Laboring with love and lavender ...

I know I'm crazy, but I love long weekends like this, especially when we have family in and I spend the entire day cooking and cleaning up. It's so fun, and I'm not being facetious. Right now, The guys went to get a haircut, and somehow, my sister-in-law ended up taking three kids under five to Wal-Mart with her. She had volunteered to take her own, my nephew Pius, but then Catherine asked every so sweetly if she could go. When Caroline found out Pius was going, she could not be left alone...

And so I had to conjole a teenager to go with her just to help. Thank God Mar threw herself on the sword. And so here I am blogging, in silence. Carne guisada simmering on the stove. Beans in the crockpot. Mom on her way to help me hold it all together.

Yesterday, in preparation for the guests, we decided Bambi needed a spa treatment (aka bath). Don't say anything, but she was starting to stink.




Around here, we don't mess around. When someone needs a bath, we only use Hummingbird Farms Aromatherapy Lavender Body Wash No. 152, from Hummingbird Farms, of course, which you can find here. Maybe you've heard of it. :)

Really, we all love giving Bambi a bath, because then she smells so clean and fresh. But to be honest, she really isn't into it until she's all clean and fresh and wrapped up in a towel. See, here she's still looking pretty miserable. But Caroline and Caroline are thrilled with the progress. Also of note: See how their faces are so perfectly lit up, as in a studio, like I planned it. No, that's just the miracle of the sun coming through the window at exactly the right time.

Here, Caroline models the only bath care line our family will endorse.

Awaiting her air fluff, Bambi still resembles a drowned rat. But she's looking more perky.

And finally, she spent the rest of the day, lolling about ... all peaced out and smelling of lavender.

This is why I can barely move ... and I need your help!

Apparently I used my hip flexors in the making of this patio down by the water. I know this because any time I try to move in such a way that my hips are involved, pain shoots up and down and all around my body. I am bone tired.

But it was the best weekend. I worked in the yard almost the entire time, and let the house go to hell in a hand basket. It's a wreck, but our outdoor living space is coming along nicely. I've always preferred to be out in the yard than cooped up in the house. I'm seriously too lazy to limp to the bathtub.

We raked gravel back and forth and then positioned all these rocks. And then, to be really professional for the first time ever, I actually used a level to make sure it was all straight -- and level. So once I found just the right rock and put it into position, it wouldn't be level. So we had to flip it up, re-level the gravel to compensate and then check it again. And again, and then over again. Wish I would have used a level that time I was in a mud freakout after the first flood and we decided we could lay a stone sidewalk all by ourselves. It's still there and highly serviceable, but do be careful if arriving or departing in the dark or drunk, or in heels.

Did I mention I also carried most of all these rocks all by myself, especially after my husband had to move on to other parts of this project, like going to Home Depot and picking out boards. And then measuring and placing the boards on the new dock. You can see part of the new dock under construction in the picture above.

And then, we had enough gravel so I decided to lay some rock all around the base of the outdoor shower. That meant carting all the rocks I wanted to use across the yard and doing the whole process over again. But it was easier because I didn't use such big rocks. I did manage to moan and groan, and walk like an old woman, from one side of the yard to the other. A few times, I'd sit down to make the job easier and couldn't quite get back up.

Oh and I forgot this part: most of these rocks were once part of a walkway we put in four years ago so that Paige would have somewhere nice to walk down the aisle when she and Ruben got married in our yard, down by the water. It was a beautiful wedding. But the rocks turned out to be a hassle for our yardman to weed-eat and edge around. So that yardman, who just happens to be my husband, was all too happy to rip them out and help me move them down by the water. Some of these rocks were so big we had to really put on our German engineering hats and make us a homemade fulcrum with a board and a shovel.

Now imagine if you can, a firepit, with some comfy Adirondack chairs around it. I would love some other sort of chair, just because Adirondacks are the obvious choice, but I don't know what kind. Something cushy with a cushion would be great, but it would get dirty, and wet, and would probably blow into the river every time there was a storm. And I want them to be able to stay outside all the time, because I know myself and I wouldn't feel like traipsing them back and forth. Suggestions?

I don't exactly know what the firepit should look like yet, so I'm open to ideas on this as well. So far, my big idea is a bowl shaped pit, with some kind of custom design cut out along the top, to form a border. And then it potentially would sit in a low stand. Both these ideas will require a nice welder I don't yet know but will have to find.

To close, here's a picture of two of my helpers, Catherine and Bambi. Aren't they growing up to be big girls?

Call it a breakdown in communication

There was a terrible breakdown in communication. It's pretty common in our house, but when Paw Paw arrived at the twins' birthday party with a puppy, all I could utter was "Oh noooooo! There's been a terrible breakdown in communication!" My husband shot me that look. You know the one.

"What," Paw Paw asked increduously. "The girls wanted a puppy. You didn't tell me you already got one."

"Well you said you were going to Wal-Mart to get their presents," I exclaimed back. "You always get them gift cards!" I was beginning to freak.

"I was going to Walmart ... to get the dog!" Paw Paw answered heatedly back. There was nothing we could do at that point. We just had to make the best of it. I suppose since I had twins I have to do everything in twos.

So the girls got a little brown chihuahua to name Bambi like they wanted all along, ever since the Puppy Parade when Caroline cried the whole time.

Isn't she seriously cute?

She was about as big as a hamster. Smaller than a guinea pig for sure. Too young to have been sold, straight off the puppy mill. I like to think we rescued her from a horrible life. Technically she is Shih Tsu and Chihuahua. She's what we call a Designer Dog.

Here's Rooster with his baby sister. She makes him look like a Big Boy. He loves her so much. But he does like to pounce on her and roll her around like a bouncy ball.

OK, enough of this. I swear I have fascinating decorative painting pics to share. I haven't given it all up for puppy raising.

Oh and one more thing. Guess what the big lesson was, as I struggled to make it through those first two tragic weeks of puppy crate/potty training?

I do have enough love to go around. My new key word, which I should get tatooed somewhere important, is .... perseverance.