Headlock

Mae's New Favorite Show

This is a guest post by my sweet Mae with a little help from a blog-blocked Mama.  22 days into NaBloPoMo and I'm running out of inspiration.  Enter an energetic 8 year old who's been home all day and drained me of all of my energy to blog.  Kids do that. 

"I have a new favorite TV show I love to watch on Friday nights. It's on after dinner, but before bedtime.  It stars 3 men acting funny and my favorite character is Curly.  It is in black and white."

Can you guess the show?

Wardrobe Wednesday

Like every other morning, Binny goofed around until the last minute and Mae had her snow pants and boots on an hour before the bus arrived.  Typical for this house.

Saturday

My Landscaping Crew

So, the bucket full of frozen veggie scraps finally thawed out and the weather actually warmed up enough today to do some yard work.  The flower beds were still full of leaves and old growth from last year along with some shingles that blew off the house, or the barn, or both over the winter that all needed to be raked out.

Flash kept me company until the girls came home from school to give me a hand.

They collected and hauled 2 wagon loads to the brush pile for me!

And no, I won't rent them out.  We have more than enough work for them here. Ha!

Wardrobe Wednesday

Like in many homes with school aged children, mornings here can get a little crazy.  Between breakfast and packing lunches and making sure everything they need for the school day is in fact in their backpacks and not stuffed between the couch cushions, time slips away in a hurry. Before we know it, the bus is pulling up. 

Oh, and I forgot to mention the constant fooling around and procrastination.  Not so much Mae, as she actually woke up extra early today, took a shower, picked out all of her own clothes, made her own cold lunch and brushed her teeth without too much prompting.  Binny, on the other hand would rather goof around and doesn't really give a rip what she wears as long as it's not the red outfit, ANYTHING BUT THE RED OUTFIT.

NaBloPoMo and Egg Dyeing

Call me crazy, but I think I'm going to try NaBloPoMo again.  NaBloPoMo stands for National Blog Posting Month in which participants post to their blogs every day of the month.  I tried this back in November and
didn't make it the whole month, but this time (this time!) I'm a little more hopeful since April's theme is sprout.

From NaBloPoMo's email to me:

April's theme for daily blogging: SPROUT. There's always the concrete route -- Brussels sprouts, bean sprouts, and alfalfa sprouts can make their way into cooking posts. But then there are the off-shoots: kids sprouting up and how that makes you feel; flowers sprouting in gardens and what you're noticing on your daily walks; ideas sprouting in your mind. Beyond that, the word "sprout" has ties to the words strew, scatter, and spread -- so what new ideas are you going plant this month? What images will sprout forth from your blog?

I think I can actually do this, from all of the seedlings sitting under the lights in our basement to the Hostas and tulips peeking out of the ground outside.  Anything Spring really. Piece of cake, right?

Last week's Spring Break here was a real stinker with all of the snow and freezing temperatures, so we were stuck indoors most of the time.  One morning after breakfast, Mae started digging around in the craft closet and pulled out the egg dye (leftover from last year) while I boiled up a dozen eggs.

Of course, I took pictures.

Jamaica Part 2- Mae's Edits

Mae (age 8) recently discovered the fun that is Adobe Lightroom, my favorite photo editing program. Since the Gardener and I returned from Jamaica, Mae has been playing around in Lightroom with colors and vignettes and everything else Lightroom does and she wanted me to share her edits here on the blog.

Making Valentines

Mae's View

Mae hijacked my camera yesterday afternoon...