Spring is coming!

For those of you in the Pacific Northwest you may not feel like Spring is coming, but down here it is starting to warm up...and rain...and rain...and sun . . . and rain some more.

I am really looking forward to spring here with the Daffodils and Gladiolus I'm hoping to enjoy on my back porch:

Yes, I am planning on growing these myself although, after walking through Michaels craft store last weekend - past the rows of fake flowers - I am seriously considering an investment in the fake ones, to save me from testing out my not-so-green thumb.
However since I am planning on a small back-porch vegetable garden, maybe I'll suck it up this year. Actually, last year was the first year in a few I didn't grow ANY flowers so. . .
My little vegetable garden will probably look a lot like this. But I am pretty excited about it anyway. We'll probably even throw in a strawberry plant.
Anyway, I am looking forward to that and walking on a few new trails I discovered this week. Trail walking was supposed to happen today, but it was raining in the morning so I scrapped it. By the afternoon I was busy running around trying to find a pantry.
What are YOU looking forward to doing this spring?

We belong outdoors

Yesterday was a wonderful day outside (and plenty warm...feels like May back home). I decided to take Miriam outside to play, even though her nose is still running like a leaky faucet. We went out back (or front) to play near the lake. Even though I was a little nervous about it we had a good time. Miriam ran up and down the slope and didn't push getting too close to the lake.

We went for a walk around the lake (she even held my hand willingly) and ran into some men fishing. She was SO interested in what they were doing. She walked right up to one of them and he let her hold his fishing pole, which she thought was fun. They were all so nice to her and worked so hard to get her a fish while she was holding the pole. She's a little too exuberant.

I wish I had pictures, but I have to settle for the memory. We're considering the purchase of a fishing pole.

Time for Bed

Well I'm glad today is over and I am Tired.

I asked the maintenace guys to come over because one of our kitchen cabinet shelves was getting so bowed things were not fitting on the lower shelf anymore (the cabinets are one thing I have always disliked, even since I was just looking at pictures). We got the cabinet empty yesterday so he could come back and fix it up. Except that is when we saw that the cabinet was pulling off the wall. Yikes. So as it is we are getting a new kitchen cabinet! Yahoo. Except all of my food and dishes out everywhere. Which is fine except making sure Miriam doesn't find something sharp and deadly.

Basically, I may never 'catch up' cleaning my house again. I guess I've just got to come to grips with that!

Second: today was my first Enrichment as the councelor. Earlier in the day I got a call from our Visiting Teaching Coordinator giving me the third degree about what was going on and is there going to be plates and centerpieces and how it was going to be set up etc. etc. Um, seriously? This isn't your job. Please stop micro-managing me while my child is screaming in the background ( I think the screaming was part of the reason I couldn't handle the whole situation very well). I hadn't been in any contact with my Enrichment leader AT ALL (I had the general thing set up but no activity. But apparently she set up an activity. I would really have liked to have been in the KNOW about this beforehand, but at least it was done!). I had told them I worked on Tuesday (but still they are dead set on having this on Tuesday) so I just can't be there. Sorry. As it was I got off early and went. The Enrichment was fine - not the disaster I was sure was coming earlier in the day.

I'm still not sure I ever want to go to my ward ever again.

The red velvet cake balls I made were a hit. And Miriam got to make a huge mess in the kitchen with one of them. So I guess I can end the day on a positive note.

Picture Update

I've really got nothing else to discuss right now.

One of our daily visitors

My new pictures in Oregon collection
Miriams room! Clean! Ha! (Don't let me fool you. The place she makes the real mess is the living room)

Sticking our tongue out at mom. New game mom will regret later.

Miri's medieval outfit. 4 weeks passed and suddenly she fits perfectly!

Miriam loves having all bows put on her head after her diaper change (that's when we stand in front of the bathroom mirror and play). She usually kisses the pretty baby.

Haha!

Gotta love Mom 101 which I recently read about in one of my parent magazines. I just started reading it and she's good! I've only read a few but I particularly liked this post. Todays post wasn't bad either. So go have a good laugh.

Welcome month of love

Wow did you know that I only posted 4 times in January?

February doesn't really feel like the month of love to me. I'm just trying to turn my attitude a bit. The last week I've had a really short fuse with my daughter, felt ill, and didn't exercise (formally) at all. Technically though, that was still January. So, February is my month to be cheerful, loving, and grateful. It's my month to brighten my home in time for spring.

But first, I have to recover from our SCA trip this weekend.

This weekend we did an overnight event with our local SCA kingdom. We went to a beautiful park about 45 minutes away called Indian Springs State Park. . Friday, we camped overnight in a barracks-like cabin (heated and a big multi person bathroom). I daresay we learned a thing or two about taking this kind of trip (Lesson #1 - day-trip where possible).

Such as - bring an abundant amount of extra blankets. Again, the cabin was HEATED, but Miriam knocked over a gallon of milk on my bunk.

Plan in advance where things 'belong' in your multitudes of bags. Maybe by now you are learning that deep down, I like to organize and am slightly anal. Sometime on Saturday Miriam was carrying around a plastic bag that contained her medicine for her unsightly diaper-rash. I could not find it that evening and indeed, did NOT find it until this afternoon (Sunday). Just in time for the rash to be coming back on with a vengeance. I guess I stuffed it into the diaper bag. But if it had it's own POCKET in the diaper bag maybe we wouldn't be discussing this. It's a nice thought, probably not much of a reality.

Oh - and when you forget to bring your daughters shoes, find Salvation Army. Luckily enough, the only baby shoes they had were size 5. I went ahead and got them both. They were only 2 bucks! (buy one get one free) I might be on my way to being converted into bargain shopping. Might.

On our way into salvation army (dressed in SCA garb which I'll have to post a picture of someday) I said to Bill. "What do you bet someone walks away from here thinking they've seen Amish people?" As it happened, as we were leaving the Salvation Army a lady stopped us and asked what culture we were. Did I call that or what?