Baking up a storm

 We spent the morning is Snowflake today and got home just in time for lunch, but sadly there was no bread in the house so I whipped up some cornbread to tide us over.

Then I moved on to the real bread.

Due to (insert lame excuse) I haven't done my visiting teaching yet. Hence the necessity of making cookies.

And when all is said and done our house is an oven! The swamp cooler is having issues so we're all roasting. On a positive note my kids are eating ice cubes faster than they're eating cookies.

The Prophet said to plant a garden so that's what we'll do!

 Gardening is big in Woodruff. I'm talking 'bout "Better Homes and Gardens" big. Everyone has a garden and some people are absolute pros at it. It can be a tiny bit intimidating when you look at some of the immaculate gardens around here. Needless to say, we are not "those people" yet.

 Seeing as I'm due in June, we're taking the low maintenance, less is more route this year. Mathan built these fabulous planters and we're really hoping for some good results.

 We're planting all of our small plants in the planters and planting the more invasive stuff in the field.

So here are all the newly planted, "clean slate" pictures. And let me warn you, there may not be any more. The weeds are already popping up! It takes either a massive amount of work or a massive amount of chemicals to keep your garden weed free. We never use chemicals, and sadly we aren't that good at the massive amount of work either. ;)

Oh what do you do in the summer time?

 School is out! Hurray! Now what do I do to keep everyone occupied? I feel like I need to make this summer a lot more structured now that May is so used to the school routine.

 Bring on the simple little crafts that will keep the kids busy!

 Plus some wet outdoor fun. This is May at her field day. Fun times

 Thank goodness for imagination! The girls made a bus and filled it with passengers. Ellen is singing Drive, drive, drive, the bus!

Here's Thomas the one man band.  Humm, maybe music lessons?

Tuesday's True Confessions

~ I cannot wait for school to be out so my little girl can stay home with me all day! It's true! Not to mention the fact that I don't have to drag her out of bed and shove her out the door everyday.
~I've been combining all of my calendars and June and July are shaping up to be crazy busy months. Between family, young women's and the library, I am booked. Plus we have a baby coming right in the middle of it all.
~ According to May and Ellen, our baby's name is Sparkle Tenney.
~ Ellen asks everyone she meets if they have a baby in their tummy. Thin or fat, male or female, she asks them and then tells them that her mommy has a baby in her tummy.
~ Thomas has no idea how drastically his little world is going to change. Poor little guy!
~ I'm always shocked at how much dirt is left at the bottom of the tub after the kids have their bath. I try to keep them clean, but they are little dirt magnets.
~ I made blueberry muffins yesterday with applesauce instead of butter, wheat flour instead of white and reduced the sugar.... Then I ate four of them with butter and a glass of whole milk.
~ I've read that a woman is supposed to gain a few pounds the first trimester and 1 pound a week thereafter until the last few weeks when she levels out and stops gaining. In all 25 to 30 pounds. Yeah, whatever.
~ A few months ago I was at my Aunt's house visiting her and my cousin. My cousin in law who had just had a baby passed through really quickly. I commented on how great she looked. Flat tummy, not extra flab anywhere, and then confessed that it takes me six or nine months to get close to normal again. My cousin laughed and said, "look at me! I'm a year out!" Then my Aunt , who is not a small woman, said, "What about me? I'm twenty years out!" It's funny how self absorbed we can be when we talk about weight.
~ When I was newly married it took me while to get used to how quiet my husband is. He's not a talker unless he's really interested in the subject. Now I love how quiet he is, especially after a young women's meeting or a planning/problem solving session with other women. It's crazy how many words a few women can say in a few minutes!

I love Thursday! When Mathan works four tens Thursday is like Friday. It is full of plans for the weekend. It is also great because with a three day weekend we usually have enough time to make everyone happy. Mathan time, Eva time, and family time.

I'm thankful for the rain. Rain in May! In Arizona! Usually it's dry as a bone until July or August.

I'm thankful for hot showers. I love a super hot shower at the end of the day even if I haven't broken a sweat or put a foot outside. It is uninterrupted time to just think about nothing.

I'm thankful for my little family. Actually it's not so little by today's standard is it? I'll have four kids five weeks from now! Four! I always get the feeling that people are looking at me with pity or distaste when I go to the store with all my kids and one obviously on the way. Sometimes people prove it by saying something. Sometimes it's hard not to feel self conscious, but I'm so grateful for each one of my babies. I'm so glad that I'm not trying to build a satisfying life where the only person I'm living for is me. It's seems like that is what everyone wants so they skip marriage and refuse to have kids. They don't want to be tied down. Part of me understands that, but I'd rather live surrounded by people that love me and need me. I think those people in the store would be shocked to know that all our kids are two years apart and all of them were planned. They look closer in age than that because they are all petite little things...umm except for Thomas. He's got a ton of bricks hidden in his diaper or something.

Well, thus ends today's post, but it certainly doesn't end my list of things to be grateful for!

Of Music and Manly Stuff

 May had her end of year concert the other night and it was lovely! She did a great job and the show was really fun to watch. We are so proud of her. She looks so tiny and cute compared to the other kids. Yes, that is flagrant favoritism you just read. She may be a year younger and a head shorter than the rest, but she is at the top of her class and is definitely in the running for the cutest in her class, in my biased opinion.

 Here are my boys getting ready to leave for the fathers and sons camp out. They went last year but didn't stay the night because Thomas was still nursing, but this year they went for the whole thing. I was a little nervous to tell the truth. Thomas is walking really well and has no fear. I was afraid he'd run off into the woods or worse, into the water, but Mathan took great care of him and they returned in one piece. I don't think they used half of what I packed, but that's okay. Less laundry is always good.

 Enjoying the water with daddy's help.

 I little puffy eyed, but none the worse for sleeping on the ground in a tent for the first time. Mathan said he cried for a while but once he fell asleep he was fine.

 Lucky that Uncle McKay is good humored when he gets woken up by a toddler crawling all over him.

Canoeing with Uncle Meschak, Kadence, Mathan, and a mystery kid. We're so lucky to live close to family!

Wondering Wednesday

Who's bright idea was it to put horizontal stripes on maternity clothes? How did so many of these articles get into my closet?

Why do I procrastinate when the dread of doing something is so much more painful than doing it?

Why is laugh spelled with ugh?

Why did all the major clothing stores in my area stop carrying maternity clothes? Is it that rare to be pregnant?

Why do people wait until their situation is absolutely unbearable or desperate to change the way they live?

Why does everything sound worse than it actually is? Like when you get the syllabus for a class and the teacher tells you all the difficult things you will have to do, but when you are actually doing them day by day you find that you are more than able. Or like when you hear about a physical or emotional problem that someone is dealing with and at first it sounds so horrible, but when you watch them live one day at a time it doesn't seem so bad. They cope. They live. They are strengthened and they endure. I have a friend who has gone through two bouts of cancer and she doesn't downplay the pain and trial it has been, but she also says that she has been made equal to the trial. Even though she has been taxed to the limit, she has not been given more than she can endure.

Why have I been so blessed?