Hey all!

I know I've been a terrible blogger on this page...I wasn't loving blogspot and over the past year I had a lot going on so I kind of put everything on hold for a while.

Now I'm excited to report that the hubs and I bought a new "to us" house that is going to be a large remodeling project and I bought a domain name to blog all of our home renovation adventures, family adventures, craft adventures and all kinds of stuff! I miss all of my comments and interaction with you guys, so if you would move over to:

http://taylorhousetohome.com with me, I would LOVE it!

Mama’s Holiday Wish List Meme

Mama’s Holiday Wish List Meme

TodaysMama (link to: http://bit.ly/tmwishlist) and GameStop (link to:http://bit.ly/gamestop10) are giving away a sleighful of gifts this holiday season and to enter I’m sharing this meme with you.

1. What is your holiday wish for your family?

My family holiday wish is for us all to be together and happy and just enjoy the holidays all together this year.

2. What is your Christmas morning / Hanukkah Nightly tradition?

We get up Christmas morning and find all of the presents that Santa left under the tree and open our stockings and I whip up some cinnamon rolls and start cooking the rest of the food for the Christmas dinner later in the day.

3. If you could ask Santa for one, completely decadent wish for yourself, what would it be?

A Cricut Imagine with 12 cartridges. :)

4. How do you make the holidays special without spending any money?

Attend church service and go out to look at all of the holiday lighting displays.

5. What games did you play with your family growing up?

Trivial Pursuit, Monopoly, Life

6. What holiday tradition have you carried on from your own childhood?

We let the kids open one gift on Christmas Eve.

7. Where would you go for a Christmas/Hanukkah-away-from-home trip?

Either a ski trip to Tahoe or somewhere on a beach. :)

8. Check out GameStop (link to: http://bit.ly/gamestop10) and tell us, what are the three top items on your GameStop Wish List this year?

The new Rock Band controllers and game with keyboard, etc, 3 DSI's (I have 3 boys) and Black Ops for the PS3 for the hubs.

Wordless Wednesday

I'm snitching a photo I got from Annie over at http://mamadweeb.com because I'm a dolt and forgot to bring my camera last weekend when I got to go out to lunch with her and Katie http://katietalksabout.com/. We met out at Johnny's Tavern in Overland Park, Kansas, which was yummy, and then went out to Town Center Plaza to do a little window shopping. Great time and great conversation! Thanks girls!

Summer Gardening Update

Gardening is something that's in my blood. My grandparents gardened, my dad gardened so it would stand to reason that I would garden also. Of course I'm gardening on a much smaller scale than those who came before me, but considering that it's my first attempt and I have a serious lack of space here, I don't think it's going too badly.

I'm already making note of changes that I want to make next year (item #1, buy enough dirt). I didn't get enough this year so one of my square foot gardens didn't get planted and now I'm regretting it because there are other veggies and plants I would have liked to have had.

Another note to self: Find a stronger trellis for the tomato plants next year! Even though my dad and grandparents gardened, I guess I never really paid attention as a kid, so I grossly underestimated the weight of tomato vines, dang those things are heavy! I bought this little wire trellis thing at Lowes and as soon as the plants started growing the poor little thing just couldn't withstand the weight and snapped and is now leaning precariously. The good news is, we have 20 tomatoes!

Here is my sage...I love the smell of sage. It reminds me of my Grandma Kathryn and fall and Thanksgiving. It's not gotten very big but I'm hoping to have enough to cut and dry for seasoning things.

Another note to self: Next year get more pepper plants and in a few different varieties. If you look very closely, you can see down at the bottom the lone little jalapeno on the plant. I sure hope we get more than just the one...there are still several blooms so I'm hopeful.

Excuse me waiter, there's a fly on my dill plant...

I'm happy to report that the marigolds have done well as far as keeping the bugs off of the plants...well except for Mr. Fly on the dill...and the rest of the herbs are doing wonderfully too. I totally messed up the lettuce this year and didn't thin it in time and it choked itself out, so no lettuce crop to speak of. I also have a mystery plant that I don't remember what it was growing so I guess that will be a surprise if and when it produces anything. I'll keep you posted!

Is anyone else growing anything this year? How's it going?

Wordless Wednesday

First Ripe Tomatoes of the Season

Well the one on the right isn't "quite" ripe

but the little neighbor girl picked

it too soon, so we'll put it out to ripen.

Reading List Update, Halfway through the Year

At the beginning of the year I posted a reading list of books I was going to try to finish during 2010...I'm happy to report I've made some progress and added a few here and there also but I've still got a ways to go....

1. "The Bolter" by Frances Osborne
2. "Say You’re One of Them" by Uwem Akpan - I got about halfway through this one and I just couldn't read any more...I hated it. Nothing particular about it, I just hated it. Ugh.
3. "The Looming Tower" by Frances Wright
4. "Prisoner of the State" by Zhao Ziyang
5. "The Bear" by William Faulkner - Actually reading this one right now.
6. "God: A Biography" by Jack Miles
7. "The Unsettling of America" by Wendell Berry
8. "Underground" by Haruki Murakami
9. "Leaves of Grass" by Walt Whitman
10. "Gilead" by Marilynne Robinson - Done, pretty writing, pointless plot
11. "The Regeneration Trilogy" by Pat Barker - This one is in progress...I read book #1 and I have #3 but don't have #2 yet...
12. "The Handmaid’s Tale" by Margaret Atwood - Done, this one I really liked
13. "A Lesson Before Dying" by Ernest Gaines - Done, can't go wrong with the classics
14. "No Excuses" by Kyle Maynard - Done, bad writing but interesting story
15. "Echo in the Bone" by Diane Gabaldon- Done, if you haven't read any of her "Outlander" series, check them out, I love them all
16. "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society" by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
17. "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" by Seth Grahme-Smith and Jane Austen
18. "Have a Little Faith" by Mitch Albom - Done, very sweet
19. "Her Fearful Symmetry" by Audrey Niffenegger
20. "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy - Done, amazingly written, sad sad sad story
21. "Julie & Julia" by Julie Powell - Done, a little kitschy but good
22. "The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane" by Katherine Howe
23. "The Magicians" by Lev Grossman
24. "The Lace Reader" by Brunonia Barry - Done, I loved this one
25. "Sharp Objects" by Gillian Flynn - Done, loved this one also, keep me hanging till the last pages
26. "Making a Family Home" by Shannon Honeybloom - Done, wonderful tips and beautiful photography

So as you can see, I've gotten at least a little over halfway through the list. I've also added in a few others:

1. Once an Arafat Man by Tass Saada - Fantastic book written by the father of a guy I went to school with, very interesting

2. How to Photograph Absolutely Everything by Tom King - Hey I got a new camera...enough said.

3. Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert - Very good

4. Essential Buddhism by Jacky Sach - Interesting, never hurts to learn about something new

There may be more I'm forgetting but that's off the top of my head for the moment. Considering I wanted to finish 26 books within the year, I don't think 18-1/2 is bad now that we're in July.

What all are you reading this summer that I'm missing out on? Any recommendations?

Random Update...

It's summertime and I suck at keeping up with blogging and computer time and all of that in the summer...ok, well maybe I keep up well with Facebook and Frontierville, but as far as blogging and such, I stink.

I've actually had some time to READ this summer, which has been wonderful. I've finished "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy - has anyone seen that movie? I want a recommendation yay or nay...Excellent writing but the book itself made me so sad.

I also read "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood. Wow, bizarre. It makes you really stop and think with all of the conspiracy theories out there if something like that could really happen...although I don't personally buy into any of that stuff, it's crazy to ponder in a hypothetical sense. Great book though, I'd give it a thumbs up.

I am currently reading "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert. I'm about halfway through it and I'm totally jealous of her ability to just pick up and leave for a year. It would be nice to take that kind of sabbatical. Of course she didn't have five kids, two dogs and a husband to worry about...by the way, I wouldn't trade any of them for the world.

I've also been reading some books on photography and Photoshop Elements 8, trying to do a little self-education so that I get the most out of my new camera, etc.

I won a book over at http://hauntjaunts.net called "The Tale of Halcyon Crane" and I'm looking to jump into it next. Thanks to Courtney over there for sending it!!

I also won an Amy Butler book "In Stitches" from @sheyb on Twitter and there are so many cute projects in there I'd like to try, but finding time to sew this summer has really been slim to none.

I've been watching baseball and the FIFA World Cup...I'm sad that USA isn't in it anymore but I really enjoy watching worldwide sporting events like the World Cup, Olympics, etc. It's interesting to me. I'm also convinced that I need to order a vuvuzela to blow at the children when they aren't listening.

I've also got a ton more of that court stuff I can't blog about yet, sighhhh. When I can finally blog this crazy story, you guys are going to crap at all of the nonsense we've had to go through over the past few years...as a side note though, I'm happy to report that all is going well and continues to be positive and encouraging news.

Tonight we're off to the zoo for the Friends of the Zoo membership night. I'll take the camera along and get some good pictures to post this week. I hope everyone is enjoying their summer. I think in a couple more weeks I'm going to start asking "When is school going to start again??" :) I love being home with the kids but I also enjoy the "routine" of the school year. Summer kind of feels "all over the place" for me.