Gratitude Journals-My grandchildren

Tyler and Lauren's Gratitude Journals

McKenna & Brooklynn's Gratitude Journals

A page from McKenna's journal.

A page from Tyler's journal.

I did a 30 day project with my grandchildren that were old enough to understand about being thankful for things. Each day for one month I had them write '3' things that they were grateful for. In turn each day I sent them '3' things that I was thankful for. If I were to do this again I would only ask them to write '2' things they were thankful for. It's kind of hard to think of '3' things everyday. It's not hard for an adult.

It was a fun project and I looked forward each day reading an email from them. Some have completed their 30 days and some it is a work in progress. I told their parents that I would type up all their entries and make up a journal for them and send it to them for a keepsake. I typed them just like they wrote them, no spell check or punctuation. They were precious the way they were! I hope they will save them and read them 5 years from now! That will be fun for them! :o)

Holy Mole Hills! :o0

This is a picture of Spearmint Gum with one stick outside the package. The package holds 15 pieces. On the left side of the box of gum is a very small mole hill. That is because the larger side is on my neighbor's side of our fence.


When we moved into our home last October there were two large mole hills along the dirt berm by the backyard fence. I never bothered them. The mounds would get large, but they didn't seem to multiply.

Over the winter the two mole hills went away. I flattened them and they didn't come back. However, this past week two new ones popped up. Hmmm. My neighbor said that he has not had moles in his front yard until recently. He thinks they came from his neighbor on the other side of his home. Well, I think they migrated into my backyard! This next door neighbor went away for 4 days and asked if I would take care of all their outside hanging plants, 22 of them. I was happy to serve!

My niece Angela Kenner said that using Spearmint gum helps get rid of moles; she had first hand experience with success. So I put a stick of gum in both mole holes. Well yesterday I went out to check on things and whoa! I had '8' new small mole mounds! Holy mole hills! I guess they didn't care for the Spearmint gum as they moved 10 feet farther down the fence line away from the gum! So I put a stick of gum in each of the 8 holes and covered them back up. I sort of flattened the dirt so if any new ones popped up I could tell which were the new ones.

Today I went out there and 'no new mounds.' However, I did notice that the neighbor had '2' that must be on his side of our fence and the small mounds crested onto our side. I will watch and see if they grow bigger on my side and put 'more gum' out there. I'm going to have to buy another pack of gum. I only have 5 sticks left! I sure hope I won't need anymore! I guess it is true...moles don't like Spearmint gum! :o)

Grandma Valdine's new picket fence!

Grandma Valdine's home with her new picket fence.

Another view of the fence.

One more view.

Kirsten's favorite place to be---in her Grandma's lap! :o)

We went down to Oregon for the 4th of July weekend. Jordan and Lisa had a special occasion. Jordan blessed Adelaide at church today. Adelaide was good for the most part. She is sooo sweet! Jordan gave her a beautiful blessing.

Kirsten always gets so excited whenever we go down to Oregon. Kirsten just loves her Grandma Valdine soooo much! It's her most favorite place to be! :o)

Grandma got a new picket fence! We had taken part of our picket fence out along one side of our backyard. The developer told Neil he could have the picket fence at the model home just across the street from us as he liked how we were having a taller backyard fence put in and he wanted them to match. Neil took out both lengths of picket fence and took them down to Oregon.

Out with the old rail fence and in with the almost new picket fence! It was only 6 months old.

Scott, Neil's brother, hired a college student working a summer job at PGE to install and paint the picket fence. When Neil took the fence out, it got a few scratches and where he dug out the posts, it needed repainting. The young man Scott hired didn't have quite enough fence to finish along the side yard and had to buy materials and build the last section. He installed and repainted the entire fence. He did a wonderful job! Grandma's fence is beautiful and she loves it! She's already had several people stop by and tell her how nice it looks. Grandma wanted the corner left with the ivy covered brick. When they had the other rail fence in several people had backed into that corner and Darrell used to have to repair it. He fixed that problem by putting brick there. I like the green colored ivy there. It looks nice.

If you notice, Grandma's roses and Rhodie plants looks so nice. Neil had cut the Rhodie's back quite far. They were just too huge. They are coming along nicely and next Spring she should have some beautiful blooming Rhodies! They will be much more manage to trim.