An Albertan gardener escapes!

Every year we plant our garden in April. Lois Hole has an excellent book that encourages me to risk planting when there is still snow on the ground and frost on the windshields in the morning. Butt I took my family and fled from her advice just ahead of a snow storm on April 14. We fled all the way to hot, hot Cuba! It was loverly.

Now it is April 27, our skin is peeling from the sunburns.,, and there is still snow out there... butt not on OUR property! Doug and I were wise to produce 4 little field workers (pictured above) to help us in our yard. They have shovelled the snow off of our north facing deck, prepared the soil in the garden, chopped down the old growth from last season and planted the beans, beets, sweet peas, sugar snap peas, carrots and lettuce (The potatoes and cucumbers need the weather to warm up a little more.). The raspberries are tidied, staked and watered. The evergreens and bulbs are fertilized. The Death Star has been assembled and lies in wait at our back door for scraps from our kitchen (my husband just took up composting but I know that it was the composting unit's resemblance to the Death Star that drew him in).

Now I will sit and wait for the daffodils to bloom. Dear Spring; I love you no matter how long you take to arrive.

Thankful Thought 2

I thought I'd start April by posting my second thankful thought in honor of my dad's 66th birthday yesterday. At his party he asked everyone to say three nice things about him but it immediately turned into a roast so I quickly banned the choking-on-the-rice-bolus story. My sister-in-law was out of the room at the time and when she returned, she chose to tell about the first time she went out with my dad and my brother and how they went to the Rice Bowl (do you see how close she got to "rice bowl-us"??) and thought to herself that she had never seen anyone eat rice so fast (that wasn't the time he choked, BTW). SO, here is a thankful thought dedicated to my dad. Back in the spring of 2010, my dad purchased a table saw and was looking for a project. I mentioned that I had been looking for a captains bed... a CALIFORNIA KING sized captains bed. They don't exist. He insisted on making us one. YAY! After many afternoons of labouring in my garage, he happily brought in this massive bed. I figure I've got about a decade before I'll have to resort to a step ladder to get into bed. But now I essentially sleep on top of 2 enormous dressers: 6 drawers on both sides with a cubby at the foot of the bed for bags and the such.

 I love it!! Thanks, Dad! You're super!

And a quick April Fool's prank. DH's April Fool's joke was to generously sprinkle yellow-food-dyed-water around both bathrooms: basically it looked like someone was standing to pee when they got electrocuted. Daughter got up and said "Daaaaaaaad, you made a mess in the bathroom!" and then spent 10 minutes wiping it up with toilet paper (just like she does every morning, likely. Hahahaha. Just jokin'). Son1 saw it and was so grossed out that he decided to wait to use the bathroom at the day camp he was going to. Son2 saw it, assumed it was soap and just went about his business. When we asked Son3 what he thought about the pee all over the bathroom he looked at us, blinked and said, "...wha?"

Finally, I have a link to the blog of a fellow professional SAHM!!! Check out her talents here.