Ugly Babies

Hubby just got home, so I sent him out to get some pictures of our ugly little babies. He is getting pretty good at climbing trees!

More Pictures

When I talked to my sister, I told her I had taken a ton of pictures of the birds, and she wanted to see more of them. So here are several more pictures of our babies. To enlarge them, just click on the picture.

Here is the view out my kitchen window.

I love how mama gets huge when she sits on her nest. Several times a day, she looks straight into my kitchen window, and gives me a look that makes me feel like an intruder. She knows we are watching her, and although she puts up with it, I definitely don't think she likes it.

Babies!

Our eggs hatched! Hubby checked them the other day, and he said that 3 of the five eggs had hatched. We will have to climb up and see if we can get a better picture of the ugly babies.

I'm trying to learn how to manually focus the camera, and here the best view was through my dirty kitchen window. It sure has been fun watching this mom with her little babies.

Happy Mother's Day

This Mother's Day, my family spoiled me rotten. The kids showered me with homemade gifts, and my husband made me some fabulous meals, and took over everything to give me a restful day. I truly have the best family in the world!!

A while ago, I was talking to my youngest sister, and my sister-in-law. I was telling them about my feelings of inadequacy as I read through several of my friends and family members blogs. I found several blogs that shared craft projects, or art or decorating tips. I felt like I didn't do many things as well as many 30 somethings, and so I didn't try. My sister got after me a bit, and told me if there was something I am interested in, I should just go for it. As my interest grows, and as I practice and perfect the new found skills, then I will find the mastery that I am wanting. Great advice!

I have a friend who has an amazing blog, and she shares many of her craft ideas and skills. One of the things she loves to do is take pictures. Often her blog shares advice on how to take better pictures, or tips that she has learned as she seeks to do something she loves. I have always wanted to be a better photographer. Not to simply point and click, but to really know more about how to get the effects I want using all aspects of a camera. For mother's day this year, one of the things I asked for was a camera.

My adorable hubby found a good deal on a camera online, and got me an incredible camera package. I spent the day today up on my unmade bed, reading through the manual and experimenting. I grabbed objects around the room, and tried out different effects on them. My kids were all watching movies, but they would come and be my models whenever I called. Clearly, I still have a lot to learn, but here are some of my favorite shots of the day.

One thing I learned today- I really need to clean my house! Background blurring can only hide so much. I'm excited to learn more. A word of warning to my family members. I will probably be coming to visit you. I have a lot of learning to do, and my little models are getting a little sick of being my subjects.

Weight Loss Tip

I have been loosing weight recently with the help of a free website called Spark People. It is a calorie counting website that has lots of other resources as well. I think everyone who needs to loose weight needs to find something that works for them, and calorie counting and exercise have always been what has worked for me.


One thing I hated when I lost weight with this method in the past was all the measuring. It seems like all of my measuring cups and spoons were always dirty, and I always had so many dishes to wash when I finished making a meal. This time, I found a better method.

I sent my husband to the store for a food scale, thinking I would get a cheap weight watchers spring loaded one, and this is what he came back with. It cost a bit more than the other scale, but it has been a lifesaver. It measures in grams and ounces, and it has a zero button. Every nutrition label has the serving amount listed in grams or milliliters (1 mL = 1gram) which makes it very easy to weigh out a serving size. Now, instead of getting all of my measuring things dirty, I pour on one ingredient and weigh it, and then zero out the weight and pour on the next ingredient. It has made my life much easier! I am also becoming much more familiar with the metric system.

As a side note, I have a Brother-In-Law who works for several major food companies. He is often in charge of coming up with new recipes. He weighs each of his ingredients in advance, then adds things until it tastes right, and then weighs the ingredients again so he can know how much of each ingredient he used.

Oh Dear!

One of the blogs that I follow "just for fun," is called The Meanest Mom. I absolutely love the author's sense of humor, and view on life. Today, her blog featured an e-mail from a man, upset that she was proud of being labeled a "mean mom." The comments from her readers defended the position that sometimes moms need to be responsible instead of being their kids best friends, and sometimes that decision does not go over well, and responsible parents are labeled "mean moms" by their unhappy kids. The comments were from proud "mean moms," and my husband and I thoroughly enjoyed reading through them. The witty comments, and down to earth, realistic parenting was very refreshing. Little did we know how much we would need the encouragement to be "mean parents."

Makenzie had a tough day today, and it all came to a head tonight at dinner. She spilled her second helping of macaroni and cheese on the floor, and so she proceeded to finish off the rest of the leftovers. Unfortunately, she had a few brothers who had also been eyeing the food, and the whining began. We let Makenzie know that she would not be getting her way. Things escalated until she was sent to her room. Her parting shot was to hurl her dinner bowl across the room.

Morgan watched it all very calmly. The rest of us sat there, completely stunned as Makenzie stomped out of the room, causing as much commotion as possible. Morgan calmly said, "Well, that was unexpected," and then went back to eating his dinner.

Our Little Surprise

Look what we have in our tree. Mama robin has been very patient with us. She stays on her nest even when we are working on the sprinkler system just a few feet away. Max is not very happy with our new neighbors. I have a perfect view of the nest through my kitchen window. It has been a fun springtime surprise.

Ta-Daaa!

Today, I finally got to see my sprinklers spray! The sprinkler system is finished!!

Day 1- Here are the guys hard at work.

Here is the valve manifold that I put together. I was so proud, until we turned on the water and we saw how badly it leaked. Hubby had to take it all apart and put it back together the right way. We ended up breaking a valve in the process, but the store we bought the system from replaced it for us.

My brother helped us, and got all of the pipes glued together the first day. He was amazing! My sister-in law took our kids to her house, and fed them so we could finish up. We ended up gluing the last few pipes in place by the light of our flashlight.

My war zone of a backyard. This is the beautiful view I have been able to enjoy for several weeks now.

Today I finished clearing out the trenches. While we were putting together the system, we ended up refilling many of them as we dug out new trenches for each individual sprinkler. I got to spend a couple of weeks on my knees with a gardening trowel clearing them out. Today, I finished!!

My beautiful trenches- each at least a foot deep. (Yes, I did keep a tape measure by my side, just to make sure.) :)

Front yard sprinklers, finally working!

Here is my little indoor garden on my kitchen table a month ago. I REALLY wanted to start my plants, so I got them all going in March. I filled the table. (We really miss having a kitchen table!) My sister brought down some tomato plants, and my plants grew and needed to be transplanted.

Here is my kitchen table today. My little garden has turned into a jungle! And it no longer fits on my kitchen table

These are all the plants that would no longer fit on the kitchen table. I am so excited to get my garden planted outside. I hope some of these plants actually make it.

My cucumbers have actually started flowering. We are going to try pollinating them ourselves.

And my final picture- my basil. We have already started harvesting the leaves. I love having fresh herbs!

Next step- We ended up tromping down all our nice tilled dirt, and the trenching pulled up a bunch of rock hard clay. We are debating if we need to re-till the yard.

We need to level the dirt, and then we get to plant our grass!

I can't wait to see green in my yard!