winter sowing. (or, the lazy gardener's guide to crossing your fingers and hoping for the best.)

if you've read my blog for a while, you know that i have tried starting vegetable seeds indoors with the hope of transplanting them once the weather warms up enough to garden.  i get antsy in the spring to get something, anything growing (not just because i'm a Crazy Plant Lady - which i am, but also because winter makes me feel dead inside and little tiny seedlings give me hope that i'm not just a black hole of emotion).

(the above photos were from 2011.  sorry for the grainy-ness and tiny-ness.)

but i have never had an indoor-sown seedling make it through the shock of transplanting.  i do everything i can: i coddle those things with grow lights and hardening off and all that jazz, but they always die as soon as they sense that they're all alone in the great, big world garden.  (and i'm not going to even go into the curses i've called down from heaven on the neighbor's garden, which was tilled with hog manure, and directly into the soil of which she planted tomato seeds.  and they grew and produced and were lovely and awesome.  and i was bitterly bitter.)

(my ambitious and utterly failed attempt at indoor seedlings in 2012.)

this year i was just planning on buying seedlings at the nursery and calling it good.  but then march rolled around and the nursery didn't have anything in that could be planted and i came across this crazy-pants idea on pinterest that i could stick some seeds in a milk jug (which basically serves as a mini-greenhouse) and set it outside and expect plants to grow.  like, onion seeds and stuff can be set out as early as january.  the jugs can get covered with snow and freeze solid and everything and you still get plants out of the deal.  what?!

not only that, but apparently they're hardier since they've gone through weather fluctuations and varying amounts of sunlight and whatever.  so they don't come with the 'teenage miss piggy' level of drama and babying that other seedlings do.

so i figured i have nothing to lose in trying, right?  i still have leftover seed packets in my freezer from all those sad, lost years, and i have some potting soil.  (another bonus with this method: you don't have to use the crazy-expensive seed-starting mix; you just use normal potting soil.)  i didn't have milk jugs, since the milk we buy comes in the opaque jugs and you need something more transparent so the sunlight can get through.  so i jimmy-rigged some two-liters from the recycling bin and am hoping those work.

i had atticus help me plant the seeds again this year.  penelope helped me to label the bottles.  i tied a ribbon around the bottles to (hopefully) keep them from blowing over or away in the wind.

so far, i've planted four types of tomato (beefsteak, bonny best, chadwick cherry, and amish paste) and two types of pepper (red bell and jalapeno).  i'm hoping to find enough jugs or bottles to allow me to experiment with a few more types of peppers, as well as some other kinds of vegetables and even some herbs.  no harm in trying, right?

anyone else getting ready for gardening?

video vednesday: [that tiny girl's voice is what's up.]

laurelai at seven months.

girlfriend turned seven months old and is rocking it like a boss.

 still in 0-3 month clothes but getting longer, and i've noticed her feeling heavier, though she doesn't have another weight check until next month so i don't know exactly what she weighs.  we've started trying some baby foods, but she has such a sensitive gag reflex that it's not going super well.  i've done baby-led weaning in the past with my kids, but i think we're going to try actual store-bought baby food at first, since it's so finely pureed.

she goes to bed around 8 p.m. and wakes up two or three times before 8 a.m. the next morning.  i'm getting seriously ready to sleep through the night for once, but since nursing is going so well, i don't want to mess with the schedule for now.

she's strong enough that she can crawl out of the bumbo on her own, which means she's had a bruise on her face at any given time over the last week or so.  she's strong, but maybe not the most graceful.  yet.

she's still not crawling, but she's close.  she gets up on all fours and rocks so hard she scooches the pack-n-play across the floor during naptime.  when she really wants to get going, she gets her feet up under her, but that clearly gets her nowhere.  she'll figure it out.

what a stinkin' cutie.  i could just eat her up, i love her so.

weekly 'what's up.'

okay, guys.  i started the week off by busting my butt to put together a family yearbook while there was a deal going on, and then the computer froze and i lost the whole thing.  i had to totally redo it.  and then i missed the order deadline. so...yeah.  this week kind of started off on a bad foot.

luckily my birthday was thrown in there to cheer things up, but other than that, it's been quite uneventful.  so i'll post baby pictures.

laur's getting even better at planks, but no better at getting anywhere.

and she has a tiny buddy whose head she loves to pet and face she loves to claw off.

have a great weekend, you guys!

it [was] [my] birthday.

oh my word, i haven't had such a good birthday in a long time.  i've never really been a 'birthday' person, and the last actual birthday party i had was fifteen years ago.  i frequently forget it's my birthday until, like, noon and then we end up eating at pizza ranch for dinner.

but this year was so great.  (minus the fact that, when i told the kids it was my birthday, atticus cried because i wasn't going to put the effort into making a cake for him to eat.  but i stand firmly by the rule that i shouldn't have to bake myself a birthday cake.  it's just sad.  and there are so many dishes to do after that.)

i had friends come over to celebrate with me.  i got phone calls.  one friend brought coffee, another brought brownies, another brought me a candle and some ball jars.  it's like my friends know me.  i got really thoughtful notes in the mail, and some zinnia seeds, which were seriously like sunshine in a tiny little envelope and i couldn't stop smiling.  i got sweet texts and emails.  a friend sent me a youtube video of a worship song that made her think of me.  another friend told me our city is getting an Ulta soon, the news of which was a gift in itself.

a college student watched our kids for free last night so todd could take me out for sushi and coffee.  (seperately, not at the same time.  that would be sicksville.)  he brought me home a gold. side table. from target. that was on clearance.  good gracious.

and i'm all, you guys.

very few did anything extravagant, which was so appreciated, since i turn into an awkward weirdo when people do nice things for me, so small bouts of spaz-outs are easier to handle than the paralyzing spasms that come with large gestures done.  but lots of people did something small and very thoughtful.  and i felt so, so loved.

and i'm so appreciative for and grateful to my friends and family and church community.  you people are my jam.  love you guys! thanks for making my birthday so, so awesome.

video vednesday: it is [my] birthday.

it's not like i discovered a cure for cancer. 

but if you choose to (professionally) mail me some chicken wings or aged cheddar or something to celebrate, i would (professionally) accept.

i b'dazzled my baby!

a week and a half ago, we took laurelai to get her ears pierced.  we had been wanting to do it for a while, and now that she's six and a half months old, we figured we needed to do it now or wait until she was elementary age, which we weren't too keen on.  penelope got hers done at four months old, and i LOVED having them done at that age - so easy to keep clean, and she was too little to ever mess with them.  other than the actual moment she was pierced, it was like she didn't even notice them.

i know that baby piercings are a touchy subject, and i even had a woman at church the other weekend cluck her tongue at me when she saw them.  (people still do that!  and not just in movies!  i had no idea.)  you guys are free to judge me if you want - i really don't mind, since i love ya, and we're 100% cool with our decision.

anyway, on to the juicy stuff.  and by that i mean the photographs.  (warning: super-sad crying baby photos coming up.  look away.)

before getting her earrings.  i almost feel bad for how naive and happy she looks at this point.

'hmm, those sparkly things are pretty.  i bet everything that is about to happen to me here is going to be the awesomest.'

i warned you this sad face was coming, but you didn't listen to me.  now look what you did.  you made her cry.

oh, little lady, just wait until you try waxing your legs someday.  beauty is pain, little one.  it's best you learn it early.

and just to prove that i'm not a terrible mother, laurelai would like to tell you what she currently thinks of her new earrings, now that she's had time to think it through:

(for anyone wondering, she's done really well with them.  she never messes with them, i clean them once a day and there is no sign of redness, swelling or infection, and she doesn't even flinch when i turn them.  she's healed up quickly and all is smooth sailing in b'dazzled-baby world.)

what's up! (weekly.)

hi all! happy friday!  time for a rundown of our week!

last saturday my mom and stepdad, my dad and his wife, and my sister all came up to celebrate finneas' birthday with us.  while the big kids were napping, and while we had free babysitting on hand, we took laurelai to claire's to get her ears pierced!  (i'll post more on that on monday.)

do i not look entirely heartless?

(happier, and blurrier, now.)

on sunday, todd got a (kind of random) opportunity to preach at a church in shellsburg.  it was really fun, and kind of surreal seeing him up there and listening to him preach.  like, the check they gave him indicated he was a 'guest pastor.'  totally weird, but totally cool.  he did an awesome job preaching the true gospel: that the only way to the father is through jesus, and that jesus was the only perfect, complete sacrifice that god requires.  he gives us the thing he requires of us!  (and all that from genesis four! god and his plan and compassion are consistent from the beginning to the end of the bible.)  

one excellent point he made was that there's this weird, kind of heretical junk floating around that we can or should somehow 'be jesus for people.'  um, jesus was jesus.  we can act in accordance with his spirit and will, but we aren't called to 'be jesus' anywhere in scripture.  what we are called to is to 'need jesus in front of people.' to confess our sin when we screw up, to not strive to be perfect in our own strength, but to show in our failures that, even as christians, we still need a savior each and every day.  that the gospel is still relevant every single day.  that jesus is not just the door to the christian life, but the life itself.  so anyway, all that to say, jesus is pretty rad, and my husband's pretty rad.

on monday i took atticus to the dermatologist to have a weird mole looked out.  turns out it's just a weird mole.  which is good news.  (though i maintain it's definitely a weird mole.  it's like...wrinkly.  and has a built-in hula hoop.  maybe it's a kundis.)

on tuesday, we had connection group.  just for a glimpse into our tiny house on connection group night, please note that the following photo is MISSING SEVEN PEOPLE:

connection group is always sardine-y, crammajammed, crackerbox snugglefest because our house is approximately the size of an altoids tin.  i like to think of it as cozy and intimate, instead of creepy and space-intrusive.  right? right?!  pretty soon we're going to have to start with varied-level auditorium seating.

on wednesday, we hauled the family to des moines so that todd and i could go to the jim gaffigan show at the civic center.  my sister got us tickets for christmas, and she watched the kids while we went.  we were planning on going to dinner first, but i miscalculated how long it would take to get there, so we ended up buying a can of pringles and a stick of beef jerky at a gas station on the way to the show.  i smuggled the jerky into the show because, well, hangry stops for no man.  not even jim gaffigan.  

yesterday, NOTHING.  nada. zilch-o.  we got home at 12:30 the night before, so the kids were all totally wiped out, and todd and i were/are getting sick, so we laid low, although we did have a couple of guys come over and talk to us about moving forward in the eldership process at church.  but other than that, it was a chicken-soup-and-early-bedtimes kind of night.

so that was our week.  and to shake things up and end on an overly ambitious note, since yesterday was the first day of spring and nothing makes me want to become an entirely better person than the first day of spring, here's my current reading list:

from the top: harry potter and the chamber of secrets on audiobook (listening through with todd), because he loves me, women counseling women, one way love, counsel from the cross, the wind in the willows (reading aloud to the kids), bossypants, john adams.

wish me luck with that formidable stack of tomes, and please comfort me when i fail to finish 75% of these. (though, i finished bossypants after i took this photo, so at least i have one down.)

what are you reading?

happy birthday party to finneas.

on saturday, we threw a small birthday party for finn. 

he turned two.

i mean, two.

i mean, two.

whatever, i'll just let the card do the talking.  he turned two.

he was feeling pretty good about his rockin' gifts.   like his ride-on lightning mcqueen.

and the cowboy get-up (getty-up? bad jokes.) my mom made for him.

or his sweet sword and shield and ... cap.  like every good and good-looking soldier equips himself with.  #soldier-ista

he waited anxiously for his cake...

...and then devoured it...

which came as no surprise, considering how much he loved it at his last birthday party, as eternally evidenced by this photo:

that really is an excellent photo of an excellent boy eating some excellent cake.

happy birthday to my (still) two-year-old boy!

video vednesday: A FISH SWORD.

happy twofer tuesday! (i know it's actually vednesday, but a. i didn't post yesterday, and b. 'twofer vednesday' is just lame, and simultaneously, too much happening all at once.)