Seeds, Seeds and More Seeds

I'm obsessed with gardening at least for now.  Probably about June when I'm 9 months pregnant, I'll deciding that weeding and watering aren't so interesting.  For right now though, I'm officially obsessed.  I've decided to try something new: Organic and GMO-free.  I do not usually buy organic at the store simply because it is so expensive and I'm not super-anti-freak-out-mom who hates GMOs.  With that said, why not spend $.50 or less extra on a seed packet and get the organic and GMO free kind?  It seems safer and better with little effort and cost especially since I'm only buying a few packets.  I do plan on using some of the varieties of seed that I still have leftover from previous years which are not organic.
I've been poring over the Baker Seed Heirloom Seeds Company's website.  The real question is not should I buy cucumbers or zucchini, but what type of cucumbers?  Should I play it safe and get the same old, normal kind that looks like what you buy from the store?  I have an idea of how they should taste and what I can use them for.  Or should I branch out and buy something new, exciting, never been tasted, never been tried variety?

Here are some cool ones that I've found so far:

How about a dragon's egg cucumber?  If I had boys, I would totally buy this!

Or why not the Hmong red cucumber which is from Asia and primarily enjoyed by the Hmong tribe?

And finally, I present to you the Thai Petch Tsai cucumber which seeds were collected by the company directly from Thailand.  

And these are only the cucumbers.  You should try checking out the melons, tomatoes, peppers, etc.  Just be careful because you might end up catching the gardening bug.  

My Babies

Baby #1 - 17 months old

• Last night she pulled up to standing for her first time ever.  Ya, she's only about a 9 months behind other children.  We love her anyway. 
• She is learning so many new words and concepts.  She is just starting to put words together such as "Bye, bye, Dada."  Aaron and I think that we hear saying things like "Here you go" and "Where's Dada?" but we aren't 100% sure that she is actually saying these things.  Last night she learned the word for "apple" and "broccoli" all in the same meal.  We were proud to say the least. 
• She still isn't walking on her own but we insist that she walk all over our house all day long.  She seems to be improving and gaining confidence.  
• She is not a huge fan of chicken or beef but she absolutely loves pork and ham.  She would be willing to eat an entire meal consisting of only ham.  
• She was weaned in the past week and a half!  I won't publish all the gory details on the internet but basically she just became less and less interested until I just decided that it wasn't worth feeding her one meal a day if she was only going to eat for 1 minute.  

Baby #2 - 17 weeks 

• I finally had my first prenatal appointment and ultrasound.  We wanted to wait until after the New Year because any appointments in 2013 we had to pay out of pocket whereas all of 2014 appointments merely go to our deductible which we know we are going to reach. 
• Everything looks healthy and I feel quite fine.  My belly literally just popped out in the past day or so.  
• I'm sure I felt the baby move at 15 1/2 weeks but then right at 16 weeks I felt the baby kick me.  I haven't hardly felt anything since.  
• I was super blessed to be able to get my midwife again.  She recently started a teaching position and after accepting me and one other client, she decided that she no longer has time for her private practice.  God was so good to provide this! 
• My child supposedly weighs 5 oz.  I guess this explains my weight gain.  ; )  

I Would Never...

How many times in your life have you started a sentence with "I would never..." and then had to later eat your words?  It can apply to so many areas of your life. How you parent, what you think about others, lifestyle choices, etc. I think that the place I notice it the most is with my crunchy mama ways.  I find myself becoming more and more crunchy every day.  I think that part of the "problem" is that I have a lot of free time on my hands and a good internet connection so I'm always seeing good ideas online or feeling inspired by either the blogs I read or pinterest.  Here are just a few "I would nevers" that I definitely do. 

• I would never cloth diaper.  I distinctly remember telling my husband while I pregnant with Kira that while I was sure that cloth diapers were better for the environment, cheaper, and safer for babies, I did not want to use.  They were nasty.  I told my husband this in private and yet it seemed like the whole world heard me.  Literally the next day, a friend started telling me how she wanted to cloth diaper her child and how wonderful and easy it was, yadda, yadda, yadda.  And what do you know?  It didn't stop there.  Pretty soon the world ganged up on us and repeated told us of the many benefits of cloth diapering.  A couple of weeks later, I told my husband, "Well, I guess we're cloth diapering."  Overall, cloth diapering has been a good experience.  It has certainly saved us tons of money. Some weeks I get really tired of it but we keep plowing through.  
• I would never make homemade laundry detergent.  I remember hearing that the Duggers made their own laundry detergent and I thought it was weird and ridiculous...and then it became cool on pinterest/the entire internet.  Now I make my own detergent.  It takes me about 10 minutes every 2ish months and costs probably less than $1 a batch.  Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. 
• I would never make my own deodorant.  Seriously, that is nasty and weird.  I made my first batch about 2 months ago.  Sometimes I really like it and sometimes I really don't.  I'm not sure if I'll keep making it or not.  I do like not having to be concerned about getting cancer though.  
• There are lots of other things that I surprise myself by doing such as obsessively reading urban homesteading books, trying to convince my husband to make rain barrels, canning food, but I don't know that they were "I would nevers."  

What "I would nevers" have you been up to?    

Christmas Present Roundup

As is my custom, I made a few Christmas presents this year.  I didn't take a picture of all of them but here are a few.

This is a super easy arm-knit infinity scarf I made for my friend Kelsey.  I don't actually know how to knit but this scarf came together in about 30 minutes and it is super cute to boot.  I actually got a scarf like this in purple for Christmas and I love it!

I made my dad a case for his Kindle.  Lucky for me, our Kindles are exactly the same size so it was easy to make sure it would fit.   

This is the outside of the Kindle case. 

 

This is a creeper shirt I made for my brother Ethan.  I can't get the picture to rotate for some reason so you'll just have to admire it from this angle.  Apparently, a creeper is a character from a video game called Mine Craft.  I have never actually played it but my sister Sara suggested that Ethan would like it.  

As for my gifts?  Well, I have yet to actually open them all.  I did decide that I wanted an immersion blender for Christmas all of two days or so before the actual holiday.  As you can guess, I didn't get it...but I did get some money.  I'll give you three guess what I hope to spend it on.  

Vacation!

We just got back from a week long vacation in Florida.  My grandparents own a condo way down south.  Fortunately for us, they were having record highs which meant it was in the upper 70's-80's all week long.  The unfortunate part for us is that it takes 14 hours plus however long you stop.  After making it down there, we immediately decided to make the drive back in 2 days instead of trying to make it again in 1.

Kira took to the water like a fish and she kept laughing and saying hi to everybody the whole time she was in the pool.  She also liked putting her toes in the sand.  We spent everyday at the pool.  Aaron and Kira spent a lot of time swimming while I spent more time reading in the sun.  

We built this giant sand castle which was mainly masterminded by Aaron.  All I really did was decorate the thing.  Somebody had to help them.  

We went on a date.  I really wanted to have Greek food but we couldn't find a good Greek restaurant so we went to a restaurant that served Thai, Peruvian, and Japanese food.  We ordered a fresh spring roll as our appetizer. 

I ended up ordering ceviche which is a Peruvian dish just so I could try something new.  It came with these giant pieces of corn.  Besides the size of it, the corn wasn't anything spectacular and the main dish had so many red onions that I felt sick afterwards.   Aaron ordered Thai food and I wanted to eat his whole bowl.  

Right before we left, Aaron took Ethan and Zach to the Delorean dealership.  Today is our first whole day back and the high was only 27.  Eek.  We are freezing to say the least.    

Hard Times

I think Kira has been getting in her incisors in, possibly all four of them at the same time.  She had a fever starting in the afternoon on Tuesday, then another fever on Wednesday night and has been grumpy almost non-stop.  The only thing I can figure out is that her teeth are hurting her.

It is so hard to deal with grumpiness that lasts almost all day long.  She doesn't want any of her favorite foods, books or toys except her beloved doggie and her fingers to suck on.  We have been doing lots and lots of snuggling and that doesn't even seem to help all the time.

Yesterday morning, we found out that a friend's youngest son was critically hurt in a car accident when driving home from college for the Christmas holiday.  The the doctors told them to come as soon as possible.  In the past 36 hours or so, I've been checking my email and on facebook for updates.  The latest update was that the doctors just administered a last ditch medication in an attempt to help him breathe.

I want to be frustrated at my child for the constant fussing.  I want to mad at my husband who accidentally took the car seat to work which means that I had to stay home all day with miss fussy britches instead of getting to make Christmas cookies.  I want to be mad at God for allowing such inconveniences to happen...But then I see the updates from this young man's family and how they are responding to this hard providence with peace.

Teething will only last for a season (hopefully, only a few days or even hours), my husband will bring home the car seat in mere minutes, and mom my just brought me Christmas cookies.  What do I really have to complain about?  Seriously.

Life in December (and November)

I haven't updated my blog in forever primarily because I didn't know what to write about.  Here is going to be a quick recap of some different things that have been going on in the past month or so.

• Thanksgiving:  We actually got to have to Thanksgiving dinners.  We had Thanksgiving lunch with Aaron's extended family and then we had Thanksgiving dinner with my family and a lot of friends from church.  I think all had a good time.  Kira was extremely tired out but did mostly fine.  We also were blessed to get to attend the Thanksgiving service at church.  I love that our church takes time to worship and give praise to God before we even begin stuffing our faces. 

• Thanksgiving 2.0:  The day after Thanksgiving, I purchased a turkey for $1/lb.   I decided that this meant that we needed to have Thanksgiving 2.0 dinner.  I cooked my first turkey which was ok but turned out a little on the tough side, plus we had fresh pineapple, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, stuffing, homemade gravy, and corn spoon bread.  Aaron approved so much that he had to take this picture. 
  
• We had some exciting weather here.  First, it iced and then it snowed.  And then it continued to snow and ice for several days.  We still have a lot of the snow and it doesn't look like it will clear up this week as it is supposed to continue being cold with more snow/wintry mix expected later this week. 
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• This week we had our choir concert.  Aaron absolutely has loved being in choir this semester which thrills me.  I love seeing people enjoy the things that I enjoy.  
• Coming up: We are having our family Christmas this Sunday which means we are working like little elves to get everything made and wrapped.  We have some travel plans which I will share when we get back.  I am also dying to watch The Sound of Music live!  I'm trying to wait until tomorrow night so I can convince Aaron to watch it with  me while we wrap presents and eat homemade pizza.