rain rain go away

It's a rainy day, it's a rainy day.
It's raining outside and I can't go out and play.
Why do we need the rain anyway?

Ok, I know how important the rain is but enough is enough.  A week of rain and only 9 hours of sunlight isn't fun.

The farmers are anxiously waiting for the rain to stop and the fields to dry up so they can get in there and plant their fields.  Some of the puddles in the fields are large enough that the ducks and geese are swimming in them.

Here it is the May 24 weekend and I won't be putting in my garden.  If the weather man is correct Saturday will be our first and only day of sunshine this week.  I need to get my garden rototilled before I can even think of planting anything.  The whole thing is full of weeds (mostly dandelions) and grass.  That is except for the rows of raspberries, rhubarb and asparagus.  Need to be careful when we rototill that we don't get too close to the asparagus.

And then there is my paddock fence that has 3/4 of its posts done but on hold because the last few holes are full of water. Between the high water table and the continuous rain I don't know if the holes will ever drain. The longer it takes to finish the fence the longer I have to wait for horses.  Talia and I are getting anxious and concerned.  This is our dream and it is on hold again.  Come on SUNSHINE.

My 300 little trees are enjoying the rain and growing nicely but so is the grass beside them.  Last week I spent 2 hours mowing the grass around the trees so that you could actually see them and they wouldn't get too choked out and now I need to get out there again.  All I need is some sun to dry off the grass so I don't get soaked.

UPDATE:  The rain held off on the weekend and we were able to rototill the garden. Needs one more time to get the soil just right and then we can plant.  4 more posts are in the ground but there is still a large wet area that needs to dry up before we can put the cedar posts in.  May have to put T posts in until the ground drys out - hopefully before next year.  Mowing is done around the little trees.  They are still tiny but they are growing. Too bad the grass is growing faster than the trees. 

the comfort of routine

Over the past 6 weeks I have learned the comfort of having a routine.  I was off work on medical leave for 5 weeks.  In that time I got up when I wanted, slept when I wanted, worked on my puzzle, watched TV etc, all when I wanted.  While that can be enjoyable after a while I found I was getting to the end of the day and not having much accomplished. Mind you I wasn't allowed to lift anything, vacuum, rake leaves, etc. so there wasn't a lot I should be accomplishing.  The day would just slip by and I would be surprised to realize what time it was.

Last week I returned to work.  This meant getting up by 6:45, showering, making breakfast and lunches and being out the door by 8:00.  Work starts at 8:30. This involves answering emails, scheduling rooms, working with grad students and faculty.  The first week also involved learning how to do time sheets and putting out small "fires". The days were busy and at the end of the day I could look back and tick off all the things I had accomplished.

This isn't to say that a stay at home Mom doesn't work on a schedule and accomplish things.  I stayed at home for almost 20 years with my kids and had developed my own routine for getting through the day.  Snack time was 10:00 and 2:00 or they would be looking for food all day long.  Lunch, naps and outings were scheduled.  Laundry day was the same every week. Bed time was bed time.

 Then summer would come along and schedules would be thrown out the window.  Kids would stay up late because the sun was still up.  Then they would sleep late because they were up too late.  Breakfast would happen anytime between 8:00 and noon, which would throw off all other meals of the day.  All enjoyable at the beginning but as the end of summer approached I would look forward to getting back on a schedule.

It is great to have life scheduled but I also love Saturdays because that is the day I turn off the alarm and get to sleep in.  After 15 years of getting up at 3:30 I find that 7:30 or 8:00 is sleeping in.  Then I spend the day doing all my household things - cleaning, yard work, laundry, etc.  I find them enjoyable because they are a break from the daily routine of the office.  I can't understand how my kids can sleep the day away.  Especially now that the weather has improved and we can spend time outside.

I do look forward to having time off this summer to spend with family.  I will spend 2 weeks without a scheduled routine. It is nice to have that break but I know I will also look forward to getting back into routine and knowing what my day will bring.

GRRRR

Saturday was such a glorious day we spent most of the day outside working on clearing out the flower beds and uncovering the fish pond.  I bought a wrought iron fence to put around the pond to keep the grand daughters from tumbling in with the fish.  Brock and Talia helped me get it set up.  I need to get a few more pieces to complete the fence but it will at least slow them down.

my little fence

We also spent time planning where to plant our 300 white cedar trees that will be coming next week.  We have the huge field on the north/west side of the house and the wind can really blow across there in the winter.  We are building a shelterbelt to protect our road way and our fruit trees behind the garden.  It will take a few years before the trees are big enough to do much good but you have to start somewhere.

The other planning session we had was where to build paddock fences.  We would like to have the fences in by early May since the big horse auction at Carson's is mid May.  I hope we can find something suitable and affordable.  We would eventually like two horses and a pony. 

some of the junk in the back field

Rod's poor stuck tractor

Rod and Zach were busy clearing out the back field on Saturday.  They took the tractor down there and were hauling out all the old rusty scrap metal, barbed wire, etc so that it can be hauled to the scrap yard.  When he headed back in for another load the front tire of the tractor got caught in a rut and because the ground is still wet from the spring thaw the tractor is now stuck in the mud down in the back field.  We will now need to find someone with a bigger tractor to come and pull our tractor out of the mud or wait until the ground has dried out.  The problem comes in the fact that the back field is in the lowland and it stays wet a lot longer than we would like.

With a bunch of family members over we decided to have our first BBQ of the season. Hamburgers and sausages for everyone.  It was delicious!!!

After supper Brock and Gracie were playing Hide-n-Seek.  Gracie did the hiding and Brock did the seeking.  When Brock disappeared Gracie figured it was her turn to seek.  She enlisted Gma's help and we went all around the main floor looking for Uncle Brock.  He was no where to be found.  We decided to check down stairs.  Sure enough, there he was in the "man cave" playing ping pong with the big kids.  Gracie's response when she found Uncle Brock was "GRRRRRR, you were supposed to be hiding!"

2 year olds are so cute!!!!!

If you have to do it

If you have to turn 50 the best people to do it with is your family.

Saturday marked my 50th birthday.  It was about as regular as Saturday's go - get up later, make bacon & eggs for breakfast, head off to my primary meeting, stop for groceries, come home and clean the house.  Most everything was normal except for the Eatable Bouquet sitting on my counter when I got home from the store and the phone calls from family members and messages from facebook friends throughout the day.  It was great to hear from my sister Sheila and from my son Cody.  Cody and I talked for 1 1/2 hrs.  I think that is a record for us.  I truly enjoyed it. 

But the best phone call of all was from my 2 1/2 year old granddaughter Gracie. I answered the phone and heard her sweet voice say "Happy Birthday Gramma" and then she sang the first line of Happy Birthday.  We had a wonderful conversation.  She told me that she was having a birthday this year too and she would be 3.  Then she talked about her sister "Dinny" (Sydney) and a few other things that I'm not quite sure about.  Gracie then asked me what I was doing  and I told her I was cleaning the house so it would be all clean for her visit the next day.  Gracie's response was "On your Birthday?".  I asked her if Gramma didn't clean it who would.  With hardly a pause Gracie answered "GRAMPA!"

So on Sunday afternoon the family showed up to help celebrate my birthday.  Starla and Ryan cooked up a great enchilada type meal. Jenna and Brock brought a wonderful rice salad.  Amber and Josh supplied the tortillas and Rod provided my favourite Black Forest Cake.  We all enjoyed the wonderful Eatable Bouquet sent from Sheila and her family.  It was all so nice - I didn't have to do anything, not even the dishes! 

BEFORE

AFTER

Toad house and frogs on a log

from Gracie

Then came presents.  We have started a new tradition in the family that everyone just brings different small gifts and then we fill a basket with those treats so the gift is from the whole family.  This year I received some yummy candy, earrings, a Toad House and a ceramic frog on a log to put out beside my pond, and flowers from Gracie. 

Audrey

Then Rod brought out my big gift.  My very own John Deere tractor.  I think Gpa might need new glasses. On the box it says ages 2-4 but he must have thought it said 24.  Anyway, it was the thought that counted right?  Actually it was a wonderful gift.  It was so much fun seeing the big boys put it together and then the little girls riding on the tractor and in the trailer.  It will be fun for them to take it outside for the summer.

Sydney and Gracie

Rod did actually get me a present that was age appropriate.  A rocking chair for the back deck!  Believe me, I am going to use it! I will rock in my chair and watch the grand-kids ride my tractor.

How to become the COOL mom

I didn't wake up that morning planning to be the cool mom, it just happened that way.

Zach's class at school has been studying cells and their assignment was to create an eatable cell.  They needed to be as creative as possible.  Zach decided to use a cake as his cell with different kinds of candy to represent the different parts of the cell.

So it became Mom's job to bake a round cake for the base of his eatable cell.  Now most cake mixes are for a large rectangular cake, two small cakes or 24 cupcakes so once I  had made a round cake I had left over batter and so of course I made 12 cupcakes for eating later.

He then spent the evening decorating the cake for school.  He used 1/2 a kinder surprise for the nucleus, 2 different kinds of blue licorice for endoplasmic reticulum, twizzlers for the Golgi apparatus, skittles for the lysosomes, a flattened starburst for the vacuole and green jelly bellies for chloroplast and a fruit by the foot around the outside for the cell wall. I then found a cake tray from a store bought cake Rod had fed to his Priest's quorum and we put the finished cell on the tray with the clear lid over top.  It looked like this:

Eatable Cell for Science

Now here's the part where I became the cool mom. While Zach was getting ready for school I took one of the cupcakes and decorated it to match his cell for class.  When Zach opened his snack at school all the kids noticed he had a eatable cell for his snack.  His friends told him he had a cool mom who would make him such a cool treat for school.

cupcake made by the Cool Mom

I'm sure by the next day they had all forgotten about Zach's snack but for one day at least, I was the COOL mom. 

Things your Mother says

How many times have you said something and realized that it is exactly what your mother used to say?  Or what crazy phrases do you repeat on a daily basis and not even realized?  I'm sure there are lots of examples.  

I know of a few that I have used with my kids and it is so fun when they find a way to use them back at me.  For Mother's Day Cody and Mimi gave me some Word Signs to put on my walls.  It has taken me a while but I finally got around to putting them on plaques. Now I just need to find the best place to hang them up.


What do you think?   Ever used this phrase before?  

 

And how many times have you wanted to tell your family this?

So now you know some of my well used sayings what are some of yours?

Bullseye

Another Sunday and another day full of family time.  Sunday afternoon the kids showed up again to hang out at the farm.  It had snowed over night so I quickly went out before anyone showed up to snow blow the driveway.  Normally this would be Rod's job but he had some minor surgery on Friday so he wasn't able to wrestle the snow blower.  I finished just in time for the cars to start arriving. 

Ryan came prepared for a ping pong tournament. He even brought his own paddles.  I didn't actually get to watch much of the games as I was busy making cinnamon buns for my family.  Mmmm, they were a big hit, along with my puffed wheat squares.  Audrey took the opportunity to show Gma her new words, PLEASE and THANK YOU, as she got Gma to share her yummy cinnamon bun.

When the ping pong tournament was over it was time to try out the new Dart Board.  Brock and Jenna had a game against each other.  Jenna kicked butt with this wonderful shot:

Jenna's Bulls-Eye

Honestly, she threw this shot. I was standing there and saw it with my own eyes.  When we pulled the dart out the hole was almost exactly dead center in the red dot.  I wonder how long it will take before that happens again. 

The girls got a chance to check out the bouquets for Amber's wedding

Bride's bouquet

Bridesmaid bouquet

and then a sneak peak at the bride in her wedding dress too.  Sorry, won't be posting pictures of that one until after July 2.

 Cody and Mimi, get your butts back to Ontario! We need you at our family gatherings.