Busy, Busy, Busy...Havin' Fun!

Last year a made a huge mistake in letting my house get so past the point of disorganized and completely nasty that I ended up spending most of the summer trying to get it back into shape again. (Can we say, eeeeww?) Summer is supposed to be fun and well, unfortunately ours last year was anything but. This year I made a concerted effort to stay on top of my housecleaning so that when summer rolled around, I would be able to take the kids to do fun stuff and not just a quick outing to Walmart to buy yet another bottle of 409.

We have been quite busy so far and have so much fun being together and just hanging out. One of the reasons I love summer so much is I get to be just mommy the mommy. I don't have to be Mrs. Mommy, the teacher. We do have plenty of educational moments during the summer, but the pressure is off because there are no tests, no seatwork, and no lesson plans. It's just plain ole' fun and we love it!

Today, I took the kidos to a local sprinkler park. It started out a bit cloudy, but they disappeared soon after we got there and it was PERFECT weather for a day in the water. I enjoyed watching my sweet little ones drenching each other and having a great time. I also got to start a new book from one of my favorite authors. It was really a perfect day. Here's a few of my fav. pic's.

What I Did on My First Day of Vacation...By Ellie May

This has been an issue my entire life. God must have given me a scent that attracts hurt, lost, or abandoned animals to my front door and to my husband's dismay, into our home. Da Hubby calls me Ellie May which I suppose if I were feeling defensive I could be offended at. Realistically, it's the truth. I have a very, extreme soft spot for animals.

I can't help it. It just happens. I seriously don't go looking for them. They find me. Lots and lots of them know where I live and deliberately plop themselves into my life.

Personally, I think it's my mom's fault. Although she would NEVER admit it, she has the same tender heart towards critters that I do so it must of been one of those inherited genes thingys. I will admit I am really bad. I bring home anything - snakes, turtles, squirrels, chinchillas, dogs, cats, bunnies, and an occasional opossum or two. I know it's crazy but they just won't leave me alone! And they know I just don't have the heart to leave them! (Oh, wow. I just realized that I am beginning to sound like the crazy lady at the end of the street with all the animals. Really, it's not like that!!! Much.)

Case in point, we found this on our back porch on Monday.

So sad looking isn't it? We think another bird must have stolen the egg from a nest but when it found out it had a baby in it it was dropped. Right on to my back porch. Literally it was minutes old. It's hiney was still attached to the egg. After detaching the egg from the baby, I took it inside and began to figure out how to save the little guy.. how could I have not? Look at it! It was one wiggly, little critter and seemed to have alot of strength so I thought maybe it would have a good chance of surviving.

Things were going just dandily as I was educating myself in the ways of baby sparrows. The site I found said to wrap it up in a soft cloth (Check!), put in a small container (Check!), put on a heating pad (Check!), and place in a quiet room (Check! Well, sort of, except for the sound of the back door slamming as the kids were in and out. And in and out. And in and out.). I was up with this! I could do this - baby sparrows are a breeze!! That's until I went to check on it and it was doing this.

Uh-oh. MAN! And to add to it's tiny patheticness, it was peeping! Aww! So heart wrenching! I had to do something! Well, after researching a bit I found out you can give it some softened dog food. Apparently, it works because she ate it. (That was a whole other ordeal.) I began to think that maybe I could rehabilitate the little guy here at our house and set him free when he got big enough. I had visions of releasing it to the wild to be with it's brothers and sisters. It was a beautiful thought... until I read that you have to feed it every 15-20 minutes, 24 hours a day for 2 days and then every hour to hour and a half for the next 7 days (No wonder mommy birds are so cranky!). Umm. I don't think so. Time to find "Tweety" a new home.

I found this great lady in town that takes in baby birds and does get up and take care of them 24 hours a day, God bless her! So we packed the little birdie up, kept it nice & warm on a heating pad plugged in, and headed to her house. Poor lady - she already had several birds she was helping and I am sure I added to her misery,but she was excited to see how tiny and strong the "hatchling" as she called it was. Poor thing, hadn't had a bath or been to sleep for an hour straight in days. Now THAT is dedication!

Here we are on the way to the nice lady's house all warmed with a heating pad and my footsies (I just love that color toe-nail polish!)

After dropping it off, I walked out of her bird filled home and I felt a huge sense of relief knowing that the little guy was going to have a chance with someone who knew what she was doing, and Da Hubby was breathing a sigh of relief that his wife wasn't going to be occupido taking care of a baby sparrow for the next few weeks.

Sadly, the baby birdie did not make it. She/he/it died the following day. But, I feel good that in its short little life it was comfy, warm, and fed by people who cared about its little existence. I can live with that.

Now I await the next little creature to come a knockin'. I'll be ready with a like I always am. :)

The BIG Reveal

Woo- Who!!! School is out for summer!

We normally have an open house every year for our families to come over and see all that the kidos are learning in that school year. The kids enjoy showing off all their work and art and we have such a great time! Usually we host the open house at Christmas time, but this year we had a very exciting surprise for the kids, so we decided it was best to have it at the end of our year.

We started out displaying all the kids work for the grandparents and family to see. Being that we are not in a "regular" schoolroom situation, it's such a good thing for them to be able to take pride in their work and be able to share it with other people.

We told the youngin's that we had planned a few games for them and started with the whole family participating in charades. THAT was fun. Here is a great shot of my brother, Brian, doing his best rendition of a monkey.

We then told the kids we were going to have a treasure hunt and handed them the following note:

All the clues had been printed out beforehand, put in envelopes, and hidden in various places.

Here is how it went.

Clue # 1 -

Sundae and Harmini have you first clue.

Go to their houses and find out what to do.

Clue #2 -

Congratulations, you've found you're first clue!

You'll need to go see Mrs. Lisa to find out next what to do!

Clue #3 -

Your journey has just begun!

Head back home and see Go-Go for more fun!

Clue #4 -

Now out you go into the backyard.

Check in Mr. Green Turtle. See? It's not hard!

Clue #5 -

Good job, our treasure hunters three!!

Time for clue number 6: Where would ice be?

Clue #6 -

BRRRRR! Thanks for saving me from the cold!

Now go open the dryer - Do what your told!

Clue #7 -

Go straight to your bathroom! I hope it's clean!

Check under the sink and look for something green!

Clue #8 -

Take this to Papaw and use it to buy your 9th clue.

You know how Papaw is. You may have to beg for a minute or two!

Clue #9 -

Instructions are held in Clue Number 10.

But you'll have to find it. It's somewhere in the den.

Clue # 10-

WOW! You guys have done great and you're almost done.

Go find an envelope on the trampoline, but be careful - Don't run!

Clue #11-

Mama and Daddy hold the 12th and final clue.

They will tell you what next you must do!

Clue #12 -

Congratulations!! Do you wonder what you've won?

Hasn't this been a boat load of fun?

Put the puzzle together and in one, two, and three

You'll know what the prize is in a quick jiffy!

So for the next 20 minutes the kids and grandparents all helped put the puzzle together. The end result was this. Perri guessed that it was a mouse, but everyone was wondering why there was a big piece in the middle that was missing.

I made them look all over for the missing piece, but finally confess that we had it the whole time. After torturing them for as long as I possible could, I then laid the final piece of the puzzle in front of them.

(Insert ear piercing screaming and jumping up and down as well as Duglin's remark of "Can we eat now?" here.

I also have made a countdown calendar for the trip! We have literally had this booked since February 2008 and it has been a miracle that they haven't found out! I feel like I can breathe now!

Hey, Mom! We're going to Disney World!!!!!!!!! Now you know our big secret, too!

Gardening for Dummies

Yay! Warm weather and sunshine!! Well, at least it sunshined for a day or two, nothing but rain since! But that's OK, at least it's warm outside! I love May for lots of reasons but my FAVORITE reason (with the exception that school gets out) is that I get to plant my garden!

Last year, Da Hubby was so kind to build me a fortress, beautiful garden for our backyard. Dude, this thing ain't movin'! Isn't it loverly?


People have asked us why do we need such a structure for a garden. Garden are supposed to be free and able to spread. Here are our two main reasons:

Who me?

Uhh, yeah. Don't let their adorably, sweet faces fool you. They are Vicious. Cunning. Veggie Killin' Machines. They get into EVERYTHING, hence the electric fenced in garden. (I'm just kidding, people!) However, that's not such a bad idea....

Anywho, we decided what a great educational and frugal way to grow some of our own stuff! This was our little peace of incredibly diseased, pain in the butt, insect infested, non-producing heaven last year. It was, umm, an "experimental" year. Yea. Anyway, amazingly enough we ended up with a few edible items and a desire to try to get it right this year.

We planted three small strawberry plants last year and picked the blossoms off as they came out. Supposedly that makes the plant increase their volume and spread for the next year's crops. We covered them with straw (Covering strawberries with straw - clever, huh?) over the winter and up they sprung with a vengeance this spring. They are TASTY!!!


They are so adorable! I just love them! At least we did one thing right last year!



Here's some of the other things I have planted this year and will hopefully get a harvest by the end of summer.

And then, there are the tomatoes. We planted nine different types. Ahh, our tomatoes. A great source of stress and demise in my life. I have this really beautiful and sweet neighbor I was talking to last year about my tomatoes. I told her that my tomatoes had every disease and bug that is known to kill the plants with the exception of the nastiest bug of all, the hornworm. I will spare you a picture of these grotesque creatures, because they are just that nasty. So literally a week later I go out to water my precious, dying tomatoes and find a family of 12 nasty, nasty and HUGE hornworms had taken over my garden the evening before and eaten most of the baby fruits as well as most of the vegetation. OOOOOOO!!! I HATE those things!

(Side note - I thought I'd also mention that neighbor I was talking about. You know, the sweet and beautiful one? Well, she planted two tomato plants gingerly in her front beds and produced two, 7 foot tall plants that literally were drooping to the ground with all the tomatoes on the branches. No hornworms. No blight. No powder fungus. No aphids. No garden fortress. Just tomatoes. Lots and lots of tomatoes. Humph. I am not jealous. I am not jealous. I am not jealous.) I love you, Lisa!

Again, I will try and maybe after learning from a few mistakes last year, perhaps I will get something to feed my family with! I so enjoy watching the plant progress and grow throughout the summer. I just hope there is something to eat this year. (I really don't think I should have any worries, though. My beautiful and sweet neighbor has planted her tomatoes once again in her front flower beds and I'm sure she won't mind if I come and steal liberate a few from her! After all, what are neighbors for?