Be Thankful November 1 2013

Another year and another go 'round for the "November Thankful Challenge"   many friends on Facebook have a go at this , but after sitting here for 10 minutes trying to think of a way to choose one thing I am thankful for , I am struggling .

But today I will write about my husbands grandmother. She is 88 years young and just recently moved to Florence South Carolina. After some health issues , and a few falls. She decided to sell her home of 46 years and take her younger sister up on the offer of going to stay with her. That frees her of the responsibility of the house up keep , gives her daily company. And allows her to be near her sister , her last living sibling. Unfortunately during the early stages of packing and about 6 weeks before the set closing of her home , She fell in the home and fractured her T12 vertebrae . Her injuries landed her in the hospital for 2 weeks and then she was moved to the VA for an additional 3.5 weeks. She was then released to the care of her sister so she was able to spend a last few nights in her home she shared with her late husband before the move. I am Thankful for the help she has offered my husband and I over the years , and not monetary help .But advice , life lessons and insights. Things that can not be bought only shared. Something she has said recently about issues within the family about her estate has really stuck with me , especially when dealing with the person she said this aimed at . She said " I hope your happy for the rest of your life" , that was her reply to learning that a family member was only interested in financial gain from her estate and wanted nothing of sentimental value. Whenever I am bothered by the selfish actions of others , I just hear her voice in my head say " I hope your happy for the rest of your life" and it just fits. I do wish The kids could have made more memories with her before she left , but we will be visiting her as often as we can and making positive memories with her for as long as we can.

   

   These are a few of the pictures I took on her last day before leaving , I took the big kids out of school early to be sure to get a chance to tell her goodbye until this spring. These were taken on October 22 , 2013 about an hour before she left for her closing.

Baby O and his Great Grandmother

Our four and their Great Grandmother . They love this lady dearly

My wonderful husband and his Grandmother  , She means the world to him .
this was taken on the actual moving day

grow potatoes

    So we are homeowners !!! I know that's exciting news , well it is to me and since I am the sole reader of this , it excites me .    But with home ownership comes the the opportunity to do all the things we've wanted to do. There is still work to be done but it's coming together and we couldn't be more excited.

Right now I have been working on our "garden" while we don't have a whole lot of yard to till up and plant , since most of our yard is a deck for the pool and our driveway/parking lot. I am having to be creative in my gardening .  So we are going container style!   I have a decent variety of veggies this year my set up is still a work in progress since I've never had more than just one thing in a container and never really "cared" if it made it or not , so we shall see .     

  For our potatoes I am doing them in a "potato condo" so this should be interesting to say the least. Here is how I did it , This is my first attempt at this and I have no prior experience growing potatoes so any comments or direction would be welcomed with open ears. 

             

First , you want to gather your supplies obviously. Here I have 4 boards that are 2x2's  those will be my corner posts and I am using scrap wood from a project here at the house to start off my slats, they are the trim from a doorway we took down and walled in for an additional bedroom . they are each cut into 2foot long pieces , I started with nails and hammer.

of course you need a "helper" to loose your nails in the grass 

i then attached one of the trim boards to the corner boards , I did that twice making my north and south "walls" I then used another trim board to "box" them in as my "helpers" noted it looks like I am making a table , but it's upside down.

after much aggravation and sub par " helpers" I opted to pull out the air compressor and nail gun. aka : things just got serious lol 

I attached all the sides , and added a few extra on the back since i'd like to put it in a place that it will just be a little easier to not have to get in between there to attach more boards as I hill up the plants 

here are the two completed boxes with my "helpers" as you can see 2 three year olds and 2 four year olds and a 14month old can make some pretty cool stuff :) 

Next I had my seed potatoes cut and ready to go , I read the larger ones you are suggested to cut so that you have 2 eyes per seed ,  my new potatoes ( the smaller ones ) only had one eye per potato anyway so there was no need to cut those .   Some things I read said to let it air them air dry and crust over , some said not to . I opted for not. 

I also opted to not till the soil under the beds, our ground is soft and we are anticipating more rain as it is so it will be soft for a while , I did read that potatoes like acidic soil so i did put some pine needles at the bottom they will compost and also help with the grass/weeds growing up while the soil is at it's lower levels

I really didn't have enough soil to get a good solid bottom layer on them, but until I can get to Lowe's this weekend they will do alright. but here they are , my 2x2x2 potato condo's    one is growing New potatoes and the other is growing Yukon Gold. I hope that our dog Yodi will keep squirrels away..


 I will be sure to update with our harvest I am interested to see how they turn out.

Be thankful #7

Well , if I had any followers they might notice that this post is actually a day late. But I am doing my best to keep up with it.  The day light savings time change is messing with our  house , we are all tired and ready for bed once it's dark and that's 6:30pm. I spent last night playing Bingo with the older two at the kitchen table , so I kinda used my "blog" time up , but I wouldn't have spent it any other way.

   I am sort of concerned with myself that this project is so difficult for me. Just thinking of something I am thankful for each day. It is so easy to talk about the things not going your way , I could list those for hours.Some are petty to many , and some a little more serious. 

  So today , I am thankful I woke up today. And not just today in  particular , but every day so far in my life. Not that there is something fantastic I need to do today , but there are things , many less desirable really.. things like laundry , dishes , cooking , running the vacuum and don't forget the endless mothering jobs , wiping butts and noses .But just think of all the things that would go un done if I didn't wake up , honestly I couldn't imagine. How many hugs would be missed , kisses , high fives ? There is an endless amount of things.

So for my make up post for yesterday , I am thankful that I wake up every morning.

Be thankful you can vote

This is day 6 of the month , also Election day. The day that you can go , place your vote for the leaders of the country. Today will be short. I am thankful I as a woman in America have the right to vote , while It's hard to believe and remember that " every vote counts" I want it to be something not taken for granted and respected. I took the kids with me today when I went to vote, I don't think they thought it was as exciting as they thought it was. But none the less my 11 year old , i think , enjoyed being a part of it .


 so that is it , off to watch more news coverage as the polls report in , and be thankful that I am able to be a part of this democracy .

be Thankful #5

So I never claimed these would be in some masterful order , or any order at all . These are just kind of as they come to mind most likely from something that happened this day. Again , while this may sound cliche' , none the less it's true.

Today I would like to tell you how thankful I am for my husband. We have been married for 9 and  half years and together for going on 13. We have 4 awesome , healthy and smart children together and I don't know what I would do without the 5 of them. He works hard every day , even when sick . He's had the same job for 10 years now and it is such an unappreciative job. It is a poorly ran company , a lot of potential but just not operated by enough people that seem to care. It's a sad situation.  He stresses daily about what he's had to deal with  , which quite honestly in any other company would probably be against some kinda fair work place policy . But this being a small company only employing about 15 people , they seem to get away with more. I wish so badly that he first didn't feel like he had to put up with so much crap  and secondly that he just didn't have to put up with the crap he does.  I am thankful that he is willing to work as hard as he does so that I can stay home with our kids , without a great hardworking husband like him, I don't know what I would do .

be thankful #4

Day 4 ....   It is also Sunday and my weekly show comes on tonight , The Walking Dead. I have been attached to this show since the first episode . While you might be thinking... no way she's gonna say she's thankful for a zombie show.  No, as much as I love it , it's not something I am "thankful" for , not on a list of only 30 anyway.   I am thankful today for friends , and while that sounds so cliche... I am still saying it .

    and I don't mean people you talk to here and there , or people you "know"  ... I mean FRIENDS like , those people you have known for more than half of your life , or at least it feels like it .. those kind of friends.  Today my children were invited to a birthday party , for the daughter of a friend of mine. The mother and I have known each other since the 2nd grade.And while we haven't always been the best of friends through the years , when we do hang out it's like we've been around each other every day in between. Her family loves my kids like they are in their family. I am so thankful to know that "extra" people love my children , and that is what I thankful for . True friends that are considered family to be in mine and more importantly my kids lives .

be thankful day 3

My mom playing with my youngest this last summer at the lake <3

My mom rationing out snacks to the grandkids while we all waited for fireworks this last summer

The weather today was fantastic . I couldn't have wished for nicer weather during any other season . It was a nice 75 degrees with an occasional breeze , perfect , just perfect.

   My day started out with my mom asking if we wanted to go for a picnic or a day at the park , just something to get out and enjoy the day. Not wanting to sit inside and do the cleaning I had planned on doing , we happily obliged. We then met my mom , my sister and her children at the city park for a picnic lunch. Spent the day playing on playground and enjoying the weather and before we knew it , we had been there nearly 4 hours. Days like today made me realize how much I am thankful for my mom. Like any other child I have had times that I was certain she was wrong , stupid, had no clue what she was talking about and I knew I was better of without her. But being a mother know... well , I just really know the truth lol .  My mom fought Breast Cancer in 2002 and beat it , but not after a difficult struggle. I simply could not imagine what my life would have been like if I had lost her then , being a young mother myself and still needing a mother. I sure don't know what I would do without her now , or what my kids would do without her . I am so thankful that all of my children will have the chance to be loved by her , and that she gets to watch them grow daily.


 so today I want to tell everyone how thankful I am for my mother , not only for being the best mom she knows how but for being the best grandmother she knows how to be too , Which by the way is GREAT , I couldn't imagine a better grand mother for my children , or a better teacher for myself.