blah blah blog

It's a gray, rainy day and I feel cooped up. Turned out to be a great day for making art with E! We practiced using scissors, scribbling, and peeling labels off crayons. We also practiced NOT eating crayons. I was eager to make his a colorful word chart for the fridge and I've been working on a little word book for him (insert the word DORK here). I'm proud to say "rain" and "wet" and "art" have been added to the list, thanks to this soggy day!
The rain and onset of early spring also has me thinking about the ever-growing to-do list for our yard. So here's what was on it last year:

2011 The Ultimate Spring Fever To-Do List:
Remove the nasty English Ivy from under my hedge row (in progress)
Re-establish a border for my front garden, use branches from our Beech tree
Incorporate a dirt-digging pile for E somewhere in the backyard
Build a sand box for E
Get plans for a cool fort/playhouse (if not this year then next)
Create a little table/chairs area for E to do outside art projects (in progress)
Remove more English Ivy from the fence in the back yard
Rearrange and transplant perennials in the back garden
Pot several more herbs with E to use in our cooking
Divide and share our Lemon Basil
Give strawberries and tomatoes another go and plant some more peppers
Relocate the crazy pumpkin sprouts to the back yard and up a trellis if possible
Convince my neighbor to take care of her horrible English Ivy situation creeping into my yard!

See the area behind the plants? That's where E's little art area will be.

Okay, so I didn't do everything on the list, but props for doing half of the list, right?

And here's the new and improved list:

Summer 2011 - first year of veggie garden!

2012 Ultimate Spring Fever To-Do List:
Remove heinous English Ivy from back of yard, clear and plant native shade garden with natural play area!
Build a cool playhouse and sand box for E in new shade garden
Replensh E's digging pit
Install recycled instrument area for E (I started this last summer)
Make a living hut with E - train grapevine over bamboo frame
Continue to remove the nasty English Ivy from under my hedge row UG
Plant some fruit trees along the sunny hedge - cherry, pear, apple?
Finish mini stone patio with table/chairs area for E to do outside art projects
Rearrange and transplant perennials, especially the spider wort and coreopsis
Plant and pot more herbs with E to use in cooking (rosemary, basil)
Veggie garden - plant more tomatoes, strawberry upkeep, try zucchini, peppers, beans, and lettuce
Border for front garden - stacked stone wall?
Convince my neighbor to take care of her horrible English Ivy situation creeping into my yard!

So obviously I'm the most excited about creating a new woodland garden along the back part of the yard. There are three beautiful old tulip trees there and room for tons of great features. Our compost pile and shrubs will live on along with native shrub plantings to benefit the birds and bugs. There are lots of great old limbs and logs that I will keep for E to climb on and add more log jumps and loose parts for him to build with. We've got a bat house waiting in the wings because the mosquitoes are horrible here. I can't wait to add a tree house and sand box for E, but that will take some recruiting to build. If nothing else, we will be able to enjoy them first thing in the mornings before the skeeters are in full force. I also want a little quiet nook for me and my husband to put our feet up with a glass of wine (or beer as the case may be) and watch the lightening bugs when E is asleep.

There are some beautiful native hydrangeas and azaleas that should do well along with lots of fern and a pretty little stone path. There's no way we could afford to do all the plantings this year, but I'm hoping to at least get the bones of the garden in. Maybe even an archway at the start of the path...

This was taken in late June 2011 - consider it our "before" shot.
If you look closely you can see our shed on the right where the compost pile will go.
The neighbor's fence is on the left behind our property, just to give you sense of how big the
garden will be. The area is about 20 feet deep or so. (I'll get a tape measure when I go out next.) 

These are the mature tulip poplars in the space.

But first: irradicate the English Ivy once and for ALL!

I have literally tried everything from newspaper to landscape fabric and cardboard to smother and kill it. I've pulled alot by hand, too. But the area is enormous and all tangled with the stuff, not to mention poison ivy here and there. Unfortunately the only solution left is Round Up if I really want it gone. My dear friend is a Master Gardener and she assures me it's the safest, most effective thing to use to get rid of ivy and it won't stay in the soil.

The plan is to spray on Friday and start this process...so wish me luck...

help with the tree and chocolate bon-bons

He helps light the tree...

Okay, he lights up that tree in my mind...but he also helps light this one:

The self-proclaimed tradition, you see, is to put up our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving. That way I can revel in the glow for as long as possible! The tree makes me happy!

And now for the famous chocolate bon-bons. You haven't tasted heaven until you've tasted one of two things: my chocolate babka (at Easter) or my mother's famous bon-bons. If you're allergic to peanut butter you may as well just cry yourself to sleep tonight.

powdered sugar and rice crispies meet

peanut butter and butter in double-boiler - not exactly good for your waist

Chocolate Bon-Bon ingredients:
2 cups peanut butter (16 ounce jar)
1 stick butter
1 box powdered sugar (actually, you'll probably only need to use 3/4 of the box)
3 cups of rice crispies
2 (11.5 ounce) bags of milk chocolate morsels

Combine powdered sugar and rice crispies in a huge bowl. Set aside.

Melt peanut butter and butter in double boiler. After the peanut butter mixture is melted, mix well with the sugar mixture. Let cool. Put butter on your hands then roll into delicious bite-sized nuggets. Place on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper and let cool in the freezer. Meanwhile, melt milk chocolate in a double boiler. Once cool, dunk the nuggets in chocolate and freeze again on same wax paper.

These insanely delicious bon-bons remind me of the miracle pill that Wesley swallowed on The Princess Bride to bring him back to life. Enough said.

Christmas U-turn

I feel guilty about not writing in the last couple of weeks. I could say that I've been busy (which is true) but I'm always busy. Truth is, I've had a couple of things on my mind.

Firstly, I've been spending a lot of time thinking about Christmas. It's the most stressful time for me in my personal life. Despite my best efforts to remain grounded, I worry about money and giving gifts.

As a little girl, there was always a lot of build up to the holidays. I remember my mom giving me a Sears catalogue to circle things I wanted. I'm sure I wrote a letter or two to Santa. There were Christmas records that we would play and I would belt out "I'm Getting Nothing for Christmas". As I got older, I would sit and rock while listening to "Carol of the Bells" and "Oh Holy Night". Mom would make her dynamite chocolate bon-bons and pecan sandies. She hung these beautiful felt stockings that she made for each of us. They had little faces and hair that looked like me and my brother and sisters. There was also the token advent calendar that we would use each year to countdown to Christmas.

But like most kids, I was focused on receiving gifts. Even at our elementary school, I remember they hosted a fundraiser in December where you went to purchase gifts for your family, as opposed to making something.

My favorite teacher, Ms. Como, led my first ever "Secret Santa" gift exchange. I remember how different it seemed for our class to be seated in a circle instead of behind desks.  The gift could be something from home that you simply didn't want or need, so long as someone else might enjoy it. That seemed like a novel idea.

Other than a beaded candy cane I made in Girl Scouts one year, I don't remember a tradition of making gifts and giving to others.

My mother was always stressed about money and giving gifts. GULP. Now I'm her.

So I had a great ladies night for my dear friend's birthday and she and her sisters got to talking about Christmas. I listened as they shared their family traditions of making gifts for each other. Each child only asked for one gift - not because they were told to - but because it was tough for them to think of anything they want.

This is another reason why television watching can be harmful: commercials. The children mentioned above rarely watch television so they aren't bombarded with things they should want. They aren't immersed in the gimme pop culture that we live in.

Dually noted.

Another dear friend of mine shared with me that she decided she would only give her children four gifts each year. Being a fervent Catholic, she decided that if her Savior only received three gifts, then that is good enough for her children, plus one special gift from her and her husband.

I ask myself: why am I compelled to make a huge list of things I want to buy for my son? The result can only be that he will learn to expect a pile of presents each year and I will continue to stress about it. Of course we feel happy to receive something special, but that is diminished when expectations are sky high. It only leads to disappointment and a skewed outlook of what makes a person happy. My goal is to help him understand that real, lasting happiness doesn't come from things. How's he going to understand that if his happy Christmas is based on us buying him things?

That's why I've decided to make something of a U-turn, a righting of the ship, if you will. Our focus must be on giving. He's two, so he limited in his understanding of making gifts for others, but there's no better time to start a tradition than now. When he looks back on his holiday memories, I want him to remember that he helped make the cookies for the trash collectors, postal carrier, doctor office, and teachers. He will have a hand in making special ornaments or picture frames or whatever it might be for his loved ones, even as a tot. And I want him to feel that fantastic, unquenchable happiness that comes from giving something special to show gratitude for people that make our lives better.

I know this seems like a no-brainer - I'm always making gifts for others anyhow, so why would this modest gift approach be such a departure? But it truly will be difficult for me not to go crazy and buy him every cute wooden toy I see. I think this is my (mom's) urge to make my child happy with stuff.

I'm going to keep re-reading this post if I have to in order to stay the course. We'll see how it goes...

All I need is my family, mom.

Thanksgiving is near when...

You know Thanksgiving is near when you take an evening walk and the sky looks like this at 6:15 p.m.

...Or when the kitchen counter is already feeling the onset of sugar cookie craze...

...Or when your little cub is all bundled up....

...Or when you are enjoying the first blaze of the season.

My family and I have so much to be grateful for. I feel full of thanks and can't wait to share the holiday with my loved ones.

leaves!

Fall is such a beautiful time of year! I love all the changing leaves, especially when you get one of those days where it's just windy enough for leaves to come spinning down as you walk under them. We've had lots of days like that during our neighborhood walks this week. I can't resist gathering and pressing leaves in the hopes that E will enjoy using them for art projects in the winter. We like to watch the leaves come circling down.

Here is some fun video of our little guy having fun in our backyard leaf pile. (Thanks for raking, Pop Pop!)

a visit to the lake and pumpkins!

 

This tulip poplar leaf was floating on the lake. Too pretty to pass by.



Daddy taught E how to toss sticks in the water.



There was no keeping him dry today. He had a point:
Why are we going to the lake if we can't get wet?!

The weather was too beautiful to be inside today so we ditched our Montessori class in favor of a walk at the lake, Loch Raven Reservior to be exact.

After E was good and soaked from trying to wade in the lake with the Canada geese, we headed over to our local nursery. Watson's is a wonderful mom-and-pop garden center so we support them any chance we get by purchasing most of our plant material there instead of a big box store. The good news? They had a great selection of pumpkins!

Despite the fact that E loves to walk in a stream or lake, he really hated getting the sticky pumpkin pulp on his hands. He's the opposite of his mama!

And in case you were dying to know, here's his most recent talk list:

ack = snack

guck = truck

uck = duck

bive = five
rrr = grrr (as in, I'm angry)
ug = hug
k = lake
k = bike
k = music (accompanied by sign language)

k = book (also with sign language)

dis = this

dat = that

nk = drink

up = up (as in, pick me up)

elp = help (and baby sign language)

t = eat

ess = eyes

sis = shoes

ess = kiss

iss = juice (as in his first taste of orange juice that was definitely memorable)

us = bus

ock = rock (like ones he picks up outside)

f = teeth

atch = Chatch (short for our cat's name)

ba ba ba = him singing a little tune :)

I'm sure there's more, but those are the ones I can think of right now. He's on his way!

The toddler busy-ness continues...



Why are we doing this again, Mom? For your amusement?

happy trails

When the weather hovers between summer and fall and the sun starts to cast that undeniably autumn amber glow, I know it's only a matter of time before the leaves wrinkle and the blooms fade. Before summer gets away from me again, I plan to go hiking and photograph some of summer's last flowers.

This weekend we hiked on the NCR trail. Besides our favorite mud puddle (E likes to stomp in it with his Gram), there were tons of flowers to photograph along the way.

Jewelweed - a yellow variety I hadn't seen before. Usually it's orange.

I think this is upland boneset? Frothy white flowers attract a lot of insects!

Gorgeous Christmas fern peeking out of rocky crevaces.

Posion ivy. People never seem to remember what it looks like, and it's a tricky plant because it can be a vine or growing low with other herbaceous plant material. Sometimes it looks bright, almost lime green and other times it's a dull evergreen color like this. Sometimes there's a sheen on the leaf (the icky oil!) but not always. The little "lobe" on the lower part of the leaf helps me distinguish it. And yes, there are three leaves.

Phlox spp.?

Beautiful goldenrod in all its glory.

Hibiscus moscheutos (rose mallow spp.) looks ultra violet at sundown. The ants just love it!

wordless Wednesday: planting the mums

land of odd

Great way to start a vacation...asleep!

You can see the bay from our porch.
It's fun to watch the boats go by.

We just returned from a great mini-getaway downee ocean, hun. Our trip was way to short, but then, I guess that's always how it goes.

It amazes me how adaptable kids can be. Despite the newness of the place, our little guy closed his eyes for every nap and bedtime with no qualms and slept, well, like a baby. (It helps to be wiped out from the sun and sand, too.) I'm talking 3 to 3 1/2 hour naps, people. And no waking during the night! He somehow knew and understood that daddy and I were going to be right there when he woke up.

In this strange land of Ocean City, Maryland our tot learned many things. For example, rubbing sunscreen in your eyes doesn't feel nice. Sand tastes gross with granola. Sun hats are non-negotiable (for both SPF and cuteness factors). Salt water taffy tastes like...well, mommy still won't let you have any but Gram and Pop will let you eat anything in exchange for kisses or smiles. To our amusement, your first taste of salsa at La Hacienda was magnifico!

Chasing sea gulls, a fave new pastime.

If only we'd had time for Thrasher's vinegar fries and Fischer's popcorn on the boardwalk. We'll be back, O.C. We'll be back.

See mom, I didn't need to wear that sun hat!

tweet boom bang: musical guest post on (cool)progeny today

I love the sounds of nature in every season. But summer is especially noisy with cicadas, frogs, woodpeckers, birds, and crickets going about their business. We love to listen to animals and try to spy where the sounds are coming from. That's a daily occurance in our yard. It's just something we naturally do.

But all this bustling sound is busy and full of energy, too. It makes me want to do something and make my own noise.

This, combined with recent research I've been doing, has me thinking about natural, musical spaces for children outdoors. My guest post is on (cool)progeny's blog today - it's full of ideas on how you can create your own space with household items and recyclables. If you've set up something fun in your backyard or at your school, I'd love to hear about it!

So now I've got one more item to add to my ever-growing to-do list. I will be sure to post photos when our musical outdoor space is complete!

care for some bubbly? (with video, too!)

"Wanna go to the river?!" He looked at me and blinked.

Now that we're getting sun kissed and breaking a sweat outside, heading to the river was just the right bubbly we needed. Cromwell Valley is a great park that is quickly becoming a second backyard to us. The woods are beautiful and the trails well maintained. But my favorite part is Mine Run. It's not quite big enough to be a river but too large for me to consider it a stream. (I guess that's why it's called a 'run'.) Either way, it's a babbling waterway with shallow stretches, perfect for the little guy to test his footing.

Can you see the wonder in his eyes?

Here's our other bubbly: bubbles. As you can see, E is very skeptical...

Seriously mom. What are those things?