Quirks

Here are some objects in my house that I love. You might scratch your head over a few. That's OK. I did too. And then they grew on me.

My Central American napkins (matching tablecloth stowed away) rescued from my mother-in-law's garage sale pile. Mom has brown ones like these, and I have always hated them. Then I saw them in green....Another napkin. And a crystal bread box holding currently-being-read books, an unused bookmark I made for Jay, remotes, pens and Jason's outdated glasses that I can't take him seriously in (poor guy). And the little African animals that I've had to glue over and over, due to my klutzy hand at dusting.
Pink roses from the yard, in a pretty (antique?) pitcher Leslie gave me for my birthday. She's generally a good gift-picker! I say generally......
My flecky bowl! Bought off Lynette at the church yard sale. It's cradling a cinnamon-sugar mixture for monkey bread.
My African violet, purchased at the same yard sale, perched in a cute little antique enamelware bowl from my friend Carrie. It was a birthday present too.
And the dragon. Behold. I bought him off the yard sale as a gag gift for Leslie. But by the time I had hurtled home, he became a keeper. It's a planter, but wouldn't it be great for holding dip or hot salsa? heh heh.

Little Girl

Helen turned 18 months, and is fast becoming Miss Cheese. Here is Her Orneriness after lunch one day. I didn't think it was possible for anyone to be a messier eater than Owen. Then I met Helen. This happens to be after clean-up.The messy eating surprises me. Helen is showing interest in liking her things neat and orderly. She likes to help put things away--her room-time toys, clean dishes from the dishwasher, her blankets and H pillow and Night-Night Bear. But like her daddy says, she eats the way the rest of us wish we could--with thorough enjoyment and utter abandon of social restraint. She had her first ever Double-Stuf Oreo in the car the other day, and as we were rounding the corner to home, I heard a loud slurping noise that was her sucking every last bit of chocolate off her fingers.

These shots from another day are before clean-up. She was extremely pleased to be sitting in her brother's chair.

Here we are before going to a Mother-Daughter Tea last Saturday. Helen is wearing her "new" sparkly princess slippers that I picked up at our church's mega yard sale. Daddy told her to SMILE so she gave it her best. I'm 33 1/2 weeks pregnant here (that's out of 40 for those of you who didn't know.)
Helen and her cousin Abby didn't have posing on their day's agenda.
Her first mother-daughter event.
Finally....the food! She managed to stay non-messy, but she made up for it by flooding her diaper while Aunt Mary Jane was holding her. Sorry about your dress, Aunt Mary Jane! But at least that was a little less embarrassing for me than being told by a grocery store employee, while I was emptying my food onto the conveyor belt, "Ma'am! I've been watching your cart, and something is leaking--I think it's your daughter's diaper. Yes, it is, even her little feet are wet!" With my face flaming, I looked back to see the drippy trail. Clean up on aisle 5!

Muffins

Made these pumpkin-apple muffins recently. So good, I had to make them again. The kids and I enjoyed delivering one batch to Sav-A-Life volunteers and one to neighbors.Muffin picking lichen off the climbing tree.
Muffins enjoying a perfect spring evening.
Muffins traveling to a strawberry party, bearing strawberry cupcakes, or pupcakes like Helen said.
And show-off muffin.

How to Annoy a Farmer

If you really want to irritate your neighboring farmer, here are a few suggestions:
(Some of the farm's neighbors have Jason and his dad working on their people skills!)

1. If you live next to a corn field and own pigs, build a fence using one strand of barbed wire knee-high off the ground. Free hog feed! Everyone loves a bargain. When the farmer asks if you know who owns the pigs, deny any knowledge, but do request a hog for barbecuing if he happens to shoot one.

2. Trap a wild hog in the bayou. Bring it home and release it in the woods, for the joy of hunting it again later. Wild hogs love to root up freshly-planted seeds and snack on other tasty morsels in the field, but best of all, they multiply like rabbits.

3. If you cannot afford garbage pickup, dump, dump, dump on someone else’s land. Anywhere! By a tree stump! In the middle of a field! In the lane! Anything! Used paper plates. A shopping list for your BBQ bash. A Pyrex 9x13" pan. Leave junk mail with your address on it, but act clueless when the farmer bags it all and returns it to you.

4. If you cannot afford garbage pickup and have enough manners not to litter, create a giant pile of trash bags behind your house. (This one is just gross, not infringing on any property rights.)

5. Build a shed on the property line. Throw junk behind your shed.

6. If your fence, built on the property line, becomes overgrown, simply build a new fence 10 feet beyond the existing one. Let goats run between the two fences.

7. Plant your vegetable garden in the farmer’s field.

8. Dissatisfied with property boundaries? Those stakes are moveable! Or make a permanent drive 2 feet from the line, then gradually ease on over.

9. All trash will burn, including glass bottles and metal chairs. If it didn’t burn the first time, it will the second. If it still doesn’t burn, just throw the junk into the field.

10. Light your big trash fire a yard away from a wheat field that is one week away from harvest. Hey, it's your land.

Freak out!

Suddenly I realize that baby #3 will be here before we know it. And I'm not ready.

Helen and all the contents of her room need to be moved over to Owen's room, so the baby can have the nursery. We have a second crib, dismantled in the basement, that must be set up in Owen's room for a few days/weeks before the move, in order to ease her transition. As far as the decor goes, I found a red crib sheet at the Economy Shop, which is the color I need to effectively pull off the boy/girl room sharing thing....now for red twin sheets so I can get rid of the ratty Pooh set that I HATE.

Besides the color scheme dilemma, there is the tiny little logistical problem of her clothing storage. Boy clothes are simple: several colors of T-shirts, both short sleeve and long sleeve; shorts; jeans; socks; a few pairs of shoes; fire jammies; Elmo underwear. Girl clothes: ALL colors of short-sleeve shirts, long-sleeve shirts, tanks, skirts, jeans, pants, sweats, capris, shorts, sweaters, and badoodles of dresses with coordinating diaper covers. Pajamas and nightgowns. Socks and tights. Dozens of shoes spilling out of the closet--white sandals, black sandals, brown sandals, sturdy play sandals, prissy dress sandals, play sneakers, nice sneakers, princess shoes, slippers. And we've got 5 dresser drawers and 2 hanging organizers with which to work.

Baby boy's clothes, blankets and burp rags are in good order, but need to be tucked away into the changing table/dresser currently occupied by Helen's wardrobe.

I could go on and on.

But then, my personality is suited to working well under pressure. When else should you study for exams but late-late the night before? Of course not for an hour or two each night the week preceding! How boring. Why plan all the meals for the week in one sitting? Torture! And plans change anyway. You never know when you'll need a trip to McDonald's.

Fortunately for us, Helen already loves Owen's room, and will trot off to his bed on her own accord, whether it be for snuggling on the pillow at naptime or for assuming the diaper changing position. I'm just not sure how the take-over will fly with her sometimes-territorial brother.