I Dream of Tomatoes

Hi, my name is April and I am a tomato plant addict.
.
It started innocently enough, but I think it's time to admit I have a problem.
.

I started over 100 tomato plants from seed early this spring. I planted some and found good homes for the others. A few of mine died, so on a visit to the greenhouse this morning, I thought I'd pick up some "replacements". Um, yeah. I needed 2 tomato plants and came home with 7. I then found a few more volunteer plants coming up from last year. I now have Amish Paste, Cherokee Purple, Thessaloniki, Golden Girl, Yellow Pear, Rutgers, Supersteak and some kind with Jet in the name. Apparently my yard looked much bigger from the greenhouse. If all of these plants produce even moderately well, I will be canning around the clock. I still need to plant peppers and beans, but my garden is coming along nicely. The weather has been beautiful, and gardening is really the only socially acceptable reason for adults to play in the dirt - which I love.

.

Enjoy spring now that it is finally here!

Ridiculous!

Have you heard about this yet?



Unbelievable.

Bible Study Book Review

For several months, I've been feeling a nudge towards leading a Bible study and last month, I made some progress towards that end. Starting this summer, we will be studying Sarah, Hagar, Rebekah, Leah and Rachel using a book by Liz Curtis Higgs, Slightly Bad Girls of the Bible. I have to admit that the title is what caught me, but once I started reading, I had a lot of trouble putting this book down. I'm really excited to get started!

I've ordered the DVD for an additional resource, and working toward collecting the books for the ladies who participate in the study. I've never done anything like this before, but comfort zones were made to be abandoned, right?

To Bikini or Not to Bikini

Okay, so the title is a stretch. Sorry.

I'll admit that I was in denial about the whole "summer is coming soon" thing. Memorial Day weekend came and with it came the openning of the local swimming pool. Foolishly, I thought we could just duck into any old store and come out with a bathing suit for my daughter. Ha. So naive, so optimistic, so, well, WRONG! This is our first year shopping in the juniors department and we found nothing but skimpy bikinis and a single one-piece that was little more than a bikini with belly button coverage. All we could find in the misses section, was "mom suits", a moniker coined by my daughter that can only be said if you can sneer, wrinkle up your nose and squint at the same time.

With resignation, we went home and began an extensive internet search for a suit palatable to a 13 year old's taste and with enough fabric to ensure that her father will allow her out of the house. Surfing (no pun intended) the net and looking at all of the regular sites didn't yield the results that we were hoping for, and frustrations were rising. Finally, I resorted to a google search for a modest one-piece bathing suit. The clouds parted, the sun broke through and we found two websites that were perfect.

(We ordered the one on the left)

The first site we found was http://www.modbeclothing.com/ We placed an order that day, so hopefully it works out.

We also found another site, and we will definitely keep it in mind as well. http://www.limericki.com/

(one of Lime Ricki's suits)

The Garden is a Go

The tomatoes are planted and the onions are snuggled under the dirt, some chard is in the ground too. Our compost is smokin' (a good thing).

Speaking of compost, here is my favorite song about compost (probably the ONLY song about compost, now that I think about it).

Please don't judge me, the video makes me giggle. See what all those 70s kids' shows did to me, mom?

Oh, guess what, I was wrong. Here is another (much more annoying and less absurd) song about composting. Enjoy!

Monday Morning Hypochondria

It's Monday. Again. Already. Hard to believe, right?

.

This morning when the alarm went off, my mind immediately went into whine-mode. But, despite the fact that I hit the snooze button a record breaking number of times, I managed to wake up at a reasonable time. Fortunately for me, one of my children takes after her father and is one of those strange humans known as "a morning person". It generally takes me no less than 30 minutes to shake off my slumber stupor and use my words instead of just grunting in response to any given conversation. Unfortunately for me, my son inherited my glowing morning mood - with a twist. Instead of being non-verbal in the mornings, he starts issuing complaints before he is even fully awake. Morning conversations with him go as follows:

.

Me: Get up.

Him: My throat is sore.

Me: Get up now.

Him: My stomach hurts.
Me: Get up NOW.

Him: My foot has a cramp.

Me: Seriously, get out of bed right now.

Him: My ear is itchy.

Me: If you are not out of bed in 30 seconds, I am getting cold water to throw on you.

Him: My big toe feels feverish.

Me: (heading to the bathroom for water)

Him: I'm up, I'm up. But I don't feel good. (grumble, grumble, grumble, grumble)

.

Keep in mind, within 10 minutes of getting out of bed, his complaints are completely forgotten and he is ready to start his day. Surprisingly, his many ailments take their leave if it is Saturday, Sunday, summertime or a school vacation day. Amazing, right?

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday!!!!!

(This is absolutely my favorite picture of him!)

Multi Tasker Tote

What a week this has been! Later, I will post a bit about my weekend away, but for now, I thought I'd share a recent sewing project.

Last year, my daughter entered the wild, exciting world of middle school, proudly carrying a Mudd messenger bag that she was very proud of. Within a month, her bag was stolen. Of course, it was not the only messenger bag of its description at the school, so recovering it was out of the question. Our solution was to make her a one-of-a-kind bookbag. Since last year's bag was over a year old and had served its purpose admirably, we decided that it was time for a brand new bag (pun completely intended). Enter the Multi Tasker Tote pattern from Anna Maria Horner.

She loves it! I have to admit that I fell in love with her bag and made myself one as well. Then I made another one. They are kind of addictive that way. Her bag has already been to the beach, which kind of makes up for the long days sitting in a locker. Mine is a bit less well traveled, but has proved itself nicely in my how-much-stuff-can-I-stuff-in-my-bag challenge.

Everyone has these moments, don't they?

We all have moments like these. I've worn inside out shirts to church. Sleep deprived, I wore a crepe-y thin skirt to work (with a slip) only to find that through the miracle of static cling - the slip had migrated so far north as to become completely useless.

.

These however pale in comparison to what I'm about to share.

.

The year after we purchased our house, we came to the extremely unpleasant realization that our roof had reached the age of retirement. Small leaks had alerted us that the roof needed a check up, but one night, around 2 a.m., my husband and I awoke to a very unwanted shower. There was a torrential downpour going out outside, we're talking ark weather people. Water was leaking through our bedroom ceiling, hitting the blades of the ceiling fan and flinging cold rainwater directly onto our heads. It was lovely - really. Suddenly awake, hubby and I rushed upstairs to the attic, fully expecting to see nothing but sky judging from the river rushing into our bed. Luckily, we were quickly able to isolate the leak, which wasn't very big, but still letting in a lot of water. I'm sorry to say that neither my husband or myself are very personable people in the wee hours of the morning. Our conversation mainly consisted of snarling and whining and failed attempts at rigging something to stop the water from reaching the wiring running across the attic ceiling. For probably the twentieth time, my husband said, "This isn't working. Don't we have anything else?" In desperation, I ran downstairs to search the kitchen and bathroom and stumbled across an idea, a rather inspired idea, I thought. Rushing back to the attic, where the poor man was standing holding a soaking wet towel against the ceiling, I proudly held out my hands and displayed my emergency roof repair solution. Recoiling, he exclaimed that there must be some other way. Any other way. Being the perfectly submissive wife that I am, I told him if he had any better ideas - use them. Surprisingly, my epiphany worked. The ceiling was temporarily patched and we quickly went back to sleep. I called the roofer the next morning and scheduled an estimate later that week. Fortunately, it did not rain during that time and we temporarily forgot about our ordeal. Until, that is, the roofer and my hubby went up to the attic to check out the ceiling and found three maxi pads duct taped over the leak. The two men descended the stairs red faced and returned to the attic with some, um, more appropriate leak-patching materials.

.

To go along with the embarrassing moment theme, here is someone else's.