Diggin' It and Not So Much Diggin' It

Growing up, my mother always, always, always had a garden planted in our yard. And she didn't mess around. Just about every square inch of our yard was covered with flowers and the whole back corner became a huge vegetable garden. The same is true for her now, even with the small yard of her townhouse. She's always given me great advice about what plants I can put in certain places in my own yard. When it was just Mark and I, we didn't really ever grow a vegetable garden. Now with the kids being at that perfect age, I put in a new veg bed last year. It was late to start though and we didn't get much to speak of.
This year was different. I got the bed cleared out, soil turned over, and revamped  my plan as to what I wanted to put where. Adam was excited to try some new things; Lucy just wanted in on it! So now we've got ourselves a nice little vegetable garden that we hope to be able to eat from this year.
Adam chose beans (I bought the bush variety to save space) and brussels sprouts (yes! he really did!) and carrots. Lucy just wanted sunflowers because they look happy. And then she thought we should plant morning glories as well. We also chose a bush cucumber and green peppers. Tomatoes always are fun, but I decided to put them in pots this year. They already have flowers and they are getting bigger. We're diggin' it. It's fun to see our seeds come up, our plants get bigger and taller, our flowers bloom but then....

it's time to WEED.  I'm pretty sure that by now our mosquitoes actually are immune to bug spray and are beginning to thrive on what should in fact kill them. I filled an entire lawn bag with thistle weeds, stray grass, foreign green stuff and more thistle. Apparently our neighbor enjoys filling her bird feeders with thistle seed for the finches. Lovely for the birds, not so much for  my garden.  It is my least favorite part of gardening, but most rewarding after it's all done and the flower beds look beautiful again. But for now...
my aching back, legs, arms. Mosquito bites and all.

Bring on Summer!

So pathetic that I haven't blogged anything since Easter! But that's what happens. Easter, then craziness at work and school until school is out. But now we've ended Adam's 1st grade year, Lucy has completed her first year at a real preschool that she loves, and I have finished my 10th year teaching. After spending a very long week in meetings and packing up the classroom for a move downstairs, the kids were very happy to hear that SUMMER HAS NOW BEGUN!  Mark and I were so happy about how they were behaving when I was trying to pack that we took them to dinner and then on to Kung Fu Panda 2. The great thing was this also began Mark's 4 day weekend. We packed this weekend with so much! We took our first visit to Morton Arboretum and spent most of the day in their Children's Garden. So beautiful! See the picture above: Toad Nursery! They are playing with tadpoles, and looking for ones with and without legs. Great day! We also spent a day at Fermilab in their prairie stations. Raptors, prairie hunts, insect sweeps and pond exploring. Sunday brought church and Sunday school, refocusing. Monday was spent at the Brookfield Zoo with great friends. Beautiful weather and so much fun watching the kids play with each other. Today I was able to secure our wonderful & reliable babysitter so the kids could stay home and hang out. and I could enjoy a luncheon with the girls at Laura's house. Megan's home from Brazil (and on her way to India!), Courtney is moving to Wisconsin, Jez brought baby Ruth and baby #2 on the way. So great to see all of Laura's new projects and how lovely her home looks after all her hard work. Just a wonderful summer already after a rough end to the school year. So...bring on summer I say. It has started out perfectly!!

Easter Baskets

Last weekend was the great Easter Basket weekend. Meaning, time for me as a parent to FILL the baskets, time for the kids to EMPTY the baskets, time for Mom to CLEAN UP AFTER the baskets.  After an insane week at home and school, it was Friday night and  I still hadn't shopped for the bunny's treats. Mark saw a commercial for Walgreen's and sends me on my way; saving me an hour just for the driving back and forth to Target or Walmart, as well as the indecision that would come in to play in a bigger store. Problem solved, and I was back in less than an hour and very pleased with my treat purchases. I remember being a kid and finding my own baskets. They were simple metal sand pails filled with jellybeans and chocolate eggs, and of course a chocolate bunny! My siblings and I did not have permanent baskets that we put out each year as we did with Christmas stockings. As we got a little older, Mom added bubbles or chalk, but it remained simple. I'm not sure when Easter Baskets became a huge production. When they became bigger than life, Christmas stockings revisited, commercialized.. I found myself sucked into that last year, and swore to "bring it down a notch" this year. I managed to do that, but barely. The stores don't help me in my quest for simplification!!!  My kids do have Pottery Barn personalized Easter baskets, I confess. But I plan to keep it simple after my first few years of going overboard. Because really in the end....it's all about the jellybeans and the chocolate bunny you eat ears first. :)

Planets are Cool. And Hot.

As is our usual custom, my family has dinner together and breaks down the day. This week both of our kids were looking forward to being back at school after a long Easter weekend. Lucy has been out for over a week due to strep throat and high fever; Adam was just getting a little stir crazy! Adam shared about meal worms and caterpillars joining their classroom, the upcoming Open House at school, his great lunch, and the book fair in the library. Then Lucy started sharing what she was doing at preschool. Oh boy. Keep in mind she is 4 years old....

"We are learning about space this week!  Did you know that there are planets that look like circles in the space? There are 9 planets. 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9. See? I can count them on my hands! There are 3 cold planets because they are far, far away from the Sun. There are 3 hot planets because they are very close to the Sun. WE live on the planet called Earth. ALL of the planets are "coooooool" though! (thumbs up) Did you know that stars are not planets? Did you know that the Sun is a star? There is even a planet called Pluto, like Mickey's dog, and it's a cold planet because it's far, far away from the sun. Can I have pudding now?"

I'm pretty sure the rocket ship she made today will not last as long as my memory of her face lighting up as she told me this story. Amazing!

Spring Break

We are back to school on Monday after a week of spring break. Thinking back, spring break has never meant crazy, summer-like beach vacations for me. Traditionally, I always spent spring break working...even in college! Part of me had hoped to be able to go away for a few days with my family, maybe taking in a hotel pool or waterpark, but that was not to be. What WAS to be? Home projects, cleaning and sorting, reorganizing (which means first tearing everything apart), and hanging out. The hanging out part was not totally sitting around really. The kids and I explored Naperville (and Downer's Grove accidentally) and found some great cupcakes at Sugar Monkeys. We spent some time with  my grandma who is about to be 92 years old in May. We baked cookies together and colored. Mark also took a day off to spend with us and we took in Brookfield Zoo. What a great day there! I half expected it to be packed with kids off of school, but it was pleasantly empty and a sunny day. It was a perfect, perfect family day. The last of these days have been spent getting haircuts, scheduling doctor and dentist appointments, and grocery shopping. After all, we're back to school on Monday and that means no more restuarants....spring break is over and it's time to pack lunches and eat dinners at home again!

The Things That Entertain Us

This is my son Adam.

And this is my brother-in-law Pat.
As you can see, sometimes we just find that 1 thing that gets us acting a bit silly, and it gets  passed around. I love that in these pictures Adam's face is full of pride, Pat is trying to keep a straight face with a crooked mustache (that looks suspiciously like the mustache he really used to have) and DEE's face is full of pride and admiration for her dear, darling husband. Our family has many objects that tend to get passed around like this. We have a set of Billy Bob teeth, a Kaneland girls' sports team poster,  several mini-Barbies and a set of wire-cutters (that aren't used to cut wires but that's enough about that one). I love that something that costs nothing or next to nothing can be passed around our family and provide days, months, years of entertainment and laughter. And clearly...priceless photographs!

That Robin

Along with many others, I've been experiencing some "winter blues" and general crabbiness at the recent cold, wet, windy weather we've been having. February is a yucky month that is usually still like winter. Now that it's March I can feel the hope of Spring around the corner. I've been enjoying the mornings that are sunny, and have even had a few days that I had to put my sunglasses on while I'm driving to/from work. I went to the mailbox when I got home last week and spotted some very determined daffodils working their way up, and some equally ambition tulips along the sidewalk flower beds. Hope began to stir! Then of course the stores are filling up with St. Patrick's Day green and Easter bunnies. But it was this weekend while driving here and there that I saw that true sign of Spring...that robin! As we made another trip to Lowe's this afternoon (that's another blog entry) it seemed like I saw that robin everywhere I looked. And I guess that's the point. That hope I was needing, would have been there sooner perhaps if I had just taken the time to look for it. As soon as I was open to looking for it, I saw it everywhere.