Things that make this Mommy weep, in a good way

Big School buses pulling up in front of my house.

And my oldest child getting on for the first time.

And then after his first week and a half of school, he comes home yesterday like this.

He lost his first tooth!

The Tooth Fairy also wept as she retrieved his wee little tiny tooth and rewarded MAT with a surprise.

Then she rolled the tooth in her hand a few times sniffling and wondering how he was getting so big so fast. Then she realized, "yuck, this is a tooth I am weeping over." And she sucked it up and moved on to her other duties.

All things that make this Momma weep, for the best reasons.

Woopsie.

Well, HELLO Third Trimester. Wasn't expecting to see you so soon and my apologies that you actually started last week and I was totally oblivious, what with other things on my mind. (The other things being MAT starting Kindergarten, more on that later)

I am not sure where this pregnancy is going but it is going there far too fast. Seems like just yesterday it was Easter and I had all the time in the world and now I have a skint 3 months left. Eeep. On the upside I feel pretty ready, labor aside, for this new addition. The closets have been organized, the nursery room(which wont be used till next summer, most likely) is ready, Christmas shopping is all but finished, all storage areas in the house have been sorted and organized and the house has been rearranged several times over. I fear I may have let the nesting instinct take over too early this go around and I think it might change focus, sorry Mr. T, on painting and home improvement things for the next three months. When all the drawers have been sorted and organized there is not much left to do but paint I am afraid. I keep telling myself to start quilting but with RAT underfoot all day I fear he will end up pin poked and scratched.

I am currently fighting the urge to turn our master bedroom upstairs into the playroom/guestroom and turning our current playroom/guestroom downstairs into our master bedroom. I know it would not be a good switch and should wait till our youngest child is no longer climbing into bed with us at night, but the urge is very very strong... I will continue fighting it, we will see how it goes. I suppose rearranging furniture within the confines of individual rooms will just have to do.

Time is flying by this year and it will be a whole new year, and we will be a different family, before we know it.

There will come a day...

A day when I can keep the stapler ON the desk, rather than empty and sequestered in the back of a drawer, gathering dust instead of papers.
A day when I can organize the desk drawers and things will stay in their place for more than an hour.

A day when things like glue, whiteout, and fountain ink pens can be rescued from atop the refrigerator and returned to their rightful home in the desk.

A day when the roll of stamps does not have to be guarded with ones life to insure they are not savagely used as stickers.

A day, when a desk and all that comes with it can again just be a desk and office supplies and not a wonderland of many hazards for little people...

Someday the time will come, but today is not that day. So back in the drawer stapler, continue to run amok paperclips, I will try to remember to dust you glue, and stamps, dear stamps, hide well my friends.

Someday your liberation will come. Someday...

Maternity sewing, pictures finally.

A girlie dress that makes me feel like I am 5, but I love it just the same. I made it from scraps,  the bodice is a very loved purple paisley, the sleeves and a tiny check gingham, and the skirt is a larger check gingham.

And now we have some striped jersey skirts, and the ever growing baby bump.

Taking advantage of an early rising, cool, overcast morning.

I should have been alot more productive, however Mr. T was out late at a wedding last night, and then had to work this morning. Needless to say he slept in, sort of, and then vanished within 10 minutes of waking. But I did accomplish 2 loaves of Banana Pecan Bread and 2 pans of Blonde Zucchini Brownies (with organic chocolate chips).

I would like to take a second and explain why ALWAYS with the chocolate chips. Aside from making them more kid (and Daddy) friendly, the semisweet chocolate chips allow me to cut the sugar in the recipe to less than HALF of what is called for and no one notices or complains. Plus there is all the semi-sweet chocolate benefits. So that is why always with the chips in things. I also threw in a handful each of flax and wheat germ so they are more breakfast-y (at least in my mind) than dessert-y.

We have replenished our freezer stash of zucchini, I shredded 7 zucchini for a grand total of 18 cups of zucch's for the freezer. Our plant is nearly dead, again the powdery mildew and squash bugs are really taking their toll this season, but we now have enough stored to keep us in bread or brownies for 18 weeks. I hope to get another 10 cups or so before the plants are totally dead, fingers crossed. So it was a productive morning, I wish I had gotten MORE baking done. But I will not dwell on what I cannot change. I hope the rest of today is just as productive and that the weather holds, I would LOVE meat loaf  for dinner...but might settle for B. SC.T's (Bacon, Swiss Chard, and Tomatoes) if it gets too hot.

The great gourd harvest of 2010

*Started August 6th, POSTED August 8th*

Today I harvested gourds. Yes I am aware that it is only August 6th and Autumn is not officially till September 23rd. However it has been a particularly bad year for powdery mildew and a great year for squash bugs, this means ALL of the vines are dead or quickly dieing. So rather than let the gourds rot in the garden, I picked all of them to hopefully postpone the rot of some of them till after November reaches us. Yes I am aware this is most likely a pipe dream, but if one doesn't have hope then what does one have.

I guess I am optimistic because I did not plant a single gourd, intentionally, this season. Yet I had probably a hundred vines come up and even through thinning they kept coming all season. I did COMPOST the gourds I purchased last season in the spot where the new garden sits. They all volunteered and were very insistent about it. I suppose I didn't pay for seed or tend them so if they all turn to mush before we get to appreciate them in season, nothing is really lost other than my hour of harvesting.

Me and my Bestest

Last week I took a little trip, all by myself, for 4 days. I hopped a plane Friday evening to Greensboro, North Carolina, with a short stop in Cincinnati, Ohio. I flew on two of the tiniest planes I have ever been on, and I am not one to enjoy flying much, but I made it safe and sound. JLowe, my very best friend of 23 years, met me at the airport. A short 1/2 hour car trip to her home, in another town, and we were in for the night.

The next day I slept in and got out of bed at 10 am! We spent the day watching tv, picking through the art district, eating, chatting, and getting ready for an Alopecia fund raiser concert that evening. JLowe planned and put it all together, it was called Bald Girls Rock. She is pretty involved in the music scene, being that she lives with musicians and is in a long term relationship with one, and is also afflicted by Alopecia Universalise. She found 4 very talented bands of very different genera's to play, and it was a spectacular show with lots of money raised. The proceeds benefited this organization, which helps women suffering from alopecia by teaching them skills to help them cope with the difficulties of living with this disease. Have you ever considered how you would do your makeup if you no longer had eye lashes or eyebrows? It is just an excellent group and I am proud to have helped if only by selling raffle tickets and enjoying the show.

(This photo was provided by JLowe, # 5,789 of the two of us, or something like that. AND that tiny hint of rainbow on my hip is one of those things I made for myself that I have been lying teasing you about posting pictures of for weeks, they ARE coming I promise.)

The night ended far to late for this pregnant lady, and still quite early for the non-pregnant folk. I went home and to bed and the rest of the wild bunch stayed out till the wee hours of the morning. They didn't even wake me up when they got in, at 5 am! Again I slept till 10..or later.

Sunday we first got sushi, don't worry mine was cooked sea foods only, and then a massive quantaty of Chinese, and red velvet cake, and settled onto the couch for a day of watching Dexter Season 4 on demand, eating, and enjoying each others company. It was the very best lazy day I have had in a very long time.There were many other options of things to do, but with being tired and the fact that the sun did not come out the ENTIRE time I was there, this seemed like the best option. Plus, later in the evening, there was a band practice in the basement that we got to listen in on before True Blood, our other shared tv passion, came on. It was really a fun and full day.

Monday JLowe had to work half the day, so again I slept late and it was marvelous. We then went and browsed some more shops, hit the Tattoo Archive, and the bookstore, got pedicures, ate some cake dinner?, and then I dragged my very best friend who know practically nothing about the Twilight universe to go see Eclipse. I very simply brought her up to speed on how the whole sparkly vampire thing works and what she missed from New Moon, she had seen Twilight a while back and didn't need the full explanation.

*I personally don't consider Twilight vampires actual vampires, in my world vampires burst into flames when in sunlight, not sparkle, but I still really like the story and it appeals to the core of my 16 year old self that I refuse, rightfully so, to let go of.*

She actually told me after the movie she thought it was pretty ok. I think it was the most likable of the three so far, still it will not be winning any Oscars.

We got out of the movie kinda late and headed straight home. We hung out a bit more, swapped some music, and then headed to bed. We had to leave her house at 5:30 am for me to catch my 7 am flight. A quick good by and a long hug and I was off to security. My first flight was cake. The second, not so much. We got stuck on the tarmac in the plane for what seemed like forever, I missed my second breakfast, because of the delay and dislike recycled air, not to mention the horrible turbulence due to some thunderstorms. Long story short, I made it through the wait and flight only to toss my cookies in the garbage can immediately outside the gate, in front of a terminal of waiting to board passengers. Yeah, super fun.

Even with the not so fun travel ending it was a spectacular trip. So spectacular in fact I took NO pictures. Not one with my own camera. I took photos for others, on their cameras, but did not once whip out MY camera. I guess I was just having too much fun in the moment. Oh well next time I will take pictures, loads of them, and we will go to the beach.