Life, etc, etc, etc

It's been a while since I stopped in here. The summer finally caught up with me and I decided to take a break.

So, much happened over the summer: Camping trips, vacation, the loss of five chickens (including Rooster), the ending of a ten year friendship (a friendship I thought would be lifelong, my head still spins a little about it), a garden that did not do well, my father started bringing produce in from a fellow employee and that has kept me busy for weeks!

And the biggest thing is that I started knitting for money. So, I'm not on here much. I'm sitting over there in the corner knit, knit, knitting. And loving it!

So, I will pop in from time to time, if I have time, and jot down a note or two about life.

Welcome To My Garden 2009 Part 2

My flowers are doing great this summer.

Purple coneflower-I really want an orange one but haven't shelled out the $10 yet.

Beautiful Hollyhocks

Purple Russian Majesty, maybe?

Not sure what this one is, anybody?

Here it is with sunlight filtering through, beautious.

This one is a dark salmon color.

Beautiful ruffley buttercup type daylily.

Baja Daylily

Aztec daylily?

All of my daylilies came from friends. So, some of them I just have no idea what they are called. I'm sure if I would take the time and research I could find them.

Welcome To My Garden 2009 Part 1

Dwarf Iris', Shasta Daisy "Snowcap" and behind the sign Siberian Iris'.

Yellow Rose Bushes

started with five to six small starts two years ago.

Beautiful Rose Blossoms

Hmmm, well I thought this was Lamb's Ear growing wild along the edge of the trees. After transplanting it to my flower bed and seeing other lamb's ear around I'm not so sure. Could it be Lamb's Ear Giganticus? lol

This is all reseeded cilantro from a plant I bought last year! Yum, Pico De Gallo!

A lovely gift from a Sis-n-law. A tea cup bird bath.

How gorgeous is this, a ball of blooms on my snowball bush.

Sedum, ground cover-Dragon's Blood?

This is Lemon Balm and every spring and every fall I rip it out with a vengeance and it just. keeps. coming!

One of my fav decorations. Rooster jumping rope. I picked this up at a Big Lots! one year. Every year I go back looking for some more uniqueness only to be disappointed.

Second all time fav, Hula hoopin frog.

First Iris bloom of the 2009 season

Dianthus, this was a dead looking plant at church that I brought home, stuck in the ground and watered. Lovely.

Dianthus bloom

I love daisies, they're so friendly, dontcha think that daisies are the friendliest flower. (name that movie!)

Mouse Ear Coreopsis bloom

Flowering Chives, mmmm.

Alum Blooms

Seed Swap Excitement

How excited do you think I was when I opened my mail box and saw this big fat envelope?

To be honest at first I thought it was yarn, because that would just be super great if someone sent me a big bag of yarn(FYI, I prefer natural fibers. ;0p). But then I realized it was from the seed swap Howling Hill started. And I was just as excited about the seeds as I was when I thought it was yarn(are you getting the idea that I have a thing for yarn?) I signed up last year but the seeds never made it to me. This year though everybody was able to take and give and send it on and now it's my turn.

Jenna Z. over at Corgipants sent them to me, funny thing I forgot to mention to Jenna Z. I use to live in her neck of the woods. Kind of ironic isn't it.

I chose these veggies and flowers:

Watermelon-Moon & Stars, Chelsea and Sugar Babies

Squash-Gold Nugget
White Tipped Scarlet Radish

Eggplant-Long Purple

Sweet Fennel

Cucumber-Marketer

Pumpkin- Rouge d'etamps and Blue Moon
Peppers-Pretty In Purple

White Cleome

Swamp Milkweed

False Indigo

Larkspur (Pink)

Yellow 4 O'Clocks

And I put these seeds in:

Veggies:

Rhubarb

Tomatoes-Black Krim and Amish Paste

Parisian Pickling Cucumber

Heat Tolerant Lettuce

NuMex Big Jim Chili Peppers

Green Culinary Sage

Grandma Eink's Dill

Flowers:

Tall Blue Larkspur

Bee Balm

Gian Imperial Larkspur

Black Hollyhocks

Sunflowers-dwarf mix

Red Columbine

Giant White Moonflower

Cabbage Leaf Poppies

Rose of Sharon

I'm mailing them off to Melissa @ Melissa's Ramblings.

2 Busy 2 blog!

Seems like just yesterday I told someone I would be posting about the chickens and three weeks later here I am, no chicken post. So sad! I've been busy! Soccer, Scouting, Christian Women's Conference, Illness, House guests, Consultation with a surgeon and now on the horizon is a birthday party for our newest nephew and our #1 son.

Boo will be 1 and #1 son will be *gasp, 12. How did that happen? It seems like just yesterday I was holding his tiny body in my arms. Now he's almost as tall as me(really not saying much, I'm a shorty) But he's counting down the days til 12, he gets to set up front in the van(or so he thinks). He's checking at least every other day to see if he's grown. Slow down I say, it goes by so fast! Just yesterday I was pushing you in a stroller, just yesterday I was teaching you to tie your shoes, just yesterday I kissed your boo-boo's, just yesterday you held my hand to walk into the store, just yesterday you cozied and cuddled with me, oh what will tomorrow bring? Serious talks, razors and hair gel? Girlfriends and cars? Heartbreaks and scars. Lord please protect him as he grows, please protect my heart.

Do they ever grow up?

So, my last post was about my boys this one is about my DH. He loves riding as much as the boys. Here he is showing the boys how it's done.

Raising Boys

Hmmm, I'm not sure what the right way is to raise boys. I know it's hard to let them do all that boy stuff without feeling nervous, without saying "be careful". Without worry. But you get the worry whether you have boys or girls. Just different worry. My boys make me proud. They "usually" make the right choice, they are boys so sometimes the boy-ness gets the better of them. My husband says it's important to let them do all that "stuff" that gives me more gray hair. It helps them become self confident men. So, I let them do bb guns and climb trees and such. I just pray a lot! Here's a video of something that is turning my hair gray. I find myself holding my breath while I watch them. I love seeing them glow when they manage to start the bike by themselves or when they hop right back up after a minor crash. I hate the crashing! The laughter you hear in the background is my FIL. I think he's having as much fun watching as the boys are riding!

Busy Bees Post #1

Making the most of the holiday weekend.

Hmmm, what's he up to?
Still digging!
That's odd, what's that for?

There he goes digging again.

Aha! My clothesline. Now I just need the actual clothesline. LOL He, of course, bought something different then what we talked about. I said "Nope"!

Hey what's that? She's not part of this post on a clothesline. That's my girl, Butter. See how she's smiling up at me? That's cause she loves me best!

No turning back now

This is our youngest with a new to us piece of furniture. My Aunt gifted us a piano. She knows the desire that was already there for me is intensified by this instrument setting in my family room. So, she's soon to get at least one new to her student in exchange. The boy decided to pull his recliner up to the piano since there's no stool. I believe he's interested as well in learning how to play. I'm just not sure if he will actually want to put in the time to practice, etc.

Hair

Well, I decided to cut it. I love it! Picture one is straightened and picture two is au naturale.

Hair today, gone tomorrow?

Sooo, you may have noticed I finally put a profile pic up. But here's the thing, that's not how I look right now. My hair is actually much longer and less stylish. I like it all right, but when I see pics of me with short stylish hair I get the itch. Those of you out there with short hair know what I'm talking about. It's the same itch I get sometimes when my hair is short and I want it long except it's a lot easier to scratch when the itch is for short hair. When I'm itchin' for the long hair it takes months and months to get there. So, what do you think? Short or long?

The beginning of something special

Mmmm, most of these are my tomato plants. This is a first for me so I'm holding my breath to see if it actually works.

I didn't have a light I could move up and down so I'm moving the plants down as I need too. Don't you just love my fancy set up. LOL

Almost 3 months!

Me and Sophie, she's almost three months now. She's lovely.

BOO!

He's here, Benjamin Oliver born October 18th. He's a sweetie. Congrats to my sis and her hubby.

Life changes

So, I feel like I'm on some sort of journey. Trying to figure out where I'm headed. Some of you know that I like to know where I'm going, how I'm getting there and how I'm getting back home. I don't like the unknown. But that's exactly where I am at right now. My boys are both in school and I've been struggling with what's next. The good news is that I feel like I have a lot of choices(I like to have lots of choices). The bad news is... I have lots of choices, I'm not sure which direction I should be headed. I am trying to find my bliss. I like doing a lot of things. I'm just not sure which one of those things is "the thing". So, I'm searching and gathering information. I don't have any sort of time line so I can take my time. But I feel like I don't have time. That if I wait to long I will run out of time and choices. So, that's me right now, on a journey with an unknown destination. Scary!