Ten Gallon Sam

We just heard that Ten Gallon Sam was listed as one of Focus on the Family's 10 Family-Friendly Picture Books from 2008. What an honor that is! I am so proud of Chris and his brother, Allan. God has blessed them with an amazing talent and it is great to see them using it to glorify him.

Yet Another Use

Last night I was watching Food Detectives on the Food Network. One of the things they were testing is to see if wood cutting boards harbor more bacteria than plastic ones (even after being washed). They proved that wood cutting boards are actually, slightly, less likely to harbor bacteria. They still had a little bacteria on them, but not as much as the plastic ones. They weren't really sure why that was, but one of the theories was that the wood could pull the bacteria deeper into the cutting board so that it was no longer in contact with the top cutting service.

They stressed the importance of disinfecting your cutting board. The most common way to do this is to use a bleach/water solution. Now, anyone that knows me knows my aversion to bleach. In fact, I don't have any bleach in my house. Bleach is one of the worst chemicals you could actually have in your home!!! But, they did offer another solution. I was delighted when I heard it! This is an item that I use all the time around my house and couldn't wait to disinfect my cutting boards :) What is it? VINEGAR!!! There you go, another use for that great, inexpensive, acidic condiment.

Harvest Time

Keegan and I have been watching our garden grow and blossom. It is fascinating to watch the veggies slowly grow into something that will be edible. We have been keeping an eye on our zucchini and cucumber plants. We have had a few zucchini that were almost ready to pick. I went out to the garden, tonight, and found that those zucchinis had a growth spurt over the last couple of days. I picked 3 good size zucchinis. Keegan and I will be baking with them tomorrow. He is super excited to use the veggies out of our own garden. We also have tomatoes on our plants, but it will be a while before they are big enough to pick (or ripe enough). There's just nothing like produce straight from the garden! :)

Comments

It was recently brought to my attention that only certain people could leave comments on my blog. I checked the settings and fixed them so that anyone can now leave a comment. Thanks for the heads up Susan. Let me know if it still doesn't work.

18 Months

I can hardly believe that Truitt is 18 months old already. Boy, the time really does fly by faster with a second child!!

Truitt is growing like a weed. A very strong, healthy and TALL weed. :) We had his 18 month appt. this morning. I was very excited to see how much he had grown in the last 3 months. Our "little" tank is now 3 feet tall (36 inches). This puts him at the average height of a 30 month old. Yes, I said that right a 30 month old. Just to put it into perspective....Keegan was 37 inches at 3 years old. So, do you think Truitt will be a tall man when he grows up? I believe he will be at least 6 feet tall. He also weighed in at 29 lbs. That is the 90th percentile.

He seems to be learning so many new things lately. This last week he learned to climb up the ladder onto the playset. The child seems to have very few fears. He loves to cuddle and loves to be a goofy little man, especially if it makes others laugh.

Here is something he discovered last night. He figured out that he can fit two binks in his mouth at the same time.

Our Little Book Worm

Keegan loves to read. It is amazing to see how quickly he is picking up the art of reading. I love to watch him read a book and then ask him questions about the story after he has finished. I really didn't think he would comprehend each story he was reading since he has to work at sounding out some of the words still. He never ceases to amaze me. He can tell you all about the story when he is finished. He has said from the beginning of this last school year that all he wanted to do is learn to read so that he could write stories like his daddy. Well, he is on his way. There is a ton of reading going on and he is always writing little stories. Maybe one day I can share one of his little stories with you all. I never dreamed that my 4 year old would be learning to read.

A quick update...

I know it has been a long time since I have posted anything on my blog. Life just never seems to slow down. I went through a time where I couldn't think of anything worthy of a blog post and then when I could think of things to blog about I couldn't seem to find the time. So, I will just give a quick rundown on a few of the highlights of the last couple of months.



Chris and I were able to get away for a few days, on our first trip without kids. We traveled to Las Vegas with our friends Steve & Keren. It was great to have a little time away, but we sure missed the kids.



Keegan had his Pre-K graduation. We are very proud of him. He will be attending the same school again next year, God willing. He has learned so much this last year. He is learning to read and is almost at a 1st grade learning level.



There are many new developments in our family, but I don't have the time or energy to type them all out. My sister-in-law wrote a great post about our current situation. You can read it here.