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MY SUN DAY NEWS

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Sun City in Huntley

News & Features Columnists Editorials Hang Your Hat Obituaries My Huntley News

October 22, 2015

Getting your garden ready for the wintertime

The process of tucking our children into bed has come full circle in our home. The nightly ritual used to be a very hands-on event for my husband and I.

Warding off animal damage

Lucky, our English Springer Spaniel has taught us many life lessons. Her perseverance regarding chasing squirrels is unmatched. The sliding glass door in our kitchen looks out onto our back yard. Each time she sees a squirrel, we let her out, and she runs full force towards the agile rodent and almost catches it.

Leaves of change

Mary, my daughter, and I have discovered common ground. As a very capable 17-year-old, there is not a lot her mom can help her with. Help with homework? Haven’t been able to do that since elementary school. Help with cleaning her room? She would prefer not. Advice regarding friends? Very dangerous territory. College applications? BINGO! This is something I can help her with. She has completed 9 applications and has 3 more to do. For years, she has been editing my newspaper columns, now I am able to edit her college essays. I am so grateful for the time spent on this project together.

Much ado about shrubs

Playing games while driving in the car has always been fun for our family. While traveling to Grayslake earlier this summer, we invented a new game. It is called ‘Dead Ash’. The concept is that whenever you see a dead ash tree you try to be the first to yell ‘Dead Ash’. Fortunately and not surprisingly, I won.

Cultivating experience

It seems that kind words so often come at just the right time. Although I try to be the one uttering the kind words, sometimes I am also the one hearing them.

What to do about weeding woes

“What is a weed? I have heard it said that there are sixty definitions. For me, a weed is a plant out of place,” Donald Cullross Peattie once said.

Green thumbs are also for turning pages

We are in the middle of the wonderful part of the year with our children. Summer means hanging out with the neighborhood kids, groups outings, staying up a bit late and sleeping in even later, seasonal jobs, and no homework except the perfunctory one book report due the first day of school.

Rain, rain go away, come back another day

For the Fourth of July holiday, my children Sarah and Christopher and I flew down to Texas. We try to carve out some family time each summer, and this time it was in conjunction with witnessing my cousin receiving a prestigious award from NASA, visiting with many friends and, of course, a college visit to Texas A & M University.

Gardening Q&A

The wealth of gardening knowledge and experiences in the Sun City community is vast and varied. Each and every day we all have the privilege to enjoy the beautiful plants that are in individual’s yards and the common areas.

Make way for the Monarch

Childhood memories can be deceiving. We might remember events slightly different than how they actually occurred or we might only remember bits and pieces of events. Sometimes touchstone moments bring clarity or intensity to a memory so that it is forever with us.

Does your house have curb appeal?

When I was a little girl, Friday nights were spent going out to dinner. We frequently went to Number 10 Downing Street in Dundee. I didn’t understand where its name originated, but I did thoroughly enjoy eating the free popcorn and watching them cook our food through the large glass windows that looked into the kitchen.

Don’t just be a gardener, be an investigator, too

The harbingers of spring include forsythia, daffodils, and the sounds of birds. The sunny days and warmer temperatures allow us to be outside more. While outside, you might notice some plants that look concerning.

Color up your garden

Flowers just make the world seem like a better place. Although, most of us don’t plant the quantity of annual flowers that we used to, we still like to brighten up a few areas outside.

Walk, fly, or drive—Spring is here

November 5, 2014; the day our daughter Sarah turned 15 and not so coincidentally began driving a car. Her involvement in academic, athletic, and music activities didn’t leave her much time to practice driving. In late November, before the roads became snow covered, she and I started doing a bit of driving on Sunday mornings.

Time to gas up and tour your yard

I am responsible for the maintenance of 4 vehicles. They range from a 1995 Chevrolet pickup truck to a 2013 Honda Odyssey van. Three vehicles for business use, one for personal. Because several of the vehicles have not been driven in 4 months, I have spent the past few days, having them cleaned, filling them with fuel, making sure the insurance and registration papers are accurate and checking to see if they need to have an oil change.

Why I garden, why do you?

As the owner of a seasonal business, I am often asked “What do you do in the winter?” For many years, my stock answer was “I change diapers.” When you have three children all within three years and three months, you change a lot of diapers.

Make it a green-thumb holiday

Attending the Sun City Art and Craft Faire is a highlight for my daughter Mary and I. We each thoroughly enjoy shopping for the upcoming holidays in this relaxing environment. Each of the gifts we purchase are handmade, reasonably priced, and absolutely beautiful.

I see trees of green, red roses, too…and I think to myself…

“Health and cheerfulness naturally beget each other.” wrote Joseph Addison, an English poet. During a period of poor health for a family member, it was suggested that they start writing a Gratitude journal.

Better to play safe than sorry

In the last column, I addressed the trials and tribulations of being the mom of a 16-year-old young woman. While, the disagreements have subsided, we are now in the process of exploring college options. A road trip is planned to South Bend and West Lafayette, Indiana, a weekend getaway to College Station, Texas is scheduled, and a we will be attending yet another seminar at Elgin Community College regarding College Preparedness.

Don’t just sit around this autumn, take it by the wheel

My 16 year old daughter and I are struggling. It seems that every other day we argue about something. My straight-laced, couldn’t-tell-a-lie-if-her-life-depended-on-it daughter is still infinitely dependable and honest; we just continue to butt heads.

Dare to be different in your garden

Things that are different always seem to attract the most attention. A bright yellow car among grey and black vehicles may get a second look. A particularly tall person, pardon the pun, stands out in a crowd. As a redhead, unfortunately, I knew by the time I was 5 that I was different.

Make your garden perennially colorful

It seems we all want the most out of our purchases. Weather it is a Diet Coke filled up to the very top, a new appliance that runs more efficiently than the old one, or a cell phone that is also a calculator, gaming device, and weather predictor. Throughout the summer I have spoken to many homeowners that are requesting perennial flowers that have flowers on them for several months.

Like having a gardener on speed dial

My daughter holds those around her to very high standards. She has the same standards for herself. As her mom, she expects me to fill out school forms promptly (this is not an easy task, I might add), keep the household running smoothly, and provide love and guidance when needed.

Inspiring minds want to grow

When I was in fourth grade, our teacher, Mrs. Crane, used to read to us every afternoon after recess. One afternoon, she read a story called “The Last Leaf” by O. Henry. In the story, a woman named Johnsy is stricken with pneumonia and lies dying in her hospital bed. Her bed faces a window and on the brick wall outside her window is a vine.

It’s time to play ball with your garden

Last evening my family and I had the privilege of watching Jake Goebbert of the San Diego Padres play at Wrigley Field. My husband had previously put an embargo on me attending baseball games with him because I was more interested in sampling the food at the stadium than watching the action on the field.

Illinois, not so borrrrrrrrrring

As Sarah, my daughter, Christopher, my son and I were walking into the Galena Farmer’s Market last Sunday, Christopher noticed two men in their 20s, sitting on a bench intently studying something on their smart phone screen. While Sarah was looking at the beautiful white flowers on the hydrangeas and I was thinking how much I love Farmer’s Markets, Christopher quickly began summing up the back story of the two people sitting on the bench. He, rightly or wrongly, assumed they were international tourists.

Eating your garden never tasted so good

The complex English language is ever evolving to include new words or phrases. Google, DIYer, and hashtag are words that weren’t part of our everyday language until recently (and for some, they still are not). It seems that the term ‘gardening’ is ever evolving as well.

Paving the path to paver maintenance

The harsh winter not only affected our evergreen and marginally hardy shrubs but also other outdoor features such as sidewalks and patios. This column addresses maintenance of paved surfaces.

Paving the way to beautiful landscaping

It seems that a person’s first home will always have special meaning to them. The first kitchen where you cook your first meals, the first dining room where you host your first family meal for a holiday, the first walls where, for good or for bad, you choose the colors of paint.

Winter wear makes for wary start

Between 7:05 and 8:15 a.m. is one of my favorite times of the day in our home. At 7:06 after my daughters have rushed straight from the bathroom to the bus, I gently wake up my son and say “Good Morning.” He gets up and begins his morning routine while I begin mine.