Diamond

I've been thinking a lot about children lately - we have so many friends having children and I've been reading more family-related blogs that talk a lot about children. One topic that comes up over and over again is education. I recently read a post about homework for children in preschool and elementary school. Some of the cited information indicated that homework during these ages could actually be detrimental, undermining the child's natural problem-solving and creativity.

But this builds on other concerns - as a person who believes strongly in education, with a father who is an educator, with friends who are educators, with children whom I love going to school now and in the future - the continuing problems in our education system more than concern me.

Then I saw this: http://www.racetonowhere.com/home and the trailer for the movie.

Hope.
 

*Note: this is not a political statement

Busy

That's my mind lately. I go through periods of a busy mind every once in awhile - usually it has more to do with what's on my heart - so I'm working on figuring that out right now. Busy minds and hearts don't lend to blog writing but I'll update you on random stuff that's going on here.

I started playing softball last week - double headers every Monday. I haven't played in awhile and I was sore for 4 days after the games last week. But this week I'm not nearly as sore! Although I do think in my effort to catch a crazy fly ball last night, I strained a muscle in my rear! :) Haha!

I've been loving Adele lately - its great music. NPR has a music player where you can add all kinds of songs from their site to a playlist and listen away for nothing - which I do at work. Hopefully funding for NPR isn't eliminated in the budget madness.



Oh - being on the softball team has added 11 to the number of people I know in Houston! :) And the team coach is a taxidermist.

I heard this song on Pandora last night - it makes me happy too. My music selection of late seems to echo the mind and heart stirrings.




We might actually finish some projects this weekend so there should be some decent updates on the blog next week.

I hope you have a beautiful week! :)

It’s in my blood

Gardening, that is. (so hopefully I end up at least decent at it) One of the clearest and fondest memories I have from my childhood home is the garden. Just the other day I told the husband I would love to see it again because in my memory it is HUGE. We had strawberries and tons of other stuff (I can’t remember all that detail 400 years later). In addition to the garden, we had blueberry bushes and a peach tree. I fondly remember my parents canning yummy jams, etc and making homemade peach ice cream. And my grandmother is still quite the avid gardener, sharing many of her tools of the trade whenever I need some help!

Naturally, one of the most exciting things to me about owning a home was the opportunity to have a garden. And you saw pictures of the garden. We also have a container area with a few more plants too.

But, you might (or might not) be wondering what we put in our big ole garden. For those of you who might be wondering – I’ve provided the list below. Major deciding factors on what went into our garden were things we eat (duh), things that can easily be canned (mainly tomatoes), days to harvest, and space.

Garden plants

3 cherry tomato (early harvest)

7 Early girl tomato (early harvest)

6 Better boy tomato (extra large, later harvest)

3 tomatillo

1 poblano pepper

3 jalapeno

3 red pepper

2 zucchini

1 yellow squash

Green onions – sprinkled about (earliest harvest)

Container plants

Herbs: thyme, basil, parsley, spearmint (bought the wrong kind of mint but it sure smells good!)

2 habenero

1 red chile

1 cucumber

2 jalapenos

Some other pictures from our backyard.

Gift giving

I'm kind of a weirdo when it comes to gift giving. I spend WAY too much time worrying over good gifts and trying to be creative about it. I used to do a lot more in the way of creative gifts but that will have to wait until I'm unsaddled (from school that is). One aspect of gift giving is the card and I love me some fancy (Papyrus, Paper Source, etc) cards. Truly I could spend my entire paycheck on stuff from these stores.

Pic from here.

The reason I bring this up? As I've mentioned before, babies babies everywhere!!! We've spent the last 7 years or so going to weddings and we're shifting from the period of weddings to the period of babies.

A baby (me)

So of course I need some cards to send. But Target's baby card selection is umm, sad (to me). And I hate feeling like I'm settling for a card that I find not-so-exciting.

Then it hit me! My aunt makes some awesome, extremely creative stuff - beautiful cards, scrapbooks, and more.

So I happily commissioned her to make some cards for me that I know I'll love and at the same time I'm supporting individual creativity over chainstore-blah. You can check out her etsy store here. And I've included some photos of beautiful creations she's made me.

A wedding album for us to fill: the glowing circle is not a part of the original creation.

My birthday card this past year - it folded in all kinds of very cool ways to reveal different messages.

Notecards

Notecards

 P.S. This is not a plug to get you to buy stuff from her - although that would be nice - rather just my solution to a silly little problem.