Hello blog friends, I know, I haven't been around for a while. Well, really I have been around, I admit it. I have read other blogs a few times and commented on a few but tho' I thought about blogging not only was I going thru a smidgen of writers block, I just couldn't make my fingers hit the keyboard....

What my fingers have been busy with of late is patterns and material and thread and the like. I took my son and for spring break we went for a few days visit to see my mother and sister who live about and hour and a half away. It was nice to get away from things for a couple of days, but my son and I are glad to be back home.

 Anyway, back to my story. While we were there my mother bought me an early birthday gift (my birthday is next month)....a new sewing machine! I am so excited. I haven't sewn in years and I am thrilled to be able to start making things again. So when we returned home it was off to the fabric store and wally-world to gather the needed accessories. (good scissors, pins, pin cushion etc.) I got a pattern for a simple sundress for my granddaughters, and one that I can make pants and shorts for my son from. I must admit tho' I was in complete sticker shock at the prices of material these days!!

So today was the day for me to actually sit down and start to sew again. It has been quite a few years since I have been able to sew and I found myself with a seam ripper in my hands a lot. I have learned now that I need to contain my excitement a little and slow down, and things will be much easier. Oh, and I wound up not starting with either pattern today, I made myself a caftan out of some material that I had been saving for just that and I used one I already have for the pattern, so I spent most of the day just creating the pattern.

I did get started however and tomorrow all I have left to do is sew the sides and the hem and it will be complete. I will post a pic when it is finished. Next I think I will make Bubba some pants. They are elastic waisted, since he still has trouble trying to fasten buttons and zippers. He has finally mastered most snaps except the really big, tight ones. The pants are really easy to make and he will love picking out the material he wants me to use. Although I have to watch out, he fell in love with fleece this winter and almost insists in wearing the fleece pants he has 24/7!! In fact when we were fabric shopping he asked if I would get some fleece and make his pants with that and he was disappointed when I told him his fleece would be going into the winter clothes bag soon!

Sooo, I have been busy with lots of things just not really blogging. And the couple of days that I sat down to post something and then couldn't get my thoughts together was frustrating. I haven't dealt with that issue for a while. And I don't like it very much at all. what do you do when you can't figure out what to write?

Oh and lastly the Cilantro that I planted in the window box is sprouting! Only 2 sprouts so far but it is nice to be growing things again!

Okay, I feel better now, I have written my post and gotten you all caught up with things in my neck of the woods and now I think I will go read a book for a while, until next time....stay safe!
Deb~

Think Spring!

With all of the rain that has made my property pretty much a muddy mess, I am going to go ahead and say spring has arrived here. The temps have still been getting into the 30’s on most nights but the days are staying in the 40’s and 50’s and I hear the forecast is calling for even a day of 60+ which will be great! (almost makes a body want to grab the summer clothes….. (hahahaha)

I got my spring maintenance of my plants done the other day… I re potted my spider plant, it is a new one since the old one was given to a friend before my move here. I also gathered a new start from my Peace Lilly, which has made me a happy person this year by sprouting not one or two but THREE blooms! the first pic shows two of the blooms, and the second one shows the third one as it works on unfolding (my son was wonderful enough to hold the big leaf back so I could get the pic)

The plant was given to me by a friend a few years ago and had never bloomed. Last year I got one bloom from it, this year Three!!! I also re potted a plant who’s name I do not know but it is a beautiful plant that had outgrown it’s pot at Wal-Mart so they had it on sale I picked it up for a couple of bucks and absolutely love it’s colors.

here is a close up of one of the leaves as it aged and fell off of the plant, you can see at the top the leaves first appear straight and green but as it ages they begin to curl and a deep red color begins to vein the plant…it is very pretty!

I also got two window boxes for the windows in the playroom/classroom planted with a few herbs, in one I have planted chives and the other holds sage and cilantro. I have one more window box that will be outside with other herbs but I am going to let my son and granddaughters plant that one outside when the weather is warmer! But I will tell ya, playing in all that dirt got me itching to be outside digging in the garden!!

When I went to the store last week I got some of my vegetable and flower seeds, I was surprised and happy to find organic seeds for most of my veggies, I did however get my blue lake bush beans and silver queen corn! I also got enough wildflower mix to plant two areas around the Shepard's hooks that hold the bird feeders. I also got giant sunflowers for the kids to plant a couple at each feeder and then a few near where we are going to plant the gourds. (the gourds are for the kids to plant also, and have fun with when we dry them)

I can't believe that in just over a month it will be time to put the hummingbird feeders back up so our small friends will have a nice place to stop and maybe stay on their return to the north. I have a short video I will post sometime (after I get the video on my you tube so I can transfer it) of the hummers at my fathers house. He has many, many that stay at his place during the summer as he has been feeding them for over 20 years in the same spot! the day I shot the video I was standing only a few feet away from the feeders and had over a hundred hummers flying all around me, the "humming" of their wings was very loud there were soo many of them!

Oh the things of spring and summer! I can hardly wait.

In other news, with the heartbreak in Japan that is going on I will join many other voices in when I say that we can all learn from this tragedy that we need to be prepared for anything! One of the biggest reasons for me besides the need to live more in tune with the earth than apart from it is this, that we never know when we will need to be able to take care of ourselves, our family by ourselves without relying on others or the government to bail us out if disaster strikes, no matter the form. I have enough, knowledge, skill and basic survival equipment that I know my family will be able to survive. I am working now on getting the food part of the system set up. I have food and water stored but will be so much more secure in knowing I can provide the food we need as well as put some up for later needs. I encourage others to do the same, learn what you need and start putting together a "kit" for your family!

Until next time~
Deb

Moody Monday

Yup, I titled this moody Monday because I think that is the best descriptor for the day thus far. It is as if someone put "lets all act whiney and mean to each other" milk in their cereal this morning. Even the grandbabies are in on the act.
And grandma isn't amused.
So for now it's nap time, hopefully a long nap, and when they wake up they will all be in their "let's be good for grandma/mama" mood for the rest of the day.

It is still rather muddy outside, I am not looking forward to slogging thru it but it is time to grab a bag and walk around the yard at least and pick up all the wind-blown, flood-floated trash. Thankfully some of the muddiest places in the yard are trash free! I am going to get the kids all involved so I am sure there will be a mud clean up on the porch before we all go back in, but it will be good for them to start going outside again. We are expecting rain about every other day it looks like from the weather forcast so we will not be able to get much done outside, but we can get started. And another sorta outdoors project that I can get started on during nap times is to get the shed cleaned out and sorted. That along with the merciless sorting of the house should result in a rather large pile of bags for the local goodwill and some boxes of stuff for a yard sale too!
I have decided that this year's spring cleaning will be very different, no more will we hang onto the "well maybe I fit into this again sometime" clothes, or the wow, this might be useful someday stuff, if it has no place in the house, no use today or this month, doesn't fit, is the wrong color, or has not been touched in the last 6 months (outside of pictures and files) it is gone. period.
I am tired of all the maybe someday junk cluttering up my house. It isn't that big of a place to begin with and full of clutter it is even smaller!! I am over having a lot of junk.

I am also teaching my son about recycling, I think he gets what we are going to do I am just not sure he is getting the big picture yet. I am sure it will also take a lot of close supervision to make sure things get put in the proper place, garbage=compost, paper=recycle box, plastic=recycle box, glass=recycle box, you get the idea. I am working on ways he can understand the big picture and thue why it matters what we each do about it.

I am also going to start the kids planting indoor seeds next week. This will be a fun and productive way to teach them about growing food and other helpful, pretty plants. The can watch as the seeds sprout, help transplant them into the garden, and then help with the weeding and care of the plants right on into harvesting their well cared for plantings!
They are almost as excited to get started as I am.

Well, looky there, if it isn't Mr. Sun! Nice to see him around, he has been on vacation for far too long. I hope the sun is shining in your area of the world...

Until next time~

Oh yea, I am working on redesigning my page so thats why it looks so bleak for now.....just in case you were wondering

More Signs of Spring

When I woke up this morning I heard geese honking their way back north, a welcome sound around here! If the geese are flying back to the north, then spring is surely just around the corner...

I have been kind of in a funk lately, I think that it's mostly just the usual end-of-season cabin fever type of thing, I can't wait to get my hands in the earth and get things started.
I did buy a few herb seed packets to get started. I have a rather large southwest facing window with a shelf under it that runs it's length. Perfect for a couple of window boxes with my herbs in them. To start with I got Cilantro, Sage and Chives. I also plan to get Oregano, Dill, Thyme and Mint. The window is just  a few seconds from my kitchen so gathering fresh herbs while I am cooking will be so much fun and sooo convenient!

I have also started making my paper beads again, I am thinking of maybe setting up a booth at a few local festavils and see if I can sell some. I will post some pictures soon, right now I am just in the make them stage which can get rather tedious but it is so worth it in the end. Once I get them made the fun of deciding what to make comes into play...mostly necklaces and earrings sometimes keychains or decorations on other things I have crafted. I try to use either natural or recycled things to create with. My paper beads have been created from magazines I have gotten from friend and a couple I read. The beads turn out amazing with all sorts of different colors and patterns on them!

I am also beginning to put together a lesson plan for summer, I am going to begin "all the time school" Bubba now gets about an hour and a half a day, and I plan to stay with the hour and a half, it seems any longer and it is a fight to keep him focused. So to help I am only going to school every other day thru the summer and see how that goes. The subjects for this summer are going to be geography, (real geography not the social studies that passes for it nowadays) science (his main interest) and writing (something else most schools today neglect due to use of keyboard) I am hoping the year-round learning will eliminate the transition problems that happen when he is used to summers without school, then suddenly it seems school starts and he can't handle it. It usually takes a couple of months to get him in a routine so I hope this works.

I am looking forward to tomorrow because something will happen that hardly ever does anymore, I will be ALONE for an hour or so! It's my "day off" of babysitting the grandgirls and Bubba will be going out for socialization with his wrap-around facilitator to the gym and he is looking forward to that.  I don't know what I will do but wow, I have not had a moment of being by myself in several months.
I found out recently also that he has been approved for some respite care, so I have to call and find out the details and set it up, then the time to get things done without worrying about him will be much easier!!

Well, that about does it for today, I hope the weather stays nice, we are supposed to get rain the next few days but hopefully not like we did last week! I am planning to clean out the storage shed and pitch out a lot of stuff we don't need, I am de-cluttering again, so if it hasn't been touched in over 6 months and it's not something like records or tax stuff it's outta here either to the goodwill or the trash!

Until next time~