Our Memorial Day

While Larry grilled our burgers and hot dogs, I painted this child-size picnic table that came with our house.  It's really too small for Elizabeth and Emma but Charlotte will be here soon and she can sit at it when she comes to visit!

Banjo and Tabbie Hoffman hung around for a while but when Tabbie got bored and Banjo figured out I didn't have any food for him, they both left me.

 

 

Larry brought me a glass of tea but I didn't get to drink it for very long.

 

My very own grill master.  :)

He did a great job, too!!

Back to work!

And here it is, all freshly painted and ready for a little girl and her sippy cup.

I hope you all had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend and I hope you stopped a minute and thought about how we came to have this holiday --- to remember with a grateful heart the many men and women who gave their lives in combat.  

We honor their sacrifice and will never forget them.

Just a'swingin'...

A couple of weeks ago, Larry and I were working refinishing a hardwood floor for a rental property job he had and we found this amazing old outdoor swing just sitting forgotten in a neighbor's yard.  We got it for TEN dollars!! 

A little love, a little scrubbing and a little paint later and this is it today!!

Larry had to put little feet on the front because he had to cut so much rust out.  I think it's so cute with feet!  We are sure going to enjoy this thing.  And we have a grandbaby coming this summer named Charlotte.  She may or may not know the words to John Anderson's "Swingin'" by the time she's a year old.  ;)

I think it looks so nice there!

My calendula is doing great!  I've already started drying petals.

 All of a sudden, the yard is just full of these!  Lilies??

That baby loves his daddy.

And this one is sooooo tired from his big birthday!

The cucumber has completely taken over the pot we put it in.  We've staked it twice already.  Every morning, it's even bigger and taller.  I've already moved the cherry tomatoes to its own pot because it wasn't getting enough sun.  I might have to move this sun hog to the garden.

I wrote this on our board in the kitchen.  Larry added the dots on the tomatoes. :)

Tabbie Hoffman is THREE!

Today is Tabbie Hoffman's birthday!  Well, it's the day we celebrate his birth since we don't know exactly when he was born.  

He had a pretty good birthday!  He had a strawberry for breakfast (he doesn't really eat them, he just licks them) and he danced with Mama in the kitchen to The Oak Ridge Boys' "Elvira" (and he even got dipped!).  He got some really cool presents, too!  He got a new scratching post, a new toothbrush and toothpaste and some new treats to try.

He rolled around in the sunshine.  

He hid in the shrub bushes.

He saw this cute little bird that he really wanted to be friends with.

He found a new hidey-hole under the gardenia bush.
 

He played with his brother out by the clothesline.

And then he came in and laid down on the cool kitchen tile.  It was hot out there!

Happy Birthday, Sweet 'Tater!  I'm so glad you found me.

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"!!