The weekly reckoning...
172. Military miscommunications
173. Getting groceries at not-the-nearest Kroger
174. Finding new ways to get places
175. Shared discoveries
176. Dempsey Bakery and a dedicated gluten-free facility
177. Finally spotting someone else wearing a baby
178. Unexpected texts from distant friends
179. Forgetting about a scarf, then rediscovering it - it's like getting a new one, but free!
180. Encountering someone we know from Fayetteville while walking at a mall in Little Rock
181. A baby who knows how to sleep in (9:30am!)



The written word has always had a huge draw for me - but better still is the handwritten. As nice it is to have my Facebook wall written on, or even, more personally, to receive an unexpected text, nothing encourages me like someone taking the time to write their thoughts by hand. I love the personality that comes through in each person's unique penmanship, and the extra effort involved when there are so many quicker and more convenient wa…

It's been a banner week for Brooklyn - plenty of outings and adventures, meeting another Brooklyn who works at Anthropologie (they thoroughly approved of each other), and today she got to hold the stamps at the Post Office (and was so delighted that she forgot to put them in her mouth, and just clutched them tightly with both hands).

Right now she's enjoying a bucket full of socks and shapes, and still persistently snubbing one of two apparently identical green squares (she is convinced that only one of them is acceptable).

I'm enjoying a delicious gluten free/dairy free gingerbread cookie from our morning outing, and doing a little research on the Little Rock local bakery where we got it.

Dempsey Bakery was founded by Paula Dempsey in 2011, after several members of her family were diagnosed with gluten intolerance and food allergy related illnesses. She noticed an improvement in her own health after going gluten-free for her husband, and the bakery itself is free of glute…

I'm taking a blog-break from Doing Things while Brooklyn practices peace in her room. I haven't gotten a whole lot of anything much done for the past week --- it looked like the deployment on which Adam's new job depends had been cancelled and we might be moving again (it wasn't. Apparently someone along the chain of command didn't read the entire email) and that wasn't terribly motivating.

While I was being not-motivated, I did at least get some knitting done. I'm doing a knit-a-long on Ravelry, and I've got the first sock in a pair completed for that - I'm going to try to finish the second one this week, since I have a deadline project that I'll be working on starting next week.

To make up for lost time, this morning I tackled my side of our closet. I had packed most of my clothes in brown paper bags, and then I had wrapped my shoes in plastic bags and layered them in with the clothes. So the closet floor (and our bedroom floor... and my dres…

It's Five Minute Friday! Bloggers internet-wide joining together to write for five minutes straight (no stopping or editing!) on a single prompt. Although the lovely Lisa-Jo is still hosting this week, the prompt and original post are by Seth Haines (huzzah!) Head here for more info, and to join in.
_______________
When I was six, "visit" was what we did with the elderly woman who lived across the street. She would come out on her porch to sit every afternoon, and we were expected to come and sit with her. When the weather was nice, I would play with the sycamore balls that her front yard was littered with while my Mum talked to her - when it wasn't, I would sit on a hard olive green leather ottoman in her living room and listen to her tell stories. She was from a bygone era, and though the world around her had changed, her opinions hadn't, so as we walked home I would be given a brief lecture that included a list of the words, terms, phrases, and expressions tha…

This week's gifts...
151. Burp cloths left where they shouldn't be that end up being conveniently within reach in moments of need
152. and tunic length sweatshirts for when there are no more clean jeans to change into
153. Brooklyn being big enough to ride in the cart now, instead of being carried
154. A line item for printer ink in the budget
155. The opportunity to design for an awesome yarn company
156. A couple of hours spent catching up with Carolyn
157. Adam's amazing talent for cooking
158. Residual heat from our neighbors downstairs
159. A convicting sermon that sparked conversation
160. A Spring-warm January day that coincided with a Federal holiday
161. A Father who leads me beside still waters and restores my soul
162. Moss, in all of its furry blue and green and yellow incarnations

163. That I am not in control of my own destiny
After the ups (few) and downs (many) of the past week, we're still dithering in an uncertainty that less involves decisions from us…

Brooklyn is becoming very interested in similarities and differences between herself and us. She's noticed that we have more teeth than she does - that I have a retainer and Adam doesn't - that my hands and fingers are much larger than hers - and that we all sit in chairs around the table. She's fascinated by the differences, but she loves the ways we're all alike. :)

We had a lovely long weekend all together (three cheers for Federal jobs with Federal holidays!) so we used our extra day to go hiking at Pinnacle Mountain.


Adam carried Brooklyn the whole 2-plus mile loop, and she thought that it was absolutely spectacular (that being said, she thinks that most things are absolutely spectacular. Nothing makes her squeal like the cranky captive audience she finds in a post office line.) She enjoyed being carried by Adam, and sitting on rocks with me.


Because I was the one carrying the camera, there are a lot of pictures of things you would see if you were looking downwar…

The past week has been all off - Brooklyn and I daytripped to Fayetteville on Wednesday, then we all went to Fayetteville for a visit on Friday/Saturday, then Adam had today off (making it seem like a Sunday). I've gotten to focus more on the phileo "fun love" and less on the housewifely things, so this will be a short post (there will be a longer one on Wednesday, with the rest of the hiking pictures from today :)

We (that would be Adam, mostly, but I directed a little) finally got all of our artwork, pictures, and cork boards hung up (as of today). Brooklyn's room and one solitary cork board that I had painted with chalkboard paint years ago were the last pieces hung - and a lovely gift from a friend in Fayetteville, that got the place of honor by the front door, where it will be seen coming and going.

A little bit of crafting was done - did you know that if you print text (mine was Calibri at 14 points - I'd recommend using a fairly straight-forward font, not…

It's Five Minute Friday - bloggers internet-wide joining together to write for five minutes (no stopping, no editing, no going back) on a prompt provided by the lovely Lisa-Jo. Head here for more details and to join in!

[I'll go ahead and admit that this is not the post I originally wrote, and that it absolutely took me more than five minutes.]

I'll admit, as a general rule I stay up late on Thursday nights to see what the prompt will be, because I love Five Minute Fridays. But we had a faith-rocking Thursday, and when I saw what the prompt for this week was, I rolled my eyes and closed my laptop a little harder than necessary.

We had been given an opportunity to praise God, no matter what, and to trust that His plan is the best plan - and, honestly, we flubbed it. We both reverted into a couple of tired toddlers, turning to our heavenly Father with a whining, "why?" Confused and crushed, encouragement was something that we both desperately needed and didn't…

My weekly reckoning...
130. Unexpected sales on things I needed anyway
131. Successful experiments in making it myself, for less
132. The end of Adam's first full week at his new job
133. The Spirit's intercession
134. The Son's sacrifice
135. The Father's perfect love
136. Mail forwarding
137. First teeth (two of them!)
138. The option to attend a 10:45am church service
139. Short winter days and headaches that fade with the sunlight
140. Allergen-free chocolate chips
141. One tiny sprout of sedum in the terrarium
142. The power of prayer
143. Brooklyn's unceasing delight with everything
144. The sense of community (almost) all knitters share


I am very familiar with I-40. Having grown up living in Colorado, Texas, and North Carolina (with grandparents in Northwest Arkansas and near Memphis), I spent a lot of time in the car on I-40. After Adam and I got married and were coming home to Arkansas from his military school in Maryland, he glanced at me nervously as I tu…

The greatest development of the past week has been the discovery of two teeth - the middle ones, on the bottom. The list of things that Brooklyn is allowed to chew on has now been shortened (fingers are no longer on it - those tiny teeth are sharp!) and she's started to point at our teeth and giggle. See! I'm a big person, too!



At her weight check today, they decreed that she is gaining well. It was just as well that we drove to Fayetteville for that, because I haven't been able to find a single store here that carries the rice cereal she eats (everything else has either gluten or dairy). I even checked a couple of places in Fayetteville, while we were there - apparently, the only place that carries it is the WalMart supercenter on Joyce. So I stocked up. :)


She's made noticeable improvements in her ability to sit up unassisted, and she's still practicing getting up on her hands and knees and rocking. I don't mind her waiting to be mobile until we've got e…

The unpacking is nearly complete (no thanks to me - I spent most of my weekend curled up with a crushing headache, while Adam was all productive) but I did manage to make a few things during the week. First, a shout-out and a big thank you! to Lisa from The Helpmates for her review of this muffin mix - I'm a little suspicious of gf baking mixes (they can be dry, or just taste bad) and since they're expensive (at least compared to the cheap Martha White mixes - they're not bad compared to other gf options) I wasn't willing to go out on a limb without someone else trying them first. But after I read her (very positive) review, I made these with raspberries and allergen-friendly chocolate chips in an attempt to curb my craving for Stonemill Bread's white chocolate/raspberry scones (if you're not gf, I highly recommend them!) --- and it worked!


Last week's leftover crockpot chicken became, among other things, my own gf/dairy free version of a California club (…