I am not so good at blogging....I think about it sometimes, but mostly don't do anything about it.

This past weekend, John started replacing my old cedar garden boxes with larger cinderblock boxes. I had mapped out where I wanted them to go, and even started one wall, but it took me hours! When John started leveling the same two walls I had trenched out, it took him two hours to finish them....sometimes I think it's not fair that he has the brawn... But I feel the love!

I now have two new boxes and an extra 20sf to garden in!

My original intent was to do some square foot gardening, but I just came to the realization that my beds are way too deep and filled with normal soil.

I was so excited to have them finished, I started planting before they were completely full. ( I need more peat moss, vermiculite and compost to get the soil mix correct. It can be done, but it sets me back a few days...) Two nights ago I found myself in the garden at 5:30 planting strawberries. Thankfully, it was a full moon cause it got dark fast!

A Tale of Two Eggs

I know, I know, enough with the chicken stories already!
Too late!
I had four birds in my coop: three hens and a rooster. The rooster didn't crow, which was lucky for him because I would have had to take care of him. (And by 'take care' I mean 'get rid of'. I did not want to deal with chicks either!
In January we were out of town and I got a text message from Ben saying the rooster was dead. I think he was hen-pecked.
In February I found another hen was dead in the coop as well.
That left me with a young hen and an old hen. The old hen stopped laying eggs in November and the young hen didn't start laying until about three weeks ago. (With my fist set of birds I tracked each and every egg. This time around, I'm more generalized with the information.)
This left me wondering what to do with a hen that doesn't lay any more. I was just about to send her to the wetlands to become certain coyote food, when she started producing. She must have known!
So while I'm not getting two eggs a day this time around, at least I'm getting eggs!
Yippee! (Oh, the things that make me happy.)
(Does this mean the Easter Bunny stops by frequently?)

Savanah

This child gets the most attention, because I spend the most time with her. I don't know if that is a curse or a blessing for her, but I sure enjoy it!
She decided to make a skirt for a Personal Progress Project. I helped with the zipper, but she sewed everything else.
It wouldn't be true Savanah style if there wasn't some playing along the way.

Nicely done!

Like Father, Like Daughter

I had a bit of, "Oh my gosh, I'm like my dad!" this past Monday. It wasn't all my doing, but as I was driving to the post office on Monday night at 10:00, I realized that Dad was just about to do the same thing in Utah.
Actually, John and I decided it was more advantageous to claim our two oldest offspring this year for tax purposes. Then, we waited for our returns to come back so we could pay what they owed. Therefore, it was Monday, April 18th at around 3:00pm when John told me the taxes were ready to be filed. I remembered around 9:00pm that I had to write some checks and take them to the post office! (OOOPS!)
I knew that I have seen news stories about all the people who wait to file until the 12th hour, so I figured our post office would be open. Wrong!
The closest post office with extended hours was 30 miles away. Okay, so we could either file electronically and pay an extra $50, or I could spend an hour and drive. I opted to drive.
It was pretty cool once I got the the West Sacramento office; I drove past a worker with a collection box and dropped it in and drove away. Nice!
Next year....

KOHL'S, expect great facial expressions

Savanah, with all her artistic intelligence, came up with this play on the Kohl's original tag line: expect great things.
She then added some original artwork: great facial expressions. You can see them in the picture; a couple of mother-daughter combinations. I hope you can actually see them! They tickled my funny-bone!

Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles...

About two years ago, I noticed that one of my marquis on my wedding band was loose. I didn't want to spend $200 to get it fixed; that's what a very pushy salesman told me it would cost to fix the ring, so I got a silver band and wore it in place of my wedding ring.
Anyway, mid-March of this year, I finally decided it was time to clean out the chicken coop from the winter yuck. When it was all said and done...nice and shiny... I took my gloves off and went into the house where I discovered that my loose diamond was missing! For some reason, I had put my wedding band on that morning and forgotten that I was wearing it. Sadness! John was pretty unperturbed when I told him I'd lost it. He just said it was time for a larger diamond. The problem was that it wasn't the center diamond that I'd lost!
I looked through the fingers of the glove and around the coop a little. I half-heartedly prayed that I'd find it if I could at all. Then I decided that the stone was gone for good.
On Tuesday of this week (April 19, 2011) I was paying bills and pulled my checkbook out of my wallet and I found a very small shiny object resting on top of my checkbook! My diamond! This checkbook has come out for Utah, tithing, and a few other things. It's a miracle I didn't lose it somewhere really strange.
So, now my ring is put back together. I went to a different jeweler and they only charged me $115 for the repairs. Whoot whoot!

Christmas Day!

Our kids are now old enough that they let us sleep in until about 9:00 on Christmas morning. I like it! Ben told me at lunch on Thursday that Christmas just isn't as magical now as it was when he was younger. I agree! There's something about having young kids around, so excited for everything to happen that makes the time of year wonderful.
Nana, Papaw, and Richard got here just before 9:00 and we woke the kids up.
Tessa got a new bike and couldn't have been more excited. Savanah was surprised with...I don't know what, she pretty much knew everything she was getting. Ben was the same, except we got a tool box for his truck so he can store things back there without them getting wet in the rain. He didn't know about that.
After presents, we ate gingerbread pancakes with buttermilk syrup. (Thanks to Lori for the recipe, it was a hit!)


Then, we finished making a turkey dinner for a group of homeless people in Placerville and took it up the hill. Well, in reality, the family took it up the hill. I stayed home and finished our own turkey dinner. (No wonder I was tired at the end of the day! I fed 40 people on my own!)
The missionaries came for dinner at 2:00, then called their families. That was fun to be on the giving end of those phone calls. I loved being on the receiving end while Ben was in Mexico!
Tessa had friends to see and left at 1:30, so she missed dinner with the family. Someday, she'll need us....
It was a wonderful day! I did worry about Barbara, who had trouble breathing while she was here. Pleurisy? It's awful!