Sammys and Chunky Squirrels

March 15, 2024

Somehow we've made it to another Friday. Based on the state of the floors in the house, you could argue that we made it by the skin of our teeth. 


Children's Ministry at church as been preparing for their Easter program. Harrison has been willing to get on stage and even has lines. I'm hoping he can muster up the courage to be on stage for the performance, it tends to get stage fright when he sees all the people. He made it on stage during Christmas for school but looked like he was on the verge of an emotion break down the entire time. Poor baby was so upset when it was finally over. 


I can't blame him though, I HATE being on stage or in front of people. 




After a field trip to We Rock the Spectrum and then gymnastics, Elliot asked for a second dinner. But considering I've never convinced him to eat a sandwich... but he's recently taken to deli meat, he wanted two pieces of turkey between bread. 


His friend Lilah had inspired this, and he told me she would be so proud of him for eating it. 


In all his silliness this week, when I picked him up from school on Tuesday he was mad that it wasn't his birthday and then started in on what he wanted for his birthday. 


He wants to be a doctor. So I asked if he wanted a doctor costume, nope not a costume. What it really seems he wants in a medical license and the ability to practice medicine at 6. Knowing him this is probably a way to control the medicine and vaccines he gets. 




The boys have also enjoyed watching the chunky squirrel that tends to stay in our yard eating acorns. I've even witnessed him laid across the fence. This week though I snagged a photo of him eating nuts, covered in acorn shell, and his belly hanging over his little knees. Harrison has named him Chubby Squirrel. 




Now for those field trip photos. 


Thank goodness for mom friends who take photos when you aren't at a field trip. I'll have to make sure and take off for the next one, Elliot gave me an ear full that neither of us came with him. 





As it stands this weekend's plans are more sewing and hopefully making the quilt sandwich, Sam's club, searching for 3 more distylium shrubs, and a neighborhood prayer walk to hand out flyers about the Palm Sunday picnic at City Park. 

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Green Eggs and More Quilting

March 12, 2024


Harrison surprised me this week. My ultra picky child, who had attempted to convince me that foods you don't like are actually allergies... tried an egg at school. 

Granted it was just a nibble, but curiosity and informing him on what is healthy has always gotten him to try something new. Luckily that Sam I Am show on Netflix has had his attention enough to try this egg. 



It's finally good gardening weather, regardless of what temperature dip might happen between now and Easter. I decided to would keep my Bridal Wreath Spirea that I hated so much last year, it actually was pretty hardy and flowered great with heavy neglect on my end. 



The gardenias in the front yard also got replaced. They were far too delicate for my gardening style, which is high yield with high neglect. I ripped out two of them and replaced with more Coppertone Distylium. That small shurb also did amazing last year. I need to get my hands on 3 more to round out the gardenia I am replacing. 

I also grabbed my veggie while I was roaming around the garden center (which I think I am a convert to local if it isn't some random item they don't carry). This year (still small container gardening) I am planting two grow bags with sweet basil, and then in my container I have a Chocolate Cherry Tomato, 2 Giant Marconi Peppers (loved them last year), and one Candy Candy Sweet Pepper. I still have my rosemary, Italian oregano, and peppermint in pots. I need to replace my lemon thyme and grab two more lavender for the front yard. 

As someone who can not resist a houseplant that is delicate or whimsy... I bought a Maiden Hair Fern. Let's hope I can keep this going, I've given up on the nerve plants I've tried in this pot year after year. 



Elliot had strep this weekend, so we ended up having to miss a wedding and live under house arrest. except for my foray to the garden center. As you can guess, I did more quilting. The sewing machine was set up Friday night and stayed there until Sunday afternoon. 



I got much further than this over the weekend, but this is a photo I sent to a friend. All that is left is to attach two more columns and then the border. This weekend I'll probably buy my backing fabric, basting spray, and batting. Fabric should be on sale this week at Hobby Lobby. 

The goal this next weekend is really to just finish the quilt topper and iron it well. 


We really are terribly uneventful as much as possible to make up for the weeks and weekends when ministry are terribly eventful. Honestly I could be one of the critters at Brambly Hedge, so uneventful dreary weekends are probably my favorite. 

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More Than 5 Things on Friday

March 8, 2024

 What did I do last weekend? Based on my camera roll it appears I fermented things and sewed. 


[One] I tried my hand at French style yogurt. You use the Oui brand as your based and heat whole milk. After I finished painfully heating milk I read that you can also make it out of ultra refined Fairlife. So while this first batch was vanilla with blueberry preserves, I made a batch last night with chocolate Fairlife milk. The macros will be way better and I've got my fingers crossed that it just tastes good overall.


I don't own a candy thermometer so I borrowed the one Jeremy uses to fry in his big ole pot. I propped it up on a big glass jar to keep the point from touching the bottom of the pan and giving a false read.


[Two] I've made potato flake sour dough for several years and lost ours after we moved back to Louisiana. Over Christmas I had a friend restock me and we've been back to baking bread. My favorite has been a cinnamon loaf that I'd like to remake and add raisins. 

 



[Three] I didn't time my bread well and it would have been done Monday morning instead of Monday night. I enlisted a trick I learned from Murmurs of Ricotta (with her cinnamon roll recipe) and popped the bread in the fridge over night on Sunday. Then it spent the day rising for the last time Monday and came out great. 




[Four] This was the photo I sent Mom as I was trying to figure out how to get the bobbin correct. Seriously I really would like to forgo feeding anyone this weekend and just set up shop in the kitchen and sew the entire time we are off. 



[Five] It's been quite evident that I didn't plant my salad seed mix early enough. As of right now I've got a side salad for one and need to start ripping it out to get my other plants in next weekend. 


Honestly this weekend I need to trip the hydrangeas, fertilize, and then purchase 5 distyliums because my foray into gardenia gardener ended terribly after a drought/heatwave/and freeze combo.




[Six] If you've thought, surely you're done fermenting now Emily, you were wrong. I also had to bottle another batch of kombucha and spent yet another week making unflavored because I've been too lazy to puree and store my fresh ginger. (I really prefer ginger kombucha as a means of eating more ginger.) 



Kombucha bottles with the evening sun hitting them. What could be better? 





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Learning to Quilt When You Can't Even Sew

March 6, 2024

For my birthday this year I asked for a sewing machine and a few items I needed to attempt to start quilting. Does this signal a millennial mid life crisis? More than likely. 

Do I have experience quilting? Absolutely not. 

Do I know how to sew, again no. But I did watch hours of Youtube tutorials for how to set up my machine, called my seamstress mother, and then watched some more tutorials. 



I will say that this rotary cutter is life changing. I've only cut items with regular sewing scissors before, I cut all of my fabric in absolutely no time with this. I also got my hands on a self healing board, I'll likely upgrade to a larger one if I really figure out sewing. 


I found this pattern Pinterest. I don't know who it belongs to, it was one just floating in the web. But I am using it as a size guide. Honestly I have no clue how big this sucker is going to be lol! 

With that I used Google Docs to make a template for how the quilt will look. I went back and forth with colors and moved things all around. Me, with my zero experience, would like to also recommend doing this if you too have no clue what you are doing. It helped me figure out what I wanted, and it was very different from how I initially saw it in my mind. 

I have a Notes app note on how much fabric I bought if your interested. 

 



My stack of fabric squares I sent a photo of to my mother! 



The big sewing ruler was great for holding the fabric in place and getting a precise cut. 

I have actually started sewing my strips together and will take some photos and show y'all my progress next week. 



Here is the blue polka dot fabric I would like to back the quilt with. I haven't 100% landed on a backing, but I think I'll lean to this one.

My method of figuring out how to quilt is literally going step by step. I've watched videos to get me this far. When I hit the batting I'll search that up, then the back, quilting, and binding. It will be a process, but I already have two children lined up begging for their own blanket if I can figure out how to do this. 

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Happy Birthday Harry @ Sloomoo Institute

March 5, 2024

 I've really come to prefer (as mom) an experience gift over just a party. Parties can be such a hit or miss, and if it's a miss then you get to deal with a child you is disappointed because no one came. 


I feel like half of us definitely have awful birthday times. Not only is Feb. a hit or miss weather month, Harrison and I also have Mardi Gras birthday's. This means parties can unhappily fall when everyone we know is on their winter vacation. 


So this year, when I saw a friend post that she took her kids to Sloonoo in Houston, I immediately showed Harrison and scrapped our birthday party plans. Sloomoo is pricy, but when traded in favor of a big party at a party place... it costs the same. My slime/playdoh loving children also got to play in every type of slime imaginable, get slimed like old school Nickelodeon, and make their own. 




My favorite was probably the slime you could walk in, I wish it wasn't timed, we could have played here longer. 






This is about to be photo heavy and words light. 





We did do the upgraded ticket for the kids to slime them. Especially since it was for a birthday, it was worth the excitement. I was nervous Elliot would back out and one of us would have to do it. 





They definitely wrapped the kids up good to avoid being covered in this mess! 




If you've seen the Van Gogh experience, how about we one up you with a slime sensory room with slime graphics and kinetic sand! 😂




Elliot was pretty mesmerized with this room! 





The kids did not complain here... this is all allergy ridden me. I LOVED the vats of slime and all the textures, but by the time we left it took two days of meds to recover from the headache I developed from the artificial scents. 

Harry later told me he was also "allergic" to the scents, because he only liked their Sunshine smell. I've tried telling this child that dislikes are not an allergy, but he continue to insist. 





You can see he has his fingers in his ears quite a bit. We could have benefited from either scheduling during the sensory times they have in the morning or bringing our headphones. He did well, but on occasion it was a bit overstimulating for him. 




Family photo!! The rare family photo for us!




We had so much fun and if you are wanting to do a special experience gift for you kids, this was a great one. The kids loved that we stayed in a hotel too. Although Harrison would be more than happy to never enter to Houston Galleria every again (too large) even with getting to go to the Lego store. 

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A Few Things In February

March 1, 2024

I'm still running through the camera roll for blog catchup. We've made it to the month of February though. 

There was nothing overly special about our trip to Five Guys, but Elliot was too funny to not record it for later memory. While ordering he wanted a hamburger, normal for him, and agreed to a cheeseburger. 

When our food came he was immediately put off with my order. He wanted a hamburger with pickles, but didn't tell me. His response, "Do they not have pickles in this place?"

No child, you didn't request pickles in this place. 



We also finally got around to the new living room furniture I've been dreaming of for five years. When the Lovesac couch showed up, still missing cushion covers, Elliot deemed it the most comfortable couch on earth. It became his bed for two nights before I could convince him to stop sneaking out of his room to sleep there... and then subsequently getting mad that we woke him up early when we would come into the kitchen to fix coffee. 




The boys also had field trips this month. Harrison got to see a friend in a play and then they went to the park. 


Elliot saw a cowboy YouTube performer and was beside himself. I really think he just enjoys being old enough to go to school and do school things. 



Harrison has been in piano lessons since the fall semester. I snuck this photo of him a few weeks ago. 




During the Mardi Gras break I had a good laugh at Elliot. He is by far my mini me. Harrison fully belongs to Jeremy. While we were figuring out lunch one day I set our some dips and veggies for us to eat. I assumed he would eat the carrots and cucumbers like he typically enjoys, but he ate all the pepper and celery and then asked for more for two days. 




On Valentine's day we like to grill steaks and make Pomme Frites. I usually make dessert, but Jeremy has been avoiding such things for the new year. Elliot was very interested in making French fries at home this year. I'm guessing I've taken a short cut the past two years and made baked potatoes so he hasn't gotten in on the French fry fun before. 


Both of the kids kept exclaiming that I was making McDonald's fries. 



 

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