Signs of Spring

 One of life's great pleasures is watching the grands enjoy traditions. Early church service followed by lunch and an Easter egg hunt.

 Karsyn is looking a bit frumpy after a very long morning of Easter going on's

 Once I returned home from DD #1's Easter celebration it was back to work for me. One of the many things on my list was to get the deck back in shape after that long hard winter we have had.

 Upper and lower decks have been planted on a budget, the grands playhouse has been scrubbed and moved onto the lower deck where it will stay!! No more moving of the playhouse for me.

We are doing a huge makeover in the garden this year. One of the many things that are being changed is to downsize the herb bed. I'm not sure if this hanging pot thing will work but its worth a shot. Our herb bed had gotten so large and out of control something needed to be done.

I can hardly lift my arms today after lugging so much potting soil needed to revamp all of the planters. Eight hours of non stop moving, lifting, dividing, planting, and watering....ouch!!! Mark one more thing off the list, go me! Ha I was so worn out last night and dirty I might add that I didn't even go back out to enjoy some time on the deck after getting a badly needed shower.

Since we are way over budget on the outdoor spending I cut way back on spending for annuals this year. I figure a few weeks of miracle grow and you will never be able to tell the difference. We have a very long growing season these little plants will be lush and beautiful in no time at all.

Slowly this week I will try to divide and transplant the herbs from the raised bed they have outgrown into these small planting pots. Seem odd to you to be downsizing the herbs? It felt a little odd to me as well but we are doing away with all of the raised beds this year, the herb bed included. I have dehydrated so many herbs the past few years that the pantry is full to overflowing. I needed to cut back. Mint.......Oh Lord it was taking over. Mint is an amazing plant just one small sprig can go crazy in just one growing season. I will be moving a patch of it way back near our woodsy area to keep it away from everything else. Hubby and my "staff" can keep it contained with the weed eater (I hope).

Speaking of "staff" today is the first day of having them take over the lawn. I am pretty excited too have that weekly job off my hands. I have high hopes that the time it will free up can be used to do all of the rest of the stuff I can never get to. Tree's and busch's need to be dealt with, a battle with ivy must be won this year or it will overtake the house. Last but not least is the garden....

Our garden this year will be half the size it use to be :( It makes me a little sad to have to give it all up but the reality is that the raised beds were shot. Between the Bermuda grass invasion and wood rot I had a sorry mess on my hands, the battle was just not worth it. Getting everything torn down has been and will continue to be a heck of a big job. For now we won't be putting in the back garden. With grand #5 due to arrive at the end of May I don't think I will be able to keep it all up on my own. Maybe just maybe there will be a change of heart later this spring but for now it seems like the right thing to do. I need to pace myself.

Is anyone else feeling a bit overwhelmed with all of the spring clean up? To heck with the house for now, we should have plenty of rainy days I can devote to spring cleaning indoors. Off to find that bottle of pain relievers!!!

Happy Easter!!

 We worked very hard getting our Easter eggs ready for the bunny

 The weather didn't cooperate :( Talk about a mess but that's what memories are all about. Ha

 Mason was so proud of his "Lellow" egg. "Lellow is his very favorite color

 Karsyn had to make do with blue as the pink bucket was spilled early in the process

 OH MY, look at those hands

 The bunny will be busy Sunday morning hiding all of these eggs

 After our early mini Easter dinner with Papaw we all enjoyed Kara's special cupcakes

Mason man couldn't shove his cupcake in fast enough

 

Our Easter weekend is off to a good start even with our Papaw having to be back on the road again :(.

 

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend enjoying what this special day is really all about. Check out this beautiful small video a friend shared with me today.
Once you click on the video you will have to go to the top of the page to hit the link. I have no idea why it won't load correctly :(

 

Busy Times

 Kara and I got right on our baking for Easter yesterday morning. She was in charge of cupcakes for the grands.

 She was mighty pleased with her creation

 I was in charge of this Peeps sunflower cake for hubby, He LOVES Peeps, I can't get even one down for the life of me, yuck. I am thinking Peeps are in a love it or hate it category. The chocolate cake I will have no problem eating!

 Our evening was spent at Tyler's baseball game. Since there were no trash cans close by Karsyn and Mason entertain themselves by digging in the dirt

 As well as getting belly bubbles from Papaw

 Ty was so happy to get a hit for his Papaw to see

As Mason man was cheering him on.

Busy days and busy nights has been the name of the game this week. We are doing our best to cram it all in. We both fall in bed each night knowing the next day will be just as action packed as the last!!
Today will be no different.

Kara and Papaw will work in the yard while I get a mini early Easter dinner prepared for this afternoon. Tyler will have some alone time with Papaw at a movie while I try to get Kara to nap before we color Easter eggs with all of the grands followed by our early mini Easter dinner. Hubby has to head back to TX in the morning :( but we are both very thankful he has had almost a week at home. I have teased him the past two days that he needs to get back to work so he can rest. There is never down time around here it seems.

Lots of talk about early retirement if and when we had time to just sit and visit this past week. Hubby loves his work, the pay is very, very good but nothing can make up for the time he has been having to spend away from our family.  Early retirement is a scary thing in this economy, at least to us it is!! We have a plan......

There might be a chance hubby will be in the office over the summer this year. If that should pan out we will be doing a few trial run retirement months. The first month will be to spend as we always do to see how short we are by the end of the month. Month two will be regroup to try being more aware of our spending  living within our fixed retirement budget. Month three will be a reflection of the previous months. Do we hold off on his retirement until 65 or is it OK to pull the trigger at 62. What can we do to try a semi retirement lifestyle as he continues to work but at a part time bases. Is a consulting business a better bet?

One thing I do know is this man of mine needs to get the heck off the roads, motels, apartments, condos, fast food and all that goes along with his travels. Another thing I know is he will be bored to death being home 24/7. I also know the majority of our wastefull spending is on the grands and our big kids. Not that they need us to spend we just can't seem to help ourselves!!!

Here is a good example of spending we don't need to do. I try to post photo's of the grands on FB for hubby to see during his time away from home. He goes crazy seeing the kiddo's running around in any shoe other than tennis shoes.  First thing on his To Do's this week was to get tennis shoes for all of the little ones. Did we stop there? Of course not, we also bought them each a pair of casual/church shoes. Eight pairs of shoes even on the buy one get one 1/2 price sale ain't cheap. See what I mean? We are hopeless!

Resting our Bones

 All this tilling, racking, mowing, digging, and such was put on hold yesterday. It was nice to just sit at the embroidery machine for a few hours. Lots and lots of monogramming on ribbons for some sweet Mommy's

I did the embroidery, well at least I watched the machine do the embroidery while I day dreamed of a garden fairy that would come along to finish all of the work. The mommy's can create hair bows like this one with the piles of monogrammed ribbons that are completed. I hate making bows!! You can never have enough hair bows for little girls here in the south.

Hubby had to spend all day in a meeting yesterday. The work we still have to do around the yard requires a team of at least two so I was able to get some down time in. Thank goodness!! We have been at it from dawn till dusk since Sunday with miles more to go before we can call it done.

While we won't be able to finish everything on our To Do before my main man has to head back to TX we have come a LONG way!! We have two more days of hard labor with various grands by our side and Mother Nature playing her mean tricks. I think hubby is ready to go back to work so he can get some rest!!!!!

We now have a Staff!!!

 Hubby and I compiled our must do lists yesterday morning over breakfast...it's a long hard to implement in a short period of time list. One of the many things on that list was to till the garden that we never had time to do last fall. Should we continue to rent or is it time to purchase a tiller of our own?  We went with ownership. This man of mine works long hours. He sacrifices so much for our family. A tiller to call his own just seemed like the right thing to do, so we did!!

In less than an hours time he had the lower garden tilled and ready to plant. Yippee Skippy, mark one To Do off for the home team.

We are making a whole lot of changes to our garden/gardens this year. With a new baby too arrive in just 6 short weeks, hubby still working out of state, taking care of a home alone that is bigger than we need something has gotta give. Bermuda grass had invaded our raised beds a couple of years ago. I have fought a good battle with it for the past two summers but it's just a lost cause. You can't kill the stuff, the roots run to China I do believe. While my man was doing his thing with his new toy I began to disassemble 6 raised beds. Holy cow, talk about hard work. I had planned to start over with just 2 new beds this year but the wood from the old beds was suffering from wood rot already. Gotta start from scratch. :(

After breakfast yesterday hubby took his Jeep in for inspection while I headed home. I have been racking my brain for weeks trying to figure out how in the heck am I going to continue to keep all the irons in the fire as  "The Lone Ranger" again this summer. As I turned the corner onto our street a lawn service was working on a neighbors yard, it's now or never. I chased the fella down on the mower to inquire about contracting with them. A short time later hubby arrived home to inform me he too had stopped the same company about taking some work off my back! Ha Great minds think alike.

As is the way here in the South we got talking with the owner when he came by to give us and estimate. He too is looking to retire soon planning to hand over the company to his Son who has worked for him since he was 14 years old. Their estimate for a weekly cut and trim was just too LOW!! We negotiated a little explaining our position that his prices were well under the market value, as in less than 1/2 the price of other companies. We didn't want to take advantage of them. His Son didn't say a word but you could tell by his body language he and his Father may have disagreed over price increases recently! Ha Having someone else doing the weekly lawn service will free up time for me to do all the extras I never have time to do. There are some big projects that we have had to put off for so long due to the time crunch.

Another biggy to me anyway was to load up the tractor that had blown and engine last summer. Habitat for Humanity agreed to take it off our hands but they don't do pick ups. I so dreaded helping my main man load and unload that monster onto our pick up truck for delivery. Don't you know last night after all the kiddo's had left the Kidney Foundation just happened to call for donations. I told the lady the only thing we had right now was a broken down tractor, BINGO. They will be picking it up Thursday from 9:00-5:00 all we have to do is get it too the street!!!

Having Staff is quite nice I must say!!

On for today is lots of running around (spending money) a few errands, regrouping, and revising our list as it will be raining all day. Tomorrow we will be back in the yard with coats on as the temperature of 82 for the past week will drop below freezing tonight. Gotta love spring!

Signs of Spring

 Brids are singing and the toddlers are doing their thing

 Kara as always is acting out.

 Little Mason enjoying watching the neighbors mow

 What is it about our grands that they all love a lawn mower.

 The exception is Karsyn, maybe she is afraid she will mess up her bow. Dandelion wishes are more her thing.

 And "picanica" snacks to refuel for more spring adventures

 Look at our poor sad deck. She is in great need of some TLC

The lower deck too needs a lot of work. The grands decided they want the playhouse on the deck (for today at least) I sure hope it works out once I get it arranged correctly as I am getting too darn old to move this playhouse every other week in the spring and summer. I suggested to them yesterday if they want to enjoy a different view each week they can use their lawn chairs instead of Nanny moving the stinkin house!!

The weather man has promised one more day with the highs in the 80's before another cold front moves in, I will take it!!

The house is as clean as can be expected on a beautiful spring day like today when all I want to do is sit outside with the wind chimes and birds. Fresh from the clothesline bed clothes are back on the bed. Two pounds of East Carolina BBQ is tucked in the fridge, along with watermelon and cantaloupe for Sunday dinner. If I can figure out how to start the new tractor I will at least get the front lawn mowed before hubby's arrival FINALLY this afternoon. Three days late but at least he will have a week at home (we hope) to help get this yard back in shape after a very LONG COLD winter.

Hubby has grand plans for all he thinks he can accomplish during this next week. Going over his wish list this morning I figure it would take a STAFF to get it all done. He has a staff of one (me) and four little ones who are always up for some play in the dirt time. Well see how it goes. I will be happy enough to have him home where he belongs, the fact that he has a long bed pickup truck perfect for hauling is just icing on the cake. Ha

Better hike up my spring maxie sundress and see what that new tractor will do!!

It ain't Done till the Paperwork is Done

 I Hate paperwork! With all the spending on charity for the past few months I couldn't put off organizing recipts any longer. Come tax time next year I will be happy I spent so many hours on this not sew fun To Do.

 On and on it went. After a few hours statements, receipts, confirmations, and all that jazz was tucked away in very cute file folders I found at Tuesday morning for $3.99.

 My evening homework this week has been to tie Night Night blankets along with Snuggle blankets for the animal shelter.

20 Night Night totes are complete, 40 more are on order. Tyler and I are going to have our hands full over spring break filling tote bags full of love.

I spent the entire day organizing all the piles of charity items completed over the winter. Talk about a huge job!!  Am I done? Not yet but I have made some really good progress.

I finally found an active chapter for the Project Linus Quilt's. The chapter is about 20 miles from our home, that 20 miles can take 2 hours to drive one way :(.  The short version of a long story is I will go to their monthly meetings to turn in quilts and or make quilts with a fun group of ladies. In addition I am now our local coordinator/drop off site. hummm

Waiting to hear back on the Quilt of Valor quilts I have ready to donate. I hope they can go to local Veteran's but if not I am getting them in the mail ASAP. I need to get the spare room cleaned out!!!

Now that I am finally beginning to get everything in order and too the charities I am realizing I have done a WHOLE LOTTA SEWING!! Holy cow!!

Once I have the time to just sit and think I need to evaluate how we can continue to donate at a pace and expense that fits in our lifestyle. For some it might be as simple as writing a check, others I will continue to use those sewing machines!!

Tonight I am beat! But its a good beat feeling