Gentle Reminders

There are times in life when you are given gentle reminders that you could do a little better. We have the sweetest little girl. She loves folding her arms to start a prayer. Several times in the last week she hasn't eaten when she's in her high chair with food in front of her, she's got her arms folded, waiting for us to pray before she eats! Before she goes to bed she has started kneeling on the floor, waiting for us to say a family prayer. What a great reminder that our little ones haven't been away from heaven for very long and they watch everything we do and learn from us.

                                    Wearing daddy's hat and watching Curious George.

Abby has learned which words are associated with saying goodbye and so when you say one she will start blowing kisses or waving. If you are really lucky she will come over to give you a kiss on the cheek, which is really just when she puckers up her lips and gets really close to your cheek and she waits for something to happen. Sometimes she will make a "smacking" noise as though she's actually kissing you but rarely makes contact with your face. LOVE IT!!1 What can I say, she melts my heart!

Treasures

Most of my trips to D.I. are pretty uneventful but today was something special.

 I love this little cabinet and it was only $3! Not sure yet what I'm going to do with it but once I've cleaned it up a bit I will have a better idea. Everything works great, the two drawers on the bottom just need new knobs. I was thinking storage for spools of thread but then I remembered that I don't have very many of those. Hopefully I will have more in the future as I do more projects and my sewing skills improve. I am definitely open to suggestions!

The fabric measuring guide in the background was an answer to prayer as I have been trying to work on curtains for Abby's room and was in desperate need of help with measuring and cutting.

Garden update!!!

The corn"field" is next to out driveway and is just shooting up out of the ground like crazy! I plant two new sets every week so they will mature progressively during the summer. We are experimenting with three different kinds of corn this year to see which works best for us and which taste we prefer. (and yes, I will weed it when the stalks are a little higher)

The raspberries are still in pots as we haven't had time to dig out the grass in the back, put together the support T-stand trellis's and plant the raspberries yet. Despite all of that we have some raspberries coming on. This is a fall harvest gold berry. We have four of these and four traditional red berries.

We are planning to put the raspberries along this back fence with enough room to walk between our neighbors grape vines and the raspberry trellis.

My dad put together these raised square foot garden beds for us. We have four but are only using two right now.

This one has cantaloupe and watermelon planted in it right now along with carrots planted along one side.The flowers on the corners are marigolds to keep the bugs out.

This box has tomatoes, orange and purple sweet peppers, carrots, cilantro, caraway seed and basil. Sweet sugar snap peas are planted around the outside and we will train them down the sides instead  of up a trellis.

The strawberries have been a big challenge, to say the least. The original ones have almost all died and so I got some new ones which have done much better! Not many strawberries at this point so we may just let the rest of the runners stay around to make plants for next year.

We planted three fruit trees in the backyard. The closest is an O'Henry Peach, then a self-pollinating Stella cherry and the last one is a Redhaven Peach. 

Dear Driver

Dear Driver in the green mini-van,

Thanks for not running me over while I was out running with my baby in the jogging stroller. I know you tried super hard and came REALLY close to hitting us. If I could do it over I would go back and give you a piece of my mind! When did you decide that looking in front of your car before hitting the gas was optional? You should lose your drivers license!
But, it's a good thing for you that my fight or flight instinct chose flight, otherwise you would have a black eye to show for your morning.

Sincerely,
A pedestrian

Sleep update

Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who offered words of wisdom to help with getting Abby to sleep through the night. I decided to let her cry herself out the first night, which is what we did months and months ago and it worked then, don't know why I didn't think of it myself this time. She went to bed just fine, like normal and a few hours later when she woke up wanting to be held we just let her cry. Two and half hours of wimpering and crying later I finally couldn't handle it anymore and went in and held her for a couple minutes so that she would go to sleep. I was too tired to listen to her any longer! Apparently it did the trick. She has been sleeping SO much better! This has made for a much happier Abby and a much happier mamma! Thanks again everyone for your help!

What is sleep?

After a night like last night for which there are no words, I am asking for advice. WHY DOESN'T ABBY SLEEP THROUGH THE NIGHT?!?!? She was starting to do really well with sleeping through the night before we moved in January and I think she has slept through the night maybe four times since then.  She wakes up wimpering and crying if her diaper is wet and won't calm down until it's changed. She can go for over an hour asking for a change. If she doesn't get at least one bottle during the night we have to listen to her sobbing and screaming. I try to just ignore her but it never works. And, I often wake up super hungry in the middle of the night, so I feel bad when she does the same and I ignore it. Any advice?

Abby has never,ever been a great sleeper but where did this baby go who at least tried to sleep?