I Would Walk 500 Miles

How many miles do you think a toddler walks in a year?



Just looking at the distance between the front window and the couch, a toddler might cover 2 miles a day. This converts to 730 miles a year. Multiply that by 5 kids, and these shoes have covered, at a minimum, 3650 miles in their life.

I think it's time they got to go the big shoe store in the sky.

Do or Die

I was determined to finish the girls' room today. A few mess-ups & cover-ups later, I'm calling it complete (I'm not counting the closet shelves). Here's what we did:

Grandma Nielson made beautiful quilts for the girls. We started painting the walls a beautiful "Celtic Gray" to match while they were here last month. Brian installed a ceiling fan.

Closet door was thrown out. A new curtain creates a "dressing room," as Maggie likes to say.

New trim, electric plates, curtain, & blinds installed. The window was washed, but Paul made sure that was put back in order.


The only different here is the books are organized. :)

Finally, I made this cloth pennant modeled after one I saw at Target. Used a few scraps & filled in an empty wall.

We are all very happy with the result. And really happy that is it done! The rest is up to the girls.

"Sure, Mom, we'll keep it clean."

Mother's Day to Father's Day- Thanks Dad!

I got to cook dinner for my mom on Mother's day. I considered this a treat because I so rarely get to see her on that day. The reason for her being at our home was that she and dad agreed to help with a couple of projects at the house. The redo of the girls room drew mom's focus, and dad was key on our gardening (flower and vegetable) projects.

I am extraordinarily grateful to both of them for too many things to list. This post though allows me to show the amount of growth that can occur in a very short period of time. Most readers will not have seen the state of things after planting, but I'll try and give some perspective throughout. The key thing is that most of the planting happened just after Mother's Day (the day they say is the last risk of frost) and today, Father's Day.

I was too lazy to redo all of the photos, so you'll see them in reverse order of how they were taken. After a trip through, if you want to start at the end and scroll up- go for it!

The beets have been bunny favorite, but these seem to be ok, thanks to the net. Our late broccoli is in with the herbs.

2 mounds of summer squash (yellow and zuchini) these were seeds just one month ago.

The beans are in the cornstalks- so far so good.

This tomato is in the soil prepped according to Dad's guidance. Sorry you have to turn your head.

'Dad's Plot' - old school, none of this new age square foot stuff.

The 'third project'- just a view of where the gravel went

Consider the daisy's of the field... (I know it should be lilies, but dad didn't bring several dozens of lily starts)

This Father's day post is for dad, who knows what is growing better than I do.

The daisys seem to like the corner by the sidewalk

Each of these plants in a row was just a bit of root stalk and a leaf or two when they emerged from dad's carry-on.

Someday I won't need Sara to remind me that these are asters.

Trick photography makes it look like Sara is doing upside down weeding. I was going for a long shot of the convolulous.

We put some stakes in to start training the Star Flower that Amy requested.

The sun washed out the flower on the hosta- but if you look close you'll see it.

This clematis is moving quickly.

I love the cleopas (sp?)- a ton of flowers are getting ready to bloom.

They are the showpiece at the moment.

Four of them in total.

This is the 'ground cover' plant that is starting to fill in.

Cookies for Sale

"Welcome to our tour of local delicacies."




"If you'll please follow the purple hula hoop, we'll be there shortly."




"Ah, here we are.
Cincinnati's finest Coco-Delites (known in other parts of the country as no-bake cookie bars). Please help yourself to a sample, then purchase a large cookie for only 75 cents. As you can see, demand has been high & prices have risen. Don't wait until they rise again!"


"Thank you for your generosity. This concludes our tour."

Flowers in Bloom

What we did instead of cleaning for bookclub:

Weeded the front flower bed. Doesn't it look great?

The first daisy to bloom:

The cleopas is almost as tall as Paul (the clematis in the background is taller than Paul):

Why are these kids not working?!?
Paul is excused--he's a little too good at pulling plants out of the ground & flinging them behind his back.