Green Thumb

I'm trying to learn the fine art of gardening. I figured I'd throw some plants in some dirt and see if they do anything. Well, they did! Thanks to the help of Miracle Grow probably. I've had fun playing with flowers and planting some veggies and herbs. I've become a fan of the container gardening.


I love pulling up to the house and seeing my flowers outside on the steps. They make me smile.































I tried to get creative with my containers. This chair is my favorite! I found it at an antique store, and put an enamelware bowl in it and filled it with pretty pink petunias.























Out on the patio in the back, I planted a little veggie garden, thanks to donations from my Aunt Cheryl. She donated the black fish pond that is being used as the container, as well as the rocks I put in the bottom for drainage, and all of the plants. We've got 4 tomato plants and 2 eggplant plants growing hog wild in there. I also have 2 bell pepper plants in there, but they've not done much.


Here's a tiny eggplant just peeking through!

Lily's Laund-O-Rama

Lily was so excited to help Mommy with the laundry the other night. She was such a big help! If by "help" one means "helper of the big mess making."

Here's Lily in mid throw.

She's already willing to throw in the towel, it seems.

Checking for any stains the Shout it Out might have missed.

Lily has her own ideas about pressing the laundry. With her car.

Here's a little video of Lily romping around in the laundry having the best time of her life. I think it needs a really good B-Movie title, like "Attack of the Laundry! -- It's come to clean you!"

Lily Learns the Fine Delicacy of Using Cutlery

Lily is becoming such a big girl! She is getting to use a fork and spoon for
most of her meals now.

Here she is deftly using a spoon at breakfast to dine on gourmet yogurt.

Notice how careful she has been to get an even coverage of yogurt all over her face. Keeps the skin soft and supple.

Lily decides that the spoon is actually hindering her application of yogurt to her face, so she goes for her fingers instead.

Seeing that this procedure is also taking too long, Lily goes straight to the source.

Crafting Bug

Ahhhh summer vacation. I love it.

I'm using my vacation time to try and get caught up on all the crafting and decorating I've been neglecting to do this past year. With work and Lily, there wasn't enough time or energy to do much crafting during the school year. Even now that I'm free it isn't always easy because most of my time is spent taking care of Lily. But when she's napping, I try to get busy.


Here is what I made today. Curtains! Well, one curtain.





















I know you're thinking those look a little short, but actually I did that on purpose. With a curious one-year-old pulling and grabbing everything in sight, I wanted to make them short enough to be out of her reach.


I've been wanting to decorate Lily's room for a looooong time, and one of the things I've really wanted to do was make some curtains for her window. I had this lacy fabric in my stash, as well as the rose trim I used on the bottom. The blue blocks were bought at an antique mall for $5 a piece, the flowers were hot-glued onto the hardware ($2 each from a scrapbooking store), and the curtain rod is from Wal-Mart ($7). I'm going for the shabby chic look.







































I'm so excited. My mom is going to babysit Lily tomorrow (well, today now that I look at the clock) for a few hours and I'm going to use that time to do some more crafting and decorating. Woo hoo!


Here are some other things I've made in the past. I can't wait to let the crafting bug bite!

The Tsukioka Family Becomes Orthodox!

Well, we finally did it! After nearly 3 years of attending the Orthodox Christian Church, we finally took the plunge (literally for Lily) and converted. This past Saturday Lily was baptized at St. James Brother of Our Lord Orthodox Church in Gladstone, MO, and on Sunday morning before Divine Liturgy, Lily, Koichi and I were all chrismated and received into the fullness of the faith of the Orthodox Church. I first started attending the Orthodox church at St.s Constantine and Helen's Orthodox Church in Colorado Springs, and since November of 2005 I have been a catechumen, preparing to enter the Church. Last spring, after Lily was born, I had planned on joining the Church with Lily, and then Koichi asked us to wait for him. So now a year later, we've all become Orthodox together. It's been a crazy ride, but I wouldn't have changed a thing.

Here are some pics of Lily's baptism.

First, I get her all naked and hand her over to the priest, Father Gregory.

Then Father Gregory and his deacon, David, take her over to the baptismal font (in this case a bucket placed on the icon stand) for dunkin'.

Lily is placed into the font where she is supposed to be immersed three times. However, short bucket plus tall baby equals this...

Seeing that Lily isn't going to be dunked anytime soon, Father Gregory instead laps the blessed water over Lily's head three times.

Pretty unorthodox for an Orthodox baptism!

Afterwards we all go to the parish hall for some cake and goodies.

Our good friend, Kathy, who helped us immensely as we prepared for joining the Church over the past few months, gave us this icon of Christ.

When a person becomes Orthodox, they choose a patron saint. Here are our patron saints.

Koichi's patron saint is St. Nicholas of Japan. (He was actually Russian, not Japanese.)

My patron saint is St. Mary of Egypt.

Lily's patron saint is St. Elizabeth the New Martyr, Grand Duchess of Moscow.

Summer Lovin!

Lily looooooves playing in water. We took to a park in northtown that has a neat little fountain shooting up out of the ground. She had so much fun. We went back again last week with our good friend, Grace, and her son, Nathan. Too many good times playing outside at the park. When Lily's daddy is sleeping during the day, it's a great way to get out of the house and still stay cool.

Today we put up a blow-up froggie wading pool for Lily to splash around in. I was glad to use our electric air pump that Koichi bought for me to use when I pump up my exercise ball for working out. Needless to say, the pump hasn't been used that much. It did a great job of inflating the froggie for Lily to play in. It had a place to attach the garden hose and spray out water. Lily liked that the best.

Finally, a post!

I've been getting a little bit of grief because it's been over a month since I've updated my blog. So, here I have some time before I go to bed, I've uploaded my pictures to my computer, and I feel like sharing. All good things to help me be a better blogger.

So here I go, watch out!