This family's story has touched my heart... pray for Lucy.   She turned 5 yesterday, spent her birthday at St. Jude's.

Who knows how to make a link button?

I would love one for my sidebar that says "Praying for Kara Faith."

If you don't know her story, visit her blog here.

another bloggy link
If we're friends on FB, you saw my status update about some friends from college whose adoption that seemed certain fell through. If you want to keep up with their adoption and church-planting journey, you can visit Emily's blog.

Like Bear's tutu? You could win a cute Halloween tutu set!

Praying for Stellan...

GARDENING LINKS TO PERUSE
(reposted from last year...in case anyone is interested!)

General Gardening Tips:

• Univ. of Arkansas: Planning, Preparing & Planting a Vegetable Garden
• The Helpful Gardener
• Doug Green's Beginner Gardening
• USA Gardener
  

Coffee Grounds as natural fertilizer (add nitrogen to the soil)
Coffee Grounds as a planting medium


Non-Toxic Weed Killers:

• 7 Deadly homemade weed killers
• Weed killer recipes from a country life
  I was toying with the idea of using vinegar to kill the grass and weeds in my garden patch... but another sources says it will sterilize the soil... so that doesn't sound like a great plan...

Veggies & Fruits:

• Strawberries
• Tomatoes
• Green Beans
• Cucumbers
• Squash
• Cantaloupe

Flowers:

• Roses: what to plant near them
• Roses: how to care for them
• Roses: how to prune
• Maiden Pink (dianthus)
• Bulbs
• Calla Lilies
• Calla Lilies-link
  
• Columbine
• Clematis
• Acidanthera
  
• Gladiola
• Lilies
• Mums
• Stargazer lilies
  

Pest Control:

• Insect-Deterrent Herbs
• Garden Pest Management Info from Garden-guides
• Moles & Birds
• Deer & Rabbits

Raised-Bed Gardens
(disclaimer: I am not sure we're motivated enough to build one of these, but I'm including the links because the idea fascinates me.)

• OK State Article
• HGTV info (thanks to Sara W. for this link!)

Butterfly & Hummingbird Gardening

• New Jersey Audobon Society
  

• Birds-n-garden

Original post 3/22/08

Check her out!

Allow me to tell you little bit about our friend, Southern Barbie. We met in college, then she went away. She is partially responsible for me and my husband getting together. I think I still have the slip of paper she handed me with his phone # on it the night we met. Somewhere. I vowed not to use it unless he called me first, and the rest is history. I'm pretty sure she got to be there when he picked out my engagement ring, too. Who knows, maybe she picked it out. Her smile is contagious, and next time she is in this part of the country, we will have to meet up. She's fun-loving, her smile is contagious, and I think the Northwest is starting to rub off on her in some ways. ;-)

We lost touch over the years, but have recently reconnected. As with many other long-lost-but-rediscovered friends, online. She's blogging now, so check out her blogs...

Go introduce yourself and welcome her to the blogosphere!

Southern Barbie
Fabulosew!

Wouldn't you like to meet... my neighbor?

http://sarcasmasawayoflife.blogspot.com/

I am not a politician.

The closest I've come to that is raising my concerns over some of our HOA's practices. As I mentioned in a previous post, Senator Obama's extreme anti-child position concerns me. Click HERE to read more if you are so inclined.

I've also posted the link to a Pro-Life blog in my sidebar.

ooh!!!!

A big thanks to Steph Precourt for her videos on how to wear baby slings! My ring slings have come in handy already (Bear and I took a leisurely walk/"treasure hunt" yesterday and I carried sleeping Buddy the whole time , but I definitely needed some tips. The cradle hold was not comfy for either of us when he was awake, but fine for sleeping.

Wordless Wednesday: Portraits
Taken Saturday, August 26th at our home.

If you live near Chattanooga, TN/North GA and need a photographer,
I highly recommend Dotson Studios!

Chapman Family Interview

Here's the link to the interview which was aired on Good Morning America this week...

http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=5524419

Are you missions minded?

I just wanted to point out a couple of blogs a read that belong to missionaries. I met both of these ladies online, one through my sister in law, and one through a meme (probably from 5 minutes for mom) well over a year ago.

Both blogs incorporate a touch of what's going on in their family life and their families' ministries, and I know they would appreciate your prayers!

Between Diapers and Dishes
The Arteaga Family

New Links....

If you haven't noticed, I have 2 new html links in my sidebar. Not only are they cute, I just thought some of my readers might be interested in playing along.

I have already entered the drawings for some of the prizes in the 2 weeks of toys contest.

I am hoping that Scrapping Servant's National Scrapbooking Month celebration will help inspire me to get some pictures printed and actually scrap again. My flowerbeds ARE running out of space, so pretty soon I'll just be watering and weeding... ;)

It's been a while since I visited their site, but Sara linked to this contest over at 5 Minutes for Mom, and I had to go check it out! You can't win if you don't enter, right?

Farmwife's new recipe-sharing blog:

Wha'cha got cookin?


She and Ang already have a couple of yummy-sounding recipes posted, and if you want to collaborate with them , just leave a comment over there.

CLICK ON THE IMAGE:

Ok, I confess. I am lazy. What? You already knew that?
When I found out that a girl I know from college was starting
her own cloth diaper business,

I thought I might be a candidate for making the switch. My blogging bud Stephanie sings the praises of cloth. Then something happened. Even with Sunny's patient answering of my questions, I got scared of combining the amount of laundry that I don't complete with the idea of washing cloth diapers. I got lazy. And I confess, I wanted the fanciest, most expensive options or disposables. But I do have to say, I have explored Cutie Tooties, and cloth diapers are so much different than what I expected. Of course, the prefolds are the most economical, but there are some cute and comfy options that are just as easy as disposables.

Well, I have not yet switched to cloth, but I did purchase the swim tankini in the photo for my little one. Sunny also has some washable wetbags for storing anything from wet diapers to suits to clothes, as well as some other natural mommy products.

And I just want to say that Sunny has awesome follow-up and has always answered my questions promptly. She has triplets who are about a month younger than Baby Bear, so she has probably experienced any situation that one might encounter with cloth diapers.

If you have ever thought about using cloth diapers, but don't know where to begin, Sunny can answer your questions. She even has a thorough survey on her site to gauge your familiarity and needs.

As for us, well, for now Baby Bear will be sporting her tankini with swim pants at the beach.

Welcome to another "member" of Blogoholics Anonymous!

Well, she might not be addicted YET, but is on her way! Samantha is a friend I made through hubby's job. She's married to one of his coworkers. She has recently started blogging to record her experiences as a new Mommy.

So, I am home because my throat feels like sandpaper and I didn't sleep well last night. this link to a plethora of links. I found I highly suspect I may not agree with every site theologically, however, it looks like there's some interesting info.