When did I get this old?

Today in my moms group online discussions we were talking about how you know that your family is complete and you are done having kids. It was a very interesting discussions. The general consensus was that you just know. There were people on all sides, some getting vasectomies, some waiting in case they changed their mind later and some open to as many kids as god gives them. We are in the middle, probably want one more and after that will not do anything permanent but definitely will be using methods of prevention.

The real questions is this, When did I get this old? How is it that I even old enough to talk about being done having babies? It is very surreal and out of body type of feeling. Its like I am in someone elses life and i am really just a teenager/young adult still. Just 6 years ago I had no children. Now here I am talking with my mom friends about how you know when your family is complete. Wow. Crazy.

My baby is crawling.

He will be 8 months in another week. He just seems so little too me. I guess he needs to keep up with the other two.

No 4 wheeling in a minivan.

So today I met some friends out at our property to hang out and plant trees. We had 6 fruit trees, a red maple and some baby trees that are flowering trees. I got there will all my supplies, stakes, fencing, water, etc. Our friends met us there and we all were ready to go. We started unloading the van and walking to the tree planting spot. I decided it was solid enough to drive on. It would have been....in my Durango, but you see I got a minivan this week. So I make it through the little driveway, turn into the grass and STUCK! DAMN! After trying for a few minutes to get out I parked it and we planted trees. It went good for the most part. It was hot and the kids were getting whiny and bored.

I had brought my camera but didn't get a single picture. I was too worried about trying to get done before my baby overheated. I was also worried about getting the van out. We tried again later but it was still stuck. I called my husband and he suggested packing loose dry grass around the wheels. I wasn't stuck deep, just spinning in the mud. So the grass worked! We were free!! He told me, You aren't supposed to be 4 wheeling, its a minivan! I said, I miss my Durango. :) I do really like my van. I just have to realize it has limits.

Boy with a cowboy hat on.

I love this picture. He is too sweet! He is working on getting the two front top teeth. Ouch! Those are always hard for the little ones. He just wants to be held all the time. He is also trying to crawl. Seriously! He goes from sitting on his butt, to hands and knees, rocks back and forth, then back to the sitting. It won't be long until he figures out how to move his hands and legs. Then we will be in trouble!

How time flies.

My beautiful daughter will be turning 6 this summer. It has been awesome being her mom for the last six years. It makes me all teary eyed to think about it all. I took this great picture of her when she was 21 months old. So here we are 4 years after that, I took another picture in front of the same tree. She is still just as sweet!

Product evaluation.

I do online surveys for a place called Pinecone Research. What they do is when a company has a new product they ask peoples opinion on it. The survey has questions about the look of the product, the believability of the advertising, if you would try it, what you think you would like or dislike about it and that such thing. They always ask you if you would try the product if they send it to you. Well they sent me something. This is the third time I have received a trial product. Due to confidentiality I can't say what I have received specifically. The first time it was a new juice. The second time it was a baby product. This time its a personal care item. Each time I have received things I would actually buy so that is nice. I think this company does a really good job with sending trial things to people that would buy them. That is pretty remarkable since I am pretty picking with the things I buy.

Oh and I do get paid for this as well. It used to be $5.00 a survey. Now it is $3.00 a survey and sometimes they do drawings for lump sum prizes like $100 dollars. I have never won that of course.

Making things.

Well if you are reading this blog you know that I make 3 things well. Food, kids and sewing projects. Not necessarily in that order. So today this post is about making things. Again, food and sewing.

We are getting the Door to Door Organics box. One thing I like is that I get to be creative with my meal planning again. I have to use the things they bring me. Yesterday I noticed that the carrots were getting rubbery, so I had to use them. I baked them in the oven with brown sugar. MMM! They were great! Today the subject is Kale. I have only ever used Kale as decoration for the salad bar when I worked as a waitress. So I did what any good 21st century housewife would do. I searched the internet. Mostly I found soup recipes which had cream in them and I can't eat that right now. Finally, I came across a pasta recipe. It sounds great. I will post it here for you.

1 large red pepper, diced
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 cups finely chopped Kale
pinch of dried basil
pinch or two of red pepper flakes
olive oil for cooking
Feta or Goat cheese crumbled on top (could use parmesan also)

Serve over your favorite pasta.


On the sewing note, I have an order for 4 more slings for HappyBottomus! Yeah! So I bit the bullet and just bought a whole bolt of Muslin at Joanns. It was cheaper this way and I even had a good coupon. I have a 50% off coupon for this coming week and I am going to buy the more expensive muslin because it is a higher thread count and I think will make better slings. I will buy a bolt of that too!

Easter.

Easter was lovely. First we weren't sure we were going to be able to visit our family because our car ended up in the shop Wed. evening. Our guy thought he could get it all done Thursday, but he didn't get it finished until Friday around noon. Whew! We left town Friday around 4pm.

We went to Massimo's moms house. We all had a great time. His brother and sister bought came with their families. I got to see our new nephew again. He is only 2 months younger than Luca. We both had homebirths with the same midwife. Nice bonding experience don't you think? We took a picture to send to our midwife. Also, we got some great pictures of the kids. So I will post a few.


Here are the babies. Mine is the one kissing (eating) the others face.

Door to Door Organics

LOVE IT! I know that everyone I know has blogged about this. Well ok then me too. I am just too excited about it. Having groceries delivered to your house is just too sweet! We got the Bitty box (small) and it is great! I am really surprised at how much we got. The guy had to call me because he couldn't find our house. I got him here ok.

3 Tier skirt

I wanted to make Gioia a skirt out of some really nice fabric I had. It turned out good. I wish I had made more pleats in it to make it more wrinkly. She loves it though, that is all that matters. Here is the tutorial. I like this tutorial because you can make it for any size because you take your own measurements. Like I said, next time I will make each tier longer around than they suggest to give it more body.

http://christianhomekeeper.org/blog/home-style-tiered-skirts/

A super productive day.

I had a wonderfully productive day today. I like days like this. It makes a gal feel like she has her shit together. HA HA! For our homeschool activities Gioia read me If You Give A Pig A Party. Then we played a rousing game of UNO, in which we worked on numbers and colors. Dominic is FINALLY getting his colors and he even got a few of his numbers right. I think we are going to play this everyday for a while. Gioia also finished her paper doll craft. We had lunch and I made a Quiche up for dinner. Then someone called me about her slings. I had already done the two kid slings for her, so I hopped downstairs and sewed up her other sling. I sent the kids outside to play in the afternoon. I cleaned up the house. Later I made her a new skirt for Easter. We had a showing of the house this evening. While the showing was taking place we went to vote. We have a hot election going on for Mayor and City Council here in town. I am anxious to find out who won. We hung out at the library for about 30 minutes then came home.

Plays, easter bunny and birthday parties!

We have had lots going on. We are trying to sell our house as I mentioned before. So that takes a lot of our time keeping it all cleaned up. Last weekend we had ice and snow on Saturday. A lot of snow, about 4 inches or so. Sunday it warmed up, melted and by Sunday evening you couldn't even tell it had snowed. Crazy! That is Kansas and Missouri weather for you.

This week we went to see my mom in a play. It was called The Pajama Game. Its a musical and it was put on by the Gallatin Theatre League. My mom has been in several. She was the lead in Gypsy and Annie Get Your Gun. Gioia was especially thrilled to see Grandma Elaine. She said she loved all her pretty outfits! Here are a couple pictures from that.

First picture is my mom in the middle with the yellow PJ's on . Second picture is the entire cast.



Tonight we went to a birthday party for a couple kids. It was really fun. Gioia and Dominic didn't want to leave. It was at Wonderscope childrens Musuem, always a huge hit! I will post some pictures of that later.