Planting Time

Summer came early to us here in Wisconsin this year.

We were SO happy about that!

While Blake and I were in Florida we made some decisions about finishing our little nest we call Twin Oaks!

One of the things we budgeted to do was add some landscape to the front of our home.

I was SO excited about this!

Thankfully I have a neighbor who has a very bright green thumb!

She was super generous in getting this project off the ground – not only by splitting a bunch of her plants to share with us – but also by coming over to help plant them all.

She’s a keeper – both as a neighbor and a great friend of mine!


A couple days after we got those first plants in the ground, Blake and I had a date to shop for the rest of what we needed to finish this project.

It was fun picking everything out!

The guys worked on getting this project going and finished when they could, but they did most of it the weekend after my surgery.

I was sad to miss helping with this, but enjoyed watching them!


We also added a new bench on our front porch and I love it so much!


Look how great it turned out!!

We added lights throughout that are solar powered and light up at night, and also a spot light on the new tree on the very end of the house.

It’s beautiful!!


Another May planting project was our garden beds!

Tate was the most excited about this, and is definitely the most enthusiastic gardener I have ever had!!

I shopped for some plants with my trio at our favorite green house at the beginning of May.


We planted the garden on May 12th this year – which is way earlier than we normally do!

We did have a couple night of frost after that, but we covered everything and it did great.

Addie rounded up the planting crew – and of course my hubby showed up like this.


We had an ice cream party after we finished it all that night, and I snuck a photo of this guy – so funny!


The garden has done extremely well this year so far!

Here is how it looks now!


Being outside working on these projects has been really nice!

Without getting too deep and mushy – there is a feeling of healing of sorts as we make our house our home.

Lord willing, we have more plans for Twin Oaks that will take place in our family room in the lower level!

Time will tell!

Did you all plant a garden this year?

How is it doing?

I hope you are seeing the fruit of your labor!!

I love having our little garden space!!

It is a joy to take care of and very satisfying to harvest for our meals here!

I’m glad summer is only half over, aren’t you?

Here’s to many more days in the garden before the cool weather arrives!!

Mother’s Day

The day after we got home from our trip to Illinois and Indianapolis was Mother’s Day!

And a sweet day it was!

My crew spoiled me with a wonderful meal, gifts, Addie’s traditional Mother’s Day cheese cake, and the WHOLE day together with EVERYONE HOME!!!


My son-in-law also made lattes for everyone – his lattes are the BEST!!!

And lookie there – I did not take one photo of everyone together that day!

Honestly, it is nice to set my phone aside, skip the photos, and just enjoy the kiddos and those grand babies!

We celebrated Kayla too – the most inspiring mama I know!!

It was such a great day!

Hope all you Mom’s out there had a great day too!

A Wonderful Trip

Why, hello there!!!!

I have missed this place SO much!!

Lots of healing has been going on, along with lots of hand therapy, and I am typing this post with TWO hands!!

I’m excited to start keeping our memories here again!

I LOVE the interaction Instagram allows – so if you are here – leave a shout out in the comments and let me know someone is actually reading this little ole blog of ours!

I would love that so much!

Now….let’s get caught up, shall we??

At the beginning of May, our dynamic duo and Blake and I took a little weekend trip to Illinois and Indianapolis to see some people we love so much!

We left late on a Thursday evening and drove all the way to Peoria before stopping at a hotel for the night.


The next morning we headed to see Blake’s Dad and his wife – and I did not take ONE photo!

It was a quick visit, but so good to be there.

Then we headed to Morton to meet up with Blake’s Mom at our favorite coffee shop!

It was another quick stop – but a good and yummy one!


Soon we were on our way down the road to head to Indianapolis.

It was a beautiful day – but kind of chilly!


It was SO good to be with my Mom and brother again!

I love being at their place – it is so beautiful, cozy and just perfect for this season of life.


We enjoyed being out in the beautiful sunshine playing ball and taking walks!


We also went across the main road to another neighborhood to my brother’s house to see Milo his pup!

It was fun to watch the ducks around the lake too!


We shopped a bit here and there – mostly for our meals!

Gluten and dairy free pizza for dinner and ice cream for dessert one of the evenings was a huge hit!


We did some other shopping while we were there too.

We stopped at the Hobby Lobby there to see if they had a cabinet I have been wanting.

They did not have it at our local store in the right color.

But they did in Indianapolis!

So we got creative and fit it in the van!

The cabinet made a great addition to our dining area and gave me some great over flow storage space!


As usual, our trip was much too short.

But we enjoyed it a lot and have plans to go back in just a few weeks!

We can’t wait!!

Taking a quick trip was a great kick off to the summer months!

We all left a piece of our hearts in each place we stopped….it is so hard to be so far away from our family!

Looking forward to heading that way again!!

We will have a fuller van this next time too!!

May was so good to us – stay tuned for some more catching up posts!!

Surgery

Why heeelllooooo, my teeny tiny space on the world wide web!

Just wanted to type a post (with one hand) to let you know why there are cobwebs growing on this place!

I had carpal tunnel surgery on my right hand/wrist on May 21st, and have some healing and therapy to do to get the use of my hand back.


Before surgery I was slowly losing the function of my hand, and was able to do less and less as the wait for surgery wore on.

My carpal tunnel was severe, as was the nerve pain it was causing.

I am SO thankful to have had surgery and that the pain is GONE!

Looking forward to hand therapy that starts next Monday.

I hope to get back to keeping our memories here soon!

Hope you all had a WONDERFUL May!