Mother’s Day Contest

Mother's Day is in just a few days and below is a contest you can enter! Click on the below button for more information and the prizes that are offered. Good luck! :)

Last but not Least!

Low and behold, late this afternoon I looked out the window and saw the male Rose Breasted Grosbeak snacking on black oil sunflower seeds at my feeder. So there we have it, the Baltimore Oriole, Ruby Throated Hummingbird, and the Rose Breasted Grosbeak all returned for the summer once again on the SAME day!

They’ve Arrived!

Today is the day! The Baltimore Oriole and Ruby Throated Hummingbird have both returned for the summer. :)

It was the male oriole that was the first to be seen, but my son and I both think the first hummingbird we saw today was a female, which seems unusual. I've always read the males are the first to arrive to "claim" their territory and then the females arrive within a few days. Oh well, it's fine by me LOL! I don't care which one shows up first as long as they come back to my yard year after year!

Working in the flower garden:)

Praise the Lord--He gave us yet ANOTHER sunny day!!! Wooohoooo, it has just been like the best weather around here lately. Oh how I wish every day of the summer could be like the last few days...not too hot or humid, not too cold, but just about perfect!

Well, after 7 1/2 years of living here and looking at the same yellow daylily year after year, I finally took the plunge and cut it in half/divided it! Oh, I just hope it lives LOL. I've always wanted to do divide this daylily and a couple of hostas that I have, but I've been too afraid to try for fear of killing them. I do not have a green thumb whatsoever and I seem to kill almost every plant I try to grow LOL.

I even got brave enough to prune my LARGE, overgrown Rhododendron. I really hope I did it correctly and that I didn't damage it LOL. I researched it online and read several different articles on how to do it, so I do hope it'll turn out alright.

After church, my daughter and I went to a local floral nursery and bought some flowers! I bought one "flat" each of annuals and periannuals, but oh how I wanted to buy more, more, more! LOL, it really is hard to limit yourself! If it weren't for the money, I would have bought a lot more LOL. I really like to grow flowers that hummingbirds and butterflies are attracted to. We even got them all planted and boy was I surprised at how long it took!

I want to share a tip that my mother taught me about container gardening. If this tip is not new to you, please forgive me. I'm still new to flower gardening and never thought of this and wanted to pass it along, but some of you more "experienced" gardeners may already know about it. You know those Styrofoam Peanuts that are used for packaging? Well, use those as a "filler" mixed with your potting soil when filling a container. I have two of those plastic swan plant holders that sit in your garden and they are so deep and it would take a lot of soil to fill them up. So, she mixed some of the Styrofoam Peanuts with the soil and it really reduced the amount of soil needed. They still allow the water to drain through too!

You know, I am shocked year after year as to how much a pretty hanging basket costs! Yikes, I mean they are gorgeous and I'd love to have a few of them hanging in my yard, but not at $20-25 each! I wouldn't mind trying to make my own, but I don't believe our summers are long enough to achieve the same length and fullness that these baskets have. A few years ago I did "attempt" to make my first hanging basket and it was just pathetic LOL. My friend came over and took one look at it and burst out laughing. Sigh, maybe someday.

I planted my divided yellow daylily and hostas in my small, front flower garden which gets about 80% shade, so we'll just have to wait and see what happens.


The Chipping Sparrows and a few other types of sparrows have returned for the summer, but still no hummingbirds, orioles, or rose-breasted grosbeaks yet. They should be appearing any day now. My feeders, oranges, and grape jelly are out and waiting for them. :)

Busy Saturday

We usually stay at home and clean, clean, clean on Saturdays. Today was much different though. We went to a wedding at church and then to my great nephew's First Communion party.

The weather was absolutely gorgeous today too. I was able to spend a few minutes outside to weed a small area of my flower garden. I'm always amazed that year after year, there are so many weeds! I don't mind weeding though...to me, it is actually therapeutic. I love to feel the sun shining down on my body as I listen to the birds in the trees and on the bird feeders which are also in my flower garden. As long as I don't come across any snakes, I don't mind weeding LOL.

The wedding was lovely. It amazes me to see this couple get married so young. The bride is 19 and I believe the groom is 22 or 23. Funny though, when my husband and I got married, I was 19 and he was 24. Somehow, this couple just seemed so much younger. The bride is the only daughter in her family and it was kind of sad to think about as I watched her father walk her down the aisle ever so SLOWLY. She, on the other hand, was walking about 3 steps ahead of him, almost pulling HIM down the aisle LOL. As I watched them, I thought about my one and only daughter and how my husband may be walking HER down the aisle someday. What a bitter-sweet thought!!! The bride and groom are the children of friends of ours from church and I think it is great that they both grew up in this church and today they were married in it. I certainly hope they'll enjoy a long marriage filled with God's blessings! :)

The kids had a great time at my niece's house. There were lots of kids to play with, mostly other boys. My boys enjoyed having other boys to play sports with. My niece also has a paved driveway (which we do not have :( ) so the kids really enjoyed skateboarding, riding bikes, and playing street hockey on it. As I said, the weather was perfect and we all enjoyed the time outdoors!

Before we went home, we hit the mall which was right around the corner from my niece's house. The store where my daughter got her ears pierced at had a sale...buy 2 pairs of earrings, get 1 pair FREE. So, since it has been about 2 or 2 1/2 months since she had her ears pierced, I figured it was time to get her another pair of earrings. LOL, decisions, decisions...it can be such a difficult task for a 9 year old girl to pick out just a few pairs of earrings and leave the rest for another time!

So Glad!

Well, I went to the orthopedic doctor yesterday. He said I still have fluid/blood around the joint, but it should go away gradually. After examining my knee, he actually doesn't think I tore a ligament afterall. Instead, he thinks I dislocated my kneecap! LOL, I didn't even know that was possible! He thinks it must have popped out of place and then popped right back in again. He said he is crossing his fingers that it'll heal all by itself. He still wants me to wear the immobilizer leg brace and use the crutches, but gradually wean myself from using them a little bit each day.

Oh, he also told me to start doing leg lifts to strengthen my upper thigh muscle (which will help strengthen the knee) and I should do these exercises until I can do 100 of them at once. Well, it has been YEARS since I've been able to do 100 of anything LOL!. I'm supposed to go back to see him again in a week.

So, praise God, because this is fabulous news!!! I was really nervous since my husband said he had heard most torn ligament injuries require surgery to repair. I'm so glad for this new news! :)

Today was a beeeeautiful day with a pretty blue sky and lots of SUNSHINE! It was perfect. I put out the bird bath, some garden stones/decorations, and decorative little flags.

We also put out the hummingbird and oriole feeders. I cannot believe they will be here in just a day or two (or three)! The time goes by so quickly. :(

My mom sent over some sunflower seeds, potting soil, and little planter trays. The kids enjoyed themselves as they planted and watered their seeds. :) I just hope they grow!!!

Please pray for Heather’s Surgery– it’s today!

I'm sorry I could not post this earlier...I had a dr's appointment this morning and we were also without power since yesterday so I could not get online any sooner than right now. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE pray for Heather as she is most likely still in surgery as I type this. I'll be checking on MOG for updates from Laura.