NaBloPoMo

Yes, you are reading that title correctly, even if you have no idea how to pronounce it, or what it is. So perhaps I should explain. NaBloPoMo is National Blog Posting Month, which means I will (hopefully) be posting here every single day this November. This is your warning that my posts will be polluting your blog reader for the next 30 days. Lucky you.

I have never participated in one of these month-long daily blog marathons, but since I have been lazy about posting here with any frequency, I thought this might be a good way to get back into my blog groove. Either that or I'll cheese out and post a bunch of pictures.

Trick-or-Treat wrap up tomorrow!

Catch Up

*The kids started school last week.

They requested curly hair for the first day.

As much as we have enjoyed the summer at home, it was definitely time to get back in the school routine. So far they haven't missed the bus yet and I have yet to see a homework assignment come home in their backpacks, but I'm sure it's coming. Just like the cold weather.

*This morning as Mae went outside to wait for the bus, she stuck her head back in the house and said, "It must be fall, I can smell it."

*Last month I reactivated our Netflix account that we had on hold for over a year. We're on the 2 DVDs at a time plan and since we don't have cable or any sort of pay TV, 13 bucks a month for unlimited movies and TV shows is a decent bargain. We had The Princess and the Frog over the weekend for the kids and the Gardener and I have been devouring the first 2 seasons of Big Love, 2 episodes at a time. If you haven't seen it you totally should, it's about a polygamist family (1 man, 3 wives and 7 children) in Utah living in 3 houses side by side. It's so intriguing and makes me think that some days I wouldn't mind having a sister wife myself... I also added Dexter to my queue but I think it may be a bit too creepy for me. Anybody watch Dexter on Showtime? Too bad you have to have a cable plan in order to get HBO and Showtime. I can't believe there isn't an option to buy those channels separately over the Internet. I totally would.

*Big news! Kelly from Heathen Family Revival has decided that with her full schedule, homeschooling and all, she doesn't have the time to host Wardrobe Wednesday anymore. Boo, right? Well, she offered it up free for the taking (I bet she was thinking a few of us might jump her if she didn't) and now Wardrobe Wednesday will be over here at my blog, starting tomorrow. Not really much change other than the fact that I'll have the links for all bloggers participating in Wardrobe Wednesday over here now. I'd like to set up one of those self linking buttons, but I have never had much luck with those. Anybody use a free one that you like?

*Peaches!Our peach tree only has 4 little peaches on it, but my father-in-law's trees are hanging so full and heavy that even after he made supports to prop them up, some of the branches broke anyway. His peaches this year are amazing once again. So big and juicy that eating one whole requires a shower and a change of clothes afterward. Last week I canned 14 pints and today I canned another 6 quarts, using every empty wide mouth jar I had in the house. I hope to make some peach jam in the next day or two as well. The freezer and basement shelves are filling up!

Thursday Goodness

Thursday Goodness is something my bloggy friend Wild Child has been doing for a few weeks now and this week I decided to join her. Speaking of Wild Child and and all things good...

She and her children joined us yesterday for an afternoon of strawberry picking (and eating!) and a fun game of kickball in our front yard.


Meeting a real life blogger, someone I only know through photos and stories and whatever else they post on their blog was a new one for me (and her too!) but I think we were both pleasantly surprised to learn exactly how normal we each are. The kids got along great and the two of us ate my favorite salad and chatted about everything from in-laws to health insurance and everything in between. It was a fun afternoon.

The Gardener is back to working full time! Still far away with a 3 hour round trip commute but it's work and should last at least a few months.

I'm shooting a wedding this Saturday! Funny thing how word travels that there is a photographer around. My brother's friend asked if I would photograph the wedding of some good friends as his gift to them. How cool is that? Even cooler is that instead of money I suggested we trade services and he agreed. I'll photograph this wedding for him and he is going to paint a portrait of our family! He is an exceptional artist and since we don't have very many family photos together (I prefer to stay on the other side of the camera) a painting would be neat to have. I'm hoping I can also convince him to do a sketch for this year's holiday card too...

Now if you'll excuse me, I have another 12 pounds of strawberries to deal with. I may post some photos of making freezer jam if anyone wants to learn how to do it...

7 Things That Make Me Grumpy

I was tagged by Jean from Raising 2 Boys 1 Day At A Time in a fun meme called 7 Things That Make Me Grumpy. I always have good intentions to play along after being tagged, but lets face it, it doesn't always happen. Today was just one of those days filled with grumpy moments (but not all, it ended up being a full but not so terrible day after all) and me muttering foul words under my breath. A perfect day to let out the grump I've been holding in... Thanks Jean for the opportunity to let it all out!

So here goes. 7 things that make me grumpy:

1. Getting up early on a morning that I need to be somewhere at a certain time and finding out that my car is suddenly spewing antifreeze all over the place.

2. Needing to drive my husband's work van instead of my car and remember that the thing is HUGE, has no rear view mirror (wouldn't do any good with a big wall divider and no back window to look out of.) and is more or less a rolling billboard. The look from the guy mowing his lawn near the 4 way stop sign in town was a little weird. Apparently I can't pass for an electrician.

3. Low fat cottage cheese. Seriously, that shit is terrible!

4. When the Internet is slow. We had a storm the other night that knocked out our Internet and now two days later, it's back on but still running slow and cutting out occasionally.

5. When my husband forgot to take my rubber shoe covers that I wear at the farm out of the truck during this morning's holy shit the car isn't working shuffle.

6. Know-it-all moms from my kids class. Today the one mom (with perfect Farrah Faucet hair) was an expert on everything bowling during the class field trip to the bowling alley. First she tried to tell me that I had given out the wrong shoes to the kids in my group. The shoes were right just that the bowling alley guy (someone who takes his job as bowling alley attendant way too seriously) shorted us a pair. After that she was all "you know I used to score bowling tournaments for cash in high school." Thank goodness for modern technology and computers that do all of that nowadays without a smart mouth to boot.

7. And the last thing that makes me grumpy is coming home to a messy house or a sinkfull of dirty dishes. The Gardener tries his best, but once in a while...

I'm exhausted and it's officially the start of the holiday weekend (meaning I'm sipping an ice cold beer) so I'm not tagging anyone else today but if anyone else would like to share what makes them grumpy, I'd love to hear about it.

Have a great weekend all!

Random Tuesday Thoughts

Wow, has it really been 2 months since I last participated in Random Tuesday Thoughts? Well, according to my archive it is! Goodness, where do I start?

It's rainy and cool here today. Not a good day to get any outdoor gardening done but maybe a good opportunity to continue some Spring cleaning inside the house. Last weekend we rearranged (and cleaned!) the whole upstairs to find a home for a sofa that some friends were getting rid of during their recent move. (The sofa happens to be an exact match to our living room furniture and with kids and dogs in the house I thought a couple of extra cushions would come in handy.) We managed to get the giant sofa up the stairs and around the turn of death and finally situated it up in the sitting room after relocating some other furniture including moving most of the houseplants into Mae's room in front of her south facing window. Hopefully she will remind me to water them...

Binny brought home a bunch of Easter projects from school (public school) yesterday including this Easter egg craft. She beamed as she told me about the Ts in the middle. Ts huh? I asked her why Ts and she said that the teacher's helper laid down the glue in the shape of a T and she glittered it. Ts huh? For Easter??? It's not the crosses that bother me, it's the lack of respect for any religion other than Christianity, or no religion at all (from our experiences with this school district, at least) and the thought that all kids must know that Easter equals Jesus died on a cross for us.

Baseball officially started yesterday! I listened to the Brewer's lose their first regular season game of the year. Go brewers!

I talked with my grandparents last night. Grandpa was in the hospital again last week but is home now and regaining his strength once again after a nasty bout of bronchitis. They called to tell me they are sending me a 'VCR' (I swear that's what they call a VHS tape. Don't even try to convince them otherwise.) from their Anniversary party last month. There is even footage of me waltzing with a sweaty old man they all call Shorty. Now I need to dig out that old VCR that we no longer use to watch the tape...

I started a new blog! I know crazy right since I barely have time for this one. The new blog is all photos and very few (if any) words. I figured that if I am going to seriously pursue photography in an effort to make a little money, I should really have a website with sample photos that has nothing to do with this little rantbox. Check out the new blog here. I still have some tweaking to do, but it's up and running!

That's it for me today. Be sure to stop by Keely's blog for the whole Random Tuesday line up.

Thank You

I feel like a lucky duck lately. My kids are back at school (hooray!) and I won 2 more bloggy giveaways. Besides the beautiful knit hat I wrote about here, I won a parenting book in a giveaway hosted by Ann of Ann's Rants and a boxful of the most beautiful Springerle cookies from Wild Child of Naked Opinions.

First the book. Ann offered up 2 books with the only requirement being to leave a comment about the worst parenting advice ever received. That wasn't too hard as I've been given tons of terrible advice over the years but the one that took the cake and won a signed copy of Chris Mancini's funny yet unbelievably true parenting book for expectant fathers, “Pacify Me: A Handbook for The Freaked Out New Dad” was the time when my husband's Grandmother gave the girls each rosaries... as baby gifts, to a couple that she was well aware weren't planning on baptizing (let alone raising Catholic) any of their children. (Wow, that was on hell of a sentence. Whew!) It wasn't just the very sweet yet possibly awkward gift of a rosary, it was the instruction that came with it. She told us that for long car rides it would be a good idea to put the rosary around the baby's neck, you know just to be safe. What part of putting a string of beads around an infant's neck equals safe, I will never know. When one of the Gardener's aunts (A Catholic herself) suggested that maybe it wouldn't be so safe to do such a thing, strangulation hazard and all Grandma replied, "the Lord would never hurt your child." Thanks Ann and Chris for the fun giveaway and for the opportunity to share some crappy advice.

Next the cookies! Wild Child offered up a hand made foodie giveaway a few days before Christmas but due to low turnout she gave out a box of the most beautiful Springerle cookies to 2 lucky bloggers, (me of course being one) along with a recipe book titled Too Pretty To Eat. While the cookies are of course very pretty, I had to try them. Delicious with a cup of coffee or dipped into a cup of hot chocolate. Yumm. Thanks Wild Child!

Giveaway Winner

First off thank you all for entering my little giveaway and again THANK YOU Freckle.

The random number was 5 but I couldn't figure out how to do the screenshot thing and put it in this post before I lost the page with the random number on it, so you'll just have to take my word for it. Damn computer. Anyhow, the random number was 5 and the winner is... drumroll please... Secret Mom Thoughts.

Now for the prize:



You knew that was coming, didn't you?

And what would this time of year be without cookies? Well it would cookieless that's what. And cookieless is no way to live. So along with a pint of peaches, I'm throwing in a tinfull of fresh baked cookies and some of these too. I hope you're not on a diet hungry Secret Mom Thoughts.

Enjoy and Happy Holidays!

Wardrobe Wednesday And A Giveaway

Several months ago (I think it was way back toward the beginning of the year), my bloggy friend Freckle offered a giveaway on her blog. She promised to make something then pass it along to another blogger. I entered and guess what showed up at my house last weekend?
Freckle and her friend Shady Lady are always blogging and FB (Facebook) posting about knitting so I kind of hoped had a hunch that she would send one of her beautiful creations to me. Just seeing the envelope in the mailbox with the words Merry Christmas on the front sent me running into the house to open it. I ripped that baby open and immediately loved it. Her timing was perfect considering that the hat arrived on the coldest day (so far) of the year. I haven't had an opportunity to wear it yet because the girls have decided that they also like it and snatch it out of the hat and mitten basket before I can get to it.

side note: Mae lost another tooth yesterday! This time it was one that was ready to come out.

Thanks Freckle! Now, if I remember correctly, I am supposed to pass on the giving by sending something I make out to another blogger and continue the handmade gift giving. I can't promise that my gift will be as lovely as Freckle's but it will be handmade by me. So, from now until midnight tomorrow night (Thursday night) leave a comment if you would like to receive a handmade gift from me and I'll randomly choose one comment and announce the winner on Friday.

Originally I think the rules were to keep the giving going by only passing this along to other bloggers so it can keep going on through Blogland, but I know not all of my readers have their own blogs (In my opinion many of them should... but I'll save that rant for another day.) and it's the Holiday season, a time to give without strings attached, so it's open to everyone with no obligation to make and send more gifts. Yeah, I'm a rule breaker like that. I'm not saying what I plan to give so you'll just have to trust me.

Good Luck!

Holiday Honest Scrap

Since I started this blogging thing over a year ago (I know! Can you even believe it?), I have been given several blog awards. Some I have passed on with great enthusiasm and some I have unintentionally ignored (sorry 'bout that Bloggers) for reasons like... I just didn't have time to blog about it, link and pass it on, or more so, anything thoughtful to say. But still each and every time another blogger takes the time to link to my silly blog, it brings a smile to my face, which I'm sure was the intention all along. Isn't that why we all make our blogs public, so that other people can enjoy them?

That said, Blogger Juli from Wellington Road passed on the Honest Scrap award to me(!) and even though I already posted and passed along the Honest Scrap award earlier this year, her sweet words have convinced me to do it again... with a Holiday twist.

I love reading Juli's blog! Besides her use of Os and Us in words like colour and favourite (Same for you Joey!) her sense of humour keeps my clicking back for more. Plus I love to read about the beautiful springtime weather she's having in New Zealand while we shovel snow and curse the cold weather here. Go check out her blog if you haven't already. Seriously, do it now, I'll wait.

*tap, tap, tap* You back? Wasn't that fun? Now on with the Honest Scrap. First the rules.

1) Must thank the person who gave the award and list their blog and link it. Thanks Juli!
2) Share "10 Honest Things" about yourself.
3) Present this award to 7 (or so) other people whose blogs you find brilliant in content and/or design, or those who have encouraged you.
4) Tell those 7 (or so) other people they've been awarded HONEST SCRAP and inform them of these guidelines in receiving the award.

Holiday Honest Scrap.

1. Christmas is a magical time. Even if you don't believe in the virgin birth (like me), it is a time of year filled with joy, giving and love. Plus what better way to wish Jesus a Happy Birthday than by buying flat screen TVs at bargain prices and wrapping them up in Santa Claus paper? (After that outrageous outburst of un-Christian-like behavior, I wonder if I'll still have 51 (make that 52!) smiling faces in my followers box. I hope so!)
   
2. This year I'm implementing a little something I like to call "Cut the crap Christmas" Which basically is my way of saying if you are over 18 don't expect a store-bought gift from us.
3. Since I was in Arizona for a week and now way behind on my Holiday prep, I decided that I wasn't going to put out all of the decorations that I usually do, mostly because I would have to clean and dust first, THEN put out the decor. Yesterday the Gardener came down from upstairs carrying our big red and green storage boxes and said "Here, put this crap out."
4. Fruit cake sucks.
5. Real vs Fake is never a question in our house. As long as we still put up a tree and my in-laws still have thousands of them growing in their fields, we will continue to cut one down every year and decorate it.
6. I should be dipping more of these instead of blogging.
   
7. I haven't listened to any Christmas music yet (besides what was playing when the Gardener and I went Christmas shopping) but have watched the best Christmas movie ever made National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation at least 3 times since Thanksgiving.
   
8. I'm excited to meet my brother-in-law's new girlfriend. He's bringing her home to meet the family over Christmas. I just hope we don't scare her away.
9. Mae has heard rumors that Santa isn't real from the kids on the bus. I have gently reassured her that whether she believes in Santa or not, she won't go without presents. Christmas (to us anyhow) really is for the kids, see #2.
10. I'm always unsure which Holiday greeting to use this time of year. Since I'm not Christian or Jewish, saying "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Hanukkah" seems weird, but "Happy holidays"or "Seasons Greetings" seem too generic. I can never decide but usually go generic with Happy Holidays.
    

Since I already passed this one along, I won't be tagging anyone today.

Happy Holidays!

RTT- can't. stop. canning.

Well it's Tuesday and the best way to get everything out there is to pull out the Un Mom's Random Tuesday Thoughts badge and get to it.

Shall we?

Well, my car broke down AGAIN. Last Thursday Binny and I made a quick egg run and found ourselves stranded at the Egg lady's house. The car was fine when I left home, started right up but when I went to start it to come back home, the gauges went nuts flopping all over the place and making terrifying clicking sounds. I called the Gardener and before he even arrived the egg lady's husband took a look and determined that the battery was not dead but broken and leaking acid all over the engine compartment. The Gardener and the other guy were able to rig it enough for me to drive the 3 miles back to our house, then the Gardener went and bought a new battery. Not as bad as it could have been, but still another 80 bucks.

My dad and younger brother came over for lunch Saturday to celebrate my Dad's b-day. I served Pork chops, green beans from the garden and my family's favorite... Popovers. I was promptly given the stink eye as I tried to season the pork chops with salt, pepper and a sprinkling of fresh sage. My dad likes his food very plain, and will send anything back in a restaurant that comes out with any type of sauce on it. Of course I only sprinkled salt and pepper on his and he loved it. My brother who is normally a vegetarian even ate a pork chop and practically licked the the serving tray after mentioned that it was local pork. What is it with men and a good piece of meat?

The garden is officially done. Over the weekend temperatures dipped well below freezing and killed off the what was left of my pepper plants and flowers. It will really hit me when I have to start buying produce from the grocery store again, especially tomatoes. Nothing beats a fresh homegrown tomato! The garden may be done but I'm still coming up with things to can. My father-in-law gave me a huge bucket full of grapes and a big bag full of apples. I spent all day yesterday cooking, straining, pressing and canning the grapes to make 6 quarts of grape juice and 3 big sheets of dried grape fruit leather. (Fruit leather is similar to a fruit roll-up but leather actually contains only REAL FRUIT and NO high fructose corn syrup) It was a lot of work but the juice and the leather are delicious. Today I will try to tackle all of the apples. Since I already have lots of applesauce, I think I'm going to make jars of apple pie filling or apple butter, I can't decide. Or spiced apple rings... Too many choices!

Finally, my blog friend Sheila from Ma Vie Folle (My Crazy Life) awarded me with the Over The Top blog award. How sweet is that? Sheila cracks me up on a daily basis. If you haven't already, go check out her blog, it's so worth it. Now for the award rules.

Answer the survey below…you can only use one word answers!

Pass this along to 6 of your favorite bloggers!

Where is your cell phone? pocket

Your hair? wild

Your mother? Minnesota

Your father? no sage

Your favorite food? cheese

Your dream last night? no

Your favorite drink? grapefruitini

Your dream/goal? healthy kids

What room are you in? kitchen!!!

Your hobby? food

Your Fear? scary stuff

Where do you want to be in 6 years? here

Where were you last night? sofa

Something that you aren’t? tall

Muffins? pumpkin

Wish list item? food processor

Where did you grow up? North Dakota and Wisconsin

Last thing you did? eat

What are you wearing? sweats

Your TV? off

Your pets? clean!

Friends? love

Your life? full

Your mood? happy

Missing someone? always

Vehicle? don't ask

Something you’re not wearing? bra

Your favorite store? Costco

Your favorite color? green

When was the last time you laughed? yesterday

Last time you cried? May

Your best friend? loyal

One place that I go to over and over? supermarket

One person who emails me regularly? Grandma N

Favorite place to eat? Artcafe

Now to pass this award on to 6 other bloggers. Riot Kitty, Secret Mom Thoughts, Kelly, Sidhe, Joe, and Wild Child. Congrats all, because I really do think that all of your blogs are over the top!

Honest To Pete

Living in the Midwest, this saying is not out of the ordinary, especially with my family, Grandma Dee in particular. Now a good old Uff-da (pronounced oof-dah) or a well placed namon, still gets a funny look but everyone knows "honest to Pete" right? Not sure where that one started but that was the first thing that popped into my head when I was tagged for this "honest" Meme. The smart and funny Kelly from Heathen Family Revival tagged me and because she is one of my most favorite bloggers I decided to play along. I couldn't pass this one up.

Here's how it works: post 10 honest things about yourself and tag 7 people to do the same.

Ready or not.

1. I'm not so good with following through on things I say I will do. I have only the best intentions and am a self diagnosed "people pleaser" but I often pretend like I have forgotten to do something or don't have enough time if I have lost interest. Most recently this has been apparent in blogland. People tag me more often than I think I deserve for Memes and awards and I always get excited that someone picked me, then drop the ball in passing it along. Let this be my apology to all of the bloggers I have dissed. Sorry all.

2. Speaking of blogging. I sometimes wish that I hadn't given out my blog url (the www.________.com thing) to my family. This doesn't apply to any one family member in particular, and I know that most of them can handle what I have to say, it's the fringe that scares me a little. The fringe being my parents and grandparents' *gasp* friends. Most of them are hip (hello, they actually found my blog and know what the Internet is) and know that I have no filter on my mouth (or typing fingers) but still, I feel bad using foul language or complaining about something trivial in front of people I know. Now Bloggers I've never met, I'd tell them my deepest, darkest. Funny how that works. If I had the time (or energy) to start a new anonymous blog, I would, but for now I'll keep this blow-horn.

3. I still hate my job. That's not new news but it's me being honest. Last night when I arrived at the farm, my boss and one of her other employees (a guy that is otherwise useless) were out in the field baling hay. She does this crap all of the time and it irritates the hell out of me. They start field work at 3:00 and of course aren't finished by the time we are supposed to start chores at 4:00. She finally walked into the barn at about 4:45 and started yelling and swearing at me because she was expecting me to walk all the way out there (40 acres away) to chase the cows away from the tractor and wagon. Since when? She has always told me to just get started if she's not around. How in the hell am I supposed to know what she's doing out there? And she had someone with her! I think she just wanted to take the blame off herself for being late and the way she chose to do that was to lash out. I finally walked away because instead of giving me something to do now that we were behind, she decided just to go off on me. I went outside and climbed the silo to start pitching corn silage. All of a sudden she yelled up the chute that I forgot to give water to the cow in the shed. Last time I was there, there were no animals in the shed. Instead of taking time to tell me that there was a cow in the shed, she bitched, which was my cue to leave the scene. I hate to wish harm or an illness on anyone but really I think that is the only thing that will get me out of this shitty job. I know she'll keep farming until she can't physically do it anymore. The money, although not much, has been nice since the Gardener's hours have been scaled back going on almost a year now.

4. I'm short (5'2") and skinny. The only time I was ever over 100 pounds was when I was pregnant. Now that I'm getting a little older, I have settled in at about the 100 pound mark. Works for me except that I often have a hard time finding clothes. Sure there are tons of size 1 and 0 clothing out there but most of it is geared toward teenage girls. There comes a point when sporting jeans with glitter and cute designs all over the ass and tiny T-shirts with questionable sayings on them are a bit too much for me to be wearing to parent-teacher conferences.

5. I had a minor cooking accident the other day. While cooking applesauce on the stove, the sauce started erupting like a volcano and all of a sudden I heard a big pop and instantly felt a burning sensation on my face, mostly around my left eye. 3 days later, it still looks like this...

6. I always wished that I had a sister. Growing up I was the only girl of the family. I have two brothers and only male cousins. When the Gardener and I got married, his sister became my sister in law. That was a classic lesson in be careful what you wish for.

7. I have no idea what I'm going to do with myself when my kids are finally in school full time. I have been at home for 7 years now. I have had part time jobs most of the time but we've never had to hire a sitter to watch our kids. I take great pride in being a stay at home mom and I know that I wouldn't have time to do many of the things that make this household functional if I worked full time. Still it doesn't seem practical for me to home by myself while my kids are at school and my husband is out working.

8. I have been watching the soap opera, Days Of Our Lives for 25 years. I know that may seem odd considering I'm only 29, but it's true. When I was young, we had a babysitter who watched the show, and ever since then I have been hooked. During High School I was only able to watch it during the summer or on sick days and still I only catch it once or twice a week but when I do, it's so worth it.

9. Speaking of TV watching, this year's lineup has me mostly disappointed. This year it has been harder to find something that we can all watch. The girls love sitcoms but most have them have gone down the too mature for kids path. So many of them are full of sexual content in both the dialog and the physical sense. So what if Survivor blurs out boobs, that doesn't keep Jeff Probst from ogling the young, busty, only wearing a bikini contestants. Also Dr. Oz freaks me out a little. He's a bit too intense for me and too I can't watch that while the kids are around. The promos alone are full of edited words in the form of censorship beeps that my children know are words that aren't allowed to be used on television. There is one new show that I like and am totally embarrassed to admit. Let's Make a Deal, hosted by Wayne Brady. While the new Price is Right hosted by Drew Carey is nothing like the old Price is Right with Bob Barker and in my opinion a waste of an hour, Let's Make a Deal is fresh and fun. It's just like the old Let's Make a Deal with Monty Hall complete with the contestants dressed up in goofy costumes trying to decide between a undisclosed amount of money (or whatever) and what's behind curtain #1. I love it!

I can't come up with 10. 9 will have to do.

So now for the fun of passing this along. I decided to tag the bloggers that commented on yesterday's Wardrobe Wednesday post. Since Kelly passed this to me and commented yesterday (see why I love her?) she is exempt but the rest of you unsuspecting bloggers are officially tagged.

Joey he's always up for a challenge.
Riot Kitty although she is on vacation this week and may not get to it.
Cherie who is always honest in her writing.
Heather a new to me blogger with a beautiful family!

Thanks for playing along!

Monday Garden Club

Get your gardening gloves and knee pads ready. It's time for another installment of Monday Garden Club.

Finally after a very hellish week, my garden is planted. Hooray!

The gardener built all of the fencing (using old gates and wood from our barn) to trellis the (pole) beans, sugar snap peas and cucumbers. After one more pass through with the rototiller, we (We meaning the Gardener, my brother, the girls and your truly) started marking out rows, sowing seeds and planting the starter plants.

Front garden

carrots, onions (red and white), lettuce (2 kinds), spinach, pole beans (on the taller fence), sugar snap peas (on the shorter fence) pickling cucumbers (on one gate of the smaller fence), slicing cucumbers (on other gate of the smaller fence), green and yellow zucchini, purple kohlrabi, strawberries, red and gold raspberries, blueberry bushes, and rhubarb. I also squeezed in a few flowers. 1 Elephant ear, gladiolas, dahlias, and sunflowers.

The gardener also cut some leftover electrical conduit for row stakes.

Rear garden:

tomatoes, peppers, vine plants, brussel sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, sage, Italian parsley, basil, cilantro and sunflowers (from last year's heads).

I saw this variety of tomato (Mortgage Lifter) at the garden center and couldn't resist.

Purple Kohlrabi
Pickling cucumbers behind and to the right of the purple kohlrabi

Rose bush planted yesterday
Empire apple tree

Flowering Crab apple tree

Peach blossoms on our otherwise unhealthy looking peach tree

There you have it! Tune in next week for a seedling update (hopefully) and maybe some flower gardening if time and weather permit.

Now for all you gardeners out there who wish to participate, either post a Monday Garden Club update on your blog (don't forget to drop your link in the comments. I'll add you to the bottom of this post) or leave a comment on what's growing in your yard. I couldn't figure out Mr. Linky again (dumb computer and html code) but I do have this awesome (if I do say so myself) photo of Binny planting kohlrabi that I'm using as a photo link.

Just steal the photo and put it up on your sidebar with a link to my site if you wish, no pressure.

Happy Gardening!

What other bloggers are growing:

Musings of a Wandering Elf is already picking onions! While you're at her blog, also check out her hairy beef cattle. No seriously, she lives on a farm, it's okay.

Monday Garden Club

Well, as expected my gardening in the last week has been on the light side.

I was able to do some shopping for the starter veggie plants last Tuesday but they sit on my back patio not planted. Saturday night as I was watching the news here at the hospital, I heard that there were frost warnings issued for our area overnight. After I freaked out a little and wished we were home and not here, I called our neighbors and they agreed to run over and put our plants in the garage for us. Thanks K and B!

The Gardener went home yesterday and will be off of work today and tomorrow, so he was hoping to clean the house get the garden tilled one more time, then set up some of the trellises for the climbing plants, while Binny is off at school today.

Also last week Monday, before all of this hospital junk began, I worked up the soil around all of our fruit trees, mostly to remove all of the weeds, then I added fresh mulch to each tree. They look so much better. Most of the apple trees are starting to blossom but the peach trees only just started to get their leaves. The peach trees don't do as well as the Apples in our climate, but there is nothing better than a fresh, juicy peach in the middle of summer.

The tulips are still blooming and most of my perennials are up and growing. Once we get home (hopefully tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed!) I need to give my blueberry bushes an acid treatment and pick some of our huge rhubarb. My mother-in-law said yesterday that she came over and picked some of our rhubarb for a rhubarb pie, but yet she didn't bring any for us. ;) Oh well, in a few days we'll be home enjoying our own rhubarb and picking what's left of my spindly asparagus.

Binny says the tulips smell like Pillsbury crescent rolls. Leave it to Binny to come up with that one.Binny picked some tulips for Mae last Friday to take a little piece of home to the hospital

Now it's your turn bloggers. What's growing in your yard? Since I'm cooped up here, I would love to hear how your gardens are growing. No Mr. Linky today. Again the wifi here is being super helpful (sarcasm), but I shouldn't complain. We actually have it pretty good and I am very thankful to be blogging at all. Later this afternoon I'll post an update on Mae.

Oliver? Lovely? Ha!

Heather at 2 Brits, 2 Yanks and 2 Dogs presented my two dogs me with the Lovely blog award. Thank you Heather! Now, let me take a moment to tell you what is not so lovely about my dogs. In addition to being cute and huge and lovable and huge and protective and huge and ever-loving, my dogs are big and messy and big and dirty and big and gross. Get it? My dogs are large and a lot of work. They eat about 10 pounds of dog food every 3 or 4 days, and because Oliver has a sensitive stomach we are forced to buy the expensive dog food in huge 40 pound bags 2 at a time. I'll give you one guess as to who's job it is to hoist the heavy bags into the trunk of the car. Once the food gets to the bowl or in our case the biggest dog food tower we could find at the pet store, mounted to a step stool so Oliver doesn't have to bend all the way down to the floor to eat. Did I mention that Oliver is 140 pounds? Surprisingly he's not overweight at all, just a big 'ol Saint Bernard. Once Oliver eats his fill, poor Doopie (his name is Rocko but the kids call him Doopie and it just stuck) gets whatever slimy dog food balls are left. Just being in the same room as the 2 of them while they eat is so disgusting. The smell, the sounds, the drooling. That's why they have their own room. We just call it the dog room but it's actually the back entry where we keep our shoes. Thank goodness their shoe eating days are over.

Most of their day (roughly 20 hours) is spent lounging around the house or lying in the grass outside. They get up walk around, maybe chase the tennis ball around, then back to sleep. Oliver's favorite part of the day is dinnertime. He loves to help me cook and by help I mean he'll stand right next to me with his big nose up on the counter to get a whiff of what I'm cooking. Any time bacon is involved he stands between the stove and the fridge (right in the middle of my work triangle with the rest of the helpers begging for a pre-dinner tasting).

He has never had any interest in vegetables other than corn on the cob (which we don't eat anymore after watching King Corn and living next to farm fields for the last several years), he will dig through the garbage for the cob and eat it like a bone. Gone in about 3 minutes and again in the yard about an hour later when it doesn't agree with him.

Which brings me to the next not so lovely characteristic of my dogs, they eat the weirdest shit and yes that includes actual shit. Goat was their favorite but now that Binny can tolerate cow milk, we no longer have the goats and their super yummy round chocolate colored treats. I was constantly having to chase Rocko out of the goat yard.

Oliver once ate an entire summer's worth of lawnmower underside clippings when he was staying with my in-laws for the weekend. When we brought him home that Sunday night, he spent the entire evening puking and shitting all over my basement (the dog room at that house). It was to the point that I called the emergency vet hotline in the middle of the night. Turns out he was fine, just needed to get it out of his system.

And speaking of evacuating his system, Oliver has always had a bit of an incontinence issue. When he was 9 months old, he was diagnosed with hip dysplasia and we think that he can't always feel the urge until it's too late. It doesn't happen too often anymore but when it does watch out. We have learned not to chase him out of the house mid-pee because he also can't turn the valve off, and would zig-zag pee all the way out the door. Now when something like this happens he tries to stand on a rug right in front of the door to catch the pee and also if he pees on a fluffy surface it doesn't splash back on his legs. I much prefer the rug method, because I can just throw it into the wash. Still gross but better than writing his name across my floor.

So now that I've described the not so lovely side of my dogs, it your turn. That's right I'm passing this Lovely award on to other bloggers who have had their homes taken over by four legged creatures.

In no particular order:

Skyewriter and her cat Emma
True Blue Texan and her 3 dogs (I know she's got a story or two to tell)
Funnyrunner and her dog Sophie
Kelly (I think she has a dog)
Leigh and her naughty dogs
and anyone else I missed.

Holy Mole-y

A bunch of stuff to cover in this post

*Warning this first part may be TMI for some of you.*

1.) I wouldn't ordinarily talk about moles and warts... nevermind, yeah I would. So yesterday I went to the dermatologist to have some things removed. Thinking that the nasty, ugly warts on the bottom of my foot would need to be removed surgically, I was a bit nervous. Turns out the Doc. applied some acid that surprisingly didn't sting or blister. He taped up my foot and told me to wash off the acid today, then apply Compound W wart remover and cover it with Duct tape every day for the next 2 weeks. What the? Duct tape?

The moles were just bothersome, not turning colors or talking to me but as long as I was going in and making a co-pay I thought I would get my money's worth.

2.) I fixed my camera lens! Well, I guess there really wasn't anything to fix, it wasn't actually broken. Turns out the filter that I had been using to protect my lens was the culprit. Go freakin' figure. Sunday morning as I was gathering all of the warranty info and the receipts for the lens to return it, I thought I would clean it one more time. Lo and behold the filter was blurry. Not dirty blurry, but wavy blurry, like a defect in the glass. Funny I hadn't noticed this when I had it screwed on any of the other lenses. Anyhow I bought a new filter and check out the difference.

before

after

Can you see the difference? Maybe not in these small photos, but it was really starting to bug me.

3.) I'm the recipient of another bloggy award.

This one is from blogger Cindy who actually has 2 blogs. In addition to her main blog MonkeyBoy Adventures, she has a second blog monkeyboy311 that she posts a photo to every day as part of project 365. Being a photo lover and mom, I love looking her daily photos. Thank you Cindy.

As most of the blogs I frequent have already passed this one around, I'm not going to send it along. If anyone reading this hasn't received this award and would like it, go ahead and take it, you deserve it.

4.) I streamlined my blogroll. I didn't remove any blogs, but it was getting a little out of control. I now have only the 10 most recent blogs on the blogroll, but the rest are there, I swear no one was removed. Oh and on my last post about irresponsible parenting, I was christened with my first spam comment.

"Hi Friends, I Find Absolutely FREE PlayBoy & Penthous. If I find something else I'll inform you.Best Regards,Maria"

My friend Laura said it best: "WTF Maria?!?!"

Hopefully this won't be a trend, I don't want to have to start moderating comments.

5.) And lastly check out what I found growing in my flowerbed. I don't remember planting this little grape hyacinth but I'll take it.

Little Stuff

First things first. I have been trying to come up with a blog name for my husband. I really don't like the name Hubby but also have been too lazy to think of anything else, so I called my bro and he suggested I call my husband not a name, but one of his hobbies (clearly listed on my husband's facebook page). From now on my husband will be referred to as the 4 wheel drive gardener. (maybe just gardener for short) And this will be his photo. Hey, if he uses it as his Facebook profile, it's fair game, right?

What else? Grandma N gave the girls a new box of markers.

Ever since they have been turning out drawings all the while sneaking every sheet of white copy paper that I keep hidden in the printer, wedged in the bottom of our makeshift kitchen computer desk. Lucky for Mae, she's tall and thin so she can usually snake her long arms into the back of the cabinet, feel around for the paper, grab it with her hand and yank while simultaneously getting up off the floor to run into the living room to get started on her next project all before her sister, because "It's a race, Binny! I'm winning!"


That is not Charles Manson themed body art on her forehead, it's marker. Also, did you notice that Mae is missing another tooth? Upstairs this time.

Mostly the girls have been drawing houses and ovals, then coloring them, Easter egg style. Hours of fun, thanks Grandma N! Speaking of Easter... the girls and I were at Walgreens over the weekend to pick up some photos and guess who was sitting right next to the photo counter with a big basket of chocolate? No, not me, damn! Of course it was the Easter Bunny, a creepy looking, not so friendly, my 4 and 6 year olds were scared shitless Easter Bunny. The sweet woman working the photo counter offered to take their picture with Creepy Bunny, but my kids graciously declined from behind my right and left thighs. Apparently the candy is just for the children brave enough to actually sit on the lap of Creepy Bunny not for photo bribes.

Anyhow, back to what I do have photos of. Here's a picture of me. She said it was me, although she (kind of) wrote Daddy on it.

Looks like I've put on some weight since the last time Binny drew me. At the very least I look like I've been hanging out in a bee hive.

More eggs, Binny hung these on the bedroom wall last night so I could see them first thing in the morning.

I found this one under my pillow this morning.

Not much else going on. My afternoon will be spent making returns to Home Depot and Menards for the 4 wheel drive gardener. Sounds like a rockin' afternoon huh?