Warm winter strolls

The weather has been unusually warm in Tennessee lately. That means more walks outside, which is something I absolutely love. My husband is not so happy with the lack of snow. He came from Pittsburgh, the land of freezing cold. Every time we visit PA in the winter, I have to remember to bring heavy layers and big jackets. Here in Tennessee though, it's pretty perfect for casual strolls outdoors with my kiddos.

It's a good thing it's been so warm too, I've been needing to peel myself off the couch where I've been glued to The Hunger Games series. Seriously amazing books. If you haven't read them yet, go out and buy them. And also find a comfy couch and plan on being there for quite awhile because you won't be able to tear yourself away. It took me about a week and a half to finish all three books and now that I'm done, I'm a little sad. I always feel like something is missing when I finish a good book.

I did finally get around to doing a couple of projects though, including putting together a couple of giveaway posts that I'm really excited about :) Make sure you check back soon, I can't wait to show you what I've been up to!

How about you, have you been having more of a summer than a winter lately?

A walk outside

Today was..well, not what I expected. We went to church, dropped the kids off, then 30 minutes into the service, we got a call that our house alarm went off. We grabbed the kids and rushed home after being assured that the cops were on their way. When we got home do you know what we found?

Nothing. A balloon that we bought the kids had moved when the AC came on and set the motion sensor off. I'm sure we were the least exciting call the cops had gotten all day.

We did enjoy some time outside though. It was one of those overcast, perfect-for-picture-taking kind of days. So Connor and I took a trip outside while Haley was napping.

This guy is busy perfecting his walking. He actually has it down really well, as long as he's not wearing shoes that is.

Shoes on his little chunky feet make him one angry dude. The minute we put them on him, he kicks and whines pitifully until they come off again. It's not comfortable for him, shoes just make his little life more difficult. It made me think of how our relationship with God can be sometimes. When something hard comes along, we kick and scream instead of doing what we should do - just come to Him.

And He picks us up and sets us on our feet again.

That's not to say we won't have other spills later. But He's always there, watching over us like any caring parent does. Ready to wipe away the tears and pick us up again. Because ultimately, we have to go through the hard stuff to make us stronger.

Even though it may be hard to understand at the time, one day we'll look back on all that hard stuff and say, "If I hadn't tried and tripped a little, I wouldn't have learned how to walk."

So thank you God for shoes. And for helping us up when we fall.

End of summer

The weather has finally dipped below the 90's here, and I couldn't be happier. Neither could a certain little girl who has been patiently waiting to swim in her kiddie pool ALL STINKIN' SUMMER.

Call me crazy, but I have no desire to set foot outside when it feels like my skin is melting off. Maybe that's just me though. I'm a big fan of keeping my skin thanks.

We've brought out the kiddie pool a whopping 2 times this year. TWO. Isn't summer supposed to be all about being outside and enjoying the summer sun? Not when the temperature is in the nineties and low hundreds. And let me tell you, it's been that way for a couple months in a row. There's no point to summer if you can't even go outside and enjoy it. Even the vegetables in my garden lost their will to live in the sweltering Tennessee heat.

Even more reason for me to look forward to fall. I just love the cool, crisp air, the way the leaves change, and of course it doesn't hurt that October means Halloween candy. That's one of the perks to having small children; they're too young to know that "checking the Halloween candy for safety reasons" is synonymous with "Mom and Dad get all the chocolate."


But for now, we're enjoying the last days of summer as the heat slowly dies down and nights become more pleasant. There are lots of bare feet and cups of lemonade at the McCaffrey house. But I'll gladly trade my cup of lemonade for a piece of pumpkin pie. Or some Halloween candy. I'm not picky :)

Painted Rain Boots

*****Updated on April 18, 2011*****

Polly at Helping Little Hands has been hosting a Read Along on her blog this month to celebrate National Reading Month, and I'm so thrilled to be a part of it!

It wasn't hard for me to choose which book I wanted to use for the read along. My 2-year-old is still learning how to read books and not destroy them, but every once in awhile there's a book she'll actually sit still for.  The Rainy Day by Anna Milbourne and Sarah Gill is one of our all-time favorites!

My favorite thing about The Rainy Day is how it encourages kids to go outside and explore. My daughter loves being outside (she is so much like me!) and that includes being outside on rainy days. What's more fun than jumping in the biggest puddle you can find?

And with all those fun puddles to jump in, you have to have rain boots. So why not make some cute rain boots your child can decorate themselves? And while you're at it, make some for yourself!

Ok, so my daughter didn't actually decorate these, I did. The problem is that she has the attention span of a 2-year-old. Probably because she is a 2-year-old. If your kids are old enough they would have a great time decorating these! Otherwise, just grab some supplies and make whatever design you want!

 All you need is some of tubes of fabric paint a pair of rain boots, and some clear, flexible sealant. The greatest part is that you have the freedom to paint whatever pattern or picture you want on your boots and if you don't like what you just drew, just take a paper towel or a Q-tip and wipe if off!

After you're done, cover your boots with a couple of coats of clear sealant, like Mod Podge, and let dry (there may be a better sealant out there - any suggestions??). This project can be as short or as long as you want it to be. It took me under an hour or so to decorate my daughter's boots with lady bugs. And obviously, you don't want to heat set the paint or it'll melt your boots! Just let the paint dry in the open for as long as the bottle states then cover with your sealant. Let the Mod Podge dry for as long as the bottle states, then add a second coat. I found the uncoated kind, like the black ones below, work best for this project.

When you're finished, just find the nearest puddle and....

 I made myself a pair too. These took MUCH longer (probably around 5 hours or so spread out across a few days) because I chose to doodle a bunch of intricate flowers on them and let them dry in between. Then (because I'm a self-proclaimed perfectionist) I had to copy the pattern on the other boot to make them look symmetrical. But if you're not anal like me, you can always just doodle all over your boots to your heart's desire.

Now go outside and explore with your child on a rainy day!

It's hard to find plain, affordable boots out there! These are the rubber boots I purchased for myself on Walmart.com. I did a search for some plain rubber kids boots and found these, which look like they'd be perfect.  

When applying the paint, paint it on pretty thick to lessen the chance of your drawn lines breaking during the natural bending of the rubber as you walk. I painted some of my lines on too thin and they broke so I had to repaint them. 
 
**I've had some problems with the paint peeling on my boots because of the natural bending of the boots as I walk. The Mod Podge helps contain most of the paint, however I'm wondering if there is a better sealant out there, one that's more flexible? There's a tutorial HERE at Morning by Morning Productions where she sprayed a spray adhesive to her boots before painting, which would probably be more effective, then coated it with a clear sealant.

Thanks again to Polly at Helping Little Hands for hosting the Read Along. You can visit her blog to see all of the books and corresponding projects that people chose to celebrate National Reading Month.

I'm linking up here:

• Craft Gossip
• Be Different...Act Normal
• One Pretty Thing
• U Create
• Sew Much Ado
• Someday Crafts
• Tip Junkie
• Tatertots and Jello
• Skip to My Lou 
• Momnivore's Dilemma

Living off the land

I'm not doing a very good job of convincing my neighbors I'm not crazy.

Does anyone else have a bunch of wild onions growing in their yard? My yard is absolutely covered in them. And I think it's awesome. Apparently, most people don't share my enthusiasm.

I actually discovered these when I was out on a walk with some of my co-workers. One of the girls dug a couple of them out of the ground to show me. And I tried them. Because that's the obvious thing to do when you find random wild vegetables growing along the side of a busy road.

I guess I thought it was pretty cool that there was actually an edible plant available outside of the grocery store. I know, I'm easily amused. After my discovery, I went home and realized that these things are growing like crazy in my front yard. In every one's front yard actually. Maybe it's a Southern thing? I don't remember any of these growing in my yard when I lived in Virginia.

See all the tall, green tufts? Yup, those are wild onions. And the purple tufts are weeds (we mowed recently, I promise! Thank goodness we're not part of a homeowner's association...) I immediately looked up "wild onions" on Google, and apparently these bad boys are a big problem in Tennessee. Most people consider them to be a nuisance because of how much they grow and how hard they are to get rid of. Me, I look at them and think "garnish".

Recently, I took my daughter outside to play for awhile while I gathered some of the onions. I gave her a box of sidewalk chalk to play with and then I set out on a mission. I attacked the ground with my shovel, removing one small bulb at a time. I was Bear Grylls. I was living off the land, providing for my family, assuring our well-being. I was becoming one with Mother Nature, one wild onion at a time. And then I heard the voice of my neighbor who I had just met a few weeks ago.

Although we've lived in our current neighborhood for 2 years now, we know only 2 sets of neighbors. Well, 3 if you count the little boy across the street who comes over periodically to ask for food. We know our next-door-neighbor because he complains when our leaves fall in his yard and when we left a pile of sticks too close to his house. Apparently sticks attract spiders? News to me, but his wife is deathly afraid of spiders, and our pile of unassuming sticks were an infestation waiting to happen.

The other neighbors (the ones witnessing me digging in my front yard) we know are a couple houses down. We met them a few weeks ago when we were off work because of a snow storm. After talking to he and his wife twice, we were pretty psyched to have met 2 really nice, seemingly normal people outside of work who were our age and who had kids too. As fate would have had it though, they pulled up in their car just in time to see me on my hands and knees, feverishly hacking away at the lawn. It also didn't help my case when my daughter came barrelling at me, her entire face covered in every color of sidewalk chalk.

After my attempts to convince the neighbors that I actually am, in fact, a perfectly lucid human being, I gathered my bushel of wild onions and took my chalk-covered child inside. Then came the fun stuff. And by fun, I mean incredibly time consuming. I washed and cut each of the little stalks of wild onion that I found. It was a labor of love...and it took me over an hour.

Most of the stalks had tiny onion bulbs, but I did have a few that were the size of my pinky. Now, what to do with 1/2 cup of wild onion bulbs? I risked my sanity to retrieve them from the front yard, but now I have no clue what to do with all of them. After doing a little research, apparently Native Americans ate these all the time with eggs. But I feel like I could fancy them up some.

So I ask you, what in the world can I make with wild onions? I'm sure there has to be others of you out there who have tried wild onions before. Maybe you make some fancy quiche with them? A roast perhaps? I need to know. My sanity depends on it.

Childhood

Once I spoke the language of the flowers,
Once I understood each word the caterpillar said,

Once I smiled in secret at the gossip of the starlings,
And shared a conversation with the housefly in my bed.

Once I heard and answered all the questions of the crickets,
And joined the crying of each falling dying flake of snow,

Once I spoke the language of the flowers. . . .
How did it go?
How did it go?

-Forgotten Language, Shel Silverstein

How does your garden grow?

Well this past summer I've learned a very important lesson: I don't enjoy caring for flowers.

They're pretty, don't get me wrong, but I learned very quickly how many weeds a garden can produce in a very short time. Weeding is a full time job, and I couldn't handle keeping a house, a toddler, and a weed-infested garden at the same time. I think my other problem with flower gardens is that they don't seem to give back like fruit and veggie gardens do. I would much rather pick a ripe cantaloupe from my garden and happily eat it feeling like all my hard work paid off. With flowers, you pick them and put them in a vase, just to have them die a short while later. What I'm trying to say is basically that I'm a lazy weeder. And I'd rather eat cantaloupe.

My flower garden did do well for awhile...that is until the crazy Tennessee rain storms kicked in and made the weeds sprout more than the flowers. I had good intentions, I tried to weed when I could, but I just couldn't seem to keep up. Eventually, one side of my poor garden was so overgrown with weeds that Pat just put it out of its misery and mowed over it one night as he was cutting the lawn. The remaining flower garden lives on in weed-infested misery though, doing what it can to survive despite my neglect. My fruit and vegetable garden on the other hand? Well, that's another matter.

Pat planted a small garden in the backyard for me in early spring so I could try my hand at killing growing some fruits and veggies. I planted 2 cantaloupe plants, 2 tomato plants, 2 strawberry plants and a handful of red onions. Fast forward 3 1/2 months and I can proudly say that most of my garden is doing great. The strawberry plants were planted a little late in the season and never produced anything and unfortunately the red onions didn't do well in the soil, but the tomato plants have sprouted about 20 tomatoes and the cantaloupe plants? Well, they've pretty much taken over the entire plot.

This is actually a picture from over a month ago. We had some heavy rains recently and ever since then, the cantaloupe plants seem to have a mind of their own. So far, we've managed to get 2 ripe fruit from them but as soon as those two were picked, I've found about 12-15 new cantaloupe growing.



I haven't had to weed the fruit and veggie garden as much (big plus!) and it's already made up for itself by giving us some delicious produce.

Tiptoe through the sandwort with me

As I told you in a recent post, I was rooting around in the dirt last weekend to prepare my sad, weed-ridden little garden for some flowers. Now, let me start by saying that I've never actually planted my own garden before. I've seen a garden before - that's gotta count for something, right? My parents have had plenty of gardens, and I have a few memories of being forced to weed said gardens as a child (child labor!!), but those days have passed. Now, I'm all grown up and have decided to venture out into the wide world of flora on my own.

With a Home Depot gift card in my pocket, I set out this afternoon with a singular goal: buy flowers that will look nice in the front flower beds (and second less important goal: stay within $50.00 since that was all the gift card had on it). Thanks to many tips from more florally-inclined friends, I learned the difference between "perennial" and "annual" plants, and had decided to get some of both. Buying bulbs was a no no because I'm impatient and want instant results. If I was going to spend hours digging in the dirt on my hands and knees, I want to see flowers right away dang it! There was no way I was going to wait a year to see flowers.


I pulled up to Home Depot, grabbed a cart and headed for the garden area. Thankfully, Home Depot understands what it's like for those of us who are flower-impaired, so they had large signs with bold print reading, "annual" and "perennial." I wanted to get at least one perennial, that way I would have something that would grow back each year (i.e. less digging in the dirt for me). I settled on one called a "sandwort," which sounds more like something from Harry Potter than a flower. It's a nice, white bushel of flowers that looks nothing like sand or warts, but who am I to judge the Flower Namers?

Next, I wanted to get a bunch of pretty annuals that I could plant in front of my yellow and green shrubs. After much searching through the jungle of annuals, I settled on two different kinds: petunias and marigolds.

I thought that the combination of all 3 flowers would make for a nice contrast in the garden with the yellow-green shrubs. So, not knowing exactly how many flowers I needed to buy, I loaded up my cart and went in search of some topsoil. After finding that (and proving how weak I am by trying to lug several 40-lb bags into my cart), I headed to the check out line.

Needless to say, I did not stick to my $50.00 budget. I tried to, but in my defense, the Home Depot card had less money on it than my husband claimed (shameless justification). After several more hours of planting and more weed removing, I'm done! Well, almost done. I also picked up a couple strawberry plants and a tomato plant, so if I loose the battle of the flowers, maybe I'll be able to keep the produce alive.