Summer fun!

It has been a busy summer for all of us so far.

Heidi and Chloe got out of school on Wednesday, June 2, and used the rest of the week and weekend to pack for their trip to Ottawa, to spend time with their siblings, Holly and Ben.

They flew out first thing on the Monday morning for their three week visit.

Rich and I flew out the next evening, for our trip to Italy, which I will be starting a new blog for soon...

Rich and I were gone for two weeks, came home on a Wednesday night, and the following Monday morning, all four of my kids flew here from Ottawa.

Usually the only time I get to see Holly and Ben is at Christmas time, when they fly in for a week or so.
At that time of year though, there are nine of us in the house, which means lots of cooking and cleaning for me, and lots going on at any given moment- translating into very little time to spend visiting and talking with my kids.

So this year, we planned for Holly and Ben to come and stay for a week when it WASN'T a family holiday...

We had SUCH a good time! We shopped off and on, we talked, we worked in my studio... all of my kids are artistic, and they enjoyed spending time creating things.

The kids had a day at Elitch Gardens, the amusement park in Denver, and Rich and I took them to the Colorado Renaissance Festival over the weekend. Despite the rain we got in the afternoon, it was a fun day.

We celebrated Canada Day with a nice steak dinner and poppers that we bought at the store. We were at the Renaissance Festival on the fourth- we came home and grilled burgers (with homemade fries too, of course!), and then the kids had fun setting off the fireworks that Rich had bought for them. What a guy, that Rich. He's a keeper!

They all walked up to get ice cream a number of times from Baskin-Robbins, where Heidi works. They bought copious amounts of Ben & Jerry's ice cream for home, as we have flavours here that they can't get in Canada.

There was lots of Beatles Rock Band, lots of ice cream eating, lots of laughing and teasing, lots of joy in us all being together as a family again.

Last night we had to take them to the airport to return home to real life- and NOT, as Holly hilariously pointed out to me, the G-rated version of their lives that they were living while Heidi and Chloe were there... lol

There are just some things that a mother doesn't need to know.

Garden, garden, garden!

Now that the snow SEEMS to be over for the time being, and it has warmed up significantly, I have been working like crazy to get the main garden planted and going.

A few weeks back, I planted our early garden in a small bed behind the garage. There were a number of Columbine plants there starting to poke through the ground, and I moved all that I saw to the front of the bed, in a row. I say all that I saw- because I obviously missed a number of them- they are spread out all over! I will move them in the fall.

Anyway, in that bed along with the columbines, I planted snow peas, shelling peas, lettuce, and spinach. Everything is up and starting to grow!

When Chloe and I were digging weeds and starting to prep the main veggie garden, we transplanted the chives and thyme that had sprung up into a bed beside the patio. I want all the herbs together and for the perennial ones to have a safe place (from the tiller and pitchfork) to pop up next year. I still have a number of herbs to plant this week.

I have some fruit plants and bushes along the back fence, but that "garden" is very underdeveloped. I will work on that this summer when we are back from holidays.

And the veggie garden. Ahh, what a space. Approximately 400 square feet of mostly clay soil. I have soil envy! My next door neighbor has this soft, beautiful soil, the kind you could lay in and just inhale... But they have lived here for many years and so have quite a head start on me! lol

Yesterday I added my composted manure and fertilizer and, using the pitchfork only, turned the soil six inches deep. I got a ton of blisters on my hands (even though I was wearing work gloves!), I have sore muscles everywhere today, and I was absolutely exhausted as it was a huge job. But I got a huge satisfaction from a job well done. Next year though, I am either going to talk my husband into buying me a little rototiller, or I will hire someone to do it.

Today we laid out the soaker hoses and are watering the space and I am putting the final touches on where I think everything should be planted. I try to write it all down so I know what is where... and I am still learning to recognize plants from weeds- good rule of thumb is to wait a bit if you are not sure... lol

So that is where we are at right now. I will post updated photos as soon as there is something cool to see!

Happy Mothers Day!

First of all, I wish all of my family and friends who are mothers, stepmothers, caregivers, and who spend time "mothering" anyone they care about, a Happy Mother's Day! Hope you are spoiled and appreciated for all you do!

As usual, I am in the running for Worst Mother of the Year- not sure if I have done enough to win or not- but hey, I have won it many times before and so maybe it's good to let someone else have the title for a while! The problem is, I haven't figured out how to stay OUT of the running! lol
Ahhh, parenthood.

Holly sent me an e-card and will be calling when she gets home from work.

Ben called yesterday as he will be at work all day today and we had such a nice, long chat!

Heidi got me that lovely bunch of red tulips and a Baskin-Robbins ice cream cake.

Chloe isn't speaking to me, and I don't expect that to change just because it's Mother's Day. She will be celebrating her Pyrrhic victory while I get spoiled by everyone else.

Well, three out of four ain't bad, right? lol

Meanwhile, my poor hubby is still recuperating from his surgery. He is having quite a lot of discomfort and I will use my outstanding caregiver skills to make sure he has a full (and I wish speedier) recovery.

Have a great day all! xo

Spring has sprung! (and I have the tulips to prove it!

Finally we have gotten a few nice days in a row (without snow) and the tulips are starting to bloom.

It looks so lovely and colourful out front again, with the fiery colours of the tulips, the freshly washed flags, and everything greening up!

My little snake "friends" have even decided that they don't need to spend every daylight hour right in my garden... YAY! lol

It has been pretty windy out though, and I haven't been out to work in my garden since the weekend, only out to water.

BUT I do have peas, snow peas, lettuce, and spinach planted in the bed behind the house, I have my fences up and repaired. I have all of my seeds and tools ready to go.

I have seedlings starting in my garden room, complete with grow lights and everything- though it is a pretty makeshift set up at this point. The original plan was to install hooks in the ceiling, but... long story. I figured it out- that is one of the things I do best. Improvise. lol

My little chippy

Poor Heidi.

It is Spring Break, and she is spending her week on the couch, after having SIX wisdom teeth removed first thing Monday morning. Her appointment was 6:45 am and so she didn't even get to sleep in.

The surgery went well. She had IV sedation like I did, and was pretty darn loopy when I sat with her in the office. In fact, she was pretty darn loopy a lot of the day. Chloe was great about changing out the ice packs, thought we might have a bit of a chance to minimize the swelling. The surgeon said she would have some big swelling because the two extra teeth were WAY up there. And he was right. She did develop some major chippy cheeks yesterday, but they did go down a little by bedtime. Hopefully it will be a little better again today.

Thankfully she was prescribed painkillers which we keep on top of. Her jaw is pretty tender but the incision sites seem to be doing well. She is rinsing with the salt water and though she doesn't like the taste, I happen to know it helps a LOT. Not just because it was in the list of instructions or because I did it last month when it was my turn- but because it was a big cure-all in my Grama's repertoire of home remedies.

I hated to get a sore throat because I knew it meant two things: rinsing and gargling with salt water and having an old sock of my Grandpa's pinned around my neck! lol But I must tell you Grama, if you are listening: it did work, you were right. (Not only about that, but about a lot of things!)

Anyway, yesterday morning when I got up with Rich at 6 am, Heidi was awake and feeling miserable. This morning she was still asleep when I got up, and is still sleeping now. So hopefully this will be a better day for her all around.

I would post a photo but she won't let me. When Heidi was little, she was all eyes and chippy cheeks. So she has reverted for a couple of days...