McBride Links: February 2012

Bed is where your "po po" is

She was laying down, but decided to rearrange as I took the picture. Poor third child. Wonder where we will find the fourth napping?

(She really isn't neglected, by the way. And we've never left her anywhere accidentally. Sometimes it's just 10:30 before you realize it.)

We forced some bulbs indoors this winter as a bit of a science lesson...and I love the smell of the paper whites in the house. The paper whites performed splendidly - the roots grew down and the bloom came up. We seem to have chosen the magic bulb with the amaryllis, though. To begin with we watered it too much and the roots started to rot. So we brought in some rocks from the garden propped it up. All the visible roots continued to shrivel up and die, but I assumed since the stem was still rising, that there must be something growing into the soil. Nada. Not a single root every attached. But look at our lovely amaryllis. So, truth be told - we plant and water...but the growth is God's alone!

It's official

Some of you have met Robin and Lilly, but you have at least heard about them here. Lilly is officially a Bayer. Lillyana Rose Bayer to be exact. Robin is one of the people I admire the most in this world. She really lives her life for others.

Judge had a bit of a golf fetish. It was even a little much for Mike. That was just one wall.

Yahoos hangin' out at the court house.

"Whale" watching

We've been homeschooling through a charter school. Basically, that just means that we have support and accountability and incredible resources. One of the resources is field trips - that we don't have to organize or pay for (at least for Olivia because we get an allotment for her through the school because it is a public school). Back in January we went whale watching. Didn't actually see any whales, unfortunately. Big bummer was that the very next week the same area saw a large pod of orca whales!

We've been co-op-ing with the Osgood's - Declan (right) and Chaz (by him). Sadly, they have to move back to New York this spring. I am so sad.

No whales, but tons of common dolphin. I am not kidding about tons...the pod was over a mile long and they estimated over 2,000 of them.

And we saw sea lions!

And I almost tossed my cookies over the side. I wasn't sea sick, but pregnancy sick and being on the that boat...whew, it was r.u.f.f.

Bottlenose. They are considerably larger that then common dolphins. Smaller pods and they hang out closer to the shore. Those are the ones you usually see from the beach.

Matchy Matchy

I've said in the past I would love for our girls to wear cute little matching outfits. And I would. But the truth is, they are doing good to match from their own head to toe much less match each other. Sometimes it is mis-timed laundry. Sometimes it is a 6-year-old that might possibly be color blind, but most definitely has a mind for as style of her own. But thanks to Mamaw Mac and Mimi and Scrapaw, we got a little matchy matchy for Christmas. The best part about it is that it is a sort of mix and matchy matchy - which really fits their personalities better anyway.

That little chick is on the move. No such luck with a posed pic.

Can you hear the back up beeps? It took her about 3 tries to line it up...then back in.

Getaway

I keep feeling like I am behind here (what's new?) and this post is from the week after Christmas, but the truth is there's not much going on here. Well much post-worthy anyway. I got knocked out for close to two weeks with something horrible in every gland and tube and canal from my neck to the top of my head. Then Greta got it. Then Joseph. Then Olivia. It was lovely. So, it has actually been nice to look back at these pictures and fondly remember when we were all healthy and out of doors.

We went up to a Christian retreat center that offers discounts to pastors for a couple of nights. There happened to be another family there doing the same thing and we ended up eating our meals and hiking with them. This is Joe and Hannah (a little blurry).