It's been a while since I dropped a line here, but there have been several new posts since March at my other blog.  There are more pictures of the children, recipes, links, book reviews, etc. 

mommyearth.blogspot.com

Posts made on my other blog since my latest update here:

What Are We Anyway? (Labels We Wear) -- concerning "stay-at-home moms"

October Liberty Photos 

The New Year Vacation -- In which I make excuses for my lack of blog entries.

October Nature Walk

Other October Photos
November Photos

3 recent posts:

A brief one with a photo of a mourning dove.

A long one about the black swallowtail caterpillar/butterfly.

Another brief one with some more Tirzah quotes.

Well, I forgot already last week to link here to the post I made about the snake we found in the basement.  So here it is now:

http://mommyearth.blogspot.com/2009/11/nature-study-snake.html

I'm going to try posting a link here to my posts over on my other blog.  At least sometimes.  We'll see how it goes.  So here's a link to my latest post, and there are other updates on the site as well.  Some of them may be more interesting to many of you Xangans than this particular post. 

Today's post:  http://mommyearth.blogspot.com/2009/11/imaginary-museum.html

Just moved.  I can actually see all the pictures I post at my new blog, which I rather prefer to having them randomly vanish on me.  If you want to see them too, and anything else I post however rarely, you can go to mommyearth.blogspot.com

For all you who talk about being Xanga slackers... I guess that makes me the Xanga slacking champion.  Oh, yeah! 

For posts concerning more recent things, go HERE.  Anybody who still wants to read about our trip to Chicago from last fall can read this post. 

I'm a little annoyed b/c for some reason I'm having trouble with the other photos I wanted to include.  I can't see them. Perhaps you can -- I'll try to get them to go in the photoblog and then you can see them if possible there.  One you may have already seen -- it's of Martha.  (I know that before with my ultrasound pic others could see it when I couldn't.)  Most of the others I was able to get on here but I might end up with another one or two I include in the photos and not here for that reason.  I might post some others from later in the week in the photoblog eventually too, for Martha's sake especially, but I don't know that I'll bother with another post after this one.



If you guessed we were in SpringsTruth's neighborhood in the last picture of the last post, you were correct.  Here she and the children are in front of a slightly altered version of her house (there's actually a house number where that white rectangle is above her head). 

The girls began the day wearing matching dresses that Grandma Morris made for them, but Tirzah had an incident in the car involving losing her breakfast, so she was down to the perfectly-matching ensemble you see here.  I was glad I had any clothes with me for her at all, b/c I'm not always that prepared.  Yeah, you'd think I'd have learned better than that by now, but nope.


Here we all are walking with Martha -- still not much traffic, though.  Slow morning?


The children were excited about riding the bus.  Afterward they told me this was their favorite thing they did that day!  Children are so funny.  Then, I guess I got used to the bus as a kid b/c of school, and they haven't had that experience, although a city bus is different. 





We were still unsure at this point whether Tirzah was actually sick or had just gotten car sickness -- this is part of why.  I guess her tummy may have also been bothered by the motion of the bus at this point?  But later she was much better and we decided it must have been car sickness.  She'd never had it before, and has had just one major episode with it since (when we were driving in the hills of north MO).




So where are we now?



Navy Pier!  It was a lovely day to be there, too.


First, a walk through the jungle, where some interesting characters were to be seen.


This lovely little one looks full of spunk.


Some just as lovely, more meditative observers.

Some other neat sights at the pier:
 







Gulls make me laugh.






I liked this shot of the older three.




The children wanted to see how they measured up to Dad.








You can't go to Navy Pier with Martha without looking for the smashed penny machines.  And getting one of your own for a souvenir, of course.  Thanks, Martha!













The three older children and I rode the ferris wheel also.  This was an unplanned adventure -- a kind older couple who were leaving had some extra tickets they hadn't used and gave them to us.



Looking down on Martha, John and Tirzah from above -- they are in the small circle in the center on the bench.

Other shots from above:






The ferris wheel from a distance, back out near where we caught the bus to go back to Martha's.

I really do intend to catch up on Chicago, believe it or not.  And as our dear toddler actually fell asleep before 10 tonight (somewhat of a rarity for her lately), how could I find any more excuse to postpone a post?  First, though, some news having nothing to do with Chicago:

I've started a new blog here where I've put some more recent stuff.  I've already got some photos uploaded from Chicago on Xanga, though, so I'll use this as my catch-up site for now.  I seriously doubt I'll continue to maintain 2 blogs, since I don't even do well maintaining one.  This is an experiment to see whether I like the new site better.

Baby/mommy update:  I'm feeling much, much better. Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers.  We're about to the five-month mark (Inauguration Day will be the official 5-month tally).  Baby is moving about strongly enough that all the tummy-touchers around here can feel it.  Tirzah touches my belly and says, "You baby?" (Your baby?)  I say yes, and then she sometimes says "Is coot!" (It's cute) or "Is puffy!" (It's puffy -- b/c the older children have been telling me how much my belly is 'puffing out' -- why, thank you!  No, I don't really mind.  They're funny.) 

Okay, now for picture time:









Aren't these flowers gorgeous?  They are orchids from the famous Orchids by Hausermann in Chicago.  The late Ernie Finney had quite a way with these amazing flowers.  They are a reminder of him to me, and a joy to behold.  We got to tour the greenhouse. 

Below are some of the more unusual orchids on display:







The one above is called a Lady's Slipper or a Paphiopedilum



The children in front of the Cattleyas.   


Melinda, who we'll see pictured later, gave us these lovely flowers while she was showing us around the place. 



Bethany standing underneath one of her favorites.


Tirzah was really fond of her orchid.  She was so fascinated with it that she didn't even notice that she was left behind as we all went down an aisle and she was still standing right about here.  A little bit later we heard fussing from a distance and realized that Tirzah wasn't with us, so we went back to find her and there she was, not upset about being left behind at all, but upset that her flower had come apart (where the stem went into a little water vial it had either broken off or else she'd just pulled it out).  Melinda made everything okay again.

The greenhouse tour is a pretty educational experience (which means it counted as a school field trip, oh yeah!).  The orchid is no simple flower.  It's a long and laborious process to grow them to maturity.  Everything has to be just right for the little seedlings to grow properly.



"Cloning"


Young plants in jars


Older plants in flats.


Melinda shows us how she packs a box.




 

 
Okay, so these pictures are completely out of order -- oh, well.  This is another I missed before that I wanted to include.



We got to see the boiler room, too.  Takes some serious heat to keep the orchids warm in the Windy City winter (especially THIS winter!).  That's Pat glowing on the left.







Tirzah was still holding on tightly to her orchid when it was time to play on the swing set.



Why, THERE'S a better picture of the house!  Scooters were popular with the girls.





Ah, it was still warm enough to be barefoot outdoors!

Now, here's a sneak preview for the next Chicago installment.  Who knows where we are going?



"Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God."  Romans 5:1-2