Frances' First Mother's Day

We stopped by to see Frances after school today and took her some gifts for Mother's Day. She was very surprised and very happy to see us.  She said she has never been celebrated on Mother's Day before bevause she never had children. Silly Frances, you don't habe to bear children to be a mother. We celebrated her I thanked her for her love and friendship to my children.  

Corbin asked, "but what about your family?" and she answered that she doesn't have a family but she came from a wonderful mother that she misses very  much. She told us about her own mother, Nellie Irene. She told us about quilting with her friends and how she gets bored when it rains because there are no birds to watch out the window, but being bored is part of life when you are 102 years old. 

Frances hugged and thanked each of the children and played a game of catch from her chair with Corbin and the little stress ball we made out of a balloon filled with flour to help strengthen her hands. It was a sweet visit and she asked us to come back and see her soon. On the way home, we decided that it might make her happy to be called, "Grandma Frances". We'll have to test it out on our next visit. 

The food is good but the service is slow.

Too cute not to post. 

I took too long to make his sandwich. 

Piano Students

Reese and Quincy started piano at Miss Carly's piano studio after school, yesterday.  

To say they are excited is an understatement. I went to dinner with Carly last night and on my way out the door, Reese shouted, tell her that we already practiced and did our theory homework!!! My little star students. 

I just loved hearing the uneven timing of plinkety-plunks as their tiny fingers and awkward hands started to become familiar with piano keys. Music. 

A few of my favorite things

Let's hear it for having the best job ever. Like, EVER. Those kids light up my week and I am still laughing at some of the answers they gave to the "tell me about your mom" question segment. I love my students end I enjoy every minute that I get to wear my Mrs Meg hat. I'm sad that the school year is coming to an end. 

I finished this today!

The garden is in! 

We planted 20 tomato bushes, zucchini, yellow squash butternut squash, green beans, yellow beans, broccoli, strawberries, asparagus, peas, lettuce, carrots, beets, spinach, cucumbers, basil, peppers, rosemary, cilantro, onions, thyme, oregano, 2 kinds of watermelon, cantaloupe, and 3 kinds of asparagus. 

I calculated that just the boxes shown above took 4 cubic yards of screened compost, and 1040 lbs of humus/manure, peat compost blend, mushroom compost, cotton burr compost, and sphagnum peat. No wonder our arms are so sore!  I am extra happy I pushed myself to do the other boxes back in February.  One thing is for sure, unless we rent a bobcat for a day, the landscaping rock to go around the  cedar boxes will definitely have to wait until next year! I did the rock at our last house by hand and the memory still haunts me.  Little by little, it is coming together. It sure would be great to get some berry bushes and fruit trees or grapes going this year though. Maybe that will sound like a good idea again once I've had a week to recover from this massive undertaking.  

And in spite of all the land they have to run around and scratch in, these girls still sit on the step by the door, wanting to be let inside. 

How does your garden grow?

 

After a long, sweaty weekend of hard work, the garden is finally coming together. I am anxious to get the chocolate landscaping rock around all of the beds, but it will probably be put off until next year. 3 are now full and the last one is getting there, I'm unloading the last of the compost today, adding manure, mushroom compost, sphagnum and other goodies and then I will finally be able to plant. In May. Ugh I feel so behind this year, but there's only so much you can do to prepare in the middle of winter. The fence, coop relocation and box construction/filling have kept me busy enough. Baby steps. Next year it will really start looking like the garden I dreamed of when we first saw this house a year ago. 

Community

Just a little post about how much I love my little cul de sac in the woods. 

My kids have the greatest friends to play with! Reese just loves having a best friend right next door. There's a friend for everyone. The kids spent a couple hours playing badminton with Kaitlyn after school on Monday. They play basketball and rude bikes and climb on things and play with sticks and Corbin throws a lot of stuff. I am so happy that my children have good friends to play and use their imaginations with. 

My buddy Jacob helped me plant tulips in the fall and the blooms gave us a lovely welcome to spring. 

Every now and then the kids and I stop at  Nita's after school to visit in her beautiful backyard. The children play with Willow and I talk gardening with Nita. Her yard is dreamy and she is so knowledgable. 

Look at that dirty kid. That is a happy childhood. The children kept hopping over the fence to play with each other so finally we just put a log there for them to step on and make the fence hopping a little easier. 

I love where I live.