Pictures That Make Me Smile

Some fun/good things that have happened recently:

Abigail had a dance recital in June (I'll have to update with a picture of her leg currently in a cast!).

Mama and eldest baby shot :)

Garden work in the spring....notice Jacob's choice of footwear and the two monkeyshines in the back. Those two little girls can be the best buddies ever or really be pushing each other buttons, amIright?

This person (my brother's beautiful wife) is about to have a baby.....practically any minute!! We are on baby watch. Today they are supposed to watch my kids, but any plans being made end with, "unless you are having the baby".

We hired a tree guy to take this sucker out. It was a leaning (right over my chicken coop), creaking mess. My husband cut up the firewood (3 smaller trees as well) and said we had enough wood for a week or two this winter. Sigh. Firewood is a big job!

Well, Wednesday calls, folks! TTFN!

Monday Mashup

Little man Jacob came in today from his garden patch with an armload of zucchini. He had to go back out to pick a couple of cherry tomatoes and a little yellow squash. His garden patch is working for him!

I don't know about you, but I am ready for some tomato sandwiches! We've just had the tiny tomatoes coming in so far. What is up with my basil this year? It is sad and does not seem to like the garden patch :(

My eight year old Abigail is having a big summer. She fractured her leg on the 4th of July, and she is just beginning some orthodontic treatment along with the extraction of two baby teeth. Woo! Five appointments in one week are making this mama tired, and it is just Monday!

Little Miss Lydia has been running a fever for several days. We are thankful she is now taking food and drink, but we are ready to have our sassy girl back! Susanna is having to run around and be extra cute to fill in the gaps.

We are on baby watch; my brother and his wife are ready for their little boy! Due date is July 20, so we are trying to fit in some last minute activities before he shows up. Hoping to squeeze in a restaurant outing tomorrow and some blueberry picking on Wednesday. We'll see!

Funny noises are coming from the chicken pen these days.....seems like one of our baby chickens is a rooster, and he is learning to crow! So far he seems rather docile; we'll have to decide his fate sometime soon!

Beddy bye time, friends! TTFN!

Snippets

My mind is bubbling over with all the spring happenings! Sorry for the utter randomness, but isn't that part of the fun? Activities lately have included:

1. Vegetable garden. Tomatoes, 3-4 varieties of peppers, basil, a little zucchini and yellow squash, a few cucumbers, beets, and carrots that I thought I planted but cannot seem to find. Oldest girl and boy have their own patches of the sweetest haphazardness you have ever seen. Sticks and stones mark the rows, and we seem to have lost a whole packet of sunflower seeds in the garden somewhere :)

2. Herb garden. Forgive the list, but I need to write this down somewhere.....3-4 varieties of lavender, pineapple sage, regular sage, 4 varieties of mint, tarragon, 2 kinds of chives, 4 varieties of thyme, oregano, lemon balm, rosemary, etc.

3. Perennials. Black eyed Susan, Columbine, Bleeding Heart, Pincushion Flower, Bee Balm, Poppies, Catmint (not catnip), a miniature rose, clematis (one needs replacing), etc. Some of these were Mother's Day and birthday gifts.

4. Birthday. Mine already and two children's coming up next week. Presents are being researched.....fancy cord for friendship bracelets and Ninjago knockoff figurines are on the list. Fancy yarn has been ordered for myself!!

5. Anniversary. My man has been mine for 14 years next week <3

6. Trip to OH last weekend. Still unpacking and playing catch up and thinking of all the fun we had with an aunt and uncle who are great cooks! Fun was had visiting cousins and a little second cousin.

7. Hard things. Church situations and family situations and health situations(don't we all have them?).

8. Knitting. Almost done test knitting a sweet pattern. Still working away on my cardigan huge-ness.

9. Big project. We have a huge, leaning tree that actually leans over the chicken coop. It needs to come down, so we are dealing with a tree-cutting-man right now. Looks like we may have to take out 3 other trees to get the beast of the leaning tree safely down.

10. Tired. A good tired at the end of the day is the best feeling! Sore shoulders and a bit of sunburn means we had a great day outside with work and ice pops and laughter and skinned knees and a glimpse of a deer down our driveway and a visit with grandparents and my aforementioned man right beside me for 30 minutes of couch sitting before bed.

Good night world! TTFN!

You Might be a Redneck (and Happy About it too) if:

1. The entire family is thrilled about yesterday's purchase of a used pickup truck.

2. Daddy's treat to Mama is to let her drive (30 minutes) it home all by herself whilst he hauls the minivan-load of kids.

3. Dusting the house is mainly centered around the dust caused by the baby chickens in the box in the living room.

4. The baby chickens have had their living quarters doubled by joining 2 cardboard boxes (with a little hole passageway) side by side.

5. The passageway for the baby chickens is rigged with Duck tape, so that no little baby chickens fall out.

6. The grass has not been mowed yet due to shopping for a lawn mower; and the phrase, "it doesn't really matter because no one can see us from the road." is thrown around.

7. The kids dress according to if anyone will see us today.

8. The kids are tempted with the possibility of their own garden patches, and their dreams are: sunflowers, beets, Bachelor's Buttons, carrots, and tomatoes.

9. Mama gets excited about finding a way (steam the eggs) to hard boil the freshest of eggs without having trouble peeling the shells.

10. Daddy and son design and create a raft to float in the pond in the hopes to watch turtles basking in the son.


Lovin' every minute! TTFN

Knitting....New Thing

With some new (beautiful) yarn in the shade "raspberry" I've started a big project. Raspberries must be on my mind; I've been watching youtube videos about how to prune and trellis the berry bushes with hopes of starting some this year. Anyway, the new cardigan is the "Channel Cardigan" pattern by Jared Flood. It is stretching my brain with new techniques, and I am loving the challenge. I think it may be done by winter :) Here is the beginning of a sleeve with a mix of moss stitch and a chevron panel:

I found some pictures on my camera from last week, so here is a lace blocking picture too (I take a while to get things blocked....have a small stack):

Joining in the weekly yarn along here:

What is That Noise?

Last night around 11 p.m. I asked my husband, who had recently climbed in bed, to get out of bed and explore a funny noise with me. Maybe asked isn't the right term. Maybe I urgently whispered from the doorway to please hurry up and come find out what the weird noise is that I just heard. The noise sounded like some kind of animal; it was loud and squeaky and maybe some kind of bird; but what kind of bird so loud at 11 o'clock at night? Could it be a raccoon or possum that would chase my chickens? My husband grabbed his flashlight and started searching.

First, he started where I heard it - the kitchen end of the house. Before opening the kitchen door to the side yard he shone the flashlight through the window. Nothing. Then, since he is so brave, he unlocked the door and went outside! He did a complete circle of the house looking for the origin of the noise and checking on the chicken shed. Nothing.

We chalked it up to a passing owl wondered why our dog didn't bark (maybe my husband started to think I'm just hearing things) and went to bed. Since it was so warm last night (first time in the new house) we had our bedroom window opened to be serenaded by the spring peepers. Well, you guessed it. As soon as we hopped in bed and quieted our last bit of conversation we heard it again. I definitely felt validated since my husband heard it too. This feeling of validation was shortly followed by a crazy thought - maybe the loud, squeaky noise was coming from our kitchen. Maybe the spring peeper that my husband had caught in a jar to save until morning to show the kids what was making the spring-peeper-noises was screaming at the top of its little lungs! Maybe we had walked by the then-silent peeper on our way to search the yard.

Folks, never underestimate the power of a peeper's lungs! My husband quickly released the little fella, and we giggled as we dropped off to sleep. My weird, scary noise was just the reverberations of a captured spring peeper.

Goodbye forever.

Well, until next time.

TTFN

A Finished Object

I finished a sweater! I finished a sweater in 5 weeks! I'm going to post the picture knowing full well that the computer hates me and will make it be sideways even though I saved it in "Paint" and rotated it and all that. Oh well, turn your head sideways and take a look :)

Now, because I am all kinds of fancy and tech savvy, I will include a picture that is right-side-up but crazy dark. I know. Amazing.

It really is a great sweater with wonderful, luscious yarn. It's the Moxie Pullover. The yarn is the "Sage" worsted weight "Shepherd's Wool" from StoneHedge Fiber....wonderful stuff, purchased at my LYS (Wolf Creek Yarns in Grove City, PA).

Now, I should be a good knitter and finish all my little projects that are sleeping. I do have my eyes on a next sweater though :)

I picked the green button to match my sweater: