Learning to Fish Part 2: Touching the fish

Last time we took Emma fishing, she was scared of the fish that Clinton caught. BUT she's has been talking about going fishing nonstop! We headed to Cuthand today to pick up Clinton's "new" old boat, so we took our poles!

Clinton caught one on his first cast!

Papaw's was a lot bigger, though.

Em didn't even want to stand next to Papaw as he held it.

Clinton trying to get her to touch it.

Not going well...

uh oh!

Finally, Emmy went fishing too!

Cap says "Instant Fishing Buddy... Just Add Water!"

Here she is "thinking" about touching one.

She did it!! Step 2 complete!

Dad & Clinton running the motor in the water.

Yep, the boat is almost as big as the pool.

Somehow, Nana always has balloons around.

Em wanted to "Let 'em in the sky"

Watching the balloons fly away.

Family Night

I have basically been a single parent for the last 2 weeks. Clinton has been home, but he's been working nights and a lot of overtime. Today is his one day off, so we decided to have family night.

While I was waiting for our supper to finish cooking (a big pot of Prejean's smoky beans with corn bread), I asked Em if she wanted to help me make dessert. (It IS a diet cheat day, after all.) Of course, she was all in! I had originally planned to make peach cobbler, but I couldn't find any peaches. I did have a couple of cake mixes. I sent her to ask her daddy if he wanted yellow cake or chocolate cake. Five minutes later, Clinton was still trying to figure out what she was saying about yellow cake, so I intervened. He chose the yellow cake, of course, and Em and I set out to make it for him!
(Photos by Clinton)

Ready to go!

Trying to steal an egg! Not cool!

Eating the dry mix... I used to do this a lot when I was little!

Trying to help. She kept saying "I stir it up, I stir it up!"

She comes by it naturally.

Definitely getting more on the counter than in her mouth.

Spreading it in the pan.

Oops! Lost her spoon!

Eating the batter right off the counter.

While I was cleaning up, she ran off... came back as a cooking princess.

Ta-Da!

We spent the rest of family night eating and watching "Alice in Lundaland".

So much fun!

My Sweethearts

I found them like this...

Watching a movie... most likely Shrek

Em noticed the camera and started showing out...

She just loves it when someone says "awww"

She's such a sweet baby...

March's Resolution Update

I've fallen off the wagon. In just about everything. Ok, not EVERYTHING.  Here are the couple of things that are going ok...

I've been eating healthier, or trying to... I've pretty much abandoned my elimination diet, but have made a serious effort to eating healthy at least throughout the week. If I know that I am able to cheat on the weekends, it is a little easier.

I've started exercising. Andrea drug Brittney & me to boot camp last week. BIG mistake. I am STILL sore! At least now I can sit down on the toilet without crying. TMI? We are trying out Jazzercise this week. I have, also, been walking the Trail de Paris. That's at least better than sitting on the couch, right?

Budgeting... oh, budgeting... *sigh* is going pretty good. Actually, Clinton got a hold of it and proposed a much stricter budget. Mainly for the purpose of saving... for vacation and in general. It's really hard and I've been moaning and groaning about it for two weeks, but it's a really good idea and it'll work if I can stick to it.

Meal planning is going grrrrreat! It has to! If I'm going to make the grocery budget work, I HAVE to plan it all out. See how things tie together like that!

So #5-8 are on the right track. The rest? Not so much. I had actually thought about not writing another update like this one, but I think being honest with myself and putting it out there, will help me get motivated to keep trying.

To sum up how bad I've been doing...
I've been sleeping late again. My cleaning schedule has gone to hell (along with my daily schedule). I'm still hopelessly addicted to caffeinated beverages. Emma's schedule is off... see what happens when my daily schedule gets screwed up! I am embarrassed to say that Emma hasn't had learning time in weeks. My hair has been in a ponytail for days...

Please leave me some words of encouragement... I'm a little down and need some right now! Thanks!

Gardening

Last year, Clinton and I (with my Daddy's help) planted a small garden at our old house. I quickly realized that, while gardening was fun sometimes, I had no intentions to weed and take care of it like it needed. The garden soon (very soon) got away from us! We did get a few vegetables from it, but most died or rotted on the vine. I know! Terrible!

This year, I planned to go very small with the gardening. I wanted to a container garden for some herbs and strawberries for Em. My Daddy came up with the idea for me to use some old feed buckets instead of buying new pots. Brilliant, free, and green (recycling! or is it upcycling? I don't know the difference!)

I bought the soil and plants, so it was time to plant!

As with everything, we couldn't do a project without Emma helping. Good thing I had gotten her some new gardening tools! 

Everything got a spray down with that sprayer. Myself included.

The buckets are pretty deep and the potting soil is expensive, so Clinton and I came up with the idea to put mulch in the bottom to take up room before putting in the soil. Being the clever boy he is, Clinton thought it was a much better idea to take up the old, faded mulch from our flower bed, than use new mulch in the buckets. Then, we could put the new mulch down and kill two birds with one stone! 

There she is "helping".

 We had a little bit of a catastrophe when Emma fell and scraped her knee. She got all whiny, not because her leg hurt, but because she had to go inside for me to clean it. She wanted to play!!

How pitiful is that face?

We got all the mulch into the buckets and started pouring in the potting soil.

First, Em tried to plant her ball...

then some pine cones.

Then she "cooked" and stirred it up with her stick.

Finally! She used her new tools...

To dump my pricey potting soil on the ground!

She decided she needed some gloves, so she stole mine!

Finally, I was able to get the plants out and get them planted.

Both of us doing weird mouth things as we concentrated.

Strawberry plant

Still doing the tongue thing!

This was the one plant she planted herself!

I was so grimy when we were done, I went straight to the shower and forgot all about taking a picture of the final project! We have three buckets of plants. One has rosemary & basil, one has Italian parsley, and of course, one has Em's strawberries!