I have been a pretty decent tree hugger for a long time now, but converting my husband has been a long, yet productive conversation. We are a team after all!
We successfully:

• Recycle mostly everything, composting, freecycle, thrift shopping & garbage picking
• Veggie Gardening – hugely rewarding!!!
• Dig up weeds & grass instead of spray
• Feed the birds & bugs as much as possible, though this backfired a bit this year when the birds ate all of the leave buds on my azaleas, making them less than impressive this spring
• have been using homemade cleaners made of vinegar or  bleach for most cleaning needs like floor cleaner, bathroom cleaner, counter & window spray
• Use the smallest variety of ALL laundry soap, we just can’t afford the other eco friendly brands
• this past winter, we winterized our home, sealing off the attic with stripping
• choose to keep wood floors that can be swept instead of vacuumed.
• use table napkins & kitchen towels instead of paper towels, though I have not eliminated them completely as they are good for things like puke
• Dwayne switched out every light bulb with the 5 year energy efficient bulbs, even in the garage
• I hand wash dishes using as little water as possible and only run the dish washer when I have a completely full load
• Dwayne has been washing the laundry in cold water for a very long time, I think this may have been his first green step, next to recycling household trash
• Dwayne rides his motorcycle to work when the weather is nice
• the kids will [pick up trash wherever we go, something that I love & hate, as other peoples trash in public places may not be the safest stuff to touch. It warms my heart though.

We are working on or discussing:

• revisit the crawlspace insulation before the full swing of summer comes along
• buying a push mower, if you feel generous there are some on my Amazon wish list
• replacing the street trees that the previous owners of our home removed
• evaluating the possibility of riding our bikes to work, as we only work 5 miles from home

We struggle with:

• cars, we love them, we hate them, we hate the bus system in our area even more
• getting recyclable items from the bathrooms or laundry room into the actual recycling unit outside
• turning off resources when not in use, TV’s are constantly on in all rooms – a big pet peeve of mine
• getting out of the house & involved in community activities that are green, we just don’t get the memo.

I just answered this Featured Question, you can answer it too!

Georgia comes into my room at 6:30 am and says, “Get up Mommy! We are going to be late!”  I sit up in bed, still slightly groggy from springtime allergies, and I see the clock. “Why Georgia, we still have another hour to sleep!”

“Ug” I say, “Go lay down.”
Plop into the pillow.
sleep.

not really.
when  i boast, i get smacked

I just answered this Featured Question, you can answer it too!

In summary, April.

We worked on getting the garden in. I dug up a large patch
on Raspberry, weeds & moved a crepe myrtle to make way for a new raised veggie
bed. I didn’t make a solid plan in the garden but decided to pack things in
this year, no wasted room.  Seedlings
were planted & seeds were set. The irrigation plan is 10X better than last
year, so if we get a drought we will not lose like we did last year. I have for
some dumb reason not gotten any lettuce set, I didn’t sow any seeds.  I do have a bunch of bonus potatoes this year.
I guess we missed a bunch of them last year during harvest. I will have more
potatoes than I know what to do with. The herbs are doing exceptionally well.
The Rosemary & sage has flowered for the first time in 5 years. Garlic is
popping up & chives coming in. Parsley made it a third year, hooray! The Asparagus
is extremely tempting.  Oh, do I want to devour
these lovely sprouts! I can next year. I will post complete garden pictures on
Flickr now.

The Kids have had a lot of fun playing in the garden.
Georgia helped build the raised bed and the pea supports. Dylan just loves to
be outside. Any opportunity he has to get outside, he is adamant about it. I
love it that my kids like the outdoors.

Dwayne had a weekend of ice cream scooping at the Mt.
Sterling Home & Garden fair. He scooped out the 4-H flavor Centennial
cupcake, it is cake batter ice cream with other junk thrown in. It is not my
favorite. I took the kids out there to see their Daddy, it was fun. I forgot to
bring the camera. The kids tried out a bunch of tractors.  I bought a new herb for my garden, Lovage. I
am very excited about Lovage, apparently a very pleasant celery replacement.

We had a birthday party for Dylan yesterday.  Maurice & Shuron brought their kids over,
little Reece & Keyon. The neighbor kids came over for food & games. Ben
& Sarah came over and helped set up and what-not. It was a lot of fun. We
kind of planned it at the last minute, but it went well. The weather cleared
up, though remained quite windy. Grandma Donna Bell’s box arrived in time for
the party. Dylan received a lot of nice toys from everyone.  Dwayne & I bought both kids new bikes.
Dylan’s is a motorcycle style trike and Georgia’s is a real bike with training
wheels.

Three of my favorite things, Georgia, Dylan & my garden!

The house

Asparagas

Blooming sage

Irrigation

New herb garden spot with climbing rose, Lovage is int he center, plenty of room to grow.
Blueberries at each back corner. Thyme on one front corner and oregano at the other corner.

squirrels have moved into a hole in our backyard tree. Our dog Savannah spent hours sitting at the base of the tree waiting for one of them to fall out of the tree.  The squirrels were pretty entertaining, in and out of the hole for hours.In this pic, you can see one squirrel in the hole, his eye glinting from the flash and the other is above the hole, tail curling around.

Picture of the kids right before we opened presents.

New teddy from Grandma Donna Bell

Remote control race car

I love the little smile on his face here.

Dylan with wind in his hair

Georgia freaking out over her new bike

Thanking Daddy

On it for the first time

Dylan & his helmet

See ya!

All the kids ride

Keyon & Georgia

Dylan getting a push up the hill

Dylan trying to blow out his candles, Mama had to help.

Happy Birthday Son!

I am traveling, currently in Campbellsville KY
Missing my children, thankful that my husband allows me the wings to fly the coop now and again.

My daughter is not so forgiving.

I can’t find the cord to download pictures of the awesome spring display put on by the Magnolia tree in the front yard. Even random  passersby have remarked on it stunning beauty.
I guess the drought last summer had a good effect on the tree.

At any rate, I like this: http://www.guerrillagardening.org

Found the camera.

BTW….
New Flickr site.  http://www.flickr.com/photos/dirtgirlmic/

We can’t find the camera for pictures.
But I have a story.

Dwayne was sitting in the living room the kids playing outside.
They come running in the house, “Daddy, Daddy!”
“What is this?”
Georgia has a stick with a slug at the end of it.

He laughs and says, “Its a slug, get it out of the house.”

Finally getting around to posting about Easter.

Sorry it has taken so long. I have been very busy, family,
house cleaning, work, meetings with the neighborhood and working on the garden
& crocheting a granny square blanket…it is all pretty overwhelming at times.
However, I like to stay busy rather than idle. 
Dwayne & I have started a walking/running habit on the
treadmill.  Monday was the first day. He
has been “pumping his guns” every night for almost a month now. Georgia refuses
to go to bed until she & daddy pump their guns.  I am taking the weekend off from walking, I
think I will keep it as a daily thing through the week. I am also looking at
trying to ride my bike to work. I have mapped it out, it can either be a 5 or 4
mile ride as there are three possible routes. Dwayne is pretty concerned about
safety, but really it is not much different than riding a motorcycle.  

 Easter was nice. We
painted eggs the night before, Dwayne took pictures.  The kids went to bed with blue fingers.  I made the dotted egg for Nan-nan & Mom.
It was really pretty this year.  Dylan
dropped every egg he painted, this upset Georgia each time.   The kids went to bed afterwards and Dwayne
& I enjoyed a rare couple of beers. We watched a movie and also went to
bed. The Easter bunny came and hid our painted eggs and left the kids a basket
of goodies. Georgia woke up at 8 am on the dot, I then regretted those three
beers & staying up until 1 am the night before. We got up and got Dylan out
of bed, and then the kids ran around the house finding eggs. There never seems
to be enough eggs, whether you are painting or hunt.  They skipped breakfast and went for an all chocolate
day.  It wasn’t for a lack of trying, we
just did not push the issue, as most of the candy would go with me to work the
next day.  At 3pm we went o Ben &
Sarah’s for dinner. They had made a great Easter dinner of ham.  After dinner, the kids got another basket of
goodies.  The kids were very excited
about a second basket.  Ben & Sarah’s
neighbor Lisa had a large egg hunt in her front yard, both of the kids went
over for that. They had so much fun hunting for eggs. In hindsight, I wish we
would have made it out to church service as a family.

Here are some pictures:

Georgia liked to paint the eggs a solid color, I didn’t set up anything for dipping the eggs. Maybe I will next years.

Dotted Egg

All of the eggs

Eggs hiding, can you see them?

The searhc is On!

The triumphant Chocolate Bunny

Gifts from Granny

The end of a great holiday.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!!

This weekend Dwayne pulled out the shoes he bought Georgia 5 years ago. He did not understand how kids shoes were sized and was just so excited to get her a pair of pink shell toes.There is another pair but I am sure she will not see those until she has started school, maybe even middle school.

She Loves wearing shoes like her Daddy.

Last week, I dyed her hair with Pillar Box Red. She wanted Pink hair really bad, so I figured, why not? Manic Panic is only vegetable dye, you could eat the stuff, not that you would want to. The process went better than I expected. She sat very still and listened to my every command. It is really pretty.