Where does the time go?

Happy Mary Anne - 7 months old

Mary Anne turned 7 months last Friday (10/21)  I just can't believe how fast the time flies. I wish it would slow down!  These baby days are so fleeting.  These are some of her 7 month milestones:

She is eating some solids foods. Her favorite is carrots. 

She is "commando" crawling all over the place. She can really move.

Her eye sight is keen - she finds EVERY little thing on the floor. Having a 7 month old is a sure way to get the floor vaccuumed each day. 

She loves her pacifier. 

She is a cuddler. 

She's a drooler.

She is hit and miss with sleeping through the night.  

She weighs about 16 lbs.

Her right eye tear duct seems to still be closed.  We thought it was open because it hasn't been weepy at all until recently.  We are praying it will open on its own.

She hardly has any hair compared to Abbie who had a head full of dark, curly hair.

She lights up our lives.  We are so blessed by her sweet disposition, her smiles, and her giggles.

Hannah with Mary

Favorite Things

Days of the week embroidered dish towels - hung here for you to see

I LOVE old fashioned things.  I'm forever browsing in antique shops.  I love old fashioned dishes, especially transferware and depression glass.  I love quilts too as well as aprons and hand stitched dish towels.  I found this kit a while back and I fell in love with it, not only because it is hand work (which I enjoy doing while watching a movie or listening to the Score), but because even the pictures are old fashioned.   It seems that in today's society, most woman are off to work so I don't know if they have designated days to complete their chores. In my mom's day, women stayed home and were called "housewives".  How'd they get that?  I'm not married to my house, I'm married to my husband!  I love to be a keeper of my home (much better term, don't you think?) and I am so thankful for that privilege to be able to be home daily with my children.  To be a bit more orderly, I find that I have fallen into a natural pattern of  a "wash day", and "iron day", a "sew day", and "market day", a "clean day", a "cook day" and a "rest day", just like my dish towels.  Of course, in our home several days are wash day and clean day and everyday is cook day. 

My favorite picture of all in this collection is "market day".  I love the rustic basket, the French bread loaf and the fresh vegetables peeking out.  It's so European - so French Country.   Love that!

My favorite one

For my birthday, my son Matthew gave me Rise and Shine iron on embroidery transfers.  The pictures are darling hens and chicks.  Every farm needs hens and chicks.  Until we get chickens, mine will be on my kitchen dish towels. :-) 

Emergency Meal Kit

I was reading Amy's Homestead Revival Blog where she has a very practical challenge.  I'm sure you have given some thought to emergency preparedness.  You probably have some assorted canned food stored away, but what I really liked about her idea was that you would store an entire meal in a box of its own...all ready to pull off the shelf. 

She writes, "Having three days worth of meals ready to prepare would be wise, would it not? I'm not talking about your regular food storage. I'm talking about everything you need for one meal... in a box. A meal that doesn't require anything but a manual can opener and perhaps a bowl and spoon to mix. Also, it would be ideal if the meal did not require cooking over a heat source (since you might not have one right away due to ongoing weather issues or some other reason) nor would it require a lot of water (pasta requires a lot of precious water that may be scarce). And it would be healthy in that it is as free from additives and sugars as possible, but still packaged for long term storage (say 6 months to a year)."  Don't you think this is a great idea?  Check the link to see her idea for a meal.

I think this will be the first meal in a box for us.

"Soup and Crackers"

• Amy's Vegetable Soup (ready to eat, healthy ingredients and it tastes good!) Available through Azure Standard
• Rye Krisp crackers (these are gluten free)
• Fruit and Nut (it's a mixture of raisins, craisins, pistachio nuts and walnuts - also gluten free) Available at Costco
• Water bottle (We also buy these at Costco.)

Special items we would need for this meal would be

• A way to heat the soup - we have a propane BBQ that has a side burner, but we also have a wood stove which we could place the pot of soup on top to warm.
• Paper bowls and plastic spoons.
• A manual can opener, pot and ladle. 

Each winter we seem to lose power once or twice due to snow and winds.  When we lose power, we also lose our water since our well pump is electric.  I have found that stocking up on assorted paper goods like plates, bowls and hot cups saves on the need for water to clean up dishes.  We chose paper over styrofoam because we can burn them in the woodstove.  

So - what would you put together for a meal?  Remember we need 3 days worth of food, 3 breakfasts, 3 lunches and 3 dinners.

Score

My son, Caleb has gotten us all hooked on a radio program called The Score.  It's a "weekly celebration of symphonic music in film" hosted by Edmund Stone on our local classical station, 98.1 KING FM. We not only hear amazing music, but learn a bit about the composers themselves or a little-known tidbit about the movie that the score was written for.  Hans Zimmer and John Williams are favorite composers in this home. While listening, Hannah often makes a list of the movies that are featured.  If they are good  ones, we check them out from the library and watch.  Our family is all about the classics!
The thing I love is that at four o'clock in the afternoon on both Saturday and Sunday, when the program starts, we all stop what we are doing, gather around the radio and listen together.  Even our youngest children enjoy it.  They often play quietly while listening.  It reminds me of the days of yesteryear when families would gather around the radio together to listen to radio shows.  I so love that special family time we share! If we happen to miss the program, we are all so disappointed! 
I'm so thankful that my children have an appreciation for symphonic music and they are familiar with a good, many composers. They definitely have an appreciation for movies ;-)
If you live locally in Washington, you should check out The Score, I think you'd really enjoy it. 

A new look

Our kitchen cupboards have a bit of a new look.  We put knobs on the cupboards and pulls on the drawers.  We all love the new look and I love that we can keep the cupboards and drawers from slamming now. (A big plus with a sleeping baby in the house!)  The only bummer about it is that now the cupboards and drawers themselves look so shabby.  We've been here seven years.  I don't think houses are built for heavy usage - like large families who are home all day.  Suffice it to say, there's a bit of wear and tear since our kitchen is the hub of our home!  This is look I think I'd like to have.  We will not buy new cabinetry, but I'm thinking a coat of paint that color just might do the trick.  My house doesn't have southern exposure and I think the light cabinets will help make it light and airy in here!  What do you think?  Leave your comment and any tips you might have, please!

Look at this!

Ok - the young ladies in my church are just THE SWEETEST! They have a special place in my heart. One of them enjoys baking cakes. Her nickname is Daisy and so she calls them DaisyCakes. Isn't that cute? Anyway, we had our monthly meeting of Daughters of the King and look what she made for me for my birthday! Isn't it beautiful? The outside is all fondant. I'm not sure of the flavor of cake on the inside yet, but I know there is strawberry filling. Can you say, "YUM!"? I can't wait to try a piece. 

My DaisyCake!

One happy reading boy!!

Daniel just got his very own libray card!