Seven months

Carolyn is seven months old today.  Here are seven facts about my sweet girl.

1.  She's eating cereal and veggies now, and crawling like a champ. 

2.  Her favorite hobbies are grabbing noses and grabbing the fan pull. 

3.  Her favorite song is 'Jesus loves the little Carolyns.' 

4.  She is borderline obsessed with electrical cords. 

I think she started crawling specifically so she could get closer my laptop cord whenever she wants to. 

5.  She also likes to scream and make the chickens jump.

6.  She doesn't like the church nursery.

7.  She loves tags.

Monday update

244.0  Minus 1.4 from last week, 20.4 in all.  I'm making progress, slowly but surely.  I'm still struggling with the eating part, but doing okay.  My main success this week has been walking 5 days.

Hint hint...

Happy Earth Day!

In honor of Earth Day, I told my second graders that the paper towel dispenser was closed.  Then we did a multiplication problem to figure out how many paper towels our school throws away every year, assuming that every student uses one a day for 178 school days.  The grand total: 98,078.  You know how the audience on Rachael Ray 30-minute meals applaud when RR adds cheese?  That's how seven year olds react to large numbers.  It's awesome.
My reward for my contribution to teaching the younger generation about conservation?  Hugs.  From kids with damp shirts.  Cause that's how they dry their hands now.

here she comes!

Monday update

245.4.  PLUS one.  Boo!
I'm still sticking to my theory that eating like a normal person will pay off down the road.  It's just not working yet. 
No pic today because my Blackberry won't send pictures anymore.  For a while I haven't been able to receive pics, and now it won't send them either.  Anyone know how to fix that? 

Going country. For real.

Swiss chard, green beans, and tomatoes are sprouting.  Turns out seeds really do work.

And, the chicks are here!

Nine of them.

I'm like the octomom of poultry.  Plus 1.

Why so many?

According to African proverb, according to Mike,

you're really not supposed to count your chickens

for two weeks after they've hatched.

Christian Tacos

On my way home from work recently, I saw an unusual taco truck.  This particular roadside mobile texmex eatery has perhaps the most fabulous name ever.

For me, it makes two things come to mind.
1)  A taco that follows Jesus.*
B)  A news anchor with slicked back hair, who signs off after each story with, "For Fox 7 news, I'm Christian Tacos."

*In the book of Luke it says that if people don't praise God, then the rocks will do it.  I suspect tacos would fall into this category, if and when tacos become Christians.

Suspicious

Monday update

No change this week.  I've had a good week, though.  My goal was to walk 4 times, and I think I went 5 times.  Still working on eating like a normal person.  It's not getting easier yet. 

gardening chickens going to a birthday party

Of course I meant gardening, chickens, going to a birthday party. That's a little trick I use with my second graders. Leaving out punctuation in order to cause mass confusion, I mean. Then, with gusto and sarcasm, I exclaim:  "WHAT?!?  Punctuation is vital to clear written communication?!?" Ahh, cheap thrills.

Moving on. 

We planted a garden this weekend.   We should be silly with veggies within 31 days. 

*not pictured: Swiss chard, green beans, tomatoes

We might be silly with eggs, too.  Remember that Mike and I want chickens? We just might score some AND a cage from a really cool fam that is moving out of state soon.  Isn't it great when you mention you want something and all of a sudden somebody knows somebody who wants to get rid of said thing?

As I'm writing this, I'm noticing that we're turning into country folk. 

On a more city-fied note, C and I went to a brithday party this weekend and had a lot of fun.  Happy birthday Dottie and Iris!

Guess what we did...

Bluebonnet pictures, of course!  For all of you non-Texans, that's a tradition here.  Many people are absolute nuts about getting good bluebonnet shots of their kids every year.  How nuts you ask?  It's not uncommon (in fact, it's very common) to see people on tiny strips of densely-bluebonneted frontage road on I-35, posing their kiddos for pics, with traffic flying by at 80 miles per hour.
Don't worry.  We didn't do that.  My beautiful sister and I took our little lovelies to a safe bluebonnet spot.

*On a side note, Texas urban legend says that picking bluebonnets is illegal, and violators are arrested.  Lucky for Miley this is not true.  Or she'd be in the clink for life.

** On a side side note, you can check out a post about C right here.  Her web presence is spreading. :)

Monday update

Minus 2.6 this week.  Twenty pounds in all!

So far my 'eat like a normal person' theory is going okay.  It's harder than it sounds.  This week, I've been focusing on only eating when I'm truly hungry and also cooking more.  I tried out several new recipes, which I was pretty darn proud of.  (None of them were especially good, however, or I would have shared them with my dear readers.)

For the coming week I'm going to keep working on the same things and also try to get exercise at least three or four days.

Good Friday, good Saturday

Yesterday was Good Friday because it's the day Jesus was crucified.  (I'm not sure why 'good' is the adjective chosen for that day.  But if having a Savior isn't GOOD, I don't know what is.)  It was a good Friday for me because I had the day off.  While Mike gave Carolyn a hand in the kitchen,

I explored my domestic side by making baby food.  It can be quite a process, unless of course you have a Beaba Babycook that does it all for you.  And I do.  Thanks Mom!

Then this morning we went around town visiting chicken coops.Why?  Because we're funky.  (Thanks for the tip, Toddler!)

*Not only are we funky, we're also non-comittal when it comes to strollers.  And by 'we' I mean 'me'.   Is picking which stroller to take a HUGE decision for anyone else?  I definitely spend more time doing mental gymnastics regarding the stroller than I do chosing where to go, when to go, what to wear, etc... 

We went to five of the coops on the tour, had a great time, and spent no money.  Now we want chickens.  Mike grew up raising animals.  I mainly want to decorate a funky chicken coop and get to name chickens.  So it's a win win win.