Spring. Just in time for summer.

Finally, it feels like spring in Illinois.  Our crabapple tree is finally blooming, the blooming trees in the front of the house are budding and will be blooming by this afternoon, and our Mama Robin is sitting on the nest outside my living room window.  It was 86 degrees yesterday afternoon and the air conditioner is humming this morning.  The trees and flower beds are about three weeks behind schedule--my hostas are up and finally starting to unfurl.

It was a long winter.  In a lot of ways.  I'm going to clean my studio this morning and then go out and do yardwork--weeding and edging and planting and praying. No calligraphy for me today.  I'm going outside!

Sigh. . .spring is good.

April 18 snow

While I was dreaming, snow was falling.  I prefer the dream, myself.

Mama Robin?

The robins have been hanging around the nesting tree beside the front door today.  Maybe it's because we're edging around the beds today and they think they can snag some easy worms.  But maybe, just maybe, they are thinking of building a nest.

I hope so.

Note to Self: First mow

First mow today. I love the distant then not-so-distant then distant again sound of the mower and the smell of fresh mown grass, don't you?

It's a rainy day

Out like a lamb

Forecast for today:  73 degrees

Forecast for tomorrow: 75-80 degrees

Ah, spring!

Signs of Spring

Isn't it pleasant to wake to the sound of birdsong again?  I love seeing the daffodils and tulips emerging.  I can't wait until my herbs are big enough to start harvesting again, but I think my favorite sign of spring is birdsong.

What is yours?

This and That

Well, my fears about hours and hours on the phone with Dell proved to be baseless.  They were fast, courteous and able to tell me in short order that my computer hardware is all fine.  Bad thing, though, is that I have a software conflict of some sort since I installed Vista Service Pack 2.  So now, my laptop is in the shop and I'm limping along with my old fritzy computer.  Old and fritzy is better than none at all, though, so I'm not complaining.

It's been 11 days since I've seen Elliott.  And I won't get to see him until Sunday at the earliest.  (Sunday is his first birthday, so I really hope they get home early enough for us to see him!)  It's by far the longest we've gone without seeing him and I MISS HIM something dreadful!  They've been on vacation in the Outer Banks.  I'm glad they're having a good time and I can't wait to see the pictures of Elliott on the beach, but Sunday can't come soon enough for me.

This week my dear niece, Meg, came for a visit on her way back to Ohio from her vacation in the NorthWoods of Wisconsin.  We had such a wonderful time with Meghan, but it was TOO SHORT!!  I made her promise to come back and bring my mom with her!

Next week, Meg's sister Katie and her boyfriend are coming for a few days.  I can't wait!  We haven't met Steve yet, so we are looking forward to spending time with the two of them.

Yesterday, I shampooed all the carpets.  One of the dogs had an 'accident' in my office, so I had to clean that rug right away and one thing led to another.  Why not clean them all since I had the cleaner out, right?  I was so exhausted last evening that I fell asleep on the couch before 8 pm, got up around 8:30 and went to bed and slept until 5:30 this morning.  I am a perennial insomniac, so that is AMAZING!

We've had a pleasant, cool spring so far!  It's been wonderful to sit out on the patio in the afternoon after supper is in the works and read for an hour or so before Tom gets home.  Now that home schooling is over and summer is here, I can get all my housework done in the morning and enjoy some time outside every day.

I've been walking about 45 minutes every morning with my neighbor, Sharon.  I really enjoy getting out there in the morning and chatting with her while we do our power walk. 

I've discovered two more nests to watch.  A sparrow family has nested in one of our bird houses (I didn't think they would build in a bird house!) and I have been watching a nest in our crabapple tree.  So far, I haven't been able to identify the kind of bird that has nested there, but it is smallish and seemingly, shy.  I can see the nest from my kitchen window, but it is high in the tree, so I won't be able to peek into the nest like I'm able to do in the Robin tree.

Speaking of the Robin, I've seen Mama in the tree but so far, not in the nest.  I'm hoping she'll lay another clutch and raise them until they are ready to fly.  One year she laid eggs four times and raised all but the last clutch.  I sure hope she will again this year!

I've got a huge pot of Chicken Cacciatore simmering away for dinner tonight.  Smells good.  The table is set for dinner, the salad is prepared and I baked the bread yesterday, so I guess it's time to take Ivy and my book out on the patio and enjoy the day.  Maybe I'll be able to see who's nesting in the crabapple if I can find my binoculars.

Hope you're all enjoying the last days of spring, too!

FOUR Hungry Mouths

Yes, count them. There are FOUR birdies in the nest, not three. I counted eggs. I counted heads. I counted beaks. So you can imagine my surprise when there were FOUR heads popping up in the nest today. I taught preschool. I know how to count to three. I can only think that one egg/birdie was hiding. See for yourself:

A Very Busy Nest

Look how the babies have grown!

You can already see their breast feathers turning red! By tomorrow, they will probably be in full feather.

Note to Self: Digging and Planting and Painting

This weekend we. . .

Planted:

10 astilbes

21 hostas (three monster hostas, 10 green and white, 8 green and lime green)

5 peony bushes (Pink Sarah Bernhardt)

1 pink bleeding heart

1 white bleeding heart

6 - 8 lavenders

4 purple cone flowers

two basils

two mints

1 French tarragon

1 rosemary

Scrubbed:

Patio furniture

Painted:

window boxes and front threshold

Next weekend we'll: 

Plant the window boxes

Sow grass seed

Finish edging

Clean the garage

Mulch?

Pick out new house paint colors?

Stick with the old colors?

On the agenda

Yesterday was wet and stormy. I stayed inside and cleaned my house, which included tearing my vacuum apart and putting it back together (it works now!)

Today I will be working in the yard. The forecast promises to be sunny and cool. The weeds and little maple trees that are springing up in the flower beds don't stand a chance now that the ground is soft and damp. I'll get dirty and tired, my back will hurt and we'll eat sandwiches off paper plates for supper; the dogs will get muddy and they'll bark at me when I walk out of their sight; I'll probably wear out the batteries in my little radio listening to Rush, and I'll most likely change my mind 100 times before I decide where the new plants are going, but by the end of the day, the yard should be in pretty good shape.

I love spring anywhere, but if I could choose I would always greet it in a garden. Ruth Stout

I've been busy

Baking Rebecca's Mashed Potato Bread:

Can't wait to slice into it with our dinner tonight.  One loaf has probably already been devoured by our next door neighbors.

Painting Jake's floor:

Jake's room flooded (again) so we had to pull up the carpet.  We ended up painting it with 1 Part Epoxy paint and scattering paint chips on it.  Looks real good.  Let's hope it holds up as advertised. . .

Roasting a turkey breast and a chicken together:

Turkey breasts can be dry and it's almost impossible to make gravy with the drippings.  While the roaster is hot, why not roast a chicken at the same time.  The chicken drippings will boost the gravy and doing them both at the same time saves energy.  Now I have a container of boned chicken in the freezer for a day I need to make something quick.

Making Heidi's mint pesto:

I've spread the pesto in a 1/2 inch layer in the bottom of the dish.  After it's frozen, I'll lift it out by the plastic wrap, cut it into squares, and return it to the freezer in a zip-loc bag.  I'll be able to pull out a square at a time as I need it.

Playing with Elliott:

Elliott's coming tomorrow.  Can't wait!

The first taste of ice cream

Here's a montage I made of Elliott's first taste of ice cream. I was in the kitchen when Beth first started to offer the ice cream cone to him and soon everyone broke into laughter and yelled, "Grab the camera!" I grabbed it and started shooting. The settings weren't good so the pictures aren't sharp, but I did manage to capture his expressions--from surprise to uncertainty to 'Hey, this is good stuff! More, please!' to the tears when the cone was finally taken away.

And we MUST have a picture of Mr. E's lovely red hair. . .

It's as if spring. . .

. . .is holding its breath.

Spring Flowers

Elliott: Grass and Flowers

I watched Elliott for a few hours this morning. The day was warm and windy so we went outside to walk up and down the sidewalk in front of the house. Up and down. Back and forth. Walking, walking, walking. He can walk (and run!) all by himself, but he seemed to want a hand on the sidewalk.

We've had many rainy days, so the grass was high and the violets (and a few dandelions) were poking above the wind blown grass. I pulled a single, long blade of grass and handed it to him. He held it in his chubby little fist, watching the wind blowing it around in his hand. He shook it and waved it and tried to put it in his mouth. He moved it from hand to hand. Eventually, he plopped down on the sidewalk to examine the grass growing alongside the walk. Very deliberately, he let go of his blade of grass, but lost it in the tall grass. He looked at me, looked at his hand, looked at the grass and then puckered up and whimpered a little bit. I found his grass and handed it back to him. He was the picture of delight!  Up he got and back to the sidewalk.  Up and down in front of the house.  Back and forth.

We picked violets. I taught Elliott not to put them in his mouth. After a few reminders, he was sniffing them and wrinkling up his little nose, his blue eyes dancing, his red hair flying in the breeze. He wasn't as sure of the dandelions, but we managed to pick a nice little bouquet of violets and we brought them into the house, bruised and bent, but still pretty.

My first flower picking outing with Elliott.  I'll never forget it. This memory will be forever tucked in alongside the memories I have of my own three boys at this age--picking flowers, stomping in rain puddles, watching the clouds, petting a dog, listening to the birds.

This and that

 Note to Self:  So, yesterday, it rained all day and all night.  And it's still raining.  But the forecast is calling for more rain, possibly some snow and by the end of the week temperatures in the 80's.  That's spring for you.

Saturday morning was perfect for yard work, though.  It was great to get out and start getting the yard back into shape after a long, hard winter.  I'm worried about two or three bushes--not sure they survived the winter.  So far, my lavendar and mint has not made a reappearance, but the daisies are making a strong comeback after having been transplanted to their own little garden plot last year.

We did the inevitable yearly chore of re-seeding in the spot where the dogs kill off the grass every winter.  We got the ground worked up and the seeds down before the rain, so when the temperatures pick up later in the week, the seeds should sprout.  We had a tree taken down a few weeks ago (and the other trees trimmed) so we redistributed the debris left from grinding out the stump and now have a big planting area to plan.  I need to go pick my neighbor, Sharon's, brain about what to plant.  She's the neighborhood garden artiste.  I'm thinking some azaleas and maybe a rhododendron or two.  It's a north east exposure, so I'm not sure what should go there.  Any ideas?

I didn't get the windows washed last week, or the curtains, so spring cleaning is carrying over to this week.  After all the hard work and elbow grease of last week, it was a bit discouraging on Friday when a sunbeam revealed how dusty this old house was again already.  Dust is a result of the fall, I am sure of that.  I am convinced that, in this life, you have to fight sin and you have to fight dust and weeds, all because of Adam's fall.

I read a whole book yesterday.  Haven't done that in a long time.  I'm going to go to the library and pick up a couple of biographies for the rainy days ahead.  You can't fight dust all the time, you know!

Uh, oh.  Time to sign off and get busy with my day.  Hope yours is a good one!

Care to join me?

Have I tempted you to spring clean your home yet?  If so, have I got some links for you!  I was contacted this afternoon by a gentleman from Woman's Day, who shared two great Spring cleaning links:

How to Spring Clean--everything you need to know about how to get started

Spring Cleaning Check Lists--for every room in the house.

So, check it out--lots of good ideas.  I haven't had a chance to explore links very much so far (far too busy cleaning!) but they look great.

Today I finished the dining room (all except the school cabinet--why clean it now when we're almost finished this year?) and the living room, all except two drawers and the baskets full of DVDs (that's Sam's job!)

Tomorrow I will hit the sun room and the bathroom, Thursday I'm taking a day off since the morning will be spent in organizing my Bible Study notes and the afternoon is devoted to meeting with Carol and Dorothy to discuss our lesson.  Friday I'll be tackling my office (yikes!) and our bedroom.  Saturday I'll clean the front porch, wash and iron the curtains and finish up anything that's leftover.  Sunday is a day of rest.

Note to self

Sunday, April 5

34 degrees and snow.  Ground is covered, more to come overnight and tomorrow.

Sigh.