Projects

The other day, I sat on the deck watching my husband mow the back yard. As I watched him make those incredibly straight lines with his beloved push mower, I thought about how blessed I am to have a husband who cares. He is very thoughtful about the appearance of his lawn. His yard is his signature. Next, is the garage, but we all use it and he can never have it just like he wants it. Needless to say, he is a man who always has a project. In the winter he does a lot of woodwork and I have many treasures in my house he has made for me. In the summer, his focus is outside. Recently, he built a lattice wall around the air conditioner unit and all of the wires/boxes on the back side of the house.He painted it white and put a small flower bed in front of it and took it around the back side of the house. It looks wonderful and hides all that "mess"Everything back there is still accessible with the removal of 4 screws. He is a worker, that guy. Being laid off the last several months has been a 2 edged sword. On the one hand, things are tight. On the other hand, Sweetheart is much more relaxed and seems very happy. He was so stressed out before. It was not good for him. He is a car man, so you know how that is going. He is no longer laid off, as the dealership he managed is now closed. Very sad. The owner, is a wonderful man who did all he could, but it was not enough. If this genus of a business man could not keep the doors open, then no one could. We know God is in control and whatever doors close, He is behind it, and whatever doors open, He is there too. So we all have projects going here. The money being tight brought with it another project. I am not a frugal person by nature. I am teaching myself to be though and I am doing better than I thought. I have some changes in the kitchen....most of my money spending happens at the grocery store. I started my sour dough again, with Charlotte's promise she will leave it alone. It is under the towel, fermenting away.I also started a batch of yogurt. We eat a lot of yogurt here. I eat Activia every other day and the kids devour any yogurt that comes in the house. This will save many dollars!I went to the grocery store(s), yes I went to 2....I will do that once a month, but not every time as I detest grocery shopping. I found a 2 oz. bottle of PURE vanilla extract for 1.99! Can you believe it? Amazing....I bought 2. Plus that large bottle of ground cinnimon...1.99 also! The extra virgin olive oil was only 3.99 and I know I saved big on that too.Saving money at the store is a project in it's self for me!

Another project is the garden. It is small. Really small, as in 3 tomato plants......2 pepper plants......and 1 cantaloupe.

I still have room for some green beans and sugar snap peas....oh and there is a row of onions in there already. Next year will bring a different kind of garden. We have tried to compromise on the garden. It is so little I can not grow much more than what is there. Sweetheart does not want his yard dug up. He came up with a solution.

This area next to the garage is wasted space.....

He will remove the end of the fence with the gate, extend the fence line down to just before the drain pipe and reattach the end section with the gate. That will ALL be garden!!! It does not look like much, but it is more than I had hoped for and will give me LOTS of room to grow food for canning. I don't call him Sweetheart for nothing!

My latest project is giving me fits. I have it on my design wall and am just not happy with it. I tried to use the background fabric as setting blocks, but it was too drab. So I added color in the corners...see that end setting block?Nope. I need to get a fabric that has a color. Something that reads solid like a tone on tone, but in a sagey green or a powdery blue or a lavender....what about a sunshine yellow??? What do you all think? There will be 4 rows of baskets and 3 rows of setting blocks, plus the setting triangles all the way around. Lots of wonderful quilting space!

So those are the projects for now...Sweetheart is now working on the front yard. He trimmed all the bushes and trees and now is ready to lay mulch. We lost a bush this year. No idea why, but it just died. It rained all day and it is suppose to rain tomorrow. What projects do we have to look forward too? Fox News and Cubs....in that order!! Lord, have mercy!

I wanted to share my little TJ with you. He came to Grandma's for a few hours to play and he spent all his time with "Uncle" Zachary. They played cars and got along so well. (They argue sometimes....ok a lot)At one point when they were playing, I heard TJ say, "Zachary, I sure love you." AWWWWWW. My heart melted. It was so sweet. Zach never even looked up. He just said, "I love you too, TJ." Those boys are awesome!Be Blessed,

Bren