Fishing

We went fishing out at Lake Somerville on Good Friday with Manly & Christine. Since it was Good Friday I guess everyone had the same idea that we had... the dock was PACKED! We were fishing for Crappie because it's that time of year, but we really would take whatever we could get.... we just want practice catching & cleaning fish... oh yeah, and eating :)

We headed out around 7am (we meant to head out earlier but Steven and I were dragging everyone behind) and got to actual fishing around 7:45am. We first tried the dock (with John in the stroller with a life jacket), but since it was packed (and windy) we decided to move to a little cove. This was a much better idea for multiple reasons. 1) The wind was being blocked by tall grass & small trees. & 2) The baby could get out of the stroller and explore (which really means eat) rocks and sand and even the shallow water.

John did excellent the entire time and we were out there about 4 hours. He did take a little nap while in my homemade ergo thingy... but when Manly caught the second (huge) fish, I got too excited and woke him up. I was also equipped with mad amounts of cheerios. I think next time to make it even better I might bring more snacks, some toys and a blanket to put over the pack & play. I think he would have taken an even better nap if I put him down in a pack & play.

So back to actual fishing. Not long after we first got set up, Manly caught a bass. It wasn't big enough to keep, but if was fun to watch him reel it in. Then I think Manly got the next hit... he had found a sweet spot that only his rod could reach really well. This fish was more of a fighter and it took him a while to get him in. Once we could see it we understood why. It was a big catfish! About 21 inches. I got the next bite... a smaller catfish, 14 inches. And then Christine got the next one... 16 inches. Christine's fish was fun. We were sitting together (probably talking about wedding stuff) when all of the sudden we saw a fish jump out of water and watched her bobber sink down! I was quite exciting. I was kinda surprised it was a catfish when we pulled him out because I've never seen them do that... but I guess he really wanted her minnow.

Around lunch time we cleaned them up and headed home. Christine & Manly had other plans, but that night at dinner I cooked all our fish. It made quite a bit. Enough to feed Steven and I three meals. The smaller fish were harder to clean, but Steven said they tasted better. I have never really tasted the dirty water taste that people talk about when it comes to catfish, but Steven said some parts of the bigger fish tasted that way. So I guess around 15 inches is ideal eating size. I also soaked them in milk to try to get the taste out (I've heard that can make them taste better).

It was a great morning! Here is a slide show of all our pictures.

Quilt, Video & Aggie Ring

My sweet sister-in-law, Christine, got her Aggie Ring a few days ago (remember that busy weekend). Even though we were only there for the actual getting of the ring, it was still a fun day.

I had finished a quilt for Christine and decided to give it to her when she got her ring. It is all of her high school t-shirts and didn't have anything to do with her Aggie Ring, but it was done and I wanted to give it to her. Here is a picture of her opening her quilt...



And the front...



And the back...



So a couple of things are different about the way I made this quilt. Most people that make t-shirt quilts will stabilize the t-shirts. I don't really like that because it makes the whole quilt stiffer. I don't stabilize because I want the quilt to be as soft and snuggle-ly as possible... after all, quilts are made to snuggle under.

So, how do I keep things straight? Patience, ball point needles & a walking foot. I try to make all my cuts as straight as possible and I don't rush piecing. The ball point needles glide through the knit fabric and the walking foot feeds the fabric in evenly so that things don't shift around.

Another thing I do is use the scraps (or blank sides of extra shirts) for the backing. I did it because I had them and it saved me having to go buy more fabric and because t-shirts are really soft. It makes a double sided quilt... sorta... I don't stress about keeping things as straight because after all, it is the back.

I also used left over t-shirt scraps for the binding. Keeping the softness, again. I used a cotton batting. So this quilt was pretty much like snuggling into a 100% cotton t-shirt. Now, who doesn't want to do that?

John loves when I work on quilts... or just throw a blanket down in the floor. I'm pretty sure his wife is going to be a quilter :) I had to take a video of his silliness...





Here are more pictures from Christine's Aggie Ring weekend...

How cute are these roommates?



Yah! So excited!!!



Yep, we're an Aggie family!



John with something in his mouth... of coarse...



Aggie Ring Dunk!

Edible Arrangement

I made this for Steven's family for Easter!



I wanted to see how hard it was to do an edible arrangements, and it turns out it wasn't very difficult. I, of coarse, watch a few videos on youtube first (this one was most helpful)... but it didn't take long to do and I had a lot of fun being creative while making it.

I added in some cake balls in the shape of eggs... some were like peeps popping out (I got the idea from i am baker), some were just plain eggs and some were just plain peeps. I like the way it turned out, but next time I will make a nest (out of pretzels & almond bark) for the peeps (& eggs) to sit in while I do the edible flowers around the nest. I wanted to give a healthy treat, but I had to include something not so healthy as well :)

Here are some more pictures!





Here is another easter idea that I want to do next year... also from i am baker... are you guys starting to see a trend here?... cuz I love that lady!

Easter

After much discussion about bunnies, eggs, peeps & Jesus, we decided it's okay for John to participate in most of the culturally accepted things to do when it comes to Easter (like egg hunts, gift giving and indulging in sweets :) ). Now I'd rather not go into all the arguments about what we shouldn't and should tell John about Easter, but then general guideline we are going by is that we want him to associate Jesus' Resurrection with Easter and that it's fine if he hunts eggs and gives/receives gifts as part of the celebration.

Personally, I think some of the more culturally accepted things to do (like gifts and eggs) provide a great opportunity for sharing the gospel. And as long as Steven and I do a good job of telling John about Jesus then he will have the ability to 'deal' with the Easter Bunny. We hope to spend more time building into his little character than telling him whether on not the Easter Bunny exist.

On a lighter note...

Our friends were planning an egg hunt and I thought it would be fun if John participated too. We set him up...



And this is what happened...




The other kids were having too much fun looking for eggs so I decided not to push it. Maybe next year I'll get a better photo.

At least he was pretty studly for church!



Steven Mom gave John some Easter candy and I thought I would humor her with a series of pictures. I'm pretty sure Jelly Beans are the sweetest thing John has ever had, and some of his faces crack me up! Here's a slide show!

I hope you had a wonderful time celebrating the Resurrection of Jesus this past weekend!

Fort Parker

Last weekend we went camping... and to a wedding... and to watch Christine get her Aggie Ring. It was quite a weekend, but I'm going to share just about camping right now.

We went to Fort Parker with some friends. I highly recommend this park. It's on a lake so there is plenty opportunity for fishing. We actually hiked over to the dam in the morning and saw about 20 fish in the water. We didn't bring our poles with us on that hike and I TOTALLY regret it. You could see fish just chilling out and occasionally biting at small minnows. Next time we go, we are fishing that spot!

The hiking trails are nice, as is the case with most state parks I've been to. And Fort Parker has a playground. The best part, I thought, was that almost all of the camp sites have large shade trees... invaluable during the hot summer months. The park is off the highway so you might hear some road noise... but it's not like an interstate so it's not terribly active. It was only about an hour and half from our place and about two hours from my Mom's house so we might visit it again soon.

I didn't take great pictures because it was a busy weekend! I don't have many to share but here's what I have... As soon as we got there and put John down he was off to find a stick to taste!





The first night was really cold... at least for sleeping outdoors... it was about 45. I think I would have slept better if I would have just left John alone. Every time he made a noise I would try to 'fix' him... I was worried that he was cold, mainly. So I would get him down (he was in the pack-n-play like last time) and put him in between us. The problem is that John hasn't slept with us since he was two weeks old... so being in bed with Daddy & Mommy means it's time to play. So he would go from half asleep to wide awake as soon as he hit the ground. I would start worrying about the other campers so I would put him back in the pack-n-play. He would fall asleep (without crying) and then wake up about 2 hours later and the cycle would begin again. I don't know why I was worried about him being cold, he had two layers on with two quilts in the pack-n-play... I think he was actually warmer than us. However, since we don't sleep in the same room I'm not aware of all the noises he makes at night... it could have been a totally normal night.

After walking around the next day I realized that most campers near us had actual campers, so I decided if John made a few noises during the night it wasn't going to wake the entire camp ground up. John stayed in the pack-n-play and we all slept better the second night!

Here is a picture from the first morning. John was active because he was in between us and so the picture is a little blurred... but still good fun.



So our theory on dirt is that "it don't hurt." And what we decided was that John could play in the dirt and get as dirty as he wanted but when he went down for a nap/bed I (or Steven) would clean him up. John got pretty, amazingly dirty. I had to take pictures because it was unbelievable. He had so much dirt that his diapers were sandy the next day. I guess I could chase him around all day telling him not to put this and that in his mouth, but I'm pretty sure other babies have eaten dirt (in larger quantities) and survived... so I didn't worry about it and it turned out to be an great camping trip.















Crazy Kid!

Anyway... I highly recommend Fort Parker. Bring your fishing poles and your kids! :)

Velcro Not Allowed

I love Bumgenius, but I only put up with the velcro. A friend gave me a bunch pocket diapers (not Bumgenius, no stay dry liner, but they are still great for nursery/babysitters) and they have snaps. After using them a while, I realized that velcro was pretty much evil. I hate velcro chains in the drier.. and I hate how lint and various strings (even my hair) gets stuck in the velcro tabs. Don't get me wrong, it is more adjustable on the baby... but it's not for us.

I was STOKED when Bumgenius came out with their 4.0s! However, we don't have tons of money to spend on my every diaper whim, so I had to make my well-well-loved Bumgenius work. I considered getting the tools to convert mine to snaps, but I ultimately decided to have someone do it. The cost to convert my Bumgenius myself was the same as the cost to have someone to do it and the only velcro I have is Bumgenius... all my other cover & pockets are snaps (or buttons on the wools).

So, After finally getting my Bumgenius converted I've decided that Velcro is no longer allowed in my house when it comes to diapers!

Here they are before...



And here they are converted!



I actually found someone to do them by a facebook ad. I usually don't click on those, but I guess they finally figured out the way to my heart :) She allowed you to pick which snap colors you want so I decided to have fun with the colors... and I really liked how they turned out. You can get matching colors, but I figured it would be good to tell these apart in case they start to leak.

The shipping kinda took a while, but I think that was my fault because I paid for the least expensive shipping and thus the slowest. It was hard to live without my Bumgenius. I'm not sure how long I was actually without them, but I totally used disposables in place of when I would use my Bumgenius. I'm so happy to have them back :) :) :)

If you are interested in having your diapers converted she does give a discount for removing the velcro yourself... and we took advantage of that. I recommend taking off the velcro yourself not only to save money but to make sure the pul doesn't get punctured in the process.

Happy Diapering!

Spring Harvesting

I like harvesting things from our backyard. It makes me happy.

Our faithful spinach was showing signs of the end of it's life so I pulled it up last week. Now remember I planted something like nine spinach plants... and my advice to anyone harvesting large amounts of spinach is, "only harvest and deal with one plant at a time!" I love growing greens, but it is work getting them from grown to plate. I was up late at night dealing with this pile of spinach...



But I'm not complaining. I am grateful for the spinach God gave us... pretty much for free. But I need to document the ridiculousness that is this pile of spinach so that I can remember next year to pull up one plant at a time. I started washing the spinach in the sink, but it ended up in the bath tub because I had so much... it was a mess. I wanted to just go to bed, but I also wanted to get it put up in the freezer before it wilted. Lesson learned! And now we have spinach for pizzas & casseroles for the next two or three months.

We also harvested the carrots and some radishes this weekend. The radishes are pretty straight forward for me. I've grown them before, they don't take long to grow, and they are very satisfying... just not to eat. I did try one after I harvested it and, yes, I still don't like radishes. I gave them to friend at church. We have a few more that aren't big enough to pull up yet and Steven wants those, so I'll leave them for him.

The carrots were a first for me. And while I don't think it's necessarily cost effective to grow your own carrots, they were fun and I think I will continue to do a few each year for fun and practice. It was kinda interesting because the carrot tops I thought were for sure done produced crazy looking carrots. The tops I thought weren't even close were some of the best looking carrots. I need to do some more reading on it, but I think getting right there in the dirt is really the best way to learn.

Here's our harvest. I cooked the carrots for John and he's eating them today. There was only about 1/2 a sandwich bag full of carrots after I got them cleaned, but that's just the perfect amount for a growing toddler.

Faith Cake

My lovely sister-in-law sent me a fun tutorial of a cake. I decided to make it for a friend's birthday. It didn't turn out quite as nice looking as the tutorial (of coarse)... the vertical part of my cross was really fat, so if you make this cake make the center hole smaller than you think it needs to be. It tasted great, though! And it turned out to be some of my best cake writing, ever!

You can read the tutorial over at i am baker.



I love this last picture because of Caleb shoving cake in his mouth. I hope he wasn't up all night!

First Steps

Headband

We took family pictures a few days ago. It was a lot of fun... we had a great photographer. I also had a lot of fun figuring out what we all were going to wear. I liked my dress but it definitely needed something else.

I had some fabric (extra from a project that didn't turn out) that coordinated nicely so I decided to make a headband I had seen on one of the crafting blogs I follow. Problem was I couldn't find the tutorial when I went looking for it. I did save a picture of it so I decided to give it a try anyway. I took pictures along the way, but I'm not calling this a 'tutorial' exactly... you may have to fill in some of the blanks on your own, but I can at least get your wheels turning.

So I started with two strips of fabric about 2.5" wide. One about 16" long and another about 32" or so... but I didn't measure them... see what I mean, not a tutorial! I rounded the ends of the shorter one... I placed it on my head and said, "about there!" and then I cut... it's how I roll.



Then I basted the longer strip and pulled the bobbin thread to make a ruffle. I really like ruffles :)



Next I put WRONG sides together and sewed the two layers together (kinda like basting a quilt without batting). You can iron at this point... it gives it a different look, but I like to make fluffy thing (like, "IT'S SO FLUFFY I'M GONNA DIE!"... I love that girl!).





Alright. Great... Doesn't look like much yet, but we are getting there.



Now, trim around the headband using the unruffled pieces as your guide.





Next you need some type of binding. You can use a coordinating fabric for this but I had some ribbon that went well so I decided to go with that. Attach it using your favorite binding attaching method... this is like The Quilter's Headband. You'll notice I switch to a walking foot... the fabric and binding can get kinda bulky... it's not necessary, but it helps.





You are suppose to pin at this point... but I hate pins and try to avoid them whenever possible. It might have made the underside look better but I was planning on not using the opposite side so I opted for the quick way. If you want to use the other side then go ahead and pin... or even hand stitch your binding!



OKAY... almost done. Admire your piece...







The last part is attaching the ribbons.

If you decided to make your own binding then will need to make two long pieces for tying. Take two strips of fabric as long as you want for tying (I like just a little longer than the main part, about 18") and twice as wide as the desired width... say 5 inches. Then with right sides together fold the fabric in half (the right sides are "kissing" now). And sew a seam like you are going to make tube. Also sew a seam (on an angle for pretty-ness) at the bottom of each stripe. Use a safety pin to turn your tube right side out and press.

Now... sewing on the ribbons...



You'll need to hem them, so take care of that...



And then fold over in thirds, like you would do a letter to stuff in an envelope.



And top stitch onto the headband. There might be a prettier way of doing this, but I knew I wasn't going to use the underside of my headband.



And Viola! Ahhh, so pretty.



Now I must confess that after playing with the headband a bit I decided it needed a little structure to help it stay in place. I tried bobby pins and various clips I had, but nothing held it in place well. Everyone's head is shaped differently and it may work for you without structure. However, ultimately I ran to Walgreen's and purchased one of those plastic headbands to hot glue to the underside. It worked great! and you can't even tell I did it... but now it's definitely not reversible. I, of course, picked ruffle side up!

Look how great we look!






More pictures to come, I promise.