KidMin mojo

This morning went really well with the kiddos. (By the by, I'm having quite a lot of arm pain tonight so this might get cut quite short.) I felt really connected to them. And I'm glad for that. I feel a renewed passion. My ideas are flowing quick, and I'm pumped for going to the office tomorrow. It's been stirring in me for awhile now, but I've been thinking of looking at going back to school (yikes!) for either a theology or Christian formation masters. Started looking at options today, and there is a lot going on there. It wouldn't be this year that I did that, but at least I'm starting to look. It doesn't really make sense, but I'm not sure why my heart is suddenly not so set against never going begrudgingly back... I sort of have a sense of what I really want to do. At this point anyway. We shall see.

Tried out my new brand of organic rooibos tea this evening which was very nice. A little more vanilla tasting than the last kind, but it will do since I haven't seen that brand anywhere. We also burned a wood wick candle tonight (yum), and it had such a lovely crackle sound as it burned. I'm a fan.

I'm hoping to find air plants somewhere soon. I found a nice tutorial for making plant holders, and I want to do that for in my bedroom and on the big, bare wall above the couch in the living room. I just think that a little greenery in a room goes a long way to brighten and liven the space.

In other news, my To Do list grows and grows for the summer. But I'm loving that right now. Because I feel inspired, productive, and useful. It's a nice thing.

Backyard dreams

Basically today we put a lot of elbow grease into the yard and garden. I assembled IKEA furniture while Kels planted our box garden.

Dave put a lot of work into the yard. He took out a bunch of rocks, leveled the back part, and put in grass seed.

Once that was all done, Kelsey and Dave tilled a front flower bed into creation (which will be pictured when we get the flowers in), and I took out the flower bed in the back, cleaned up weeds, and put rocks around one of our trees. The petunia bed was good in theory, but it's the most shady part of the yard and the soil isn't soil at all... it's clay. So in a few days, I'll rake the flowers out, I think, since they're mostly dying now anyways.

Once the grass comes in, I think the backyard will be a really pleasant place to sit. I'm looking very much forward to drinking my morning coffee out on our garden sofa. A couple more things to do around the yard, and it will be great!

So now Kels is off at a coach's picnic, and I'm watching some Netflix. I have my lesson all planned for tomorrow, I just have to print a couple things in the morning. I happened to find a board game that goes with Jesus calming the storm randomly tonight as I was browsing Pinterest so I am going to use it tomorrow. Mr. Burt is sick so it might be just Miss Barb and I tomorrow. Or Dave, too, if we need crowd control. But right now, I'm going to get some ice cream and just chill out. It's been a lot of physical stuff over the past couple days, and I need to chill so I can come north tomorrow. Eek! So excited!!

Happy greenhouse times

This is going to be a photo heavy post, just telling you up front. Because today was photo worthy.

So after I blogged to you last, Kels, Karol and I headed to pick out some flowers for the front flower beds that we are creating tomorrow as well as the vegetables for Kels's box garden that Dave just put in on the side of the house. We went to three different places before we found everything we wanted. (We still will have to go back to pick up the hydrangeas once the ground has been tilled and large stones removed from the backyard.) But it was a beautiful day, and we found some lovely plants. My contributions to deciding what plants to get yielded us purchasing Swiss chard for the garden, orange zinnias, and some small blueish flower that didn't have a recognizable name. (The hydrangeas are going to be my big project. Kels is in charge of the front flower beds and garden while I'm in charge of the back flower beds. Kind of, at least.) Anyways, it was beautiful in the greenhouses...

^^^We will probably get the latter two hydrangea plants

Kels and I had a mini photo shoot when we got back and brought all the plants in the house. (There's a frost warning, you know.) So here are some of the bests from that...

Once our plants were safe and Dexter fed and watered, we headed to IKEA to get garden furniture. We ended up finding a table to replace the one that is currently outside (and badly in need of replacement), and it came with two chairs. At Meijer, we found a outdoor wicker couch, and at Wal-Mart, we found two outdoor wicker end tables that we figure can also function as foot stools or a coffee table type thing. Pictures will come as soon as the back yard gets set up. (That's my project for tomorrow as Kelsey is planting, hopefully.) Anyhow, a miraculous thing that I found on this trip:

Healthy, affordable aloe plants!! I'm going to repot them into these pots tomorrow. Mom, decide which pot you would like, and I will bring your plant home to you on Sunday! This may have been my most exciting find of the day. All in all, a long day, but a good day. Now to bed because tomorrow is going to be a big, good day, too!!

I can be spontaneous

Today's rundown is going to be quite boring. I actually slept pretty well from 2-9 or so. I was really stiff all day, probably due to gardening yesterday, but I was pleased to actually wake up at a reasonable time and feel like I sort of slept an almost normal schedule.

I was waiting for the church to clear out (there was a funeral) so I could go over there, but while I did that, a migraine set in. Dexter and I cuddled, I took meds and I cooked myself some mac and cheese to try to get it to subside, but nothing worked. So I settled in for a day on the couch instead of my plans. I'll just get there early in the morning to tidy the room. Thankfully, though, a funeral today means that they will have cleaned my area after it...

Kelsey got home around 7 maybe? and we ran out to get some food. At this point, I was beyond trying to cook anything, and she was starving so she treated me to Arby's. I'm not sure what time it was, Emily Kozma texted me and said she had seen these Michigan State shoes that Kelsey wanted in Meijer at Jackson. Now, mind you, Em did not know that Kels had at this point already searched 5 Meijer stores for these shoes. So I told her to go ahead and get them, but unfortunately, they had already left the store. So I said to Kels, well, we'll just have to go on a little trip to Jackson sometime and get them. Then jokingly I said, if we leave right now we can still make it back for a full night's sleep. Maybe 10 minutes later we were on the road to Jackson. There are 2 Meijers in Jackson. Of course, the first one didn't have them. So. Now Kelsey has been to 7 stores, and she finally has her shoes.

Overnight my flower garden has started to blossom. The flowers are opening. It's quite exciting, but I'm trying not to get my hopes up as I know the soil isn't so good. But still, I'm impressed with myself.

That's all for tonight, folks.

House to myself...

Today started out quite a bit later than I would have hoped. I didn't sleep very well (shocker, I know), but I think I slept from 5:30-11 or so. I had a bit of a lie in... slowly starting to move my limbs. It wasn't one of those 'attack the day' kind of mornings. I was so sincerely hoping that I would feel up to driving home to visit, but when I looked at the To Do list left in the wake of the past few days of malaise combined with knowing that it is extremely possible for me to not feel well enough to drive back, I realized that yet again, I had to do the unfun, responsible thing. But in spite of that, I still had a good day.
I put together the invitations for the backyard Ice Cream Social open house and put them in the mail so the kids will get them tomorrow most likely. Here's what the postcards look like:

Dexter and I went on a little walk when we took the postcards to be mailed. The box is just down the street from our house, so I took him through Old Town, hit the River Trail, and back up to our house. It's probably a 10 minute walk? I thought it looked like rain, but I don't think it ended up doing anything. I had on a jacket and jeans, and that was a little bit too warm even.

When we got back it was about 2:40ish, and I decided to finish a job Kels had started in the backyard. We have one flowerbed by the patio, and she had put in two rows of petunias yesterday, but left the rest in the flats to do on Monday. I think there are 40 plants in all or something extravagant like that. So anyhow, I went ahead and tilled the rest of the bed, raked it, and put in the rest of the plants. I'm not sure they will do very well as there was quite a lot of clay under the first layer of soil, but we will probably put mulch down when we do the flowerbeds in front of the house I'm guessing. I had enough energy after that enterprise to clean up a lot of the trash around the backyard, too. It gets stuck between the two chainlink fences, so I picked up a lot of that. I think the flowerbeds used to extend the whole length of the back fence because there is that plastic material they put under beds sometimes that is coming out of the ground in a lot of spots. It's going to be quite the undertaking when the properties committee finally tries to put grass in our yard...

I came in from that maybe around 4:30, and I thought I deserved a cool drink so I got some sweet tea and called Aunt Jane. We talked for about 45 minutes, and then I was pretty hungry so I cooked up some turkey burgers. This time I made it seasoned with oregano and Mrs. Dash which I've never done before. On my sandwich I had mustard, Stubb's, olive mayo, velveeta cheese, and baby spinach. Made extra so I have some tomorrow in case I don't feel like cooking as much as I did today. Ooh, and I had a couple salt and vinegar chips.

At this point, I was feeling quite tired so I actually watched National Treasure. Not sure why I thought Nicholas Cage would spice up the night, but at least it had been so long since I'd seen it that I didn't remember everything that happened. I kind of chilled around the rest of the evening. Tomorrow I tackle the rest of my To Do list for church which pretty much entails making the children's area look presentable for the lady who is coming to visit. I noticed someone had torn down part of a bulletin board, so I'm hoping that tomorrow is a day when I can lift my arms well and take care of that. And finish the mural for the kids.


I'm that stupid feeling of tired but not sleepy right now. My head feels a bit tense, so I've put on Vivaldi's Four Seasons. I'm listening to La Primavera (spring) right now. Oh, I just remembered too. Did I tell you that I got a second set of sheets? (It's payday!!) Now I have gray sheets that match my gray/yellow comforter (the old ones), and my new purchase was white sheets with tiny navy stars on them to match my new quilt. I think it is good, though, that I have more than one set. The ones on my bed right now are already showing the wear of constant use. Now if only I could track down the 2 sets of towels that have gone missing... Ah well.
Big moment tonight as I now have 130 followers on Instagram! That feels like an important thing to note. :) Goodnight, family dearest!