this and that

A little bit of this and that, and as always, no one has asked me to include anything, or paid me a cent:

I'm super excited that Cuppow now has a lid to fit standard canning jars! Marisa's review (and a giveaway!) are over here.

I took a bunch of cabbage pictures, so there are more coming. Fair warning.

Phillip has been loving Alphabet Glue so far this summer. I do, too - if you have a young reader in your house, this is a great way to fill some summer time with thoughtful, creative activities, crafts and all sorts of good stuff related to reading. It even inspired him to convert his 'store' into a library. 5 stars! There's a Summer Science Special, too! It's only a few dollars per issue, and they're delivered as printable PDFs to your inbox super quickly by Annie. Yay!

Thomas is pretty much toilet trained. On Day 4, we had no accidents at all! And last night, he refused to go to sleep in a diaper. He was waaaay overtired and was standing in his crib, sobbing "I want to sleep in mine underwear! I don't want a diaper!" (He uses 'mine' for 'my' and it's the cutest thing ever. Right up there with googly eyes on a tiny cabbage.) It took Phillip months and months, and you have no idea how thankful I am that Thomas loves wearing underwear and using the toilet. SO thankful!

We spent the afternoon at the beach yesterday, and it was fantastic. We ran into a colleague of mine who was visiting relatives, and her two boys and mine had a great time together. I love summer.

Hope you're having a great weekend!

chou chou

I couldn't help myself.

july 4

It's a beautiful day once again, and I got to spend some quality time potting some new houseplants (succulents are on sale for $1.94 at the Dayton Red & White, for you locals!) and working in the garden. My hands are dirty and I'm all the better for it.

Don't you just want to dive into that dill? Every time I walk by, the scent wafts up. I'm looking forward to dill pickles, take two, in several more weeks.

Happy Wednesday!

morning

Good morning.

Everyone is feeling good again, and the house has been cleaned and cleaned and disinfected. And cleaned some more. I'm hoping that's the last of the germs for a long, long time. Adam has the boys out for a walk and the house is quiet.

We have no particular plans for today. If it's super hot again this afternoon, I'm thinking that the boys and I might either go to the beach or play with water in the backyard. We don't have an outside faucet, though, and we pay for water here by consumption, so the free, close, available ocean seems like a better plan. I'm hoping that this summer will be quiet, uneventful, and lovely. With lots of time exploring outdoors and playing with friends. That sounds just about perfect to me.

My first official day of summer break (!) began with Heidi Swanson's baked oatmeal. I have her Super Natural Every Day book signed out of the library. Again. There are some fantastic looking recipes in there, but many of them aren't ones that Adam can eat, so I can't bring myself to buy the book. We used raspberries instead of huckleberries, and some great Scottish Oatmeal from Speerville Flour Mill. If you haven't visited it before, Heidi's blog is here; I'll  bet that you'll find something you like.

On a completely different note, it's also Thomas' first day of toilet training. I think that he'll do just fine. I feel like went about it in so many ways that didn't work with Phillip that we learned a lot. Also, Thomas is just about the easiest, laid-back kid in the world, and he already knows when he's going, he can hold it and get to the toilet, and he sees his brother. I think he's ready!

Happy Canada Day (yesterday) to my fellow Canucks! I am so thankful to have been born in this beautiful country. You Americans, have a fun Independence Day. (And Teresa, who's a bit of both and who leaves the sweetest comments, I hope that you celebrate both!) And if you're somewhere else, I hope that you have a lovely Monday.