If the shoe fits...

I have not taken very many good pictures since we got the new camera. Hopefully, I'll have time to read the manual and figure the darn thing out sometime soon. Now, being high-strung and melodramatic isn't really a character trait we want to encourage in our little girl, but some things just can't be helped. This is the kid that screams bloody murder for the slightest owie after all. And God forbid she gets a splinter, getting it out is more painful for my eardrums than for Kaia's finger.

When I saw this fabric, I *knew* she had to have a dress out of it. So, here it is -- my little Drama Queen's new dress. I would have fussy-cut the front to have the words in the middle, but I had barely a yard this fabric I swiped from Wendy. The neck and sleeves are black hemp jersey, and I went for the lazy, ahem, trendy, deconstructed serged edges instead of a hem.

Aw maaaaan

I just saw a roadkill grey rat snake in the entrance to my neighborhood this morning. It was two big to be the one I posted about earlier, but I'm still bummed. Rat snakes are so cool & useful, that I'm sad that one got creamed. Hopefully, the little guy we let go in the backyard will stay out of harm's way and gift us with many offspring.

Two more boy pics

Doug is at a particularly yummy age. I could just eat him up with kisses. Two years old is just so fun! Wes and I still aren't very happy with the quality of the pictures we get with our new camera, but it probably has a lot to do with our learning curve. I thought these two pictures turned out tolerably well though. Dougie gets called "her" and "she" a lot by strangers in public, but we just love his curls. We discuss cutting his hair on a daily basis, but somehow we continue to procrastinate. Maybe when he turns three.

It seems like Doug is talking so much sooner than the older two kids, I think he is trying to keep up with Kaia and Rowan. He can tell us just about anything he wants, from "more juice please" to "I hidin'. I hidin' [from] you," and he enjoys singing lots of songs.
He lives to go outside, and will sneak out any chance he gets. He's the reason we now have alarms or chimes on all of the doors. Douglas can't open them yet, but I need to know if a big sibling has accidentally let him escape.


Dougie amazes us with how much food he eats. There are times when he eats more than his two siblings combined at one meal. We're not sure where he puts it, I fully expect him to sprout up to six feet tall in the blink of an eye one day. His current hobby is taking the green "balls" off of my tomato plants and trying to eat them. Hopefully, he will miss some and we'll enjoy some ripe tomatoes soon.

Happy Kid

Is this a happy boy or what? I finally took the Lightening McQueen fabric he's been dragging around for months and turned it into a new camp shirt. From the Ottobre best shirts supplemental pattern, size 110. Me boyo is getting BIG.

Hello Friend

My mother-in-law called us within 5 minutes of leaving our house the other day. Wes answered the phone to hear "There's a SNAKE on my car. I'm turning around and coming back because I can't drive home like this." She's usually pretty unflappable and calm, but snakes squick her out a bit. She wasn't in a panic, but it certainly the snake was an unacceptable hood ornament for her drive home. Wes told her he'd be right out, obviously forgetting that I'm the official critter getter in the family (well, he can take care of the really gross stuff, like cockroaches and mice), so I had to race him out the door to rescue mom as she pulled back in the driveway.

When we got out there, we found a cute little Grey Rat Snake (or White Oak Snake, depending where you're from), just slithering down the side of the car. I gently scooped him up and ran off inside to show him off to the kids. He didn't try to bite me, if you catch rat snakes very gently and carefully, they generally don't freak out and bite. He did musk a little to show his displeasure with being handled. The kids thought he was awesome. I got one picture, it isn't great, but have you ever tried to wield a camera while keeping a snake under control while a 6yo, 4yo and 2yo are bouncing around and trying to touch the snake?

We admired him for a little while, then released him in the back yard, well away from where mom parks. I let him crawl up the side of the big oak tree next to our compost pile. Too bad I didn't get a picture of that, it's amazing to see a rat snake go almost straight up a tree. If you were to look at their bodies in cross-section, you'd see that they are sort of loaf-shaped, like a slice of bread. This shape gives them some nice corners on their bellies to wedge into and grip any available crack for climbing. Pretty nifty trick for a critter with no legs, isn't it? Hopefully, he'll stick around and we will see him once in a while. He's a welcome friend.

I'm FINALLY Getting Started

The first step is always the hardest, right? I have so, soooo many ideas rolling around in my head but I never seem to get started with any of them. Well, that's gonna change. I am working hard at following my projects through to completion as a way to help me reach my goals. I'll probably be using this blog a lot as a way to keep track of everything and bounce new ideas around. And there's a good chance I'll use this to brag on my kids some too. I plan on making my little corner of the web nice and comfy.

A few months ago, Joy posted about the benefits of gratitude in our daily lives, and I've been thinking about ever since. In addition to this being my inaugural blog post, this is Gratitude Post #1. I'm grateful to live in an area of the country where something is always blooming. Don't the amaryllis in my garden look happy this year? It's wonderful to never have to look far to find a little beauty to enjoy.