today

snippets of May 20, 2009, a random Wednesday morning...





Caleb, working on a Lego creation (always!)

Morning sun warming the garden.
I finally tied the rambling clematis, by our front door, up on a trellis. The snapdragons underneath are happy to no longer be smothered!

Josiah is hard at work, finishing up the 7th grade. Here he is working on Saxon Pre-Algebra. I've been praying and deciding on our curriculum for next year and looking for good deals online. Trying to teach all three boys, a full year, for under a thousand dollars is getting more difficult as they get older and need more advanced materials. God always provides and it is fun to see just how He does it, each year! Do you like his haircut? We found a stylist the other day who bridged the gap between Mother and Son preferences!

I am totally in love with the Euphorbia plant! It is so unusual and lasts so long in a vase. So glad I splurged and put it in pots by the front door, just so I could enjoy its lime green bracts and purple branches with every going out and coming in...

Sam finished his Handwriting book but he and Caleb both still need daily practice. I've been having him make various lists-favorite books, ideas, things he hopes to do over Summer...

When I planted the hanging pots, the verbena was marked "blue". Its bloomed in a deep purple, instead and I cannot decide if yellow and purple are brilliantly avant garde or horribly clashing. When the red vining flower in there starts to bloom, too? We will have Mardi Gras going on, and I will either love it...or re-pot it!

Grocery Outlet had Glutino brand products for .99 and 2/99 cents. (Thanks for the tip Sheri!) and we stocked up! They are normally $4-6 each and out of our budget. Caleb has lots of gluten free snacks now for Summer (they don't expire until August!)

The two older hens were being very unwelcoming to the nine little girls who were introduced to the flock. I can't stand a bully, but need those 2 brown eggs they lay each morning, as the babies won't be laying until Sept. So the big girls are now "yard hens" and happily cleaning up the spilled seed under the birdfeeder while "fertilizing" the flowerbeds. And they are fun to watch from the kitchen window!





although I don't appreciate the way they rake the newly planted areas with their big feet. I know they are helping to obliterate the far too prolific slug population, but my tender coleus can't take the abuse...!

...and the first big harvest of the year is Rhubarb. We've had 3 or 4 desserts and are tired of it, finally! It will get chopped up today and packed away in the freezer, ready to pull out and enjoy again, in for fall cobblers and winter cakes.