Anyone Else?

 Do you throw away egg shells?  Or do you clean them out, dry them, and use them for plants/compost?

Me ~ I am somewhere in between.  I tend to use them as a natural fertilizer, pest control, and additive to compost.  Sometimes I just rinse them out and gently rub the inside to help get rid of leftover egg, rinse again and let them air dry.  Sometimes, they'll get "baked" in a low temp oven, 200 - 225 degrees for 20 - 25 minutes.  Either way is important because it will deter animals that like raw eggs and help prevent various things caused by raw eggs.   Below are the current round of shells drying off.  Ignore the major need of caulking!  

Beauty in a Thursday

This butterfly bush almost died.
Managed to save it, winter it indoors,
and safely transpant outside.

Beauty!  Not the Vogue or GQ Magazine type either.  Genuine, from the soul, kind of beauty.  The kind that don't fade, but go brighter as time marches on.  Beauty in friendship, beauty in nature, beauty in routine.  That was the sum of today's experience.  Beauty in in all.

• cool weather
• getting back into a local co-op
• son feeling better
• walks with Kevin
• butterfly bush growing well
• connecting with new friends (lol!  another Jennifer)

What has caught your eye as beautiful?  Simple things, big things, little things?  Care to share?

Wordless Wednesday ~ Not so much

 A Quilted Lamp Shade

 In contrast to the Stain Glass Shade

on the other side of the desk.

 Outdoor reading, after all it's 70 degrees.

Where there was one yesterday,

two are there today.

• unseasonably warm weather
• time to absorb the sunshine
• contrasting lampshades
• no driving today

Warmth, Messiness, A Beautiful Life

It was a day of noise, of messiness, of 70 degree weather, of windows open, of Spring in the air, of noise, of silence.  All summed up, a day of beauty.  A hard day, definitely; a day of learning, of getting it done, of letting it go, yet still beautiful.

Saw glimmers of what it would be like having a larger family, at least for a few hours.  Saw the personalities in children and "rolled" with each unique one.  Thankfulness throughout the day.  Reminders of how quickly time flies; how moments drag on.  Greatful for bedtimes and the hope of doing it al again tomorrow.

• first round of coffee
• a singular clover, reaching for sunshine
• laughter
• science experiments
• younger being a gracious host
• large enough house to "hid" from the craziness

 Singular Clover

As messy as Christmas morning!

Warm Weather . . . .

 while waiting for snow.  Seen the possiblity for Winter weather on Thursday!  Truly hope it is for "real"!  We are due and we are ready.  In the mean time, has been nice to air out the house, get the plants out on the deck for a bit of time, dog sunning outside.

• warm weather
• slow morning
• supplies for crafting magnets
• candles, both real (soy based) and battery operated
• overall good feeling all day long
• pulling out the duct tape

 Pink Duct Tape  to mend a school folder.

Yes, it might be cheapr to use new one, but the

tape adds a pop of color!

Plant in green pot is a butterfly bush I saved and bringing

back to life.  Hope it will grow rather large over the spring and summer.

In the plan pot are clover and in the blue is my Rosemary bush.

Truly! I mean it!!

I have really do have every intention of trying to blog more often.  It is such a "therapy" counting the joy, the good.  Days come and days go, things are noticed, counted, and some are remembered while some forgotten.  Suppose I need to work on this like kicking a bad habbit with remembering the good.

So far, between the last blog post and today's:

1. finishing school up for the year
2. first trip to the community pool
3. school books for next year coming in
4. visiting my folks
5. first tomatoes coming in
6. first batch of ice cream for the summer
7. scout being inducted into "Order of the Arrow"

 As this is a "I'm still alive and counting post", not sure what pictures would fit here!

Happy Places

What's your happy place?  Where do you go to unwind? To recharge?

Is it a library or book store or a run?  Maybe some place loud because you're an extrovert and need that to recharge!

Life has been wet, to say the least, around my parts of the world.  Heard some folks compare our area to Seattle, Washington because we'd had rain everyday for over two weeks.  Thankful for the rain, as we didn't have to water the new grass, but it does get old after awhile.  Yesterday and today have been gloriously sunny, mild temps, and cool breezes.  This led to finally planting a garden.  For me, that is a happy place.  Sun, breeze, dirt, plants, digging, things to add to the soil so the plants get "good" fertilizer (I added bananas for the potassium, egg shells for the calcium, and Epsom Salt for the magnesium, plus some sand to help loosen up the clay).  It felt wonderful to play in the dirt!

 Two tomato plants and a grape tomate plant!

 Planted beens this year!  A new thing for us to try.

I'll put some twine around the poles and weave the plants through

as they grow.

Three baskets with potato seeds in them.  Found

the idea on Pinterest.  The little plants, to the right of

the laundry baskets, are basil.  Second round unfortunately;

weather has been so unpredictable, we've lost a few things already.

And back to counting the joy:

• warm, dry weather (with a breeze even)
• planting our garden
• final weeks of the school year
• coffee
• getting a computer back

"Oh The Things You Can Think"

 Our family is just coming off a Suessical high!  Puns are happening, it just can't be helped.  Fun is inevitable, just let out a whelp.

Thinking "aloud" here!  Oh the things you can think.  Thinking I need to be more intentional about blogging here.  Life is just whizzing by; more quickly than I care to admit.  Things, again, in random order, but no 1's or 2's, as they're all equally good:

• being "kidnapped" by friends
• homemade poptarts
• grass growing in thicker than years before
• car passing inspection (thought I had issues with the brakes)
• plants not fully dying
• planning out 2015/2016 school year already
• heating pads for achey back
• coffee ~ you just can't be thankful enough
• having the windows open
• kids having good group of friends
• co-op winding down
• planning meetings for next year
• bees buzzing along
• monogrammed bag

Cute bag, just for me

Under watered plant!

24 hours after a good watering,

it is thriving again

Days That Speed Along

This is one of those blog posts, I just don't know how to title. Catchy isn't happening, honesty seems to forthright, and inspiration is lacking!! Life has been busy. School has been trucking along, mild colds hitting the household (thankful it's not the big colds going around), and general hustling to where we're ready for bed early in the evening. The other day, felt hit hard by the need to sleep, early in the day. Laid down, for what I thought would be 20 minutes, if I was lucky ~ 3 hours later I forced myself up. Didn't expect that as I am generally not a napper. Anyway, you add all our activities, school getting doubled up so kids can take Friday off, and general life things (chores, shopping, and what not) it has made for some long, tiring days. Don't mean to sound like I'm complaining, if it reads this way. It's just been an exhausting week. Looking forward to life being a bit slower. That will happen soon, very soon at the rate our days seem to be speeding along.

Any hoot, still finding the good and lovely things. Here's how it's been going lately:

finding a favorite pen in the van

3 rolls of Washi tape

"labeling" new electronics with said Washi tape

kid realizing a choice in one tape matches the cover of new phone (lol)

making bread this evening

good doctors appointment

getting the hang of using a planner

getting things checked off a list

finding a mysteriously placed bag of aquarium gravel

potting some pansies in a pretty container

buying a few parts and pieces to make new curtain rods

getting ready for bed

 first purchase of Washi Tape

wooden box, behind tape, has been prepped for new purpose ~

you can only faintly see where apples had been painted!

 see how well the dots match the chevron pattern!

 close up of hummingbird on planter

planter with pansies in it

looking forward to gifting this soon!

Pizza Friday, Among other things

Yes, we have homemade pizza just about every Friday evening.  Think it is safe to say we average 50 out of 52 Fridays a year.  Once in awhile it gets shuffled to Thursday, when boys are out of town due to Scout events or if we are traveling.  Today was no different ~ 4 individual pizzas to the rescue.

Today was also the last scheduled school day of the calendar year 2014.  School still took a bit, but it's been finished, corrected by me, and then corrected by the boys.  Simon may work a head on biology, but that is his choice, not mine.

Thankful list for the day:

• individual pizzas
• cool shadows on the wall (see the photo below)
• taking the ends of various veggies and having them grow (see photo)
• watching "Elf" last night

 We have gold letters in the window

spelling N O E L

The closer one is Romaine lettuce

the further back is celery

Should you read this far, and care to see more photos, check out December 1 post.  I added a photo that is relevant!