The Haggard Herald

Matt's former roommate, Ammon, married my former roommate, Jackie.  It's nice when your friends marry each other and you get to see both of them often. Jackie and Ammon are wonderful and Matt and I are glad we live close by so that we get to see them regularly.  They also have an adorable little baby whose a few months younger and boy-er than Madeleine; his name is Thomas. Matt and Ammon could make a mutual admiration society and invite each other to it--they met in high school and were roommates for a lot of their time in college.  You know how when you're little and you think your parents know everything and can do everything... until you realize they can't?  Well, I don't think Matt or Ammon has come to that realization about each other yet.  Matt says Ammon can do anything. And there's Jackie and I.  I found Jackie when Jamie left and got married.  Although I was happy for Jamie to leave single-life in exchange for a great husband I knew it wou...

When I was perusing my pictures for the last post I found a bunch of pictures Matt took of our little metal bucket.  He bought it about six months ago and we've used a little bit but not very much yet.  He really likes his bucket.  I found about fifty pictures of it and there is a small sampling here.  You should ask him sometime why he loves his bucket so much.  :) Here is the bucket out in one of the front flower beds.   Can you find the bucket? Holding his trusty bucket in one hand and the camera in the other. Here the bucket is pictured along the old fence on the side of the house. Featured: the bucket.  Next to our garden of peas and lettuce.

Last Tuesday Matt met Madeleine and I at the park by our house.  We just found it a couple weeks ago and have gone several times since.  Maddie loves it.  She loves the swings.  She loves watching kids (which there are usually many kids).  And she likes walking around on the equipment and going down the slide on a lap.  After several trips to the park I finally remembered to bring and use the camera.  ********************************************************* Playing in the yellow tube that you crawl through to get up to tall slide.  I was on the outside and peeked in the holes.  Madeleine thought it was hilarious. ********************************************************* Matt doesn't fit very well on this playground slide.  His feet are half way down while he's sitting at the top! ********************************************************* We got home that night and had spaghetti, which is one of littl...

It's been pretty hot here the past week or two--and the three of us have loved it.  Madeleine's taken to the sprinklers.  We came home Saturday afternoon from picking up mulch and walked across the street to get our mail.   The Schmidt's sprinklers were on and Madeleine kept scooting in their direction as I held her.  So we dropped our mail on our driveway and went back across to the sprinklers.  They have the kind that attaches to a hose and rotates. Despite my efforts to keep her dry Madeleine sat herself right down in the middle of a puddle on the sidewalk.  The sprinkler was positioned to only get the grass but it got both of us wet whenever the wind blew while the sprinkler was up.  After a few minutes I tried getting her up to walk but she wouldn't have it.  The sprinklers, the wet grass, and the little helicopter seeds were all that she wanted.  She helped me remember how entertaining and refreshing sprinkers can be. For Mother...

This is my Mom:   She's wonderful.  I want to be like her in a lot of ways; she isn't perfect but she's a great mom.  What makes her wonderful?  A lot of things, not the least of which is that she married a great man who is also a great parent.  She often used to tell us, "I had to wait a long time in order to find the very best dad that I could for you!"  She did wait, she was twenty-nine when they were married.  And she did find the very best dad in the world for me.  Together they've given me many priceless gifts. I'm very grateful for how my mom loves my dad so much--she gives him her complete respect and devotion and she has his as well.  A lot of what I'm grateful for about my mom I am also grateful for about my dad. For example, both of them have always loved spending time with me.  When I was little each of them would look for opportunities to do fun things with me--my mom used to take me out to lunch after preschool ...

Since little M loves to watch kids who are older than her she likes going to storytime at the library as well as to the elementary school and watch recess (Melory's ideas).  Both activities are hits.  We've gone for stories several times the past few weeks.  Afterwards, Madeleine walks me all around the kids' section.  She's also quite content to sit and see what all the other kids at the library do.  We love our library, our library's story tellers, and all the kids who come. I've been trying to look at print material with her more and she's starting to figure out that letters and words have meaning and aren't just marks on a page.  I think she also just likes turning pages now that she's got more hand-eye coordination. I asked Mom and Dad the other day what things, as parents, that they are glad they did with us and what things they wish they had done differently.  Mom's first comment was that she wished she had read with us more.  Da...

Madeleine and I had a little photo shoot out front a couple days ago.  Matt and I have been thinking more about her upcoming birthday and I want to make invitations with her picture on it, hence the need for recent photos.  Several of Madeleine's favorite objects made cameo appearances in these photos: our tulips, which Mom has been asking for pictures of; Madeleine's bead toy that she got as a consolation gift for having a cast; and my camera lens cap which she thought was pleasant to chew on.  Enjoy! Madeleine loves to be outside.  And she prefers sitting on grass or dirt to sitting on her lovely, soft quilt.  When I sat her down on her blanket for photos she pouted and pulled the blanket back so that she could grab grass and dirt and twigs and tree seeds, those little helicopter ones. This afternoon I was weeding out front and one of my neighbors was holding Madeleine while chatting with Matt and I.  Maddie kept pointing and "ah, ah"ing ...

Recently I was reviewing the USDA choose my plate website and I came across a page entitled "beans and peas are are unique foods. "  The sentence made me smile.  They are unique--they're a great source of protein, iron, and zinc (like meat) and also excellent sources of folate, pottasium, and fiber (like other vegetables).  It's kind of hard to go wrong with beans and peas.  So I think you should eat them more often... unless you are already eating them a lot. Cooking ideas: black beans as a burger, or with taco seasoning and crushed tomatoes served taco-salad-style, or in taco soup (with corn, onions, tomatoes, sauteed peppers, and whatever else you'd like).  Or try white beans in place of chicken for just about anything, or-for a classic-in minestrone soup.  We had white beans in place of chicken a few weeks ago when I made Indian food.  Matt and I both really liked it.  Or choose any kind of bean and add it to a sauteed onion and some crushe...

Matt sent me this video a few days ago along with, "I like this."   Yes.  Yes.  Yes. For me, being a mother is the most important calling I'll have in this life.  And right now I love being a mom.  In a blessing I received I was promised that great will be my happiness and joy as I become a mother...  I think this is probably true for many people. I went to visit my old roommate Jamie yesterday morning.  Our lives are totally different from several years ago when we were single roommates!  Yesterday we sat on the ground with our kids.  We walked a few houses up the street to look at a stream.  We put socks and shoes and sweaters on little feet and torsos, changed diapers, and fed hungry mouths that weren't our own and wiped hands and faces clean again. It's hard for me to express my feelings about how important our opportunity is to have children but I feel the truth of Elder Anderson's talk about children resonate inside o...