Garden update (with chili!)

Our little garden is getting bigger every day!!  

The squash plants are just slap full of blooms!

And then there's this little feller!!  I was so excited to see him this morning!!!

The tomatoes are coming along great, too.  Lots of little yellow flowers on them!

The banana and bell peppers have lots of little buds.

One tiny little bell pepper!

Larry made chili today in our Oster roaster and cleaned the kitchen as he went.  Be still, my heart.  :)

Guess we'll be having chili for supper!  And lunch and supper and lunch and supper...

Estate sale goodies!

We went to a couple of estate sales this morning and I found a treasure trove of sheets and pillowcases!  It's been a while since I found any and I was in love.  

 I got a sheet and two pillowcases in this beautiful bluebell print.

I think these pillowcases look even sweeter blowing in the wind on the clothesline.

I just love this pretty comforter and it was only $5!

 Tabbie Hoffman wanted to help me organize the sheets and pillowcases. 

I found this adorable vintage hugging boy and girl planter for 75 cents!

This is my favorite of the day!  A Josef Originals Birthday Angel from the 70's and it's her first birthday!  I just love her precious little face.  I got her for a steal for $2.  

 

And Larry found this rubber clown that plays the circus song and his nose lights up.  I told him he can keep it in the garage but it's kinda growing on me.  :)

Strawberry fields forever

Larry and I went to the local strawberry patch today and had so much fun!  There were strawberries as far as the eye could see.  I wanted to pick all of 'em!!  They were so delicious, sweet and warm from the sun.  Here are a few pics!

Strawberries this pretty have to go in a pie!

Garden update!

Our little gardens are growing like crazy!!  The cucumbers are gonna push everybody else out of the pot!  They look like Swiss-cheese-cucumber plants right now 'cause we had some munchers but I took care of that.  I made some all-natural insect repellent that's safe for the plants, us, our furbabies and the earth and sprayed it on there yesterday afternoon.  Bye bye, muncher moochers!

We have twelve baby squash, five tomatoes and five peppers in our garden!  And grass.  We have grass in our garden.  When it cools off a little this afternoon, I'm gonna weed that grass out of there.  We have Centipede grass and it's pretty territorial.  It didn't like that little spot we cleared, I reckon.

I added a peppermint plant and a lemon balm to the mix, too. 

I'm just so proud of my calendula!  It's growing like crazy, too, in pots on the deck and there's already a bud!!

We got this adorable outdoor swing today for $10!  Larry was working on a rental property and I went along to help.  It's a sweet little house, built in the 50's and has the cutest little porch awning and front door!  We worked on a gorgeous hardwood floor in the master bedroom and painted the sun room.  Larry spied this swing in a neighbor's backyard while we were there.  We got it and a gas/charcoal grill for the $10.  An even better deal!  We brought it home and I pressure-washed it and it looks so good!  We're going to sand it and paint it and put some pretty cushions on it.  And maybe, if we're lucky, find a canopy for it.  I just love it.

We wanted to have a yard sale Saturday but we didn't want to have a yard sale Saturday so we got together some things, I took pictures and listed them on several of the local Facebook yard sale pages.  We sold five things and made $120!  And didn't have to set up tables, lug everything out, stand around all day talking to folks, lug everything back inside when it was over.  None of that.  All we had to do was run to Kroger three times to meet the folks buying our stuff.  Best kind of "yard sale"!!

Mama's Day

We spent a wonderful afternoon with Mama for Mother's Day today.  Daddy grilled the most delicious hamburger steaks and we had potato salad, green beans, squash casserole, two cakes, strawberry shortcake, rolls...just a feast!

Mama got the most beautiful flowers!  Daddy gave her gorgeous pink and white roses, Ricky gave her the prettiest yellow calla lily and Larry and I got her a vase with three red roses, one rose for each of her babies. 

I got some beautiful flowers, too.  From Banjo.  Well, Larry picked 'em but Banjo picked them out.  He went straight for the wild strawberry.  :)

Here she is reading her card from us.  It says, "Weeeeee wish you a happy Mother's Day!"  She got a gift card to Lowe's so she can get some garden stuff, some of her favorite smelly-good and a pretty summer gown.

Thanks for everything, Mama.  From the hours it took to bring this big old nine pound, six ounce girl into the world to the hundreds of nights you checked on me as I slept to the sacrifices you made every single day of my life to make sure I had shoes, clothes, food, school stuff, Tiger Beat magazines, Alabama tickets, whatever it was that I thought I needed.  You were my first friend, you are my best friend.  I love you very much!!

Welcome, May!

Our little container veggies are getting big!  The cherry tomatoes and basil are a bust, I think.  They never did sprout.  But the cucumber, spinach, sweet peppers and cilantro are doing fine!  I told Larry we could eat that spinach right now.  If we made a salad in a ramekin!

We have seen a lot of wild bunnies running around lately so Larry put this little fence up around our garden, complete with gate!  We already have baby banana peppers growing!

I cleaned house from top to bottom yesterday while Larry cut the grass. 

And today, I weeded the flower beds and gave all the bushes and shrubs a haircut.  Everything looks so good.  I know I'm biased because I really love our house but I think we have the prettiest house and yard in the neighborhood.  The folks who built our house spared no expense in landscaping and there's so much beautiful stuff growing out there that I have no idea what some of it is.

I know what this is, though.  This is my official before pic of our magnolia.  Next week, that thing is going to be busting out with beautiful blooms!  It is loaded with buds.

This is that beauty right in the middle.

These are a few of my potted flowers that are on the deck, lovin' that sunshine.  

And this I think is a Lamb's Ear.  If I'm wrong, somebody tell me!

Tabbie Hoffman likes to lay in the flower beds.  :)

I really like how this picture turned out!  Hostas a'blooming!

This is one of my favorite parts of the whole yard.  The gate to the side yard surrounded by two gardenia bushes and a little brick walkway.

The moss is a nice bonus!

Larry cleaned the gutters, too.  They obviously needed it!

Banjo and the begonia.  :)

We have a little bird living in this fern on the front porch.  Every time we get near it, she takes off!  Don't know if she's got babies in there...

...but there are FIVE little blue eggs in this nest behind the speaker on the front porch.

Welcome, May!  I'm so glad you're here!

Can you hear me now??

They're virtually invisible!

We had a little something to celebrate this week!  Larry has suffered from hearing loss in his right ear for more than 40 years.  A little souvenir from his Army days.  He sustained so much damage that he's always been told there was nothing that could be done, that he would forevermore be profoundly deaf in his right ear.  So naturally, he relied a lot on his left ear and that caused a lot of frustration and aggravation, especially on the telephone or in a crowd.  He got pretty good at reading lips, though!

We got him an appointment to see an ENT here in town and thanks to the Good Lord above and modern medical technology, Larry now has a brand new set of Phonak Audeo hearing aids!

They are pretty amazing, too.  The first day he couldn't believe all the sounds he was hearing.  He could hear leaves rustling in the wind and the birds singing really, really loud.  :)  It was such a blessing to experience this with him!  I know all too well the struggle he's endured all of his adult life with this handicap and for him to be able to hear all the sounds in this wonderful life God has given us just means everything to me.