Happy Birthday Callie!

My sweet little daughter turned 7 last month. Here she is getting her breakfast in bed on her big day. She is getting old WAY too fast. I just brought her home from the hospital and now she has just informed me today that her favorite color is NOT pink anymore. Her entire life, her favorite color has been pink and now it is GREEN....this is a momentous step in the life of a girl. She wants to get rid of all her barbies and baby dolls (which by the way she has never really played with anyway) and wants to make her room into a jungle rain forest room. She begs me almost everyday for some sort of reptile as a pet. She really wants a snake.....Ewwwwww. I told her no way and she would have to settle for some jungly looking fish. We got her some but they soon died. So when Daddy gets the fish tank "just right" we will try to introduce more.

I'm so proud of her individuality and adventurous spirit. Or should I say independent mind....she says she is "independent" like Thomas Jefferson. She checked out a really cute book from the library called, "John, Paul, George, & Ben" by Lane Smith. It is a very humorous look at how our founding fathers might have acted as boys. She has read that book over and over again. In our homeschooling we have studied American History by reading living biographies of George Washington and Ben Franklin by Ingri and Parin D'Aulaire. We have enjoyed them so much.

Several months before her birthday when I asked her what kind of party she wanted she said,"Mom, can I have a presidents party....you know...we could decorate the house with all the presidents and you could put them on my cake!" Now THAT makes a homeschooling mother's heart proud! I had a good laugh over that one....not letting on to her that there was anything funny in that! Of course she soon changed her tune to wanting a jungle party..but hey... the thought was what counted, right :)

Since all but me were sick around her birthday, we had to postpone her party to a couple of weeks later but she had a wonderful time with her friends!

We have a Tiger!!

We have a new pet Tiger. He showed up in our backyard about a month ago and has not left since. He would jump up on the window sill and he and Gracious would stare at each other. Sometimes they would play with each other through under the glass door and sniff at each other when the window was open.

About a week after Tiger showed up he started limping around and I noticed he had an infected wound on his leg with puss coming out of it. I debated on what to do. I called the pound and asked what they would do and if they treated animals. They would have just put him to sleep. He seemed like such a sweet and loving cat. I decided to try to treat the wound and see what happened. So I put peroxide and antibiotic on it for several days and it healed up just fine and he stopped limping. I gave him a flea bath and he is now officially our cat. I thought about putting up pictures of him over the neighborhood to see if he belonged to anyone...but I can't think of parting with him now....he didn't have a coller on and he was hurt and I fixed him, he has been free to leave for over a month now and has not left...so he is ours!

It's a good thing Tiger and Gracious became friends because.......

Gracious started spraying in the house and Justin freaked out. Argh! Cat smell in the house is NOT a good thing. So I immediately wisked him off and had him neutered hoping that would help the problem. But then Justin swears he saw him do it again and Gracious instantly became an outdoor cat. And do you know it has been the BEST thing in the world!! No more litterbox to clean!! Gracious just loves being outdoors to climb trees, chase bugs, and explore. I was so worried he would run off and we spent so much time chasing him every time he would escape...but no more.. he is a free cat and has the best of both worlds. He and Tiger have become just like brothers. They play so well together and are so affectionate giving kitty kisses to one another.

We have been letting them come in and out during the day but when night comes they like to sleep outside. Sometimes they curl up side by side...so cute! Maybe they are out there catching mice. But they like to be out even if it is really cold. One morning really early before the sun came up I heard the front door shaking and I was afraid someone was trying to break in. I ran over to the door to make sure the deadbolt was locked and I heard, "Meeeoooow, meeeow!" What a relief to know if was just the cats wanting inside!

Kitty brothers: Gracious and Tiger (I just love his stripey tail!!)

Our Garden

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At the beginning of February we started getting ready for our garden. For the last couple of years we have only done a container garden in Earthboxes, but this year we thought we would try to do it in the ground. Thanks to Oma and Granddad who gave us their tiller! Here are some pics of our yard after Justin tilled it up. I also had him till me an area by our fence for a flower garden. I planted some really old lily bulbs that I had in a pot that had belonged to Justin's Aunt Leuna from years ago. I also planted some gladiolas, freesias, and Cannas!!! I can't wait to see how it looks all bloomed out! I think I will plant some annual flowers in there around the bulbs until then. We tested the soil and it is basically devoid of all nutrients so we are going to have to fertilize like crazy. We really want to do everything organic. We are also going to try doing the compost pile thing. We had tried doing one in the past but did not do it right. So now that we have read up on doing it properly we'll have another go!!

It was such a nice day the kids came out and played. You know our crazy East Texas weather changes constantly. You can get spring like days in winter and really cold days when it is supposed to be warm! I like the change myself.

The kids helped me plant the seeds and we are growing them inside under lights until it warms up and they get bigger. We planted tomatoes, peppers, beans, several herbs, and some flowers.