I knew there was a such thing as Children's Day. I just never thought of it as a gift-giving-celebrating-with-family kind of thing. Not like Mother's Day or Valentines Day. I thought it was about awareness- like Earth Day. I didn't think it was about me and my children, but children's issues. Awareness of the issues around children's health/well-being, like disease, poverty, abuse, homelessness, disasters. I would have associated Children's Day with something like a fundraiser, safety fair... a drive for awareness. Not dinners and gifts or family outings. But, I didn't know it was yesterday, or even in June. ;o) So what do I know? Obviously, I didn't do anything out of the ordinary with my kids yesterday. I didn't even take them to the community pool. I did their laundry, and fed them. I left the house for a while so I could come home and be nicer. ;o)

Well, once again, I did it! I have a tendency to shop until I drop ... all the while forgetting what I've already gotten for the kids! When the time comes to pull it all out and wrap it up, I think "oh crap, look at all this stuff I bought them!" ... :-) But you know what? I take great joy in seeing their faces. In watching them enjoy their new things ... especially when they open something they *really, really* wanted! Priceless! This year my kids got many gift certificates, and yesterday we took the kids shopping with their gift certificates. My husband told me after we got home that my stepdaughter spent one of her certificates on a birthday gift for me (my birthday's in a few days). How special is that? I'm humbled and honored!

I love how her room is coming along! It's fun,sophisticated, and entirely appropriate. The wood tones fit in really well. I didn't go into my personal experience with letting children choose their decor, but overall my attitude is that they should have choice within a set of parameters; I have boys who are not highly opinionated and my decor style is not highly feminine.

Pip, you lost me..... I said many of my fruit ripen and yes, I do get sweet fruit.Just not as good as the southern states in the middle of winter and I don't think any of us can even come as close as to that climate at best without the perfect set up which a majority of us do not have. Many ripen on my porch at cool temps and many ripen as soon as I put them out in spring. Many ripen in my work place and in my sunny greenhouse..It varies... What I think is extremely counter production is, trying to ripen them in a room only limited with winter sun in doors...They fall off, stay small. get bugs, or dry out. So if wants wants fruit just as good as the southern states, they must invest in a place that provides lots of sun and warmth, but cool nights too. ) Hey Hobby, great to see a happy person back one that knows how to treat others...I hear you..Many are afraid to cut trees back, let alone roots, which everyone eventually should do growing in containers..It keeps them very healthy..