Gardening: take 1

We cannot boast in our neglected garden! It's our first year and we are already learning a lot by trial and error: 1) do seed starters, with rich potting soil. No mulch. 2) put twice as many layers of newspaper down than we think in order to keep the weeds out.

Who knows? Maybe our plants will survive though they are shooting up entangled in weeds and crabgrass. Again, it's our first year in this house trying this :)

Here it is above. Don't laugh! We have excuses... Our basement repairs, my pregnancy symptoms and my allergies from H-E-double hockey sticks. That's another blog post and it would be depressing.

Here's some of our veggies! 

If this all succeeds, then we'll have yummy salads and be thrown into learning how to can and preserve, and if it fails then we will have learned the hard way and there will be no further blog posts on this. ;)

Happy News

I thought it would be interesting to read later on what all my thoughts were in the first 4 hours of finding out we are having our 2nd child (in chronological order):

-(looking at the two positive pregnancy tests with Carson complaining in the background because I left him alone for 1 minute) Oh snap. Too late to prevent this (as in I wasn't sure if I was ready)
-*tears of joy*
-Woohoo!!!
-Tell Carson he's gonna be a big brother! give him hugs and kisses.
-There's a little heart beating inside of me!
-Make a sign to surprise David when he pulls into the driveway in 5 minutes. (sign said, "Dec. 2013 <3")
-Oh yay I get to make that 2nd child announcement shirt I saw in Pinterest! (Only Child, expires such-and-such date)
-Oops! better feed Carson. Hands shaking in excitement, too excited to decide what to feed him! shaking too much to buckle his high chair! Just give him cheerios for now.
-*David sprints inside and we hug and cry*
-Call parents! grandparents! siblings! close friends! Can't wait to tell them!
-Oh yeah... a two year old and a newborn - LOL.
-We really need some more cloth diapers!
-Lots of texting and calling!
-So excited I'm queasy. That Ham and Bean soup suddenly doesn't smell so good. It's all in my head.
-Lets discuss what we want to do about some things - I'd like to keep the name to ourselves until he/she is born.
-Operation VBAC - eek!
-Yay! now we have extra motivation to get the basement back in order!
-Children are such a blessing from the Lord. He has truly blessed us with another.
-Praying I don't miscarry, but trusting that this child is in His hands whether in my womb or in heaven!
-Wondering how many kids we will have in total some day, and when/if we can adopt.
-God is making my heart bigger.
-I want toast.
-Now I can put the impossible venture for flat abs on hold for at least another year :)
-Yay!

Please don't say anything on FB yet :)

Carson tries the piano

Every single day Carson learns something new and grows in comprehension! On wednesday, after teaching piano to my two wonderful students, I let Carson play around for a bit. What surprised me was him trying to play one key with one finger, rather than banging with his fist. He seems to understand what a piano is for already! I'm so proud of him and I hope to make "practice" part of our daily routine. Or at least a couple times a week. 

Josh, Carson and Bri

Carson and my piano students, aka Carson's buddies

pressings keys with his fingers

Crosses his legs. We'll have to work on his posture :) jk

It sounded almost pretty!

 

Late January early February pics and fun!

We paid a friend, Courtney, so we went on a date with a gift card to Comfy Cow, a local ice cream place.

Friends from our church were replacing ALL of their living room and kitchen furniture, and they were generous and wanted to bless someone! So look what we got for them! crazy, huh?

The hutch from our church friends. This kind of generosity is normal in our church.

Another view of that furniture

These are the heirloom seeds from David's Christmas money for our garden!

Here's the mulch/compost we got for our garden. We're still working on shoveling it, but we're about halfway done!

On February 8th we had a freak warm day, in the 60's! So Carson helped me shovel, sorta

I tried going to Starbucks with Carson, but not much relaxing took place. From L to R: my spinach feta wrap, Carson's sippy, my iced mocha, and Carson's food! He got a lot of attention. I also ran into a girl that was in the choir I accompanied for 3 years ago! wait, 4.

After Starbucks I took Carson to a more kid-friendly place. The Rec Center @ the Seminary.

It was so cute watching him play with the trains!

Carson's almost 14 months and is sleeping with blankets and snuggling with them. We'd been using a sleepsack up til now! :)

Carson and Daddy: best buds :)

A gentleman and a scholar, in his new sweater, standing by our fine furniture.

Carson and Mama :)

Funny snapshots of Carson's toddlerhood

Eating like a champ...

...until Mommy keeps me waiting 3 seconds too long!!!

I make beautiful photo albums of Carson's sweet and quiet spirit

Clears everything off of the box

Clears everything off of the couch

Knocks over the drying rack

"Outta my way"

Drying rack fail #2 (why did I even try?)

Carson usually is pretty sweet, I promise :)

A Good Day!

Today has been a good day so far! It's only about 7:30, but it's been great.

First. Instead of being jerked awake much sooner than desired (usually 5:30) by cute cooing, I woke up on my own at 6:40! That would be enough in itself to make a good day. (Please don't feel sorry for me)

Second. I had a good dream last night. It included people I knew from Moody and Women's Choir, but also David and Carson, and even Maggie! A dream with lots of people I love in it is always better than the stressed-out, missing-a-deadline nightmares I usually have. (Weird thing was, Carson and Maggie were the same being. You know, one of those weird transitioning cases.)

Third. I not only had a good dream, and woke up before Carson, but I woke up knowing that I won't have to change a leaky cloth diaper. This is because he's in disposables because the cloth diapers are being stripped by RLR Laundry Treatment. And I got some detergent that is better for cloth diapers and is even compatible with hard water! (I won't talk about our old, broken water softener in the utility closet. Oh wait I did)

Fourth. I woke up on my own after having a good dream and knowing I wouldn't have to touch PJs with pee on them, but I woke up excited because I get to spend time with a friend from church at Olive Garden tonight. And this is all much easier to do because, Fifth, Carson is finally taking to liking soy milk and is really close to weaning. 

Sixth. Carson is abnormally non-fussy today. Usually, as I write this, he is screaming and whining through eating breakfast and my patience is already being tested. But right now he is eating eggs and cheerios quietly for once!

Praise God from whom all blessings flow! and thanks for sharing in these blessings with me.

I love Paint

New sippy cup

There is nothing so nice as a new, not-scratched, non-leaking and shiny sippy cup. Well Carson had been used to his old sippy cup with a handle on each side, so when I gave him this new one he didn't know how to drink out of it!

hmm... maybe it will just go into my mouth.

Come here!!

 I started to laugh out loud at him, and he thought that was funny! :)

 

 Then I helped him drink from it

He got it!

 

I'm so amazed how quickly Carson has grown up. In 8 days he'll be 1 year old!

9:05 am

Carson's new favorite toy

When I got the stomach bug (cute pics)

Thanksgiving evening Carson woke up in bed and threw up. It wasn't pretty but David and I got it cleaned up quickly. I nursed him again. Bad idea, he threw up again. The poor tired guy slept the rest of the night just fine. 

Bad idea 2: feeding him a full breakfast with eggs the next morning, which ended up on the carpet. I took him to the pediatrician and turns out he has an ear infection, which probably developed from the cold he'd been fighting the last few days. The nurse practitioner didn't think he had the stomach bug, but was gagging on phelgm, but my suspicians were different. 

Well that night I woke up with it, though it was only as bad as Carson's, it still left me pretty weak and tired. So the next day, saturday, David and Judy and Glenn took care of Carson all day and I stayed in bed. If you get nauseous and dizzy every time you stood up you would too :(

Carson was of course hard on David that day, and there were both pooped. So when the fussing and noise and jingling of Carson playing with keys (the only thing that would pacify him) in the living room stopped, I wondered what was happening. So I hobbled out there to find this :

My boys fell asleep :)

Always sucking on those same two fingers!

It looks as if Carson fell asleep while he was playing with the keys. So cute!

This is the only time Carson has ever slept on the floor, but the pictures I've seen of friends' toddlers falling asleep while playing have always been so cute! He woke up as soon as David's parents got back from shopping.

Oh but it gets better! That night Judy, David's mom started up on the stomach bug too. That's 3 out of 5 so far! They ended up leaving today (sunday) a day earlier than planned. Nothing like the stomach bug to make Thanksgiving memorable, or to ruin the taste of good food as it comes back up... hahaha. 

8:12 am

And the toilet paper bandit strikes again!

This week's highlights!

from despair.com

Sunday was great. It's our big church day, and I got to be in the nursery. It was recently remodeled and it is much bigger and better!

Monday was great when David gave me a 2.5 hr baby break. I went thrifting and to a coffee shop to read.
Tuesday was the election and we were on pins and needles! Then I woke up Wednesday morning disappointed. I didn't vote for the guy who spends money we don't have.

On wednesday I taught my two piano students like normal, and made this amazing crockpot country-style bbq rib recipe. 

But it burned, and the temperature dial cracked in half and fell off the crockpot. :(


Thursday night we discovered the best flea market I've ever been to, right in our hometown. Between that, Goodwill, and Once Upon a Child, I may never buy anything new again! I also watched the Prestons for a bit, which is always ALWAYS fun.

Carson had a lot of fun, and Tessa wasn't sure what to think of him.

Then on friday we got to watch Tessa so that the Jenkins' could close on their house :) That isn't the greatest picture, but if you want to see some great photography from Tessa's mom, one of the up-and-coming Louisville photographers, then click here: kara delaine photography 

That night we watched The Amazing Spiderman which I got for $.80 (score!) I call it "hipster spider man" and the movie was pretty good.

I loved listening to In the Market with Janet Parshall during this election week. Here's a link about it. She is an awesome and incredibly informed and experienced commentator. And she certainly has connections in "high places" while still remaining true to the Bible. 

One of the most frustrating things this week was trying to thred the trimming line in our weed wacker. The instruction booklet just didn't do the trick! Carson sure enjoyed crawling around the yard while I fiddled with that stupid contraption. 

One of the most exhilarating things this week was laughing and goofing off with my husband. 

HAPPY SATURDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!