" A Little Hope, Faith and a Lot of Perseverance ! "

Well as you may or may not know, I have been working on a toad house for a toad that I had found in my yard a few weeks back.

Sadly I haven't seen "Mr. Toad" since right after I started this project.

I found the directions for the project online and since I had already started it, I decided that I would go ahead with it despite the absence of "Mr. Toad". I really liked the way that this finished product looked online, very natural, and thought that I would just forge ahead since I already had the supplies. 

It was a fairly simple project yet time consuming , sort of like a jig saw puzzle. An 8 inch clay pot, small rocks and glue was really all that was needed. I had to break part of the pot that was to be buried as to allow a toad to burrow. After that I wet sanded the sharp edges with a sanding block. After all we wouldn't want a little fellow or gal to get cut while burrowing!

You can only glue a few inches of rock at a time, so I would just sit and work on it here and there.

At first I was using a bit too much glue as I discovered that it didn't dry clear. After that though I got the hang of it rather quickly. It was fun to do. Quite relaxing really!


The following photo is what the area looked like before I started construction on " The Toad Hop Inn " project. 

This is the area where I kept seeing "Mr. Toad" a few weeks earlier. If you haven't read my posting about the toad earlier, I will tell you that I was so excited to see him. I love toads, frogs and lizards. This was the first toad that we had ever seen in our yard in the eleven years we have been living here. This was truly one of those times that I felt like a little girl again. That RARELY happens to me anymore. So when I no longer saw him, I was awfully, awfully disappointed.


But I didn't give up on the project. If nothing else it would just add a little more interest to the yard.


So yesterday, Sunday, I started to break ground. I must admit that I felt somewhat like a developer on a much smaller scale! Once I broke ground I was very careful as I dug. I couldn't help feeling that glimmer of hope of seeing "Mr. Toad" again although I was quite sure that he was gone.


When digging a hole for this toad house, you must loosen the dirt quite a bit. If a toad were to live inside, he would also need to burrow deep to escape enemies. Luckily for me the dirt was fairly loose and I also noticed a hole where I was digging, about the size of a toad. 


Once the hole was dug , gently of coarse, I put the toad house in place. As I was getting ready to fill the toad house half full with dirt, something caught my eye. Just to the left of me I spied a sweet and happy surprise!

Oh he was very hard to see. And I was so grateful that I was being very careful where I was placing the loose dirt! 

Now I know that this may sound silly to most of you but I must tell you that at that moment, I felt pure joy! Something else I don't feel much anymore.



So now I am even more into my construction project, being careful to try to make a toad friendly environment . I had read a few things online that helped me with deciding what was needed for the area.


Clay planter dishes filled with water and if possible a light that attracts bugs at night. Plenty of leafy shade plants for the toad to hide under. And absolutely no pesticides of any kind ! Here is the final result of my project.

The toad house itself is a bit hard to see. But that is the point after all!

So I guess perseverance can pay off. My little friend "Mr. Toad" is still around, at least for now. I will also tell you that being in my yard so much lately has really made me feel closer to my mom, I know that she would have enjoyed this project so much! 

Now we can all sleep well tonight knowing that there is one little toad that has some awesome digs ! No pun intended. 


Nighty night all!

" A Very Quite Fourth of July "

Our family didn't make any plans for this years Fourth of July celebration. You see my husband had to leave for work at 4:00 a.m. Monday morning.

Being the older folks that we are, we opted to go to bed at 8:00 p.m.!

However we did grill out on Friday and Saturday. Lit a few firecrackers and bottle-rockets. Whoo- Hoo!! 


Last year we went to see the fireworks show at the airport but besides having to get up early on Monday, we both weren't in the mood for the crowds and the heat. Katie didn't care either way so it was just a quite evening for us!

I had to get up with him to drive him to his truck so since I was up so EARLY, I went back home had a bit more coffee and as soon as the sun rose I was outside working in my yard.

It was a beautiful morning. Shady, cool and slightly breezy . Perfect conditions for gardening as I knew the temperatures were going to be very hot today. By 10:00 a.m. the sun was already too hot to keep working so I packed all of my tools up for the day and went inside.

But not before catching a bit more video of Mr. Toad. He wasn't out at first but once I started to weed in his area, there he was underneath the little red flower again. I had just previously watered there. I think he likes that.

Now before I post part three of "The Exciting Adventures of Mr. Toad, I must tell you some exciting news. One of my blogger friends, 

Brenda from " Rinkly Rimes " was inspired by Mr. Toad enough to write a little poem about him!

He seems to becoming famous already! It is a very cute poem that I know you will like so please pop on over there to have a read.

Thank You.

And now I give you part three of "The Exciting Adventures of Mr. Toad"!

 I know, I know. This is just more excitement than you can handle in one day!


But wait.....


There's more! And I know that this will just make your day!


It is part two of part three! Confused? It's o.k., so am I !

Don't worry about the poison ivy deal, I get it nearly every year. I tend to go a little crazy ripping weeds out. Yes I wear gloves, no I don't wear long sleeves, it's too hot. Is that stupid? Well of coarse silly!



And I promise not to bore you much more with Mr. Toad! I have been working on other things as well. He's just been a welcome distraction!

Please if you aren't too fed up and bored with this toad adventure please HOP on over to "Rinkly Rimes" to read Brenda's poem about 
"Mr. Toad"! It goes really well with today and yesterday's post.


I hope you all had a very Happy Independence Day!!

" Obsessed ? Or A Bit Crazy ? "

I'll let you be the judge! 

While working in my yard today, the Fourth of July holiday, I was again very happy and surprised to see my friend , Mr. Toad.

I first noticed him underneath the little red flowers. As it was already very warm outside, I got the hose out and gently sprinkled water over the area. I also filled his little dishes with water as I read that toads like to have water around their area.

When the little fellow started to hop around, I got very excited and grabbed my camera. 

Prepare yourself for this action packed video

experience!

 

And there you have it, part one of  "The Exciting Adventures of Mr. Toad "!

My husband, when asked if he thought me crazy, replied " I knew you were always a bit nuts!"

Mmmm. Well perhaps this is true. What I can't quite fathom is why such a little thing like this toad can get me so excited. I mean I understand that as I get older life seems a bit, how shall I put it?

Mundane. I don't surprise easily anymore. This is not to say that I don't enjoy life, it just doesn't seem so exciting as it used to be. And I suppose this is why God gave me grandchildren.

They have a way of bringing fun back into my life. Them and crafting, sewing, crocheting and painting. Which there doesn't seem to be enough time for lately.

So now, back to my latest obsession, Mr. Toad. I had to stop working in the yard just a bit ago after videoing Mr. Toad as it was just getting too hot. We are going to pick up some groceries today and I am going to try and find a little toothpick flag for his digs.

It is Independence Day after all and I am sure that he would also like to honor his American heritage!

I will leave you with part two of  "The Exciting Adventures Of Mr. Toad."

And then I'll let you be the judge. Obsessed, or a bit crazy?!

 

" Best Laid Plans "

Welcome to " Part 2 " of

" Best Laid Plans "

Today we find our "Housewifely Heroine"

Diana,

feeling much better from her mysterious illness. After a long weekend of rest and a movie marathon, her symptoms have all but disappeared except for feeling a bit run down.

This morning we find her sitting in her garden under her favorite and only Maple tree enjoying the beautiful Autumn breezes.

As you can see she is looking much better.....

Although you may not notice it in this photo as she is wearing make-up, she has a secret. A secret that she thought no one else had noticed. A secret that she confided to no one except for her oldest daughter,

Ginny.

Diana knew that she could trust Ginny with any secret including 

"The eyebrow secret" !

It was something that Diana had started to notice for quite some time now. She foolishly thought that no one but her could see it until that one evening. The evening that she and her handsome husband...

had time to spend alone. She was needlessly, a bit embarrassed when he asked her  "Darling, what on Earth have you done to your lovely, lush brows?", to which she replied

" What do you mean dearest?".

"Well Dear, it looks as though you may have went a bit crazy with your tweezing implement." he said.

After a brief wave of dread swept over her, she realized that since he loved her unconditionally, she must confess her secret to him.

As it turns out, our "Housewifely Heroine" had noticed for some time that from her "Point of Arch" to her "End Brow", the hair had been slowly yet steadily disappearing.

"Hair Loss!"

She had thought that she could slip by with the secret going unnoticed and thought perhaps she may have to start penciling in her brows!

She tried it once and thought how unnatural it looked. She had thought of the tattoo route briefly but disregarded it quickly as she thought how silly it would look once she turned completely gray.

So it would be back to the "Drawing Board", so to speak, if she wanted to have any brows at all.

In the meantime her very handsome husband....

still has not been feeling so well himself as he slaves away to keep a roof over his families head.

This wonderful, hard working, hunk of a man has, as of late, felt much older than his 48 years!

Diana is ever so anxious for him to come home this weekend so she can take care of him in a proper manner since she is feeling better now herself.

She suspects that he didn't have enough antibiotics to destroy the strange bug that had invaded their bodies.

There was never any word from the handsome doctor....

about the chest ex-ray results... 

So Diana is assuming that the old adage "No news is good news" applies here.

As our "Housewifely Heroine" sits peacefully in her garden this morning she can't help but think about the new friend she had made this summer, "Mr. Toad".

She came across Mr. Toad quite surprisingly one morning while gardening. She was digging a hole for a flower when all of a sudden he popped out of the ground to greet her. 

They became good friends after that. He would greet her every time she would garden and he would always let her pet him.

She even went so far as to build him a little toad friendly retreat to which he seemed to enjoy. He would hop off every now and then but he always returned.

That is until one day in late July. She had noticed that his absences were becoming longer and longer. "Maybe he has a family in another spot" she thought to herself.

Little did she know that as he hopped out and away from her garden that day......

It would be the last time she would see him ever again. It was with a heavy heart that she hoped he was safe and didn't meet his demise with some gas powered lawn implement!

But life goes on.

And as summer came to an end it was time for school to start once again. This would mark her last child's second year of high school. Diana realizes how swiftly time is going by just by seeing her young teenage daughter turning into a lovely yet sometimes trying, 

young woman.

And although Diana realizes that the inevitable "Empty Nest" was just around the corner, it is not a day that she looks forward to.

So she has been enjoying the moments that she has been having with her daughter Katie. She can see the changes in her. And Diana has been actually happy about her and her best friend coming home everyday for lunch.

Ah yes, one can clearly see the " I am cool and know everything " attitude here. Yet still her mother is seeing the changes. The changes that make a parent proud.

Her youngest daughter will turn sixteen in three months.

Diana remembers turning sixteen. Feeling cool. Knowing everything. Having eyebrows.

Oh what a feeling that was.

Diana felt awful last week as the girls settled for.....

Pizza rolls all week for their lunch. But they didn't complain and Diana has been able to fix them lunch once again.

Things are almost back to normal now. For the moment. It's quite.

A momentary quite that Diana is very grateful for.

As a matter of fact, things are so quite that she fears she may have no more material for another episode of 

"Best Laid Plans"!

Except, 

What about "Homecoming" ?

We will leave you now with an actual photo of the "REAL"  Diana.

You see she is just like everyone one else. Not glamorous at all.

Just a real life housewife with tiny fading little eyebrows!

Notice if you will, that she has cleverly camouflaged them with her hair! 

But it IS ever so fun to dream. 

And in Diana's dream, she most definitely would look like 

this....

Great brows!!!

" A Long Week. "

It seems so long to me since I have last posted. In actuality, it's only been a week. Most of it has felt like a week in hell, temperature wise at least. Anyone who lives in the Midwest knows what I speak of.

The extreme heat and humidity has sent our heat indexes soaring. I actually got sick a couple of times from it and have since felt drained of any and all energy.

We finally got a break from it today as the humidity has left at least for the next day or two.

I will admit that most of my heat sickness, I brought upon myself. Lowe's was having another plant sale that I discovered while there to buy more mulch. I sent my husband over to the video game store so that I could be alone in this variable flora filled heaven, all at 50 to 75 percent off !

I felt very good as I started wandering around outside. I first went and loaded four bags of mulch into my cart and then I was off to seek some poor, orphaned plant that might be in need of a good home. I got very excited when I spotted this perennial flower that I had envied for a few weeks. It's $8.00 price tag however, stopped me each time from purchasing the beauty. And there it sat, marked down to $3.33 !

  

I love the dainty yellow flowers. Four bags of mulch and two flowers later is when I started to feel very hot, sweaty and light headed. So I headed to the register to purchase my items, called Jake and told him to come and get me now. It was only 105 degrees with the heat index, but I think all of the medications I take and the fact that I have never, ever been able to deal with the heat very well, it just was not a good situation.

I had to go home and that was about it for me for the day. This was one of those Ah Ha moments for me. I just need to stay in when the temps get to high. As much as I don't like being stuck in the house, I would dislike passing out even more. And I have actually fainted twice in my life from the heat in my younger years so I guess it's time for me to get a clue!

I have some very sad news. Really, it is very, very sad for me. My little friend, Mr. Toad, is gone! I haven't seen him in two or three weeks and it makes me very sad. I have been painstakingly working on his homemade abode. I guess he got tired of waiting. Or maybe he found a better yard. Or perhaps the stray cats were just too intimidating for him, whatever the case may be, I miss his company as I garden.

I have not given up however. Quite the contrary. I am almost finished with my toad house and have purchased a few other things for " The Toad Hop Inn ". I am going to forge on without him to complete my project. I may even import a toad from my son's house. I have gone so far as to not use any pesticides what so ever this year. I will post photos of "The Toad Hop Inn" when it is completed. I am hoping to finish this up this weekend.

We had a birthday this past Tuesday. My grandson Jack turned two. The really nice thing about his birthday this year was that my husband was able to attend! This doesn't happen often with his job. He misses so, so much and I know how heartbreaking this is for him. But not this time!

Jack is very into Hot Wheels now and he received many!

It kept him very busy as his big sister Sarah read all of his birthday cards to him, although he wasn't listening!

And his mommy and grandma played camera wars with each other!

Yes it was a fun evening. And it was a long hot week. I am so dreading seeing next months power bill, Yikes!!!

But I am not going to worry about that now. I have all of my work for the week done. Tomorrow is supposed to be The Perfect Day to garden. And that is exactly what I intend to do, God willing.

Speaking of gardening, my oldest daughter Ginny has started a new blog. It is called "The Farmers Market Project". Click on blog title for link. It is an interesting concept, one in which I would love to try for myself.

She will only be eating food that she has purchased from her local Farmer's Market, for 30 days. This should be very interesting and most likely will bring about some creativity on her part.

Please click on her link above and check out this new blog of hers. If you scroll down a bit on her page you can view her video of her " Last Junk Food Meal" for 30 days. This should be very interesting!

"Best Laid Plans"

Editors Note: I have decided to revise my own personal soap opera that I had posted last year. It was fun for me to do a blog post or two in the third person. And since one can do whatever one wants to with one's blog, I'm gonna have some fun. So here goes.

"Best Laid Plans"

A continuation.

Part one.

Once again we find our lovely heroine,

Diana,
in distress, usually cool and collected, yet never calm finds herself relapsing from her horrible unknown illness.

Her symptoms were all that one could imagine. The worse that one could imagine. So as her faithful and handsome husband suggested,

she put a call into her trustworthy doctor.

Yet despite taking her handsome husbands advice about calling her doctor, she chose to ignore her wise husbands advice about not working today.

She was so torn. She felt awful physically yet wrestled with the fact that she didn't work last week. She hate's to let her people down. They are so understanding, warm and wonderful.

That is the part that she had to wrestle with. You see she is just a maid . A plain old maid. But in her heart of hearts, she loved her job. Why else would she continue to do it for five years?

It is satisfying for her and mentally relaxing. Yet she disregarded how horrible she felt and ignored her handsome husbands request that she not go. 

When her nice doctor called back, she was slightly and nicely scolded for turning down the steroids the week before. 


As much as she didn't want to, she agreed to take them. Along with more antibiotics. A chest ex-ray was also ordered for her.

She came home from cleaning totally exhausted. When her lovely yet challenging teenage daughter arrived home from school, Diana requested that she drive her mom to the hospital.

Amazingly to Diana's surprise, her beautiful yet challenging teenage daughter agreed, without argument, to take her mom to the hospital and then to the pharmacist to pick up medication.


Fortunately for Diana, her daughter has proven to be an excellent if not a bit too confident driver. She was very patient with her sickly mother. 


She was, if only for a short time,
understandably sweet?!  


So now Diana is taking the dreaded steroids. Still feeling awful. Not looking herself at all....

Will this sickness never end? 


Is she still cooking lunch for her daughter and her mysterious friend?

Is her handsome husband...

feeling any better as he slaves away to keep a roof over his families head?


And what about Mr. Toad?

Yes, what has become of Mr. Toad?


Will Diana

ever look as good as she did in the past?

What will the results be of the chest ex-ray?

 And what about her eyebrows?

Yes what about her eyebrows?


Stay tuned for the next episode of


"Best Laid Plans"


To find out.

" The Project List "

At the start of summer this year , I had a project list of things that I wanted to accomplish around the house.

This list included, rearranging the spare bedroom so that it would look more like a bedroom instead of a "catch all" room. This project took several hours but I was happy, proud and satisfied when I completed it.

One project done!

One of the other projects was to clean my entire basement out. Now this was a huge task. I think that it took me a good eight hours total, if I remember correctly. That is a big if ! In our basement things get brought down there and just placed pretty much in the front at the bottom of the stairs. After several bags of garbage, hours of rearranging and dusting away cobwebs, another project completed!

While going through many of the boxes down there I discovered that my husband has seven boxes of assorted drinking glasses and coffee mugs? " Why are we saving all of these old used glasses?" I asked.

"Just don't throw them out!" was the answer that I received from him.

O.K. I'll give him this one, but SEVEN boxes!!

The third big project that I had on my list was to clean out the garage. Now most women probably consider the garage their husbands turf. Well not mine. The only thing my husband does in there is park the car when he drives it, which is about four times a month.

All of my gardening supplies are stored there and considering the fact that this old, two car garage has no doors, it can get very dirty. It had no doors when we bought the house and it still has no doors. It does make it easier to park the car!

Monday of this week I spent about five hours going through things, throwing things out and rearranging once again. This I do once or twice a year. So the grill is all shiny clean again and my gardening tools and supplies are all neatly organized. Another project completed!

I have also gotten a lot of gardening done lately. I was inspired this week from Anvilclouds blog. I have had my birdbath in the same spot for eleven years. I have always wanted to plant flowers around it but dreaded digging up the grass, or rather, the weeds from around it. So I always just told myself, someday!

When I saw what AC did , I thought "Hey now, there's an idea!". Basically what he did was to put newspapers down on the grass, in my case I had weed fabric left over, and just poured the dirt on top and planted ! Here was my final result, another project that I am quite pleased with!

 

It's a bit difficult to see the flowers but I got them for a steal! They were on the reduced plant cart at Lowes. One dozen plants for $1.00!

As my friend Lyn would say, " My name is Diana, and I am a plantaholic!". Of coarse she uses her name instead of mine , oh well you know what I mean!!

So many thanks to AC for the inspiration!

Now, do I have to tell you how exhausted I have been since Monday?

I laid in my recliner ALL day yesterday. But now that all of the BIG projects are done, I can concentrate on the fun, little ones. I have reasons to use my new sewing machine. There is another horrible heat wave arriving today, triple digits with the heat indexes, so I think sewing indoors is a great idea!

My Katie leaves in less than a week for N.C. to stay with her big sis for awhile and I will have over a week alone. I will miss her so much. So I need to get busy making plans to keep my mind off of being alone. It never used to bother me this much and I know that it won't be long before she moves out for good. I am thinking of taking some classes then.

If you are wondering how "Mr. Toad" is doing, so far he is still hanging around his little toad  area. I have noticed that about once a day he hops on over to the neighbors yard where I suspect he may have a friend or two!

 

I have been trying very hard to keep up with everyone's posts. I suspect that I will have plenty of time to visit and blog over the next two weeks!

Oh one more thing, this is exciting for my husband and I. When Katie comes back home she will have about four days before camp starts again. During that week Jake will be on his vacation. It has been 13 years since we have had a week completely alone!

That's a long time. We are looking forward to doing some fun things together. Please, no comments from the peanut gallery!

We are going to try to fit in some swimming, fishing, bike riding and a few projects around the house. I don't know weather we'll be able to fit it all in but I think it will be fun trying!

" The Big Build Up "

It has been very hot and humid. Not surprising for this time of year! And while it isn't the weather that I prefer, I suppose acceptance is my only alternative at point!

However this is putting a strain on all of my plants, flowers and water bill! I usually water in the evening as lately it seems to take me so long to get moving in the mornings.

But since my new tenant "Mr. Toad" has moved into my yard, I have taken to sprinkling water over his area in the mornings as that is when he seems to like to show himself ! I do believe he likes the water and the company. Although this may just be my over active imagination at work again!

Can you see him blending in with the rocks?

Maybe this will help...

Our ground has been so dry, I've been praying for rain. Not only for the plants and crops but in hopes that the temperatures and humidity might drop a bit as well.

 

This afternoon I had to go to church to meet with our accountant. I am the church secretary and most of my job consists of data entry. 

The problem lies when I make a mistake, which isn't too often, in the data that I enter! You must know that I despise working with numbers and I also do quite a bit of bookkeeping as well!

 

Despite this fact I have been the secretary there for nearly seven years now, and I really do love my job. That makes no sense what so ever but truth is stranger than fiction!

While waiting for our accountant to arrive I went outside. That's when I saw it. The huge black cloud just east of where I was standing.

Could it be? Dare I hope? 

I was feeling excited now as I walked back inside of the church.

Our accountant, just as I knew she would, found my mistake fairly quickly. I felt the fool as I thanked her profusely, and we both went on our separate ways. Now if I can only remember everything she told me!

As I was on my way home, the cloud followed me. 

Oh come on! Just rain already!

When I got into the house my one little dog Roxy was shaking and panting. 

Thunder!

Yeah!!

And then lightening! And then thunder and lightening!

Oh please let it rain, I was just too tired to wrestle with the giant, super industrial strength hose that my husband picked out so that it would last a lifetime!

Now it's getting very dark. The wind is blowing, the thunder is clapping and the lightening is lighting the darkness of the storm to come, 

maybe?

 Then I heard it!

Pit, pat!   Pit pat.   Pit pa..

pit..

pi.....

And that was it. I'd say there was a good twenty or so drops.

It's been very hot and humid. Not surprising for this time of year!