Fun in the Kitchen

I was watching a cooking show one day and saw the host put blue food dye in scrambled eggs to make....green eggs. It dawned on me, why not have more fun with our food? And this my friend is the result. My favorite color plus whipped cream and those seasonal sprinkles I always mean to use were finally put to use in time for the appropriate holiday. My son was thrilled, and I was too. A little blue and red and bam you get purple! What a great way to let your littles get involved and learn something new! They tasted great too.

Making my to do list a to done list

 This is Gary. Gary's 77 years young and runs his own lawn care service in my neighborhood.

Slowly but surely I'm making my to do list a to done list...is my English correct? ;)

Easter Egg Hunt in.....October

This weekend I stayed in bed a little late and my son watched cartoons and played with toys....he came in my room and told me he was ready for our Easter egg hunt. I went in to the living room and he had a Disney Christmas carol DVD in and instructed me to pick a basket for our hunt. I chose the felt Halloween pumpkin...and off we went. He hid eggs in the kitchen, living room, bathroom, and his bedroom. It was possibly one of the sweetest things he's ever done, and the look of joy on his face as he watched me pick up eggs made my day. 

He even put rewards in the eggs from pennies to finger puppets. I'm so impressed by my son. He's got such a big heart!!

Progress

 After moving the large rock pile off the driveway a few weeks ago I was on the hunt for more rocks and found someone giving them away a town over on Craigslist. The yield was amazing! 

The rocks were large which filled the buckets quickly, and clean, which meant they could be put directly in to the landscaping.

The load solidly covered a roughly 4 by 5 foot section. It doesn't look like a big feat, but moving rocks is a lot of labor.  

My goal is to retrieve more rocks from the house that's giving them away and have the rocks reach the end of the screened in porch section. It feels great to finally start to see things shape up!

My yard.....I have no idea what I'm doing

This is how it started.

This is how it is now. 

What am I doing?? I'm trying to write this post and I'm laughing at myself. My mother has only visited my house once, she lives out of state, and over the phone with her every week I tell her all the things I'm doing and she says, I thought you bought the house because you liked the yard and it had great curb appeal?? So why am I changing everything?

The Path Less Taken

'Two roads diverged in a wood, and I —
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.'

-Robert Frost

 

A path just off one of the parking lots at my local college where I take classes.

After two months of going at break neck speeds, I sat down and evaluated things this weekend. I always feel accomplished when things are done well and done right. However, I seem to lack the ability to slow down. Small things catch me off guard. My son dressed himself in a pair of shorts, he walked in front of me and for the first time they were a few inches above his knee. When did that happen?

I've seen it before, tired parents and children over scheduled to a point of unhappiness. This weekend I decided we are going to downsize for a while. I dont want to be a work horse. I want to be a mom. It's time to find the balance and pick the path I want instead of letting life steer itself. 

Until this class is done my new focus will be on doing less to enjoy more time with my son. We're going to take a break from gymnastics and the gym. This will leave us with more money in our pocket and another night at home during the week. When my class is done and I'm alleviated of hiring a baby sitter I'll be able to more easily manage gymnastics one night a week and the cost. So until December, we're putting things on hold. It's hard to stop the train. I'm not sure if other moms feel this way, but what's worse some people never assess things to see they need a break.

More time at home. This is what we need right now.

Goals so far this year

This past December I wrote down some rather lofty yet obtainable goals for myself ...

Goals for this year:

1. Finish three more classes.

2. Teach my son how to read & write.

3. Re-roof the house. 

4. Finish landscaping the front yard.

My progress is pretty on track. So let's review. 

1. Finish three more classes.

This past Tuesday I finished my second class for the year. I earned an A. This is why you haven't seen many updates from me for a while.     

Have a I mentioned math is difficult for me? I'm proud I persevered and worked hard. What I have learned will be the foundations for success in my next class, Physics, which starts this Thursday. 

2. Teach my son how to read & write. 

Thanks to the wonderful teachers at my son's pre school he is a first phase reader with some awe inspiring hand writing for a five year old. My little man also starts Kindergarten on Monday, I'm already crying about it, but I'm sure his skills will sky rocket from here. 

3. Re-roof the house. 

Done, paid in full, love it, never have to look at the ceiling and wonder what's going to happen when it rains. It feels so good to be done. 

4. Finish landscaping the front yard. 

Here's one for you.....I ripped out everything in the front yard, put down black weed paper, realized I needed to redo the roof, and then due to all the wood repair I needed the underside of the roof repainted, the paint helps to preserve the woods life especially here in Florida with a climate that has such high humidity. 

Now here's the tricky part, open wood underneath the very very large screened in lanai that goes up to the midline of the roof. I'm an semi adventurous DIY girl, but me on a ladder with a paint sprayer....well, I'm going to leave this to the professionals.

I often think of things in sequential order of what makes the most sense. The sequential order to getting my front yard re-landscaped goes like this....have the underside of the exterior showing roof painted, have the house painted - I cant even describe the non color my house is, it's not white, it's not yellow, it's not grey.....it's like mauve/grey/white, It'll be a deep grey with white accents and butter yellow shutters when it's done, lay out and plant plants, lay out low voltage lighting along the front of the house, put down river rock, take long break from all projects on the house for a year, this is getting expensive. 

The most expensive and prohibitive part is painting the underside of the roof, because I like to pay for things in cash I'm waiting.I hope to have the house and roof painted around Christmas, this gives me lots of time to plot and plan out my garden space in the front yard. It may throw goal #4 into next year, but that's ok with me. I'd rather do things right than haphazardly.

School preview day in about 4 hours....time for bed!