Sunday Snapshots (of the May Fair)

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Happy Mother’s Day to all the wonderful mothers out there, including my dear MIL!

Elly surprised me with a handmade foam ‘Mom’, a beetle pin and a Flinstone card. The best present though was when she ran to me in the morning and wished me a Happy Mother’s Day followed by a big hug. Melted my heart, it did.

Pictures this week are from the May Fair we attended last weekend at our local Pottsgrove Manor.

Elly’s favorite activities included petting the animals, particularly Tuppence the sheep,


Elly’s favorite thing about Tuppence was how she would say “Baah”. It never failed to send Elly into a fit of giggles.

watching an acrobatic show by the lovely Signora Bella,

and pumping water from their well.

OK. So playing in the water that poured out of the spigot was also a huge hit.

 

 

Free Pizza

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The Pottstown Library has a reading program during the summer. The goal is to read at least 20 minutes a day for a total of 20 days. As a reward, Elly gets a free slice of pizza this afternoon.

Meeting that requirement was super easy. Elly is a voracious reader. Which is to say that I am a voracious reader and Elly is an avid listener, since Elly is only 3 and can’t read. Although she is starting to recognize some words.

This is a typical stack of books that we read on a daily basis.

Her favorites are anything by Dr. Seuss, almost anything by the Berenstains (though I donated the one about the moon because I hated it) and Fancy Nancy.

Gone are the days I can change the story up so I don’t end up reading the same text over and over and over again. Even a slip of the tongue draws a correction from Elly now.

New Wheels

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Dan has brand new wheels.

It’s a Honda Civic.
He went back to his first love.

Though the Toyota Camry is still going strong, our 2nd car the Mazda was on its last legs. It needed a new engine. A new engine it wasn’t going to get.

With this purchase, Dan has a new car, well new to him anyway; it was purchased used from Car Sense, to drive to work everyday and rack up the miles on and Elly and I have a reliable car that we can take out of Pottstown without having to hold our breath.

Though Dan and I operated as a 1 car family for many years before Elly was born and we even survived the first year of her life as a 1 car family, after having a taste as a 2 car family, there is no going back. The freedom of having a 2nd car is too tantalizing. Yes, Pottstown has a bus system and Septa can get us anywhere beyond the boundaries of Pottstown, but a car allows us to make our own schedule. Perhaps if the buses ran more frequently rather than every hour and if they actually ran on time, it would be feasible to live without a 2nd car, but they don’t. Too many times we were stuck in downtown Pottstown for an hour because we missed the bus by a few minutes. It’s not a fun scenario when you have a cranky, tired, and hungry child on your hands. A 2nd car is worth its weight in gold.

When Dan got home in his new car, he received a warm welcome.

Why I Fell in Love with Gardening

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This yard made me fall in love with gardening.

In Spring, our yard is filled with eye candy. Here in this picture only 3 dogwood trees are visible, but there is a total of 6 dogwood trees in our yard each one more beautiful than the other. There are more azalea bushes than I have fingers on my hands.

Millions of bulbs pop up every year from tulips to daffodils to crocuses to daylilies. The scent of the lilac bushes can be smelled before your eye locates them on the edge of the property.

Before moving into this house 8 years ago, I hated gardening. It seemed like such a fruitless activity. All that bending and digging and weeding felt like work. All I wanted was a glass of port and a huge ball of yarn instead, thank you very much.

Then, I saw the beauty that a garden can bring. Add in fresh tomatoes and I came crashing to my knees.

Yep, I could spend every waking hour in my garden. Elly has less dedication. There are swings to be ridden and ice cream to eat.

Sunday Snapshots (of Jake’s Birthday)

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Jake, our dog, turned 10 on May 1st.

For a gift, Elly and I made Jake sausage biscuits.


(Jake is keeping a watchful eye on us in the kitchen, but not overexerting himself).

Then, because all birthdays must have cake per Elly’s rules, we baked a carrot cake.

Once you have a birthday cake made, you simply must sing Happy Birthday and blow out candles.

Jake being a dog couldn’t blow out his candles. So, Elly did the honors for him.

It was a lot of candles. It took Elly a few tries to blow them all out. Eventually, we all got to eat cake, except Jake who happily ate another sausage biscuit.

Happy Birthday, Jake!

Hand Applique

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The quilt top is assembled, but it is not finished.

The Dresden plates are only basted onto the quilt top. To tack the edges down, I am using a hand applique technique. Although I found instructions for the technique in the Complete Guide to Quilting book, an online tutorial can be found here.


If you squint, you should be able to see my stitches in red. I used red thread because if I am going to hand sew, I want my stitches to visible. Plus, I thought it might look nice against the red wheel fabric.

Why hand applique, you ask.

It’s a good question. Surely, a sewing machine would be faster. It’s not like I lack for sewing machines. I own 3 now.

There are several reasons why I chose to attach the Dresden plates by hand.

One, I plan to quilt this Dresden throw by hand, so it just goes with the theme of things.
Two, I like to hand stitch things.
Three, a sewing machine must be used in the sewing room after hours and away from family. Hand stitching can be done almost anytime and anywhere.
Four, I can watch TV while hand stitching. There are no TVs in the sewing room.
Five, did I mention that I really enjoy the repetition of sewing by hand? It’s like knitting; it relaxes me.

Right now I am watching Vanity Fair. It’s so nice to get a break from Go, Diego, Go and the Green Lantern, also known as the Justice League.

And for those wondering why Elly watches the Justice League, well obviously Dan had a hand in it. About a month ago, Elly won a stuffed super hero from the claw machine inside our local grocery store. She asked me what his name was. I had no idea. Of course, Dan knew and not only told her his name, Green Lantern, but also introduced her to comic books with the Green Lantern in it and cartoons with the Green Lantern in it. Now the whole family knows Green Lantern’s name and has watched far too many Justice League cartoon shows. Although I shouldn’t complain because the Justice League is far better than Diego or Bob the Builder or Timmy Time.

Hooray! My Garden is Growing!

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Barely.

Seeds have only just started to poke their heads out of the ground, but I am already dancing for joy!

Spinach!

Swiss Chard!

Asparagus!

Peas!

Carrots that Elly and I planted last Fall!

Unfortunately, I need to remove the lion’s share. One, they are growing too close together and two, I need room to plant seeds of corn.

Other plants require less squinting to find, such as the garlic and herbs.

Just this past week, I tossed the dried thyme in my spice rack because the thyme in my garden is available year round. And fresh is better.

Soon I will be able to toss the rosemary too. Even though it dies back in the winter, I can whip out my dehydrator and dry my own supply in the Fall before the first freeze.

It’s rewarding and really fun to reap what you sow.

What the Moms Club Means to Me

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Last week the Pottstown/Pottsgrove Moms Club held an open house at the Heather Place playground. Despite earlier predictions for rain, the day was beautiful.

Elly had went to sleep with a low-grade fever, but she woke up in good spirits. So, away we went to the party.

I joined the Moms Club when Elly was 18 months old because we would go to the playgrounds and nobody would be there. I felt like I either needed to have another child so Elly could have a playmate (and I so wasn’t ready for a 2nd child. Heck, I’m still not quite ready for a 2nd child) or I needed to find some other people who had kids around Elly’s age.

The Moms Club had a weekly playgroup for moms and their children that were around Elly’s age. It was great for Elly. She had always been a social butterfly, but she really blossomed when she finally got to make some lasting friendships.

Several side benefits occurred including learning how to share, experiencing time away from Mom, and learning kid games like tag and run away.

The surprise was learning how supportive the Moms Club was for me.

Elly had been a baby who hated sleep and thought most food was poisonous. It was so reassuring to hear that Elly was not the only baby in the world who held fast to these notions. More importantly, it was just a phase. Elly would grow up. She would learn to eat better and sleep better.

At 3, Elly does eat better. She is still picky, but she will eat more than just French fries although they remain her favorite food. She is a MUCH better sleeper too though she has still never slept through the whole night. But what started as a nightmare of waking up every hour on the hour now has turned into only waking up once in the night.

Now when Elly and I attend Moms Club activities, Elly runs off to play with her friends. I pull up a chair, relax and chat with some pretty awesome women whom I am proud to call my friends.

Perhaps feeling the way I do, it is only fitting that I have been nominated to be the next president of the Pottstown/Pottsgrove Moms Club.

If the Moms Club sounds pretty awesome to you, check out your local chapter.

Sunday Snapshots (of singing)

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Rest assured no singing was done by Dan or myself. We are both tone-deaf. We keep any singing limited to our small house and for the sole entertainment of our daughter. Surely nobody else wants to hear us sing. It’s not a pretty sound.

Elly, on the other hand, sings anywhere and everywhere.

She loves to sing.

LOVES.

Can she sing better than we can?

She does have a great memory for tunes. It’s amazing how quickly she learns a song.

As far as sound quality goes, well Elly is 3 and virtually anything she does short of whining is pretty adorable.

 

Yep. Adorable.

Grass Mulch

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It is a goal of ours to eventually replace all the grass in our front lawn with trees, bushes and an overabundance of ground cover plants.

Dan hates to mow. He especially hates to mow under the low hanging branches of all the dogwood trees. Apparently, it is difficult to get the mower underneath the tree to cut the grass without getting whacked in the head.

Perhaps most importantly, we don’t use the lawn in the front yard. It is strictly for decoration. The backyard is where we play, lounge about and run barefoot.

Slowly but surely, I am eating all the grass up with my ever-expanding vegetable garden and miniature trees.


Japanese Maple and Japanese Stewartia trees
When I am 100, they might be as tall as me. Which is to say, they are terribly slow growing.

In the meantime, the grass is earning its keep by providing free mulch.

Dan saves the grass clippings for me every time he mows. The grass mulch is used all over the yard, but most heavily in the vegetable and herb gardens.