Happy Thursday!

Happy Thursday, well, because today isn't spectacular for any good reason other than just being another day. I'm trying to think of what we've done the last few days...seems I'm forgetting a lot!

Ah, yes, I forgot to mention that Ross is now sleeping in his big boy bed. We started this again last week when we got home from the ocean. He's doing fairly well at night. The key is for us to leave their door open and sit in the living room quietly until they fall asleep, occasionally yelling to the boys to "get back in bed" or "be quiet". The first night it took 1 1/2 hours to get them to sleep, but it's only been 20 minutes or so the last couple of nights. I started on Monday of this week with him napping in the big boy bed, too. One day it went really really well, but yesterday he put up a long hard fight. And right now he's in there, keeping Reid awake, and I've already yelled at him a good dozen times. He'll get it...eventually! The plus side to this is that I can get the nursery around now. So, the baby stuff is strewn about the nursery (luckily Ross can't open the door and Reid will listen to me when I tell him to stay out). I started packing the hospital bags last night. I didn't get very far, but it is a start!

Yesterday morning while Hannah was swimming, the boys and I went and picked more blueberries (about 6 1/2 lbs this time). I let Reid have his own bucket and let him go to town, which he loved. As a result of this, however, I have had to pick A LOT of green and red berries out (and a good deal of twigs, leaves and mushy berries). It was worth it, though, because he really enjoyed it! Ross rode in the backpack (yes, I must have been a sight, 8 months pregnant with a 27 lb toddler strapped to my back). He was happy when he could reach the bushes and rummage around in the leaves, but when he couldn't reach anything, he got quite mad. I lost a good deal of hair from the back of my head to his little fingers, too. I pulled out the berries I need for another batch of syrup and the kids have almost completely consumed the rest of them. They love them! Reid is already asking to go back, which we will probably do next week. I had wanted to make a pie, but they ate all the berries for a pie, so I want more anyway. Oh, and we saw a bunny while we were there. It was super friendly and Reid, in particular, got a total kick out of it. It was a surprisingly skinny bunny, however, considering it lived in the middle of a large blueberry patch.

Yesterday we stopped at JoAnn's on the way home from swimming to get a new needle for the sewing machine, so that we can finish Hannah's tote bag. I was discouraged when I got home and realized I bought the same stinking needle I already had in the machine. So, I gave up and tried to hand stitch the straps on. Ugghh...6 layers of fabric and 3 layers of interfacing are not something you want to sew through by hand, especially without a thimble. So, we stopped back the store this morning and got yet another needle (and a thimble, just in case). It better work this time, or the bag may end up in the trash yet. As a side note, this got me looking at new machines. I'm currently using Grandma Mowery's machine that she got for Christmas in 1949 (she made notations in the owner's manual). While I like that it is Grandma's machine, it is old -- most of the numbers and markings are worn off the machine. And I'd really like something a little more user friendly. The zipper and button attachments on my machine are an absolute pain. Jeremy will love it when he sees this...I have a crafting problem! Hey, admitting your problem is the first step, right?

And, yes, I really should take an updated picture of the pool. It rained the last two evenings, though, and I try to use every second the boys are napping to get stuff done (plus, I don't want to wake them up by making a lot of racket downstairs). Maybe this evening...