playing with (and recycling) flowers

The mums and sedum are from my flowerbed.
The baby's breath and asparagus fern are from the flowers hubby brought baby bear for her birthday.

My Dad gave me one of those glass flower holder thingies that happens to fit perfectly in my cute glass bowl. I decided to try my hand at making an arrangement of mums using that glass thingy. It was my grandma's, so I really hope I don't break it.

My mums are not quite as full outside, but now I have a few arrangements to enjoy inside. I even put one in the bathroom, but forget to get a picture of it.

I am addicted to planting bulbs.... there is no cure.

It's not the actual planting that I love, it is the hope of the end result. Maybe it's because my parents have always loved gardening and had fresh-picked flowers available in their yard. Perhaps I got bit by some bug when we visited the Tulip Festival in Holland, MI when I was a girl. I can barely remember it, but I'm sure there were thousands of beautiful bulbs. Perhaps I get some satisfaction from changing the soil in an area, transforming what was full of gravel, rock and chunks of brick from when our house was built into a fertile area. I have to confess I like chucking the rocks down the hill to no-man's-land beyond where the sidewalk ends. At least I remembered to wear my gardening gloves. My hands were very thankful. Baby Bear LOVED dropping the bulbs into the holes. You could see her face glow with pride as she threw them in, whether I was ready for them or not. She also helped me remove rocks from the soil. As long as she did not permanently damage the bulbs as she played with them, and the rodents don't dig them up, we should have a decent little display of various daffodils in the new part of my flower bed.

I took soil out of the cantaloupe pot and added it to the existing "dirt". The cantaloupe plants had died.... whithered away to practically nothing. So that left lots of "extra" dirt/coffee grounds mix for me to put in the ground with the bulbs, hopefully improving their chance to thrive.



I will be very, very disappointed if my tulips and daffodils don't come up in a few months. And hubby will be bitter because why buy bulbs if they don't bloom? Certainly not to feed rodents.

At least the grass seed is coming in, and here's to spring! (Not that I'm in a rush, I just don't want to wake up in March wishing I had planted more bulbs. Been there, done that.)

my new 'do

New looks all over the place...

maybe I'll get hubby to take a picture of my new hairdo. Farm Wife and her brave soul inspired me to get a trim, though mine's not nearly as drastic as hers. It's way shorter than it was in the back, about the same in the front, and blended together. I got it done at the place I get my brows and lip waxed. I really like the girl, and I think she'll get the hang of working with my paintbrush/horse-hair pretty quickly. I wasn't happy with how the last cut was growing out. Anyway, my mustache and unibrow are gone, and my mane is styled, so I feel like a new woman.

I feel pretty, oh so pretty!

oops...

When I switched templates, I lost a lot of links. Please don't take it personally if it takes me a while to track your blog down. I may just leave links in my personal bookmarks and keep the blog "cleaned-up".

I really like my blog's new look. Hope you do, too!

Wordless Wednesday: Child's Play

Halloween Happenings

* On the way to the Kids Karnival at First Evan:
Bear: "Roll, roll, roll your dope."
It's a very good thing she didn't realize what she was singing. With a little coaching, her pronunciation improved and she sang the correct lyrics.

* The main area was a little overwhelming for her. The big bounce house was too noisy for her taste. She liked the bean-bag toss, and digging through fake leaves. She also liked putting swim rings around cones. But her favorite part was Toddler Town, a room where the
A/C actually worked and the kids were her size or smaller. The bounce house in the Toddler Town was smaller and quieter, too. She had fun sliding down the Little Tikes slide, and slideing blow-up animals down the slide. Tech Mom, hubby and I were glad there were chairs set up for the parents. I had to remove her costume in order to change her diaper, and by the time we got home, Bear did not want to put it back on, so no trick-or-treating for us. She did get candy at the Kids Karnival. And she had fun giving the kids that came to Tech Mom's door their treats... except when one particular boy with a fake-bloody mask leaned over so she could put the candy in. Maybe next year....

5 minutes for Mom is going retro for this giveaway!
Head over to their blog and post a link on yours to have a chance to win this pedal car or something else (like an old-fashioned record-player) from their Pedal Cars and Retro Store


Their store has a lot of things I can only dream about getting for my daughter,
so winning something would be awesome!

Good luck!

i love cable tv

****************
Hubby has some work assignments in the vicinity of where his parents live this week, so Bear and I packed up our vehicle and drove over on Monday. I'm not sure which one of us will miss cable more when we get home. Bear is loving the DVR access to Little Einsteins and Dora. I'm enjoying the break from our usual PBS shows.

One of our friends came over for dinner last night. I made a veggie beef soup recipe from a Southern Living Slow-Cooker recipe book. Except Tech Mom's crock pot is little, so I ended up simmering it on the stove all afternoon. It turned out really, really yummy. And there are plenty of leftovers. I supposed it would be pretty easy to halve the recipe to make a smaller batch.

I finished reading The Memory Keeper's Daughter around 1 a.m. this morning. It was a good read. Of course, I am now pretty groggy since my daughter wakes up before I do. She has ben sleeping in until around7:30.

I should be contacting some other old friends and trying to see them while we're in town. But part of me is just really enjoying relaxing. Maybe I'll feel more social after I shower and brush my teeth....

Aahh...

Baby Bear is asleep, following a fun-filled and very festive weekend. We had a big family birthday party for her on Saturday, and I've posted lots of pics on her blog, aka my online scrapbook. I really need to work on her real scrapbook.

You know your 2 year old is tired when:
a) she says "night-night" at the dinner table
b) she practically falls asleep on her daddy while finishing her sippy cup of milk
c) after proclaiming "'all done!" she throws her empty cup on the ground and proceeds to start snoring while in her daddy's arms

...at 5:20 p.m.

She loved having her cousins and some of her aunts and uncles and both sets of grandparents come visit. We missed those who were not able to make it, but hope to see them soon! She received sooo many wonderful gifts. One of the best gifts was the cake which my talented and crafty sister designed and made. She's just begun teaching herself to decorate cakes, but she does it like a pro already. After everyone left, hubby and I took turns taking naps. He slept on the couch while Bear and I went upstairs to play, then he and Bear played while I napped. He even cleaned up some for me! I woke up to a not-crumby kitchen floor, the card table and chairs were put away, and the rocking chair had been returned to the nursery.

Miracles happen...

this is my first time online all day. We ran errands, cleaned the house, and our family has begun to arrive. Tech Mom is reading Bear's library books. Hannah is delirious because it's past her bedtime, but her older cousins will be here shortly, so we're letting her wait up for them, unless she crashes first. She is singing her rendition of "The Wheels On the Bus" complete with hand motions. I have pics to upload from my camera.

Tomorrow's the last day to enter to win a PINK camera!

My Baby Bear is 2 years old today. Where has the time gone?

We're going to have a party this weekend. All 3 of her cousins will come, so it's gonna be wild. Do not be deceived, girls are not necessarily lower-energy than boys. Anyone who believes otherwise has never met Em and Mad. My sis is making her a panda bear cake. We decided on that a while back because of my daughter's nickname. Well, I was looking for panda-bear stuff at the factory card outlet, and Baby Bear decided she had to have a firefighter hat. So the kids will have firefighter party hats. So much for a single theme.

"A Letter from Jesus Christ to the Soul that Really Loves Him"
by John of Landsberg, 1555

One thing I have to warn you of especially is your constant tendency to grow fainthearted under the weight of your faults and oversights and an inclination almost to despair when a sudden lack of confidence reduces your firm decisions to nothing. I know those moods when you sit there utterly alone, eaten up with unhappiness, in a pure state of grief. You don't move towards me but desperately imagine that everything you have ever done has been utterly lost and forgotten. This near-despair and self-pity are actually a form of pride. What you think was a state of absolute security from which you've fallen was really trusting too much in your own strength and ability. Profound depression and perplexity of mind often follow a loss of hope, when what really ails you is that things simply haven't happened as you expected and wanted. In fact, I don't want you to rely on your own strength and abilities and plans, but to distrust them and to distrust yourself, and to trust me and no one and nothing else. As long as you rely on yourself you are bound to come to grief. You still have a most important to learn: your own strength will no more help you to stand upright than dropping yourself on a broken reed. You must not despair of me. You must hope and trust in me absolutely. My mercy is infinite..."

*******

This may have been written centuries ago, but it could have been written today. I found it in a lesson on self-centeredness as a form of idolatry. It hit home. I won't go into all the reasons why it affected me so personally, though those of you who know me well or have even read my blog a while might have some insight into that. It will suffice to say that it seems my heart is finally returning to a point of surrender, of drawing near to Him who knows the answers to all my questions. To Him who is bigger than any fears, and more fulfilling than any dreams.

It's like the fall rain brought refreshment for my soul.

Casting Crowns "East to West"

24 hours straight

That's how long it's been raining here. I'm not complaining, just observing. Bear has asked to go outside soo many times. Today it's just drizzling, so maybe I'll give her an umbrella and put her in her Land's End snow boots.

The grass is already greener, and not just on the other side of the fence. It's pretty cool to see how quickly just a couple of inches of rain can help turn things around. My mums are happier, too. I'm happier. Dragging the hose around the yard gets tiresome in 90-degree Indian Summer weather. It finally feels like Fall!!!!

Bear found some of my books on the end table and is "reading" and patting them. At least they are getting some use!

Looking for a fun creepy-crawly themed craft idea?

Check out Erin's latest post.

A movie that looks worth seeing....

Bella

cantaloupe update....

mr. beaver or woodchuck, whatever he may be, has left my cantaloupe plants alone for the past severral weeks. there are now 5 or 6 tiny cantaloupe (the size of the tip of my pinky or smaller) in the pot. i have picked off several flowers in hopes of sending the energy from the plant to the fruits that are already forming. i seriously doubt they'll be big enough to ripen and eat before the first frost, but it is the south, so stranger things have happened.

maybe i'll bring fresh cantaloupe planted by em and mad to their house for thanksgiving dinner?!?

Thankful Thursday- Here are some things I am grateful for today:

Last night's rain soaked our yard
Bear slept in until 8, and I eventually fell back asleep.
I remembered to put the trash out. It was quite full this week, so the garage would have been really stinky if I had forgotten. (That's usually hubby's job.)
Hubby can stay with family when working out of town this week... and keep Tech Mom company!
We live pretty close to the airport.
my sweet daughter
my loving hubby
God's grace