Sim.plic.i.ty

sim.plic.i.ty
Noun:  1. The quality or condition of being plain or natural.
           2. The state of being simple, uncomplicated, or uncompounded.

Simplicity is a good cooked cheeseburger:

Simplicity is walking around the RV show and finding out you're completely content with the camper you have:

Simplicity is walking into your newly painted living room and falling absolutely in love:

Simplicity is painting an old ladder......

and then distressing it to look old again.

Simplicity is watching your plants prepare for spring. This is our orange dwarf tree preparing to bloom:

Simplicity is watching your boys work the garden:

Simplicity is the uncomplicated love that your heart fills with being at home with your family.

"Beauty of style and harmony and grace and good rhythm depend on simplicity"~Plato

Eat, Drink, and Be Scary!

I had a great little Halloween Feast with the family last night. It wasn't planned and at about 3:00 I decided to throw something together really quickly. I had some Halloween decorations that we bought 50% off about 3 years ago and have never used. While the boys were outside playing I grabbed them from the attic and got to work. On the menu was still what I had originally planned for dinner we just stepped it up a notch by giving it all a new name.
Menu:

• Shredded Frankenbrains aka Shredded beer BBQ chicken in the crock pot
• Maggots aka rice
• Smashed liver & onions aka squash and onions
• Grubs aka greenbeans

I went out and cut some fresh mums from our 4 year old mum outside. I didn't realize it until later that I also brought in a little visitor with them.

I grabbed the two pumpkins that K brought home from his field trips to the pumpkin patch and just to add a little spunk I cut out a bat and used some of my jewelry wire to make the bat hover.

The end result certainly wasn't anything spectacular but it brought smiles to the boys faces for sure!

Eat, Drink, and Be Scary! ~Author Unknown

Thank you for the Crocs....They've gone to great use.

I giggle at the title of this post because the person who gave me my Crocs is most likely going to read this. :) Anyways, I was roaming around one of my new favorite websites and happened across a picture of flowers planted in a pair of Crocs. I immediately knew that this was something I HAD to do. I thought it would be a great little project for K and I.
So when we got back from the flower store I rounded him up and we got busy. He let me know real quick like that he wasn't interested in really helping and that he would just watch but to get him engaged I gave him the most important job of all!!! Taking the pictures! He also let me know in a fit of laughter that flowers DON'T belong in shoes but rather behind girls ears so I obliged and did just that.

I was quite impressed at the picture documentation he did. He took a picture of each little step.

Finished Product....So cute!

Thank you K for the great time! Our little flower Crocs look so welcoming by the front door.

Belated 4th of July Celebration

~"Freedom is never given, it is won." Anonymous

We had a bit of a late 4th of July celebration. After our very fun but tiresome weekend out at the lake for the 4th, sad to say, but all of us have struggled to even stay up until dark. Finally last night we decided to have our "big" celebration.....which consisted of grilling out and sparklers.

I was SHOCKED at how much E liked the sparklers. I thought he was going to be scared. I should have known better. He is his own firecracker.

And then of course we have our little Harry Potter. I don't think this was what K was purposely doing but of course it was my first thought when I saw this picture.

We had a great little "celebration" and in the end I think it wore our little firecracker out.

Are you my Mother?

"You are not my Mother. You are a scary Snort!" ~ P.D. Eastman (Are you my Mother?)

We found a baby bird yesterday. He sat there in the middle of our yard-to young to fly or run away. He just sat there. I felt like I was straight out of the book, "Are you my Mother?" The birdie seemed so confused and scared to say the least. Finally momma birdie must have gotten back from collecting food and noticed her little baby out of the safety of the nest. You could tell she was in a pure panic. K and I backed up and watched from afar...

Watching this momma bird running around our yard, flying from tree to tree, running up to the baby to make sure it was still okay was heartbreaking but neat all at the same time. We were watching the bond of a mother and a child right before our eyes. When I turned around to get Aaron's attention I saw that he too was watching the bond between a mother and a child. Little did I know he was snapping pictures of K and I the whole time.

**Just an update on the little birdie, he is still out front. When we went out to check on him Momma bird was up high in the tree above him keeping guard.**

Garden Journal-May 15

May has been an incredible month for the garden. My plans were to do a garden update once a month so I could see the growth by month but with all the changes I couldn't help myself. One of the first things we do before leaving for work in the morning is go out and check on the garden...and in the afternoon one of the last things we do before heading in for the night is check on the garden again. You would be amazed at how much can change just in the 12 hours that pass by.

One of my pride and joys is the Sunflower "field" that I'm growing for myself. It's not going to be a field by any means but it's going to be the closest I can seem to get to actually finding a true sunflower field. I'm pretty excited about how well the flowers are doing so far. We started them from seed straight into the ground and they have already grown to almost the height of K.

Another one of our biggest successes so far have been our sugar snap peas. We have been able to harvest enough to eat them fresh in salads and stirfry and also freeze some for the fall and winter. It amazes me how much the kiddos like them raw straight off the vine. Here is a picture of K stuffing his mouth full of the peas. Isn't that an awesome sight!? :)

...and of course I have to give credit where credit is due. So far we have been chemical free and I can of course give some thanks to the beautiful "good" bugs that have found our garden a home and help to patrol the area for all the not so welcomed guest.

"There can be no other occupation like gardening in which, if you were to creep up behind someone at their work, you would find them smiling"~Mirabel Osler

What I Can Give...

....I can't always give my boys the biggest and most expensive toys...

....I can't always give them the cleanest and most organized home....

I don't have the option to stay at home with them and watch them grow from sun up until sun down....

They don't get to go to Chuck-E Cheese every weekend or see all the new movies in theatre....

....maybe at times I let them watch too much TV just so I can have a quiet moment every now and then....

Some things I can help give them though are the love of nature, their love of growing their own food, their love for the simple things in life...

....The love they have for each other....What little time all four of us do have together is made sure to be quality time...

....That smile on E's face is priceless. The laughter coming from the yard while playing on a $5 purchase from the flea market is priceless....

***"I am beginning to learn it is the sweet simple things in life which are the real ones after all"~Laura Ingalls Wilder

Rainy Days

It's been a very wet, cold, rainy weekend. I know the yard is loving the rain but I'm personally wondering what happened to the beautiful weather. I was starting to get a bit of cabin fever yesterday so I decided to go wonder the yard in the sprinkling rain. I absolutely despise having dandelions in our yard but when I came across this one it peaked my curiosity. I realized I've never seen the seeds to these flowers weeds. Even something as small as a weed has a purpose in it's little life. Pretty neat, I thought.