An {Almost} Picture-less Post

Weekly Happenings: This past week was one that did not contain much out of the ordinary. Sunday evening, we went to the home of friends’ for dinner. The kids had tons of fun playing together and the adults enjoyed some grown-up conversation. The first part of the week went as it always does. Thursday was Saint Patrick’s Day, but other than having some corned beef hash for supper, we didn’t do much to celebrate it (well, I went to a friend’s house for a girls’ night and Paul and Joseph went out for frozen yogurt). Friday we had friends over for a game night, and yesterday was spent mostly with Paul doing yard work (more about that later) as well as homework, and me entertaining Joseph at home (though we did go to the park in the morning to take part in our community park clean-up).

The Weekly Weather: The beginning of the week was rather warm and muggy (a hint of the summer, I suppose). Friday we had a pretty gnarly storm come through with a great lightning show. We probably got quite a bit of rain with that storm. Yesterday it was quite cold, in comparison to what the temperatures had been previously. Today has been a mixture of both types of weather. It was rather cool this morning, but it’s heating up as the day progresses.

What Paul’s Been Up To: Other than his ordinary stuff (work and school), he mostly worked on the yards. He got supplies to build a frame around the blackberries and then put down a layer of paper, followed by soil (with wildflower seeds), followed by a layer of bark chips. He also mowed the front lawn, making it look really nice.

What Sarah’s Been Up To: Not too much out of the ordinary, other than what’s already been mentioned. Most of my students took the week off because it was Spring Break. I found out that one of my students will need to stop having lessons at the end of the month, but I’ll have another one starting this week.

What Joseph’s Been Up To: The highlight of Joseph’s week had to be the opening of the Neighborhood Walmart down the street from our neighborhood. While I was at my friend’s house on Thursday, he and Paul stopped by there on the way home from getting frozen yogurt. Joseph had dropped the last gummy bear in his frozen yogurt on the ground and was pretty devastated. He perked up when Paul said they could go to the new Walmart. So, not only did he get to see the new Walmart (which he had been anticipating for MONTHS), but he got to get some gummy bears (to make up for the one he dropped) as well. He now refers to that particular Walmart as “the new Walmart that has gummy bears.” 🙂 Another random Joseph story: he woke up one morning wanting to pretend to be a minion. Little did I know this would include eating an entire banana as part of his breakfast. This is the kid who has refused to eat a banana (even though he likes the concept of peeling them) for well over a year. Whatever works for you, kid.

This Week in Pictures: I only had one picture of Joseph (hence the title of this blog post) so I decided to throw in some other random pictures.

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My curiosity was piqued by this guy who was marching resolutely across our front patio one morning, seeming to be not at all deterred by the fact that it was missing an antenna. I asked local friend what kind of bug it was and they said it was a stink bug (and to be careful because they like to pierce fruit and suck all the juices out…we’ll have to watch our garden for these guys, I suppose).
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I am not, in any way, shape, or form, responsible for his wardrobe choices…just throwing that out there. Oh, and he had just finished “sawing” me in half, so he was looking for tools to put me back together again.
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Our tomatoes are looking quite healthy and already have some blossoms on them.
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The result of Paul’s hard work yesterday. I can hardly wait for the leaves to pop out (the buds are there) on the blackberries and for the wildflower seeds to germinate and pop out.
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The pepper plant (top left) already has flowers on it and the basil (top right) and cilantro (bottom left) already look like they may need to be harvested a bit. The strawberry plant (bottom right) is looking good too.

A Rainy, Rainy Week

Weekly Happenings: The weather tried desperately to put a damper on my mood (and almost succeeded). It rained at least once every day (except yesterday), but we were still able to do all that we had planned (play dates, story time, grocery shopping, etc.). Yesterday, we decided to take it easy (usually we’re tempted to do a lot on Saturdays) and just hang around the house for the most part. Then we all woke up kind of groggily due to the fact that we had to set our clocks forward last night. Spring is on its way!

The Weekly Weather: As mentioned before, it rained. A lot. I could feel it weighing on me towards the end of the week (I need my sunshine). Luckily, at that point, the weather started clearing. Yesterday and today have been quite pleasant, warm, and sunny.

What Paul’s Been Up To: All of last week he was taking a class in order to get his Security+ CompTIA certification. He was kind of stressed out a bit about it because his job kind of hinged on it. Friday, he took the certification test…and PASSED! We’re super proud of him!

What Sarah’s Been Up To: I went to one of my book club meetings, a Relief Society Activity, and then over to a friend’s house to watch a movie with a bunch of friends from my other book club…so I was able to get a lot of different times to have adult conversation, which was awesome.

What Joseph’s Been Up To: He spent a lot of time playing with toys, dressing up as super heroes, etc. One day, I was cleaning the kitchen while Joseph was playing with his LEGOS, so it was pretty quiet. All of a sudden, Joseph said, “Speaking of DC Comics, I’m Superman. Will you help me put my cape on, Mom?” I love his imagination. He also really enjoyed playing with friends and then going with Paul to get frozen yogurt while I went to my movie night.

This Week in Pictures:

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I wasn’t joking…it rained every day last week (except Friday and yesterday).
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I made up a batch of my mom’s bacon spaghetti (a recipe she learned from Rita (one of my SILs) many, many moons ago) for dinner one night, and it smelled divine! A little taste of home. 🙂
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“Justice wins!” That’s a direct quote from Superman, people… he was “shooting” imaginary bad guys with “imaginary cannons”.
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Going out for frozen yogurt with Daddy totally makes it okay to be away from Momma.
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A sign I made for our pantry door.
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The other sign I made. Paul helped me to get the spacing right (it’s bigger than anything I’ve done before) and I’m really grateful he did. It would have bugged me if it wasn’t even.

Why, Hello There, March!

Weekly Happenings: Wait, what?! It’s MARCH already?! How did that happen?! We even had an extra day in February this year! Okay [insert deep breath], now that I’ve got that off my chest…on to what we actually did this past week. It was another typical laid-back week filled with a trip to the library for story time, grocery shopping, etc. We did go to the park quite a bit (I think we probably went three times, which for us is a lot) because the weather has been great. We even hung around the house yesterday because Paul was doing more yard work (and homework). Yesterday evening I got to hang out with my girlfriends at another LuLaRoe party while the boys hung out at home.

The Weekly Weather: As mentioned above, it’s been really great. Warmish, a bit breezy at times, not too humid…it’s really hard to believe that it’s not even technically spring yet (even though we have to move our clocks forward on Saturday night…what?!).

What Paul’s Been Up To: He’s been kept busy with work and school (as well as spring gardening). Yesterday, we went and bought a car jack that he used to pull up the support stakes that were next to the trees in the back yard. He already cut the support wires quite some time ago since the trees don’t really need them after the first couple of years, but the stakes were in really deep, so he was waiting until he had a good plan in place before pulling them up (especially since he’d already pulled up the ones from next to the tree in the front and knew that it was going to be difficult). He also added more soil around the bases of the trees and planted wildflower seeds in the beds so that they’ll match the tree in the front yard. Oh, and he used the tree stakes as part of the support structure for the tomatoes, so those are looking pretty great, too.

What Sarah’s Been Up To: Not too much out of the ordinary. My big focus this week was to change up our routine for when we’re at home. I found that I’ve slipped up and have let the TV become Joseph’s babysitter while I try to get stuff done around the house. Not that there’s anything wrong with using it on occasion, but I was using it way too much and it was sort of affecting his behavior. So this past week, I cut down his screen time a lot. Now, watching a show is a treat (which makes it more special) and he is playing with his toys (and outside) a lot more. His behavior has improved immensely! Also, as mentioned before, I got to go hang out with my girlfriends while we shopped for cute clothes. I have a pretty strict one-in-one-out rule (I only buy something if I know that there’s something already in my closet that I am willing to get rid of), so I only got a few things. I cannot believe how much I love the clothes that are put out by this company! Not only are they comfortable and cute, but they are modest! The dresses and skirts are long enough to cover what needs to be covered and the shirts have longer sleeves and higher necklines (and also have length at the bottom, too). I think I have replaced almost all of the shirts that I had to layer in order to make them modest enough to wear with new stuff that I don’t need to layer at all…which is really important with a Southern summer swiftly approaching.

What Joseph’s Been Up To: A lot of playing with toys, playing outside in the backyard, going to the park, etc. He does still get a bit of screen time; mostly during my piano student time when I need him to be quietly entertained. Speaking of which, something really funny happened in regards to that this past week. He was playing Final Fantasy on Paul’s old DS and came up to me (in the middle of me teaching my piano student, of course) all excited and told me that he defeated a knight and saved a princess. He was so excited that he had to tell me right away, even though the timing wasn’t the best. His two favorite games to play are Final Fantasy and Legend of Zelda, and we’ve noticed that his reading is getting a lot better (there is quite a bit to read in both of those games). I guess video games don’t completely rot one’s brain. 😉

This Week in Pictures:

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A quick craft I did for the guest room. I took a scrap piece of wood, painted it white, used a cookie cutter as a stencil, and then painted it. We have these sharpie brushes that are like markers but with a brush tip. I used the red one to outline the shape and then painted the rest. I really like how it turned out!
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Hanging out in one of the huge live oak trees that grace our park.
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Once I assured him that the ants on the tree stump were (most likely) not fire ants, he was content to sit and watch them do their work for quite a while.
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Getting his work out on….I was most impressed that he was actually able to pedal the elliptical.
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Doing crunches…
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…and “push-ups”. Can you tell he watches me work out?! I do modified push-ups (with my knees on the ground, but feet up in the air), so he thinks he needs to have his knees down to do push-ups.
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One of my favorite things to see…he loves having Daddy read to him!
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Playing with Play-Doh. He was really enjoying using the cut-outs and then embellishing them (giving his giraffe spots, for instance).
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Playing with a tractor that’s older than me (it used to belong to one of my brothers).
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You know life’s pretty great if you get to walk in Daddy’s shoes whilst munching on pretzels.
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The back yard after Paul got done with the trees.
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The tomato plants with their new support system.
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He made an obstacle course for his guy to complete. I love, love, love his imagination!!
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My new pencil skirt. I was drawn to the print when I saw it on the hanger, but wasn’t too sure it would look good on me. One of my friends assured me that I could totally get away with it, so I went ahead and bought it…and…I love it!
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Joseph letting Paul know that he beat the evil knight, Garland, on Final Fantasy (yes, that is a controller for an original NES…Paul still has the one he had when he was a teenager and was able to switch out a few parts to get it to work).