Thursday, May 09, 2013

What I'm Up To

This is a very busy season for sure!

My "extra" time has been spent working on the garden and other yard work. I've been working out there almost every evening and some nap times the last week or so, in between the rain showers. I've made it a goal to do at least one thing a day. Progress, although slow progress, is being made!

I spray painted some pots and planters that had seen better days--this freshens them up and makes them look very nice and less like plastic. Otherwise, I would throw them out and buy new so this saves money and reduces waste.

The little ones have been enjoying the sand and water table my sister passed on to us. I had passed it to them a few years ago and now it's back! LOL! I have sand in it for now. But at the rate they're going, soon there will be a new sand pile under the deck and then we'll fill the table with something else. Among other things, I gave them a formula scoop, some yogurt containers  and a couple old wooden spoons I had recently replaced for the sand box and they are having a  wonderful time. Who needs to buy sand toys when there are so many other suitable items to use for free?

I cut up all the dried banana peelings I had saved and scattered them on the rose bed and in the garden plot for fertilizer.

I've been putting cardboard down for a path in the garden and got some straw to use for topping the cardboard. The cardboard will act as a weed barrier.

I want to look more into "Lasagna Gardening". A no-dig method sounds perfect for us.

My mending basket had gotten pretty full. I also noticed a growing pile of unfinished sewing projects. So I made a goal to finish all those things before starting anything else. I'm about half-done. Quite a few of these things have taken 15 minutes or less to finish but there are a few larger projects in there too. I hope to post more about this later.

Meals have been ultra-simple lately. I've been using the cook once, eat twice ( sometimes 3 times) method several times a week. It saves so much time and there are not as many dishes to wash every night either.

I need to do some freezer cooking again.

Toddler Girl(age 3) loves Andy. I looked over at snack the other day and they were holding hands. She would not let him let go--"Don't open your hand!" Haha!

She is quite the girl and is The Assistant. She loves to help and can be a big help to me with the littler ones. Toddler Boy (age 2) knows this and is starting to work the system, " Help me!", he'll say pitifully to Toddler Girl after he has dropped things on purpose. Oh my...

Toddler Girl calling to Rock outside, "Rock, come here! Rock, come here! ROCK!!! 1...2...3..." This made me laugh.

Some cute words they say right now:

Toddler Boy-- "Hork" (fork), "Cucumber" (kookaburra, which is one of his favorite songs; he also likes to eat cucumbers)
Toddler Girl -- "Maggots" (music), "Princess maggots" (praise music) So if you hear her say, "I want maggots!", you don't need to be alarmed.

So that's life right now. And nap time is over! Talk to you again soon!

5 comments:

Debbie J said...

Mary Ann, our library has the Lasagna Gardening book, so your library may have it too.

I'm going to have to look into cooking once and eating twice (or 3times!)

Those toddlers sound like lots of fun to have around.

~katie~ said...

Great to hear this update, Mary Ann! Sounds like life is full and good right now. :-)

I can't wait to hear how your garden is doing!! I just planted ours in the ground this past weekend ~ although the temp got down in the high 30s the other night.

Lasagna gardening? This is the second time I've heard that term ~ and I don't recall ever learning what it was. Will have to look that up.

Life has been very full here too. Headed up north tomorrow to work on our house to get it ready to sell.

Just wanted to bop in and say hello! I'm so behind on blogging!!! Just as well.

Blessings to you, friend~
Katie

Kathryn D. Duke said...

I am enjoying catching up on your posts!!! I have a Lasagna garden and it has worked well for me. Also found a Lasgana Gardening book at GoodWill recently.

Check out my blog labeled "Gardening"...
http://quiltrestoration.blogspot.com/search/label/gardening

Kathy

Melanie said...

I've never heard of lasagna gardening. I'll have to check that out!
Oh, life with toddlers...so cute!
Hope you have a good week.

~katie~ said...

Arrived home from our time up north and just playing a little catch-up. Praying you are doing very well! We've had so much rain while we were away ~ our garden has doubled in size! I was so thankful as I wasn't sure what to expect as we planted it days before we left.

Hope you have a lovely week!

Blessings,
Katie