Georgia and I like to go to the farmer’s market. We like to look at all the fruits and vegetables and purchase the very best to take home for snacks and meals. We like to watch all of the people. And the dogs. We like to be outside in the sunshine.
Do you want to know what we like most????
Sharing a homemade pretzel.
It’s our thing. We go to the market, then we get a pretzel to share.
And do you want to know what we really like the most about the farmer’s market????
Spending time together!
I’m trying to get Georgia to branch out a little bit more…..have more friends than just Lilliana (her BFF).
A few weeks ago, I arranged a play date between Georgia and Madeline. Madeline is another little girl from church. Nolan and I went to Goshen with her Mommy and Daddy.
So we went to Madeline’s house. They played. They ate. They played again. They painted. They went potty. They went outside. And before you knew it, we had been there for a couple of hours and it was time to go home.
What did Georgia like most about her time with Madeline….PAINTING.
After we left their house, we had to stop by Target to get a few things. And Georgia begged for paints. We had finger paints at home, but Madeline had paint and brushes. Big stuff!!!
So for a few dollars I made my kid real happy and got her creative juices flowing.
The next day she pleaded for the paints! And the brushes! So she painted for a very long time. And it kept her entertained. And she found something new that she really enjoyed!
Thanks Madeline, for an awesome play date and for a new activity!!
Tonight Georgia marched herself into the living room, where Nolan and I were both where sitting, and says what sounds like, “Beaver Boat.”
Nolan looks at me and I look at him. “What did you say” he asks her.
“Beaver Boat.”
Nolan back to Georgia, “Beaver Boat?”
“Yea!”
She’s standing there in front of us with this proud little smile on her face. And Nolan and I are just looking at each other dumbfounded.
Then Georgia starts saying, “bah, bah, bah BOAT.”
Nolan and I look at each other and we both say, “OH! B FOR BOAT.”
And Georgia says, “uh huh!”
Sometimes everything feels good with the world when I’m in the kitchen washing my dishes. Sometimes it’s almost a stress reliever. I’m not saying that I love to do it, but when I get in there and start cleaning I get to thinking.
I’m thinking about my buddy Herbie laying beside me on the cool kitchen floor.
I’m thinking about the cat sitting on the ledge looking at the water with her curious eyes.
I’m thinking about my precious little girl, who is playing so well by herself. Ah, the imagination.
I’m thinking about the CD that’s playing in the back ground…it’s Jack Johnson. And I’m thinking about how I get to go to his concert on Friday night.
I’m thinking about my hubby who is at work and how I won’t see him until about 10pm tonight and I already start missing him. I like it that I can still go a few hours without him and miss him.
And then before I know it…the dishes are washed, the sink is clean, the counter tops have been wiped clean and the CD is over.
And maybe just maybe, I’m a little more at peace. A little bit happier.
Do you ever have those nights…..
where after dinner, you just want to lay on the couch and do nothing at all?
Well, I did. And if you don’t, I think that you must be superwoman.
Last night, I felt a bit spoiled. After working (only a half day) I went to yoga for 1 1/2 hours (hot yoga), came home, took a shower, ate dinner (grilled steak, grilled veggies, oven fries and salad) and laid on the couch with my girl (Georgia), then went to bed.
Nolan on the other hand, left for work long before I ever made it out of bed, worked all day, picked up Georgia from my mom’s house, stopped by the store, made dinner, cleaned up the kitchen table, got Georgia ready for bed, changed the sheets on our bed….all before laying down for the night.
Hmmmm…..sometimes this makes me feel like a bad mother and wife. Isn’t it insane that I feel like I should do it all, ALL the time? I have to remind myself, Nolan and me….we’re partners. And I have to remember that while he did do all of those wonderful things for us last night….I get to do it ALL day today. You see, he goes to play frisbee on Thursday nights. He gets away from the insanity here at home too. And I’ll be here….washing the dishes from last night, doing laundry, sweeping the floor, gardening, grocery shopping oh and keeping up with the kid.
Family, I suppose that’s what it’s all about. The give and the take. I just have to keep reminding myself that it’s good for me to do things for myself…and it’s good for Nolan to do things for himself. We gotta keep that good balance.
That kid is begging for breakfast right now. Suppose I should feed her!!
We’ve taken Georgia to the zoo a couple of times this summer. The animals are great and all, but what she really wants to do is go to the splash pad…..
The first time she went, she was a little bit timid. But the next time she was all for it and went in running. I had to grab her and make her slow down before she fell on her rear! Now that she knows what this is all about, she’s all for it!
Here are some pictures of what has been going on in our garden’s this year…..
Clematis by our front door..this was from the spring
Ground cover under the Clematis
Hosta in the front bed
Sage is a bloomin’
Lavender, I had to cut this back this year…there was a lot of dead parts and it needed some room for new growth
The bloom from our new tree in the back yard
Hollyhock
We had to put some pots around the deck. Everything else that we planted here Herbie would trample 
Pink Phlox in the front bed
Purple flowers (I forget the name) around the tree in the front
The hosta that was transplanted in the back bed…after much concern, I think that it’s going to make it after all 
This is the new flower bed that we have put beside the deck
The veggies…..didn’t Nolan do a great job building the fence to protect our precious little vegetables from those pesky rabbits?
Bell Pepper
Tomatoes
The fruits of my labors in the flower garden!
Conner Prairie (http://www.connerprairie.org/# ), which is a local interactive history museum of sorts, has Symphony on the Prairie every Friday and Saturday night during the summer months. So the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra plays under the stars of the prairie. Some folks make it a romantic event with the sweetie and bring their wine and cheese, others bring all the kids along since they can run around outside and be a bit noisy and still hear the great music and still others come with a group of friends for a unique night out!
Now, living here in Indy my whole life, you might think that I would have made it out to Symphony on the Prairie before now. But then you would be wrong. It’s been going on for as long as I can remember, but I just never made it out there. The past 3 years I’ve really wanted to go, but never really set a date and bought the tickets.
This year, well, I was making a point of going. It was on my summer to do list. And I made it for John Denver night. Now, I love John Denver. I had one of his songs sung at our wedding….I’ve got CDs….I just think he’s the cat’s meow. My sister-in-law Mindy actually brought up going and when my mom heard it was John Denver night, she really wanted to go too. So we got our discount tickets at Marsh and went to the prairie!!!
We brought along dinner, snacks and drinks and had a relaxing night listening to the music. The musician who was doing all the singing has pretty much made a career out of performing John Denver songs. Their voices are pretty similar and he was even picked to sing all the songs in the made for TV movie about John Denver after his death.
Georgia is trying to make a duck face with her Pringles
It was nice to sit back and enjoy the night, sing along to these classic songs and hang with the family. A great time was had by all. Oh and we will be going back….Michael Jackson night is in a few weeks and then there is a Beatles night as well a couple of weeks after that!!!!
Almost looks like John Denver himself on the stage
The view from our seats
At Georgia’s 18 month well baby appointment, her doctor said that we could start introducing the potty since she was so verbal. I went out and bought a cute little green frog potty chair and the training began.
And the training is still going on…..we try for a while and then we stop because we aren’t really getting any where. We tried putting on underwear while we were at home, and I found that I was just cleaning up mess after mess all day long. So then I would go back to putting Georgia in pull ups all day.
I really REALLY wanted Georgia to be potty trained by her 3rd birthday. Not because I’m worried about what people think about having a kid over 3 who’s not potty trained, but because I want to stop buying diapers!!!!! Those things are not cheap. And pull ups are even more expensive.
I decided to wait until after vacation to start more aggressively doing potty training….and by aggressive, I mean with myself, not with her. When she’s wearing a pull up, it’s so easy to forget that she needs to the potty. I knew that I needed to be consistent for her to have success.
So after vacation, I started again with Georgia wearing underwear at home. I cleaned up so many messes it was ridiculous. She knew what to do, but she just didn’t want to do it. And everything that you read is that they will do it when they are ready. Well, that didn’t really cut it for me. I was not willing to wait until she was ready….she might have been in high school before she was ready to pee in the toilet. I’m a no nonsense girl and this was not working for me.
On one of my days off, we were at home so I had Georgia in underwear. I had to shower, so I asked her if she needed to potty. She said no. I took my shower and was getting out and she came into the bathroom with me. I asked her if she needed to go pee pee and she again said no. Not a minute later she peed all over the bathroom floor and my large rug (the kind that is a pain to wash and dry). I was so upset and tired of cleaning up these messes that I told her we were done with pull ups. And if she had an accident that she would be the one cleaning it up, I was not doing it anymore. AND if we went out to the store, a friend’s house, the park, the zoo, wherever, we would have to go home.
Nolan was working from home that day. And I know that he though I was crazy. That this was never going to work. Well, Georgia had 2 more accidents that day and then she was dry, the rest of the day. And every day since then, has been pretty good. She has not had an accident while we were out in public and she is even going potty on her own now, no prompting. She still has accidents, she sometimes forgets when we are at home and she is playing, but she is getting better everyday. It is one less battle that we are constantly fighting.
It’s amazing the pride that I feel that my daughter has learned to poop and pee in the potty. It was a long fight, we were “potty training” for a year, so I’m glad that we are on the home stretch!
What have we been up too you ask?
Well here are a few things that have been going on this summer….besides vacation!
VISIT FROM GRANDMA!
The first weekend in May, Nolan’s mom came for a visit. Georgia talked about Grandma coming for weeks. She flew into Indianapolis on a Friday and stayed until Tuesday. The Saturday after she got here, we traveled to Goshen to visit more family. Sunday we came back to Indy and just hung out with each other. Georgia absolutely loved having Grandma stay at our house. That was a very big deal to her! Also, Vicki is pretty handy to have around. She made new covers for our living room chairs. Thanks Mom Lichti!!!!
MINI MARATHON!
The second weekend in May, Nolan and I participated in the Indianapolis Mini Marathon along with several of our friends. It was a very windy day. The temps were cold in the morning, but once we started running it wasn’t too bad…just that wind!
We did it though. Nolan came in a little under 2 hours and I came around 2 hours and 45 minutes. I can’t remember the exact times….if your curious you can look it up. It felt great doing it, but the training was LONG.
Zoo, Memorial Day Weekend. Opening of the Cheetah Exhibit!!!!
Nolan took a 1/2 day the Friday before Memorial Day and we spent some time doing family stuff. We decided that it would be a good time to go to the zoo. The brand new Cheetah exhibit was opening and members got a sneak peek the day before. We took advantage of that and headed to the zoo.
We hit a few other exhibits before making our way to the newest area. I was impressed by the remodeling that was done in this area of the zoo to make a spot for the cheetahs. All very nice and met my approval!
After checking out the animals, we got a drink and Georgia begged to go to the splash zone. We agreed that with the heat, it sounded like a great plan. She had a fantastic time!
VACATION BIBLE SCHOOL
This was Georgia’s first year going to VBS at our church. This was also my first year helping out. I was helping lead the opening worship service and music. It was very fun, but also very exhausting. I think that since it was the same week that we were leaving for vacation, things were a little more stressful than normal. We were having lots of late nights trying to get everything done before the trip and adding VBS to the mix just made things a little more busy. But Georgia had fun and enjoyed herself and that made it all worth it!
Alaska Trip!
You all already know about that! No need for further details.
DENTIST!
So I have not been to the dentist in years….about 10 years. I decided that I should just get over my fear and go. It’s not going to get any better unless I just bite the bullet and get into the dentist’s office.
So I went, and while it was uncomfortable, I lived and I will be going back every 6 months from now on.
Update: I recently went back to the dentist to have a couple of cavities filled and I lived! Whew! I was on some pretty strong meds to chill me out. I don’t remember the car ride home or how I got to the couch, but Nolan woke me up around 2pm that afternoon and my entire morning was a blur! Strange!
