Henry is walking between the kitchen and the living room, moving his bowls/lids, spoons, etc to the bowls he has already taken to the living room. He is taking toys in the living room and filling the bowls with them. And he is putting toys away where he found them. John is holding a bowl or two filled with little toys. And then he threw something in the trash. I'm waiting for him to fall over or get tired of this game, but so far he is going strong. He is really enjoying this activity. Sometimes, after he puts something away, he claps his hands. And as the final activity he put a pillow back in the guest room. This boy knows where everything goes. :)

This may be the only time I ever offer this...

This quilt needs a home. I am about to quilt it and it seriously needs a place to go. I don't know who would like a quilt that is purple and orange batik (which are surprisingly gorgeous together, but not something I have a place for), but if you have had a marriage/baby/job/lost a job/need some comfort from a beautiful quilt, let me know. If I get more than one offer (free beautiful quilt!), I will have a drawing to decide who to give it to. If no one wants this(!) I will have to donate it somewhere. (back story, I originally had a purpose for this quilt, but that purpose is no longer valid, i.e., I can't give it to the person/people I wanted to give it to... and I can't sell it because it is a pattern from a book) Please contact me privately if you are interested.

Purple and Orange quilt To be quilted, needs a home

First ( A Baby Quilt )

Second ( A Wedding Quilt )

Henry's latest favorite words: owl (and he hoots like an owl) and boogie woogie. :D He is almost 16 months old, I can't believe it!

I need to find time to read 7 books this month so I can get back to the "read 50 books this year" pace. Nah. Any good short books to recommend to me?

I haven't been posting much lately, so I thought I start up again by posting the books I've read so far this year. Exciting, I know. But I've really only been reading, sewing a bit, watching some TV/movies and cooking in my "free" time.

( Without further ado: )

Henry took about 2 steps a few days ago. Yesterday he took 5 or 6. Tonight he took about 10 in a row! I think we can safely say that he's walking now. :D Though he's pretty cautious during the day, he gets more bold when John's home, too. This weekend should be fun. :D

I finished my first quilting project of the year. I finished the binding on a quilt that was long overdue to be finished, as it was to be a gift some time ago. It's still going to be a gift--only a lot late. There was literally only about a foot of binding to finish off by hand. I finished it in maybe an hour or less.

1. Read 50 books, the never-ending challenge. This year I hope to add in more non-fiction than last year and work on all those books with bookmarks in them, even if it means starting each one again.
2. Write a novel in November, per NaNoWriMo rules.
3. Finish 5 quilting projects that I have already started, including the quilt that was for Heather's wedding last August.
4. Set aside time for sewing one weekend per month and 1-2 evenings per week. (John has already agreed to the weekend time)
5. Go to Quilt Fest in Houston, mid October. (luckily this will be a family trip and MIL is excited about it)
6. Attend ALA Annual in Chicago, early/mid July. With or without Henry. Trying to convince my parents to come with to watch Henry and because they haven't taken a traveling vacation in forever.
7. More as I come up with them

Can we see that I'd like to commit more time to sewing?? I do have an awesome machine for quilting, after all.

Here are last year's goals.

1. Give birth using the Bradley Method of Natural Childbirth.
Done!
2. Read 50 books (I have no idea if this is feasible considering I'll have a baby in April!). So far, 2 books finished, though.
Only 35 books read
3. Write a novel in November, per NaNoWriMo rules.
Done!

Well, looks like I accomplished two out of three! I took it easy on myself last year, but not this year! I've been thinking about my goals for the year for a few weeks. Will post about them later today/tomorrow.

Woo! It came down to writing around 5000 words today, but I did it! I wrote 50,000 words of a novel this month. Now I can go to sleep. ;)

I just realized that when I say "Petey cat," Henry starts looking for the cat! Aw, so cute that he is learning stuff like that.

I just wrote the end for my story. I never do that, so I must like this one. Now I have to fill in the middle! That's the scary part.

Progress report. (No, I do not write well on the weekends.)

Well, I am at 16000+ words and am supposed to have 20000+ by the end of today. It's no fun if you're not behind at some point. I have mostly been writing during Henry's naps. As long as he takes two good ones, I can get 1000+ words at a time. I'll try to catch up over the weekend this time.

Like last year, I started with one story but quickly changed to another. This time from fantasy to SciFi that is turning back into fantasy. I think I like this story. I'm doing it from first person POV, so it is a little limiting but I can pretend it's me who's in the story.

View my progress: http://www.nanowrimo.org/NanowrimoUtils/ProgressReport/38640.html

Yes, I'm doing NaNoWriMo again this year. Nap time allows me with plenty of writing time, I think. I just won't get anything else done, but how is that new? I'm thinking something Steampunk-ish?

My parents are visiting, hooray!

So, I made eggplant for them yesterday and my mom liked it. She had never had it before and kept asking what it tasted like, to which I would respond, "It tastes like eggplant." So of course she had to say it tasted a little like zucchini.

And my dad cleaned up our mulch and plants in the front this morning. He was done by 9:00ish! Everything is trimmed and looks good. Go, dad!

just a quick post to show today's farm share pickup picture! It's about 4 pounds of produce, an individual share.

At his 2 week well baby visit, Henry is up to 8 lbs 2.5oz (from 6 12 when he left the hospital) and is up to 22.5 inches from 21. His head grew in circumference, too. He's in the 90something percentile for "height". :) Yes, he loves to eat.