Ask Stella: answers from a 3 year old

Random gardening thoughts...

I've been researching were to buy plants from online. I have planned how to redo about one third of our front yard. There are plans in my head for the rest. I'm wishing for something cottagey (probably not a word) and romantic when I drive up to our house. Seems all the things that I thought would be cheap and real easy to get is the opposite. Stinky. Of course, I have those things filling large spaces in my plans.
As you might know, I struggle with keeping things alive and I have no training in gardening, so I am wondering how smart this might be. hmmm Should I let the fear of failure and ruining the whole front of our yard hold me back? Plus, how in the world do I time all this work out for the right planting time? I am also trying to do this and start a garden in the back. Maybe I should just work on that. But it is a lot less romantic. Although, fruits and veggies do bloom a little it is not enough to capture my soul!
Yesterday I researched what humus soil is, because everyone said you need it. Turns out no one can REALLY define it! Boy, that was helpful :)
Anywho.
I am committed to not let the fear hold me back. I will press on in trying to turn the front of my house into a little dreamy escape! I think Nate will lend me his muscles to help make this dream come true. And won't that make it all the better! To know in the end that he and I made the front landscaping together. aaahhhhhh

Friends for Dinner

No, we are not eating our friends! We have finally got our acts together and decided to act on something we have been talking about FOREVER! Having friends for dinner once a week. And, it has happened three times in the last month and a half. Not too shabby of a record, considering it is January and February. That means the sickies are going around. To document all our dinners we are trying to get pictures of each evening. Each time has a different view point. ie different person taking the pictures. One night the lens had a big smug in the middle of it. Not sure exactly how that got there, but I have some ideas. Especially since the next time we had the camera out someone dropped it, lens open, into the pizza we were having for dinner. Maybe I will post that video later :) Thanks to all our friends for joining us!

Snow Day with Daddy!

Here is a movie of the Naomi and Stella building a snowman with Nate on Naomi's snow day. The snow was perfect for building things. Nate could roll the snow right up like sod. Stella was taking care of this snowman, making sure he had a toilet, a fighting stick and most important some candy! You can hear her talking about the candy in the video. Ava was watching. I'm hoping it was motivating her for more practice of walking.

Sailor Girl

Here is little Ava in the sailor outfit my first niece had. I dressed her in it for my sister, Resa. My other girls haven't worn this outfit because I just am not into dressing them like a sailor. I think my mom repeatedly tried to get me to wear that stuff when I was young, maybe, a little fuzzy on that. Anywho, for some reason I have and aversion to it. Since Ava is our last little girl and she has brown hair (some reason I couldn't do it with red heads) and it fit at the right season, I threw caution to the wind and....she was ADORABLE! Probably should have used it for the other two. I could tell she felt pretty too. She didn't even take her hat off! Just left that to Stella :) She did still want me to hold her, not put her on the floor for a picture.

Garden Dreams

Since we have lived at this address successful gardening has been elusive. Garden Dreams But still I try! I am going to track the transformation of our garden plot. Boy, I hope something grows, or it could be embarrassing! I took a short class on gardening from a good friend and master gardener a few weeks ago. It condensed all the masses of information into small and understandable information for me. Usually, I read so much and then know too much, but not enough, to tackle the whole project. This time I am going to try to do it step by step. Not skip the hard steps. That usually leads to failure :) I started covering the grass with newspaper to kill it. I only got part of it covered before it snowed, but that is all right. We are planning on taking out that tree and bush as soon as the ground and weather allows. Whew! It looks like a lot of work to me. I can do it. And Nate is on board too! I really want this to show the girls how things grow. They get so excited about the whole amazing process. I think this will be a way to show them delayed gratification and how hard work produces something fun!

We were young!

As Valentine's day approaches I am finding it fun to look back at old pics of Nate and I. I think we can really say "We were young then." Yes, I know we are just in our 30s, but we live a lot differently then when we were in high school or newly married. I am not wishing for those days again though! These days are proving to be the best ever. Nate and I were laughing, looking at old pictures because we could remember how the clothes we had on felt. Most of the time, gross! Due to our inexperience with fashion and nice clothing, we didn't know any different. We are so glad we can go to the store now and have an idea of what we like and what we don't and we don't always have to go to Goodwill, although we just got some bargins there that we LIKE.
Anywho...we look young and in love in these pics! July will bring 14 years of marriage and 17 years of being together. I got the best guy!