Projects = BUSY!

I am slowly catching up - we have been so busy! These are some of the things we have been working on:

A couple of weeks ago SOMEONE came into our side yard through the gate and STOLE our recycle container that was full of cans. They left the lid and they left the container of plastic. We had to get a new container (which is annoying) - but it also kind of freaked us out!

If that person(s) were brazen enough to come into our yard, would they try and come into the house too? We got a lock for the gate and we reinforced the outside locks and the doors.

This last Sunday someone stole my newspaper - grrr - I HATE theives!!

We have been working to try and get our food storage better organized. I am trying to buy in bulk and store it in the garage. I have also been trying to figure out how to use some of the items that I have (like wheat, beans, and #10 cans of dehydrated whatever - I'm interested in recipes from any of you that have already figured this out).


I've been going through and reorganizing the kitchen shelves and the pantry so that we are using our food storage better. We are still kind of working on this and we plan to organize the garage a little better in the near future. I'm excited that we are BUILDING and USING our food storage!

We have also worked on a couple of house projects:
We made the difficult decision to get rid of the fish tank. Norm and I have had a fish tank longer than we have had kids. It started out as a fresh-water tank and several years ago we made the decision to switch it over to salt-water (more expensive, more upkeep, prettier fish). It was something that was relaxing and peaceful, and everyone loved watching the fish. It also served that when the kids asked for a pet (they all want a dog), I could say 'we already have a pet - we have fish'. It has been fun through the years but we have had spoiled fish! Taking down the fish tank was one project, but that meant that we had to rearrange and redecorate. This is the spot the fish tank used to be -

Once we got things shifted a bit, I realized that I NEEDED a(nother) wall sticker - which works great because I know this gal :) that does stickers! This is how it turned out -


Since I was getting one sticker, I figured that it wouldn't hurt to get a couple more stickers. So I got this one -

and placed it here -

- appropriate considering that we have 3 boys.

We also got a sticker for Shelly's room.
She decided that she is out of Disney princesses (is that possible? where did the time go?). We had a comforter that she had used years ago still stored in the garage, so we got that out and based her 'new' room around that.
We found the 'BLOOM' fabric covered letters and the flower/butterfly wall stickers on clearance at target. I got 3 square frames at a garage sale for $10. We spray painted the frames dark purple and used the stickers to create pictures to hang in her room.


I sewed the curtains and the pillow sham from the sheet set that went with the comforter.

P.S. In case you are wondering - spray paint DOES come off of kitchen utensils if you scrub hard enough.
P.S.S. Not MY idea to use a kitchen utensil with the spray paint.

And finally - the grand-daddy of all projects - the Garden.
This has been an on-going family project, but we made some substantianl progress on it recently. Our garden area is about 31' by 16'. We worked with the slope after putting in the drains, then we added grow mix (1 and a half cubic yards - basically a truckload and a half that we got from a nearby nursery)




then we reworked the slope, and planted. We planted squash, pumpkins, zucchini, watermelon, cucumbers, bell peppers, tomatoes, strawberries, and lettuce.


We worked late into the night and so we had to take pictures the next day.


We still have some seeds that we'd like to plant (radishes, onions, carrots), and I'm going to add a soaker hose for hot days like we are having here, but it is looking great!