that double-digging is some arm/leg/neck/feet/back-breaking work!  We still have two more left to do and I can't wait until they're done!

9. We also got quite a bit else done in the garden on Saturday: finishing up the fence for the peas, putting up fence for the blackberry bushes, and planting: green onions, beets, marigolds, cilantro, chives, oregano, and nasturtium.  The kids were dolls and played outside all day.  It just makes my heart swell to hear them playing together.  After wondering for so long if we would ever be able to give Ira a sibling it just feels like I'm living a dream to hear them playing and laughing uproariously together (because they were throwing sand at each other...still...)

10. Cardinal friends.  We have a very friendly male cardinal in our yard who supervises us gardening.  He'll seriously come within 5-10 feet of us and doesn't dart away when/if we move from what we're doing.  Andy was able to capture a picture of him and his lady friend on the bird feeder just a few feet from our house.

I think that about covers last week!  Also, if I could ask for prayers, Andy and I are trying to get pregnant again, which as you can imagine, is kind of a bittersweet situation to be in.  If you would, pray that we are able to embrace whatever God's will is for our family.  Obviously, I hope that means more babies, but there's that whole "Thy will be done" thing that I try to submit myself to too.

What I Loved About Last Week 4th Edition

Here's what I loved about last week (4/9- 4/15)
1. Weeding the garden.  That's not something I would typically love, but with the wide raised beds that we have now, and the walkways to stand on, it is very, VERY easy to hoe all 4 beds in a matter of 15-20 minutes.  I even hand weeded around the lettuce.  Weeds/grass just come out so easily because the dirt isn't compacted from being walked on.  So yes, I actually enjoyed it!

2. Moving the big bed into the kids' room.  Andy and I are trying to get Ruby into a big bed, but we only have one bedroom (besides ours) in our house right now.  So with some gut-sucking effort, I (by myself) moved Ira's twin mattress, box spring, bed frame, and headboard downstairs and moved the Queen mattress, box spring, and bed frame from the basement to the kids' room.  I set it up in their room like a "kid's King bed" (i.e. tucked the sheets in at the long side, not the foot, like you traditionally would.)  It's nice to have room for 3 (or even all 4) of us to be able to snuggle in and read books at night.  Ruby has done fairly well taking naps in it (she's definitely not the "the floor is lava" type like Ira was, but she does stay in the room - just not always in the bed.)  Night time.  Well, that's not something I love.  It's like a freakin' circus in there with 2 of them in the same bed.  They bounce and squeak the mattress, get out of bed, come out of the room, jump on the bed, and Ruby even BIT Ira last night!! (Where they're getting all this I do NOT know as they NEVER act like that any other time.)  So we're still trying to figure out what to do at night.  Ruby has ended up in her crib both nights we've tried because Ira does has school in the morning and we don't want him to be too tired.  The Queen bed is temporary anyway until we can find a twin over full bunk bed that has enough headroom on the bottom bunk that when Andy/I sit down we don't hit our heads on the top bunk.  (Really, is that asking too much?!)

3. The Easter Bunny brought me some amazing Easter Lilies (cut, not potted) and they have lasted beautifully.  Plus their smell is just out of this world.  I don't think I've ever smelled an Easter Lily before, but wow, they are just SO aromatic and delicious smelling!

4. At Mass one day last week Ruby wanted swaddled in her blanket (seriously, I know, she's crazy) As I was holding her, she arched her head back and it was like total deja-vu of all the times I saw her on sonogram when I was pregnant with her.  She still has the exact same face/cheeks/chin/head shape as she did in utero.  I was certainly waxing nostalgic.

5. The irises and some other beautiful green, leafy thing that I have no idea what it's called are blooming.  I added some of them to my Easter Lilies and have a beautifully full bouquet on the table.  Really though, any ideas on the greenery/hangy flower stuff to the left?

6. The soften button on our microwave.  It's the little things really.  But it has come in so handy lately to soften but not melt or even heat up frozen shredded cheese, frozen yogurt starter, and ice cream.  Seriously, it is really cool.

7. With the weather predicted to be scary on Saturday, I decided that if our garden was going to get hailed out/blown away, we were at least going to enjoy something out of it.  So we picked a surprisingly big bowl of lettuce to go with our homemade pizza on Friday night.  There's just nothing like lettuce fresh from the garden.  It was DELICIOUS!

8. Making yogurt in the cooler.  I always use the heating pad method, but that's kind of a pain because our stinkin' heating pad automatically shuts off after 2 hours. Yogurt has to "fester" for 8 hours or more, so I'm constantly setting timers and unplugging then plugging back in the heating pad.  My mom sent some directions for making it in the cooler awhile back and I finally decided to try it.  It worked wonderfully.  It's still not very thick, but it does seem less tart/tangy than the heating pad stuff.  The kids (and Andy and I some too) have already gobbled up 3 Quarts of it - totally UNSWEETENED!!!  We just put some homemade granola on top and my is it tasty.  (They never ate the heating pad stuff unsweetened.)

9.  Surviving.  By the grace of God we were spared from an EF-3 Tornado heading straight toward us on Saturday night.  Seriously, it miraculously stopped less than 2 miles from our house.  It was horrifying to actually be taking shelter from a very imminent and real (and large (1/2 - 1 mile wide) tornado.  Andy's brother and his 2 children joined us in our 10-15 sq. ft. under-the-stairs closet.  There were 7 of us in there along with all the stuff that we had put down there during the day in case we really did get hit: (a duffle bag with jeans, shirts, socks, underwear, and tennis shoes for all of us; 5 of Ruby's diapers, a cover, wipes, and wetbag; my NFP charts and my medicines; a box of my contacts and my glasses; our external hard drive; peanut butter crackers, granola bars; a gallon of water; our wallets, cell phones, and keys; all the camcorder tapes we've taken; our DSLR camera and charger; flashlights; a battery powered radio; 4 heavy pilllows from our bed, a DeWalt sawz-all with 3 spare batteries; and a hatchet - just in case you're curious.)  It was surreal to be sitting in our storm shelter wondering not if, but when we would get hit, what it would sound like, and how bad it would be.  We heard them say on the radio, "Town X, you are in a Tornado Emergency.  If you are in Town X, you need to get underground or you will not survive."  We heard lots of loud booms (thunder apparently) then it was silent for a long time.  Ira nearly passed out/puked (because of the total lack of oxygen) but we escaped unscathed (both ourselves and our property.)  A number of homesteads outside of town took direct hits, so please keep those families in your prayers.  No injuries, but there are a number of total property losses.  I can't even fathom if it had been us.  Andy said our guardian angels must have been standing outside of town slashing the tornadoes apart.  And I tell you what, the "Angel of God" prayer had never been more meaningful than praying it that night with the kids when we put them to bed (before we went to the basement.)

 "Angel of God, my guardian dear, to whom God's love entrusts me here.  

Ever this night be at my side: to light, to guard, to rule, and to guide.

Amen."

Gpers

It's one of those mornings.  You know, the mornings where you can hardly get out of bed.  It's a sleeping kind of day, and if it'd been up to me, we would've slept all day.  Alas, Ira's in school and Ruby's not real fond of spending the entire day in her crib, so up and at 'em we are.  And the title of this post?  Well, that's what happens when you try to type "flowers" and your fingers would rather be in bed still...

Anyway, this past weekend, I added 12 more plants to my perennial flower bed that I started this year.  I have never been one to do well with keeping flowers alive (I like to say that I have a black thumb.)  But the front of our house was in desperate need of something, and after devouring the book "Prairie Lands" from my Mother-in-Law, I decided to make a go of planting prairie-friendly perennials.  Boy, did I pick the year to start a flower garden!  Luckily, thanks to these awesome soaker hoses (and a nice deep well) we were able to keep everything except one plant alive (which is pretty good considering I planted 34ish plants in May.)

The garden now includes: 3 Mums, 3 Salvia, 3 Rosebushes (already there), 1 Butterfly bush that is not there anymore, 2 Blanket Flower, 5 Garden Phlox, 3 Aster, 4 Black-eyed Susans, 3 Stella de Oro day lilies, 3 Purple Coneflower, 3 Sedum, 1 (beautiful) Russian Sage, 7 liatris spicata, 5 Yarrow, and 5 coreopsis.  I cannot wait to see it grow and spread from year to year.  This first year wasn't too impressive flower-wise, but that's normal with perennials, and I was pretty much thrilled with the fact that they stayed alive all summer (perennials are an INVESTMENT!)  I still need to find something to replace the Butterfly Bush with.  I may just replace it with Russian Sage because I love how it looks so much (it's the fuzzy purple at the far end of the garden in the pic below.)  The honeybees and butterflies LOVE it (seriously, the plant buzzes when you walk past)  and it's just such a pretty color and texture.  (Look at me talking like an actual gardener! he he he)

Here are some pics of the garden that I took this morning while it was RAINING!!!  I liked the first pic because all the flowers that I planted are in focus, but I had to include the second one too because I love how only the roses are in focus.