Scribble and Scrabble


by Heather
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Danielle

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This weekend my stepsister sister Danielle held a voice recital to help raise money for her college chorus’ trip to Europe. She has an amazing voice and is SO talented, I only wish I’d brought the video camera instead of just the regular camera. I had a wonderful time though, and I hope she received a lot of donations! You can view the rest of the pics here.


by Heather
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5 months

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He lays like that naked on the changing table too ;-)



Goodness Ben, you’re 5 months old already! You really, really want to crawl and get very frustrated that your arms and legs are flailing but you aren’t getting anywhere. You can move yourself in a circle, but haven’t gone forward yet. You’ve almost got the hang of sitting, but still kind of slowly fall forward if not supported.



You’re really grabbing at things now…my face, hair, papers I’m holding…all of it trying to go in your mouth. We haven’t started solids yet but you’re definitely interested. You watch us very carefully when we’re eating and you’ve started making chomping motions with your mouth. I did puree some avocados and sweet potatoes so those are waiting in the freezer for you. Avocado ice cubes grossed daddy out, but it doesn’t take much to do that ;-)



You’re still a pretty mellow guy, sleeping and eating great. You have had a cold the past few days and definitely don’t like the snot sucker. Even though you’ve been sick your attitude hasn’t changed at all and you’re still smiley and yourself. I love spending days with you, I’m certainly wiped out by the time you go to bed, but I’m thankful I get to be your mommy. [insert “awe” here]


by Heather
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5am

Normally I sleep in until Ben wakes up (around 7:30). Call me lazy if you will, but every time I tried to get up early to get work done I would accidentally wake him up. Today I tried something a little different, I got up super early (5am) and went to one of the morning exercise classes at the Y. Ben’s had a runny nose/possible cold for the past few days so I couldn’t go to the Y at my regular time and drop him off at Child Watch. Well I could, but, I didn’t want to be the person whose child infects the masses.

Well, the early morning step class worked out great today. Except for the fact that I don’t have any coordination that early in the morning (or ever). There may or may not have been a wipe out. I did manage to gracefully catch myself on the window sill though ;-)

So I may just try the whole early morning routine from now on. I got back around 6:30, grabbed a shower and was ready for the day before Ben even got up! I like being able to use his two nap times to get work done instead of wasting one by showering and getting ready for the day. Scheduling with a baby is a delicate balance ya know.


by Heather
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I wish I were a programmer

Never thought I’d say those words!

So here’s the thing, I’m planning our garden for this summer. Like last year I’m doing the Square Foot Gardening system. Andy built us a raised garden bed and it’s split into 28, 1sq ft sections. Each sq ft will get a certain number of seeds depending on what you’re planting. For example, 1 pepper seed would go in a square while you plant several carrot seeds in another square. The book Square Foot Gardening by Mel Batholomew has an exhaustive list of vegetables, how many seeds per square, when to plant indoors, transplant to the garden and when to harvest.

You can stagger plantings so you don’t have a whole bunch of the same vegetable at once. Certain vegetables you can only plant and harvest once in a season, but when they’re done a square frees up and you can plant another crop. This is kind of where it gets complicated and something I didn’t bother with last year (our first year). Knowing when one thing ends and when you can begin another…or when to start your staggered crops to get the most out of the squares in your garden.

I tried figuring it all out in excel and on paper but my head just started to hurt at the possibilities. Depending on what vegetables you want to use, there are so many options. This Garden Planning Software seems to be exactly what I’m looking for…but after a trial you have to pay $25 a year for a subscription. Not happening! I can’t seem to find a free or open source version similar to it though. I asked Andy to make me one and he said absolutely not ;-) Yeah, it doesn’t really sound like fun to me either!