My Guy is a Stud!

This is my Chickie

Coincidently, she is holding a toy chickie she received in her Easter basket.
Chickie loves books, which thrills me to no end because I prefer a good book to almost anything else any day of the week.
But Chickie has tons and tons of books, which had overtaken her allotted space on our book shelves in the toy room. We looked high and low, but couldn't find anything that suited us. We found something close, at Ikea (I big puffy heart Ikea!) but it wasn't exactly right. We found something perfect at a boutique furniture store, but price nearly gave me a coronary. What to do, what to do? Why build one of course!
See, this is what I love about my husband. He can do anything! And if he can't actually do said thing, he learns how. It is really amazing, and really just incredible. He has so much more drive and sense of adventure than I do in this department!
The book shelves turned out ah-mazing! They exactly fit in the area we intended to put them, since they were built to specifications, and I think Matt really enjoyed working on them. Wait - I just asked him and he said "Yes." He's tired. He didn't elaborate.
Check them out:






Of course, the shelves haven't looked that neat since we brought them into her room ten days ago, but every.single.day she beckons "C'mon mommy, lets go see my book shelves!" And then we proceed to read endless books. I love it!

Next up, Matt is considering building a bed for Lily. We are getting ready to move her into a big girl bed, but have yet to find a bed we like in our price range. Matt has scoured the internet and thinks he may have found just the plans for a bed we both really like. And after that, he might build me a bookcase for our family room to hold our DVDs. And other random stuff. My only requirements are that I can put a Pothos on top and let its tendrils hang down and that it has adequate space for my Moose-tivity come Christmas time! Matt's only requirement before embarking on his next endeavor is that it cool off so he isn't slaving away in our million degree garage like he was for Lily's shelves.(since we don't have a basement, the garage has become his workshop!)

And on a completely unrelated note:

Lil found my "swimming glasses" and decided they would enhance her cartoon viewing. Note the zillions of mosquito bites on her legs. I am sooo longing for a good hard frost. And then back to the 60s. Summer and I don't get along!

The Garden is Planted!!!

A six am wake up call, while particularly loathsome, does have certain attributes. Namely, the 2 hour morning nap. Every morning I when I drag my supple behind out of bed, I vow that nap time for baby will be nap time for mommy. As I have learned, however, nap time for baby is a gloriously productive time for mommy. The fact that I have things to do, along with the two or more cups of coffee I have consumed mean I rarely take a nap. However, I do get things done...when I am not stuck in front of the idiot box. No, not the TV - the computer and the numerous blogs I follow. But I digress...
This morning was no exception. After tucking Lily in for a nap, out into the sunshine I headed. There was much to do...flowers to be planted, containers to be planted, beds to be planted. And though I am now covered from head to toe in dirt and other less appetizing "stuff" (think compost manure), my garden is planted and I am anxiously waiting to reap the rewards. Grow plants grow!
For your viewing pleasure:

The container portion of my garden. We have Roma tomatoes, jalapeno peppers, hot banana peppers and sweet banana peppers. In the herb planter, I have sweet basil, Greek oregano, cilantro and Italian (flat leaf) parsley.

In the main bed, from left to right: cucumbers, beefsteak tomatoes, crookneck squash, zucchini, butternut squash. At the far right, the green you see is some garlic that came back from last year. I am not sure what it will do, but I am going to give it a chance.

In this side garden, from left to right, I have romaine lettuce, spinach, and red sail lettuce. There is also a tomato plant. This garden was there when we moved in. It doesn't get a ton of sun, which is why I put the leafies there. I fried my spinach plant last year in the main garden because it gets a ton of sun. This garden is also a total pain because the icky silver maple in the front yard drops it's helicopters, which take up residence in this bed. I spend most of my spring and early summer evicting baby maple trees.

These are the geraniums from the whiskey barrel in our front yard. I always have such a hard time deciding what flowers to put in it. The tree shades most of the front of the house for most of the day, so I need something that does well in the shade. I have tried petunias, impatiens, and a couple other flowers with varying degrees of success. Here's to hoping these do well!

And then there are my hostas, which I love because they require exactly zero effort on my part.

There are still a couple finishing touches I need to put on the garden. I might plant some carrots along the front of the main garden. I have some seeds left over from a couple years ago. I don't have high hopes for them, but I might just plant them and see what happens. I also am deciding whether or not to mulch the garden. I hate HATE hate weeding and tend to get lazy about my garden as the summer progresses. Mulch may help. I have read about putting down shredded newspaper and covering it with mulch. Apparently weeds can't get through the newspaper. If anyone has had any success with this method, I would love to hear about it. My containers also need a new home. This summer my dogs will not enjoy the benefit of a fenced in yard because they regard the garden as a buffet. Therefore, they will be chained up when outside. The chain, which has been purchased but not yet installed, will reach the back of the deck. I am thinking I might just move the containers next to the garden, with the exception of the herbs. Those will probably reside on top of the hot tub. Although the dogs would probably leave those alone anyway.
So there you have it...two hours worth of effort and hopefully fresh produce all summer long.

I Won!

I never, ever win anything, but I won a book! It is called Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon. It is about cooking whole, healthy foods. I have been reading tons of books lately about eating healthy, whole foods. I am trying to make as much as possible from scratch and avoid processed foods. I really have been wanting to get my hands on this book, but the wait list at the library is really long! Now I have my own copy. It should be here before the end of the week! I am so excited! A couple of the other books that I have read are The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food, both by Michael Pollan, and I am currently reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. I highly recommend reading all three of them. They are very eye opening and will definitely make you think about where your food comes from. I can't wait to get started reading this book! If anyone else has read it, I would love to know what you think.

**I think I have to say something like this image is courtesy of Amazon (because that is where I downloaded it from). Just don't want to get in trouble!

New Sink

My darling, wonderful, awesome husband, along with his dad, installed my (okay, our) new sink last Friday. I LOVE IT! It is a full three inches deeper than my old sink and actually drains. I am no longer soaked after doing dishes. For Christmas we received money that went towards purchasing the sink, and a gift certificate that was used for the faucet. Aside from the eight hours it took to install it - there was some other minor plumbing things that were done, namely installing new shut off valves under the sink that actually work - and the money we spent on an unexpected new garbage disposal (ours wasn't even hooked up right, and was ancient), the sink was essentially a gift. It definitely gives the kitchen a face-lift. It is way lighter in color, as our old one was stainless steel (or some cheap imitation) and makes the kitchen a little brighter. Now if we could only do something about the heinous green countertops......

It Was Bound to Happen

Our furnace is older than me...it is the original furnace that was put in when the house was built thirty years ago. Every year, we pray and pray that the furnace will fire up and this won't be the year we have to pay to have it fixed, or worse, replaced. And since every year we are dreading what may happen, we put off starting the furnace as long as possible. We waited this year until this past Sunday, November 16. Now before everyone jumps all over me saying it has been too cold with the little baby at home, we bought a really kicking space heater which actually makes our rooms almost too warm. During the day I just turn it toward the play room. Anyway, on Sunday we turned on the furnace and were pleased that it worked! And then, it happened...we noticed that the fan was running but the air was cold. The pilot light was lit, but the burners weren't igniting. We decided it was time to bite the bullet and call someone in. We had done some minor repairs the past couple years, but this year we didn't want to take any chances. The company we called had someone over within a half an hour, which was awesome! $427 later, and we have a working furnace...for now. When I asked the guy what the life on older furnaces is, he laughed and said we're there. Furnaces are considered old at 10-12 years. But, on a positive note...these dinosaur furnaces are less technical, and therefore have fewer things that can go wrong. He said a majority of service calls he goes out on are for the newer models with all the electrical gadgets. We are keeping our fingers crossed that we make it through the winter. While I was fully expecting to hear that our furnace needed to be replaced today, I wasn't really prepared to fork over $2500 or whatever it costs for a new furnace.