{Hi there}

Oh my, where to start? My laptop got kicked off of the bed by a certain now 2 year old. Back in...January. Immediately I knew what had happened. It's happened three times before. I knew that when I brought it into the shop they would say something about recovering my files for me. And then they couldn't. And then I go through a period of mourning. Mad at myself for not just BACKING UP THE FILES (AGAIN!!!!)... I knew how it would go and so in my usual method of dealing with things, I put it off as long as possible. Until I felt ridiculous about it. And so now I have a laptop back. With everything gone. EVERYTHING. I'm glad I never listened to people about clearing pictures off of my phone, and grateful my camera's card is large enough to hold many pictures in between dumps...and that I live close to family so there are lots and lots of pictures of my babies floating around the universe. But oh my goodness, it still really, really SUCKS.

Enough with the excessive use of CAPS LOCK. I'm back in the blogging world, and if anyone is still coming by to check in, then thank you for your patience and a warm hello. I'd offer you tea but my babies have a stomach bug that just wont leave. Only actively sick for about 12 hours, but then they have just been crying and sleeping for two days now? Surely it must be more than that. It's been difficult but we have survived and I think we will be able to creep out of the house this weekend for a drive, and maybe a stop at our local(ish) farmer's market. 

I'm going to try to go over some of the highlights of life in the past few months, although really it's just been more of the usual. Lovely in every way  but not too many big events to mention. Miss Jenny is seven now, and Nomi is two...we are waiting on Bobby's fifth birthday at the end of the month and birthday season will have passed. Other random highlights would be: My sister and her lovely husband moved back from Georgia, and are living in his hometown about three hours away. We see each other A LOT, with lots of driving halfway to meet them and snag her for a few days of girl time. It's good for both of us. We have planted our first garden! Hopefully the torrential rains the last two days haven't done any major damage, and I made a mental note that yes, I do in fact need to add drainage holes to the pail I planted the mint in. I've never had much luck with plants, but I am trying oh so hard this year and the kids are naturals so I think we might actually keep these plants alive long enough to pick some tomatoes and peppers. I'll share more about the garden soon, once I sort out pictures. We still have to plant squash, and Bobby's pumpkin patch, and (hopefully) lots and lots of flowers, but what we have is already a lot to be grateful for and proud of. I'm not feeling like tilling anything else, so I think the squash will be planted in little mounds and it can just spread and take over as it likes. We are renting so I don't want to turn too much of the yard into garden, as tempting as it is! 

 {from Jenny's birthday}

Let's see, other news. My hair is purple-ish now. Not neon, but as of last Friday it is very blackberry inspired and I *LOVE* it. I expect funky hair colors will hang around for a while. I've been knitting a ton, and I'm trying to carve out some time to add sewing into the mix. My mission to keep us going on our journey of cooking with whole foods (and gluten and corn free) is continuing on. Like I said, just living life. I do have so much I want to share here from our little projects, and I've missed writing and chatting with you all. I'm off to start scrubbing down the infirmary ..I think they are at the point where a quick shower and change of sheets will start to turn things around and remind them what healthy feels like.