Taking Care of Us

We've all had a virus in our family, and this morning I woke up feeling yucky. Jacob, seeing that I was sick, said he was going to go brush his teeth and was his hands all by himself because Bridget and I were sick. The next thing I knew, he brought me, Bridget, and himself our toothbrushes all loaded up with toothpaste and ready to go. He told me he did it because I wasn't feeling good. When we were done he offered to read a book to Bridget. How sweet is that?

50

I have decided that this is the year I'm going to get enough of a tomato crop to can and make salsa. I've tried in other years, but have been unsuccessful. It may have something to do with my impatience and putting my plants out too early. I lose half of my tomato plants every year. This year I have forced myself to wait to start them until yesterday, and they should be big enough to transplant mid to late May, when it's safe to plant around here.

So I have 50 tomato seeds planted from around 25 different varieties. Yum. My very favorite ones are the little orange cherry tomatoes, followed by the purple cherry tomatoes. The large purple tomatoes are the best big tomato I've ever tasted, followed in a close second by the large green ones. I can hardly wait.

Balance

Do you ever get that feeling where the zest and sparkle just go out of life, and everything seems kind of gray? We've been having that feeling lately. We decided that we've been out of balance for a long time, and now it's catching up with us. We've been remodeling something since we moved in 3 and a half years ago, and the kitchen remodel kind of did us in.

So we've decided to have family week this week, where we will not be working heavily on the house. We started family week Saturday. We rode bikes and took the kids to the playground. Yesterday we saw some of the local sites and stopped for ice cream in one of the towns. My laundry room sits unfinished, and I couldn't be happier.

Seeing the sturgeon

The alligator farm (if you look carefully you can see an alligator at the back of the pond, almost in the center of the picture)

Some of the springs coming out of the canyon wall

Visits

Tim, Tara, Molly and Audrey came and visited us for a few days. We had so much fun, and the kids had a great time playing together. One of my favorite moments was when Jacob and Audrey were supposed to be going to sleep and we heard them talking.

Jacob: So what's your favorite color? Blue?

Audrey: Blue.

I love these kids.

Playing the butterfly game

Watching a little TV

Going for a walk to the park. Jacob insisted on holding Audrey's hand every time they walked.

Stitches

Today was another first. Bridget is a little climber, and we haven't been able to get her to stop. Well, today she fell and split her lip open. David took one look at her and said that it was going to need stitches, so we went to our first aid kit and got the suturing supplies out. We've had them, knowing that such a day would come. He numbed her up and stitched her back together while I held her. I can't tell you how unpleasant of an experience that is as a parent, but it's nice that David has the knowledge and we can just fix it here at home.

So here's our wounded little soldier.

Mom White's birthday gift

I did a painting of the farm for my mother-in-law for her birthday. I had a lot of fun doing it. I don't know what it is about the yellow paint that makes it look so bright when I take a photo of it, but the yellows are a lot more soft in the actual painting than that.

Visit to Grandma White's

Bridget just LOVES her hat and sunglasses. Any time she sees them she wants to wear them.

Aunt Holly helping Jacob feed the calves.

XaraKali and Jacob jumping (he couldn't get enough of the trampoline)

3 cute little munchkins.

We had such a fun time spending several days with everyone and having a chance to visit for a while. It was warm enough to play outside, and we took advantage of it as much as possible.