The NERVE of some people!

I could just scream this morning, because of the nerve of some people!

We have had historic storms and rainfall all this month, and I've been biting my fingernails each morning, praying that nothing in the garden is damaged. This morning, I woke up to find THIS in my melon planter.

See the five ugly holes? See a distinct lack of bamboo poles? I hunted around in case the wind did it, but they're nowhere to be seen. And with the way the soil is disturbed, (wind direction is always from the other direction in our yard!) I can tell you - the wind didn't do this, they were stolen.  Someone STOLE the 8' bamboo poles, RIGHT OUT OF MY PLANTER!

What baffles me, is HOW did they get to these? We don't have stairs to this back deck, they would have had to scale the sheer side. And WHAT are they going to DO with my poles? Vandalism runs rampant in the neighborhood, and I can only imagine the damage a handful of teens could do with these.

The police have been, and promised that if I see anyone with them, he'll come and get them back for me. He also promised he'd drive around and try to find them himself, and keep an eye out for them over the next few days. Honestly? Somehow I'm doubting I'll ever see these again. I'm PRAYING I don't see them through someone's house or car window... or worse yet, run through some teen with a mock jousting-match turned horribly wrong.

It's days like this, when the urge to move to middle-of-nowhere Colorado becomes absolutely unbearable. Seriously, who raises their kids to think this is okay? Who would ever think this IS okay? 

A new wreath!

I have been without a summertime front door wreath for awhile now, and foundering for ideas. Then the other day, I saw THIS WREATH on Pinterest & knew what my new wreath would look like!

To make this, I crocheted yarn onto of all things - a POOL NOODLE that was duct-taped into a circle! It took about an hour, and then all I did was tie large gingham bows onto one corner & poked a few daisies into the noodle.

I love how simple this one is, but I also love how easy it was to make! And because I had everything but the flowers on hand, it cost less than $2 to make!

The rest of our summertime decorations haven't changed much for the past few years, but I do have a few places that look quite different this year. On the shelves near our entry, our "beach corner" is starting to spread out a bit, and on the shoe-shelf 

Summertime is a time for dandelion bouquets on the table, and veggies growing on the deck. NOT a time for enormously elaborate displays all about the house. It's also a time to begin working on some serious crafting... which I'll be sharing REALLY soon!

"Politicrap" and the companies that just won't listen

I have a VERY serious rant, about political & "nonprofit" mail.

Last November, after two full years of trying to explain to my father-in-law that he cannot give away literally tens of thousands of dollars per year to various organizations, I had his mail permanently routed to our house so I could deal with his mail ourselves.

Little did I know exactly how much there actually was. To begin with, I was receiving between 5 and 11 pieces of mail PER DAY requesting money. And for six full months, for EVERY SINGLE piece of mail I received, I called the number listed, explained that they were asking for money from a vulnerable senior on a fixed income with memory issues, and asked them to stop sending mail.

Every single one of them... let me repeat that, EVERY SINGLE ONE of them apologized profusely, and promised that they would immediately take him off of their mailing lists. Nearly all of them cautioned me that it would take 6-10 weeks for his name to be completely erased due to pre-printed labels... so I labeled the envelopes, waited a full 12 weeks, and then repeated the calls to all the companies who were still sending us mail - using Power of Attorney to demand that they stop contacting him. After this I began calling again with the new mail, this time demanding to speak to supervisors, and giving people an earful about what I thought of their continued mailings, and repeating the demand that they stop sending letters while reminding them that I had already insisted multiple times that they stop. 

Last month, SIX FULL MONTHS after I started having his mail forwarded, this is what one month of mail looks like. All bills and typical sales-ads have been removed, this is JUST the religious & political mail.

 

That's 30 pieces of mail; nearly one for every day of the month. Every single one of them, requesting his money.

By the numbers, these are the companies that have refused our repeated requests to stop harassing an elderly VULNERABLE ADULT, AFTER being told of his memory issues, and that he's living on a fixed income not able to donate to ANYONE ever again due to the 5-Year Lookback Law... AND after each and every one of these has REPEATEDLY promised me they will NOT be sending any more mail in his name. 

The political groups that do not honor their promises are: 

* Republican Leadership - sent 1 letter, asking for at LEAST $30.

* NCPSSM - sent 1 letter, asking for at LEAST $12.

* Aaron Miller for Congress - sent 1 letter, asking for at LEAST $25. 

* Dave Hann for Senate - sent 1 letter, asking for at LEAST $10. 

* Torrey Westrom for Congress - sent 1 letter, asking for at LEAST $25. 

* Mike McFadden for Senate - sent 2 letters, asking for at LEAST $50 total. 

And bringing up the wall-of-shame for political mail was

* Rand Paul... a senator from KENTUCKY - sent 3 letters, asking for at LEAST $150 total! 

In religious groups, this is who refused to honor their promises: 

* Wycliffe - sent 1 letter, asking for at LEAST $25. 

* Navigators - sent 1 letter, asking for at LEAST $20.

* Life Outreach International - sent 1 letter, asking for at LEAST $27. 

* Open Doors - sent 1 letter, asking for at LEAST $25. 

* Biblica - sent 1 letter, asking for at LEAST $10. 

* Chosen People International - sent 1 letter, asking for at LEAST $15. 

* International Fellowship of Christians & Jews - sent 1 letter, asking for at LEAST $17. 

* FRC Action - sent 1 letter, asking for at LEAST $25. 

* One Hope - sent 1 letter, asking for at LEAST $50. 

*  Focus on the Family - sent 1 letter, asking for at LEAST $9.95. 

* American Family Association -sent 1 letter, asking for at LEAST $35. 

* Hillsdale College - sent 2 letters, asking for at LEAST $35. 

* Campus Crusade for Christ - sent 2 letters, asking for at LEAST $50 total. 

* ACLJ - sent 2 letters, asking for at LEAST $90 total. 

And bringing up the shameful practice of failing to deliver on their promise to stop exploiting the elderly was

* Billy Graham - who sent 3 letters all asking for money... while not suggesting a specific amount. 

I have heard people say that these mailings are random. My response to that is, baloney. I have not EVER received mail from ANY of these associations. And even while all this was coming in for my father-in-law, we STILL never received a single piece from any of these companies, in our own name. 

Shame on you. Shame on you ALL. Your practices of preying on the elderly and vulnerable, ESPECIALLY after being TOLD an individual is a legally defined vulnerable adult, disgusts me.

I only pray that those who read this, take note of these groups and refuse to support them, as they obviously do not honor their own word. Perhaps if enough people were to take note, they would be forced to honor their own word and not exploit the helpless.

History Day: When Study Becomes a Party

Every once in awhile, you just need to have fun for no reason at all. As my daughter is finishing her sophomore year of homeschooling, she had to study Egypt for one final time before graduation.

Being rather feminine and softhearted, she has a hard time with the concept of mummies. Every time we visit a museum with mummies, she will refuse to enter their room. But we HAD to study them before graduation, so the question was HOW do we do it without needlessly horrifying her?

Enter Pinterest, and the neverending homeschool options of those who have gone before us. We found a Youtube clip of a little boy mummifying a Barbie doll, and decided to turn her studies into one giant "Let's Mummify Barbie" party. When all was said and done, the party ended up covering 11 different assignments, and was a ton of fun to put together.

On our front door, which was flanked by giant potted ferns, was a cartouche spelling out "WELCOME" in hieroglyphics.

Once you entered the living room, a sun-shelter had been altered with gold curtain sheers and tiebacks, to look like a desert oasis tent complete with ferns, reclining cushions, (body pillows) and a low table.

The ceiling of the tent was hung with glass globes holding tealights, and a paper chandelier that took an entire afternoon to make, but was well worth the effort.

To one side of the doorway, we placed a diorama of the Nile River that my daughter painstakingly put together, and an infographic about Hatshepsut; one of the lesser-known female Pharaohs.

The vases were made by spray-painting tea bottles; first in aqua paint, then in gold glitter paint! Every time you looked at them, they appeared to be shimmering.

To the other side of the doorway, was "Cleopatra's Beauty Station.

We printed various photos of Cleopatra's eyes, and each girl had their own eyeliner pencil to try and recreate the effect. To wash up afterwards, there was a homemade Dead Sea mud and honey mask, with the washcloths carefully tied and arranged in a pyramid.



Each girl went home with a bottle of homemade honey body wash, and a jar of homemade milk bath... so they could bath in milk and honey "just like Cleopatra".

Another quick craft and take-home that they did, was to use hieroglyphic rubber stamps, to stamp their names onto actual Egyptian papyrus sheets.

Who knew... amazon.com even sells papyrus!


For snacking, the girls reclined at the table and tried date-balls, Egyptian-style lemonade, and hibiscus tea along with fruit kebabs, cheese & vegetables with hummus, and cupcakes with Toblerone "Pyramids" on top.

The Egyptian lemonade was very well-received, while the hibiscus tea was deemed "weird and not yukky, but not great."

The girls loved mummifying Barbie. They went through the steps preparing her body for interment, and decided that the best way to remove her brain was NOT to pull then out through her nose - but to remove her head, and pull them out through her neck.

They made intestines, a stomach, and a pancreas out of play-doh to stuff into canopic (painted film canisters) jars, wrapped her tightly with linen strips, and tossed her unceremoniously into the "golden sarcophagus" my daughter had created.

The girls also mummified each other, with rolls of toilet-paper, and then begged me to wrap them into an enormous four-headed mummy... all while laughing uproariously.

Bedtime didn't happen until around 1am, and all four girls were exhausted at church the next day, but somehow I have a feeling this is one school project none of them are likely to forget anytime soon.

Small Space Container Gardening

I hear people all the time saying, "Oh, if only I had a bigger yard, I could plant a garden! Well I have an 8'x16' deck, and I garden. And when people hear how MUCH I garden, their jaw drops. Let me take you for a walk around my space.

As you walk out the door, in the NorthEast corner, I have a row of heirloom Little Finger carrots and 8 heirloom Omaha pumpkins. The pumpkins, when they come up, will be supported by slings made from worn-out tee shirts and while they won't win any prizes for size, (they average 3-5 pounds each) these come highly recommended for pies! In front of that, are my herbs: two types of basil, oregano, 3 lemonbalm plants, lemon thyme, sage, marigolds, and alyssum.





The blue bins last about 5 years before cracking and needing replacing, and I find them at Target for about $5 during end-of-season sales. The orange planter is one I've had for over 10 years now, and the three black bins are actually cement-mixing tubs from the hardware store that cost about $10 each. Mine have held up through more than 20 Minnesota winters, and are still going strong!

Across from the first area, in the NorthWest corner I have heirloom Early Silver Line melons in the blue bin, (these too will have "slings" once the melons arrive) more carrots in the orange planter, and the cement bins hold mesclun leaf lettuces and heirloom Santa Fe hot peppers. The lettuce will be replanted twice before the weather gets too cold, so we'll actually get multiple harvests of salad greens.

Running down the West side, are six 18-gallon Sterilite storage-bins. Each bin holds two tomato plants, so I've got 6 heirloom Purple Bumble Bee cherry, 6 heirloom Vorlon tomato plants.

In the SouthWest corner, tucked behind my vintage bistro table, are heirloom Purple Podded pole-beans, more pots for carrots, (they will be stagger-planted next week, so we have at LEAST two carrot-harvests) and our chocolate mint in the strawberry pots.

And in the SouthEast corner are heirloom Dragon's Egg cucumbers, and chive.

All of my fruits and vegetables are grown from heirloom organic seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom seeds. My herbs are transplanted from family & friends, and purchased locally. 

It may be a small space, but I'm always surprised at how large our harvests are! Last year we were giving away hot peppers and lettuce, and we NEVER ran out of herbs! I'm still trying to find a way of keeping the squirrels from running off with all our tomatoes and cucumbers, but we've got a few ideas this year.

I look at our garden, and I am constantly reminded
that I CAN have what I want, even if it's a vegetable garden in a neighborhood with toxic soil. It's not about what I DON'T have, it's about how creative I can get with what I DO have that counts!

Here I am, trailersteading in a major urban area, with an organic container garden oasis just outside my dining room door. If I can do it here, just think of what YOU can do with YOUR space!

(Update: I'm noticing a TON of traffic to this post from Pinterest! If you're interested, please check out THIS YEAR'S garden updates as well!!!) 

Teacher Appreciation Week - a different view

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week. The week when you're supposed to thank a teacher for all that they've done for you.

On the surface, I am 100% behind a holiday like this. I DO have an immense debt of gratitude for several of my own teachers. And those thanks could never be conveyed properly with a card, or bouquet of flowers.

In our house, here is what Teacher Appreciation Week has involved:

* The teacher waking up 2-4 times per night to administer thermometers, Robitussin, and giant spoonfuls of honey to the students.
* Research on the Crusades being interrupted by visits to the doctor, orange-juice breaks, and the teacher writing out instructions on a whiteboard because her throat is too hoarse to speak.
* The teacher waking up to find a fresh cup of tea by her hand, and the dishwasher running - without having asked for help.
* And the students digging through the cupboards for lunch ideas, while the teacher sits coughing in the other room.

Yep, we're well into our second week of the flu here - for the THIRD time this winter. Morale is down, and frustration is high. And somehow Teacher Appreciation Week has flown under the radar once again.

Why don't we celebrate it? Let's look at this "holiday" for a moment. According to the NEA,  “Around 1944 Arkansas teacher Mattye Whyte Woodridge began corresponding with political and education leaders about the need for a national day to honor teachers. Woodridge wrote to Eleanor Roosevelt, who in 1953 persuaded the 81st Congress to proclaim a National Teacher Day... ...NEA and its affiliates continued to observe National Teacher Day in March until 1985, when the NEA Representative Assembly voted to change the event to Tuesday of the first full week of May."

So it's a holiday created BY teachers, FOR teachers. Pretty convenient, don'cha think? Personally, I think it feels a bit contrived. Then as I read online about schools sending messages home suggesting kids "just bring in $25 gift cards, so teachers aren't inundated with stuff they don't need" and other people complaining that if they see one more apple-themed homemade gift, they're going to scream. Which would seem to me, as if teachers aren't exactly tickled pink over what this holiday created by them & for them, has brought about either.

Don't get me wrong. I believe we SHOULD take the time this week to thank a teacher... truly, deeply, from the bottom of our heart. But because we mean it, not because a group of teachers invented a holiday for themselves.

In our school, I have seen gratitude this week in the forms of that tea, those dishes, and lunches I haven't had to prepare. And my students didn't even know there was a special week. Perhaps we could all remember... that thanking a teacher, doesn't have to be a one-week-per-year occurrence, OR be filled with gift-cards or gifts in the shape of apples.

Sometimes, it's the simple unbidden tasks that speak the loudest.

Saint Patrick's Day Decorations

I think I have more fun trying to find small, meaningful decorations for St. Patrick's Day than any other holiday during the year. Nearly everything available commercially is covered in rainbows, leprechauns or beer... which just isn't what I think of or choose to celebrate.

To me, St. Patrick's Day is the celebration of one of Europe's first Missionaries. And, of course, it's about ancient Ireland. So in our house, I choose items that make me think of these things.

I have been stalling on posting this year's decorations because I have been TRYING to crochet a slender shamrock garland for my fireplace. Unfortunately I seem to be incompatible with treble crochet stitches, so my fireplace remains empty but for a single stuffed lamb on the hearth.

As for the rest of the house, my front door is decorated with the same tin as last year. Within the giant grapevine wreath, I actually found a foamboard shamrock at the dollar-store of all places that mimics the rest of my decorations.

On top of the sewing table, is my glittered Celtic cross, and a few tiny jars full of moss & model sheep. Ireland is full of sheep, and they seem a fitting tribute to someone who was kidnapped & forced to work as a shepherd for years. This rests atop an aran-knit scarf, which is another thing *I* think of when pondering Ireland.

My hutch and kitchen niche are rather similar to last year. I've rearranged things, and pulled out ALL of my James Kent china accessories, but it's pretty much the same.

The only NEW things here are my handmade chalkboard, and the spools of thread in my large apothecary jar.

Once again, I chose to reuse a wired garland and my hanging candles for the chandelier. At some point I'm sure I'll come up with a new way to decorate it, but for now I'm quite content to just keep the candles up there. The tiny points of warm light just make me smile every time I walk by.

These are my decorations for the next week or so. After that we'll be pushing into the first day of Spring and Easter, but for now I'm enjoying the lighter decorations of a holiday often swept away between the frenzy of Valentine's Day and Easter.

This coming Sunday we will celebrate quietly, with Celtic music and traditional Irish foods... NOT corned beef and cabbage, but colcannon, oat scones, Irish breakfast tea... and other simple cottage fare. It's what we've come to love about this tiny holiday; the simpler pleasures.