Happy Muffin Monday!

It's 8:30 pm, but I actually have remembered that it's Muffin Monday! I have some very cute Easter-related pictures of her and I actually managed to get one of me and her and of Kevin, me and her. It happens so rarely now that sometimes it seems like Kevin and especially I do not exist anymore (at least in the photo world).

So anyway, here are some photos that make me laugh/smile. I hope they make you laugh/smile, too! Have a great week!


Her Toto bought her the bunny ears and I had the carrot with the green top from our produce from last week and I thought, "Perfect photo op!"


Her great-Mimi gave her this dress. I love how blue it makes her eyes look.


Enjoying some farm-fresh organic brown scrambled egg for breakfast.


Probably one of my new favorite photos of the two of us.


And my second favorite photo. We hadn't put on shoes yet and Eden isn't looking at the camera, but I still love it.

That's all! Cheers!

Good evening!

I know it's not Monday and it's definitely not morning (or evening for that matter), but it is time for a current posting from Lawracyland so I figured there's no better time that the (very late) present!

Last time I left you with a ho-hum posting, so I must immediately make amends and give you a posting that will leave you smiling. Without further ado, here we go:

Eden has started making really goofy faces lately, so I finally captured it on camera. Get ready to laugh.

Funny faces (10.5 months old) from Cameron Lawracy on Vimeo.

Our backyard is almost completely finished. Kevin still has to put edging and dog-proof fencing up around the small beds, but basically it's done. Our vegetable garden is even planted.

Our windows to our bedroom and master bathroom (excuse the shoddy grass - we are trying to fill in the bald spots):


And if you slowly keep turning to the right, you'll get to see the full span of our backyard. Here you go:




(ignore the trailer, Kevin hasn't moved it to the side yard yet)


And here's the bed he put out front:


Here's the side yard that has been the bane of my existence. It's weird and sloping and narrow and ugly. But Kevin beautified it up a bit.


And just because nature amazes and confounds me at the same time, I have to include this photo:

The white flowers you see are annuals (?? is that the right word? It's the type of plant that is supposed to die after 1 year.) and they miraculously came back to life this year. See the potted bush thing? Those are our lemon and lime trees. They were supposed to stop flowering a few months ago. And now they are covered in flowers and tiny citrus fruit. Go figure.

Eden and I recently went to Georgia to visit the Petersons. As always it was equally fun and educational. I learned how to make strawberry freezer jam and angel food cake (YUM-O!!). Eden discovered the joy of a big blue ball.



My angel food cake attempt at home after our trip:


And because I am gearing up for the time of year during which there are massive amounts of birthdays and celebrations to send cards and presents for, I've been super productive in the crafting department. I've completed a lot of sewing projects that were more like sewing chores (you know, fixing rips, hemming stuff, etc.), and a few projects for gifts. I made a pair booties whose last step baffled me for 2 hours, but I overcame my confusion eventually.



I puff-painted the bottom so they would grip better. All in all, a fun project (minus the 2 hours of frustration at the end).


And I made my friend Julia (hey, Julia!!) her bday present, but I don't know if she's received it yet, so I won't post it yet.

Kevin and I joined a CSA (community-supported agriculture) farm, from which we've purchased a share of produce for the summer and so I've been in what-do-I-do-with-this-fresh-vegetable cooking mode.
Here's this week's bounty:


I've made beets, swiss chard, mustard greens, mint tea, rice pudding (with egg yolks leftover from angel food cake-ing), vanilla ice cream custard (this did not turn out well, but oh well) and other stuff I can't remember. Eden loves swiss chard. She's not the hugest fan of the beets but we'll try that again later. Here's the aftermath of the beets feeding.


(I love that little fuscia tongue.)

And speaking of Eden, she is really into making goofy faces lately (like I said before). Capturing it on camera has been so fun.





And she has randomly started sucking her thumb. At 10 months old. Weird.


So that's my life lately. Hope all is well in your world! Good night!

Blah

It's how I feel today. Blah. I don't physically feel bad (though this cold has dug its nasty little claws deep into me and is hanging on for dear life), but it's just one of those days. How is that possible? It's Friday. "Those days" are only for Mondays, maybe Tuesdays, but never Fridays. Blah.
What is making today blah? Nothing overly horrible, or even slightly bad. I'm just feeling blah; you know, not motivated to do anything despite the atrocity that is the house right now. Here are my circumstances causing the blah:
* I woke up to the house smelling like a combo of 2-day-old chicken and pork chop styrofoam sitting in the trash, a full diaper pail, a dirty diaper sitting on the toilet that needed to be rinsed (the unsavory side of cloth diapering), and Ruby vomit on the carpet...3 inches away from the tile. And it's humid.
* There are 3 loads of laundry sitting in baskets that need to be folded and put away.
* I tried to hang a shelf in Eden's room today, and it was just giving me fits (normally this is not a hard task to complete) so now there are 2 extra holes in the wall (luckily behind the shelf now) that will have to patched one day. And I'm still not sure if the shelf is secure - a great feeling to have for a hung item in the baby's room.
* I dropped the drill on the diaper pail, busted the top, knocked down a bunch of crap that was sitting on top of the diaper pail (not literal crap, though, thankfully) and broke some bottle top covers.
* There is now a huge HUGE mess in front of Eden's door because of the shelf hanging project.
* The dishes have swollen to outside of the sink and are now leaking on the counter top.
* I have to unload the dishwasher (my least favorite chore ever).
* There are mysterious stains on my living carpet that seemed to have appeared overnight. (It's not Ruby vomit; I checked.)
* It's cloudy and humid outside so I can't hang the clean diapers outside because they won't dry so I have to hang them inside. So much less efficient.
* The kitchen floor is covered in muddy dog prints. I just mopped on Tuesday.
* There is random detritus everywhere, in every room, on every surface of this house.
* My craft room is the aftermath of a tornado because I had sewing class last night and had to finish my "homework" (piecing of a quilt).
* Kevin just walked through the door and I'm sitting here typing instead of cleaning so now I feel guilty and even lazier.
* Ugh.
* Tonight we have company for dinner so I have to clean. Not just should clean, but have to. Ugh.
* Kevin's laundry needs doing (that's in addition to the 3 loads sitting in the baskets).

So that sums it up pretty much. And I haven't taken a shower. So I also feel gross (even though I'm really not - I haven't gotten dirty so I'm not all that unclean).

I hate days like today. Ugh.

What a wonderful Wednesday!

Well, I forgot to do a Happy Muffin Monday post, so today it's a Wonderful Wednesday post instead.
General update: everything's peachy here in Lawracy Land. Kevin's been working like mad on the backyard (I even got dirty digging up sod and spreading topsoil and working on our square-foot garden and going to Lowe's multiple times). I have a "during" photo to show you, but no "after" photos quite yet. We still have to put the fencing up (this is anti-dog-digging fencing, to be more specific) and lay the mulch and then the backyard landscaping will be done for the most part.


Working hard for no money...working hard for no money. (Like how hard Ruby's working?) My dad and Kevin dug so many holes for the all the bushes and trees.

Switching directions, Kevin got a slot to attend Squadron Officer School (SOS) this coming class session, so he'll get a break from being an instructor for a few weeks.

Switching directions again, Eden turned 10 months old on March 24. No more single digit month birthdays. The next big milestone is 1 year old. Good gravy, how did 1 year pass? Sometimes it seems like it's been only a few days ago since she was born; other times it feels like it's been 10 years (those times are usually the days after the nights she hasn't slept well). Here are some photos of our mischievous little goober:


First bath in the sink. This was mandated after a run-in with maple syrup.


Learn early, little girl. Chores are fun. And not optional.


Not just a dog door...


Even sunscreen is tasty.

And now for an update in my personal world. We recently had our friends from Panama City come visit us for a day and I made their son a shirt. It was my sophomore attempt at applique. I was pretty happy with the result. Here it is:


(His name is Eli; hence the "e")

And we all went to a great restaurant in downtown Montgomery and afterwards took a group photo that was not the greatest but I love nonetheless. Gotta love the self-timer!



And that pretty much sums up our world! Today it's on to the commissary for grocery shopping and the continuation of the never-ending (literally, it never never EVER ends) laundry pile.

Cheers!

P.S. I forgot an update for the dogs. This photo pretty much sums them up.


Dogs' daily to-do list: hang out outside, dig up Mom and Dad's hard work, rest.