Week in Review

One of these days I’ll get a real blog post done – when I finally get a project done. Until then, these week-in-review posts remind me that while I may not be completing all those projects, which I very much enjoy doing, my time is well-spent nurturing grandbabies. Our situation may be out of the ordinary, and admittedly is sometimes overwhelming, but I truly feel blessed to have those babies here. They’re happy kids who dote on each other most of the time. No delusions that it’s all sunshine and rainbows, but the good far outweighs the challenges.

Here is Silas with the “Litter Bug” he created in preschool. He learned a lot about recycling and keeping our Earth clean when they studied Earth Day. He’s writing a story in this pic, but don’t ask me to recall it. His imagination makes for wild tales full of adventure and Super Hero feats of saving the world.

We are able to contribute for a Bountiful Basket every other week, and when I ordered on Monday I went a little nuts and got three add-on packages. There was no way there was enough room in the frig for what was coming. Layla was really good one day and between her napping and happily sitting in her high chair watching, I was able to deep clean the frig in shifts. Take in the beauty. It was fleeting. Sigh. (Yes, that is a half-eaten apple, courtesy of Silas.)  (Does anyone else have so many condiments? I need a frig just for those. Sheesh.) (Also, too, doesn’t showing the inside of the refrigerator seem really personal?)

For Valentine’s Day, Greg purchased and installed Minecraft on his Kindle for the boys. Silas likes to pretend he’s playing, but Brad actually does spend some time each week creating in the game. He likes to watch Minecraft videos on YouTube, then try out new ideas in his own game. He’s usually allowed just a few hours each week, so it’s a special treat to get to play. He also is required to wear headphones. It’s way too much audio stimulation for this Grammy to deal with otherwise!

Miss Layla was sick through this week, but she was a trooper. There were still lots of smiles and snuggles and slobbery kisses.

Aaaand, here’s our haul from Bountiful Baskets that we picked up Saturday morning! Jess and I did some meal planning this afternoon centered around all this deliciousness. There are some new-to-us items that will take some research to learn to use, like tamarind and dried hibiscus flowers. I’m pretty excited about the tomatoes. This time of year I start craving fresh ones, and while these don’t look too red and ripe, they actually have good flavor. The multi-colored carrots will be fun to sample as well, and I’ve never given the boys fresh apricots. I like apricots, so we’ll see how that goes.

We pick up our basket at 7 a.m., so usually have some time to get everything washed before putting it away. Not this day, since Brad and I were attending a private showing of the new Avengers movie, and had to be back in town almost right away. I had time to unpack and inspect everything, make sure Jess got a good pic, then we packed that clean frig full. It is once again bursting with bounty, with nary a spare inch for any leftovers. Good thing we have a second refrigerator in the garage!

You may have noticed the pretty flowers on the table in the background. Bradley picked those out for me when he was shopping with his mama the other day. Grampy sprayed the dandelions in the yard, so those were in short supply this week.

This Week in Photos (again)

I don’t feel like I accomplished much this past week beyond making the bed every day and keeping up with dishes. I did do a massive amount of laundry mid-week. The boys were out of underwear, so…

Last Sunday was a gorgeous day and I spent part of the afternoon working on the east side of the garage. Years ago I made a small flower bed there, but it’s been sadly neglected. The mulberry tree was cut down last fall, so now I can get in there and put in some new color with flowers. The bleeding heart at the far end is just lovely, and there is lily of the valley all over in there. Also, lots of little trees that are the bane of my existence.  Anyway, this bed is where I’ll be using empty wine bottles. You’ll just have to stay tuned for that!

The boys just cannot keep away from their baby sister, and she loves the attention. Well, most of the time. Silas asked me to snap a pic while he snuggled Layla.

On Monday evening I went outside to grab the stroller and bring it in, and this is what I found on the front porch. I think my heart is going to explode, these boys fill it up so full. Yes, they duct-taped dandelions to the house. They know Grammy likes flowers by the front door.

  

Bradley and Layla are checking out the baby TV channel together. Yes, for a few minutes each morning, she gets to watch TV. Grammy has things to do.

Whenever the boys are here for supper on Tuesdays, we have Mexican food and call it “Taco Tuesday” (thank you, Lego Movie). I asked Silas what we should have this week and he asked for “regleear” (regular) tacos, salad, worms, and butterflies. I did not bat an eye, and he got what he asked for. For the worms, we made “zoodles” using a zucchini and a little gadget I have that looks like a vegetable peeler, but makes long shreds instead. I did a quick sauté with a little olive oil, salt and pepper, and we had our worms. (I made everyone take some. Grampy buried his one zoodle in the bottom of his taco.) For the butterflies, we took some sugar cookie dough from the freezer and Silas made butterfly-shaped cookies for dessert.

 

The weather was perfect all week long, and Jess took the kids to the park each afternoon when she got home from work. Miss Layla has graduated from being strapped in her car sea on the stroller, to sitting in the seat. She loves walking to the park now that she can see all the cool stuff around her!

When I could, I worked on this project. I spent most of Wednesday afternoon cutting out all the little pieces, and now have begun to sew. More on that project as it nears completion. That is my mom’s sewing machine, so I’ve had it 18 years. I have no idea how old it was when I got it, but suffice to say, it has lived a good long life and is about to be retired.

            

So there you go - a small slice of life here on the prairie. Complete with duct taped flowers and worms for supper.

 

31 Days to Happily Ever After – Day 11 – Prettying Up the Flowers

Just after Jess and Scott were engaged, I happened into an old friend whose daughter had married in the Fall a couple of years ago. They had a couple of large boxes of silk flowers just perfect for us. We didn’t use all of them, but the bridesmaid’s bouquets were already assembled, and they were almost perfect.

We tweaked them a bit, and added what I call “bouquet holders”, which is a plastic piece that is much like a handle. Rather than pay $6 each for the official floral bouquet holders, we spent $7 on a piece of PVC pipe and I cut the holders to the length we wanted. (Yes, I used the chop saw all by myself. I’m afraid of motorized blades, so this was quite a feat for me…)

We wrapped each holder in burlap – I know, that’s a surprise.

 

A little hot glue and enough length to roll it completely a couple of times did the trick.

 

  They still needed a little “something”, so I tied on some brown silk ribbon in a corset pattern.

Then Jess asked for a monogram for each of the bridesmaids, so they would be able to tell which bouquet was theirs. I hadn’t soldered anything in a long time, but we put together these little glass “tags” with the girls’ initials on them. The letters are printed on the pearlized paper we used for the invitations. You can’t really tell in the photo, but the shimmer shows through.

The final touch was a little heart charm, then it was tied on with twine.

One of the bridesmaids was here when I put this together, and she really liked it. She’s been working on those twine-wrapped balls you see in the background of the photo. I’ll tell you more about those another day.

The Nester’s 31 Day Series