Archive for April, 2004
Our baby boy stood for the first time all by himself last night!!!
(All of our children have waited until they were a year old before standing and walking…except one which did it at 9 months.) We all have been helping him over the coarse of the last month or two…propping him and letting go. But, he just didn’t want to. A lot of the time he was quite “solid” on his feet but the interest wasn’t there so it didn’t last more than a few seconds before he would sit down and zoom off to something more interesting. He has been the fastest on his knees though… Man! Can that child *crawl*! LOL We have given him an Indian name as a result…he is now called “Crawls Fast.” 
Seriously though, all of our children have waited until they mentally knew they could do it…you could see them thinking it through. It was like they didn’t want to do it until they knew there wouldn’t be any falling down, etc. Once they started, they were very steady on their feet and there wasn’t very much falling down…interesting. My second child was the one that walked early and she wasn’t like this…she just went for it! LOL She had many tumbles. Anyway, Q. was so proud of himself and we all got pretty excited! He was playing with a little toddler wooden rocker from my childhood (which was purchased by my parents at an estate sale when I was an infant and it was pretty old then…one day I’ll do some research to find out if it’s an antique or not…) practicing getting in and out of it, pushing it like a walker, etc. and then he just stood up (he was bent over a little holding on to the arms) and let go!!! Stood there just as steady as a rock and more than just a few seconds…maybe even a full minute!!! We waited and waited and waited…and then started clapping…and he still stood there! When we were finally tiring of clapping, he decided he wanted to get in on the act so he bent over a little again unsure of what to do (but *didn’t* grab the chair) and then in a few moments he sat down and joined in the clapping. I’m always amazed when each one hits these milestones…I never tire of it!!! It’s so awesome!!! 
Q. has also been practicing walking around and around our loveseat. I think this boy will be walking as summer hits.
The flooding is at it’s worst so far… A real drag. That’s all I have to say about that. 
Yesterday the temps were in the hi 50F’s. The front yard is clearing of snow fast. On the north side of the driveway, the snow is nearly all gone on it’s own. On the south side of the driveway, which is the north side of the house, we have shoveled approx. half of that berm. Tossing it into the driveway where it will melt faster and runoff away from the house. The rhubarb is in this area so it is completely uncovered now and we are seeing little red and pink nubs emerging! Hurray! The north half of the raspberry patch is clear of snow too! Hurray! I want to get in there but the path still has some snow that’s more than ankle deep… Maybe I’ll brave it, maybe I won’t. I have big plans for it this year…of course, I’ll be as big as those plans myself LOL, so we’ll see if I actually accomplish all I want to… On the south side of the house, the snow is completely melted off the top of the garden box but not around it yet…still a foot or a little more out there. Near the shed though things are clearing fast. The strawberries are over in that area so I think I’ll mosey over there today and check things out. I have a garden journal I should be putting this all in…but when I get typing and the thoughts are flowing, I hate to stop in the middle. Anyway, I’ll cut and past this over there (sorry for the redundancy for those that read both of my journals!) and expand on it a little…
The family is all up now and watching home improvement shows on PBS. We love to do this…all the children are fascinated and inspired…even the 3 yr old!!! LOL It helps that Daddy is handy that way anyway…we are always getting grand ideas and making list of things for him to create for us. Speaking of which, we haven’t done my lean-to/greenhouse/cold-frame yet…the flooding has preoccupied us. Hopefully though today we can at least start on it…
I better cut this short(er) LOL and get to it!
A blessed weekend to all!
I just finished “renovating” our homepage! (Link is also in the left sidebar.) It was in dire need of it… Aaah, much better.
New Blog
I’ve opened up my *Garden Journal*!!! (That’s a link or look for it in the left sidebar…)
I really didn’t want to have two blogs/journals going…I like to just let my thoughts flow…but I did need somewhere to track what was happening in our yards and gardens more easily for my over-filled brain.
Hope to get back on here later…but we are still battling water in the basement and I have to get to it. I want to finish sorting, etc. our March photos and start on our April one and I want to talk about my gardening.
Quick Update
I’m stiff and sore and tiiiiired. But, we’ve had success stemming the tide. I’ve been pitching snow from the north side of the house for 3 days. We have a berm about 6ft. tall, 13 ft. long and 4-5 ft. wide. I have to monitor the sump pumps…pumping approx. 60 gallons per hour. We’ve moved most of our boxes into the garage. After the flooding, I get to go through them… Give or throw away most things probably. Relabel and store in better containers the things we’re going to keep. I told dh since most things are packed and cleared out we might as well move. Believe me…he’s tempted! I think the Sahara sounds nice right now…
Academics have pretty much come to a stand-still. We have managed Bible time and reading. I need those breaks so I’ll always manage to squeeze those in no matter what!!! They’ve had a grand time finally playing outside without their snow gear! We still have 2 ft of snow (or more in some places) in the yard but they’ve dragged their bikes, etc. out and stick pretty much to the *clear* driveway! Light knit gloves, a sweater and perhaps a hat or headband are all that are needed to play in now….and not even those at times. 40F’s feels so great! (Warmer if you bask in the occasional sun on the deck!!! Up to 60F sometimes!) So, I’ve also been busy with laundry…cleaning and storing the winter stuff…and now too the daily muddy clothes x 4… I haven’t let the baby get muddy yet…but later this summer it will be x 5…
I’m a little late completing my Quiet time (hasn’t been so “quiet” with all the family up! LOL) as I slept in… It was tough, tough, tough to crawl out of bed this morning…mostly a mental thing…but my muscles are definitely chiming in with their protests. Need to get moving and work out the kinks. My oldest has breakfast ready and I’m being called to the table. Oatmeal with raisins, cinnamon, brown sugar and a touch of almond milk. I can only have a *small* serving though as my tummy just isn’t right still. (Many things are confirming this Celiac stuff…when I finally get to the midwives, I’ll have them do the blood testing for me…)
Hope everyone has a blessed Tuesday! If you think of me today, say a little prayer that we keep an upper hand on the water and that I can keep putting “one foot in front of the other.” Thanks!
ps - to top off the water situation, it’s lightly raining as i type. sigh.
Pics Added
I added a few more pics to our March album. (Photo album link in the left sidebar.) More to do but downloading seems to be slow today. More tomorrow probably. Stay tuned!
Various Things
Well, we did not go rock climbing the day before. One thing led to another and before long the afternoon was taken up w/ dh and myself doing a dozen or so projects together and between the two of us. We did go yesterday as it turned out yesterday was the last predicted sunny day through Mon. anyway. The children had a great time again and this time we got some pics.
So, today it clouded up as the weatherman predicted…light rain was also…it may be down in town but up here on the “hillside” it’s lightly-moderately *snowing*!!! I haven’t been able to look at the deck all morning. I know it must have slush…how much I don’t want to know.
The water is running quite steadily in the basement. Not good. Last night, I didn’t have to get up for a wee hours of the morning trip to the bathroom (the joys of moving into the 2nd trimester ) so the sump didn’t get plugged in (it’s tempormental so we leave it unplugged and then monitor it and plug it in when we need to) and there is about an 1/8 inch of water covering 1/4 of the basement floor. Ugh. Reaches right to where we moved stuff over to. I’m still praying that the flooding won’t be as bad as a couple of years ago but somehow I get the impression that God is not going to answer that affirmatively for us. So, we get to listen to “Little Hunt Creek”…
It’s cloudy, snowing and the basement is flooding…wonder how it’s going to affect my agenda today…!?! Am I going to have to “close school” today and spend my time moving more of our stuff up here and with the shop vac sucking up H20 or do we “maintain the coarse” and hope another day… I suppose after I get dressed (and change out of my wet slippers), I’ll be able to think more clearly about it…
Weekend
We had a very nice holiday weekend. Sat. we escaped the snow for a bit and went for a drive around the “Arm.” Stopped for a while and did some “cliff/rock” climbing (as best as young children can…not the “real” way with ropes, etc. ) Our baby played in the dirt for the first time and tasted rocks! So sweet…but I forgot my camera… :-/ Sun. was spent at church w/ my parents and then all of us went to my mother’s sister’s to have dinner with her family. Sorry Rebekah…no group shot as things were kinda crazy. Individual pics of everyone though… I missed Mon. Just don’t know where it went. I thought today was Tues. Yesterday, I was “out of it.” Fuzzy headed, some nausea and just no energy. Feeling fine today though. The weather has been great! And, we have completely cleared the deck of snow!!! Enjoying taking breaks out there in the sun again! One of our apple seeds sprouted (we ended up planting two with roots)…I’m really excited to see if we end up with a Braeburn apple tree! Don’t know how well it will survive here but I’m up for the experiment. The potatoes are getting big! Dh said he will build me a temporary green house until we can get the logs peeled, etc. for our “real” one and will begin more garden boxes this weekend. He was going to build it [the greenhouse] and set it on the snow to settle as the snow melted but…I NEED it NOW! So, even though it will take up most of the deck, I request a lean-to shelter type thing to be built on the deck. I will be able to start using it right away plus against the house it will be lots warmer. Really looking forward to this weekend!!! I’ll be starting what seeds I have this week with enthusiasm now knowing that they will have somewhere to go and not in the house where the baby can get into them, etc. Plus, the space in front of our southern facing sliding doors to the deck really isn’t big enough to put all I want to start there. I’m not sure what seeds I have or if I’ll go out and buy more. I think I’ll just use up what I have for this year, hope and pray for the real greenhouse to be completed this summer and then start “fresh” next year.
I better close for now. Dh said that this is the predicted last sunny day through the weekend…hope not…anyway, we are going to take advantage of it this afternoon and take the children “rock climbing” again.
Bye!
9 Patch Squares Finished
I finished the 9 patch squares I was putting together for a baby quilt. All are arranged a little differently but here’s a general idea…
These are very special squares as they are made from ones that dh’s grandmother cut out (”old school” methods - no rotary cutters and fancy see-through rulers, etc. so they are not quite “square” and the corners didn’t come together precisely…although I have no doubt she would have been able to do it! I didn’t want to “adjust” them in any way…wanted to have them just the way she did)…she passed away last July. I inherited a bunch of her sewing supplies and fabrics. I found these in one of the fabric bags already cut out. I did have to suppliment with a patch or two of my own fabric in the last three squares as hers ran out. She was a wonderful quilt maker…her speciality being appliquing cute characters onto each of her great-grandbabies baby quilts she made for them. Her grandchildren received tied quilts made from various fabrics. My sil’s quilt is a wonderful large quilt made from wool scraps. Dh’s quilt is from durable polyester square scraps (it was made in the late 70’s or early 80’s ;-)) and is very large to accomodate his large 6′4″ frame. She has several others that were distributed amongst the family and we ended up with three others…of which is a wonderul tied one made of wool squares. The great-grandbabies (or later grandchildren’s) quilts are so cute. I’ll have to share pics of our children’s… Our last child did not receive one as she was too sick to complete it. I do have the fabric and supplies she chose for it though… I wonder if I’ll ever be able to put it together in her “style” and do her justice…!!! Until I feel more confident, I’ve lovingly stored them away in my craft closet. I actually started these squares before becoming pregnant and thought I would sell the quilt when it was finished. I have since changed my mind although I don’t think these scraps had sentimental/significant meaning to her. (They weren’t from grandpa’s army uniform, etc. I have even found fabric scraps from a couple of dresses she made my sil when she was my oldest daughter’s age!!!) The are special to me now and will be especially if this new baby is a girl…because this just looks like a baby girl combination to me. If it’s a girl, it will be hers…from her great-grandma E. She’ll be getting hers before her older brother! If not, I’ll give it to my oldest daughter for her first child…from her great-great grandmother…in a sense. I’m going to be putting these away for a while because I haven’t quite decide how I want to procede. What color strips to put between each square, what I want for backing, do I want to tie it or hand vs. machine quilting, etc. It will come to me…with time…
I think I need to leave off this subject before I really flood the keyboard for my tears. Although she wasn’t my grandmother, I was closer to her than my own…although I only knew her for about 13 yrs…which is, sadly, not very long when I think of it…I miss her a lot.
ps - I decided not to try to finish M.’s pinafore before Easter. All us girls have coordinated (not “matching” but coordinated! ;-)) outfits from last year and everybodies dresses still fit. So, we will wear those again…to make things simpler on Mama.
