Migraines and morning sickness....

Are not conducive to blogging often! I have wanted to blog, but finding the mental energy over the last couple months has been tough. I hope to have more energy going forward, both mental and physical. 

I just started my second trimester, and have been feeling a little better over the last week or so. Still not great, but better. 

I am due June 8th, and we will be finding out what we're having, probably some time in January. I am showing a good 4-5 weeks sooner than I did with either of the girls. I don't know whether that means anything or not....we'll see!

Here is a picture, and I hope to blog more frequently going forth!

Saturday Happenings

This past Saturday dawned gray and chilly, but we decided to go ahead and partake of a local event that has grown rather large. 

The 'Field Day of the Past' takes place just outside of Richmond. There is a wide selection of things to see, from historical buildings that once stood in Short Pump, to steam-powered sorghum presses, to tractor pulls, to carnival rides. We wandered around with my parents, occasionally glimpsing other people that we knew. We saw probably most everything, but none of it for a long period of time. 

The corn dogs and funnel cakes were yummy, as was the old-fashioned root beer! Here are some pictures from the time:

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 Gracie got to shoot a musket.

 Cora- stealing some of Grandad's lemonade

Gracie loved the ferris wheel!

Cora wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry, but mostly she laughed!

Still staying busy!

The past couple weeks I have been focusing on getting a routine in place once again. It's working very well so far, and if it keeps working I'll share it! I've been managing my projects, housework, and family time. The challenge right now is to find a way to do some schoolwork with Gracie while Cora is awake. (she's transitioning away from a morning nap.) that is my goal for the next couple weeks...to work on school.

I have also been trying to keep up with the produce we have; some from our garden and some from the CSA. I will be posting sone recipes on our garden blog next week to show you how I'm using sour milk (not from our garden!!), mint, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, etc.
I have a few Asian pears that I'm not sure what to do with, anyone have a good recipe or two? I guess we could just eat them, too!
Hopefully some projects will find their way onto this blog before they get gifted.

Now it's getting late, so I'll sign off and be back next week!

Hurricane Damage

The biggest damage to our street was this tree that fell and blocked the whole road. We live on the cul-de-sac end, so we couldn't go anywhere! The neighbors got together and cut a path through it, and we got out and drove around town to see what else had been done. 

We are thankful that we are safe, and none of our friends or family had anything devastating happen. I know some had trees fall, or minor damage, (my brother had a tree fall on his newly finished shed) but no one is without a house and no one was hurt. 

We're Okay--Sort Of

In the last week, we have survived a 3,000 mile trip, an earthquake, and a hurricane! Oh, and a toddler with fever for 4 days!

And now, I'm down with a cold and a sore throat! I'm thinking it might be tonsillitis, so I'll be going to the doctor tomorrow. I'm also wondering if the 4 day fever possibly ended in a sore throat for the toddler, too, based on her actions. Hmm, can't really tell, though.

Back to the hurricane. I do have some pictures, but I'm not really feeling like uploading them right now. (bear with my laziness) We got some wind and rain, but it didn't seem too bad. Then, mid-afternoon on Saturday, a neighbor's tree blew over and blocked the whole road. We live on the cul-de-sac end of a street, so there was no getting out for us. 

Our power went out Saturday evening right before I started warming up dinner. So, we had soup warmed on the grill, and biscuits toasted in a skillet on the grill! That night was partially sleepless, because of one who was scared because of the storm and another who was still kinda sick.

Sunday morning, the neighbors banded together to clear part of the tree away so we could at least get out. We went out for breakfast and drove around some to gawk and take pictures of the damage with all the other nosy people in this world. 

This morning was spent picking up the myriad of leaves and sticks that had descended upon our yard! I think some of our neighbors were a little disdainful that we hadn't cleaned it all up yesterday, like they did! But, that's another story, and our yard is clean now!

Our power finally came back on this afternoon (Monday) a little before 1. We were very happy!

And now, with the girls in bed, and Haagen Daaz coffee ice cream waiting for me, I'm going to stop rambling and say good night!!

Back Home Again

We got home yesterday evening from a 2 week excursion up the East Coast and into Newfoundland. It was quite the adventure! We had an excellent time, both driving up there with Chester and Heidi, and spending time with our friends and family in Newfoundland! 

I don't have my pictures uploaded yet, so I will give a quick run-down of our time now, and then more detailed posts later on.

We left on August 9th, and drove north. We stopped for gas, but other than that we didn't stop until Maine, where we got lunch and went to L.L Bean. (we didn't have to stop for bathroom breaks, because we were in C & H's motorhome)

We rode the ferry across on Thursday the 11th (and got a little sick!), and got to David and Rebecca's on Friday. A few days there with them, and visiting around, and then we went to camp. 

There were several others from out-of-town there, which almost doubled the assembly size. We had a great camp, and then left from there on Sunday. We drove to the ferry, took the night ride, and didn't get sick! Yay! 

We drove all day Monday to get to Portland, Maine. Chester and Heidi dropped us off at the airport and we flew to D.C. Weldon had a show to attend there on Tuesday. So Tuesday morning we flew in, got to the hotel, and Weldon went to his show. Early afternoon, the earthquake hit, and being in D.C., I was not expecting that, and my first thought was a bomb or something. Weldon was a block and a half from the White House, and thought that something happened there!

We managed a quick phone call to determine that the other was okay before the cell towers were overwhelmed and no one could get through. Both his building and the hotel we were at were evacuated. I got the girls up from a nap and carried them down 6 flights to the street. We met up with Weldon and spent the rest of the day in our room. He finished up on Wednesday, and we got on a train down to Richmond.

It was quite the whirlwind the last couple days! Oh, and Cora got a fever on Tuesday, and still has it! So add that in to the equation!

I promise more details later, along with pictures!

Hello Again!

I just posted on our garden blog, some pictures and recipes. I hope to get a post up on this blog maybe by tomorrow. Weldon is out of town for a few days, so I'm not sure how much "me time" I'll have to blog. I'm not trying to do any big projects while he's gone. I don't think that's fair to the girls. If I get stuff done while they're sleeping, great, but I'm not going to push it. I'm just going to try to do fun stuff with them.

We've just been hanging out today; it's over 100 degrees, so I didn't want to go anywhere in the heat. We'll go grab a bite to eat tonight and go to the library. 

Tomorrow I have some errands I would like to run, and Thursday I hope to go pick blueberries. Weldon will be back Thursday night, and then he and Gracie leave Friday to go on a father-daughter camping trip with some friends. 

This is a very unusual week for us, since Weldon normally works from home and doesn't travel much. I'm praying that it goes by fast!

Master Bathroom Reveal

When we moved into this house, I did not care for the bathroom, being tiled in green as it was. But, we didn't have the time to tear it out before we moved in. I figured I could live with green, it wasn't powder blue or pepto bismol pink! It was very "60s", though. And it was right off of the lavender master bedroom with the purple carpet! 

Several months later we noticed a leak in a closet under this bathroom. We had someone look at it, and they determined that it was the drain pan under the shower, which meant that the entire shower needed to be busted out. We decided that if we were going to re-do the shower, we would re-do the rest of the bathroom at the same time. Not that it's large, by any means! But, still a big job. My dad kindly offered to do the job on the side, which saved us money.

Here are the before pictures:

And for the after pictures....

This cabinet replaced an un-needed vanity and sink. The door hides the laundry basket.

The floor of the shower

Close-up of the pictures

And we are finally done! It's taken me a while to get the little touches finished. And I'm off to the next project!

Pictures and A Preview

Drink time!

A dinner from last week--salad made with local ingredients, including nasturtiums from our garden.

Pork chops, smashed potatoes, and snow peas, all local except the pork chops.

Lily in the back yard.

Cora, snuggling with her baby!

A yummy lemon blueberry cake! Recipe is here; I made it gluten free by using gluten free cake mix. 

I snapped a few of the girls playing the other night. This one is blurry, but I like the action.

And now for the preview of an almost finished project. I plan on hanging some frames later today, and then I will post the finished pictures.

Here is our master bathroom when we moved in. Stay tuned for the "after" pictures!

Our Garden

I've started another blog, mainly for myself, but anyone who is interested is welcome to visit! It's linked on the sidebar, and it will be focused on our garden. 

I started it as a way to have a chronological journal of our garden, with pictures, what's going on in the garden, and what we're getting out of it.

If that's not your cup of tea, you don't have to look! Again, it is primarily for us to be able to look back at later. 

A Quick No-Sew Project

Some areas of my house have been in slow-transition mode from when we bought the house, a year and a half ago. We moved in when I was 7 months pregnant, and then after Cora was born, we had some areas that had more priority than others! So I'm just now getting around to making some rooms look like I want them to.

This no-sew project was nice for this morning. My sewing machine has been getting a lot of use recently, and this was a nice break and quick transformation!

These are the pillows I had on my bed.

Not horrible, but they were more of an olive green than a brown. I followed this tutorial and here's what I came up with:

Here's a close-up:

I used a twin sheet from Target ($8.99), and it was slightly smaller than what I needed. I ended up not being able to tie a square knot, so I had to pin the knot on the back side. Still, I didn't sew a stitch!

And just for fun, here's the room when we looked at the house; purple carpet, lavender walls, burgundy curtains, and non-matching bedding!

And here it is today. I apologize for the lighting; it is cloudy and rainy, so it's a little dark.

Coming soon: Master bath before-and-after, and also something new in the kitchen!

Stay tuned!

Also, I am proud to say that I have not looked at a blog since Sunday, except to get one recipe and the pillow tutorial.