Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Procrastination Paid Off This Time

I was afraid we waited too long to get our garden started, but it turned out to be a good thing, because the temperature got down into the 30's last night. These pictures are from yesterday.

Yes, Emily is tilling and Lily is skipping with a shovel. Living on the edge.

Lily is digging for worms. Her favorite!

Getting big!

Monday, April 28, 2008

Honey Strawberry Preserves

Today we made Strawberry Preserves sweetened with honey.
Cutting the berries

Adding the pectin
Sealing the lids

We were able to do it all while Nolan and Ruby were taking naps.
It is a little too sweet for my taste, so I'm going to try making the next batch from just berries without any added sweetness. I have some great little helpers.

Friday, April 25, 2008

Ask and ye shall receive

This morning while I was praying, I asked God to show me something I could do for my husband to let him know that I love him. Not an hour later I was loading the kids up for a short trip to the bank when my phone rang. Paul said that he needed me to go down to one of our suppliers (114 miles away)to pick up something that he forgot to order. He also needed some door samples to be dropped off to a designer for a house that he is building the cabinets for. I started to sqwak about how difficult it would be with four kids or that I don't like meeting with designer people, but I remembered my prayer for today and just said, "Sure, hon. I'd love to help." I never did ask why he couldn't just do it himself.

We got to have a nice lunch out, and the designer was really nice and I had a good time chatting with her. On the way back we stopped by the mall to pick up the kids' portraits that I had done a few weeks ago. I also found some clothing items on sale for Emily and myself. Popping in to the mall might not be a big deal for everyone, but when the mall is an hour away it's a special treat.

Then when we got home, Paul's mom brought over 16 pounds of fresh strawberries! I was just getting blessed all around for wanting to help. (We won't bring up the part about the children having a breakdown in the mall and my name being called from the escalator during the chaos. It happened to be a friend from church see me with four crying kids, but I had not lost my temper during all this so I felt good about myself. She has six kids so I took it as a joke when she said I was crazy for bringing my kids to the mall.) It was a very good day.

Monday, April 21, 2008

Daddy's Girls


You can tell it's the end of the weekend because they're hyped up and he's exhausted

Lily put her baby with my baby

Hanging Ruby's diapers on the clothesline. I think they enjoy doing laundry as much as I do. Maybe we could start a laundry service when they get a little older.

Nolan calls this our "pick-quick" for picnic

This is how she takes her naps, propped up on a pillow on my bed. She still sleeps all night in her swing. Anybody need a used crib? I'm not sure if she'll ever sleep in it.

I really love staying home with my kids. They change so much every day that I would hate to miss a minute of it.

Tuesday, April 8, 2008


Today Nolan counted:
"1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 14, 14, 17, 18, 19"



Thank you, Papa Lewie and Great Grandma for my new outfit! It's Daddy's favorite.

Saturday, April 5, 2008

Shameless Plug

Check out some of the new pictures Paul has posted of his recent cabinet jobs. They are so beautiful! The link is in my sidebar.

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

They Grow Up Way Too Fast


Ruby is two months old today! Time is really going by too quickly. She weighed in at her check-up today at 10 pounds, 1 ounce. That's right about where all the other Rollins kids were at two months. She is still the smiley-est baby on Earth and still sleeping great and eating well. Her only high maintenance area is the sensitive skin, but I'm getting pretty used to the cloth diapers now that we got the fancy ones. She also has to have all her clothes and diapers washed in special detergent and she has to be washed in special organic baby shampoo. It's so sweet buying all her special toiletries for her.


Nolan got his first T-ball set this weekend. He nailed it on the first try. The weather was horrible, so we took it to the shop and played indoors. He loves it as much as he loves football, soccer, watching motorcycle racing and all the other 100% boy things to do. He told me that he loves me because I play football with him and I wear football shirts like he does.

Adam turned 12 on Monday. That makes me feel not so young anymore so I'll just leave it at that. Also, Emily called me "Mom" yesterday instead of Mommy. It was like a knife through the heart hearing my little baby call me "Mom" like she's growing up or something. I also realized today that Lily will be 4 in one month. Agh.

This weekend we will all be going to the UGA scrimmage football game. Our family really likes college football. We figured that this game would probably be our only chance to go since the tickets are only 5 bucks for adults and 3 bucks for kids. There's no way we could afford to all go to a regular game. Nolan has already picked out which football he is going to take with him to throw in the parking lot before the game. I wish they has a pee-wee league for two year olds!