Lasting Impressions

I was just outside pitching baseballs to my son.  What fun to see his face light up when he hit the baseball.  Nothing says spring is coming like sunshine, blue sky, and a boy with a bat!
Memories of my own softball playing days came crowding in as I watched my sons enjoyment.  Most good, but not all of them.  One in particular stood out.
I never actually played t-ball, but I did go to a practice...once.  The coach lined me all up, put the helmet on my head, handed me a bat, and put the ball on the tee.  Then he stepped back and I took that as my sign to swing.  What I didn't see was a younger kid (mind you I was all of 6 at the time) behind me.  CRACK!! Yep, you guessed it.  My enthusiastic swing caught the poor child right in the head.  Even now, many, many years later I feel the remorse well up inside of me...and also the feeling of being blamed and punished for something that I never intended to happen.  The coach read me the riot act (as a parent I logically understand why, but as a child all I heard was "You horrible, awful kid look what you did!!") and sent me home.  I never darkened the t-ball field again.
So all you parents and coaches out there.  Be careful not to react in such a way as to send a child away from a sport to never return.

Spring Cleaning Fever

Well spring is in the air.  It must be because my little fingers are starting to itch and my brain spin with spring cleaning ideas.  It doesn't help that I've been reading a book titled "Is There Life After Housework" by Dan Aslett (I think I spelled the name right).  My plan for spring cleaning this year is to start by SIMPLIFYING.
I was doing laundry this week (so what else is new) and Emily brought down her dirty laundry...all three baskets mounding full...and she still has stuff in her drawers!  Seriously?!  Nathan and Megan's clothing piles aren't much better.  So I'd like to downsize the kids closets and then just get rid of all that stuff that's been sitting there for years that I haven't touched since we moved in here 3.5 years ago. 
I'm planning to start in my bedroom, which is a bit overwhelming because our closet has a storage area in it.  I am so looking forward to decluttering our house!
Of course it may take me years to do it, but I'm hoping not.
Alright, off to bury myself in dust and stored stuff.

Winter Snow and Spring Garden

Well there are several inches of snow on the ground and I am contemplating my garden. I have been looking through seed catalogues and spending hundreds of dollars on all the things I want...at least in my head I have. Always seems strange to me to contemplate my garden in the middle of winter, but I'd like to plant peas this year and they need to go in March or so.
Thanks to our new limited budget, I am going to make a go of actually planting and harvesting enough food to keep us through most of the winter. Not my favorite thing as I like the idea of a garden much more than the actual dirt. Probably because my allergies are so very horrible that it is awful to go pull weeds and what not. However, that said, I will be doing it anyway to try and salvage some of our money...maybe if I pull it off we won't be so deep in the red next year.
Blech to not enough money!
So this is what I want to plant for sure this year: corn, peas, green beans, wax beans, tomatoes, turnips, parsnips, potatoes, carrots, radishes, spinach, beets, zucchini, crook neck squash, spaghetti squash, pumpkins. I'm sure there is more, but my list is not in front of me.
We also have a rhubarb patch, grapes, apple trees, pear trees and I would love to add a heavier bearing cherry tree as well as a couple of peach trees. We really are blessed with abundance in this area. Of course this is assuming a good spring and summer. Last year it was so cold and wet that our garden didn't really do all that well and we got almost no apples or pears and oddly I didn't see any rhubarb come into the house.
My other desire which probably won't come to fruition this year is to add a couple of Goji berry bush/trees and at least two paw paw trees. They both sound yummy and beautiful.
Off to clean and continue planning what is going to be a massive garden.

Busy Bee Day

I am not sure what happened to spring sunshine. I think April forgot to end so that May flowers could bloom. Here we are on the 18th of June and I have little hope that the corn in our garden will be knee high by the fourth of July. I sure hope September and October are extra nice to make up for this wet, cloudy spring.


In other news I had three extra kids added to the household for the day. My niece Bridget, nephew Seth, and my friends little girl Bailey. All in all I find having friends over can be easier than not having them. Other than general supervision and guidance, oh yeah and feeding them, they entertained themselves pretty well. A few squabbles here and there, but nothing serious. However, it amazes me that adding even one more kid can increase the dishes by so very much, but adding three has pretty much emptied my cupboard bare. I have done dishes no less than 5 times today. Amazing. Had a light bulb turn on after supper...I made the kids clear the table, rinse the dishes, and put them in the dishwasher. Revolutionary I tell ya! I guess I can't totally blame the kids for all the dishes. I made home made mac and cheese for lunch, and homemade chicken enchilada's for supper, and am about to finish making two chocolate cream pies.


David and I spent last Saturday cleaning up the downstairs of our house. I think 80% of that was toys. We have reduced the toys downstairs by probably 90% and it looks so nice, and the kids are actually playing with what is there instead of just stirring them into even greater chaos. It will be one week tomorrow that I have managed to keep the downstairs of my house cleaned. I amaze even myself sometimes.


The kids enjoying the pool...so what if it doesn't have any water in it :)

Tap, tap, tap...

Well here I sit, staring at my computer screen and ignoring the five things that I have to complete in order to finish what I set out to do today. I feel like my almost 5 year old..."I don't wanna!" However, I suppose I should aspire to the proclamation of my two year old, "Mommy awesome!" Of course keeping a clean house is not what being a great mom is all about, but I think that attempting to keep a clean house is actually important for kids to witness and take part in. I'm sure it'll affect their characters somewhere down the road...just don't ask me how right now as my brain is falling asleep and I don't wanna finish my work.
And of course I have my Spring resolution of trying to be more organized (which in my head means more clean) tapping me on the shoulder.

(my lovely large and overflowing laundry room)