Perfect Spring day.

Today was a perfect sunny Spring day.  It started out kind of chilly but it finally got up to around 62 and nothing but sun and bright blue sky.  It was a nice change from the last couple of days.  I spent the day running errands yesterday and it was so cold and bitter and rainy.  Yuck.  Today made up for the last couple of icky days though.  The sun was actually up bright and early and we were able to get up before 8.  That is usually unheard of on Sundays.  

I got up and made a batch of pancakes and Tim finished up his school project and took his exam.  Aced it, of course.  Then Tim and Connor took a nice long walk along the river dike.  Aidan and I spent the time in the basement going through bins and trying to get organized.  We sort through the Spring/Summer clothes and weeded out what won't fit them anymore.  Let's just say that their cousin Bryson is going to be getting a nice big box of clothes soon.  We also worked on a lot of laundry.  I only do laundry once a week now so that I don't have to think about it during the week. I have too much other stuff to do than to worry about laundry.  I got the load of whites done and then a load of towels.  I threw the towels in the dryer and started it.  I then pulled the door open and stopped the dryer.  I had a little conversation with myself.  Self...I said, go upstairs, go outside and string up the line.  Hang those towels out in the bright sun and cool breeze.  You can save at least one load from the dryer.  So that is what I did.

Ahh, crunchy towels right off the line.

Tim and Connor came home and then the kids and I ended up spending 2 and a half hours outside.  Aidan drew a big racetrack on Nancy's parking lot and they had their scooter/bike races.  They dragged a bunch of toys outside and just had a blast.  During bath time tonight, I was noticing how cute they were with little pink cheeks.

Now it's almost bed time.  Connor has it in his head that he wants to listen to A Prairie Home Companion so I have to get their radio set to the station and then they will be going to bed.  I think I will do the same thing, go to bed and listen. 

The only other exciting thing going on around here right now is that we are waiting for butterflies.  We got 5 little caterpillar pupa on the 20th of March.  They were so tiny.  The kids have had so much fun watching the inch around and grow bigger and bigger.  We kept the cup on the big desk in the classroom and we kept tabs on them daily.  They finally made their little chrysalids on Friday and now we are waiting for them to emerge as butterflies.  We have to get sugar water and some flowers ready to feed them when they come out.  I hope that by the end of the week our temps are warm enough so that we can release them out into our yard. 

We got these little guys March 20th.

They got huge.  This picture was taken March 30th.

Turned in chrysalids on April 3rd.

Oh, and then there are also these guys:

our 30+ tomato plants that are waiting to go outside and get planted.  I've been putting them outside during the day to acclimate to the outdoors.  I would have liked to have planted them today but we are forecast for possible snow in a couple of days. I hope we don't get any.  It's Spring dang it...keep our temps warm.

I hope everyone had a good weekend and have a great week.  

Binghamton.

I was shocked to see the news today.  Quiet, little Binghamton, NY all over the news.  When Tim and I got married he was living in Johnson City going to school there.  I moved up there when we got hitched.  We lived there for two years.  Connor was born there. 

 It was a nice enough town. Moving there was a culture shock for me.  I had pretty much grown up in Central Florida.  I often marveled at the  local news in Binghamton.  Instead of the home invasions and murders of where I grew up, the news was about someone retiring after a certain number of years...or news about the bridge being redone or something.  It was quiet.  When we lived there, I didn't particularly care for it becuase I was used to a bigger city and much more things to do.  We moved to back to Florida and stayed there for three years.  Then one night I had a dream that we back to Binghamton.

We didn't ultimately end up there but it got us back up into the North East.  We often go up to Binghamton to see friends.  We have a lot of good memories there.  It's sad that it's in the news for such a terrible thing.  Unfortunately, with the economy the way it is and more and more people finding themselves out of work, I fear what happened today will be something we see more and more of.  I know Binghamton is a great town and the people in that area will pull together and get through this.

Oddly enough, we had planned on going to Binghamton tomorrow for a rock and gem show for Tim and we had decided to not go before this happened.  Tim has a school project that is due on Sunday and now with the shooting I'm glad we had made that decision.  It's going to be a zoo there with every news station swarming around.

We'll be back to you soon Binghamton.  Who knows?  Tim might end up back in your school soon enough.  My thoughts are with all the families affected today.

Excited.

Last weekend I signed up for a two day class at our local dairy farm. Have I mentioned how much I love love love our dairy farm. We get fresh milk that is completely free from growth hormones. The kids love to go because the farm lets wee ones wander around and look at the animals. And the ice cream...oh, the ice cream. Well, the farm is going to have a food preservation course to teach how to can and freeze food.

We canned last year. I think we were pretty successful with it. We're still alive. We did have the one unfortunate event with the tomato sauce but that will be remedied this year with the pressure cooker. The pressure cooker. Can I just say that thing scares the hell out of me. I think I'm going to let Tim use it the first time.

Hmmm, what else is new? I've been feeling icky and yucky for the last couple of days. I don't know if I'm fighting a flu bug or something but I feel achy all over and my tummy doesn't feel all that swift. I feel like I could sleep all day. Thankfully the sun is out today and that is helping a little bit. It's still kind of cold out though. I'm seriously ready for some warm temperatures.

Oh, I know what I need to do. I need to get on the kids and have them write back to their pen pal. Sorry Brian. It will be in the mail soon.

I think that is all for now. This was kind of a random post. Hopefully I'll have a more thought out one next time. =)

A nice Spring day.

Treasure hunt 3-28-09
Originally uploaded by busybeebiz

This is going to be a short post because we are going lights out in 17 minutes for Earth Hour. I just wanted to post a picture of what I got today in my second day of going to tag sales and a community sale. Let's just say that I left the house with 26 dollars and I came home with a ten still in my pocket.

I also got to work out in the garden today. We got some manure put down into one of the garden beds and I planted two rows of sugar snap peas.

The only other thing that I did that I'm excited about it I signed up for a two night course of food preservation. I'll see if I can find a link to it later, but I need to go get kiddies in jammies and everyone's teeth brushed before it goes dark.

We did Earth Hour last year and the kids have been excited to do it again. Last year we all piled into our bed with flashlights and made shadow hand puppets on the walls and ceiling. We told scary stories and then we all passed out asleep. I'm hoping the sleep comes fast tonight to the wee ones, but I have my doubts.

We have no plans for tomorrow, so I'm hoping I can post more tomorrow.

Time...

Where does it go? We have been all so busy that I am having a hard time trying to sneak posts in.
We spent a lovely weekend in Olean with Tim's dad and new mom. It was an action packed weekend of going from one event to another. Laurie graciously offered her home to us again and I'm looking forward to going back over and start working with her on a garden. I have to do some research on her growing zone. It's much wetter and grayer there than it is here.

Speaking of weather. Spring, hello? Where did you go? Waking up to 18 degrees this morning got me to grumbling again about our weather. The sun has been beautiful and the skies so blue, but it's been so flipping cold. We had to go out and get Tim a sweatshirt this weekend because I stole his jacket.

 The cold doesn't seem to be stopping the crocuses from popping up. It's just keeping me from putting any of my plants out. All of my peas have officially died now. Note for next year, don't start them in January. Nancy did clean up one of the garden plots over the weekend and if the temps break 50 in the next couple of days I'm going to go plant a row of seeds. I know that they can go out while it's still cool out. Thankfully my tomatoes seem to be doing great on my dining room table. I'll be glad when I can reclaim my dining room table though and the grow lights can go back down into the basement.

Ok, back to the weekend. After a long ride over to Olean we took advantage of an empty lot across the street from Laurie's and had a baseball game. It was great fun, even though it was chilly out. The kids got to burn a lot of energy that had accumulated in the drive over. Patchy played first base for us and Aidan pretty much made up the rest of the bases. Grampa had to do a lot of running around to herd him back into the "field". Both Connor and Aidan are pretty good at the bat. Connor has a very good pitching arm on him, but needs to get over his fear of getting hit with the ball when he's catching. It's kind of funny to watch. That and his running. We laugh every time we see him run. He puts his head down and kind of shakes his head when he's running. I don't know where he's learned to do this, but we are going to have to put him on a track and show him how it's done. 

Perfect pitch.

Keep your eyes open!

After that we went to a couple of fund raising functions. We enjoyed some most delicious Lebanese food at one of them. It makes me want to try my hand at some of that cooking.

Sunday was a fun day. We went to a maple farm. We were lucky enough to be there on a special weekend. There were a couple of different demonstrations going on. It was fun to walk through the woods and see all of the trees tapped and the sap running like water on some of them. We went into a barn like structure where they were boiling the sap down. The place was filled with smoke/steam that smelled so delicious. I know they were talking about how they produce it but between me trying to keep Patchy behaving and Connor from wolfing down little cider donuts I missed a lot of it. Then there was a demonstration about how the Native Americans happened to find out that the trees had a sweet sap in them and it showed how they harvested the sap from the trees and used rocks that had been heated in fire to boil the sugar. I think my favorite part of that demonstration (besides the warm fire that was burning) was tasting the maple wine. We asked where we could buy some but apparently the guy makes it in his basement and he wouldn't cough up an address. I immediately came home and googled it though and have found a couple of recipes. Me thinks I'll be trying my hand at that.

Connor checking out one of the taps.

Aidan waiting for the tractor ride up the hill.

Enjoying the view from the wagon being pulled by a tractor up the hill.

Maple smoke/steam made this tin punch lamp look really neat.

The color changes in sap from one season of tapping.

My new favorite coffee mug that I got at the farm.  It doesn't have a handle.  It has a hand cozy and when you hold the cup, you cup it in your hands to keep your hands cozy.  LOVE it!

After that we went back to the house and had an amazing dinner cooked by Laurie. This is the person who says she doesn't cook. She did a pretty good job. =) We got home late on Sunday night and yesterday was spent running around town. I had to run to the dentist to get some paperwork filled out for the kids. I had to go to the dairy to get some milk and cream. I think we are going to do an experiment and try to make our own butter. Then I had to go find out where I'm taking Connor tomorrow for his PSSA testing. Then, last but not least, was food shopping. Oh, and a couple of loads of laundry, make dinner, clean the kitchen. Yeah, I went to bed beat last night. I feel pretty good today. Today we Connor and I are going to do some last minute studying for his tests and then I have to get a backpack ready with snacks and a book. If he finishes his test early he has to sit quietly while everyone else finishes. This should prove interesting. At least the Warrior book set from Nana and Papa showed up yesterday. Thank you Nana and Papa for the books for the kids. They were thrilled with them. We read Aidan's book last night at bed time.

I have a bunch of pictures to post and I'm trying to how to link them from my Flickr account. I've done it twice and I don't see the pics in the post. I'm going to have to play with it some more. If I can't figure it out, I'll have to go back to the laptop and just load them directly from there.

I hope everyone is having a fantastic week!  Thank you dad and Laurie for hosting our little family and providing a weekend of fun.  Can't wait to do it again!

My Day in Pictures.

My Day in Pictures.
Originally uploaded by busybeebiz

This will be a short and sweet post. This is my day in pictures. I was up super early and Tim dragged me outside to see how pretty the moon was in the early morning light. Of course, I had to run in and grab my tripod and camera and try to get a decent picture. Someday I'll have my nice camera where I'll be able to get really closeup shot. Then it was a full day of school. In our classroom my desk faces a big window into the back yard. Connor and Aidan stood at this window for 20 minutes watching two cats hunt down squirrels. They were so into it. They were hoping to see a cat score a squirrel. There were two cats out there. The orange cat was on the ground hiding behind their wagon and the black cat was up on top of their fort watching and waiting. Once in a while the squirrels would get complacent and come back into the yard. One of the squirrels almost met his maker. The orange cat would have gotten him if I hadn't screamed in horror as the cat jumped out at the squirrel.

After the drama in the back yard, Connor had his final junior great books live lesson where he presented his powerpoint on Ethiopia. He did a really good job. He read it a little too fast, but he did good research and put together a nice presentation.

Aidan did some math work and then went and played with his legos while Connor and I discussed matter, mass, volume and elements. He made something and asked that I would take a picture of it to put on my blog. I had to take a couple of pictures because he didn't like the perspective on some of them. He is so my child.

Then the kids and I wandered out into the yard for a bit to enjoy 60 degree weather. While I was out there, I found this weird looking thing growing up out of the ground. I couldn't figure out what it was. I thought maybe it was one of my carrots from last year that wasn't pulled and that it just started to grow. I don't think they can do that. I then remembered that I had planted rhubarb there last year. I was happy to see it come up again. I hope I didn't hurt it by digging around at it while I was trying to figure it out.

The only other thing major I did today was make another batch of granola. It is so tasty. It has oatmeal, flax seed, pumpkin seeds, honey, cinnamon and walnuts in it. The kids love it.

So that about sums up my day. I'm ready for bed. I got three new books today so I think I'm going to curl up in bed and read until I fall asleep, which is usually only about 5 minutes.

I hope everyone is enjoying the lovely spring weather!

Busy day!

So yesterday after I finished posting about my garage sale finds Nancy called and asked me if I had made an offer on the living room set that I loved.  I had not. I didn't even ask how much it was because I assumed that it would be too rich for my blood.  She told me that she had stopped back by the house again and asked about it.  He had one offer on it but was willing to take another offer.  The offer was low low low.  I called Tim to find out if I should run over and make him an offer.  Tim had not seen the set, he had only heard me rave about it.  He said sure.  I hooked Patchy up and we walked two blocks over and caught the guy just as he was leaving. I asked him if he had sold the set.  He had not.  He told me to make an offer. I offered him 50 more than his previous offer had been (thanks Nancy for finding out what it was) and he took it.  I wrote him a check and made plans to pick it up today.  Tim came home and called his friend to see if he could help us pick it up with his truck.  Unfortunately, he was sick and not able to help us. 

That brings us to today.  I let Tim sleep in until 10 and then we walked over to survey what we could do.  We were pondering renting a uhaul truck for an hour and moving it.  It ended up that we carried the pieces home. I think I can safely say I got my weight lifting done today.  We got it home and set up and I'm so happy with the set.  Tim loves it too.  It's something that we would have picked up in a furniture store, just a couple thousand dollars cheaper.  Yay to garage sale finds!!

Our new living room set.  Not a great picture but it shows the couch and love seat.  I'll try and get a better picture later.  

After grabbing a quick lunch we head out the door again.  We walked into downtown and watched the St Patrick's day parade.  It was so beautiful out today.  We had such a nice time.  It was nice to feel the sun on my skin again.  Of course, I had planned on working in the garden but we opted to go to the parade instead.  The boys had fun and came home with so much candy that had been flung at them.

I love kilts!

Impressive!

Waiting for more candy and picking up what they could.

Patchy was not impressed.  He fell asleep on Tim's boots.  He was anxious at first because there were a lot of people, but he settled right down and got comfy (and dirty).  He did excited when the SPCA went by with some of their dogs.  he was happy to see some other dogs.

After the parade we came home and then went to the Hillside Dairy farm.  We had decided that we wanted to have some ice cream.  Apparently everyone else had the same idea.  That place was packed and the poor girls behind the counter were frazzled.  We love going to the Hillside and think we will make a monthly trek over there for an ice cream cone.

The kids checking out the chickens at the farm.

I did get my tomatoes outside for a little bit today.  It's supposed to be in the 50's all week so I'm going to start putting them out during the day to get them used to being outdoors.  I think I  can take down my grow lights soon.  I have to replant Tim's haberneros again.  I had three jalapenos come up but the ancho and haberneros didn't sprout.  Boo.  I hope I have enough time to sprout them and get them outside.  If not, I may be buying some at our local nursery.  

Well, I better go get stuff ready for school tomorrow.  Connor has a report to write about Ethiopia and he has to tie it to his Junior Great Books story he read last week.  That will take him a while tomorrow.  I better look at his schedule and do some shuffling.