I've intended to blog almost every night for the last week, but had so much to say I couldn't figure out what to start with and gave up and did something else.  Now I keep getting distracted by The Big Bang Theory--I've written two sentences in 14 minutes.

Grades are in and my semester is officially done.  I miss my students!  

We've had several wildlife rescues in the last two weeks--squirrels and birds. Some are doing well in rehab, some didn't make it, and we're anxiously awaiting news on the most recent fellow.  

I've been working hard in the garden, trying to catch up with the weeds.  They had such an early start this year, and I had no time to garden until school was finished.  I've made some major progress this week.  As I get each area weeded, I'm digging up and dividing as needed, moving some things, and planting other new things.  The garden was horribly neglected last year due mostly to my broken arm.  The areas that are done look good, but I have so much left to do yet.  It's a good physical workout, and I like getting an extra workout in each day, 

I really enjoy being outside and like almost everything about gardening--even weeding.  What I don't like, and it really bothers me a lot, is the damage I inevitably wreak upon the insects and worms.  I try so hard to be careful, but there are always casualties.  The ants bother me the most, probably because I know so much about them and their very social communal lifestyle.  I hate, when I pull a weed out and little ants are running around in the hole freaked, because I just ripped up their village.  I try to shake the roots over the hole to dislodge any little critters in the vicinity of their family and home, but worry that some may get tossed into the compost heap.  That whole aspect really bums me out.

We have a nest of sparrows in front of the house, and the babies are adorable.  They are almost fully feathered but have little baby tufts sticking out randomly.  They are almost ready to start flying lessons.  I will try to watch carefully and be outside when that happens to make sure the damn neighbor's cats don't come over hunting in my garden (again).

Family Craft Night

We usually do this in December, but we couldn't find time this year until just a couple of weeks ago.  We were quite prolific.  We all went through our houses and gathered vases, jars, any clear glass containers we could find.  I have a bin that holds lots of different soil mixtures, sands, rocks, etc. that I keep for planting.  The girls and I went out and purchased many different small plants to use--as it turned out we got too many.  We had a variety of containers and seven people creating, so we were really guessing with the amount.

Here are pics of the final results.  There were so many cool, creative terrariums, but I had a really hard time photographing them and only got decent pictures of some of them.  I have to admit my favorite was Dej's Alice in Wonderland (below) themed, and it looks great in her living room!

We had a lot of fun, made a huge mess, and have all of our terrariums displayed (and cat safe, we think) and looking very healthy.  I'm curious to see how long it takes my cats to find a way around my cat proofing.  Despite having their own container full of live cat grass, they still love to molest and destroy my plants.

Ivan is 8!

Ivan turned eight yesterday!  Here are some pictures from the catnip party.

The next week will be totally consumed with grading.  Today was my last regular class, with next week being finals week.  So much grading!  I will be a free woman in about ten days!