It's the Weekend!!!

Ok, so I need a break from all that Flower Power talk (even though I've been fired up about it for weeks days now).

And...I just cant leave my last post as the one with those hideous looking peat pots with mold on them. Yeah, I know they're ugly now. Just give 'em time. They'll get pretty.

We all do. ;o)

*sigh*

So. I thought I'd write a little fun stuff. But it just got instantly zapped right out of me with...

Mackenzie: (quite dramatically) Jessica colored on my drawing! She ALWAYS ruins my STUFF!!!

Jessica: You're mean, Mackenzie! (lately that's her response to everything)

Rebecca: Mackenzie just tore down half the curtain. (the resident tattle tale)

Jake: Waaaaaah!!!! Waaaaaahhh!!! (all that yelling and tattling woke him up from his blistful nap)

Mommy: (in a somewhat raised voice) ALL OF YOU GO GET YOUR FIREWOOD RIGHT NOW! (and then under her breath) ...before I lose it.

(part of their chores is to bring firewood up from the big stack to keep a small stack by the back door)



Where's my double fudge chocolate ice cream?! And is it spiked? I'm kidding...about the spiked part, not the chocolate part.




So I'll leave you with this...my favorite picture from the backyard:

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. ~ John 14:27

Flower Power: Garden Makeover - Seed Update

Yesterday the hollyhocks started misbehaving. They ALL got these stringy, white, spider web kind of stuff growing out of them. Just the hollyhocks...no one else. At first I thought maybe that's normal. But who am I kidding?! That cant be normal!

And it wasn't.


After searching online...all of 5 minutes...my patience wore out. So I went to the Ferry-Morse website (the brand of my greenhouse) and found the Gardener's Help Line!!!! Wow! Can I just say that the lady I talked to was SO nice and helpful?! Here's what I described to her (see those three rows of naughty hollyhocks?):

And she didnt make me feel like an idiot at all! Now that's impressive! And I found out that I dont have to throw it all out and start over (as my wild imagination had me convinced).

It's mold.

Good grief! I already know I can grow mold! Just ask my refrigerator. I want to grow flowers!

But a few Q-tips later the mold is cleared off, the plants are breathing and I even saw the beginnings of a few little sprigs thinking about showing up!!!

Can you see it? Toward the bottom...there's a little green white-looking rounded part down there. That's a hollyhock about to poke through!! Wooooo Hooooooo!!!

As I looked around, there is also one black eyed susan that started sprouting (because its seed is the same color as the soil I dont think that one got buried at all) and a salvia starting to peek through.

Oh! Oh! And...I was at Lowe's again today (starting to feel like a stalker) and found some Columbine plants already started for me and blooming! You know...the seeds that didnt make the cut because they were going to take way too long? I got 3 plants. Hopefully I wont kill them before it's time to plant them in the garden:

I'm not allowing myself to get nervous about all this. Well...not too much, anyway.

Lighting:

For now I decided to not buy any lighting for the plants. A while back I had thought I was being frugal and got some fluorescent light bulbs but when I put them in the bedroom I hated it. It wasnt bright enough and it was a weird color to me. So I took them right back out and set them on the shelf.

Well this time the "I might need it someday" paid off. I stole got a little shop light from the garage (hope Stan doesnt miss it), put in the neglected bulb, engineered it right over the greenhouse...and there ya go! No money spent!

Dont worry. Even though it does look hideous, it's in a part of the house that is hideous all by itself - the sunroom (that needs to be torn down and re-done...someday).

Flower Power: Garden Makeover - Planting the Seeds

Here we go!! I've officially started gardening. Even though it's cold and windy outside, I stood in the warmth of my kitchen with a fire going, still in my pj's and planted my seeds! I cant even say I got my hands dirty...just my fingers. Gotta love it!

So here we go. These are the seeds I planted in that handy dandy self-watering greenhouse mentioned in the last post...

In case you are Monk insanely observant...you would have noticed from the last post that I got 6 packets of seeds but decided to only plant 5 of them. The "Columbine" flowers were going to take 25 days to germinate and 240 days to bloom. So you're outta here! I'll buy the plant this summer if I still want you. I mean...my patience only goes so far. Everyone else will germinate somewhere around 10-15 days and will bloom within 3 months. I can do that. Oh...except the hollyhock wont actually "bloom" with the pretty red flowers until next year. I decided to give you a chance anyway.

Do you like how I refer to them as "you" instead of "it"? They say it's good to talk nicely to your plants to help them grow. Well, I dont always talk nicely to my own kids...and they still grow. I'm kidding - kinda.

So there I am, planting 70 little pots with various seeds. I did 2-3 rows per type of plant to make it easier on me to keep up with. (Had to put name tags on those little suckers, ya know.) I wasnt sure how many to do, so I tried to do enough to compensate for any death loss (I know...that's a cattle term, but you know what I mean).

Since I'm a follow-the-directions kind of girl I put 2-3 seeds per pot like it said and covered them as directed on the seed packet. To help with handling those tiny seeds...I put them on a little plate...

And looking at that now...makes me wish I had a Coke and a smile (or Dr. Pepper since I cant stand Coke).

Anyway...

With only mild distractions (girls were watching cartoons, but Jake woke up in the middle of my planting, with an unpleasant surprise in his diaper...and he was hungry - go figure) and only one real mess-up (accidentally put a Salvia seed in with the Black-Eyed Susan I'd already planted) I got it done easily enough.

Here it is! I took a pic without the clear plastic top on so you could see it better. Like my name tags? Oh and in case you're new to this like me, they come as little, flat wafers and when you add water they grow and have this little netting around it to hold the soil in. And since they're so tiny you have to dig in it with a pencil to plant the seeds. Fun!

Now we wait.

And wait.

Just one afterthought: Why in the world did I plant Salvia (sage) here in Montana?! That'd be like planting a Mesquite tree in Texas - they're everywhere! Oh well. The picture on the packet was pretty. And if I dont like it, as the saying goes...I brought you into this world garden, I can take you out!

Next steps:

~ Decide what artificial light I want to use for my seeds and where to put them after they sprout (yeah, should have figured that out by now).

~ I'll probably wait a week or two to take the rocks out of the flowerbed and bring in mulch. We're supposed to have a wet week and I need to go thru the kids summer clothes for a consignment sale soon.

Flower Power: Garden Makeover

Spring is here!!!! Woooo Hooooooo!!!! Although, someone needs to tell the snow that it's time to stop falling. It has snowed nearly every day last week, including the first two days of spring. But that's not "blanketing" my spring mood.

I have a project. A fun project. And I'm SO excited!! I'm going to overhaul our poor excuse of a flowerbed. Even though I was feeling all gung-ho for a full blown property renovation for all of our 1.5 acres, I've decided to start small and just do the front, existing flowerbeds (well, and a little behind the house too...but we'll discuss that later).

Here are some "before" pictures (taken last May):

Above: To the right of the front door, and first thing you see when you come to our house. B-O-R-I-N-G!

Below: To the left of the front door. There really are windows behind the lilac bushes. This area is not too bad but needs some TLC.

When we moved into this house nearly 3 years ago it had a nice sized flowerbed along the front of the house. But it's a rock bed and I just can't like it.

It is taking me 3 years to fix it because the first summer was devoted to getting the house - and our emotions - settled (we moved here the end of May, right after saying good-bye to Stan's mom). The second year I was big prego and bending over a flowerbed was about #97 on my top 10 list of fun things to do. The third year I had my hands full with child #4, who did NOT like sitting in the grass and watching...so I did a few flowers in terra cotta pots to appease myself. So here we are, actually approaching our 4th summer in this house.

I wont bore you with the details now, but I'll keep posting about the progress as we go along. Although I must say that one item on the list is to get rid of those evergreen trees that look like earmuffs on the house (See first picture).

I'm new to this whole gardening thing and have killed every single house plant I've ever tried to keep. Every. Single. One. (I've killed an ivy for crying out loud! That's nearly impossible!) So this should be quite entertaining for you.

I chose to work with a flowerbed instead of a vegetable garden because...well...this is just more exciting for me. I mean, I dont really like vegetables anyway and I'd feel more pressure for them to succeed, and then there's the work of putting them up once they've grown. That and I just want something fun and not something practical or functional. My whole life is practical and functional...lets have some fun.

So I've done a little homework and looked into this crazy Montana micro-climate insanity to see what might actually grow here. I chose my color scheme and some (hopefully) easy to grow plants that are also deer and rabbit resistant so I dont get discouraged. I know. Nothing is fool-proof. Especially for this fool!

So we're supposed to check out the color wheel and find harmonizing colors to plant in our garden. Colors like red, yellow and orange are hot and energizing, while blue, purple and green are more soothing. Well...I'm going a little against the grain and I decided to go with red, yellow, and purple! I mean...red and yellow go together, purple and yellow go together, red and purple go together...so what's the big deal? I think it will be great!

I went to Lowe's and picked out some supplies to get started. I'm going to start some seeds inside so that they will be ready to plant in May. Most of what I got are perennials (for any novices like me...that means they come back each year)

Anyway, here is what I have so far:





Pretty, huh? This is just the tip of the iceberg. These will probably be all that I get for now and when it's time to plant I'll buy some plants (mostly annuals...only grow one season) from a nursery to add to my collection.

So there you have it. I hope you enjoy our garden makeover. Being new to this I'm sure I'll make some pretty dumb mistakes along the way, but ya gotta start somewhere, right?

Next step:
Plant seeds in that handy dandy self watering greenhouse that you see in the picture and get them growing. Also, clear out those ugly rocks and bring in the mulch!

Surely!

...and then as Cat would say (ad nauseam), "Stop calling me Shirly!"

Anyway...

Surely our life is more exciting than naming teeth and head-butting. And when I put it like that we sound like honest to goodness rednecks. Well, if you cant beat 'em, join 'em.

I wont go into all the redneck things we've done over the years (and I also wont go into what other names "doing redneck things" is called by southern people, either). You know, things like putting duct tape on our camp trailer to hold it together while going down the road. We'd never do such a thing!!! *blushing*

But it seems that at this time of year northern people are just waiting for that warmer weather to get here already and we're tired of winter and even though we like the "somewhat" warmer weather (and we refuse to wear a jacket, because 40 degrees actually does feel warm), we're irritated by being "teased" with it.

We're also irritated being "teased" by the stores putting out swimming suits in FEBRUARY! What are they thinking?! Where's my 2 by 4? Someone needs an adjustment! (Of course there are no swimming suits to be found in the stores come July, when you actually need one...because they're putting out the winter stuff. I'm. Not. Kidding.)

C'mon!

It's not that winter is SO bad...it's that it's SO long! Therefore, while the southern states are basking in the flip-flops and capris weather, we're going a little stir-crazy waiting for that brief window of flip-flop opportunity between June and August (and pushing it into May and September, by golly). Of course the more native/adapted folks wear then anyway no matter the weather.

Crazy is as crazy does.

So, right now...our life is not more exciting than naming teeth and head-butting. Gotta do whatever is necessary to survive the winter.

What?!

Just when you think you've heard it all, you realize you're not even close! I found out at dinner that Rebecca has named her teeth. Yes, you read that right...she actually gave each of her teeth a name. At least the ones that have come out and are growing back in. She kept talking about "Mama" was in and "Papa" was too, but "Nana" hasnt come in yet. It took a while to figure out what in the world she was talking about. Of course I had to ask her the other names too...and if you're curious...she has named one for each grandparent as well.



While we're on the "What?!" topic...I just cant join in on the belief that baby boys and girls are the same and that they are just "taught" to be different since we give girls dolls and boys trucks.

Because we never taught Jake to head-butt us, but he does. The girls never did (except for maybe Jessica...seems like she did it for a while too, but we've also been known to say periodically, "Are you sure she's a girl?").

Jake's been a head-butter (or should it be "buttor"?) for several months now. He doesnt head-butt Daddy any more because...well...I guess Daddy's head is harder than his. (And if you read any more into that comment than what I said, that's on your own head, not mine!) So he sticks to head-butting me and the girls...mostly Jessica...because I think she probably deserves it as much as she pesters him. He gets this look on his face and lowers his head and you know it's coming.

So being the sweet, loving, and gentle mom that I am...

I head-butt him back. He doesnt like it so much, though, and stops for a while. But then he decides to test that water again. I hate to admit it, but it really hurts! He can out head-butt me at one and a half years old. I know...better get this nipped in the bud now before he thinks he can head-butt his dates.

Theme It

Once again, Jenni has given me a topic and gotten me out of my blogging slump. Otherwise you'd just get a post about sick kids...again. Jenni is great at giving each year a "theme" and then focusing her attention on that particular theme. I've never been much of a theme kind of gal but I like the idea of it. I do. I think it's good to live on purpose and not just float by. It's SO easy to just exist and let the days roll past and then wonder where in the world the year went. When I was a kid it seemed like the years took forever to pass by. Christmas just took way too long to get here...I literally counted the days (and for my birthday too). Now it seems I turn around twice and I'm decorating for Christmas again already, then it's gone. (When asked your age...am I the only one who has to think about it for an embarrassingly long while in order to remember? I'm 31. No, wait! I'm 32...I think. Or am I 33?)

So, if I were to give my years themes I would probably have to go by the school year and not a physical year for this up-and-coming season of my life called "raising school-aged kids." So this year's theme would be "survival" hands down! I know I just raved about living on purpose and all that, but sometimes that means surviving...as opposed to sticking your head in the sand and waiting for it to pass. I know we've all been there at some point(s) or another.

This isnt a "bad" year by no means and nothing tragic has happened, praise the Lord. It's just one of those years. We have 4 kids on 4 different schedules. (And I wont even go into Stan's constantly crazy schedule! It's mind boggling!) The 3rd grader's is the easiest...go to school, come home...most days. The Kindergartener is harder...drop everything in the middle of the day and take her (dragging along the other 2 kids) to school for half-day Kindergarten. The 5 year old gets dragged around everywhere stays home and we do pre-school at home because the school doesnt offer it. Hey - Kindergarten isnt even "required" in Montana...and the big stink of this year was some schools went to full day K. The nerve! LOL! The 18 month old also gets dragged around everywhere stays home and we try to get those all-important naps scheduled in so he's not a little bear all the time.

That's just the basics of our schedule. On top of the mid-day Kindergarten run, two naps a day for the baby, pre-school for the 5 year old, cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping, banking, and other normal errands and appointments, throw in a month and a half of basketball practice and games for the 3rd grader, weekly Awana for the older 3 kids (where I run back to town after school, pick the kids up and take them immediately to Awana, let the baby get a nap, then go pick them back up again), weekly speech therapy for the 5 year old, weekly ladies bible study (in the morning so the younger 3 all get dragged along too...but they love going), daily tutoring online, and weekly small group bible study with other families...it tends to get a little insane hectic. (And yes, I know that other people have way more crazy schedules than mine and that mine will get worse as the kids get older...I'm not trying to compare.)

Oh and not to mention that the 5 year old who was born with some kind of destructive gene has been on a rant of finding something to do nearly each day that she knows is wrong and knows she'll get punished for - putting coins in the baby's car seat slots so I cant buckle him up and I have to dismantle the whole thing, as we're trying to leave for something...pulling on the curtains and ripping the screws out of the wall that hold the curtain rod...drinking out of her sick sister's cup (that had a straw) and so getting sick herself and spreading it to the rest of the children in the house...coloring on the cabinets with black crayon...sneaking gum that she's not supposed to have, chewing it, then sticking it to the underside of the bar...squashing grapes ALL over the kitchen floor that took 4 times to mop to get the stickiness out...you get the idea. Same child who pulled down the Christmas tree year before last and also managed to break the glass top of the coffee table on top of her head with only one small scratch to her lip and millions of tiny shards of glass everywhere. Yep. Same kid.

I tried whining about this year's schedule for the first few months. I really did. Gave it my best shot - whining and feeling sorry for my selfish-self. But God has been showing me that I need to be resting in him and letting him fill my cup. When I do, things are so much easier. When I dont, I feel the whole weight of it all, and then some. I'd like to say that I turn to him more often than not, but that's not always the case, either. He's still working on me.

So there you have it. This year's theme is survival.

If I can plan ahead a little...I would like to suggest that this coming summer's theme would be FUN - hiking, swimming in the river and the pool, camping (with a toddler? we'll see), enjoying the area we live in.

And next year's theme...hmmmmm. I really, really tried to force get this year's unofficial theme to be "simplify" because we need it and I want it so badly. Maybe next year. We will have 3 kids in full-day school and just one at home.

Brave

Last night, about 10 minutes after we put the kids to bed the electricity went out. You'd think it wasnt a big deal considering they were already in bed. But we have a little fan in Jake's room to help with noise, so he protested when it turned off. The girls all share a room and Mackenzie has a lamp on her bed so she can read for a little while, and there's a night light in there for Jessica (otherwise she's been known to cry out in the middle of the night, run over and turn on the light to their room, then go back to sleep). Oh, how dependent we are on electricity!

So when the lamp and night light went out, they weren't happy campers. This morning they were telling us their version of it all. First they asked, "Did you know that the lights went out last night?!" LOL! Um. No! Really? Then they were telling us how Rebecca started to cry. Jessica promptly said, "I didnt cry. I was brave...like a little girl in church." I about fell over!

But you know, I guess for a little girl church is the easiest place to be brave. Ok, not just for a little girl, but big girls like me, too. And big boys.

There's so many times when I feel like I'm a complete failure as a mom and I'm going to totally mess them up forever. (Pause while I go pull the 17 month old out from under the bathroom sink cabinet. Dont call CPS on me though...there's only towels down there. But he's also a potty swisher, so that would be his next stop.) Then there's times when they say something so cute and funny...and true...that I'm so very glad God is filling in the gaps for me.

Oh, and since this is Montana and it's winter and the electricity went out for a good while during the night...we were ALL very thankful that we stayed all roasty and toasty because of this:

Yes, this is from a previous year, but I didnt take a picture of it this past year. Each spring we chop and stack wood...so it looks the same each year.

Picture Time!

Ok...I havent posted pictures in a while so here goes. Yes, they are from December. No, I havent taken any pictures since then. Well, that's not true. I have. But I choose not to post them for the world to see because they are of my darling son getting into certain bathroom items he shouldnt. 'Nuff said! ;o)

Oh and we got more snow yesterday so maybe I'll have more sledding pictures soon.

Rejection?

Sorry but I dont really have any deep thoughts right now. Well, I guess I do, but I'm not so good at sharing them...or wanting to share them...or feel like anyone wants to hear them. I'm a surface level kinda gal and I'm much more comfortable talking about the weather than what's really going on inside my noggin (assuming that I could even get it into words). It's snowing, by the way...we got a few inches last night. I dont take rejection too well, so I dont take risks too often. And for me...going deeper than surface level is quite a risk. I feel way too vulnerable and awkward. I feel like others might think I'm an idiot or laugh at me or decide they'd rather screen my calls. Good grief! I'm thirty-something, not twelve.

But how many of us feel that way about some part(s) of ourselves? Physically. Mentally. Emotionally. Spiritually. And how do we disguise it? Wear clothes that we hope will hide it? Act like we're smarter than we feel we really are? Avoid topics/people? Stay superficial? Crack a lot of jokes? Yeah...we all do it. We've become experts at hiding our insecurities. Why? Because it's too painful not to. If we confront it and admit it then we think that's who we are and it's all we see. If it's all we see then we think it's all everyone else sees too. Rejection. We hate that!

I'm sure I heard this train of thought from Beth Moore: it's easier to please God than people. How true! It's easier to please God than anyone else...even ourselves. We never feel good enough, smart enough, slim enough or that we do enough or do it well enough. Who are we trying to please? We humans can be so judgmental and condemning. Of others. Of ourselves. And if we can get the focus off of us and onto someone else we're relieved. So the games begin.

People see only what we want them to see...most of the time (heaven forbid we get "outed" for something excruciatingly humiliating...or get slanderized by untrue/half-true gossip!). We try to control what others know about us. And we care what people think of us. (Yes, even those who "dont care what others think." It's in there somewhere. It might be more true to say they "dont care what most others think" or even they "mostly dont care what others think.") We care. We want to be accepted. And we get slapped in the face over and over with some kind of rejection from people/ourselves. (If we didnt, we wouldnt feel like we're never "enough.") But people dont see everything.

God sees everything. Every. Thing. He knows what we're thinking and he knows what we're really like...deep down inside where we try to hide it. Does he ever reject us for it? Never. Not ever. We're enough. Even if we're not smart, slim, witty, in-control, or got it all together (who does?). We're enough. We're accepted. Always. He loves us. Always. Just like we are. All he wants is our love back. To believe him. (I feel the need to add that it's because we love him back that we want to obey him and serve him and please him.)

We have to ask ourselves...who are we trying to please? Who's opinion actually matters? Why do we spend so much effort pleasing people/ourselves...who may never be pleased? Exactly how much effort am I spending on that, anyway? How much effort am I spending on pleasing God?

It's just so easy for me to get sidetracked and distracted from what's really important.

So...those are my thoughts for today. I have to remind myself of this periodically and you got to hear it this time. Lucky you!