First Harvest

While Gracie was off boating with Grandpa Scott and Grandma Terri today, Audrey, Oliver, and I spent the day enjoying the (very) warm weather and sunshine. We went on a lunch date to Cascade Lakes Brewery and then after a THREE HOUR NAP we went out back and harvested our first crop of Garnet leaf lettuce and spinach! I don't know why I hadn't realized it was ready a week or so ago - the spinach leaves are bigger than my hand and the lettuce was so thick it was practically tangled! There was a TON to harvest - and it hardly looks like I made a dent in my garden! Audrey loved helping me put it in the right bowls (although I later found her ripping off broccoli leaves and adding them to the spinach pile!), and Oliver enjoyed taste testing the lettuce:) I had so much I was able to share some with our neighbors and we had a beautiful salad with our bbq chicken for dinner!

My Blueberry Cup

Bible Verse Alphabet

I often quote the verse "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right" (Ephesians 6:1) when I am disciplining the triplets, because I believe ultimately, they must learn to be obedient to their parents as a way of learning how to be obedient to God. I memorized scripture when I was a child in Sunday school, VBS, and at school, and I am so thankful for the many truths I learned when I was young, for they are the very verses which I still remember! I was going to make a poster for the triplets of just that verse to hang in their room, but when I googled it this morning (for poster ideas) I found this incredible site/poster of verses for every letter of the alphabet! I really can't afford to spend $40 right now (or I would have purchased this very one!), so I decided I would make my own budget version. I loaded the triplets into the van and we headed off to Michaels. They had a pretty limited "letter" supply (surprisingly), so I settled on these black and white letters ($5.99) and went from there. I found a black piece of poster board ($2.79), a white gel pen ($1.99), and cloth flowers - on the discount rack ($2.99). Total project cost just over $13 - and I think the kids will enjoy the fact that their mama worked so hard to make it for them (or at least that's what I'm telling myself:)) I made it today during their "un-nap" (we started using toddler beds last night so they spent their entire naptime bed-hopping and chasing each other instead of sleeping) and then hung it on their wall when they woke up. My goal is that when they get a little bit older and can repeat a few more words, I will teach them one verse (or letter) a month and have them say it to me every single day for 30 days before moving on to the next one. Just a fun, inexpensive way to decorate their room and adorn their hearts!

Broken Bones and Toddler Beds

Our little man broke two bones yesterday in his first attempt to climb out of his crib. And being so hefty and all - that was a lot of weight falling from the sky. I'm not sure how he landed (I was in the kitchen chopping vegetables for minestrone soup while the babies were supposed to be napping), but I clearly heard the loud "thunk" from their room - and then some crying. I ran in to find Ollie on the floor holding his left arm with his right hand. He stopped crying as soon as he saw me, but looked white as a ghost and was shaking pretty badly - the fall must have been quite startling. Oliver is pretty tough, and I knew that if nothing serious had happened, he'd be over it in about 2 seconds. Unfortunately, this wasn't the case. For the next 20 minutes he held his arm limp and refused to use it. I called daddy. Robert was in a meeting but said he could cancel his afternoon appointments and be home in about an hour. I let the girls "nap" (I don't think they ever actually went to sleep) and I took Oliver into our room and let him lay on our bed with his blankie, Pooh, and a bag of frozen corn on his little arm. Just after 3:00 daddy got home so Ollie and I headed to The Center to get the arm checked out. Amazingly, there was hardly anyone there, so they were able to get us seen, x-rayed, consulted (yep, he broke it - in two places poor guy!), casted, and out of there in less than 40 minutes! I love that place! Oliver was an absolute trooper and aside from the slightly different way he was carrying his arm you never would have known he had taken such a tumble! He even got to pick out a color for his cast and chose a pretty awesome, bright shade of green. I called daddy to let him know the news, and also asked him to disassemble the cribs and turn them into toddler beds - not wanting the same fate to beFALL the girls. I stopped at Wendy's on the way home and got Oliver a frosty (everyone deserves a treat when they break a bone!) and when we got back home daddy had transformed their room into an empty, safe space for TODDLERS! All the furniture and "stuff" was gone, closet secured closed, and even the doorknobs had been reversed so we could lock them in at night and avoid three bandits wandering around the house:) After Bible Study they were so excited to go to sleep in their "big kid beds". We knew they wouldn't actually stay in bed, but after about an hour of running around, screaming, and taking turns jumping in all the beds, they eventually found their way back to their correct beds and pretty much slept through the night! The video monitor did show Audrey sleeping on the floor at one point and Oliver woke up crying around 11:00, but I think that may had to do more with the awkwardness of sleeping in a cast. On a positive note, yesterday was also the first time Audrey said "I love you" to me completely unbidden and just because she felt like it ~ it melted my heart!