Adding an Outdoor Sink

This crazy old house had two laundry rooms in the basement when we bought it and both were in bad condition. As a result, I ended up with two of these utility sinks sitting in the garage. In a spring cleaning frenzy, I loaded the sinks into the truck with the idea of hauling them to the Restore to see if they would take them.

Then the battery on the truck was dead. So, the truck has sat loaded with junk in the driveway for a couple of days.  I spotted one of my children filling a watering can at this outdoor faucet and he was making a giant muddy mess. It dawned on me that I could really use one of those laundry sinks!  Sure enough, it works perfectly. And when my kids miss the watering can or the water gun or are just washing their hands out there, the extra water goes into the bucket below and can be used for watering my plants later.

Halloween Pumpkins the easy way

The kids were pestering me like crazy to do the Halloween pumpkin carving, but there is no way that is going to happen this year. I told them to grab some permanent markers and have fun! I think they turned out great. But why am I so lazy and not carving them?

This summer, we demolished a rotten deck and replaced the deck with some temporary stairs to get us through the fall and winter. We plan on moving the door to a different wall and lowering the entrance to ground level next summer.


We did fine with these stairs for a month, but then Guess who tripped on her own purse strap and fell down the new stairs?!


So, no pumpkin carving for me. My kids are too small to do the carving still and having them clean out the insides is a nasty sticky mess that I'm always regretting for days after.

And hey, there is are perks-  the doctor told me no snow shoveling this winter! And I get to wear this totally awesomely decorated cast for a while!

Have you ever broken a bone? What kinds of things did you miss out on and did you find any "perks" to the situation?

[Spring update: The kids ACTUALLY did shovel all winter and they did a good job with out whining! May I never have to shovel again!]

Garbage Stand Attempt

Every winter, our neighbor takes his bobcat and clears the alley of snow by piling it high against our fence. I would have to dig a place to put the garbage each week. This fall, I quickly scrabbled together this garbage stand out of scrap pieces of wood and cinderblocks for a base. I put the tall vertical pieces so that the neighbor can see where it is even when there is tons of snow.

I still need to put something around the base, preferably not wood that will just rot in the snow. Maybe metal flashing? I haven't decided yet. Next year I hope to actually grow grass back there... or something.

Tree Table

Last year, a truck slid off the icy road into one of our trees. I thought the tree was going to be okay, but the first big wind of spring blew the top of the tree right over. After levelling off the top, I sat there wondering, do I dig up the stump? What do I do with this?

While I was distracted in mommy daydreams, my oldest son comes running to report the three of them had completely smashed their wooden toy box while pretending it was a bus. The only piece remaining intact was the blue sturdy wooden lid. Thus a silly table was born. The chairs were ones that the cushions wore off and I was saving them to make new cushions. They work way better as plant stands! And I plan on adding a few more birdhouses to the table!

Note: The We Go Bagless sign is from the City of Edmonton program to promote grass-cycling and reduce the amount of trash for the waste collectors. It is a great program and a lot less work than bagging up grass!

After School Snack place

After school, this is where I hang out with the kids and have a snack. We chat about their day away from books, backpacks, chores and distractions.

Place of Peace

I always try to find a little place of peace in my life. With 3 kids, I struggled with finding a spot of my own- NO PLACE is sacred to little kids! This spot is an area where I demolished a rotten old shed. I made a chalkboard using chalk board paint from Home Depot.

By the way, that beehive under Buddha only seems to work on hornets/wasps. A regular hive of bumblebees took up immediate residence in the pavers.