A Flowery Surprise

Look what greeted me when I came home from running errands!

My darling husband delivered it while I was out and about.

I love white flowers!

White roses,

white tulips,

white daisies,

lily-of-the valley...

...but I love white orchids the most because they last and do not fade away...just like the love I have for my best friend; my sweet, sweet husband!

My Paperwhite Tale

For several years I have wanted to try my hand at forcing paperwhite bulbs.

They're so pretty and I love the idea of watching something grow in the stark winter days, weeks, months...

I bought a Smith & Hawken kit from Target, followed the directions, crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.

And it worked! I was so excited to see those initial, beautiful green shoots! And then when I saw the flower buds I was beside myself!! I started thinking how next year I am going to force gobs of bulbs! I'll be surrounded by living plants all winter long...

...and then I caught a whiff of the paperwhite flower essence. Its fragrance. Its perfume. It stinks....at least to everyone in my family! I was SO disappointed! I thought they were supposed to smell spring-y and wonderful! So here I am loving the look of my paperwhites but resort to plugging my nose when I walk past them.

Do you force bulbs during the winter?

What are your favorites? What other bulbs should I try?

Little Miracles

Life has been super hard lately.

I have been taking inspiration from here.

And this morning I found inspiration in my own backyard.

Little baby bunnies

Five in all

Three are strewn across my yard while two are still in the nest

Can you see them?

I couldn't either...mama bunny did a very good job hiding her babies. Such a good job that I almost stepped on the nest! It's right in the middle of our backyard. We have to be very careful where we step right now. We don't want to smoosh any babies.

Anyone want a pet bunny?

Tomatoe-y Goodness

Grateful for good friends and neighbors who are sharing their garden bounty with us, the slacker Evans Family who never got around to putting in their own vegetable garden this year!

My neighbor, Lucy, sent over a whole bunch of tomatoes for us to enjoy!

There is nothing quite like a fresh tomato picked from your own backyard...or your neighbors!

Leaves Are Falling...

...all around...

...on the rooftop, on the ground!

Leaf season has officially begun!

Land of the Uninteresting

Do you ever have a time in your life that seems to be uninteresting? Common place?

I am SuPeR busy right now...just not with anything exciting. Same old stuff; day in, day out.

Down to one month left of school.

Bought the girls matching Ed Hardy t-shirts.

Wondering why the girls have Ed Hardy t-shirts and I don't.

Finishing up all of our extra-curricular activities.

Debating whether or not we should buy season passes to the closest Amusement/Water Park.

Re-elected PTO President for next year (unopposed...not much competition!)

Went to an Aveda shop today and had a wellness moment. I should do that everyday!

Found a super fun pillow for a fabulously low price at Pottery Barn. Made my day!

Revising PTO By-laws.

Took girls (along with my Brownie troop) to an indoor water park. They had a blast. I got a migraine!

Attending an Art/Publishing Center Show tomorrow night at the girl's school.

Spent days upon days hunting for a black skirt Rand needs for her band concert later this month. Impossible to find a decent length black skirt this time of year in the tween department BUT I discovered she can wear XS Juniors!!! Skirt dilemma solved.

Frustrated with our satellite tv. We always have issues with it this time of year. Broke down and called the company. They are sending a tech guy out tomorrow between noon and 5 PM. My luck he'll show up at 4:45!

Working on next year's PTO budget.

Saw one of my closest and dearest friends on Saturday. We had a fabulous time catching up and cursing her husband for moving her West.

Marched in our town's Memorial Day Parade.

Bought a bookcase for JK's room.

Need to put bookcase together!

Desperately need to plant my vegetable garden before it is too late.

And on it goes......

Thanks for checking in on me...now you know a small piece of what I've been up to! Hopefully I'll be able to add blogging back into the equation!

And by the way, my Google Reader is about to eXpLoDe with all of the unread posts! I promise I haven't forgotten about all of you, my blogging friends!

Green Boy

JK on Earth Day

His shirt says "Protect Our Planet"

This weekend I will be knee deep in manure prepping my

vegetable gardens.

The forecast here on the East Coast is GorGEoUs!!

Can't wait!!

Planting Seeds

"I lifted my head to spy on Hannah playing nearby in the shade and saw Tom and Mother broad-hoeing the garden. They were planting corn, beans, and squash all in the same mounds together. The corn would grow tall and straight as a pole. The beans would vine the corn towards the sun and the squash would grow in the shadows below."

~The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent

What? Me anxious to start planting my garden?

Whatever gave you that idea?

Smelling Yellow

I am feeling antsy.

I think I have a touch of spring fever.

I haven't been able to concentrate on anything lately.

Nothing holds my interest.

On Monday the girls and I were out running a few errands.

We popped into Trader Joe's.

I needed to smell their flowers.

The daffodils left me swooning.

I adore their fragrance!

It's snowing outside.

I think I will have to wait awhile before I see daffodils blooming outside my home.

As much as I love daffodils I do not think I will be doing this.

That's just crazy!

Going With the Flow...

...is NOT something I am very good at! I am a very scheduled type A kind of person. So when I woke up this morning and realized the weather was against us (humid and warm) and time was flying by way too fast I became a bit grouchy. It's silly, I know, but still, that's how I felt. We finally managed to get ourselves out the door at 12:15 and headed off to find pumpkins for the kids. JK fell asleep in the car and slept through the pumpkin picking process. The girls picked one out for him. Here they are on the front step.

We came home after getting the pumpkins and eating lunch. The girls headed out to play with the neighbors, DK and JK went to play on the playscape and I did some needed gardening. What happened to our annual Columbus Day fall drive? Yeah, that didn't happen. But I did take a few pictures from my front yard. The hazy humidity interfered with capturing the leaves' vibrancy. Sorry I'm not a photographer and these didn't turn out better!

This is our neighbor's house that was built in the 1800's

complete with original stone wall.

This house has the most amazing peony bushes in the spring

and ultra-vibrant leaves in the fall.

This is a picture of one of our gingko trees in the front yard.

Yellow leaves have never been my favorite (I prefer orange) but I still like these little leaves.

I bought two sugar pumpkins today and set them on top of

some spanish moss and urns from Wal-Mart.

Cheap and easy...but in a good way!

JK was tuckered out from playing outside and having his nap interrupted earlier today.

I found him snoozing on the couch, nice and peaceful.

Finally, I have two miscellaneous tidbits I thought I'd throw into this post. Last week I finally found the Wii Fit and bought it! Are you ready for my Wii Fit Age? Drum roll, please!!!

38

Ah, that's older than I am, in case you didn't know. There was this one test I didn't quite get right away and I think that affected my outcome. For the balance test I was exactly 100% balanced. The Wii Fit told me I was amazing and quite frankly I believe it!

This past Friday DK and I were able to go and see Fireproof. At first I wasn't sure if I was going to like it. There is a car accident scene and the girl in the car was driving me crazy!!! She kept screaming and screaming and screaming! I was ready to slap her across the face. Fortunately things got better after that and I totally recommend every couple taking an evening and seeing it! Thanks Shottsie for babysitting for us!

State of Neglect

What happens when all the gardening enthusiasm I felt in the spring is completely depleted?

Four very weedy, overgrown vegetable plots!

Good thing the plants are so resilient!

Here's one of my pepper plants plugging away.

I was able to clear out three of the four plots

(all of you professional gardeners out there...don't make fun of how small they are...it's a start!)

When I was cleaning up my tools and going inside, my neighbor next door was leaving and gave me a thumbs up. That was a lot better than the nasty looks they've been giving me lately. I know they were wondering when I was going to get my bum in gear and clean up my act!

This same neighbor ended up giving me a wonderful unexpected gift without even knowing it. Once I cleared all the weeds out of my cucumber plot I found these happy Brown Eyed Susans. They have these flowers planted on the side of their house and it looks like some of their seeds blew over into my plot!

I will transplant them to my perennial garden and enjoy them for years to come. Ha!

I deserve a small reward for putting up with their mean looks and judgmental ways!

My flower gardens always fair much better than my vegetable plots. For some reason they are just easier to take care of and maintain. Look at this mum I bought last year. It was discounted because it was about to wither away and die.

It's grown so big I'm having trouble trying to keep it from choking out my other plants!

Crazy mum!

Paint Prints and Sunflowers

What in the world am I thinking?

Why would I tear apart the upstairs bathroom during summer vacation?

(Do you see that ugly oak vanity cabinet? Once the girls go back to school I'm going to sand the life out of it and paint it BLACK)

Just because I've been wanting to paint the bathroom

white w. black stripes does not mean I should do it RIGHT NOW

Goodbye cream walls...

...hello foot prints on my freshly painted white wall?

I am now taking a paint break and sitting outside on the deck gazing at my beautiful sunflowers, listening to the children play (a very safe distance from the drying paint) and hoping history will not repeat itself next summer!

Welcome Home Gift

It was such a wonderful treat going out to my garden and peeking around. I could not believe the amount of things that had grown while I was gone!!

12 cucumbers

7 yellow squash

10 zucchini

Veggies are beginning to pile up around here!

Some of the zucchini were ginormous!

Big bowl full of tomatoes

It was the best welcome home present I have ever received!

I love Tuesday's because that means it's Lara's Talk About Tuesday!

Make sure to check out what everyone is talking about!

Hot and Humid

Did I mention it is HOT and HUMID today?! HOT and HUMID I tell ya!

That dumb bunny is still eating my flowers in the front flower beds.

We are having a nasty beetle problem this year and they are eating my basil and rose bushes.

The weeds are taking over my vegetable garden.

Add the heat and all of the above listed boo-hoo's and I feel like I am in hades......

...But then again hades does not have fresh picked squash and zucchini taking a bath in the water fountain courtesy of JK.

Hades does not have a neighbor who came over while I was away and picked some zucchini (she has an open invitation) and then brought me fresh baked zucchini bread this morning.

Hades does not have central a/c.

And most importantly, hades does not have happy, healthy children who make my day brighter no matter what the weather may bring!

This is definitely heaven and I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Also, for a super fun, cute and cool way to beat the heat, head over to 3 Ma'am's and Their Guys. So darling!

Last but not least, it's Tuesday and you know what that means. Take a quick trip over to Lara's Talk About Tuesday to see what all the gals are up to this week!

Garden Bounty

Just when I thought I would lose my mind from weeding my vegetable garden all of my hard work was rewarded!

My front flower beds are going bezerk BUT it looks like I have a little hungry outdoor bunny eating some of my favorite plants! I love Buckwheat but I will not tolerate some rabbit cousin of his eatin' my beautiful plants! Any ideas on how to get rid of this scoundrel?!