Finally the yard is useful

I pretended to be Martha today and went into my "garden" to pick flowers for a bouquet. The blooming bee balm, combined with the Alium that refused to grow upright, several hosta leaves and ferns has made a nice display, if I do say so myself!
Finally, watching home-shows non-stop on maternity leave is paying off!

First runner up

We were waiting for friends to arrive with dinner, and frankly, we were tired. So when Beech-nut 1 said "I want someone to play with me.", we raised our fists to prepare for rock-paper-scissors. But inspiration struck Jeff and he looked at her and said "Do you want to get the broom and sweep the kitchen? You can use the Swiffer". BN1 replied with a cheerful "No, thank you." No matter what, we have taught that child good manners!

Jeff looked away while slyly mumbling "Yeah, I bet you don't know how." Ever my child, her competitive streak stirred "What? What did you say?" she demanded to know. Jeff repeated his statement adding for good measure "I think you're still too little."

That did it. Squaring her shoulders and giving her father a Them's-Fightin'-Words look: "I'm not too little! Give it to me! I know how to sweep, Daddy!"

And that's how Jeff lost the Father of the Year award...

But hey! Our kitchen floor looks good!

Experiments with Moss

Here is the first of the "Growing moss in the yard under the Shade of a Beech Tree" experiments.

My mother generously spent time pouring over plants at the local nursery to discover they sold Gold Scotch Moss. She purchased 3 plants for us and Beech-nut 1 and I planted these today.



Find a good spot to plant.



We scientifically chose this location considering several key factors:
1. It is not in the path of foot traffic,
2. It is near a rock wall and there was a picture of a rock wall on the plant label,
3. It is in the shade,
4. My mom said it would be a good spot for the moss.



We dug a hole, weeded around the hole, planted the moss, and added water.

Now we play the waiting game.

The waiting game sucks. Let's play Hungry, Hungry Hippos.

Trim

Its been a little slow at SOABT lately due to the newest Beech-nut being born 9 days early. Now that we're all home and healthy, we can move forward to complete the last few tasks left in the kitchen.

The trim around the windows and doors, the baseboards, and the final piece of crown molding was installed today. Due to the uneven nature of our walls and windows, it took our carpenter longer than expected to complete the work, but its now done and it looks amazing!