Pee Wee Design Squad

Run for the hills! My children (with some help from us) are redecorating their room!

It's a project we've been working on for a few weeks, making our winter vacation less of a vacation for my husband than he probably would have liked. But the drywall work finished on Sunday. Yesterday we adults primed the walls and painted the ceiling. And today it begins.

My children are going to paint their own room.

Yes, they are 3, 5, and 7. And yes, I plan on taking plenty of pictures and having plastic drop cloths on the floor -- and on myself, come to think of it. (Would a rain poncho work, do you think?)

Messiness aside, I'm actually excited about it.

We have involved the children at every stage of this project. My boys put on their work clothes during the drywalling and helped their Dad hold and cut the wallboard to size. They held it steady while he screwed it in place.

My youngest supervised periodically. Her contribution has primarily consisted of cheerleading the project and asking her Daddy, at least daily, when the room would finally be ready. (So helpful, really.)

Then came the difficult part. We had to negotiate paint colors with them. My oldest wanted a black room with glowing planets and stars painted on the ceiling. (Conceptually interesting, but a black room? I said 'no.') My five year old wanted a "rainbow" room where every wall, the ceiling and the closet would all be different colors. (Slightly too Punky Brewster for me. Besides, in one year, when his school supply list contains a box of 24 crayons instead of 8, I had an odd feeling he would want to repaint.) And of course, my girly girl wanted pink and purple stripes at first. When we told her that her brothers wouldn't appreciate that color scheme, she said green and white stripes would be fine with her. How considerate.

We decided a visit to the hardware store paint aisle was in order. "Maybe we could look at wallpaper borders to get ideas," my husband helpfully suggested. We ventured out only to find that our local big-box hardware store is discontinuing all their wallpaper.

sigh

"You can go look at the cart at the front of the store," the clerk helpfully suggested. My mind flashed images of what could possibly be on the closeout cart... perhaps desert wallpaper with the sunbleached skulls of dead livestock. Perhaps we could find a suitable wallpaper border -- with my luck it would be black with glowing planets on it -- but surely not in a suitable quantity. I trudged to the front of the store with my overenthusiastic tribe leading the way. The stench of disappointment hung in the air (or maybe that was turpentine?)

My husband and children descended on the clearance rack, hooting wildly. I stood back, listening for the inevitable wailing and gnashing of teeth that comes with dashed expectations.

It didn't come.

Instead, my crew found -gasp- something they all liked -- a wallpaper border with brightly colored tree frogs hidden among the leaves of a rainforest! My oldest was thrilled to find that there were bugs hidden there, too. My five year old excitedly counted the vivid colors. My daughter pointed out that one of the flowers in the picture was bright pink, and one of the frogs had purple legs.

I was flabbergasted... in a good way.

So, coordinating paint and discontinued wallpaper in hand (which, for a dollar a roll, there's no complaining about) we happily left the store.

Which brings us to today. After school, the plan is to don the latest in shabby painting clothes and baseball caps and arm them with green paint and rollers of their own.

Did I mention tonight was also bath night?

- Midwest Mom

The New Workout: Home Repair

I am now buff.

(That is, if "buff" means so sore I can barely move.
Maybe what I meant to say is "I'm old.")

For the past week, my husband and I have been working on our house. We've been up on ladders scraping and painting, re-glazing wooden windows, and putting up new soffits. (That's my new vocabulary word, by the way. It means the horizontal piece that connects the outer edge of the roof to your house.)

And now I understand why roofers are always, well, buff.

Balancing on a ladder and working above my head has tired out muscles I didn't know I had. Every night this weekend, my husband and I turned into zombies in front of the fireplace, not moving because we were too sore or stiff. And when we got up in the morning, we did it all again.

Now, hubby is replacing the roof on the garage. He's working furiously to finish the project before it rains on Wednesday.

My work is only half-done. I'm scraping, priming, and painting our front porch -- even though my arms feel just about ready to fall off.

The kids have thoroughly enjoyed this week. They've been playing outside from breakfast until sunset every day, collapsing in a tired heap along with us. I can't help feeling that today will be different for them, though. They're back to school for the first time in three weeks. Our Fall break is over, and it will be back to the books. They'll come home full of energy just as I am dragging my limp-noodle arms behind me into the house.

Pray they don't decide to get in a tickle-fight later.

In my newly "buff" state, I don't think I could defend myself.

- Midwest Mom

Going Green: Early July Vegetables

In the past few weeks, the garden has changed a good deal. We have already harvested green beans twice. They are lovely cooked slow and low with a little bacon or lightly blanched with salt and butter. But, my oldest son prefers to eat them raw from the colander as we pick.

The lettuce continues to produce in abundance. We have provided lettuce for our neighbors and the children's grandparents. Green salad is our preferred potluck dish of late, too. The response is always the same, "this is from your garden?!? You're kidding!" (There is usually very little left to bring home.)

There is something wonderful about feeding your family produce that you've grown at home. We all participate in the planting, watering, weeding, and harvesting. It really is a family enterprise. But the eating is the fun part. It is nutritious and so, so tasty. And I cannot believe how much money I am saving at the grocery store by growing my own food. My second son told me the other day, "Mom, guess what? We're farmers!" I guess he's right.

In an attempt to be a better 'farmer', I've recently taken out a couple of books from the library on year-round gardening and succession planting to extend our growing season. I'm thinking of putting together some cold frames to grow my own seedlings next year too. The books are helping me to plan my fall chores and to begin the layout for next year's garden. The hottest time of year is good for that -- and I don't need sunscreen to do a little research.

This is also the time of year to think about a watering program. I watch the weather each week, and if we've gone three days without rain, I give a good, soaking evening watering to all my beds. I use a sprinkler with a timer, set to between 1/16 and 1/8 inch depth. That works out to about 40 minutes to one hour for the widest path. It may seem like a lot of water, but fewer, more drenching waterings are better for plants than frequent, more shallow spraying. When the water soaks down deeper into the ground, it encourages plants to send their roots deeper. As an alternative to the sprinkler, we also water individual plants with the water from the kids small swimming pool. It is good not to let 'recreational water' go to waste, and the plants don't seem to mind if kids have been splashing around in their evening drink.

Our water table has been so high with the wet May and June we've had that I want to encourage further root development. I've begun a bi-weekly feeding of some my vegetables, to ensure they have enough nutrition to fruit well. The heat has helped our pumpkin and muskmelon/cantaloupe vines begin to take off. They are already in full flower. The tomatoes and peppers are already setting fruit. They seem very healthy with few pests so far. (Keep your fingers crossed.)

Since I took out the last of the Spinach at the end of June, I have planted eggplant (a first for me) and cucumbers. All the plantings are doing extremely well so far, but we'll see how they progress. The oregano and cilantro/coriander are in bloom, as is my dill. The heat is really making the basil -- self-seeded from last year's crop -- take off, too.

That's the veggie update for now. I can't wait to begin harvesting later in the month. When I do, I'll be sure to share some recipes on my family recipe blog, http://allsecretrecipes.blogspot.com/ .

Until then, happy gardening!

Midwest Mom
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Going Green, Part 3 - The Lawn

Two years ago, my husband and I completely re-landscaped the front of our house. It was back-breaking work. And, yes, plenty of our neighbors slowed down as they drove by to say, "Hey! what are you doing?!?" When you're up to your elbows in dirt for the fourth afternoon in a row, you get tired of answering that question.

But, being the frugal family we are, we weren't about to spend ten times the money to have a group of 4 or 5 shirtless 19 year olds doing the work for us... (Darn! I think I missed out on something there!)

Well, the point is, we did it ourselves. Yet another way to save dough. And two years later, we have a beautiful garden and lawn. I said two years... T-W-O. We learned some lessons from the work we did. I thought it would be useful to share them. (Did I mention it took 2 years?)

Out with the Old, in with the New ... Lawn

When we got started on our landscape project, we decided it would be best to get rid of everything first. My husband grabbed his 1996 Ford Ranger (basically a wheelbarrow of a pickup truck) and a chain. After about 15 minutes, we realized we'd have to call in his dad's GMC. 15 minutes after that, six evergreen bushes were out and hauled away. A great start. I distinctly remember saying, "No problem! That was quick!" Ha.

Our (my husband's) next task was to break up the old sidewalk and remove it. Yeah. A little more difficult.

I got started removing the lawn. With a spade and a wheelbarrow. Not wanting to waste, I made sure everything was composted. Did I mention I was pregnant at the time? Yeah. No more "that was quick."

So, two and a half weeks later (or two containers of Icy Hot, however you mark time) the lawn was out. We had to re-grade so that water would drain away from the house. More dirt. More back-breaking labor. No, not LABORlabor.... just hard work.

Essentially, you can tell we did nothing the easy way. What I have found since then is that there are actual tools available that would help with this whole process! So, if YOU are planning a tear-out of your lawn and plant a new one, here's what you need to do:

1.) Go to your local tool-rental place and ask for a sod-cutter. It is a machine that will actually cut and roll up your weedy lawn. What took us a couple of weeks will take you a little cash and a couple of hours. Then roto-till. Get the ground nice and broken up.

2.)Add whatever you need to the dirt to make it light and the right pH. You can use peat moss, dry manure, compost, and even some sand if your soil is mostly clay. Till it again.

3.) Get a roller to press the soil nice and even, so you don't have too many dips and bumps. It works best either when the soil is tilled nicely OR after the grass has grown and you have had a really soaking rain. Later, when you're mowing, you will appreciate that you took the time for this step.

4.) Spread a seed-starter fertilizer and the best quality seed you can find. Call your local extension office -- they will know what grows best in your area. Keep it lightly watered (I think evening watering is best) until it sprouts. After that, a soaking watering twice a week will be enough. Try not to walk on it and do not mow it until it is 3 inches tall.

5.) You may be concerned about weeds. I can tell you that your new lawn will have weeds the first season. Once you cultivate the ground, you'll expose weed seed and it will sprout. You might be tempted to seed and then throw straw all over. If you do, annual ryegrass (otherwise known as crabgrass) will grow all over your yard. It is just as easy to use shredded newspaper (or nothing) so you don't have all the weeds instantly in there. Whatever you do, and however many weeds are in there, do not use weed killer until you've been able to grow and mow the new grass 4 times (about a month of mowing). Then it will be safe to use a weed & feed type of fertilizer.

Good luck. I think, start to finish, this job will probably take 4-6 weeks.

Did I mention ours took two years?

Midwest Mom