Welcome to the Swamp

Technically, it's a "slough".

A wonderland of water filtration and flow adjustment.

A nursery for young'uns...

to grow big...

to pause and reflect...

to explore.

Beautiful. Peaceful.

Welcome to our sort of woods.

What a day!

Saturday was quite the day in these parts. I was up at the crack of dawn (literally) since a few area churches were partnering together on a women's retreat day. Mom and I arrived at 8am to set up, and found a handful of early bird attendees! Then one of our awesome teen volunteers didn't show up to babysit-- turns out someone had sideswiped her on the drive in! She was okay, thank God, but her pride and joy mustang shelby wasn't. Yikes. It was go-go-go all day-- but totally worth it. If you haven't heard the inspiration music of Sarah Hart, do yourself a favor and check her out. She is down to earth and goofy and easy to relate to... and when she sings, it's honest and just wow. I'd really like to attend one of her days as a regular attendee...

 ... Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the boys were getting ready for our neighbor twins bday party at the park. They got down there about 10 am, and stayed over 3 hours! Kade had lots of stories to tell about the swings, digging in the dirt (?!), the cupcakes and the water balloons...

Then, the fam met up at Applebee's for dinner- it's hard to believe, but Saturday was the 11th anniversary of Dad's death. We try to do something nice that reminds him of us - and that was one of his restaurants. Though, to be fair, in 11 years it's quite possible he'd be mad at them for something and have moved on to another place! ...

Afterwards, continuing the remembering-dad-theme, we were walking around Mom's backyard. There's a H-U-G-E moringa tree that he planted as a wee seedling... we were picking the seed pods, and I was thinking that it'd be nice to plant more trees... when there was a sudden CRACK!!!! and the ENTIRE TREE BRANCH fell on me. I'd very much like to say that I nimbly stepped out of the way, but that is patently untrue. I'd also like to claim that I shouldered the branch in order to protect my young son, but I was told after the fact that HE was quick enough to get out of the way. The truth is, as much as it pains me to admit, I simply screamed and ducked like a coward, and the 4 foot branch whacked me good. Ow.

... Later, we headed home and I jumped on facebook to check for a msg reply when a notice popped up: "Event- EARTH HOUR. Happening - Now." Oh, shoot, I yelled to the family- it's Earth Hour- turn everything off already! We were only 4 minutes behind, but I figured we needed to act quick or we'd drift into missing it. You probably know this, but it is much easier to live without electricity when you properly plan. The first flashlight we grabbed had dead batteries, we couldn't find the second, and the only candles in the house were the tea lights (the hurricane kit apparently was disbanded). Picture me running around the house turning off lights, with Kade following and saying "whatcha doing, mama" and Jim yelling "leave ONE on so I can find these batteries!" It was a very amusing 3 minute drill. ... In the end, we had "practice camping" with a flashlight lantern. I mentioned that I couldn't believe we hadn't taken Kaden camping for real yet, and Jim replied "He's not even three yet. (pause.) So what if he's been to scotland and on a cruise? He's a bit young to do everything!"

7 Quick Takes Friday

1. I'm stealing this, as so many things, from Aimee at The Mother Load. Actually, most of the blog ideas are stolen from other, better bloggers. In fact, I sometimes restrain myself from stealing another idea because I don't want to be a, uh, stalker type...

2. Facebook is amazing! It's also a time-sucking vortex. I mostly respond to others, but still have so many online friends that it's impossible for me to keep up with them. So it takes even more effort to find the ones I want to chat with. And the applications?! Let's just not go there...

3. OH! I WON A CONTEST! This is super big news since I rarely win stuff. Amy over at Crunchy Domestic Goddess hosted a giveaway and I won! It comes with all this cool Earth's Best baby food- like 24 jars of baby food, 8 jars of baby juice, a bib and one of my favorite books: Guess How Much I Love You with Big and Little Nutbrown Hare! Yeah! Thank you Amy for hosting and thank you EB for the cool giveaway! Okay, so a random number picked my comment to win- still, it feels pretty cool.

4. Speaking of baby food-- Kaden REALLY doesn't like avocados. I tried a few more times after the video below, but his faces kept getting worse, his protestations a bit more frantic. The thing that sealed the deal for me was the look of utter bewilderment he gave me after his second taste one day. Okay, Kade, we'll move on to bananas. (But I'll try the good green stuff in a month or two!) Who needs fruit, though, when you've got such yummy toes?

5. Being a green mama - yeah. I'm fairly certain I'm a mama by default, but the green part? Not anywhere near what I'd like. We are feeding him organic foods,and will try an organic formula soon. The food so far is homemade, though I figure the EB stuff will also come in handy for traveling and what not. But the diapers? He looks so adorable in the cloth ones. And I feel so fantastic when I put one on- soft for his bum, good for the earth... so I feel pretty fantastic until I feel wet, because I can't get the hang of checking them more often. Yup, I've got a 80% leak rate due to my inattention! We're not giving up, but I'm feeling pretty discouraged that none of my ideas are panning out... and the reason they're not working is my lack of willpower/work on it.

6. It's raining today. Right now, actually. And 60 degrees. So no outside play today.

7. I love my husband. He - and you- don't hear it often enough. He just ran out to the store in the said rain to pick up some needed stuff. And he rearranged his work schedule so we could get house stuff done. And he just walked in- with a bonus frappacino as a goal reward for when I meet my deadline this weekend. Plus, you should see him with Kaden!

Guess this wasn't quick afterall. Oh well, have a good weekend anyway! Look for some Super posts on Sunday ;)