odd things in the ar

So this bug that the girls have is a strange one. They have a cough, pretty normal bug stuff. They have a temperature, again pretty normal. They are really congested, once again really normal bug stuff. The strange part is they are as energetic as ever. In fact i would wager that they have more energy than normal. That is odd. Sick children should resemble sick children, not hyper children that are bouncing off the walls.
There was almost a revolt in my household tonight. I have been enforcing a "you are sick, you must rest & relax" rule. Hyper energetic children do not take kindly to this.
To stop the revolt, i put the girls to work. I gave each of them a swiffer and now my floors are very clean. The girls are happy because they had a reason to run around frantically. I am happy because the girls are happy. And as an added bonus the floors are clean. That would be a win-win-win situation.

is it time for bed yet?

Kaitlyn spiked a fever on Saturday and developed a cough. Samantha and Kaitlyn do everything together. So by Monday morning Samantha had spiked a fever and developed a cough.
So why is it that right now i can barely keep my head up and both girls are running around the house happy and giddy pretending to be fairies.
Granted a half hour ago this was not the case. A half an hour ago both girls were given Ibuprofen for their fever, Mucinex for the sinus congestion, and covered in Vicks because nothing makes you feel better like Vicks. Now a half hour later all the drugs have had a chance to do their magic and i have two happy, giddy fairies running around my house.
Now if only there was a medicine to fix over tired, covered in drool spots, snot, and Vicks mommies in half an hour.

My husband

My darling husband had a project list of his own. So while I have been folding laundry, mending clothes, checking temperatures and wiping noses; he has been working hard.
He has dug and ran a permanent line to the sprinkler system he installed last year (front yard) and the year before (back yard). No longer do we have a garden hose and wires sticking out of the sprinkler box. Yeah!!
He has also been working on my pond. Apparently it had a crack and was leaking. He also decided that the small but functional waterfall he installed last year was not up to his standards. He is now turning my pond into a true water feature complete with waterfall filtration system. Yeah!!!

Pretty impressive if you ask me, since he really only had yesterday afternoon to work on things. Saturday he helped his youngest sister move, then we went to a Shock game. Sunday we went to home depot for supplies after an all family sleep in morning (the girls didn't wake up until after 10am). Then i went to work that afternoon. Today he was up early to help set up computer stuff and another trip to home depot for supplies. It's now 3:30, the girls just went down for their nap and i will be leaving for work in an hour. He just now went outside to work and promises to have a running waterfall when i get home. How awesome is he? I am one lucky girl. How many guys are that handy? And how many get down right cranky if they don't have one-on-one with their kids? (time he gets while i am at work) Well i don't know the answer to that but i figure it's got to be close to one in a million.
Feeling like I won the lottery! Hope you are feeling that good too!

Update

50 stones later and......
The hedge enclosure is now done as well!
I still have to back fill it with dirt but the stones are laid. I have to dig up the dirt from the driveway in order to back fill, so that will be a slow but steady process.
The really neat thing is you look at the yard and it looks like it has always been this way. All these improvements and it's hard to imagine that it ever looked different. Oh but what a difference these changes have made.
Now i just have to get this drive way project completed. The shovel and i will be best friends before i am done.
Have a great weekend.

Progress update!

Progress update!
112 Stones later and....
The pond enclosure is done!
The Tree enclosure is done!
The porch enclosure is done!
The lilac bush enclosure is done!
Tulips have been cut down, snow surviving perennials have been redistributed, and new annuals have been planted!
Eric just gave the go ahead to buy additional edge stones to do the hedge!!!!
Hopefully by the end of tommrow that entire section of project list will be done!
Our houses curb appeal has greatly improved!

It's also very nice to come inside and enjoy the lovely cooling breeze by the two new ceiling fans that Eric installed.

things getting done

This has been a busy weekend. It's been a list crossing off kind of weekend. The kind with a few sore muscles to remind you, that you got a lot done.
Well it finally got warm here. I know it's crazy but here it is middle of may and it is the first weekend that the high was above 50. It was actually 85 today. So with this warm weather Eric and i decided that we should look at the ceiling fans while we were at the hardware store. Then wouldn't you know the fans that we had liked before were on clearance. Now priced at $75 from $105 and only three left one of which was the floor model. So we happily bought the last two fans. We hadn't planned on it but it worked out wonderfully. I am enjoying their cooling breeze now.
Then we said to ourselves we had better buy some edging stones before they sell out. We waited too long last year and the store sold out. While Eric was installing fans i put in edging stones around my pond enclosure and i have almost finished the tree enclosure in the front yard. In between trips to the store for additional stones i removed another six feet of vines from the driveway fence. I also filled the newly fixed wheel barrow with drive way dirt twice. I am slowly but surely chipping away at that project list.
We squeezed all this in, in between two birthday parties. Eric's went wonderfully on Friday. Everyone ate lots of food but only the Hawker's braved the cold to watch the whole movie. Then we went to wonderland for a friend's five year old birthday today. Eric and the girl's mini golfed and had a blast.
Well i am tired and dirty and tickled pink about it. Hope your weekend was good too.

birthday plans

Tomorrow is the husband's birthday. Normally he does not allow me to acknowledge his birthday in anyway. I do anyway, but he fights me the whole time. This year he has allowed me to throw him a small, quiet, nothing fancy birthday party and buy him gifts. To say that i am excited would be an understatement, i am bursting at the seams with excited happiness.
So, i have set about putting together a low key get together. It's just going to be some friends and family members. I am making pulled pork sandwiches, with bush's maple cured bacon baked beans, and chips. Eric's mom is making the potato salad and bringing the veggie tray. The food should be great. I even ordered him a star trek cake.
For the entertainment portion of the evening we will be watching our first outdoor movie of the season on the new giant screen that Eric made. Nothing goes better with movies than popcorn and Eric's parents gave him a new stir crazy popcorn popper as an early birthday gift. It makes the best popcorn. I got him these awesome individual popcorn buckets and a bunch of popcorn seasonings too. I bought unauthorized birthday decorations as well. I have those hidden in the basement and I plan to decorate while he is at work tomorrow.
I love my husband so much, they really don't come better than him.

Connecting the dots

The girls are very aware that things come from the store. When my response is not to their liking, example “We do not have any fruit snacks.” I am often told, “then we need to go to the store and buy some.” They also understand that Farmers grow our produce and Ranchers raise our meat. The dots that they have trouble connecting together are that the stores get the produce and meat from the Farmers and Ranchers.
You see we frequent the Farmer’s market, where we buy fresh meat and produce direct from the Farmers and Ranchers. The girls who are very social, ask the farmers and ranchers questions about their items. They understand that the farmers grow/raise their items and sell them at the Farmer's Market. The girls know how much better this fresh food tastes from store bought food; it is a contrast we have talked about a great deal.
The girls have put all this information together and determined that the food in the stores can't possibly come from the Farmers. The girls are completely convinced that the Store being a Store instead of a Farmer just grows less tasty food. I have no idea how to dispel this assumption. I have tried and only strengthened their opinion.
Hopefully our current science lesson: growing our own vegetables, “from seed to table” will help. Only time will tell. At the very least Farmers market season is starting again, the girls may not believe me but i bet they would believe a farmer.

Today was a wonderful day.

Today was a wonderful day. It was so good in fact that it has over flowed in to well i guess today.
I must go to bed but i am so filled with happy bubbly thoughts I am not sure that i will.
Happy mothers day to all of the mothers out there.
Our mothers love us and nurture us in ways that we never really understand until we have children ourselves. Then the enormity of the love they have for us; you finally understand in a fraction of a second. At that one moment that you feel in every fiber of your being that you are a parent.
Thank you mom, i love you

projects

projects that are in the air, started, need to be finished, or otherwise in some state of development. In no particular order.

DRIVEWAY- 1. Gravel driveway 2. removal of dirt for gravel 3. prep area that dirt is to go 4.remove vegetation from fence and near fence 5. apply fabric screen to fence
GARAGE- 1. remove old roof 2.apply new roof 3. paint 4. scrape old paint
WINDOWS- 1. measure, count, determine pieces needed for storm windows 2. price out storm windows 3. buy storm windows 4. install windows
LIGHTING- 1. install new light fixture in dining room 2.install switch in dining room 3. purchase ceiling fan for living room and playroom 4. install fans
KITCHEN- to numerous to list but will name current 5. 1. paint window frames 2.paint window wall 3. fix holes in walls 4. paint existing cabinets brown 5. put new knobs on existing cabinets
FURNACE- no idea what needs to be done but i have two furnaces in my basement. the one installed is before energy ratings existed. the new to us one has a decent energy rating.
GARDEN ENCLOSURES- 1. Edge stones around tree out front 2. Edge stones for porch flower bed 3. edge stones for pond area 4. edge stones for flower bed by lilac bush 5. Edging for hedge in front yard

sunshine

my house is the perfect house for a fat, old, house cat.
The sunshine comes through our 6ft tall windows and pools on the floor. There are several of these large windows in every room of the house. We enjoy the sunlight filling our rooms as long as the sun is up.
Our current cat is not old, fat, or much of a house cat. She prefers to enjoy her sun bathing from the top of a tree. She really only comes inside to say hello, get a drink, a good scratch, and a nap in a lap. Then she is off again to catch those pesky birds and chase squirrels.
Our previous cat was a stately, large, house cat. Every spring as our hardwood floors turn into carmel pools of sunlight, i think of him pondering the day away. He was determined to find the best sun spot in the house. He did not catch birds but he enjoyed watching them while he napped.
I miss my Franklin.

practically perfect in every way

Samantha had her 3 year well child check up today!
She is in the 96% for height at 40.5 inches and 60% for weight at 32.5 lbs. She is very very tall. She has 20/10 vision in both her eyes. She also was able to answer all of the questions, with no trouble at all on the developmental questionnaire for 2-4 year olds.
So she is smart, healthy, tall, and has good vision. All things that this proud mama already knew but it's nice when the medical community confirms it.

plants how they do grow

So my wonderful girls and i, a little while ago went to the store and bought ourselves a jiffy pot green house. We got the large 72 pellet size because the 25 just seemed so small. The girls haggled for quite some time over which seeds to buy. Eventually we left the store with three seed packets. They were short & sweet carrots, super sweet cherry tomatoes, and a kaleidoscope mix of sweet peppers. They had a blast watching the pellets grow and planting the seeds. I felt confident that we would end up with at least 6 viable plants, hopefully two of each. The girls watched and waited and watered when needed and were rewarded with sprouts.
Our jiffy pot green house worked wonders and we had to thin out our plants in all 72 pellets. We even had to re-pot all the tomato and some pepper plants because they were simply too big for the green house. My girls helped pour the soil, dig the holes, place the plants, and water afterwards with the re-potting. All that preschooler help and the little plants look happier than ever. Looking at the 2o pots of tomatoes and peppers, I think we may end up with a few more than 6 plants.
My little science/math lesson is not near so little as i was planning. Good thing we like vegetables.