Will the laundry ever get done ...

I have so wanted the warm weather to start ... and then stay ... and now that it has - boy does the routine have to change. The warm ... no who am I kidding ... hot weather has directly resulted in the boys wanting to be outside ... all the time. Well that's all well and good what with getting fresh air and exercise - but there's that little (read huge) pile of laundry in the basement, and the pile of dishes in the kitchen, and the clean clothes in the bedrooms ... etc etc etc ad nauseam. And I just can't find the time to get to them.

Rather, I have really enjoyed watching the plants sprout in the garden and sitting on our patio chatting with neighbors and just enjoying the outdoors.  It's such a different feeling to relax in the sun and to eat al fresco.  Everything just smells, tastes, feels better somehow.  

Should I really worry about the inside stuff that's not getting done, should I cut myself slack because I'm now adding outside things to do as well, should I just not worry about it and enjoy each and every blessed moment I have the privilege of receiving each and every day?   

I think I'll go with the last option ... that seems to be the loudest calling at the moment.

This is how my garden grows...

In a bit of desperation to actually get summer started, the plants were transplanted this past Saturday afternoon from the overgrown seedling tray to the garden.  They were so overgrown and it was still not the best outdoor weather that I decided to just give it a try and if I have to then I'll break down and buy a few plants from the local nursery.  

Here are the two plots planted.

Notice the tools and kneeling pad - see I did do the work with the help of my three year old.

In both plots you can see that I "marked" off my square foot sections.  The very well established onions, parsley and lettuce were volunteers from last years plantings - how nice of them to grow relatively close to a square foot section so as to not throw off my grid by very much.  Several plants were relatively substantial enough and hopefully will make the transition well.  Some were not so hot looking and may need replacement.  I had made a very nice matrix (the engineer in me) documenting which seed had been started in which quadrant of the my seedling tray - ie. 1-1 was a tomato - 1-2 was some basil, etc.  Unfortunately, I could not locate this matrix when I planted, so there are a few tags in the garden that state "mystery" They'll be like the matchbox / hot wheels car that comes in the black container that the boys so love getting at the store. 

My wonderful husband made the cedar planters /beds for me.  I was envisioning a couple of 2X6s nailed together - I got cedar mortise and tendon construction - Norm Abrams like - masterpieces.  They are beautiful - no?

He also made me the trellis's for growing things vertically.  I grow tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, and beans vertically on those.  Here's a better picture of the trellis...

He made those out of copper pipe and stripped copper wire.  After the pictures I put up the bunny fencing to prevent last years event where all the bitty plants were "trimmed" to the ground the following day.  And then I watered in very well so that the plants would grow big and strong.

Then, I had the idea that perhaps watering other things would also make them grow big and strong, and so - need I say more ....

Can you tell I'm happy summer is here?!  Thanks God for a very capable husband who is willing to make anything that I can dream up and then some and for wonderful children and friends that know the very best way of greeting the warm weather and life!

Going Without

We have our internet connection back - Phew.  It had been blow out - zapped - unconnected - or otherwise disabled by a recent storm in the area.  This storm woke me up at 3 am to the tone of "oh my gosh that bolt of lightning actually hit our house I'm sure of it ..."  And I guess I was close.  Something in the magic locked box outside our house was "screwed up" and amplifiers weren't permitting an acceptable level signal into our house.  That box is locked with special cable guy locks by the way - Hubby did try to "take a look" to see if he could fix it rather than wait three days for the technician - but lo and behold - they use special keys that prevent the home owner from taking matters into his own hands.

So we had to wait - through the mother's day weekend - until Tuesday evening - for the expert.  Who by the way was the most respectful nice guy you could imagine - way to go Comcast!!

It was OK and I mean that - not just to pacify my withdraw - it really was OK.  I wasn't checking facebook or email or blogs that I follow several times a day.  Hubs wasn't surfing about planes and being enticed with all the stuff he has to do to complete the plane.  Weird - yes - but strangely - OK.  Probably because we knew that it would eventually be back and probably because we could resort to surfing, emailing, etc on our iphones but still - the screen experience - I've said enough.

We did miss being able to easily check the weather, but looking out the window works too.  We did miss catching up on the shows that were supposed to be downloaded to our apple TV but weren't because - no connection - but we'll just have some extra break time this week.  We read, played, relaxed, enjoyed each other.  Perhaps the electrical bolt from earth to heaven that fried the internet allowed the passage from heaven to earth of a very important message - enjoy each other - for a little while.

Your ways are mysterious and magnificent ... and all I can say is ... God, Thanks for the Blessing.

It's all in how you see it...

My husband and I have been carpooling to work at least a few days a week.  Certain days we have other activities in the evening that require us to drive separately or my husband will have a known extra long day so in order to pickup our kids at a reasonable hour we drive separately.

His commute is about 40 minutes.  We drive to his work, drop him off , and then  I go about another half hour to get to work.  I'd be driving that distance anyways so it makes sense to share half the ride.

Yesterday we carpooled and on the way home, about 2 minutes before I was to pick up my husband, he texted me that he had just been called into late meeting.  So time to revise our plans.

Simply put  ... I drove to very near our home to pick up our kids then drove back up to pick up my husband.

Less simply put ... this involved meeting my parents at a park and ride to pick up our not yet school aged son who'd been the lucky purveyor of a day with gramma and pap pap, followed by picking up our older son at the babysitters, running by the house to drop off perishable food from lunch boxes and letting the dog out, then heading back to my husbands work.  Of course we hit a traffic jam on a main highway on the way back up due to an accident.  By the time I got to his office I'd been driving for 3 hours.  At this point, I could have seen all of this as "Agghhh, why can't we just be home".

Instead, here's how I saw it...

My younger son was tired from a very busy and happy fun filled day with grandparents - he gets to sleep in the car - nap done. 

What am I out?  I get to sit and cruise around in a fun little car  in beautiful weather- OK I'm good with that ... some people even do that on purpose! 

My older son needed some down time after a long day at school anyway. 

On top of that I had to Thank God that my husband and I both have wonderful professional careers that God has led and blessed, and most importantly that He (God) reminded me to get gas before I got on the turnpike after leaving my work.

When we arrived at my husbands work and he was still in a meeting - so I had time to review my sons spelling words with him for the spelling test the next day.  Plus my boys and I had some quiet time in the car just being with each other while we waited for Daddy.

When Daddy was done - here's the best part - we had a nice dinner at a very nice restaurant and .... I didn't have to cook dinner!!  Kind of an early mothers day.

God is so full of blessings, you just have to be sure that your focus allows you to see them, because sometimes it's easy to loose focus ...

God Doesn't Do Voicemail

Well, with best laid intentions comes change and reorganization and re planning etc etc.  I knew this when I posted my Friday to do list for the weekend, but thought at the time it may behoove me to actually make a plan for a weekend - not just wait to see what my husband was doing then fit my tasks around that. Well that seems to be the silliest plan ever.

It started out relatively well, I was working at the office near home on Friday which opens up two extra hours of time.  So, I left work on time and stopped at the grocery store on the way home before picking up the kids - boy can I be efficient when it's just me and the buggy (yes honey that's a shopping cart).  Watch out fellow shoppers - I get a thrill out of flying through the store and was almost on the brink of being the crazy silver haired lady that pushes her cart into you if you're taking too long picking out pork chops - they are all the same just pick one and move on.

Getting the groceries done freed up a good 1.5 to 2 hours on Saturday or Sunday that would have been otherwise devoted to getting the food with at least one child at the wheel of the race car shopping cart - beeping the horn at anyone that gets in our way.

Friday night was nice and relaxing - beautiful weather, take out pizza, kids playing, husband putzing in the garage ... most importantly me sipping a glass of 2006 Passages Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot on the patio swing - delicious stuff try it some time.

I guess I should admit here that I did not get all of my list completed.  

Saturday morning my husband and I split up the day and the kids - he took our youngest to a meeting and I took our oldest to a doctors appointment.  After the Dr. we (oldest and I) enjoyed bagels coffee and juice boxes at an outside patio table - so European.  Then we headed to a cabinet store so that I could get an idea of options for additional cabinet space in our kitchen.  So I traded the pantry clean out for beginning the getting of a pantry organization cabinet that would not only match our existing cabinets but make the pantry something more than a stuff and quickly shut the door closet.  Still kind of sort of on track.

We head home and it is absolutely BEAUTIFUL outside.  While my goal oriented side is telling me - you told people you were going to wallpaper and paint - my practical revise as your go side is saying it's beautiful out and you do need to do outside work - save the inside stuff for the rainy weather.

So I decide to clean out the leaves from our front flower beds in preparation of putting lava rocks there to perturb any future weeds.  Trying to decide how to make this "fun" for my kid.  Here we go...

Me: "Sweetie I want to clean out the front flower beds - how would you like to ride your bike out front while I do that - though you will have to stay between the neighbors mailboxes where I can see you and be sure to get over if a car comes ... ?"

Son: "Umm..."

Me: Thought - uh oh

Son:  "Well Mommy, you only have two hands, but if you put your two hands and my two hands together we'd get four hands (woo he is paying attention in math class - or did he use fingers - can't see I'm driving) and four hands will get the work done a lot quicker than just your two.  So I'd like to help you with cleaning out the beds"

OK, yes I'm gloating, but geez I'm just so proud of that boy at this moment.  He has been listening and gosh he's just won me over!  Completely.  Please keep being such a good caring person the rest of your life.

He proceeds to add a very thought out process of integrating the husband and other son when they get home to make even quicker work of the flower beds - he even got our dog in the act because she could stomp on the weeds.   He was a great help and fortunately or other wise we were done with the cleaning out when the rest of the crew arrived home.  We had all the weeds pulled and dumped, all the dead leaves removed and shredded and dumped.  Oldest even decided that since we worked so hard we should get freeze pops to take a break - awesome idea.

As part of the break a neighbor stopped over and she and I were chatting on our patio ... that's when God,  frustrated with the whole voicemail thing, hit me like a wall.  My sinuses let go and oh the drainage and following sore throat.  Like - nothing and then boom SICK.  It kind of went down hill from there.  I really wasn't feeling good the rest of the day but pushed through the trip to get the lava rocks and get them loaded and run to a craft store to get the felt to finish the jewelry box hubby's been making for me for four years ... future post of his awesome woodworking abilities.

Sunday I made it through church and after lunch at home I decided it best to nap with younger son - so he wouldn't be so lonely - it's all about the kids.  I only got laundry washed and away on Sunday.  

The walls are still flowers, the quilt still undone, the beds are ready and awaiting the rocks.  I am still free and not committed.  Laundry is ... as laundry always will be - for ever there - kid of like a metaphor for God.  I'm recovering after much sleep.  Thank you God for ignoring my silliness and making me take a break when I needed to - reminding me that even you had to take a break after 6 days of hard work - Geez if you have to then I better too.  And I shouldn't worry so much about "getting it all done".  Rather I should enjoy your presence, the gift of my family and of course sleep - what a wonderful blessing.

Voicemail is now off ... calls are once again being received...

And so it begins ...

I mentioned in a previous post that my husband is going to be building his own plane. Well, it's all begun. The plans arrived this past week - kid in a candy shop!!

He started reviewing and figuring and redrawing in CAD etc. etc.

This past week he took the very big step of buying the first piece of aluminum. After he'd done all the cad work to determine the size of aluminum that he'd need and the layout of pieces that would maximize it's usefulness.

So this is what the plans look like - it's a huge tree where you make all the boxes in one branch and end up with say a wing, then make all the boxes in the next branch and get a tail piece etc.

I want to know when we will get to this box ...

He and I won't bet on it but I'm thinking approximately 28 years... I think he's hoping for a bit sooner.

He started working on it with our oldest son this afternoon. Here's them hard at work and smiling for mom - power tools!! pay attention to what you're doing!!!

working some more

taking a snack break

partially done (can't you tell they are father and son - exact same smile ...)

Finished piece - labeled and ready to wait for assembly.

How cool is it to see father and son working away on a project together. Someday they'll be flying it together.