~teacher appreciation week-teacher gift-Wednesday~

 Wednesday we gave the teacher

a little mini rose bush with this note attached.

 My little guy was SO excited to give it

to his teacher. This is the gift he was

most excited about giving. 

A good sign maybe that he will shower

his woman with flowers one day.

He gets that from his daddy :)  

 

~spring flowers~

 It's been a month hasn't it?

Got to the point where you thought I was

done having a creative outlet and 

blasting it all over this here blog?

I almost thought so too.

It's been busy around here.

I started a job, working from home.

It's minimal hours each week but still

has been an adjustment for us.

The job itself is stressful and there is A TON 

of information and computer programs to 

navigate. I'm not gonna lie.....after each shift

I find myself thinking, "What the hell was I thinking?"

It's not like I HAVE to work. Truth be told,

my husband would rather have me not work so we

don't have two schedules to work around.

I'll give it ample time and see how it pans out.

It was a good opportunity, just maybe not the

most opportune time.  Is it ever though?   

   

We took the kids on vacation for spring break.

A week long trip in California.

Was wonderful.

Had guests at our house.

etc.

etc.

You know how it goes.   

Anyway.....something that is definitely 

a welcome sight right now. 

Our flowers.

Praise God.

Or rather I should say, praise my man.

The fruits of my husband's labors from last fall

have paid off and our bulbs are coming up 

strong and thick right now.

Here's my first arrangements:      

    daffodils. 

They seem like such happy little flowers :)

A daffodil represents new beginnings.....

very appropriate that it's the first flower

that blooms in our yard each year.  

 Look how far this tulip opened.

I've never seen one open so wide without the 

petals falling right off. 

 I've done a few projects in the past month,

just haven't had the time and energy to 

photograph them and blog about them.

I have a long list of things from the past

couple years that I STILL HAVEN'T shown you.

Eventually......I promise.

Hope you are enjoying the spring time.

Here's to new beginnings :)      

~comin up~

 Spring is starting to peek it's head out of the wintery 

clouds and snowdrifts. 

The green popping out of the ground in the spring

is such a glorious change from the dreary

snowy landscape I get accustomed to seeing

by this time each year.    

 Our first blooms of the year :)

lovely littles.

That's not the only thing blooming.

I get the pleasure of gazing at these 

beauties each day now that sit on my kitchen shelf:  

 I'm not sure what this is.....a Christmas cactus maybe?

Whatever it is, it's blooming again and it's a 

beautiful bright orange.

BUT.....the real gem is this lady:  

 MY ORCHID.....

the first orchid in 10+ years that I have EVER

got to re-bloom. I was THRILLED to see 

the new chute and blooms grow. 

Orchids are my FAVORITE flower and this particular

plant is one that my husband gave me about a year

and four months ago......I think now I've figured 

out how to make them re-bloom....

patience is the main thing :) 

Welcome Spring!     

~hibernating flowers and chalk people~

 This is the last of the flower arrangements

from our own garden for the season.

It's been SLIM pickins the last couple weeks.

 I love the beads of water on the rose petals.

I could have shaken it off before I placed

it in the vase but chose not to. I picked these

on a rainy morning last week.  

I still have a couple tomato plants with lots of 

fruit I'm hoping can ripen on the vine before it 

gets too cold....which reminds me, I need

to cover them tonight.   

The weather is getting cold FAST and my

husband is hard at work preparing the flower beds

for the winter now. Cleaning up and pruning the plants

and re-planting all of our bulbs that have been sitting

in the dark all summer. I almost choked when

I walked outside last week and saw that he

had cut down my ENORMOUS sunflower plant.

I replaced the sunflower plant with

something else that was enormous:

A chalk outline of myself.

My kid thought it would be fun to do 

outlines of our bodies in the driveway.

I'm not gonna lie....I thought it would be fun too.

Until I saw how short and SQUAT I really am.

I thought maybe it would look better if I drew

some clothes on it. WRONG!

Looks even more short and more squat.   

 My kids outlines turned out cute :

 It rained the next day and washed 

our little chalk people away.....  

 Next time I'll draw a more slimming 

and elongating outfit on my bod....

maybe some stilettos?    

            

~poor girl's flower arrangement~

 Sometimes the days and anniversaries we remember

are not always the mark of a happy event. 

Just because it's not happy doesn't

 mean it shouldn't be acknowledged.

I have a few friends who have lost people 

who were very dear to them in life.......

brothers, children, parents, spouses,

friends, mothers, fathers, sisters, etc.

I try to acknowledge their day of passing in

some form or other....whether it be

just a phone call or a text to let them know I'm 

thinking of them or an actual gift, I feel it's 

important for them to know that their

pain and loss is not forgotten just because life

for everyone else has "gone on". 

Today was one of those days for a good friend.

The day she lost her brother 14 years ago, 

tragically and sudden.

I wanted to do something special for my 

friend and her mother. My limited funds

didn't allow for much so this is what I

came up with: flowers on the cheap

from my yard, packed into a little baby food jar

and wrapped with a brown paper bag, tied with a bow.

I found some drawer sachets with words of

encouragement on them at Michael's for 50 cents each.

I attached one to each arrangement.

 

 

 I hope it brought a little bit of sunshine to their day.

I think I do it as much for me as I do for them.

It hurts to watch someone you love hurt.

It makes me feel better to do something nice for them.

It doesn't take much to let someone know you care.

Do something nice for someone in your life today.

Just because.

 

~the bounty of the Earth & a quickie recipe for vegies~

 I envy those who live in areas with a climate that allows

year round gardening. The process of gardening has

been something that I've learned to appreciate and

enjoy only in the past couple years. (Another, sign that

I'm growing up getting old?) Look at some of this

home grown goodness......

 This was my first beet crop ever.

They turned out so good!

Next year I will plant them a little earlier in the year

and a tad bit deeper in the ground.

 I wish I could say I grew this beauty.

My husband's aunt gave us a bucket of veggies

from her garden and this was in it. 

Our onions didn't fare so well this year.

They turned out to be rather small and sad :(

I think we need to plant them deeper next year.

 Alright, here comes the recipe for

the easiest and BEST side dish you can serve

with dinner. You can make a little or a lot depending 

on how many you have to feed. Also-you can put 
whatever veggies you prefer in it, but these seem
to be my go-to veggies because I usually have all
of them here on hand.

 Broiled Veggie Medley:

*Cut up in fairly big pieces and put in a baking pan:

-red potatoes

-any kind of pepper you want (in this I have anaheim & green belle)

-zucchini

-onions

-beets

*Drizzle olive oil over it and stir or shake veggies so

that they are all coated with the oil. Season with your 

favorite seasoning or spice. I used a combination of

garlic and italian seasonings.  

*Broil in oven, uncovered, on the bottom rack for

about 30 minutes. Sprinkle with cheese

 the last couple minutes and let it melt. 

THAT'S IT! EASY AS THAT.......

SERVE AND ENJOY! 

This pan of veggies is all HOMEGROWN!

I make this a lot but this pan was the best yet.

.....and we weren't the only ones enjoying our veggies: 

 I think snails are GROSS.

They love my lettuce.

I found this little creature in my lettuce harvest

while I was washing and cutting it. It was tiny tiny.

I just picked the final harvest of my lettuce.

I haven't had to buy lettuce from the store AT ALL this 

summer thanks to my garden. 

This little fellow kept me company on the deck 

a couple nights ago:

 I love katydid's. They are one of the funkiest looking bugs.

I had to run grab my camera and snap these pics so

I could show my little guy the next morning.

 My flowers right now:

 The sunflowers grow wild and HUGE in our flower gardens.

I adore them.

My husband hates them and wants to immediately

pull them out when he sees them starting to come up.

I like the wildflower, natural look in a garden and my

husband prefers the pristine, manicured look.

Since he does 99.9% of the outside work, he wins......

however, he keeps the sunflowers because he knows

how much I enjoy them. I need to take a picture of 

them outside and share with you so you can see 

how big they are this year. This picture

below is one of them in my house right now.

Can you see my hand behind it as a reference to

it's size? ABSOLUTE BEAUTY.

I hope your weekend is full of fun.

Enjoy these last few weeks of summer.

School will be starting soon and with it, the easy,

free days of summer will end.