A Net in Time

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gardening

A Day in the Life – May 11

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 Normally I do review of the entire week but today was such a good day I wanted to share that with you.    

It started with a shock!
I was having a marvellous dream after having a hard time getting to sleep the night before.   Snoozing and snoring away when suddenly “Good morning mom!”   I about jumped out of my skin!  OH MY.. not good.   This was followed by “sorry, sorry mom!  I thought you were awake!!”

Apparently the lad had been up since 730 had some of his schooling done and wanted to touch base with me before moving forward.   GACK!!   Never wake up the mom!!   🙂

Anyways, I managed to drag myself out of bed, and down for breakfast of cereal and a muffin, the lad and I chatted about day plans and all was good.   I took care of the bunnies and noticed the lad had already cared for his mice.

I wanted to get working on the garden, but needed to make sure the lad was well situated with his schooling.  He needed some help getting going with Unlock Math, and mentioned how another math program we are using is WAY too easy for him… so could I contact them and tell them that?   So I have an email to write later tonight asking about course placement.

While he worked on his math, and later his typing, I got some seeds planted in the garden.  YEAH!!!   I got one garden done.   Then I pulled weeds out of another garden that already has peas in it (but needs something more).   OH!  And I hung out a load of laundry to dry.

I heard a “MOM!!!   I need you!” just as I finished so went in to find a lad wondering if we were doing ArtAchieve today or if it was going to wait til Friday.    Friday it was.   He grinned, so then the rest of the negotiating started.   Could writing his story wait, what about not doing science or apologia or …..   🙂     We settled on videos for science and history, and apologia will wait til next week where if he reads two pages a day it will be completely finished.

Lunch (I had soup, the lad had a bagel with cheese) and freetime for 1/2 an hour and then “lad, can you give me a hand?”  He was happy to help.  We built a small herb garden out of some old lumber we had laying around.  

Unbeknownst to the lad I tossed in a wee bit of math… the lad thinks he’s horrid at estimating so I asked him how much dirt he thought it would hold and he found out he’s not so horrid at estimating!  WOOT WOOT!   But we had a seriously good time working together, the lad had fun holding wood, using a drill and saw and dumping in dirt.   Did you know that working out clumps with your bare feet is the fastest and bestest way to do it?   AND it feels really good on your feet apparently.  🙂

While the lad and I were working hubby was busy fixing the riding lawn mower for the church.   It was a bit of a frustration BUT at the end… isn’t it great to learn new skills and have success?  🙂

After we got this done we did a touch of shopping, I was out of feed for the bunnies and Hubby needed to pick something up. 

Upon our return (having had a break from the heavy work) we set out to do some more.  We moved the snowblowers out of the garage into the back yard (to make room in the garage).   Not the best place to store them but hubby is looking at erecting a small shelter for them and the riding lawn mower to protect them in the summer.  

Anways, moving the snowblowers into the back yard had necessitated moving a few other things. All of which needed a good hose down me thinking “do I want to move this or do I want to sell it?”  I’m
leaning toward selling it… but that might require some discussion with family.   The lad repotted his catnip plants (he sells it and makes crafts from it) and repotted a hosta for me.  So his garden bed this year holds amaryllis, a small flowering plant and all his catnip (he wants to move it with us).

We had an unpleasant surprise in a finding my rubbermaid tote (that I use to store supplies for the rabbitry)  full of water.  Everything was soaked and was quite the mess to clean up.  We even found a lightbulb full of water!!! (made us laugh and totally surprised dad)   But the pleasant result of it was my lad making his first terrarium.

Admittedly by end of day I was getting pretty tired… and then I needed to make supper. GACK!!!   It was the lads turn to cook but he was pretty wasted by then as well.

We ended up doing mac and cheese.. YES from a box as it was downright quick and easy!  I much prefer homemade.. but annie’s does make a decent boxed mac and cheese.

We quickly got the laundry off the line, garbage out to the curb, read our bedtime books, played a round of Clash Royale together and then the lad was off to bed.

Hubby and I watched Star Trek and Crimes Beyond Borders together and then it was getting on time for bed.   I talked with a friend for a while and then ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ  🙂  I had tried hard to finish this post last night but at the end of it all.. I was just fried!   

Sharing this post over at Kym’s (when she gets her highlights post done).

This post may contain affiliate links – using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool – thank you!

©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time/

The Week of the Easter Mouse

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Sunday after a nice afternoon with the family I came home to this mound on my patio.  Needless to say, as much as I like ants and think they do much good in the world, I don’t want them three feet from my back door building a mound.  So I medicated them and hopefully this bunch will fail to return and WILL NOT invade my house this summer.

Monday:
After a busy weekend, staying at home seemed like the best thing to do today.  The lad and I did some gardening together.  My young digger had a huge amount of fun moving and then replanting my parsley and chervil patch.   Who woulda thought that it would be so much fun digging holes and plopping a plant in it.  The dirt was just a flying!!!

Tuesday:
Off to London town!   The lad did a wee bit of schooling and then headed out with gramma in the afternoon.  He went with us first to fill out his application for a passport as we’ll be heading to PA at the end of May.

Wednesday
 A day of schooling at home.  Thought admittedly we got to a really late start.   We were all total slugs, so much so the lad ran out of time to get all his schooling done, so he promised me he would do his math the next day. 

Thursday:
 Off to the Alymer Dairy Museum today.  The lad promised to do his math on the way there but ended up doing right before bed. The Museum was pretty good.   Filled with memorabilia but the staff also put on a good program for the children and youth that attended… making butter, ice cream, learning about cartooning and more.  See look… I made a sponge bob!

Friday:
Today was co-op day so off we went for a morning of learning, me teaching Zentangles, Hubby teaching gym, and the lad learning about natural disasters and Biblical Feasts.
We learned the spider tag is not as fun as one might think.

Reviews:
Quick Tips for Busy Families. 
Fish Girl: a well done graphic novel

Five Day Blog Hop: Things We Enjoy
The Joys of Working at our Own Pace.
Miss Natalie and her support  
Studying what interests you
No One Wakes me Up.
The Joy of Staying Home.

 Everything Else:
Easter is Here.  A poem about Easter. 
S-I-N-G : self defense is great for women too! 
Recipe: Scalloped Potatoes
Discover Great Paintings – A child’s book of art.  Learn how to look at art.
The Holy District.  Devotion on Ezekiel 45:1-6
 

Linking Up at The Following Places.

This post may contain affiliate links – using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool – thank you!

©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time/

Imperial Crown A Gorgeous Flower

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This gorgeous plant has had me mystified for a couple years.   Last year it grew a stalk but that was it.  Not enough of anything for me to post a pic saying what is this?

Now that it has flowered I posted a pic to a gardening group I am part of and learned that it is an Imperial Crown.

The Latin name is Fritillaria imperialis.

It is part of the Lily family. I think it is so pretty.   It came in a bag of mystery bulbs a couple years back from a nursery outside of Kitchener.   Cheap bag with a whack of bulbs in it.. most of which looked like tulips, some were grape hyacinths and a few others that I can’t recall the names of.. but they were small bulbs with interesting flowers.. ah…ranuculus (or something like that).

They grow up to three feet tall.
They come in three colour variations: yellow, orange and red.  (and variations between that).
They come from Asia.   Native to a wide stretch from Anatolia, across the plateau of Iran to Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Himalayan foothills. 

I remember the instructions said to plant it on it’s side…I’ve learned this is due to their propensity to rot quickly.  A friend on facebook said they were an expensive bulb to buy so I feel doubly blessed right now. 🙂   A beautiful flower to grace my spring garden and purchased inexpensively.  🙂

As I researched this bulb a bit I learned the smell of the flower is supposed to deter squirrels.  Hubby quickly said “oh.. we need more of them then!”.  🙂   They do unfortunately, only bloom in the spring so it wouldn’t work year round anyways.  I also mentioned to him I didn’t find it really had a smell to it anyways, at least not noticeable enough for my poor nose.

Anyways, she’s a beauty and I hope we can propagate more of them.  Wouldn’t they be fun to share with others?

Should tell you this, if you want to visit other gardening links, check out the Garden Party.

Spring has Come!

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I have to admit.. I LOVE spring flowers.. Don’t you?
I think my favourite are what I call my grass peepers. 🙂 Small tiny flowers the peep up through the growing grass.
Every year they cause my son to ask “Mom, why didn’t you put them in a proper garden?”
And every year I answer… “because when they peep out of the grass they make me smile lad”.

Then my lad just shakes his head at me.
He is SO like his father.
His father shook his head at me when I planted them in the lawn.

Ah my fellows… they just don’t understand my pleasure at my little grass peepers… and that’s okay. 🙂

Last fall I moved dirt and some plants around and somehow (I know not how) one of my grass peepers ended up in one of my raised beds. I discovered that it brings me almost as much pleasure to see them come up in my gardens as well. 🙂

Another one of my joys in my daffodil/tulip garden.    When my mom moved off the family farm she dug up all her bulbs and moved them with her into town, and when my father moved into a nursing home, mom went to visit him so often that he gave up her big flower bed, leaving her with lots of daffodil bulbs to rehome.   I got a bunch of them.   So seeing them come up has that added bonus of a smile of history remembered.  🙂    Some of these bulbs I purchased myself, but a good 2/3’s are history bulbs.

Should we ever move from this place it’ll be a job and a half.. but I’ll be digging up all my bulbs.. except for my spring peepers… those I’ll leave to hopefully bring a smile to the next people to live here (hopefully, unless they be head shakers like my boys).