Amy Beth

March 31, 2014

March in Review

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Here’s what I learned in March:

Turning two is even more fun than turning one! Mainly because two year olds can do more. And they figure out what a party is and will remember it and talk about it for several weeks afterward.

Not eating sugar is not really very fun. Even if you come up with some fun new snacks, sometimes you still just really want a cookie.

The bracket was a brilliant invention. I generally loathe all things sports-like, but even I will root for a team that I have randomly picked to go far on my bracket, and be briefly but genuinely disappointed when someone I have randomly picked to go far bites the dust. Without the bracket I would be clueless and indifferent.

Planning for perfection means I never get anything done. But just jumping in and doing something without a grand plan means I finish some edging for a flower garden and finally get some art on the walls.

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My son is a bit of a shutterbug. I recently cleared my phone of about 200 images that he had taken. Here is a small sampling:

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For each of those images there were about 20 more that looked exactly the same.

Here’s to hoping the end of March takes winter with it. I’m ready for Spring!

 

As usually I’m linking up at Chatting at the Sky with a bunch of other people who have learned things in March.

February 28, 2014

February in Review

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I stopped reviewing my months for a while there. The break in routine that is the holidays took a while to recover from this year. But now I’m getting back in the swing of things and am back to learning small tidbits during the month. Here’s what I learned in February.

1. Babies. They grow up SO FAST!
I remember as a young pregnant lady, people would get all nostalgic when talking to me about their own kids and say things like, “Before you know it they’re all grown up” and, “Having kids will change your life completely.” And I was all like, “yeah, yeah… everybody says that. You’re all just being nostalgic.” But now I know. ALL those people were RIGHT! My baby is about to turn two. How?

2. Potty training is exhausting, even when it goes surprisingly well.
OR, maybe it’s going well because we’re exhausted?

3. Sometimes I like to think that we have an awesome kid because we’re such good parents. But then I realize that we probably seem like such good parents because we have an awesome kid.
At least the kid is awesome though.

4. Global warming has undergone a “rebranding” of sorts.
I was realizing when listening to the news the other day that no one calls it “Global Warming” anymore. Now it’s “Climate Change.” I suspect this is to counteract all those naysayers out there who liked to make such remarks like, “You call this Global Warming? It’s the coldest winter we’ve had in years!” As if the temperature in their own backyard was all the evidence scientists needed to be like, “Oh, yeah. I guess we can go on polluting the earth then since this cold temperature you recorded is proof that our children will not suffer any devastating consequences from a warming globe.”

5. Speaking of climate change. It affects the jet stream. And that explains all the unfortunate weather we’re having all over the country this winter.
I found this story on NPR to be very fascinating and informative. Also, I am a nerd.

October 29, 2013

October in Review

October in review

For some reason writing these month in review posts seems to make the months go by a lot faster. Maybe it’s because I’m just more aware of each month as it ends. So instead of jumping straight from summer to “Oh my gosh, it’s Christmastime!” I get to “Oh my gosh!” at each month as it passes. But despite the quickness, October was lovely. And I learned some good lessons.

Read more…

September 30, 2013

September in Review

Another month has gone by, and once again I’m linking up with [Emily at Chatting at the Sky](http://www.chattingatthesky.com/2013/09/27/learned-september/) to share the things I’ve learned this month.

1. **Late summer/early fall is almond season.** I know this because we have an almond tree in our backyard and it has been dropping almonds by the bushel-full. When I first learned we had an almond tree I was kind of excited about it. I started envisioning tasty desserts and breakfast granolas full of fresh toasted almonds harvested from our backyard. But then I looked into what it takes to prepare almonds for eating and realized that I will **not** be harvesting my own almonds. Here’s why:

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August 29, 2013

August in Review

Once again I’m linking up with Emily at [Chatting at the Sky](http://www.chattingatthesky.com) to share the things I learned this month. Here they are in no particular order.

1. Apparently I am a very sweet person because mosquitos love me. Upon stepping out the door I will get no less than 5 new mosquito bites every time. My husband (who mosquitos seem to ignore) found [this interesting article](http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/science/2013/07/why-do-mosquitoes-bite-some-people-more-than-others/) about why mosquitos are more attracted to certain people. Unfortunately it’s not very helpful, as mosquitos seem to be attracted by uncontrollable factors like blood type and the kinds of invisible bacteria that live on your skin. However, [if we could just find a high powered fan to blow across our entire back yard](http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/16/science/a-low-tech-mosquito-deterrent.html?_r=1&) I think we’d be golden.

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July 31, 2013

July in Review

I was inspired to make this post by [Emily at Chatting at the Sky](http://www.chattingatthesky.com/2013/06/28/lets-share-the-things-we-learned-in-june/). Each month she does a little recap of the things she’s learned. They may be small and silly or big and profound, but I thought a similar post might be a nice way for me to remember all the random snippets of thought I have throughout the month.

## So here are five things I learned in July.

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