An Unexpected bit of Decorating

Recently, I have seen a lot of bloggers talking about decorating with sticks and grass for the Autumn, now that most of the flowers are gone. They all vary slightly, but for the most part it involves getting sticks, either from the craft store or a handy bush in the yard, and arranging them in a vase, sometimes with glue and string to secure and fancify them.

Our fireplace is in our sitting room. In one corner of the room next to the fireplace is a low, deep cabinet. Jaired uses the space on top of the cabinet to store logs for fires, and it keeps them pretty tidy. The kindling has been a problem though. Last year, we would go outside every evening to bring in kindling, but this year it has been just stacked up on the floor, making a big mess. Today, in a effort to tidy up the house in preparation for visitors I brought an old galvanized bucket up from the basement and stuck all the sticks in. I immediately noticed how it looked a little like a bouquet of sticks.


The bucket works great to keep all the sticks together and catches any bits of bark that fall off. It also adds a nice touch to our countryish sitting room. And it was free and simple to put together.

Wordless Wednesday -- 21 October 2009

One of our Maples in its Autumn splendor.

A stack of firewood ready to warm us in the evenings.

Edmund sporting the black eye he got during an encounter with the dining room table.
(The lighting wasn't very good, and I don't think I took this on the day the bruise was the darkest. It was really dark purple.)

Colds, Walking Babies, Sewing...My October so Far

Autumn came in earnest right at the beginning of October. We have had at least as many rainy days as sunny, if not more, so far this month and the weather has been COLD. We haven't started using our heater yet, so the boys and I pull on the layers to stay warm during the day. Every evening we gather in the sitting room after dinner to enjoy a warm fire. You may wonder why I don't have a fire going all day. The main reason is that our sitting room is not the best for "living" in (that's why I don't call it a living room). We have a couple of couches, end tables, and some other furniture in the room, but no tables where I can sit and work.

We went through our first run of sickness last week. Jaired was the worst, having a fever for a few days. Edmund got away with one rotten day when he also had a fever. Nathaniel and I have both only had colds, though mine was accompanied by a splitting headache.

Besides being cold and sick I have been sewing quilts for the boys which is part of a larger project that Jaired and I are working on for the boys' Christmas present. Here is a peek at the quilts.
Nathaniel is learning how to walk, which is so much fun. He does whether or not we are watching him, but if he does notice us watching he gives the most adorable smile. Edmund is excited about it, too. Whenever he sees Nathaniel taking off he says, "look, Mama, Nathaniel do it by self!" I have tried to tell Edmund that Nathaniel will soon be running around after him, but I am not sure Edmund believes me. He always points out that he is fast or that Nathaniel crawls.

Nathaniel's First Birthday

Nathaniel turned one on Saturday, the 26th. We had a small celebration with Jaired's family on Sunday. It was definitely a new experience for Edmund, that Nathaniel was getting toys.

This picture was taken upside down, Edmund wanted to look at the firetruck first.

Jaired loves taking self portraits, so we never have to worry about him not being in the picture when he is the one with the camera.
Nathaniel is looking at himself in the mirror in Pat the Bunny.

Nathaniel's birthday apple pie

It was yummy!

A New Kidney Bean

This is a picture of the ultrasound picture. I forgot to ask Jaired to scan the ultrasound pictures at work, but I wanted to show you all our new baby now, so didn't want to wait until tomorrow for him to do it!

This is the same picture as above, but I opened it in Paintbrush to mark the baby so you all would know what to look at. The bottom word on the left says "spine" and is referring to the white line.

I am 13 weeks and 5 days along. The Baby's due date is March 19. :)

High Tea and Whiskey

That might not sound like a likely combination, but this past weekend they went together beautifully! Jaired and I, along with Jaired's sisters, spent the weekend at a dance workshop in St. Louis. The weekend was a whirlwind combination of English Country Dancing (the high tea?) and Contra (the whiskey?). This weekend was the first of what I believe is to be an annual workshop. We had music played by live by some great musicians, one of whom was Martha Edwards, whose music we use at our own dances. (Martha was also one of the organizers of the workshop.) The calling was done by a famous caller, Joseph Pimentel, who came up from Austin, Texas. As for dancers, we had people come from Texas, California, Oklahoma, and Arkansas, to name a few.

Jaired and Kimberly have both danced Contra in the past, but it was the first time for the rest of us. Our dance group, here in Salem, The Jovial Beggars, up until now has been English Country only, but we had so much fun with Contra that we might introduce it into our regular dances!

While Kimberly lived up in St. Louis this past winter she attended several of the local dances. Because so many people had heard about our dance group, and because we have wanted to make t-shirts for awhile now, we quickly made some to wear to the workshop. Soon, we hope to have a big batch of shirts made so that all our dancers can have one.

Here we are with our JB shirts.

As you can see we had a great time.

There was a ball on Saturday night and we girls dressed up in Regency style dresses and beautiful hairdos. Ellie, on the left, made her own dress, but Kimberly, on the right, made her own dress as well as mine and Chava's. Kimberly also did our hair.

Unfortunately there are no pictures of Kimberly, but her hair and dancing were quite beautiful. And Jaired, well he wasn't in costume with his hair up, so there wasn't any reason to get a picture of him I guess. ;)

Nathaniel is not old enough to know that he can get along fine without Mama for a weekend, so he came along for the ride. Besides the fact that he wasn't too keen on the late nights, he had a blast. People were talking to him and holding him all weekend. Everyone loved him and he got to practice his waving a lot. He even got to dance!

Tuesday Evening Randomness

We bought Edmund his first bicycle this weekend. He likes it well enough, but as he has not yet learned how to peddle it is not a very fun toy for him yet. When I try to get him to push on the peddles he pushes backwards, and, as you know, that makes him stop, not go! I hope he will learn soon, but for now I am pushing him up and down the driveway.
We have been having unseasonably cool weather for a good part of this month. It feels more like autumn than summer, with temperatures being in the low 70's rather than the high 90's. I really like having the weather this way, but am wondering, if this is what we have in the summer, what will the autumn be like, and then winter?

Nathaniel is loving the cold weather. Both of our boys do really well in the cold, but with his allergies, cool weather is definitely the best thing for Nathaniel. He has been such a happy boy this whole week, and hasn't been scratching very much. I have began weaning Nathaniel, very slowly. This is earlier than I weaned Edmund, but I feel like it is time to start. Nathaniel can be demanding, which Edmund wasn't. Now, less nursings for us means that Nathaniel is nursing about four or five times a day. I know this is the norm for some peoples babies who are nursing full time as little infants. My babies like to nurse every two hours, however, so this is a definite improvement!

Nathaniel wants to ask you all, "What's up?!"