The finishing touches

We finished the railing and gate this weekend, and I think it turned out perfectly!

Me ... 33

Today is my birthday - 33 years old.
It's a weird year for me, and I am thankful to have another year to get gray and wrinkled.
By the way, Kathryn took the first picture of the candles...I liked the perspective.

7 stitches

Yesterday evening, during Julian's soccer practice, Kathryn was swinging when the boy beside her jumped off his swing. The practices are all at our city park, and I could see the swings from where we were sitting. Well, when the boy jumped, the swing came back and hit Kathryn in the head, cutting her pretty deeply. She ran over to where we were sitting with blood all over her - I actually thought it was mud at first, because it had just stopped raining and I had been looking at Julian when it happened. When I saw the cut, I knew we had to let a doctor look at it. We took her to the ER, and they gave her 7 stitches since the cut was irregularly shaped and deep. It was a pretty harrowing experience, but Kathryn made it through just fine. She will have to have the stitches removed in 10 days, but we will go to her family doctor to do that. They will be much more gentle and patient with her than the doctor in the ER was, I hope. The good thing is the cut is in her hair, so when it heals, it won't be noticeable (unless she wants to show someone!). She now thinks it's pretty cool that she'll be able to tell her classmates about it when she starts school in a couple of weeks, although the stitches will be taken out a few days before she starts.

Of all the things I worry about happening to one of my children, this was not on my radar. I thought swings were fairly safe. Who knew?!

Just visiting...

This adorable kitten is looking for a home...she showed up at our house a couple of days ago, and we've been putting food and water out until we can figure out what to do with her. If any of you out there in cyberspace are looking for a kitten, she is all yours. I want to find her a good home, and Kathryn has grown to love her, so we can't send her away until we know she'll be taken care of...

Our Friday walk

We finished our walk at about 11:30 this morning, and it was starting to get pretty muggy. The water was high from storms that came through last night, and it made for a nice view, and a nice end to our long walk (this trail is 3.4 miles round trip).

Unfortunately, we got back from our walk, ready for the kids to get in our kiddie pool, and it was empty!!! We obviously have a leak in the pool because I am positive it was full before we left. Disappointing since we've got a couple of months of hot weather left. We'll figure it out though... I did refill it halfway so they could get in, and it held water..who knows.

Chillaxin' ...

Not sure what this pose was, but she held it until she knew I had taken the picture, so she knew what she wanted it to be I guess....maybe something she saw on TV???

With her lego spaceship made by master-crafter, Julian.

Julian and I were sitting on the deck trying to get a picture of a hummingbird, but we never did see one. I guess we were being too noisy or moving too much or something...we'll try again, sometime. I was surprised at the patience shown by Julian in sitting and waiting for the bird to come.

My handsome baby boy!

Definitely lovin' the new deck...a new favorite activity is bird watching...hummingbirds at our new feeder and other birds at our seed feeder. It's pretty amazing to see the birds that visit.

Hmmm...85%

Well, I am at more than 85% of my storage limit for this blog. I guess it's time to start thinking of what will happen next. Will I need to create a new blog or just stop this one? Who knows. But it's time to start thinking of it at least....

It's finished! (Mostly)

We finished last night! Our deck is finished, and it is awesome! I can't wait to spend some time on it now... now we'll need to think about the railing and gate, but that can wait a week or two!

Weekend Progress ...

We worked on the deck Saturday evening, after a great afternoon with my family at my nephew's All-Star Baseball game earlier in the day. We got about 2 hours work in before it got dark, which allowed us to get the framing built.

Sunday morning we got up bright and early and got the frames nailed together, leveled and squared. At lunch time, our shade was running out, so we went inside for a few hours to cool off and rest. We also traveled to Lowes to get the rest of the lumber we would need. We were only able to work for about an hour before bad weather came through, but we were only inside for about an hour before the weather cleared. Unfortunately, we did not get enough nails either, and we had to stop before finishing when we ran out.

Oh well. It is definitely not going anywhere, but the wood does get more warped and crooked as it sits, so we want to get it done ASAP. All in all, it was a good weekend's work, considering the heat and all the breaking and other things that had to be done as well. We got about 1/2 of the decking boards nailed down, so we're in the home stretch, I think.

These pictures were taken as Kathryn and I waited for Jason and Julian to get back with more nails (which they were not able to get!).

To limit electronic time...my idea

My kids have gotten a little carried away with their Nintendo DS's and Playstation and watching TV this summer. SO. We started something new at our house that I remembered reading about a while back. Tickets for play time. I just made these and printed them, stuck them on construction paper and put tape on the back. Julian and Kathryn each get 5 tickets each day. Each ticket is worth up to 30 minutes of time on the TV, computer, Playstation or their DS. Once they run out of tickets, there is no more electronic play.

Of course they were not big fans when I first told them about it. We have been doing this for about a week, and there has only been one day when they both ran out of tickets. It just has helped them be more aware of how much time they're spending doing electronic things. And! They have been playing with actual toys! I could hardly believe it!

So, I think we'll keep it. I will likely reduce the number of tickets they have once school starts next month, but for the summer when we're home most of the day, I thought 2 1/2 hours was good, and they seem to kind of like moving their tickets to the "used up" spot. I knew they would get used to it!

New 'do's

I finally took the kids to get haircuts yesterday...aren't they cute? I have some beautiful children, if I do say so myself! Kathryn still wanted to go shorter, but this is the shortest I am willing to go at this point! And Julian picked his style on his own from the haircut book. I think he did a great job choosing.

A new recipe...

I recently went through all my loose recipes - things I had gotten out of magazines and off food containers, that kind of thing. I found this recipe for dinner rolls from an old Homelife magazine. You know Baptists - all about food you can bring to the next covered dish meal! I LOVE these rolls. They are so easy to prepare and take less than 30 minutes to make. Of course, I wanted to share...

Hot Rolls
1/4 oz. active dry yeast (one packet)
2 cups lukewarm water
4 cups self-rising flour (if using all purpose, add 6 tsp baking powder and 2 tsp. salt)
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup butter (or margarine), melted
1 large egg, lightly beaten

Preheat oven to 400.
Combine yeast and water, let stand for 5 minutes
Stir in flour and other ingredients until blended.
Spoon into well-greased muffin pans (2/3 full).
Bake 20 minutes or until golden brown.
Makes about 18 rolls.

I use Smart Balance margarine when I make them, and I normally have to cook them at a lower temp. for a little longer to have them ready at the same time as whatever else I'm making. 350 for 30 minutes or so has also worked well for me. Hope you enjoy!

Deck again....we're getting closer

Jason and Robert had a few free minutes at work yesterday, so they went to the rock quarry and got a couple of loads of gravel, which the kids and I helped unload and spread. Jason and I really didn't think they would have time so soon, but we wanted to have the ground ready just in case - I'm glad we did! I think we need one more load of rock before we start building, but so far so good.

On a side note - poor Lucy is pretty freaked about about our project. She will NOT step on the gravel and tries to just avoid the whole area. Actually, yesterday we could hardly get her to go outside! Our scaredy-dog. Too funny.

New deck project - Day 2 . . .

We're making progress...now time for gravel for drainage.

And YES! We're putting our kids to work....kind of

More teeth...gone!

Kathryn is losing teeth left and right this summer! She is now missing 3 across the top and one on the bottom. Here she is with her most recent lost tooth:

Groundbreaking

We broke ground last night on our new deck project!!! It was so hot this weekend, we actually waited until 7:30 or so last night to start, but it is moving pretty quickly. We are in the very beginning stages right now - digging and leveling the ground on which the deck will sit. It will be ground level, so we need to guard against standing water. We will need to add a couple of inches of gravel before we start any actual building, but since Jason has planned everything out for the design, we should be done within a couple of weekends! He is just amazing with his ability to think these things out - something I definitely couldn't have done.

I have good memories of my Dad and I working on projects like this, so we decided to make this a family project. I was a bit older than my kids are when I helped my Dad, but I know we can make it work. Jason will be a great foreman! They were a great help last night with the digging and clearing away the patches of grass. Their neighbor friend Jada even came over to help for a few minutes. Who knows why things like that are so much fun when you're 6 or 8 or 10?!

Anyway, I have only 3 classes left (2 weeks) in summer classes, so I'm looking forward to getting some yard projects and house projects finished before classes start again in August...and project one: new deck!!!!

Wait a minute!!!

Ok, so the vinegar may work...there is a patch of clover in front of the steps into the backyard that is dying. I'm assuming some vinegar spray got on the clover. So it does kill some plants; apparently just not all plants. I'm sad to lose the clover, though...that is Lucy's favorite place to lay and cool off (and did you know clover is a nitrogen producer and actually fertilizes your soil as it grows??). My hope is restored! I will try again tomorrow and see if it will work on shorter/smaller weeds.

A no go for vinegar...

Doggonit! The vinegar did not work at all. Well, the edges of the leaves of the weeds are just the slightest bit brown, as if they have not gotten enough water lately. Definitely not dying.

The hot water did work. The weeds in the cracks of the driveway are definitely dead.

I think I will go back and try a stronger concentration of vinegar before searching for the next option. Some sites did say vinegar does not work well on weeds over 5 inches tall, and I don't think I have any less than 5 inches, so maybe that was a contributing factor. Oh well. We'll keep looking!

An experiment in weed control.

A few semesters ago, I took an ecology class, and since that time I have decided not to spray chemicals in my yard for bugs or weeds.

What I learned in this class is when I spray chemicals to control weeds in my yard, excess chemicals are washed straight into the storm drain when we get rain. We don’t have actual storm drains at our house; we have a small creek which collects all rainwater from the drainage ditches in my yard and my neighbors’ yards. Whatever the rainwater collection system is at your house, the effect is the same. The water rushing out of your yard (into the storm drain, creek, pond, etc.) is carrying the chemicals you sprayed in your yard. In my case, the storm water is carried directly to the Dan River.

Those chemicals go directly into the drinking water source for all of my city (and many other cities and counties in the river’s path).

Did you know drinking water is not treated for chemicals such as this? Storm water is rarely treated in any way (I know it is not treated in my city). It flows directly from the storm drain to the river. Waste water and gray water are only treated for bacteria and viruses. There is no system to remove chemicals added from household chemicals. (These chemicals often chemically bond to the water molecules, so they are not removed naturally through soil filtration, so even well water can be affected.)

The bottom line is: we drink the chemicals I spray on my lawn.

So I asked myself: how important is a weed free lawn to me? How important is it to remove any insect I may encounter?

It has become less important. However, because of this no spray policy and a lack of care for my ornamental areas because of being too busy to pull weeds, we are overrun. I decided to do some research into natural, homemade weed control options.

Here are 2 that I found that I tried tonight:

1) Boiling hot water. I know, seems too simple doesn’t it? Apparently, if you pour boiling water onto a plant, it immediately starts dying. It is supposed to be great for weeds growing in cracks on sidewalks and driveways, although it can also be used in flowerbeds, etc. if it's applied carefully. I tried it tonight on our driveway. The weeds did not immediately change in appearance, so I will have to look again tomorrow to see if there is any difference.

2) Vinegar, soap and water. There was some disagreement on this method on sites that I visited as to the amount of vinegar to use and whether to add salt. I did not add salt. Adding salt to soil seems pretty stupid to me. Of course it will kill the weed, but it will also salinate the soil, preventing any plant from growing anytime soon. No thank you. I sprayed several areas in my yard with a mixture of 200 ml vinegar, a few squirts of dish soap, and enough water to fill my sprayer. Again, there was no immediate change, so I’ll have to keep checking to see what happens.

Here's hoping it works!! Otherwise we've got a lot of weed pulling in our future.

Here I used boiling water:

Here, I used vinegar:

Let's see what happens, shall we??