What We’ve Been Up To: Part 1

Oh my, I am approaching this blog post with some trepidation.  I know we have had so much going on lately I almost don’t know where to start.  But I will try and get some fun tidbits down on “paper,” one week at a time.

Let’s start back on Monday, March 5.  Both Lily and Emma had well-checks that day (4 years and 6 months, respectively).  Of course they all passed with flying colors.  Lily weighed 37.2 pounds (75% percentile) and is 39 inches tall (85% percentile).  Not too surprising since I have all but given up sorting her clothes from Ava’s, since they wear almost the exact same size (save for a bit longer pants for Ava).

Emma weighed 15 pounds 1 ounce (35% percentile) and is 26 inches long (75% percentile).  Although I wasn’t surprised at her height (once you add in the bulk of cloth diapers, the 9 month onesies are quickly becoming too short) since all my babies are long/tall, the weight was something of s surprise.  I have a light baby??  That has never happened before, ha ha ha!  I swear she most definitely feels heavier than 15 pounds.   Anyway, the nurse practitioner we see thought they were both fit as a fiddle and had no concerns (while addressing a few of mine).


Tuesday we had a combined preschool field trip to the fire station.  The girls had a good time and since the visit Lily has been pointing out every fire truck she sees.  I would’ve taken more pictures, but I had let the girls entertain themselves Monday afternoon by taking pictures with our camera (I’ll share some of their pictures with you later) and unbeknownst to me they had run down the battery.  Here are a few that I got though:

 
Wednesday was our normal Bible Study routine and that night Elliott attended his second “Raising Backyard Chickens” class.  Thursday night I went to my friend Shanna’s book group (I invited myself back in December, I was so desperate to join a book group).  We read Year of Wonders for March and I ended up enjoying it quite a bit.

It had a few more, shall we say, “worldy” moments but overall it was fairly clean. Set during the Plague in 1666 England, it would be easy for the author to become bogged down and the book to become too heavy. But the pace kept moving right along and the story line at times was unpredictable (or at the very least utterly realistic). I really enjoyed the writing style, which reminded me of Old English, and because of this it was very easy to be transported into the story itself.  Afterwards, I hurried back home so Elliott could go play basketball at 10pm with some guys in our neighborhood (the last game of the season).

I loaded Friday with running to fabric stores, trying to find material to finish (or start, depending on your perspective) multiple projects.  On the way to Jo-Ann’s Lily spotted a pet store she wanted to visit, so I told them we would stop on the way back if they behaved themselves at Jo-Ann’s.  Well, the definition of “behaving themselves” got a little stretched, shall we say, while I did quite a bit of shopping, but it was just natural kiddie stuff, so they earned a trip to the pet store anyway.  This particular store had all the major animal groups – turtles, fish, ferrets, parakeets, cats, mice, gerbils, rats, and even a Golden Retriever puppy somebody was carrying around (not for sale). 

The girls had a great time and as it was nearing noon and a Friday to boot, I opted to pick up our lunch at McDonald’s on the way home.  Emma fell asleep in the car, so while she finished out her nap at home the other girls watched Angelina Ballerina while waiting for the second wave of errands.  When baby woke up we ran to Hancock Fabrics to pick up some more items and then a local quilt shop for even more fabric (can you tell I’ve been up to some stuff?).  


The weather was lovely, and so the girls played outside when we got home.  Elliott even got home a little earlier than usual, so I made us a pitcher of frozen margaritas and had a chance to to chat with him while the girls played (we had just been running so much during the week we had hardly talked at all).  After the girls went to bed I made our special Friday meal (which has become something of a routine around here): homemade hamburgers (from our cow) on local artisan hamburger buns (picked up at a local day-old spot), which I toast up and then top with yummy condiments such as my homemade ketchup and homemade pickles.  But the best part – the Chipotle Sweet Potato Fries from Alexia.  Oh boy, is that good! 

Saturday the 10th was designated Get Taxes Done Day for Elliott, but since the weather was so lovely and we’ve been cooped up all winter we got the garage-sale fever and hunted a few down.  I picked up some sheets and pillowcases, some designer maternity jeans (for $.50 I just can’t pass them up!), shoes for all the girls, much needed pants for Ava and a car seat toy for Emma (our original one seems to have disappeared).  Not too shabby! 

Elliott actually busted through the taxes that afternoon much faster than either of us thought it would take (let me take a moment to extoll the virtues of Turbo Tax – Elliott loves it!) and was able to go with the girls and I on a walk around a local little “lake”.  I had intended the trip to be a way to get the girls out of Elliott’s hair while he worked, but blessedly it turned into a fun family outing.  We even took some bread to feed the ducks.  It was so much fun!  Afterwards we went to Red Lobster for dinner, using a gift card we got for Christmas.  Yum!

Sunday the 11th Elliott completed his other “chore” for the weekend – assemble the fire pit I bought him for Christmas.  After we grilled some steaks for dinner (yum again!) we tried to use the fire pit.  In the end we didn’t have enough small tinder to get the fire going so we ate out large marshmallows “raw” in front of the TV, watching the pilot movie for Little House on the Prairie.  Quality family time.