Holy Asparagus!...

So, every year it seems that I get the itch to try something crazy in our garden (crazy to me, at least...) or something that I know is relatively hard to grow. One year it was a pepper plant, another it was tomoatoes and beans from seed (will someone please help this poor soul!), last year it was brussel sprouts and blueberries (which actually did fairly well!), and this year... drum roll please... I'm growing asparagus! (The post title didn't give it away, did it?) And... miracle of all miracles... it's growing! Don't tell my hubby, but I was a bit skeptical that it would hardly survive the trip home from the greenhouse, let alone grow! But... we love it, and it's not cheap up here, so I decided to take a stab at it anyways... It started with just a couple shoots, and now there are a few more poking their way through the soil. You can not imagine my excitement! Well, maybe you can - I'm blogging about asparagus, for cryin' out loud...



Anyways... among the other "experiments" on this year's list are: red and black currants, a cherry tree (all three of which are growing great at the moment!), and Jerusalem artichokes (they're acutally a tubor, not an artichoke like you would think... ). And due to a makeshift greenhouse my handyman-hubby has built, we're bringing back the brussel sprouts and corn this year for another go.

Wish us luck!

Here Goes Nothin'...

So, for those of you reading this blog simply for the Paisley updates or stories of our Alaskan Adventures, you might want to stop reading right now. For those of you still reading, consider this a warning... You may start to notice more posts that have nothing to do with the above mentioned things, and more to do with food, nutrition, a little bit of food politics, etc. No, I don't want to post rants and raves or "shoulds" and "shouldn'ts," but I do see this blog as an opportunity to get information out to the masses (ha - "masses"... that's funny... ) of some things that people may not be aware of, or things that I am learning in my attempt to find healthier ways of eating good food.

For those of you who don't know, I have been a student of The Institute for Integrative Nutrition (based out of New York) for almost a year now, and will graduate later this summer as a Holistic Health Counselor. I have learned a great deal over the last year, and am passionate about sharing what I'm learning with people who want to hear.

So, if anyone is interested, I stumbled across a program last night that I'd never heard of, and was actually quite shocked that it found its way on to basic television (we don't have cable). Jaime Oliver's Food Revolution. Ever seen it? Well, for someone who doesn't hardly watch TV, I watched two hour-long episodes back to back, and was beside-myself-excited about what this guy is doing... He's passionate about people knowing where their food comes from, what's mixed in with their "food," and eating organically and locally when possible (among other things, I'm sure - heck, I only saw two epidoes!). Anyways... seems he's on basic television on Friday nights, and would definitely be worth the watch (kid friendly, too, it seemed) if this itches your ear at all...

Roll-y Poly...

No, not as in chubby. As in, my 5 month-old little girl is rolling back and forth across our living room like a mad woman, er.. baby! I was just getting to really enjoy this stage where she can entertain herself and I can go get things done and not have to worry about her. That stage sure came and went quickly! I really don't know how she does it so fast. When I'm watching or playing with her, she's content to just play near me or make faces with me. But as soon as I jump up to do something, it's as if she gets bored and says, "Okay... time to move!" And off she goes - from one corner of the rug to the other! Makes me laugh every time...

Tucker, watch out! And baby-proofing here we come!

Ah, *Love*...

So here's the scene:

One apple left in the fruit basket on the counter. It's one of the good ones from our weekly boxes of fresh, organic fruit. One day goes by. Two days go by. Not wanting it to go to waste, on the third day I ask my husband (who always takes an apple to work), "Why haven't you eaten the apple? Is there something wrong with it?" "I was saving it for you," he said. "Oh, and I was saving it for you," I said back. We got a good little laugh then over The Apple That Would Have Gone Bad all for the sake of *love*...

Mushy, smushy, I know... But you gotta love those little moments! Well, I do anyways!

Linkage...

For those of you unfamiliar with "Luber Lingo," that's short for "this post will contain weblinks." (Okay, so it sounded funnier in my head...)

Anyways... I've been trying to find a way for you all to access more pictures of Paisley, and I think I've got it somewhat figured out... The following links (in order from youngest to oldest) are links to online photo albums of pictures of Paisley and our family. A few things to note: some pictures are upside-down (I tried all kinds of things to fix this, but to no avail, so you'll just have to crank your head sideways!); I believe you have to click a "View" button to view the albums on a slightly larger scale, and then give it a minute to load the album; if you double-click on a photo, you can see it enlarged. Please feel free to pass on our website address to anyone who we may have forgotten, and please let me know if these links don't work for whatever reason! I'm new to all this...

Okay.. here goes!

- Paisley Spring - First Few Days

- Paisley Spring - First Few Days Continued

- Paisley Spring - First Few Weeks

- Paisley Spring - First Weeks Continued

- Paisley Spring - Just Months Old

- Paisley Spring - 3 Month Photos

- Paisley Spring - 3-4 Months

- Paisley Spring - 3-4 Months Continued

- Paisley Spring - 3-4 Months Continued Again

Okay - enjoy!

Seriously... three months already?

The day was actually kind of sad for me - I was calling our photographer to schedule Paisley's 3-month pictures. How could three months have gone by already? I suddenly felt like I needed to cuddle her more, kiss her more, worry less about routines and good habits and just hold her while she sleeps more, take more pictures, stare into her deep, blue eyes more... Someone once told me, about her own child, "I tried holding her tightly, but she just kept on growing..." Aww, sad... : (

Three months has marked a fun age for Paisley of grabbing toys, entertaining herself for longer periods, lots of smiles and some giggles even; but it's sad in some ways to say goodbye to the newborn phase... I keep telling myself, "I need to remember this moment." I hope all my scribbly notes in her journal and thousands of pictures taken will help me to hang on to those precious memories.

Sad tears aside, three months is really turning out to be a fun, fun age! Melts my heart every time Paisley looks up and gives me one of her big, "That's my Mama!"-grins. And what better way to enjoy this fun time than take some fun pictures? Here are some of our favorites from the professional 3-month photos, taken from Paisley's very own room (more pics of her room to follow... someday... soon... I hope...). : )

Catching Up...

I feel like I should re-name this post with one of my last post's title: where does the time go? As you can tell, quite a bit of time has passed since my last post. Dare I say it? - Four months! (Aside from the draft I just posted from a while back, that is...). And oh-my-goodness has much happened in that time...
Baby Paisley decided to make us wait until one full week after she was "due" to make her appearance. We tried all kinds of craziness to get her to come early, but in the end, decided that she'd just come when she was good and ready. So, New Year's Eve came and went (and so did our tax break and this year's PFD for Paisley), and then it happened... January 6th, we welcomed little Paisley Spring Luber into this world. I'll spare you the details here, but our midwife sums up how things went pretty well, "You... you had a rough labor." But, Mama and Baby were well, and our new family headed home from the birthing center just 4 hours after our Lil' Pea was born. I know people think we're crazy, but I have to tell you that it was the greatest feeling walking into our home that afternoon. We were all happy to be home.
The first month was a blur of diapers, feedings, picture-taking, visits from friends and family, figuring each other out, naps, tons of ooh's and aah's and "oh my goodness she's so adorable!'s." I can't recall how many times I turned to Scott and said, "I just can't believe it... she's ours! We don't have to take her back; we get to keep her..." There were many, many hours that passed as we just sat and stared at her. There were also many, many tears shed on the part of our little one. What we thought was just her having a hard time letting herself fall asleep was actually her trying to tell us that she was still hungry. At 6 weeks, per the recommendation of a great lactation consultant due to the fact that Paisley was losing more weight, we started supplementing after trying all the tricks in the book to boost my milk supply. From the first day we began supplementing, it was as if we had a new baby... Paisley would nap well, sleep well at night, and she just had a happier demeanor in general. The difference was amazing... Thank God for great lactation consultants! : )
Since then, I can not even begin to tell you how much we have enjoyed our little Paisley, poopy diapers, fussiness, and all! If this tells you anything, Scott has commented over and over how he looks forward to those early morning diaper changes. My husband, who once became quite grumpy over lack of sleep, now looks forward to his loss of sleep because it means he gets to spend a precious moment with his little girl. Is that not the sweetest thing? I'll never forget the moment he got up with her in the middle of the night to hold her while she was crying so I could run to the bathroom... I came out to the living room expecting to find a grumpy hubby and fussy baby, but what I found was a calm baby with a hubby who was grinning from ear to ear (mind you, at 2 am!) saying, "I love this..." Just melts my heart. God is so good... I imagine him saying to me, "Why were you even worrying about this? I've got you covered... Trust me."
Paisley Spring is a bright, happy, smiley little girl with deep blue eyes with long eyelashes, auburn hair, a bald stripe across the back of her head from rubbing, who sleeps 8-hour stretches at night, constantly kicks her legs as if she's riding a bike, loves brights toys and anything that she can put in her mouth, drools like a crazy woman and must wear bibs with every outfit as a result, needs to be woken up slowly and gently just like her Mama, falls asleep at 10:30pm each night like clockwork, hates being strapped into her car seat but loves the riding in it after the car gets going, loves the sound of her Papa's voice, always wants to see where Mama is, looks stinkin' adorable in her fun cloth diapers, has to be in a position where she can see what's going on around her, takes the cutest pictures, needs her little snuggly-duck partially covering her face in order to fall asleep, LOVES her diaper changing table (thank you, Jesus), and is so loved by so many people that it constantly amazes her mom and dad.
I still have moments where I pick her up from a nap and think to myself, "My goodness... This is my daughter I'm picking up. My daughter. My daughter that I get to spend the next decades getting to know, making memories with, and loving more and more. Parents have always said that even though kids are hard work, they wouldn't trade it for anything, and now... now I really understand, and now I really believe them!

A few more recent favs.: