Alphabitty Moments - the letter U (and last week's T)

Welcome to Alphabitty Moments - where we record the little things our kids do - one letter at a time....or sometimes two letters at a time when summer craziness take precedence over blogging.

Last week I worked on this layout for T - for truck but didn't get it posted with the rest of the pages....
Sam loved and still loves his trucks. He plays with them every single day. When I look at this picture I will be reminded of before he knew how to talk and the grunts he would make from his carseat every time we saw a deliver/construction/garbage/BIG truck.

Moving on.....

The official letter for this week is "U"....
I chose these images from sleeping in the tent over the 4th. We only get campsites in the campground when we have friends over to camp - otherwise we pitch the tent behind the house and enjoy watching the moon rise over the disc golf course. This year was an improvement over last year. Someday we won't all fit in the little tent (for the record - PapaBear and I took turns sleeping in the tent with the kids this year). Until that day comes, I will cherish the slippery sleeping bag snuggles and the giggles of tired kids who love being outside.

What little thing do you want to remember? (If you are new to my carnival you can click on the button in the upper left hand corner for more information.) The best recommendation I can make is to visit the blogs of the other participants. They are very good at this and always come up with the most creative words each week!




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Will this help or hurt in the long run?

I was inspired after reading this post by JMom to come up with a way to hold Sam more accountable for his actions - to help him learn responsibility and to have something tangible to work towards. We have an allowance set up but I'm not the greatest at remembering to give it to him and he's not that into it yet. So...here is what I came up with:

(the back story first)
At Target a little over a week ago I found this great dinosaur collection on sale for $15. It contains some dinos we don't have yet and I know Sam would really really enjoy it BUT...I didn't want to promote instant gratification. I bought the toy but told Sam that it cost $15 and that he would have to earn it before he could open the package.


Sam has been earning checkmarks for good behavior, kindness and generosity towards his sister (and others), doing things the first time I ask etc... He's also been losing checkmarks for disobedience, for whining, for picking on his sister etc...

We had been having trouble with having to tell him over and over again to do something or not to do something, but now all we have to do is say, "I don't want to have to take a checkmark away Sam" and he shapes up (most of the time).

He got up to 10 checkmarks withing the first few days but then kept losing and gaining them to the point where he even said, "I'm keep having 5 checkmarks." Originially I had intended to give him the entire package when he earned $15, but then I decided to see if he would get upset when I asked which dinosaur he was going to pick out with his $15. "Velociraptor!" was his instant answer. Then he made my heart melt when he added, "and then I'll earn another 15 checkmarks and get another dinosaur!"

So here's my question (s). (and please be honest and candid with your answer even if you don't agree with what we're doing)...Will this help or hurt in the long run? Will these teach him to be responsible or will it teach him that he's entitled to something for doing the right thing? Have you done something similar or have a better idea?

Blog Hop - 3 things you didn't know about me....

This week's Blog Hop is about sharing things people might not know about us. My favorite part of coming up with things for these type of memes is that someday my kids will be able to know even more about their mom. So here you go...three things you might didn't know about me....

1) I didn't have Barbie Dolls growing up. I played with them when I went to a friend's, but I wasn't allowed (and didn't really care) to have my own.

2) I've never had a pedicure.

3) I injured my right shoulder in high school so I taught myself how to serve a volleyball left handed so I could keep playing a sport I love.

I Heart Faces - Pet Edition

My first session that included a pet was this past Saturday - just in time to enter my favorite from that day in the I Heart Faces pet category for this week's challenge. Jack is a hunting dog and when he wasn't posing for the camera, he was sniffing the abundance of smells around our park.



To see more entries click on the button below....

"We live in a campground"

When will I learn that I cannot explain our living situation with with that statement? People either think we have a canvas roof over our heads every night or they think I'm kidding.

At the campfire stories program on Saturday night I had the opportunity to talk to a family that showed a great deal of interest in our caretaker position. I never tire of explaining how our job works or how we were blessed with this wonderful life. If you are interested in reading the posts that have to do with our life in the park, search "park life" and all the posts related to living here will pop up.

In a nutshell...My sister-in-law's friend knew we were looking for park and recreation jobs and told Sharon about this gig when she saw it in the paper. We applied back in March of 2008. Went through the interview process and within 20 minutes of walking out of our first interview we were called back for the second one.

God is good. He is faithful and provided for our family in such an amazing way!!

We check in campers, take reservations, lock and unlock the gate, rent shelters, check restrooms, rent cross country skis, work in the office etc....

The perks far outweigh the hassle of being at the beck and call of 200 people every weekend. We walk out our backdoor and have hundreds of acres to explore and the walk to the campfire program?

It takes 60 seconds.

Watching the sun set behind the campground every night is a tough job, but someone has to do it - thankfully we do it with a real roof over our heads and not a canvas one.

Alphabitty Moments - the letter T

Due to a frayed power adaptor I am unable to power on my personal computer where all of my Alphabitty Moments information is located.
Here's the Mr.Linky for everyone and hopefully I'll be able to join in the fun by tomorrow...

Ugh. It's just NOT my day! Mr. Linky isn't working for me either...
I think we all know each other pretty well by now, but just in case - go ahead and leave the link to your post in the comment section.

Computer! Can't live with them...can't live without them!

for real

Recognize these cuties? I gotta tell you that they are just as cute in person as they are on Brittany's blog.
Correct me if I'm wrong Brittany, but that's Eliza in front and Nolia behind her.

If you read my tweets you know by now that I met up with Brittany and her family during their road trip to the Farm. It took us almost 24 hours to connect, but when you've been waiting 2 years to meet - what's one day?
No idea which is which here...That was one of the first questions I asked after we hugged and sent our kids off to play on the nearby playground equipment - "HOW do you tell them apart?" It has to do with the sounds they make, the curl of their hair, and their expressions. My secret? - I used the smear of red nail polish on one of their legs to keep them straight. :)



Sam and Gavin played together for hours...



He even named his toy killer whale Gavin. :)But Julia is at the age where she's content do her own thing and prefers it that way. (As long as when she yells "LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME!", and I praise her climbing ability.)


Small Fry liked to keep a watchful eye on the twins...
Of course our time together went by too quickly but we managed to snap a picture of the crew before parting ways....

Thank you Brittany (and Paul!) for taking the time out of your busy travel plans to spend the afternoon with us! I am so grateful and blessed to count you among my real life friends.
May God bless your family during your adventurous summer!

Blog Hop - Favorite Photo...

***Welcome to my first edition of the Blog Hop! This week everyone is posting their favorite picture, but first let me introduce myself...My family and I have been living in a campground for a little over a year. Right out our backdoor is 200+ acres of God's beautiful creation. We do our best to take advantage of the beauty, but often I find myself sitting at the computer editing photographs or designing blog books. PapaBear is a wealth of knowledge and love so he's been spending tons of quality time with our cubs lately.

Now on to the picture I chose....

The boardwalk behind our home is just one of the places my kids like to explore. I especially like going there in the evening to hear the red winged blackbird and watch the sunset. I look forward to visiting the blogs of those who've visited mine so be sure to say hi in the comments!***

Garden Update (as of June 19th)

I've been blogging via twitter a lot the past month. There is so much going on and very little time to get pictures from my camera onto blogger - time that I'd rather be spending with my family or generating income. If only I could make money from blogging I'd be all set!

I took these pictures June 19th and they are already incredibly outdated. The tomatoes you see in the front cages there? Well, this morning they have reached the top of the cage. I will do my best to update based on what was happening when these pictures were taken and leave the excitement of eating our first cherry tomatoes for a different post.


When I planted the garden I had no idea that you are suppose to plant things every couple of weeks. My beans didn't come up very well at all so I decided to give a second planting a try. The timing of that planting was perfect. They burst through the ground within a few days and haven't looked back.
The larger plant on the left there is my transplanted zucchini. It survived being pulled from the ground and is enjoying it's new home on the bean bale.

This is a picture of the peppers starting to bloom. They struggled there for a while with the leaves curling up but they've recovered nicely and despite a few mushrooms that like to latch on to the lower leaves, they are getting bigger every day.

It's exciting to see so many blossoms on the tomato plants!
Note how much more the beans grew in 3 days...
By far the best producing plant right now is the cherry tomatoes. The 4 plants I put in as an afterthought have tons of blooms on them. (see plants in cage on right).

They are hard to see but there are 2 carrots growing beneath the cherry tomatoes. I tried planting more carrot seeds, but they didn't take. (Tried more lettuce too and that failed)I added a round of organic fertilizer this week to keep the proper nutrient balance. I will probably continue to alternate manure and fertilizer every couple of weeks throughout the growing season.

So there you have it - a long overdue update on the straw bale garden. If this is the first time you've read about my little project you can click here for all related posts.

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So I had this idea... WINNER ANNOUNCED!

A couple of months ago I printed updated 'family cards' so that when I need to give out contact information to someone, I can hand them a cute little card with all the particulars spelled right out for them.

Here is the blog friendly version...

I made two versions depending on who I was giving them to - one with a link to our campground's website, and another with links to my photography and design sites.

And then I got to thinking that I hope other people have cards to hand out at the MckPicnic coming up in a few weeks so I don't have to be taking mental notes or even notes on a wrinkled receipt from my purse.

I created this 4x6 image in Photoshop Elements and then copied and pasted it 4 times onto a different 4x6 image so I could, for 5 cents a card, have them printed at my local Walgreens.

I am going to give away one free design to a person who leaves a comment under this post. If you aren't the lucky winner, you are more than welcome to hire me to design a card for you.

Attending the MckPicnic or not - I've been using these cards for years at playgroups, parks, school functions etc...

Here is how it will work:
You email me a picture you want on the card (optional of course)
I will also need to know the name of the font you prefer. (If it's a free font I can download)
I will email you as many samples as it takes to make it perfect.
When you are happy with the design I will send you the paypal address to send $15 to.
I will email you the final template that has 4 cards as a 4x6 image.
Have as many printed as you'd like at your local photo lab (they will look MUCH better in matte finish) and that's all there is to it!

Be sure to indicate in your comment if you want to be included in the drawing. I will draw a winner on Wedesday evening so there's enough time to get cards printed before the picnic.

Good luck!

Congrats to CF Mama ! Go ahead and send me an email when you're ready to get started on your card design!

Anyone else who's interested in hiring me to design a card should email me by the end of the week if they want their cards in time for the picnic next weekend.

The 3 R's

Resting....Relaxing....and Remembering....



Our 4th of July holiday has been quiet considering the shear volumes of people in our park. PapaBear and I even snuck away for a date one night! We went to the Splash pad one day, met Brittany and her family the next, ate our fill of yummy food the next while enjoying the company of good friends, and today I got to hold my niece through church.

After PapaBear returns from picking berries we're headed to the beach. I should have just enough time to finish up a proof site for a client leaving my load that much lighter for the start of the work week tomorrow.

Hope you all had a safe 4th of July weekend filled with restful nights, relaxing days, and remembering of the sacrifices that have been made for our freedom!

Alphabitty Moments - the (UPDATED) letter S

It's Alphabitty Moment time here in Bear Country. If you are unfamiliar with how to participate, click here for the beginning posts (OR search Alphabitty Moments in the search feature at the top of my blog). I'm so grateful to the group of women who have joined me in preserving the little things are kids do. Thanks ladies! In seven short weeks we'll have made it all the way through the alphabet and our first books will be ready to publish!

I'm a couple of letters behind in Julia's book because I don't always have the time/creativity/inspiration/photographs to get to pages put together. This is one of those weeks. Besides being a day late in posting this, nothing has come to mind for her page. Sam, on the other hand, has a double S word to make up for it.

I chose Silly Songs because he loves the CD's of kid's music that we have in the van. "My music?" he used to ask. Now it's "Silly songs please Mama?" In the past few months he's started asking us to sing him a silly song at bedtime. We then have to come up with new (the sillier the better) lyrics to a song he knows. PapaBear is better at it than I am. I'm always trying to make things rhyme - something Sam could care less about.

Hearing his sweet little giggle as he listens to us melts my heart everytime. It's one of the little things I love about him.

So now it's your turn to post your Alphabitty Moment on your blog! I will have one of the kids draw a name out of a hat for the drawing from last week tomorrow sometime and will update this post so you can add your name to a new Mr. Linky. It's a busy weekend around here and for a change I'm taking some time off from blogging/bookmaking/photoediting to enjoy family and friends.

PAPABEAR PICKED OUT NUMBER 9 - SO JENNI I'LL BE STICKING A LITTLE SOMETHING IN THE MAIL FOR YOU SOON! CONGRATS!



Have a happy and safe* 4th!

*I heard on the radio today that the tip of sparklers get as hot as 1,2oo degrees! GLASS melts around 900. Ok. I'm done with my preaching for now. :)

I Heart Faces - Just for Fun

While Tom was spinning his new bride around the dance floor, I caught one of the flower girls playing down by the water....just for fun.



For more "Just for Fun" entries head over to I Heart Faces.

I Heart Faces - Wedding Bells

I was so excited when the ladies at I Heart Faces moved the the wedding category to this week because I had a wedding booked for the 27th. Then it turned out that I would have had the perfect photo in time because I shot a wedding for JenniferMcKinney on the 20th. There's no doubt that Wedding season is in full swing!



Speaking of swinging....Tom, Christine, and all their guests were swinging their way around the dance floor at their beautiful outdoor reception. I wish all wedding receptions were this well lit!

My Just for Fun entry is also from this wedding, but per the rules this week, it's in a post all by itself. Click on the button below to be directed to the rest of this week's entry.

Get your portraits done here!

You all know how busy I am with photography and book design, but I have TWO fabulous lenses sitting in my camera bag right now that are itching to get back out there before I send them back to the rental company on Friday.

The weather is beautiful this week, the flowers are blooming, and I want to share them with YOU! If you are a Twin Cities resident (or don't mind the drive!) I am offering 50% off sitting fees for any session completed by THIS Thursday afternoon. That doesn't give us much time so contact me asap for details.

Alphabitty Moments - my letter R (with a prize)

Thursday snuck up on my again, but rather than make everyone wait until I get my post up I thought I'd throw Mr. Linky up quick before I rush off to Worship Team rehearsal. My other thought was to offer a prize this week... I don't get to the post office all that often, but I'll be sending out photo orders as well as new blog book within the next two weeks so this is the perfect time.

To enter, post your Alphabitty Moments post to your blog that includes a link back here and then come back and add your name to the Mr. Linky. That's all there is to it! I have a stash of Alphabet related items...Ribbon with Letters, notepads with a letter on top, notecards...It's not a big prize, but who doesn't like getting a little something in the mail every once in a while right?

So get your posts up (Remember they don't have to be scrapbook pages - photo(s) with the story behind them are good too!) If this is your first time participating click here for all the Alphabitty Moments information. I'll draw a name before the next Mr. Linky goes up.

R is for...ROCK CLIMBING....

Both of the kids LOVE to climb on the rocks in the park. For some reason Sam always sings London Bridges while he goes from rock to rock. It's been almost a year since these pictures were taken and they are still just as enamored with the simple pleasure of climbing on the rocks as they were last year. I wonder how many years it will last?

Wordless Wednesday - The case of the missing hair bow

I'm tired

I'm tired.

Plain and simple.

Tired.

Tired of not getting very much sleep.

Tired of always feeling behind in my blog designing.

Tired of being behind in responding to emails and quote requests.

Tired of the humidity.

Tired of working all the time.

Tired of saying "see ya later!" to the kids.

Tired.

Plain and (not so) simple tired.


Praying for renewed strength for tomorrow...

Yet, the strength of those who wait with hope in the LORD will be renewed. They will soar on wings like eagles. They will run and won't become weary. They will walk and won't grow tired. Isaiah 40:31

love is in the air....

and on the dance floor...
and in their eyes....

and symbolized on their fingers....

and in their hearts.
Thank you Tom and Christine for allowing Hilary and I to step in for Jennifer while she's with Stellan in the hospital. It was an honor to be a part of your beautiful day ! May God bless you richly for many many years!

My 'A' Game

Last weekend as we prepared for the 200+ people who'd be coming into the campground in the back of my mind was the thought that I should probably put a little effort into my apperence for a change considering I was going to be meeting a reader of my blog for the first time. No photoshopped images, just the read deal. I never did have the time to take my ponytail down or scrounge up some make up, but you know what? It didn't matter.

When I met Heather and her family it was as if they'd been coming out to camp here for years. Oh wait. They have been. It's just that I didn't know it. See, Heather's in-laws live on the other side of the lake from me. Heather and her husband bring their five children over to the campground every year to visit with grandma and grandpa. This year we got to hang out too.

We ate a picnic lunch under the willow tree, hiked up to the observatory to see the rings on Saturn, and did a marathon photo shoot with Heather's youngest, Mary......





Thanks for trapsing all over the park with me Heather! I look forward to your next visit to Bear Country!

Alphabitty Moments - the letter Q

Thursday is upon us and for once I have my Alphabitty Moment page put together before midnight! I had my Q word a couple of weeks ago, but as I was looking for the appropriate pictures, a new word came to mind. I couldn't help but use the new font my friend Jennisa shared with me after I saw how embellished the Q looked.

(Jennisa is the creative genius behind the blog design business you've probably seen around the web - Once Upon a Blog. Jennisa finds the best fonts and this one happens to be one that I'm working with on a blog book.)

Sam and Julia are always asking questions about everything. (Think "why is the sky blue?")

I love it...most of the time. :) Sometimes I'd like to take one car ride without the constant questions, but I can do that when they go to college. Until then, I'll be right there next to the kids in the science section of the library, looking up information on birds, dinosaurs, whales, fish, butterflies, insects...

Now it's your turn to share YOUR alphabitty moment! You can create a scrapbook page or simply post picture(s).




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(Mostly) Wordless Wednesday - Bloom by number

These are some of the photographs I took for a friend last week. She is going to send the photos off to have the peonies & irises identified.
The first pictures is one of the 'maps' I created to keep all the pictures organized.

Not Me Monday 35th edition

Having done this 35 times I doubt I need to go over the specifics of how Not Me Mondays work but feel free to head over to my friend MckMama's blog for all the juicy details and more Not Me posts.

I am not blogging when I'm a suppose to be editing photo shoots and making blog books. Nope. Not me!

A cheesy tween movie is not on in the background just so I'm not sitting here in silence. Nope. Not me! We don't watch TV...really we don't - only movies.

Speaking of not watching TV...I was not shaking my head at the radio on the 12th (or was it the 11th?) when the switch to digital took place. People do survive just fine without cable, without regular TV, without DVR (though I miss that part of TV)... you just wouldn't know it by listening to the media.

****1 1/2 hours later****

So I AM getting some stuff done despite my little blogging breaks here and there....
I did not just turn on the video monitor on the off chance that Sam decided to lay down and take a nap after all. (I told him he could play in the play room instead of napping.)

He did not on his own decide to take a nap.
What 4 1/2 year old chooses to lay down and sleep instead of playing?
Not mine!

*** 1/2 hour later****

I have not relocated yet again. Nope. That wouldn't be productive at all! I should park it and stay focused right?

I am not blogging/working/relaxing in the hammock as I type this. Not Me!

I did not ask PapaBear to bring up a box from the basement for me to set my computer in so I could see my screen better. Nope. Not me? If you happen to drive past our campground that's not me sitting with a diaper box on my lap.

Nope.

Just keep on drivin'!

Nothing to see here....





Really!




That's all I got people!



My weeks of LONG Not Me posts are history!



It's back to my simple little life where I call the Sheriff on a regular basis, refill the paper towel in the park bathrooms, run back and forth from the beach three times in one hour to check campers in, grow vegetables in straw bales, exercise in the morning on a piece of equipment I bought off an infomercial four years ago, let my kids stay up until 10pm in order to see Saturn through a telescope, give my kids crackers, almonds & apples and call it dinner.





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By the Numbers

When things start swirling around in my brain at a frenzied pace I know it's time to do a By the Numbers post.

3,565 - the number of blog book pages I need to design by December 1st in order to have any semblance of family time during Advent.

3 - the number of times I got up last night to turn off the hall light that Sam kept turning back on

11 - the number of campers who checked in yesterday (the busiest Thursday we've ever had)

1 - the number of times I called the Sheriff'sOffice this week

697 - the number of twitter updates I've written

2.5 - the number of S'mores I ate last night

123 - the number of followers I had yesterday

122 - the number of followers I have today

2 - the number of friends camping in the campground this weekend

112,647 - the number of hits on my blog since September

6 - the number of blogs I have

4 - the number of blogs I actually update

20 - the number of sore muscles I have from 10 measly push-ups yesterday

0 - the number of TV's in our house that work with the new digital TV set up

1 - the number of skulls (Moose) in my library (compliments of GrizzlyGramps)

5 - the number of days Sam will go to Vacation Bible School next week

13 - the number of peonies in vases around my house

3 - the number of photo shoots I have coming up

5 - the number of hours I got to spend playing with my kids this afternoon

11:12 - the numbers on my clock - 'night all!



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Alphabitty Moments - the letter P

P is for Procrastination. There I admitted it. :) Alphabitty Moments took a backseat to a lot of things this week and I fear if I don't get this post up tonight I won't get it posted at all.

My real letter P is Pumpkin Picking. I'd be surprise (but grateful) if when the kids are teenagers they'll want to go to the pumpkin patch with their parents so I'm going to savor every trip we go pumpkin picking.
Before I publish my Alphabitty Book I might go back to my old computer and pull pictures from each year to show how the kids have changed. There's something about the crisp Fall air and the bright colors that always makes for great pictures at the pumpkin patch.

There were some great P words that went up on Thursday so be sure to check out what everyone else came up with as they add their link to the list. If you are new to the carnival, feel free to join us in the middle of the alphabet - we'll be going through the alphabet again and you can catch up next time around.

Happy Thursday Friday!

Wordless Wednesday - It just keeps getting better and BETTER!

(This is after our day at the Splash Pad - it never did get combed out that day. It does this ALL on it's own - no product, just good old fashioned humidity & pool water.)

kisses, contests, & our crazy day

This morning started out as usual with my 20 minute workout, a shower while the kids watched a movie, and then yummy oatmeal* before dashing out the door for the Library's Storytime program. Sam got himself dressed this morning without complaint - so what if every last article of clothing was on backwards right? I ran with Julia's "bedhead & bow" look and got away with it. We broke our library rule about not checking out any more books until the first set is returned. Oops. In the check out line my phone started vibrating. I assumed it was PapaBear calling to say good morning, but instead MckMama was on the other end of the line asking if I was up for a Target playdate.

Count us in!

And so we were off...twenty minutes later our gaggle of kids were chattering their way through the shoe aisle as we hunted for flip-flops. A few more random items later and our shopping was done. Lunch in the cafe is always a treat. My kids ate so much I had to go back up for seconds.

Suckers in the car helped keep them awake long enough for the 15 minute drive home. I tossed the kids in bed and sat down to catch up on some emails. That's when I remembered that I was suppose to check on the contest I'd entered last week. The voting periods are short and they were already in full swing! I anxiously tried to log into my account to get at least one vote registered before the hour was up. I didn't make it. drat.

It isn't very often that a photo contest moves along this quickly so we'll know tomorrow if we made it to the next round. What's on the line?

Prizes:

· The Grand Prize winner will receive a $1,000 Gander Mountain gift card, a $500 Rapala combo gift pack and a $500 Visa gift card.
· 1^st runner-up receives a $500 Gander Mountain gift card, a $250 Rapala combo gift pack and a $100 Visa gift card.
· Eight 2^nd runners-up will receive a $100 Visa gift card.

Pretty sweet huh? I'm really hoping that this picture of Julia is sweet enough to real in the big one. If you have a moment and want to click over to the contest site all you have to do is register to vote and then when you've verified your account (through your email) you can vote by searching "Julia's Mom" for a picture of Julia kissing a sunfish. (You can vote once an hour until tomorrow morning.)

While I was scrambling to get my account set up the doorbell rang. I ran downstairs (in my polka-dot pajama pants) to quiet the dog and answer the door. A family that I spoke with in the campground last weekend has a daughter who's getting married next October and I mentioned that I am a photographer. Not one to pass up an opportunity, I sent them around to the porch and brought out my business materials so we could talk shop.

Today I considered a trip to Target a playdate and held a business meeting in my purple pajama pants.

Did I mention that I have a photoshoot later?

There's a garden in a neighboring town that contains some rare flowers and a friend called and asked if I could come take some quality photographs for them to send in to a professional for identification.

This is my life....and I love it!


* I've finally figured out the trick to making crockpot oatmeal! MckMama has been coaching me (thanks J!) and FINALLY I figured out what works best for my crockpot.

1 cup Scottish Oatmeal (steel cut, but chopped up)
3 cups water
1 cup vanilla almond milk
Cook on warm setting all night
In the morning turn on low for 30-60 min (this gives me time to exercise, shower, and get the kids dressed before coming downstairs for the day)

Leftovers go in the refrigerator and the next day I add a splash of almond milk and a splash of water and turn it on high during my workout.

Not Me Monday - Twitter Edition

I'm going to try something different this week for MckMama's popular Not Me Monday carnival. Even more different than last week's post. Usually I get my posts ready on Sunday night but I chose to spend last night praying for Stellan and April Rose and snuggling with Julia in our bed instead.

I'm really close to sending two books to the printer and I don't want to take the time to do much else other than say that I'll tweet my Not Me's as I think of them throughout the day.

Before I get back to work I want to give a special shout out to Esther who's Menu Plan Monday post provided me with an idea for dinner tonight. Phew!

Scenic Sunday - BWCA 2009

PapaBear and GrizzlyGramps went to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area last week and came home with these beautiful photographs and a whopper of a fish story...


You might remember the trip PapaBear and I took after the campground closed last year. They paddled and portaged their way to the same area, but stayed at a different campsite.

One day they brought the entire food bag along with them in the canoe rather than hanging at the campsite and had themselves a shore lunch.





I don't think they'll be trying a new entry point any time soon with so many nice size fish there. So which one of the 55+ entry points did they go in at?





Don't you know a fisherman never shares his secrets?

They will share the fish tales though...Not once but twice PapaBear's line got snapped off by a Northern when he was jigging for Sunfish and later, Walleye. That isn't uncommon, but what is unheard of is catching both of those Northerns later on and retrieving his hooks!

For more Scenic Sunday Posts head over here.

Sometimes we are so busy with everyday life that we forget to appreciate the beauty that God has placed before us. Scenic Sundays are about stopping and smelling the roses. And while you're smelling those roses, take a picture so that others can share in your appreciation for the beauty of His creation. So pretty please come join us for Scenic Sundays. Maybe we'll see things in a different light.

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Carrie Carrie Quite Contrary

It's been a while since I did a Straw Bale Gardening post and I know some of you are wondering how my garden is growing.
These pictures were taken May 27th. I will have to get a small notebook to keep in the garage so I can keep better records of how the garden is progressing.

By far the happiest plant is the broccoli:
The arugula behind has flowered and otherwise isn't growing much. Am I suppose to keep it from flowering???

My beans....er bean... was lonely until yesterday when I transplanted either a watermelon, zuchini, or a pumpkin into the bale along side it.


Of course the plants that can only have 1 plant per bale are the ones that came up* great and need to be thinned. I pulled that one that was surrounded by radishes to give the radishes a better chance.

My peppers are growing now but last week they were showing signs of being stressed. The leaves were curling up and they weren't growing. I tried two different things to help them recover. One, I added some fertilizer due to a possible nitrogen deficiency and two, I stopped watering every day. Within three days they perked back up and started to grow again.


My tomatoes came through the windy stretch we had with flying colors. Only one plant is lagging behind, but the rest have more than doubled in size.And now for the best news of all! We found 9 little tiny (smaller than a marble) cherry tomatoes tonight!

* At 4 weeks the vine plant seeds started to sprout. At 5 weeks the carrots popped through and later that week a few sweet bell peppers came up.

Fun in the sun

There isn't any photographic proof but it doesn't matter. I will never forget the fun day the kids and I spent with MckMama and Hilary on Tuesday. All the kids played so well together which allowed us moms to talk for hours. We went home with sunburns but our ol' aloe plant saved the day.

Today we went to the Splash Pad. Our time there is even sweeter this year because we don't have a membership anymore, but once a month a member can bring a friend.
Thanks MckMama! The kids and I are already looking forward to next month!

Alphabitty Moments - the letter O

Welcome to Alphabitty Moments! For the past few months I've been recording some of the little things that my kids do in the form of an Alphabet Book. A great group of women have joined me in this project and I've been remiss in thanking them for sharing their creativity in page design and the inspiration for words each week. Thanks gals!

We're over half way through our first book and until now, I've had either a joint page (word that fit both my children or two layouts (one for each kid). I had a couple of ideas for Julia's page, but they didn't come together in time. The nice thing is that we'll be going through the Alphabet again so I'll get Julia's page in the next go round.

This week for Sam's pages I chose to use a picture I took at our local arboretum on this fateful day. For anyone out there who is ever having trouble finding a picture that is an exact match for a word, this is a way to solve that problem...

(Click on the image once to view larger)

Use a cute picture of what your child(ren) look like these days and add the appropriate text. I know that when I look at this layout I will be transported back in time to when my 4 1/2 year old wanted to watch the same movie OVER & OVER again, "play pretend meat dinosaurs in the hallway with Daddy" OVER & OVER again, read the same Eyewitness Kids books about Sharks, Dinosaurs, Whales, Birds, Cats, & Dogs OVER & OVER again etc...

Now it's your turn....Post* your favorite Alphabitty Moment and then come back and add your name to the Mr. Linky.

*Scrapbook/Bookmaking software not required! BUT if you are interested in using the software that I use for this project and the 25 other projects I'm working on, go to Blurb.com and download the newest version of Booksmart. They've just released 2.0 and I kid you not, it increases my productivity a TON! We can now adjust the container sizes and add text/photo boxes pretty much wherever we want. Blurb isn't paying me to say this, but I truly believe this is the best bookmaking software out there!

I Heart Faces - Pet Edition

Regular readers will remember this picture from an earlier post about the unbearable heat we had one day recently. This isn't our goat - it lives at the zoo. The poor thing was trying to reach the goat food that my daughter decided to eat for herself. Never a dull moment in BearCountry!

For more entries in the I Heart Faces contests click on the badge below...

My Favorite Things

For a while now I have been focused on what we've eliminated from our life.....pop (since 6-1-08), dairy/coffee (5-1-09), and TV (7-8-08) but as those habits fall by the wayside I've been focusing on the things I'm enjoying these days - some are little indulgences, others are a special part of our lifestyle here in BearCountry, and a few are things that I've recently discovered....

Like #1 on my list (which by the way is not ranked at all):

Homemade relish - onions, cilantro, Italian seasoning, a drizzle of Italian dressing, chopped tomato, and sometimes lettuce. YUM!



#2 Eating on our big wrap-around deck - especially when it includes flowers from home and lemonade...
#3 Pita Pockets - I've bought these in the past, but on a recent trip I found some from the Damascus Bakery that are incredibly soft and quite GOOD! I have some checking on a few of the ingredients to do yet but at least they aren't hot dog buns or filler bread. The bag on the right definitely a healthy option, but of course, they are a tad dry.

It is so nice to be able to keep the kids sandwiches from falling apart and not spend $4 on a loaf of bread that isn't very healthy. (PapaBear only likes white and then I fight the battle with the kids about which kind of bread they have to eat...) This way we just don't have bread in the house. Period.

Another new taste at our house is #4 on my list: Almond milk. Rice milk didn't go over all that well, but we're doing OK with unsweetened vanilla almond milk.
I love that I can buy a bunch and keep them in my cupboard until I need one. Saves room in my refrigerator and trips to the store.


Speaking of going to the store... This handy little bag is #5. I keep it in my purse for those times when I end up having a lot of extra little things to haul home from wherever. Today we used it when we made an impromptu stop at the grocery store to pick up lunch to eat at the Mall. I was glad I didn't have to carry a Cub Foods bag through Von Maur.

Sometimes I use my Chico bag to hold this bag.... #6 - My Wahmies Diaper Bag
"But I thought you were done with potty training?" I am, but a mom always has to be prepared! I use this bag to contain wipes, spare training pants, and an extra outfit. It's waterproof since it was designed to hold wet cloth diapers so if Julia has an accident I have a place to put her wet clothes without having to worry about the smell.

The few times I flew with the kids while they were in diapers we used this same set up, only with diapers. It's SO much easier to grab the bag with all the supplies in rather than digging for each individual item.

Speaking of bags, #7 is my purse, a Christmas present from MckMama, I don't know how I survived without it. Before this beauty came into my life and turned me into a grown up, I was content to schlep around my trusty EddieBaur backpack diaper bag with all the necessities crammed inside.

Isn't it funny what makes us suddenly feel all grown up?

Like seeing my daughter in her swimming suit this year sans swim diaper - #8 on my Favorite Things list for the summer of 2009.

Already she's been spending lots of time outdoors in her various suits. One of my favorite places to hang out is over there...
...under the giant willow trees - #9 on my list. Growing up I always wanted to spread a blanket out under huge willows and read.

When we're not down by the willows we're enjoying #10 - Our hammocks
Or over there watering my garden. This is my #11. I love tending to the plants that are growing in the straw. PapaBear often offers to water the garden for me, but I enjoy doing it.

My final favorite thing is Bit-O-Honey - #12 We may be eating tons of fruits and veggies , but this little treat reminds me of my childhood and hits the spot when I need a little something sweet...


The kids have a few favorites right now as well...

#1: Awesome Grandma Garage Sale finds....


#2 Running through the sprinkler

I suppose I could count these as my favorites too...the kids are playing together and good about entertaining themselves. It's going to be a fun summer!!!!

Now it's your turn - what are some of YOUR favorite things?

(I had intended to post a Mr. Linky, but the site is not cooperating so it'll have to wait)

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4 the love of fresh produce

In the past week our family has eaten:

watermelon
grape tomatoes
pineapple
green beans
snap peas
cherries
mandarin oranges
green peppers
red peppers
yellow onion
bananas
red grapes
snow peas
strawberries
tomato
blueberries
carrots
raspberries
(dried) apricots

Julia must be going through a growth spurt because she asks for more carrots after her meal and treat is gone. Her snacks lately have been 5-6 grape tomatoes and 5-6 green beans or 7-8 blueberries. I am soooo glad she's potty trained because well, I think you know why....

We've arrived at that happy place where I can send the kids to the refrigerator to pick out their own snack...all by themselves. For example....they peel the clementines by themselves and shell the peas without help or any battles.

We've come a long way from here.

Not Me Monday - 33rd Edition

What? It's Monday already?


Oh bother! That means that my mom will confess all the embarrassing things that happened around here in the past week.
Maybe if I give her my best smile she won't remember to write about how insane my hair was.

So far so good!
Only one more picture to go and I'm in the clear....
Phew! I made it!

Who would write a Not Me post without any Not Me's?

Not me!




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Bonus!

Some more wedding pictures that I forgot to post the first time....

Sarah and I after the ceremony...


It brought back memories of a gondola ride Sarah and I took in Switzerland as they ascended the ski hill for a champaign toast with their guests.


Before all the wedding festivities began, Rhonda, Ella, and I chilled in the hotel room. Next time I'm in Madison I'll be staying at this same hotel.

It was wonderful and a bargain! A suite for $74! Have you ever heard of such a thing? We had a kitchen, pull out couch, recliner, work area, a nice bathroom, and the BEST part - we were across the parking lot from my two favorite restaurants - Panera and Biaggis.

Yum!

Eventually I'll get to posting some of the other 700 pictures I took over Memorial Day weekend. You don't think I neglected to take pictures of the kids in their Red White and Blue do you? And then there's the sweet story of Sam praying for our men and women in the military.... But first I'm going to play a much need laundry game with the kids, fill the pools with water, and spend some quality time in the hammock....

Have a blessed Sunday everyone!

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I went to Wisconsin and got pulled over by a state trooper

I also got to hang out with my childhood friend, Rhonda



and her daughter, Ella....
(collages are easier to see if you click on them....)

I got to witness the wedding ceremony of my college roommate, Sarah and her new husband, Greg...

I got to catch up with friends from college who I hadn't seen in 10 years.
I don't know if Julie or Jessica will ever see this, but Abby (in the middle there) will. Turns out she has been blogging about as long as I have. Who knew! My circle of in-real-life blogger friends is small - I couldn't be happier that I can add Abby to that circle!
(Abby posted wedding photos on her site as well if you want to see more of Sarah and Greg's beautiful ceremony location and wedding party/guests.)

Oh, and that little incident with the state trooper?

Apparently they don't like it when you leave your brights on constantly. (My headlights need some major adjusting and since nobody has ever flashed their lights at me I figured even my brights weren't really that bright.)

He didn't even ask for my out of state driver's license which was pretty surprising, but I think he had bigger fish to fry considering the drunks (passed a car on the side of the road with 5 police cars around it, beer bottles on the roof of the car, and three guys sitting on the side of the road) and the grizzly accident scene that will forever be etched in my brain. (Motorcycle accidents are never good. 'nough said.)

The last time I got pulled over I was in high school (for speeding - but never got a ticket since I WASN'T speeding...long story...)

When was the last time you were pulled over?

Alphabitty Moments - the letter N

It's time for Alphabitty Moments! This week is brought to you by the letter N...


I knew almost instantly that I wanted to use Nursery for my N word this week. It fits the theme of Alphabitty Moments perfectly IMO. As an added bonus it allows me to show the kids what their first home looked like - or at least their first ever bedrooms in our old house. Want to see more of our last house? Click here for a tour.PapaBear picked out the bedding for Sam's nursery. I still love it. In fact we painted his room at this house the same color and use the same curtains. It's a Noah's Ark theme, but you'd have to look really close at the quilt to notice.

A few other observations from Sam's room:
* This is the room we were in when I told PapaBear I was pregnant with Julia
* The toy box under the window was built by my parents/grandparents for me when I was a kid.
* The doll on the toy box is similar to the one I talk about in this post*. Sam doesn't care for it, but I love it dearly. He actually said to me once, "I don't like that dead guy in my room." Poor Andy sits out in the hall all night.

And then there's Julia's nursery:

Her room used to be painted an aweful faux leather color that we decided to paint a nice neutral color for use as an office. I'm sure there aren't many people who decide to keep the red room red, use it as a nursery, and paint the other room in anticipation of a baby. But that's exactly what we did. Then when we were expecting #2, we chose bedding that matched the existing curtains and walls. No easy task even if they were considered nuetral. At a garage sale I found a leapard print set that would suffice. We really only use the crib skirt and the sheet anyway... The quilt rack held a special blanket my mom gave Julia instead of the one from the bedding set.

Now it's your turn to share your alphabitty Moment for the week...

Since Mr. Linky was being so troublesome last week, go ahead and leave the general url to your site so we can all catch up on last week's post at the same time....


* I tweeted earlier about a new blog I put together this morning. It relates to this post from up above and this post about a book I found. I've just started getting things set up for the new blog, but I'll give you a preview today... It's called You Don't Say! and can be found at www.theperfectquote.blogspot.com

Wordless Wednesday - The field trip to....

Summer Lov'n

... had me a blast

To Each His Own

His.

Hers.


Theirs.
Ours.

(Photo inspired by my dear blogging friend Brittany)

Alphabitty Moments - the letter M

***Mr. Linky appears to be on the fritz today and my whole blog for that matter. Many people aren't able to see my blog at all. I've been hearing people are having trouble with Internet Explorer. Go ahead and leave the link to your post in the comments****

Three months ago I started a little carnival called Alphabitty Moments as a way to remember the little things my kids do. I spend 40 hours a week making books for other people, but this is my chance to create something for my own family, one letter at a time.

If you are just joining us, we are on the letter "M". Scrapbook pages are optional - it's perfectly fine to post the pictures like a normal post and tell the story behind them without the fancy pages. Personally, I use Blurb.com's Booksmart and post the pages separately so they are easier to see. (Usually you can click on the page to see it larger.)

These are the only matching outfits Julia and I have. I'm all about coordinating clothes (makes pictures that much better), but matching clothes haven't been my thing. This is the outfit I wore for Julia's baptism (learned my lesson the hard way at Sam's - don't wear a dress when you are used to pumping or nursing every 3 hours) Julia's dress I found at Kohl's for her second Christmas. They happened to match and you know what? I love it. In 10 years Julia won't love it.


Thanks to MckMama for taking these photographs of my baby girl and I the week before I chopped my hair off! I knew then how special they were, and they are even more so now.

I had a couple other options for Sam's page, but I wanted to record the movies he's into right now before they change.

Sharon (my awesome SIL) introduced us to The Land Before Time this past winter and Sam has never looked back.


I also threw in Veggie Tales, Berenstein Bears, and Charlie Brown Thanksgiving with the Free Willy series. The kids may not watch regular TV, but they love their movies. I usually let them watch one in our bed in the morning before we get up for the day. Bad habit, I know.... But they curl up so quietly and giggle at the same places each time that I can't help myself.

What's do you want to remember this week?



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Happy Windsday!

I'm surprised we didn't see Piglet flying by holding onto the thread from his scarf today.


It was that windy.

We only last an hour at Sam's School Play Day.
It was that windy.

Mrs. S was a real good sport to let me take her picture with Sam on such a windy day.



It was that windy.

Tonight on Fox 9

We joined MckMama (sorry about chopping you're head off J!) at the Community Center last week while they were being filmed for a segmant on Stellan's Story that airs tonight after the American Idol finale.



You just might see this curly haired cutie in the background.
Even if we don't, it's pretty amazing that so many people are going to hear about how God is working through Stellan!

Wordless Wednesday - How I feel about the 95 degree weather

More zoo pictures here or here

Making an appearance (straw bale gardening update)

The radish, zucchini, pumpkin, watermelon, and bean seeds are sprouting! The radishes popped through first at only 3 days after planting and every day since then we've seen new growth from something or another.

I did a quick Internet search on Saturday when I noticed my tomato plant leaves were becoming increasingly white. Sure enough, my tender plants were getting wind and sun burned. It makes sense seeing that we've had a gale force wind since the day they were planted. I found every bucket I could and covered the plants for the rest of the weekend. This week it's been too hot (93 yesterday and 95 today with gusts up to 50 mph) that I can't cover them or they'll cook.

I think I was able to save three of them for sure. Jury's still out on the other one.


Grow plants, Grow!!!!

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I Heart Faces - Blurb Book Contest

It's a big week over at I heart faces and I had a hard time picking a picture for the book contest. In the end I went with the hat picture because of Julia's expression, the vibrant colors, her eyes and because YOU said I should.... Regardless of what happens with this contest, I'm going to have to find a way to work it into my Alphabitty Moments book at some point. It would be a shame to keep it 'locked up' on my computer don't ya think?






"I am submitting this photo into the www.iheartfaces.com Blurb Book photo contest. I am granting I ♥ Faces permission to use my photo in a printed version of a book for commercial use and possibly advertising of a photo book on both the Blurb and I ♥ Faces web sites."

No Me Monday - 32nd Edition

I don't remember the last time I wrote a Not Me Monday post on Monday. The beginning of the work week is much too busy for me to take the time to recap the shortcuts and the embarrassing moments from the previous week so Sunday nights I get my post ready for the morning. I went ahead and posted this on Sunday just in case. You'll understand why in a moment.

The emerging theme of this week's list of foibles is forgetfulness. I do not blame this on lack of sleep Nope. Not me! I own up to my mistakes and that's exactly what this little therapy session is for, so here goes:

I did not take my kids to the Arboretum against their will on Monday night. Not me! Drive two young children 30 miles so I can photograph them in front of the blossoming trees when the light was at its best? Never. I would never ever leave the house at bedtime only to return 2 hours later. Nope. Didn't happen.

These pictures are a figment of your imagination.



We did not miss the library's dinosaur program because we were out having fun forcing smiles on the kids. It didn't take me five days to realize we'd missed a program that both kids would have loved. Nope. Not me!

I did not take this picture driving home from the Arboretum. Nope. It too, is a figment of your imagination.

I would never bother to hold up my camera (with my eyes still on the road of course) and press the shudder just to see what I'd get. That would be silly.

That's enough for one day don't ya think? So let's move on to Thursday. Good ol' Thursday. A day the weatherman said was suppose to be beautiful. A perfect day to go to the zoo. A perfect way to spend the morning as a family. So we packed a lunch, spare clothes for Julia, and away we went.....

to...

...Preschool.

It was Thursday after all and school started in five minutes. Duh.

Three hours later we braved the zoo when the kids are usually napping/resting. It turned out to be the BEST trip to the zoo ever.

The memorable moments did not include hearing "She ate the goat food!" from some kid on a field trip who was pointing and laughing at, you guessed it....Julia.

We didn't spend a fourth of our time at the zoo at one exhibit. Nope. Not us! We're better time managers than that. There are not 150 more bear pictures where these came from. Nope. Not on my computer!



We decided to stay closer to home the rest of the week... Gee, I wonder why!

I'm not about to break the unwritten blogging rule that says ignore negative comments. Nope. Not me! I would never read the comments under this post and get a little miffed by the one about Julia's size. Sure she's only 2 pounds lighter than her brother and at two, wears the same size as her four year old brother...but was that really necessary?

A day later I was looking at my blog when I happened to scroll past that same post. There were not tears rolling down my face once I realized how unbelievably disproportionate she looks in the pictures. Nope. I don't find humor in the fact that my two year old (wearing a fleece over a hooded sweatshirt) looked MUCH bigger than she really is.


And my final Not Me Moment of the week....
We went puddle jumping on Friday night. What could go wrong?

Certainly not a face full of muddy water on the last splash of the day!

No! Not! Me! I would never break in my new puddle boots by splashing my children.

Now it's your turn. What didn't you do this week? I'd love to hear from you.

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Can I ask a favor?

This is a big week over at I Heart Faces and I can't decide which photo to enter this week for the Blurb book contest. Any suggestions? I was thinking the hat picture from a couple of weeks ago, but I dunno.....

Random Picture Challenge

This weeks random picture challenge from 4 Little Men and Girly Twins brings me back to last March when we were touring our current home. Check out that blank refrigerator! It does not look like that now!

The papers on the counter there are applications - applications to live in the house - to be the caretakers of the park the house is located in. When we'd lived here for six months I wrote a post that includes more links to photos and explanations of how our job works.

So many memories have been created in this kitchen in one short year. Like this one...


Bea (and her baby brother) where here on Mondays this past winter/spring. On this day they making a cake to celebrate Julia's half birthday.

For the love of puddle jumping

Any parent can tell you that puddle boots are worth their weight in gold, but I'm not sure how many ask for a pair of their own...for Mother's Day. The kids and I went puddle jumping tonight after a quick rain shower left us with deep puddles around the park.

I don't have pictures of our adventure because it was raining when we went out and I wanted to be in the moment with my kids, not on the sidelines taking pictures. This old header from Spring 2008 will have to do. (click on the image to see it larger)
Just add our blossoming apple tree in the background with streaks of sun poking through the clouds and you'll get the idea.

Then it was time to dump the water out of our boots, wipe the mud of the kid's faces, and eat some sliced apples and popcorn for dinner.


Happy Friday everyone!

Straw Bale Garden Update

Planting day fell on Mother's Day this year (something I will avoid next year and subsequent years until the kids are a little older). I have also learned where to purchase my supplies so hopefully next year I won't have to make eight trips to the 4 garden centers who have what I want.
Here's a list of the supplies I gathered over the last month:
11 straw bales
4 metal fence posts
1 roll of garden twine
3 bags of manure (only used 1)
4 bags of fertilizers
1 watering wand
1 large bag of organic garden soil
1 panel of concrete reinforcement wire*

Plants:
4 tomato
4 cherry tomato
4 green pepper
4 habenero pepper
1 rosemary
1 sweet basil
1 basil
1 cilantro
1 broccoli
1 onion set
1 arugula

Seeds:
1/2 bale sweet bell peppers (shared with 1 tomato and 1 green pepper plant)
1 bale green beans
1 bale of carrots (3 cherry tomato plants over the seeds)
oregano (shares a bale with other herbs)
radish and zucchini share a bale
1 bale for 1 pumpkin
1 bale for 1 watermelon
lettuce (shares a bale with watermelon

After two weeks of conditioning the bales the kids helped me put 1-2 inches of garden soil on top of the bales designated for seeds.




Next year I will string twine on both sides to create a trellis. My plants are not organized as well as they should be because it got complicated when some needed dirt, some needed the trellis, etc.. Good thing I made myself a map so I know where everything is!

It was surprisingly easy to make room for the plants. (They don't need any top soil. What you're seeing on top of the bale is manure.) Wedging a small trowel back and forth a couple of times and just like that there was room for the plants.

Here's what the garden looks like after the May 10th planting.


After my 8th stop at a garden center....on May 12th the rest of the plants are in the bales.


I promised our landlord that I'd make sure the bales didn't look dingy when campers came into the park so I stuck some leftover annuals in the side of the bale. You can plant herbs in the sides too but I didn't want to risk them not growing well so I gave them their own bale. I've seen wave pentunia's on the side of bales which I didn't want to spend the money on this year.

It's been five days and so far things are still looking good. I give the few straw pieces of wheat that grow on each bale a "hair cut" every day when I water. I was told that after a few hair cuts they give up and die, but it's really not that big of deal to pull them - especially when the bales are wet. They come out root and all.


More updates to come as things progress....

* Concrete reinforcement wire is a great alternative to flimsy tomato cages. I will make one more trip to HomeDepot for a big sheet of it (couldn't fit it in the Honda last week)
I'll zip tie the wire to across the end where my tomotoes are planted in my 11th bale and for $7 I will have a tomato cage



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A different kind of Bear Country

I hope you enjoyed this little preview of our up close and personal experience at the zoo today.

Alphabitty Moments - the letter L

Welcome to Alphabitty Moments! Where we're celebrating the little things our kids do one letter at a time. This week is brought to you by the letter L, but feel free to jump on board with any letter. Some participants use digital scrapbooking while others simply post their pictures like a regular post. Either is fine! I'm creating my book using blurb.com and someday will have a few more books in my bookstore.

Speaking of Blurb, that window pane effect from last week? The trick is to put the same picture in 4 times and match up the edges.

This week I was feeling a little gray - maybe it's the rain or maybe it's the fact that I made these layouts at 1am. Not sure. What I am sure of is that I don't ever want to forget the specialness of Sam and Julia's bond as brother and sister. There is a lot of love and laughter around here. (and screams and tantrums to tell you the truth)



It melts my heart to watch Julia offer Sam half of her cookie without being asked or when Sam scoots over on the couch so there's room for his little sister.

Julia is showing her love using sign language. It's not a silent declaration though. Instead, it's "Mommy! Come in here!" Then once I walk into her bedroom, there she is with both hands stretched towards me in the air. It always reminds me of Noah...always


I love you too sweatheart!!!

"Life isn't measured in minutes, but in moments"

What was your (alphabitty)moment this week?

Wordless Wednesday - The sugar rush

The source? Click here.

Tickled Pink

Julia's happy to announce that the winner of the organizational contest is commenter #6 who happens to be MamaBear's good friend Jenney. Congrats!

I Heart Faces - Laughter

I wish you could hear BrotherBear's adorable giggle. It's the best! (Just like everyone over at I Heart Faces. Click on the button to visit other participant's entries for the week)

Inquiring minds

I have this nagging feeling that I'm forgetting something - that there have been questions left in the comments that I haven't responded to. If you saw my C.L.U.T.T.E.R.E.D inblox you'd understand why those comments may have been misplaced.

I label all my posts by topic and include the names of anyone mentioned so feel free to use the search feature on upper left hand side to see if by chance the answer to your question is out there somewhere. If not, feel free to leave your question(s) in the comments. Someday I'll take the time to make a word cloud with the post labels, but unfortunately that is low on my priority list right now.

Here's MY question to YOU
Is there a post you'd like to know the rest of the story of or a topic you'd like me to cover?

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Not Me Monday - 31st Edition

Monday is here again and that means it's time for yet another installment of Not Me Monday hosted by my friend MckMama. It feels good to admit the shortcuts I take sometimes, but you didn't hear that from me.

I (didn't) put Julia in a diaper when we were out late on Friday night so I didn't have to find a bathroom.

You (didn't) hear me whisper to Julia to just pee in her diaper so I didn't have to leave a meeting we were in. I would never do that! Not me!

You (didn't) see me use the hood from Julia's sweatshirt to wipe the snot from her nose either. Nope. Not a chance!

And a couple of Mother's Day's Not Me's.....

This beautiful bouquet (and the one from Julia) was (not) my Mother's Day gift.

I (didn't) make the mistake of planting my first garden with the help of two little souls who had to listen to me tell them to go away if they couldn't be quiet while I read the back of the seed packets. Nope. Not me!


Now head on over to My Charming Kids to see what others didn't do this week.

Oh and if you still wanted to enter my latest contest
- today's the last day to enter. I'll draw a winner on Tuesday.

My Heart's Desire - Mother's Day Reflections....

I don't have a spiffy mother's day post to share, but I still wanted to put something down on 'paper' for Mother's Day. Both the kids are still awake (Sam making multiple trips to the bathroom & Julia fussing, thought it's finally subsided). I look forward to finding a rhythm to our weekends while the campground is open - one that doesn't leave us with overtired kids come Sunday night.

Here are two pictures from last night that I saved to post today. They were taken almost two hours after bedtime yet the kids were wide awake in anticipation of S'mores.

I look at these pictures and am overwhelmed with love for them. (Have you ever seen such dark blue eyes?). Julia and Sammy make me laugh every day and help me slow down and smell the roses. Somewhere along the line I've lost my ability to do that and I need their help.

I am learning to balance my work life and my home life and it my fervent prayer that I don't cause them any harm in the process. Actually I pray for more than that. I pray that they will be able to overlook my short temper, my busyness, and my absence on work days. Most of all I pray that I can be the mom God wants me to be.

Besides my Bible I've been using Elizabeth George's book, A Mom After God's Own Heart as an encouragement in my daily walk and two years ago my mom gave me a great book called While they were Sleeping. I love parenting books that are full of scripture and these two fit the bill.

Happy Mother's Day to all the mom's out there!

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Season Premier UPDATED

I peeked out the window a minute ago and saw a few campfires still glowing and some party lights swaying in the wind. It's been a quiet opening weekend, but somehow I still go from morning till night on Saturdays. The last few hours of the day were spent getting ready for and enjoying the campfire story program our park has.



Sam was giggling along with the story, but little Miss Julia was more interested in wandering around.

The S'mores were a big hit with everyone, but the sweetest part for me was the light. Oh my, was it delicious! My camera loves loves LOVES those evening shots.

Photo Info:

No, I didn't use a flash. I can count on one hand the number of situations where I've used a flash in the last year.

I'm shooting with a Canon Rebel XTi set on Aperture* Priority. I have a fixed focal length 50mm f1.8 lens that I picked up for $100 and use almost exclusively.

All photos shot at:
ISO 400
Framed one of Sam: f4.0
Other two images: f2.5

* Aperture 101 - Aperture is how much the shutter opens when take a picture. It is measured in f-stops. The smaller the number, the bigger the opening. The bigger the opening, the more light is let into the camera.

Aperture priority means that I let the camera figure out the shudder speed and I control how much light I let by adjusting my f stops.




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One step back and another forward

Yesterday was a beautiful day in Bear Country - perfect for a photo shoot with a family from Julia's school. I haven't decided if this is a keeper yet (can't tell if I like the people so dark or not and can't figure out how to lighten them properly) but it illustrates my point perfectly. It was time for me to take a step back and tell more of the story in my photography.


I tend to get up close....too close. I miss part of the story as it unfolds. Take the above picture for example - if I only got their faces it still might have been a nice portrait, but in this wide shot, the story of taking her kids for walks in the preserve is missed.

Or in this one...
If I had cropped out Mom's hand, you won't know that G is still practicing his toddle and likes a hand to hold on to for support.


Leaving some room around the subject allows that invisible wind to become visible through big sister, F's hair. I can almost feel the warm Spring breeze on my face again when I look at this one. My hope is that their family will too.


Ok, so that covers the step back, but what about the step forward? Thanks to The Pioneer Woman's free Photoshop actions and some Photoshop Action's I've picked up from MCP*I've been working on improving my post production skills.

Photography is a work in progress.

If you can call it work.

*Check out the contest over at I Heart Face for your chance to enter to win some great actions for yourself.

The heat is on!

**UPDATE** Today (May 8th) when I went out to add more 10-10-10 I noticed that quite a bit of yesterday's fertilizer is still visible on the surface of the bales. I decided that instead of adding 1 cup per bale I would only add 1/2 cup today and tomorrow. Sunday is planting day and I've already drawn out my plan for where to place the plants. I'll go over that information in an upcoming post.

Original Post:

The nitrogen sink the straw bale gardening instructor was talking about is working! I stuck my finger a few inches into a straw bale the other day and there was HEAT and moisture! I've been nervous about my calculations when it comes to applying organic fertilizer instead of conventional.

That's the good news.

The bad news is that I missed a step in the instructions. I was suppose to be adding fertilizer every day on days 7-9. Technically I HAVE been adding fertilizer every day all along, but the every day manure application is factored in to get as close to a 34-0-0 ratio as possible required for days 1-6.

I'm suppose to start planting on Sunday - day 14 of the conditioning process.



I think everything is still going according to plan despite my little omission.

For the next 3 days I will add 1 cup of 10-10-10 to each bale. I don't think I'll have enough for that so I'll either ration it out, start planting a day early, or use some of the other fertilizers instead. This is an experimental year after all.


And so far my little experiment is working! Can't wait to start planting!

Does anyone in the Metro know of a place to purchase organic vegetable plants? I have access to organic seeds, but I don't know if the natural food store has their garden plants out yet.

Alphabitty Moments - the letter K

This week's Alphabitty Moments post is brought you by the letter "K". Click on the button over on the left side bar for more information on what this carnival is all about. If you're just joining us WELCOME! No need to worry about jumping on board in the middle of the alphabet - we're going to go through it again and you can catch up the next time around. Our kids change so much and I know there are little things my kids do now that in the next go round, they'll be even more special.

I cheated a little this week, but I wanted to remember the (pre) in Kindergarden too. I can hardly believe that I only have one more year before I have two kids in school. It's probably part of the reason I struggle daily with how to balance work and home. I want to savor every moment yet there's work that needs to get done.

Sam's teacher, Mrs. W, lost her mother this week. If you have a moment, please say a prayer for their family. We are blessed beyond blessed to have Mrs. W in our lives. She is the pastor's wife, a grandma, and has over 20 years under her belt as a teacher. It is hard to see someone you respect and admire lose a loved one.

K is also for Kite - the simple pleasure of watching what the wind can do and the joy on the kid's faces when they hold the kite themselves. Behind our house there's a huge open space where we fly our kite we got when Julia was a baby.


(Click on the Kite page to view it bigger)
I threw this picture up after giving Julia a nebulizer treatment - she woke with a croup-y cough a little bit ago and I'm keeping her near me on the couch. So far I don't need to take her to the ER and I'm praying it doesn't get any worse.

Hopefully Mr. Linky will work properly while I'm tending to my baby. Thanks for playing along! I look forward to seeing your K words later today.

The Perfect Word

I found this book about a month ago; saving me the trouble of writing my own book of sayings.

I am always looking for the perfect word, the perfect verse, the perfect poem, and the perfect quote. My favorite places to look besides the Internet? - the journal section of bookstores, gift stores, and the Hallmark Store.

Because of Mother's day I've found some good ones at Target. (There are always knick-knacks that have sayings on them.)
I carry a notebook and jot them down. Here are a couple of my latest:




"Of all the things both great and small a mother's love is best of all."

and this one...

"Like kites without strings and butterflies with wings, my mother taught me to soar with my dreams."

I wrote a post a while back about how I use the quotes and poems I find. You can read about the perfect compliment here or visit my bookstore to see others.



Or you can skip that part and share YOUR favorite quote/poem/saying/verse in the comment section for everyone to enjoy.

I going to be expanding my design business to include photo books for clients nationwide. Your pictures, my design, and if that's the route you want to go - the perfect word. Or maybe you want to make a book highlighting a vacation or birthday and you provide the narrative.


Sometime between a photoshoot tomorrow morning, getting our car fixed, and checking in 200 campers this weekend, I'll post more of the specifics on my design blog.

First, I have to pinch myself.

Did I ever tell you that when I was a kid I used to dream of figuring out a way to get paid to create scrapbooks for other people?

Ouch.....I guess this is real!

Wordless Wednesday - What goes up

As organized as I get (and a contest)

Spring is in the air here in Bear Country. Our grass has finally turned green and Butch is out mowing it today for the first time. Inside I've started tackling some much needed Spring cleaning. While I love our big house, it has a tendency to get cluttered quickly. It was wonderful to have the morning to do more than surface clean (what I like to refer to as company (is coming) clean).

I went through the pile of school papers and put my favorites in binders. (I got this idea from JMom's blog who linked to someone else's who I can't for the life of me find right now - sorry!)


Simple, white binders and some page protectors and suddenly there is a home for the school papers that I want to keep. The great thing is that the kids can page through these in the years to come. They aren't packed away in a box somewhere.

The other downstairs project was to get our laundry room set up for summer shoes again.

Each person gets their own milk crate for their shoes. It's not fancy and it doesn't have to be since they remained in the laundry room where no guests will see them. The kids can get their own shoes out and most importantly -they can put their own shoes away.

I still haven't figured out how to handle winter shoes that are wet and sloppy when they come in and therefore take up much more space. Thankfully we have a breezeway to dry them off in, but the but I would like to 'contain' them better.

Speaking of containing...upstairs there is a shelf in Julia's room that holds both kid's socks.

For only two kids I've developed a system of dealing with socks that compensates for my laziness yet still allows the kids to have socks to wear.

The bottom basket looks like this...
It's where all the kid socks go when we sort laundry. Usually I'm so far behind in laundry that by the time I get everything to the correct rooms, I'm either out of time or out of motivation to finish the job. Rather than let the socks float around the room getting lost, they all go in here until the kids and I have a minute to go through them and match them. There aren't many unmatching ones because usually 3-4 loads of laundry have been done before we sit down to sort.

I pick out the kid's clothes for them and only have to go to one place to grab socks is very conveinient.

So that's about as organized as I get. As you can see I could use some help! Here's where you come in...leave a comment in this post explaining your favorite organizing tip/method/secret and you'll be entered to win this bag filled with organizational goodies (recipe cards, shopping list, menu planner, and magnets. Write your own organizational post and leave me a second comment and I'll give you a second entry.

Good luck!

I Heart Faces - Hat Edition

My entry for I heart faces this week:



This strawberry hat, photographed last Fall first made it's appearance on this blog here in a post with some of my favorite pictures. Julia is the 4th child to wear it and if I remember right each kid wore it for two years. Love that hat. Now that I think about it, this sweater has been worn worn by those same four kids for at least 5 years too. We like our hand-me-downs around here if you hadn't noticed. :)

To see other I heart faces participants, click on the button below.

Not Me Monday - 30th edition

Welcome to Not Me Monday! It's been a while, but I think I still remember the program. If you need a refresher or want to participate yourself, head over to My Charming Kids. MckMama and Stellan are home safe and sound. Praise God!

If I could remember all the Not Me moments from the past 6 weeks it would (not) take me a week to type them all out, but since nobody wants to read them all and there are many I'd rather not rehash, I'll move on....

Or rather......sum up what I did (not) do the past couple of months:

First, there is (not) a long post from the beginning of April sitting on my computer waiting for me to finish. It will (not) continue to sit there for another month. Nope. I'm always up to date in my blogging! That's why I did (not) title the post "If I had time to blog". It does not include pictures of Julia's half birthday. Nope. Nothing like this photo...

There seems to be a hat theme going on around here. That is (not) because I'm bad about keeping Julia's curls tamed. Nope. I would never go 4 days without combing her hair. Not ME!

This hat wearing cutie has (not) been wearing undies for a week and blowing us away with her potty training skills. Nope. I would never brag about how easy it's been. Not a chance!
I am (not) sooooo angry that I can't find the third pair of ImseVimse training pants that Sam used two years ago. Nope. Not me! I keep track of everything and never lose expensive training pants. Never. I would never buy $15 training pants in the first place.

Sam hasn't been immune to my Not Me moments either. He won a bingo game at a local carnival on Saturday and I did (not) inform him that he was going to pick the stainless steel water bottle and not a toy. Nope. Not me! I'd never do that to him for the sake of getting a great water bottle for 50 cents.

Speaking of bargins, I was (not) over the moon about my great garage sale finds a couple of weeks ago. My excitment did (not) pale in comparison to the amazing results ($135) I got when I sold my kids clothes at a friend's garage sale. I did (not) go to her house expecting to pick up a few bags of leftovers only to discover there was only one little Target bag left. One.

What didn't YOU do this week?

Scenic Sunday - BWCA

Miti over at Pieces of Me hosts Scenic Sunday each week and while I usually have to dig in my archives for a photo, I enjoy the process of searching and reliving the trips PapaBear and I used to take before we had kids. This week is a rare photo taken on aafter our children were born - our trip to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. I left my good camera at home, but was thrilled to see how well my little point and shoot captured the water droplets on this leaf I found at the end of the portage trail.

If you're new to Scenic Sundays - here's Miti's describes it in her own words....

Sometimes we are so busy with everyday life that we forget to appreciate the beauty that God has placed before us. Scenic Sundays are about stopping and smelling the roses. And while you're smelling those roses, take a picture so that others can share in your appreciation for the beauty of His creation. So pretty please come join us for Scenic Sundays. Maybe we'll see things in a different light.


Well said Miti!

"Stellan Will Live"

I'm sure there are many who can relate to my need to do something to help, to lift up, to encourage, to support the MckFamily while Stellan receives the care his little body needs. What's a mom to do who stays home during the day and keeps up with two businesses in her free time?

Put these things together....


600+ photographs.

200 pages.

Countless people who love this little boy and his family.

2 women who've never met, but have becomes friends through the many many emails. This project wouldn't have been possible without you Susan! Thank you for all the time you spent uploading photos to the name gallery, looking up Bible verses, and giving me feedback on the design!

1 couple who made a photo collage. Thanks Jill and Rob!


All of these things combined led to this:

One book named "Stellan Will Live" (Because he will live)
You know when you go to an online bookstore and you wish you could see the inside of the book? I've been there. I know the feeling. You don't have to worry about that here! I put a new lens to good use and took some photographs of some of the pages


a few of the pages in no particular order...




Three of the twenty-six layouts with scripture...




(last page)As time permits I will post more of the book pages on my design site or you can see a preview of the book in my bookstore.

Stellan Will Live

The Name Gallery

By Carriep

Book Preview

Change is in the air

* Most of the changes are good...
*grass is turning green,
*flowers are coming up,
*Julia is able to go out in public wearing undies
*Sam is only napping 1 or 2 times a week - but playing quietly in his room the other days
*Photo shoots are picking up and my blog to book business is hopping

BUT....a few changes are going to be harder to swallow...

The campground opens NEXT WEEKEND.
We will have to be home by 4pm every weekday and not go anywhere other than church on the weekends (or at least not together as a family)for the next SIX MONTHS

Also, I have decided that as of tomorrow I am going to eliminate dairy from my diet as well as as much processed foods as possible. I LOVE milk so this is going to be VERY VERY hard for me BUT if I can give up pop (it'll be a year in June) I can do this...I NEED to do this...my body has been begging for this for months.

Now if only I can get my taste buds on board.............

Alphabitty Moments - the letter J

Welcome to Alphabitty Moments! Ten weeks into the project and the pages are piling up. This week for the letter J, I waited the longest I ever have to come up with a J word. Some might say I cheated Sam out of pages for his book, but I decided that since he's the one who gave Julia her nickname the day she was born, I figured JoJo was just as much his word as his little sister's.


We were debating between the names Grace, Lydia, and Julia. We asked Sam to say each of the names and when he said JoJo - we just knew. His vocabulary changed from 5 words to 6 that day. Little did he know that wasn't the only thing that was about to change!

Within a year, he wasn't calling her JoJo anymore. Ironically, it's only adults who call her that now. Sam sticks to JUUU-lia. There will come a day when I'm guessing she won't want to be called by this special nickname, but for now we'll continue to think of her as our little JoJo.

What sliver in time do you want to remember this week? Mr. Linky will be up until next week. Feel free to add your link throughout the week.




e to

Straw Bale Gardening 101.1

On April 27 we set up our small straw bale garden.

I have no idea if it will work, but I'm using organic fertilizers in place of conventional fertilizers. The tricky part is that nobody can tell me for sure if I have made the correct adjustments. You see, if I did it the conventional way, I would use 1/2 cup of 32-0-0 per bale every other day for 6 days and then every day for 3 more days. The last day the recipe calls for 1 cup per bale of 10-10-10. Instead, I am using 4 different organic fertilizers in the hopes that between the 4 of them I can gain the high Nitrogen levels needed to condition the bales for growing vegetables.

Here's my recipe....

Every day for 14 days I the kids water the bales thoroughly.
Scratch that....SAM waters the bales - he's the perfect height and love having a job of his own.



Every day I sprinkle 4 cups of cow manure over the bales
Every other day 8 days I combine:
1 1/3 cups of 5-7-8 (Dr. Earth's)
1/2 cup 6-2-0 (Milogamite)
1/2 cup 10-10-10

I put all of these in a container, shake it up, and then sprinkle over the bales.

Days 9-14...1 cup of 10-10-10 per bale

What am I trying to accomplish with all this conditioning? Good question!

Adapted from my class handouts:

* process starts nitrogen "sink" reversal - hyper-decay
* begins by adding food (nitrogen)
* Bacterium and microorganisms
* Powered by nitrogen and moisture
* nitrogen and water, spark consumption of straw
* once started and going, the straw provides food
* decay process produces heat
* worms will thrive (worm castings are VERY good for growing)
* results are lovely nitrogen rich 'soil'

3 days down - 11 more to go!

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Firsts and Lasts

Firsts:
Julia wore training pants in public for the first time today. She stayed dry the rest of the day!

She also learned to jump with both feet at the same time. She'd been practicing for a long time so it was great to see her finally be able to do it.

There aren't any pictures, but it's still just as exciting - she can now climb up the last level of the play structure at our local McDonald's. No more climbing in there to help her. Wahoo!!!!



Lasts:

I think today is going to have to be the last day of ice cream cones as a reward for Julia p**ping in the p*tty. She's gone every day for almost a week and twice today. We're going to gain 10 pounds if we keep this up!

She painted her last picture at ECFE today.
This year went way too fast!

Oh how I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE the Minnesota Early Childhood Ed Program!!!


































What is it about using a self timer that make people look straight into the camera?!?! Would you believe this is the only picture I took!?!!?

You might be a redneck ParkCaretaker if...

...you spend your weekends doing this and your weeknights doing this.

Friday marks our 1 year anniversary of becoming the caretakers of this park. What a year it's been!

Play ball!

PapaBear in a phone call to me last week: Quick! Get your camera! Sam and I are playing our first game of catch!

I wiped the tears from my eyes and dashed upstairs to grab my camera. This is what I caught when I went out to the side yard...


















...the first of many many games of catch between father & son (& daughter too!) The image should be bigger if you double click on it - it's worth it to see Sam's little tongue sticking out while he concentrates :)

Too smart for his own good

After a rough couple of days of the kids whining and fighting, it was great to come home from a a photo shoot to find them in good spirits. We snuggled, we sang, we prayed, and we read stories. But what made everything all better was the conversation PapaBear shared about their dinner at the pizza joint -

PapaBear to Sam when he's half way through eating his dessert pizza -
Uh-oh. We forgot to have a veggie!
What kind would you like?

Sam - "Sorry. Too late."

"You're going to use what to make a garden?"

Straw Bale Gardening is not a new concept, but it sure is new to me. I took a three hour class through my local community education program last month and was sold on the idea. Not only do I get out of the physical labor of tilling, hoeing, and weeding, but I will create a more hospitable environment for growing food. I'm not going to go into much of the detail of how to make a garden - there are other websites out there for that, but I will document the steps I'll be taking in my particular garden...with pictures of course.

I purchased 10 bales of straw from a neighbor across the lake.

I doubt they are organic, but my fertilizers all are. The kind and patient manager of a nearby garden center was so helpful in helping me locate just the right combination to put the needed amount of nitrogen into my bales.

But I'm getting ahead of myself...
First we set up the garden:




Bales go on their sides, cut end up (so the hollow shafts of straw can absorb water and nutrients easier).

Staking the ends serves two purposes - 1) the bales are forced to stay together and 2) the stakes provide a way for me to create a trellis for peas and beans to grow up.

There was an extra bale of straw sitting around the park so I added it to my garden. The guy who taught our class uses a minimum of 50 bales in his garden. I had to agree to grow wave petunias out of the side of my bales (the bales will get brown and decompose - making them rather unattractive) in order to get approval for my 10 bales so 50 is out of the question, not to mention out of my price range. Fertilizing 11 bales organically costs $60. Sound high? Remember, I'm using organic products and even if I was using a traditional garden, I'd need to get fertilizer. I'll admit, paying money for manure is a bit strange after growing up on a horse farm.

I find comfort in the fact that I'm using a tested "recipe" for my fertilizers so God-willing, this will be a sound investment. Time will tell.

Speaking of time...It will take at least 2 weeks to condition the bales for planting. The recipe calls for fertilizing on certain days and watering every day.


Once that process is complete I should be able to feel the heat coming out of the bales - (up to 150 degrees!) and then it is time to transplant my veggie plants. I will do some direct seeding as well which will require an inch or two of top soil placed on top of the bales.

So there you have it, straw bale gardening 101 - or at least the first edition of it. I will explain how the plants are planted into the bales in a later post.







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Garage sale goodies reveled

Being the visual person that I am, I took pictures of all the great bargains we found at garage sales yesterday. Within the first three sales and 15 minutes into our excursion, I'd bought 30 items. Gap for 15 cents a piece...and lots of it...

PapaBear was rewarded for driving me around for4 hours with three seasons of The Simpsons for only 3 dollars. I bought myself a few movies and 4 glass jars for canning and that was it. The rest was for the kids. (I could care less though. I'm thrilled with the quality and cuteness of all the things we got for Sam and Julia)

L.L. Bean pink coat and snow pants: $12
unknown brand red and white winter coat: $2
Gap red winter coat: $5
Fleece lined wool hat: 50 cents
2 pair of mittens: $1
Cute fall jacket for Julia: 50 cents


Then there's the clothes that will last Julia at least 2 years:
14 long sleeve shirts
8 pairs of shorts
17 pants/capris
9 pj's
22 short sleeved shirts
2 pairs of crocs (50 cents a piece!)
3 dresses
2 sweatshirts


These are Sam's. He's set for the next 2 years as well. (I picked up a Boston t-shirt in honor of Stellan since Sam doesn't have any orange shirts that would fit him this year.)

6 pj's
13 T shirts
11 longsleeved shirts
6 pairs shorts
7 pants
1 robe
4 sweatshirts/sweaters

Sam could care less about his new wardrobe, but he sure was excited about his new ($1.50) airplane!

See?
There will be new sales tomorrow -about a 100 of them...in the rain. I'm leaving home at 7am with hopes of finding swim suits, more crocs, & size 6 pants for Sam.

What's your favorite/best value garage sale find?

Oh, and did I mention we got all of these clothes for just under $100?

It only takes 10 seconds to help homeless animals

Jen had this posted on her blog today. It was so easy to do and can help make a difference - especially if we ALL take 10 seconds to do it.

The Animal Rescue Site is having trouble getting enough people to click on it daily so they can meet their quota of getting free food donated every day to abused and neglected animals.
All you have to do is to go to their site and click on the purple box 'fund food for animals for free'. This doesn't cost you a thing. Their corporate sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate food to abandoned/neglected animals in exchange for advertising. Here's the web site!

http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/

Thank you!

Alphabitty Moments - the letter I

Welcome to Alphabitty Moments! It is Thursday already - a very busy day for me this week so I am publishing this post at midnight and getting a little rest before The Big Garage Sale. PapaBear and I will browse our way through 50 sales before the day is over and then hit a whole new batch of 50 on Saturday. But first, the letter I...

Our 4 1/2 year old son has spent countless hours using his imagination to come up with ways to play/create/crash/bash toys like the ones in these pictures. I will treasure the stories he's come up with - especially the role playing he creates for him and Daddy.


(To see the pages better simply right click on them and PC users can hold the ctrl key down while pressing the + sign until you can see the page well enough.)

Ice cream cones are starting to become a daily event around here with the progress that Julia has made with potty training. She doesn't get a treat for p**, but p**p means a trip to "Old MacDonald's". I don't mind - I'm the one who gets to lick the edges of the cone when it melts too much. :)

You should see her face light up when she earns her reward. It's priceless and something I won't soon forget. I also love that the little finger dimples are part of these pictures - they are fading and I've been trying to capture as many of them as a I can before that sad day arrives.

What moments do you want to remember?




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Wordless Wednesday - The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly

(Want to see more farm pictures? click here for last year and here for the year before that)

It was a good day

because Julia and I enjoyed a rare lunch date.
because Julia p**ped in the p*tty.
because I was able to go to the chiropractor again after a year.
because PapaBear was able to see a chiropractor for the first time.
because five minutes after saying I really should learn PowerPoint, I discovered that our local library does (free) one-on-one computer tutoring.
because it was 60 degrees and sunny out.
because we could decide at the last second to attend a baseball game being played across the street from the library.
because the camping season hasn't started yet so we could be out as family past 4pm.
because despite missing her nap & dinner, Julia was well behaved at the grocery store.
because we had lemon poppyseed muffins, bananas, & strawberries and called it dinner.
because we had good old fashioned fun at home - tag, twirling, races...



but most of all it was a good day because Stellan made it through his risky heart procedure that so many prayed through.

This is what we think of SVT....

Stellan is scheduled to have heart surgery in the morning to take care of the SVT* he's been hospitalized for and recently flew to Boston to treat. Please join us in prayer for this special little boy.

*Supraventricular Tachycardia

For the Love of Family (Portraits) part2

I didn't mean for this post to be such a tease. So without further adu, here are some of the photographs from a very special session I did the day before Easter. Enjoy!

You can't make this stuff up

First... Julia was upstairs by herself after dinner which for a little while isn't a big deal, but it got to be too long so PapaBear went up to check on her. He called me upstairs a moment later and I went up expecting the worst. I was completely wrong. Julia had taken it upon herself to remove her diaper and sit on the p*tty all by herself. Not only that, but she'd p**ped too! Considering she's only gone once before the fact that she'd go by herself is significant progress.

And completely unrelated but still 100% true....I caught a couple of teenagers in the backseat of a car tonight when I went to lock up the park. I'm sure it was WAY more embarrassing for them, but it wasn't my idea of fun to have to stand outside their car while they scampered into the front seat so I could tell them the park closed in five minutes.

Like I said, you can't make this stuff up!

Scenic Sunday - Landscape Arboretum

My tulips are just starting to come up but we are thankful that they are at least starting to make their appearance. These beautiful purple flowers (and many others) grow at the nearby landscape arboretum - and were the inspiration for a header I had for a little while last year....
These pictures remind me of the newness of our life here in the park - the promise of new and exciting things ahead. Our grass is turning greener by the minute and the new camping season is almost upon us. No matter how busy life gets, there is always time to stop and smell the roses tulips.

(Head over to Miti's blog to see other scenic sunday posts)

Random Picture Challenge #7

Brittany has a few options for this week's random picture challenge. You can click here to get the specifics on how to play along. I went with the 42nd picture in my April 2008 folder(s). For some reason I have a bunch of pictures from April 1st in a smattering of folders so I counted my way to the 42nd photo and came up with this:

It's one of many I took that day and wrote about here. The kids can still wear their puddle boots from last year, but I'll be on the lookout for new ones when PapaBear and I hit 100 garage sales this coming week.

On a side note...I've felt so out of touch with blogging as of late that I thought that rather than falling off the face of the earth I would repost some of my favorite posts and/or some of the ones that might fill in the gaps for those of you who are new to Bear Country... What I'll do is put the links in a tweet (see left side of my blog). I've finally started making my own blog book and realize how fun it is to walk down memory lane. Even if nobody else cares to read the posts, I know it will be good for me to look back at the work God has done in our lives.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Florence & Friendship Revisited

Eleven years ago today I was in Florence, Italy.



It was a memorable trip because it was where we celebrated my friend's 21st birthday. In a few weeks I'll be traveling to Wisconsin to celebrate that same friend's wedding.

Happy Birthday Sarah!!!

Alphabitty Moments - the letter H

Welcome to Alphabitty Moments! Again, I will point you to the button on the left hand side of my blog for the specifics on the carnival. Or better yet, visit the posts written by other bloggers who participate - they do a much better job of summing up my carnival than me. I was suppose to price and sort 3 baskets of clothes for a garage sale tonight, but I was too excited to do this week's pages. Work can wait right? (at least until I'm done posting) I may be super busy these days, but nothing compared to last year around this time. This year we get to enjoy the nice weather and not pack/sell/sort/clean/move/paint/refinish/organize/clean/unpack.

I spent the day working from DunnBrother's Coffee house and then wrapped up my work day at a photo shoot. When I got home we spent the next three hours playing/fishing/eating/hiking. These are the days I want to remember - the days of spending so much time playing "pretend meat dinosaur in the hallway with Daddy" that three pairs of pajamas get worn out in one winter.

Sam's dinosaur obsession is still going strong if you hadn't noticed. It's gotten to the point where I had to make him change into these pajamas so he wouldn't wreck any more pants or pajamas. These started with a small hole left over from when my cousin, Porter, wore them 3 years ago. I'm afraid these are not going to make it into Julia's pajama drawer next winter...




Julia's page wasn't an obvious choice for me at first, but now that the work of tracking down old pictures of her in bows is done, it's neat to see the transformation of her curls. (click on the images to see the dates the pictures are from) Her hair has changed SO much in one year! I'm glad I've been documenting the transformation. Maybe by next year it will have reached her shoulders! Long or short, curly or straight - someday there won't be a row of bows hanging from a ribbon in my bathroom, so we're going to enjoy them while they last....

You are more than welcome to add your link to the Mr. Linky even if you aren't on the letter H. It'll be up until next week so be sure to stop back and see the new participants throughout the week. Thank you to all of you for visiting and commenting on other people's posts. It always brings a smile to my face to see a familiar name in the comment on a blog I haven't read before. You guys are the BEST!

Wordless Wednesday - a grass fire

No, I don't usually have my camera with in the car. Yes, I took this while I was driving. No, my kids weren't in the car with me.

This Morning

* I only had 2 minutes to hustle downstairs and outside to unlock the gate before 7am.

* Julia had a huge blow out

* I did my hair and makeup for the 4th time this month

* I was on time for both schools

* We had a FANTASTIC discussion during parent education about our expectations as parents. After 4 years of Early Childhood Education, I have a large arsenal of tools and techniques for parenting, but what I didn't get until today is that I don't have to fix everything RIGHT AWAY in the heat of the moment. Lately we've been struggling with whining and the kids wanting more of everything and I was getting very frustrated.

Julia's emotions are off the charts and I feel like Sam is old enough to understand that he should be grateful for the two pieces of candy instead of whining about wanting more. Our lesson today at school was to show empathy when our kids are upset and leave it at that. It can still be a learning opportunity even if things aren't tied up with a neat bow at the end. Teaching the kids to get a handle on their emotions and taking the time to empathize can (over time) do wonders. I'm looking forward to trying this out this week.

What else did we do this morning?

* I ran into my SIL and had an impromptu lunch date at Target

* Julia refused to eat anything

* Instead she asked to go home and see Sammy. I had shopping to do so she asked to get in a cart instead of walking.

* She laid down in the big part of the cart while Sharon and I ate lunch.

* She napped for 45 minutes - in the grocery cart.

* We stopped at the garden center to scope out the organic fertilizers and seeds for our straw bale garden.

* We played baseball in the yard (It's 65 and sunny out FINALLY)

* PapaBear ran and got the hardware to hang a second hammock in our yard.

* We hauled 3 heaping laundry baskets of outgrown clothes downstairs. (My friend is going to sell them at a garage sale for me next week in exchange for a photoshoot. Now I won't have to list 75 pieces of clothing and 18 pairs of shoes on Craigslist! Wahoo!!!)


And that was just our morning. Can't wait to see what the afternoon brings!

"Jesus Conquered the Grave"

I teared up as I explained to Sam why we were leaving church yesterday to go finish our sunrise service in the cemetery. When I look at the pictures I took as the sun came up over the horizon I can't help but sing the lyrics by Marty Sampson.

Everyone needs compassion Love thats never failing Let mercy fall on me Anyone needs forgiveness The kindness of a Saviour The hope of nations Saviour He can move the mountains My God is mighty to save He is mighty to save Forever author of salvation He rose and conquered the grave Jesus conquered the grave… So take me as you find me All my fears and failures Fill my life again I give my life to follow Everything I believe in Now I Surrender I Surrender… Saviour He can move the mountains My God is mighty to save He is mighty to save Forever author of salvation He rose and conquered the grave Jesus conquered the grave… Shine your light and Let the whole world see Were singing for the glory Of the risen King Jesus



Shine your light and Let the whole world see We’re singing for the glory Of the risen King Saviour He can move the mountains My God is mighty to save He is mighty to save Forever author of salvation He rose and conquered the grave Jesus
conquered the grave…

A swingin' good time

It was SO fun to photography my in-laws with the kids yesterday! I had to share this final shot I got of the guys before I go take my nap.

For the love of Family (portraits)

Can I do that? Can I use the title of my blog as a post title? Does it tell you anything about how uncreative I'm feeling right this moment? If you've been reading my tweets that have been coming in spurts over the past few days you already know that I haven't been getting much sleep lately. Both of my businesses are keeping me busy until the wee hours of the morning. I have a long list of posts to catch up on one of these days and an even longer list of blogs to read.

First things first. PapaBear's parents and sister are coming over for a photo shoot with their grandkids. Yep, you read that right. We gave them invitations the other night when we decorated Easter eggs to come over specifically so I can take portraits of them with the kids. We have snapshots galore, but I want the type of portraits I do for clients. The kind we can hang on the wall.

I guess that means I better go pick out some clothes for the kids before they get here.

Have a blessed Easter everyone!

Alphabitty Moments - the letter G

Welcome to Alphabitty Moments! If you are new to this carnival please click on the Alphabitty Moments button in the upper left hand side of my blog. I am typing this at 12:30 in the morning and just don't have the oompf to type out all the instructions this week. I've been working like a mad woman to get 4 photo books to the printer by Friday. Taking a break to make these pages was a fun distraction. The story behind these goggle pictures can be found here.
(left page)

(right page)

For the past few months Julia has been sleeping with her puppy as a pillow. I found her curled up like this one night and did my best to get some pictures of her sleeping. They are a bit blurry, but you get the point.

I really wanted to use Grandma and Grandpa as our G words this week, but I didn't plan ahead well enough. I did schedule a photo session with Grandma, Grandpa, and Sharon for this Saturday so our family can have some of the same type of portraits I do for my clients. Next time through the alphabet I can use those for the letter G....



The winner of last weeks drawing for these notecards is Secret Mom Thoughts. Congrats! If you'd be so kind as to email me your address I will get the cards off to you soon. (4theloveoffamily(at)gmail.com)

I will be making my rounds to visit the links from Mr. Linky just as soon as I get a few hours of sleep, get Sam to and from school, and take the kids to see their Great Grandma...
See you next week for the letter H. I already know what I'm doing for Sam's pages, but Julia's is still a toss up.

Wordless Wednesday - These shoes were made for walking

The miles we walked, the different paths we've taken...looking at these shoes brings back so many memories...

(If I could do it over again, I would have stuck an adult shoe in the picture so I could remember how small their shoes were.) Julia wore a 6 last summer. Sam wore an 8 1/2.