Can You See It?

Here are pictures of Mary's lone tooth; it's on the bottom left (if you're looking at her). It popped up Dec. 19th at Sam's Club (her 8-month birthday).

I feel like things are finally back to normal in the Stroud home. The only mess left is in the guest room, and it's not really a "mess," but more of a spread-out pile waiting its trip up into the attic.

We've recently stepped up our homemade baby food menu. Last week we added homemade yogurt to the daily diet (she loves it mixed with bananas - and so does Mommy), and this week we've added flaxseed oil and applesauce. I made the applesauce at home, but I'm not sure it's any cheaper than buying it; I'll have to check that out next time we visit Garden Cove, which is usually on Sundays (the owners are members of the Seventh Day Adventists and don't open their store on Saturdays). Garden Cove is a very neat little natural foods store, very unique. It just might be the only place in town where you can buy sugar cane (it looks like a real cane) and cactus leaves. They have all kinds of sales at different times, which is another plus. The time we went just before Christmas they gave us 30% off our total if we didn't use a plastic shopping bag. Sounds good to me! We just carried the food to our car in our hands, with some extra money saved in our pockets!

Mary is almost 9-months old, which means she's moving up to a new clothing size. Actually, she's already wearing mostly 9-month clothes, andwe're starting to run low. So, I've been looking around for some good cotton clothes for Mary. Nothing fancy, no sparkles or dangly things, just plain comfy clothes for our little girl to wear when she's playing around the house (where we spend most of our time). I found exactly what I was looking for in Basic Brilliance! We ordered two dresses to get us started, and they'll probably be here early next week. I'm so excited! If we like them, we'll probably keep getting Mary's clothes from here (I'm pretty much done with shopping in stores for clothes, it's just not worth the hassle).

Our Sunday School teacher referenced a book last week by Nancy Lee DeMoss, a wonderful Christian author. Her website has lots of great stuff, including a little checklist for pride. What? Think you're not prideful? I'd take a look at Nancy's 41 evidences before you answer. It's very convicting.

The rest of our week is pretty busy, well, busy for us. Tomorrow night Stephen has orchestra practice at church, Thursday night I have my ladies' Bible study, Friday night I'm having some friends over to work on our scrapbooks, and Saturday we're getting together with Stephen's parents for some family time. That's "busy" for us!

Well, I just wanted to give you a quick update on the Strouds. Nothing too exciting, just ordinary life, which is such a blessing in itself. God has been so good to our family! I've learned to be thankful for the ordinary, for the routine. Everyone here is happy and healthy, and we hope you and your family are well, too!