Lost and Found

Look what crawled out of my laundry basket....I guess she was hiding under all of these clothes....Then once my basket was empty, out she came... :)

You reap what you sow

Mame and Boppie started their garden and me and the girls were visiting about a week ago when Dan was working late and Magnolia got to help Boppie plant his first peas. They do a big garden and it gets bigger every year. We can and freeze a lot of the vegetables we get out of their garden. I LOVE cooking with and eating food that we grew ourselves all year round.My dad has been anxious for his picture to be on the blog.

Here's 6 of them for him!Going home after a long, oh, I don't know, maybe 10 minutes of work.

A little family history

So, I have been going through a couple of boxes of old Hamacher/Mathew family pictures and keepsakes to better organize it and scan them all so that we have multiple copies of everything. What an amazing experience it has been seeing all this stuff and learning details and "fun facts" about my family. I guess I am lucky to have had great-grandmothers and a grandparents who saved things like letters and report cards and newspaper clippings. So this means that my grandchildren will appreciate the bazillion cards I have saved over the years. Or that dried crumbling flower I still have from the freshman snowball dance. I know, priceless, right?

This picture is of my dad's parents, Pauline and Bart, in 1936 with their first born, Beverly. This one is of my grandfather, Bart, in 1909 as an infant. I think it's probably a baptism picture since there is also 2 other pictures of this siblings in the same gown. My grandpa had this exact same hairstyle for the rest of this life. Other than the hair, do you all see the Boothe resemblance? Notice the 1 droopy eyelid. Here are some of the postcards my great-grandmother saved. They were all sent to my grandpa during his childhood. There are probably 50-75 in all and cover about all of the holidays and birthdays. Most of them are in such great shape for being close to 100 years old.This one was sent in 1912.What does this even mean?An unopened bar of soap, probably from a hotel stay, in 1929 when his team went to the state basketball tournament in Indianapolis. Look closely and you can see the writing on the wrapper.Report cards. Good thing he did well. That's probably why they were kept and why my dad's probably were not kept.I liked that they needed a parent's signature. This picture and the next is the wedding invitation for my great-grandparents wedding in 1904 sent by my great-great-grandparents on my dad's dad side. Get that?This is the obituary for my great-grandpa Hamacher born in 1880. If you can read it it talks about how his family traveled by covered wagon to Indiana.

There are also some school notebooks of my grandpa's with handwritten school notes in them. When you look through it you imagine my grandpa as a grown man writing those words when actually, it was just a boy taking those notes. This boy back row, fourth from left.

10 months of Boothie

My baby is 10 months old today. Seems like yesterday she was only 9 months and we were having her pictures taken professionally...haha. And now today we are going to look at those pictures to pick some out to order.

She is cruising along furniture now and long gone are the days when I didn't have trouble keeping the house picked up. With 2 kids pulling things off shelves and dumping things out, I am no match for that mess.

I can't believe I need to start planning her 1 year birthday soon. Not that we do anything big, just a little party with grandparents and aunts/uncles, but a date still needs to be picked and invites sent to give everyone a little notice.

This weather is killing me. One day shorts the next day winter coats. The girls' dressers are overflowing with 2 wardrobes of clothes because I can't put sweaters and pants away yet. And some days that sun is such a tease; shining and all. Then you step outside and it's frigid!

We are ready for the pool to open in a month!! Yipee! Let's hope we are only wearing shorts and t-shirts by then!

The girls and I went to the farmer's market this morning to pick up 25 pounds of asparagus that I ordered so that I could freeze some for next winter. The guy put it all in a box for me and the box had cut-out handles on the sides. I had Boothe on one hip and Magnolia standing next to me. There was no question in my mind whether I could manage to get everything/everyone to the car. The guy said it couldn't be done. Too heavy. Too awkward. Obviously he has never been a mom. It was easier than most things I do on a daily basis.

Homemade baby food

I have made almost all of my girls' baby food. The only time I have used store bought is when we go out of town and stay at a hotel. I wouldn't want to risk the homemade food going bad.

When I was making baby food for Magnolia, I found the process of cutting, steaming, pureeing, pouring, freezing and putting into bags a little daunting and not much fun. I would make large batches at once so that I wouldn't have to do it as often and so she probably didn't eat as wide a variety of different foods as she should have.

A couple of Christmases ago, my mother-in-law got me this Beaba babycook and I absolutely LOVE it. It is so easy to make babyfood now and can still do it beforehand and freeze some or I can simply steam some and puree while I'm making dinner for the rest of us. This machine (sent from God) steams perfectly and then purees all in one bowl. The clean up is easy which makes my life so much easier! And the food comes out so perfect and creamy. I have even steamed veggies and not pureed them but cut them up for both the girls to snack on.

It is a bit pricey, but if you or someone you know plans on making all of their baby food, I'm sure it will pay for itself.

First you steam, then you puree, then you're done.

Peas ready for the freezer.This is what I use to freeze the food. I purchased it at the Soft Landing.Pears ready to eat! Mmmmm.......peaches

Sticks and Stones

How Boothe uses her 5 senses... Sight. First she sees the stick.Touch. Next she feels the stick.

Getting a better grip.

Sound. Then she hits the stick on the ground in order to hear it.Smell. She waves the stick in front of her face in order to smell it.

Taste. Lastly she puts the stick (like everything else) right into her mouth...

Garage sale finds {round 1}

Garage sale season is here and I think I hear angels singing. Rummage sales, yard sales, garage sales, barn sales, you name it, I love it. A couple of weeks ago, Dan and I went to a sale and found a few things. Today we hit a few more and I'll post those finds soon. Here is what I found during round 1...

This table for $7.50.

Not too pretty, but very sturdy and I LOVE the scalloped edge.

I will paint it white and call it Sally. Then I will place it in Magnolia's room where it will be loved.This interesting piece cost me a whopping $5. It looks to be either a drawer from an old desk or from some kind of carrying case. Either way, I thought that it was really cool. I'm going to hang it on the wall somewhere in my house once I figure out what to put in it and where.

I got 2 of these chairs for $35 as a set. Our kitchen chairs are pretty shot so they need to be replaced and these 2 are nice and sturdy and have lots of character. They will probably be painted, but maybe not. I still need to find 2 more mismatched chairs for my kitchen table, but I have a WHOLE summer of garage sales ahead of me!And this is my BEST find possibly ever.
I found this 50mm 1.8 lens for my camera. It's the EXACT lens that I have been wanting to buy for several months, but haven't wanted to shell out the $125 for it. I bought it for $3!!!! It is from an old pre-digital camera so the lens doesn't focus automatically, but it's good practice to have to focus manually. I wasn't even sure if it was going to work on a digital camera until I got it home and tried it on my camera and about peed my pants!