November 24, 25, 26 & 27

1}  I'm thankful that I'm not tied to my blog.  That I can take a few days off for the weekend and that's okay!

2}  I'm thankful for flowers...more specifically flowers growing in my flower beds and various pots around my porch.

these hydrangeas are from a tiny plant in my front flower bed.
they bloomed a pale pink and then this fall turned this dark red.

3}  I'm thankful for the bartering system that is alive and well with my talented friends and I.  I can crochet up a few things and trade with my friend that is a photographer for our Christmas picture...love that!

4}  I'm thankful that my Christmas pictures are done and my cards are printed and just waiting to be addressed.

5}  I'm thankful for books.  I love reading.

6}  I'm thankful for seasons.  I enjoy every season and I am usually ready for the next one when it's time...I pretty much think God knew what he was doing when he created the whole season thing!  He's good like that!

7}  I'm thankful for ziploc divided containers to pack my kids lunches in.  It's like their own personal lunchable without the crap junk food!

8}  I'm thankful for music.  My husband is a musical genius and my kids are blessed enough to have some of his genes and the gift of piano lessons.

9}  I'm thankful that all the Thanksgiving desserts are GONE so I can stop eating them.

10}  I'm thankful for a friend to run with on cold fall mornings.

11}  I'm thankful for the 'extra' week of November to get ready for girl child's birthday!

12}  I'm thankful for meal planning and menu's that help keep me organized!

it's the little things :: quite time & my kids

it's the little things...

this is my week and the little things {clockwise}

{my garden...I spend quite time almost every morning weeding and watering my little plots of dirt..

{quite time with God... "He is my Rock; his work is perfect.
                                         Everything he does is just and fair.
                                   He is a faithful God who does no wrong;
                                          how just and upright He is!"
                                                 Deuteronomy 32:4   

{my kids...
        *they shared a room for almost 6 years and still want to be together...they get to sleep together one night a week during the summer...I cherish this because I'm pretty sure this won't last much longer!

       *7-11 day and free 7.11 oz slurpees...talk about little things

       *my posers...I heart these two!

May Day

May Day...May Day...

it's another ChambersMade family 1st...

we've never really lived in a neighborhood that we could really 'celebrate' May Day...

 now we do...
I've been collecting cans for a few weeks now...
I have a plan for them and this summer...

but I figured I have plenty cleaned & up in the cupboard that I could spare 4 so the kids and I could have a little May Day fun...

we wrapped wire around the groves in the cans and made a handle with the wire...
printed up a little May Day Tag and tied it with twine
and then cut some mini roses off our rose bush...

the kids sneaked up to the doors...

rang the door bell...

and RAN as fast as they could...

...

fun times...

all in all it took 30 minutes...

from creating and printing the tag,

to wrapping the wire around the can and creating a handle

tying the tag onto the can

cutting the roses

and then the delivery...

and cost us $0.00

we will hopefully make this a ChambersMade family tradition...

and hopefully our neighbors are pleasantly surprised by the little can of flowers on the door knob!

have you ever participated/celebrated May Day?

green thumbs...

a ChambersMade family first...

we are planting a garden....from scratch...

we stared with seeds yesterday...

the kids got to pick out the seeds a few days ago*

so proud of their boxes of dirt

the kids are excited about their garden...

we will buy some plants (already bought 2 tomatoes plants and a pepper)

but I love the fact that we're going to try to start some from seeds...

I SEE How My Garden Grows

The joys of gardening...

the joys of cutting a beautiful flower grown from your garden...

eating veggies grown by your hand...

oh, the joys...

....

and the cat poop...

you spend hours weeding and pruning and getting it just perfect for the neighbors cat to use it as the local litter box!

the loud blue jays that believe they own my yard and trees and throw the apricots from those trees at me to scare me out of my yard!

oh and the WEEDS...

for years I've been blaming the weeds on the same nasty cats walking through the yard and the birds bringing the seeds from all over God's Kingdom and spreading them all over my beautiful yard...the hours and hours...days and days I spend removing those weeds from my garden...ARGH...where do all the weeds come from?!?

Well, here in Northern California we have been enjoying a beautiful late spring with wonderfully mild days and lots of rain (VERY abnormal!)...

and my son has had lots of days outside playing in my garden (we have no yard and "my garden" is lots of flowers and plants randomly planted by years of different home owners and me and ivy that I am in a constant battle with over areas that I deem "flower areas" and the ivy deems "ivy areas")...

I have a few rules for playing in my garden

1.  do not dig up my flowers or cut/break off my flowers

2.  do not tear leaves off plants or flowers

3.  do not kill any bugs (we are in their home...we can only kill them if they are in our home)

4.  do not rearrange my cobblestone walkway or lift up the cobblestones to find bugs (this might be the hardest rule for both children!) 

5.  respect the ivy and the scary ledge (that possibly goes to the center of the earth) at the edge of the garden that the we all have deemed "ivy area" and any and all items that fall into the ivy over the ledge become property of the ivy and anything living in the in the center of the earth.

6.  remove (or accidentally kill) any and all snails and slugs that are destroying my plants (ignoring rule 3 about this being their home...it's MY garden!)!

well...I sent the boy child out to play one morning last week, reminding him of the rules...# 4 being the hardest it was the one I highlighted that morning...

"Remember, don't pick up my cobblestones to look for bugs"...

"okay mom..."

and then I happily open up the windows so I can watch him while I begrudgingly happily stay inside and fold Mt. Laundry a few loads of laundry that have taken over the entire love seat in my living room that I have been able to keep contained in one stylish laundry basket...

as all wonderful moms I "watch" my son with my ears and since I can hear him singing weird funny songs that he makes up I know all is well...

as I slowly make my way through Mt. Laundry the few loads of laundry I decided to look out the window and check on the boy child...

...

...

he's crouched down really seriously involved in whatever he's doing...

has he found a bug?

is there a line of ants marching?

is he "removing" a snail?

...

seems like he might be digging something...

....

seems like I might need to make sure he's not digging up my bulbs...

....

I nicely walk out onto the porch,

"Hey Wilson, whatcha' doing?"

"I'm planting some flowers for you."

"What flowers? Where'd you get the seeds?"

"This flower right here has 67-100 (his favorite number) seeds on it, and I'm planting them!"

...

time for me to take a trip off the porch to look at said flower....

...

hmmm....

wow...

what I have been blaming on the nasty neighborhood cats and loud birds....the weeds...

was really my son...

my son had just spent a good hour planting the seeds from a few different type of weeds that I had yet to pull...and then he informed me that he made sure to plant them all over the garden not just in one spot!

he so gently removed all the seed pods from the weeds, using his sweet little fingers poked 100's of perfect holes in the ground, dropped the seeds in, covered them up...and then proceeded to water them with drops from the hose....

and now rule number 7...a rule that seemed so obvious

Do NOT plant WEEDS in mommy's garden!!!

I will now publicly apologize to the birds and cats for blaming the weeds on them...

I still hold them accountable for the poop...but who knows that could be the boy child also!

Where'd Those Muscles Come From

Okay, so not only have I been "training"
(I use that term loosely just because it sounds weird for me to say it)
for this upcoming Sprint Triathlon since January...
...I've also been "working out" (another loosely used term), about 5 days a week since my birthday in October...so that's about 4 months of exercising...haven't been that consistent since I was getting graded on it in high school (yikes)...

So, all that being said, I'm not dropping the lbs (not even ONE, 1!!!) and my pants are just as tight...seriously, I haven't notice them getting ANY looser...ARGH...
But I am feeling stronger...
my muscles feel loose...
my heart feels good...
I feel better...
I can run with the kids and not get winded...
and I'm not doing any of this to get a number...
this isn't, and has never been about me loosing a certain amount of weight (I really have never cared too much about weight....I didn't like surpassing Beau by a good 10 lbs when I pregnant...but other than that!)
I really don't care too much what size pants I wear (it's a size 14 for those who might be wondering)...
I just want to be healthy, and I am feeling that...

So WHY?
WHY????
I spent the morning yesterday gardening with the boy child.  We (mainly me) pulled weeds (weeds that look like grass but I know will turn into something dead and not pretty very soon) that covered a little hilly strip of land to the west of our "driveway"...
Key word in that..."hilly"...
I spent a good two hours basically doing lunges on this hilly...

 

almost mountainous...like, pretty close to Mt. Everest!

patch of earth...and then I had to loosen up that earth on that mountain side...using one of my favorite tools...the CLAW!!!...

And then digging holes to plant our 200+ bulbs into...(no joke, someone gave us a few grocery bags full of bulbs back in the fall, I had also purchased a few, and dug up some of our 100's of daffodils that were in a spot a didn't want...these were all sitting in containers and bags on our front porch and they were beginning to sprout just sitting there...yelling at me every time I came home, "plant us, we want to grow!")

(pretty sad huh?)

Wilson had a snail farm going...

then when he learned that the snail eat the good plants, he killed all the snails with a rock (don't worry I have no pictures of that!)...

some "treasures" we unearth

Wilson planting the bulbs, he really does love to plant.

can't believe how much it looks like I didn't do...but notice the "green" trash, it's completely full!  And all 200+ bulbs are planted...

And now the sad part...my muscles are SCREAMING at me!  I am having a VERY hard time standing, walking, sitting, turning...WOW!  Where did ALL these muscles come from?  I was under the impression that I had been "training" my body and I can't even garden for 3 hours without doing some major damage...really, I'm hobbling around like...well, like someone that owns a Buick!