Oh. My. Garlic.

Heaven in a box.

Have You Ever Looked at the Back of a Sunflower?

I mean, really looked at it.  It's really beautiful.

And this is what a sunflower looks like when the bees can't collect the pollen.

If Anyone Still Bothers To Check Here...

(In order to alleviate the boredom you are sure to feel when reading this post, I've included some "oldie but goodie" pictures (circa 2004) as a feast for your eyes.  Totally free, folks.)

So I've been silent for a while.  There are a few reasons why:

• My kids have been sick.
• I got 4 embroidery orders all at once. (Woo-Hoo!)
• I went to JoAnn's.  Three times.
• I've been trying to finish planning our school year.
• I've been on strike.

Doesn't Aaron look so cute?  He enjoyed playing at the park in the suburbs of Vancouver, BC, Canada.
• I've been contemplating the effects of global warming.
• I've had a headache.
• I've been reading.
• I wrote a commentary on the book of Lamentations.
• I've had nothing to write about.

Here we are visiting Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau, Alaska.  We actually got to walk on part of the glacier!
• I've been reading the healthcare bill.
• I've been watching movies.
• I've been selling jewelry.
• I've slept.
• I've been going to the gym again.

In all seriousness, I am still trying to figure out my schedule now that I am working part time.  The days just seem to fly by.  I do have some things I've wanted to post about, though.  Does that count for anything?

Aaron felt it was his duty to make sure we were all safe in the airplane on the flight home!

Isaac's Room

Whaddaya think?  I wish the rug was bigger but we're trying to not spend a whole bunch of money.  I repurposed that rug from Del's old office in our bedroom.  I'm really happy with the bedding.  Now I just need to come up with some sort of inexpensive widow dressing...that doesn't include me sewing because I'm just not into that right now.  Maybe when my joints are less loose and painful.  I feel like my legs are going to fall off every time I get up.  He'll spend up to a month in our room in the bassinet then be exiled to this room so I can get some sleep; noisy babies.  So I have some time to think about the windows.

MACRO!!!

If you pay any attention to FB at all you'll know that my camera has been in the shop after Anna dragged off the table and broke it.  I finally got it back last Thursday.  While in the shop I used my allowance to buy a macro lens.  Macro photography is my favorite type of photography.  Here are a few shots I've taken since I got the lens.

One of my favorite shots so far, just some tiny, plain mushroom in my flower bed.  In macro turns into something wondrous.

Here's a macro shot of the Russian egg below, also taken with my macro lens.

There were so many cool shots of the lantana below, I had a hard time deciding on just one photo.

This is moss rose in a hanging basket in my yard.  It's partly cloudy out today, which makes for perfect lighting for photography.

This is Lily's left eye.  I couldn't get myself to stay still enough to keep the focus.  I really need to break out my tripod.

And just to let you know, I have a really hard time blogging without photos to add to the post.  Hopefully I will blog more now that I have my camera back.  Hmmm...maybe I should have put a watermark on these photos.  Well...NO you are not allowed to use my pictures unless you ask me first (copyrighted, ya know).  Unless you're Johanna (who blogs here) then you can use them for whatever you want.

Houston, We have a winner!

I used Random.org to find a random number for the comments on my giveaway post, and I tried and tried to capture a screen shot of the results so you would know I wasn't making it up and just choosing my favorite person in the whole world to win, but I couldn't do it for the life of me!  So I guess you'll just have to trust that I am an honest person and wouldn't lie to you about anything! :)

So, without further ado, the winner is.............................#2: Joanna!!!

Congratulations, Jo!  You rock!  I'll be sending you the book shortly!

I'm Still Alive

I have been directed by the REAL owner of this here blog to post something...ANYTHING.  So...here's my attempt.

I am 32 weeks pregnant.  I am tired exhausted.  I wake up sometime between 6:45 and 7:45 and by 9 I'm ready for a nap again.  I have a compulsion to eat ice all day long and by the time this baby boy is born I will officially weigh about 15 pounds more than I have ever weighed in my life before.  This is a big deal for me as when I'm at my normal weight it's usually about 98 or 100 pounds and to weigh nearly 155 pounds is really taking a lot out of me.  That's over half my weight added onto my small frame.  This is the toughest pregnancy I've had yet.  Which is why I've just been sticking with one-liners over at Facebook and an occasional comment on Heidi, Amy, or Terry's blog.

I have been trying to keep busy though and not focus so much on the fact that I've still got 8 weeks left.  The laundry never ends, the dishes never end and I've painted a stripe in all the kids' rooms and two of the three closets are painted.  There's been a lot of moving of furniture, and organizing.  Plus my husband had a big surgery on his neck which he's recovering quite well from and HE DIDN'T DIE, so I'm really happy about that.  My grandma has been in the hospital a lot lately, so my mom has been taking care of her almost exclusively.  We get to see her every now and then.  She's really been sacrificing much of her time and energy to my grandma, making her life easier as she recovers from three hospitalizations/ER visits in the last month.  She's a good mother and daughter-in-law.  Don't know what I'd do without her.  I told her as long as she was around to watch the kids when Isaac was born, I was good with whatever she needed to do in her life besides take care of me.  Aren't I generous?

Anyway, here are some pictures of the rooms.  Still don't have my broken camera back so I can't get a picture of my belly until my mom comes over tomorrow.  Don't forget to scroll down and enter Johanna's HS curriculum giveaway.  It looks like good stuff.

This is a water color my oldest daughter did.

This is the older three girls' room.

This is Lily and Anna's room.

These two are Isaac's room.