Year of the Yard part one

When we were lucky enough to buy the house we live in now, I had three thoughts:
1. This house has SIX (potential) bedrooms. Yahoo!! That means we can have more babies!!

2. With this house we double our square footage, thereby giving us more space to put our stuff! We could NEVER fill up all this space! (turns out we filled it up immediately--all we had to do was find a place for all the things I had stored like a brainteaser puzzle in our previous house. We just spread them out a bit...)

3. This house sits on a HALF-ACRE!!! I can't wait to fill up that half-acre with plants rather like I had the closets of our old house filled up! Y'know--EVERY INCH!!

So I went to sleep at night with all my plans and good intentions swimming 'round my head. Well......turns out that a half-acre is a lot of land. Especially when you don't have a sprinkling system, and you get pregnant and have two babies in the space of 3 1/2 years. And you let the yard go the first summer only to realize that the lush, green yard you fell in love with will now take many summers to get back. SIGH!!! Turns out the way to do this is to tackle it like eating an elephant.....one bite at a time. You have no idea how much this pains me. Apparently I crave order more than I thought I did and to not be able to "whip my yard into shape" like I want drives me NUTS!! Oh well...might as well get started!



Last year we dug out and amended the front flower beds next to the sidewalks. I sent away for some bulbs and shade plants and got them in the ground while I could still bend over.....however; apparently tilling gave new life to all the grape hyacinth I thought I had killed with Round-up. For those of you who don't know, grape hyacinth is an innocuous-looking little purple flower that comes from a bulb. Being a purple-lover, you'd think that it would elate me to know that I had inherited such a BOUNTY of purpleness......

Not so. Let me illustrate.....



Observe how the grape hyacinth foliage blends seamlessly into the grass beyond.....That's because it is as THICK as the grass beyond!!!!!

Here is more of a close-up:



This is my son who sold his soul to me for the price of Guitar Hero. He gets to help me in the yard. Hehehehe!!



This is what grape hyacinth bulbs do when nobody's looking.....





Do you see that unholy large bulb in the middle? That is the culprit!!! One bulb like that let loose and it's all over!!!

These bulbs must be STOPPED!! We dug and dug and dug. We filled a two-gallon bucket four times with the little buggers!! And now......



An almost clean slate with which to create!! Now only 54/55ths of an acre to go!!

For those of you who have not seen JUNO...............

What the.....

Yummy looking cookies, no?




So I made these cookies. It's a simple recipe, really. Some butter, eggs, flour, etc. Oh, and some pecans. Cause they're yummy.
So I made these cookies. Mixed 'em up and baked all six dozen or so. Had them all stacked up on a plate ready to go and finally picked one up to eat. Took a couple of bites and bit into a small, very hard, crunchy something. I thought to myself "gee...I hope that wasn't an egg shell....." But I crack eggs the right way and never get egg shells and I was watching very closely, besides. I continued eating because very few things would stop me from finishing a fine chocolate chip cookie. Very few things stop me from partaking of a second fine chocolate chip cookie either, so I did. And CRUNCH again! Alright. Something was screwy here....similar problem in both samples of cookies. Could those expensive pecans I got from Costco have had NUT SHELLS in them?? Surely not! I trust Costco almost implicitly, and besides, I was paying attention.

Well I stopped after two cookies, mostly because I got busy.

Later that night, I asked my hubby if he had eaten a cookie. He answered in the affirmative. I then asked if perhaps he had encountered an unexpected crunch factor. He replied " egg shells" Well, we all know that I crack egg shells the right way, and was watching closely, besides....So I put it out of my mind and went to sleep.

I got up the next morning and chose a lovely specimen of chipiness for my pre-breakfast snack. Bit into it and CRUNCH! THAT WAS IT!!!! I had to get to the bottom of this culinary conundrum!! I mentally went through my list of ingredients. Then it hit me......I went to my tin of flour. I began to sift.....




Wait for it......





AH HA!!!!!













My flour supply had been contaminated by our resident terrorist pictured below:










Innocent-looking, I know. However, do not be fooled. This one person who represents only 12.5% of the content of our family contributes at least 63.2% of the mess and mental energy that I expend in a single day. Now you know why I make so many cookies..........

If Connor could talk.....

I was perusing my photos (as I do almost daily for entertainment) when I found this little gem. Every time I look at it, it renders me dumb with wonderment. Being the obviously biased mother that I am, the only words that come to mind are "What a beautiful child!" and "Have you honestly seen a more gorgeous baby in your whole life?" Well, it appears that I can only think in cliches, so I am putting it out to you dear bloggers to compose an appropriate caption. After a weeks time I will pick a winner and personally deliver a plate of cookies to their door. Unless the winner lives in a faraway place. Then I will reserve the right to adjust the prize as necessary. I suggest clicking on the photo to enlarge it so you can view it in all it's glory.