Summer Goals

Here is my summer goals list. I wrote down my goals in early May. They were suppose to be pretty realistic in terms of accomplishing them before the end of summer. Now as June is coming to a close, I have my doubts about closure.

1. Create a new garden.

2. Clean-up old gardens.

3. Paint ceiling in the kitchen.

4. Finish photo album from October wedding trip.
4a. Begin Christmas Album.

5. Clean basement. Organize pictures and papers.

6. Figure out how to use E-bay to sell helmets.

7. Finish scanning Doug's family slides. Begin work on a DVD slide show.

Well we've put in two gardens. Cleaned the front yard garden a couple of times and have begun to work on the back garden. I need to get a schedule and be disciplined about it.

I did organize the pictures, awards, and such from the 08-09 year. I still need to file papers.

I am slowly working on the wedding photo album. Today I finished two sheets (four pages). Some days I don't move too quickly. I just push forward instead of waiting for the artistic spirit to move me. Today I made myself sort through and lay out all the album items. Just doing that was my goal but I persevered and finished two sheets. Tomorrow should be easier since I'll leave all my supplies out.

I haven't touched the slides, although I keep looking at the boxes. They are calling my name but I need a book to read while the slides scan. Last summer I had a great book. This summer I've been checking out some large print books from the library and I read them while I walk on the treadmill. Large print is great for this. I haven't fallen off the treadmill yet. I have stumbled once or twice.

That's all I've finished on the list.

Not on the list:
I've reorganized my math curriculum and resources (Aug. - May) and mapped it on this web program our school uses. I've tweaked my school schedule for the coming school year and I've written lesson plans for Aug and Sept. I spent all day at a reading workshop.

I am taking a sewing class and have learned to use my new birthday present sewing machine. I am helping Mimi make a doll dress.

New projects:
Make a poster collage of Dugger. When T-man completed 8th grade, the kids were to make a collage of their life so far. I made the collage with T's very helpful input. I thought it would be great for Dugger to have one since he has graduated from high school. We can also display it at his summer graduation/going to college party. I'll need to get that done soon.

I'm also going to make a blouse and skirt for Mimi.

Paint my bedroom, hopefully (if I survive painting the kitchen ceiling).

That's it! We'll see what I accomplish this summer.

Finished Product- to date

The weekend following Memorial day and into early June we continued to add plants to our garden. We have three more boxwoods. They are tiny now, but I'm sure they will grow fast. We planted many of my favorite plants.

We placed three hydrangeas, Endless Summer (love that name). Hydrangeas aren't necessarily one of my favorites but we have had much success with others in our yard. The height and color will be perfect for the garden. Also, I remember being told that the flower was a favorite of my Grandma Gonzalez.

We added four cone flower plants. I do love these. I first noticed these flowers when we went to the National Zoo in D.C. I'm so glad they labeled many of their plants. I think Native Americans used parts of the plant for medicinal purposes. I'd have to check my D.C. notes to verify that, so don't quote me.

We put in a bunch of faux grasses. They grow like an ornamental grass but are a better fit for the shade and dry area. They will produce little purple flowers.

We added more hostas to complete the border and planted two Lily of the Valley (another favorite) plants at the entrance to the far stepping stone path (where it makes a "v" near the fence line).

Finally we added some stone crop (two varieties) a reddish/burgandy variety and a green varigated variety. This was not a favorite but we have had good success with others, so Doug convinced me that this would be a good plant to have. They are located around the lilac bush/tree.

There is room for lots more but we will see if we add anything else this season. I'd like to plant tulip and jonquil bulbs this fall for the spring. At least all our plants seems to be doing well. Of all the plants we've bought this season we've only lost one on the side of the house.

Almost Home Alone

Dugger and I are the only two at home. The other three are at hair appointments. With a few minutes of time on my hands, I thought I'd finish off our gardening blog. Over the Memorial Day Weekend we rented a tiller for Saturday morning. The only plants we had in the garden were a boxwood bush and about seven hostas. I dug up the hostas plants, since we wanted to keep them and spread them along the border of the garden. The boxwood was in a location that wouldn't get tilled so I didn't need to remove it.

The ground is rock hard because of the type of soil we have and the fact that the dog runs through the garden beating down a rock hard path. The tiller turned out to be a monster. I believe the tiller was a front-end tiller (didn't know there were different kinds of tillers). The pictures from the previous blog show the soil before we began tiller and after I dug out the hostas. Doug and I had to take turns tilling the soil because the tiller was so hard to control and manipulate. Doug and I finally got into a rhythm and learned how to get the most tilled soil out of the tiller. I have to admit that I scraped the side of the house two times.






Once we finished with the garden we moved the tiller to the vegetable garden area and tilled that soil. Now that soil is much softer and very good soil for planting. The problem here was that with such a powerful tiller we would get it stuck in the soil some and have to pull it out from the soft rows. Here is the pre-tiller vegetable garden shot.


After all this work we returned the tiller. Later in the day I laid out landscaping material and placed the hostas in their new location. Doug and I wanted large stepping stones as a way to keep Amber, the dog, out of the plants but still allow her access to the garden (that she would get into anyway).

We went to several home improvement stores and to a couple of nursery's looking for large and natural stepping stones. We had no luck. One of my friend's brother is a landscaper (his company did our front yard) so I called him in the hopes that he would have some stones in stock. We also headed out to his building, hoping that he or his co-owner would be there. Well the road to their place was blocked off because of road construction. As we turned around we we drove right by another nursery in town. One side of the street has the nursery with the typical garden plants and across the street they have their large trees, blocks, rocks, and stones. We spied what looked like potential stepping stones and pulled in to the nursery. We climbed on the stack of stones, dug through them, and picked the perfect ones. Three hundred pounds later we has some beautiful stones. One of them Doug had to have because it looks like the state of GA. See for yourself.


This wrapped up our Saturday. On Sunday we headed back to the nursery and bought more stones and a Japanese Maple. Using Frank Lloyd Wright's philosophy of path design, we placed out stones along the well worn path that Amber had created. Keeping her established route intact. Hopefully this will ensure that she will stay on the path. Our garden was coming along.
Sunday's work.


On Monday feeling much less sore we bought some plants to begin filling our garden. We also bought tomatoes, bell peppers, sunflowers, and cucumber seeds for the vegetable garden. T-man has tried to grow sunflowers in the past and not had any success. We think that the rabbits kept eating them. With Amber we think that the rabbits will not venture into the yard.


The crew is back so I'll wrap up the garden story later.

Weekend Warriors

This holiday weekend we decided to fix/finish our flower garden that runs the length of the back of our house. We've been attempting to tame and revitalize this garden for the past two years.

Our first summer here we removed a couple of dead bushes and in the fall we planted a lot of tulip bulbs. After that the dandelions took over. We seem to concentrate on our other gardens and then finally get to this one in mid-July. By August we are gearing up for school and sometimes a vacation so there goes the garden work.

Mother's Day weekend we were going to work on the back garden. I had bought some irises from the garden sale at school. I wanted to get them in the ground and not leave them in bags to die. They needed to go in the side garden where I have been slowly adding plants. Doug came and helped and decided that we needed to finish this garden by adding a border, mulch, and more plants. I insisted that the border be as level and straight as possible, so there went my plans for working on the backyard garden. This garden was pretty easy to work with because there were very few weeds and the soil was generally pretty soft. Here is our finished product.

After rehearsals, school projects, student dance concerts, baccalaureate, and on-line course development we were ready for the next yard project over the long holiday weekend. Last summer Doug and I hoed and pick axed out the weeds and the rock hard soil. We were on the verge of getting the bed ready and then we quit.

This year the weeds are not as bad yet but getting their foothold and the soil is once again rock hard. I felt like we needed a tiller to help break up the soil. Never having used a tiller, I did not realize what a workout that would be.

Shel Silverstein

At this time of year I introduce poetry to my kindergartners. We read poetry, begin to think like poets, and write poetry. It is one of my favorite units. You would be amazed at some of the poems these children write. They could rival some of the most famous poets. One of the poets that I am not tremendously wild about, but share his work with my class, is Shel Silverstein. Personally I enjoy his children's picture books much more than most of his poetry. His sense of humor doesn't always appeal to me. I carefully select a number of his poems to read aloud and offer the children the opportunity to read others from several of his poetry books.

On a completely different note but connected is this, I always seem to pull an old song from the back of my mind at the oddest of times. I'm not even sure what times trigger the vague notion of this song from my childhood. I can't even get the words of the song or the exact tune; it all seems to be on the fringe of my memories. Here is what I know: this song reminds me of my dad (Did he like the song?), Louisiana, swamp, swampy woman, voodoo, witches, and snakes. Weird huh?

How are Shel Silverstein and a childhood song related?

Well first I began to research Shel Silverstein to determine his ethnic background. As this is my blog, I'm going to be very direct here. The photo of Shel Silverstein on the back of his book The Giving Tree makes him look like a bald black man or maybe a Cuban, he has a Castro-esque look to him. I began to ask people if Silverstein was black. No one seemed to know and when I pointed out the Giving Tree photos they would agree that he did look black. Of course his ethnicity does not matter but it became this great mystery to me. Who is Shel Silverstein?

It seems that Mr. Silverstein was a very private person and allowed very little information to be published about himself. Most sites, articles, and literate all state that he was fiercely protective of his private life. Here is what is know. Shel Silverstein was born in Chicago on Sept. 25th in the year 1930 or 1932. Their is admitted conflicting information about the year of his birth. He served in the military. He had been married, divorced and was the father of a daughter. Recently I found an article that said he had a son and daughter. He died of a heart attack in Key West, FL May 10, 1999 where he had a residence. Oh, yea back to the ethnic origins. One of all the many sources I found stated that he was Jewish. So that mystery was solved for me. I could see where he looked like he was of Jewish descent. But it opened the door to much more fascinating pieces of information.

It seems Mr. Silverstein had never considered a career as an author of children's literature. He was a cartoonist for Playboy Magazine. He was encourage by his publisher to begin writing for children. Silverstein was also a screenwriter, composer and lyricist. He performed with Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show. I somewhat remember Dr. Hook and continued to delve into the musical side of Shel Silverstein. Well it turns out he wrote A Boy Name Sue that Johnny Cash recorded and made famous. Along the way Shel Silverstein also collaborated with Bobby Bare and they had an award winning song, Marie Laveau. My song!!! This was the song in my head!!

I googled Bobby Bare. Amazon provided album covers and tidbits of his songs. Yes, I recognized at least one of the album covers. I think my parent's had a 8-track of this one (probably still have it somewhere). I found Marie Laveau and listened to the bit they had and it sure seemed like my song. I then pulled up Song Lyrics and hunted for the song. As I read the lyrics I knew I had found my song. Guess what?! A link took me to a U-Tube performance of Bobby Bare singing Marie Laveau.

Now, I still can't figure out what is so great about this Marie Laveau song. Although I love that name, it kind of trips off your tongue. Maybe the poetry/story of it catches my fancy. I just know that it doesn't seem like my kind of music especially since I don't particularly care for country music. But I am still drawn to that song. I play it every once in a while and just kind of smile as I listen to it.

Isn't it strange that one obsessive quest would give me answers to this bizarre memory. Wow!! May all your searches yield interesting results.

P.S. I have another song piece in my head. It is from the 1990's, has something to do with driving away, I get the sense of two kids or two people turning back and looking out the back window of the car as it drives away. Drives away is key, looking back, and gold (like gold coins/money). It has a catchy tune that on the fringe of that brain of mine. I always think that it has something to do with Kid Rock, and a fish song that I thought was recorded by Kid Rock, but it doesn't. I haven't found the answer to this one. Not yet!

The Circus Is Coming

Well the circus came and went last weekend. We had a school-wide performance on Thursday afternoon. This is the circus dress rehearsal. Then the public performances were Friday and Sunday.


Mimi participated in three acts. Two of the three included performing at great heights. An amazing feat since she is scared of heights. Her poi performance (the only non-height act) which involves hand rhythm movements using objects like ribbons and balls on a string was an act that she has performed in for several years. She did not participate in adagio, a part gymnastic and dance act. She said that now that she is no longer a little one, she would have to lift and swing other kids (instead of being the one lifted and swung)and she didn't want to do that. She didn't participate in the acrodance (dance routine) because she was going to be a show clown. The practice for these activities were at the same time. It turned out that a bunch of younger boys were going to be clowns too and she didn't want to work with them. She found her niche and did plenty. She was partnered with two of her best school friends and had a lot of fun.


T-Man once again volunteered to help with the circus. He alternated between chess club practice and circus practice. Both circus and chess practice were on the same day of the week. T-Man was one of three high school students who helped out this year. Most of the helpers are college circus performers. T-Man and his friend have proven themselves as experts in globes and cylinders, acts they performed in during their elementary years. For the last two years they have choreographed the globes and cylinders acts.

Once again it was a busy weekend. Doug and I helped with concessions and entertained a couple of Mimi's dance friends who came to see her perform. I also took four hundred pictures over the three days of performances. The digital camera technology is fantastic. You can come home immediately download and edit pictures and in my case get a plan for taking more photos. I was able to move around to different areas of the gym to get photos and focus on specific acts. I have spared my family the viewing pleasure of my best 300+ photos. I only added photos of my two circus members to our family photo site. Enjoy!!

T-Man's Accomplishments

T-Man joined the chess team this year. He played for several years at the elementary school and did not play his Freshman year of high school. During the chess season they would play a varsity team and a J.V. group. The J.V. group were individual kids that were not playing on the varsity team. T-Man mostly played in the J.V. category.

In January T-Man's high school chess team went to a large competitive chess tournament, Illini Classic. For this tournament they split the kids into two teams representing their high school, Team A and Team B. T-bone competed with Team-B as this team has lesser rating than Team A. Interestingly enough, and much to the chagrin of Team A, Team B earned second place in the tournament with Team A placing third. Team B members earned the metal in the box of T-Man's hand and the trophy in his other hand. T-Man got to keep the trophy from this tournament because all the other kids received a 2nd place in the league metal. T-Man did not get one because they only sent a certain number and coach was one short. So coach gave T-Man the trophy that Team B won. T-Man was more than pleased with this. He scored big time.

The kids had a very good season finishing 2nd place in their league. They headed to state (the same weekend Mimi and I were at her dance competition) and finished in a five-way tie for second place. The tie breaker procedures left them finishing in sixth place, the last members of the tie. This was still great considering that they compete against some large Chicago schools with longstanding winning traditions. The kids and coaches were also pleased that in state the beat IMSA, the Illinois Math and Science Academy School. Unfortunately one of T-Man's team's best players is going to IMSA in the fall so they are not too optimistic that they will beat this school next year.

The metal around T-Man's neck is the award the team received at state. He amassed some serious metal from this season's play and I think that will carry him into next year's season.