Happy Mother's Day!

Wow, what a wonderful day. We stayed home all day, working and playing and getting things done. The weather was beautiful, so we spent a good part of the day outdoors. I have a few photos, but right now, I'm too pooped to post them! We were incredibly busy all day.

A few highlights:

My sweeties started my day with lovely, heartfelt cards and a silver heart-shaped locket. The locket has a tiny rose on the front - "Rose" is little sweetie's middle name! I cried. I always cry when I'm that happy! They also had me pick out a geranium when we were at the store on Saturday - it's so pretty!

The baby roosters got their first 'outdoor time' today. For a couple minutes, they were terrified, but then one of them saw a bug, and from that moment on, they were pretty happy to be out in the fresh air and sunshine. They were so cute, cheeping and looking around at the big big world. I have a feeling the brooder seems a lot smaller to them now.

These are white laced red cornish roosters. Not the flashiest birds, but they are the ones we need for what we have planned..Here are two of them - the other one is in another part of the pen:


We planted a Linden tree, then a Red Maple, then later, some shrubs. They all look great - I hope they do well here! I went through my little bit of early garden and did some re-planting too - some of the peas were a bit sparse, and the chard wasn't doing much. Hopefully it's warm enough now for them to really take off! We also planted the potatoes today - 4 rows of them. Nearly half are blue potatoes, plus we planted some red-skinned and some yukon gold. I put in a very few russets as well. If the gophers don't find them, we should have a good start on our potato supply. (except for the russets!)

Potato sets - we cut them in the morning so they could dry out a little before planting. Aren't the blue ones gorgeous?


Tree plantin' !
Dig a hole,


Loosen up the roots a little,


Add some polymer to help the tree gather moisture while it's getting established,


Fill the hole, and tamp the dirt,


Stake it, and get out of the way so it can grow!



Since 'Everyone and their Mama' goes out on Mother's Day, we decided to be rebels, and stay home. We made ourselves a deeee-luxe supper. We shared a ribeye steak (it was plenty for all three of us!) with shrimp cocktail, jalapeno poppers, baked potatoes, salads, homemade rolls and fresh strawberry cake. Everything was really good, and compared to going out, it was plenty frugal. I'll have to share my super easy jalapeno popper recipe with you some time. Those puppies are good eatin'!

Best of all, we got to talk to our Moms. We live far from both families, so Mother's Day is phone calls and little pressies mailed off here and there. It's always good to talk to family, and today was no exception.

For me, Mother's Day is full of gratitude. I'm glad my mom put up with me as much as she did, and I'm glad she put a stop to some of our riduculous antics. (I have a brother, and we were a handful sometimes.) I'm glad for how, and where we grew up. I'm glad that I got the mom I got, too. She's alright.

I'm so grateful to be a mom too. I really, truly enjoy it. It's a lot of work, it's incredibly scary sometimes, but I wouldn't trade away one second of it for anything in the whole wide world. There is so much joy, and laughter, and fun.

Motherhood wasn't an automatic thing for me, so it's not taken for granted. Truth is, if it weren't for little sweetie's birthmom, today would have been a very different day for me. I'll never, ever think of Mother's Day without thinking of her, her selflessness, her love, and how much she's changed our lives forever.

(The half of a robin's egg her Daddy found for her)


Happy Mother's Day.