Just So You Know . . .

1) Just have to show you a picture of our newest additions:

Aren't they the most adorably ugly things you've ever seen?

So, now I can add finches (if that's what they are) to our list of household "pets", which was sadly dwindling with only the two aging cats, the two freaked-out mice, the 5 stupid-shickens-who-won't-lay-eggs, and a few thousand bees.

2) Guess what I spent the last 24 hours doing?  Creating a super-scientific chart to show where our yard gets sun, and therefore where to plant the rest of the vegetables for our garden.

Answer:

Nowhere.  Thanks to our copious and beautiful trees (which I love), we have more shade than sun.  Most places in the yard get direct sunlight for less than three hours a day.  The only truly sunny spot is a tiny section of our front-yard grass, and I'm trying to hang on to all the greenery I can.


In fact, in an effort to be more "green" (although I understand that lawns are actually very environmentally-un-friendly), we re-seeded the dirt patch in front of the chickens for about the third time in just as many years. 

dirt patch in front of chickens (last fall)

This time, however, we tried a novel approach: watering the new seed as suggested.  It worked!

ta-DAAAAH!

I feel as if we have just birthed a child with the miracle of that grass seed.  Sigh: if only the rest of my plantings would turn out so nicely.

dead spinach

3) I recently realized that this September will see Bee and me celebrating our 7th wedding anniversary.  And I suddenly became very aware that I was getting too comfortable in the strength of our relationship.  So I'm trying to be more aware of not taking Bee for granted, and showing him I still love him and care about him.

Which explains why I found a sitter for Mr. C last week and surprised Bee with tickets to a Pink Floyd cover band.

If you know my taste in music, you know what a sacrifice this was for me. 

Bee, however, was excited to see the band, so I gamely went along.

After 60 minutes, Bee came to 2 brilliant conclusions:
Brilliant Conclusion #1: we're too old to stand that long (and too cheap to pay $60 for seats [read: "folding chairs"])
Brilliant Conclusion #2: Pink Floyd is depressing.  (To which I supportively replied: "Well, duuuuhhh")

(I mean, it took you 48 years to figure that out?)

So we left after the first set.

The highlights:
#1: I found a clear spot to do wall squats (my goal was 1 minute per song, then a rest until the next song; which means -- for the first time -- I actually appreciated how loooong the songs are)
#2: we got to hear "The Wall" before we left.  And, let me tell you, there's nothing quite like being in a crowd of into-it folks when the instrument solo ends and everyone starts intoning "WE DON'T NEED NO -- EDUCAY-SHUN!"  (As a point of irony: although the song is all about NOT being like everyone else, I loved looking over the audience and noting that every person was bobbing their head robotically to the chorus)

4) Lastly, I am gearing up for Mr. C's birthday party, which will be in about a month.  I am, of course, obsessing over themes (see "When Good Themes Go Bad").  Bee, of course, is no help, questioning why we even have to have a theme.  Mr. C doesn't really get the idea of themes, but has nonetheless started randomly throwing out ideas, which range from "jungle" to "sewer".

"But why sewer?"  I asked. 

"Because it's cooler," he responded. 

"And what do you do at a sewer party?" I pressed. 

"I don't know," he snorted.

I took that to mean that he really wouldn't notice what the theme was, anyway, so I've decided to have a knight party.  I felt pretty clever about it, too, until I started researching it online.  The good: there are LOTS of great knight party ideas out there.  The not-so-good: there are a lot of fantastic homemakers who create lovely parties that will make yours seem inconsequential.  Case in point: check out this awesome site for a knights-and-princess party.  I mean, just look at the castle she made:

Which is awesome, especially since she explained how easy it was to do with cardboard AND she gave the source for the pre-printed stone wall backdrop.  But that puts a lot of pressure on me!!  Especially since I can't justify $20 for the stone wall backdrop (which also seems to mainly be available around Halloween), and will just have to hand-paint bricks (driving me crazy while concurrently making my castle look like crap.  Cardboard Castle Crap.).

Still, I'm excited to try to do a cute party on a very, VERY low budget (again: trying not to take my husband's feelings for granted!).  I am thrilled to report that I just found several yards of quality medieval-like material at the thrift store for $10!  (But -- still -- don't tell Bee!)

I'm super-excited to use the Special-Effects Cookbook I bought as a teenager, which includes a recipe for making a dragon cake that breathes "smoke".  I bought a small chunk of dry ice yesterday so I could practice the effect; sadly, after readying my materials today, I discovered that my freezer-stored dry ice was no more.  Since I've never used dry ice before, I'm SO GLAD I practiced (not) storing it before the day of the party.

I also practiced a Magical Color-Changing Drink: pour purple grape juice - add lemon juice and watch it turn red - add sodium bicarbonate and and watch it turn back to purple and then blue.  Except it didn't really work that way: the lemon juice made only a slight change in color, and the addition of the baking soda after that . . . well . . . let's just say it wouldn't be a very neat activity for a bunch of kids to do:

So.  I'm still trying to come up with ideas.  If any of you have some (budget) party suggestions, please feel free to clue me in!