The First Post of Spring

Following Tim's surgery last year, we kind of let the yard go. I'm very proud to say that we've spent a lot of time getting it back into shape the past couple weeks and are finally reaping the rewards. Once we made ourselves get back out there, we remembered why we enjoy it so much... it's some of the best quality time that we have together. There is no work, cell phones, video games, television, etc to distract us and honestly it requires a lot of teamwork to get things done. Among the changes, we pulled up the lantana from around the trees and consolidated it into the front bed. We also planted the magnolia trees (they're quite small so calling them trees is a stretch). Then we moved some of the flowering plants from the backyard into the front for a little more color. In added bonus, remember the mama Plover from last year? She's back and seems to be nesting again!!!

Before the rain came

Yesterday's sunset

Still Alive... an overdue update

The author of 'Still Alive' sings it live in concert... on Rockband!

• Tim's doctor's appointments continue, but he can now drive himself - for which I'm so very thankful!! Last week, I was left home alone for THE FIRST TIME since before his surgery. I was so excited for the peace & quiet that I sat in silence the *entire* time... no music, no TV, no phone, no talking. This is somewhat unusal for me. You see, I'm often the noise-maker in our house. Sometimes a self-proclaimed babbling brook... as a child I even talked to my reflection in car windows. If you didn't know me well you'd never guess, but my closest friends know all to well. When Tim first met my childhood best friend, they had at least a five minute discussion (finishing each others sentences & everything) about how there's no stopping it, whatever is on my mind comes out... be it random & trivial or hugely profound. Anyhow, my quiet time was very enjoyable!
• In stark contrast to the previous bullet - Rockband 2 came out a little while ago. I got it a couple days after it's release. My favorite addition, besides the 80-something new songs & improved online Touring, is the freestyle option. And, by the way, I'm seriously coveting this.
  
• Shortly after I got Rockband, our AC went out! The first day I sweated through many songs in a 95 degree house, but luckily the weather turned cooler & now we don't even need the AC on.
• We had our sliding glass door open letting the breeze in. We are usually *very* careful to keep the screen door shut & locked. This night, however, we had been in & out the back door and must have forgotten to lock it. Apparently, Bella Maru, the ringleader of mischief, took advantage of this opportunity. As I walked into the kitchen to get a drink, I noticed the screen was open & immediately started yelling for Tim.We had no idea who was in the house & who wasn't, so we ran outside, barefoot & in our pajamas, with flashlights and shaking treats like manics. It turns out both Thomas & Annabelle were somewhere in the backyard. They were so scared by our antics that they bolted back to the screen door, one of them knocking over a plant on the way. I had closed the screen in hopes of keeping in any cats still in the house. They were essentially trapped between a closed screen & some frantic person running up with a bobbing ray of light... Annabelle flipped out and tried to run while Thomas looked like a deer caught in headlights. I got the screen open & Thomas shot inside. Annabelle hid under a chair until I wrangled her inside. The whole time, Sam was safely napping up in our room, completely oblivious to the commotion downstairs.
• In other news, Tim & I ventured down to Central Florida to attend a friend's celebration of 13 years in business. We were treated to great conversation & a wonderful dinner. Since we work from home & it's just us two most of the time, it's always energizing to get together with our friends & business associates.
• And finally, Tim got his voter id card in the mail this week. I rode him for weeks and weeks about getting this done and, although he almost waited until the last minute, it's done.

Meanwhile on the Homefront

Our neighbors put in a fence a couple weeks ago. This is *great* news for us because it means we have one less side to cover when we finally get around to fencing our own yard! In doing this, however, they also cut our line to the Internet... in the middle of a work day. It was a complete accident and required just a little scrambling on our part. We packed up the office & headed to the closest WIFI location for a field trip, and lunch! (Bless Panera for my beloved Blackbean soup & the scrumptious Strawberry Poppyseed Salad). We were able to get everything we needed done for the day & our Internet was restored the next morning. On a side note, we've been getting bad late afternoon thunder storms lately. Check out the video below of the one that rolled in while we were in Panera. It was a little scary... all that separated us from the whistling wind & sky-to-ground lightening was a thin glass window! We closed up shop just in time & waited the storm out while we finished eating. In added bonus, we went home with 2 cinnamon crunch bagels for breakfast! :o)

Fresh Cut Flowers

These late afternoon storms are doing a number of our lilies, which having been blooming steadily for a couple weeks. After a couple stalks got trampled in the rain, I started clipping them for the kitchen counter. I couldn't take the disappointment of having them destroyed, plus they smell delightful!

The Bedroom

I took these a while ago when we rearranged the room...

Our Nest: The Living Room

I had these pictures ready to post a while ago
& never got around to publishing...

Our Nest: The Guest Bathroom

We got around to painting the guest bathroom before Tim's parents arrived. It's now a lovely shade of 'Cup of Cocoa.' I went solo to buy the paint. (I used to *extremely dislike* hardware stores... it took hours even if we were getting one thing. I've come to realize that if I go without Tim, however, my trip is much faster. In and out. They actually have some pretty cool stuff if you don't have to stare at it for hours!) After I got the paint mixed, I came across Frog Tape. The store had a sample display that was rather convincing so I took the bait & brought home Frog Tape instead of the regular painters' tape. Frog Tape supposedly has 'paintblock' technology although I'm not really sure what that means. The result? I was very impressed!! It sticks better & leaves cleaner lines! Next step... decor! :o)

Before Painting / After Painting

Tricks of the Trade

During the two years since moving into our house, I've honestly struggled to keep the cooktop clean. Between the cooking-entity that is Timily, having cats, & a friend living with us for a year... we did a number on the surface. Let me preface this by saying, on our final walk-through of the house we were given a rundown of the appliances. The stove came with strong warnings not to use any harsh chemicals to clean it. Glass Cleaner was surely acceptable for touch-ups, right? Nope, not even Glass Cleaner. Cooktop Cleaner only, or so I was told...

I did my best to keep it clean & it worked a little, but I remember thinking (verbatim), "Glass top is suppose to be the easiest to keep clean... this is way too hard... something is not right!"

This was until my in-laws came to visit this month...

Knowing that we'd be busy during the visit, my mother-in-law had thoughtfully made several meals ahead of time & brought them. She also fully prepared them while here. This was a life-saver!! (Can I tell you how nice it is to be pampered by a mom?) While in the kitchen, Tim's mom asked if she could have a go at cleaning the stove. Having seen her spotless cooktop & desperately wanting a better solution, I quickly agreed! The major realization for me... Scratch Free Comet. Afterwards the stove was sparkling like it hadn't in years! In an added bonus, Tim's mom also noticed the over-the-oven light did not have a bulb. It burned out a long time ago, we took it out & never replaced it. Good news ~ Tim & his dad got a bulb that same day & there's *light* over the stove! This makes it way easier to keep clean! :o)

The Action

Framing out windows...

Putting the fan up on the back porch...

Weekend Montage

Joe came to visit this weekend! This was our 3rd visitor in 3 weeks. *Yay!* We have a fourth lined up too... Tim's parents are coming next week to help us get started on some home improvements! :o) On another note, have I mentioned that we live near an airport? We don't really hear the airplanes much, but if you go on our back porch in the morning... contrails galore!

One of the baby birds exploring our backyard.
(Excuse the blurriness, this picture was taken through a window)

And a friendly Flutterby.

Beautiful Day

I was outside watering the plants today...

Mama Bird

Tim & I were in the backyard yesterday when we noticed a cute little bird sitting on the ground... of course, I ran to get the camera. Tim noticed by the way she was sitting that she might just be on eggs. I was skeptical since I've never heard of a bird building it's nest in the middle of the grass. As I took pictures, I got closer & noticed three little speckled eggs (they were near impossible to see through the camera window). I immediately left the bird alone when I noticed the eggs, but when I got inside & downloaded the pictures I found these....

The best part?
Today we looked outside to see
three little baby birds running around!!!

They must have hatched
sometime yesterday afternoon!

We were curious about the species, so we did a little research. They are "Piping Plovers" & usually they're found along the Atlantic coast. They typically make their nest near sandbars & dunes at the beach (I guess this one's a little lost...). They migrate to northern areas during summer & spend winter along the coast. They're also endangered due to habitat loss and human activity near nesting sites.

"Piping Plovers migrate north beginning in mid-March. They begin mating and nesting on the beach in mid-April. Most first time nest attempts are 4 egg nests. Females lay 1 egg every other day. Second or third nesting attempts usually have three or two eggs. Incubation of the nest is shared by both the male and the female. Incubation of the nest is generally 27 days and eggs usually all hatch on the same day. After a chick hatches they are able to feed themselves within hours, the adults role is then to protect them from the elements by brooding them. They also alert them to any danger. Adults will feign a broken wing, "broken wing display", drawing attention to itself and away from the chicks when a predator may be threatening the chicks safety. It takes about 30 days before a chick achieves flight capability." Read more here.

Saturday Afternoon

Not your typical Florida sun-shower...

Mystery Solved...

It's called slime mold, and yes, it is a fungus.

Here's what I learned...
"...It lives on wood and bark mulch, but doesn't really decay the wood. The most common form appears in the evening as a slimy yellow mass about 12" in diameter. (People describe it as looking like something that the dog coughed up.) Each mass is actually one large cell and has the ability to move across the mulch! There is no preventative measure for controlling these annoying growths. But they are most common on newly applied mulch. When they appear, simply scoop them up and throw them away. To avoid them in the future, use a different material for mulch. If you have pine bark, switch to hard wood and vice versa." Read more here

"Slime molds feed on microorganisms in decaying vegetable matter. They can be found in the soil, on lawns, and in the forest commonly on deciduous logs. They are also common on mulch or even in leaf mold which collects in gutters." The interesting stuff... "If one strand is carefully watched for about 50 seconds the cytoplasm can be seen to slow, stop, and then reverse direction. The streaming protoplasm within a plasmodial strand can reach speeds of up to 1.35 mm. per second which is the fastest rate recorded for any organism." Read more here

So... supposedly it's not harmful & there's not much that can be done about it aside from what we've been doing. It still gives me the heebie jeebies though!

Heebie Jeebies

Tim & I found this thriving mess of stuff in our yard... we think it's fungus (??). We found a spot yesterday (& ended up looking like a Hazmat team going out to dispose of it). Then today there was another spot all the way across the yard. Tim said he's seen stuff like this in Northern Virginia, but this is pretty new to me & just looking at it gives me the heebie jeebies (rest assured....the zoom feature was fully enabled when taking this picture)! Any knowledge on what this is or how to get rid of it would be greatly appreciated!!

Sunday's Sunset

Herculean Strength

I went to leave the house yesterday & literally pulled the doorknob right off. I either didn't realize just how strong those Pilates workouts have made me... or the screws worked themselves loose over the past couple years. (I personally like the first reason!) It took all of 5 seconds to fix so no harm done, plus I got some bonus points from Tim for fixing it before him. I'd say that's equivalent to a breakfast in bed, no?

My New Nest

A while back when I told my mom that I had "taken care" of my teaching stuff, she assumed I had thrown/given it all away. To this I replied, "Your daughter?" I am a squirrel after all, and I think know I got that from my mom. :o)

What I had done was take the huge piles from various places around our house & consolidated them into one easily accessible, super organized closet! The entire children's library in the dining room? No longer there. The gigantic pile of bean bags, pocket charts, & empty bins in the garage? Gone. The mountain of papers, posters & charts under the stairs? Kaput. All of it is neatly stacked, boxed, & organized in my new nest!

The entrance.


It's in a closet & that's a lot of stuff, but it fits...
*with* room to walk in & turn around!


Standing back & looking at all this makes me realize
how much time, money & energy was put into teaching.
If you know a teacher, give 'em a hug!


See that empty square above? I offloaded some things on my sister for her Play Therapy sessions. Not to worry though... I've filled it with a stack of extra bins & baskets that were left over. Can you believe I had more left over after putting everything away??


I have twenty-six of the yellow baskets alone.


All my supplies are where I can get to them
at the drop of a dime if needed. Perfection.


Notice the used crayons that have been collected
through the years... I use those to color homemade candles! :o)


This is the professional development nook...
teacher-books are no longer stored in my bedroom!!


These books are very special to me... my grandfather used them learning to read. The copyrights are all in the 1920s.


The green apron above was my guided reading apron... I wore it everyday while meeting with my guided reading groups. It was a visual reminder that I was with a small group (i.e. not to be interrupted unless there's an emergency). It was very effective I might add!


The blue basket on the right is filled with 'Whisper Phones' made from PVC piping. Tim made me an *entire class set* for Christmas one year!!! They improve fluency & I'm going to be honest, most first graders don't enter the classroom with the ability to read silently.... these help a lot!!! I also used those cheap plastic microphones as a confidence booster for kids that needed a little more acoustics.


My parrot puppet is my favorite (it even sings)!! On the right... I took *mounds & mounds* of papers, separated them by subject, & neatly filed them into these four bins. It took two full days!!


These are just two of my book bins... I have SO MANY CHILDRENS' BOOKS! I daresay that I might just have one of *the best* personal collections out there... definitely locally anyway.


On the right... word/letter frames made from fly swatters.
These & pointers are a great tool for
building print awareness, & they're good for motivation too!
Motivation is 7/10 of the puzzle, if you ask me.


I might have gone a little overboard with pictures...
but you have to realize how much work this was!!
I feel *so good* now that it's all in one place.