an update of sorts.

so...i just cleaned a smearing of poop off elijah's hands. considering the fact that he's two years old and this is the first time i've had to do it, i'm thankful. but still. YUCK! i am also thankful he didn't get it on anything. i think he was kind of grossed out by the whole thing. whew.

it feels like spring here in the central valley. the sun is kissing the earth with a march-like 65-70 degrees. it's good for my carrots, i suppose, but i am sincerely NOT ready for spring. aside from my own personal bent, we just reallyreally need some rain! if we don't get it, things are looking pretty dusty for the summer months. i've never lived in an area that can experience drought but if this keeps up, i'll be able to check that off my list.

speaking of my carrots, i haven't blogged much about my garden lately. i wouldn't exactly call it a garden at this point...it's mostly just weeds with a couple rows of carrots and onions and a couple lettuce plants. i picked a head of butter lettuce and a few carrots (they're still pretty small, but oh so sweet!) a couple of days ago for a salad and i'll tell you what, there's not much better than fresh produce from your backyard in january. i've been debating back and forth about what to do for this growing season. i definitely want to do something...but maybe not quite as ambitious as last year. i checked out the book "the edible garden" and have been perusing its pages over the past week or so. i think it's inspiring me to do more than i can handle though. i'm pretty sure i'm going to separate the growing season into three manageable pieces (it kind of already is): spring/warm, summer/hot, fall/warmish. for the spring and fall seasons, i'll be a little more enterprising with my planting but for the summer months (may through september), i'll mainly stick to low maintenance veggies like corn, cucumbers and tomatoes. this is altogether to do with the little bun that's cooking in my tummy right now. i don't want to have to worry about things like weeding when all i'll want to do is catch up on sleep and laundry. oh...and showers. (speaking of baby, planning a baby related post here soon) i might join a local CSA during those months to supplement or just take weekly trips to the farmers market (which i like to do anyways, a couple times during the summer at least). we'll see what happens. for now, i'm going to get my husband to do some rototiller work out there, plan what goes where and figure out a drip system for watering. no more hauling buckets!

been feeling domestic lately. the pictures above are evidence of that. don't know if it's to do with the pregnancy and early nesting setting in or the time of the year or what but i've been baking and knitting up a storm. i made some orange marmalade last weekend, along with some hearty wheat bread. they are fantastic together! the marmalade was a bit more of a project than i originally anticipated, mainly because it never actually gelled up like it's supposed to. i think perhaps that had to do with the type of sugar i was using. not sure raw, organic sugar is up to the job of jam making...maybe just the cheap, granulated stuff. i'll definitely have to play around with that before i do any major canning/jam making in the future. this was just an efficient way to use up the plethora of oranges we had before they started to rot.

as far as the knitting goes, my needles have been clickin' away for the past few weeks. and i'm almost ready to unveil my projects. i had been planning to open a store front on etsy.com but after i did a bit of research, i decided i'm just going to host another blog that showcases the items i have for sale. they will mostly be baby related items but i am planning to add some accessory type pieces along the way as well. i'm hoping to have this up and running by the end of the month. you'll definitely be hearing more about this soon!

i'll leave you with a sweet tidbit from our weekend. friday night, elijah slept over at his grandparents house. a wonderful treat for mom and dad! not only did we get some alone time, but we got to sleep in! a rare blessing. when john's mom finally brought elijah back home in the morning, he was his typical happy little chatterbox of a boy. i was still in bed (awake and reading) when he came upstairs chattering the whole way. just moments after elijah had joined me on the bed, the little baby inside me seriously started dancing! it was almost as if he/she recognized their big brother's voice and was saying hello in the only way they can. it might have been just coincidence but i'm choosing to believe that it wasn't. oh...i'm so excited for these two! what fun they'll have together...