Smaller Moments

Beyond the drama that has been going on lately.... some sweet normal life stuff is still happening and keeping me afloat I might add.

 Like a bunch of rhubarb from our neighbor Gary.

 A plain lunch made fun.

 Moments of sidewalk chalk and bubbles.

 Hugs and smiles from this guy. 

 Our neighborhood brimming with blooming trees and plants.

And the morning task of watering our flowers.  It secures my day to my sanity.  No matter where we are running or how large my to do list.....the 30 to 45 minutes it takes me to water my plants and flowers makes my day calmer... maybe its the vitamin D.  Either way its helpful!

A Big Moment

 Nathan went to Preschool this past year at a little Lutheran Preschool.  

Nathan really had a great year.  His immune system was tested.... he learned a lot and he found his first best buddy.

I really wasn't planning to send him to preschool but I'm so glad I did. 

Tuesday was his last day of school.  Last night was his preschool graduation.

 They recited poems and sang songs.  There was a photo slide show of all the fun stuff they did.

 Then they graduated.  

 I was pretty emotional about the whole thing.  I just cannot believe how quickly time passes.  

Nate said goodbye to his first love.

And his best buddy.

 

..and to his two teachers.  

What a great year it has been!  Now we will have a fun summer before Kindergarten begins!!

Last Weekend

 This past weekend was quite eventful over here.  On Saturday we went to a birthday party for  Nate's friend Tori.  It was at Chuck E Cheese.  Which is right next door to a quilt shop I commonly drag Nate to.  He often asks... 'can we go to the place with the rat.... you know where a kid can be a kid', because Nate can remember nearly every tv commercial slogan.  (Like recently while I was zipping his coat and he told me, Mom, if you aren't whitening you're yellowing)

I always turn him down.  

 SO lucky him we went to the place where a kid can be a kid.  Then we headed home to do some yard work.  

Then we ended up spending the rest of our Saturday here.... at the hospital.  

 Because Dave nearly took his finger off tinkering with the lawn mower.  Like bones and tendons and shit were cut.   

So Nate and I spent HOURS in hospital waiting rooms.  The ER had Disney Jr on so Nate was happy.  Then once they took Dave to surgery we moved to a nicer waiting room where we could watch what we wanted and so we watched the NASCAR Race.  

We had dinner in the cafeteria which made Nathan really excited.   

After Dave was out of surgery and they moved him to his room we checked on him, then headed home.  It was after ten and we were pooped.  

 We went to visit Dave on Sunday for awhile.

After twenty four hours of IV antibiotic they let Dave come home.  It was late on Sunday night.  

So with all of that excitement we started this very busy week.  I'll post soon about our big day today! 

PS  watch your shit around things with blades people.  

Our Doing Dial Has Been Cranked Up

 It appears spring has arrived. Our ten day forecast has been good for the past week so we have been busting our humps.  I can't say how many hours we have spent at home improvement stores....

 We spent a small fortune at the greenhouse last weekend.  

And if we weren't at church, Lowe's  or the greenhouse we were at home in the dirt.  Working.  Sweating. Cursing(me).  

We bought some dwarf trees for our front bed.  This bed had unkept roses when we moved in.  All of the neighbors we have spoken to said it was good we just ripped them out.  

When we moved in.

Earlier this spring.

Sunday

Monday-  I added rock around the trees leaving room to plant flowers.  I want to do white asylum in the front and along the house I'm hoping I can plant my cocks comb.  That empty square there is where I planted my moonflower.  I'm hoping I can get it to grow up onto something so it looks a little more tame than they naturally grow.  

 Besides the front bed I planted this pretty corkscrew grass in my driveway containers.  Last year I had a moss rose in these and they did so well in the heat so I'm going to hunt for those again this year.  I think they will look pretty in front of this funky grass. 

 I also planted some hanging baskets for the front porch.  I need to get hooks though.  Maybe today I'll have time to stop by menards.  

 I planted some hanging baskets for the backyard also.  Its kinda shady back there.  

 I put in some Hostas, and my bleeding heart. 

 And finally I planted my peas yesterday, and while I was at it I did the carrots, spinach and lettuce.  After Gary asked if I had actually spent money on that corkscrew grass he told me I should already have my peas coming up.  So I'm a little behind.  Dave planted some rhubarb too... he talks about it all the time.  Don't bring it up with him.... he isn't rational.  

So things are looking better around here.  At-least in the front of the house.... we still have GIANT dirt patches in the backyard.  Sod soon I hope.   

Until then you'll find me out front watering every morning, Gary says you have to water trees for three years in South Dakota..... 

Looking Back

Lately I've been encouraging a couple of friends to start and keep a blog.  I think its an amazing way to keep track of what has happened in your life.  Things you forget!  Things that let you see the big picture of why you are so lucky and how amazing your life is.  At-least that is what my blog does for me.  SO I thought just to prove this point I would look back at the first week of May for the past several years as I've kept a blog. ahhhh memories.    

 2006 I was blogging about going to the Hirosaki Cherry Blossom Festival in Aomori, Japan.  

 2007 I was posting a recap of our week long trip to Tokyo with Sean and Sandy.  

 2008 I had posted about how the weather had been really nice and we had taken Nate to walk along the gorge in Towada.  I also wrote about how excited I was that we were traveling to the states in a few weeks, and I mentioned how Nate had been sleeping in his own room and that I was sleeping better.  

 2009 We had moved to New Mexico and I wrote about it being hot and how I had turned on a twirly sprinkler for Nathan to run through... He was 15 months in this photo. 

 2010 I had only posted once in May and I wrote about us putting in a garden.  There wasn't another post until August.  I believe the reason was because I had been posting quilt things on our family blog and then I decided to start a quilting blog and I wasn't sure what do do about our family page.   I picked it up in August when I switched our family blog to blogger and started with the 'moment of the week' and blogged pretty regularly after that.....

 2011 We had moved to South Dakota and I blogged about Nate getting over a fever, about needed a mammogram/biopsy, about getting my beautiful 10th anniversary ring early because Dave was getting ready to deploy, I mentioned my jade plant and I talked about the new recipes I had tried since it was our 'meatless may' adventure.  

2012 I blogged about our cowboy week, I had put together a little week of preschool activities that were themed around cowboys.  It was a big hit!

It was really fun to look back!   

First Steps

We have started working in the yard, getting it ready.  

 Last weekend it was nice out.  We cleaned up the wood chips we laid on the dirt patch last fall to keep the muddy paws from killing me.  They served their purpose.  Dave also had to cut down the stump. 

 After payday we went and got the first of many hauls from Lowe's.  More compost for the garden, 

Ironite for things that are yellow, Gypsum to try to aerate the yard a bit before we seed, topsoil for misc. reasons, fertilizer, and the lawn patch stuff for our small places that need help.  We bought posts and garden fence, a spreader, and I bought some flowerbed borders.  I also picked up a bleeding heart and some rhubarb.  So.  We've got crap to do. 

 Dave spread the gypsum, and ironite on the lawn.  He will do the fertilizer in about a week. Then added three bags of compost to the garden.

 To get Bon ready for the warm months we had her shaved.  She is a happy lean looking pup.  She looks so fit!

 Next we put the fence up around our garden.... Our dogs LOVE laying in dirt on a sunny day.  So this hopefully going to keep Bonnie out.  We know Anna will stay out now.... and we know Bon could jump right over the fence if she wanted to, so we are just going to hope she doesn't want to anymore now that we have put up this fence.  

We also marked out our grid for the garden.  I found this really great garden planner.  When you 'plan your own' is asks the size of your garden then it makes a grid.  You tell it what you want to grow and it shows you how many plants of that vegetable can go into it's square foot spot.  I'll be planting my peas and spinach soon!  

Hope you have thawed out and are planning your garden!  

p.s.  Still no mantis nymphs   But I have secured a food source!