Father's Day Surprise

For Father's Day I surprised DH (and the boys) by planning a 30 minute plane ride. A nearby airport had a special deal going on that made it pretty reasonable. DH only knew he had to set aside a few hours but didn't have any idea what we were doing. He and the boys had a great time. The pilot flew over our house and hometown. The boys were excited to see their pool in the backyard with a raft still floating in it. My little guy also thought he saw our chickens out in the yard. I am glad they had fun. I would have joined them but the plane would only take 3 passengers. Maybe next time.............

What I've been up to

I realize I have been MIA for a while. We went on a family vacation over Easter......lots of fun. Since we've been back life has been busy, as usual. Also as usual I have become obsessed with a new idea for spending more quality time together as a family. I am hoping to start a new family tradition of camping together. We have not yet ever tried camping as a family. DH and I camped on our honeymoon (one night if I remember correctly) and also camped a little early in our marriage. We own one tent.........a teeny little pup tent that fits a queen size air mattress and nothing else. You can't even stand up in it. So.......if we are going to dive into family camping we will obviously need to invest in a family-sized tent. Since I love doing internet research I have spent NUMEROUS hours online over the past several nights after the boys are in bed looking at tents, reading tent reviews, searching for family camping blogs, etc. I can be very one-track-minded about things sometimes. It is a little over the top. I was like that last summer when we decided to get chickens. I immersed myself in "chicken research" for many weeks.

I am hoping that our family will enjoy camping together. I really want my boys to grow up loving and respecting the natural world. It is SO sad that children these days spend so little time playing outside. My favorite childhood memories are almost exclusively tied to times I spent outdoors either on my own or with my family. We did a little camping when I was a child. Although we didn't do it really often.........and sometimes it was just in our own backyard........I do have good memories of it.

For a while I was really hoping that we could get a pop-up camper to use for family camping. In fact, last summer we were VERY close to purchasing a used pop-up camper but we decided to not go through with it. We were afraid that we wouldn't actually end up using it and that it would be a waste of our financial resources. The truth is......we don't have an extra $5000+ this year to buy a used pop-up camper. So...........tent camping seems to be the best option for us to get our feet wet and see if camping is for us. While doing my extensive research these past few weeks I discovered a concept previously unknown to me called "glamping". Have you heard of this? It is where you combine luxury with camping.........like camping, but with the comforts of home. Here is a great article about glamping if you want to read more. The crafter in me really digs the idea of special camping "bedding" with coordinated table linens, etc. I am already dreaming of the cute color-coordinated camping accessories I could sew for us. (I realize this borders on insanity.......no need to point that out. I'm aware.) But............I truly do see some camp-related sewing on the horizon if we end up getting a tent and moving forward.

In case you are interested, the tent I am pretty sure is my true heart's desire is the Eureka Copper Canyon 1312. Below is a photo of it courtesy of Amazon. And HERE is the Amazon link. I have truly read dozens of reviews of dozens of tents and I think this is the one. DH............if you are reading this, pretty please can we buy this tent? It is WAY WAY WAY cheaper than a pop-up and we could use it for years to come. Just think about it, 'kay? You know Mother's Day is coming up soon!

Here are some features I love about this particular tent. First of all, the size is great. It is 13 feet by 12 feet which makes it the size of a good-sized bedroom. It's important to me that the tent is spacious enough for use to put air mattresses and cots for sleeping. Gotta have comfort. I also love that this tent is tall enough to stand up in without bumping your head on the top. Since it is a cabin-style tent the walls are pretty vertical so there should be no need to bend down to get to any part of the tent. Another great feature is a sweep-out doorway so you can easily sweep out any grass that accumulates inside. In most tents there is a "lip" at the doorway which makes it quite difficult to clean out. Most of the reviews I've read say that this tent is easy to set up. Finally, the Eureka brand is a really good brand name with a great reputation. If we are investing a big chunk of change in a tent I want it to be one that won't have to be replaced for years to come. Maybe our grandkids will someday go camping with us in this tent. If any of you out there have tent-camping experience, I'd love to hear from you. What kind of tent do you have? Any good tips for camping with kids?

On the to-do list

Since I am back in the mood to blog again, I thought I would share what is on my to-do list for today. I had the day off of work yesterday but basically frittered the day away. Honestly, I get much more done when I have less time. Is that true for anyone else?



At the top of the priority list was mucking out the muddy chicken yard. With all the snow melting (finally! Praise God!) the chicken yard (even though it has a roof over it) has been SO muddy this past week. Muddy as in standing puddles of water, boots slipping around mud. I have been researching some options for it on Backyard Chickens. I was originally planning to get a bunch of sand to put down. Then I read about some people who put the old pine shavings from the coop out into the run. Since I needed to put fresh shavings down anyway I thought this was a great option. I told my husband that I felt like a total Farmer Cluck this morning as I headed out to the local feed store just after 8 a.m. I bought 4 big bales of pine shavings (which ended up being way too many..........but I'll need them over the summer anyway). Then I came home and put on my "work boots"...............





And headed out to the coop, shovel in hand. It took very little time to scoop out the old shavings into the chicken yard. Now I have a nice thick layer of shavings and no mud showing at all. I love it. My boots will stay mud-free and my chickens will have clean feet. I have been bragging all morning that I have the cleanest coop in the county. It smells so good after you lay down a fresh layer of pine shavings.






I grabbed the camera to get a shot of the hens "fighting" over the nest box. I had really disrupted their laying schedule with all my cleaning, apparently, and three of the hens managed to wedge themselves into our nest box at one time. In the first photo Sarah's beak is open because she was basically cackling her head off at Abby and Reba.





Then she managed to wedge herself into the box with them. You can just see her white tail poking out. Reba quickly removed herself from the nest box with Abby following shortly thereafter. Then loud-mouth (dead-footed) Sarah had the whole box to herself. She is such a boss!





After that task was completed I wanted to make some homemade granola. So I have that done. This recipe makes a ton, keeps really well, and tastes SO fantastic.

I must be feeling very domestic today because I also have a batch of bread-dough rising as I type this. I am using this No-Knead yeast bread recipe which we like so well. I divide it into two loaves and it never lasts long.

Once the bread is done the boys and I are going to go to Target to pick up some Project Life photos (I am about 2-3 weeks behind) and to a teacher supply store to get birthday crowns for my preschoolers and a birthday gift for a party my oldest son has later this afternoon.

Also on the list.........we need to write a letter to our Compassion child, Fernando. We got two letters from him within a week of one another and have to write back. And I need to finish revising our preschool brochure, find some songs about birds to sing in class next week, run, put away Valentine's decorations. Oh, and take a shower! So it should be a pretty busy day. It's been productive so far. I love Saturdays!!

Where has the time gone?

I know I've been lax about writing on this blog for a while. And I'm even worse about keeping up on Random Acts of Reading. Don't give up on that project if you were initially excited about it. I am really hoping to find the time to pick back up where I left off very soon. It's been so hard to make book drops with the yucky, cold, snowy weather we've been having. I plan to be very inspired and motivated to get going with those again soon.

Anyway..........you may wonder what's up with our invalid hen, Sarah. We were able to reintroduce her to the flock on Valentine's weekend. She was getting around on her foot and was not very happy in her Rubbermaid "cell" in our bathroom. I was not sad to see her back outside with the other chickens. However, last week I noticed that her "bad" foot was turning black. My little guy and I took her to the vet on Monday and he confirmed that her foot is, indeed, dead. So...........amputation is an option. Since I am not Bill Gates I had to inquire about the cost of this surgery. The vet told me, "For your $5 chicken it would cost you around $150 to do surgery." However, he kindly assured me that even Warren Buffett would have wanted to know the cost and that my asking didn't necessarily imply my indifference to the plight of sick animals. Sarah, for her part, seems as perky and clucky as ever for now. So..........we are opting to wait and see what nature will bring. There is a chance that her foot will shrivel up and fall off on it's own. (I know that sounds very gross...............and I'm not looking forward to going out to the coop one morning and finding a detached chicken foot lying on the ground.) I have heard from other people that they have had chickens or ducks with one foot who survived just fine. So we will see.

In other news, I've been doing pretty well (until this past week) keeping up with my running. I usually run 5K on the treadmill 4-5 times per week. I am really looking forward to running outside very soon. I'm considering entering a 5K race in early May. It will be my first race ever, so it should be fun. I now know I can very easily do a 5K so it's not intimidating from that standpoint. And I think it will motivate me to train for a longer race later in the summer.

Work is keeping me VERY busy but very happy. I cannot imagine any other job that would make me happier than my current job. I love working with preschoolers.

Well............that's what's up around here. I haven't done anything crafty or creative lately though I wish I had so I could post a cute photo or two. Until next time...........

Buzzy is a Blog Star!!

I'm so excited to finally be able to tell y'all that Buzz (our dog) and I have been interviewed over at Coffee with a Canine. Marshal, who writes the blog, contacted me a few months ago asking if I would be interested in being featured with Buzz on the blog. I loved the whole concept and he published our interview today. CLICK HERE to read it.

(By the way, someone should really do something similar with cats. Lee? Are you reading this? You would be PERFECT to start a cat/owner blog. If you decide to do it, count me (and Nina, Macy and Prince Bob) in!!)

Party in the coop tonight!!

It's a good thing I don't have too many snow days because I might inundate the blogosphere with mundane and boring posts about my chickens. As it stands, this is my second post of the day and as soon as it's posted I'm going to post another one!! I meant to blog some more about what else we did on our snow day. Well..........we had a failure situation with the Christmas goodies we tried to make. More on that later, perhaps. The other thing the ol' DH and I did was to hook up a heat lamp in the chicken coop. It's supposed to get really cold tonight and tomorrow. Cold as in negative temps. I know you have frost growing on the walls in Montana, Anne..........but I personally do not love supercold weather. :-) Anyhow, I wanted to be sure my little chooks were warm (relatively speaking) so we hooked up the heat lamp that we had used for them when they were chicks in our bathroom this summer. We had some figgerin' to do since we couldn't fully close the door to the coop with the extension cord looped through it. DH was concerned that having light all night would upset their rhythms so to speak. I figured that would be better than freezing to death. That's why I titled this post "party in the coop" in case they are out there partying all night in the light and warmth instead of roosting like they usually do. I couldn't resist peeking through the window once it got dark to see if they were living it up. When I peeked in I saw 5 little "fuzzy-butts" (that's what my peeps on Backyard Chickens call their chickens) all in a row up on their roost, just like usual.



Below you can see a photo I took right after we hooked up the lamp. It's infrared so it casts a reddish glow on everything. Hopefully it is positioned just right to keep the water from freezing tonight.










Here's the lamp, suspended from a hook on one of the rafters.






After some figgerin' and after attaching a hook and eye to the door, the DH and I decided it would be best to just cut a notch out of the door frame to allow the cord to pass through. I felt that the hook and eye remedy was allowing too much of a gap and I didn't want my little darlings to have a cold draft blowing in on them all night. One little zzzzzzzzzzzzzzt of the reciprocating saw and the job was done. Love it!!





In other chicken news...........I wanted to share something very very cute that my youngest son has been doing lately. First of all, I've meant to blog about the fact that over the past several days my two boys have had the BEST time playing together and have done so (without too much pounding and crying) for long periods of time. I am not always sure what they're playing, but they've been having fun. In the course of their play my little boy found this stuffie that my husband got at a science-y conference. It is supposed to be a model of the Salmonella bacteria. My little boy has decided to call this stuffed bacteria his "chicken". He named it Chicken and has been carrying it around, loving on it and telling me how much he loves it, asking me to pet it, etc. For quite a while yesterday Chicken was living in his nest which happens to be the pocket of the sweatshirt I usually wear around the house. It's very cute and is one of those memories that could be easily forgotten if not documented. So..........I snapped a quick photo of Chicken to help us remember him once he becomes a forgotten playmate. He actually does kind of look like a chicken, and very much like our favorite chicken, Sarah.

Clarification

Very recently a reader of this blog pointed out to me that my post about the book, The Shack, may have implied that I have discovered something very awful about my husband. Please let me assure you that that is definitely not the case. And I want to publicly apologize to him if that is what anyone thought. I knew it was going to be hard for me to express in writing what the "skin of knowing" quote meant to me and now I am sure that I did a chop job of explaining it. I'll try again here.

As most of you know, I am a teacher. I am currently teaching preschoolers who are just about the most fun and joyous type of people to be around. However, preschoolers tend to think about things very literally and to see things in black and white. This is why you may often hear a preschooler say, "You're not my friend" or the infamous, "You're not invited to my birthday party" (stated indignantly even when the birthday is 9 months away). To a young child, if their friend does not behave in a certain way they think they can no longer be friends with that person. In my classroom this happens when their friend plays with someone else, sits by someone else, etc. Thankfully, as we grow older we become more flexible in our thinking. This flexibility allows us to accept and even love people who don't share our beliefs or who don't look just like us or act just like us. In fact, as adults we are often very willing to overlook the annoying or aggravating habits of those we love due to the very fact that..........we love them. So what I was TRYING to say in my previous post is that I find it a beautiful fact of life that our love for others is able to grow over time even as those we love do things that surprise us, upset us, or disappoint us. I am the first to admit that I have done many things to surprise, embarrass, upset, and disappoint the people in my life who claim to love me. (My previous post may be just one of many examples of this.) And sometimes I do those surprising, embarrassing, upsetting and disappointing things over and over even though I know they are surprising, embarrassing, upsetting and disappointing. How wonderful that the people who love me are able to "grow" their love even in spite of this. Am I making any sense now? I hope so. And again, my sincere apologies if anyone thought for even one second anything negative about my DH. I love him........he's a great daddy, a great husband, and an all-around great guy.

Perfectly mismatched

Last week our whole family went to see the movie Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs at the theater. This was kind of a big event because we have rarely gone to a big theater to see a movie. We are more of the movie-rental types. Anyhow.........as we sat in theater before it was darkened I looked over and noticed that my little boy had on mismatched socks. My gut-reflex instant thought was, "Oh crap! I should have noticed that and had him change before we went OUT." Immediately on the heels of that thought came another thought........."I love it that his socks don't match. I love how it reflects his uniqueness and originality. Someday I will look back remembering when he was little and sweet and we sat together in a dark theater and I will wish for more days of perfectly mismatched socks." Just thinking about that moment almost brings tears to my eyes as I write it. I love my boys so much. I am so proud of them and have loved watching them grow up. But I HATE the thought of them getting so big that I can't carry their sleepy heavy little bodies to bed when they fall asleep on the couch..........so big that they won't beg to be spun around in the kitchen or tickled under the covers...........and so big that they won't look at me in the dimness of a nightlight-lit bedroom as we snuggle under the quilt and say, "Mommy, I love you." I live for those precious moments..........they are truly treasures in my heart.


I'm glad I remembered to snap a photo of Mr. Mismatched that night before he went to bed. Isn't life better with one red sock?

Jewelry with a conscience

Last night I ordered this bracelet online from Macys. Perhaps that doesn't seem like a big deal. However, I very rarely buy jewelry for myself and if I do, I try to buy it off the clearance rack at Target or Kohls. I don't think I've EVER in my life bought myself a piece of jewelry online. In fact, until I turned 40 last spring I really didn't wear much jewelry on a daily basis. However, once the big 4-0 rolled around I decided that I don't want to fade into frumpiness. Instead I made it a goal to try to buy cute clothes, cute shoes and fun jewelry (as inexpensively as possible, of course). So...........I would like to explain what prompted me to buy this particular bracelet aside from the fact that it is really gorgeous and fun and bright.





September has been a whirlwind month. My oldest son turned 8 this month and we've had a series of parties for him......one last weekend for our older relatives and one just this past Sunday for his friends. Every year when I practically kill myself getting the house cleaned up for the birthday party I tell myself that I will never again host a party at my home. Instead I vow to plan next year's party at another venue so I can just load up my kids and show up with a cake. Well........then the next year rolls around and it just seems like a good thing to have the party at our house. We live on 2 acres. We have a huge yard with lots of room to roam and run, a mini-"forest" to explore and now..........a new fort to play in. Kids just love to come to our house and we very rarely have children over to play since we live in the country. This year was no exception and we lucked out with the weather.......Sunday was a perfect fall day.........crisp and clear, not too hot and not too cold. Anyway......the party was a success, but afterwards I was completely wiped out. I was truly just wrecked. I was just getting over a bout of stomach flu that I had at the end of last week. I was feeling overwhelmed and stressed even though all our entertaining responsibilities were over. As my boys watched a movie in the living room, I retreated to my bedroom with a glass of wine and my Oprah magazine.





It would probably be an exaggeration to say that the article I read was life-changing. However, it was truly eye-opening. If you are not familiar with the O magazine, every year Oprah sponsors or facilitates a jewelry project that supports African women. Working closely with the Fair Winds Trading organization several bracelet designs are chosen each year and crafted by African women. The bracelets are then sold online through Macys. They may even be available in the Macys stores. The article in the most recent O magazine told about how this year's project paired Rwandan women with artists in New Orleans to create the beautiful beaded bracelets like the one shown above. Aside from the obvious goodwill of these efforts and the tremendous financial effect they have on the women in Africa, what struck me and touched me the very most about the article was getting to know some of the women and their life stories. I am so sheltered and so blessed in the life I have been given. It is truly humbling to think about how many women in the world have experienced loss, trauma, and hardships that I cannot even imagine. One of the women who came to New Orleans to participate in the beading project lost her entire immediate family to the Rwandan genocide. Parents, siblings............gone. She was "bought" as a sex slave to a wealthy man and has three children, all the result of rape. Two or three days each week she and her children go WITHOUT FOOD. I cannot imagine surviving or enduring any one of those things let alone all of them. As hard as it was to read I appreciated getting a chance to have my eyes opened to the plight of my sisters across the ocean. I was moved enough that I ordered a bracelet after reading the article. It is a small thing to do. I know that I will get many compliments on the bracelet. It is unique and beautiful. I look forward to sharing with people about the project that created it. And I am also looking foward to wearing it because I know that each time I glance at it I will remember and think about the women across the globe who made it. I will be moved to pray for them and their families. And that's a good thing.

If you are interested here is a link to the article.

The "to-do" list

Wow! It looks like I am only managing to write about once a week lately. I have lots of thoughts in my head, but not so much time to record them all. One things that's been on my mind is the struggle that I have between wanting to accomplish my daily "to-do" list and wanting to be available to play and just have fun with my boys. Now that I am back to teaching full time (I am actually a .8 FTE teacher) I feel the tug of the to-do list even more than ever. I often catch myself mentally going over what I need to get done even when I'm physically hanging out with my boys. And I hate that. I realized recently that I am almost never fully present when I am interacting with them. I might be half-listening to something they are saying, but the other half of my brain is thinking, "OK, I need to go fold and put away laundry, email my (Montessori)parents about XYZ, make playdough for the classroom this week, mop the kitchen floor, start prepping for dinner tonight, etc." Weekends are hard with this because it's so tempting to see a weekend as a two-day opportunity to check things off the list instead of a two-day opportunity to spend quality time with my children. I am going to really try to start making the quality time more of a priority and letting go of some of the "to-dos". This weekend I took my boys to a community event at our local park. I didn't really have a timeline in mind for how long we would be there. We ended up staying for almost 3 hours. It was SO nice to just go with the flow and not be always thinking, "OK, we need to hurry up and get home so I can..........." We just enjoyed our time together with no set ending point and it was really refreshing.

After church on Sunday I usually try to get out house straightened up and cleaned up before the school week begins. As a result I all too often tell my boys, "Just a minute" or "I can't play now because I have to............" when they ask me to play with them. This Sunday I resisted the urge and said, "Yes" when my little boy wanted to play Cootie with him. It was very freeing to just stretch out with him on his bedroom floor and play. Every time an "I need to go........." thought crept into my mind, I consciously pushed it away. My older son wandered back to his brother's room and hung out with us. It was a really good time. I am committed to trying to let my
"to-do" list take a back burner (within reason) so I can become more focused on spending quality time with my children. I'm already thinking ahead to what experiences we can enjoy together on the upcoming three-day weekend. I will admit that it's hard for me. I spend time at my school nearly every weekend during the school year. There just isn't time when I'm there teaching to get all the prep work done. And sometimes I really hate how my job takes me away from my family. However, I am hoping that I can find a good balance this year.

Enjoy a few photos I took of our Sunday Cootie game-playing.

Wistful

I am feeling wistful about summer coming to an end. I know on the calendar we have another 6 or 7 weeks until autumn begins. But two weeks from today I start back to work and my boys go back to school. We have our moments, but I love being home with them. I am so thankful that we have our summers together. I talk to many parents who state that they can't wait for school to start. I even overheard a parent (someone I don't know) telling another person that they couldn't wait to "get their house back." I truly don't understand that type of comment. My house is a home for my family, the family that includes my two boys. I can't imagine my house without them in it. In fact, I shudder at the thought. On those very rare occasions when both my children are elsewhere and I am home alone, my house feels too quiet and empty as if something is missing. My children are the heart of my home. I pray that I will always feel this way.

So tonight I am truly grateful for the weeks we've had together. Weeks to be lazy and silly. To get dirty and wet. To laugh and love and hang out. Because I know that all too soon we'll be so busy that I won't need to hose off sand-encrusted hands and feet before the sun goes down and we head inside for bedtime.

He rocks!

I know I write quite often on here about my husband and how great he is. Well, he deserves the kudos.........so here's another post about him. On Friday night I went out for a while to work at school and run a few errands. I had prepared dinner before I left and had eaten with my oldest son. My husband and younger son were going to eat later. So when I left there were dirty dishes all over the counter and all the food was still out. I figured that my DH would package up the leftover food, but wasn't expecting to find all the dishes washed and the counters wiped down when I got home. It was a great surprise! We don't have a dishwasher, so we hand-wash everything which I don't mind (since I do it about 3-4 times per day), but my husband does NOT care for washing dishes. He totally does his share of work around the house, but dishes is one of my usual chores. Anyway, when I got home I told him he rocked. He was not sure of what had warranted the compliment. I reminded him about washing the dishes. He said, "Oh yeah, I forgot I did that." He's so awesome!

Please pray for Kate McRae

I don't usually do this, but I have become captivated by the story of this little girl through another blog that lifted her up. I have been reading her parents' Caring Bridge story since it started and can't imagine what they are going through right now. Their whole world has been turned upside down. However, their faith remains strong in spite of all they are going through. I cannot imagine how desperate they would feel without their faith to sustain them. They update their site regularly and are so grateful for everyone all over the world who is praying for them and their daughter. I have been so touched by their faith and their story that I would ask you to consider praying for Kate's complete healing and for strength and peace for her and her entire family.

In case you don't have time to click over and read her story, I'll briefly summarize: Kate's parents took her to the doctor at the end of June because she was having tremors in her right hand (Kate is 6 years old). It turned out that she has a brain tumor at the base of her brain. She had surgery to remove it (although they could only remove part of it) and is now facing weeks and months of treatments for her cancer which appears to be very aggressive and fast-growing, but fortunately very responsive to treatment. Additionally, Kate and her family are trying to adjust to the side effects of her tumor and surgery which has been very difficult and frustrating.

I hope I'm not overstepping by posting about this. It is odd since I don't know this family at all and I know there are so many families in this situation. It just really makes you thankful for your own children's good health as well as your own. Anyway, I just wanted to pass along this story. I am pretty sure her family would appreciate all the good thoughts and prayers they can get right now.

Update on Buzz

I forgot to write about our dog, Buzz. Well, he started having seizures again, but we called the vet (of course) and they had us increase (actually, double) his dose of Phenobarbitol, so we did. Within 24 hours that seems to have resolved the seizures. He's feeling much better, and we are relieved and glad.

Here we go again

I am sad to report that after a month of no seizures, our dog, Buzz, started having seizures again last night. As of now we are increasing his medication, but so far even with that increase, the seizures have continued. Hopefully we can get it under control again.

A tribute to our very special Daddy

Today I wanted to share with the world (so to speak) what an awesome Daddy my two boys have. My husband is really a wonderful father. We are so blessed. He is so patient and kind. He rarely raises his voice. He is the master of distraction when necessary. He is playful and fun. He takes the boys fishing, plays baseball with them at the drop of a hat, and is always there to listen and care for them. He lives a life that is good, honest, and true. He is an excellent role model and I am so happy that my boys have him to look up to. Honey, I just want you to know how much I love and appreciate you. I love that we share this crazy life together. You are everything to me and to the boys. Thank you for ALL you do.

My hubby's big Father's Day gift was a new circular saw along with some other tools that were packaged as a set. We bought it earlier this week when we went to Home Depot. Today the boys gave him this framed picture. I had seen this idea on a blog and really liked it. I just traced the boys hands on scrapbook paper and glued them onto a sheet of cardstock. Then I framed it with a document sized (8 1/2 by 11) frame.



Tonight we are having my mom and dad over to cook out. My oldest son and I made these special cupcakes for our dessert. The idea is from the latest issue of Family Fun magazine. When I saw this idea in the magazine I knew it was perfect for my husband. We have nearly 2 acres and from about May through October he is out there every weekend mowing to keep things looking great. He also mows the grass for my parents at their condo and I know they truly appreciate it. Thankfully, he doesn't have to use a push mower on our big lot. It still takes him 3 hours to mow with the riding lawn mower and another hour to trim. The care and attention he gives to our yard is one of many things he does that I truly appreciate.



These cupcakes went together pretty easily except for the handle on the mower. I couldn't find the string licorice at the store yesterday, so I bought the peel and pull. It was kind of flimsy as opposed to being stiff like the string licorice. That made it too floppy to use as a handle. I finally ended up putting the cut pieces into the freezer for about 10 minutes which allowed them to stiffen up enough for me to poke the ends into the cupcake. Then I snapped the photos. I put the cupcakes into our refrigerator downstairs. Hopefully, they will stay cool enough that the handles won't collapse again. Otherwise, such a totally cute idea. I think DH will love them.

Splash!

I realized today that I haven't written anymore about our dog, Buzz, since writing about the severe seizures he had a few days ago. He came home Friday afternoon. Most likely he has a brain tumor. Since most vet clinics outside a university setting don't do MRIs or CAT scans, there's no way to confirm this for sure. However, that is probably what's going on with him. He has some permanent neurological damage.........he drags one foot a little, is somewhat clumsy now when he moves around, and we think his vision is a bit impaired. However, the good news is that he hasn't had anymore seizures. He is taking Prednisone and Phenobarbitol (I don't know if I spelled those correctly) and that combination of medications seems to be working. We don't know what the future will bring, but for now, we will try to continue to provide a loving home to this sweet little guy. Below is a photo I took of him today.



The other thing that's been going on around here is that we set up our pool for summer. In the past we've always just had an inflatable pool that we dump and refill every few days. At the end of the season last summer, we bought one that can stay up all summer. It has a filter and we spent ALL DAY yesterday trying to get the chemicals at the right levels so the boys could swim. Long story short............the boys got to go in today. It was a little cold, but they had a good time. I took a ton of photos, but most had the kids in them, so I only have a few to post. The first photo below shows the pool with the top ring inflated. This pool is 10 feet in diameter, so a little bigger than the ones we've had before.



After the top ring was inflated, we filled it with water. The ring floats up as the water rises. It took over 2 hours to fill it.



The next photo is funny. The boys wanted to swim as soon as they could once the pool was ready but they quickly got cold. Later in the afternoon they went in again. My oldest son was apparently so excited to go swimming that he put his swimming trunks on backwards. So this photo captures the excitement of swimming in your new pool for the first (second) time.



Hope you are all enjoying your summer. I think it's already going too fast and I'm bemoaning the fact that I haven't gotten much done on my to-do list yet. But, I'm trying to remember to be "in the moment" and to relax and enjoy myself.

Randomness

One thing I wanted to post about is Muffin Tin lunches. I think I wrote about these last summer on my other (the original) blog. However, they are really great so I thought I'd write again. This is one of the best ways I've found to get my 4 year old to eat a balanced lunch. I simply place a different healthy food in each compartment. He loves it and I feel good about what he's eaten. Below is what I put in his tin today: (top L-R: ranch dressing, cheese crackers, pudding; bottom L-R: carrots, cheese cubes, blueberries). I have found that he eats a lot more and a wider variety when I serve his food this way.

Next on the random list................check out this fabulous lamp I found at a yard sale today for.................$1!! It is so unique and gorgeous. When I brought it home DH said, "What are you going to do with all these lamps you're bringing home?" Ummmmm, hello! I'm going to create ambiance in our home.

One other thing I don't think I posted about.........I recently purchased a Cubicals organizer for our home. I have one at school in my office and LOVE it! Each canvas bin holds SO MUCH STUFF!

Just to keep things real.......the next photo shows the corner of our office BEFORE I got the organizer in place. Now the toys have their own little drawers and my boys are (for the most part) keeping things better organized and putting them away better. It also helps them more easily find what they want to play with.

The next two photos show the contents of two of the drawers. One holds all our toy animals and another all our toy vehicles. These bins seriously hold SO MUCH stuff. They're awesome. I bought the whole set-up at Target..........I waited for it to go on sale first. It usually does go on sale a few times per year.

The next photo shows the way I'm using the same organizer in my office at school. I have a bin for each month Sept-May which holds all my seasonal decorations and materials.

To fancy up the drawers of this one I made tags labeled with the name of each month and tied on decorative ribbons.

Here's a close-up of my "September" drawer handle.

Proud owner of a............

..........Hoover SteamVac Turbo Power Carpet Cleaner. Yes, I've owned one of these babies for about 4 hours now. I am very excited about it!! However, the reason I finally took the plunge and bought one of these is really sad. Our dog, Buzz, started having severe seizures last night. He had approximately 7 seizures within a 24 hour period of time. We are talking grand mal, losing control of all bodily functions-type seizures. Needless to say, this has been really traumatizing to him as well as to DH and me. Luckily, the boys did not witness the seizures. Buzz went to the vet today and they did a bunch of bloodwork. So far they've ruled out a lot of bad scary things that could have caused the seizures. We were up practically all night with him last night since he was having one about every 2-3 hours like clockwork. He had one while at the vet's today and has been placed on Phenobarbitol. He is staying there overnight for observation. Our poor little Buzzy boy. Since he lost all control during each seizure, suffice it to say that we had a lot of yucky spots to clean up. When we went through all this just over a month ago with our dog, Magic, I rented a carpet cleaner, then ended up borrowing one from a friend a few days later when we had a mess again after I'd returned the rented vac. The borrowed vac was a Hoover SteamVac and I LOVED it. So after the events of the past 24 hours, I headed to Bed Bath and Beyond this evening and bought one. With 4 animals that poop, pee and barf a lot, it is a good investment. The other great thing is that I had a $50 gift certificate to the mall where the store was and I signed up for the Bed Bath and Beyond emails and got a 20% off savings certificate. So we ended up getting the SteamVac for just about half price. I immediately put it together and cleaned up our yucky spots when I got home. This steam vac works GREAT! I cannot recommend it enough. It cost us about $45 to rent a rug cleaner for 8 hours and after a few uses, our new one will pay for itself. Hopefully Buzz will come home tomorrow. He is a really sick little guy and we are so sad about what happened. We hope it will be controllable with meds. We cannot bear the thought of going through what we just went through with Magic all over again.

Otherwise, I've been enjoying my summer vacation. I had a pleasant surprise visit from my friend, Tammie, today. She reads the blog and was in the neighborhood and decided to stop by and see my new paint job and drapes. THANKS, Tammie! It was great to see you!! I've been working on some more projects that are not quite ready to post about. Going through all that with Buzz has put an abrupt halt to all other plans. I'll write more soon!

Goodbye, Bunny Dog

We have had a rough few days. On Thursday afternoon, we had to make the heartbreaking decision to let our dog go. After the incident I wrote about in my last post, I came home at lunchtime on Wednesday to let Magic out and he had messed again. That's when I knew it was more than just waiting too long the day before. My husband didn't get home until almost 1:00 a.m. on Thursday morning and in the wee hours we decided that the vet had to be called that day. By Thursday our sweet boy couldn't walk at all and was in pretty bad shape. I took the photo above when my littlest boy and I left for school Thursday morning. At that point I didn't know if I would ever see Magic alive again. I drove us to school with tears streaming down my cheeks. That morning I took 116 children and adults on a field trip to the zoo, but my mind was on my dog all morning. It was a hard morning. Luckily, since it was a field trip day I was home in the afternoon and that is when the vet came out to our home with his technician. After explaining all our options, my husband and I decided that the most humane course of action was to have the vet end our dog's life peacefully. We were both with him until the very end. It's very hard to see your beloved pet alive one minute and not the next. That is how fast the process is. I didn't realize that. I guess that's better than it being prolonged, but it was so very very painful to watch. I really wanted us both there though and I'm grateful we were able to do that for him.

Our bunny dog was a good boy. He showed up on our property the day after Thanksgiving a few years ago and we adopted him. He was around 8 when we got him and was a perfect fit for our family. He was so gentle with our boys and just an all-around great dog. I called him "Bunny Dog" because when you talked to him, he would sometimes perk up one or both of his ears, making him resemble a bunny. We will miss you, Bunny Dog. We love you. We are so glad you could share your last years on earth with us.