Thanks to Daniel the Tiger, my child decided suddenly she just plain had to make a storybook ( Read more... )

I think it's getting to the point where I can declare the newest addendum to our bedroom routine a 'win ( Read more... )

So after our last set of 'put offers on houses' activity crashed and burned in spectacular, weeks-long slow motion (short answer: none of those sellers would take FHA loans, and nobody wants to make us a conventional), we kind of burned out on the entire concept for months ( Read more... )

So, very long frustrating story (that I will not tell now), but we didn't get that house we had an offer out on. Because of this, I've been seeing more houses. Joy ( Read more... )

I was commenting online in a different forum that since early days we've read big honking popsci and other adult nonfiction books to Beka, and she has enjoyed them. Mostly we read them because they keep us interested, and when we're not bored out of our minds we're better parents. Let's face it, there are only so many times you can read Dr. Seuss' ( Read more... )

Not that we're planning on still living here NEXT spring, but I haven't done a what-my-garden-looks-like post in a really long time, and I just got a new awesome camera for my birthday, so last week I went and took photos of everything that's actually trying to pop its head out and grow already this spring ( Read more... )

I'm going to do these chronologically, for lack of any better organizing principle.

( OMG pictures within. I cut because I love. )

Sunday Beka catapulted headfirst into the realm of playing pretend with great verve and enthusiasm ( Read more... )

I enjoy gardening, both in the 'ecological engineering' variety and for food and flower crops, but ever since Beka was first anticipated, I realized that until she was old enough to help out, I wasn't going to be able to spend much time out there weeding, planting, rearranging, and generally meddling with the yard. "Oh, well," I thought. "Plenty of ( Read more... )

Sort of a choose-your-own-adventure anecdote.

( Read more... )