Ebeanstalk.com Giving Away Prizes to Six Lucky Bloggers

Ebeanstalk is giving away prizes to six lucky bloggers! I would love to win, not just for my kids, but for the kids that I help while doing in-home therapy.

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Ebeanstalk is dedicated to a baby's development. And we select the best baby toys matched to a baby's development. To see great information on how a baby grows up, check out the info on our baby toys page.

Picking toys for a baby is not as simple as it sounds. Here are some quick baby facts:

• Toys for a newborn baby: A newborn baby is briefly looking at objects and attempting to imitate facial expressions. They can follow objects with their eyes and usually quiet down, when they are picked up.


• Toys for a three month old: They will enjoy ‘frolic play', reaching for objects and will repeat enjoyable activities. Believe it or not, they will respond to ‘no' (about half the time) and will start babbling.


• Toys for a six month old: They'll search for hidden objects (object permanence). They'll reach for themselves in the mirror, play peekaboo, crumple paper, roll from their stomach to their back and even respond to their name.


• Toys for a nine month old: They are pushing toy cars, playing pat-a-cake and looking for hidden sounds. The baby toys they are playing with are also getting more fun.

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They are also offering a 15% off coupon code for first time shoppers -- TGS345.

Okay, fingers crossed -- I would love to win! My little therapy kids get so excited when I have a new toy to use with them!

Loom Knitting is Super Knifty

In March, I made my very first hat with the Knifty Knitter. A few weeks ago, I made another hat (but this time it was pink) for my niece Maggie.

Of course, Molly was quite envious of the pink hat. So, today while my Mom was busy in a morphine induced one minute sleeping-one minute awake-one minute sleep pattern after abdominal surgery, I used one of the looms to whip up a pink hat for Molly in just about an hour. (I might have done it more quickly, but I had three hours of sleep last night, so my eyes were a bit glazed over, as you might expect.)

I think the Knifty Knitter is just about the coolest thing! I only have the round looms, but have a book with lots of directions for things other than hats with the round loom. I think my next project has got to be a matching pink scarf. Wish me luck!

The Knifty Knitter is a great gift, especially for someone that hasn't had luck learning to knit or for young ladies just getting in to handicrafts.

Here is Molly, hamming it up in her new pink hat:

This post is linked to Talk About Tuesday and Works for Me Wednesday.

Just Like Handy Manny, But Without The Talking Tools

A couple of months ago, the breaks in my van sounded terrible. And, when I saw terrible, that's a really mild way of saying it.

I started envisioning how very expensive it was going to be to have the van fixed, and it just made me sick. It finally sounded so bad that Eric forbid me one evening to drive it to the in-home therapy that I was going to. Instead, I took his car, and he decided to give the van a looking over.

He called me when I was done and said, "It's not good."

Dang it!

Then, he continued. "So, can you stop by AutoZone and pick up some break pads that I had them hold for you. It's going to cost about $25." Yep -- that was it. Our problem was solved for $25 and my husband's know-how. What a blessing!

Sure, sometimes we have to get outside help for problems, but there have been many times over the years when Eric has saved us money just because he had knowledge and was willing to put in the time needed.

So, today, I'm pretty darn thankful for a handy husband!

Sometimes, I think husbands get a pretty bad reputation. So, share with me -- what's something that your husband or boyfriend has done lately that deserves some kudos?

Our Backyard Garden Transformation

This is our fourth year of gardening, and it again found us making some kind of changes to our garden. The first year, Eric built an 8' x 8' raised bed plot. The second year, he added a second 8' x 8' plot right next to it, growing our garden to a 16' x 8' plot. The third year didn't have any additions, though we did grow several things in pots.

And, then came this year. We decided we needed big changes, so, to start, Eric ripped out all of the old timbers that made up the garden (being careful not to rip out too much of our strawberry patch). He then worked on tilling it into four plots (as seen below).



Then, a few weekends later, he busily worked on four plots of raised bed gardens. These, however, were higher than our previous beds, at 12 inches tall. He built them four feet by eight feet. He worked so hard on them! I especially appreciated the care he gave to building one specifically around where our existing strawberries were.

Previously, we tended to the existing strawberries, plus we planted some cooler weather crops.

This weekend, we then put in extra work by planting the rest of our garden plants. For now, we have in peppers, tomatoes, squash (yellow straight neck and zucchini), lettuce (a couple of types), carrots, peas, and green beans. We had the kids help with some weeding and planting (and shopping for plants -- all part of their schooling).

Eric also took some time to build some permanent and some temporary cages to keep the bunnies away from some of the plants. (Some just until they get bigger and some to keep them out for the summer, I hope!)

We're so excited for our first season with our new garden plots! And, I'm so glad that the planting is basically done now!

Are you gardening this year? What are you growing in it? I would love more ideas of some fun things to plant that we haven't tried before. (Although, we did plant a raspberry bush, and the bunnies ate all of the leaves off! We are hoping it will come back, but I'm not holding my breath.)

This post is linked to: Tackle It Tuesday and I Am Blissfully Domestic.