* I read an article in the newspaper a few weeks back about the Little Free Library.  The Little Free Library is basically a wooden box with perhaps a shelf for two rows of book.  Anyone can walk by and borrow a book.  The can either return it when finished or bring a different book to the box for someone else to read.  How cool is that?

Of course I checked right away to see if there was one in my 'hood.  There is!  The next street over and up three blocks!  We walk the dogs in that area, but have never gone down their street because it is a dead end.  Now I want to build one and put it in my front yard!  It's my new obsession.  There are some pretty cool YouTube videos on the Little Free Library website.  I think it is very inspiring and is a great way to meet neighbors.  Check it out.

The Girls in the front window

* Last week I got an email from a friend from high school.  She works at Craftsy.  (Apparently Craftsy is a Denver based company, who knew?)  They were celebrating their third anniversary by giving away a free class to Colorado residents.  There were 40-some classes to choose from.  I debated a sock knitting class, but thought I can probably figure out a lot of that on my own since I do know how to knit.

What I don't do really well is sew.  Another friend helped me make a quilt top for our bed.  But she recently had a baby and isn't able to quilt it for me on her machine.  The class I signed up for is called Quilting Big Projects on your Small Machine.   After I signed up I had a moment of panic.  My sewing machine is a 1948 Singer.  Could it do what I need it to do?  I did some research on the internet and after some email correspondence with a vintage sewing machine man I found I can order the sewing feet I need and I'm good to go!

* After five days of severe thunderstorms in the Denver Metro area last week I think it is finally safe to finish planting the garden.  I might get to it this weekend!

Happy Thursday!

One of the things we learned in our Financial Peace University class was to give money to charity.  If we start small now, when we are out of debt, it will be easier to give more generously.  The charity of the month for April was Rocky Mountain PBS.  

We watch a lot of Public Television in our house.  I DVR Cooks Country and Corrine watches much of the children's programming.  There are a lot of shows I would watch (Call the Midwife and Downton Abbey) except I'm very far behind and have to rely on Netflix until I catch up.  I love that there are no commercials because the station relies on public funding rather than advertisers for their money.  I'm not sure how other PBS station do it, but RMPBS does some wonderful funding concerts, one of my favorites is the Celtic Women.  

 My sweet baby girl made her hand bouquet in school last week.  It almost made me cry.

My mothers day weekend was spent camping in Cortez, Colorado (in the four corners area).  Bryan was in a 12 hour mountain bike relay race (I know, crazy!).  I have no pictures from camping or bike racing.  What I have is pictures of our drive home...
 We left Durango heading north and this is what we ran into.  We turned around because the snow plows hadn't been out yet and there was six inches of wet heavy snow and it was pretty slick.  We then went east out of Durango and had a pretty dry drive until we were about 2 1/2 hours from home.

*  Spring is here!  Last night we had our first thunderstorm.  C and I paused for a moment from what we were busy with and sat in the front door and watched it rain and hail.  We listened to the thunder.  And we breathed in the wonderful scent of rain!

*  I have to share with you this wonderfully romantic story.  When I read it last week it stuck with me all day.  We've all read stories where man meets woman and in no time they have fallen in love and are getting married!  But that's just it.  They are stories.  Fiction.  Or are they?  My friend Keith, the Optimistic Existenianlist, who writes the Musings of an Apologetic Dreamer has such a story.  Check it out at his blog.  And then read read Beate's story! Just thinking about it, I am so happy for these two who I can call friends even though we've never actually met!

*  Happy Thursday my friends!  Have a great weekend!

Hello!  It's Wednesday again and that means it's time for the weekly yarn along. I'm joining with Ginny and everyone to share what we are knitting and the books we are reading.  I'm still plugging away on the Dr. Who scarf.  I am more than half way finished.  After a moment of panic last week when I realized that I had two months to finish and wasn't yet to the halfway point, I sat down and knit a few rows.  That's what it is going to take.  A few rows every day.

On the book front, though, I have been making headway in my stack of library books.
This is a true story written by a lady living in Berlin when the Russians arrived at the end of WWII.  It's depressing, yet fascinating to read what she did to survive.  I have also read Takedown Twenty by Janet Evanovich.  I started reading Leap of Faith by Queen Noor before I got my library book so I put it aside, but have now picked it back up.

The Barred Rock chicks we have added to our flock.   They are currently residing in a rubbermaid tub in the garden shed under the heat lamp.  We put them out in the shed because the dust the produce drives Bryan's allergies crazy.

I have been on the fence about getting more chickens.  I wanted more and we have enough space for them in the dog run.  I was worried about the coop.  We put together a pre-fab coop last summer and I couldn't remember how many it held.  The man at the feed store said six, so I figured we'd be good at five.  At least until I can convince Bryan we need to build a bigger chicken coop!  But because I hemmed and hawed for so long about getting more, the feed store where we bought our ladies last year was out of chickens.  And the feed store closest to us goes through them so quickly that I had to call every day this week to find out when they were getting their shipment.

I can't wait for these to little fluff balls to join our little flock!  I just hope I can be patient during the chicken integration period !