Trees

I got the fruit trees planted - they're the spindly little things with the white labels. They didn't look so small in the store but out in our yard they nearly disappear. Two dwarf apples, two dwarf peaches and a full sized pear tree.

The St. Peter's Collection - Collect 'em all!

The church that we attend most often has a tradition for Mother's and Father's Days. They Choose a month and a date out of a hat and two of those attending with the child born nearest that date recieve a gift handmade by a church member. Last Father's Day was the first Sunday we went and The Husband was greatly embarassed to be one of the recipients of a tray made with wood from the old church organ.

This morning, as soon as they pulled the month of October I knew it was coming. Sure enough, we now have a tissue box holder made with the same wood. I hope the church runs a raffle for something good soon - I'll buy one ticket that's sure to be the winner :o)

Hallelujah!

My laptop returneth!

My cheese is amused:

Perhaps because it's yellow, not white.

HI !

Visitor

This is what Older Daughter found in her room last week...

Carnival of Kid Comedy #9

If you're looking for some giggles, go check out the Carnival of Kid Comedy over at Life in a Shoe:

Life in a shoe: the methods and madness of one mother of 7: Carnival of Kid Comedy #9

Pictures (not)

My laptop is still at the computer hospital and I have a bunch of photos to blog. I may have to break down soon and hook up the camera dock to the desktop computer.

I've done lots of planting this week, Older Daughter had a bird visit her room, we got a load of topsoil delivered today so that we can try to level out the backyard, The Husband chaperoned Older Daughter's class trip to the Franklin Institute, I bought some fruit trees that need to be planted, and tomorrow I have to go to New Brunswick for a copy of my birth certificate and take Younger Daughter to a birthday party at the YMCA in the evening while Dad and the other two go to The Boy's baseball game.

The grass desperately needs cutting but we don't want to take the plow off the tractor until we spread out the topsoil. On the plus side I think the grass will soon be tall enough to not have to worry about nosy neighbors!

Bill Paying Tip O'the Day

When your husband pays the bills online he may not bother to open the bills that are the same every month, like the cable bill. If that is the case don't be surprised if you turn on the tv on the first of the month and all of your channels have moved around because nobody saw the new channel lineup that they sent with the bill.

Just sayin'

Kitchen Tip O'the Day

When cleaning salad do not get involved in a conversation with your son. If you do, do not get so distracted so as to remove the top of the salad spinner before the spinning stops.

Romaine lettuce is surprisingly aerodynamic...

This week

Bought some Impatiens to plant in the shady flower beds in front of the house and some Wave Petunias for around the old pump in the backyard. I might even get them into actual dirt before they die. At least I plan to...

The van got nice new tires - not that I intend on actually driving it with gas nearing $3!

I found two...TWO...book sales this week. Like we need more books.

We spent $50 over 2 days on a ton of books (I say 'we' because The Husband came with me to one sale). That's about what we spend on a trip to Barnes and Noble just getting books for the kids. The first sale I will definitely watch for next year. It was enormous (and not crowded) and everything was not only sorted by subject but also alphabetized by author! A librarian's dream! The second was smaller, really crowded, not alphabetized and more expensive.

And I will be found reading most of my books this summer in my new hammock chair that UPS brought me last week and that I finally got assembled. It looks like this and it's way comfy :o) and no children are allowed! It even has a cupholder for my diet pepsi.

Tonight is the last ball game of the week (yay!). The Husband took the older two (it's the Daughter's game) and Younger Daughter is currently at Sassy Neighbor's house so it's just me and the animals for awhile. I may take a book out to my chair :o)

Softball, part deux

We won!

It took an extra inning because Older Daughter was forced out at the plate (the batter bunted?!), but we kept the other team from scoring and in our inning with bases loaded the winning run walked in.

Go Phillies! :o)

Softball

What a softball game! It was freezing so Younger Daughter and I watched from the car for awhile. I finally got out to go find out the score and we were behind 8-0 in the 4th inning (they play 6). We caught up over the next 2 innings to tie the game - and would have won if the coach had told his daughter to slide into home when she stole it (the catcher dropped the ball after she tagged the runner). It is currently the bottom of the 6th with a tie score (10-10), 2 outs, full bases and 1 ball on the batter. Older Daughter is the runner on 3rd representing the winning run. Did you notice that I said "currently"? At that point the game had to be suspended due to darkness so it is to be continued.... And I still haven't gotten warm yet. And the umpire looked like Alan Alda.

Plant babies

I was a little worried about my Basil plants - they seem so tiny. But I was in Home Depot today and their 99cent basil plants weren't much bigger than mine. I still have more in seed flats to move into bigger pots.

These are basil, cilantro (a second planting - all of the first planting died), parsley, cosmos, blue flax and something else I can't remember (the tall one is a sunflower). We have Chinese Lanterns started in the kitchen and I'm trying to root some Magnolia cuttings.



Here's a pic of the 12 bulbs that we planted in front of the summer kitchen last year...

Dinner on the go

This was our dinner table Wednesday night. Both kids had ball games - fortunately they were both home games. So Younger Daughter and I sat in the van between the fields for much of the evening.

Tonight we have two games at different fields. I think dinner is going to be M&Ms or something...





Here's The Boy in action:

Easter weekend

We spent Sunday with The Husband's family at The Homestead - all but his oldest sister's family was there. His #3 Sister brought their newest Seeing Eye Puppy - a 7 week old German Shepherd, who is very cute but very boring for a puppy. She mostly slept all afternoon.

The Cousins practiced their pitching - our baseball games start this week.



On our way home we stopped off at their house to say goodbye to their year old Golden Retriever Puppy who is going back to the Seeing Eye for training this week. Wilma's a nut and was suddenly afraid of The Husband - actually of all of us except for Older Daughter. The plan is that if Wilma fails training that she's going to be part of our Peaceable Kingdom - although I think that The Husband is hoping she'll pass and we'll get to have the German Shepherd if she fails!

On Saturday the kids colored 3 dozen eggs:

Holy Week comics: #4

Holy Week comics: #3

Holy Week comics: # 2

Holy Week comics: #1