Workhorse / Workhouse

Fall, hosting a baby shower, and having doonald home for 2 days a week bring out the workhorse in me.  This weekend’s project: begin the built-ins in the study.  YAY!  and a HIP-HIP-HOORAY!  We’ve been all over the place with this project.  Having bids done, being too scared to try, and then finally having hubby decide that YES we’re going to try and build them ourselves.  Love him.  He makes me more brave.  In the little things, which are sometimes extremely impactful.  So here was our Saturday.  Lots of time outdoors.  I like that.  Together and Outdoors = good times for the Wallace clan.

Donald doesn’t like this picture - “it’s too posed” – oh well – I think he’s cute.

Abi helping with her too small hat from last year (haven’t got her new one yet!  Note to self…)

Very sad when she had to get off the piece of wood and share her measuring tape

 

Relaxing all cool…

Mid-morning soccer break:

Clean-up!  She’s gonna have to earn that allowance somehow…

Planting fall

Since our little lady began using her feet to walk on a few months ago – life has become SO much easier!  Little tasks that would have had to be done during nap time or when Donald was home can get done now – and are much more fun too!  Our example of this: planting our fall flowers/plants.  Double the fun when done with little lady.

Prepping for our work:

 

The front plants are bulbs that come up in the fall – they’re amazing.  The lady who lived here about thirty years ago planted them – that is an entirely different post though.  When they come up, they evoke a smile.

Told you she was my little helper!

So this little plant/root is something I’m trying to keep alive from my mom’s garden – haha, abi decided that it didn’t need all of its CO2 grabbing leaves.

Gardening is not for the faint of heart!

Notice her cute little belly poking through…

She really wants to replicate what I’m doing, so abi found this empty bucket to drag around as I was filling my pots with dirt!  Baby even used the spade to dump in some dirt.

Abi was also very distressed when I wasn’t wearing my gloves – if I took them off (to get her picture) she would grab them and say “Mama??”  And wouldn’t relent until they were on my hands again!

Precious and joyful memories!

Please meet the other resident of our bedroom…

It just doesn’t make sense to have it any other place.  Even though it does irk me when our room is clean and tidy and then I’m staring at the ironing board.  Blah.  Yet, it does sometimes put me in a joyfully domestic frame of mind.  The reason I like it in our bedroom is because if I’ve been “bad” and haven’t ironed hubby’s shirt the day before, I can hop out of bed in the wee hours when he leaves for work – iron the shirt – and hop back into bed quickly.

This little friend should have been a resident a long time ago.  Maybe you’re thinking to yourself that I should have been writing this post, hmmmm, 4 years ago.  And you’d be right.  I come from a long line of excellent ironers.  The gene skipped me and actually went to my brother (yes, my brother is an excellent ironer and loves it!).   However, after some gentle, motherly correction upon her last visit – my mother kindly informed me that I needed to “step it up” and become a better ironer.  And now we have a new resident in our bedroom.

Hubby, this post is for you.

I often have two little friends by me when ironing:

We were Houston bound…

Two weeks ago, Abi and I headed down to Houston with Big D for the weekend.  We left Friday morning, fully planning on getting into Houston around 3 o’clock (left around 11 o’clock, calculating a much-desired tradition-stop in Italy, Texas for a yummy Starbucks).  HAH – we arrived in Houston 5 hours later, with an Abi who decided that she only needed 30 minutes of sleep.  We had a very happy Nanny and Joshua (and soon Jenny and Brian!) waiting for us upon our arrival!  We had planned on being in Houston that weekend because Donald had finals the following week, and we wanted to give him the ultimate scenario to get great studying done!  But, much to everyone’s delight and surprise – Donald surprised us on Saturday night after two days of great studying – he missed us.  (Insert MEGA smile from abi & I)  So we finished up our holiday weekend as a full family – enjoying time with one another and making memories!

Waiting for Grandpa to arrive, watching Sesame Street!  (This was clutch as I was scurrying around making sure we brought everything!)

A happy Nanny – reading to both of her grandbabies!

Riding the horse that Donald and Jenny had when they were little! I love things like this!

FUN Uncle Brian!

Can you tell we have fun when we’re all together??

Painting Pumpkins!  Side note: Using washable paint is a great idea for being able to wash off of babies and clothes – not such a good idea for the actual pumpkins.  We’ll be ready next year…

Cooking pancakes with Aunt Jenny the next morning!  They taste more yummy when made with Aunts, you know.

Josh and his Uncle Doon

COUSINS make the bestest friends!

Jenny, Brian, and Joshua – WE LOVE YOU!!

Sanctification through Motherhood Part IV

It is truly the little things.  The little things that make days great.  That make them memorable.  The little things are what convict our hearts.  They are what inspire us.  They are what motivate us.  They are for me often little reminders that I have a little someone who is watching my every move.  And learning.  And being pointed in a direction.  I pray in a direction to a loving and kind God.

Today was just filled with wonderful ‘little things.’  I just found myself smiling and laughing so much.

Driving in the car, trying to keep abi awake so that she would go down in her bed (haha, didn’t work!) – and observing how our communication with one another is evolving.  I started to sing the ABC’s – and she sang with me!  Just the first two letters – but still!  WOW!  Communicating that “Momma, I’m ready for a different song” by saying “No, No” and placing both hands on her head.  Aka “Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” and a huge smile came on that girl’s face when I started singing.  Ahh.

The little blessing of being able to hold a sleeping 15 month old in my arms.  Could have stayed there forever.

The small victory of when I asked Abi to come and sit down in front of me for her diaper change.  And she did it on the first request!  YES!  (Moms out there – you know what I mean here!)  I felt like my sweetheart is slowly learning obedience!

While unloading the car, our beloved next-door neighbors were coming home too.  And their sweet 2 year old, Kelly, stood on their back porch and yelled with much gusto, “Aaaaaabbbbbbbiiiii”, oh you should have seen the smile on my child’s face.  It was joy.  So happy to see her friend.  (And super cool that she was seeing her from above the fence!).

As Tuesday night is now a “girl date night” for abi and I – we decided to clean the floors after dinner.  And baby girl danced with me using her swiffer (yep, she’s got an abi-size swiffer – it’s awesome).  Laughing and dancing and cleaning.  I hope we still do that when she’s 13!

Love her.

Farmer’s Market

Love these.  They agree with many things “Angela.”  They are local (check), they are outside (check), they involve lots of different people (check) – proving to provide great conversation, they have yummy food (check), it is fresh (check) and now it is fall (CHECK!).  We went recently with Donald’s momma (aka nanny and mother-in-love) and had a blast.

(check out all of those colors!)

Abi really wanted to take this little buddy home – but had had price tag of 65 dollars!  HAH!

PUMPKINS!

We’re heading back again this Saturday.  Good, cheap produce (I’ll give another, check!), and I love the idea and the values that a farmer’s market promotes.  Not that everyone there adopts this – once in the summer we had someone try to sell us lettuce that we saw them pull out of the Dole box!  But, we usually head straight to Tent #4 – the “locals” tent.  Good people, really interesting people, and just good ol’ fun!