swim lessons

Jeffrey:

Mickey:

tour of the backyard

a make-shift balance beam that creates a path to:
this red ladder that the kids use to go back and forth to their friends' backyard and vice-versa.

my fav: blue hydrangeas



the playhouse/clubhouse: i'm assuming they tied the rope there
to ring the chimes from the window :)

i'm not allowed to buy anymore child rocking chairs for awhile...

i heart pinwheels. and mushrooms.

my peacock- i bought him because the peacocks at the zoo chased me down one day to try and steal my nachos. the kids thought it was hilarious and talk about it all the time.

this year i planted organic lettuce in my window boxes so the slugs couldn't reach them.

so far it worked.

zucchini and squash- one of the few things in the veggie garden the slugs don't destroy.

i hate slugs.

our new edition this year: the pond. it makes me happy. :)

proverbs 31:10

An excellent wife, who can find?For her worth is far above jewels.
The heart of her husband trusts in her, And he will have no lack of gain.
She does him good and not evil All the days of her life.
She looks for wool and flax And works with her hands in delight.
She is like merchant ships; She brings her food from afar.
She rises also while it is still night And gives food to her household And portions to her maidens.
She considers a field and buys it; From her earnings she plants a vineyard.
She girds herself with strength And makes her arms strong.
She senses that her gain is good; Her lamp does not go out at night.
She stretches out her hands to the distaff, And her hands grasp the spindle.
She extends her hand to the poor, And she stretches out her hands to the needy.
She is not afraid of the snow for her household, For all her household are clothed with scarlet.
She makes coverings for herself; Her clothing is fine linen and purple.
Her husband is known in the gates, When he sits among the elders of the land.
She makes linen garments and sells them, And supplies belts to the tradesmen
Strength and dignity are her clothing, And she smiles at the future.
She opens her mouth in wisdom, And the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.
She looks well to the ways of her household, And does not eat the bread of idleness.
Her children rise up and bless her; Her husband also, and he praises her, saying
Many daughters have done nobly, But you excel them all.
Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, But a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised.
Give her the product of her hands, And let her works praise her in the gates.

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments.

the Porters go green!

This past weekend, after thinking about it for months,

we finally got a composter(the turn-y kind from Sam's Club):

and a rain barrel:
Incidentally, we just got this set up before the storm the other night and by morning the overflow hose was shooting water out onto the ground!(it's a 50 gallon barrel)- wow, that's a lot of water! Now I want one under every gutter and I would never have to use the tap to water our yard again! I know this one isn't very "pretty" but it's in the back and it was on sale at Menards for $55(reg. $70)- and it gets really great ratings. The more attractive ones are about $200 and you have to order them online. I might consider this next summer to put one in the front on the side of the house(where people will see it). I thought this would be a good starter one for us. I never in a million years thought it could fill up that fast(considering it didn't really start raining until 4 in the am that night and John saw it overflowing at 7ish! Crazy!

for Nonna{grandma in Italian}

Love, Mary Beth :)

oh what a night...{nights}

(picture taken by Craig Gerlach for the Fargo Forum)

Last night was CRAZY! We were awoken out of a dead sleep at 1:30am to the sound of the tornado siren going off. Then we ran down to check the tv(1 of the 3 channels we get with rabbit ears) and they said the worst part of the storm was heading toward downtown Fargo and get in the basement. But I didn't want to wake the kids! I decided we better be safe than sorry so down we all went(MB was delirious) and meanwhile... nothing happened. Just some lightening. I wouldn't say I was disappointed exactly... but SOMETHING to justify waking us all up and ruining a perfectly lovely night's sleep would have been nice. Jeez.
THEN at 4ish a BIG storm came through(just a thunderstorm, no tornado warning) and it would have been fine EXCEPT it eventually knocked out the power so my box fan that blows right on me from the window sill and saves me from from death by heat stroke each night- turned off. (side note: the air conditioning refuses to make an appearance in our bedroom so even though it was on and all the kids were comfy- it was still 106 degrees in our room) Then after I managed to fall back asleep MB showed up to let me know that the power was indeed off in her room too. Thank you peanut! Then the thunder was SO loud without my fan to drown it out that I had to shut my window. This resulted in my room changing temperature to 135 degrees with a humidity of 100%. I tossed and turned for the next 2 hours, sweating and hallucinating until John's alarm(battery powered) went off 3 times(pet peeve) and I mumbled something about not leaving me there with a bunch of rancid food to deal with from the warm fridge. He ignored my "lunacy", per usual, and went to get ready for work. The power came on an hour later and my fan sent me back into a happy nap. Best night EVER. And by best I mean worst.

And now for tonight. Here's what we did- Applebees-yum! thanks again Amber!- (she gave us a $25 coupon/voucher thing) and then off to Target for this...

Now, I went to Target with the whole fam(mistake number 1) and was armed with 8 million coupons(mistake #2) with the expectation that since all of them were legit everything would work out perfectly at the register(mistake #3). I even split the stuff up between me and John so that there would be less to keep track of(mistake #4). Low and behold- it was agonizing going through all 44 of MY coupons with my cashier(I LOVE how Target puts out their own coupons but then their register always beeps when you use them) and then when I checked John's receipt I found a $3.50 coupon didn't come off and that turned into a 1/2 hour fiasco... Needless to say John and the kids were not happy campers and I'm vowing once again not to do that
1. with them and 2. using so many coupons at once. Oh well, all and all it turned out ok since I got all of that for $20 and I saved $100 in coupons. In case you are curious, that's: 8 boxes of kashi granola bars, 4 juice box packs, 3 bags of bare naked granola, 4 jugs of yogurt, 3 packs of pens, 2 packs of boys socks, 2 dishwasher Finish kits, 4 bagel bites(for John), 4 ritz cracker thing-ys, 4 cans of soup, 4 sobee waters, 5 pudding packs(occasional treats for lunch boxes), 4 willy wonka bars(free so what the heck- there might be a golden ticket inside!!), 3 diced peaches packs(treats again), 1 pack of markers for MB, and a partridge and a pear tree. Not too shabby I guess.
Now I'm off to lay in front of my fan and watch a couple more episodes of the Tudors- I'm obsessed!
Boy, this was a long post. Sorry. Good night everyone.