Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival

Just a quick note to let you all know that our snow study was included in March's Blog Carnival over at The Handbook of Nature Study.

We're the Outdoor Photo of the week!

Barb over at Handbook of Nature Study has picked Matthew and his snow to be the photo of the week! Head on over and see us! Matthew will be on the right hand side a little way down. We are so honored to be picked! While you are there take some time to look at all the great lessons Barb has to offer. It really is a treasure!

kinderGARDEN Thursday: week 11

Because I wasn't thinking, I loaded my photos backwards, but no matter. The first 3 pictures are from a fabulous garden that Matthew and I went to on Tuesday.

It's called Powell Gardens and Matthew and I had a wonderful time exploring the property. We touched all the different fruits growing on the trees to see how different types of fruits look and feel different. We smelled herbs, we smelled flowers, dug something, we touched leaves, and...

played in water. If you want to hear the whole story, come back tomorrow and I'll show more photos and tell you all about it!

Again, why the wrong direction loaded photos? Do you remember the sad munched tomato from this kinderGARDEN post? It's really turned around this week. It might actually make something of it's self.

Tomatoes planted from seed have suddenly grown this week and are as big as the replacement plant I bought from the store.

This is the replacement tomato and it's flowering. I hope it's not still too little.

These were about 2" tall last week. This week, lots bigger!

That curved blurry strip in the middle is what I was trying to get the camera to focus on. We have very purple green beans growing.

Matthew still likes to water when it's time and he picked a pepper. I guess we'll just have to make some salsa, darn! I have planted cilantro and lettuce 3 times now and I think I might finally get a crop. I don't know what happened to our onions, they just disappeared overnight. I wonder if it's too late to try again. I'm thinking about planting more beans, but I still haven't made the time to do it.

Kirsten at Sippin' Lemonade wrote a post about getting her purple green beans. What a thrill! Her son is just the cutest. Go and read her article is here. Kim's post over The Inadvertent Farmer is here. She has pictures of baby pigeons this week. Her family has the most interesting adventures with animals!

Changing times

May I first start by proclaiming my love for my Mother's Day gift. I think it is stunning by my front door.

The other night Matthew and I took pictures of each other taking pictures. We had so much fun.

As in many areas of the country it has been raining alot. I was so surprised to look outside and see the 2 dogs sharing Simba's dog house.

Scamp has really enjoyed his vacation hanging out with Simba.

Aren't they cute!!!


It was such a busy day today. Although I didn't get anything done here, it was still productive. Changes have had to be made to the blog, due to "julia f Baca," (who supposedly has a blog called Salut.) "Julia" for 2 days running has made a point to post a comment that is 3 links to online viagra. I don't consider my blog a storefront, so I don't take kindly to someone I don't know posting links to drugs on it. I have no idea why birthday parties inspired it, but there it is. (Do children need viagra to have birthdays now a days? It's a joke, everybody laugh.) So in order to limit the viagra in our lives, I decided to make all comments go through me before they post on the blog. This won't in any way shape or form effect you, the reader, but now I have the job to check for comments so that the normal ones make it on the blog. I guess I've moved up in the world to have my first annoying comments after blogging for 2 years and 3 months!

kinderGARDEN Thursday: week 5

There are now 36 families participating in the kinderGARDENS contest! Isn't that exciting? Here is week 5 post over at The Inadvertent Farmer. Most of them are families with little kids, but one participant is opening her garden to adult volunteers. Click here and here to see what she has to say. I think that's a great idea too. It's important to get "children" of all ages in the garden and learn how to be less reliant on our grocery stores. Just this past week lettuce was pulled from shelves for E coli problems. Story on that here. Last year or the year before, it was spinach being recalled. Much of our apple juice comes from China, Argentina, and Mexico. When Matthew was drinking alot of it, I could only find one brand that sold apple juice grown in the USA. Isn't that sad? What is wrong with a country that can't even grow it's own food? Ok, ok, I'll get off my soapbox (that isn't what you all come over for) but I really think it's food for thought. Makes a great case for being self-reliant.

On to our story, what we've been doing in the garden the past week. It's been an adventure this week. We had Scamp toss several pots around and destroyed some seedlings. They've been replanted and we are hoping for the best. To read about the damage more go here. Monday our idea got mentioned over at Not Dabbling in Normal. Please do go here and read about it just because I was THRILLED! Otherwise, we did what replanting was necessary and a tiny bit of watering and then it's been cold and rainy, so we just been kicking back our heels. Here is a few pictures of our sprouts that desperately want it to turn warm and sunny again.

The Iran pumpkins. 6 sprouts now, couldn't be more pleased. That's great sprouting for seeds that had a low germination rate and are now 5 yrs old.

The replanting of the Forellenschuss lettuce is sprouting.

One of the heirloom tomatoes.

One of the Royalty Purple Pod beans is sprouting.

Tuesday Matthew, Mom, and I got ditch iris. I didn't have time to plant it yesterday, when it wasn't raining, so Matthew and I ran out and got it planted today.

Matthew assisted me by pulling grass and handing me irises to plant. I did the back breaking digging.

We planted them by our barn between the 2 rose bushes I transplanted last yr. It ends up just being a big weed pit that Phil is scared to mow or weed eat for fear of hitting one of my plants. I'm hoping that this will turn into another beautiful flower garden. Anyone who has been to my house know I'm tucking flowers everywhere I see grass still standing after Phil mows. Now if we can just keep Scamp out of the garden, we'll be ok!

My coworker informed me this week that the purple green beans have been planted in their container and she is just waiting for them to sprout. She then said," if they ever do." I said, "Mine haven't yet, just be patient!" I'm hoping that they do well and it sparks something in that talented, creative family.

If you've missed our previous kinderGARDEN Thursdays here is the list:
Week 4
Week 3
Practice Run
Salsa Garden Planting List
Week 2
Post with Links to Week 1 and 2 on the Inadvertent Farmer's site

That should catch up everyone up. The posts have links to the contest and weekly updates that have other people linked to them. As usual it's not to late to join the fun. If you are family that doesn't have a blog, but wants to play along, let me know. If you send me photos and text about what you are doing, I'd be happy to post it for you. Happy gardening everyone!

Weekend grilling fun

When we were first married I bought Phil a nice propane grill. My husband is a huge fan of grilling and will do it in any weather. It took about 5 years of pretty steady use and finally, the grates in the bottom that conduct the heat evenly, wore out and gave up. That was last fall. This spring Phil couldn't take it anymore and went out and bought a charcoal grill. The advantage of this is grilled marshmallows. Last weekend I thought about toasting some too late and the coals were cold. This weekend right after we got done eating, I taught Matthew how to toast his first marshmallow.

The key to a non-charcoaled marshmallow is even rotating. And from a Mom standpoint a fresh clean twig.

Once it's nice and brown, take it off and bite it.

Let the melty goo stick all over you.

Then spend the rest of the night trying to get all the goo off yourself. Heaven help you if you step on a dropped toasted marshmallow. If you've been to Girl Scout camp, you know your shoe will NEVER be the same again. (And I do realize it's not Halloween, but Matthew insisted.)

We had a great Mother's Day weekend. Sunday we went to eat with my parents. My Auntie delighted us by showing up too. My Grandmom has been in the hospital for a week, while they try and drain the water out of her and off her heart. Both my parents told me to expect this year to be her last, so I've decided that Matthew and I will make the most of the summer with her. We visited Grandmom at the hospital and she was in good spirits. We traded funny animal stories and did alot of laughing. I didn't make it to go ditch diving again. Maybe tomorrow evening. How did you all spend your Mother's Day?

Over at Not Dabbling in Normal, The Inadvertent Farmer gave our salsa garden some press time. If want to read the article go here.

And 1 more for the day...

THANK YOU! For what you ask? Well, I realized today that's it's been a whole year of blogging! And without all you WONDERFUL readers, I probably wouldn't have gone this long, or took as many pictures, or documented my family's life as much as I have. Our little blog may be a source of fun or enjoyment for you, but it definitely is for me, so thank you! Keep reading and commenting!

Survival

I survived today and so did the rest of us. It was hectic and crazy and emotionally charged, but I think we fought the good fight and won some ground. Amen.

I have to say I was delighted to turn on the computer for the first time this evening and see that I had 3 comments. Yes, it's a small thing, but it pleased me.

Mallory's mom told me today about the encounter she had with Matthew yesterday. She was picking up her daughter from daycare and they were saying goodbye to Matthew. He replied, "Bye, my momma's at work." The mom responded, "Yeah, your Mommy is at work." Matthew: "Yeah, my mommy." She said that you could tell he really wanted me, but he wasn't going to cry. I was just totally blown away that he spoke a clear sentence to someone and included a word like work. I really didn't think he understood work. I know I say, "Mommy's got to go to work now." and so does the daycare (and of course he's gone with me many times this fall), but to actually use it back to someone appropriately, wow. For me that's so exciting.

Isabelle went a got shots today and for the first time EVER she hasn't been bouncing off the walls. They said she might be tired and sore, but wow, I didn't think there was anything in the world that could halt the brat kitten so effectively. I'm sure she'll be back in the game tomorrow.

Handy

For the last 2 days every time I'd undress Matthew I'd notice that on his inner thigh right next to his knee he had bruises and I couldn't figure out what in the world could have caused it. I mean he falls and does all sorts of crazy stuff, but he doesn't bruise like I do. Where and what happened? Then today I was reading what I wrote a couple of days ago and it came to me. It's probably trauma from when we decided to jam our leg through our crib bars! Mystery solved. Where would I be without my handy blog to help me figure out life's little mysteries??? (In case you can't answer that, I'd still be pondering why he had bruises. I was leaning towards an unknown person, that was nowhere around my child, getting rough with him.)

100th post

Today was an abnormal day for us. Matthew and I got up early to be at the school by 8am, so we could fill in at the daycare for 2 hours. We had a good time. As we were leaving, 3 kids decided that they needed lots for hugs and kisses from Matthew. He was so tired when we got home that he took a 3 hour nap! He hasn't done that in months. It was really nice. Gave me a good chunk of time to get stuff done. I used it wisely. This afternoon we went back at the normal time for work. This time Matthew did not have a good time at daycare. Bailey is gone to Vegas, so he was there with people he didn't really know. By time I picked him up, he was standing in the middle of the floor bawling his eyes out. Talk about pulling at a mother's heart strings. But I knew this would happen, so I was prepared. (I just hoped I would be wrong!) After dinner and a bath he finally felt good enough again to play and be cheerful.

Yesterday Matthew started saying "bye." Now he says it when he's walking away from me or going into a different room. He normally waves at the same time. Sometimes today I'd just hear him practicing it. He's also working on saying "water." We also went swimming with his Grandmom yesterday. He did a really good job. He did alot of kicking and practiced paddling with his arms. He also floated on his back (with help!) for the 1st time. Normally he freaks out if you try to turn him on his back.

Can you believe this is the 100th post? I am sort of surprised I've posted that much already. I guess it goes as quick as the months do. I can't believe it's almost Christmas. A mere 22 days away. I am just not feeling very Christmas-y yet. I am trying to work myself up to bring down Christmas decorations, but quite frankly, with Phil there and us here I don't really feel like putting stuff up. But I know I need to for Matthew if no one else. Maybe if he takes another 3 hour nap tomorrow I'll get to it!

Comments

Some of you have expressed unhappiness about not being able to post comments. I changed the setting today (finally realized I add a setting for it today) so now anyone should be able to post comments. Keep them nice you all! :)

It's been a pretty typical Monday. Matthew is now in the "toddler" slot for daycare purposes, so for the first time all year, the minute we walked in the door he was able to go to daycare. No more waiting and wondering when. He was pretty pleased about it and so was I.

Phil left early this morning to go back to work. I would have been very sad, but at 5:30 in the morning all I can think of is when I can slip back into my warm comfortable bed... The pets are sleeping. Making up for lost sleep while Isabelle was here bothering them. Pan is probably crushed that there is no more kitten chow available for her to eat. She is getting so fat from stealing it. I don't know if I said it before or not, but I left one weekend and came back to the kitten chow sack knocked over, drug to a new locale and a huge hole in the side for easy access. I decided to put it up on the island so she couldn't get to it, but surprise! she will jump for it. After that the only safe place was on top of my hutch. The sad part is when she was a kitten, and could eat as much of it as she wanted, she refused to eat anything but puppy chow! So since she kept eating Isabel's food this weekend, I put Isabelle up to eat her food. Isabelle loved it. And it created a monster. She is now jumping up on counters and other stuff... I can't win.

Maybe tomorrow...

Yes, we are still awaiting an answer. Phil talked with the captain today and he said that he should have an answer for us tomorrow. (We're heard that before right?!) And the answer should include Manhattan or Topeka again, like promised earlier, so that means we would not have to move. So we wait. I hope that we don't have to pack. We have so much stuff now it would be a pain.

The weather today was misty and foggy well into the morning. The roofer came and gave up in defeat by 10:30 am. They tried to raise up the bay windows, but as usual the house threw up a challenge that couldn't be solved easily. Something about a gas line in the way and needing to dig and getting parts. Grrr. It's always something isn't it?

Matthew seemed to be feeling better in the morning, but by afternoon he seemed to definitely be getting a cold and not feeling his best. By time I got home from work he was working on a crusty nose, yuck. He also had a rough night last night which meant that mom and dad also had a rough night. He got up and cried for an hour and half. We could not figure out what he was so upset about. It probably didn't help all we wanted to do was go back to sleep! And why is it you can give your baby a basket full of toys and they'd rather sit in a lid to a storage tub, play with the front of their highchair, chew on a bottle of water and pull everything off the coffee table and throw it on the floor? This is all he wants to do now. "Toys are for babies" he'd probably tell me. "I'm a mover and shaker now, can't be tied down with those silly things." He definitely keeps us on our toes.

Ever wonder why this site is called About a Bug? Well, that would be my fault. Hours after I had him, I started calling him my bug-a-boo because he was so cute and precious. Also I think it's a cute word (even though he wasn't a bug-a-boo). Well, slowly over time he became my bug and more family members adopted that as a nickname, so it seemed only appropriate to call it about a bug, because isn't everything about the baby? He thinks so. So if you ever wondered, that's why. I'm so glad to hear from several of you that you are really enjoying this and it makes you feel closer and more in tune with us. That makes me really pleased. I enjoy writing it for you all. Happy reading!