Wordless Wednesday

Bwa ha ha.....I love these, they totally crack me up! Got this one off facebook.

Playground smackdown....naaah...What’s your neighborhood personality?

Isn’t it funny how every neighborhood or playground has its own very special personality. What I mean is, the people that make up that place all seem to have the same kind of viewpoint towards others (i.e. open and friendly or kind of just acknowledging one another). I love those neighborhoods where you drive down the street and everyone waves (even if they don’t recognize you).

Cobb Co Parks

Well the toddler area of the park I take Hailey to usually has this very open and friendly vibe in the mornings with lots of moms with little ones right around her age….it’s awesome! Everyone gets along and talks to each other (even if we haven’t met before) It’s sorta like an informal mom’s group.

Not this morning though, yikes! I should have known the minute we walked into the park. First, there were two moms there together with their little ones that seemed to be snubbing everyone else. When they went to leave, they left the gate wide open! What the heck…just because your little angels aren’t here anymore doesn’t mean the rest of us want our kids to run out into the parking lot! There is a sort of unspoken park etiquette, which obviously some don’t think applies to them.

Teen Mom

The next little unfriendly incident was a mom with two little girls, one a little older than Hailey and the other was 4 or 5. Hailey is one of the friendliest and outgoing babies you will ever meet…she likes to go and great all the other little kids. On one such mission, she decided to go play with the above mentioned little girls. Needless to say it didn’t go so well. The little girl that was Hailey’s age was winey and unfriendly and the mom wasn’t any better. I even tried talking to her; at first she just ignored me and when she finally answered me it was very abruptly. HELLO, if ya don’t want to socialize or talk to anyone then maybe you shouldn’t have come here!

Ok, I’m done venting now…thanks for the audience. J

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Wordless Wednesday

Marilyn....

Better a book worm than a TV junky!

CNet

I’ve been reading more than I did when I was in school. I know I feel way better about a night spent reading and lounging around than I do the same amount of time lost staring at a TV screen. I like to mix up the types of books I read from award-winning literary fiction to chick lit, make-you-smarter nonfiction or even vampires (hey, I’m human).

I know the other day when the kids asked on two separate occasions if I had seen a particular advertisement on TV… that I hadn’t watched anything but a Disney Channel show or my recorded shows in a loooonnnggg time! It was actually kinda nice to know that.

To tell ya the truth, I don’t miss it at all!

I don’t know how, but I read seven books over the week. My mom and sister told me about a cool website that offers free Kindle eBooks throughout the day every day! (Even if you don’t have a Kindle you can get a Kindle eBook app for your phone or iPod/iPad) It’s called Pixel of Ink and you can find it here http://www.pixelofink.com/. They have all sorts of books that you may not normally have read, but with it being free you can try it out.

Enough said....

enough....said....

Hydrangeas for free...

Recently I transplanted three hydrangeas into a new flowerbed along the house (those of you who have looked around have probably seen the Hailey’s Garden post. Little did I know how finicky they are during the transplanting process (it was one of those…if I’d known that beforehand moments). However, growing your own hydrangeas is actually pretty easy!

Hydrangeas are fairly easy to root. You can choose to root them in water or soil. Personally I feel the soil method to be more of a sure-proof method. To begin the process you’ll need to gather some materials.

Find a healthy plant to get your starting material. Some easy sources are in your own yard, from a neighbor, friends and or family members. If you are in an area where they aren’t as prevalent (we live in the South so they’re everywhere here)…you could always buy a new one and take cuttings from it (before you plant it in the ground). You’ll also need potting medium, pots and clean garden shears or kitchen scissors. Optional items are clear plastic bags, sticks and plant rooting hormone.

Step 1

Find a hydrangea and cut some small branches just below a leaf node. Make sure your cuttings are at least 5-6" long with several nodes (preferably on a new growth branch (light green color) that don’t have a flower). Nodes are the rounded locations on the stem where new leaves grow.

Step 2

Make sure to place your cuttings in water immediately after cutting and leave them there for about an hour.
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Step 3

Next, strip all but the top most set of leaves from the cutting. The cutting should have only two leaves left. Cut the two remaining leaves in half crosswise (not lengthwise). The plant will look like this.

You may choose to use a root growth hormone. This isn’t mandatory, but it does help the plant to get off to a good start. Dip the base of the cut stems into the rooting hormone. (Follow directions on your particular label.)


Step 4

People use and suggest all different kinds of potting medium. I say use what ya got! If you have compost and potting soil….use it. I personally used a good potting soil and mixed in some sand I had left over from Hailey’s sandbox. You just want to make sure that the plants don’t get too wet or dry out too quickly. Fill the container.

Be the first to comment on Step 5

Place each cutting in a pot or section or a divided/ large container making sure that they don’t touch each other.

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Step 6

Water, water, and water those pots till the water runs freely from the drainage holes. The soil should now be moist but not soggy.

Top of FormStep 7

At this point you have two options; you can water several times a day to make sure soil stays moist you can make a mini greenhouse. To make a mini greenhouse insert two sticks into the pot and then place a clear plastic bag over the whole pot. Make sure the plastic doesn’t touch the leaves and keep out of direct sunlight or it will literally cook your hydrangea. Don’t know bout you….but I’m not planning on eatin’ em!

Below are some additional options for set up...

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Step 8

Place in a partially shaded area where they will receive bright but indirect sunlight. Keep an eye on them and water when top of soil becomes dry.

Top of FormAfter two to three weeks your cuttings should have roots and they are ready to remove the cover. To make sure that roots have grown; you can pull lightly on plant, if there's resistance you have roots.Leave them in the pot (outside the bag) for one more week. After that they should be ready to plant!

That’s all you need to know about how to grow your own hydrangeas. With a little work, you can start new hydrangeas for your yard or for friends and family…

Wordless Wednesday

This one is for all my friends who have been battling this over the last year or so!

EBook Frenzy

Honestly I don’t know why it’s so much easier and faster to read an eBook than it is to read an actual paper book. Since I started reading on my phone/iPod I have read so many more books that there is no comparison.

One would think with all the kids being home from school that it would slow down, but it hasn’t.  If you take a glance over to the right at my Shlefari list….it would attest to that! The only thing that momentarily slowed me down for a couple weeks was that darn book review I had to do on the early release. Needless to say I’ve been a little leery on signing up for any more of those.

I just finished up 2 books this weekend. An Iris Johansen thriller in her Eve Duncan series called Countdown (6th in the series). My favorite books in the series are the ones involving Eve’s adopted daughter and this was one of them. I liked the book and it was a quick read. It was one of those books that you can’t predict everything that is going to happen….thank god! If you want a synopsis of any of the books I’ve read recently you can hover over it in my bookshelf or go into my Shelfari.

The other book I read this weekend was Gossip by Beth Gutcheon. She is an awesome storyteller and I hated when the book ended. I wanted to continue in her character’s lives to find out what else happened. Always a good sign that it was a good book! I actually had never heard of her or the book, but saw on library web site the huge list of people waiting for it….definitely worth the wait. I'm thinking I'm going to have find some more of her books to see how those are.

I don’t know about ya’ll, but I LOVE getting stuff for free. If you haven’t tried an eBook or your local library….you should! Almost all of the books from the last 6 months that I’ve read have been from my local library. I never even have to step foot in the library or a store and if the book you want isn’t available…just put it on hold and read something else. It’s amazing how fast you go through that wait line without even knowing it!

Wordless Wednesday... Happy 4th!!

Happy 4th everyone. Last night we took Hailey to her first fireworks ever.... she loved it!! Everytime they would go off she would say boom, boom. It was too cute. Hope everyone has a great relaxing day today!

Hailey's Garden

For the last week I have been working like a mad woman on a private little garden/play area for Hailey. (The child loves to be outside.)We have a nice sized back yard with a privacy fence, but it’s a pain in the booty to get her down there. Not to mention we have to share the space with the dogs. Not exactly ideal for a little one…this would be why we never go out there!

So anyway, last week I came up with the idea to turn our unused (and yes, I hate to admit, overgrown and weedy side yard) into a great place for her to play. It’s ideal because it’s almost totally surrounded by privacy fence on the back side and houses on either side. The front has several trees that almost block it from view from the street. It’s like her very own secret garden (I always loved that book).

I started planning and working on it like a crazy person, not to mention recruiting the oldest (through bribery of course) to help in the area of muscle and his truck.

My starting points for the flower bad were some hydrangeas from my mother-in-law’s house. I’ve known for a while I wanted to get and now I had figured out exactly where to put them. They can be kind of persnickety about where you put them (but that’s for another post).

As you can see in the pics….it’s still a work in progress, but waaaaayyyyy better than where it started from! I wish I’d taken before pics. I always kick myself afterwards for not doing that.

I think she likes it!!!