I have been blessed.

Hello my wonderful friends and faithful followers. I am terribly sorry I have been gone so long! So many things have been going on around here, time just gets away from me. I really hate that fact too because I love to blog. I love to share bits and pieces of my life with all of you: good, bad, ugly, and wonderful.

First of all is the most important news I have. As I stated in my last post, I had several doctor appointments over the past few weeks. Let me tell you I have never been so stressed. I went to my family physician to talk over some issues. One was the thing beside my nose. I have a "skin tag" beside my nose. It isn't a big deal but I don't like it there. So I am going to go to a dermatologist to have it and my skin checked out. I also have had a problem with my lower back. Luckily or perhaps unluckily, I found out I have a slipped disc in my back. It causes me lower back pain sometimes but it slips right back into place with rest, heat and advil...I am good.

I also had an appointment with my gynecologist. As I have posted before, I found out while I was pregnant with my last child I had cervical carcinoma in stu. Meaning I had stage 0 cervical cancer. I had a LEEP proceedure done to remove those bad cells and then had to have pap tests every 3 months for a while to keep it in check. Well I lost my health insurance and was unable to have my tests done for several years. The last pap I had in 2007 was abnormal. So the 19th of this month I had my pap test and thought for sure it would be at the least abnormal but probably cancerous. Well, yesterday I got my results back and found out that they were completely normal. My body had cleared up the abnormal cells by itself. Well with the help of God and all the prayers that were sent up by me and by others on my behalf. I tell you I have never been so happy in my life.

Also, my youngest child graduated Kindergarten on the 19th. I can hardly believe how big he is getting! All of my kids make me so proud of them AND feel so OLD at the same time! I am loving every minute of watching them grow up.

Speaking of my kids, their last day of school is tomorrow (Wednesday). Then we will start summer vacation, sleeping in, late nights, swimming, zoo, typical stuff. I hope they have fun with us this summer and I am sure I will have plenty of pics soon.

That is all for now. I will have another post soon with some pictures from recent events. Thank you all for taking time to read my blog posts and for leaving your wonderful comments. Be Blessed.

Busy, Busy Bees (lots of pics and updates)

Hello again my friends. Let me tell you I have been super busy lately. We have had doctors appointments, school programs, gardenings, celebrations...I have been trying my best keeping up with the housework and all the dates everything falls on. I tell you it has been a mad house around here. Things don't show signs of slowing down anytime soon either.

 My hubby and I did take yesterday (Monday) as a relaxing day. A friend of ours took us to a pond where he likes to fish. As you can see from the above picture this place was spectacular. Off of a beaten path, surrounded by corn fields. We saw deer in that field across from my pole.

 As you can see, my hubby caught a fish. He was very proud as this was his first of this fishing season. He ended up with 16 that day. The gentleman sitting behind him is our friend. He ended up with 18 fish.

 Here I am holding up my fish I caught. It was a large mouth bass. I only had 5 for the day. I was more interested in the serenity of the day than the fishing. Of course, we didn't keep these fish, we released them all as we caught them.

 I also took this picture while we were there. These two Canadian Geese were there and if you can see in the picture of them, they had a little baby right between them. I was amazed they let me this close.

 I also have been busy planting, planting, planting. This is one of two flower beds in front of my porch. This one is on the left. From left to right I have "Georgia Peach Coral Bells"; "Winky Double Rose/white columbine"; "First Frost Plantain Lily Hosta"; and "Palace Purple Coral Bells". All of these plants are shade plants as my front porch is shaded all day except for an hour or two in the evening.

 Here is the right side. The same plants have been planted here in the reverse order.

 Here is a picture (although not very good) of both beds in front of my porch.

 Here is garden bed #1. It is fully planted now. This bed contains Beefsteak tomatoes and cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, jalapeno and bell peppers, dill and chives. (The cups were to protect my little seedlings from the neighborhood rabbit)

 Garden Bed #2 contains Squash, beans, corn, okra, zucchini, lettuce, and cilantro.

 Garden bed #3 has cantaloupe, watermelon, sage, basil, eggpolant, zucchini, broccoli, carrots, and onions. I hope to get some up close pics of my plants soon.

 Here are 2 of the lovely white marigolds my neighbor gave me. They are planted at the base of my shepherds hook with my bird feeders (note the birdseed all around)

 My tub of potatoes! They have been covered up with soil and have emerged again. I hope we get lots of potatoes from this single tub.

The above pic is of something extremely special. These little succulents are called Hens and chicks. Some of these little babies were my grandmother's. She had them from her mom. They mean so much to me. To have something living that has been passed through the generations.

Now for a little business. As I stated we, well I have been going to the doctor. I have a growth beside my nose diagnosed by my family physician as a "skin tag". I am going to go in September to have it removed (dermatologist has been booked that long). More pressing is that it is time for my annual female check. It has been a few years since I had one and as I have stated before, I  did have cervical "carcinoma in stu" which was resolved by the LEEP proceedure back in 2006. I always get nervous when it is time for my exam because I am afraid the "cancerous cells" are back. Please my friends, please pray for good results from the tests that will be done on May 19th. I will try to keep you updated as best I can. Oh, and I am getting my thyroid checked as well. Once upon a time I had an overactive thyroid (most of my life). I wasn't able to gain weight and hovered around 94lbs. They are going to check to see if I need to go back on meds. Please pray for good news with that too.

Well my friends, that is going to be all for tonight as a very bad lightening/thunder storm is nearly here. I'm going to unplug my computer and crochet a bit.

Thank you all for reading!

Be Blessed.

Happy Easter Everyone!

Hello again friends! Today has been a spectacular day with my family. We ate too much, hunted a bunch of eggs, visited my mom, ate candy, and enjoyed eachothers company.

 Our festivities started yesterday with the coloring of some eggs. I laid out an old blanket in our kitchen floor, gathered all of our supplies and colored many eggs.

 Here is my youngest daughter, Faith holding up one of the eggs she colored.

 Dip, look, dip, look. The kiddos did a wonderful job creating such colorful eggs.

 Here is my wonderful hubby and our darling pup Tinkerbell. He is her favorite human.

 My four kiddos. Front from Left..Eddie age 7 and Sj age 5. Back from Left...Faith age 10 and Hope age 11.

My hubby and I hid all of the eggs, real and plastic, and sent the kiddos off to find them all.

 Eddie is counting how many he has. Faith waves to the camera.

 Sj running out of the picture because he has spotted an egg. Eddie searches around my garden beds.

 Look, Sj foun an egg hidden in my Peonies.

 Can you see the egg hidden in this rose bush. This egg was the last one the kiddos found. It was hidden very well in plain sight :P

 Eddie has found an egg. Hope holds up her bag to see how many she has found.

 Give us hints, Eddie and Sj say.

 Sj has found the money egg. He won 2 dollars.

 My hubby and I. I love him so much.

I hope your day has been as good as ours. Here is a Happy Easter from my family to yours. Be Blessed!

New Projects, Spud Buds, n more.

Hello again friends. Sure is a sunny day today but it isn't that warm. Only 50 degrees at the moment and windy. I am happy to have the sunshine because it is so much easier to be happy when the sun is shining.

I have been spending my morning cleaning. I did take a break though. I have been having a hard time dealing with our loss as you all know. Well it was mainly because her presence is no longer with us. I couldn't see her. I had a cute picture on my phone of Shorty and Tinkerbell laying on a fluffy purple pillow with frogs on it. They claimed this pillow as theirs. So I took my sd card out of my phone and put it in the adapter, took it to my local Rite Aid and used the photo kiosk to print off that picture of my pups. I then went to my local dollar store and bought a little silver frame to put it in. The picture now holds a special spot on my fireplace and my heart feels better now because I can see her! It was a win-win.

Now for the reason of this blog post. I had gotten away from crocheting. As a matter of fact, I hadn't been on the attic24 blog or on ravelry in over a month. SHAME ON ME! Crochet calms me down and helps me heal so I picked it up again and started crocheting like a mad woman.

 The first project here is my son Eddie's granny stripe blanket. His favorite color is red so I made sure at least two shades were in it. I am making it out of Red Heart Super Saver and the yellow is Caron one pound in Sunflower (i think :) )

 Here are the colors up close. The funny thing is, as I was picking out colors (mostly from my stash) I was thinking man this is going to be one funky looking blanket. But you know what, I love the way it looks. The colors just seem to mesh together well. My son has been hounding me to get it finished so he can have his blanket since his brother, Sj has the one I made that was using blues, creams and browns. (Sj's favorite color is blue)

 My next project is going to be a granny sqauare blanket for my living room. My hubby bought me 4 fabulous colors of Caron Simply Soft yarn. My living room is a mish mash of furniture mostly given to us. The furniture is hunter green and blue. I made burgundy curtains out of king size bed sheets for the two big windows framing my couch. This blanket will be used to bring all of the colors together. I may even buy more so I can make some pillows :). I only have one problem with this yarn though. It is very soft and shiny and slippery. If you don't weave in your ends carefully, they will slip right out of your work.

 I am also working on my 3rd Lucy bag. This one is more toned down than my hippy one I made to begin with. I also plan on lining this one.....

 With this fabric. I dunno if you can see it very well but it has sewing machines and birds Oh I just love it. I found it at my local grocery store which just happens to sell yarn and quilting supplies and such. I fell in love with this fabric and knew I had to use it.

 Here you can see the two together. I know it is going to look smashing! I can't wait to see it all together..Although I am not too sure how to make the lining or sewing it on ...ect.. I guess I will figure it out.

My final picture is of my spud buds. I have been watching these potatoes since I put them in this tub in Mid March. They are just taking off. There are now 8 or so buds poking their heads through the soil. Makes me very happy.

I also got a start (kind of stole it from a bush near my alley :) ) of a lilac bush. I walked by the bush and said..Oh my that smells so heavenly. I looked up on how to get a start and went back and found the shoots I needed. It has good strong roots and I really hope it takes off and thrives.


Ok I know I said my final picture earlier but I had to add a few pictures to so you all.

Tis is the picture from my phone I had printed off of my pups. Shorty is the black and white on on the left and Tinkerbell is the brown and black one on the right.

 Here you can see the finished project on my fireplace. I feel so much better now that I can see her again. She isn't physically here but I can see her and it makes me happy.

Now Finally...again lol....this is my lilac start I just planted. I need to mulch and to stake it. Keep your fingers crossed that it makes it! I really love the smell of lilacs.

Well that is definately it. I have to go swap laundry around and finish the lilac. Thank you all so very much for continuing to read my blog. I appreciate all of you and all of your comments so much!
Until we meet again, Be Blessed.

A BIG OLE THANK YOU

Hello my wonderful friends. I want to do a quick post to say "THANK YOU" for your kind comments. I know most of you want to read blogs and be inspired and uplifted because this is what I like. Things have been so difficult the past few days I feel like I'm in a gloom. The weather is cooperating as well because we have had little sunshine and lots of rain; over 8 inches.

However, I do have some nice blog posts planned as soon as the gloom outside wears off and I can take some pictures of some crochet projects I am working on. I haven't crocheted in a while because I have been planning, planting, and tending to my garden. I felt like a part of me wasn't being fulfilled so I picked up my hooks and instantly felt better. It has also calmed me down and helped me to cope with the loss of Shorty.

It has been 3 days since she has passed way. Each day gets better and I have moments of emotions. It seems everything I do has a memory tied to her. Most are happy memories like her growling and barking at the vacuum cleaner. Jumping up and nipping my hand if I am standing and ignoring her in front of me, and feeling her and Tinkerbell lying beside me asleep as I play online, read, watch tv. My daughter said it best when she said it feels like someone is missing. That is how big Shorty's personality was.

Also, my car has been vandalized. I got in it to take the kids to school yesterday moring because it was raining and they couldn't walk. Someone had stolen the cd player right out of my car. It sits right in front of my house, under a street light. Brave souls. I guess when it rains it pours, right?

Any whoo...I really did want to thank all of you for you comments. They all helped me to feel better. I hope you continue to read my blog because I promise it won't be gloomy all of the time. It is inspired of my life though and earnest. We all know life isn't always sunny.

Thank you , thank you, thank you all again! Be Blessed.

Shorty :(

 I am sorry to have to post another very sad post in such a short period of time but we lost one of our dogs today. Her name was Shorty. She turned 1 year old on Feb 1st. She was very fiesty, full of life, and was very curious. She loved to be cuddled and just loved to chase our other dog Tinkerbell and the kids around.

 As you can see from this picture, we got her when she was a teeny tiny puppy. We were her 4th home. No one seemed to want her. She was a sweetheart, I couldn't imagine why not.

 She loved the kids very much. I would find her at night snuggled under the blankets with one of the four kids.

 Today, when we got home from trying to go fishing (too much flooding to do it) I let her and Tinkerbell out to go potty. Today she decided to run across our road to the neighbors house. When the kids went to get her, she ran out into the busy main road through our town where she was hit in the head with a bumper of a car. She came to my middle daughter Faith (who was the only kid to see the whole thing take place and who is taking it the worse) when she called and I met them at the corner because I heard Faith scream and the dog yelp when it happened.

I am sure Shorty had a bad head injury because of the symptoms she was presenting with. She lived for an hour after she was hit. I held her nearly the whole time. My hubby took over for me when she began to seizure and have trouble breathing. I couldn't watch her gasping. I had seen unhealthy newborn kittens do the same thing and I new it wasn't pretty. I think I cried the whole hour praying for God to end her suffering as the vets were nowhere to be found. My hubby held her until she passed. All 6 of us cried our hearts out.

She was wrapped in the blanket she was wrapped up in when we got her and buried in a nice spot in our back yard. She has a big rock headstone and I planted blooming hyacinth on her grave. I told her a million times while holding her that I love her and I am sorry for not putting her on her chain or lead. I take full responsibility for her death. I just hope she knows how much she is loved in my family. My kiddos have finally stopped crying even though I cannot. They have moments of sadness which I know will increase at bedtime. Our other dog Tinkerbell is looking for Shorty and is now lying beside me. I hope she will be ok.

Please keep my family in your thoughts and prayers, especially my children. This is their first true vision of death from cause to effect. Thank you all for reading my blog. It is wonderful to have such good friends out there.
Until next time friends, be blessed.

Update- Garden and life

Good morning my wonderful friends. Thank you very much for your comments on my last post. I have been very busy in my garden getting it ready, caring for, and planting. I have a nice peeling sunburn to prove it :). The weather here for the past few days has been great for garden tending. Warm, sunny. But it will end today. Going to be cooler (in the 60s) and rainy all weekend.

How bout I show you what I have been doing.

 I live in a small old town in Ohio USA. There are some older homes in the city which have huge yards but my yard is very small. As a matter of fact, my house takes up most of my tiny lot. That is why I chose square foot gardening. The concept is you can produce as much as row gardening by using this method with less space, less waste of resources (seeds, fertilizer, water), and less work. The start up costs for the materials: boxes, soil, grids, trellises can be a little pricey but you will make up for it the first growing season. Last year was my first season and I only planted one full box and half of the next. I had tons of tomatoes, cucumbers, watermelons, cantaloupes, peppers. This year I planned better and I am sure I will grow enough food to eat, can/freeze, and donate to our local food pantry.

The above picture is looking at my garden area from my front yard. My front yard faces the west, this area faces South. As you can see, I have my beds mulched around, some marigolds planted around them (marigolds are natural pest repellents), and I have my trellises made.

 This is the a close up picture of my last bed. You can see the trellis is made up of 3/4 inch pvc pipe and elbows. It is attached to the bed by brackets and screws. The grid on the trellis is made of a medium grade nylon rope.

 Above you can see my blackberry plants. The one on the left is a little sick right now. He had too much water.  Both of my blackberry bushes are Triple Crown Thornless blackberries. They do not need a pollinator.

 Here is my raspberry bush. It is a Williamette raspberry. It does have thorn and also does not need a pollinator. They seem very happy in this bed.

 This picture shows two trash cans. The forward one is my compost can. The further back one is my rain can.

 Here is my beds all lined up looking from my back yard toward the front yard. I am very lucky because I have a gazebo just steps away from my garden. I can sit in there and watch the plants grow.

 The gazebo. I have snapdragons planted in front of it here. BUT I also have gladiolus corms planted. They are the red white and blue variety. I am sure later on they will look stunning around this gazebo.

 Here is the whole thing. I want to plant a bush or tree or something on the right hand side for some privacy. I also want to get some bamboo shades for it as well that can be drawn when the sun is too hot or when the neighbors are outside.

 Here is my bareroot strawberry plants in their hanging planter. This is the first time I have ever tried to grow strawberries this way. They are starting to turn green though so I hope I get tons of strawberries this year.

 Can you see? I have a potato plant coming up in my potato tub. Makes me happy to see things sprouting!

Half of my dining room table has been taken over by plants. I have Rosemary and lavender here.

 These cups have tomato, eggplant, and chive plants I have started. They were transplanted into cups yesterday.

 Mint is very invasive from underground so I opted to put it in a pot instead. I cant wait to have mint tea.

The plants left in this tray are Jalapeno, bell pepper, and sage. There are still a couple of eggplant seedlings emerging. They love the sunlight in this south facing window.

There you have my garden at a glance. I still want to add some things to it to make it a paradise. Add a swing and some benches. Maybe a solar powered fountain. I know I will continue to add to it as the season progresses and I catch stuff on sale.

Here are some very helpful links that I have been using and the information has been priceless:
Square Foot Gardening Website - the forums have great info and are free
Square Foot Gardening book - This book is a couple hour read and breaks down the concept and process of building your garden. It is so easy. I have talked to 70 year old men doing this type of gardening and loving it even though they have farmed or row gardened all their life. If you start this type of garden please get the book. It has wonderful information on seed start dates and planting.
Average frost dates - here is a great website for all my US followers to find your average Last/First frost dates
Garden Girl- She has an urban garden that produces well. She has videos and tons of info available.
Average frost dates for UK
Square foot Garden in action. Start with video 1. It shows her square foot garden from beginning to end. Great info!

I hope you all buy the book and start your own garden. Most people just start one 4x4x6 garden. You can do one that is 2 feet wide but no more than you can reach. All of my garden beds are 4 feet wide, 8 feet long, and 8 inches deep. I can grow anything I want in them. The key is to start small. See how much you grow and expand if you want to grow more. Once again, the book is wonderful!

Oh and to recap what I will be growing this year is: red onion, potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, bell pepper, Jalapeno pepper, chives, sage, basil, rosemary, lavender, blackberry, raspberry, strawberry, mint, lettuce, broccoli, carrot, garden bean, squash, corn, cilantro, watermelon, cantaloupe, cucumber, okra, and dill.

I will see how much I produce this year and I will adjust for next year if I need to.

I hope you all enjoy your day. Thank you for stopping by!
Be blessed y'all