In Ohio

We arrived in Ohio early last evening.

There is something so comforting about being in the state of one’s birth. Although I may never live there again, it is still ‘home’.  There was a mild temptation to get out and kiss the ground, however I had a destination.

I was on my way to my Aunt Karen and Uncle Roy’s house – another ‘home’.

Countless hours have been spent around this table sharing dreams, heartaches, and joys over a cup of coffee and cream cheese coffee cake. I love this place. I love my family, and am so thankful that I have this opportunity to visit them. God has blessed me beyond comprehension!

Tonight, I will be able to see quite a few other family members.  I can’t wait!

Road Trip!

UPDATE*****

We have now made it to St. Joe, MO.

We are at Burger King having a ‘light snack?’  to hold us off until we reach IL.

I have been providing hours of entertainment for my sweet daughter.  We have been playing “Guess the music artist”  with CD’s  My usual guesses are Skillet, Hawk Nelson, or Newsboys.  Unfortunately, most of my answers have been wrong, much to the amusement of Shan.

 

We only have about 2 more hours of traveling to do tonight.  And for those of you who are wondering….. no, I have not been pulled over.  I’ve been a very good girl.

 

Shannon and I left this morning to go on an all-girl road trip. We are headed to Ohio to visit our family. Friday night all the girls in the family are getting together at a bed and breakfast in Springfield, OH.  Tonight, we will be spending the night at our friends’ house in IL. I will take pics of where we are on our road trip and post them every time we stop and have access to WiFi.

Right now, we are in Norton, KS at McDonald’s.

We are having so much fun together!

Shan did ask if I would take a picture if I was pulled over.  I don’t plan on getting pulled over, but if I do, yep, I probably will document.

Stay tuned for updates.

Blessed

For those of you who were scratching your head in confusion about yesterday’s post, let me just say that I am very blessed to have a mother-in-law with whom I can joke, tease, and basically give a rough way to go just for the fun of it.

I love you, Mom!

When I get back from running errands and picking up my car from getting new front tires, I will finish my post from the other day.

Dear Mom R.

After much contemplation, I decided against asking UPS to ship you some  yak poo  fertilizer. However, I know this will seriously disappoint you, so I decided to take a picture of the  yak poo slurry  fertilizer so you will not miss out on the experience.

Love you! 

Glad I didn’t plant my tomatoes today…

After my meeting this morning, I was going to come home and plant my tomatoes (finally!).  I’ve been wanting to get them in the ground for over a week, but life has been a bit inconsistent schedule wise.  Such is life in the parsonage.

So, I made lunch - chili and cinnamon rolls – changed into my gardening garb, and went outside.  I was sidetracked by a person in the community driving by and talking. By the time our conversation was over, a storm had moved in. Five minutes later…

hail was pelting the ground (and my face).  I think it would have destroyed the tomatoes, had I planted them.

I have been busy with the yard, however.

I have cleared the weeds out of part of the front yard so it can be seeded with grass.

I have also edged more of the sidewalk. I have been edging with a shovel as we do not have an edger.  It’s kind of fun, actually.

But I still have a bit more to go before it’s finished.

This picture is of the east side of the house.  I want to edge, but I’m wondering how much of the sidewalk is even still under the grass and weeds.

I guess I will eventually find out.

I really, really, really need to get the rest of my garden in before Wednesday.  I’ll tell you why tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday, May 16th

Yesterday was such fun!

After the kids had guitar lessons, and after I had to go all the way back home because I forgot the checkbook , we went to one of my favorite places: Common Scents.

It is a nursery, and I could spend hours there!

They have beautiful flowers,

Extremely healthy veggies, many of which are heirloom.  This is Tim’s favorite greenhouse building.

Ahhhh, can’t you just smell the flowers?

I did take a few home with me.

Although, not as many as I would have liked.  I am going to surround the petunias in the black pots with Vinca vine.  I will probably have to go to another nursery to find smaller pots of them, as Common Scents only had large (and expensive) pots left.  I think I’ll need 8-12  total to do what I want.

Shannon also picked out some Alyssum with which to edge her flower bed. And I picked up some spray that is supposed to repel cats and all other types of creatures from the garden.

I sprayed Shan’s flower bed (haven’t planted anything in there yet) to see how it works.  It does have a very peculiar odor.

After planting my flowers and going to vote, we headed over to our friends’ house. They are the pastors of the Methodist Church, and unfortunately, they are being moved to another church 5 hours away.

We grilled out.  After we ate, they rode over to their polling place and I joined them.

I think I want one.

We ended the evening roasting gigantic chocolate marshmallows over the dying coals.

I don’t think I have ever seen marshmallows so large. Even Tim had a difficult time fitting one into his mouth.

However, the kids managed to down two of them with no problem.

It was a great evening, but we pulled up into the driveway just in time to witness a cat walking through the flower bed I had just sprayed with the repellant. Hmmmmm, I’m hoping it’s just because I didn’t spray enough on.

Mother’s Day

Good Monday Morning!

I hope all of you mamas had a wonderful Mother’s Day.  I did. But I have to admit that I didn’t want to get out of bed yesterday morning. It seemed like a Monday to me. The day before, I had given the Baccalaureate Message at our local high school graduation, and then we watched a NASCAR race that afternoon, so my body thought, “Hmmmm, we already had church service and already watched the race….. must have been a Sunday.”   Nope.   After a difficult time of convincing my body to get in the upright and forward moving position, the day got off to a great start.

After lunch, Tim and the kids gave me a Mother’s Day gift:

A soaker hose for my garden.  Ahhhh, they know how to touch my heart.  I love practical gifts. However, I’m thinking that the cashier who checked my hubby out at the store was a bit skeptical.  He cautioned Tim on buying practical gifts - especially those gifts that could be used against him, like a skillet.   The cashier then thought he figured my husband out;  he pointed out that this would come in handy for Tim when he has to water my garden while I’m gone. 

Actually, I’m thinking about getting a few more and running them all through the garden, placing them under the straw. (I’ll post pics later)  I just hope I have enough water pressure to reach the west garden.

And speaking of my garden, I need to get out there and get some work done before I go over to a friend’s house later this morning.

Correction of the correction…..

I was correct!  It should have been ‘homeschool’ and not ‘homeschooled’ as my children tried to tell me.

HA!  The teacher WAS right after all…   

Last Track Meet

Yesterday was the kids’ last track meet, and last public school sports activity.

Shannon competed in the triple jump,

and Joel competed in the 100 dash.

After watching her brother compete,

Shan found out that she was going to be put in for another runner in the 1×4 relay.

 

Shannon had also competed in the long jump, 100 dash, and 200 dash in previous track meets, and Joel had participated in the long jump and 200 dash as well. However, this was for the finals, and they could only compete in the events that they had placed in the top 3.  Joel could have also competed in the 200′ dash at the finals, but he declined so another student would have a chance to compete.

Those of you who know me well are probably wondering where my children may have gotten their ability to run so well.  It certainly was NOT from me.  Remember, I run like a chicken.  Actually, my hubby is quite the fast runner.  I don’t even try to keep up. LOL

My Garden… and other various corrections

After reading my previous post, my children informed me of some corrections that need to be made.

1. It was Shannon’s friend and Joel that scaled the silo and did school work at the top.  Shannon did not make it to the top.

2. It should be ‘homeschooled’ instead of ‘homeschool’.    (yes, the English teacher made a mistake.   and the student caught it )

Ahem.  Now that the corrections are out of the way, I want to show you how my garden is coming along.

On Tuesday, an angel with a tiller came for a visit.

Not only did he till both gardens…

(isn’t the dirt beautiful!)

he also tilled up a flower bed in front of the bedroom windows.

Today, I thought I would work a little in the flower bed, and then I decided to reclaim our side-walk and concrete blocks from the weeds.

Before:

I did not get a wide-angle, but just imagine the whole front yard and front sidewalk looking exactly like this.

And after:

I still have quite a bit of sidewalk yet to reclaim.   I am thinking about planting some very small flowers inside the concrete blocks. Any suggestions as to what I should plant?

I am also going to plant petunias in these:

I would LOVE to plant hydrangea, but I don’t think that will be able to happen this year. Maybe next year.

And, today, for my birthday, Tim and the kids gave me a new garden flag.

I will update you all on the progress of both the veggie garden and the flower gardens. Tomorrow, I will try to get the garden raked out so we can plant Shan’s strawberries, and I can get a bunch of other veggies going. I have already planted some onions and radishes.  I had planted some carrots as well, but one of our ornery cats wallowed in them.   Seriously, his cuteness is his only saving grace.