Yard work has been our answer to every question about our plans or our thoughts in the recent weeks.
Here's a pic from the east side of the back yard last fall. Lush ivy on fence, lots of lawn, edge rimmed with river rock.
We had a desire to expand our vegetable garden opportunities and came up with a plan to change this area (the winter was really hard on that ivy, but it's growing back). We started by removing a lot of the river rock and sod.Cam carefully leveled out areas for gardening boxes......and then began building them.WOW!When it came time to fill the boxes, we got the kids involved in mixing up the soil.Dane planned out where the 44 veggie plants should be placed. Bryce and I planted them all, some of them while it rained. We also planted two peach trees (on the right). Although we're not finished yet, we're so excited about the progress than has been made. So much hard work!
I didn't help a lot because I've been working on the west side of the yard.
Just over the edge of our deck was a lawn that wouldn't grow. Too much shade, spindly little blades of grass...Last fall we had a cement patio poured.On May 16th, I began building a retaining wall out of river bed rock.
This is only a fourth of the rock delivered to our house.

The work is basically a little bit puzzle and a little bit Lego and a lot of chiseling.

The progress is mostly slow, but every now and again a whole bunch of rocks will align perfectly together, one right after another. Believe me, it's such a blessing when that happens. It's a bit taller now than pictured and I have to add one more foot worth of height over a 15 foot stretch, but when this thing is finally finished, I think I'm really going to proud of what I've accomplished. More pictures to come, when we're all finished!

Since our computer died weeks ago, we've found ways to survive...

Daddy's new I-Pad has helped.

It's obviously a fascinating piece of technology. I guess we've gotten used to it. I tried to "swipe" the screen at a Red Box, trying to rent a movie. This month, my sweet nephew was baptized by my dad and confirmed by my grandpa.

On that same day, my cousin got married and we hung out at the beautiful reception center with our family.

Here's Mandy, my sister and Bryce

Zealand loved going over this little bridge.

You've gotta take photo ops when you can!Cam took last week off of work so that we could work hard in our back yard. We got a lot done on Monday. He built a few square-foot-gardening boxes, took out portions of our lawn and leveled out other areas in the yard.I began to build my retaining wall by first hauling around 2,000 lbs of stone into the back yard.

The more it rained, the more our plans seemed to expand. We started getting bids and ideas for remodeling our kitchen.

This is Dane at a granite-slab showroom. Heavenly Father sure made some incredible rocks! We're pretty sure we've got the company chosen to do the cabinets, but there's much to be done before then. First and foremost is to do nothing until after I host my brother's fiancée's bridal shower.
But after that, Cam and I will play demolition crew and get the job going! We're really excited!

This is Bryce's last week of preschool. It's bitter-sweet. Thankfully, he's completely excited for Kindergarten and is looking forward to having Ella's teacher, too.

I'm going to miss the string of waves he gives me as he runs up to his teacher's home. Today we celebrated B's birthday. She will be my niece as soon as her mother marries my little brother.This is our attempt at a grandkid photo. It didn't go over well at all.

The rest of the month is busy as well. Bryce is enrolled in swimming lessons. So far, so good!

Ah! I'm so glad to be back! I've missed blogging and hope that our computer troubles are at an end.

I was just curious where I was a year ago. What I was doing and reporting on with this blog...

I was cleaning up my craft room.

Guess what my plans are this week? Yup. Craft room.

It's a joke that this keeps recurring.

I blame Christmas and all my well-intentioned, home-made gifts. Oh well...

I attended little Chloe's baby blessing today. She looked so perfect! Her momma was beautiful and calm as a cucumber...until the opening song...after which she had to say the opening prayer. :D It was a beautiful blessing and a wonderful spirit there. I sure helps that I've met so many members of Angie's extended family. Easy to feel comfortable there.

I'm once again looking forward to the annual Get Down with Scrapbooking charity crop, but this year Anisa is sleeping at my house (no, of course we won't be sleeping) and we're going to get caught up (we is me, Anisa, my mom, Angie and 200 of Angie's relatives) on all the scrapbooking we haven't done this past year...which is a lot!

It's been an insane week. I've been making signs for returning missionaries (not mine) and helping with the jungle background for Ella's Kindergarten operetta. I didn't even know what day it was half the time, I was just going from project to appointment to project. CRAZINESS!

And not a picture to show for all of it.

I got to help my friend Angie pack a few boxes for her upcoming move this morning.

That, plus the beautiful sunshine, put me in a housekeeping kind of mood.

Just look at that sky!

I wiped out one of my ovens and started the self-cleaner. The windows are opening to let out the fumes.

I washed my garden windows. They're the best view from inside the house and now they're a spotless view.

I kicked the last of the ice off of the deck and swept all the sunflower seed husks left by the flocks of birds we've been feeding. Here are some of our frequent visitors:

This is a nuthatch. He's so tiny. Less than 4 inches in length. They're my favorite!The house finchThe black-capped chickadeeThe mountain chickadeeOur more rare visitors are:

the spotted woodpeckerthe northern flicker (a type of woodpecker)and a small family of quail.I filled all their feeders so they should be happy.

I took out a bunch of trash and recycling and in general am feeling that calm before the next winter storm.

Such a nice day and there's Christmas to look forward to! The best part of that is that I'm all done shopping!

Today my timer and I are taking on the most frightening room in my house...
It's not my kitchen (lookin' good). It's not even my kids' bathroom. My close friends are already nodding their heads... It's my 'room of one's own': my craft room.
YIKES!!!
I've done one 15 minute session and I didn't want to quit to do 15 minutes somewhere else, but it sure has kept me from feeling overwhelmed. I did get one small corner cleaned up and filled a lot of garbage/recycling bags.
Progress.
As soon as this post is finished, I'm going to do more.
My kids are happily playing in the room next to the craft room. I built them a castle out of the castle blocks that I usually hate and used large cardboard pieces to create a maze leading up to the castle. They have since decorated the castle with other building blocks and are walking around arm in arm.
I have taken pictures of the 'before' of the craft room, the before that began piling up right after Scrapbook USA, during prep for a boutique and then reached its wretched climax during the craziness of last minute Christmas gifts, crafting and wrapping. My friend Anisa has challenged me to post the before and after on our craft blog. Well, I think I will, but we've got a long way before it gets there.
I'd say at least 6 more 15 minute sessions, but hey that's only an hour and a half, really.
Back to work!

(photo credit)

Good morning to everybody!
A new monday is upon us and I got a good night's sleep!
I've already ironed , breakfasted, tidied and sent #1 son off to school.
#2 son and only daughter are selfishly (on my part) tucked away watching a movie at 8:50 AM because mommy needs some alone time.
Do weekends do this to you too? Leave you wishing most of the weekend that the house was your domain again and that little people and that big guy you married would all take a break from the place at different intervals?
Sometime I do.
I remember when the weekends were relaxing. I remember waking up on Saturday morning and reading in bed til nearly 10 AM with the soft breeze flowing into my room. I was 15, 16, 17 back then. The radio was on and "To the Sky" by the Cure would magically come on, the perfect soundtrack for the infiltrating sunshine through the blinds. Sigh...
So here's Monday, the big work day for mommies recovering from having their loved ones around all weekend. I can get quite a lot done during my alone time. And it's time to go do that now.
Good Monday to all!