a whole lot of nothing

I had planned some blog stuff and then last night didn't turn out well. Lucas refused to sleep on his own in his bed. He let out screams that sounded like a cougar. He fell asleep in my arms at 11pm, and then woke up at 3 screaming again. I patted, walked, bounced, fed him, snuggled him, all while he cried. Finally after 40 minutes, I gave up and let him cry himself to sleep. That took an hour.

He's got a bunch more teeth coming through, his top front one and a side one on the bottom. Hopefully this little shark of mine has a better sleep tonight.

For now, I leave you with probably the only few things I accomplished today; some sketches and a bunch of cut flowers.

How does your garden grow

 We've had  a couple sunny days, and my plants loved it. Lavender is growing nicely.

 This mint plant is growing like crazy. Sadie loves walking past and grabbing a leaf to munch on. Its the one plant she's allowed to do that too, as I believe mint grows like a weed.

 Every week or so one of our berries gets ripe enough to eat. I've managed to sneak one before Sadie noticed that it was gone. I found a green berry still on the plant with Sadie teeth marks in it. Ew.

 This is my huge patio tomato plant. He's got a bunch of blossoms. I'm excited for little tomatoes.

This is Beth's sad tomato. He was in a pot that was just way too small, so I lent her one of mine. I think he's perked up a bit, although I'll probably find some plant food or something for him.

 I keep cutting my oregano, and he keeps coming back. I love having oregano around. The basil, oh sweet basil, I love you. Haven't harvested him yet, but soon. He's getting so nice a big now.  I'm thinking I'll need to plant some more soon.

 Hello precious beets. I look forward to harvesting you when you're ready. These are my favorite plants in the garden beds. They sometimes get preferential treatment from me. Spoiled beets.

 Carrots! I can't wait for Sadie to pick them. She'll love it. I remember picking tiny carrots and they tasted like the best carrots in the world when they were fresh out of the ground.

 Cucumbers. Notice, I need to weed the garden beds. Shame on me. My poor plants.

Also forgot my dill. I cut a bunch of him down the other day for borscht, but he's not happy looking. Might have cut too much. Oops.

The spinach, lettuces and cabbage are not shown, but they are also getting bigger. I will get more pics of them later. The other bed of lettuces did not turn out, I think mostly due to my lack of gardening knowledge. I think I weeded the seedlings and now I have a bed of weeds. Go me! If at first you don't succeed...

Starting our garden
How does your garden grow post 2 
How does your garden grow - post 3
The first ripe strawberry - post 4

Beach day

We woke up today and noticed that today was supposed to be the only nice day for the rest of the week. I got everyone fed breakfast and dressed and when I saw Beth this morning, we both figured we'd pack up the kids and everything and have a beach adventure. Its a shame we don't get out there more often, we live about 30 minutes away. I haven't been to White Rock beach in at least 10 years myself.

 So, each one of us lugged a child and many bags of necessary supplies down the tracks to the pier. Too bad we didn't figure out we could have parked closer. Oh well, lesson learned. As we were walking, we heard the train coming. Now, these tracks are only 5-6 feet away from the walkway, pretty close, so when I saw it coming, Sadie and I held hands while Lucas sat comfortably in his sling.

The train was approaching, and Sadie was watching intently. All of a sudden it seemed, it blew past us and tooted its horn. Well, that sent Sadie into a fit of terror and tears. Poor gal went from holding my hand to clinging to me like velcro. In hindsight, I should have been closer to her, or holding her. Waiving at the train did nothing to help her. Once it passed, she was a little better, but had Beth hold her the rest of the way.

 We set up camp on the sand. It was low tide, so perfect for exploring. Sadie beelined it for the tidal pools, and as you can see, she is wearing I think 3 different outfits in these photos. That's because she fell in, not 2 minutes after arriving.

 Lucas, who still refuses to crawl like a normal child, slithered across the sand, not wanting to stay on the blankets. So needless to say, he brought home 5 lbs of sand.

I showed Sadie how to collect shells, and she had a blast picking up pretty sea shells. She was not attached to them at all, and would randomly dump them out along the way.

Lucas ended up eating a lot of sand, and then getting really tired, really fast. So much sun. He ended up with me in the sling. He loves being carried.

After 2 hours, everyone got grouchy, so we packed up and headed out. Within 5 minutes, the children were zonked. It made the ride home so nice and peaceful. Lucas is having a nap again. Little guy is pooped.

We'll do it again, hopefully this summer whenever the summer weather arrives.

What a wonderfully busy day, I'd love for there to be more of them.

My first embroidery projects

 For the longest time I've been wanting to try embroidery. I see people buying vintage embroidery from thrift stores and I get jealous. I'm still keeping my eyes open, but for now I'm creating my own. The first one I did was the T+M one. It was supposed to look like a cut piece of wood, but I didn't draw on the pattern and just free-handed it. Yeah.... I know now that drawing out the pattern makes it look so much better.

Thanks to the Wild Olive Blog, I learned a bunch of the basics. I can now successfully do a french knot, and the running back stitch and the running stitch. There's a bunch more I'm sure, and I will get to those eventually. I'm so stoked to find something new that I love. The bunny is for Sadie's room, and I'm creating a pattern for Lucas' robot one.

I won't delve into crewel embroidery just yet. That stuff be crazy.

On driving

So, you may not know this about me, but I am 27 years old, and have only every driven a car twice. Yes, twice in my life. This last year I got my learners license. As a 16 year old, I had no desire to drive a car, and thinking about it scared me. To this day, some of my worst dreams are of me getting behind a wheel of a vehicle and trying to drive.

Yep, thats me, the one afraid of driving.

 I don't think I trust myself to drive. There's always that self doubt in the back of my head telling me "You'll be a horrible driver, you never pay enough attention." It takes away any confidence in my abilities to drive. So I'm working on it.

I've been doing the Soul Detox devotional in my online bible, and its been really making me think. It talked a lot about fear the last couple days. I've been letting fear always stop me from going out there and learning to drive.

Well, I'm resolved to get back to practicing my driving. I'll be praying a lot before I start though. I won't be scared away from something that millions of people do every day.

Wish me luck, I need to drive. I need to get out on my own, and do stuff without relying on others.

Thrifting Adventures

My lovely sister came over to visit today. We made an impromptu trip to the thrift store and lets just say that although we didn't come back with too much, I had a very VERY good day.

There she is, my dear sister. Caught her taking photos of her cart buddy Lucas. Sadie was in a horrible mood once she realized she'd be trapped in a cart. She was free to run after the serious shopping was accomplished.

Every thrift store we enter, I make a beeline for the dishes, specifically the casserole and serving dishes. I found Aria a nice grey/tan coloured pyrex with a floral print and lid just sitting there. Perfect! She's in need of good dishes. So I was rummaging through things, and took a second look through the bowls and plates and things, I went to look at a cake stand (which was not in good condition) and while looking at it, this beauty caught my eye.

 I was so excited I was almost shaking. Part of my pyrex butter print set right there! In the wrong isle on the lowest shelf, hidden from everyone. I tell ya, it pays to dig through every shelf. No lid, but not that I care, my other one is also missing a lid. I did a little happy dance right there. Aria thought I was a little crazy, but this is not easy stuff to find.

Also found a pretty pie plate with a recipe on it. My mom has some like this and my grandma too, so I was also quite pleased. All in all, a very good trip.

Aria treated the children to McDonalds where they had itty bitty cones and we had fries. Happy day!

our only sunny day

 It was our only gorgeous day, and we made an effort to take advantage of it. After their nap we packed up our lunch and went outside to enjoy the sunshine. It was so nice to have some heat after having nothing but cloudy gloomy rainy days. I thought summer was here, but apparently not yet.

 Sadie explored the weeds and flowers. Picking many and then leaving them with her brother. He loved trying to taste them all. She also had a great time eating ice from my iced tea and trying to fish out my mint leaves. My mint plant is coming in handy. We spent the rest of the day outside until bedtime. My children were a very good kind of tired. Nothing is better than being outside all day.

I'm not good at plants, I blame my mother for not passing on that knowledge :) 

What is this plant? I don't have a clue.

Lucas is teething in case you didn't notice. He tries to gnaw on his sister a lot, on me, and especially our toes. He's always loved toes.

We're also into the era of feeding oneself. I forgot how much mess that makes. Kid needs a trough bib the way things are going. He just isn't that coordinated yet. Nothing much has happened lately. I'm planning on going thrifting sometime in the next week or so. Its been too long. I miss finding treasures. I also am on the hunt for embroidery hoops and am in need of a couple lamps, so I hope I'll find something.

I hope there's more good weather coming, I need to finish a project that requires dry weather and space. Here's hoping it comes back.

we all screamed...well, just Lucas

 Normally ice cream treats dont invoke tears, or ear piercing screams, but with Lucas it does. Well, any treat does.

 He took one taste of the treat, and I had a bite of the cone, and well, he flipped out. I'm sure he was thinking : WOMAN!!! THATS MINE! WHY?!?!?!! WHHHHHYYYYYYYY?!?!?!?!

Even after he had a few more angry bites of ice cream, he still screamed. Screamed frantically every time I had a little bit, or helped Sadie with hers.

Moral of the story: Mama needs her own cone.

 Sadie is good for sharing, but then, she's not an "eater" like Lucas is. Boy is ALWAYS hungry.

(It took a bit to get him to smile too, poor frantic boy)