Now I don't feel so bad!

As some of you know, I have been working on my house, and I shall continue to stay strong and do so, but this Mama of many gets it. And now, I don't feel so bad! <3 What a realistic encouragement!

Cleaning house

I have been cleaning and organizing on our house bit by bit, because we would like to put it on the market. While I'm in the mood, but need a break, I thought I'd clean up my bookmarks, and link you to some of the wonders I've come across lately! Here they are by category:

Parenting the littles (food, teaching, and projects):

Weelicious--making (mostly) healthy baby and toddler foods

Bake or Break--fun and realistic recipes

The Write Start--exciting emergent writer ideas

This Little Project--all sorts of neat ideas and recipes--even how to make your own tap shoes! ;)

How to make a Rainbow Cake--totally groovy!

Baking Bites


Crafty goodness:

U create

Toddler t-shirt dress tutorial with ruffles!

Ruffly dress made of a button up shirt

Do it yourself laundry drying rack

Lots of refinishing examples

The Market Skirt tutorial

Twirly Skirt tutorial

Pillowcase dress

Two straight lines-- a mom sharing her homemade things

Chair backers for Valentine's Day--Sooo cute!

Organization/decorating:

Thrifty Decor Chick

Mommy track'd--tools and templates for free!

Flylady.net--how to get rid of C.H.A.O.S. (can't have anyone over syndrome) in the home (I'm working on it!)

Food Storage for a year--mostly I like the from scratch recipes--still looking into this!

The Nester

Like Merchant Ships

Great deals--or steals:

A clearing house of sorts--Dealsucker

Woot.com--mostly an electronics deal a day

Steep and cheap--outdoor equipment and clothes--a new deal every 20 minutes or so

Babysteals--got a shower to go to? Or a little one in your life? This rocks!

Scrapbooksteals

Is summer finally here?

After months of sub 80s weather, which is actually really nice. We have had a few days in the 90s with "oppressive" humidity according to the weather man. What else do you do but haul out the sprinkler and have a baby photo shoot?

Trying to spray mommy and Baby Adelynne

Run Away!

Hee hee--whatever's comfortable!

This is when we went in. How sad is that?! That's my itty-bitty baby's blood spilled by that nasty mosquito! That and Nehemiah started to play in the water coming out of the washing machine spout thingy, and I was washing Adelynne's diapers--eww!!!

We are Family!

When Ben and I got married, one of my friends DJ-ed our wedding for us. It was a blast, and one of the songs he played was, *We are Family*. I'll never forget dancing to it with my new brother-in-law Peter. We are so fortunate that we are family, and I love that my children are realizing those blessings too! Here are some pictures from their recent visit. Unfortunately many of the Adelynne pictures I have came out blurry--uugh!

The Aww Factor

Ahh, small town living

Today is the kick-off of the Cornfest in our neighboring town. As such, Ben was asked to march in the parade for the VFW Color guard, so we went to see all the fuss. Dani, Esther, and another camp friend joined us in the festivities.

We spotted our mail lady, Marty, and got a pre-parade photo:

Here's the collage of events:

Look at that haul!

And the sweetest face. <3

I, Climbin'!

Nehemiah has started enjoying the climbing wall out at camp recently...with help, of course!

More Dutch BB pwease, Mom!

Is what rang in my ears this morning when my first attempt came out like this. Sweet success!

Mmm...breakfast!

I was going to make this this morning until I got to the end...I think I better wait until I have more participants in breakfast than just Nehemiah and I, or I might eat it all! It looks yummy and different--I want to mix things up! ;)



Easy-Bake Dutch Baby - More DIY How To Projects

The one with the bear...

So, this is Adelynne and I just prior to setting out after Nehemiah on a walk on the trail around our land...

Nehemiah found some wild raspberries to pick, and I went to investigate some odd scat while he munched away (after taking this photo)...

You see, I was going to take a picture of the scat to show Ben, because I knew it was from a big animal--as in over 100 pounds, because it looked bigger than Maltby's poop. Then again, I thought it might be puke. So I started to focus the camera to take the picture--this is how it came out...

Looks like a shot from a horror flick, and I was pretty sure it would be too, because as I clicked the button with Adelynne in the sling and an obstinate Nehemiah 30 feet away picking raspberries, there was a great rustling in the brush nearby.

Yeah, I grabbed a very perturbed Nehemiah and hoofed it back to the yard with both of them in arms to tell Ben (who was mowing the lawn), and to get Maltby (who was chasing a phantom creature under our porch, because every time he walks on it the boards squeak, and he thinks his prey is underfoot). My heart was a-poundin' because I know that there are bears, mountain lions, and timberwolves that all range through our area, but I hadn't seen a sign that close to our house before.

Ben's report was that it was black and runny like bear scat (partly why I thought it might be puke), that it reeked when poked, that the dog didn't even notice it, and that if it is indeed bear poop, it was actually a pretty small series of piles.

So either we have a little bear, or a wolf or cougar with intestinal issues.

Great! *rolls eyes; voice dripping with sarcasm*

Here we are, just keepin' it rural!

Fun with the littles!

Yeah, she's starting life out in the popular crowd! ;)

Sibs rocking the baseball t's

One of Nehemiah's obsessions is climbing everything!


Adelynne in her sling, with mama, outside, chasing Crazy!I think he needs his jump wings now!