Goodwill Find of the Day

Today was Dad's follow-up appointment with the surgeon. Everything is healing nicely. The kids stayed with Grana so we enjoyed the outing... and the quiet! We had a nice lunch together and he was willing to go with me to the Goodwill Super Store! (It's so hard to go to Goodwill with 3 kids!) And here is the find of the day:

Metallic pink, fur lined Princess boots with glittery flowers that light up!!! For $3.00!!! They're the size larger than her summer shoes, so they should be fine when winter gets here. She has already declared, "Mama, I love these boots!" I have a feeling we'll be seeing them before winter.

And what's not to love???

I looked for some longer dresses for her, but they didn't have many dresses. I did get some little shorts to put under her dresses, though, so she won't look quite so much like a go-go dancer... except for the boots!

Tiny Talk Tuesday

Oh, there's talking. Constantly. And I've had a head & neck ache for 2 days now. So sorry, but I can't remember anything that's been said. Except that there was a lot said. I'm not kidding. A lot. And much of it was loud. Much louder than inside voices should be.

Rebekah got herself stuck in this position yesterday morning. Being the good mom that I am, I ran for my camera instead of helping her. Bad move, because after that she was fussy for a lot of the day. I'll have to move faster next time.

On another note, Dad's follow-up visit with his surgeon is today. Kids will go be loud at Grana's house & hopefully we'll get a good report from the dr.

Monday's Find

Two eggs today! And they were in one of the nesting boxes! I put some grass clippings in yesterday for nesting materials.

Dad found another blue-green egg under the water barrels, but it was cracked. Fluff and Tom got the first bite of homegrown eggs. : \ That means 3 hens now laying! I'll leave them penned a little longer tomorrow and see if any more eggs show up... in the coop! Yesterday we talked about where the blue-green eggs came from, so today David asked what laid the brown egg? : ) Now he knows that chickens can lay all different colors of eggs!

Sunday Morning Harvest

Look what I found this morning!!!! I had one more cherry tomato but I dropped it & a chicken pecked it before I could pick it up. Just yesterday, Grana asked me if I'd gotten any eggs yet. I told her, "Any day now..."

So this is my first chicken egg!!! Here it is compared to a store-bought, large egg. So I'd guess it's about medium grade and it's blue-green, so it must have come from one of the Easter egger hens. We're just believing that Blue Beard laid the egg, because she's our favorite.

Elizabeth asked when it was going to hatch. I told her this one is not going to hatch, because we're going to eat it. She replied, "I don't want to eat that egg!"

This Week in the Garden

Right now my tomatoes look terrible, but there is still lots of fruit waiting to turn red.

This is why my tomatoes look so bad. I found, picked off, and fed to the chickens at least 6 of these nasty things this week... each day larger than the ones I found the day before!

I spend a good amount of time each day out there looking for them because I've chosen to be pesticide free. I need to look up what the eggs look like. I've squashed a bunch of eggs this season but apparently I missed some!

Assorted peppers are doing well. Anaheim, poblano, jalapeno... respectively.

Finally grew a marigold from seed. Never got that to happen before.

Baby Cucumber:

Pinto & Black Beans:
Corn. I didn't know if this bed would be worth growing in because there's not really any soil in it. I guess we'll have to wait & see how the corn turns out.

Elizabeth with her gourd:

I suppose in the next week, I need to make sure my children have clothes on, have hair brushed, and then take some pictures of them!

David is in charge of letting the chickens out each day. He has discovered that roosters like to fight. heh heh...

Little House: The Musical

The first time I saw "Little House on the Prairie: The Musical" I knew instantly that my sister-in-law would go see it with me!

We enjoyed a great girls' night out, starting at Chili's for dinner.

I was very excited about going to Bass Hall because I've never been inside before. It did not disappoint!

This is the view from our seats. Yes, we were in the cheap seats, but I don't think there's a bad seat in the house.

The angel theme carried throughout the building, from the heralds on the outside of the building, to the angel tile work in the bathroom, to the wings on the ceiling. It was beautiful!

This is us in our seats before the show started. Can you see the excitement? : )

No photography was allowed during the performance, but I got this photo off Bass Hall's facebook page. I don't think I've been to a theatrical performance since college. It was wonderful and I'd go again in a heartbeat!

It was cool to see Melissa Gilbert, too. It's true, she's not the best singer, but she can perform. The rest of the cast had amazing voices - strong and they blended beautifully. I highly recommend the performance if you get the chance to see it in your neck of the woods.

Tiny Talk: Baby Edition

Trying to remember everything our tiniest talker, Rebekah, is saying! She has quite a loud household to learn from!

• horse - her stuffed horsey
• cow moo - Mr. Nick's cows in the pasture
• cat Fuff - Fluff
• bock - the chickens
• er! - the rooster crowing
  
• out - I wanna go outside!
• up
• eat
• cup
• juice
• baba - bottle
• nana - banana
• fish - Goldfish crackers
• Mama
• Dada
• Dadid

Teeth!

You can tell what's most important to her - animals, food, and family!

Outside Stuff

Wow, I really haven't taken many pictures lately. This was last weekend. See how nice the grass looks?

Rocky, Penny & Red racing across the yard.

I had some more hollyhocks bloom - a white and another pink. They're pretty much done now after this week's heat.

Thistle & butterfly below. Maybe it's a Tawny Emperor? I don't know, but they're very common. I once thought maybe they were Hackberry Emperor, but my photo doesn't have dots on the upper wing. Haven't been able to capture any of the really pretty butterflies, but I've seen some flitting around that look kinda like a Tiger Swallowtail, some Monarch looking ones, and some others.

The standing cypress that wasn't even supposed to bloom this year because it's a biennial:

Here's another peak into our country life. Elizabeth is on the back porch playing with a raccoon skull.

And here's the garden today in the peak of the heat. Everything's pretty wilty even though I watered this morning. It perked back up some this evening as the day cooled off. You can also see how the grass is quickly turning brown in this heat.

Cherry tomatoes were starting to turn to red... my mouth is watering thinking about them...

TOMATOES!!!

Did I win???

Tiny Talk Tuesday

Sorry I have no photos today.
Overheard during bed time snacks...

Elizabeth: Who's that girl? (on the box of Legos)
David: That's Princess Leia.
Elizabeth: And who's that guy?
David: That's Luke Skywalker.
Elizabeth: Where's Han Solo?
David: He's right there! spoken with a 'you silly girl' tone
crunching of Goldfish for a while...
Elizabeth: Does Dark Vader have a family?
David: Naaahhhh.
more crunching & slurping of milk...
Elizabeth: Dark Vader's light saber is supposed to be pink.
David: No it's not! It's supposed to be red!
Elizabeth: It's supposed to be red???
David: Yea!

Today we (Mom & Dad) are meeting with a surgeon about Dad's umbilical hernia. Out of the blue yesterday, Elizabeth started talking about the doctor, so I thought I'd let them know what was happening.
Elizabeth: Lambie needs to go to the doctor and get a shot so she'll feel better. (Lambie is her stuffed lamb. Not sure why she needs a shot.)
Mom: Speaking of the doctor... tomorrow
David, cutting me off: The new baby is going to come?!?!!?
Mom: No. The baby has to grow for a while inside Mommy's tummy before it comes. Remember how big my tummy will grow before the new baby?
David: Yeah! And then all the sudden his head will pop out!!! (making puppet movements with his hands) And then the rest of him will come out and he will be soooooo cute!
Elizabeth: And our new baby will come out and be sooo cute!
Mom: OK... that's not for a while. Tomorrow, we're going to get Dad's belly button looked at.
David: Is Dad's belly button broken?
Elizabeth: Is your belly button ok, Mom?
David: Mom, did your belly button used to be broken?