Market and McDonalds

Perhaps not two things I'd normally put in the same sentence, but that's how our day worked out. :)

This morning was not-a-million-degrees, so we decided to head out to the farmer's market.  I called Mom to see if she wanted to come along and she said my nephew had a school holiday, so they both joined us.  We loaded the boys into the wagon (maybe not necessary, but they loved it), and Boo into the stroller (which we hardly ever use, so she was thrilled) and headed out.



It was awesome.  I've really missed going to the farmer's market regularly.

And I brought home some pretty, pretty veggies.



(In addition to what's pictured, we also brought home corn, sweet potatoes and a bunch of pretty little apples.  And Mom picked up something called a lemon cucumber...which is a cucumber that looks surprisingly like a lemon.  Go figure.)

We hung out at the park for a bit.  The boys exploring and finding treasures in the dirt.



(Bug with an eraser shaped like a cat.)

Boo ran around trying to keep up, and beelining towards the mud.



So I ended up holding her a lot.  She was not pleased.



(This is the first picture of Boo where I think she looks like me at all.)

Then it started getting hot and we were hungry, so Mom suggested we move the party to McDonald's - a rare treat!  This is the first time we've been since Boo has been even kind of mobile and she jumped out there like an old pro.

(I was right there ready to catch her the whole time.  Honest.)







She ended up making it up to the fourth step before it got too steep.  My nephew was so amazing with her.  He cheered her on the whole time she was trying to climb, and helped her down when she thought she was stuck.  Very sweet.

Bug didn't stop moving once. ;)



(Haha.  While tagging this post, I realized that ALL of the veggies were already listed.  Guess we have some solid favorites.)

Bug's Bread

A couple of days ago, Bug asked to bake bread.  And then proceeded to do it by himself.  I measured out the ingredients for him, but he did the rest all bu himself - choosing the recipe, getting everything ready to go, and watching and questioning the entire process.  (We used a bread machine, though might do it by hand next time.)  He even told me that baking bread was "more fun than watching tv" - high praise!

Terrible photography aside, the bread turned out great!  It was SUPER yummy!  He was so very proud of himself. :)  (And I'm super proud of him, too!)



We devoured the first loaf of bread pretty much immediately, so he asked to bake another loaf.  So my 3.5 year old baked two loaves of bread in one day.  I can see us making this an addition to our daily non-routine.

The recipe we used:

1 cup water
1/4 cup honey
2 tablespoons oil
1 cup flour
1/2 cup oatmeal
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons yeast

It turned out so light and fluffy and tasty.  Mmm...bread...

Sashiko Sneak Peek

After having done a bit of embroidery (and looking at waaaaaaaaay too many pretty things on flickr), I decided to try my hand at sashiko again.

I really think I love it.

I definitely love the way my first two projects are working out.  Sneak peeks only, because they're going to someone who sometimes reads the blog.  Sorry.  I'll post some pictures of the completed projects after Christmas. ;)

Fire Relief

Just a quick post to introduce an idea...

Texas has caught on fire, which is alarming.  And it's been a helpless feeling to catch little bits of news and see photos of places that I knew enveloped in smoke and fire.  As yet, no one I know personally has lost their home, but friends and family of friends have lost everything.

A friend put me in touch with a woman helping with relief efforts near Bastrop and I've gone to work.  (And it looks like there's some help coming from a post on one of my flickr groups - <3!)





Picked some fabric and started making necessities bags.



The idea is to stuff them with things like toothbrushes, soap, etc.  I know it won't be much in the long run, but maybe a bag of needed items, crafted with love, might brighten someone's day just a little bit.

Rock Gardening...Sort Of

Earlier this week, we finally (finally, finally, finally!) got enough of a rain for it to cool down a bit in the evening.  So we took the opportunity to head out into our poor, deserted yard for awhile.  I dug out the last bit of my sun-cooked summer garden failure, Richard and Bug picked up random bits of junk from the yard, and Boo bee-lined to her favorite - the rocks.

She was having so much fun shoveling them that I tried to get a picture that captured her joy.

At first, she kept looking way over my head and past me whenever I called her name.  



And giving me this weird fake-baby half-smile.  I don't think I've ever seen this expression outside of this series of pictures.



And then she started talking to me, presumably about what she was working on.  Boo is very vocal, just not so verbal, yet.  (And someday she's going to hate me for taking this picture.)



And then she just ignored me and went about her work.



Bug was having fun, too, looking at how metal shavings behaved on a magnet.

Desert Critters

We have, in the past year, learned a bit about differences in wildlife between Houston and Phoenix.

There are things I miss, not being near Houston: deer, frogs (which are here, too, just not in the same abundance), squirrels (I've seen one, here), vultures, hawks, mosquitoes big enough that you can see them coming (versus the sneaky, painful microscopic version here)...all sorts of things.  Which is not to say that I haven't been impressed by the wildlife here.  I've seen a roadrunner, more rabbits than I ever saw in Texas, a jackrabbit, wild lovebirds...all sorts of things.

But.

There is one bit of desert wildlife that I am not at all thrilled to have met.




Look a little closer.



That's right.  That's a scorpion.  A LIVE one.  Thankfully, it didn't come from my house...though Richard was kind enough to bring it by to visit.  He wanted Bug to see it.

As I recall, our conversation went something like this:

R: "I brought something home for Bug to look at."

Me: "Oh? What?"

R: "A scorpion."

Me: *stunned silence* "What?  Not a live one."

R: "Oh yeah, it's alive.  Don't worry it's tiny."

Me: *beginning to freak out* (Because the tiny ones are dangerous, you know.)  "What?!  What are you going to do with it once he's looked at it?!"

R: "Let it go."

Me: *now in full on freak-out* "NOT HERE?!"

He assured me not, and said that he hadn't expected such a strong response from me.  Holy crap.  A SCORPION.

And, yeah, it was tiny.  And maybe a little bit cool.  But, holy crap.  A scorpion.  *shudder*

Oh, Hello!

Well, it's been ages and ages since I've posted, and I feel pretty terrible about that.  Which is partly why it's been so long since I've posted.  You know how that goes, I hope.

Our Arizonaversary was the last week of June, Boo's first birthday was on the 4th of July, and the one year anniversary of my sister's cancer diagnosis was shortly after that.  It was kind of a lot to handle emotionally, as it turns out.  I had all these great blog posts written out in my head and every time I tried to sit down to write any of them...I just couldn't do it.  I think, at the one year mark, there was just too much I was still trying to process.

And then, it's just been kind of busy, too.  Which seems kind of insane because on any given day I'd be hard pressed to tell you anything useful that I'd done.  And yet, stuff has been getting done. ;)

So...I'll start working on some posts. :)