I Never Promised You an Organic Garden

Thanks to my friend Emily, who took the time to organize a local team, I am participating in the March of Dimes’ March for Babies this year.  The event is a 6 mile walk on September 18th to raise money for babies.  Specifically, to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth, and infant mortality.

Since my husband was a preemie, and I have a lot of friends who have had to deal with sick or early babies, this is something that I feel connected to and I am excited to raise money for. Soooo, I am aiming high and hoping to raise $1,000 by the time of the walk.

This is where I am hoping for your help.  Please make a donate to support baby health.  You can make a donation online at my personal site or by cash or check.  Every cent is a step in the right direction!

We have finally finished our landscaping and herb garden in front of our house.  After two long months, 39 bags of rocks, two bags of mulch, 100s of squirmy worms, and way more plants than I thought I would need to fill the space, it is finished!

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Matt and I both are participating in the Let’s Go Ride a Bike Summer Games and today we completed two of the items for the Social Cycling Category.

The options were:
* Go on a group ride
* Leave a nice note on a bike, or say hi to a cyclist at a red light
* Schedule a bike date with a friend or partner — dress up!
* Recruit a non-biking friend for a ride
* Ride with your family
We chose to do a Ride with your family and also ended up doing an impromptu group ride.

For the Ride with your family, Matt (my husband) and I biked to church. It is pretty common for us to do so, but it was the first time I got to bike to church on my new bike. I am still loving not having to try so hard to keep up with Matt.

Here we are in our church clothes after returning home.

Our Group Ride turned out to be impromptu.  We were heading to buy some gas cards for a friend moving out of state after church, and one of our other biking friends biked with his.  We were quite a bunch. I rode my recumbent, my husband rode his converted mountain bike/commuter bike, and our friend, Kurt, rode a home-built long-tail cargo bike.  It was a lot of fun and made biking up the hills seem less difficult.

Matt took pictures and video while biking behind us.

I am really enjoying participating and can’t wait to take on some of the items in the next category.

Along with my new bike, I have also found a new biking blog to read: Let’s Go Ride a Bike.  It is written by two women, Trish and Dottie, who bike commute in their respective cities, Nashville and Chicago.  It is quite interesting, and I find it very inspiring.  Both women bike commute in stylish, non-spandex clothing and have cute bike accessories and bags, which is the type of bike commuting I am interested in. (more…)

I recently got a new bicycle, and I am very excited about it.  It is a Sun EZ Sport recumbent that I purchased from a friend.  I borrowed the bike a few summers back, while she was pregnant and not riding much, and fell in love with it, but alas I had to return the bike to its rightful owner at the end of the summer. (more…)

Matt and I have started on a new adventure this week.  After living in our new house for a year and a half, we have decided it is finally time to take on the front lawn landscaping.  While we are pretty competent food gardeners, neither of us have any experience with this type of work. But as Matt says, “people do this every day”. So, we have decided to rip out the existing, unpleasant landscaping and replace it with an herb garden and flower garden. (more…)

Thanks to Gadgettes, I found out today that Barbie is now a GEEK.  After an online vote, it was decided that Barbie’s new career would be Computer Engineer.  This is Barbie’s 125th career (wow, can we say indecisive) and the first that was decided by an online vote.

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They are in!  I got my new glasses yesterday, and for those of you who have been waiting to see which pair I selected here you go:

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I went to the eye doctor today for my checkup and to get new frames.  I have always had very unique frames, but I wanted to go with a little something different this time.  So, Matt, the very nice lady at the eye Dr’s office, and I spent quite a while whittling down the never ending selection.  I have come up with two options, and the eye Dr. was nice enough to let me take them home and get some opinions.

So here is where I need your help…  I will post photos of both options below ,and it would be very helpful if you could give me your honest opinion on which frame is the best.

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Very Exciting News: I have finished my first hand knitted wool sweater.  I started this in February, and I just finished sewing up the sleeves at 9:30pm this evening.  I still need to take the time to block it, but it is totally wearable at this moment.  For all you non-knitters, blocking is dousing a completed project in water and pinning it out into the final shape you want.  This helps to work out uneven stitches, ensure proper length and width, and generally improves the final look of your project.

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