panacea

It was a beautiful, not too hot spring day. We had a nice productive afternoon.

DH mowed the lawn, cleaning up all the dead grass and leaves from last year. I turned the bed in back in preparation of planting vegetables.

The kids had a good afternoon too. The boys ran around with the dog, played on the swing set, dug with me occasionally. A pulled out her sewing machine and made clothes for her dolls. She came outside periodically to check on us and show me her progress. We all ended up hanging out in the front yard until dark.

B was riled up and hard to settle down. We started bedtime routine way too late. Almost immediately he started calling for his dad. DH went in and came back out with B bawling in the background. He told me I needed to take care of it.

B told me he had a horrible owie on his hand. I turned on the light to see it. I licked my finger, rubbed and it magically disappeared. He found another spot which too rubbed right off and then another. B was still crying because he was in really bad pain.

Did I get him out of bed and wash his hands (which he really needed) to prove he had no owies. No, I got him a half shot of advil and told him it would make him all better. It did. He went right to sleep. I knew it was my panacea.

mutant

We bought strawberries this week and found this mutant. I should have taken the picture with a quarter to show how massive it really was.

back to it

I started this project way back in January. I had some issues with the sewing machine & the notions. They just weren't working together.

I put it aside and finally this week decided to come up with a new solution. I've got about two-thirds of hand sewing to go and its done.



DH is glad because I finally put away the sewing machine that had taken up residence on our dining room table for the past two months.

First Day of Spring

March 20th, the first day of spring.

You could have fooled me. It was raining and cold in the morning. Temps dropped and the wind began to blow in the afternoon. By night we had this:






This morning it looked like this:








Another snowfall in Dallas. What is this the 4th or 5th this winter?? Or should I say spring???

spring break

We're staying home this spring break. One year ago we were visiting the cousins and skiing. This week hasn't been nearly as exciting but we tried to do something fun every day.

Monday: a trip to Central Market where we bought lots of food and tried every sample except the wine.

Tuesday: a trip to the zoo with J's buddy and his family

Wednesday: watch Alice in Wonderland at the Inwood with the cushy couches and bean bags. (I got lice heebie jeebies but I washed everyone's hair in tea tree oil shampoo, hopefully we'll stave off any infestations)

Thursday: geocaching and Braum's (chocolate chip cookie dough (A&J), chocolate chip(b), peanut butter cup(me))

Friday: spend the day with grandma

Saturday: A's friend is coming over and the boys might go to the batting cages to get ready for machine pitch baseball which starts as soon as soccer is over.

I didn't take my camera along for any of these outings. This afternoon I finally remembered that my phone takes pictures too. And not bad ones considering it is a cell phone.

Geocaching over the highway



cache in a strip mall



found one in a hidden park





At Braum's for a surprise treat

weeds

Last year I spent a long time working in the back alley to spruce it up. (I guess I never took pictures of the completed alley, or at least I couldn't find any.) It went from patches of dirt and weeks to nice day lilies and mulch. It looked much better.

At least it did until midsummer when the weeds started taking over. DH weeded it thoroughly a few times between then and now. It's hard work to weed that area. This year, I wanted to try to stop them before they could take over.

I went the newspaper/compost route. Hopefully it will help suppress the weeds and if not, it might improve the soil back there. There is a layer of wet newspaper covered by 3-5 inches of compost, topped with what was left of the mulch from last year.

I am very happy that when DH weeded last week, he discovered that my day lilies from last year survived our harsh winter.



Now onto the next project.

A neighbor dropped off a half a truck load of garden soil. I need to remove my first attempt at weed suppression (cardboard with some leaves dumped on top, not much success) to the compost bin. I need to dig up the plants that are taking over the back of the bed. I need to build a trellis for tomato and maybe cucumber plants. Finally the kids and I can plant a garden. I know A is looking forward to it.

the dog and the yard

Three or so weeks into this, we're discovering that owning a dog isn't so simple.

For the first week the dog had digestive issues. We weren't too concerned about where he went as long as he made it outside, which for the most part, he did. Now that he's back to healthy digestion, we've become concerned about where he poops. Because this is his favorite spot:



Right in front of the playset, in the middle of the yard. Yelling "Watch out for poop" was getting really old.

We have an ugly side yard that we decided was the perfect place for a dog run. But it had issues.



We spent some money last year to lay down brick to cover up the scrubby dirt around our shed. However, we didn't spend much money and it wasn't laid properly. They raised the grade in front of the shed enough to stop drainage and the side yard floods whenever it rains. Which has been often this winter. If we wanted to use this as a dog run, I had to fix it.

I devoted several hours this weekend to pulling up brick, digging out sand & clay dirt, laying more sand and dumping pebbles.



Hopefully it will solve both of our issues at once.

Now we just have to convince Frankie that this is the best place in the world to poop!

a boy and his dog

J started begging for a dog more than a year ago. He is still so excited that we have a dog. He comes home and rushes through his homework so he and Frankie can go outside and play.

Mostly, they play fetch. Frankie excels at this game. Frankie loves it, can't get enough of fetching the tennis balls. J has taught him to lay down and release the tennis ball before he'll throw another one. He is a quick learner. J likes to throw 3 balls at once and it confuses the heck out of Frankie because he can't decide which one to chase first.

It is wonderful to watch.

temptation

The temptation is so strong. I think about it all the time. I dream about it. I want to drink it. I am addicted to diet coke and I gave it up. (Okay, I'll be honest. I've had a diet coke the past 2 Sundays, but for me, that is huge. This is the longest I've gone without diet coke since I was pregnant with B.)

I scheme & plan for diet coke.

I could swing by the dollar store after dropping B off at school and finish it in the 1/4 mile trip home. There would be evidence in the plastic bottle but I could probably manage to hide it in the recycling.

I was in Jo-Anns with B and there was a cooler with diet coke right by the checkout line. I could grab one. B wouldn't remember that I'm not suppose to drink diet coke. Again there is the issue of hiding the bottle.

I took J to an academic fair today. I could go to the cafeteria while waiting for him to finish his test and drink a diet coke and no one would ever know.

I actually gave that one a lot of thought. I wondered if they would have diet coke. Would they have it in cans or bottles? (cans) Would it be really cold? (it looked almost icy) Would anyone who knows I gave up diet coke be there? (yes, but she probably wouldn't remember) Would I get caught? (probably not)

As I walked down the stairs to the cafeteria, I reminded myself that this whole Lenten sacrifice is suppose to be just that, a sacrifice. It isn't suppose to be easy. I bought a bottle of water and went back to wait with the other parents. It was like being in hell. Every single one was drinking a diet coke. Okay, maybe that is a slight exaggeration. I counted 7 cans of diet cokes in the hands of the fellow parents around me.

I resisted the temptation. I sacrificed. I survived.

Bread

I've read about this book for a long time. Blog people rave about it. I've had it on my amazon wish list for awhile, but I haven't received it. I should probably set the priorities on the wish list so DH would know that I really want it.

I decided that I should get it from the library and see if I really want to get it. There was a wait list for it so I signed up and waited.

Of course, it came in right after my oven died last month. After a lot of research and waiting for it to come in, I got my new oven and finally had a chance to try the bread book. And I couldn't find the book!!!

Yesterday I got a notice from the library that the book is due tomorrow. I had to find the book and bake bread quickly so I could figure out if I really want the book. It was stuck in a stack that got "cleaned" off the dining room table.

I'm so glad I found it. My first loaf looks beautiful. I hope it tastes as good as it smells.



ETA: There is no more bread left after dinner. Kids requested that I bake another loaf so I can make sandwiches for their lunches with it! I guess it was that good!

A post of his own

Because he is so silly.

B was amusing himself in DH's laundry pile while waiting to get into the shower before all of yesterday's activities.



Yesterday between activities, we caught some of the US v Canada hockey game. B is obsessed with sports. He told me we needed new dress up clothes because we had no hockey clothes for him to wear while watching hockey.

B was very concerned about this game because he was cheering for the blue team and the white team was winning most of the game. Plus the cousins live in Canada so they had to cheer for the white team but he wanted them to cheer for the blue. I tried to explain that most of them (except cousin E) were probably cheering for the blue. He insisted that if you live in Canada you had to cheer for the white.

This morning on the way to school he told me again that he was mad that the blue team lost and he couldn't wait for the cousins to move back home from Canada so they could cheer for the blue team again. He said the cousins might be happy since they lived in Canada that the white team won, but next time, the blue would definitely win because he was going to play hockey for the blue team and the cousins would cheer for him too.

Another long weekend

We had another one of those hectic weekends. A participated in an academic fair on Friday. Saturday morning I had to take the dog back to the vet. Hopefully he's finally on the mend. Soccer games started back up on Saturday afternoon. That night DH & I had his parents' surprise 40th anniversary party & J had a boy scout banquet. Sunday we had a target run for the bday present, tried to deliver girl scout cookies, J went to a party, we went to dinner with mom & dad and ILs and A sang in a concert. We didn't get home until 10 pm. Everyone was tired. We're going to bed early tonight!

In the fall A joined the Northwest Neighborhood Chorus which is a part of the Children's Chorus of Greater Dallas. They got to sing last night at the Meyerson, the Dallas Symphony Hall. It was very cool. I was so proud of her. She is the second black shirt from the right in the second row.