Volleyball Tournament 1 of 2

Yesterday, we had the pleasure of sitting in a gym from 2 p.m. to almost 8 p.m. watching our oldest daughter play in a number of games as part of a club volleyball tournament.  They didn't do so well, in fact they lost all their games.  Bummer, but they are starting to play better as a team.  One thing we parents notice with the teams that we go up against is that you can tell the girls have been together for a while, sometimes it's as if they know what the girl on the other side of the court is going to do before she does it.  That's something that our girls are missing this season, but will come in time.  They have the skill, we just need a little improvement on the teamwork. 

While the big girls were on the court, the little girls made great use of an empty court next to us.  There were three little sisters there with our team and I think they made some new friends for the day.

They got smart and moved for a while after a stray ball headed straight to them at a pretty good speed!

I'm hoping that the girls can have fun today and do much better as a team.  I could care less if we win, but more importantly want them to play to their potential and just have a great time doing what they enjoy doing.  After all, what parent wants to spend 6 hours in a gym looking at their grumpy daughter!

Enjoy your day!
Mandy

Starting Over

I posted a while back about needing to get back into some kind a routine and I have still not taken the time to get in that routine.  I found a blog today called Home Sanctuary and wouldn't you know it, she's an organizational genius (my words, not hers)!  She has this group called Company Girls that do Small Things together.  It sounded interesting to me, and the three posts I read about getting a schedule that works for you was music to this girl's ears.  I tried the Flylady routine once and it stressed me out.  I know that it's great to go to bed with a clean kitchen sink (her main sticking point), but oddly enough some days I prefer to wash the dishes from the night before while I'm making dinner for the current day.  Weird and maybe lazy, but it works for me.  She's failed the Flylady routine herself and I found that rather cool in a bonding sort of way.  What really grabbed me though, was Rachel has sample plans for both Stay at Home Moms AND Work Outside the Home Moms.  This is wonderful because most of what I've ever seen is aimed towards Stay at Home Moms and it's not anywhere close to workable for the others.

I'm going to try it.  Today I won't get a lot done since I've spent the morning cuddling with my little one watching DVR'd NCIS: Los Angeles and we've got to get cleaned up for volleyball games this afternoon.  I am going to at least get the list she suggested together and tomorrow I'll work on the schedule while I'm sitting at volleyball practice.   Since I LOVE lists and charts, I should do good with this setup.  I'll have to be sure to set time for my plants too.  This morning I went out to turn the heater off in the greenhouse during a commercial and ended up back out there with my camera and scissors.  I have blooms starting on an unnamed Sedum to be share and needed to trim back the dead stems on the Vick's Plant.  While I was out there, I went ahead and pulled the cover off of the succulent tub and pulled a few of the baby 'Mother of Millions' out to bring in the house.  I'm worried they're going to die and that would not make me happy.  I think I need daily time for the plants!! 

The last two weeks have been spent trying to figure out why our oldest was experiencing severe stomach pains.  Finally after missing ten days of school right after the Christmas break, we got an answer and she's back to her normal self!  Hallelujah!!!!!  It's hard to get into any kind of a schedule when your normal routine's been run a muck, so now we should be able to make some progress.  I suppose I don't have an excuse not to get back on the treadmill now, do I?  Darn!

Now to those blooms...

Happy Saturday!!

Getting Back to Normal

We officially survived the first week of school!  Normally I'd say, what's the big deal, but this year we set ourselves up for a bit more chaos.  We went on vacation the week before school started.  I did have the good sense to fly us back in on Saturday so we could at least have Sunday, but looking back that was not enough!  Volleyball tryouts started the second day, and the 8th Graders get the privilege of the 6:30 a.m. practices for the week!  Thank God for my husband who doesn't mind leaving the house at 6:15 in the morning; I'd never make it! The great news is that she ended the week knowing that she was for sure on either the A or B team, and that is AWESOME!!!!

Next week her practices are after school since they rotate weekly with 7th Grade and I get the pick up duty...much more to my liking! 

I've never grown vegetables before, but we're trying cucumbers and orange bell peppers for the guinea girls.  I went out yesterday and noticed the cucumber plant had the prettiest little yellow blooms.  Does this mean I'm closer to seeing cucumbers?  This is all new to me, so I'm a little excited that they're even growing. 

One of the other things I noticed when we came back from our trip was that it gets the same little curly-q things that my Passiflora has, and that added to it's whimsy.  I had to move it though, because it was trying to wrap around a succulent...not very nice!

Daughter #2 also put some red bell pepper seeds in a little pot in a window sill right before we left.  They've sprouted as well, so we might have a plentiful bell pepper season...yikes!  I'll share a photo of that one later as I haven't gotten to getting that one yet, but I need to...they're really growing quickly. 

Have a wonderful rest of the weekend!

Mandy

Weekend Wrap-Up

I can't believe the weekend is already coming to a close.  It doesn't seem like we rested much, but we did get quite a bit done.  My husband sent me to Walmart to pick up a storage cabinet while he did the yard Friday night, and I brought that home as well as 5 new plants.  The driveway conversation that night was how I'm an addict and need help...for plant purchases that is!  I told him if he found me a group that I would consider attending...good luck with that! The purchase I was most excited about was a non-succulent...a balloon plant that had white and purple blooms on the same plant and they're a double bloom!

My girls finished their Spring Volleyball Season Saturday, so now we can look forward to sleeping in again on the weekend!  I can't tell you how much I've missed that little pleasure!!  Not to mention not having to scramble around and get white/black laundry together Friday night...I really should get better about that!

Sunday brought more plants to my yard.  My neighbor (aka my partner in crime) went with me to Rainbow Gardens and Home Depot in search of Lantana and Pentas...we found both as well a few succulents that I needed for my strawberry pot experiment.  I wanted Hen and Chicks, but only found one variety, so I made due with pieces from my Cobweb Hen and Chick, two types of the String of Buttons Crassula, a String of Pearls, Calico Kitten and a dinky little Hen and Chick that a coworker had brought into me. 

I planted the Pentas under a tree in my backyard where they're safe from the deer.  Then today while we were miniature golfing, I saw where they had put Coleus right next to the trunk and then the Pentas in front.  Of course that meant I had to make another trip to Rainbow Gardens today and then I rearranged everything because I adore Coleus.  I tried some that are supposed to like the sun, so we'll see.  I think I'm good for now...hoping they fill in quickly as patience is not one of my better virtues!

I suppose there might be some truth to my husband's "addict" theory, but the way I see it, there are worse things I could be doing!  I know this was probably way to long, but I had a lot to say and it's been several days...enjoy the week!

Another Weekend Gone By

I realize that as a general rule, weekends always fly by, but this one seemed to go exceptionally quick!  As usual, Saturday started off with volleyball games, Tater Girl went first at 9 a.m., and then Giggle's team played at noon.  Both teams won, Giggle's team remains undefeated for the second YMCA season.  The little girls are fun to watch now, as they've finally figured out how to move their feet and play somewhat as a team.  The big girls are always action packed, and keep this momma jumping out of her seat at the score keeping table! We've just got one last game until the summer break and then we have break until it picks back up in the fall.  I was never in to sports growing up, preferred music and so having my girls enjoy sports was a bit of a shock.  Now I'm a volleyball junkie...when my girls are on the court!

We had bought Tater Girl 2 guinea pigs for Christmas, and at the beginning of April, Zoe passed away...rather surprisingly!  We let Snowflake get over the loss of her friend and while I felt she had adjusted just fine, Tater Girl thought otherwise.  Yesterday after the game, we stopped at the pet store to pick up some bedding so that we could clean out the cage.  Wouldn't you know it, but they had at least 8 little girls just begging to go home with someone! We were one of those "someones" and after many minutes of oohing and holding several, we settled on Cocoa.  She's much smaller than we remembered the other two being, and is a little chatterbox.  Snowflake is holding her own by torturing the little one...enjoying it as well!

All in all, had a wonderful weekend and are looking forward to the next one!