On Thrifting

I'm not as skilled at thrifting as either of Gemma's two Grandmas, but I still get excited about my successes. :)

This time, I found several Bible story books from the Arch Books series and a Karen Katz lift-the-flap book.  Gemma Grace loves Where is Baby's Belly Button?, also by Karen Katz, so I thought she'd like this one as well.  It is probably a good thing that I had only a small amount of cash with me, since there were probably well nigh a dozen other Arch Bible story books to be had!

I also found Gemma a corduroy Ralph Lauren jumper for next winter.  :)  God provides!

His Projects, Her Projects

Besides painting, we've been doing several little house projects here and there lately.

John's been wiring the house for speakers (and chopping holes in the ceiling when necessary!)

And, as you can see if you look at the windows, a few weeks ago I spray-painted the brassy dining room curtain rods dark brown, as part of my goal for the whole house.  :)

Thankfully, the holes in the ceiling got patched up in time for a bridal shower we hosted on Saturday!  That's what the tiered stands on the table are from!  Hopefully you'll hear some more about that soon!

The living room got an entirely new curtain rod which I found for a little less than normal at Big Lots several months ago now, and some of the same Simply Shabby Chic panels from Target which we have (and love) in our bedroom.

We left the middle of the rod bare for a few days, but agreed that it needed something, so we put the homemade valance back up in the middle for now.  I'm still not sure about it.  While I like the fabric of the valance, it came out a little too 90's-country-clutter-looking, I think.  

I am sure that I like the combination of white curtains with dark brown curtain rods, though!  And, pretty soon, the whole house should be alive with the sound of music.  ;-)

Have You Seen My New Shoes?

We have been very, very blessed and provided for with baby things.  We've hardly had to buy Gemma anything!  I was kind of excited that we "needed" to buy her some shoes this spring.  :)  We found these at Target.

She loves her new shoes.  :)  And she walks very well in them!  I'm looking forward to introducing Gemma to Shirley Temple when she gets a little bit older.  :)  This song from the movie Heidi keeps circling in my head:

"We'll take a trip wherever we choose

We'll dance and skip in our little wooden shoes!"

(We've also had some fun starting to braid her hair!)

Supper this week!

We stuck to our plans last week!  The only change was that we didn't actually eat the chicken cordon bleu yesterday, because at the last-minute we were invited to lunch by a family from church.  :)  It's all cooked and in the fridge, and we'll eat it at some point.

Plans for this week!
Monday:  Black bean/veggie burritos on homemade tortillas
Tuesday:  Pizza (pepperoni for my dearly beloved's half, peppers and olives for mine!)
Wednesday:  {Thai}
Thursday:  Shrimp Scampi

And . . . that's it!  Lord willing, on Friday morning Gemma and I fly to NY for my sister-in-law's baby shower. She's expecting twin girls this summer, and we are filled with joy for her and John's brother.  :)  I'll probably pull some pork barbecue out of the freezer for my sweetie while I'm gone, but he already has plans for Sunday afternoon and also tends to like eating out.  :)

16 months old!

It was in the past month that Gemma Grace finally took her first steps, and now she's practically running around.  Our sweet little legitimate toddler.  :)  

She's also finally started waving goodbye to people and doing a few signs.  We signed at her for months and had just about despaired on her ever picking it up, until one day when John manipulated her hands and something seemed to click! She signs "more" and "water" (which we basically use to mean "cup").  This is quite helpful, since she's reached the point where, when she wants something, she yells and points for it!  She understands so much.  It must be frustrating not to be able to talk.  

She continues to love our daily walks, and especially loves it when I give her a flower to hold!  If she sees her stroller or carrier, she almost always starts pointing and whining, and if the stroller is open, she tries to climb into it!

 

Gemma's favorite food has suddenly become whole-grain crackers, but for weeks it was raisins!  I was convinced that she must get her love of raisins from her Grandpa Reid!  Every single time we walked past the pantry, she would start pointing and asking for more!  Thankfully, she still loves her green vegetables, especially broccoli.  She's still not very excited about fruit.

Thankfully, Gemma has been a good little sleeper lately, sometimes napping for two hours or longer in the afternoons.  She usually wakes up happy, and is quite precious!  Though she still loves nursing, she's naturally transitioning away from using it to fall asleep, which is promising. Usually, after she's had her fill, she happily goes into her crib and talks for a while before falling asleep.


We'll have to take a video soon of Gemma pointing out her body parts, because she's getting so good!  She knows head, hair, ear, eyes, nose, mouth, hands, toes, tummy, and diaper.  And she's more than happy to point out many of them on Mommy and Daddy, too!


We love you, little sweetheart!

Supper this Week

Happy Tax Day!

Last week, I'd planned to make Chicken Tikka Masala on Saturday night, but we ended up just have ziti and jarred sauce!  Thankfully, my husband is always up for pasta!  We were kind of busy getting the house and dinner ready for our company on Sunday, to whom we served baked spaghetti, salad, easy french bread (made into garlic bread!) and chocolate cake.  Oh, and green beans for the babies.  It was yummy.  :)

Here's the plan for this week:
Monday:  Chicken Tikka Masala and rice
Tuesday:  Lentil Soup (from ham bone)
Wednesday: {Thai}
Thursday: Chicken Broccoli Alfredo (I plan to try this recipe, found via pinterest)
Friday:  Salmon & Rice
Saturday:  Chicken Marsala with Cacio e Pepe
Sunday:  Chicken Cordon Bleu with rice

It seems this week is heavy on chicken . . .

Our Room

Wow.  It was almost two full years ago that we were deciding what color to paint our bedroom!

Well, we finally did it.

After deciding that red was both too intense for our cottage-style home and wouldn't coordinate well with our lavender bath, and after John quickly vetoed yellow, we settled on green.

Then we had to decide which green to choose, which was quite an ordeal itself!  I was leaning toward a warmish grass green, but not too bright, and not too olive.  We had nearly a dozen different paint chips taped up on the wall for a few weeks until I finally came home with two paint samples.  We didn't like either of those, so I came home with two more . . .

We finally took the plunge and bought a gallon of a paint we hadn't tried as a sample!  It was just one shade darker than the sample on the lower right.  It wasn't intentional, but the result is actually quite similar to the shade of John's beloved green boyhood bedroom.  :)  

The room before:

The room now:

 I hung these pretty curtains from Target quite a while ago, but only recently did I actually take down the ugly mini blinds and spray paint the rods a dark brown.  I think it was my cousin, Missy, who suggested spray painting the rods in my dining room.  We actually took her suggestion for the nursery, since the rods we had on hand were not an attractive color.  I loved the result so much that I decided maybe we should have deep brown rods and clean white curtains in every room of the house, for some coherence.

I love how the curtains are a bit too long and drag their pretty edges on the floors.  :)

There's more to do, like hanging items on the walls.  I occasionally check Craigslist for four poster and canopy beds.  I have yet to find just the right one, but you never know!  Or maybe I'll just redo the headboard some day.  Sometimes I envision replacing the ceiling fan with a chandelier, or at least trying to spray paint the brass and faux wood away.  Oh, and I need to sew our bedskirt a bit.  It was a king size, and our bed is a queen, so it just needs a couple of pleats down the middle.  One step at a time.  :)

Easter.

If we were in Britain, I almost wouldn't be late putting up an Easter post, since they celebrate "Easter Monday," and possibly even "Easter Tuesday" in some places . . . ?  It's hard to believe that it was five full years ago since my brother and I spent Easter in Northern Ireland.  Ah, sweet memories.  :)

Our church doesn't pay too much attention to the holiday--no cantatas or anything out of the ordinary, but we don't do special music, anyway.  When I was growing up, we learned that the day had pagan origins which the Catholic church basically Christianized.  But we aren't commanded to celebrate it in the Bible.  We do celebrate Christ's resurrection every Lord's Day, since it was His rising from the dead on the first day of the week which marked the changing of when the early church met together and observed the Sabbath.  Still, this Sunday our pastor took the opportunity to preach on Jesus' resurrection and we also sang some hymns about the resurrection.  And, of course, lots of little girls wore pretty new dresses.  :)

So, I have to confess that I bought Gemma a hat.  It was only a dollar at Target, and she loved it.  :)  (I think she loved her little berry/applesauce snack just as much!)  And doesn't she look darling in her special sweater?  Our friend Mrs. K made it.  

There must be something about becoming a mom that makes me want to pay more attention to conventional holidays.  We even had a little Easter basket which I put out on Saturday.  But we won't be telling Gemma stories about the Easter bunny or anything like that.  I don't believe in lying to my children . . .

It was a beautiful, beautiful day!  It's fun living in a climate where it's actually warm enough to wear spring dresses on Easter.  :)  We had a family from church over that afternoon and ate our ham dinner outside on the patio.  The kids loved the pond as much as Gemma does.  She loves looking for the ducks and geese which are usually about lately!

Well, Happy Easter Tuesday!

Supper this Week

I thought it might be fun to start sharing my meal plans.  :)  It might not happen every week (probably won't!) but here's a start!

I usually check the next week's ads on Wednesday, plan the next week's meals and shop on Thursday.  And we usually aim for one fish meal, one bean meal, and possibly one additional meatless meal, especially if the bean meal isn't a meatless meal, like chilli, for example.  And I'm a very spoiled wife in that we always order Thai food on Wednesday nights.  Yes, that's the square I always fill in first.  ;)

Monday:  Black beans & rice
Tuesday: Pancit (A Filipino stir fry/noodle dish)
Wednesday: {Thai}
Thursday: Salmon & rice
Friday: Something with our leftover ham from Sunday
Saturday: Chicken Tikka Masala (& rice)
Sunday: Chicken Cordon Bleu & rice

Of course, it's always subject to change.  In fact, we'll probably do something different for next Sunday since we're now planning on having company.  But we'll see.  :)

Do you plan your meals?  Do you assign them to specific days?  Hmm, it seems that we're a bit heavy on the rice this week!  I hadn't noticed until now. And now I think I need to go get those beans cooking while the baby is still asleep.  ;)

Steps.

Well.  :)  You finally have some evidence that Gemma's walking.  :)  I only wish you all could see it in person, because it's so much better that way (and easier to see!).