Just ordinary stuff

The weekend is wrapping up. Mike hosted his first ever poker night at our house Saturday ( we don't have a big enough table for 10 people to be able to play) but now that we have a deck its no problem. We borrowed some picnic tables from Mike's parents, and one of Mike's friends provided some awesome meat that Mikes' dad grilled up. We rounded that off with rice pilaf, cous cous and some grilled corn on the cob... YUM!
Today after church we spent the day in the yard. Mike finished the lattice for the deck and worked on a few other loose ends. Keira played outside and I puttered around in my garden. We seem to have some bug issues. They are eating some of my lettuce and green bean leaves. I need to google organic bug killer or natural remedies to keep them away from my precious lettuce which is so tasty! I read something about coffee grounds deterring some bugs but since neither of us drink coffee I need to call around some local coffee places and see if they will donate their used coffee grounds to an eager gardener.
I also purchased round 2 of cucumber plants. The first batch was planted prior to the deck completion and a few of them got trampled on by accident.. and the rest of them failed to grow much. They popped up out of the ground right away and then stalled. They are the closest to the deck and I think the deck has cast a slight shadow on that area of the garden making it a bit to shady in that row only. I am keeping my fingers crossed for some great garden cukes!! The ones we get in the stores here in the northeast all winter are mushy and pretty tasteless and cukes are one of my favorite veggies. The first year we planted a garden we got 70-80 cukes from like 4 plants. Last year due to all the rain we had lots of area gardeners including myself had issues with white cukes and mildew. So in a desperate attempt to get some cukes I purchased batch 2 of cuke plants and planted them in the sunniest row and and I am hoping we get some tasty cukes. Where the first failed batch of cukes were planted I planted 2 hosta's and some ornamental grass.
Keira has entered the terrible two's seemingly overnight with her favorite word being "no!
even though she can speak in full sentences. I thought we went through the no stage already around 12-15 months when she was first learning to speak but apparently not. She likes to say- Keira do it and Keira by myself do it! But I am happy to say that once again we seem to have won the bedtime battle for the time being. We have convinced her to stay in her bed until she wakes up so she now goes to bed as easily as before thank goodness!!! We all need our sleep around here. She wants nothing to do with potty training and delights in taking off her diaper and running around the house completely naked. You have to keep an eye on her though because she will just pee or poop anywhere.. whereas before she would at least attempt to get to the potty.
One of her most delightful talents is reciting an entire book from memory. She sits down and recites it word for word like she is reading. Its so funny to listen too. One of her most annoying traits is asking for a specific food rather loud and bossily ( I want yogurt and oats! Yogurt and oats! Mama yogurt and oats! ) and then once you give it to her she takes one bite and is done. I try to remind her that I am looking to save money and wasting food like that drives me crazy but for some reasons she doesn't care.