Signs, Signs, Everwhere are signs...

I am a sign reader.
Usually I feel informed.
This sign leaves me wondering.
Is it a warning? - be careful out there our residents do drugs and then drive poorly.
Is it a call for help? - If you do drugs or drive like you do please call #677.
Or maybe a suggestion since just behind the sign is a cemetary.
Any thoughts?
 

Two 'Person' Chair

Aren't they just so sweet!

First Harvest

Monday night's forecast called for lows in the 20's. Quite a change from the weather last week. Out to the garden I went to pick the 'mature' lettuce and then cover the garden.
This the first of hopefully many harvests, it was added to store bought leaf lettuce and enjoyed with dinner that very night.


The garden seems to have survived the frost and the temps are headed back up.

Tucker's Refined Tastes

After dinner on Sunday we stopped at Starbucks for dessert. Steve and I chose vanilla lattes and CJ a cappuccino. Upon arriving at home Tucker wanted dessert too. Figuring that he would react to coffee the same way he does to beer, a wrinkling of the nose and a look that conveys disgust, I offered him the dregs in the bottom of my cup. He did not snarl instead he took the cup and proceeded to lick it clean. He then turned to Steve and 'asked' for more coffee.
Gotta love that dog!
 

Planting A Garden

Last weekend Steve built me a raised bed garden. During the winter I read/studied about Square Foot Gardening and convinced myself that I could do it. After all both my parents are/were gardeners, Dan gardens and Bill landscapes - seems like it should be in the genes. We shall see.

Needing to see progress lettuce and strawberry plants were purchased and planted. Being a little daring lettuce, spinach and sugar snap pea seeds were also planted.

This is one week later. We may have salad tonight!!!
I bought another strawberry plant, the type that bears fruit all season and 4 spinach plants.
I may not be patient enough to be a farmer, but I will try.

Spring Break

This year we hung out at home and enjoyed the summer weather. We had record highs 4 days in a row. The nightly lows were higher than the normal highs. It was glorious.

 I planted pansies, transplanted grasses, painted the kitchen, tore apart the office and put it back better than ever, read 4 books, walked the dog, and anything that would allow me to be outside.

Seeing the woods coming back to life so early in the season makes me very happy.

So happy that pansies are now residing on our porch.

Happy Spring to Everyone!

Band Concert

The east side 8th grade bands joined together one Sunday afternoon for an amazing concert.

Each of the 3 schools showed us how good they were as an individual school. They then came together for two amazing songs.

Don't bother looking for CJ, he played bass clarinet and is hiding in the middle left.

Enjoy.

Bread in 5 Minutes a Day?

Could it be possible to make bread every day with little work?  After reading Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day  I decided to give it a try. The first day takes about 15 minutes of 'work' and then 2 hours of waiting. I mixed the ingredients and put them in this container.



Two hours later the dough had risen and was then put in the refrigerator to be used later.


The next day I pulled off a hunk of dough, shaped it, let it rest and then baked it.

Not sure that a whole 5 minutes was spent actively involved with bread making on baking day.
Am very sure that the bread was yummy.

The lessons learned were:
dust with less flour
use hot water for steam
close the oven faster
and
given the opportunity CJ would eat bread for every meal.

Homework Buddies

 

IELA homework is much more fun with a buddy, and pizza!

Witchcraft and Wizardry

This is my wizarding bag.

I believe it has an 'extension charm' on it as it holds much more than one would expect.

First I read the spell book,

Then use a magic wand,

To turn this ball of yarn,

Into a beautiful scarf.

Magic!

Winter Orchestra Concert

Another fabulous concert from the 8th grade orchestra.

Cat Toy

 This toy is made from the edges left over from making a fleece blanket.
It was intended to be a toy for Tucker.

 

This is not Tucker.
This is no longer Tucker's toy!

Fresh Bread

If only you had a scratch and sniff computer!!!
Fresh baked bread smells so good.
Don't tell the boys that this is 100% whole grain bread,
 they might decide they don't like it!

Fresh bread has once again become a weekly thing. The bread machine used to get a lot of use, but then I got tired of the strangely shaped loaves and the hard crust. To fix that I now I let the bread machine do most of the work, then the dough goes into a loaf pan and soon enough we have a 'normal' looking loaf of bread.

Solo & Ensemble Contest

CJ and two friends performed as a woodwind trio this past Saturday .
This is them waiting to find out what there score was.
Their teacher was impressed, saying that they played the piece better for the judge than they had during practice. The judge had 2 comments, the first I didn't understand and the second was a complement.
The boys eventually gave up on waiting for the score and opted to go home and do non-school things.
Turns out they got a 1 which is awesome!
Congrats!