Life as Mrs. Emerson

I let Eli cut our lettuce this week.   Summer has kept me very busy so far but I hope to blog a little more regularly.  Here are a few of the frugal activities that have been keeping us busy:  We enjoyed a number of salads from our garden.  Okay confession here, I actually grow loose leaf lettuce in our landscaping next to the flowers.  :)  Surprisingly it does really well.  This past week we cut a few different types of loose leaf lettuce: Buttercrunch, Argula, and Tom Thumb (a bibb lettuce).  Yum!  Growing lettuce is an easy way to save money and is really easy.  We have also successfully grown it in a container.  In our big garden I planted more buttercrunch and a bunch of romaine lettuce. Eva's Dedication Cake: I opted to go for taste instead of looks and used a cream cheese icing instead of a decorating icing.  I had originally planned to make a cute little banner to put on top but didn't want to wake up my nieces...

Praying over our sweet Evangeline Evangeline was such a ham and loved being in front of everyone.  Evangeline's Uncle Bryan did a great job singing.  We are so thankful for our Eva Grace. Last Sunday on Father's Day we had the privilege of dedicating our beloved Evangeline to the Lord.  It was such a special time for Brandon & I to focus on the great responsibility (& blessing) that God has given to us.  Eva's dedication was a day of much joy as we were able to gather together with family to celebrate.  I think it was the first time since Elijah's first birthday that both sides of our family were able to be together in the same place and at the same time.  It was also the first time that Brandon & I have been able to spend Father's Day with both our Dads.  We had a wonderful time and are so very thankful.  (I was unable to load more pictures for some reason but here are a few to enjoy.)

My reading list for the month of May 25 Ways to Communicate Respect to Your Husband: by Jennifer Flanders: One of my desires as a wife is to show my husband more respect.  We honestly do have a great marriage.  I do respect him and think he is the most wonderful man in the world but I also know that this is an area in my marriage that I can always grow in.  I want my husband to walk around and know without a doubt that I respect him.  I thought this book was great.  Flanders identifies 25 ways to show respect to your husband.  At the end of each brief chapter she lists a number of practical steps to take in order to be more respectful.  I am blessed to be married to a wonderful man but I do think it would have been nice if Flanders had added an appendix for women who are married to difficult men. The Traitor's Wife by Allison Pataki:  I really enjoyed this historical fiction novel which told the story of Peggy Shippen Franklin who was the ...

Our little sleeping beauty loves to sleep late in the morning.  Sometimes I wake her and sometimes I just let her sleep.   Every time I sit down to write an update about our sweet Evangeline I can't believe another month has passed.  Honestly it's almost time to write Eva's 8 month old update since she will be 8 months old by the end of the week.  (I'm going to just include pictures in this post up and insights until about Eva turned 7 months old which was the middle of May.) Although she might look excited in this picture-Evangeline HATES baby food!    Although Eva has tried a variety of baby food (slowly introduced one per week) she continues to hate everything we have given her.  It doesn't matter if it is jarred or homemade baby food she hates it all!  Eli on the other hand thinks baby food tastes great so he is more than happy to finish anything she doesn't eat.  :)  At over 20 pounds the doctor isn't worried one bit! ...

I hope to spend lots of time hanging out with this handsome little guy.   Setting goals always helps me to accomplish more.  Here are just a few of the things I hope to work on this week:   Family/Marriage/Mothering Goals: 1)  Attend Flower Buds with Elijah and Evangeline at our local extension office. 2)  Enjoy an at home date night with the happy hubby. 3)  Visit the library with my family. Homemaking Goals: 4)  Sew a birthday gift for my Grandmother's 81st birthday.  I plan on sewing her a bag to attach to her walker. 5)  Gardening Goals: Finish transplanting the majority of the plants for the garden and plant another row of green beans.  (I currently have 5 rows planted in my garden and hope to have 10 by the end of the week!)  We are expecting rain this week so I am not sure how much I will actually accomplish.  I would also like to weed the flowerbeds and plant more flowers but the garden is my first priority...

If you have noticed I haven't been blogging as frequently this past month.  Honestly it just hasn't been that big of a priority for me with everything else going on but I hope to be able to blog more frequently in June.  Here are a few highlights from our month:  We started off our month by celebrating May Day!  We made a bouquet of flowers and left them on a neighbor's doorstep.  It was SO much fun! Amanda's brother Jacob graduated from high school!  We are so proud of him and look forward to what God has in store for him. I enjoyed a wonderful 5th Mother's Day where my family spoiled me like crazy.  I was also blessed to attend a lovely Mother's Day Tea at our church with my mother, sister, grandmother, and daughter!  Such a sweet time.  (In the picture above Evangeline is wearing my handkerchief bonnet that I wore as a baby.) Brandon's brother graduated from college in Arkansas.  (Unfortunately I don't have a single...