Cookout!

On Saturday we decided to have a family cookout and break in our grill and dutch oven! We had fun! It started sprinkling right about the time we were ready to get started, so we headed out front where there is a covered area. We used a scrap piece of counter top to protect our landlord's cement from the coals... it stunk dreadfully, but did the job! Clara had a great job toddling around and trying to be in the thick of things. Daddy had to assembly the grill, so some of Clara's "helping" was more like "helping Daddy get a headache!" Anyway, Momma snapped pictures like crazy! Here are a bunch of them! Enjoy!







Clara and the dutch over how-to / recipe book.





Parts for the new grill... how fun!



We had to keep an eye on that girl! She likes to be in the thick of things!



Daddy cooking! If you are wondering what on earth that is that we have the dutch oven on, it's a scrap piece of counter top. We did that to save the cement from getting black patches. We were having our BBQ out front in the covered area because of the rain!


We decided to try baking hamburger buns as our first project in our new dutch oven. Here they are rising!

And here they are all done!!! We were so pleased with how they turned out. They were a little under-done on the bottom, so we will need to do a little adjusting next time, but we still considered it a success!!

Let's eat!

Who Taught That Girl Manners???!!!!

Clara gave us a grand display this morning or her table etiquette.... or lack thereof!

Starting to look like the real thing...

Well, it's been fun to watch our garden grow and start to look like the real thing! Here are a couple shots from different angles.
We fenced in the corn due to the voracious appetite of our "dear friend", Peter Rabbit.




I "knew" I was a real farmer's wife today when I went running out in my bathrobe this morning to chase dear Peter away from the spinach and bok choy!!!

In other news, Clara and I went to a play group for the first time today. Clara had a fabulous time! All those toys and activity!!! I probably could have left for a hour or two and she wouldn't have cared a bit. It was fun to see her enjoying herself like that.

Momma's big helper.




Outside!







This adorable dress was given to us at one of Clara's baby showers and we've been waiting for her to be able to wear it. It's still a bit big, but she wore it to chapel on Mother's Day!

Priorities Of A Mother

I just listened to a great message on the radio, in which the speaker gave five priorities of a mother. I thought I would pass them on. I need to always be reminded of these things.

1. People Before Things (That one is easy to understand, but easy to forget!)

2. Home Before Occupation (Our family life is SOOOOO much more important then any job)

3. Spouse Before Children (Children understand that the love between Mom and Dad should be a deeper love then Mom and Dad's love for them... and they will feel soooooo much more secure if they see that love. One of the TOP things we can do for our children is love our spouses the way we ought!)

4. Spouse Before Self (What if everyone everywhere did that??? What an awesome world that would be! The way the Lord Jesus said to do things is ALWAYS BEST!)

5. Eternal Things Before Temporal Things (The only things that are going to last forever are the Word of God and people!)

Farm Moments

On Saturday we got to take our little munchkin to a little farm in the area that is free for the public to visit. Clara had a great time trotting around exploring, being with Mom and Dad and seeing the animals. She is fascinated by animals!!!! Here are some moments to share with you. Enjoy!

Garden progress

Our corn came up VERY sparsely, so I did some work today on planting more kernels that we sprouted...I have more to do though. Part way through, I grabbed the camera and shot some more garden shots. When you get to the end of this post, keep going... I put up two other posts today as well.



Onions appear to be doing excellent!



Go tomatoes!!! Looking forward to having our own, REAL tomatoes!



Beats! Can't wait! They're EXTREMELY expensive in the stores... and not even all the stores carry them!



We've been loving watching the potatoes grow! They're going like gangbusters!!! I think we need to start heaping up dirt though....????



Potatoes from a different angle.



Sunflowers in background, corn stalk in foreground.



Broccoli

The Great (or was that "Gate") Escape!!!

While Momma worked on gardening, someone amused herself for a little while with going in and out of the gate, which was relatively ok, until she decided to march off to the neighbor's.

Rice!!!

One of Clara's favorite things to eat is rice! She takes after multiple members of the family that way, including her Grandma Elaine and Uncle Randy. You should see though, what happens when she eats rice!!! Click on the picture below to enlarge it and see what happens!!!




And as you know, rice is sticky! If she's not cleaned off well, she literally leaves a rice trail as she travels around the house!

On The Mend

Just a quick note to say that we seem to be on the mend around here! Yay!

Feeling Icky.

Well, Miss Clara came down a couple days ago with what is seeming to be her monthly illness! This time she had VERY runny nose, some coughing and a fever. And on top of it she's been cutting two more teeth! Today, Mommy and Daddy have been feeling a little bit icky too! We've been downing the Airborne and using Zicam... hopefully we won't really come down with anything.

We did have a relatively nice day though... how could it not be with Daddy home all day???!!!! Clara didn't think sleeping in was a nice idea. Oh well. We had yummy breakfast buritoes. And we did some things around the house. Stephen has been preparing to speak tomorrow. He also did the BIG job of mowing the front and back yard... and trust me, it's a BIG job, that in this climate, must be done quite often!!! I did a little garden watering, but then it rained so that was pretty pointless! I was also able to do some more transplanting. So, the last of the spinach, basil and tomato sprouts are planted!!! I also got back to work on my wedding scrapbook, which I had started long ago and never finished. I know. My wedding was over 2 years ago and that's pathetic to still not have finished the scrapbook. What can I say? The truth is the truth. :-)

We got to go out and about a bit and take my bridesmaid dress to get altered! I'm so excited about getting to be in my friend Corinne's wedding end of this month! A huge congratulations Corinne and Grant! We also did a little walking around checking out the shops in that area... they seem cuter when you were just driving by them. :-)

Well, there you have it. Bits and pieces of our day. :-)

And This Laundry Is So Heavy Because.......????????

Clara is becoming Momma's "big helper" these days. You already heard about her helping give Daddy a massage, but there have been some other things as well! The other day, Stephen sat down with her and taught her to pick up foam letters one by one and put them back in their tub. Thank you, Daddy! This morning she "helped" pick up trash and put it in a box! Also, when I was moving jars of yogurt from the oven to the fridge yesterday, while holding Clara at the same time, I would hand her one of the jars and when we got to the fridge she would promptly deposit it on it's shelf!!!! It's so fun!

More plant shots... from this morning

Potatoes!!!!



The potatoes Stephen planted have been exploding out of the ground in the last week or two. It's been fun! This is part of one of our two patches. The sprouts are all red potatoes. The sweet potatoes have not yet sprouted. We hope they will!



We've been so happy to see these tomato sprouts begin to look healthy and promising! The tomato plant picture I posted previously was one of the already established plants that we purchased. However, we have also been trying to do some tomatoes from seed. The sprouts that we transplanted in the last weeks have either already "past on" or are not looking very promising. However, these sprouts that are still in the starter tray are starting to look like their doing quite well. We'll see.



Broccoli patch



GO ONIONS!