If only we could all sing with such careless abandon

Head to the Hills

When we start wilting from the heat in the valley (which is about 75 degrees for me), it is SO wonderful to have the mountains so close where we can escape to some cooler air.  

My whole family stayed at the cabin over the 4th of July weekend (except of course the Trumps who just had a baby in Virginia and my mom who is visiting them).  On Monday, we drove into the Uinta Mountains for some fishing and exploring.

Everyone wanted to be like Paul and Jack and cross the river.

The mommies and their babies decided to stay on shore, as did Amy and Zack. So Christian carried Junah, and I carried Ella and Isaac (not at the same time) across the river so we could have an adventure.

the fearless hikers checking out enormous bumblebees (is this going to be a recurring theme?) and mysterious clothing remains … a game of ancient steal the flag perhaps??????

Ella decided to brave it across the river with the help of Christian on the way back.

Then we chilled at the picnic spot waiting for the fishermen to return … and practicing our martial arts…. but more on that later

 

What!? No fish for dinner!?

For future generations

I just had to document this.

When Junah was not yet two years old he . . .

ate his vegetables,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

cleaned the house,

and watered the garden!

Yard Progress

Just wanted to put up some pictures of what’s blooming.  We’ve put in a few plants that are doing great.  And more are on the way… I want to document the evolution of the yard every month or so, or whenever there is something new coming in to bloom.

this is the globemallow taking over the sidwalk

lupine - one of my favorite flowers!

coreopsis

We’ve also had a few visitors coming and going after a snack or two. or three. or four.

yes, that bee is that humungo!

flutterby (as Christian calls them)

No ‘poo

You might think based on the previous post that today I will ruminate more thoroughly upon potty training, but alas that is not the case. 

I have a confession to make.  I have not washed my hair with shampoo since . . . hmmm . . . oh gosh . . . well let’s see . . .  February-ish I think.  I’ve been trying to get rid of everything in our household with toxic less than desirable ingredients. I found this cool website which gives a rating of beauty product safety on a scale from 0 (most safe) - 10 (least safe).  I’m trying to make changes a bit at a time. 

I make our own toothpaste- don’t tell Bryan, Er! I clean everything in the house with baking soda, vinegar, hydrogen peroxide and essential oils, we only use tea tree oil bar soap and Dr. Bronner’s castille soap, and I use coconut oil and emu oil (thanks to Luci for the info) for moisturizer.

I’ve also been reading a lot about how shampoo strips our hair of its natural oils creating this vicious cycle of constantly needing to be cleaned and conditioned, when in reality our hair can pretty well manage itself without all that lathering. 

Problem is, my hair has not been the same since I started “washing” it with baking soda and rinsing with vinegar.  It never feels clean.  I get white, flakiness on my scalp, and it is dull and lifeless. To all you ladies who have been trying mightily to banish the frumpy housewife stereotype, I must apologize. I have been singlehandedly converting the world to believe that all housewives are frumpy with really bad hair.  Sorry.  My hair will not do ANYTHING.  But I refuse to get back on store shampoo. 

Then the other day I was searching for something to make with the lavender growing in my backyard and . . . . I found this a great website for making herbal shampoo. I thought I would give it a try.  What could I lose? really icky hair, that’s what.

I also added some peppermint from our backyard, steeped the herbs together in hot water for 15-ish minutes and added it to some castille soap.  That was it! 

And the consensus:

It’s better.  Not quite back to normal, but much better.

Tales of Potty Woes

Does he look a little bit stressed about this to you?

I’ve always been worried about the whole potty training thing, but my hubby was GUNG-HO that our little J-man would be trained by 18 months.  I was just excited that daddy-o was in charge and I could watch from the sidelines. . .

Well, who’s the one that’s actually home with the little rascal all day. 

 Ya. Me.

This is how potty training is going.

What is really exciting about this picture is that he is ACTUALLY SITTING ON HIS POTTY!

This is huge.  We’ve come to realize that he is not quite ready to go in the potty, so what we are focusing on is getting him used to sitting still on the potty for long periods of time.  Usually I give him some books to read, in this instance he is eating a frozen smoothie on the potty. 

The smoothie kept him busy for a long time actually, but unfortunately nothing was mustered, until of course he stood up and proceeded to relieve himself all over the floor . . .

Truly I don’t think he’s quite ready to start potty training in earnest, but I’ll keep trying.

Lovin’ the Loveseat

My mother-in-law is an angel.  She took a reupholstering class and so I recruited her to help me re-cover our love seat. She had worked on a small chair for her class, but she didn’t have any experience working on a couch.  It took a lot of hours and hard work and I used a lot of her tools, her sewing machine, her staple gun …

I wish I had a “before” picture because you cannot understand the magnitude of the metamorphosis this couch underwent.  Just imagine in your mind the ugliest pink and white striped, old and dirty love seat that you can.  Then imagine over the top of it, a green slipcover that did not fit, was always sliding around, hiking up in the back, pulling here and there, even ripped in a few places… not a pretty sight.

Okay, here is the after (I’m actually not quite finished, I need to hand sew all of the cushions closed, so it will look better when that is done too) …

As you can see from the pictures, I’m not even the biggest fan.

It’s such a wonderful feeling to create something new and wonderful, out of something old that could have been thrown out.  We scored big on the material at NPS, it was only $3/ yard.  All in all, it was about $80 to refinish the whole thing!

Showered with blessings

I prayed for rain. And it came!

This is the best part:

Naked toddler blissfully splashing in our huge puddle. Can’t get better than that can it? (except maybe the fact that I don’t have to water the garden)

p.s. if you have an aversion to nudity don’t come by our house this summer, and when I say by, I mean within 2 blocks.

A Prayer of Thanksgiving

Okay.  Here I am finally.  Let’s just get to it shall we.  So much to talk about, so little time.  I’m actually documenting a home project.  Finally!  (Unlike the rest of the house, loveseat etc. whose prior existences will never be remembered) I happened to have some BEFORE pictures of our front yard before we tore up all of the grass and started our rock terracing…

So, here is some major progress

From a different angle (is that how you spell angle? It looks weird), but you get the idea.  Now I have this momentous task of figuring out what plants to put in all that space and how not to spend any money doing it!  So, I’ve been asking for some divine assistance (it’s a little bit out of my grasp) and I had a heavenly revelation to ask for free plants, divisions, cuttings etc. on FREECYCLE!  Oh how I love you FREECYCLE ( which by the way seems to be run purely  by kharma, I find that I cannot post any WANTS unless I have posted some OFFERS semi-recently… very interesting).  So, we received some plants that way.  Then the other day I was out working in the front yard, surprise, surprise, J-man and I LIVE out there.  And a lovely lady was walking by, she wanted to know what the large plant with orange flowers blooming profusely, covering the sidewalk was (globemallow).  She complimented the yard and then out of the blue offered me some irises (the pretty kind, she said).  I offered a silent prayer of thanks for more free plants.  Then chatting with our neighbors about our yard, was offered more free plants.  Hallelujah!  I am grateful for answered prayers.