It’s always nice for us when the 4th of July falls near the beginning or end of the week. We don’t have any family in town, so if it is near a weekend, either we or they can make a 3 day weekend out of it and take a trip. This weekend, Jason’s mom and dad came to visit us.

They drove up yesterday, and brought A a sandbox as a gift for his first birthday. It is very nice. They even bought sand that feels like beach sand! WOW! I want to go play in there once the kids are in bed. K seems to have made more use of it than A has so far. A sat in it yesterday for a while and then started eating the sand. Once he got tired of that, he was tired of the sandbox. K, however, was happy to play in there all afternoon and again this morning for almost the entire morning.

Part of the reason that they stayed overnight is that we are still trying to do a few odds and ends jobs around our house, and sometimes those jobs are easier with a second set of hands. This morning, Jason and his dad worked on installing a fan in our main bathroom. This afternoon, they worked on building a compost bin. Jason found the plans for the bin on Lowe’s website, and I have to say it is much bigger, nicer, and sturdier than I anticipated. We will have to do some serious composting though with this thing.

Jason and his dad were only able to finish about half of the compost bin project. It said that it was a five hour project on the plans, but I think if I were helping, I could easily help them turn it into a ten or twenty hour project. Just think of the family togetherness that could result from that help! So, now the bin is in our garage with the rest of the lumber waiting to be finished. In fact, those things are right next to and on the cement pavers that we will be using in our next big project of re-landscaping the front of the house. That project may have to wait for our next long weekend…Labor Day!

Happy 4th of July!

That is how often K has nursed in the past two days. Looking back, I can see that there has been a gradual decrease in his nursing since winter ended and spring started. I think it’s even possible that during the times we were trapped inside due to weather, he nursed for something to do. Now that he’s getting older (2 years, 8 months), it wouldn’t be out of the ordinary for him to start moving more and more toward weaning, I suppose.

I have never had a goal in mind for him as far as age goes, but I think I would like it if he could hang on until he turned 3. That’s a nice round number, right? I’m just not ready to consider him a graduated nursling yet! I know that he could hang onto just these two nursing sessions for a long time, and I hope he does, but only TWO in one day?!?!?!? That was a big surprise when I realized just how little he has been nursing lately. Definitely bittersweet.

At least if he weans, I will still be nursing A. A is showing no signs of weaning, and it looks very possible that he could nurse as long or longer than K based on his nursing sessions at this point.

Isn’t that a song? Maybe the song is “you’ve been away for far too long.” Either way…

So, it’s been a long time since I sat down to blog or share pictures or just think out loud. Sometimes when I let a hobby or activity fall to the wayside, I just forget about it, and I drift away. This isn’t the case for my blog though. In fact, I think about blogging almost every day. In particular, I think about it when I go to check Jason’s sister’s Project 366 page. When I’m looking at her amazing pictures, I usually think that if she can take a picture and post it every day while having 3 kids and working from home, I should be able to blog at least once a week. Guess that wasn’t the case though.

Right now, I have two major goals I am working on. I’m not ready to reveal either one of them though. I know, it’s not fair that I would tell you that much but not say what they are, right? I will say that one of them is primarily a mental/intellectual goal. The other is primarily a physical goal. As I progress and get closer to achieving them, I’m sure I won’t be able to keep either a secret, so be watching.