Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary...

I've always enjoyed gardening, especially perennials and vegetables. I think annuals are a pain (you've got to plant them every year and water them A LOT), but they do produce summer-long color, so I have them.

Every year I plant green beans (everyone's absolute favorite), tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, and carrots. This year I've added a pepper plant, although I'm not too hopeful: I've tried peppers in the past, and they always rot before I can harvest them.

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Because it's been a very rainy spring, the garden is an absolute jungle! Instead of the 3 cucumber trellises I usually use (one for each plant), I have six this year, the vines are so long! We can't wait for cucumber salad, tomato sandwiches, grilled zucchini, steamed green beans, zucchini bread, tomato/mozzarella salad...mmmm....won't be long now!

Jack is my fellow gardener. Of all three children, he's the one who helps me plant, weed, and harvest. He's especially good at harvesting cherry tomatoes...right into his litttle mouth. He had his first cherry tomato last week and he pronounced it "absolutely delicious!" We've had 3 or 4 ripe ones, but I haven't had one yet: they've all belonged to Jack.

Please enjoy these pictures of my burgeoning garden:

How can you tell when a zucchini is excited?

Darth Snaker, our rubber snake, glides among the carrots to keep the bunnies and moles at bay.


Can't wait for those tomato sandwiches in August!

My favorite garden picture ever...2 year old Jack checking for cherry tomatoes.

Lions, and Llamas, and Poop, Oh My!

Last week, to celebrate the one sunny day that was given to us, we traveled with friends to the Lake Tobias Safari/Petting Zoo. http://www.laketobias.com/safari/

The safari tour is terrific: school buses with the tops cut off, a tour guide who dispenses information and bad jokes, and tons of llamas, alpacas, buffalos, zedonks (half zebra, half donkey), emus, deer, and more come right up to the bus, stretch out their furry necks, and eat the crackers and popcorn we've bought especially for them, right out of hand!

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The kids spent a (really, really, really) long time in the petting area of the park. Friendly goats, baby camels, chubby, tiny ponies, and silly looking llamas followed us around and cooperated to the fullest extent for tons of petting fun --(oh! Watch out for that poop pile!)

The zoo included monkeys, baboons, alligators, lions, camels, capybara, and many more familiar and unusual animals. The kids (12 in all) were wiped out at the end of our 5 hour day there. We headed back to the parking lot, scraped the poop off our shoes, collapsed into the minivans, and headed home.

...No More Teacher's Dirty Looks...

From age 5 until age 31, I was continuously either a student or a teacher, and the word Summer would give me a warm, fuzzy, happy feeling. Freedom! Swimming! Sleeping Late! No Homework (to do or correct)! Yeah!

Now, the word summer gives me mixed feelings.

I love my children. Absolutely. But it's been only two weeks since we said good-bye forever to the bus driver, we ran home from the bus stop in anticipation of 100 days of sun and fun, and now they are driving me CRAZY! It doesn't help that it's been rainy and gloomy. The few days of sunshine have seen the kids riding bikes, swimming, playing kickball, etc., but their bickering and whining is starting to wear me down.

We've gone to the movies, played board games, baked blueberry muffins, played Legos and Wii, begun doing our Summer Jobs, had friends over to play, made visits to two relatives, gone to the library, and this week is Bible School (thank you, Jesus), but if either some good sunshine or August 31 doesn't arrive soon, I may be checking in to Philhaven.

Mmmm. Philhaven. Sounds quiet and restful, doesn't it? No one fighting over Matchbox cars or my attention or personal space. No one sulking because they have to go to swim lessons or because every second of the day isn't Eat-Yourself-Silly Time. Everyone medicated and happy! I bet I could request a padded room for the ultimate in peaceful solitude.

Bunny Wars

For some reason, the rabbit population in our neighborhood this year has increased dramatically from last year. All of my neighbors agree and have stories to share: the rabbit who stretched up and ate the newly planted annuals out of a pot, the rabbit who sits in the front yard and stares at the house every evening, the rabbit who ate petunias that were planted 3 times until the gardener gave up and planted marigolds.

In my case, the bunnies have helped themselves to my broccoli, cabbage, and cilantro. I will have none of those to harvest (actually, everyone's relieved about the cabbage). They keep nibbling my petunias down, just a little bit....not enough to replace them, just enough that they look like they will never grow past that wimpy looking stage. They also did a job on my Black-Eyed Susans this year (which are growing in just fine now), and they've chomped down a few green bean plants and most of the leaves of my lone pepper plant.

Naturally, I have been seeking revenge.

And I do have a larger brain, internet access, and...well, a credit card.

Some things I tried after googling "death to bunnies":

-rabbit repellant spray-a mixture of garlic and fox urine, that I must spray once a week near or on the plants. The rabbits supposedly hate this smell and head to the neighbor's sunny patch instead of mine. I think it has helped, but the rabbits did cross the stink to eat the cilantro to the ground, so the lure of the cilantro must have been greater than the stink of the spray.

-a rubber snake, whom we named Darth Snaker. I put him in with the green beans, but the bunnies ate the pepper leaves. Makes me wonder if a valedictory bunny sat near by, noticed the obvious lack of movement on Darth Snaker's part, and decided to chance it.

-human hair (mine) pulled from my hair brush, scattered around the garden. It blew away.

-I am thinking of asking the boys to take their next potty break around the edge of the garden...couldn't hurt...but...ewwww.

I. Will. Win.
Stupid bunnies.

Baby Bird Loses the Training Wheels

Today Jack asked if he could take the training wheels off of his bike.

So we did.

I held onto his shirt and pushed him off, and he zoomed away without a second glance. I didn't even have to run with him.

Dave was watching from his office and came out to congratulate him. Jack is very proud. He just can't wait for the arrival of the elementary bus so he can ride his two wheeler there and surprise Maddie and Ben.

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As icing on the cake (or sprinkles on the cone), a policeman drove by us, congratulated Jack on his bicycular (I'm almost certain that's a word!) achievement, asked him if he always wears a bike helmet (of course!), and gave him a gift certificate for an ice cream cone at Dairy Queen.

Without getting too sentimental, I am looking ahead twenty years, and hoping his independence from us comes just as easily as this small show of self-sufficiency...and I'm also hoping those twenty years pass very, very slowly.

It's a Big World After All

This evening, Jack and I were sitting on the front porch swing. Jack asked me, "What's on top of outer space?"

"Nothing." I told him, "Outer space goes on forever."

"But I mean, what's on top of it?"

"There's nothing on top of it, Jack. If we got in a rocket and flew into outer space and kept on going and never ever stopped, we would still never reach the end of outer space."

He thought about this for awhile, then replied, "I think I'll just stay here."

Sounds good to me.