Views From a 4 1/2 Year-Old's Perspective

Many times, the way I keep track of what I've blogged about, is to peruse my pictures. When I see some pictures that I haven't posted on yet, that's what I still need to blog about. A mental reminder of sorts! Imagine my surprise when I found a bunch of pictures just now, taken by our little photogapher several weeks ago . I didn't know she had grabbed the camera. I thought I would share a couple of them with you folks. Note the picture of my computer screen as I was typing a blog post!

She got a kiddie camera for Christmas. You should see the pictures she's got saved away on it! I'll have to download her pictures onto my computer soon. Some of them are pretty interesting. Hint: she's got a lot of pictures of the hind-ends of our dogs.

Where Have I Been?

It's been a busy few weeks, that's for sure. For one thing, I have been battling major computer troubles since about the middle of Dec. I am finally starting to get somewhere with it all. It's wonderfully nice to see progress. But it's taken up so much of my time that I didn't feel like I could spend any more time on the computer for "pleasure" by blogging. My kids were having mild withdrawls from me because I was so tied up on the computer lately.

Secondly, we have been spending SO much time working with the blueberries, and preparing the fields for the babies to be transplanted soon. I am definitely feeling the sore muscles of a farmer.

Needless to say, I have a lot of blogging to catch up on. Hopefully I can get several posts up in the next few days.

6 Quirky Things About Myself

I have been tagged by Julie, on her blog. Now I have to write up 6 Quirky Things about myself. I bet I could come up with a whole lot more than that since I'm a quirky person, but here's the ones that come to mind right now.

1. I lost my last baby tooth when I was 15 yrs. old. I could have pulled it at 14, but I refrained so I could lose it at "15". Yes, I was quite late in the "teeth" department. My top wisdom teeth came in when I was 26 and pregnant. My bottom wisdom teeth came in when I was 28 and pregnant. My oldest son has followed suit in being late getting his teeth. His first tooth came when he was 15 months old. He didn't finish getting his 2 yr. molars until almost 3 1/2 yrs. old.

2. I have never knowingly eaten a bite of meat in my whole life. This means none of the following: fish, chicken, or even seafood. Two times I almost ate meat on accident: Taco Bell gave me a beef burrito when I had ordered a bean burrito; I took some crab meat dip once which I thought was pimento cheese spread. It felt funny in my mouth so I quickly spit it out before swallowing.

3. I turned my baby in utero by myself at home one morning at 34 wks. along. She had been in a breech position for at least 3 weeks, and I was desperately wanting to proceed with our plans for a home birth. Now I'll state the obvious: I wasn't really alone during all that. God's angels were holding my hands the whole time. B went on to be born at home in our bathtub right on schedule: her due date of July 4th.

4. I like potent flavors. By that, I mean, if I am eating lemon cookies, they better taste like lemon. Chocolate mint better have a minty zing to it. When I am eating flavored chips, you guessed it! The more flavor powder on a chip the better. So.....when eating the chips, I save the most flavorful-looking chips for the end. That's also why I like that cinnamon tea so much, because it's so "cinnamonny"!! (See prior post.)

5. I have never been pulled over by a cop for any reason while I was driving. Knock on wood. That's not to say I didn't deserve to be a few times, but it hasn't happened yet.

6. I have insanely early memories of my life. Little tidbits that I remember date back to around the time I was 1 1/2 yrs. old. I am not kidding. It's weird, no it's quirky, I know!

There! I'm all done. And if you have a blog, and you are reading this, you better figure out 6 quirky things about yourself too! (You know who you are.....) Post here in the comments that you've been tagged as well.

My Little Baker

All 3 kids have been in the kitchen with me more lately, which I keep reminding myself is a good thing. It is admittedly so much easier to make stuff quicker by myself, but I do understand that they really should learn sometime. No time like the present! Yes, no time like the present. No time like the present. I'm still telling myself that over and over again. In fact, I welcome one in the kitchen with me at a time. I think it is just 3 at a time that it's harder for me to deal with. But if one sees another one helping, they all want to help at the same time. I so badly want even my boys to learn how to cook, but it's very trying on my nerves at times. I am not the most patient person in the world. I try, but sometimes come up a little short. Praying for more patience is quite routine for me.

Well, it was just B in the kitchen with me this last time since the boys were outside working with their dad. It was serene enough I was able to snap a couple pictures. She's so into cooking and baking. It just warms my heart. She even looks like she knows what she's doing! By the way, we made a new recipe. Gluten free pumpkin spice blondies. They tasted pretty good, and the family ate up the whole double-batch! Even dad had a couple pieces, which is saying something because he's the only one in the family that doesn't eat gluten-free.

I am in Love!

I just had to share this flavor of herbal tea with you all. It's first ingredient is red rooibos (Roy-boss) from South Africa. It's packed with anti-oxidants and is completely caffeine free! The best part of this particular rooibos flavor is that it's absolutely, undeniably delicious! If you like cinnamon, this is the tea for you. The package says it's sweet, and it is. But no sweeteners have been added. Try it. You might just be hooked!

How to Remove a Tree

I guess that's a pretty dumb title for this blog post. You don't want to know how to remove a tree stump, do you? Really I want to talk about how much fun this tree removal was. The whole family got involved, yes, even me!! I promise, I did more than just snap pictures of it! Anyway....

I love how my husband is not afraid of hard physical labor. He actually craves it, I think. I just wish I could keep up with him a little better than I do. He is also one to expect the boys (in particular, since they are older than B) to help out with whatever family project presents itself at any given time. Most recently, it was removal of this Florida "cherry" tree since it was right in the way of our future blueberry field. (C is from PA, and he said this cherry tree is NOT really cherry.) It had to come down, and down it came! The stump was not as easy, and he had to dig it out with the back hoe attachment on the tractor. H helped him move the tractor around, while hubby did the back hoe digging. It took quite a while to remove. Even after the stump was out, it still required lots of manual digging by shovel to get the roots out. The boys spent a couple hours digging by hand with their shovels. B and I helped remove the roots to the brush pile, and then B got busy with a shovel as well! It was so cute to see her getting in there with her brothers. It's good to see her growing up as well, and she does not want to be out done (most times, anyway.)

Our Nature Study Continues

We love nature. We rely on it a lot for a good portion of our science studies. We have been attending a local nature preserve for nature classes about once a month for the last 4 years, or more! My hubby used to inquire quite frequently why we traipsed all the way over there for the classes "all the time" and I would try and explain why they were so great. But since he could never come with us, he never understood how valuable they were. Fast forward a little bit, and my hubby is finally figuring out that that's why the kids know so much about all the different animals, snakes, bugs, trees, insects, etc. living in Florida. They are no expert, by any means, but they've learned quite a lot. Here are a couple pictures of our most recent class. They are looking at a little alligator, about 1 yr. old. The preserve just got 2 gators recently (on loan from Gatorland), and it was just in time for our alligator class. I wish the pictures were better than they are.