Boone Update, followed by 'Maggie's skills'

Boone is everyone's favorite family member.  He is so smiley and cute and responsive, it's impossible not to make silly noises and faces at him.  The children are especially getting into him lately.  They always want to feed him (we've finally got it down to ask Mom FIRST), and give him toys and play with him through the bars of the crib until Mom can get him.  They really love him.  It is so sweet to watch.  

We put our children in the laundry basket.  When they're little we lay them in it.  When they're big they sit in it.  It helps them sit up when they're still wobbly.  That's what stage Boone is in right now.  I love coming upon Boone with the improvements the children have made.  Today while in the laundry basket, Axel gave Boone a blanket and a pink 'pearl' necklace, which he was chewing on.  We live dangerously.  Axel had turned on his favorite dance music and was giving Boone a dance concert interspersed with crouching in Boone's face and cooing, and tickling his neck.  It's enough to make a Mother glad she had 4 children.  Next time I came upon Boone this is what I found.    

And then he woke up.

I love the amo way he wears the necklace. Very macho.

Do you want to eat his face?  

Side note: While my brother was visiting and I was doing my typical, "Ahhhhh-m gonna ee choo" and biting his neck, my brother said, "Why do women always want to eat their babies?  You had them in your body once, and you want to put them back there."  I thought that was a funny way of looking at it.  Maybe he's right.  

Also, whenever I play this game, Lou becomes very concerned and tells me "You can't eat him!"  And she repeats it louder, and louder until I stop playing.  What a good sister.

Maggie's skills:  Maggie made this skirt.  

She really did.  I did the cutting and ironing and she did the sewing and serging.  I was right there and I did thread the elastic through the waistband.  But she did almost everything.  It turned out better than I thought.  She really did a good job sewing straightly.  I am impressed and I'm showing her off  here so you can be impressed too.

And her cranky face was not about the sewing.  This was taken a week after she finished it and did not want to pose.  We very nearly had a fall-down-feet-scratching-screaming fit.  It was avoided by not insisting she look cheerful for the picture.

The shirt and bloomers I made from $1/yard Walmart fabric.  I love that Walmart fabric because it makes sewing economical.  (I would like to insert here that there is one Walmart store in Nashville that has excellent fabric, the lady there knows how to order it.  If you're reading this thinking that I'm crazy because the Walmart fabric near you is junky, let me clarify that this particular Walmart fabric is excellent.  And thanks to that fabric-ordering-lady I have much too much fabric for $1/yard.)  Now my girl can play in that skirt without me cringing over her underwear.

Conversation with myself

Sometimes I envision what an earlier version of myself would think about my present life.  We talk sometimes.

13-years-earlier Alisha: You don't look as sexy as me, but better than I feared you would.  And you're getting Mom's bottom.

15-years-earlier Alisha: Instead of singing to this country song, you should be throwing up.  You disgust me.

8-years-earlier Alisha: You made that!?!  When did I learn to do that?  Good job!

5-years-earlier Alisha:  Listen, I know you feel a little frazzled, but you need to figure out how to keep the house cleaner.  This is unacceptable.  We were not going to be this kind of housekeeper.

Today's conversation was with 7-years-earlier-Alisha

7-years-earlier Alisha: What you looking at?

Present-Alisha: Houses in Vegas, this is depressing.  Why are the homes so strange looking?  What are they doing with the drywall art?  Why are all the walls covered with speckles?

7: I hadn't noticed how ugly it was, but now that you point it out, you're right it is ugly.

Present: And I'm not looking forward to rocks and cactus in my yard.  I think I can help it with drought resistant flowers, but still seems impossible to make the desert look like a garden.  Will I miss Nashville forever?

7: No, because you've moved a ton of times, and it's always the people that make the place and there are cool people in Vegas.

Present:  Will the cool people make up for me living in a house that has windows that aren't trimmed out, and zero personality design, and those horribly unimaginative bathrooms and kitchens that all look identical, and carpet, and 2 inch baseboards?

Pause.

7: Are you serious?  Are you that much of a princess?  Since when have I needed baseboards to be happy?  You need to do charity work until you're less selfish.  I can't believe we're even talking about this.  You know what, little whiny princess you need to take off your tutu and put on your boxing gloves.  Right now.

So I did.  And we punched each other.  And I felt better.
Thank goodness she knocked some sense into me.

I made a trellis

The watermelon plant is growing so well, it already requires a trellis.  So I thought I'd make one out of the enormous pile of honeysuckle that is still sitting in my front yard.  I bought some twine, picked my sticks, and watched an excellent youtube video on how to lash.  42 lashes later,  viola.  

Looks so primitive.  I love it.

I thought it was a good skill that I should've known already.  Wasn't too difficult, but it did take a while repeating the lash 42 times.  And it cost me just about nothing.  In case anybody is wanting to tie some sticks together, I made this short very educational video.  I'm such a cheeseball.

I think when the season is over, I might tent two of them together and put a tarp over for a play tent for the kids.

Dresser update:  Painted, waiting for knobs to arrive in the mail.

Today

A purple gladiolus bloomed.  I love purple flowers.

One little flower on the hydrangea has bloomed.  It soon will be too beautiful to handle.

My sunflower bloomed!  7 more to open soon.

This is a before picture.  I'm painting this today.  It is my girls' dresser, and it was mine growing up, and it's about to get a major face lift.

New Dress-up for Lou's BDay

Lou loves dressing up, and it's been a bajillion days since I sewed anything, so it was time to get my creative on.  I was less than excited about the usual princess dresses I was finding online as inspiration.

Plus I didn't want to buy any fabric.  And I don't have any of that cheapy fabric, and I'm not going to use my expensive fabric.  Hmmmm.  Then I found a cute peasant dress, got out my free-from-my-mom fabric, and got to work.

She looks very serious, but she really liked it.

Though, she may have liked the nerds rope Axel gave her better.

Father's Day dinner

Collard Greens
Sweet Potato Fries
BBQ bacon blue cheese onion ring sliders on made-by-Alisha buns
Mango ice cream for dessert

Of course it was a day late, because he was working 24 hours on Father's day.

Paul loved it, anyway.

I planted wildflowers

The beginning of April I made a flower bed where 'grass' was. It took me all morning, but the soil was good, and the location - right near the door we always come in. I love flowers, but have never grown any, except bulbs.

Two and a half months later, we have a whole bunch of flowers. I used a package of mixed wildflowers that attract butterflies and bees. This children are at this moment trying to construct a butterfly catcher, despite my arguments that butterflies are best enjoyed when they are free. I don't really think they can catch one, so I'm not too upset.
They are a messy beautiful mass. I'm fully enjoying them and think I'll plant the flowers again next year, but probably a little more neatly. But for now they are showing off for us every day.

The jungle view. We have a little baby rabbit who likes to hang out a midst the flowers. He's pretty cute. Cuter than the chipmunks who make endless holes in the yard.
My favorites are the zinnias, but the spurred snapdragons are a close second. The Plains coreopsis is the yellow and rust flower. They just bloomed and are fun.

We keep getting new flowers blooming. It's like a surprise. We have little pink poppies

and white flowers I don't know the name of and cornflowers in blue purple and pink

tickseed

and lots of buds about to open. The kids watch them every day and we learn the names together. The flower we are on the edge of our seats about, is the sunflower. There are a few of them, but this one is as tall as me and every day gets a little close to blooming.

My chamomile has finally sprouted. I had given up on it. I planted the seeds a month ago. Hopefully they make it to flower and then into my tea!

In the front I planted gladiolus bulbs.

It took forever for the green to pop up. Then a friend told me that she planted gladiolus and she got the green, but the flowers never showed up all season. We've had the green for so long and no flowers I was starting to worry. The green leaves are about 4 feet tall, and we just got our first flowers. I called every one to the front yard to show them.

I am soooo excited to see the colorful mass when they all bloom.

Also, in the front, I planted knock-out roses. I ripped out a really incredibly dangerous everygreen shrub with pokers like sewing needles. Really, they were that long. I should've taken them out sooner. My landlord is so nice, he doesn't care what I do to the yard. The rose bush is still small, but has been blooming profusely. I love having roses around.

In the back at the edge of the property are beautiful Rose of Sharon trees. The problem is that the honeysuckle has grown so big that it blocks out the sun and makes it hard for the trees to put out new growth. So I got the pruner and a saw and the kids helped drag it down to to the street. Wow. That's a lot of honeysuckle.

The woman who originally owned the house, and from whose son we now rent, planted three different kinds of Rose of Sharons.

I'd like to think she's looking down from heaven, pleased that we are enjoying her trees. And all her yard. Hope she likes the roses more than the needles-in-your-eye-pokey bush.

RC Cola and MoonPie Festival

Bell Buckle TN has a MoonPie Festival every year, and every year we want to go, but decide that it's too inconvenient at the last minute. But this year is our last chance. We braved the rain and drove the hour. And loved it.

Paul loves posing for these pictures.

We saw the world largest MoonPie.

And they shared it with us. Mmmm, marshmallow sandwich.

The South is Home.