Off Into The Wild Blue Yonder

Well, the boy is off.

Jake left for his orchestra trip to Europe yesterday. Although I miss him already, I know this is an opportunity of a lifetime, and he will do well. He took care of his own packing and banking needs. He even signed up for his own frequent flier account. I only reminded him to pack some black dress shoes and his music stand, but I'm sure he would have remembered on his own eventually. Guess moms worry a bit no matter what. I did finally get some sleep last night, though, and it will be fun to follow his trip on their daily blog postings. I'm thinking, isn't the Internet a wonderful thing?

Wordless Wednesday

One of Those Days

Today was one of those days. A sleepless night filled with crazy dreams, then time to get up and go to work. However, work was a blessing to me today. It felt so good to walk into that building and be among friends. And even though there was plenty for me to do while I was there, good feelings followed me into the afternoon. I think I shall have a chocolate to celebrate!

Forever and Ever

Hydrangeas, that is. Last year we planted some new Hydrangea bushes along the front walkway. It's part of my master plan to convert to mostly perennials in our yard. I love flowers and I love a beautiful yard, but I'm not really a gardener. I try, I really do, but it's a struggle. Anyway, with our mild winter and early spring weather, things are starting to bud and I was relieved to see that the new Hydrangeas survived their first year. I went out today and clipped off the old flower heads and brushed away leaves from the plants. I also took a look around the mailbox where I planted Hyacinth and Allium bulbs last fall and a couple of the Hyacinth are starting to come up. I'm feeling a little nervous about the Allium though. I hope the squirrels didn't get in there and dig up bulbs ...

Spring Peepers and Tree Frogs

As I was driving home from work today, I decided to roll down my window and listen for any frogs that might be singing. It's still March, a little early in the season, but it's been an early, warm spring and I was hopeful. There's something that is just so peaceful and calming about hearing frogs sing. To my delight, I heard both spring peepers and tree frogs! And since there is only a small window of time that you hear them, I never want to miss it ... here are some links to listen ... Grey Treefrog and the Spring Peeper ...

I don't have any pictures to share this time so you'll just have to use your imagination as to what these guys look like.

Wordless Wednesday

Lake Harriet in Mid-March

Bruce and I went for a walk around Lake Harriet today, first time around for the new year. I don't remember if we've ever walked around this early in the season, but we kept seeing things we hadn't noticed before, probably because there were no leaves in the trees to hide them. Lots of folks were out walking and biking and rollerblading. Lots of dogs, too. There were still some patches of ice that glittered like diamonds on the lake. One lady had waded into the lake up to her waist and was just standing there. I heard someone ask her about it, and she said that she had just finished running 26 miles and needed to cool down before her long drive home. I bet that water was pretty chilly!

Second Annual Corned Beef and Cabbage Dinner A Day Early

Guess today is actually St. Patrick's Day, but we celebrated last night by having a corned beef and cabbage dinner here. No green beer was consumed, but we did have corned beef & cabbage, potatoes, and Irish soda bread.

I made the briskets in my crockpot, of course, and they turned out delicious. I didn't make a boiled type dinner, though. I steamed the baby red new potatoes and stir fried the cabbage and carrots in my wok. Grandma Joyce brought lime jello with pears and bars for dessert, and I picked up a loaf of Irish soda bread from the local Great Harvest Bakery.

I love it when the whole family can get together. Traditions are nice.

Wordless Wednesday

Birds

I'm hearing more and more birds these days, and I love it! Cardinals, black capped chickadees, geese, and even some robins ... we filled the bird feeders up the other day, too, and they've now been discovered by the birds. I haven't heard any goldfinch yet, or mourning doves, but I'm sure that's only a matter of time.

The picture above is one of our little budgies, Lulu.

Liebster Award

This is so cool! Thanks to to Juggler at Juggling My Home for presenting this blog award to me ... I'm learning as I go, and it means a lot to me to be noticed for my efforts in blogging!

I'm going to just pass along the information I was given regarding this award. A Liebster Blog Award is given by bloggers who have been Leibstered themselves to other to talented and loved bloggers who have less than 200 followers. Liebster is a German word, meaning dearest or beloved, but it can also mean favorite. The idea behind the Liebster Blog Award is that it is given to bloggers who have less than 200 followers in order to create new connections and bring attention to these wonderful blogs!
There are a few rules that go along with accepting the award:

- Thank your Liebster Blog Award presenter on your blog.
- Link back to the presenter who presented the award to you.
- Copy and paste the award on to your blog.
- Present the Liebster Blog Award to 5 blogs with 200 followers or less who you feel deserve to be noticed.
- Let them know they have been chosen by leaving a comment on their blog.

My turn now to pass this award on to other folks I see who are working hard in their blogging efforts.

Joy at Joy in the Kitchen. Not only do her recipes always sound delicious, but her inner joy shines through her writings.

Debbie at The Next Chapter In My Life. Debbie's love for her family is so evident as she talks about her journey to being Grandma.

EW at Efelants & Woozles. I am a little jealous of this gal's energy and creativity! Check out what she makes!

Mad Hen at Fluff and Feathers. Being the animal lover I am, how could I not nominate Mad Hen. I've always wanted some chickens and now I want a goat. :-)

Thanks, again, and here's to great blogging!

Road Trip

Went on another little road trip to Duluth last night, to retrieve Katie and Grant for Spring Break. It turned out to be another adventure as we are finding that these trips don't usually turn out to be just a drive there and back. We ended up having her car towed (again) as it wouldn't start (again) but found out today that they will do the repairs at no charge as they really hadn't fixed it as promised the last time it was towed ... anyway.

Along with the kids came the pet chinchilla and fancy goldfish. The chinchilla actually is a good little traveler now that he travels in his new carrier (compliments of Grandma, me, that is). He's kind of cute when he looks out the little heart shaped mesh windows. The goldfish survived the trip, too.

We stopped at Burrito Union to pick up some supper to eat on the road. I had a Happy Worker bowel and it was yummy.

After dropping Grant off at his family's, we made it home by midnight. Just a little nine hour road trip on a Friday night!

But the whole family is home together now and that is a very nice thing.

Wordless Wednesday

Stir Fry

I made some chicken and veggie stir fry tonight, and I actually had everything I needed.

Three beautiful peppers and some green onions were in the fridge.

Chicken breasts and a bag of frozen Japanese stir fry veggies were in the freezer.

Jasmine rice and a bottle of stir fry sauce were in the pantry.

I threw in the whole bottle of stir fry sauce, tasted it, and decided it was too salty.

Then I tossed in a couple handfuls of brown sugar, and the end result was pretty darn good!

As always, the trick to making stress-free stir fry is to have everything chopped up and ready to go before you start to cook.

Lovely Sunday

It's been a lovely Sunday today even though it's cold outside. I was able to get out of the house and run a few errands all by myself which I have to admit, I thoroughly enjoyed. :-)

Target had all their packets of seeds out and I spent some time just looking at them. I think I might take a break this year from my container gardening, though. I sort of burned out last year with the extremes in weather we had and, actually, hardly any of my plants produced anything despite all my effort!

I did notice that Trader Joe's had some nice looking pots of basil last year so maybe I'll pick one of those up this year and call it good. Maybe instead of worrying about all my patio plants, I'll take lots of walks instead.

As for the rest of today, the ribs in the oven are smelling good. Chores are done except for making some more doggie casserole for Jessie. And I think it might be a nice evening for reading.

Time To Turn Off The Tree?

This is getting kind of silly. I look at the tree in our front yard every night and think, we really should unplug the tree. Hmm.