My Weekend in Pictures

I turned in my last final of this semester at 12:34 (a memorable time in its own right) Friday afternoon, so I am officially a free woman! I even got it in 7 1/2 hours before the deadline. Yeah, I'm that awesome.

I'm so happy. This was a rough semester. Okay, that was a pointless sentence, there are no easy semesters for nursing students.

Snapdragons, pansies, petunias

All I wanted this weekend was to make up for missing out on the past couple months' worth of life & that is exactly what I did. First I slept in until almost 9:00 both days. Whoo hoo! I totally made up for the late nights/early mornings of the past semester.

I took Ginger Girl to get pedicures & back massages yesterday. Just my favorite 10 year old girl & I. It was a blast. She giggled & smiled through the entire thing. The smile on her face was more reward than my own pedicure was.

First pedicure & she's
definitely hooked

Ginger Girl is supposed to be 6'2" when she's an adult, wears the same size shoe I wear, & is as tall as the average 13 year old. Nail Lady was shocked that Ginger Girl is only 10 & exclaimed over her adult size feet. "She only 10? She got adu' fee' & she only kid? She going be ta' adu' when she grow up! Look at those adu' feet!"

Ginger Girl giggled right along with Nail Lady & thought Nail Lady was a riot. Nail Lady danced while doing our toes & told us she knew exactly which art we wanted & where, so no need to pick one out. When we left, Ginger Girl said, "You're right, she does know you well."

Coordinating tootsies.
Left: Ginger Girl        Right: Me

While we were gone my brand-new dishwasher was installed. We have gone over a year without a dishwasher. With 8 people & 99% of our large meals being made from scratch, there are a lot of dishes after each meal. It's a lot of work to keep up with the kitchen in a house that bakes & cooks like we do. One dinner can create 3 or 4 pots, 1 sauce pan, numerous mixing bowls & serving spoons, & bakeware. And that's before we even set the table.

Yellow, yellow, yellow

The kids are extremely happy to have a dishwasher again. The children have jobs every day/night & dishes are on that list. They're all relieved to have that 1 pain in the ass job simplified.

We spent the entire rest of the day yesterday & today outside planting vegetables, herbs, and flowers. We got things ready for the landscaper coming this week and we just played. It felt so stinkin' good to get outside and enjoy time with my family. After 4 months of having to interrupt a fun time to go back to studying or having them go off to do things while I'm stuck glued to a laptop & textbook, this was well overdue.

Little Blondie & me pulling apart onions

Ginger Girl & Little Blondie were bursting at the seams to plant in the gardens. Gardening is one of their favorite things to do with me & with all the flower gardens to maintain & the troop that I have to provide vegetables for, I am not going to turn away a willing helper (or 2 or 8). The 2 of them would argue over who "got to" dig or put the seeds in "this time".

Big D: checking the new bed for rocks
Ginger Girl: waiting her turn to dig

I love that 1)the kids love spending time with me & 2)I have instilled Garden Love in all 6 of the children & they love planting, weeding, & picking. I love watching my gardens grow, seeing the literal fruit of my work. Even more than that, I love seeing the awe & pride in all the kids as they watch their work turn into beautiful flower beds & food to eat.

I loved seeing Little Blondie practically climbing up my legs to get the seeds because she couldn't wait 1 more second to put them in the ground. As I was explaining to the kids why we put the cucumbers & squash in hills instead of flat ground like the rest or how to recognize a sweet pea plant, I remembered my own Mom telling me the same things when I was a kid.

Little Blondie telling Blondie, "The
packet said they're done in 70 days
but I think it meant 70 seconds" while
checking which onions were "done"

When Little Blondie told me I'm "the best garden person ever" I remembered thinking the same thing about my Mom & how I got my Garden Love from her.

Big D watering radish seeds

Big D was disappointed when I didn't pick up the tomato plants tonight. He really wanted to be the one to go with me to get them & help put them in the ground. After all that I was beat & just could not put in one more thing. 

Little Blondie: "I'm ready when you are, Daddy!"
Hubby: "I thought I put my gloves down here..."

We planted onions, spaghetti squash, pickling cucumbers, salad cucumbers, carrots, radishes, beets, lettuces, spinach, string beans, green beans, snap peas, cilantro. I have to pick up my tomatoes, hot peppers, green peppers, acorn squash. We have to plant the gourds yet.

Boy Teenager...it's entirely possible
 he is eating something here &
thinks he's being "sneaky" 

Planting onions

I transplanted my herbs because where they were last year just was not a good spot. A lot of the herbs died, which was very sad. I had so many & now all I have is sage, spearmint, & lavender. The cats are especially upset over the loss of their precious catnip & Amazing Grace will miss her chocolate mint. As soon as I pick up the herbs this week to replace the ones I lost, it will be a full garden with herbs, hyacinth, & other flowers. And Ginger Girl's stepping stones & Amazing Grace's giant blue foot.

The new herb garden

I've got some beautiful gardens & my Irish see-through skin actually got some color. I also got some great family time, an awesome reward for all the hard work of this semester.