Sure Better Than Monday

Wow, what a day.

Last night I updated at Facebook with something along the lines of this weekend was great, but Monday sucked and I have high hopes for Tuesday. Something like that.....

Anyway, I woke up this morning to a comment that needed to be moderated from Isaiah Mustafa, who is the star of the current (very funny) Old Spice commercials. He made me a personalized video, which I posted earlier today. What a thrill. I love working with that company and their body wash smells darn good, too.

I took a few pictures of my garden and had them printed out to be used in what is now a full art show. Oh well, maybe next time, but here's the thing, I am going to fix them for my mom and I to use in our kitchens. I think they'll look pretty good. I can't wait to show them to her tomorrow.

Here's my 365 photo for today. Now I'm off to hang out with my kids. Night all!

It's a Good, Good Day.......

Just a quick note.... I am having a really great day. Mom brought me by some bush beans for my garden and my neighbor upstairs gave me some tomato plants last night. It's not raining, sun is shining. I think I'm going to split my day between inside and outside chores. Not, oh-man-I've-chores type chores, but I'm glad-I'm-getting-this-done stuff.  I hope that you have a wonderful day!!

One last thing..... Don't forget to enter my skin care giveaway at Girl Looks Swell!

Kitty Made Me Cry

This is a sweet potato sprout. Did you recognize it? We used to grow these in jars of water on the countertop when I was a kid. Mom thinks it will grow, so I stuck it in the soil today and I'll let you know. It sure grew great where it was sitting on the microwave. My tomatoes are starting to do their thing. The cherry tomato has little green tomatoes on it. One of the squash plants is getting big. I don't know which one it is. Ooops. Guess I'll figure out when the vegetables show up.

I'm adding dill to my herb garden. I think I need it for salads. Or something.....okay, I just thought it was pretty. So lacey.

These are the seeds that I planted today, but I couldn't plant them in the GroGood planters because they are marked, "Not for food, ornamental only." I wonder how many of those no-food planters they mailed out for the program?

I moved some stuff around and planted the seeds into a big plastic pot. I have no idea how they will do there. It's deeper than the GroGood planters, so they should be fine. I've never grown radishes before. Teeny-tiny little seeds.

I feel very odd right now. Sort of brittle or fragile. Mark wants me to promise to go to bed by 11, but that's the plan for every night and every night something comes up, something needs to get taken care of.

A little bit ago, Kitty jumped into the air - just straight in the air - and did this sort of turn. I think she was going to jump onto the lamp table, but my Diet Coke and ice water were in the way. It was so funny, so silly, that I started laughing, but I could feel it turning into something else. I felt like I was going to sob and I started to cry a little. I could see that it was freaking Greg out - he's sitting with the kid's computer filling out online job apps - and his eyes got really, really big. Still, I could not stop laughing, I kept seeing her little body jumping into the air again and again. Even now, 20 minutes or more later, I can feel that it could happen again.

Mom used to do that. She still does it sometimes. Just laughs and laughs and can't stop. Is she tired? Is she feeling brittle and maybe a little overwhelmed?

Something has to shift, but I'm not sure what. I'll figure it out.

Okay, now I'm off to get Bay.

A Little Bit Wordy With the Wordless Wednesday

Not very wordless, but I still wanted to take part. I'm trying to think of new things to shoot, but it's hard because I'm sort of tethered to home, so I'm shooting things that are just outside the door. I like to try to get the insects - got a bee here - but I saw some incredible insect photos today. I have got to get another lens. I want to be able to see his wings.

My daughter is currently sitting outside, on the grass, looking at the moon, with a boy. And older boy. A senior boy. This is a first around here. I'm worried about the boy riding his bike home in the dark. I went out and asked about a light - truly mortifying my daughter. Sorry honey, I just want the boy to get home safely. I asked him to please think about getting one before he rides at night again. They are snuggle-ish. She is turning 16 in a couple of weeks.

Twenty something years ago, Steve was 16 and I was 17, and we were snuggle-ish. I'm hoping that this pair is not quite as snuggle-ish as we were. I'm pretty sure that they are safe out there on the lawn - there's a whole lot of neighbors moving around out there in the evening.

Steve is hoping to come down next week. He will be bringing his older kids, but not Owen. Dang, I really like that Owen. The older kids are pretty cool, too. I'm thinking up some fun stuff to do - we will have a really limited amount of time together. I'm pretty excited.

I'm also sore. I started running in earnest again this week. I'm taking a slow pace, but putting in time and mileage. I want to get my good habits back in order before my birthday next month. I'm giving some thought to a local 10K next month - on the 2nd. Not sure though, I'm really not ready.

Oh heck, sure I am. I don't have to run a good time, just finish.

I am so glad it's not smokey anymore. I'm sitting here with the windows open and a nice breeze flowing through. Very, very nice.

Peaceful, Easy, Weekend

My weekend has really been good. No big events, just a general calm, which I greatly appreciate.

This morning was not very smokey, so I got out on the patio before the heat hit. I cleaned my litle fountain a bit, added some new rocks, and ran it for the hour plus it took me to cut back and feed my plants. Most of my petunias are a bit spent, so I cut them back. This pot is the exception. I've never grown this particular color before, but I definitely will again.
I found a praying mantis when I was cutting back dried pieces on my little patio tree. Here he is upside down. I climbed the stairs to the little landing that is barely visible in this photo and took some from overhead, as well. It was interesting to see a different view of my patio. It reminded me to take the time to try to present things in a fresh way.
I found this little bee, next to the same tree, on a red canna. Bees are tough, they are always moving and I have a hard time getting them in focus.
Duncan brought this dragonfly by to show me last night. This is the second one he's brought by. Apparently I am now the Dragonfly Lady. I can live with that. Steve explained the lifecycle of the dragonfly to me last Summer. I was so surprised - they begin life as something that lives underwater. Did you know that?
Just in case you are interested, I shared a quick stir-in type pasta recipe over at my cooking blog today. It's simple and you can adapt it in a variety of ways. I like pasta on hot days, because it's quick and doesn't heat up my kitchen too much. If you'd like to see it, it's at http://www.acooksbounty.blogspot.com

July 5th

Today feels a bit like the day after Christmas. Sarah and I, we did all this 4th prep and now it's over. We still have our flag-themed nails on, here's my feet and her hands. I'm pretty tired. Last night Sarah was wound up after the fireworks and couldn't go to sleep until after midnight. Bay called at 12:30-ish and wanted to come home, said her friend would drop her, but she needed me to unlock the door. I fell back asleep - she knocked at a bit after 1. I checked Max on my way back to bed and found him hot - as in almost 102 temp. I don't know what happened, he was only at school 2 days because of the smoke and there were hardly any other kids there. I changed him, gave him some Ibuprofen, then tried to go back to sleep. It was hard, he kept having seizures and I had to check on him or he'd call "Mom, mooom," and back I'd go again.

He is a bit more restful today, a little less warm. These are the times I wish he could speak, that he could tell me what hurts. He's laying very still.

I didn't use my camera at all yesterday, so I grabbed it and went out to look at my patio garden. I have new strawberries. Yum. I'm going to point them out to Sarah. Okay, I did, she's on her way out to grab one now. She told me that she'd been eyeing it and that Karlee told her that when it was time she had called it.

I am surprised that I don't have any green tomatoes yet. In the past I've grown Early Girls. Apparently, Heirlooms take longer. Happily, I found a lot of little buds.
Lots of mint. Hhmm.....what should I do with it? I like it's blue-green color.
I have a mini lemon tree. The first year, I had no lemons. The second year, I had two. This year, I have a ......okay, not a bunch, but a few. Yay!
Bay just got up, it's after 3pm. She is sick, too. The teenagers always seem to come down with something at the same time. They are so darn delicate.

When I woke up this morning, I was surprised that my boyfriend was not beside me. I must have dreamed that he was here for a visit. His absence, I'm really feeling it right now. I've felt so emotional lately, sort of raw, and he gives these huge hugs. When he's here, I feel like the heavy weight of my life, my responsibilities, that's it's a little lighter. He's my peace.

Mom's Garden

Today I went over to Mom's house to pick her up for dinner. I wanted to take some photos for her to share with her cousin, Pam. I'm a dork. I'm still learning my camera. Much of it was not in focus. I was disappointed, because I had to dump a lot of pictures. Now I know I have two places to focus. Oops.

Anyway, here's what I got..........Mom working in the garden. These are a couple of mini rose bushes.
I was with Mom when she found this Japanese Maple at Costco. It's lovely, very fringe-y.
Here's another Japanese Maple. Mom lived with me for a bit and at that time we had 3 large-ish Maples on my little patio. It looked pretty cool, but it gets way too hot out there later in the Summer. Mom's yard is sheltered by a lot of large trees. There are Redwoods and Oaks - it's really very pretty and lucky to find in a rental. The squirrels love it back there.
This Gardenia was huge. Mom cut it way back and it's waking up again. Gardenias always make me think of Grandma Artie. She grew Gardenias in her "tropical" garden, the one I mentioned yesterday. I'm going to se if I can scan some pictures to show how pretty that yard was. They used to entertain there all the time. They had Luaus and family reunions and there was dancing. So much fun.