Rainy Day Blues?

Ok, so we have had a LOT of rain here in the last week.  Lots and Lots of rain.  And, naturally it is a three day weekend.  Three precious days that could be spent planting gardens, mowing lawn, fishing, picnicking, pretty much anything outdoors.  This much rain is a real roadblock for that sort of thing.  But that's ok.  We found other outdoor things to do.

We can't plant or mow, but there are lots and lots of puddles and a ditch with several inches of standing water in it.  All four of us have rubber boots and rain coats, so we went out anyway.  The kids ran and jumped and splashed all their little hearts desired.  Matt and I were close by, since playing in the ditch means that they were awfully close to the road (which is normally off limits).  It was fun watching them make up games and laugh their little heads off.

Meow was not amused by all the splashing.  But she couldn't help  watching anyway.

The rain stopped and it almost cleared off in the afternoon, so we decided to try some fishing.  Natalie had worked so hard to collect nightcrawlers and slugs and she just couldn't stand it any more.  We just HAD to go fishing.  So we went.  Joey's line got too close to the motor and got some grease on it which took exactly 15 minutes and 5 casts for that grease to eat through the line and send my favorite lure off into the depths of the lake.  Oh well. Things happen right?  So, Matt set to work trimming off the yucky line and getting Joey set up again while Natalie was casting.  I was watching her cast with a particularly fluid motion when not only her lure went in but the whole dang pole!  Ok, this is not going well.  As we helplessly watched her Lightning  McQueen rod & reel equipped with a red-eyed wiggler (a large silver lure with red eyes on it that costs about $8) sank out of sight.  Well, now we're down to one rod and have two crying kids.  Time to pull anchor and head back to shore.  Lo and behold, when I pulled the anchor up, Natalie's line was across it.  I was able to pull her whole setup back into the boat.  Whew!  That was a close one.  Her line was also toast by this time, so we still had to head back.  We didn't even get to use one worm.  We weren't out long enough.  There's always tomorrow...(In case anyone reads this and wonders why we give the kids heavy lures, its because we were casting into the wind toward a sand point for northerns.  Casting into the wind is hard with a grown up sized pole and dang near impossible with a kid sized one).

We did have some good nature sightings when we were out though.  We watched an osprey fish along the shore.  We saw a bald eagle, three canvas back ducks, cedar waxwings and found a colony of red-winged blackbirds building nests near the boat landing.  And of course the kids found plenty of snail shells and managed to get soaked, again.

looking for shells

male cedar waxwing

red-winged blackbird nest 

I can't help it, I love baskets.

Confession.  I'm kind of addicted to organizing things.  In my defense I live in a pretty small house (864 square feet to be exact).  There are four people who live here.  Things need to be organized or chaos would reign.  I live by the motto a "place for everything and everything in its place".    That means that I have a lot of baskets, buckets and bins to hold all our stuff.  


As you might imagine, an 864 square foot house doesn't come with a lot of closets/cupboards/drawers.  So, we have shelves and baskets.  Every room has at least one basket to corral something.  In the kitchen, which is the main entrance to our house, there are two baskets.  One is for hats & mittens in the winter and sunglasses & bug spray/sunscreen in the summer and the other is for potholders. The living room has a small basket by the tv for remotes.  The bathroom has a small galvanized pail for toothbrushes and one for the kids brushes and combs.  The list goes on, but I don't want to make this too painfully boring to read.


I like baskets.  Baskets are pretty.  They're rustic and fit in with my whole eclectic/country/cottage thing pretty well.  By the way, eclectic/country/cottage are all nice words for a tiny house with mismatched furnishings.  Baskets take my jumbled messes and make them look tidy and like they're just part of the decor. 


I have recently been made aware that the cleanliness and organization of my house grate on some people that come over.  I went shopping with a friend earlier this week and picked up a new basket to replace one that no longer served the purpose since I had a coupon to use.  This is when I found out that my use of baskets annoys her.  Bummer.  I'm pretty sure that friend won't stop coming over though.  She likes my cooking too much.  Besides that, she has a birthday coming up and she may just get a basket full of organizing supplies and re-usable shopping bags from me.  I can't help it.  Its my inner Bree Van De Camp coming out.  One may want to be careful of telling me that my house makes them feel like they're at a Bed Bath & Beyond.  I'll take it as a compliment and help you make your house feel like that too. (Insert maniacal laugh here).

I wish all weekends were like this

We had a really great weekend.  So peaceful and wonderful that I hated to re-enter the world of work and scheduling today.  So what was so wonderful? Spending time together as a family.  Just the four of us working together on some outdoor springtime projects at home.  We got a big piece of our yard cleaned up and burned off so that we will have a nice clear area to build the kids playhouse.  We worked together to build a little pen for our broody hen and her clutch of eggs where she can safely hatch them out away from the other hens.  We tilled and plucked many a weed plant from our gardens.  Natalie and I went for a bike ride and took pictures of random things around our neighborhood.  The kids helped me weed the flower bed.  We grilled steaks.  Natalie found a wild bunny, Joey gave us a giggle at his idea of outdoor cap-gun shooting attire. We enjoyed each others' company.  We were a team.  We worked and played together for two whole days.  I don't know if it can get better than that.

Matt working the tiller.  Mulching in lots of leaves and old chicken bedding.

Natalie plucking weeds and worms.

Joey collecting firewood.

cowslips just starting to bloom.

pussy willows going to seed.

An old barn on the corner.  I could take pictures of it all day.

The new bunny.  Not sure how long we'll have him, but he's here fore as long as he likes.

Joey's fancy outfit.  Laplander hat, Woody & Buzz  pj shirt, Nemo underwear, polka dot slippers and a cap gun.

Side note: Also included in our weekend were about 37 loads of muddy laundry and peed on bedding, at least two hours spent balancing the checkbook, a good scrub of our very filthy bathroom and an unplanned extra trip into town.  Just sayin'.