April?

My goodness, the time it does fly. How can it possibly be the first of April? AKA April Fool's Day. Do you pull pranks on people today? I mostly don't. Mostly because I can't think of any good harmless fun. Or I just forget and then the day's here. Last year Caleb taped the lever down on our sprayer at the kitchen faucet, hoping to get Zach to spray himself. That didn't pan out so well since I was the first one to use the sprayer. A few years ago (like five), I did pull a prank on the boys with some frozen breakfast, but it was all good fun and they ended up with a box of cereal they wouldn't normally have, so it was a treat after all.

But this year, I have nothing. Which is fine. It's just not a big deal to me.

It also would've been my cousin's birthday were she still here. She would've been 49. I think that would've freaked her out a bit. But instead of freaking out about almost hitting the half-century mark, she's rejoicing with Jesus. So while we miss her here, how could we ever want her to not be there?

On Saturday, I cleaned up the garden out front. In the fall, I always think I should clean up all the leaves and dead stuff, but I think it makes for some nice insulation for the bulbs into the next spring. It's like finding treasure as I clear everything out and see all the pretty green plants popping up. I'm pretty excited about the bulbs out in my garden. There are SO many plants. There's always been quite a few allium out there, but this year, I think it's going to be rather crowded. The tulips seem to have spread, too. I used to have none. Then I had one for a couple of years. Now there are no fewer than six tulips beginning to grow. I also have some small ornamental onions and some lilies. Hopefully this year, my lilies don't get beat to sticks by any stupid hail. That was so sad.

Our neighbor's cat uses NUMEROUS locations in our yard as a cat box. Which I absolutely HATE! This cat will not stay away, either. In years past I have poured chili powder in those areas. I'm thinking it works for a little while, but I probably didn't get it out there often enough. So this year I'm using coffee grounds. They're free from Starbucks, plus they're good for the soil. And I'm really, really hoping this will keep the darned cat away. I even chase him and shoot at him with a wimpy little airsoft gun (I don't hit him, just try to scare him), but he's rather unaffected by my efforts.

Today is the first day of water restrictions here. Sadly, our precipitation (snow and rain) has been terribly low these past few years with no relief in sight. The restrictions just apply to sprinkler watering (like the lawn). But I need to remember to get out and water my garden. Until the past week, it's been covered with snow, so it was getting a nice, slow soaking. I'm not looking forward to another super hot and dry summer. Last year was not good, so I'm hoping they're wrong (sorry weather forecasters) and that God brings some wonderful, much-needed rain to Colorado this spring and summer.

Well, there's much to do today, so I'd better get cracking. But hey, it's a post, right? And it even has pictures.

Happy April to my three readers!!

Peanut Butter

Just the title alone will cause some to practically salivate at the thought. Others, not so much. And many in between. Well, if more than three people read this, anyway.

I'm not a huge peanut butter fan. At least that's what I say aloud. Even in my head. In fact, most of the time, things made with peanut butter don't sound that appealing (other than fresh, warm, soft peanut butter cookies!). But I actually kind of like it more than I let on. Especially when it's freshly ground and flavored with maple and honey.

We have a store downtown called PB&J's. They make their own fresh PB in their store in a cool red grinder. {Which reminds me - why did I not take a picture of it? That's so out of character for me.}

They have other flavors, though they didn't really appeal to me, so I conveniently forgot what they are. Other than plain. Which I'm sure is pretty awesome, too.

But this? Honey Maple Peanut Butter?

(Pardon the focus, or lack thereof, on these. Not sure what happened.)

OH. MY. WORD.

Nothing short of amazing! It's so incredibly good that it needs no accompaniment. I had a bread and PB sandwich today. It was so good that I made another half. Sigh. Pure bliss.

What food do you eat that you think you don't care that much about, but when you eat it you really enjoy it a lot? When it comes to peanut butter, I also love Reese's little teeny weeny miniature unwrapped cups. Chilled, of course.

Show Me - Table

A few years back, another blog friend, Robert, hosted a meme called Show Me. We had specific things to post for this assignment and you can see my previous version here. There are some posts besides those that follow, but for whatever reason, they popped up, too, in my search.

Anyway, one of the girls, Kaylia, who participate in that thought it would be fun to do it again. So I said, "Sure, I'm in." And then I almost forgot to be in. But I digress. My poor little blog here could use something to share, so here we go.

Week 1: Table {<-----click to see the meme}

John and I have had this dining room table for a very, very long time. I think we bought it around 1991, maybe. The original chairs started to get a little wobbly (I can't imagine why, raising two boys!) and about 7 1/2 years ago, John brought home some free RV chairs. Those are what you see around the table now. They were fairly close to matching. And did I mention they were free? We like free. Mostly. The table has a leaf, so it's sometimes larger.

For quite awhile, this table was also the home office of John's business. Which was not always convenient when it came time to eat. So sometimes we ate in the family room. In front of the tv. Don't judge me. But on another happy, free note, someone gave us a pretty nice desk, so now his home office has a more permanent residence. And we get to eat at the table more often.

It's been a good table. We've had a lot of meals here, played a lot of games here, and used it as a fort. I imagine it'll be around for a lot more years, too.

Vivian Maier

I want to see this when it's complete. It would also be fascinating to see an exhibit of her work.

Random Update

I almost titled this "February Update" since I haven't posted since January. But as soon as I do, I'll manage to post something else this month. Even though it's short. The month, that is.

So, Happy Valentine's Day. Ours was pretty much a bust. John woke up with a headache that just got worse as the day went on. Poor guy just spent the day in pain and mostly in bed. Sigh. I took the lazy way out and bought two heart-shaped pizzas from Papa Murphy's. Actually, my sister picked them up and dropped them off at my house (she was already going there and she had to bring something else over to my house, so it wasn't like I made her be my errand slave or something and I did pay for them). So the boys and I ate pepperoni pizza and had some red and pink Starburst jelly beans for dessert. And watched How It's Made. And Psych. Do we know how to party, or what? Well, party quietly, anyway.

Life is pretty low key right now. It's the slow season for John's business and the colder weather and little bit of snow make it even slower. So we have school, free time in the afternoon, and long, quiet evenings lately. I got some sewing done this past weekend. Made a tote bag and little zipper bag for me and the same for a friend. I also have some face cradle covers to make for my massage therapist.

I've purged a bunch of stuff out of my studio. It's amazing how much space there is in here. Although it still has too much stuff. I think I'm kind of on a purging binge. That doesn't sound right. On a decluttering jag. Maybe that's better? I love it, though. It's so freeing and wonderful to pass things along that I'm not using to someone who will appreciate them and put them to good use.

Wow. My life is seriously boring right now. Which is mostly okay. I'm really not looking for some major life events or anything. I've really enjoyed some of these long, quiet days at home. And it won't always be this way. But that's probably a big part of the lack of blogging. What do you write about when you don't really do much of anything? I need a repository for blog ideas, so I have something to fill in these gaps.

What I should be doing is getting organized. Getting rid of more things. Reading books. Scrapbooking. Working on business plans. There we go - instant to do list.

Well, Happy February! I'll be back one of these days.