The Friday Post

This week has been really crazy.  The girls participated in a basketball camp, so we drove to town 4 days in a row.  We also spent a lot of time at our rental (also in town) cleaning, painting, and doing general maintenance.  I am exhausted!

Today, I planted some green beans in the garden and some periwinkle and ivy in another area of our “yard.”

And I use the term “yard” quite loosely.  It is more of a weed jungle with farm animals scattered about.

I had to clear out a bunch of brush to make this possible.  I am so manly now.  Seriously.  I operate heavy machinery, such as weed-whackers and rototillers.  Very impressive, I know.  I even attempted to reload the string in the weed-whacker all by myself!  I spent an hour on it.  I don’t think I did it right, though.  My biggest clue was that when I turned the whacker back on, the entire string compartment went flying off.  Which is never good.

I have ivy near the arbor and I am hoping that someday it will cover the arbor.  The plants on the bottom are periwinkle for ground cover.  I really have no idea what I am doing.  I probably should put straw or bark down on the black fabric stuff, but I am fresh out.  Maybe the periwinkle will spread quickly and I won’t have to worry about it?  I don’t know.  I have no plan.  Basically I am just running rototillers and throwing plants in the ground, hoping something nice and aesthetically pleasing happens.  But I live in Ruralville, so know one will really care.

Look at my peony!

It bloomed!  IT BLOOMED!  IT BLOOMED!  I got all giddy-like and went to buy another one.  The nursery was closing for the season and she had a whole bunch of them for $4 each!  So I bought like 7!  BECAUSE IT BLOOMED!  And the deer have not discovered my peony yet.  AND IT BLOOMED!

In case you haven’t heard, Teller is not much of the gardening type.  She gets excited if something lives.  FYI.

We are also getting ready to go camping for Father’s Day and to celebrate Little Dude’s 5th birthday.

FIFTH birthday!?!  Can you believe it?  I can’t.  My baby!  Five!  He wanted a construction type cake for the festivities.  You all know how I excel at the cake decorating, so I was super excited to try another one out.

On a scale of 1-10, I give it a 3.  And that’s just because I am biased.  But the boy fancies it, and that’s all that matters.

Handsome Dude wanted to wrap David’s Father’s Day present and this is what happened:

Here are some steps to achieve the classy wrapping job pictured above:

1.  Get really excited that your mom said you could be in charge of wrapping.

2.  Ask your mom if you get to do this because you are six now.

3.  Go to your dad’s shop.  Find an old box that is missing a top and is taped together on the sides with some sort of electrical tape.  Never mind that your mother has an entire tote full of gift bags in the house.  This plan is much more rock solid.

4.  Carefully place the gift of new socks, M&Ms, and a back scratcher in the box.  Never mind that the box is four sizes to big.  Dads like this sort of thing.

5.  Now you need to make a plan for the top of the box.  Go downstairs and locate the Christmas wrapping paper.  You will find it next to the non-Christmas wrapping paper and the tote of gift bags that would have made your life easier in the first place.

6.  Cut a ginormous piece of Christmas wrapping paper out.  Please be sure to leave the scissors (open of course) on the floor, as well as the roll of paper.  Moms like that.

7.  Now you need tape!  Open the junk drawer and ignore the scotch tape.  The blue painter’s tape is a much better option.

8.  Who needs a card?  Take a black sharpie and write “Dad” on the box.

9.  Step back and admire your work.  You are six now and are able to handle such tasks.  Nice work!

Alright!  Happy Weekend!