Carolina Wren??

It's time for soccer. I have gone to a couple of practices and had to stay standing up, except when my friend's Bebote (husband) was kind to let me sit in his chair.

I remembered that I bought picnic chairs, last season, to sit at my kids games and practices. But didn't see them anywhere in the house or my car. My friend has green chairs that look a little like mine. It cross my mind that maybe I let them borrow them and didn't get them back. That's just crazy, they wouldn't do that!

So I decided to check the last possible spot, the shed.

I got there and started digging in the pile of stuff, throwing stuff everywhere. It was a good time to organize that shed a little. And right when I was about to move some long tools that were leaning against a shelf I got there, I saw my pot where I put my gloves with a pile of sticks. It's a nest! I had to put the brakes to the throwing and moving stuff. I didn't want to move anything else that may be holding the pot in that position.

Later on I went back to check it out and the bird was there. She is soo cute! And just ducks when I get close to her nest. She blends or camouflages really good. All I see is her blinking eyes!For the little that I was able to see, I would say it's a Carolina Wren. They say that Carolina Wrens nest in cavities.

I found the chairs, I'm not missing anything else, and it would be rude to disturb a nest. Oh well, I guess I will have to wait to clean that shed some other day.

When I Move Plants

Today was a rainy day. If I had plans for the weekend I would be a little bummed. Not this time, I was glad when I saw the weather forecast, raining on saturday. I started to move plants friday, but I get tired easily and had to slow down. And I made plans to wake up early, and didn't happened. I still used as much time as I could before the rain.

Moving plants the day before or on raining days, is the best time to do it. I believe that there is something in the water from the clouds, and not being sunny, that helps the plants not get in shock.

Sometimes, if I have the energy, I get a rain coat and move plants when it's raining! I know! I had some teenager neighbors that looked at me sideways. They probably called me the cuckoo plant lady! I don't blame them! It's weird to see someone gardening in the rain.

Me on friday, with a foxglove in my hands, they look like big lettuces.

I try to keep my hands clean. I started with gloves, but they get on the way! And in the middle of gardening I took them off.

Crabapple Tree

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My crabapple tree is having its spring show! I took some pictures, only about 100, not to many :).

I uploaded them on Facebook. And if I get a chance I'll share some in here later.

A picture of me, I can stay the whole day looking at it!

For Now

It's that time again! Daffodils blooming!

I have a big show of these yellow flowers all over my garden. But I will wait to show the pictures. Because by the time I decide which picture is the best to upload, I already took another picture that I think will look better.






Almost all the buds are open, so I think these are the best pictures of daffodil flower buds.

Crocuses

Here is how my crocuses looked like in other years. It was my first time planting bulbs. I had seen many pictures of groups of bulbs looking better than when they were planted separate. And I didn't have experience with flowers from this zone.



Also, not all the bulbs are planted the same dept. Tulips, daffodils, and irises are planted deeper than crocuses. That's why I didn't think about overcrowding issues. And neither did I think that bulbs reproduce!



I loved how they came out the next year. And friends that saw my garden liked to see the groups of blooming bulbs.



It was the time when the kids were younger, school was easy to do, and they didn't want to go here and there. It was perfectly fine to just play in the backyard. I had all that time to get really creative in the garden. I even put red mulch!

I think that white is not a very common color for crocuses, but in other years I even had white crocuses!


Now, fast forward to this year. I had to go searching for crocuses! And I almost didn't find any!

2012
I'm writhing about them, to say that I know crocuses and that I have planted them. But this year I didn't get too many crocuses. And I will show you pictures from 2009. It might sound like living in the past. I think I'll get away with it, because you like me?

2012

Crocuses are one of the first flowers to bloom in my garden. They bloom at the same time or a little after the Lenten Rose. In this picture from 2009, there are still leaves from the fall of the year before.
It's nice to see them in the middle of the grey and brown winter. It's like hope of life among dead. I miss my crocuses!



I think I learned my lesson, but I will make a little list of what NOT TO DO when planting crocuses.

1. DO NOT plant them too close with other bulbs. I think the other bulbs suck all the nutrients and leave nothing for the crocuses.
This picture, from 2009, shows all the bulbs I put in one hole. I put tulips, irises and daffodils, To many of them!

2. IF I WANT beautiful little flowers in the beginning of the blooming season, I should plant some bulbs in the fall.


3. I SHOULD fertilized them in the fall. That way they would have enough nutrients for the many other bulbs I put in the hole. ( If I happen to ignore #1. I better not!!)



These two pictures are from the same spot.

2009

2012, Only one crocus bloomed!

All the pictures are from 2009, except the ones that have 2012 on the top.

1/4 to go!!

Hola everyone.

Here is a picture of my cross stitching job. The last time I gave you an update on it, was last year in November. Then we went to Nebraska, at there I had a lot of time to just stitch. But then I got back home. Here I only stitch while waiting for my doctor's appointments, and while I wait when the kids do their extracurricular activities. I still think that I have done some progress. I'm almost done, about 1/4 to go!
I was shooting to have it finished by Easter, but it's only a month left. Not sure about that.

And I tried! Once a week my daughter goes to play with other homeschoolers, for two hours! I took the thing to the place, but didn't get to it. I end up chit chatting with the ladies instead. Oh well, at least I had a good time with my friends!

If you wonder how it will look when it gets finished, there is a picture of it here.

Lenten Rose

The Helleborus Orientalis or Lenten Rose it's the first plant to bloom in my garden. It blooms in the winter! I had always wanted to have one of them. But I didn't know how to take care of them and didn't know which one to get. There are many different colors of them!Until one day my friend Ali and I exchanged plants. She came to my garden and picked the plants she wanted. Then I got to go to her garden! I was surprised to see this plant. And was a little shy to ask for it, but I was there to get whatever plant I wanted, so I asked for it and she gave it to me.Since she has been gardening the Lente Rose for a long time, she gave me some advised of how to take care of it. According to her, this plant does good in the shade and doesn't like it to be moved. It will take a long time to recover. I decided to plant it in a corner where it gets plenty of shade. It has been there since, and I don't think there is a better for it. Besides, that corner used to be boring. But now it has a couple of colorful plants that makes it attractive, including one that blooms in the winter.She gave it to me at the end of spring. The plant was done blooming for the year. I had to wait to the next spring to see what color it was. I'm really happy with the color, or colors, because some of the flowers are white and others are pink. The only thing I'm not so happy about the Lenten Rose is that, the beautiful flowers don't turn up they turn to the ground!
It is good to cut the old branches at the end of summer or fall. But I didn't do that last year. Here are the before and after pictures.

Before, messy with last year's old branches.



And the after picture. All cleaned up, with only this year branches. It looks so much better!

Beginning 2012

I don't do New Years resolutions, I don't keep up with them, and they make me feel guilty for not doing them. For me, when I see the need to change the way I'm doing things or, if there is a habit that I think it'll be good for my life, I just start doing it right there. No need to wait for a new year.
But in December we traveled to Nebraska. To spend the holidays with friends. At their house I didn't have to do all the things I do at home. It was a good vacation, with lots of rest, and plenty time to just think. It made me slow down, and that gave time see the beginning of a season, the new year.Somehow I wanted to begin it by being more productive in the things that I enjoy doing for fun. They are photography, cross stitching, and blogging. I have been doing these things for a awhile now, but not in the way that I want. Just a little here and a little there, or whenever they come in mind.Being a mother is my main job. And I also know that my condition interferes with me doing these hobbies. That's why I came up with some type of plan. A plan that will help me concentrate only on the things that are good for me. You'll be surprised of how much time I spend on things I don't have any interest on. And because of all those distractions, I have neglected things that are fun and good for meI got so excited, that I went out and took all these pictures, and hundreds more.

Everything was brown, except for me! I put some color to the brown Nebraska with my bright colorful clothes. :)

The One With Lots of Flowers

After I give my address to someone that wants to visit me, I tell them that I live in the house with a lot of flowers. And that's what they do. When they get to my street, they look for the house with lots of flowers.

The problem is that there's another lady in my street, with a front yard full of flowers! Her name is Ali. And I think she does the same thing. She tells people that she lives in the house with lots of flowers. Because people come to knock in my door and ask for Ali! I don't mind telling then where she lives, but her friends like to come really early. They wake me up!

Her friends are morning larks, I'm a night owl!

I Didn't Plant That!

Those purple little leaves and flowers look really good with my about-to-bloom daffodils. I don't know the name of that plant and I didn't plant it. It's a weed!I put a lot of good stuff in my soil for the plants that I place there on purpose. And when I stop pulling out the weeds that come out of the nowhere, they take advantage of my good soil and grow really fast. I need to start coming out of the house and pull out all the weeds and grass that are taking over my garden.

Confused Plants

Here I go... again.

I want to start posting about my garden again, I know I have tried other years and didn't keep up with it. But I'll give it a try one more time.

I'll start with these pictures from January.

Because the mild winter in our area, some plants kept blooming through December and January. We did have some days that were really cold and the flowers and buds got flash-frozen.

This weather got the plants confused. The Cone Flower stops blooming in October - November, but this not this year, this is a picture of the burn buds on January.

There are some plants that are close to the schedule, like the Dahlia. This is how all the plants should be looking in January.

La Marcha de Zacatecas

I love the way the United States Navy Band plays La Marcha de Zacatecas.
They also have other good pieces of music in here. There, they have Anchors Away, we sailors never forget Anchors Away! For me, it reminds me of boot camp, more than getting underway.

Listening to the clear sounds of La Marcha de Zacatecas played by the Navy Band, was really nice.

But the way I listened to it, back home, was very different. The way we enjoy La Marcha de Zacatecas is when it's played by a band with a tuba and big tambor (drum), in the middle of lots of dust. Yes, It has to be dusty!

Viva la musica Mexicana!

I'm home sick!

I'm getting there!

And how am I doing with my cross stitching project? Well, here it is! I have being having some free time, to work on it. And at the same time it's being a little hard to stitch, since I totally forgot I have Raynaund's. When I did a little to much, I was out for a couple of weeks. Now I don't try to finish the whole thing at once. I'm doing short periods at a time.

I love to cross stitch, working with colorful threads, cheers me up! There is no way I will stop cross stitching! And this is how it will look like some day.

Memories of my Teenager Days

This video reminds me when I was a teenager. I wasn't allowed to go dancing, but sometimes I would sneak out and go to the party. Then right at the moment when the cutest boy had asked me to dance, and I was trying to show him that I knew. From the nowhere, one of my parents (with a big surprised face, of see me dancing) will show up!Then I was in big trouble, grounded for a long time. It didn't bother me that much. Since I didn't want to go out. I was super embarrassed with that cute boy, for leaving him dancing in the middle of the song. I didn't want him to see me ever again!

In the movie, it was not lady-like to dance El Paso Doble. At my home town, in my teenager days, it was not proper to dance Lambada or La Quebradita.

This is how it looks like now

About 2 years ago I started this cross stitching project. Life got really busy and I only cross stitch when I get a chance. Lately I have gotten many chances! And haven't done to much but this is how it looks like so far.
It looks like with my new schedule, I will be having plenty of chances to work on it.

Tango Santa Maria Gotan Project video by me

Trying to be cool, and celebrando my new friend, from Argentina.

Mas de Selena

Como la Flor

Remembering Selena.

A Man in History

A man in history, named Jesus, had no servants, yet they called Him Master. Had no degree, yet they called Him Teacher. Had no medicines, yet they called Him Healer. He had no army, yet kings feared Him. He won no military battles, yet he conquered the world. He committed no crime,... yet they crucified Him. He was buried in a tomb, yet He lives today.

Santa's Problems

Did you enjoy my son's movie in the last post? Guess what? My daughter makes movies too!

Poor Santa, he got sour milk!

Quik Build

Hey I found out how to upload videos!!! For now on I will post the movies my kids make.

This movie was made by my son. I have some more to upload, and then I will show off the ones my daughter made.

Tried and True

We are just here, doing nothing. We were planing to go to Washington DC, but changed plans because my condition, yea here again, this Polymiositis dictating my life!. So, why am I here with extra time to do blogging, gardening, face booking and having a blast? Well, because one of my best friend is here! She flew all the way from Nebraska, just to put up with this weird woman, Me.

On Fridays we get together with a homeschooling minded family and watch and discus The Truth Project videos. So we took my Midwest friend to our home fellowship thing. There came the question of how we met. Its a long story, a 10 year old relationship. Yes ,for all this long, long time this lady has dealt with me! We told the story of how we met, and they were amazed!But that was nothing, what really happened is, God made me see how much He loves me. In telling our story I went back and saw what this friend has done for me, the things she has gone through, for me. I think that sometimes we have new people coming to our lifes and telling us this or that, and so we go with it, thinking that we have found someone that really care for us. But we should no be carry away with this new "friends". I think that if someone loves you, someone cares for you, then they should stand by you, not just once or twice, but for a long time. My friend has done that!No, not everything has been sweet lollipops, we have had our moments! But after 10 years, we know what we mean for each other. I know she cares for me. And I got to see who has stood by my side, through my ups and downs. God showed me who just talked. I got to see, in my mind, a parade of people that promised me things, that said they loved me, that they cared for me. Its so easy to just talk, to promise things, to say I love you, but can you walk it, can you do what you say?

I soo wish I had never made some promises. And I soo wish I had never believed the people that just met and told me that they care for me. So, for me, the way I know who my real friends are its, through the time. Yes, friends are not perfect, but how long can they put up with me?

How do you know who is your real friend? How do you know who really cares for you?

Hurt

"The truth is, everyone is going to hurt you. You just got to find the ones worth suffering for."—Bob Marley

(stole it from Don profile at Facebook)

Toby Mac - Irene

Did you ever feel to just give up? Things just coming at you from the now where. The world telling you that you should do it this way, or that way, but not God's way. I have felt that way, there are many times that I just want to say "it is over!!" Forget this "trusting in the Lord" thing. I think this song is really good for those times.

And here it is with the lyrics.

Back in the Garden

Well, things are slooowly going back the way we want. I'm taking care of the garden more often. When we were planing to sell this house, I stopped taking care of my flowers. Someone came and told me that if he bought this house he was going to pull out all the plants and have a "nice green lawn". I didn't want to waste my time on something that was going to the garbage. But as soon as I found out that I was not moving, I went back and started to take care of my garden.