First day of Spring

Happy Spring everyone.  For you readers in the southern hemisphere,  is this your first day of Fall? 

I usually start Monday off with a to do list.  This was taken early this morning and I've checked off several and added a few more tasks.  It won't all get done this week but a list will keep me track to get as much done as possible. 

I put on a new manicure last night- I like Impress press on nails.  A set has 30 assorted size nails and because my nails are pretty average size,  I can usually get 2 manicures from one set.  This is my second from this set.   

My husband does some frugal things.  The Lowes in our town sells their ripped or busted bags of all garden materials for $1 a bag.  He went this morning and got 17 bags of assorted soils and mulch. 

Our Oklahoma dirt is hard packed red clay and it won't grow much but weeds without some improvements added to it. 

Lowes even loaded it in his truck and gave him a 10% military discount on it all. 

view from the front of his pickup bed above and from the rear is below. 

I had planned to bake a Mexican casserole for supper but it was almost 90 degrees today- way too hot to have on the oven in the heat of the day. 
So I improvised and used most of  the ingredients that would of been in the casserole and we had make your own taco bowls. 
I cooked rice in a rice cooker,  heated up a can of jalapeno pinto beans and some frozen corn and also a container of my homemade taco meat that I keep in the freezer.  Toppings were cheese, salsa, jalapenos and diced tomatoes mixed with onion.
It was delicious and made me think of how Wendi needed to improvise meal prep at her home while their oven was out of commission. 

this evening I put out some Easter decorations.  I was tired of the green tree and we had this small white one in storage so I think it looks a bit more spring like 

The quilt was my baby quilt,  sewn by my great grandmother. 


Bunnies are lined up on the mantle. 

and the egg wreath is back on the front door- but this might be it's last season.  It has been re-glued many times and I think it has more hot glue on it than eggs now 

One of the projects we worked on last week was lightening up our home for warm weather.  You may of noticed the heavy curtains in the living room were switched back to the muslin ones edge with ball fringe. 
In the breakfast room,  we got rid of the white armoire that was on its last leg and moved the smaller refrigerator out to my husbands workshop.
The chest freezer is still in the nook but there was room to add back our old dining table.  I'm liking it so much!  there is a high chair at the end and its much more convenient to have meals here when a few kiddos are here instead of  in the formal dining room   We can also do crafts at this table with no danger of marring it. 
The heavy curtains on this bay window were switched back to pink toile ones. 

the pieces of "art" don't really match the room but they are things I know my grands will like seeing.  One is a cross stitch sampler of all 50 states made by Aunt Evelyn. 

The other is a calendar from the Holy City of the Wichitas.

I like seeing them too. 

Spring Break week

Hello everyone.  We are just finishing up Spring Break,  meaning all the grands that are in school and our daughter and son in law that work for schools,  were all off for a week. 
So,  that meant my husband and I didn't have our regular childcare schedule this week. 
We stayed busy all week and also had some fun. 

We worked in our yard and raised beds.  This giant clover was growing in one of our raised beds.  It was very pretty but its been dug up and the bed has been tilled. 
We are in such a string of warm weather,  we decided to live dangerously and planted several tomato and pepper plants outside.  If we do end up having freezing weather,  we will cover them up but we are hoping that by planting early,  we will harvest early.
We will see.......

The very first night of spring break was a 5 cousin sleepover at our home.  I didn't intend on bathing all 3 of these little guys in this little tub at the same time but I started with the youngest and he didn't want to get out once he was clean.  So his brother got in and then he didn't want to get out once he was clean either.  So their cousin joined them. 

3 little guys in 1 little tub- having so much fun! 

My husband and I will celebrate our 37th wedding anniversary this month.  We took a short trip during spring break as it was easier to go now than to try to rearrange schedules when school is in session. 

We went to south western  Oklahoma- not a long drive. 

Medicine Park is just the most unique little town.  It is on the edge of the Wichita Mountains and is very rocky.  They are blessed with an abundance of naturally occurring round granite rocks.  They call them "cobblestones"  and the early settlers used cobblestones to build their homes and businesses. 

Many of the homes are still lived in and some have been renovated and are turned into guest cottages that tourists can rent. 

This beautiful stream and waterfall run right through the middle of Medicine Park. 

I've heard of settlers building with logs and sod but I never knew about cobblestones. 

We were just fascinated with all the cobblestone buildings and cobblestones everywhere you look.  We wanted  our own cobblestone but it is illegal to remove them from Medicine Park punishable with a $500 fine.  So we will just be content with our photos of cobblestones. 

We drove to the top of Mount Scott,  the tallest peak in Oklahoma. 

We toured the Holy City of the Wichitas. 

It was built in the 1930s as a WPA work project and is supposed to be like Jerusalem during Bible times.  We enjoyed it very much. 

No shortage of rocks! 


On the drive back home,  we stopped to see these 3 grands that live about an hour away. 
Andie just turned 5, Charlie is 20 months and baby RJ is 8 months. 
I think the professional photographer did a great job and her backdrop is really cute too- just lengths of tulle netting to make the rainbow. 

At our daughter's home- this is their dining room before.  My husband built the 2 bar height benches I showed in a previous post. 

Before

After- my husband did some more ........

The chairs and table legs got a coat of white paint and distressing, and the table got a new, bigger top.  I think its about 5 feet by 6 feet now. 

their family should have lots of happy meals and games and craft projects at this huge table with lots of seating now. 

Their front door is really cute too-

Their bunny wreath is from Hobby Lobby.  She said she bought it on sale and got it for about $10.  To hang it on the metal door,  she used a Command Hook. 

I don't have any Easter decorations up yet but I plan to do that next week.  I've also been doing some warmer weather changes inside our home like switching out the heavy drapes for lighter curtains.  I'll show photos soon! 

and if you're still reading (this turned into a loooong post)
Thank You All for the sweet compliments on my last post.
  I was not online much during the week and just never got around to replies.