I apologize for responding so late. Life took priority for a bit. Vegetative waste: I have access to the FREE mulch from the Comal county recycle center. I was thinking of purchasing a chipper shredder and running the free mulch through (to speed decomposing and availability) and just cover the area with the resulting product. I have not set up a watering system of any sort and the ground already has huge cracks in it that will only get worse as we go into the dog days of summer.... What do you think of my plan? Keep in mind free is for me. I have not yet looked for manure availability (other than my four alpaca's manure and chicken droppings/bedding)

Sorry guys - we went on a camping trip for the week. It was SOOO nice to be away from cell phones, texting and drama for a while! So lets see . . . SD and I have deep talks about boys, sex, responsibility, pressure, priorities - you name it - ALL the time! It's pretty much a nightly standard - we both look forward to it. It's difficult though - she knows all the 'right' things and can talk and agree with me on all the 'right' things, but when it comes down to it I don't really believe that she will do the 'right' things. The 'wrong' things can be so much more fun and so much more in sync with what everyone else is doing, and at the end of the day I don't know that all my talking and explaining will keep her from going down the path of her mom. I guess this is a standard concern every parent has, but it's so much more in my face because of her mom's example. With regard to SD's sister - yes, we are very worried. We're trying to come up with a way to alert her father as to what is happening without throwing SD under the bus at the same time. More to hopefully come on that. Yes, SD is there for a week at a time for summer break. She is already talking about not wanting to be there for extended weekends once school starts, but mom isn't so thrilled about that. We could attempt to go back to court for it, but I'm hoping once BM gets tired of the driving and SD's complaining things will work out that way naturally. SOOOO - fast forward to today. DH and I met with BM to talk about SD's abundance of time with her (SD's) boyfriend and share our concerns about things we've learned/noticed about him. That part went okay - BM didn't really 'get it' until we started talking, but I think we made our points. Then DH broached BM's dating and pulling SD (and her sister) into it so early on. BM totally doesn't get it. She thought it would be best to let SD decide when she wanted to meet the new men. DH said no - this isn't a choice for her to make. It's not safe, it's not setting a good example. etc. I explained further than SD will look to her mom on dating since I am not, so we want to make sure she has a good picture of appropriate for age 14 dating. BM kind of laughed that she could be the what not to do role model, and I replied maybe SD doesn't need to meet all the 'misses' and just meet the 'hit' when you KNOW that he is - then she wouldn't have an idea that BM was doing something 'not to do.' BM thoughtfully seemed to agree with that. OH - I forgot to mention. Since last Monday - 7 days ago - BM dumped the guy from the weekend, met a new guy online and has seen him three times already - already took her other daughter to the zoo with his kids. Her theory, as she told us, is that her daughters are her world so she wants a potential BF to meet them right away. GOOD FREAKIN' GRIEF - seriously?? How about sheltering them from your need to get your hump on? Though the talk ended on a good note, she was understandably a bit put off. It wasn't easy to bring up her dating life, and we treaded very lightly. What left DH and I shaking our heads is how clueless and self centered she is . . . and the fact that she will NEVER see that. Just to listen to her is mind blowing. Me Me ME! I guess I feel a little better, but I know BM won't change. At least now we can tell a judge we tried if it comes to it. I just worry every day about what SD will pick up from her, and what I don't even know about that I can't counter-attack. Teen age girls are hard enough - teen age girls with a suddenly trampy, self centered mom are hell!! :)

ok,,so lets start w/the kitchen. well, paint colors actually. it's ok to do different colors in other rooms,,,if you can see both rooms, slightly, then either do the same or do similar coordinating tones. The rest of the advice is if you plan on keeping what's there. If you're going to rip it out and get a new kitchen in a year, then live w/it if you can. If this is all you can do for many years, then see if the changes, below, are something you can do. if you plan on keeping all of that wood trim (if it was me, I'd prob paint every thing except the beams on the ceiling, and maybe the trim going up the staircase. In the kitchen you have so many dark and heavy elements, I feel you need to lighten it up. I can live w/the black tile, for now, but that brick? hell no. that has to get painted. You can paint the brick on the island, or, I'd cover it up w/panels/trim and paint it a soft charcoal to match the floor (or whatever color you like) Grab some thin wood or mdf panels from HD or lowes and cut to fit the 3 sides. Use construction adhesive to adhere to bricks (or get some masonry screws and screw them in) then get some 1x2 primed trim pieces and secure all around the borders..like so if you want a bit fancy, do the stiles along the back (above,,the vertical pieces) otherwise, just do it like pictured below. see how nice and clean looking it is? More ideas, search "trimming out kitchen island". you could try doing it in this color or if you feel like you want to have a painting party, do all of the cabinets in one, two or all four as they've outlined. This combo would look great w/your flooring. you kitchen ceiling needs to be skim coated and smooth out. or, have it retextured, primed and painted in a flat bright white. if you will be getting some retro fit recessed lights (Costco LED's,,,great price) then wait until the holes are done for those. Minimum of six 6" cans (8 would be better) , and two spots for pendants over the island. BTW, replacing the top on the island is a piece of cake. either check a granite fabricator yard for a remnant piece (you have a slender top so it should be easy to find) or look on craigslist for a remnant or even an entire island, or get an inexpensive butcher block and cut it yourself to fit. Whatever you get, leave an extra couple inches off the back end for an overhang. you could do a few more inches. The brick around your oven? paint it. white, black, gray, pick one. use a satin paint for that. clean and scrub that brick very well before you PRIME it (if using a dark paint, prime it with a gray primer. white for white,,,but don't skip the priming part) as for baseboards, if they're all small and short, pull them and replace w/these. Any questions? and yes, if you have the budget, call in a designer to help you out with what needs to be done, what should be done, etc.

Since your in MN and spring weather is just hitting with the snow finally leaving, there are a few things you can do as the sun starts to be out longer and temps warm up. First priority would be getting on the leaves and sticks out of the yard so it's not smothering the turf. Depending how many leaves/sticks this could be done a few ways. You might need to stick to rakes and blowers instead of a mow and bag. Either way, once the yard is cleaner take a look at the ground, it might be so compact and shady that just throwing seed down won't help much. If you're really serious about getting fuller and thicker turf, you might be be best having a local company that takes care of turfs recommend a course of action for you which could include spring aeration and seeding, and maybe fertilizer. If the soil isn't to bad though it might just need some seed and maybe some fertilizer. It's still relatively early landscaping season in MN, the grass just turned green here in central Iowa within the last two weeks. So you should be able to do some work to get things looking better before grasses really start to kick in.