learn from my mistake

Everyone, go right this second and back-up all of your important pictures and videos and documents.  Even if your computer is less than a year old.  Even if your computer has been acting totally normal.  Even if you think it won't happen to you. Go, now, and back everything up.

Because I didn't.  And now it's gone.

I had been organizing all of our pictures and videos for about a month.  It takes a long time to put them all in iPhoto and separate and combine them all and move them onto our portable hard drive.  I had been working on it slowly but surely, and getting it all done.  I had done everything up until January of this year.  But January through August of 2012 were on the computer still, waiting to be transferred to the portable hard drive.  And then the hard drive in the computer crashed.

We took it to the Apple store, but there was nothing they could do for it.  I was devastated.  I was crying in the Apple store and then crying in the play area at the mall.  And then crying in the car.  I am still brokenhearted.

We are sending the hard drive to a data recovery company in hopes that they will be able to salvage something.  It makes me so sick to my stomach to think about.  If they are able to recover some things, it will cost us an arm and a leg to get it.  How much are they worth?  How much do we have to put towards this?  Why couldn't this have happened one week later, after I had backed them up?

I am just a mess about it all.  It makes me so upset.  But, I hope that this motivates someone to go back up their computers.  It's worth the extra time, I promise.

random things marley talks about at bedtime

"If I see a bear, I have to run to a building or something like that. You know, bears have sharp claws and teeth."

"Do elves have lots of toes or just one toe? Their shoes are like they have one toe."

"I am so ussited for you to get a kitchen aid mixer one day. Will you ever get one? Then I won't have to mix everything when you want to cook."

"Have you ever realized that an 'S' sometimes looks like a snake?"

"Sometimes I look at that picture and I think I can hear a tiger growling."

"Today I looked in the fwidge and all we had was zucchini and waw milk and cheese and kombucha!"

"You know that book we read with the mean bear and the mouse is nice to him. The mouse was just trying to be nice and give him a birthday party and the bear is so mean. You are supposed to be nice to your friends. I am nice to all of my friends. I have a lot of friends. I am friends with all the kids who are nice to me."


I love hearing her mind work. And sometimes it just cracks me up!

this makes me happy

this week's farmer's market trip

We went to the farmer's market again this morning and stocked up on our vegetables and some fruit for the week.  Before our first trip last week, I honestly thought there was no way we would save money by going to the farmer's market instead of Wal-Mart or the commissary.  But once we got there last week and I saw the prices for everything, I was hooked.  We got everything you see here for $24. 




1 large watermelon
3 large tomatoes
3 very large onions
5 Illinois peaches
3 sweet peppers
3 ears of corn
4 summer squash
1 pint of cherry tomatoes
2 pints of okra
"a peck" of apples (5-6 pounds)
1 gallon of raw milk with cream on top







This will take care of most of the produce we will use this week.  We have a short list of other items that we need to complete our meals, but planning around what we find at the market is working out so much better for us.  Here are some plans for these items this week:

- chicken and vegetable soup, which we had last week but we will be making this week's with a different flavor
- chicken and vegetable pizza
- apples for fresh applesauce and in smoothies
- cream from milk for a few recipes and to make fresh butter again
- squash and potato au gratin, which we didn't get to have last week
- and finally, I am a watermelon addict so I will be eating that all in one day all by myself.  just kidding.  sort of.

Visiting the farmer's market on Saturday morning is a great way to start off the weekend on a healthy tone, and it is an awesome feeling to be buying local from a farmer that you can meet and talk to.  So much better than waiting in line for a grumpy checker at the grocery store.  I encourage every one to find a farmer's market near you and start saving money and eating healthy!

{this moment}

{this moment} is a Friday ritual from one of my new favorite blogs, Soulemama.com. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

 If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

.......... 

 

sisters are hard work, but worth it

Lately I feel like the biggest battle I face is keeping both girls happy at the same time.  They are complete opposites in so many ways and it is literally exhausting to help them try to get along.  Marley has a particular way that she likes things to be.  Vivi has a particular way that she likes things to be thrown all over the place.  Sometimes it looks like this:

Marley builds a tower, Vivi knocks it down.
Marley gets out crayons to draw, Vivi pulls them off the table and eats them.
Marley is changing her baby's clothes, Vivi grabs them and runs laughing in the other direction.

But, it's not only Vivi doing the terrorizing.  Sometimes it looks like this:

Vivi picks out a book to look at, Marley takes it away from her.
Vivi decides to play with a toy, Marley says, "I was wondering where that was!" and takes it.
Vivi is eating some cheese in her high chair, Marley steals it and shoves it in her own mouth.

Marley understands what she is doing most of the time, and is properly corrected when it happens.  Vivi is just now getting to the age where she understands she will get a big reaction if she does something to bother Marley.  I am trying to teach her to leave Marley's things alone, but we all know that won't really be resolved for... well forever.

It just wears me out trying to help them play together.  I want them to be best friends and love playing as sisters, but most of the time is seems impossible.

But then, the clouds part and my girls sparkle.  And I think, "They are so perfect."  Even if it only lasts for one minute, that one minute is enough to restore my faith and remind me that "this, too, shall pass."

This video was taken during one of those moments.  We had just been at the park all morning.  I ran there with the stroller, we played with some new friends, and then had the long walk home.  When we were almost home, Vivi fell asleep on Marley's shoulder.  You can't really hear it in the video, but Marley is singing "Twinkle Twinkle Littler Star" to her as she rubs her face.




And the kiss on the hand.  Oh, my heart turned to mush.  They really do love each other.  We must be doing something right here. And then at the park later, I saw a dad trying to wrangle twin toddler boys and I was reminded that we actually have it pretty easy.