A few things about Mason

Mason has developed quite the personality over the last few months. He has definite preferences, likes and dislikes. If you've ever been around to see him try a new food that he does not like..., you'll see the obvious dislike expression in raspberry form. It's been neat to see these develop. Here's a few of his likes...,

1. HATS - He loves them, but will rarely keep on on for more than a minute or two. He'll hold them.., walk around with them in his hand..., talks to them..., put them on.., take them off.., etc. He actually prefers his dad's hats. 2. SHOES - Most mornings you can find him in his Dad's closet pulling out and trying on shoe after shoe. Dan loves that Mason rearranges his closet on a regular basis. Mason can actually walk in the shoes as well.., which I think is fairly impressive.
3. HIS BLANKET AND BEAR - His Aunt Mary made him his blanket that from birth has been one of his favorite things. His Aunt Ruth gave him him blanket-bear.., which I'll admit, I thought was the weirdest thing I've ever seen at first..., but Mason loves it. I mean.., it's a bear head and a blanket body.., creepy! He will hold the bear by his neck and twirl his fingers around the silky ribbon on the bear's neck. He adores it. In fact.., I bought a replace bear so I could wash one and he'd still have one to hold and sleep with. Well.., let's just say that didn't work too well and he now walks around with 2 blanket bears.
4. DUST PAN AND BROOM. If I leave the dust pan and broom out for even a second, Mason has it in hand and is trying to pick up something. He'll even walk me to the hall closet and point and grunt for me to get him the dust pan. I finally found a small version on a broom, dust pan and mop for him and he LOVES it. He is definitely his father's son in regards to cleaning. Hopefully, the love of cleanliness will stick with him through his teenage years!

5. NUDITY AND THE REMOTE - Let's be honest.., what man doesn't enjoy being naked and having the TV remote? I tried to buy him the kid version of a TV remote.., but Mason wants nothing to do with those cheap imitations. He wants the real thing. I ended up finding some old remotes that we don't use and making them 'his'. He's happy with that, but still tries to steal the real remote any chance he gets. The nudity thing started a few weeks ago when he had a diaper rash. Everyone tells you they need to 'air out' to help the rash heal. Well.., Mason had no idea about the freedom he was missing out on. Now..., every diaper change has turned into the great escape attempt. Changing his clothes is even worse. I do hope he out grows this before he starts school.

The Weekend..., a bit late!

Okay.., Okay.., I know it's Wednesday and I'm just finally blogging about the weekend! I'm a bit behind..., but better late than never.., right?

I've been looking for new lamps for our bedroom night stands for some time now, but like most things.., I wanted them to be dirt cheap and super cute. That's not too much to ask for is it? Anyway..., I did finally find the lamps for super cheap.., but they needed a bit of help. Their color was a nasty, dated gold-y color that just wouldn't work. The picture doesn't quite show the gold-ness.., but I promise you all.., you would not put these bad boys in your houses.Despite the color.., I bought them along with a can of spray paint..., hammered bronze spray paint to be exact. I was very happy with how they turned out. Yes.., the flowers on the night stand are from my cute husband. He came home with them on Friday night for no reason what so ever. It was such a nice surprise. Saturday I got the rest of the Fall / Halloween decorations out. The skeleton is the comprise for Dan. He's all about the 'scary Halloween' stuff. Wait til you see the grave stones and life-size witch I have for the flowers beds this year. I promised Dan I would wait til at least October 1st to the rest of the stuff out.
I also tried fresh artichokes to the first time.., which are even better then the cooked artichokes hearts that you get on the jars. I've been fairly nervous about attemping to cook these bad boys on my own. They seem so hard.
Well..., there' not hard to cook at all. You throw them in a pot with a little water and let them boil. Voila! They are a lot of work for a little meat. The centers are yummy though. Thanks Mel for showing me how to cook them!

The Garden

I have thoroughly loved our garden this year. Though small, we planted peppers, tomatoes, squash, herbs galore and GOURDS! Yes.., we planted ornamental gourds and they were so much fun. Mason and I would check the garden every morning and almost every morning we had gourds to bring in. Gourds are easy and fast growing.

We also planted bottle-neck gourds that you see dried, painted and for sale at Tai-Pan Imports for $20 a piece. I'm really excited about these. I hope to end the season with 6 of these babies.
Next year our garden is tripling in size and I couldn't be happier. I think perhaps we'll try the assorted pumpkins among other things.

Seriously.., Who knew canning was such a process?!?!?!

My very generous neighbors gave us a box a pears from their trees this past week. Let me just say..., I hate pears. It's the texture that completely grosses me out. The taste is fine. I'll admit.., I'm a horrible mother and wife because both my husband and son love pears and I never buy them. So with a box of free pears in hand, I, in all my naivety, thought how great they would be to can. I've never really canned. I mean.., I've sat in my sister's kitchen chatting and pretended to watch and learn..., but I had no idea what it all entail. My sister, Renee, volunteered the better part of her Saturday to show me how. I did actually listened this time and I think I have it all down. The process in and of itself is fairly easy. However, the washing and peeling and cutting.., etc takes forever and a day. Mason was a huge help...., in eating the pears that is. His latest thing he enjoys doing is sitting on the kitchen counters while I cook. I love it because I remember doing the same thing with my mom.

Do you see how pretty the bottles turned out? I was quite impressed. And yes.., that is my belly sticking out. It's popping out there faster this time. I ended the day with 16 jars of pears and 10 small jars of pear sauce. I kind of made the recipe up a bit for that one. Picture apple sauce but with pears and you have 'pear sauce'. By 6 in the evening, I couldn't handle peeling another pear and just want to be done and the pear sauce was an easy alternative. Next month will be applesauce and salsa. I need to rest up so I'm ready for it.