Scrap is Back!

Picture Courtesy of Joel McCleary Photography (His motto is - "I will take a picture anytime and anywhere I can beg my mom to let me use the camera")

About 3 weeks ago I set up my scrapbook table in the basement. It is great because it is out of the way. I only made a dent in 2 sets of professional photos we had taken since "The Great Scrapbook Hiatus" - but it still feels great.

I am even going to get caught up on ordering the photos I have taken because there is a great special on pictures at Walgreens! I hope to finish getting all the pictures sorted into piles soon. Then things will really start moving. I "cropped" most of my photos as I printed them, so there shouldn't be a need for too much cutting. I produce a very simple product, since I have sooo many pictures to catch up on! Glad I write this blog, because I don't journal very well in my albums. They sure make me smile!

The Garden Master

I love to garden, but this is not a self-titled blog entry.

Here is the Garden-master.
Give this man a roto-tiller and watch him go. Without Ken, I would have a big hodge-podge garden. He knows about spacing and all the rules and regulations behind gardening. It is in his blood and he grew-up with his parents planting an acreage that they have since given up. (Now they just plant in their backyard.)

Our garden requires two big ”thank yous”.

1st to my grad-school friends: The L family! (They lent us the roto-tiller when I mentioned on a walk that we were going to rent one the next day.)

2nd to Pastor Mike at 1st United Methodist Church who is letting us use the space and supplied us with the soaker-hoses to water today! What a nice guy. He said he is just happy that the ground is being productive and that we will be able to continue their Agape garden tradition of supplying fresh veggies to the poor. Since we have more room than we could possibly use and 12 tomato and 12 pepper plants, and hills of every vining thing you could want – it should be easy. We also are growing sweet peas, green beans, radishes and carrots, but not sure about how well they will do yet!

The garden might even make me happier than the completed "girls room" from yesterday (see previous entry). I think I see a connection between productivity and happiness....either that or it was the 10 hours of "solitary" time I was able to enjoy yesterday that refreshed me!

We also have some volunteer tomatoes coming up in the garden. It is like God thought we needed a few more cherry tomatoes!!!! I decided that it would be hard to be a gardener and an atheist!

Blogworthy - The Girls Room

Let the record show - I had approximately 10 hours to myself yesterday and I am not as unproductive as my normal life might imply. (Although it still took me several tries to get the binky-catcher (previously known as Bumper Pad) just right - which made me laugh at myself since there wasn't a distraction in the world when I was doing it.)

My goal was to get some part of my home worthy of posting a picture on the blog.

As you can see I accomplished that goal and my other goal of "the great clothes swap" - in with summer out with winter, deciding what stays for next year (too big or small for this year), what goes to St. Vincent de Paul and what becomes a rag. Let's just say, I am loaded with rags, but also was able to take 3 totes to the basement for storage as well.

RE: the girls room, on the other side of the window there is a 2nd closet and under the window is a "toy box". I am not telling the kids the window seat opens until we get a safety hinge in place :)

Just looking at this room makes me so happy - and motivated to finish the Master bedroom. It is 80% done. Matthew's room just needs a couple of pictures hung and Joel's room is also in the 80% completed range!

Clearly I needed a deadline

1st I want you to be among the first invited to our 4th of July Celebration. (Actually if you are reading this from a distant land, don't come then - come when we can have fun w/out all the others around.) Anyway - last week I started contemplating our first party. When we moved to Indianapolis in the dead of winter, our first party was July 4th and I want to repeat that fun occasion. It sure has helped me "get in gear" with the house.

Now have a small celebration with me - there are no more cardboard boxes filled with things on the top level of my house! All the 18 gallon totes have been emptied or gone through and ready for storage. We actually have 5 EMPTY 18 gallon totes. We haven't had an empty tote since the day Matthew was born - we just keep getting more! (outgrown clothes, outgrown toys, crafts....you get the picture) It won't be until Anna outgrows Carolyn's clothes and Joel outgrows Matthew's that we will start really see the totes flying out the door. We have gotten rid of some baby toys though! The toys are probably the biggest tote hogger, but I want Anna to have the chance to play with the toys before I ditch them. With my lovely storage shelves I can keep the totes under control.

(No I don't have a picture for you re: the celebration above, because although the boxes are empty, I will be honest and say that "tidy" isn't the word to describe the upper level .....I am getting there though. Keep in mind, I have to change seasons, go through the apt. clothes, the storage unit clothes and the clothes that were left at the house in Newburgh for 4 months. I have to decide what will fit next year, what outgrown clothes should be kept, what to send to St. Vincent de Paul and what has become a dust rag. Add to that, it was 52 degrees and VERY windy on Saturday, so it isn't like I can completely ditch all things w/ long sleeves and pants yet!) I know excuses, excuses! Good thing I have a deadline!

Anna's Big Days - May 14th, 2007, 2008, 2009

Anna was loved and adored as soon as her family met her.
Anna sits on the beautiful quilt her Aunt D. made her for her First Birthday.

Anna wears her 1st Birthday Hat, part of her 1st Birthday ensemble, given to her by her Godmother Aunt S.

Anna's real gift is a swing set, but you can't really wrap that! (Ok I could have wrapped it, because it is still in boxes, but I sure couldn't have lifted them.) Hopefully this weekend Anna will be swinging and sliding - 2 of her favorite activities. We found this cute Little People Castle for Anna, so she would have something to open.

My kid's all love the camera and a good Turtle Birthday Cake (see below)!

I am two years old and I had a Turtle Cake for my birthday.

Anna is two years old. When you turn two in our family you get the “famous” Turtle Birthday Cake. After that you can choose your cake theme, but I guess I really liked Matthew’s Turtle Cake and decided then and there that each child should have a Turtle Cake. Relive it with me ok?
Anna is waving to Matthew who is behind me trying to get her to smile!

Joel shared his cake at a Super Bowl party we were invited to attend.

Carolyn celebrated her 2nd birthday our first summer in Newburgh.

Matthew was quoted directly in the title of this post! He shared this cake with his Play-group buddies. (Anna wants to know "what is a play-group?")

Play it Forward

When I was a little girl, my brother Paul and I were outside playing with friends while my mother, sister, Mary, and brother, Joe, created a huge surprise for us in the basement. They made us fabulous playroom! It was like a little house. Obviously I loved it and it left an impression.

When we were house hunting and looking at the house we ended up buying - I loved this little "club house" in the basement. It is the the size of a huge closet under the bay window in the kitchen with a great shape - like a octagon cut in 1/2.

Almost everything in the club-house was a gift from someone, which makes it a very special place.
The Library"After"

"Before"

What's not to LOVE!

I love Mother’s Day. The kids make great things for me at school, my hubby gives me flowers, builds me the storage units I adore and the vegetable garden I will love all summer. (For my birthday gift I asked that he would agree not to use any weed killer in the garden!) We even had better than average Mass behavior!

Here is our "after church and trip to Walmart to get tomato cages" picture. Yes, I did pick out the clothes so we would match for the picture I knew I would get Ken to take!
BTW - unless I close the garage door and carry Anna into the house as soon as I stop the car, she climbs into HER little car (thanks cousin Erin - we love it!)

Of course today – I think about my lovely Mother and Mother-In-Law who were especially fantastic this May during the move in to our home.

I would have selected different pictures, but I can't put my finger on my CDs with my pictures. I know you are all shocked that my "stuff" is in a bit in a disarray!

Let's Get This Garden Started

Steps to starting a garden:
1. Ask everyone you know in Ankeny if they know of any Community Garden plots (since your yard isn’t quite garden suited.)
2. Think it is a lost cause.
3. Thank your lucky stars when J.’s friend connects you with a Master Gardener who connects you with the Des Moines County Extension Service. (J is from Newburgh, her friend in Ankeny).
4. The lady from Extension knows a gardener in Ankeny who has 2 ideas, both of which you have tried without success.
5. Same lady then says, “You know what, our church has a plot that we usually grow food for the poor, but we can’t this year, let me check with our Pastor”. She then calls back and says, “You can use the plot – no rent, free water, just give your extra produce to the poor.” Sounds like a Win/Win to me!
6. Do a Happy Dance (only in your head – you don’t think to do the happy dance until you are driving down the road).
7. That night go see the plot and get plants and seeds. Put some of the seeds into peat pots, leaving some for the kids to do later.
8. The next day – hit the garden (after fixing the garage remote that got stuck on "ON" and drying out the car from the water spill.)
9. Joel is a fantastic helper in the morning. (Anna more of a spectator)

10. The big kids get busy after school.

Not exactly Bon Appetite.

I had planned to make fish for dinner w/ a side of mango, as they go together nicely. The mango is so liked by the pickier eaters in the family that they seem to comment less of the fish, which isn’t their favorite (If you don’t like something, it is okay to say, “it’s not my favorite”, it is not ok to say, “I hate this” or repeatedly say “thumbs down” after your mother has told you to stop.)

Anyway….Ken called to say that his work dinner was changed to tonight and so I decided to change dinner plans. I had wanted to make some Chinese Chicken meatballs. I had seen the recipe on the Weight Watchers sight and it sounded great.

The meatballs were in fact great. See below:
Now, before we get all excited, I need to explain why I took the picture. 1st of all I am very impressed by bloggers who are good cooks and share great recipes. I occasionally would like to do that, except for the fact I am not a good cook and don’t often use a recipe.

That said, I really took the picture because of the irony. It was such a pretty plate - THEN
A. Anna threw her plate off the highchair almost immediately. (in part because she probably wasn’t too hungry because she ate crackers while I tried to make the meatballs, the other part may be explained later)
B. Carolyn had her nose plugged before dinner got to the table. It was hard to argue that there was a smell…..

The smell related to 2 things – Matthew made the dipping sauce for the meatballs (which actually were turkey, not chicken) and it included Fish Sauce. I was going to skip it, but decided since I was at the store anyway I would follow the recipe! Fish Sauce (store bought anyway) smells YUCKY…..this is because its primary ingredient is anchovy….again YUCK. The fish sauce alone probably would not have made the house stink. But I tried to make the meal extra healthy with Chinese Veggies I bought at the store today. You should not be able to mess up frozen veggies, so I will not take the blame - but in the words of Joel “this smells like animal poop”.

Let’s establish the Joel’s favorite foods are not frozen veggies and he has been sent from the table on occasion for his inability to stop criticizing them (see the “thumbs down” comment above). That said….the veggies DID STINK – literally. I wouldn’t say “animal poop”, but I am not too far off when I say that they smelled like a barn. I love Chinese veggies and I could not choke them down…even to be a good role model. I think Matthew probably would have eaten his, if I had, because being my “good eater”, his comment was – “what a stupendous meal” (or something along those lines). Matthew often sees the need to compliment the cook, when the others aren’t being as kind. He did have many meatballs, but everyone’s veggies hit the garbage can. My DH cleaned the kitchen and took out the trash so as to rid the house of the odor!

What NOT to buy! (Unless you like to imagine that you are eating your veggies in a barn.)

Matthew as Michael Faraday

If you don't know who Michael Faraday is (I didn't), you should. He invented the electric motor of course. Matthew did his presentation on Mr. Faraday on Friday May 1st. For months he said, "I want to make an electric generator for my talk." I found a neat science experiment in a book to which Matthew replied, "Mom - that is just a circuit, it doesn't generate electricity." (of course not!) As you know we have been a bit busy, but we (the Royal We, because I am not the engineer in the family) still gave it a try. As you can see Matthew is holding the generator in his hand for his talk. It didn't "exactly" generate anything, but since the last piece didn't arrive in the mail until the April 30th, it was a tall order! Matthew still was able to show his class how the generator was built by Michael and he had the Dynamo flashlight to demonstrate as well (another Faraday invention). He really worked hard on his presentation and I was very proud.

Welcome to the neighborhood.

Last night I heard my husband on the front porch, saying, “I haven’t seen this since my childhood.” Of course I needed to see what was going on! There - on our front porch were four May Day baskets. It warmed my heart so much to have our new neighbor showing such kindness. (Ken said he saw (not sure if he met) who left the baskets.) Since it has been raining most of the time since we moved in, we haven’t even met this neighbor yet! I brought the baskets in last night (because of the rain), but set them back outside today for my children to find when they return home from school. I bet they will love them as much as I did. (and I am not even eating the candy!