Rachael Eliker's Blog, page 73

Two In A Day

Kitty Cat Claire doing one of her favorite things: holding bugs.Every year we've lived here, we've bought praying mantis egg pods in an effort to encourage natural predators to help us with all the pesky bugs, especially in the garden and every year, we haven't been disappointed.
We've seen multiple praying mantises a year and this past summer, even had an egg pod laid on one of our tomato cages.
Kate has definitely overcome her discomfort around bugs.Usually, it's rare that we actually see a p...

I Survived Independence Day 2015

The start of the second act of fireworks.When I think back to Independence Day 2015, I'm going to remember: Lighting a few of our fireworks after the big show.I Survived! Getting started with sparklers!A little over a month ago, we took a quick trip back to Nebraska--the first since Christmas--and were able to see some family and friends while there. Of course, "quick trip" is relative. It's a solid nine and a half hour drive from Indiana back home and that's with only one stop to refuel and us...

First Grade

All smiles for the first day of school.School has already started and Evelyn's a first grader. She returned to class like an old pro--no tears, all excitement. Claire and Kate have adjusted well too. When Evelyn went to kindergarten, they weren't exactly sure how to play with each other without a big sister to dictate what they should be doing. That's not a problem anymore. They spend their time climbing trees, swinging, playing with the dog, cats and horses, coloring, napping and helping aro...

Bargain Book!

Headed for the Win, the first book in the Nadia and Winny series is on sale this week for $0.99! Check out Booktastik, Ereader News Today or The Fussy Librarian (coming Thursday!), or go directly to Amazon to purchase.
Let me know what you think with a review! The sequel, Road to the Regalia is available here!

Pregnancy and Children

Mother Power from Studio C.
A few of my favorite funny, light-hearted jokes about pregnancy and children!Jim Gaffigan: Mr. Universe--4 Kids

Our Inner Geek

It's Pinkie Pie, Twilight Sparkle, Princess Cadence and Spike! And I'm the pregnant lady...One of the perks of living near a large city is that there's always something going on. This weekend is the huge Gen Con gathering that brings out people in droves to test, buy, auction, sell, borrow or role play thousands of games. Of course, lots of them dress up as their favorite characters too.
Kate Pinkie Pie overlooking the massive card stacking display.Though that isn't my scene, Jack asked if I w...

Highlight of the Year

The girls' cousins, my sister and my brother-in-law were able to come for a visit this past week! It's always so much fun watching the girls play and be able to make memories together--family visits are a highlight of the year. It was a jammed packed seven days with activities like visiting the temple, rescuing frog eggs and staying up too lat(hey, it was vacation). Here's a taste of what else we did this time around: Releasing the tadpoles into the horses' water trough (I'm secretly plea...

Indianapolis Temple

Some of the cousins have come for a visit and one of the highlights so far has been our tour of the new Indianapolis temple. It's an exciting event in many ways but it's especially so because we've been able to take our children to see the inside and have had lots of friends go see too.
Other than Kate's weird aversion to putting on the booties to keep the carpet clean (imagine full-on screaming) and Evelyn's fear of falling into the baptistry (imagine another round of screams), everyone enjoy...

Hungry

We had an unexpected dinner guest last night that made everyone a bit nervous. She was most likely from the new hive and since they moved in with no food to speak of, she was especially attracted to the honey we were drizzling all over our cornbread. After she tried landing on everyone's plates and then attempting to suck honey right out of the jar, Jack put a dab on the deck that was enough for a feast. She was hungry! She ate her fill and lazily flew back to the hive.

Next time, I hope she's...

Frog Caviar

We've had several plagues this summer, but not all bad. Having a free bee swarm show up was pretty awesome. Sure, the rain has been annoying but we're in for a whole week of sunshine and mild temperatures. The resulting wet weather has filled our baby pool a few times and though I try to keep up with dumping it out to keep the mosquitoes at bay, it's been hard to keep up with. Imagine our surprise this time when I looked into the murky green and found clusters of frog eggs floating in the wat...