When life gives you cinder blocks. . .

So I am thinking creating a new phrase inspired by this old one:

"When life gives you lemons, make lemonade!"

Let me explain.

When we moved here, we were planning to move our satellite with us. I never thought I would even like a satellite dish, but I am so addicted now. I love the children's programming! I love that we get an east coast and west coast feed - so if I miss something, it plays again, later. I most especially love that we do not have to start over each time we move. With the phone, we have to have a new account with a different company every new place we go. BUT with DirecTv, we get to move our already established account with us. Awesome!

The only problem is that since we live on post, we cannot attach anything to the house structure itself. No problem; at Ft. Stewart, we mounted it on a pole. Problem solved. When it was time to move, we were required to dig up the pole and take it away. The pole costs like $125, so David, my frugal husband hauled this long pole in his cute little Volvo all the way from GA to IL. This was no easy task!!

He signs for our new house and we ask for permission to put up a dish. Permission granted. The only catch is that we cannot attach the dish to the house, but we also cannot "dig a hole" in the backyard. A little tough to install a satellite on a pole with no hole, wouldn't you agree?

Our installation guy had a solution. He could use a "sled" and secure it with cinder blocks. Apparently having four large dead spots in the grass is better than a small hole. David agreed, and we were in business.

I decided that these cinder blocks, while they are serving a very important purpose, were not very aesthetically pleasing. So this weekend, the kids and I had a project: make planters!

We started with this:

We ended up with this:


Pardon the lack of pictures of the actual planting process because the flowers, who were having dirt dumped on them, needed my undivided attention to survive!! A special thanks to Michelle who sent the kiddos garden tools. They used them and LOVED them so much!

The kids are loving keeping their new flowers watered!

And I think they are just lovely.

So, when life gives you cinder blocks, make planters with beautiful flowers! Hee-hee!!