People, the internet has landed in our house! Wahoo! Brace yourselves for dozens of exciting blog posts as I write to my heart’s content in all my free time (ha!).

I just had to share this awesome photo that Angella took last week at a local festival in town. It was Avelyn’s first time on a horse and there was joy oozing from her every pore.

In other news:

I have only cooked one real meal in the past two weeks. Between all the cleaning and packing and moving and mayhem we pretty much lived off of hot dogs, McDonald’s, and the kindness of friends who took pity on us and brought us the occasional casserole. I am looking for some new and fresh summer recipes with which to christen my new kitchen. Any gooders you’ve been enjoying lately? Please share!

I read an amazing book last week (while we were living in the tiny one-room suite, without phone or internet and I had nothing to do after the kids went to bed each night) by Canadian author Ann-Marie MacDonald called “The Way the Crow Flies”. She is an amazing writer and her other novel, “Fall On Your Knees” is one of my favourites. So, if you’re looking for a few good reads, you can thank me later.

I just ate some corn on the cob and now I have gas pains.

I did some modeling today! Can you believe that? Seven months pregnant and covered in chin zits, but I was ready for my close-up. A friend of mine is a photographer/web designer who is creating a site for a company that sells pillows and high-end bedding and I got to do some head shots with her today. If any of them are decent (read: my face isn’t puffy and running from the triple chin that’s trying to devour it) I’ll pass on the link when the site is completed.

I love maxi dresses! Why did it take me so long to hop on the long/flowy dress train? It’s so nice not to give a second thought to the jiggling problem areas that lurk beneath the layers of floor-grazing fabric.

That’s all for now, folks. I have an entire house to unpack before the baby gets here!

Life just keeps rolling along these days. The renovations on our home are coming along beautifully and we are at the mudding and taping stage of things. Once that’s done, it’s on to paint colours and flooring and trim, oh my! It all feels a little surreal, and I am just so used to living in our in-between house (my dear mother-in-law’s beautiful home: the house where Steve and I fell in love, got married on the beach at, and, ahem, just happened to conceive our third child in) that I sometimes forget why we’re here, that we’ll be moving back into our new/old place in a few months’ time. It’s all very exciting, and I’ll post some photos soon.

I am finally feeling better and less nauseated all the time. Things started to improve around the 10-week mark, which initially had me concerned that perhaps something was wrong with the baby, but I am still exhausted and my boobs are still sore and gaining a cup size a week, so I’m hoping all is well. I go for an ultrasound tomorrow to confirm my dates, so if you think of me, feel free to say a little prayer and send some good thoughts that this sweet baby is healthy and thriving.

My newest post is up at urbanmoms.ca and I’d love for you to check it out. You guys have been so great about commenting there and making me feel welcome, and I really appreciate that.

Can I just say that I love The Bachelor? I have never really followed it before since we never had cable, but now Steve and I are both hooked. It’s awful. And delicious. And Vienna is a cow.

That’s all.

Mornings flip on like a switch. One moment I’m laying in bed, wiping drool from the corners of my mouth, and in the next, the baby begins to wail, the dog starts whining to be let out, Avelyn comes charging down the hall and pounces on me, and Steve’s alarm (set to the country music station) will blare. It’s a graceless entry into a new day.

The past week has been insane: we are going ahead with a renovation in our home and I since I am married to a “if you’re going to do it, then do it RIGHT” kind of guy, we are going to be out of our house for quite a few months while an addition is added on and pretty much every wall in the house gets moved. I am thrilled about the final result, but in the mean time we’ve been running around like headless chickens packing up our stuff, moving to our interim home, rehearsing for a Christmas musical production I have a role in, not to mention all the usual busyness of the impending holiday season.

Karenna still is not sleeping through the night, so each day you see me, I am more tired than I was the day before.

I saw New Moon and was one of the breathless houseladies in the audience who audibly gasped for joy when Jacob took off his shirt. Sweet mercy.

I am reading The Lovely Bones. So far it is a great read.

And tonight I am having homemade Bailey’s Cheesecake for dessert. You should come over for a slice.

The days have been long ’round these parts. The kids (well, one in particular) have been nightmarish, leaving me at my wit’s end even before sunrise. I am thankful for photos like this, that remind me it’s worth it.

Upon the recommendation of a fellow blogger I have started reading a book called Connected Parenting and it is rocking my world. I have read many parenting books and have found most of them to provide small nuggets of truth that I have agreed with and implemented. But never before have I read something that has felt as though it was written exactly for my child, the challenges we’re facing, and the parenting philosophy I would like to strive for. I am about halfway through the book, but I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone out there who’s feeling the urge to punt her three year-old off her two-story deck. Not that I’d know what that feels like.

And now, a little of this and a dash of that:

In other news, I am fully freaked out about H1N1 and am planning on getting the vaccine, assuming there are still some available. You?

In even more disturbing news, our DVD player is broken. Having a child who hasn’t napped since 2007 means that our DVD player is usually hot to the touch from overuse, and it’s been quite the adjustment for us. 

We are holding steady in fourth place in that Home Depot contest! (We have to be in the top five to be entered in the final draw.) Thanks for your votes and if you feel the urge to vote again (here’s the link again), please don’t fight it. (The contest closes November 1.) (Parentheses are fun!)

My favourite TV shows are: Big Love, 30 Rock, Mad Men, Lost, The Office, Glee, Grey’s Anatomy, and America’s Next Top Model. What about you? Any great shows that I might not have heard of that I need to waste countless hours catching up on previous seasons of? It’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make.

I have just started a six-week commitment to Weight Watchers and feel like punting myself off our deck. These last ten (*cough, 20, cough*) pounds are going to be the death of me.

That’s about it! I hope you have a lovely weekend waiting for you.

I planted a garden this year. Well, more of a garden than I had ever planted before, but still quite piddly and forlorn in comparison to what yours probably looks like.  It’s been a humbling experience and here’s what my harvest estimate includes: three carrots, one head of (very wilted) lettuce, four peas and a SCHWACK of potatoes. I watched a YouTube video on how to plant potatoes and it wasn’t messing around! We’re going to be eating a lot of frites this summer!  

A garden reminds me that I am lazy. That I am a procrastinator. That I take things for granted and then they die. How uplifting. Maybe that’s why I kind of hate gardening. I want to love it, since I’m married to a farmer who can manage to keeps thousands of apple trees alive and thriving while I glance at a houseplant and it shrivels and I am pretty sure I hear it scream before it dies. I think the biggest thing holding me back is my lack of knowledge about the simple things, like how deep to plant seeds, what should be planted next to what, etc. The other problem is that I am a little too lazy to try to figure it out. Hence, a three carrot harvest.  

But go, potatoes! 

What do you wish you were better at?

Blogging has taken a backseat to mornings at the beach, sweeping sand off of kids’ bum cheeks, worming used cigarette butts out of Jolie’s mouth by the shore, fishing daily logs out of Avelyn’s swim diapers, reading Anne Lamott in the afternoons, playing at the park with friends, the occasional girls’ night out, play dates aplenty, watching disappointing summer television in the evenings, and so on and so forth. 

If things stay quiet around here, it just means I’m having a really good summer. Here’s hoping you are too!

I found this really great recipe for homemade cheese.  It was surprisingly simple: take one half-empty bottle of milk, forget about it and let it fester in the hot sun for 48 hours and voila! Homemade feta.

Jolie has hit my favourite milestone.  Many mothers eagerly anticipate their children’s first words or first steps, but here’s what really yanks my chain:

She can hold her own bottle!  I can taste the freedom, can you?  Best milestone ever.

I am done trying to cut carbs. A life without bread is one I want no part of.

Looking for a nice, uplifting movie with some great acting?  Check out House of D.  I had never heard of it but some friends brought it over last night and it was a great flick.

Operation Stop Crapping Your Pants took a turn for the better when Avelyn finally pooped on the potty yesterday.  We are officially accident-free when indoors at home.  But as soon as she leaves the house, well, we’ve got some work to do.

Have you ever made these muffins?  Because two words: WOW. They are tangy and sweet and delicious, just like me.

I really didn’t want to like Taylor Swift (because she’s really skinny and way too pretty and I wish I were both of those things), but we’ve been listening to her new CD (I bought it for Steve for Valentine’s Day because he totally has a crush on her) in the car for a few weeks and Avelyn knows most of the songs off by heart, and if watching a two year-old sing “Love Story”, with her eyes closed and arms swaying, doesn’t melt your heart, I don’t know what will.

I took a pregnancy test last week.  It was negative and I was thrilled.

It’s really easy to write an incoherent blog post like this, and I don’t even feel bad when I can’t think of a good way to end it.

Here’s what’s circulating in my gray matter lately:

If you need a good laugh then check out this site, Awkward Family Photos. Not many things make me laugh out loud when I’m all by myself, but this is one of them.

When my mom was here last week we were talking about the pressures on young moms to be stick-thin and back in their skinny jeans by 3 weeks post-partum. I told her that I have fallen prey to those ideals and was finding it hard to be satisfied with where I’m at.  She said, “But you’re totally a MILF, Amanda!” My MOM said MILF.

Avelyn has started swimming lessons and is loving them. The only problem is that she is making a habit of taking a dump in the pool.  (Potty training progress is slow but steady.  When we’re at home she will pee all by herself and I don’t have to worry about accidents. But when we’re out, away from her little potty, trouble inevitably seeps down her legs and into her rubber boots. And the whole pooping thing? Hasn’t happened yet since she always poops in the mornings, when we’re out running errands, etc. so I have her in a diaper.  What to do?! Anyways, we are making progress and we’re miles ahead where we were when we attempted training her at Christmastime.) I put her in a swimming diaper but COME ON! Those things are nasty, especially with a water-logged turd trapped inside.

No more bottle! Yes, Avelyn was still taking a bottle of water to bed every night (shut up) and sometimes in the afternoons for her quiet times.  I anticipated it was going to be quite a battle to rid her of this comforting habit but a couple weeks ago all the bottles were dirty so I sent her to bed with a regular sippy cup of water and that was that. No more bottle.  My little girl is growing up!

I am trying to cut carbs and get more protein. This sucks and is not fun at all and I WANT CRACKERS. Actually, a cracker sandwich: two fat pieces of bread with a fistful of crackers smushed between them.

I think my iron levels are improving since I don’t fall into a coma every day at 1 o’clock.

Our toilet is still plugged with turkey bones (again, don’t ask).  It’s like being in Mexico. You can pee in the pot, but if you wipe you have to toss your soggy tp in the waste basket. (GAG.)

I am starting to enjoy Twitter more.  When I first joined I thought it was a waste of time and I rarely updated. While I still only update once or twice a day, I find myself checking everyone else’s updates more often. Because it makes me connected and it’s somehow comforting to know that somewhere, someone is doing something and they’re telling me about it.  Yes, I realize that this sounds rather pathetic. Now I’m going to go Twitter about how I’m feeling foolishly needy.

Things that are good: pigtail ringlets, ice cream, action shots.

The long weekend was OK.  Steve had to work too much, but we managed to ram in a few nice moments amidst the irrigation leaks and tractor troubles.  As you saw below, we got to witness a beautiful marriage proposal and we also spent time at the beach and the park and the like.

Here are a few shots that probably won’t make the scrapbook, but did make me laugh:

What? You don’t give your babies Kool-Aid in their bottles?  Formula is just so expensive these days so we’ve got Jolie started early on the red dye number five. I kid.  It’s actually 100% fruit juice because that’s all she was able to keep down for six days.  Turns out that nasty gush of diarrhea she unleashed at Ange’s house last week was the nostril-singeing start of a bout of Rotavirus.  She barfed and sprayed watery turds for almost a week straight and although she’s feeling better, I don’t think I’ll recover for a while.

Angella snapped this one while I (obviously) wasn’t aware of her camera’s path.  I am twirling my hair and have officially become my mother.

Here I tried to capture a photo of Ange in all her glory.  She’s telling a story here (as she often does) and I think I see her right hand about to lift in a fit of exclamation, that hand-talker, her.

And here I think she just tooted.

Speaking of tooting, I like to call this one The Constipated Photographer.  It’s been just under a year since I got my Canon Rebel and entered the wonderful world of the DSLR.  Since then I have improved mildly but am not really feeling driven to take my skills (or lack thereof) to the next level.  Whenever I am outdoors I shoot manually, which I really enjoy.  But I still take a lot of reeeeallly bad photos.  The grimace of constipation is genuine, however, since those darn iron capsules have kicked in and I am down to one poop a week, save for a few charcoal rabbit turds that I have to push out with more power than was required of me in childbirth.

I like this photo.  It’s of the owner of Sonoran Winery with his prized grandson.  I love the juxtaposition of weathered experience and innocent youth.  Because I am really deep, and stuff.