Boys!

I came into the kitchen today and guess what I found waiting for me?  hahaha  Every time I remember I have to giggle.

Saturday Nature Morning

Texas has been extremely hot and there has been record breaking hot temperatures this past week. Breaking the hundred degree mark was not hard at all this past week.

Needless to say we stay indoors most of the day with the A/C on to get a little relief.

This Saturday was different though. Not because of the heat but because we had to drive to Houston and leave hubby at the airport. Hubby will be at a week long school. We had to be at the airport by 6:30am which meant we had to leave home at 4:30am. Oh my, I am so tired but we had fun.

I took the boys first thing in the morning before the heat come on full force somewhere fun. Where did we go? We went to the Houston Arboretum and Nature Center. We saw flowers, mushrooms, squirrels, birds and butterflies. Oh and did I forget to say we had fun.

The mushrooms were on the nature trail and was the first thing we saw there. There were some beautiful butterflies. There were dark ones and orange ones. Beautiful creations!

Since we were there early, early in the morning there was still dew drops everywhere. No this was not from a rain storm. Houston has gotten more rain than we have where I live but I think they are still far behind in getting their rain for the year.

We had a nice time and plan on doing that again but it will have to be early in the morning or later on in the year.

Take a look at some of the fun the boys had out there. Not only was there trials and tons of flowers but some fun things. We didn't make it to the Discovery Center because it opened up too late but we had a nice time anyway.




Of course, my oldest has to have fun while I'm taking pictures. What a ham!

These were some of the things we did at the nature center. I never thought that there could be such a beautiful place like that in Houston. Houston is a city in all sense of that word. It's a major city but having this place to go to has to be very refreshing. It was for us.

That's me, ready to leave because the heat is starting to get to me. It was 9:30am and it was already hot by then. Now this was not all we did in Houston. After this we had to have A/C so we went to another place. We hadn't been there since the older boys were small.

To be continued......

Gardening

I got it done. Well, at least the upside down part. I am planning on putting herbs on the top part of this neat thing I found. Actually, hubby saw it all done and suggested I get another one. YIPPEEEE!!!

I have my squares done too. Even the one foot square slats are down. I have some things planted too. I have different varieties of tomato. Some my brother from next door had some extras so I got some from him. He gave me a tomato called Mr. Stripy. That should be interesting. I am starting some green beans and peas from seed. I have a few more packets to start.

Oh, yes, I also got that bell pepper plant into its square. An old friend had her square foot boxes and they always had lots of veggies so I've been wanting to make my own for a while. I'm glad the kids helped me to get it done now.

I am also trying some strawberries in containers. We have so many ants on our land that I want to try it this way instead of in the ground. Let's see if this is better.

I will slowly be adding some blocks to the paths. Who

knows I might try something else

Although the last picture is not about gardening I had to post it. Today is the first day this year that the hummingbirds came back. I only got this good picture. It was dark already and thru the window but it's a hummingbird.

I'm all upside down

I needed more compost today and since it is spring break here for public school kids we took the week off. Although, I still consider this school but, shhhhh! The kids had their cousin spend the night. They stayed up way to late watching a movie. So after he left it was time to hit the town. I paid bills. (not fun) Then came the fun part. It was garden stuff time. I had gone to Sam's and had seen this neat contraption. I figured it would be easier for me to get some hanging baskets and the hooks to drill somewhere. I had gotten only two baskets with the hooks and it was half the price of this thing which I could put anywhere. So guess what I got?

I will be working on getting it all set up and filled up tomorrow. Can you tell I am excited about this. Not only do I have two 4x4 squares for gardening but also this thing. I already have some tomato plants and some bell pepper to get started. I have to fill the bottom part with sand first before I do anything else. I can't wait to get started tomorrow. It got a little chilly this evening and I just couldn't get myself to go out there and work. I'm sure tomorrow it will be back up to the 80's. Can't wait. I'll take some pictures and post after we (yes, boys too) get it set up and planted.

Laundry Detergent in the Making

A while back I heard about making my own laundry detergent. So I looked into it. I looked at several sites. Most of them looked about the same with the exception of a few here and there. Basically they were about the same though.

Here is what I did:

1 bar Ivory soap

1/4 cup Arm & Hammer Washing Soda

1/2 cup Borax

I grated the soap and added 6cups of water to heat then added the soap a little at a time. Melted it. Then added washing soda and borax till dissolved. Removed from heat. Poured 4cups hot tap water into bucket. Added soap mixture and stirred. Then added 1gallon plus 6cups of water and stirred. Covered it with lid and let sit for 24hrs.

The end result was.....not what I was expecting. I is just looks like soapy water. No gel at all. hhhhmmmmmm So what happened? Don't know but I have half a bucket of this water to use. hehehe I wonder how long it will take me to finish this so I can try again?

Anyone have any ideas? Suggestions?

Saturday Fun Day

So what did we do that was fun? Well, we went to the San Antonio Botanical Garden. Oh it was so much fun. The weather was perfect. Not too hot and not cold. This is the first time that I took pictures with the boys in a very long time. I normally just take pictures but it was time for me to come out in pictures too. What you see in the background is the Tower of the Americas.

What was there? They had model trains. Now talk about perfect for the little train engineer in our house. It was nice although the train section was too small and they already had christmas decorations up.

There was these large leaves. They were from a tree called the Chinese Parasol Tree. Those leaves sure were huge.

Not only leaves but they also had a Japanese area. Of course, my baby wanted a picture at the little bridge. He is so cute. He loves to be in pictures. I'm glad one of the boys don't give me trouble when it comes to being in pictures.

There were so many nice things in this garden that it is very hard to decide which pictures to show. I took 86 pictures here. This is really a nice place to go for a field trip. I know what will be one of our field trip places for our small homeschool group.

There was also what they call Terrific Treehouse. They were these structures that the kids loved to play in. There were 9 treehouses on the grounds.

Now this botanical garden is a 33 acre garden. We could have spent all day there letting the boys explore. We didn't get to see everything because we were not expecting it to be so big. Next time we will be prepared.

Don't forget to click on the pictures to see them up close.

Where Were We?

We decided at the last minute to take off and spend a night at this cabin and take off in the morning to some sightseeing. We stayed here when we evacuated for hurricane Ike. It is a really nice house cabin.
It is all pine on the inside and looks very cabin-ish.
This was the master bedroom with a very high king bed. I literally had to climb into bed. Not a good thing for someone with arthritis pains.
This is the boys room. Two full size beds. Oh each room had its own tv. The boys liked that.
A little relaxing that night before our next day of fun.
So where did we go? We were going to head on over to Fredricksburg to do a few things but saw this on the way and decided to stop. I sure am glad we did. It was amazing.

We started our drive into the land and came across the family cemetery where LBJ is buried along with Lady Bird and other family. It was a very beautiful place for a cemetery. Huge oak trees overhead. It was breezy and cool in that shade.
This is LBJ's stone, Lady Birds was still not there but there was a vase with flowers where she is at. All the stones are smaller but LBJ's is the tallest one. You can see it under the oak tree in the picture above.
Next stop was the home which was known as the Texas White House. As of now only one room is open to the public. Since Lady Bird died in 2007 only one room has been fixed up and eventually, little by little other rooms will be fixed up and opened up.
This next picture is one I have seen before in books. These chairs under the tall oak trees that were dated to be some 400 yrs old is where the president would sit and hold meetings. It was the most beautiful place to live. I told hubby that that is what I imagine paradise to be. To be cool, breezy, large oak trees, rivers and creeks where you relax and not worry about a thing.
This river passes in front of LBJ's house. It is low at this point but has a little more water in front of the house.
This building was the school house LBJ went to as a child.
An interesting thing is that they still have cattle on the property and they have the brand on its horns. See the LBJ?
We did make a little side trip to Enchanted Rock but we just drove by and didn't stop. The high light of today was the LBJ tour.

I'm Back

This weekend was the DC. It was great but the driving into Houston was like this.
There is always construction. There is always traffic.
I guess they are making more overpasses. Way too much construction going on.
Sunday was the best day for driving. I guess everyone stays off the roads then.

It was very refreshing to go though even the new publications were wonderful. I'm not saying much more because some of you haven't had you DC yet. All I can say is that there were 52 baptized and there were over a little over 8000 on Sunday. Oh and the drama was very good too.

Now it's back to school till our official DC in August. Got lots to do this month.

Our Sunset on Vacation

Our view from our room....what a sight!!!