The mulch we laid over the landscaping fabric the other night (still needs to be levelled and such:




Planting tomatoes and peppers, not sure if they will work this late, but my friend had a couple extra plants so we will see :)




Choosing the lay out.. I don't know if I mentioned it, but the whole project is for schooling purposes.. Raenen is learning all about plants this summer as a part of her junior high science :)









All finished planting both the perennials and the annuals :) I made sure we planted some marigolds in memory of my great grandfather who always made sure to have plenty of flowers in his gardens :)






Still a few more things to do, we will be moving the strawberries, since they are under a tree and searching for sun and we also need to level the ground around the flowers and make everything all pretty :) I am so thankful to my friend for teaching us all of this... I don't know anything about it at all!! I am very pleased with how fast Raenen caught on and how well she is doing! :D I'm one proud mommy :)

Our Canada day :)

We went to Maple Creek for Canada day and the kids had a blast! Well, except for Raenen who was wishing she could be spending the day with her friends:




Kyrina got to colour a rock



and Dakota created his first wood working project :)



and playing bubbles with gramma:




The kids got to dig for prizes

Before we started, but after we got the weeds out and turned the soil:


Raenen learning to garden, and some plants we picked out and planted:









Almost done for the night, after this we spread wood chips over top of the landscaping fabric :) More pics to come! :D



Michelle :)

I need to re-group...

Ok, thought it was time for a post about my goals. It is July now, that means new goal and revision of an old goal. I haven't been taking my goals seriously so, I really need to write and renew my promises to myself and just remember them... and that they are important to my happiness and health.

So, my April goal was to go to bed before midnight and wake up with the kids. I have slid back into bad habits with Clint being back and waking up with the kids. I have been going to bed more like 1 or 2am and waking up ... seriously do NOT want to admit this ... at between 11am and 1pm... :( It is really embarrassing to admit that I sleep that long when I have 3 children and a messy house... but... I am an honest girl. I don't believe we should hide the truth about ourselves from others. It seems to lead to us all feeling like we don't measure up and are inadequate or below others.... just thinking out loud here.

The goals I had set up in May were to stay off the computer for 6 hours a day and to be more spontaneous and live less through my "list of things to do"... well, I have stayed off the computer for more than 6 hours a day. That was fairly easy and quite rewarding. I have decided to limit not the whole computer for those hours though, but instead just turn off email, facebook and chat. I do need the computer quite a bit for other things, but I try to be quick and then turn the monitor off so it is not staring me in the face when i am tired and need a rest. I really need to rest in other ways like reading or taking bubble baths instead of staring at this screen.

My weight is by far the cause of unhappiness at this time. I know the root cause came before the weight gain... but at this time there are many discomforts that come from being overweight that I really can't focus on anything but how uncomfortable I am... I could write on and on how miserable this body makes me... but that is probably for a different post. The reason I am bringing up my weight in this particular post is because I believe my July goal should be something that helps me in this area. I think the single goal that will help most with this is more reading. Although reading keeps me sedentary, which is the last thing I need... I am reading books that will help me deal with the root of the problem... something diet and exercise can't help with. The book I hope to read a lot of in July is The Solution: 6 Winning Ways to Permanent Weightloss. I read this 10 years ago and lost all of my access weight at that time. It also involves journals and letters, which I hope to include in my July goal.

So in conclusion, my goals in July are as follows:

1. Go to bed before midnight, wake up with the kids.

2. 7 hours off computer for recreational purposes (add an hour a day per month... so now 7 off instead of 6) and more spontaneous behaviour, rather than following lists and such.

and

3. More reading, journals and letters... specifically working on The Solution.

:) Michelle S