Break In The Storm

The Princess loves the outdoors as much as me I think.

This picture seems to say it all. It was an ahhh moment with the warm sunshine shining down on us. Although it was cold otherwise. A breeze and the feeling that Spring was springing up all around us was perfect.

 

We had 2 inches of rain overnight. It poured and the wind blew. I wondered how the latest addition to the garden held up. So far so good. The mini hurricane didn't do much damage.(-:

 

I found the crab at TJMax. My new favorite thing.(-:

This group has stood the test of time, aka the grey squirrels. They want to dig in the boxes and have managed to uproot all the succulents so many times I think some are growing on the ground now. I keep adding sea shells in the boxes to keep them from digging, but of course that doesn't seem to scare them.

 

 

Bubbles!

Well there were bubbles, but then the train quit working.
I fixed it. The lever was not working correctly so I super glued a piece on and now it works all the time. To stop from working the handle has to be removed. It just pulls off.
 I think it will be better this way so she doesn't have to push a button to make bubbles come out.

 

She will be back tomorrow, so hopefully we have a new train that blows bubbles by then.

 

Other then that the weather has been outstanding! Rain/Wind/Rain/Wind. I love it! Well except for the wind. I am excited we are getting hammered with rain though. Even if that means I am stuck inside. I keep looking out and thinking how beautiful the flowers are going to look this Spring. Things are really growing well.

Enjoy your Sunday!

We Made It Through The Week

It was a piece of cake.

Well basically! No problems except for not getting much sleep for me. Hard to sleep with a 2 year old kicking you in the head as they toss and turn. I forgot how that was.
She was really good though, for a 2 year old.
No mention of Mommy or Daddy the whole week except one time when I told her it was time to go night night. Then she only cried for a minute and said O.K. and off to bed she went.
She is such a good kid. We are all so lucky. She has a great personality and for 90% of the time, happy. (-:

She will be back on Sunday-Thursday for her regular day time sitting. I kinda like having my nights to catch up on stuff like sleep (-:

I don't know how Grandparents raise their Grandkids. They deserve a medal for sure. It is hard.
We are old and don't have the energy of someone who is 20 something. The old bones don't function as well as they once did.

The highlight of my week was while we were walking, the Princess stopped and hugged my leg and said I ub you Nama! I was almost speechless and replied with a big hug and a I love you too Princess!

Tractor Ride With Tapa

That's what the Princess calls her Grandpa(-: She has been spending some days/nights while her parents are cruising to Mexico. Fun times on the ranch.

My kids use to ride on the big equipment with their Grandpa when they were little. They have a lot of fun memories. I am sure the Princess will too!

It Is Bread Day!

I have been reading a lot and I even took an online course to make sourdough bread. I know I am obsessed(-: Today I will find out if that was a wise decision(-:
I still need to get a few more things to make baking easier. There are a lot of tools that help in making the perfect sourdough loaf. All are extremely over priced but I guess that's the way it is with all tools.

Here is the dough after 2 hours of autolyse and two stretching/folding sessions every 45 mins. I still have one more stretching/folding and then I will shape my bread(-:

 

My sourdough starter. It is coming along nicely. I am finally getting use to throwing out some every time I feed it. I had a hard time to doing that to start with.  But... I will say that is very important to the process. I tried not throwing it out and that was a fail.(-:

 

Also don't give up on your starter if after 4 days it looks and smells like something died. It is also the process of growing a culture. Mine was nasty smelling. I thought yuck, who would want to put this into a loaf of bread? Well about the 8th day it all started to smell wonderful. So it does take the full two weeks to really get it going and growing.

Seriously, what is a bag of all purpose unbleached flour for anyhow? A little fun and games seems to be worth the expense. I have enjoyed this process this time for sure. It is pretty interesting.

 

I also recommend a scale. The first starter I made I did not use a scale. I just threw in a cup of flour/water and let it grow. This time I am weighing everything. It seems to have made a huge difference! I had read online to start with that throwing a cup of flour/water together was the way to go, but I am liking it this way much better. It is so much easier to know exactly you are taking out and putting in. I feel that is important to the final outcome. But we shall see when it is all said and done.

 

There are all sorts of things you can bake with discarded sourdough starter too. Many recipes online. I tried a banana/zucchini bread recipe yesterday and it was delish. Pancakes are suppose to be super awesome as well. I have not tried those.

  There is also a recipe for fast hot rolls. I might try some of those this week.

 

Tonight the Princess will start staying with me until next Friday. Her parents are going on a cruise. I have never been on a cruise so I can't say if it will be fun or not, but I am sure the Princess and I will enjoy having the week to ourselves(-:

Bon Voyage Parentals!

 

 

Springing Up

It is beginning to look a lot like Spring here.

 A new mermaid for the boat

                garden.

Inside the boat, my new turtle.

I got the turtle from Carruth Studios for my birthday.

Last year's moon gazing ball holder/ planter.

 

 

It Has Been A Week!

A lot going on, but for some reason I finally figured out what the email was to this blog and was able to move back. I have been in limbo for over three years. It feels good to be home.(-: I was o.k. with the other blog but all my previous posts were here. I basically gave up ever getting back here, but miracles do happen for some things and this was one of them.

Yesterday after taking my Mom to the doctor for the millionth time, I was finally told what is going on with her. Another shocker. She has Alzheimer's. This has been going on for five years, so the doctor said. She was diagnosed in 2012 but had been showing signs and symptoms for several years before she was actually diagnosed. She never told us. Why? I have no clue, although I think it could be because she didn't want us to know. Obviously someday we would find out, but maybe she didn't want us to know until it was close to the end. I probably will never understand her reasoning. To me it makes no sense. The doctor thought we knew.

At least we know now. The doctor said she is in her end stage and fading rapidly. At least we know what is wrong with her. That in itself is a relief. We thought it was do to her alcoholism. Even though she swore she didn't drink anymore we thought somehow she was still getting supplied with alcohol.

As you know if you are a follower of my blog, my Dad passed away almost three years ago. It has been a difficult time for all of us.

So onward and upward as they say.

It is a beautiful day here in the garden and I am going to get outside and do some cleanup.