Fresh Air

Spring.  I love it.  I love our yard.  We have a redbud tree.

There are four old fashioned lilac bushes, and one new bush (the kind that doesn't have much fragrance).

Our garden is not planted yet. 

Iris and tulips are coming up in the flower bed.

Oooo and there's a crabapple tree!! 

And peonies!  Two different kinds!!  Yay!  I kind of want to give Nancy a hug- she planted lots of my favorites!

We took Cecily to communion last Saturday in one of her new dresses.  I didn't even try to take her into church... we sat in the baby room... much better for my stress levels.  She ended up being really, really, good and some of the younger girls were sweet enough to hold her while they passed the bread and wine.

We invested in a lawnmower since it took Bob three hours to push mow the yard last fall... I'm kind of excited.  I got to try it tonight and it's going to take me awhile to get used to driving it.  It's been three years since I've used a riding mower, and I've only ever used a zero turn mower.

Little miss wants a ride...

Blessings.

Shopping

On Thursday Mom, Shelly, and Cecily & I drove up to Woodfield mall.  Cecily was really pretty good all day.  I drove into and out of "the city" since it keeps all of our adrenaline levels and blood pressures down... and those were the two times Cecily decided to cry.  The rest of the day she was pretty content sitting in her stroller and posing with the random hats aunty Shelly kept trying on her.

And swimcaps!  Somehow I don't think this would stay on her in the water... 

It was lots of fun.  I didn't end up buying much for myself, but between all of us Cecily came home with a ridiculous amount of cute clothing.  It's hard to resist in stores like Janie and Jack and Hanna Andersson, especially when there are sales.

We also spent an inordinant amount of time at Anthropologie... hehe... where they kept telling me how cute my little boy was... um.. ok... yeah she's wearing a blue striped shirt, but she's got lime green pants on...and a bow... hehe. 

There's quite the variety of stores and it never ceases to make me feel slightly dowdy... oh well, I would look really silly wearing most of what they're selling.

We ate supper at the Cheesecake Factory which was really good.  I was full so I didn't eat any cheesecake.  *grin*  And then we came home and little miss decided that she wouldn't sleep through the night and she didn't want to sleep in. *sigh*

Blessings.

Warmth

I love spring.  Cecily and I have been spending lots of time outside working in the yard.   Well, I work, she supervises and makes sure I take lots of breaks and decides when it's time to go in.  (Slightly frustrating sometimes because I could get lots more done... haha)  Today we hauled sticks to the town burn pile and worked on trimming the overgrown honeysuckle vines on our fences.  Anybody know how to kill a vine?  We have more than plenty and I kind of want to thin it out a bit.  I'm glad we live in a small town; of the 5 loads of sticks and vines I've hauled in the last few days, random people helped me unload 2 of them. 

Ooohh... and Mr. Faw came and tilled my garden today!  (For Mom- he's not a creepy gypsy!  He's nice and his tiller has a sticker on it that says "My boss is a Jewish carpenter."  *grin*)  I haven't planted anything yet, it still seems waaay too early. 

So here's a picture finally of the 3rd Saturday Quilt club quilt that I've finally finished piecing.  Now I need to decide if I want to try to quilt it myself or have it machine quilted. 

Cecily's pretty Easter dress- the pattern is from the 40's, but because I can't not modify a pattern I added the sash and the tucks on the skirt and an invisible zipper. Which are amazing and have revolutionized sewing for me. The buttons came from grandma Koch's stash and the lace from my mom's stash.  

 The tucks should probably be lower, but I realized that too late and I don't think I want to take half the dress out. 

And what you've all been waiting for: gratuitous pictures of Cecily!  She's sad because she needs more toys...

After a long day in church. Little turtle baby.

And she's learning to grab onto things- like hair!  And she doesn't know how to let go so beware! *grin*

Blessings.

You're so sweet

...horseflies keep hanging 'round your face...

Yes, Bob does think I'm crazy when I start singing little miss songs like that one.  (I blame my father... hehe.)

Hooray for nice weather!  Tuesday I headed north for part of the day to help Katie paint at her new old house.  So much fun.  I really like the paint colors she picked out, they look really good with all the woodwork and cabinets. 

Yesterday Cecily and I picked up sticks in the yard and I think I got a little bit of sun.  And it was pi day- I still have some left over from potluck so I didn't make a new one.  Sadly, we don't have any nerdy shirts for Cecily in her current size.  So this is for Gab; little miss trying rice cereal in a Heartland Bank pi bib.



Today is the Ides of March.  Beware and all that.  It's also my grandparent's anniversary...

Blessings.

Spring has sprung

It looks like there are iris and tulips and resurrection lilies coming up outside.  There are crocus blooming in random parts of the yard too.  Yay!  I love spring.

This weekend felt really long for some reason, which is nice!  We went to rotating potluck on Friday.  I baked a peach pie and a rhubarb-apple pie (both from the Farm Journal Pie cookbook) and they turned out amazing.  They set up better than any pie I've made I think.... *grin*  I like pie.  We took little miss with us and she did pretty good, but she just gets louder and noisier as the night goes on so we broke up the party a little bit early. 

Saturday we went to Menards and picked out a new light and got some stuff for our drainage project.  Woot woot.  And now that the utilities were marked today we may have to change that plan... yikesabee. Clayton randomly dropped by on his way home from a wedding that afternoon. My parents volunteered to watch Cecily in the evening while we went to testimonies.  They were for an older couple and it was a blessing to be there.  It made me wonder what my Grandparents' provings were like and if Grandpa got choked up.  I do know he was afraid of being under water so he held on to the side of the tub for dear life... hehe.

Little miss did great with her four babysitters;  Jakey and Aunty Shelly showed up after we left.  *eye roll* Now we just need to decide what to do with her during communion. 

I was eating lunch on Sunday and when Clayton sat down next to me... um, what?... yeah he and Nick just decided to come to Tremont to see "friends."  (I'm pretty sure that is code for "a girl.")  And Breanna was in town with her in laws so after lunch in walked Shelly to see her.  *Sigh* nobody ever comes to visit me. 

I love this weather and I want to be outside.  But then I go outside and see all the work that needs doing and I don't even know where to start.  Ugh.  And I need a tiller.  Anyway.

Blessings.

The world is at sixes and sevens

And why the house hasn't fallen down around our ears long ago is beyond me.  Our lights, on the other hand, seem to fall down quite frequently. 

Remember this lovely light fixture?  I makes me think of an old library or office or newsroom where they would all wear visors to shade their eyes....  I also maybe thought it was kind of ugly, but I could live with it.  *grin*

I've never really touched it except to dust it occasionally.  So last night Cecily had actually gone to bed early-ish for a change and Bob and I were both using our computers...about to go to bed... and the glass shade fell off.  All 346 square inches of it hit Bob on the neck and shoulders and then hit the floor and shattered.  There was glass EVERYWHERE.  All over the desk, the couch, the floor, her bouncy seat, her excersaucer on the other side of the room.  Ohmygoodness scared the daylights out of me!  Poor Bob got a few small cuts.    

I'm sooo glad little miss was sleeping!  It took a long time to clean up.  I finally went to bed around midnight, and now I'm paranoid about Cecily and glass.  But, it's an ill wind that blows no good- this corner hasn't been this clean since we moved in, I got a jump start on spring cleaning, and now we have to replace the ugly light! Woot woot.

Blessings.

Life

You're getting positively elderly... going to Florida, being a Grandma, hehe. 

We've been keeping busy.  My brothers came over for real food a few times while my parents were in Florida (they went to drive my grandparents home- or so they say.  Hehe).

Cecily and I spent an afternoon at G and G Beutel's to see Laura and kids... Mom and Auntie Shelly and Troy came over.... we went to a baby shower for Melissa and Lincoln... I've been working on her Easter dress and stenciling a border on our wall.

Yeah.... never thought I'd be doing such a thing, stencil borders haven't been "cool" for a while.  But, I got a book about Arts and Crafts houses for Christmas and stencils were cool in the 20's and 30's.  And I really liked how they looked.  Anyway, I fell in love with one and decided to put it on the beam between our kitchen and family room. 

The middle is weird because my math is bad and neither Jakey nor Bob understood what I meant when I was talking about repeats; so this is what I ended up with.  I still like it.  And it took forever (baby breaks) and made my wrist sore so I'm not redoing it and probably never going to stencil again. *grin*

Bob is teaching Cecily to type.  

And reading her "Trail Through Danger."  She likes westerns.  Really.

I'm getting excited for spring. 

Blessings.

Lights, camera,

Action!

I have discovered how to upload video!  I think.  Anyway, this is Cecily exploring the exersaucer thingy the neighbors gave us.  It's pretty deluxe, although it needed some cleaning up.  I may have put every piece that fit and wasn't electronic in the washing machine.... 

And here she is practicing chewing.  Poor kid likes to be at the table with us and she is finally strong enough to sit in her high chair.  So now she gazes longingly at our food... hehe.  So sorry little miss, not until you're at least six months!

Oh, and I promise Bob and I chew with our mouths closed...
Blessings.

All quiet

We haven't had much going on around here lately.  Pretty quiet.  Other than going to Greg and Mary's for supper one night and sewing club one night... oh, and visiting the farm and the puppy.
Yeah.  We're pretty boring.  *grin*

I've been doing random things around the house that I've put off since we moved- like getting the glue residue off of one of our door knobs (Who knows why putting carpet on your doorknobs was ever popular!), and hanging a CO detector. 

I did try making bagels yesterday and they turned out pretty good.  I would do it again. 

Anyway. Blessings.

Getaway

So I feel like I've been pretty much of a bum lately.  It's glorious.  hehe. 

Friday Cecily and I headed down to Champaign for the day.  We met Amber and Kristin at Za's for lunch.  It was so good... I wish I could make pizza like that.  We spent the rest of the afternoon chilling at Amber and Sarah's just catching up.  We got Buffalo Wild Wings for supper, which is also so good.  I'm not sure if I scared Cecily when I scraped off my car, or if she was just tired, or what the deal was, because when we left she decided to scream for 45 minutes.  Ugh.  I even pulled over and got her out of her car seat... poor girl was inconsolable.  So I kept driving.  She eventually stopped.  And sniffled the rest of the way.  It was a good day even with that.... I miss those girls.

Sprout came home for the weekend so we spent some time with her Saturday night.  And then Sunday we left after church for a great adventure. 

Bob told me he had gotten a hotel room for two nights somewhere in the Peoria area... so off we went to Stoney Creek Inn.  We pretty much just relaxed because everything I was interested in doing or seeing is closed on Mondays. 

Our room had a whirlpool tub and we let Cecily splash in it.  She borrowed swimsuits from Nora and Londyn... so cute!  She's very serious about her splashing. 

We took her down to the pool too.  It's heated, but it's a swim through to outside so it could have been warmer.  She didn't seem to mind and she had lots of fun splashing us.  Little miss is very buoyant.... hehe.

Anyway, it was fun just hanging out and not having to think about dishes or laundry.  I have a large pile of both now that we're home.  woot woot. 

Happy Valentines Day!

How hard can it be?

Not very.

Before:  Old linoleum.  It was gross.  The landing is only about 3x3 and they used three small pieces of linoleum.  It was worn through in a few spots and the seams were dirty and curling... ugh.  Oh, and I ripped off that vinyl baseboard stuff because it was already half gone. 

 

During:  Floor leveler.  Such an improvement.

After:  We had lots of vinyl left over from the bathrooms and it was super easy to glue down. Add some new (real) baseboard and it's sooo much better!

In other news, I've been dealing with a bad cold and Cecily got more shots so we've been laying pretty low.

Blessings.

Lil Fashonista

Sometimes I glance over at little miss and think, 'who dressed her?'  And then I remember, 'Oh yeah.  Me.'

*grin*
Blessings.

Ground Hog Day

My mother said I have to eat sausage today.... hehe. 

It's been quiet around here, which I love.  Not much going on, and the warm weather is making me antsy for spring.

We went to rotating potluck one night and I got many compliments on my Kroger brand frozen dinner rolls (*blush* I'm just a little afraid of yeast and making things for potluck). 

oooo!!  My parents came over and we went to pick up their new puppy!!  He's so cute.  As far as I know he's still nameless.  *grin*  He'll probably end up being "Yard Puppy" to go with "Shop Kitty."  Yes, we are original in our names at the farm... hehe.

We actually went to W-ton for a change on Sunday.  And then went to the farm to visit the puppy and watch him bounce around in the snow.... 

Amy and Audrey brought me lunch today, that was fun.  They made enchiladas with real Mexican tortillas.  Sooooo good.  Some mornings I crave real tortillas and eggs and salsa.  I should try making them again.  Maybe.  Anybody know where you can buy good tortillas around here?   

I finished piecing my quilt club quilt!  I'll get a picture eventually.  I think my next big project is replacing the linoleum on the basement stair landing.  We have lots of vinyl leftover from the bathrooms.  I watched the guy install it...  it's only 3x3 so how hard can it be?  (famous last words right?)

Anyway.  Blessings.

Diapers

I realize I'm crazy. 

I've decided I really like cloth diapers.  Part time anyway, the rest of the time I'm lazy.  That, and she has to wear something while I wash them.  I don't use them at night because she wakes up and cries if her cloth diaper is wet (she can tell since it isn't absorbed the same as disposables).  I've also arbitrarily declared Sunday a day of rest just because it's easier at church. 

Diapers are pretty much gross by definition, so it's not really any worse to put it in the wet bag instead of the garbage can.  The hardest part is remembering to throw away the wipes so they don't end up in the wash machine... I haven't yet ventured into the realm of cloth wipes, homemade- yes, but not cloth.  Since I'm doing it for purely monetary and not environmental reasons (sorry BJS).

    

These are kind I have (16 now, woot, woot!):

They're one size pocket diapers.  The outside is waterproof fabric, the inside is absorbent fleece.

They have pocket that gets stuffed with absorbent pads... customizable depending on how much you need at any given time. 

They have lots of snaps, the top rows fasten at her waist, the bottom rows are for adjusting the rise.  Supposedly they will fit her until she's potty training... The elastic around the legs and the back is what makes them so much better than disposables.   It stays snug against her skin and doesn't stretch out and gap like disposables, so they don't leak nearly as often.  (Tires blow out, diapers leak. Sorry. That phrase annoys me.)

Here's little miss modeling for you all... this is an old picture... she wasn't very happy that I was taking pictures of her in her underwear. Hehe. 

And for those of you who still think I'm crazy- washing them is not that bad.  It's not any worse the second time around.  We have a utility sink right next to our washer and dryer so all I do is rinse and toss in the wash.  I did invest in a pair of rubber gloves, but really, I used to test waste water.  And I grew up on a hog farm.  There's no comparison.  When she gets bigger I'll just change her in the bathroom and rinse them in the toilet. 
I'm excited for spring when I can hang them out on the line again- it looks so cute.  hehe. 
Anyway, I'm going to go lament now how far I've come- discussing diapers on my blog!  *sigh*  The world is at sixes and sevens.

Blessings.

Eleventy-First

Busy week... hopefully this week is quieter. 

We hosted potluck for the first time since we moved.  It's so nice to have room.  Now that I've done it once I will hopefully be less nervous about it... hehe. 

Jakey came over on Saturday to hang out and play games with Bob.  Cecily got all bundled up to go get the mail with me... Since there hasn't really been any snow there hasn't been much need for the snowsuit... 

We celebrated her Eleventy-First day.  Mostly just an excuse for cake... which we love.  Don't worry, she didn't get to have any. 

We have survived one hundred and eleven days... 

And have discovered that I have no idea how to frost a cake... and I could use some sun and some sleep.  At least she's cute.  *grin*

Last night we celebrated Sharon's 30th birthday.  Hooray for more cake! 

Blessings.

Happenings

Farmer Girl!  hehe.

Freshly varnished floor- you can see where the wood is darker, but I was afraid if I sanded to much it would take off any of the original stain that was left and it's next to impossible to get stain to match in small patches. Plus we're not sure what they used. So.    

Ooo, and I finally figured out some things for the green bathroom. 

We took this picture on our honeymoon.  The really awesome part is that it's printed right on a board so there's no glass or frame and it's way more high humidity friendly!  I've never seen such a thing before, but all of the big online photo printing places have them and I found a 50% off coupon so it was cheaper than getting a paper print and a frame. Woot woot!

I am fond of box pleats.  I don't know why.  Maybe because they're fun to sew and make a homemade valence look a little bit fancier.  

Little miss in her dress from Great Grandpa and Grandma Wyss.

Have I mentioned we've been busy?  Sunday evening we went to Tim and Ruth's for a fun night of music and fellowship.  Bob had the day off on Monday and we went out to eat at Applebee's for supper (yay gift cards!) and checked out the new Bass Pro Shops.  I like those stores.  They make me feel like I'm on vacation... hehe.  We loaded up on munitions and a t-shirt for little miss because everyone needs a Bass Pro t-shirt at least once in their life.

On Tuesday Cecily and I went to the farm to look at all of Shelly's India pictures.  She brought me back a real Indian tea spoon and a scarf.  Little miss got a cute Indian dress.  She's much bigger than Indian babies... hehe... Here we are modeling Aunty Shelly's saree and her little dress.  We didn't get the saree tied quite right, it's a lot sloppier than how they're supposed to be. O well, it was fun to try!  Maybe someday I can go to India and get one too.  

Abby stopped by for a little bit before we left for Freida's visitation.  Freida was a peach.  I'm so glad we got to have them to Tremont once... and that I went to see her a few weeks ago.  I remember going to visit them in their little house in Lester with the flower garden in the back yard and being woken up by train whistles.  And then waking up on Sunday morning to an amazing breakfast and Andy's smoothies. 

I went straight to sewing club from Washington, which was fun, as always.  Cecily had about had it with social things and so we left early.  She's been sleeping all day today.... poor girl... four nights in a row and church tonight.   

We did not attempt to make it to the funeral today, although I did listen online.  Tried to anyway, the streaming was having issues until about half way through.  And then Bob took half the day off and brought us lunch and flowers.  He's so great. 

Blessings.