I want to garden, but

This month is just flying by (good-bye May) with so much to do. It seems to be getting filled up with all the children's events at this time. I want to find the time to work in the backyard and get that garden started but that project keeps getting pushed to the back of the list. The up coming events of a dance recital (Zhivanna) and about a million kid b-day parties to go takes up the spare time I have lying around. I really want to garden, but have a million other things that have to get done. The photo here shows what a did do the other weekend, and what you probably can't tell is that I have trimmed the back bush down (a lot), weeded, spread mulch around, and planted a sunflower (that a raised from a seed) behind the tree. So I am working on the yard, but my garden seems to be down on the bottom of the "TO DO" list. Busy weekend will let you know more in up coming postings. I am going to try and put myself in the limelight again and plan on auditioning for a musical this weekend. I will let you know how it goes. Have restful weekend, I know we won't.

Memorial Day

Happy belated Memorial Day! I don't know if that is what I mean. It's just that...well..it's hard to be happy about remembering war or someone who has died sometimes and... I just want....
Let me start over. When I was a kid I never really thought about Memorial Day, yay big deal a day off of school and la, la, la. But now as an adult with children, our cultural holidays have a deeper meaning. I want my children to have respect for and show gratitude to the men and women who have served our country and to remember those who gave their lives to make it what is for us; to live in freedom and to have all the wonderful things we have being an American in the USA, I am grateful for. I don't expect my children to understand all the details but I do want them to be appreciative and know that Monday was more then just a day off of school. Our neighbors (who are involved in Boy Scouts) did a fund raiser where for a donation they put an American flag out on your lawn 4 times over the year. It was such a neat idea, and made the whole neighborhood look beautiful with flags around the corner all waving in the wind. It put a little tear in my eye and pride in my heart to see our flags all over the place. I have mixed feelings about the war at this time, and I love and am grateful that I do live in this country, I would not change it for anything. So Happy Belated Memorial Day! I hope that your day was filled with restfulness and time spent with family and those you love. Along with a thought or two for those in our human heritage who gave and continue to give to us so that we may be free. Blessed be.

Plan B the garden

It has been a while since I have had the time to work on the garden. After talking with Glenn and thinking about it more. We have decided not to put it where I originally planned by the back of the garage. The only reason I was thinking that it would be a good spot was because I knew I was going to need to pull out the rose bushes. But it does not make sense for me to dig up and work near our main water line and deal with trying to keep space open for the raised boxes not to be pushed up against the garage (that gives me little wiggle room). If I put them by our side fence then they are not in a location where the "kids play" as much, and it gets more sunlight. So at least I can rationalize some on why I don't have the garden planted yet. In the photos the original spot has now been moved to the open space by the fence. I'll let you know how this goes along. Now all I need to do is start taking out about 2 feet of grass and replant it in the other space and then get the wood to make the boxes and then the dirt to fill them with. Okay so it's plan B now.

Keeping Up

I feel like it has been weeks since the last post to my blog. Oh, no have a bitten off more the I can chew? Yeeek!
Happy Belated Mother's Day to all the wonderful, awesome, beautiful women in my life. Aunt Liz, MZ, Janeen, women of ARC, my soccer pals. And for those of you with children, with out and with children of a furry nature. I love you all. Women Rule! as Zhivanna would put it.
Updates: Merlova- is a total 2 year old terror now. Fits and fussing over anything mommy tries to get her to do. She can now do dance classes over the summer, yay! She will be so happy. Her asthma has been really acting up over the past few months and she was taken to a specialist and had a sinus culture done. (NOT FUN) We found out she has 2 kinds of bacteria growing up there..so on antibiotics again for 15 days and then we should have her back to a "normal state", whatever that may be.
Zhivanna- has her dance recital coming up on the 31st of the this month. She is so excited over the two beautiful costumes she gets to wear for them (one a ballet the other a jazz style). Her last soccer game is this weekend along with the party. She will also be done with her preschool next week and take a dance class or two over the summer along with something else gymnastics or ice skating (not sure I am trying not to spend all of the $$$ Glenn brings in for GAS) She has some other exciting things in the works too.
Akorren- will also be finishing up his soccer season and has been the goalie for the team lately. His piano lessons are finishing up and he will probably take some summer lesson to stay in gear for the coming year. I also hope to get him into Tae kwon do lessons for the summer. I think the discipline and self confidence would be good for him.
Me- I am now 15 lbs. lighter then I was as of Jan. of this year. So I am feeling great (Glenn has noticed too), I still make it to one or two of my 3 soccer teams games every other week. I would love to find time to take belly dancing classes now that I really want to work on my middle more. I have picked up a few CD's to dance around the house with. I am making time to socialize with my gal pals and scrapbook as much as I can. I am now only 1 year behind on all 3 kids books, yay! And I am pondering going on an audition or two this summer for some local theater productions. I'll let you know. The garden has not progressed as far along as I had hoped as I have been busy with kids school and other stuff. That is it for now.
Here is my last virtual fortune found at http://predictions.astrology.com/fc/ Check it out.
Your Fortune: You're filled with a sense of urgency. Be patient or you may end up confused.

Me Bad

I just wanted to confess this to my public to get if off my conscience. I was bad tonight at my indoor soccer game with my Futbol Fanatics team. After being bumped into, deliberately blocked several times, elbowed, and hit by this one gal. I got back at her by doing a claw hand to her face as she was side-swipping me. (I know it sounds bad) I am trying to be a good Unitarian Universalist (see the BAUUC site to learn more about us) and not get back at people,.."...the inherent worth and dignity of all people". (I know). But I did get my buttons pushed. Maybe it is my age thing, I am not in the mood to take trouble from the young ones. I really don't try and mess with people I play hard and go for the ball when teams play aggressive like that, I do not intentionally slam into people when they don't have the ball (like she was doing). I am not in my 20's anymore, I know, but sometime sports (soccer for me) brings out my testosterone. I shook her hand at the end of game and said good game. I know I am bad, (I should have said sorry. I know better). I feel a little like the black suited Spiderman, not a Venom (yet) but liking the bad feeling a bit. Sorry soccer girl, I really am just a soccer crazed mommy of 3 wonderful kids. Forgive me.

Update

My friend Jennifer emailed me some questions since she has been reading my blog spot so I thought I'd answer them here;
So what happened on birthdays when you were younger? Since I was an only child I have fond memories of Birthday parties at every age. I recall images of my 1st b-day from my mothers albums surrounded by all sorts of friends and family...like I do for my children. As I grew older I remember mom and dad taking me out to a special dinner on the day of my B-day. One of my favorites was when I was 12 or 13 and my parents took me and 3 of my best girlfriends to Disneyland for the day. We were allowed to run around the park on our own, how cool was that? I hope I can do things like that for my children too.

Is the Crawfish still alive?
Yes, and he/she is seems to be doing just fine. The kids and Glenn feed it leftover meat, ground hamburger, chicken, etc. and it is really neat to watch it eat. It uses the bottom shorter arms and picks small pieces of the meat apart and puts it into it's mouth. The water from it can get real stinky and so Glenn gets the pleasure of changing that, I do the hamster with the kids. I'll let you know when or if it goes on to crawfish heaven, hee, hee. (Or we eat it, just kidding.)

How is that gardening going? May I recommend a marigold border to keep pests away. ; )
It has come to a halt for the moment as I used my "extra" time to get ready for Merlova's 2nd b-day party. Then I looked at our budget and knew I'd have to wait until I could buy some of the wood and garden stuff to go to the next step. Of, course the rain has not helped lately and my dog Panda has been no help either... digging in the fresh mucky dirt! So she makes holes in my flat dirt foundation and then I rake over it again, fill in holes and have it looking good, only to have her dig another big hole. I guess It will go on like this until I get the beds in. And yes any gardening suggestion are appreciated.

No the image pictured here is not me, I know you were mistaken. (I am a bit shorter.) It is a piece called Evening Mood by French artist William Bougureau, 1882 I like it so much it hangs on a wall of my home.