Hello! It’s been a while since I have written a post. I have to laugh at myself because I always have big plans in June and then I get into the month and realize that my kid’s school schedules consume my time. So stuff gets left undone. Like painting the accent wall in our living room, sticking to the 30-day coloring challenge, prepping the laundry room to re-arrange the furniture and appliances, cleaning out my craft closet. Yup the list goes on and on and I haven’t scratched the surface on any of them.
To add to this crazy time, it is the month of my birthday and wedding anniversary. So yes, I am writing to you a year older. I had simple requests for my husband to celebrate my birthday. Drop the boys off with my in-laws for the weekend, breakfast in bed with a book (naturally), spend a few hours on the morning of my birthday at the beach, visit a new independent bookstore so I can do some birthday book shopping, lunch at a cafe and then dinner at one of our favorite restaurants. Oh did I say simple requests? Haha. Well, a lady must make the most of each birthday so I was compelled to have a fun but busy day. It turned out better than I imagined and the weather was fantastic.
The intro picture above is in our library. I am writing this post here today while the boys look at options for summer reading. I am such a library geek – always looking for a reason to visit. It’s rather peaceful right now. Some days there is so much activity here.
We are going on vacation to Hawaii in a couple of weeks so I will be rushing to prepare so might not post as much as I should but I will resume when we come back.
I think I better go check on them because my boys might get “distracted” from selecting their summer books. But I hope you are all enjoying the beginning of summer and savoring every moment!
Belinda
Well it if you have been hanging out with me for long, you would know that I have an annual plant shopping that occurs between Mother’s and Father’s day. I always give my father-in-law a gift certificate to one of my favorite garden centers for Father’s day. We learned fast that we should go a few weeks before father’s day to find the best picks. So this past week, he and my Mother-in-law came with me for some shopping! The weather was a perfect 72 and sunny. We rolled off with our little carts to see what goodies we could find and I can tell you that we scored on some beauties. We bought so much that we had to put down one side of the middle row seating to accommodate them.
This year I bought a mixture of perennials and annuals. My goal is to buy more and more perennials and to eventually only need to buy a few annuals for quick pops of color.
My FIL bought some salvia, yarrow, lupine and some other beauties. I snagged some zinnias and snapdragons which are my favorites and I bought some more bee balm to add to my others, fountain grass and many others.
After my FIL left, I got right down to business and began planting and writing in my garden journal. I managed to plant about 70% of them before my allergies and back started talking. I saved the rest and finished up yesterday. 
We spent Saturday on the Cape attending my niece’s high school graduation party. They rented a beautiful place on the waterfront and I walked near the water and remembered how much I used to love seeing this flowers along the beach when I was growing up.
There were two large grassy areas for the kids to play and the food was quite yummy.
Apollo and my other nieces played in these funny inflatables. They would run and bounce off of each other. Some kids even went in the water at the beach but I don’t touch the water until July. It’s too cool for my taste.
Overall a great week and weekend. My allergies are slowly subsiding and I am hopeful that I can spend more time outdoors.
Hello and Happy Monday! Happy Belated Mother’s Day to all the mothers. We wait all year for the royal treatment on mother’s day. I think my favorite part is breakfast in bed while reading my books. It’s so nice to have someone else make your meal and just sit back and relax. My husband made this yummy breakfast of oatmeal, fresh fruit, an omelet and a cup of tea. My boys woke up later so they got out of helping.
Saturday was Free Comic Book Day so we did our annual run to a few of our local comic book stores and picked up some cool stuff. I pulled out some of the back issues I needed to catch up on and spent time reading on my deck. I began with some comics and then ended up on my current read (Dread Nation).
Leao made me a margarita and I celebrated Cinco de Mayo! Sunday we took the boys out for lunch and then headed over to spend the day at their grandparent’s home. I just hung out all weekend and it was enjoyable. Of course all the laundry I didn’t do is screaming at me today but the weekend was wonderful.
This week I plan on taking a trip to one of my favorite garden centers to see how things are in preparation for my annual flower haul with my father-in-law. I always pick up a gift certificate and present it to him as his father’s day gift. So we both go crazy filling our carts with plants. We don’t wait until father’s day because we miss the good stuff so right around Mother’s Day to make our trip. So I will start walking around my property and dream up some ideas to help me with my plant selections. The funny thing is I get there and I am like a kid in a candy store. I run to color and interesting and tuck away my list. So this year, I will attempt to exercise a little self-control. More on that stuff soon.
I hope you have been having a wonderful Monday. Don’t forget to stop and find some gratitude for the blessings throughout your day!