Project 365, Week 9

We had to go to Sta. Rosa to take care of some business early in the week. It was a quick trip there and back, going Monday evening and leaving Wednesday morning. I'd promised my son we'd get photos of the sign going into town and thought you might like to see it too.

Our friends had told us the grapes were ready to start harvesting. Yes, yes they are!

It wasn't until Thursday I was able to get photos and video uploaded to show the flash flood we had Tuesday while we were out there. The arroyo is dry 99% of the year, but we happened to be there during the 1% it wasn't. Here's the video I shared:


We both came home with mild cold symptoms but Ivan's has grown into a full-blown head cold. That didn't stop him from going to the lot on Friday with Charlie and another guy to weed whack, mow and tame the jungle that was there.

Didn't they do a great job?! We have to find out from the municipality when we can burn the piles of brush. Oh, and notice they finished paving the other side of the street :)

They've also got the curb and gutters in on both sides of the new costanera along the Rio San Antonio:

Progress abounds! Unfortunately the surveyor stood us up once again (I think that's the fourth time) so we're still waiting to determine the exact boundaries before we can install perimeter fencing.

While Ivan was working over there, I was busy at home with the huge bag of grapes we brought back with us. I made two batches of jelly, one using a package of Sure-Jell I'd brought from the U.S. and the other using the recipe given by several older women here who don't use any pectin at all but simply cook the juice and sugar down until it starts to thicken (which takes a sweet FOREVER, by the way). I didn't bring canning jars with me, thinking I could buy them here. WRONG. So I've been saving jars (from olives, pickles, jam...) and used wax to seal the jelly in -- hope that it works! I'd never made grape jelly before and wasn't sure what to expect. It seems to me that the flavor of the no-pectin jelly is extremely intense, almost medicinal, while the Sure-Jell batch seems rather wimpy compared to it. I think I need to try again, aiming for a middle ground.

(no pectin jelly on the left, Sure-Jell on the right)

But that will have to wait since we're heading for Uruguay and our annual missionary conference! NOT looking forward to the travel part (15 or more hour trip) but I am excited about seeing the other missionaries... and singing in ENGLISH! I'll know all the words! WOOT!

So this weekend has been a busy one preparing for the trip, getting the annual report finished, rounding up all the stuff we need to take, packing...
But I did want to share something else that happened that is WAY cool! Two years ago we had our conference nearby in Bialet Masset and when I was admiring a plant, one of the staff offered me a cutting. And this week it finally BLOOMED!!!

Here's a close-up:

I have no idea what kind of plant or flower this is. Any ideas? [Edited to add: Ivan just reminded me that SIL Sharon had already told me this was a type of carrion plant. I'd just forgotten :)]

That's all for this week. I doubt I'll be able to post next week since we'll be traveling back from conference, so I'll meet you back here in two weeks for the next installment of Project 365!

What happens when an orangutan meets a hound dog?

My son-in-law linked this on facebook, and it's too adorable not to share! It's a short, 4 minute video that will leave you smiling big time :)

"A Flashback Friday to Sink Your Teeth Into"

Flashback Friday brought back a whole flood of memories! Here's the challenge:

What are your dental memories of childhood? Who pulled your baby teeth and how was it done - with a tissue, string, or other method? Was it a traumatic experience or no big deal? Did you have to have any teeth pulled by the dentist? Did the tooth fairy visit your house? If so, how much did you get for each tooth and how long did that last? How old were you at your first dental visit? Did you go regularly? Did you have any/many cavities as a child? Was dental hygiene taught in school? Was flossing a big deal when you were growing up? Did you have braces and, if so, for how long? Did you have to wear rubber bands, head/neck gear or other additional "accessories"? Did you need braces but your parents couldn't afford them? Have you had braces as an adult? Do you have any fond/funny//traumatic memories of old relatives or friends and their false teeth?

UGH. You can bet most of our dental memories will not be good ones! At least mine aren't. Because I was severely anemic as a child I was given liquid iron which not only did a number on my baby teeth but even penetrated my gums and messed up my permanent teeth so that I had cavities as soon as they came in. I've often joked that if I had the money we've put into my mouth over the years, we could build a very nice house -- unfortunately it's really not such a joke. *sigh* I've had A LOT of work done over the years!!!

But let's go back to the beginning. I don't remember my baby teeth falling out or having the tooth fairy visit. I think that's because I've managed to block out most of my tooth-related memories :)  I do remember being about five years old and hiding from my mom because I didn't want to go to the dentist. I was young enough that I thought if I squeezed between my bed and dresser and closed my eyes, she wouldn't be able to see me. LOL  Of course she could and then off to the dentist we went.

Although I don't really remember this, my mom enjoyed telling the story of the time I bit my dentist so hard he bled. Back then we were given "laughing gas" which put us completely under and is why I don't remember it myself. Apparently during one of the procedures I clamped down pretty hard on Dr. Root's hand. [Yes, his name was Dr. Root! And our general physician was Dr. Hart :) ]

I didn't start going to the dentist until I was about five. My teeth were such a mess though, I became a regular and repeat customer for many years. Thankfully I didn't need braces. I thought I might since when my "big" teeth came in they were pretty large for my face and seemed to stick out a bit, but I just needed to grow into them. It was a good thing I didn't need braces because there was a period of time in my teens when we couldn't afford the dentist at all. (Which meant when I could finally went back as an adult, there was plenty of work to be done -- old fillings that had to be replaced, root canals and crowns for teeth beyond repair...)  I'm sure they taught dental hygiene in school, but I don't remember hearing about flossing until I was an adult.

My mom was raised in Appalachia during the Depression so you know she had false teeth! She'd sometimes tease my sister and me when we were really little, chasing us around the house without her teeth while threatening to "gum us to death".  LOL   Back then I didn't know of many adults with all their own teeth; it was just accepted that most had false teeth because of when they grew up.

After all the trauma I suffered myself, I didn't want my own kids to experience the same thing and looked for a good dentist who was careful about keeping pain and discomfort to a minimum. I was very thankful to find an excellent pediatric dentist in the small town where we lived, especially since both my kids had to have braces (our daughter twice!). It also helped that the dentist and his family were involved in community theater along with our kids, so they knew and liked him outside his role as their dentist. I haven't ever really talked to my kids about their own dental experiences, but I think overall they have pretty positive feelings about it. Am I right, Jon and Tina?

And the creek did rise

Friends on facebook know about our little adventure earlier this week. We had to go out to Sta. Rosa to take care of some business and while we were there the heavy rains caused the normally dry creek bed behind the house to become a raging river for the space of a couple hours. Thankfully we had our camera with us so we documented it -- in excruciating detail, but we're only sharing a few photos and one video here today :)

Many years ago when Arroyo El Portezuelo overflowed its banks after a similar heavy rainfall, my in-laws built a short wall along the back to keep the waters at bay. We were rather nervous on Tuesday, wondering whether the wall would be sufficient!

As you can see, the water came almost to the top of the wall. Much higher and it would have breached the wall and poured into the yard. Since the garage sits about a meter from that wall (and the house just a couple meters more), we'd have had serious flooding issues.

Here's a short video we shot:


To give you some perspective, I'm including three photos of the same place (our neighbor's clothes line), taken during the height of the creek flow, about an hour later and then the next morning.

the creek at its highest on Tuesday

 about an hour later, it's already receding

 Wednesday morning, flattened brush and grass the only evidence of the rushing water from Tuesday

Arroyo El Portezuelo lies dormant 99% of the year. Our neighbor's horses wander and munch on whatever they want back there, and there's always plenty with the grass and weeds growing several feet high. But every once in a blue moon, heavy rains in the low sierras just a few miles away are channeled through the creek and into the Santa Rosa River about a block away. Normally it doesn't rise this high, and we're just very thankful the wall was sufficient.

But as we contemplate putting up a new fence along the back, you can bet we're thinking about building that wall a little higher!

Project 365, Week 7 & 8

I'm catching up with two weeks worth of Project 365. I'll try to keep the words to a minimum since there are so many photos, but don't be surprised if I forget and get all wordy on you :)

We are sad because one of our rose bushes died. No idea what happened to it. It's one of two on either side of the front gate and the other one is just fine.

Ivan loves fresh figs. I'd never had fresh ones before moving to Argentina. And let me tell you, fresh figs taste NOTHING like Fig Newtons :)

We've been having issues with a foul smell any time water is used in any fashion in our house (washing machine, toilet, shower...). Yuck! Ivan knew it was our stink pipe which used to run just beside the house, up against the wall on the edge of the property. But now with a big two story house next door, there's nowhere for the stink to go except back in our windows :(  So last weekend Ivan extended the stink pipe up and over our roof in the hopes that would help.

It didn't :(  Apparently just putting it above our roof line is not sufficient to combat the height of the big two story house next door. So Ivan has another project very high on his "to do" list when he gets home.

He left last Sunday night with three of our teens for summer camp in the province of Buenos Aires, and they're coming back tonight. A couple times this week Ivan made the two-hour trek from the camp into the city in an attempt to expedite his permanent residency. He's finally found someone helpful in the immigration office (what a blessing!) but has now hit a snag with the Policia Federal (similar to our FBI). They did eventually do the paperwork he needs but then they wouldn't give it to him as promised on Saturday. They said he could come back Tuesday for a certified copy. Of course he'll be here by then but one of our co-workers who lives in Bs. As. is going in... whether or not they'll let him have it is a whole 'nother ballgame.

Anyway, while he's been gone, I've had a sewing holiday! But before I show photos of my different projects, I have a few more shots around town to share.

Remember that big wave of water that came rushing down the street by our new lot after a storm several weeks ago? We're pretty sure that washed out part of the work they'd done on the new costanera, which is why they went ahead and paved a portion of our street. It extends just beyond our lot. But as you can see only half the street; hopefully they'll get the other half done soon!

Pretty sure this is a custom job where somebody combined two (or more?) vehicles to create this stylin' ride :)  Gotta love the color combination!

This isn't a very good shot since it was a "drive-by shooting" (photo snapped from my car). But I wanted to show one of the street vendors who line the costanera, selling pastries that have been deep fried and coated with sugar. They station themselves every couple hundred feet along the lake, doing a brisk business with the many tourists who are in town.

Okay, now for all the projects I worked on this week. Here's a shot of them all together:

And the individual shots...

A small backpack, which I'll be giving to a young lady for her birthday in a couple months (free pattern found here).

A ginormous shopping bag that helped me use up some leftover 5"x5" squares. It's 19"Hx14"Wx4.5"D -- you can fit quite a bit in this! It's going to be the prize for a game at our ladies tea during missionary conference in a couple weeks.

This is my first attempt at a ruffled bag. It gave me fits! After some seam ripping and modifications to shorten the bag and re-do the bottom ruffle, all was well. I'll definitely do things differently next time!

Two years ago I made a bunch of colored pencil rolls, using a pattern that was labor intensive and time consuming. So when I came across a much easier pattern, I wanted to give it a whirl. LOVE! 

Not only is it easier to put together, this pattern does a better job keeping the pencils tucked neatly into their "pockets". I'll be making a slew of these to have on hand for gifts 'cause kids love 'em.

This is actually part of a bigger project: my personal hanging toiletry bag! I'll probably use this smaller bag for face care and make-up items, and it will tuck into the bigger bag when traveling but can be separated once we arrive. The reason I made it separate is because I realized I couldn't make a bag big enough for EVERYTHING that would still fit on the back of a door. I made a list of all the personal care items we take when we travel -- and then I measured everything :)  I wanted to make sure things fit. Unlike the U.S. where you can get travel sizes, here you can only buy products in their regular size.

This was the first bag I've made with a zipper! I modified the bag pattern I really like -- it's basically the same as the ginormous shopping bag above but with a zipper and, of course, much smaller.

I started on the actual hanging bag but it's not finished. I'll "unveil" it in next week's Project 365. Meanwhile here's a peek...

One last photo before we go. Our neighbors moved into their new house next door!

They live in the left portion of this duplex and will rent out the other side. As per U.S. custom, I took them a baked treat to welcome them to the neighborhood. I made Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls for the first time. Oh My Goodness! Sooooo good and sooooo easy! I prefer maple flavoring to be real syrup I pour over my pancakes or waffles, so after doing half the batch with her maple icing, I did the other half with a cream cheese frosting. Either way: DELICIOUS!

Dream

Layla had this on her blog yesterday and I HAD to share it with you!

"A Total Wreck"

It's been a while since I've participated in the Flashback Friday meme...

I'd already been planning to jump back in this week, and when I saw the theme...

Thinking primarily of your growing-up years and your early years of driving, have you ever been in an auto accident? Were you a passenger or the driver? Were you injured? How badly was the car damaged? Whose fault was it? What was the attitude of your parents toward "fender benders" and tickets? Were minor dings and scrapes a big deal? Have you ever received a traffic ticket? If more than one, 'fess up: how many? Any warnings? Has a family member or close friend been seriously injured or killed in an accident? Have you ever witnessed a bad accident and stopped to render aid or give a statement? What role, if any, did seat belts and car seats have in your early years?

...I knew I HAD to because my nickname in younger days was CRASH!

I didn't actually get my driver's license until I was 18. For one thing, we didn't have a car so there was no big hurry. Also, the first time I attempted the driver's test at the requisite age of 16, I FAILED monumentally. In fact, the man administering the test may or may not have stumbled out of the car at the end of the test, pale and shaken by the experience. {ahem}

He was not the only one left pale and shaken -- it had been so traumatic I didn't even try again for two years. Then it became necessary because I was getting my first car! A couple in my church offered the use of their pick-up for the test, which made me rather nervous since it was a BIG vehicle. But it actually turned out to be a very good thing since it had me sitting up higher and I could see better, making parallel parking MUCH easier. I'm sure that's why I passed the test on that second try. 

I was so ready for my first car! Unfortunately I only had it eight days. While driving on a foggy night I drove off the road and straight into a ginormous boulder, shoving the drive train back into the trunk area. Ugh. 

A year later I was driving a beater (colloquialism for "car still on road but looks like it belongs in junkyard") and visiting my dad in the Detroit area. New Year's Eve we were on our way to visit friends and a Corvette flew by me, hit a patch of black ice and started turning circles right there in the middle of the road. There was no way I could avoid hitting it. Did you know Corvettes are mostly plastic? That car disintegrated into a gazillion bits. The driver jumped out and ran away! We waited over two hours for police who never came (it was New Year's Eve after all). Finally we just limped home, the beater still running although it was definitely listing to one side and made a funny noise. The police came by the next day for a statement at which time we found out the Corvette had been stolen, and that's why the guy ran away!

Now you know why my nickname was CRASH. {sigh}

I don't think I've ever gotten a ticket, although I've been pulled over a few times. Always received warnings and a pass. Whew!

But our family has not been untouched by serious accidents. Our son has a metal rod running from his hip to knee, received after T-boning a car and then careening into a stand of trees when he was 17. The memories of that first long night in the hospital will forever be imprinted on my memory. After seeing the car he'd been driving, we knew it was a miracle he even survived the accident.

Not sure about you, but I have a certain driving phobia. I cannot STAND to drive next to those big cement dividers on the interstate. They just give me the heebie-jeebies and I'd rather get in a slower lane behind a big old smoke-belching truck than drive next to those dividers. 

No one in my family likes riding with me. Which suits me fine. I don't mind being the perpetual passenger :)  After doing lots and lots and lots of driving over the years (back and forth from Michigan to Florida multiple times, to say nothing of all the shlepping of kids to piano and softball and choir and AWANA and...) I am quite content to let them do most of the driving now. 

As far as seat belts go, I don't remember using them at all until I was an adult and the government started using commercials to raise awareness. Like this one:

Which is pretty mild, compared to some of the scary ones they put out! I think Argentina needs to put together a similar advertising campaign. Hardly anyone uses seatbelts except on the interstate where you can be stopped and ticketed if you're not wearing one. But around town people don't bother. And while I know carseats are available (all the baby stores carry them) I've never actually seen one being used. NEVER! Most times kids are left completely untethered in a vehicle, free to move around -- or be thrown around which would be the case in an accident. {shudder}

If you have "A Total Wreck" story to share, hop on over to Mocha With Linda and join in!

A Rambling Post

I haven't been sleeping that well so it's not surprising that my mind is tired and I'm having a hard time focusing on any one thing. Rather than fighting it, I decided to just go with the flow and let the ramble out. So in no particular order...

I've had a little more computer time this week and signed up for several giveaways. LOVE giveaways! Back when I first started blogging I participated in a giveaway carnival and that's how I got to know some of the bloggers I now consider FRIENDS. Plus it's a lot of fun when you actually win something :) Anyway, thought I'd share the links:

Robin had a bloggiversary on Monday and to celebrate she's putting together a little package of goodies for one lucky commenter. Rumor has it the package will include Jelly Beans and Starbucks!

If you like fabric, you'll definitely want to leave a comment at Lily's Quilts for the Sherbet Pips Layer Cake. (Runs through February 26th)

Want a new sewing machine? Sew4Home is giving away a Janome DC5100 (the newest model)!!! (Runs through February 28th)

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Facebook friends have posted some fun links:
~ Like this one for cookie-stuffed cookies. What an absolutely brilliant concept!
~ The restaurant where my daughter worked while in college was featured in a fun article about upscale eateries in small towns.
~ Bloggers Kevin and Layla have a unique fundraising opportunity via SixSeeds.tv -- for every facebook "like" received by Monday morning, Kevin and Layla will receive $1.00 toward their adoption expenses.

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It will come as no surprise to anyone that I make a lot of the fabric-related things for my house. Like my front room curtains...

Which weren't that difficult to make since I used fabrics that didn't require matching patterns. BUT if I should want to use some cool, funky, chunky patterned fabric I now have the formula to determine how much of said fabric to buy! Thanks to this most excellent post by Kristi at Addicted 2 Decorating.

I'll be doing plenty of sewing for the house that will be built in the hopefully-not-too-distant future. So you can bet I e-mailed myself the link to that post and then put it in my "decorating" folder!

Another link that's going in the folder is this über cool site called "Involving Color" with image galleries sorted BY COLOR!!! Looking for inspiration... thinking about painting that bathroom pink... wondering how gray cabinets would look like in your kitchen? Just check out these rooms for some idea of how it might turn out!

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And because we're all over the place with this post, let me just throw out there that I'm VERY excited my newest Kindle book. I've been pretty much sticking to the freebies because the budget is stretched more than a little thin these days, but I could not resist the low $5 price tag for Abraham Verghese's novel, Cutting For Stone. I absolutely loved his non-fiction work, My Own Country: A Doctor's Story, which I checked out of the public library and read back in 1995. I don't dare start Cutting For Stone tonight or I'm afraid I'll be up half the night, unable to put it down.

And I may have mentioned at the beginning of this post that I'm rather sleep deprived this week. So yep, not starting the book until tomorrow!

We're partially paved

Until we get the property surveyed (was supposed to happen last week but didn't; not sure when they'll get to it) we can't put up the fence. Meanwhile we're trying to keep an eye on the property, to ensure that squatters don't move into the casita. When I went to check on it yesterday I found this:

The road was blocked off so I parked around the corner and got as close as I could to take that photo. This morning I went back and saw that they've paved up to and just a little beyond where our property ends. But only half the street.

Wondering if they'll pave the other half soon?

Seemed a little odd that they'd be doing this by hand. I'm pretty sure that although the country is a bit backward in terms of machinery and heavy equipment (i.e., a crew of men with weed whackers "mow" city parks), they can't possible be doing all their street paving by hand.

Can they?

How will you spend Valentine's Day?

We've never been big on Valentine's Day. It so rarely conveniently falls on a weekend when most of us have time to do something special. It's a little more difficult mid-week with all the usual activities going on... Plus there's the whole over-commercialization of yet another holiday.

But I really, REALLY like what Wally has to say about today on his blog. I'd encourage you to go read it. Go on, yes, I mean right now.

My latest project

I've had an idea for a while and been mulling over how to tackle it...looked in vain for patterns online so realized it would be necessary to make up my own.

I've mentioned a time or eleven how bad I am at math and knew this would require some of that so I played around with sketches for a few weeks until I felt like I had a workable plan. This week I jumped right into it, and am happy to report that while there was definitely some seam ripping action going on, it was much less than I'd anticipated.

And here it is, the prototype:

Can't figure out what it is? It's a hanging toiletry bag! And I plan on making more of them, which is why I'm calling this one my prototype :)

I have a small bag picked up at a yard sale years ago but it's not big enough for everything I need to take on trips. In fact, I haven't really seen one big enough anywhere (and I've been looking for years).

Anyway, this one can definitely hold everything I need!

But this one isn't mine. I made it with a particular young lady in mind and will be gifting it to her soon.

So here's what it looks like folded up from the front (you can't see it, but the hook for hanging it is underneath the strap):

And the back:

I will do some things differently next time, but overall I'm very pleased with how this turned out. And isn't that a fun fabric?!

Goodbye Anon, I wish I never knew you

Is everyone else having as much trouble as I am with anonymous spam comments? I finally got so tired of it I changed my settings this morning to "registered ID users" only. Before this I hesitated because I know there are people without blogs who occasionally comment here, but not often enough to make it worth the aggravation of multiple deletions that I have to do daily. It's gotten ridiculous. So I apologize to those who can no longer comment but I hope you understand my frustration and forgive me :) It would be nice if blogger had a better spam filter, but until something like that comes along I'm limiting access.

Project 365, Week 6

It's been a crazy busy week and I have the photos to prove it :)

Right now I'm sitting on our back patio by the washer so I can hear when it's done and quickly switch loads. Even though I did laundry throughout the week, I ended up coming home with four loads worth and I'm bound and determined to get 'er done today!

But on with the photos...

Don't actually have one for Monday since we delayed our trip so Ivan could see the chiropractor first. Thankfully she was able to get Ivan in for a late afternoon appointment. That gave me time to clean house and put clean sheets on the beds, in case other missionaries we know needed to use the house while we were gone; they were going to be in the province on a survey trip. Then we were busy collecting boys, loading the trailer and heading to Sta. Rosa!

Tuesday we had to go into town for a couple of errands but in the midst of rushing around we stopped to show the boys a swinging bridge (neither had seen one before).

Even though Ivan's back was still "talking" to him, by Tuesday evening he was ready to tackle the ceiling. Or at least show Charlie how to tackle it :)

Ivan let Braian try too, but he's so short he could only reach the bottom of the center beam so he helped Ivan with cutting in. (And over the next couple days Ivan ended up doing 90% of the ceiling, because (1) he's faster since he's had plenty of experience, and (2) he's just a teeny bit of a perfectionist. lol)

As you can see the grapes are ripening nicely and I think if we have a chance to go at the end of the month, they'll be at just the right stage to make jelly.

The boys had a blast, mostly fishing and swimming in the river.

I think they pretty much just kept their swimming trunks on most of the time!

The first day they caught lots of little fish and wanted to cook them up. I said fine, as long as they cleaned and cooked them!

They're experts at pulling out the spine in one shot after they're cooked. Me, not so much. The flavor wasn't bad, but a mouth full of tiny bones was more than I could handle, so I ended up having hot dogs :)  After that any fish they caught they threw back in the river, taking photos of some of the bigger ones (bigger being a relative term).

We had to move a hutch out from the wall while painting and this lovely big spider was hanging out on the back of it. Ugh!

Absolutely LOOOOOOVE Sherwin Williams paint! We were amazed that ONE COAT of this pale aqua covered the dark ugly yellow!

All except the "problem" wall, that is. The one we had to patch extensively due to water damage. Even the spackle-like stuff didn't want to adhere so we ended up sanding most of that off and just painting. But it did require two coats, and still ain't the prettiest (which has nothing to do with the paint and everything to do with the uneven plaster). I plan to make a wall quilt for that spot anyway.

The missionaries who were doing a survey ended up coming on out to Sta. Rosa. For one meal I served up a variety of salads: chicken salad for sandwiches, cornbread salad, pizza salad, and a tomato and onion salad that also had cucumber and red pepper.

And in case you were wondering, we pretty much kissed off everything I made last weekend; I think we may have a stray brownie or granola bar left :)

Now that the walls are done, the window and door frames and doors are next! They look so shabby and dirty next to the freshly painted walls.

The living room furniture, which really doesn't match AT ALL now, will have to wait. I have the fabric to reupholster them but not the money to pay the tapicero. Poco a poco. I plan to have two of the armless chairs done in denim and one in apple green. I'm leaning towards just dyeing the slipcovers on the rattan chairs, since I made those just a little over a year ago. Right now they're a dark green but I think a denim blue would work better in the space. We're getting closer to my vision for a beachy cottage look!

Anyway, we had a great week and got the main project DONE. Didn't even try to tackle the storeroom this trip. I was painting right up until Thursday evening. Friday was spent cleaning and packing to come home. It had been a while since I did a deep clean out there, so this trip I felt it really needed it. Especially with the mess we'd created with the spackling, sanding and painting.

We got home last night and are just taking it easy today. Aside from the laundry I have no plans. Well, maybe a nap :) I was looking around for something to photograph and realized you've seen pictures of just about every part of my house and yard (except the bathroom, which you're NEVER going to see) so I took another one of our side yard which I know I've done before, but just thought those in the frozen north might enjoy a photo of actual growing things :)

And so concludes another week with Project 365!