There's dirt under our fingernails, and life is good!

Hello, All. I’m a little overdue in posting…sorry to all of my followers (I know you are out there Rhea Ann, my one and only)!

Well, first let me start with a little update on the “no t.v.” experiment. It lasted seven hours until “sugar lips” (that’s what I call my beloved when I would really like to call him something else) came home from work. His response was, “You’ve got to be kidding” He is always “in” when we are talking theory, but he just can’t seem to make it to the actual “in practice” phase. I must admit, I also had thirty-six on-line Composition II research papers to grade over the last week, so I was definitely weak and backsliding. However, that is not to say that our week was just one big, lazy veg-out session. Oh, no. We have been busy, and the television has gotten a big rest.

It seems that the gardening troll has arrived. We planted a big garden at Nana and Papas: tomatoes, cantaloupe, mini pumpkins, yellow squash, zucchini, corn, carrots, egg plant, green pepper, zinnias, snap dragons, and cosmos. Oh and cucumbers too…

We began to plan our front porch display:

I contributed to my crafting stash, with lots of fantastic ideas for darling tops:

I purchased a stove top espresso maker with the goal of creating the perfect home made latte. . .

Thee discovered “Hostess little white donuts”:

And I finished my first, of many, little pencil holders for all the special people in my life. Watch your mailboxes!

The Great Experiment

Okay, I admit it I'm not perfect. I let my child watch television, and not just educational television. He watches Looney Tunes, Johnny Quest, Scooby Doo and, and we already know -- Star Trek. Now, it is not that I advocate this t.v. watching. Oh no. I was the one counseling friends and family members on how bad television is for young minds. I was so proud of the fact that my little Thee didn't watch television for the first two years of life -- not much at least. And then as I started online teaching and Thee got more intersted in the mesmorizing moving pictures, the enticing music and the constant action, I realized that I could get more done with the television on. Its presence in our day has taken over like a noxious weed. We have it on constantly. Grades are due today, and after today...that's it. NO MORE T.V.!

We've got big things planned for the summer: a garden at Nana's and Papa's; weekly trips to the zoo; a vacation on the lake in Minnesota; walks to the library; nightime concerts in the park with a picnic basket; and lots of cooking and crafts.

When I was a kid we had one television in the living room, and it was never on during the day. When we came home from school we turned it on to watch cartoons, but then it went off after snack. We had more important things to do. Television was something you turned on when there was nothing else to do. It was an inferior activity as compared to being outside, playing with friends, making brownies. Of course, the programming and technology was a bit different. We had three channels, one of which didn't come in very well, and we were always "fussin" with the antenna to get Channel 3 to come in. We even tried balls of tin foil.

Today, if the television is off, everybody around here thinks it's broken. Why would you have the television off?

Publishing this on the blog will help us with this little experiment. We will do weekly updates on our Great Experiment and track our results. I think that Thee and I might do just fine...I'm a little worried about Daddy. Yep, Daddy has to participate too. Thee thinks it should apply to the computer as well. I agree, but I thought we better keep it simple and I was afraid, Daddy might leave us if I took away all electronic media. So here we go.

The Real Meaning of Mother's Day

I am an internal optimist. Every holiday I think, maybe it will be different this year. Maybe I will get a thoughtful present that wasn’t purchased from what they call the “impulse buy” section of the convenience store on the day of the holiday.

Thank God for my mother...


She took my little buddy out earlier in the week and let him pick out a charm for my bracelet and made sure I had a card to open. They wrapped it up in polka-dot paper and even added a little purple flower on top. It was darling. They hid it in the armoire, and little Thee spent all week checking on it to make sure it was still there. He wouldn’t let me get within three feet of its hiding place in fear that the surprise would be ruined. God, I love my mother – and isn’t that what this whole day is about—loving and appreciating your mother? She always comes through. She always makes it all better – every time—no matter what. I love you mom, you are the best!

Today is May Day!

We celebrated the big day with little baskets of goodies on doorsteps and an ole' fashioned round of ding-dong ditch -- Some lucky few got hoppy new friends. We followed the lead of the saltandchocolate.blogspot.com who directed us to http://www.purlbee.com/purl-frog/2007/6/14/the-purl-frog.html. Enjoy your day and stay hoppy!