Stumbling through daily life as a working mother of three
Emily’s preschool class had a lovely picnic in the park last week- such a great spring day!
Since my dad is off on Wednesdays, we invited him to come along.
I got a few nice photos of him – here’s one with me and Emily:
I just love that she and my dad are both wrinkling their noses the same way in this photo…
Well…the date for the Stampin’ Up! Artisan Award contest that I entered a few months ago has come and gone…and no phone call for me, so I guess I didn’t win. I didn’t really think I had a chance of winning it, but I was still bummed out for some reason.
But…then I just got an email from the editor of Take Ten Stampers’ Sampler – they want to feature me as their next Guest Artist! That’s a picture, interview and about 4 pages of my work in the magazine! So I guess that more than makes up for not winning the contest, wouldn’t you say? 😉
I’ll post when I know exactly which issue I’ll be in – now to find a decent photo of myself…
It was a GORGEOUS spring day here in NJ today – and I just happened to have a big ole pile of mulch scheduled to be delivered today. So it was a gardening day for me!
Emily and I planted some flowers from the school plant sale and planted some seeds in our little vegetable garden. Then I mulched the playground area and as many flower beds as I could before I could do no more (my back is really feeling it right now!).
When we bought our house, there was only one tree in the entire yard – there were no bushes, no flowers…nothing. We’ve lived here for 9 years now and every year, we’ve added some new plants. Lots of them we bought, but many of them were given to us by other people who just didn’t want them anymore.
These azaleas were from my mother – she took them out of her garden a few years ago and was going to throw them away.
We also have more azaleas that are past their prime blooming time right now, but just look at the beautiful lily-of-the-valleys under them! The fragrance drifts right up into our bedroom at night…
I also rescued these white lilacs from a neighbor’s trash pile a few years ago as well as the rose-of-sharons next to them:
My rhododendrons and clematis are just getting ready to bloom. I also still have bleeding hearts in bloom below the large rhodo. I just made the second little shade garden last year…it’s just starting to fill in and this will be the first years those little rhodos bloom.
That’s one thing I learn from gardening – patience. Something I have very little of.
Speaking of patience…did I mention that I had a little helper in the garden today?
If only I could get her to dig with a shovel…
Just a quick update – here’s the newest photo of Daisy our goldendoodle taken at 14 weeks:
She’s sure getting big! 🙂
We’re back from our first camping trip of the season! We went to Beachcomber’s Resort in Cape May, NJ this weekend and had a wonderful time.
This was Daisy’s first camping trip and she was great – just like an old pro! She slept in her crate inside the camper at night and adjusted very well to her new surroundings. She did not, however, like being tied up on the lead very much and tried her best to chew through it when no one was watching. Sorry, Daisy – that’s not happening! There’s a steel cable inside… 🙂
We went to Cape May Point (one of the few spots where dogs are allowed on the beach) and let the kids hunt for Cape May diamonds while Daisy dug in the sand to her heart’s content.
I was surprised that Daisy didn’t immediately jump in the water – she seems to like water so much (she even tries to jump inside the bathtub with Emily!). But she was VERY cautious and ran from the waves whenever they rolled in. Mike was determined to get her in the water, but she never went in past her little ankles.
That’s the famous sunken concrete ship in the background (for those not from this area).
What a gorgeous day! And Daisy was quite the little center of attention everywhere we went. Everyone stopped to pet her and wanted to know what kind of dog she was. I went into one store for a few minutes and came out to find Mike surrounded by a dozen admirers – of Daisy, not Mike, unfortunately for him. 😉
But I did tell my husband that if, God forbid, he ever found himself single again, he could sure use Daisy to meet women!
I also managed to fit in some stops to a few antique shops while we were in Cape May. I found it so hard to justify paying ‘antique prices’ for items that I knew I could probably find at a yard sale for less than $5.
But I did make one purchase – a unique vintage sewing cabinet.
I thought this would be so cool to organize my punches, embellishments and rolls of thread. It has little clear jars and lots of little pockets too.  Best of all, it folds flat for storage:
Only $25 – not bad for something not only pretty, but useful too.
Hope you have a happy day!
I didn’t get to step foot in my craft room even once today – too busy with other things.
We’re getting ready to take our camper on our first family voyage of 2007 this weekend – we’re headed to Cape May for a few days. We have a 27-foot long travel trailer that we purchased brand new last year:
It’s so funny – as a kid, I HATED camping (my parents had a Winnebago motorhome when I was growing up). But now as an adult, I find it very relaxing to just get away from everything – even if it is just for a few days. We bought the camper last June and took it out 10 times last year. You can read about our camping adventures on our camping blog (maintained by Mike).
And we’ll be taking it out a lot this year too. We already have our whole summer scheduled with reservations at lots of different campgrounds.
Anyway, I’ve been packing like crazy, trying to get everything in the camper. I had it nicely stocked last year, but I have to replace many items since I found myself raiding the camper on more than one occasion this winter. For example…out of paper towels? Take some from the camper. Out of plastic bags, paper plates, toothpaste, toilet paper, shampoo, soap, etc? Grab some from the camper. No more clean towels? Take some from the camper! 🙂
So after helping out at our school’s Mother’s Day Flower Sale this afternoon (I wrapped in foil 9 flats of tiny little individual impatiens) I took a ride out to Target and ShopRite to replenish the camper stock. Of course, I forgot several things, so it looks like I’ll have to stop at the store again tomorrow.
This was just one of those days where nothing seemed to go my way.
I put a brand new white shirt on this morning and spilled breakfast on it.
I cut my arm while trying to plug something in behind the stove.
The cat food fell off the dryer and spilled all over the floor – I swept it up and went to pour it into the trash…and spilled it all again.
My dog played in her water dish THREE times today – splashing it all over the kitchen.
I got a plant today at my daughter’s school and went to set it down on the passenger seat of my truck…it tipped over and spilled dirt all over the upholstery.
My dog peed INSIDE today more times than OUTSIDE.
My son has been having a hard time focusing in school lately so I talked with his teacher – turns out, he’s been having more trouble than I thought so I had to make an appointment for him with the pediatrician to have him evaluated.
A person showed up to replace our water meter and when he came up from the basement, he asked if we knew that our hot water heater pressure valve was leaking (no, we didn’t – plumber is coming tomorrow).
And…my husband still hasn’t commented on my blog.
Sigh…just not my day.
On the plus side, I went to my daughter’s school today for a Mother’s Day Tea program (but there wasn’t actually any tea…hmmm) and it was very nice. The kids sang and danced around a maypole – even the parents ended up dancing. Here’s a nice photo of me and Emily…
At least something good came out of today. But my video camera battery ran out after only one minute of taping her sing…
Tomorrow will be better, I’m sure. Right?
Just wondering who’s reading this…I know my husband is NOT!
I told him I was going to give him a hard time here today, so here goes.
I asked him to read my entries yesterday to see the photos of the puppy and stuff. When he got home last night, I asked if he had read my blog. He said he looked at the pictures of the puppy, but didn’t read the words! I asked if he saw the entry with the photos of Emily’s birthday party and he said he didn’t scroll down that far! Hmmm….obviously he’s not a big fan of mine. 🙁
Since I don’t get many comments on my blog, I’m curious as to who’s out there (other than my husband who doesn’t read what I write anyway)….can I ask a favor? Could you please leave me a comment and let me know where you’re from and how you heard about my site?
Also, I’m thinking about starting a monthly or weekly challenge where I’ll give you a technique, theme, color combo or other idea to start with and then have you scan and email me a photo of your work. Then I can post the results and give out prizes (randomly, since art is subjective) to all who complete the challenge. Anyone interested? 😉
Spring has finally arrived in New Jersey – and with it comes the weeds! Sometimes I think my backyard is really a dandelion farm!
I spent all day Saturday weeding my front yard flower beds, most of Sunday weeding some of my backyard flower beds and all afternoon yesterday weeding our kids’ swingset area. I filled up 6 GIANT trash bags with weeds – and I’m not even done yet!
I used to be REALLY into gardening and so my yard has all kinds of really cool trees and perennials that I planted over the years. Good thing – because I just don’t have as much time now to keep up with the gardens, so I keep them as simple and low-maintenance as possible. But I just LOVE flowers of all types – my favorites are peonies, hydrangeas and lilacs – so I have to lots of them in my garden!
My azaleas, lilacs and lily-of-the-valleys are all starting to bloom right now – I’ll take a photo of them when they are at their peak.
Hope your spring is as beautiful as ours!
I just adore my new puppy – she is the cutest thing ever! But it’s a good thing she’s cute…because she’s also quite mischievous! It’s been quite a while since we’ve had a puppy – we forgot how tiring it can be! It’s like having a baby…but this baby you can put in its crate when you leave the house! 🙂
She is growing SO fast – I decided to take a photo of her every week with the same object – a stuffed Pooh bear – to track how she’s growing. Here she is at 9 weeks:
10 weeks:
11 weeks:
12 weeks:
And now at 13 weeks:
She was 13 pounds at her first vet appointment four weeks ago – today she was almost 18 pounds at her appointment.
She’s such smart dog – I’ve started taking her to obedience classes. It’s amazing how quickly she can pick up new commands! She can now sit, lay down, walk nicely on a leash, ‘leave it’ and ‘give’.
Here’s Daisy before I took her for her first puppy haircut:
And after her bath, blow dry and trim:
We could see her eyes for the first time!
This is how we usually find her sleeping in the kitchen:
She’s such a nut (fits right in with the rest of our family!)!
Just a few more photos taken today for those who keep asking to see pictures of her…
And here’s one of my favorite shots of her and Emily:
Gotta love life with a goldendoodle!
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