Let’s Talk about Food… some more. :)

We recently switched from unsalted to salted butter.  Not because I found us lacking salt in our diet (far from it!), but because of something I didn’t know.  Unsalted butter isn’t just butter (well, cream).  Most available brands also have “natural flavorings.”  And since I don’t know what that is, I’m sticking with salt.  I know what salt is.  There are some brands that are just cream, but I don’t they’re quite as available.

One of my favorite blogs to read, www.heavenlyhomemakers.com, is often writing about her food orders from Azure Standard, a co-op.  They didn’t deliver here though (they’re way north), even though I was excited about a lot of the things they sold.  As of 2011 though, they now have a line that comes way down here!  There’s a tiny extra charge on top of the price of the food, but I’ll take it!  The main reason I’m so excited is because they have wheat berries.  You just can’t get whole wheat berries around here!  I want to grind my own flour so badly.  But the cost of shipping the berries has just been too cost prohibitive.  I don’t mind spending a little more, because I know this flour will be divine, but I just can’t justify doubling or more our cost of whole wheat flour.  Plus I’m going to have to buy a grain mill.  And that is no small price.  I am so looking forward to the investment though, and I’m saving up!  So not only does Azure Standard now deliver to our neck of the woods, the closest drop point is literally up the road in Porter.  Wahoo!  They deliver every four weeks it looks like and you must meet an individual minimum order amount ($50) and a minimum amount for the drop.  I’m so excited to place my first order by March 8th to be delivered March 15th!  I will of course post when it happens.  My plan is to order some wheat, some apples, and maybe some unsalted butter.  :)  I might throw a few other things in as well.

I just joined a CSA.  What’s a CSA, you ask?  (Well, some of you may not ask, you may know!)  It stands for Community Sponsored Agriculture.  And basically you pay a membership fee to a local farm who supplies you with a share of their fresh produce weekly or so.  You get what you get, so it will be a fun challenge to cook and eat things we may never have tried before!  I found this one through www.localharvest.org.  It’s up in Cleveland, and they have a delivery in Kingwood weekly!  I can’t recommend it of course until we actually try it, so I’ll update when that happens.  It looks like it will be March-May, and we’ve subscribed to the every other week option (five deliveries in a ten week period).  I don’t know that it will really save us money on food, but I love that the produce is local, and while not certified organic, it’s close.

The composting is coming along.  I love dumping garbage in my back yard.  :)  I had Matt mulch up some leaves with the mower for me so I can add them to my pile as I need to.  I’m a very “lazy composter.”  I’m just kind of letting it happen.  Hopefully in a year or so, this stuff will be really good dirt!

The one in which James and Joanna get check-ups but Natalie cries.

Before all the info on our “J’s” at the doctor, here are some cute pics of my Natalie this morning!  It’s days like this that I REALLY wish I had a great camera!

I LOVE this picture!!

Oh, those piggie tails!

Oh, that little shrug!

Oh, that body language!

I could just eat her up!!

James and Joanna had their 4 month and 4 year (respectively) check-ups with Dr. Harper today.  We brought Gran along because she was off and to help wrangle the masses.

Joanna first got her four year old vision screen (20/30), which she passed, and her hearing screen, which she FAILED!  Ha!

I love the look on the nurse’s face here – can you hear this?  Really?

You can see Joanna raising her hand when she heard the beep.  I watched the whole thing, and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t that she didn’t understand the questions.  I’m pretty sure she actually didn’t hear the low/soft beeps!

If this is accurate, it just might explain oh so many things…

I’ve made an appointment for her with an ENT in a couple of weeks.  We’ll see!  She clearly speaks fine, hears at least most of what’s going on, and has a beautiful in-tune singing voice, but maybe there’s more to it!

Natalie said “hi!”

James’ cute four month old self.  He’s 26 inches long, 13lbs 10oz, with a head circumference of 16.34 inches.  As far as percentiles go, that’s about 80th, 20th, and 25th.  The boy is taller than he is wide!  But I can see that just by looking at him.  :)

Just for grins, you can click here for Joanna’s 4 month check-up post, and here for Natalie’s.  I know they’re all different, but it’s still fun to compare!

Joanna’s stats:
Blood pressure (first time for this, I think!): 92/40
Height: 39.25inches (40th percentile)
Weight: 33lbs 12.8oz (40th percentile)

Practically perfect in every way!  Dr. Harper asked her questions (her full name, what she does when she’s cold/tired/hungry), and she actually answered him by talking to him!  Yay for that!  She really did so good.  She had to get four immunizations, poor baby, but she was a real champ.  She didn’t even cry until the third one.  It was so sad.  :(

The nurse gave her a “certificate of courage” for an ice cream at Culver’s!  Of course, she still gave dirty looks to her all the way out the door.  Ha!

She actually opted out of this in favor of some Sonic cheese sticks from her Gran.  Oh man that girls loves her fried cheese!

Back at home we wanted to take pictures of all of her band aids just in case they fall off.  She can still show Daddy.  :)

Then I told her to show me what it felt like to get the shots.

Here I come Broadway!!  Oh, the emotion – oh, the drama!

She’s feeling it, I can tell.  I gave her some Tylenol, and I’m pretty sure she’s actually asleep in the playroom.  First time in many many months.

James was quite a trooper too.  He got two shots, and didn’t cry until the second one.  He cheered up very quickly though.

So even though they both cried, the reason for the blog title is the very second Dr. Harper walked into the room, Natalie started bawling!  She was totally fine with the nurses and everything, but one look at the doctor, and that was it!  She calmed down in Gran’s lap, and we think it was probably very good for her to see everything without having to experience it, you know?  She even gave Dr. Harper hugs.

The baby doll in the car seat

James caught sight of himself in the mirror on the playmat, and he was in love!

Who’s that handsome baby?

He’s smiling too!

James is very good for Ray’s tackling practice.  :)

Hee hee hee.

Celebrating the big OH FOUR!

Pop and Joanna shared their birthday celebration again this year!  When I told her that she got to have her birthday celebration with Pop, she got so excited!  I never ever want that to change, you know?

Kurt hanging out with his littlest cousin.

Joanna is checking out the cakes!

I think this is my favorite picture of the evening.  We had just finished singing “Happy Birthday” to Pop and Joanna, and they looked at each other and had some kind of silent signal to blow out the candles.  It was precious.

That’s a 73 for Pop, and a 4 for Joanna!

Natalie chillin’ with her bud Uncle Steve, whom she mooched food off of all evening.  :)

Helping to cut the cake.

Not much better than cake and ice cream!

Love it!

I was sitting on the couch and caught the birthday people talking and eating cake.  I wonder what they were talking about?

Aunt Missy is reading Joanna’s cards to her!

Aunt Mindy brought Natalie’s birthday gift since she couldn’t make her party last month.  It was this cute, soft animal (zebra) and a matching blanket.  Natalie was so excited pulling it out of the bag, but she didn’t know really what it was.  She said, “it’s a… something!”  Here, Mindy is acting it out for me.  :)

Joanna is pretending to sleep with her fuzzy lion and matching blanket. 

The girls got so many wonderful goodies that they have really enjoyed playing with!

Natalie was loving on Weensie.

The very next day we got to go to Grandma’s house since Aunt Gail was in town for a quick visit.  There was a little celebration for our four year old there too!

Aunt Gail and Grandma made cupcakes inside ice cream cones!
I think Natalie was confused.  She didn’t eat much of hers.  I think she wanted her “hof freem.”

Joanna had no trouble; she attacked like a pro! 
With only a little chocolate mustache to show for it.  I love how neatly four year olds eat.

Here she is pretending to sleep in Uncle Andy’s arms.  She’s holding her little hamster (stuffed hamster!) cage from Uncle Mark and Aunt Ida.

We had such a good time celebrating and enjoying our company!

Joanna!!

Today Joanna is four years old!  I hunted back, and you can read her birth story here.  You know, if you’re so inclined.  :)

Four is old.

• Joanna is always thinking.  This morning she came into my room when she woke up (hello, walking alarm clock!)  Here’s our conversation:

Me: Happy birthday, four year old girl.
Joanna: Am I four now?
Me: Yes baby, you are four.
Joanna: But I’m not as big as Anna.

And she said it with a sad, pitiful kind of voice.  She knew she was about to be four like Anna (her BFF, who has been four since September), but when it happened she was surprised that she wasn’t suddenly as big as her friend.

• Sometimes Joanna is the first one up (after James’ early feeding), and she comes into my room, crawls into bed with me, and tells me “I will give you two more minutes.”  It’s a good thing she can’t actually tell time yet, ‘cause I milk it.  :)
• Joanna is a good buddy for just about anything.  She’s fun to take on errands and she obeys pretty well, especially out of the house.
• She can pretty much dress herself unless there are buttons in the back.  She’s also not 100% with socks yet.
• She can unlock and open the front door, BUT she knows not to unless she’s been told to.
• She can check the mail.  I like just walking outside and sending her for all the heavy lifting.  :)
• She can open the car door from the outside and completely buckle herself into her car seat.  She cannot unbuckle the bottom buckle.
• She LOVES holding James and wants to do it all the time.  Occasionally she does it stealthily.
• She can carry on real conversations with just about anybody.
• But sometimes she won’t.  She isn’t usually comfortable talking to new people or even people whom she sort of knows (like from church or the doctor’s office).  We’re working on being polite.  :)
• She can recognize a lot of letters, but isn’t interested in writing them or making sounds.
• She has a great sense of humor.
• She’s old enough to eat a few bites of something even when she doesn’t like it very much.  We don’t force the kids to eat anything, but they do have to try a bite.  And if they want more of something else (say, bread or fruit or whatever), they’ve got to eat what’s already on their plate first.  She gets it.
• She is such a good big sister.  Yes, sometimes her sole purpose is to make her sister crazy, but for the most part, she is very loving and helpful to Natalie and James.
• She is a very good helper to me.  More often than not, she helps very cheerfully.
• She likes to talk.  A lot.  And ask questions.  Often.
• She is just so stinkin’ precious, and she knows it!
• She is very very loved by her mom, dad, sister, brother, and oh so many others.

Happy fourth birthday, my first-born.  I love you.

James’ buds and being FOUR months old!

This must have been Tuesday.  James, Ray, and I went on a short walk before going to pick up the girls from school.  Despite their faces here, they had fun!

This is Josie Beasley.  Her big sister Abby is Joanna’s age, and they are friends.  I joke that Josie is my future daughter-in-law.  She’s just so stinkin’ precious!!  And only a few weeks older than our little James.
Here they are having a bouncy chair date in the nursery on Wednesday morning.  :)

So cute!

And as of yesterday, James is FOUR months old!!  I actually missed thinking about it yesterday (bad mommy!), even though I thought about it before and after.  I need to get out and take some close-ups of my cutie in this nice warm weather.  Even though we’ve been outside a lot, I keep forgetting.  His appointment is next week with his sister’s 4 year check up so I will post more about his four month self then.

For now, some random things all about James!

• He is getting very close to rolling from back to front.  He sort of did it today, but it was toward me (the heavy one) on my bed, so I’m not sure that really counts.  :)  He can get onto his side, but his arm holds him up from getting all the way over.
• He smiles so so often, and his smiles are contagious.  I just love them!
• I can almost always get him to giggle by nuzzling his neck.  Oh, that laugh!!
• He takes three naps during the day.  Lately they’ve been very regular at around 10, 1, and 4.  Today they were early for whatever reason.  I think they’re usually 30-60 minutes long, but I think he throws some long ones in there sometimes.  I’m in love with that last nap that happens during dinner prep time.  Wahoo!
• He takes that middle nap in the room with Natalie.  I’m surprised/impressed they do so well!  They have to go down at the same time for it to work though.
• James is a pretty good car rider.  If it’s moving, he’s pretty happy.  If it’s not, watch out!  I think that’s pretty normal for babies.  I like having a baby who is soothed by the motion.  If you remember, Joanna was NOT.
• The boys LOVES the mobile on his crib.  LOVES IT.  He (in a happy mood) will lay and look at it for a long time!  Natalie loved it too but not as much as James.
• He doesn’t like for his sisters to be in his face.  He likes his personal space, you know?
• He chews on his fingers like crazy, especially lately.  It’s so much that I keep checking for teeth, even though I really hope they’re not actually close yet.  I value my unbroken skin.  :)
• He brightens whenever I come into view.  How’s that for a self-esteem boost?  I could just gaze into his eyes forever.  :)
• He likes watching TV.  We don’t watch much anymore these days, but I’ve noticed when we’re somewhere with a big TV, he is just mesmerized!

I sure do love that boy.  It’s funny, I wasn’t quite sure about the whole “son” thing.  I knew about girls.  I understood girls.  I am a girl.  Boys are a whole different animal, you know?  But, oh my.  My oh my.  I love my James!  I could just gobble him up!!

Digging

I have spent the last two days outside in the yard and the three days before that taking care of an extra kiddo.  All this to say my house is a PIT!  :)  Matt left this evening on the Men’s Retreat until Sunday, so it’s just us girls (and James of course!).  I have a feeling we’ll end up outside a little tomorrow, but I’m going to try to stay in some and do some homemakery things.  We have family birthdays to celebrate on Sunday, and it would be nice to not think about the house and just enjoy ourselves!

This past week was our third with Mr. Ray, and we’re getting on very well, I think!  We had him for three days in a row this week, and I could really feel everybody getting into the groove.  It’s funny, but the days that I have all four are actually smoother than the days when I just have the boys.  Ray LOVES the girls, but finds James awfully boring and kind of intrusive.  :)  I’m really looking forward to getting more and more into the groove with him.

Thursday was a treat for me as Ray was at home with his momma, and my girls were at school.  It was just James and me!  My mom was off as well, and we went to Sams with her new membership.  Mostly I took notes :) but I grabbed a few things, and James got a good Moby nap in.

That afternoon, Natalie’s wonderful teacher stopped by to drop of something we’d left at school (dirty diapers!).  Wasn’t that so sweet of her?!  Anyway, it was really nice outside, so we were spending some time in the front yard.

It wasn’t particularly sunny, but since James doesn’t get a lot of choice on what he looks at, I set up a colorful umbrella for him.

This child is always looking over her shoulder.  I’m a little worried she’s going to have to smack into something in order to cure her of that little habit!

So precious!!

It was a little breezy, but Natalie looks like she’s in a gale or something!

She’s so cute.

Then something came over me, and I began to garden like a fool for the next day and a half.

I didn’t take any “before” pictures mainly because they were THAT BAD, but also because I didn’t think about it before I started.

But I did find a few sort of before shots in the background of some recent pictures.  If you look at the top of this picture, you’ll see a very empty bed under our bedroom window, and the very top right shows the massive overgrowth of my killer rose vines.

The empty bed wasn’t actually empty, but it was very full of dead leaves, as you can see below!  (And underneath?  Lots of roots and plants I’m trying very hard to kill.)

My neatly pruned roses, complete with a fresh layer of pine bark mulch.

Another rose plant, and turning the corner are the new azaleas.  My mom was SO NICE to go to Lowe’s for me and pick up the plants, mulch and some pruning shears on Friday morning.  That would have been less than enjoyable with my three children, ya know?

I invited the girls out to take the “after” shots with me, but they thought we were out there to take pictures of them!

I managed to shoot around their gorgeous beauty.  :)

There are eleven little plants, and I really really hope I can keep them alive!  If I can manage not to kill them, they should be gorgeous next year!

This gardenia bush has been hanging on since we moved in (and for who knows how long before that), but I haven’t taken very good care of it.  Today I pruned it up a bit, turned the soil, and added some mulch.  We’ll see if it turns around this spring.  It’s looking sad.

And this rose plant (I call it my “Joanna Rose”) has never done well.  My grandma gave it to Joanna on her first birthday, so it really should be doing better after three years. (What?  THREE years?!)  I pruned it back, cleared out the leaves and junk, and added some mulch.  I’m vowing to keep it pruned and the area weeded.  We’ll see if it will get going this year or next.  It’s not in a super sunny spot, but I think roses are pretty resilient.  It may not thrive, but maybe it will do more than survive!

And lastly, a picture of some garbage.  :)  Look closely and you’ll see a banana peel and some coffee grounds, the first offerings for the compost!

I said lastly, but I didn’t mean it – the girls are so cute outside with the dirt and the leaves and the plants.
When I was digging my little compost hole, I pulled out an old, dead hibiscus (I think?) root clumpy thing.  Joanna “rescued” it from the discard pile and took it over to the slide structure to her “garden” underneath.  She added bits of dirt and debris to it all day.  It’s the kind of sweet that makes me want to cry, you know?

I think she’s going to be very helpful in reminding me to water the plants, not mention turning on the water and maybe even using the watering can.  I’m hoping I will keep up this desire to make my yard look presentable.  And I’m so excited about the possibility of the composting.  Wouldn’t it be cool to have some really rich soil, all while NOT throwing away garbage?!