Some Gifts Actually Lead to Work

Don't you just love poppies?

Saturday I worked in the yard for most of the day.  I had to make a run to grab some compost for underneath one of our maple trees.  Nothing ever grows under that tree but grass.  As I removed grass for the third year in a row, this time by digging a few inches down...Naturally after removing the grass so many consecutive years, I decided I needed to fill in the hole.

So, I ran to the local material yard covered in dirt, then ran into Braum's for milk and some fresh fruit and veggies...

I hope nobody noticed the dirt under my fingernails.

Anyway, as soon as I pulled into our garage, Studmuffin told me to get myself down to our neighbors because they needed to thin out some plants.  My neighbors have a picture book garden with winding gravel paths, statues and fun surprises in every corner.  Basically it's the garden I fantasize about but have absolutely no time to maintain.

Let's see:  Iris, tulips, lilies and bridal wreath here.

One hour later I had more lilies, love in a mist, bridal wreath and iris than I knew what to do with!  Studmuffin tried to say that we could use the raised beds he built last year.  I am adamant that we WILL be successful with vegetables this year.  They certainly can't do any WORSE.

More iris and lilies.

And so Sunday afternoon I found myself doing the very thing I had said just the day before that I had no time for...Building new flower beds.  Ugh.  But what's a girl to do?  If you are going to GIVE me flowers I MUST plant them!

Love in a mist

So, here's a sneak peek of what I got accomplished...but this is only a very small peak mind you, as I actually started building a new flower bed. 

More iris and some sedum. 

Because I may possibly be insane.

Fever: Spring Fever, That Is.

Well, sadly today is a repeat of yesterday.  It's raining.  I slept in.  The girls are still at my folks.  I'm still swigging my morning coffee when I would normally be contemplating what to eat for lunch.

So, why that is blogworthy is rather a big mystery.

I DID actually develop photos yesterday.  And  just in case you're wondering:  Even if you have organized your photos in nice tidy labeled files on your hard drive, I would suggest allowing at least two hours just to decide what needs printed, and what doesn't.

And 135 photos later you will be able to scrap book the last 17 months worth of life events.

Give or take a few.

Last night Studmuffin got home about 3pm.  I realized I had never eaten lunch, so I made him take me to Freddy's Frozen Custard for a steak burger.

Then we ventured into Academy for lures.  You see, Brent, my dad and my brother are going fishing this weekend, and Brent has a very specific lure that he has luck with, and of course everyone needs their own lure.

Don't EVER let anyone tell you fishing is the poor man's sport.

I drug him with me into Lowes.  I was in a spring flower mood.  Of course, it was pouring down rain, so we weren't able to look at many flowers, but I did enjoy daydreaming about an endless budget for bird baths (pretending I don't have two dogs and three cats to chase away any birds who may be foolish enough to stop for a quick dip in the pool) and fantasizing about a walk lined with frog and turtle solar lanterns.

 

I left with a few perennial flowers and some spray bottles that Brent needed for something or other.  Perhaps he's using them to mix concrete stains so that he can secretly rip out our carpet and surprise me with newly stained concrete floors...

The only problem with growing perennials is that you have to WAIT for them to bloom.  The garden centers are all full of blooming flowers and mine are still just starting to peek out from the soil.  Speaking of blooming:

My daffodils are blooming!  I am sad that once again I didn't get tulips planted.  I am seriously considering buying some tulips in bloom so I can have instant gratification of them in bloom, then enjoy them next spring again.  Patience is NOT one of my virtues...And neither is anything that requires long foresight.  Which is why I never remember to plant tulips when it's time to plant them.

We had such a mild winter that my blanket flowers, which will bloom all summer long are already getting a few small blooms on them.

I have a tendency to pull the dead heads off of my zinnias and throw them on any bare patch of soil that catches my eye.

With this rain we've had they've decided to start proliferating.  The bad thing about zinnias is since they are all coming up from seed they won't really be in bloom until June.  The great thing is that they are a sight to behold when I'm frustrated and sweltering in the heat of summer.

I took this sweet picture the week after we moved into the house.  Look at my sweet little girls who were only 7 & 8 at the time.

Once again spring is upon me and I've failed to remove all of the grass from the patch I want to turn into a Victorian garden.  So, it seems as if for at LEAST one more summer I will content myself with the few flower beds that I can never keep up with anyway.

I snatched up a few seed packets.  One of them was forget me nots.  I used to have these all over in my beds on the north side of my house, but last year none of them came up.  I figure they just need a fresh start of seeds.  I bit the bullet and bought some lettuce seed.  I have grown lettuce a few times, and while it's easy, I tended to fall behind.  Then it went to seed.  Then I had lettuce all OVER my garden.  More than I could even THINK to eat.

Last year my vegetable garden was an epic disaster.  My tomatoes would bloom, but produced almost no fruit.  My squash would get maybe an inch long and rot off at the stem.  My peppers just plain never grew.  Of course we were in a drought with a terrible heat wave, and my watering was very strictly limited.  This year I plan to try the raised beds that Brent built me last year again.  I plan to do tomatoes, lettuce, and just a few squash or zucchini plants along with several different pepper plants.  Basically a repeat of last year, but with hopefully more success.

So, as I've just posted right up above this line a picture of Brent working diligently on the aforementioned raised beds, let's dissect this photo a bit, shall we?

See the round cylinder next to the air conditioner?  It's an old pool filter that a dog who shall not be mentioned destroyed.  Brent has plans to turn it into some kind of half submerged water fountain.  It's still in that exact spot.

See that lawn that's mostly grass?  Well, this year it is 98% weeds.  Apparently even when one is not allowed to water and all of the grass dies, the weeds proliferate.  Who knew?

Well, I really should get to stuffing pictures into the slots of the album I bought.  Yes, I've given up serious scrap booking.  Instead I've resorted to albums with lines out to the side of the photo sleeve where I can add my thoughts on each photo.  Even though I'm not committed to adding cute stickers and card stock to my scrap books anymore I'm still very determined to share my thoughts with any person who might peruse my scrap books.

And I'm sure my diligence in dumping my thoughts on unsuspecting readers is a surprise to each of you.

Well, happy Thursday!  I'm off to deal with photos and possibly do some couponing!

Negligence: A Practical Gardening Lesson

I'm really glad I took some pictures of my zinnias last week before we had a frost...

I looked around my yard, and thought, "my flowers are doing amazingly well."

Especially considering we are in a drought and I haven't watered since August...

I don't even know where these Vincas came from.  In midsummer of last year, they suddenly began to grow in the rocks by my house.  I had just a few last year, but as you can see, they are quite plentiful this year!

Obviously flowers planted at the base of trees don't fare so well when one does not water them.  Apparently the tree saps all of their water away.  Of course, the statement "planted" is misleading.  When we moved in there were zinnias and marigolds in the back yard.  I left them be, and when they had a dried bloom, I scattered the seeds at the base of various trees.

This is a great, inexpensive way to have lovely annuals become perennials.  It does require some patience, as you don't have beautiful blooms in May when all of the stores have flowers for sale.

They seem to do best in beds near the house or shop.  Please forgive the unsightly trash can.  I really haven't quite mastered how to make a trash can aesthetically pleasing.

These poor mums have had a hard life.  They were eaten completely to the ground by Holly (the puppy we never speak of...) They came back up this summer, and I moved them to another flower bed.  They were quite lovely until Chesney decided they made a great bed...

My jalapeno's decided to have fruit on them for the first time all summer...

And it's actually fall.

Sadly, my tomatoes are just sad and dried up...

Please disregard the child on top of the table.  She was up their whacking the sun shade fabric trying to convince Oliver to climb down so she could pet him.

For some reason this action failed to derive a loving snuggle from him...

Oh, and disregard the piles of dirt on my deck.  Chesney dumped over a flower pot and scattered the soil all over.

So in closing: The expert gardening tip I have for you is this:  Let your zinnias and marigolds dry up.  Scatter the seeds in every available pot and flower bed you have... By mid summer you will have gorgeous flowers all over, until the first frost!

Cow Skulls, Kittens, and a Drought

I seem to have fallen into a blogging slump again.  I have nothing interesting or witty to type.  I have lots to say, as anyone within a ten foot radius of me will tell you.  But nothing to blog.

 The situation is getting dire.

Kelsey is in love with Shyla.  What a name for a cat.  Shyla.  I obvioulsy had no say in the name.  

Regardless of her name, or the tom foolery of it, Kelsey loves her.  She grabs her between her front paws and licks and licks and licks.  I'm not sure Shyla is so in love with the situation.  But, it appears she's given up fighting it.

Of course, Kelsey is fenced in, and the kittens can go wherever they will.  Which seems to be primarily the back yard.  So it's not as if the kitten couldn't avoid the whole thing if she just stayed out of the back yard.  Simple solution, right?

Kelsey tends to leave Freckles be.  Maybe she prefers Shyla because she's a little fluffier?  Maybe that fluff makes her tastier?  Or dirtier?  Or easier to ruffle her fur?  Either way, Freckles is my husband's favorite.  He thinks she's prettiest, and she is certainly cuddly.

What I do know is that I was totally right about the cow skull I mentioned last winter.  It looks awesome in my garden.  

Oh, and in case you ever have trouble with your peppers growing at all, just remember the old coffee grounds trick.  Mine were void of leaves all summer, until I remembered that I always dumped my old grounds around the base of them when I made pots of coffee.  Now I simply peel the tops off my K cups and I have leaves and blooms and everything!

Hooray!

At this rate I will finally have poblano, bell, and jalapeno peppers by September.  

That is if they don't end up banning out door watering all together.  Which is what we're facing in our current water crisis.

Pray for rain.

The Pretty Ferny Weeds in My Garden.

Attention: Avid and knowledgeable gardeners need not read this post.  Please move on to your next regularly scheduled blog.  I do not need the admonishments nor corrections.  Thank you.

Are they all gone? 

Good.  Here goes:

Saturday morning I woke at 5am to the sound of my phone alarm.

Fun Fact:  I have my phone set to wake me at 5 and 5:30.  In addition to this, my alarm clock is set to go off at 5:01 am.  I have been having issues with turning off alarms and falling back asleep... 

I did not fall back asleep that morning. 

Instead I rolled out of bed and went to soak in a hot tub with a trashy romance...

Is that TMI?  I fear it is.

Moving on.

I drug on  a practically new pair of hand me down gym shorts from Aunt Aleta, complete with Sooners across my bottom (again, probably TMI) and a newish red tank top.  I bought it the summer we moved here, which was only in 2008, so that's practically spanking new in my closet...

Anyway, I went out on the porch and read the eighth chapter of Daniel (y'know, after the trashy romance, I figured I was due for some prophecy), and drank coffee.  Four cups to be exact.  It's mornings like that when I question my Keurig, and think perhaps I should have just brewed a whole pot...

I noticed some weird brown lumps out among the cattle, and went to the fence to see what they were.

The Geese were out sleeping in the middle of the herd!  I guess there is safety with a herd of cattle in an open field from those wily coyotes...Heh heh.  Wily coyotes. Get it?  Wile E Coyote?

Never mind.

Anyway, I grabbed my camera to take a photo for you, my Gentle Readers, and looked down and saw the most lovely thing in my former garden.  Y'know.  It's former because now I am the proud owner of a RAISED garden, and the waste land that is my FORMER garden will one day be a lovely Victorian garden complete with alternating straw, brick and stone paths...the details on it are still sketchy.  Trust me, I'll keep you posted.

Return to topic:  I'm taking pictures of geese that are too far away for you to discern what they are, and as I reach down to scratch a mosquito bite (I regret to admit I'm covered in bites.  I can't seem to remember bug spray on my early morning strolls through the yard.  Apparently I haven't embraced the fear of West Nile) I see this: 

I have been eyeing these lovely ferny weed things for a while in my garden, excuse me FORMER garden.  When I stood right over it and admired it's beautiful small white blooms, I decided that it was time for action.

I happened to have three pots with nothing in them.  I had filled my other pots with flowers dug up from random places that flowers don't belong.  Like under the pool filter.  Or in the middle of the yard.  Or, here's an amazing survival story:  Zinnias pulled out of the cracks in my driveway!

I decided that there were enough of these pretty ferny weeds with the lovely small baby's breathish flowers to dig them up and put them in my empty pots!  Especially the two planters on the pool deck!  I always neglect those pots, and so everything I buy to put in them dies.  Digging weeds up and planting them on my deck is nothing but sheer genius, Gentle Reader.

So, I went to fetch the shovel, and began to dig.  Guess what?  We have not been watering our former garden.  We have been trying to create a wasteland/dumping grounds for  all unfinished yard projects out of it.  And being pretty successful at it if I do say so myself!  So the ground was hard.  I stopped and took stock.  In another spot, the ground was surely softer.  So I moved on...Of course 2 feet over it was just as hard, but not as grassy, so I managed to get my shovel in easier.  As I was digging I noted they had a tap root.


"Of course it has a tap root!  I hate weeds with tap roots.  If you don't get the whole dad gum thing, it just comes right back.  And the top half of this will probably die.  Dang tap roots..."


And my self dialogue continued until I suddenly had it free!  Yay me!


Guess what kind of tap root this lovely ferny weed with white baby's breath appearing flowers was?


A CARROT!!!

Yes, Gentle Reader, a carrot.  You see, last year I planted carrots.  However, I did not pick some of them in time, and they went to seed...

The really amusing part, is I dealt with the pesky things all last summer, all OVER my garden, but never registered what the darn plethora of ferny weeds were everywhere.  I just ruthlessly yanked.  Of course I did not need thirty dozen carrots growing in the middle of my tomatoes, so there ya go.

By the way, I have completely forsaken raising carrots.  Sure, they look gorgeous when those lovely little greens sprout through the ground.  And the carrots are a beautiful photo op with the foliage on it.  BUT THEY JUST DON'T TASTE SWEET!  Why is that?  I blame my soil.  I have resigned myself to buying carrots for 99 cents at my local store and peeling and slicing them. They actually get eaten that way.

Anyhoo,

So.  We will see what we will see.  But for a few days anyway, they sure look purdy!

Oh, and as I'm posting this I googled blooming carrots, and discovered through some weird bunny chasing that carrots that are allowed to bloom will cross pollinate with Queen Anne's Lace (which is abundant around here)  and this will make small, thin  roots which explains why the carrots I dug up were puny compared to last year. I also learned that both of these can be easily confused with poison hemlock.  YOIKS!!  The moral of the story?  Don't eat something unless you know that you know that it's a carrot...

Attention:  The above photo has nothing to do with this post.  But Studmuffin made this tool box in college.  And I secretly turned it into a planter for my front porch.  Thankfully, he liked it. 

What repurposing have you managed lately? 

P.S.  They all died.  Oh, I am laughing.  All that excitement and they all died.  Typical.

ADHD Gardening

I took this picture a few weeks after we moved here.

I am a really good starter.

I am a terrible finisher.

Unless of course I can finish it right away, and then I am a FANTABULOUS finisher!

I had a spurt of energy yesterday afternoon, and after being cooped up in the house for 4 days, I decided I needed to pull the dead marigolds and zinnias out of my flower beds. These are the two flowers I am most successful at growing.

Only I don't really "grow"them.

Here's how it works.

I move to a house. They inevitably have at least some marigolds and zinnias planted. I leave them be, and splash a little water on them when I think about it. When I notice a dead head, I pull it off and drop it near where the original is growing.

Soon, I have several plants close to one another. I decide to transplant them to a new location. Say, an unsightly flower bed placed next to our shop, surrounded by concrete, that I really don't understand the purpose of.

See the flowers to the left of the tent camper? That was the result of transplanting some stray zinnias.

Now that it's fall, the next step is in place. I pull up the dead plants. I tug off the dead blooms, then scatter them wherever I want to have flowers next year. Like under Popcorn's window. And around the fish pond. Under the trees. In random pots that are really hopeless, as I will never be successful in growing anything that requires frequent watering.

Or attention....

*SIGH*

Moving on!

Are you ready for the really genius part of all of this?

Hang on to your pants, folks because it's about to get crazy here....

I take leaves that are conveniently all over the yard. I gather the scattered leaves....and I PILE them on TOP of the dead flower heads. Then I kind of stomp around in them.

Not because it's necessary.

It's just fun!

My theory is that leaves should never be raked, bagged and *gasp* taken to landfills!

My thought is that the leaves hold the dead flower heads and scattered seeds in place, and help them to germinate and take root! Plus, those decomposing leaves make the soil happy.

Attention: Sorry for all of that extremely scientific jargon in this post. My mad gardening skills are legion. Legion, I tell ya!

Now, here's the next secret in my ADHD gardening arsenal: I leave the rest of my leaves in the yard!

I KNOW!!! Revolutionary stuff here!

Again, back to the sad state of leaves filling land fills...Plus, there is just nothing cheerier than the sound of leaves blowing and crinkling in the yard! So what if they blow up on your porch? Simply take your broom and sweep them back in the yard! It only takes a second, and when you've made your leaf strewn porch sparkling clean, you get the instant gratification of cleaning something quickly!

Kind of like running the vacuum.

Sadly, I had to stop my gardening after a brief spurt of energy. My lungs started to burn, and there is nothing sorrier than a nurse who has to visit the doctor because they failed to follow instructions...You do realize nurses make the absolute worst patients, right? I once had a surgeon tell me he'd rather have another surgeon laying in the bed than a nurse. I have to agree.

More ADHD Gardening Tips:

Kids forts made out of the limbs you trimmed from your trees are to stay put. Don't worry, your children will move them forty dozen times before spring is here, breaking them into smaller pieces as they reconstruct their masterpieces, and you can eventually throw them in your fire pit! Oh, and don't fret that YOU will be the one to gather these stray limbs, Gentle Reader. Never let it be said! Your precious offspring who have enjoyed them for an entire season will be responsible for cleaning up the mess they made in the yard BEFORE it is time to start running the mower, so you won't have to worry about flying bits of wood!

Nothing organic should ever land in your trash, thus ending up in your local landfill. Too impatient/disorganized to keep up with a compost pile? I just throw everything in my garden! It may not be as good as a smelly, steaming compost pile, but it's got to be doing some good when those rotted grapes finish their decomposition in the garden.

Got some meal scraps that you don't want to feed your pets? No problem! Simply scrape them out over the fence in your back yard! Some random hungry creature is sure to come gobble them up! When you hear your American dingo barking frantically in the back yard at night, rest easy knowing that it's probably just a coyote, badger, skunk, raccoon, or even possum enjoying the bounty that you provided for them!

And, feeding coyotes around here is always a good thing! It makes them less leery when Studmuffin wants to sit on the back porch and hunt them. I'm all about supporting my spouse's redneck ways here. Yep, that is me! Supportive wife!

Okay, I know I have legions more ADHD gardening tips to share with you. Unfortunately, my ADHD is kicking in, and I'm running out of ideas...So, I will end this post with one simple question.

What is your easy gardening tip that takes little or no time, yet yields beautiful results?

Hint: I truly am impatient and inattentive. Daily chores do not work well for me.

Just being real here.

Business in the front, party in the back

I was on my way to get the girls at school today, when I saw a sight to see. I was behind a pickup with an extended cab. I saw a baby seat in the back, and I could see the arm from the passenger seat stretched behind, probably holding a paci in place. It gave me a sweet time of reminiscing. And a moment of gratitude that I wasn't the one contorting to keep that plug in.



At first, I thought it was a woman with frizzy permed blond hair that had, unfortunately, decidedly to pick out her curls. Then, I realized this was a man. A man with a mullet. Nothing quite says "redneck" like a mullet. Remember Billy Ray Cyrus' mullet? He clung to it until his daughter hit the big time with a show on Disney. His hair is only slightly less ridiculous now. Just my opinion, but of course this is my blog, so I get to spew my opinions all over the place. I love spewing opinions...




You've gotta love the mullet. I think the mullet possibly stamps your personality almost as much as a mohawk. Neither style could ever be considered "stylish" at this point. But neither hairstyle seems to die. They just keep showing up. I've been surprised by the number of rednecks sporting mohawks in my little town. Yes, rednecks. They have placed their own stamp on the mohawk, with the sides slightly longer, and the top not sticking completely straight up. But it's still undeniably a mohawk.



Now, the versatility of the mullet has more appeal for me. Business in the front, party in the back. It shows both your business and rebel side with one simple cut. What's not to love about that? Of course, the only way to improve your mullet is to make sure you have a nice perm in the back. I guess the perm allows you to show your softer side. So maybe it's business in the front, party loving poet in the back.

Ummm, no, the post had nothing to do with the photos. But, I harvested some mesclun today, and it was so pretty, I wanted to share it with you. It's hard to believe the lettuce you buy in the store is ever as truly dirty as mine starts out...

Memories and Verbosity

We started planting our garden this weekend. No, I didn't take pictures. My camera battery was dead. Planting the garden is one of our favorite things to do as a family. All of us get out there and get dirty. Studmuffin tills. I rake. The girls help plant, water, and do their share of raking too. We love it. Now, gardening reminded me of a story. Aren't you excited?

I went to the shop to get a hammer to drive the stakes we made to label our rows. I found the hammer Popcorn got Studmuffin for Christmas. She was so cute. She knew exactly what she was getting her daddy for Christmas. We walked in Walmart, and she said "I'm going to buy Daddy a new lawnmower!" I explained that her budget didn't really allow for a lawnmower. "Well, then, I'm going to buy him a hammer." And she did. She bought him the biggest hammer in Walmart she could find.

This Christmas Bookworm was equally decided on what she would get me for Christmas. I had strongly hinted at some warm socks *okay, I took them to the sock aisle and pointed to the exact socks I wanted.* She went with Studmuffin to buy my present. Guess what she bought me? The new Operation Game! How perfect! Every nurse needs their very own game of Operation, that now comes in a handy dandy doctor's case!

I don't know if I told you this story way back in December. The truth is, I'm too lazy to do a search in my own blog. Also, when you're as wordy as I am, your bound to repeat yourself at least 26 times. Your also bound to offer frequent apologies. Yep, when you have a mouth that moves as much as mine you offend people. So, I'm given to frequent apologies too. Sometimes I'll just randomly apologize for any offense I could have given during a conversation. Repeat and apologize, repeat and apologize. That's my system. You'd think I'd learn to just shut up, but that just doesn't work so well.

Oh, I've tried to be quiet. Truly, I have! Don't think I don't see you rolling your eyes and murmuring "yeah, right!" I did try to be quiet. But then the pressure started to build. I started trembling. My tongue started to have spasms. My jaw became tense. My brain began to spin and whirl in such a way that I could no longer keep up with my thoughts. My chest became tight. My lungs were over filled with all of the hot air I usually exhale so freely in my dialogues. And then.......I exploded.

It wasn't pretty. I started to talk. And talk. And talk. I talked to my family. I talked to the grocery store clerk. I talked to the poor unfortunate soul trying to buy yogurt and be on their merry way. I talked to the young man who obviously needed my coaching on picking appropriate produce. I chatted up the lady slicing my Virginia brand ham in the deli. I fellowshipped (there's a good Baptist word for ya!) with my checker. I flagged down my neighbor and asked them about their day, then proceeded to tell them every minute detail of mine. I talked to the dog, the cat, and of course Studmuffin. Eventually I went to bed with my thoughts continuing to whirl and twirl in my brain, where I'm sure I talked in my sleep.

So, I learned a very valuable lesson......

I will talk.

I will talk a lot.

I will talk fast.

I will talk loud.

I will talk erroneously.

But. I. Will. Talk.

I will be teased for my talking. My beloved family will feel the need to point out my tendency towards verbosity. I will agree with them. (after all, to deny it is ridiculous). But I will continue to talk. I must. I have a vast fount of information that I must share, and I must share it quickly. So, I will talk.

It's truly an unstoppable force. It's quite sad, really. Yep, I learned my lesson. I will never take a fifteen minute vow of silence again. The world is just not ready for the consequences.

Spring Fever in February

I'm ready for summer. I hate to admit it, but I'm even missing Texas. Of course, I miss my friends daily, but now I'm missing the planting season. If we were down there I would be a few short weeks from planting my garden. I would not be worrying about a freeze undoing my work. In fact, one friend who was an avid gardener insisted everything be planted by spring break, and certainly before Easter, or you missed a big growing window. I gotta admit, I seldom made the Easter cutoff. And I was sick of the growing season by late September. Heck, I was sick of sweating in the garden by late July, and then I still had at least 2 months left!

Studmuffin and I went to Lowe's on Valentine's day while my parents had the girls for the evening. We love Lowe's. I bought tons of seeds for vegetables and flowers. I bought dahlia and daffodil bulbs. I bought a clematis root. I bought cosmo, alyssum, sweet pea, echinacea, shasta daisy, coreopsis, larkspur, and hollyhock seeds. I also bought spinach, mesclun, basil, oregano, and parsley seeds. Oh, and I bought a blueberry bush. I didn't know they grew here. Now I don't know where the heck I'm going to plant it, or if I can keep it alive until after the danger of frost, or if I should put it in a pot inside for awhile, or just stick it in the ground and see what happens. I'm starting to doubt the wisdom of that particular $6.97 purchase. Oh well, if it works, it will easily pay itself off. If not, lesson learned.

Yep, I'm ready for spring. I'm ready to be outside and get dirt under my nails and freckles on my nose. I'm ready for the smell of fresh turned dirt. I'm ready for the special smell of your garden when you just turned the sprinkler off after an early morning watering. I'm ready. I'm ready for dew on the green grass and lady bugs on my arm. I'm ready to play with lizards, and put frog houses out for toads. I'm ready for nests with eggs that will become scrawny birds with wobbly necks and mouths open wide. I'm ready. But sadly, Oklahoma is not.

Popcorn is ready for summer. She's been talking about it for over a week. She wishes it were hot enough to confuse the teachers into thinking it were summer, so she wouldn't have school. As a matter of fact, she talked about it all morning, and it was so cute, I had to share! Hope this doesn't take forever to load, because it sure took forever for me to upload to my blog!