greenhouse life

I love seeing the progress of my teeny greenhouse everyday.   I even find myself thinking of my little plants while I am at home and they are down at the day care just growing away.  I sometimes move them from the front windows back to the back windows for maximum sunlight exposure.  I know that Walmart already had mature plants like these for sale as do other joints but I thoroughly enjoy the entire process. 

BTW my bulbous begonias from QVC have shipped! 

Tiny dill for a friend.

I know.. I need to thin badly.

 

 Tomatoes for my mom, sister and best friend.

weekend shots: spring walks

This past weekend Katie Bug and I decided it would be a good idea to check out the woods.  It's funny that the winter/spring that we didn't have a dog I don't really remember going for walks in the woods much.  Something about having a pal along.  And that Kate... once she knows that I have stopped for a minute, my attention elsewhere, she jets through the woods running around, up and down the hills and splashing in the creek.  Saturday we walked down below the waterfall where the bigger creek meets our branch, where the water gets deeper (no more than a couple of feet but over my boots), and once Bug realized she had permission she was all in.  I walked around the bottoms below Chipmunk Bluff (I have names for areas of our land) and Kate swam, each not really paying each other much attention but having a great time by ourselves with the security that we were both nearby. 

Over the two walks, I wound up spying three wildflowers blooming that I've never seen before.  I took pictures and have a Tennessee wildflower book on it's way from the library to hopefully identify them.   I also found a pretty old Mason jar with a very rusty lid and a piece of an arrowhead... oddly within a foot or so of a spot where I've found one before.  No mushrooms to report in my findings.  Maybe next year.  Please enjoy these shots from our walks.

I love the ferns lining the creeks.

This one reminds me of Pepper Jean.  She always walked in the creek with such purpose.

Firepinks.

Don't know this one.

Firepinks.

Of all the walking I do in our woods this is the first snake I've seen this year.  I'm sure it's not the first snake that has seen me.  I almost stepped on this little guy in the creek.  He wasn't but maybe a foot long... maybe.  When I am in "their home" I feel I have no right to kill them.. unless maybe I am being threatened I guess.  Now if they are in my home... or chicken pen... or shop... or day care... different story.  I've not seen one like this before.  Maybe I ought to check out that snake book from the library again.

Tater Bug at our waterfall.

I think this is almost my favorite picture from this trip.  Just something about it.

Mom... something is telling me to ask you what this is.   Seems more like a misplaced shrub that's grown tall under the trees than just something wild.  I could be very wrong.

Remember this nest I found a few months ago?  Don't know if it's builders will use it again this year or not.  Doesn't appear that way for now.  It's pretty well built to last through this past winter.

days of our day care

I truly love, as a hobby of mine, to peruse the internet looking for good books for children and go back and forth from websites to my library site, searching titles and authors and requesting the results to be brought to my library for my usual pick up on Saturdays after yoga.  I then have another slight hobby of going online again to find coloring pages to go along with the books that I read to the kids.  Coloring pages or activities keep us busy a little while longer after story time.  Especially on Mondays when it's time for our wormhole picture for the week.  I think I've explained my form of discipline I reverted to when time out stopped working.

Each week we have a coloring page on Monday, for each child, that gets put in their folder on the wall.  If a child misbehaves or gets time out or acts up when adults and parents arrive or uses bad language then I will ask them to go and get their picture and they get a "wormhole" or a hole punched in their picture which means that they don't get to choose a prize from the treat box at the end of the week.  If they do not have a wormhole in their picture then they get to choose something on the way out on the last day. 

This week we had a fun book called Mrs. McNosh Hangs Up Her Wash.  A book which was right down my clothesline alley.  I pinned up a clothesline complete with sparkled clothespins over each folder for each child.  I then went online and found a simple picture of a sock and printed enough for each child to have one sock to color.  The kids we so excited to hang up their socks on the clothesline.  So far no one has a hole in their sock.  Hopefully it will stay that way.

Another day this week we read Harold and the Purple Crayon.  I dug out enough purple crayons, skinny ones for the older kids and little shorties for younger ones, and passed out white paper to each child when the story was over.  As they were sitting down they each asked me to flip through the pages to a certain scene they remember and wanted to draw like Harold did.  It was pretty fun and they were proud of their purple crayon drawings.

HERE is a direct to a preschool book search on goodreads.com.  Most of the time I put links on here for you to enjoy.  But a lot of times, especially with all the pc and internet trouble I have had lately, I find myself looking back and feeling safe that I have saved links here to refer back to.  Especially since I lost all of my browsing data and favorites more than once.

I also came across a really cute summer time backyard bingo, free printable that I quickly printed out two copies of and laminated.  Not real laminated... just the plastic overlay stuff.  HERE is the link to that.  You can play it with anyone I reckon!

lovin right now

A few things to share with you that I am lovin right now.

 I really like these morning and evening meditations from Louise Hay.  I have gone to sleep listening to the evening meditation for two weeks now.  I feel it has made a difference in some areas of my life so far.

 Seduction scented incense in this brand from my health food store.

 

photo via tumblr.com                                

 My hammock in The Oasis.  Find one like mine HERE.

The opening in the trees that I hope stays all summer giving me a tiny view of the field behind us.

The morning sun was shining pretty brightly on the ground back there.  In person it is a clear view.

I feel now that I must go to the field and check out the view of the house from the other side. 

 Morning shadows from my houseplants spending their summer on the porch.

 Stevia from the garden last year on my grapefruit instead of a heaping dose of sugar that I previously loved.