Random Thoughts from August

• Emma started soccer again. She has WONDERFUL coaches this year and will hopefully begin to enjoy the sport. Her team colors are navy with red and white accents so they named themselves the USA All-Stars. She's not into that name- she would have much preferred something along the lines of the Striped Unicorns or American Flag Princesses. I guess the other 2nd graders don't feel the same way. I'm pretty sure she won't play again after this year, but hopefully some of my other kids want to play because I drive a minivan so it's pretty much expected of me.

•  Stella had her 9 month check up this week. She's 20lbs 10ozs. I'm not really sure what the other kids were at that age, but I'm pretty sure no one was over 20 lbs at 1 year. Emma now weighs 44lbs. She'll be in a booster seat until she's 13.

•  We start school NEXT week! Does that seem crazy to anyone else but me? School is supposed to start in September and end in June. I'm not ready for the summer to be over already.... mostly because I'm totally disorganized and without the slightest hope that I'll become organized by next week.

• Stella is really into hair. When she's tired or upset, she wants to bury her hands in my hair. On more than one occasion when she has woken up in the middle of the night, the only thing that I can do to soothe her is to lean over her crib with my hair and let her stroke it until she falls back asleep. Last week I chopped my hair off and she's not too happy about it. 

•   Emma and Grady have been working on their Christmas lists aaaall day. It's August 17th. Maybe it's because every time they ask for something, I tell them that I'm not gonna buy it but they can ask for it for Christmas. Grady is dictating his list to Emma and she's writing it down for him. I guess it's good handwriting practice so I shouldn't complain. FYI, Grady wants a real gun.

•  A bunch of girls from my family are doing a Mud Run in October. My sister-in-law who will be 7 months pregnant, my mother, and my aunt are all doing it, so really, I have no valid excuse to not do it... other than that I don't like mud and I pretty much don't like running. It's supposed to be a team building experience so, um, that's good, I guess.

• I  made some homemade laundry detergent this month. It's still in it's trial period but it seems to be working great and it was pretty easy to throw together. And cheap. If I keep liking it, I'll share the recipe with you soon. Lucky you!

• We have lots of tomatoes in are garden this year. Last year we hardly had any so I'm VERY happy about this. We also have a bean plant that produces about 2 green beans per week, a hot pepper plant, and zucchini and cucumbers that are  producing just enough to not be considered duds. And we have a GIANT pumpkin growing. Dylan bought seeds for the pumpkins that win awards and, while we won't win any awards, it is pretty cool so see how big one could grow in not ideal conditions and without TLC.

 Well, that's all I have for you today. Stella's upset so I gotta go give her some hair....