A little bit o' Irish green....

Marcus' team at work got him THE BEST gift ever!  One of his guys saw/read that Notre Dame was removing their field turf out of the football stadium and replacing it with artificial turf.   Never to miss an opportunity, the University sold pieces of the turf online.  So Marcus' team went in and bought him a 2x5' piece of authentic Notre Dame football stadium turf!  Just because he is such a good boss....

Here he is after prepping the area with soil and compost.

How it arrived.

The finished product!!  Marcus is babying this
little patch of grass, as you can imagine. 

Then Father Juan gave another GREAT gift...
the old license  plate from the MSpS car in
South Bend.  :o)

Mariposa's pancake snacks

That orange-haired girl of mine, she sure loves to be in the kitchen!  In her Easter basket this year she got a kids' cookbook, and we've been trying out some recipes.  She wanted to make these little "waffle sandwiches" for the kids, but we couldn't find mini-waffles so we got mini-pancakes instead.  (Yes, I know, it would be super-easy just to MAKE the mini-pancakes, but I wanted to follow the recipe for her sake.  Ok, and it was easier just to buy the pancakes.)

She made these with love.

yum!

A new bed

Only 5 years in the making...we finally are getting into gear and furnishing our master bedroom the way we want to!  (It's so easy to ignore these types of things.)

Here are some "before" pictures:

view from the bedroom doors
(that lump on the bed is Sedric)

 In the "turret" area we had been limping along with a bookcase and our rocking chair.  I had always meant to make that a sitting area with a couch, lamps, ottoman, etc. but didn't get around to it.  Good thing!  A friend suggested putting the bed in the turret area, but I wasn't really sold on that idea until I also saw the concept in a bedroom design book (thanks, Candice Olson!).  So we decided to go for it.  I pulled all the stuff from the turret area and Marcus got straight to work.

view from the closet door
(boxes are from my current project: sorting
maternity clothes--does anyone really need
four tubs of maternity clothes????)

At this point, I should say something like, "Excuse the mess!" or "The bedroom usually looks better than this!" but let's face it, this is real life, and I have more important things to do than keep my bedroom magazine-perfect.  :o)

view from bedroom doors, facing left
(more of my clothes-sorting project as well)

Bed assembly (with help):

 The finished product:

ta da!

Next in line is sewing some curtains (don't worry, we DO have blinds), looking for "the perfect" duvet cover, adding lamps and bedside tables, and finally filling the sitting area (where the bed used to be) with a couch and other cozy stuff.  We're hoping to wrap all that up in June, and when we do, I'll post an update.

Sedric wasted no time trying out the new bed:

What's cute and has 2400 legs??

...a newly-hatched family of baby spiders!!!

Marketing on a Saturday Morning

This morning we went "marketing" (as my mom calls it).   :o)  We hardly ever go as a whole family but it was my request for this morning, and Marcus was happy to comply.  Right when we got there, we saw some cousins!!

Lukie is looking sharp in his new wolf shirt that we got
him for his birthday.  :o)

 If you want a laugh, read the reviews for this wolf shirt on amazon (The Mountain Three Wolf Moon Short Sleeve Tee).  

The water booth is always a favorite.

Marcus is on a health kick.  That and he needed some
fried pita chips for a poker game tonight.

Next stop was to the car wash.  Sometimes we do this even if the van is clean, just to see Seddy's reaction:

Where did Seddy go?

If we ever can't find Sedric, we need to look no further than one of our tractors....

At least he always puts on his boots and his hat before darting outside.  And he always grabs some keys, too.

"You caught me!"

Marcus trying to convince Sedric to come
back inside....or at least to the fenced-in
back yard.

A view of our vegetable garden

(My dad's favorite kind of post!!)

The weather has been great, and with school on hold I have been able to spend some time in the garden.  There is nothing better than taking a patch of freshly-tilled soil and creating and structuring the "perfect" garden (for the current year, at least).  This is my favorite part of gardening!

garden entrance: come on in!

perennials (and some annuals) along the garage wall...
I need to mulch all of it once I'm done planting.
(see the peas creeping up on the very left)

I got a peony blossom this year!!!

This is a perfect snapshot of my garden: a little bit of weeds,
a little bit of order, and a little bit of rogue over-wintering
plants that I just can't BEAR to pull out despite their poor
choice of location.  (bachelor buttons behind the watering can,
and snapdragons in the tomato patch)

My newly created "hot and cold" bed
(I put cabbage right next to the eggplant,
peppers, and basil.  Whatever.)

Gemma heard that I wanted to plant eggplant, so she helped.
I'll hate to tell her that she planted it in the aisle way.  :o(

     Let me pause here and tell you how amazed I am at my children.  First, Gemma.  I had just structured the above bed, and told her about the plan for eggplants, and she immediately brought over an eggplant start.  How many 4-year-olds even know what an eggplant plant looks like??? :o)  Then I had to leave and chase after Sedric.  When I got back out to the garden, I found that she actually planted, by herself, the eggplant.  She dug the hole, gently took the plant out of the little pot, and even amended the soil with lime and bonemeal.  She is amazing.  I think I'll let her take over from here.
    Next, James.  He spent an hour out with me, adding compost to all my newly-planted annual flowers and some veggies.  Then he watered them all!!  He is a hard worker, and always wants to be helpful.  I think he deserves a trip to Panda Express for some Orange Chicken.

One bed left to plant.  I think I'll do all seeds in this one.
Zinnia, beets, wax beans, lettuce, carrots, green onions.

Still lots of work left to do.  This area in the back couldn't be tilled because I wanted to save an over-wintering mum (I think I have a problem) so I have to hand-weed it:

Some transplanted fall aster and daisy, and my Sweet
William that came back from last year and is flowering
this year.  Will plant scarlet runner beans on the fence.

Some of my tomatoes.  I think I have about
20 in the garden, and the rest will have to go
in the "auxiliary garden" near the barn.

So much to do, so many plans and dreams for my garden and landscaping.  Good thing we have a long weekend ahead of us!  Looking forward to a lot of time outside, and a lot of strawberry shortcake....

Cousin Lukie's birthday party

Happy Birthday, Lukie!!

An Evening Out (as a single mom)

Last week we had a day that ended with a full evening of errands and obligations that just had to happen despite my single-mom status (Marcus on a trip).  (Normally when Marcus is gone, I try to stay close to home with only a few short, manageable trips into town.)

It started in the early afternoon when I took Mariposa in for her Little Flowers group.  Then at 4pm I loaded everyone else up and drove back into town to pick her up.

First stop of the evening: Costco!

"Brave" on the TVs...I was tempted to spend
the evening here and enjoy the occupied kids....

Good thing we kept going: they had candy samples!!  Wow!

 After Costco I drove to Burgerville to pick up some dinner.  Cheeseburgers and fries for all.  We then stopped at one of our favorite parks for a picnic, complete with Kool-Aid that I brought from home.  Now that is a special treat!

 And then finally to our last item for the evening.  We had a 7pm rehearsal for the kids to sing a song at Sunday's Mass, which was First Holy Eucharist weekend.  They sang "Seek Ye First." 

Bunny took the lead on guitar and vocals.

After the rehearsal we stayed on campus and played on the playground with cousins and friends.  I know it was well past 8pm when we left for home!  It was a long evening, and being a single mom makes it even longer since I was on my own not only during the events, but also before and after.  At home I still had an hour's worth of work in front of me.  But we had a great time so it was all worth it.  :o)