All Good Gifts

We plow the fields and scatter the good seed on the land
But it is fed and watered by God's almighty hand

He sends us snow in winter, the warmth to swell the grain

The breezes and the sunshine, and soft refreshing rain
All good gifts around us
Are sent from Heaven above
Then thank the Lord, thank the Lord for all his loveWe thank thee then, O Father, for all things bright and good,
The seedtime and the harvest, our life our health our food,
No gifts have we to offer for all thy love imparts
But that which thou desirest, our humble thankful hearts!

Well, well, well

I am so excited about our newest garden addition... a WELL!!!! We actually didn't even have to go to much trouble to get it up and running. The well was already there and just needed a new pump. So, this past weekend, my amazing hubby installed a new pump and we have clean, clear, FREE well water!!! I'm thrilled b/c it'll make watering the garden and flowers around our house, filling Charlie's water bowl, and filling swimming pools for a certain little boy FREE. HoOrAy!!!!!!!

As promised on FB, I'll also fill you in on my wonderful birthday (Thursday the 14th). The day started with our last "Together!" meeting for the year. (For those who don't know, "Together!" is a Catholic Women's Group that meets twice a month to study papal documents.) This was the end of our third year together. I feel so blessed to call the other 4 women in the group my friends. We also got our books for next year, when we'll be studying "Casti Connubii" (On Christian Marriage) & "Humanae Vitae" (On Human Life.) Here is a beautiful prayer that we pray at each meeting:

"O Lord Jesus, we thank you for the gift of motherhood with which our marriages have been so graciously blessed. Be with each of us now as we pray the Gospel and study the teachings of the Church to strengthen our faith, build our hope, and increase our love. Through your Spirit, may we bring to completion the work you have started in us. Amen"

After "Together!", my wonderful momma took Ira and I out to lunch. We went to Pizza Hut for their lunch buffet. Ira furthered Andy's theory that he has a tapeworm (not really). He ate a salad, cottage cheese, 2 packs of crackers, a piece of pizza, and a piece of dessert pizza. When I was washing his hands in the bathroom while Mom was paying, I asked him if he got enough to eat. Do you know what he answered? No mom, I'm still hungry! So on the way into Wichita he ate another package of crackers!!

After lunch, we went to Exploration Place because you could get in free with a Riverfest Button. We had lots of fun there. It was pretty busy, which was understandable, but I was a little frustrated because in addition to all of the Riverfest people there, there were 4 schoolbus loads of kids. Now seriously, couldn't they have picked any other day than a day that Exploration Place knew they'd be crazy busy anyway? Plus, the kids (3rd-5th grade I'd guess) were very poorly supervised (read: they spent the entire time in the Castle Area that is meant for kids aged 3-6 running around and knocking the little kids (who actually belonged there) over!) Ugh! We had plenty of fun in the educational areas though - they were practically empty - go figure! Seriously though, I make it sound worse than it was, we had a really good time and were thrilled to get to enjoy EP for free.

After EP, we went back to Mom and Dad's so that Ira could have some quiet time. On the way over there, Andy called to say that his company had free tickets to the Wingnuts baseball game and wanted to know if we wanted to go to the game. Why not?! Luckily, Ira fell asleep on the way over to my folks' and slept for a good 45min-1hr. After his nap, we went to dinner at Taco Bell (they've got the BEST value menu! we all ate dinner for $4.94!) then onto the Wingnuts Game. Before the game started, we went over to the Cessna Kids' Corner at Riverfest so that Ira could do some of the inflatables. He did a great job standing in line and waiting his turn and had a BLAST running and jumping inside. After 4 turns, we walked back to the game and just as we got sat down (in our awesome 5th row, right behind home plate seats) the cheerleaders were throwing t-shirts and I CAUGHT ONE!!!! I've never had such luck in my life!! We left the game early to get Ira home to bed and boy was he tired!!

As you can tell, it was a wonderful, wonderful birthday.

We spent a lot of the weekend working in the garden. Everything is planted now, and we got newspaper and hay put down to try to keep the weeds out. We also picked a whole bowlful of salad on Friday night. It made for a yummy yummy dinner (that I unfortunately didn't get pictures of! grr....)

So far this week is looking good! God Bless!

Of seeds, dunes, and mother's day...

The last several days have been pretty busy. I've had a cold that seems to FINALLY be breaking up. It's the strangest thing - it really bugs me in the morning and at night - but during the day I feel relatively fine. On Thursday, Ira and I got our seedlings in the ground finally. (I was SO sick of having them outside in their little tiny cups. They'd get flooded by the rain, tipped over by the wind, etc. etc. It was driving me nuts and it's really a wonder that they're still alive!!)

First, I rototilled the garden one last time:

Then I planted okra seeds, 9 tomato plants, 9 roma tomato plants, 5 green pepper plants, and 6 jalapeno plants. I also put in two hills of cucumbers and 3 hills of cantaloupe. I still need to plant: green bean seeds (need to soak - I'm going to go do that right now actually!), 3 hills of watermelon, 3 hills of zuchinni, and a row of sweet corn. The only thing we're having problems with right now is the stinkin sugar snap peas. We planted them once and nothing came up. I planted them a second time and as of yesterday only 2 of probably 18 seeds had come up. Any ideas?

Here's the plot with all the first group of stuff planted
(and a few sand toys for good measure):

We're trying our hands at lettuce/spinach for the first time. This is a spicy lettuce mix (Mesculun I think)

Here is the spinach. In the background you can see our delightful thrill: volunteer asparagus!! We've probably harvested 50 stalks to date! I let some of them go to seed so that they'll spread more.

In other news, we FINALLY made it to the dunes with our dune buggy!!!!!! (The one we drove to California and back to get- that's a whole 'nother blog)

Andy's folks joined us at the dunes for some fun! Andy and his dad, Bill are in front. Ira and I are in the back.

In case the picture doesn't convey the emotion clearly, Ira LOVED LOVED LOVED riding the dune buggy. This picture was taken at about 40 mph.

I hopped out of the buggy (well, maybe not hopped - that makes it sound like a quick process, which getting out of a 5 point harness, goggles, and a headset is not...) so that I could snap some action shots.

Riding a bowl

Don't hit me!!

The beauty of God's creation at the dunes.

We became friends with a couple of guys from eastern Texas on the trip. We traded them a AAA battery for a ride for Bill in Jeff's long travel buggy. It's got an LS1 Corvette Motor in it and some great shocks. Needless to say, Bill had a fast, smooth, fun ride!

Last pic of the night. The sun is setting, it's time to go home!

And yesterday was Mother's Day. I am so blessed to be a mommy!

And I just had to share this precious card that Ira made for me. What a sweetie!

Although we weren't home much this weekend, it was a GREAT weekend. I am so blessed!

3 Year Pictures!!!!!

So, I suppose the pictures that were just not meant to be were finally meant to be on Sunday.

(Background: we had been trying to schedule them since Ira's b-day on April 7th but couldn't get haircuts done in time, then it was Easter, then we had them scheduled for the 25th but then my Grandma Cranmer passed away and her funeral was that day; then we had them scheduled for the 2nd of May but I forgot to request the photographer that my sis used and when I called back to request her, she was off on Saturday but working Sunday, so we scheduled them for 5pm Sunday.)

So anyway, I have been nervous about these pictures for quite some time. I really love pictures, in fact, in our old house (where we actually had things hanging on the wall) I would say 90% of everything on the wall was photography. So I really wanted the pictures to turn out well, because I knew they'd end up on the wall indefinitely (that is if we ever get around to hanging ANYTHING up.) I was also a little worried because Ira's true personality doesn't usually come across in pictures. He gets this weird smile/scowl thing going when it's time for pictures and it just drives me NUTS that I can't get a good picture of him. So anyways, I know it's stupid, but I have been stressing over how pictures would turn out since I started thinking about them back in October...ish...

I've probably kept you in suspense long enough! Here are the long-awaited pictures. And by the way, I think they turned out AWESOME!!! (My apologies for my FB friends, this is essentially a repeat of my album on FB.)

The first photo taken.

My handsome hubby and I.

Mr. Ira - I think his smile might be just a LITTLE over the top in this one.

Such a big boy! Where b'zackly did my baby go?
THIS.... THIS is the look you get when you say "Ira, smile, say cheese!" Thank heavens, the photographer took note of that and from then on, she wouldn't snap a picture unless he had a genuine smile!
He looks SO big in this picture. I think he looks more like a kindergartner than a 3 year old.
I think he looks a lot like me in this picture. I do the same head-tilt. Crazy!

Look ma! No hands!
I love his expression in this one. I think he looks like Elliot from E.T.
Our very favorite picture of the day.

As some friends have put it: "He is rockin that 3!" & "He looks like he's in a musical" Ira's expression and body language in this one are priceless!
So the photographer tells Ira to say "I'm THREE! (And holds up 3 fingers)" This is what Ira does right when she snaps the picture.

Our favorite family picture of the day. Also the very last photo taken. I think it's funny that both the very first and very last photo taken were the best family ones. We liked this one over the first one b/c the background is a little more timeless (for hanging on the wall until we have another professional family pic taken.)

In other news, Quiet Time has been a HUGE success! It has brought the naptime battles to a screeching halt and Ira still ends up sleeping more days than not during quiet time. Today, quiet time was a little boring for him though. I'll explain. On Sunday night, after Andy put Ira to bed, I walked past his (Ira's) room and asked Andy "Did you leave Ira's lamp on?" "Um, No, we didn't ever have it on" is Andy's response. I went in and found Ira reading "Blackboard Bear" so I said "Oh Ira, lamps are for quiet time, not for bedtime." and turned the lamp off. We didn't see the light again. Well last night, I walked past his room again (this time it was like 9:45) and I see the light on AGAIN! This time he was reading "I Am A Bunny." Now don't get me wrong, I LOVE it that my son loves to read so much. BUT NOT AT 9:45!!!!! So I say, "Oh how sad, the lamp is all gone." He was a little upset about that, but the implications didn't really sink in until right before quiet time today. He was sitting on the pot and he says, "Mom, can I borrow your touch lamp for quiet time?" "Oh how sad, Ira. Lamps are for big boys to use during quiet time and not at night time." (Straw one.) "Well I can use my big light on my fan." "Oh Ira, big lights are for other times, not quiet time. We can't use that much electricity during quiet time." (Straw two - starting to get a little concerned.) Starts reading his books (about 2 inches from his face.) "Oh Ira, goodness, you are really having to strain to see the book aren't you. I sure would hate for you to hurt your eyes looking at books in the dark. I guess you won't be able to read during quiet time today." (The last straw - but the funny thing is, he didn't throw too terribly much of a fit. He asked me why it had to be dark, so I put it right back on him. I think he's still thinking about it...

Happy Tuesday!