Handbag Planet Contest

I love bags, so I just had to enter this contest. To promote themselves, they are giving away free handbags! Go check it out at Handbag Planet!!

Do You Have a Plant Question?

I want to start posting more on Turn Your Thumb Green (my gardening blog) but I don't know what to write about. I want to write about various topics that would actually help people, so I thought I'd ask if any of you have plant questions?? If you ask them, either in a comment on this blog, over there, or in email, I'll answer them!

So, if you have had a problem with something, want to find information on a certain topic or plant, want to know what to plant where or just have a black thumb and need all the help you can get, ask away!! Feel free to ask about indoors, outdoors, fruit, vegetables, ornamental plants or anything you can think of!

I mostly need to keep up my knowledge. I got my degree in horticulture about two years ago and since at the moment, I am a stay-at-home-mom, I haven't kept my information sharp and always in my brain. I want to be able to answer questions better and to know things for my own family garden!

Banned Books Week

I just wanted to make you all aware that we are in Banned Books Week. I am going to make sure to download a banned book at manybooks.net. I can read it on my Palm Pilot, since I try to keep it in my pocket. Here is a list of the frequently banned books. Go read one, just to be rebellious!

I can't believe some of the books that are on the lists! I should be the one to decide what I want to read. If a person or group disapproves of a certain book, fine. Let them skip it, but I should be allowed to decide for myself what I read and what my kids read. I skip books, but there is no reason that I should be allowed to decide for someone else!

Ambrosia

A neighbor offered us peaches if we'd come to pick them. I jumped on the chance! I love peaches! It was a lot of fun, especially for Princess. She loves helping and this was a new experience for her.

I have been eating tons of peaches, since she and I are the only ones who will eat them in our house. I just

I even made freezer jam for the first time! It was so much easier than I thought it would be.

It is the most amazing tasting jam I have ever had. I most just eat it with a spoon. It isn't going to last very long...hate the super fuzz that is on non-store bought peaches.



I learned that the "fuzzy mouth" way!

Straight From the Composer's Mouth

"Normal cats have happy lives!"

Princess was heard singing this made up song as she played with animals and blocks, this morning!

What hope do I have as a non-normal individual??

My Princess and I

I was feeding Doodle, so Princess decided that her baby was crying and needed to be fed. I helped her undo her overalls and pull up her shirt so that she could nurse her baby, too. She wanted a nursing blanket and pillow as well. It was adorable! I got pictures, but they're still on my camera.

Now, our babies are both sleeping so she is watching TV, and even though I should be cleaning my house because a friend is going to drop her son off in about a half an hour...I'm here playing on the internet!

We Both Read

I got to go to the library ALONE! It was so nice to actually get to look at books all by myself, rather than only getting to look at kid's books or chasing Princess around the library, while she laughs and screams!

Anyway, while I was there, I looked our library's easy reader section. I found a great series of books. They're called "We Both Read". In each book, the left page is for the adult and the right side is for the child to read. They also make some words bold on both sides so that the child can see the new word while the parent is reading and then read it for themselves. It is so neat. Link loves them! He can have a more complicated story, but still be able to read the story, too. He stays a lot more engaged in the story. It is a lot easier for me to stay interested in the story as well. He is a great reader, and these help us to keep that going!

There are dozens of titles in various age ranges. I am so excited to buy several!

You can buy them at We Both Read or Amazon.

Where have you been?

visited 25 states (50%)
Create your own visited map of The United States or determine the next president

It looks like I have more traveling to do to make it to the other half!

Recognized Obsession

I was sitting at the park with some friends and we started talking about the things that we just have to have and spend money on. I realized that mine is having a project, especially a crochet project. I spend a lot of my extra money on yarn, ribbon and other craft related items.

I finished another project on Wednesday and I found myself project-less. I felt wrong. I simply needed a project to feel okay with the world. I quickly started looking for something to crochet. It's a sickness, I know. I realized that I had an idea waiting for me. I'm now working on a pink crown for Princess. She is excited. I just hope it works out. And, all is well with the world, again!

Super Cute!

The other day I was trying to get a picture of Doodle smiling. I didn't really get what I wanted, but I got some really cute shots of her--Like this one!


This is an old picture, but I have been meaning to blog with it for a while! Princess is a great big sister. She is really helpful, sometimes too helpful. She loves to do anything she can for Doodle. I hope they develop a great relationship!

First Grade Pictures

Link has been bring home the most hilarious drawings! I just thought I'd share some here. I love it! He is so funny!

He really does love to play with is sister and has a fabulous imagination!


This one says, "I can play dead". What a nut.

Crafty

I've been able to get some projects finished, lately! I have been enjoying being crafty, especially crocheting with carpal tunnel gone!

I have been wanting to make a hanger for the headbands and hair bows that we have been collecting. I saw something similar to this online, but I thought a hook for the headbands would be nice.


I found this star at Wal-Mart, painted it and added the ribbon on the sides. I love how it turned out. It really makes it easier for doing little girls' hair to see what is available. Now I can go make more bows and have a great place to keep them!


I finished this doll. Her name is Molly. She has become a quick favorite, even before she had a face, hair or clothes! I found the pattern here. I used crochet thread rather than normal yarn, for a smaller doll. I want to make one for Doodle, too.


Now I am on to another project (or three)I finished the hat that I have been working on for a long time. I think it turned out pretty well!

Baby Blessing

We had Doodle's baby blessing last Sunday. (I know, I'm late with pictures, but what can I say?)

It was a beautiful day and everything went well, except of course that I am cursed to have something go wrong with food when I make it for other people. Everything tasted great, but looked weird! Grr!

Doodle behaved herself and did great during the blessing. He looked great, too! My MIL made the blessing dress. It is amazing!

I still want to do a photo shoot with her in her dress, but we were too tired to do any more than this.

Just So You Know...

I let my feed reader get way out of hand and I just can't look at everything. I just can't get to it as often. I decided to start fresh. I hope I didn't miss anything too wonderful! I'm just going to have to live with not knowing. If you wrote or read something fabulous that I have to read...let me know!!

I think I may need to cut back on the number of blogs I check...

Gardening, Again!

I am so excited to be gardening! I went out this morning, with Princess, while Doodle was sleeping.

I didn't actually make anything grow, but I weeded, moved rocks, removed lots of random trash, and pulled out two of the dead fruit trees. Don't be too impressed. The trees have been dead for years and were really brittle. But, they did make my muscles sore.

Princess is a great little rock collector. She had a lot of fun and it was a job that she could be truly helpful at! The kids are now making piles of rocks to go in their personal gardens. They are so excited and cute about their gardens! I love it!

It is nice to see definite progress that I caused. CM has done a lot out there, but I haven't been able to. I like it. I wonder how many days I'll be able to do that. It is hard to catch the long naps before they are gone. I never know if it is going to be a good one or not.

I'd post pictures, but there isn't a lot to show at this point.

Why, Oh, Why? (Please love me anyway!)

Why is it that as I was sitting at a park day with friends does one of them have to bring up politics? Especially, HER?

Why do I have to read and mostly enjoy a book, but really and truly hate it, when everyone else seems to think it's been written by a wonderful author?

Okay, so maybe this isn't the most positive post, but I want to get this out anyway!

On Friday, I was sitting with some friends and one of them asked what we all thought of Sarah Palin. Immediately, all of them except for two (one who doesn't keep up with politics and me) gushed about how much they love her! They really didn't talk much about her politics, but more about her attitude and the fact that she is a mom. They were of course all moms, but that is hardly a reason to vote for someone. I honestly think Sarah Palin is about the last person I want to be in line to be president! (If you haven't seen it already, go read this. This is worth reading, too.) Honestly, someone who is that controlling and manipulative is seriously looking like a fascist, to me.

So, I didn't say anything, but I really wanted to.

And on to the book. I just finished reading Breaking Dawn, by Stephenie Meyer. To start, I did read it in three days, so I enjoyed it. But... when I even think about it a little bit, I hate some of the things she did with it. I think my biggest complaint is that she wrote these books for teenage girls. There are things that are grossly inappropriate for girls to be reading. They don't need to think that life it the way it is painted in this book. I know, I know, it's just a story, and furthermore, it's written about vampires, but still. There is way to much s*x, too much of the idea that "life will be better after this horrible life I'm living" and too much emphasis placed on how beautiful they become and how that makes Bella feel so much better about herself. We are all human and teenagers hate enough things about themselves to have these ideas put into their heads. I understand the need for an escape...what do you think reading this book provided me? I just think that Ms. Meyer takes things too far. While I'm at it, there are so many better books written for that age that are SO much better. There are better writers that don't take twice as long to say something as they need!

Okay, I'm done. I hope you all still love me...oh and I'm really not a left-wing Democrat or anything. I just have more moderate views and the Republicans are trying to be so far right at the moment that it really irritates me!

Fine Tuning

I have decided on a new goal for myself. I want to be less critical, negative and judgmental. I know, I've tried before, but this time I really want to work hard at this.

We had a Sunday School lesson in which a really good analogy was made:

When you hit a tuning fork and then move it close to another object, the object resonates with the same sound.

When we are negative and "vent", we not only don't feel better afterwards, we usually lead the person we are talking to down to further negativity, as well.

I don't want to be that kind of influence on others anymore. Heck, I don't want to be that kind of influence on me anymore!

So, I think it would be more effective to replace a bad behavior with a good one. What better than if I feel the need to be negative or share a story that would only make me and the hearer more negative, I'll say something good. I suppose keeping my mouth shut would also be effective if there isn't anything nice to say!

Happy Birthday to Me!

That's right. It's my thirtieth birthday, and I'm not ashamed to claim it! I feel young and healthy. I really think age is more about how you feel, act and think than really a number. Numbers tell you how long you've been around, not what you know or how well you've figured life out!

I actually celebrated my birthday, yesterday. I got most of my presents and had my cake. (carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, mmmmm) Since CM was home from work and Link was home from school, we were able to have a fun family day, today. Tomorrow is going to be a normal back to life kind of day with errands and laundry. I'm glad I got a fun day off with my family. I didn't even have to make breakfast or lunch--we had breakfast at church (for labor day) and lunch at my MIL's house.

I did really well, this year! I got CDs, a video game, fancy hair product, a microwave (ours was dying), a book, new clothes, a tree for our yard, my haircut (early), and a book. I'll still get a couple more things from my bro and sis-in-laws when I see them.

So, I hope you have a great day! I get to go have my 6 week check up! I probably should have scheduled it differently, but oh well!