Hump Day

I'm going to admit something to you - I'm feeling a little resentful towards my mommy blogging friends whose children have already started school. I've been breaking the 10th commandment over and over as I covet your peace and solitude. We don't start until September 9th. That's right, you read correctly - THE 9TH!! Lord have mercy.

We've had a great summer - fantastic wonderful busy active sunfilled summer. But I'm going to reach into the depths of my honest heart and admit to you that I really need to send my crazy and wild boys to public school system so I can manage to take a shower before 3pm and get my breakfast dishes done before 5pm. Yeah, I'm admitting it here and now - I've been so busy managing CHILDREN right and left that I sometimes don't get around to doing dishes until I'm getting the kitchen ready for dinnertime. My inner-analness screams, but alas, duty and reality call and I find I'm running around putting someone in timeout for punching his brother in the face - or I'm picking cherry tomatoes for a quick snack for visiting neighborhood children friends - or I have to cut paper to get it ready to fashion a tank like older brother's tank - or I'm hoisting a baby/toddler on the trampoline to get a little energy out of him - or I'm picking up stray pieces of dog poop so the children don't' run through it - or I'm realizing it is already 2pm and I haven't fed my children since 7am - AND that is when I realize, crap- I'm still in my PJs and there are last night's dinner dishes still on the kitchen counter.
Yes, my friends, I need my children to go back to school. Bless their hearts.

Just so I know it is possible

My husband, in his ever wonderful glory, decided that his dear wife needed a FREAKIN' BREAK from her dear wonderful children. So he decided to take them up to see his family in Seattle.
And here is what I did when I was alone in my house:

10am - said goodbye, blew kisses to all the boys and watched the white van pull away from my Salem, Oregon curb.
11am - said to myself, "I am done with this mess" and proceeded to clean up the mess.
12pm - it took 1 hour to completely 100% defunk this house, showing me that it is possible to have a house that is visitor-ready at all times.
1pm - took a break to eat lunch, watch a show on Netflix instant queue on Xbox live.
2pm - went to work. took care of one of my pet sitting dogs. rode my bike to and from.
3pm - worked in the garden, weeded the entire yard. Amazing how fast you can do something when you are focused and not having to prevent your toddler from running into the street.
4pm - ate a bowl of ice cream with fudge. Just cause I can.
5pm - regret over bowl of ice cream. Went out and worked out on the Elliptical for 45 min to elevate guilt over ice cream. Normally, I would be making dinner for 4 boys and have a screaming baby at my feet.
6pm - ate a light dinner of fruit and nuts. And another bowl of ice cream. With fudge.
7pm - checked in on pet sitting job for the last time tonight. Rode bike to job to elevate guilt over 2nd bowl of ice cream. I probably worked it off.
8pm - Jeremy called to say good night and tell me all is well.

Looked around my clean immaculate house and then went out to admire clean immaculate garden before the sun set. Yes, it is possible to have a neat orderly life. But when my children are home - they take precedence and the house often falls to ruin. That's okay - because before too long they will be grow and gone and I will have all the time in world for a perfect house. Until then, Thank you Jeremy for giving me 47 hours of aloneness and peaceful solitude. I was happy to see you all return home safely!

I have another one for you

Remember how much I enjoyed this TV series on DVD that I found on Netflix?

Well you must try out this one now - The Lazy Environmentalist. I don't know if you have picked up on this from my blog recently, but I'm really trying to incorporate many many "GREEN" practices into my everyday life. This TV show is a basic tutorial for many of those practices, but what sold me is that he makes it EASY. His motto is - it has to be easy for you to do it.

I just watched the program on eco-friendly pet care and man-oh-man am I sold. I'm going to start incorporating many of the concepts in my pet sitting business - eliminate chemicals and reduce waste? Yes, please.

Natural pest control

There is a spider that has taken up residence in the corner of my kitchen window.
While I find his (or her) web unattractive, I do appreciate the noticeable lack of flies in my kitchen.
Every day, the web gets a little bigger and a little more full of fly carcasses.
Every day I try to decide what to do about the web - I may just relocate Mr. (or Mrs.) Spider outside, but I will miss the natural pest control he (or she) provided.

Thank God

That mole was benign.

Thank God

Still applying sunscreen like crazy.

Have a good week!

Favs

Q: Blake, what is your favorite thing to do this summer?

A: bugging Jackson and fishing with Dad

Q: Jackson, what's the best thing that happened to you this summer?

A: Getting a new dog even though technically it's Blake's dog.

Q: Chase, What's your favorite food this summer?

A: BBQ'd meat on a bone

80 degrees and doin fine

The dog days of summer are upon us...

Good thing my dogs like being in the garden outside.all of us are finding recluse in the colors and textures of the garden

A little trampoline sleepover? Three boys and two dogs makes it a party while mom and baby sleep comfy inside in their beds.

Now we move on the latest "in the garden" update. It's been months and months. Sorry, I've been busy outside instead of blogging inside.

This year, I started impatiens from seed. check out he results. My mom says it is especially hard to grow these from seed, so I feel a huge burst of accomplishment at these large, glowing plants.

My second favorite plant and flower: a hydrangea bush.

This one I rescued from my neighbor last year. It was sick and dying of thirst. I gave it a new home under a shady tree and give it regular feedings of my used coffee grounds and I believe the results speak for themselves.

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More impatiens

We got these pepper plants as an afterthought at a 4th of July 70% off sale at the nursery.

Maybe a good dose of organic fertilizer and a prime location in the hottest spot in my yard will allow these babies to take off.

Speaking of taking off, holy cow, my tomatoes are out of control. These were tiny spindly seedlings in my office last May and now they are so huge that I had to take out a few zucchini plants to make room for the tomates.
No red ones yet but millions of green.

My lowly artichoke plant.

Imagine my surprise and horror when I went to harvest it for dinner one night and out popped a thousand ants, 30 earwigs, and a spider's nest.

Artichokes - hotels for bugs

A Brussels sprout plant.

I know, I know. You've been dying to see one your whole life.

I am one of the rare people on Earth that happens to adore Brussels sprouts. Shave them and cook 'em with some bacon and then splash on a balsamic vinaigrette. Heaven, I promise.

Our bean teepees

The benefits of being an organic backyard gardener. Even your green beans taste sweet.

My basil plants are huge and ready for harvest. Want to come over for some salmon baked in pesto?

Even our pumpkins have begun to turn orange.

And blood red sunflowers. They have turned out to be the best "thank you" gift I have given this summer. My neighbors have been especially generous at helping me out in sticky situations and now their tables grace bouquets of these sunflowers.

Yes, the dog days of summer have been good to us. What a lucky gal I am.

2, 4, 6, 8

Lately I've been bouncing around.
In my clothing size.

You see, after I had Chase a year and a half ago, I had about 15 extra pounds on me. I was a size AA(I won't reveal my size to you). I worked really hard to lose that 15 pounds and dropped to a size AB. But then I got all cocky and started drinking a glass of wine with dinner every night and eating dessert whenever offered to me and eating bread like it was no one's business when....low and behold, up I go to a size ABA.
This is not the end of world. I know this. But on my petite 5'4" frame, an extra 5-7 pounds goes a long way and bumps you up another size.
So here I am. Not as small as I would like to be, but not as big as I could be. And I face the dilemma that most women face. Is that smaller size really worth giving up all this fun food?
I'll let you know what I decide.
And obviously I didn't give up my fun food quite yet since I had a wonderful glass of syrah rose wine last night with dinner.