Return of the Craftiness

I feel like I’ve neglected the original purpose of this blog. I started this blog not solely as a way to keep family and friends informed of our goings on, but to showcase craft projects. I noticed, however, that since the first of the year, when I started blogging again, I have only featured one craft project. So in six months I’ve completed one crafty project from my never-ending list. Ugh. That’s pretty pitiful really. Especially since I gain such satisfaction out of working on my various crafty projects.

I hadn’t realized how much I pushed my crafting aside while dealing with everyday life. I need to get back on track, especially with Christmas coming in just a few months. My list of gifts to make is ridiculously long and if I don’t start now I’ll never finish. So today I am making this pledge to you my fellow bloggers that I will complete at least one craft project each and every week. Even if that means simply a Play Doh Rose for my Sweet Pea, crafting will reign supreme again in our house.

Happy Father's Day

Happy (Late) Father’s Day to all you guys out there! I hope you had a wonderful day of doing exactly what you wanted.

Now I of course love Mother’s Day but I think Dads deserve their day just as much; especially around here. The Hubby definitely deserves a day devoted to him for being such a great daddy. The Sweet Pea will attest to the fact that she has a wonderful daddy. It takes a special kind of guy to leave his tough guy image behind to willingly play tea party and Barbie dolls and dance like a maniac in the living room to Elmo for the zillionth time (even in front of friends and family). I’ve always thought the Hubby was wonderful but seeing him interact with our daughter since she’s been born has made me love him even more. To see the compassion and love he has for our little girl makes my heart swell with happiness. I couldn’t have asked for a better daddy for our Sweet Pea.

So in honor of the Hubby I decided to make Sunday a special fun day for him to spend with the Sweet Pea. I offered to cook breakfast but they decided on Froot Loops instead. He got his card and a hat from the Sweet Pea that she picked out herself. We were in Academy a few days ago and she spotted a camo hat similar to ones that the Hubby wears every day and proclaimed “Daddy’s hat” so of course that’s what we got him. Then she took a card and a photo keychain over to her Papa (my FIL). My own dad is currently out of town this weekend so we’ll have to make a special day for him when he comes back.

I planned a big lunch for the Hubby and made some of his favorite things. I was planning on grilling some pork chops but my MIL offered to make lasagna so I let her! Hubby likes her lasagna and since I had been cooking since 9am, I figured it would be one less thing I had to make. Although it did seem odd to have Lasagna with fresh green beans, new potatoes and broccoli & rice casserole.

I also made a chocolate pie for the Hubby and a coconut cream pie for my FIL. (See dad, you missed out on all the goodies. I would have made you a blackberry cobbler!)

After lunch the Sweet Pea and Hubby spent the afternoon swimming and playing outside. Then we all came inside for nap time. Yea for nap time! Yesterday evening Hubby built a fire and we grilled Po’Boys for everyone and then roasted marshmallows and made S’mores. Yummy! I’d say it turned out to be a pretty good day; at least that’s what the Hubby said. Unfortunately it’s Monday yet again…back to the real world.

Blackberries

Last night I decided that we didn't have enough blackberries to make the cobbler this weekend for father's day so off we went in search of blackberries. We drove all around these county roads out here searching and finally found a good section full. Unfortunately it looks like we're about a week or two early. Plus they are tiny! Nothing like the huge ones I'm used to from my grandmother's place. Darn it. I guess I'll be making a trip back down to my grandmother's to gather enough to make some jelly. That's what I'm really looking forward to doing. I'll keep you posted on that.

Growing Like Crazy!

It won’t be long now until I start giving produce away and making pickles! Today I picked 7 more cucumbers and 3 squash. I also got to pick one of these bad boys.

It’s a Bush Scallop Squash. That is the most information I can give you about it though. I had never even seen one before I started buying seeds this year and couldn’t resist. It is just such a neat looking little thing.

We also spotted some tiny watermelons beginning to form. They’re only about the size of a marble right now but soon the Sweet Pea will be able to pick her own melons. It will be great once she finally realizes what they are!

Home Again

Yea we are finally home. It's been a long, busy two weeks and it is so nice to be home. Not to say it wasn't a good trip, but there is no place like home!

Before we left I did manage to fit in one of my favorite places to eat in West Texas, Clear Springs Cafe in Midland. Well, I really only love one thing there but it is more than worth going just for these...

The Texas Sized Onion Rings! Yummy! Obviously it's more than enough for a couple people and we like to just go and order these and nothing else. I wish there was somewhere closer to get them. 12 hours is just too far to drive for onion rings. Unless I'm really hungry!

It takes quite a bit to take a 12 hour drive with a 19 month old. We did break the trip up into a couple days but it is still a long time to be stuck in the truck. I did discover a new way to keep her occupied though. Blackberries. Who knew? We had the tray of freshly picked blackberries sitting in the seat next to her and she just kept sneaking them out. (Don't worry, they were washed before we left my grandmother's)

I still can't believe she just went to town on them. I've never seen a kid love fruit the way my daughter does. Now we just need to expand her love of vegetables beyond green beans. Hopefully our garden will be the way to do it. I was so excited to come home and find vegetables in the garden ready to be picked. Yea! It's not much but it is definitely a good start.

I ate the cucumber last night and it was delicious! I should have more ready to pick before the end of the week. I can't wait!

Going, Going, Gone!

Yea the garage sale is over! By 7 am we had people outside already picking through things. One of our first customers was someone who resells items and she bought a truck load! After that it was a pretty steady stream, and by 8:3o we had sold at least half of our stuff. We were busy all afternoon and by lunch time we were down to just a few scraggly items (mostly books and clothes) and were trying to give things away. It's amazing how many people still didn't want some things! After lunch we had several cars drive by and not stop so we just packed up the last couple boxes of things and took them to the Salvation Army. Thankfully we sold it all today so we don't have to do it again tomorrow because it was miserably hot today. The high was 102 degrees today and I think it hit early. I'm talking the temperature people, not the heat index. I don't even want to know what it was. We were melting by the end and I'm thrilled to be done. Now it's off to bed...

One Man's Trash...

What do you do when getting ready for a huge garage sale? Play dress up of course!

(Please ignore the pull up in the picture, we're potty training. It's amazing how much time it saves not wearing pants! Plus she thinks it is great!)

Technical Difficulties

I decided on the title for this post because that is what is on my mind. My camera seems to be having technical difficulties. This is the sort of picture it is taking all of a sudden. I haven't dropped it or accidentally washed it or anything so I'm not sure what the deal is. My best guess is the Sweet Pea has gotten ahold of it and changed settings that I don't even know exist. I'm still looking though...
No that's not a tiny doll sitting on a rocking chair, that happens to be the Sweet Pea sitting on the World's Largest Cedar Rocking Chair. I bet you didn't even know it existed did you? See, you already learned something new today! We were on our way to West Texas to help get my parent's house ready to put on the market and stopped in Natty Flat, Texas for lunch and this is what we found. The chair is 25 feet 10 1/2 inches tall and weighs 5,672 pounds. Now let me interrupt and say that I know I said we found this in Natty Flat but to be perfectly honest I'm not sure if its a legitimate town or not. There was a road of the same name and it seems to be spoken of as though it is an actual town but it's certainly not on any map I've seen and mapquest thinks I'm nuts too. Maybe it was a town at one point and this is all that's left? Really I have no idea. I just wanted to add that little disclaimer so I'm not passing on any lies to you wonderful people.

Whether it's a legitimate town or not, you have to check it out. We stopped at the Natty Flat Smokehouse and had some great bbq for lunch. There is also a gift shop and a Texas Hill Country Mercantile next door (which wasn't open for the day yet unfortunately). But I have it on good authority that its something to see. So the next time you are in the area stop in and have some lunch and then stand next to the World's Largest Rocking Chair and imagine what an ant must feel like!

Summertime Already?

According to these two little girls summer has arrived. They couldn’t wait to get out the sprinklers and their swim suits. This past Saturday was a great day for it, it was over 90 degrees and we were running out of things to do for the day. It was the first time the Sweet Pea has ever experienced the sprinkler and we were worried how she would do since she hates to get her shoes wet. I’m not kidding; she has a meltdown anytime she gets water on her shoes so we were pretty skeptical about this experience. She did great though. I think having her favorite cousin over really made all the difference. She was a little apprehensive at first but it didn’t take her long to warm up to the idea and before long we had to make them take a break from it.


It didn’t take long for talk of the swimming pool to emerge, but I was just not ready to drag it out and set it up so we compromised. We have a large tub that I use to catch rain water and we filled it with new water and let them splash around for a few minutes.
They thought that was about the best thing in the whole world. It looked cold to me though! I see lots of pool time in our future this summer.