Here is some exciting news: we have a strawberry! It doesn't look like much yet, but it's a good sign of yummy things to come. My potato plants also appear to be doing well as of right now. Everything else, well, I haven't gotten there yet. My goal for this weekend is to plant my tomatoes, beans, carrots, pumpkins, watermelons, and sunflowers. Wow. That seems like a lot more now that I've typed it out. Yikes!

For my birthday, Steve promised to watch Emma for me any time I want to go get my hair cut or go to the chiropractor, and he also got me a $100 giftcard to my favorite yarn store. Well done, Steve. I couldn't have picked out anything better myself.

Tommorrow morning we're hitting the garage sales again! I can't wait!

I'm doing a little potty-learning experiment today. Emma hasn't shown interest in using the potty, which is fine, but, after reading an article in LLL's recent magazine about it, I decided maybe I should try to encourage her a little more. This morning we bought another potty - one for the living room, one for the bathroom - and some big girl panties. Emma was so excited. The trouble was she couldn't decide which pair to wear. After about fifteen minutes of "No, BLUE unnerway-er! No, PINK unnerway-er! No, WHITE unnerway-er!", she finally stuck with the blue ones. So far we've had one accident, ending with a couple of drops into the potty. When it came time for her nap, she got me twice by saying, "Emma pee potty!" and running in to go. Seeing that she really had no interest in anything other than avoiding her nap, I finally wised up and put on a diaper. I guess we'll stick with this for a few days and see if she starts showing any interest. If not, we'll pack up the unnerway-er for a later date.

Remember how I said I was knitting two pairs of socks? Well, I've decided to frog one of them. I've been in denial, but I can no longer overlook the fact that these are the ugliest socks ever. They were supposed to be for my dad, but I don't want to insult him by giving him these socks and actually expecting him to wear them. For your veiwing pleasure, here is a picture of the World's Most Hideous Sock.

Today is my birthday - the big 27. Okay, so it's really not that big of a birthday. However, Steve did mention on the phone earlier that he went shopping on his lunch break. Sweet!

Because Steve didn't work all weekend (yay!), we had a great time and did lots of fun stuff. Unfortunately, that fun stuff inlcuded eating about a year's worth of junk, thanks to eating out five times in a single weekend. We took Emma to see The Wild (in which she was not interested) on Saturday and on Sunday we went to the Royals game. We also spent a lot of time watching Arrested Development. After hearing that it was a good show, we decided to rent the first DVD of the first season. Twenty-one episodes and a midnight trip to Blockbuster later, we have finished the first season. Tonight we are going to start the second one. That show is so funny; I think we are rivaling our DVD marathons at the release of each new season of 24.

This morning Emma and I returned to the worm farm and bought another pound of worms. Awhile back, I was worried that they weren't keeping up with the food, so I split them in two separate containers, hoping they would quickly procreate. They weren't doing it quickly enough, I thought, so we just went and got some more. Adding 1,000 members to the family is always a little exciting!

The mattress at the end of the bed is going so-so. Emma loves it and want to spend all day there. She calls it the "cool bed" so all day I'm hearing, "Read in cool bed. Nurse in cool bed. Eat peanut butter in cool bed," etc. However, she only wants to be there with me, and she just doesn't sleep that long without me next to her, so it's not working that well at night. The first night I kept trying to lay here there after she was asleep and she would, amazingly, wake from a dead sleep and cling to my neck, saying "Mommy yay down!" She's gotten a little more accustomed to it, and last night she slept there for an hour by herself. I don't mind her sleeping with us most of the night (and would prefer it, actually), but it was really great to have a whole hour during which I could actually stretch out and sleep in any comfortable position I wanted.

Ever since my mom came here with a suitcase, Emma has been obsessed with suitcases. She'll drag anything with a handle around the house, proudly exclaiming, "Soupcase!" This weekend we went to Target and took Emma to the luggage aisle, where she had a blast rolling around all the little kid-sized soupcases. I'm going to try to find one at a garage sale or thrift store for her. She'll be in absolute heaven with her own little soupcase!

I just brought the crib mattress up from the basement and put it at the foot of our bed. When Emma wakes from her nap, we're going to talk about her special big girl bed. I'm sure she'll be pretty excited about it, until she actually wakes to find herself alone there in the middle of the night. I always nurse her to sleep while sitting at the computer, so actually putting her there in the first place won't be a problem. I'm curious to see how tonight will go.

Today I was outside weeding one of the flower beds when I heard some leaves rustle. I looked up and there was a big old snake, about ONE foot away from my face, making his slimy way up into the next flower bed. Wherever you are, if you were listening carefully, you probably could have heard me screaming. Poor Emma. I think I really freaked her out.

Speaking of Emma, that kid is getting pretty good at knowing when we're eating unhealthy junk and trying to hide it from her. The other day while she napped, my mom and I were playing Scrabble and eating some delicious brownies from cooking club. I heard Emma call out for me so I stuffed the last bite of brownie in my mouth and went back to get her. She started nursing, then stopped after a minute and looked at me inquisitively, finally asking, "Chocolate?". How does she do that???

I've been feeling guilty lately because I know some people are coming here looking for juicy knitting tidbits, and yet I've had none. I've been waiting (and waiting and waiting) for my mailman to bring me the yarn to complete the swing coat, and in the meantime I've been working on two pairs of socks. I am astoundingly slow at sock knitting. I've been working on these socks for two months now, and I'm just turning the first heel on the first one of one of the pairs. The other pair is in Steve's car, so I only have one in the pic. So, without further ado, here is my obligatory knitting content.

Woo-hoo! Steve's aunt just called me to let me know there is a great garage sale on her street with tons of adorable girl clothes. We are so there!

What is UP with this weather? It has been chilly and dreary for several days with no end in sight. Today Emma and I are holed up inside doing cold-weather things like baking bread and eating soup. Yum!

My mom went back home this morning. Poor Emma was crushed.

Nothing else interesting to write, so I will share this fabulous recipe for Broccoli Soup. Emma and I love it and usually make it once a week.

"Cream" of Broccoli Soup

1/2 onion
1 clove garlic
1 stalk celery, sliced
1 large carrot, sliced
3 cups coarsely chopped broccoli
3 cups water
1/2 cup raw cashews
1 tablespoon arrowroot
1/2 teaspoon sea salt or to taste
1 tablespoon miso
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon dried basil

Place onion, garlic, celery, carrot, broccoli, and water in soup pot. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer 15 to 20 minutes, or until vegetables are tender. Remove 8 to 10 small broccoli florets and set aside.

Place cashews in food processor or blender. Grind to powder. Add remaining ingredients to blender along with half of the cooked vegetable/water mixture. Puree until smooth and pour into a pot. Puree remaining vegetables and water, and add it to the soup in the pot. Stir in reserved florets. Reheat if necessary, but do not boil because it will destroy the beneficial enzymes in the miso.

From The Vegetarian Mother's Cookbook

Enjoy!

Emma and Steve have this weird obsession with writing on each other. I think Emma looks pretty cute all tatted up, and apparently she does too because she's been showing the artwork off proudly.

Remember how Saturday night we were going to that dinner auction thing? Well, we ended up winning three things in the silent auction about which I am pretty excited. The first was a collection of six CDs from a local children's music artist named Jim Cosgrove. His stuff is really cute and we're enjoying it a lot so far. The second thing we (okay, I) got was a certificate for a haircut and color at some swanky salon. My hair has been au natural for years and I've never had it colored profesionally so that should be pretty fun. The third thing we (okay, me again) got was a certificate worth $1000 of chiropractic care, including two hours of massages. I've never been to a chiropractor before but am excited to finally see what all the fuss is about. Yay!

My mom is here visiting and we are having a great time. I want her to stay forever!

I love garage sales! Emma and I hit the jackpot yesterday. We got her a ton of clothes, most of which are from Gymboree, and some of which still even had the tags on. Have I mentioned that I love garage sales?

Last night Emma was alseep by 8:00, which was great, until she started waking up every 15 minutes. I got tired of nursing her back to sleep, so around 10:30 I just let her get up. The three of us ended up staying up until 4:00 a.m.! We were having such a good time together that I never stopped to think, "Why in the heck are we still bloody awake at this hour?"

Tonight Steve and I are going to a some benefit dinner with some of his co-workers. It was pretty last minute, so the only person we could find to watch Emma is Steve's cousin. He is really nice and Emma likes playing with him, but I'm still pretty nervous about it. He's like a young bachelor-type guy and I'm worried that, while he may have good intentions, he just might not posess the nurturing qualities needed to soothe Emma if she starts to miss me. We are also going to a dinner Tuesday (my mom will be here to watch her then) and I'm feeling pretty darn guilty about leaving Emma twice in one week. I hope she doesn't feel abandoned.

I have this overpowering urge to plant things. Emma and I have been frequenting the local nursery, and while we're there I have that spend-every-ounce-of- money-I-have-on-everything-I-see urge that I usually only get in yarn stores. Yesterday I read about planting strawberries in pots and I couldn't pass that up so, even though I wasn't planning on having them before, we now have strawberries! Well, strawberry plants, anyway. I bought actual plants for the top, and little root systems for the pockets. I'm not sure if the pocket ones will produce fruit this year, but we should have a few berries at least.

Also, my potato plants are starting to sprout!

Tonight we went out to dinner, and then after Emma was in bed Steve and I did Sudoku races and drank coffee and Baileys. Mmmm...like heaven in a mug! I did a lot of Sudokus while I was home so, even though I'm pretty bad at them, I'm still better than Steve. That probably won't last long so I'm enjoying it while it does!

Tomorrow morning Emma and I are heading out to hit the garage sales! I can't wait!

Steve didn't get home until after 2:00 a.m. last night, but the upside is that he will be home for dinner the rest of this week! I am elated! He will also be able to change the oil in the mower and mow the grass, which is sorely overdue.

Emma and I have gotten off our schedule. The last two mornings we slept until 11:00, which I hate. Our day is so messed up now. The Parents as Teachers lady is coming in forty minutes and Emma just went down for her nap about five minutes ago. I'm going to have to wake her up, and she will probably be slightly unpleasant during the visit. Last night she went to sleep at 9:30, so I figured she'd be up earlier, but no. I was awake until Steve got home, so of course I slept as long as Emma allowed me to this morning. Tomorrow we have to bring Joe and Pax to the groomer at 9:00 so that will force us to get out of bed at a reasonable hour.

I'll leave you with a picture of the eggs I knitted for Easter gifts.
















Well, okay, here are some more Easter pics. I couldn't resist.
That raccoon, which is not necessarily Easter-related, was chased into a tree by my parents' dog, and Emma is still talking about it. She keeps asking me if the raccoon went home.













That little red umbrella and the kite were Emma's favorite Easter bunny gifts. The kite is already broken, but she has been carrying around the umbrella non-stop, asking when it's going to rain.

Something terrible happened today. A little background - about six months ago a new family moved in across the street. They were really sweet and friendly, and had a little girl and a new baby. About a month ago they bought the cutest little yellow lab puppy, which their daughter named Girl. The problem was that they just always let Girl out their front door and she would run around to all the neighbors' houses. I don't mind her being around, but running around in the street is certainly not safe. Three separate times, I walked her back across the street and rang their bell, making sure to mention that I was worried about her crossing the street. Pretty soon I figured out that they just didn't care (AAAHHHHHH!!) so I stopped bringing her back. Today Emma and I got home from the store, and Girl was there to meet us. She wanted to play but I had groceries to put away, so I literally had to carry her out of our garage so I could close the door and go inside. About five minutes later, through our open windows, we heard some brakes squeal and then the most horrible screaming noise I have ever heard. I knew right away what it was. I went outside and three kids and the driver of the car were standing there, watching Girl in the street. The neighbors ran out, so I went back inside, where I sat on the couch with Emma and cried. This was hours ago and I can't get the picture of her or the terrible noises she was making out of my mind. After a few minutes her crying stopped. I looked out the window and she was dead. I am so, so upset that my daughter had to see that and that our neighbor's carelessness led to this. I'm also mad at myself because every single day I was angry about that dog running loose in the street, and I never did anything about it. The woman who hit her clearly felt terrible, and I feel awful for her too. I don't like our neighbors anymore.

Emma and I are still at my mom's, but are heading back home this afternoon. We had a really great Easter. Emma played so hard yesterday that I thought she would fall asleep really easily. Unfortunately, she was still wide awake last night at 12:25 a.m. when I realized that I had run out of the sposie dipes that we use while at my mom's. I wrapped her bum in a towel and went to the store to get diapers. I bribed my brothers to come with me with promises of milkshakes from Steak N Shake. Thankfully, she finally fell asleep in the car, and was asleep when I ran into Walgreen's and spent a bloody fortune on those dumb diapers. Ugh! I hate buying disposable diapers!

Last night I didn't feel like making the drive home, but today I am so ready to get back - back to my own bed, my own food, my own garden, and my own worms. And, of course, back to my freezer filled with cooking club meals!!

I keep forgetting to do this. Melanie tagged me!

Six Weird Qualities or Habits I Have:
1. I feed my dogs off my fork.
2. When I find an article of clothing I like, I buy it in two or three colors.
3. Sometimes I Google old friends to see if I can find out what they're doing.
4. I stockpile the $1 pregnancy tests just so I can take them for fun (even though I'm pretty sure I'm not pregnant) whenever I feel any possible pregnancy symptom.
5. I hate when people turn off their cars when their windshield wipers are still on.
6. I listen to kid's music even when the kid is asleep sometimes just because I like it.

That was hard. I asked two other people to think of some weird things I do, and both immediately said, "You have worms living in your basement!"

I tag:
Only Palaver
Wife Woman Mother
Feed Me Momma!
Vegan Knitting
Growing Warriors

Lately I've been thinking that it would be okay with me if Emma weaned, because I'm a little tired of nursing a kicking, twiddling, flip-flopping toddler. I decided I was going to do the "don't offer, don't refuse" policy to hopefully move things along a little. Well, we've been at my mom's since Wednesday. Both Thursday and Wednesday, she's only nursed when waking up and going to bed. That's twice in the whole day! TWICE! This from a kid who often nurses seriously all day long when we're at home. (Okay, I have to add that she has nursed a LOT during the past two nights, though.) I know most of it is because we've been busy here and our whole schedule is thrown off, but I'm wondering how it will be when we get back home. Half of me is sad, and the other half is jumping for joy that I may be getting close to having my body all to myself again.

Emma is so cute I can hardly stand it. I feel like I should just follow her around with the camcorder all day every day so none of this cuteness will ever be forgotten. Now when she is upset because we won't let her do something, she'll put her face in her hands and make little fake crying noises. After a few moments of that, she'll lift her head and say sadly, "Emma cry," just to make sure we didn't miss it.

I am thinking it's time to get Emma her own bed. There are certain things that are not working out so well anymore, and Steve and I want an hour or two of privacy sometimes. She can come in with us when she wakes up, usually around 1:00 or 2:00, but I'd like her to start out the night elsewhere. She's been cuddled up to me all night, every single night since she was born so this is a pretty big step. The only problem is that we have absolutely nowhere to put a bed for her. Her bedroom is teeny-tiny and her dresser, bookshelf, play kitchen, and toy basket take up every inch of space. We may turn the office into her room, and vice versa, but that would be a huge hassle. I guess we'll see what happens. Steve doesn't seem to be in any hurry to get her a bed, so it may be quite awhile before the big move actually happens.

Tonight, after Emma's bath and before her diaper was on, she was standing on a laundry basket playing with the things on my dresser. As she leaned against the dresser, she chose that exact moment to pee. My bottom dresser drawer was conveniently open a little, which means pee ran in and soaked my drawerful of clean clothes. Could she have chosen a worse place to pee?

Our weekend was fun. Saturday night we dyed eggs, and that sneaky old Easter Bunny hopped in and hid them during the night. Emma had so much fun hunting for the eggs and other goodies. In addition to the eggs, the E.B. brought her some of her favorite things: pickles, kidney beans, applesauce, and beets. It's a good thing he found the right house because I bet most other kids would be pretty disgusted to find those "treats" on Easter morning.

I'm starting to get concerned about my spinach. I planted two different kinds and one of them, called Strawberry Spinach, should have sprouted by now. I just looked around on the Internet and apparently there are many people who could never get it to sprout. There are also several sources that say to just sprinkle the seeds on the soil because they need light to sprout. My seed packed said to plant them 1/2" deep. Hmmm... I guess I'll give them a few more days, then I'll use that space for something else. Rats.

Steve is gone, Emma is asleep, and I am going to enjoy some tea and knitting. The dirty dishes and laundry are calling me, but I'm ignoring them!

Two bad things -

I have been busily knitting Emma's swing coat in hopes of completing it by Easter. I've been moving right along, and all I have left to do is a couple rows of collar, and an attached I-cord around the edge. It would be completed in plenty of time, EXCEPT - I have run out of yarn!!! AHHHH!!! I can order more, and I will, but the dye lot won't be the same so it probably won't match perfectly. Plus, the yarn is from Uruguay, and there is no way it would get here before we leave town this week. I'll just have to wait until we get back to order it and finish the coat. :(

This morning Emma decided to decorate our entire bedroom with a blue marker. She drew "pretty pictures" all over the newly painted wall, the sheets, the bed frame, the dresser, the door, and even the floor. It will NOT come off. I've been scouring the internet for ways to remove marker from wood, and it seems like we have to buy some toxic, hard-to-find, bad-to-breath-in cleaner stuff. Lovely.

Yesterday Emma and I enjoyed more yummy asparagus from the garden. Take a look at those beauties! Today I'm planting more spinach and more potatoes.

Yesterday was a good day for me, snake-wise. At one point I walked outside and there was a snake sitting right there, looking at me. I stopped short, but then I gathered my wits and pointed him out to Emma. We ended up following him (from a small distance, of course) as he slithered slowly across our whole yard. I tried to make it a learning experience for Emma and not let her know that the icky thing gave me the heebie-jeebies. As we were watching him, I started to feel a little more brave. Maybe next time I see one, it won't be so tramautic. And, when Steve got home from the store, Emma ran to him and exclaimed, "Snake eat bugs!"

I'm feeling somewhat overwhelmed because I'm leaving town next week to go to my parents' house for Easter, and I have SO much to do before then. This morning I wrote out a to-do list for each day until I leave, and that helped a lot. It's amazing how lists make me feel more productive, when I really haven't accomplished anything at all!

Lastly, here is a picture of Emma at the Royals game the other day. We had great front row seats, given to us by one of Steve's co-workers, so we didn't even care that this Royals season is shaping up to be even worse than the last two. Well, okay maybe we did.

I'm a little late on this, but F is for Family. By family, I mean Steve and Emma of course, but also my parents and my three brothers. I can't find a single picture of the eight of us together, which is larely due to my brother Andy living in Oregon and not being around much. So I can include everyone, here are some random pictures of various members of my Family.

Yesterday was a bad, bad day for my tomato seedlings. They were thriving until then, but now they are completely dead. Every last one. I swear I read somewhere that you can put seedlings in your back car window to get them plenty of heat and light. Maybe I dreamt it, because now I can't find it anywhere. So yesterday morning I went and stuck mine in my car. That afternoon, we were walking up to the neighborhood school to vote, and I glanced in at them on the way. They were not just dead, but so shriveled that they had almost completely disappeared into the dirt. Darn. Darn, darn, darn! I am SO bummed. On a better note, we planted Emama's seedlings outside last week and they seem to be doing great!

We are still undecided about the CSA. I talked to one of the farmers on the phone last night for almost 45 minutes. He was super nice and helpful. He said he would call some of his other customers and have them call me so I can talk to them about it as well.

Today Emma was playing with some little toy animals in the office. She ran into the bedroom to get me and pull me excitedly back into the office. She proudly pointed at her little set-up and said, "Cows nursing!" She wanted me to take a "pickez", which most of us know as picture, so here it is.

Yesterday we had a fun time at the Royals' opening day. I spent a lot of time walking the concourse with Emma, and I miss the days when I could just sit and watch the whole game. We're going to another game tomorrow.

Today we harvested our first vegetables! We picked seven asparagus stalks, but that strange kid ate four of them raw before we even went back in the house. I sauteed the remaining three, and we each ate one to celebrate our first little harvest. Yum! This afternoon I plan on planting our potatoes, as well as some more flower bulbs.

It is SO wonderful having Steve at home. He is going to go to work on Friday, but the rest of this week is going to be great!

Yesterday Emma and I attended a farmer's expo. There were a bunch of local farmers and a lot of CSA info there. I've been wanting to join a CSA for awhile, but Steve doesn't like the idea of spending money and not really being sure what you'll get in return. I talked to a couple farmers who run a CSA that consists of five farms. The CSA, called Generations, runs throughout the entire year. When I brought it up with Steve, I wasn't met with as much resistance as I expected. Now that I'm pretty certain I can talk him into it, I have to make sure it's really something I want to do. Here's the deal: You pay $62.50 per week, and you every week you receive

-a selection of in-season or processed produce (fruit, vegetables, and herbs)
-one half a cut up chicken, 1/2 dozen eggs
-one half gallon of milk, 1/2 pound of butter (3 times a month), and 1/2 gallon of ice cream (once a month)
-a loaf of bread, and a selection of other baked goods such as pizza crusts, buns, rolls, wraps, cookies, or granola
-1.5 lbs of pork and 2 lbs of beef - this will be an assortment of pork chops, fresh ham, sausage, brats, polish sausage, ground beef, roasts, and steaks

My pros:
-The thought of eating all that organic, locally grown food is SO appealing.
-We'd be getting better tasting and healthier food. (Is this redundant?)
-We would probably end up trying a lot of new things.
-It would be fun to come up with ways to use the things we get.
-It would be exciting to get our shipment every week and see what's in it.
-Good for local economy and the environment.

My cons:
-A year is a long time to commit to something like that.
-I might get sick of having to come up with new ways to use everything.
-What if I don't like not being able to pick out my own food each week?
-We'd have to set a certain, rather small amount, that I could spend on other regular food every week and it might be really hard to do that. The CSA sounds like a lot of food, but would it be really?

What do you think?

Oh, and I saw another snake today. *shudder*

Emma and I have been having so much fun watching the birds at our bird feeder, so yesterday we bought and painted a bird house. We are looking forward to a nice bird family moving in. Today we went to a wild bird store and bought a window-sticking thingey that we are going to use to hang a hummingbird feeder.

I saw another snake yesterday - in our shed! A quick online search for natural ways to deter snakes led me to this site. Bad news. The very first thing it tells you to do is not have any bird feeders close to the house! That is very unfortunate, given Emma's and my recent interest in birds.

Yesterday we transplanted Emma's seedlings outside. I think they were starting to suffer from lack of light, so even with the possible risk of frost, moving them out was in their best interest. Our tulips, hyacinths, and daffodils are all looking beautiful. I bought a couple new vases yesterday because I want to always have fresh flowers in every room all summer.

Here is a picture of some of our asparagus. Note: I am not naive enough to think that you will be interested in pictures of all my sprouts and plants, but you'll just have to bear with me. There will be pictures. Lots of pictures.

Oh, and I finsished my cooking club meals last night. I made myself a Tequila Sunrise (or three) to make the task a little more bearable. Now my freezer is once again full of yummy meals!

I will never again wait until 11:00 p.m. to start cooking club meals that are due the next day.
I will never again wait until 11:00 p.m. to start cooking club meals that are due the next day.
I will never again wait until 11:00 p.m. to start cooking club meals that are due the next day.
I will never again wait until 11:00 p.m. to start cooking club meals that are due the next day.
I will never again wait until 11:00 p.m. to start cooking club meals that are due the next day.
I will never again wait until 11:00 p.m. to start cooking club meals that are due the next day.
I will never again wait until 11:00 p.m. to start cooking club meals that are due the next day.
I will never again wait until 11:00 p.m. to start cooking club meals that are due the next day.
I will never again wait until 11:00 p.m. to start cooking club meals that are due the next day.

This morning when Steve woke me up to say good-bye, he didn't mention anything about the bedroom. I noticed it in my groggy state, but I thought maybe he didn't want to disturb my sleep too much. When I got up, I called him to give him a chance to tell me how much he liked it. He didn't even bring it up! I was pretty annoyed, so I told him I was hanging up, and when he asked why, I said something stupid about not waiting anymore for him to say something that he obviously wasn't going to say. He was like, "Uhhhh...I love you?" It turns out he completely did not even notice the new paint. When I told him I painted it, he said he couldn't wait to see it, but it's too bad I had to go and spoil the surprise. Gah!

We have asparagus sprouting! I was so excited to see that this morning. We also planted our spinach seeds today. I cannot believe how many weeds keep growing in that garden. I've been keeping up with it pretty well, but I hadn't been down there since last Friday. Holy cow - the place was covered in new weeds! I think it's because last year I just raked the weeds into the ground, thinking they would be good organic mulch, when really I was just spreading around millions of tiny weed seeds. Today I filled two entire plastic grocery bags with weeds that I pulled, in between trying to stop Emma from stepping on our asparagus. As I was preparing the dirt for the spinach seeds, I noticed that there were a TON of worms. I hope this means that we have healthy, nutrient-rich dirt.

We have a pretty small front yard and a decent sized back yard. Both are full of weeds. Steve wants to hire a lawn service to come once a month and do whatever it is they do. This has really been troubling me. Not only do I think tossing chemicals around willy-nilly is potentially unsafe for Emma, the garden, and the dogs, I just don't feel right about dumping more toxins into the earth. We've discussed a compromise of doing the front yard only. Today the lawn service guy came out to give us an estimate. It would cost basically the same to do just the front as it would to do it all. I expressed my concerns, and he said a lot of their customers have kids and they've never had any problems. Okay, so that tells me absolutely nothing. He also said they only spray weed killer on each individual weed so there wouldn't be that much, but then continued on to say that our yard has so many weeds that they'd have to just do a blanket spraying the first time. As much as I would love to have a lush, green lawn, I think I'm going to have to veto this. Well, the backyard, at least. And I better get busy pulling weeds!

And, because I think all posts should have pictures, here is a funny one of Emma enjoying her smoothie this morning.

Remember many months ago when I was going to paint our bedroom? Remember also how, because having a toddler is not conducive to painting, I never got farther than painting the corners and cutting in at the baseboards? Well today my sweet and wonderful friend Julie watched Emma so I could finally finish it. I'm really happy with the way it turned out. The color is cheerful, yet soothing at the same time. I haven't told Steve that I did it. Today is the five year anniversary of when we started dating, so it's a little anniversary surprise, I suppose. He probably won't realize it's painted until tomorrow morning, but it's the thought that counts. The only problem with its being finished is that the room is now screaming at me that it needs curtains, and I have yet to sew the curtains in the living room for which I bought fabric over a month ago.

I am really feeling sorry for Steve these days. He is so exhausted that I worry about him falling asleep when he drives home at night. He's been working 18 hour days all week. I don't know how he does it - I would have collapsed from exhaustion long ago. The good news is that he's taking next week off. He's planning to do some work around the house and yard, but I won't blame him one bit if he decides to lay around and be lazy and catch up on sleep instead. It's certainly well-deserved.

Last night Emma fell asleep at 7:40 after about ten minutes of nursing. Tonight I sat down with her at 7:30 again and she did her very best to not fall asleep for the next two hours and twenty minutes. At one point as she was struggling to get up, I was in turn struggling to not let her, and she ended up hitting her head pretty hard on the corner of the desk. I felt terrible. How come sometimes she goes to sleep like a champ, and other times it has to be such an ordeal?

Emma amazes me every day with her expanding vocabulary. She says the funniest stuff. Every time I ask her to stop doing something, she stops and says, "Sorry, guys!" She also just learned the word "now" and loves to use it. When she wants something, it's, "Drink, NOW!" "Outside, NOW!" "Applesauce, NOW!" I can see that getting old (for me) real fast.

Today I knitted this cute little egg. I'm probably going to do a few more and put them in her Easter basket.

Last night I totally bombed the whole not eating after 8:00 thing. I was waiting up for Steve, and around 11:30 I was feeling pretty famished so I gave in and had a muffin. Awhile later when he got home he went in the kitchen to get himself some ice cream. When he came back he had two bowls of ice cream - one for each of us. I have willpower enough that I can resist ice cream when it's hiding in the freezer. When it's handed to me in a bowl, not so much.

I think I have crafting ADD. I really want to get Emma's Swing Coat finished by Easter, but yesterday I decided I had to learn how to do intarsia. Intarsia is knitting a picture or pattern using two or more colors. I chose a simple design, but still had a little trouble following the chart. Apparently I can't count any higher than six. After finishing it, I decided to felt it into a potholder. Because I was lazy and just carried the pink yarn across the back instead of having two separate pieces for each side, the flower shrunk more than the rest and now it's not a perfect square. It's really not a square at all, actually. Now that I got that out of my system, I am back to working on the Swing Coat.

Lately I've been patting myself on the back a little bit because my worms seem to be thriving. At first I wasn't giving them very much food because I was worried about overfeeding them and ending up with stinkiness or, worse, mice. I've increased the amount of food quite a bit and they are really chowing down. I am amazed at how much they can consume. Whenever I add new food to the bin, I think they are contentedly smiling up at me with their full bellies.

Recently some idiot wrote an article for the L.A. Times about LLL and breastfeeding "militants" causing deaths in poor countries by speaking out against formula. The article is so stupid that I'm not posting a link. One sentence, however, said "At the prodding of the militants, the World Health Organization now recommends that women nurse at least until the child is 2, which would be quite a cultural sea change unless you live in a hippie commune." I've been thinking about this sentence, and how sad it is that there really are so few children in the United States nursing at two. I am so very thankful for my local AP group (otherwise known as a hippie commune)! Pretty much everywhere we go, we can look around the room and usually see at least one nursing baby or toddler at all times. I am so glad that Emma sees this as the norm, and not the exception.

This is a cool link.

My parents and youngest brother came to visit this weekend. Every time they leave I am always SO sad they they don't live closer to us. We had a great time while they were here.

I've gotten in the terrible habit of late-night snacking. Mostly because of that, I've gained four pounds in the last month, after weighing exactly the same for the past year. Also, I think Emma is nursing a little less, but I am still eating as much as before. Starting tonight, I am eating nothing after 8:00 p.m. ever. NOTHING. And I mean it. Really, I do. If only I could stop thinking about that Edy's Girl Scout Thin Mint Cookie Ice Cream in the freezer. Stop it right now! Ack! I'm going to bed before I cave!

At 7:30, I sat down and started an entry that began like this: "Emma is already asleep. Is it too good to be true?" That's as far as I got because, alas, it was too good to be true. Now, three hours later, she really is asleep.

I've been knitting this sweater for Emma for awhile, and really hating it. It probably wasn't going to fit her right, and it wasn't that cute, and I was bored silly every time I worked on it. Even though I was probably 2/3 of the way finished, last night I frogged the whole thing. What a relief that was! Today I started a Girlfriend's Swing Coat in it's place, and I'm already loving it. Why didn't I do that long ago?

I can't wait until it gets warmer again. My garden is calling me! Tomorrow it's time to transplant my tomato seedlings, so that will help me get my gardening fix for awhile. Today Emma and I braved the cold for a little bubble blowing. She's very intent when it comes to bubbles!

A few weeks ago we got a bird feeder, and Emma and I have been enjoying watching the birds. I've also seen squirrels eating out of the feeder a few times, and when I do, I open the window and yell "Go away, squirrel!" or something else equally threatening. Tonight Emma and I were eating dinner, and I asked if I could have one of her grapes. Without waiting, I reached towards her plate. She swatted my hand away, yelling, "Away, sqwerrel!" I guess she told me!

Awhile back, I tried to volunteer for Meals on Wheels. I thought it would be fun for Emma and me to bring a little cheer to some elderly people who can't get out much. The first time I spoke to the coordinator on the phone, I mentioned that I had a two year old who would be coming along with me. Clearly, no one had ever tried to do that before, because the woman stammered and stuttered for about three whole minutes before telling me that she'd have to talk to some other people about it. Okay. She called me back the next day to say she'd talked to some people, but they weren't sure, so she was going to talk to some other "higher-up" people and get back with me. She called back a few days later, saying those people weren't sure, but they were going to bring it up at the next board meeting. Really, is it that big of a deal? So, again, she calls back and it was decided at the meeting that it wouldn't be safe for me to bring Emma along. Huh? She asked if I could leave Emma with a baby-sitter and do it by myself. I assured her that wasn't an option, and promised to call again in a few years. This was all about a month ago. Well, today she called me back again to tell me that they'd had another board meeting, and talked about us again, and good news! They decided to let me do it if I kept Emma buckled in her carseat, locked in my car every time I went in! Uh, no. I almost said to her "Are you for real?" Not only would that be a completely miserable time for Emma, but some busybody type might see her in there and call CPS on me or something. What were those people thinking?

When I get my chickens, this is the chicken coop I want. I think I will live in there with them!

I finished knitting this dress for Emma. It's the Smocked Frock from Little Turtle Knits, and I love it. Apparently she does too because she was WAY upset when she had to take it off. It fits her perfectly. This is especially exciting for me, because it seems like everything I knit is either a tad too big or a tad too small.

So I've recently decided that I want to get some chickens. We wouldn't be able to have them here, but maybe at our next house. Steve is not as excited as me ("We got you some worms, we are NOT getting chickens!") but I think he'll come around. In the meantime, I have to learn all I can about chicken ownership.

I think something is wrong with Emma's plants. Her pumpkin and watermelon seedlings don't appear to be dead...just collapsed. Not sure what I did to cause this, or what I can do to fix it. She thinks they are "night-night" so I really hope they don't die.

Today I am cleaning my kitchen. Every little nook and cranny will be spotless, and I will be so happy. I will promise myself that, because I enjoy cleanliness so much, I will keep it this way. But of course I won't. Don't ask me why. I love when my house is clean, so why isn't it clean all the time? It's not like I hate cleaning or anything (except the bathtub). Last week I cleaned every inch of the office and vowed to keep it looking nice. I've been trying, but slowly falling behind. It's like I'm running a race with Clutter and Mess, and I just can't quite keep up with them. Every once in awhile I'll pull ahead, but they always overtake me.

This time of year, which is Steve's busy season, is always really hard for us. He always talks about looking for another job and I always wonder why I'd ever want any more kids because I'd be basically raising them by myself anyway, but then it ends and we forget about all that. This week has been especially hard for me because my brother David is out gallavanting around Europe, intead of staying home like a good brother and chatting with me on the phone or via IM like he usually does. This weekend my mom and dad are at separate conventions and are also unreachable. This is all really annoying me right now because I just got back from a terrible lunch with my crazy, bitter MIL. I want to call someone and complain about her but I have no one to call! At least David will be home on Monday. Also, in a few weeks busy season will be over and I might get to see Steve more than four hours a week total. Maybe we'll even get to eat dinner with him once in awhile too.

This movie should have been nominated for Best Picture!

Last night was my first attempt at dyeing self-striping yarn. I started to wind my yarn around two chairs, like this, but almost immediately it got tangled. I sat down to straighten it out, and within moments it looked like this:

I worked on it awhile longer, succeeding only in making it more hopeless, so eventually I just chucked it in the trash. I'm so annoyed about that. What a waste of 440 yards of perfectly good merino wool. Lesson Learned: Wind the hank into an easy-to-handle ball BEFORE stringing it onto the chairs.

Of course I ordered more than one skein, so I broke into the second one. I managed to get this one wound, and all set up in the dye pots. The colors I chose were a baby blue, a sage green, and a light yellow. Well, apparently I put way too much dye (Wilton's cake dyes) in because the colors aren't even close to what they are supposed to be. When hanging the yarn to dry, I noticed that that colors were all splotchy. I was reluctant to stir them because I didn't want to yarn to felt, but another Lesson Learned: Stir them, at least a little, for more uniform color. At the very least, I was hoping for a sort of mottled tye-dye effect instead of just a plain old horrible dye job effect. This morning I worked the beginning of a sock to see how the stripes would look. Not too bad, I suppose, for my first time, but I would rather have the lighter colors I was hoping to get.

Emma and I often count things together, which pretty much consists of my saying the numbers and her repeating them, or sometimes just my saying the numbers and her ignoring me. Today we were at Price Chopper, just walking through the aisles, and suddenly I noticed her pointing to the flowers on her pants, one by one, and saying, "One...two...free...four...five...sits!" Wow! This evening, I've been encouraging her to count more things and it usually goes, "Four...free...four...five...four" or something like that, but sometimes she does get it right. Those times may be luck, but either way, I'm pretty impressed!

Today was a busy, fun-filled day. This morning we went to Paradise Park with some friends, then home for nap time, then to Target, and then to the dentist. Emma sat on my lap like a perfect angel at the dentist, but that's where the dentist-related good news ends. I've never felt that the teeth cleaning process was painful before. Until today. Good Lord! I have not been in that much pain for quite some time. At one point the hygenist said my gums were really "bleedy" today. "No kidding!" I wanted to shout. "That's probably because you are tearing them to ribbons with your sharp, pointy little torture device!" Thankfully, I (barely) survived that, so to celebrate Emma and I went to Sweet Tomatoes for dinner. Afterwards, I decided there was still more fun to be had at Paradise Park, and since the passes are good for a whole day, we headed back there. Well, apparently there was NOT more fun to be had there, because when we got there only part of it was open, and not the part we wanted. That'll teach me to not scroll down when I'm checking closing times on a webpage.

Emma's little seeds have been growing so rapidly that I figured tonight it was time to move them to bigger pots. I recently read that when you have more than one sprout in one little container, you are just supposed to use scissors to cut off all but one. I couldn't bring myself to murder such happy, ambitious little sprouts so I moved each of them to a separate pot. Their root systems were already pretty elaborate, and I did my best to keep each of them intact, but some itty bitty root pieces did end up breaking. I hope they all still survive. Here they are...three sunflowers, three watermelons, and two pumpkins.Also, in other gardening-related news, my tomato seeds are starting to sprout!!We are only planning to have six tomato plants - three each of two different kinds. The problem is that I planted eight of each, thinking I'd manage to kill most of them before it's time to plant them outside. Now I know that, should they miraculously all live, I won't be able to kill any of the survivors. We'll have six plants in the garden, and then ten more scattered around the garden in various pots and buckets. Tomatoes, anyone?

I am waiting for three things in the mail. They are not coming, and it's driving me crazy! I know for sure one was shipped the 3rd, and one on the 8th. Where are my things????? My mailman is probably living it up at his house, knitting with my yarn and reading my worm book! Ha ha...somehow I think that's unlikely!

What a nice papa!

This morning Emma and I went swimming at the community center. We hadn't been there in two, maybe three, months. When we used to go, Emma would fearlessly run around in the water, not caring if it was over her head or not. Today, not so much. At first she was really excited, but as soon as we walked into the pool area, she tensed up and clung to my leg. I carried her into the water, but she was absolutely terrified, crying and clinging to my neck with all her might. We only stayed about fifteen minutes, with her begging to go home the entire time, and not once did she release her deathgrip on my neck. She did, however, have a great time playing house in all the lockers!

I'm thinking it's time I turn to Emma for all my gardening advice. Her plants are putting my tomatoes (which have yet to sprout a single sprout) to shame.

Well, I knew it was only a matter of time, but that didn't help to make it any easier. I saw a snake today...the first of the year. I'd been doing so great working in the yard, telling myself I was going to be brave this year, and thinking that maybe the snakes wouldn't even be a problem because I hadn't yet seen any. Last year the first one showed up at the very beginning of February.

So today Ems and I were playing in the yard, and I decided to check on the contents of the compost bin. I flipped open the lid, and there he was, curled up inside, flicking his little tongue and looking all sinister. I am ashamed to say that I screamed loudly enough to frighten Emma - way over on the other side of the yard - into crying. That little snake brought back all the memories of last summer: opening the door to get the mail and seeing snakes laying right across my stoop, being too scared to take out the trash because I know the snakes hang out by our trash cans, and not wanting to eat outside because of the snakes that lived in the flower bed next to our patio. We have so many snakes. Why do I have to be such a wimp? Why can't snakes just be worms?

Before we buy our next house, I'm asking the seller about snakes. If there are snakes, I am not moving there. Period.

Today I am consumed by all things gardening. Emma and I made one trip to Suburban Lawn & Garden, and two trips to Lowe's. Our tomato seeds are started, and our other seeds are ordered. Here is the final list of everything I am growing this year:

potatoes
tomatoes
asparagus
green beans
spinach
sunflowers
basil
chamomile
raspberries
blueberries
watermelon
pumpkins

The watermelon and pumpkins are iffy, because I just got little kiddie gardening cups of those and Emma planted them herself. I was hoping to have garlic, sage, and lavender, but I have missed the planting time for those. I'll remember that for next year.

I am SO excited!

I got worms! Woo-hoo! This morning Emma and I went to a local worm farm and purchased approximately 1000 Red Wigglers. The guy who owns the farm talked to us for a long time and showed us his many different worm beds. He said there are over four million worms in his farm! It was a really interesting experience. The point of owning the worms is that they will eat our trash and poop it out in the form of nutrient-rich compost. It sounds like an ideal way to cut down on food waste and enrich our garden soil at the same time. Now I just have to worry about keeping them alive! More on worm composting can be found here.

Tonight we are going to a Holistic Moms meeting about organic gardening. I've also been fervently reading The Vegetable Gardener's Bible, which has tons of really great information. I was totally doing it all wrong last year! This year is going to be SO much better! (I hope, I hope!)

E is for Emma. (Big surprise, right?) I took this picture tonight during one of our many daily games of "house".

On Saturday, I finished these socks. They're not too bad for my second pair (considering my first pair was horrible - sorry Peter!), but there are a couple things I don't like. I knitted them with Cascade Fixation yarn, which is comprised partly of elastic. A few inches into the second sock, I read somewhere that when using this yarn, you're supposed to not stretch the yarn out at all while knitting. I changed the way I was doing it, and consequently, the entire second sock is different than the first. The colors pooled differently, and the second sock is noticeably more comfortable than the first. Oh well, live and learn, I suppose. Mom, I promise I'll knit you a better pair of socks at some point.

It was lucky that I finished those socks when I did, because I got this yarn in the mail Saturday. Mmmmm... I'm going to knit a pair of Jaywalkers with it. However, last night I looked over the pattern, got intimidated, and started a totally different pair of socks. Those Jaywalkers and that yarn are calling me, though, so I'm going to have to break my rule of no more than three projects at a time.

Last night we had the most delicious dinner, I just have to share it. Even Steve, who I know is always thinking, "Um, so where's the meat?" when we have a vegetarian meal, loved it. I got it from that same old great book, The Vegetarian Mother's Cookbook. Make it. You won't be sorry. We had them with whole grain pita bread, tomatoes, and (of course!) sprouts.

Falafel with Tangy Tahini Sauce

4 cups cooked garbanzo beans, drained
3 cloves garlic
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/3 cup minced onion (I skipped this.)
1/4 cup minced parsley
1/3 cup water
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/3 cup whole wheat flour

Tangy Tahini Sauce:

1/4 cup plain yogurt
1/4 cup tahini
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 to 1/3 cup water

Puree falafel ingredients in food processor until smooth. Add a little more water if necessary to get a smooth consistency. If possible, let batter sit for one hour before cooking to thicken and intensify flavor.

Use your hands to form patties approximately 3 inches in diameter and 1/2 inch thick. Cook patties using either of the two methods below.

1. Oven method: Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Place patties on an oiled baking sheet adn bake for 10 minutes on each side, until brown and crisp.
2. Pan method: Warm a skillet to medium heat. Pour in just enough oil to coat pan. Drop in patties and grill 10 minutes on eahc side, or until brown and crisp. Add additional oil if needed during cooking process.

Make sauce as follows: puree yogurt, tahini, lemon juice, and sea salt in food processor. While blending, add water a little at a time until desired thickness is achieved.

That is my grandpa. Of all the people I know, he is one of my most admired. I've never heard him say a single word that was not respectful and kind. His soft-spoken, gentle manner shows through whether he is playing with tiny babies, giving gardening advice, or telling a good joke. My grandpa was my inspiration for running track and cross country in high school. How many 75 year olds do you know who are still running marathons? He came to every home sporting event, and many of the away ones, of mine and my brothers'. He and my grandma now spend much of their time traveling around to watch my younger cousins play volleyball, basketball, soccer, etc. We are all so very blessed to have such a supportive and loving grandpa.

Today I found out that my grandpa has been diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's Disease. If you have a minute, please say a prayer or send some good thoughts to him and my grandma.

So I just sat down on the couch with my knitting, and set a huge mug full of the last of my delicious Japanese Cherry tea on the floor next to me. About three seconds later, I kicked the stupid mug over, completely soaking three library books and the carpet. Lovely.

I don't ever want to see another tuna casserole again. I love the stuff, but after making 10 pans of it in the last two days, and then eating it for dinner tonight, I think I've had enough for awhile. A good long while. On the bright side, I am SO looking forward to filling my freezer with many delicious homemade meals tomorrow!

Steve is home, and will be for the next week, at least. Yay!

A large volume of adventures may be grasped within this little span of life,
by him who interests his heart in everything.
- Laurence Sterne

David wants me to take a picture of the contents of my fridge. Well, here you go, buddy.

Nothing much of note in there...eggs, OJ, broccoli, grapes, chickpeas, etc. I would, however, like to draw your attention to the little bag of sprouts on the third shelf. Recently I was thinking about my favorite sandwich (Dagwood Club from Planet Sub) and it's ingredients, specifically sprouts. Never having bought sprouts before but being well aware of their health benefits, I decided to purchase some. Whoa. I will never again make another sprout-free sandwich. Yum!

I'm tagging Katie, Julie, Catherine, and Melanie. Come on, let's see what's in your fridge!