Well it has been a very full week! Nothing over-the-top, just busy. Last night we took Matt's mom and her husband out for dinner for Mother's Day. I know we are a bit late, but she works at Wal-Mart now and is a busy woman. We had a nice time. She, in typical Grandma fashion, came bestowing gifts. She picked up a kid's swimming pool for the boys on sale at Wally World (it's nice to have a Wally World Employee in the fam.) I spent a good deal of this afternoon filling and setting up the crazy thing. It's one of those 980 gallon kind that you have to level the ground add sand etc... The boys will love it, and I'm sure I lost 980 lbs out there in the hot sun setting it up. (do I hear moans of compassion and sighs of "what an amazing woman that Julia is?) OK, it wasn't that big of deal, but I felt like quite the martyr setting it up. :) The boys and I will try it out when they get up from their naps. (Go ahead laugh, I am getting in the kiddie pool!)A
nother, real chart topper this week has been the spreading of top soil, planting of grass seed and spreading of straw. Not a big deal you say? Oh I beg to differ. I can't tell you the joy that floods my heart as I gaze out upon the straw in our soon-to-be-front yard. We are the kind of people who get ill if we have a lot of debt. (seriously, my stomach actually hurts if our debt to income ratio gets a little out of whack.) So we do things slowly. We just bought our first pieces of new furniture last year. Until then, we had been living perfectly fine with hand me down and yard sale furniture. You can't know the joy a couch will bring you, when you've been 
using a couch cover to hide tweed. It is the same with a yard. For a year now we have been living with mud and dirt. In Illinois we either have too much rain or not enough, it seems. So we were either tracking through mud or swimming in dust. So Monday night at 11pm Matt and I finished spreading straw on our front lawn and down the driveway sides. I am one excited Momma! I spent an hour and a half watering it this morning. I am considering blaring classical music out the windows to encourage it's healthy development, it can't hurt right?
nother, real chart topper this week has been the spreading of top soil, planting of grass seed and spreading of straw. Not a big deal you say? Oh I beg to differ. I can't tell you the joy that floods my heart as I gaze out upon the straw in our soon-to-be-front yard. We are the kind of people who get ill if we have a lot of debt. (seriously, my stomach actually hurts if our debt to income ratio gets a little out of whack.) So we do things slowly. We just bought our first pieces of new furniture last year. Until then, we had been living perfectly fine with hand me down and yard sale furniture. You can't know the joy a couch will bring you, when you've been 
using a couch cover to hide tweed. It is the same with a yard. For a year now we have been living with mud and dirt. In Illinois we either have too much rain or not enough, it seems. So we were either tracking through mud or swimming in dust. So Monday night at 11pm Matt and I finished spreading straw on our front lawn and down the driveway sides. I am one excited Momma! I spent an hour and a half watering it this morning. I am considering blaring classical music out the windows to encourage it's healthy development, it can't hurt right? I got an idea from a friend this week concerning chore charts. I have been surprised at how excited Josiah gets to "mark things off" his chore chart. I'll have to post more on that later. Well, that's all for now. Nap time is almost over, I hear the pool calling. (Don't laugh!)
21 comments:
ooh ooh i wanna come play in the water!!
Yeah....you're back! Blog-world has been strangely quiet without you! I'm so happy for you to be settling in to a 'home' that makes you happy! Don't feel bad: we're 11 years into our home-making and are still without many new furniture items that I would love to have. I did find Laura F.'s blog on 'stuff' to ring very true for me. It may be possible to never fully have all the stuff we'd like, but we know what makes a happy home isn't all that anyway. (and, yes, I'm mostly preaching to myself, since I would LOVE to have some new stuff to put in my new house!). We still have the coffee table Jon D gave us for a wedding gift. Love it, but it no longer goes with everything.
Those kiddie pools can sure look inviting in the summer heat, I know!
Ttyl,
Tara
Welcome back!
I'm so with you on the dept thing. Give me beans and rice for months on end, but don't give me monthly payments.
Have fun in the pool. Be glad you only have two boys, if I were to get in with my four it would look like Niagra Falls in our backyard.
Thank goodness we have use of a normal size pool this summer. I use the little one for baths when the dirt is caked on so thick that the tub would look like a mud bath if they were to get in it.
I like the classical music idea...maybe you can start a movement:)
Yay for summer! Yay for a pool! Yay for your grass! Yay for classical music! Yay for a new blog from Julia!
Yay!
I understand the yard thing...we have lived in our house 7 years and our back yard is finnally looking like it has grass....whatever grass it is is slowly creeping its way to the top of the yard! If Larry wouldn't spray for weeds it would be completely covered....I like the weeds...it's better than hard dirt!! Can't get Larry to understand that!
I love the pool! Go let your feet take a long swim!! Sorry, I couldn't resist!!
Esther;
Come on overl
Tara;
Amen Sister, I too enjoyed Laura's blog. Stuff just aint where it's at.
Kayla;
Beans and Rice or sometimes Baked Potatoes is a nice change. You can feed a family of four very cheaply on baked potatoes. :)
Kimber;
I think I'll start with some Joshua Bell and see how the grass does. I kinda think of grass as more Celloish, maybe Yo-Yo firist...hmmm?
Sonja;
Yay for friends like you!
Marty;
I'll have you know, the water covers my feet, ankles and part of my calves. :) Tell Sammy to stop with the weed killer already. Perhaps all that pre-dawn time cutting grass for Harry Lobbs made him have a hatred for grass? We'll ask Kayla if Harold hates grass too, maybe I'm on to something.
Yay for Joshua Bell! (Always a good choice.) YoYo...well, yes he's good too. I guess he would do in a pinch. Let me know which your grass prefers. Maybe I can use it on my languishing african violet.
We want to see pictures of you in that pool! On second thought...
Glad to see a new post. Man, if I could I would give you all the grass you need! David's tractor is ill, therefore we have thigh high grass - no lie. But, we feel the same way about debt. Can't go out and buy a new tractor right now; therefore, he's using a push mower for a "small" part of our yard and the other acres are, well...thigh high.
Speaking of thigh highs...I'm having a funny memory of being taught by my dear dorm friends of what to do when I get holes/runners in my pantyhose. Thigh highs would work great for that. You can throw the bad leg away. hee hee.
What a trooper to set up that pool all by yourself! I'd never have even tried.
I'm so happy with you that you'll soon have grass! I'm so sorry for you that you have to water and water and water. I spent a lot of waterin' time today too. I guess I should be glad we have water to water...: ) I s'pose glass-half-full-thinkin' never hurt nobody. (That was fer me.)
Dittos on the wisdom of avoiding as much debt as possible!
I'm always excited to see you have a new post.
Yes, Harold hates to mow grass now. You can get him to cut down a tree for a little extra cash, but don't ask him to push a mower. He'd rather sit inside and play his cello to help your little seeds sprout.
Thanks to KENNY "LOBBS" my huband hates to mow!! Soooo, I get the pleasure....until half way finished....Larry doen't like my lines so he takes over! Another gift from the "Lobbs" family!!
Just in case and of the family reads this...I do appreciate you letting Larry work for you all those years!
Yes, Yes, Praise God for the Lobbs fam. who kept many a college boy in shoes and supplied with date money.
BTW, I think my grass is not into classical at all. I should have known it would be Blue Grass music that does the trick. So I will be blaring Nickle Creek out my windows. Sonja, I don't think African Violets do Blue Grass, you may want to look into The Blues though, I think that would do the trick.
Hmmm, I don't think I have any blues. Too bad, I've got a couple Nickle Creek CD's. Maybe that's the violet's problem. I've been giving it the wrong diet of music. Actually, it has heard more NPR than anything else. MAYBE ITS A CONSERVATIVE! I, on the other hand, thrive while listening to liberal radio. It's so...entertaining.
Sonja;
Liberal Radio is fine for you, since you are in such a conservative environment, but I can see why the Violet may struggle since it doesn't get out and about. Perhaps you should take it to chapel with you, so it gets a balance of influences. I have to say I have a love for Garrison and Click and Clack myself, but NPR News drives me batty,(somebody slap me when they start the whining drivel with an agenda) even more batty than listening to Don Wildmann Sr. on AFR. :)
I have heard of studies done that show plants thrive with Classical Music so make sure Violet gets plenty of that, try to avoid playing your Led Zepplin music in the presence of your Violet, it will kill her for sure.
I can definitely identify about the grass, Juwah. We bought a new place when we moved to Alabama (right after college). I remember stewing and stewing over not having grass. I think I drove Michael crazy saying things like "when we get our own grass, we can have people over and have BBQs and..blah blah blah..." We finally just sold the place-no grass- and moved to Indiana.
Have you a holiness tan (ankles and forearms and back of the neck) yet after sitting in the pool? hee hee Hope you enjoy your pool.
*shock & awe* How did you know about...Led Zepplin? I thought I had everyone fooled. ;-) The chapel thing is a good idea. She's very small, so it shouldn't be hard to smuggle her in. Actually, she does get some classical music from time to time. Maybe not enough though. She seems to be so much more sensitive than my other plants. They, unlike her, seem to thrive on neglect and NPR. They must be pagans.
so I'm trying to multi-task and build a lion out of cardboard and pipe cleaners while I'm reading Julia's blog. I was doing ok until I stopped to look. Poor Leo had his hands and feet wired on backwards. Jessi thought it was funny, Joey did not. picky, picky, I guess he can learn to build his OWN lions from now on, hmmph.
YEAH for swimming pools!!!! YEAH for grass!!!! I'm so with you, sister!! Since moving out here, I have a NEW appreciation for grass!! Not sure that I thought a whole lot about it before, but sure am thankful for it now! :-) I saw your yard straw today!! I'm happy for you, friend!! And if the classical music works, please let me know -- we have some grass out front that is not growing very well!! :-)
P.S. Now that I've read the music comments, may I suggest some 50's or 60's music? I'm sure that would get the grass blades up and moving!! :-) (And no funny comments about me being OLD enough to remember those eras!!)
I know what's wrong with Sonja's african violet...it NEEDS to be repotted! It doesn't really care about the music it's listening to, it just wants a little more space.
btw, if you're wondering who I am, I'm Kim M.'s cousin-in-law, and Sonja's friend.
The pool looks fun...
ttyl
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