Just an update.

Two summers ago I planted four strawberry plants. They grew quickly and soon I had probably 10 plants. Last summer they took off and I had a mess of strawberry plants. In May I decided to thin them and make nice rows of plants for easier picking, when my bushels of strawberries started coming off. I soon discovered that I had many more plants than I had thought. I spent the afternoon digging and seperating plants. Keeping them alive by putting them in bukets of water. By the time one of my daycare parents arrived I had decided that I needed to share. So she took all that I had dug. That evening, my back hurt. The next day I continued to dig and separate plants, feeling like I never really did make any progress in my attempt to tame the strawberry patch. On that night I could barely move. Digging in the garden has always given me back pain, so I just decided to give the strawberry patch a rest for a few days until my pain was more manageable.

That was in May. In fact, after taking a small fall onto my back end, my pain got worse. Never before has my back taken so long to feel better. At the end of June, when I couldn't even sit down anymore, I finally went to the doctor. After trying pain meds and rest, I was sent for an MRI. Turns out I have some protruding disc down at the base of my spine and back. Three to be exact. My pain has lessened, thank goodness, but continues to hurt. Yesterday I went to a physical therapist. I will now be doing physical therapy two times a week, until my 20 insurance approved visits are over or until the pain stops. Which ever comes first. I am hopping the pain goes first.

My cleaning secret

I don't like to clean very much. I do it any way because I like a clean house more than I dislike cleaning. This afternoon when I climbed on my kitchen counter to remove clutter from off my cabinets I had no intention of cleaning them, but once I got up there I saw what I had been avoiding for 2 years. That nasty grease residue that some how finds it way way up on top of the cabinets. No more pretending it wasn't there. Grease, plus 2 years worth of dust, not an easy task. I first tired to vacuum as much dust as I could. Only managed to get a few cob webs. Now I don't know if you put off cleaning this area like I do, but if you do you know that no ordinary cleaner will do. I tried 409, usually works pretty well. Not today. Lysol, no good. Hot soapy water, comet, still no match. I honestly thought of giving up and waiting another 2 years. Then I started searching through my kitchen and saw the vinegar. Which of course made me think of baking soda.

I first sprinkled the baking soda, then poured the vinegar. Cool bubbles, my own private volcano. It worked! Kind of. I noticed as I wiped away the vinegar that the dry soda was doing a pretty good job all by itself. So a little elbow grease, a lot of paper towels, and the tops are clean. It was so cool! It left no sticky residue either. I never seem to be able to get all the sticky off. I love baking soda! Who knew? Not me. So now you know too. My new cleaning secret!

Before. After.

Old Boots

I cannot recall ever owning a pair of "cowboy" boots. Give me flip flops and I am happy. My son does not follow in my foot steps. Somewhere around the age of 4, when he got his first pair of boots, he decided they were the only shoes for him. We have bought him "fast" shoes (tennis shoes that make you run faster), and hiking boots, and flip flops, and Converse, to name a few, but for Gabriel none hold the same comfort and ease as his trusty old boots. We have got him countless pairs now. As you can see he wears them out! We bought him a new pair some where around the first of April. This morning as his is putting them on to go to school he tells me the don't feel right. His left foot gives no problem, but the right just is wrong. I tell him to "just put them on, it's almost time to go!" He contiunes to insist that something is wrong. So finally I investigate. Sure enough he is right. The inside seam of the boot has come apart, leaving a flap to push against his heel and cause great discomfort. My quick solution to the problem, duct tape. Of course I cannot find any tape.

Two of my daycare mom's show up at about this time, one of which is ready to take the kids to school. Gabriel has no shoes on. He insists he can't wear the broken boots. The tears start to swell when I suggest he wear his fast shoes. He tries to wear the old worn out boots, way to small. We are heading for a melt down. It is 7:40 in the AM. I am not ready for melt down mode. I take a deep breath and beg him to just wear his fast shoes. His answer, "can't I just stay home?" I can't let him stay home over shoes, can I? Some where, from across the living room, his Converse are calling to me. Just remind him Dad bought these shoes for him. His dad is his favorite person. One last hope. Please! Success. Dad did buy them. We have to struggle a little to get them on, but they go on and he appears content. And out the door he goes.

One of my mom's, as fate would have it, is heading to the same store we bought the boots from today, she offers to take them back for exchange. Hopefully they will take them back with no receipt. The benefits of small town living. If they don't I may have to go tonight so tomorrow morning we don't have a repeat of this morning!

A Painted Dessert

When I hear the word dessert I think of sand, and heat, and cactus. Death comes to mind, as does rattlesnakes and other dried out reptiles who hide in the shadows of tumbleweeds. There is no color other than brown, and one drives through such places as fast as one can, if for no other reason than to not fall asleep during the most boring, need I say ugly, part of the trip. Since Phoenix is in the dessert the trip from here to there has it's share of desolation. I usually just drive through it without much thought, just a part of the trip. This time the dessert surprised me. We have received a lot of rain around here this winter, and it was apparent. The first signs where hills covered in yellow. Then beside the road new specks of color. Blues and more yellow. Before I knew what I was doing, I found myself slowing down! Just to check out the flowers. Every color of the rainbow. Flowers that reminded me of Texas Bluebonnets, buttercups, and varieties I cannot name. Bright pink, light pink, blues, yellows, and oranges. Flowers to rival any home grown garden. Nature had out done them all. And green. Wild grasses turning this usually dead wilderness into a lush inviting oasis of beauty. Beside the road cars stopped as people took pictures of something only God could have masterminded. A Painted Dessert.

I forgot my camera. So I have searched the internet to find some one who remember to bring theirs, so I could share some what I saw.

Sring Break

It must be spring if it is already spring break! We are heading out to Phoenix for the week. I am so looking forward to some "no one else's kids" time. Yeah! Arnold got a little apartment of his own, and we are taking him some things to furnish it. We have decided that right now for the kids and I it is best to just stay here in New Mexico. Even if it is a little yucky to be apart from Arnold. Now that he has his own place, we will be much more likely to visit him.
I have yet to do anything with the garden as far as planting is concerned. But once I get back from Phoenix I intend to get busy. It has just been so wet this winter. Every time it seems like the ground is getting dry enough to do something with it rains again! Not that I am complaining, the rain is good. My grass already looks good, well as good as my grass ever does! I need to re-seed a few places.
Yeah Spring!

The kids room is painted, except for the closet, which is still purple. I have yet to find the time to get every thing out of there in order to paint, so it sits purple, very purple. Arnold was home for a week (YEAH), but doesn't like the idea of wood floors. BOO! For some reason he thinks the house is to cold to have bare floors. Maybe he is right. I do hate walking on cold floors. But my poor little dream bubble has been deflated. There is a very sneaky part of me that wants to just do it anyway, and not just that room but the whole house! I know there is wood in my room, the living room and the dining room. To bad the pellet stove is in the dining room and I can't move it by myself to remove the current flooring.
In other news, it is raining, again! I love it. Except for the mud that is tracked in. I am so excited for spring to spring! My tulips, daffodils and hyacinths are poking there heads up getting ready to bloom. The garden lays sleeping. I started to dig in it the other day, but my poor body has sat far to long inside and left my in pain. I'll dig some more when it stops raining! I will not be stopped by pain. Just have to get use to it again. Not the pain, the being physically active again.

Wood floors?

My house is old and small. The floors have creaky spots and sag in others. For two years now I have been planning on painting, getting new carpet, fixing cracks, but for one reason or another it never gets none. I did manage to turn my bathroom from black to white. The paint was peeling, (helped along by my children) I hated the color, it seemed easy enough to just peel the paint, right? Wrong. Whoever had painted the sheet rock in the first place didn't think it necessary to primer it, so when the paint started to peel off it took a layer of the paper off the sheet rock. To make a long story short sheet rock doesn't like to be wet, even if it is primer you are putting on it, it makes more layers peel. So I had to mud quite a bit of my bathroom, good thing it is small. It is still a work in progress, as I don't think I want to keep it primer white, but I still have yet to decided on the perfect color. Plus I was a little put off by how long it actually took me to finish what I did.

I now have a new project. The kids room. Which also has peeling paint that has been helped along by children, not only mine but little hands who do not belong to me. The color is not a horrible color, it is just not one that I would have picked, nor would any of my kids. Plus it is peeling, so I have taken on a new project. This time it appears that the task at hand will be easier in the fact that the sheet rock was primer, making the paint peel right off, but the room is bigger, and has much larger furniture in it. Which brings me to a whole other issue.

The bunk beds. I have moved them around that room a hundred times, or at least ten, with no problem. But as I was trying to move them this time I became a complete wimp! I could not get the post in the corner to budge. Which was unacceptable. So I pulled with all my might, and low and behold it started to move, I continued to tug with all the strength I could muster. At this point Breana informs me that I a pulling up the carpet! Yes it is true. My strength is more than even I am aware of. So I squeezed myself between the wall and the bed to see why the carpet is coming up with the bed. It looks like the post has been glued to the carpet! I kid you not. Upon closer inspection I notice the "glue" is blue and smells like blueberries. Ashley admits that it maybe some of her goo candy that she left on the bed. It had spilled down the post and dried around the bottom, holding the post in place, very solidly I might add. Getting the post unstuck from the carpet was, let's just say not easy.

Now I have the carpet unpeeled from the floor, and since it was up I had to look. Guess what? There is hard wood flooring under that stinky purple carpet! It is not the best I have ever seen. What can you expect it has been under carpet for 20 years. A little scratched, but have I found my next project? Surely I could learn to redo a hardwood floor?

I have found myself at a lose for words, which explains my lack of blogging in MONTHS. It seems that I need to tell a story whenever I write, and since nothing new has been going on in our little lives, I don't write. I wake up every morning get my kids ready and off to school, then watch other peoples children while they, the children, play. There is comfort in routine, there is also boredom. I can't complain, after the year I had last year it is nice to have predictability, and stability. I haven't made it to college just yet, pell grant doesn't cover enough, and couldn't get to paper pusher of the army to send to required info I needed to complete my application. So I wait. I am sure when the time is right the way will be made for me. But I am studying up on my math skills.

Here are a few pictures of life these past few months. In no particular order.

It snowed, a little.

Christmas. Poor Ashly was sick on Christmas!

Ashley had a birthday, 11 already!

Halloween.

He hates getting his picture taken!


No pictures of Thanksgiving. I did make a pumpkin pie from a real pumpkin, not from a can. And it turned out good!

No pictures from News Year. The kids and I went to the movies then come home and almost made it until midnight. It just isn't as fun as it use to be to stay up late. Arnold was back in Phoenix so it was just the kids and I. He is currently in Little Rock going school, for National Guard. He will be gone until February 12. But after that he will be fully qualified to do his job. I should say trained, because he had been doing this same job for the army for 7 years. There are minor details that are different, anyway, he is away.

We have had lots of much needed rain the past couple weeks. I am now looking forward to seeing the sun any day now. And I am ready for spring. So that is what you have missed while I have not blogged. Probably there is more, but that is all there is right now.

Close encounter of the eight legged type

Why is there a spider on my arm? Not just any spider, but a tarantula. As the kids and I were coming in from our morning of play outside, they spotted it, and screamed. I had on gloves, been creating a new flower bed, so I picked up our little friend, just to show there was nothing to be afraid of. I must say, I myself was not sure enough to take off my gloves in order to test this idea. Our friend was not content to say on my hand, where else to go except up my arm. So of course I grabbed the camera to capture my calm/fear. It creeped me out just a little. I really hate most spiders. I am not sure why, but tarantulas aren't as scarey to me. He was kind of small.

Fall

It is more than the chill in the air, and changing leaves, getting up before the sun. Or the smell of chili being roasted, the shorter days and orange pumpkins. It's the light. The way the sun shines and the heat of the afternoon just doesn't feel as hot. There is some thing about the light this time of year that is unmistakable. Then I woke up a couple of days ago to find my house was cold. It is usually cool in the morning, but this morning I was cold. I feeling I hate! After the sun had spread it's warmth for a few hours I went outside to enjoy the feel of fall. I always water my garden in the morning, but this morning I was shocked to find my tomatoes looking as if they had been froze. Can it be? Already. The Weather Channel says no, it was only 37 degrees that night, but I have proof they are wrong. So now I must admit the the fact that it is time to snuggle down at night, closing my windows and turning off fans. Time to take the air conditioner back to the garage, and buy pellets for my stove. Good bye to summer and fresh veggies. Hello to sweatshirts and sweatpants, thick blankets and hot soup. No more flip flops and tank tops. Here we go again, another summer come and gone. I love this time of year!

Tonight my heart is breaking. Gabriel is crying his little heart out because Arnold had to go back to Phoenix. I am not sure how much more of this I can take!

The sweet smell of skunk!

As you may have been able to guess by the title of this blog, I have a skunk story. It begins a little like this, actually exactly like this. The day is August 30, the time 9;55 pm. I put to dogs in my back yard. A yard that has a 6 foot tall chain link fence around it. A yard I feel is safe from predators. There is a light in my back yard, some might call it a street lamp, I don't because there are no streets around it, but it does light up my yard. On with the story. I go to brush my teeth, wash my face and get really for sleep. My bathroom window is open, so when the dogs start barking I hear them immediately. Their barks don't alarm me, as I said I feel my yard is a safe place. But I knew the instant I smelled the skunk that their barking had caused this foul odder. I quickly dried my face and hurried to the back door. I can see the skunks tail standing straight up behind my 6 foot chain link fence and my dogs barking feverishly at the varmint who dared to get to close to our yard. I know it is to late, my momma dog comes running to me, mouth watering and, for lack of a better word, foaming. The puppy, who is a year old now, continues to bark, even as I beg for her to come to me. The skunk is unfazed by their noise and continues to be doing whatever it is that he was doing before he was bothered by my pack. My yelling does not even disturb this creature of the night. I then venture out into to safety of my yard to collect the biggest rocks I can find. I hurl them at the skunk, only to be disappointed as they hit the fence or fly to far over the fence missing the target. Still the skunk will not budge. I consider the guns for a brief, let me emphasize brief, moment, I don't even know how to shot the guns. So I go for the next best thing, the hose! No animals wants to get wet. Success at last! I was a little disappointed that I didn't get to soak my pest, he ran as soon as the first drop hit him.

Needless to say, my dogs slept outside last night. Now today I must see if tomato juice will really get the smell of skunk out of dog fur!

Loose screws

Have you even been sweeping and you find a screw where a screw does not belong? On your floor with no apparent hole from which it came. You put the lost screw some place safe, just in case you ever find where it belongs. Then a month later your kitchen chair starts to fall apart because it is missing a screw. Good, you think, because you kept the screw and now you can fix your wobbly chair, you think. When you look in your safe place you realize it was not a safe place, it was a place with a portal to an alternate universe, because that is the only explanation to where your screw went. No way a child would have found your screw and decided to do what ever it is that kids do with things they are not suppose to play with, no, no way your kids would do that! So that is where I am this morning, no not the alternate universe, the place where you are trying to find a screw to fit into your kitchen chair.

Home again

The kids and I made it safely home from Phoenix last night. We had a wonderful weekend with Arnold. Swimming, shopping, and eating out. I think it is much cheaper for him to come visit us than the other way around! They did need clothes for school, which unbelievably starts next week. I will have all three in school this year. Wow, is all I can say. Well I could probably say a lot more, but not tonight!
I took my placement test last Thursday, I did great on the reading and writing portion. My math was better than I thought it would be, but not good enough to get me into a college level algebra. I need to score a 40, I got a 38, bummer. The good news is that I can take that part of the test again, and I placed in the developmental math 102, not 101. I don't have to start at the very bottom. I think I will buy the book and just refresh what I once upon a time knew. I can't take the class on-line, which is all I am planning on doing for now. It is not a good idea to decide to go the college in July when classes start in August, all the classes that I need to take are full. So I will take what I can for now. I am sure my brain will appreciate easing into learning again, rather than trying to go full force all at once.

Last night as I was laying in bed listening to the owls as I fell asleep, my heart began to pound and my stomach felt a large rock sitting squarely in it's pit. No it was not the sound of the owls, I fear not the owls. All owls make me think of is tootsie pops and how many licks it takes to get to the center. No, my anxiety came from the thought that today is Sunday which means we are entering a new week, the week in which I have decided to take my college placement test. I am determined to go back to school, the classes I am only mildly intimidated by. But this test, this test I fear. I hated tests in high school, but I was always prepared. There was never any material that I hadn't thought about in 16 years on those test. It all became extremely real to me last night. All my doubts and insecurities came crashing down on me with all the wrath they could muster. Then for an instant I wanted to quit before I had even begun. How easy it would be to just not do it. I could stay in my comfort zone. Never pushing myself, never changing. This must be some thing I need to do, why else would I feel such fear? Some force trying to stop me from doing what will ultimately lead me to where I need to be. Some many thoughts running around in my head. I feel like a bouncing ball in outer space.

My jungle

The garden keeps growing. I am finding it harder and harder to make my way to the back corner where the Lima beans and black eyed peas are growing. Also bugs love my garden. I get lots of new little bites every time I venture in to far. Nothing grew this good last year. It grew, just not this big. The tomatoes are out of control! I may have to leave more space between the plants new year. I thought I left enough this year. I guess not. Anyway just wanted to let you see my jungle!

Just a thought.

I sit here tonight with a thought in my head, one that was one of my mom's favorite. "Every thing happens for a reason." My husband and I were heading down life's path comfortably last year when he decided to get out of the army. I had a lot of fear and anxiety about this decision. But I supported him and decided that whatever he decided was what he needed to be happy. He got a job at the mine that was short lived and we have been living on my daycare income since December, when our saving ran out. This has not been an easy time in my life. The stress has some days overwhelmed me and brought me to tears. I have questioned my faith, my strength, my sanity, and everything in between. This was not a place I had EVER pictured myself being. But there we were. Some how together we made it through. I say we made it through because today Arnold started his full time position with the Arizona National Guard. The money will return. The bills will be paid. I will no longer have to worry about my kids getting hurt or sick and having no insurance. I can enjoys days when no kids show up at my house to be watched instead of worrying that this weeks pay will not be enough. I feel as if I can breath.

Through the months of waiting for this job to actually materialize I kept reminding myself that "everything happens for a reason." A time or two I may have demanded that this reason be shown to me so I might understand and except more humbly. Of course we all know that this is not the way things work. I have wanted to go back to school for a number of years now. But paying for college and children at the same time was not possible. Until now. I have applied for a pell grant and it appears that I will qualify for the whole thing. Yeah me! So tonight I sit here with this thought and wonder if my education could possibly the reason.

Garden Geek

Beans tonight.

Tomatoe plants, tonight.

June 3rd.

June 3rd.

June 3rd

Tomato plants June 3rd.

Cucumber in the corn.

Tomato in the strawberries .

Beans May 18.

Tomato plants May 18.

Spinach, all gone now.

I am a garden geek. Last year I had a little compost pile in the corner of my garden. I put the cucumber peels, cantaloupe seeds, whole pumpkins, lettuce cores, and lots of kitchen scraps. Well last years compost has become this years weeds. I have "wild" cucumber, cantaloupe, watermelon, pumpkins, and even tomatoes growing throughout the garden. I call myself a garden geek because it makes me happy to find little tomatoes plants growing in my strawberry patch. I like to see cantaloupe in my corn and cucumbers next to a potato plant.

So anyway here are a few weeks worth of garden pictures.