today I got up early with the dog, planted the mint, strawberries, and lettuce that Mary gave me last night, watered plants, turned on the tiller, remembered it was 8:30 on Sunday morning and turned it off, painted an end table, dug out the five front bushes with chainsaw, planted the 50% off climbing roses, clematis' and hydrangea I indulged in earlier this week, tilled the rest of the backyard and four corner beds in the front (Chris was unaware of this part of the plan - he's a grass fan somehow), planted wildflower seeds in the butterfly corner, planted morning glory seeds along the remaining bushes, took Gracie for a short bike ride, continued to let the girls watch as much TV as they liked, mixed high cal lime, gypsum, bonemeal, vetch seed, oat seed, and oilseed radish (Gracie helped) and sprinkled it all on the back beds, rearranged stepping stones, painted other end table, got two loads of mulch and Wendy's for dinner at 7, unloaded first half of second mulch load in the dark, watched Nim's Island with girls, put girls to bed and read from Alice in Wonderland, plastered the bathroom a bit, and sat down with a little ice-cream to check email. Getting all this done made me feel really good. A few more loads of free mulch and I'll be done outside for the year. ... Might pick up a clearance butterfly bush, though. And I have garlic bulbs coming in the mail. Might plant those next to the roses.

Gracie likes to garden. She demands to help and says things like, I like doing this. She was one when I started to garden seriously and spent that first summer sitting in soil and eating it.

We had a little party for my dad's birthday this week. I keep making cakes with cream cheese frosting. Its so good.
1 stick butter
2 8oz blocks of cream cheese
2 seconds pour of vanilla
powder sugar to taste - maybe 3 cups?
let mixer go for a long time for fluffy frosting.