le jardin

We have been busy in the yard of the brown house lately. We have cleaned out, pine needled, flowered, and added garden boxes. The garden has been growing most spectacularly thus far. (please don't jinx me for saying that.)  Last year the squirrels ate my tomatoes...except for the cherry tomatoes because we had them growing like wild fire. I have learned alot from messing up in the garden.  Like, peat moss is necessary for plant growth, using epsom salt is great,  having flowers around your garden helps bees to share the love of pollination, having starts of plants does wonders for my patience & wearing flip flops outside while gardening leaves funky tan lines on my feet.  Last year we had 3 garden boxes and this year we have added a few more, with the hopes of building at least one more.  I really like getting my hands dirty (except getting the dirt out from under my finger nails part) and producing the food that we eat.  It is alot of hard work, but i love it.  I do not know if we will produce enough veggies to store, but hopefully we'll have enough of the fruits and veggies to help maintain the stomachs of the Wardlings this summer.

helpful shadows

Since moving in to our house, our dryer has been taking 2 cycles to dry the clothes completely.  We noticed this  and the leak on our ceiling and used our handy dandy shop vac to suck out some of the lent from the vent.  We even had a neighbor come over on Christmas eve to help us suck out the vent.  Some time has passed. When Maylee and Jared came to our house, Clyde was such the sweet husband and had washed loads and loads of laundry and hence the dryer was running. Libby and I heard water dripping and realized that it was coming down hard out of the ceiling. Clyde touched the leak and the ceiling crumbled.  So this:

                                                     lead to this:

which lead to this:

*and yes Jacob is running because the vacuum was so loud.

which looked like this coming out of the vent:

That was only a portion of the gunk that came out of the vent.  (the gunk consisted of composted birds nests and dirt. ) The duct doctor man was very nice and allowed the 3 young Wardlings to help out as much as they wanted and they wanted to help the entire time he was here. They helped haul in the tube, move the dryer, wind the hoses back up, held flashlights, etc etc.  They were his shadows. I would recommend this guy if you needed your ducts cleaned. He was here for over 2 hours cleaning the duct. Now our job will be to scrape the popcorn off the ceiling, patch the ceiling, sand and paint.  Summer vacation jobs. 

terrific joshua

Josh was selected to be a terrific Kid for the month of May for his class.  Even though he knew he was going to an awards ceremony, I still couldn't talk him out of wearing his sweatpants to school.  We love you Buddy for who you are!

Speaking of clothes...Penny dressed herself this morning.  (I had to help her with the sweater because she had the neck part of it around her tummy and the waist part of it around her neck. I am so proud of her for getting herself dressed.)

we were george'd

Yesterday @ the preschool/ church where Penny's speech is held, was a fire drill. Penny heard the alarm, got up and left the building running like Forrest Gump. Even after I called for her(pretty darn loud too) she was gone. When we caught up to her, she was in front of the building, standing with both of her arms up in the air, as if she were in a stick up. Her speech teacher and I both talked to her about the importance of staying with her teacher and listening. All I could see, in my head, was the yellow flash of Penny that ran by me and I instantly thought of the Seinfeld episode where George was in the fire. In hind-sight it was hilarious, not right away mind you, but thinking about it now I still get a giggle.

baby in my tummy

Auntie Maylee and Uncle Jared came last night for a visit.  We all enjoyed a game of charades.  Penny has been so excited to see Maylee's every growing belly.  So excited in fact, that she told us that she had a baby in her tummy and shoved a beanie baby pig down her shirt. She wore it that way for several hours. (And yes, Penny is wearing a curler in her hair. I asked her mid- day to bring me something for her bangs and that is what she brought me. So, i put it in her hair. It really did do the trick of holding back her bangs.)

yard sale!

We got a wild spur up our rears and decided to have a yard sale yesterday. We spent all week getting things together to sell.  I cannot believe that we have collected so much stuff or that we kept so much stuff from our move to the brown house two years ago.  The sale was successful, with folks coming in spurts.  We sold about half that stuff and taking the remaining stuff to the goodwill trailer that sits at our local Food Lion on Saturdays. It was a different sale. Things that I thought would sell and things I thought wouldn't did. I cannot complain though. It felt good to be rid of the extra un-needed things. (looking @ this photo I am in desperate need of a tan. whew those lovely white legs!)

just beachy

To end the EOG week, the teachers @ Clyde's middle school dressed beachy.  This is the stunning outfit Clyde assembled for his day of watching the two versions of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. His students were to compare and contrast the two using a diagram.  His socks have the jolly roger on them...those who do not speak pirate, that would be the skull and crossbones. I would have loved to have had Clyde as a teacher!

strawberry jam

I asked Penny what she wanted to do today and she said, "pick brawberries."  She loves to pick berries. We took the boy wardlings to school and picked another basket of berries.  We had gone yesterday after speech to the blue superstore to get canning jars and sugar. (We saw several of our friends there as well! Good to see you!) There is so much sugar in jam!!  So, today was the day to attempt making jam without my mom's watchful eye.  I think it turned out nicely. We did the cooked jam, hoping to free up space in the freezer. We need all the space we can get for food. We used the left over jam, from my stock pot, for Penny's butter bread with jam on it. She ate 2 pieces, so I can say that it is yummy, as it should be with 7 cups of sugar in it. 7!!

mother's day 2010

Saturday, I spent a good portion of the day at Colfax Ward Building, preparing chicken to go on a spit, in preparation for girls camp.  The idea came to me, when the head hauncho's of camp didn't want to use dutch ovens for the certification for the 1st and 2nd year campers, to cook 2 things outdoors.  In my camp days, we made hobo meals.  Apparently the girls have become snobbish and have refused to eat hobo meals.  I guess I just have this thing that I was raised with..."eat it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without." (I even have a sign that says that over my kitchen sink that my mom painted and at one time hung in her house.)  My assignment was to think outside the hobo meals.  A spit...roasting chicken over a spit would be glorious.  I got the A-ok to do so and even had a man build me a spit.  Fast forward to Saturday...long story short, the fire was beautiful, the spit did not work.  the chickens were way the heck to heavy for the spit to turn.  Even after we removed a good portion of these raw, whole birds, it was too heavy to turn. We tried tying the birds to the rod itself and the hole in the birds were too big and the chicken wouldn't turn. It would have been frustrating had I been alone, but to have 20 twenty flip flopped, gum smacking teen aged girls staring at me and complaining about seeing a whole dead bird, was a bit much.  So the birds were removed, wrapped in foil and laid on the fire to cook.  They did cook and beautifully I might add...it just took for-EVER.  I even cut apart 3 birds to be foiled, hoping that the process would go smoother.  The biggest complaint that I got was how long it took.  Due to the possibility of salmonella and killing someone, I temped every piece to be sure that it was a good 180*.  The head lady said that we just didn't have that type of time @ GC to check every piece.  Oh by golly, we will be making time, that's fo sho.  I will not have sick girls on my watch.

Long story told to just have said, due to the outside fire, I got one raging headache.  Even after coming home and doing our Saturday stuff didn't cure it.  I remember saying before I went to bed, that I was sick with a SPLITTING sinus headache.  Woke up with it as well.  It didn't and hasn't really gone away either and we are now to Thursday.  However, Clyde made me a lovely breakfast and even got the Wardlings dressed to go to church, which left me alone to enjoy mother's day in silence...for a few hours anyway.

I was spoiled above all spoiled this Mother's day...lotions, handmade cards, a ped egg (gross i know, but my heels needed some serious help) and a gadget that I have been wanting for sometime. I love my family! We even made it to my Grandma's house and my parents house for an afternoon of visiting. Penny was funny @ my parents house.  She nagged PopPop until he took her outside to see the 'nay' (horse).  They helped feed the chickens and horse and then Dad and I checked out their garden and got some tips for our garden. Loved seeing all my family who made it to my folks house.

Then we got a few more visitors that evening...Papa and Grammy, along with uncle Rusty came in from the beach of Myrtle.  We loved spending the day with them. Grammy and Penny picked strawberries, while my Dad came here to help work in our garden. Lovely lovely day.

On the first day of the EOG's, Penny crept down to snuggle with Grammy.  I took the boys out for breakfast do our company could actually sleep past 6am.  Penny is such the helper, telling Grammy how to pick the strawberries, and then such the snuggles.  All in all...a super dooper Mother's Day weekend/week...minus the headache. :)

fly away home

This is the last photo of our birdies.  This was taken on Saturday and they flew the coop on Sunday.  Clyde pulled one out for the Wardlings to hold.  The bird tweeted and his/her parents went bazeerk.  Wings up, dive bombing, squawking.  hillarious.

This has been a fun experience. The baby birds grew so fast!  I am so glad that we have more time with our children. 

not the snake

Friday, I got to go with Jacob's class to the Science Center.  I loved spending the day with one of my little men.  We took a tour of the main building and even got to touch a few animals.  (The gal in brown was holding a chinchila.  Way soft. I could see whay people kill rabbits, minks, foxes etc for jackets.)  I refused to touch the snake.  The lizard and hedgehog were adorable.  I draw the line @ snakes.  Jacob was in heaven.  He didn't let go of my hand for the majority of the day.  At one point another girl grabbed my hand to hold and when we got home, Jacob had a bunch of questions for me like, "Why did you let Gracie hold your hand?  Followed with a snarky, jealous... "You're MY mom!"  Then a boy, who has a physical handicap, tripped and fell along the path we walked to get to some pic-i-nic tables.  Our teacher's aid couldn't pick him up due to an injury, so I scooped him up, and carried him until he was ready to walk...just a few minutes.  I got grilled again..."Did you LIKE carrying Travis? Why did you carry HIM? You are MY mom!"

We had a great day...too fun.  Jacob fell asleep @ the dinner table...again. Good times!

we lost another one...

We lost another baby bird.  Survival of the fittest for sure.  Maybe it is just because the nest is too small.  We noticed some ravens flying around...maybe they got one.  Who knows...I still haven't checked for corpses on the ground. The babies have begun to chirp and their eyes have opened.  Their feathers are beginning to come in.

**sniff, sniff

I only see 5 birds in the nest now. There were six a few days ago.  I am hoping that they are standing on one, because i fear that one didn't make it. I haven't been brave enough to check the mulch below for a corpse. The babies are beginning to get a few feathers and more hair on their heads.  They have changed so much already. 

This morning, we had a sparrow that was sitting on my iris plants.  He didn't move.  We figured he was either standing his ground, challenging us, or he was an older sick bird.  Clyde tapped him with the end of an umbrella to get him to fly away. (not hard at all BTW) We weren't sure if he was protecting the babies or a predator.