Happy Solstice!

The kids and I started a fire outside in the chimnea (can't wait to have an actual fireplace), and threw in the log from last year. I fully intended to keep the thing going all night, but jeepers it's cold out there. So I let it die and lit my candles inside instead. I'm sipping hot spiced cider, watching the flame, and anxiously awaiting the Sun's return. Happy Solstice everyone!

Preparations

We've been knee-deep in getting ready for Christmas here. Usually, this time of year I'm stressed beyond belief, but I feel somehow better this year. We've been taking it slow and easy, doing little things everyday to get ready, reading lots of stories, decorating, baking and doing some simple crafts. It's been very relaxing and fulfilling. I'm not feeling the need to go crazy trying to get every little thing done. I've slowed down. We string popcorn for the tree in the evenings. I'm crocheting Bodie a pair of mittens. I won't get the rest of the outside lights put on the fence, and I don't really care.

Two weeks ago, Dave went out to get a tree. I knew when I saw it hanging off the bed of his truck that it was going to get interesting. This is one gargantuan tree! I grew up with a huge tree, so I'm used to it. It smells wonderful!We made orange pomanders a few days ago. This is such a stress-relieving activity! Even the littlest ones can take part - just pre-poke the holes for them. Or if you're like me, heck, just hand your 20 month-old a metal skewer and let him do it himself!
Remember this ? Here's the sequel. Note that this year, Mommy's nativity is up high, and the kiddie nativity is on their level. Did that stop her? Of course not. Look closely and you'll see that there is a pig hanging where the angel goes, and the angel is in the manger. Today I woke up to Balthasar making an offering to what appeared to be either a dead or very tired sheep.

Last night we hosted a playdate and made sun ornaments to celebrate the solstice. It was a lot of fun and very messy. I love hosting playdates because having people over is the only thing that will motivate me to really clean my house. The fact that 6 preschoolers have a tendency to wear each other out is a nice bonus.

Green Works

You all know me and my weirdo hippy amish ideas about cleaning and just life in general. I really do try to stay away from all the icky chemicals when it comes to household cleaning. I've had to make a few concessions along the way, mainly because we have hard (HARD) water and nothing bug Cascade will clean my dishes. In general, though, I lend toward natural stuffs - we use a lot of vinegar and baking soda.

This weekend I bought some of this stuff. Usually I buy cleaning products from Vitacost but we had just placed an order for vitamins and I didn't feel like paying shipping for toilet cleaner. I had heard about the supposedly "green" products from Clorox and it just seemed a little hypocritical that "Clorox" and "green" should be mentioned in the same sentence. However, they are readily available here in BF Nowhere, Ohio. And, there is something to be said about a company completely saturated in known carcinogens at least attempting to make products that aren't going to kill us all. So I gave it a whirl and got some of the all purpose cleaner and the toilet stuff.

So far so good, it works well, smells nice and doesn't contain anything horrible. Or at least nothing horrible that they're divulging on the label.

In completely unrelated news, I'm going to attempt to make the kids advent calendars this year. I've racked my brain trying to come up with something of manageable size that will fit four peppermints or chocolates in each pocket but I've got nothin'. Plus, I think it would be a neat thing for them to pass on to their children if they each had one of their own. I think I'll let them pick the pattern themselves, but with some guidance. As in "You can either make yours a stocking or a snowman" that way I won't end up with advent calendars shaped like a fire truck or a chicken.

Trick or Treat?

I finished the monkey, so there! Isn't he cute? And check out my little Witchlings! No one "got" the theme we had going on. Maybe if Owen had cooperated and dressed up like a Winkie Guard instead of this....whatever this is...super scary skeleon man, I guess. Anyway, I took about 400 pictures on my parents' front porch and this was the best I could get. This Halloween was just plain insane. Each year I think maybe it can't get crazier, but it always does.

Those of you who know Bodie know he's a man of few words. He really only talks about things that are important to him. He added another phrase to his repetoire: "treat-treat". And he perfected "thank you" and "bye" while he was at it. It took him one house to catch on to the idea that this whole dressing up like a goof and knocking on stranger's door equaled candy. And it took him just a few minutes to discover that if you chew a small hole in the corner of a Hershey bar wrapper, and then squeeze the bar in your hands, you can actually suck the chocolate through the hole.

You thought I was kidding about the brain for dinner, didn't you. Well, it's true. And here's picture to prove it. The really funny part is that I managed to actually convince Owen that I had slain a monster, cooked its brain for dinner, cooked some bats (bowtie pasta) in its guts, and floated its eyeballs in a dish. Seriously. Funniest. Thing. Ever.

Have I mentioned Maggie really loves her cat? But what Witch doesn't love her cat, right?

Where have we been?

It's been four months since my last entry. And there is a good reason for that, which I'll get to in a minute. But let's recap where we've been.First, there was the county fair. It was our first fair as a 4-H family and it was lots of fun. Hot, sticky, dirty fun. Except for the fact that someone stole our single stroller out of our front yard coupled with the fact that the van was in the shop all week which equaled me trying to schlep a double stroller out of the trunk of a VW Jetta everyday, it was wonderful. Molly did really well with her projects and had fun riding and running around with her friends.
Then there was this, which was considerably LESS fun. That's what I did to my hand trying to kill one of the leftover 4-H chickens. It's not just a cut. I lacerated the tendons to my index finger. One surgery, and approximately three-thousand occupational therapy appointments later, and I still can't make a fist. Not even close, really. My surgeon is talking about going back in to free it which is just joyous. Fun stuff.

So that, really, is what's been happening here. I was one-handed completely for 6 weeks. Have you ever tried to change a diaper one-handed? Wash a pan? Fold a towel? It gave me a whole new outlook on how much you really do need two hands. How many times as a mom have I said "I need both of my hands"? "I can't pick you up, I need both hands." "I can't do ___ while holding the baby, I need both hands." Lemme tell ya, folks...you NEED both hands. Really.
We're hanging in there, though, and getting back to normal. It's fall, which is my favorite time of year and Halloween is this week, which is my favorite holiday, so we're up to our eyeballs in being all crafty and fun. Yesterday we did handprint bats, and skull cupcakes. Tonight we're having bats, cobwebs and brain for dinner.



Oh, and for those of you wondering...trick or treat is tomorrow, and no, I have not yet started Bodie's costume. It wouldn't be a holiday if I didn't spend the night before pulling an all-nighter in front of the sewing machine.

We also have a new addition to the family. No, the vasectomy didn't fail, much to my disappointment. This is Lexi. Lexi is Maggie's cat, and Maggie loves her very much. So much so that she may, in fact, kill her with love. Or by some other means. This morning I found Lexi in the washing machine. Later I found her in the end table under two quilts, a sleeping bag, a stuffed bunny, and one of the skull cupcakes. She gets carted around in this pumpkin a lot, and when she's not in there, she's in the shopping cart, or being drug around by her neck. Lexi takes her frustration out on Dave and myself by randomly attacking our toes and eyeballs in the middle of the night. Isn't she cute, though? Dave talked me out of putting her inside one of the actual pumpkins we were carving. Puh.

Still Here

Ack! We're still here. We're running around like crazy, but we're alive...in case anyone was wondering.

Softball is over. Swimming has started. We have two goats now, and I'm milking one of them. I want to learn to make cheese, and I've made yogurt and fudge and just got an ice cream maker. I have six chickens living in my bathtub. The mudroom is this close to being finished. The land is almost ours. Not long now. I'm trying hard to garden organically, but my hatred for both potato bugs and Johnson grass knows no bounds. Sevin dust and roundup are sounding very very appealing right now.

The pool is open, the kids are barefoot, and suntanned and dirty, and their knees are skinned. I have...ahem..."flowers" (wild carrot weeds and stalks of johnson grass) decorating my island, clothes on the line, and lightening bugs in a jar...crap...I knew I forgot something last night. I guess summer's here!

Hope life's treating you all well!

No Pictures

I've totally started seeing things through the camera lens, and I want it to stop.

Today I was sitting on the floor with my three littles, playing with plastic easter eggs and little metal buckets shaped like a bunnies and chicks. Bodie was cracking me up - he'd put the eggs in his bucket, take one out, act like he was going to share it with his brother and then snatch it back as soon as Owen tried to grab it. Then he saw an interesting egg, crawled over to get it knocking his bucket over in the process, came back and threw his hands up in the air when he saw the capsized bucket. He was just so darn cute sitting there with his chick bucket perched between his chubby little thighs. He was wearing a green diaper and a t-shirt with a flower on it (dont' tell his dad!). He looked like spring. :) The first thing I thought was "Where's the camera?"

Then I realized the camera was upstairs at the computer where I'd left it. My first instinct was to get up and run up to get it, but then what? The kids were all happy, and playing....together! As soon as I moved, they'd all move. They'd want to know why I had gone upstairs, so the two older ones would probably follow me, and then Bodie would crawl away since there was no one to play with. I'd have to put him back, put the bucket back, force feed him some easter eggs, and then try to get him to look at me...which would be no fun for him since he wouldn't see *me*, he'd see the camera staring at him. I'd probably have to take 10 pictures to get a good one, and since it's overcast, I'd have to use the flash. All he wanted to do is play with some easter eggs and a bucket and instead, he'd be flashed in the eyes and have me hollering at him to look at the camera instead of the eggs, or his brother, or me.

So I sat there. I played with my kids and some silly eggs, and some buckets. I was actually able to notice the expressions on their faces. I really studied them and let myself just enjoy the moment. It didn't last long. It never does with little ones. But while it did last, I let it sink in. I etched the scene in my memory. But I didn't take a picture.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. I think little moments like this... and just letting yourself live the little moments...is worth a thousand pictures.

First Steps and Froggies

Well, it happened. Our last first steps. Boo-hoo! Check out this big boy!!!

We also made some cool froggies - a really easy craft with paper bags and construction paper. Their eyes are really freaky...or maybe it's just me. The kids don't seem to mind.

Hope everyone had a good weekend!

Paper Towel Rolls

You should see my craft cabinet. I hate to throw stuff away, as many of you know, so the craft cabinet has become my favorite place to stash stuff like the bags onions come in, oatmeal boxes, and paper towel rolls...you know, stuff most people put in the trash.

Owen discovered the overflowing supply of paper towel rolls and decided to start just painting them. Just painting. I had no idea what his grand plan was, but it kept him quiet. He did two and then decided he was going to glue them together to make an airplane - no prompting from me, totally his idea. I figured yarn would hold better than glue, though.

Then he decided to start painting some for Maggie, who caught on and started painting herself. I was a little at a loss when she said she wanted to make a castle out of them. Hmmmm, how do you make a castle out of five paper towel rolls? But WAIT! I had almost forgotten about my stash of cardboard boxes that I'll never use up in the loft. Viola! A castle. Nevermind that Dave says it looks like Mead. What does a dad know about a castle?

One

Dear Bodie Quinn,

Today you are One. That's just silly. I mean, One? Who's One?

You a such a little ray of sunshine! Everyday I'm thankful for your big toothy grin. I thought I'd never see anything as cute as your gummy grin, but I think teeth suit you! You have been such an easy baby! You hardly ever complain, and you're content to just crawl around between everyone else's legs, seeing what you can get into.

Your personality is definitely starting to show, though. It's not as easy for your brother and sisters to pry something out of your fist, or your mouth. You're very vocal, which some people might describe as LOUD, but in this house, you have to be loud to be heard.

You LOVE to eat. You sing a little song and rock back and forth when you eat. You love food of all kinds, but you're especially fond of ice cream. It makes you scream with delight! Another of your favorites is red hots. Once you happened upon a red hot on the floor of Molly's room (imagine that), and it promptly went in your mouth. When I realized what it was, I tried to get it out quickly, because I thought it would burn your mouth, but you weren't having it. Since that day, I've caught you with red hots in your mouth at least twenty times. I'm not sure where you've got them stashed, but you sure do like them!

Ever since you were a newborn, you've done this cute little thing with your foot, where you roll it kind of like you're trying to crack your ankle. I'm not sure why, but that really tickles me. You do it all the time. You also like to bounce in your crib, holding onto the side rails. In the middle of the night when you wake up, sometimes the only thing I can see in the dark is the moonlight shining on your blonde, almost-bald head bouncing up and down to beat the band. It makes me smile even though it's three a.m. and I'm tired as all get out.

It's been a great year. You've grown and changed so much, and it's all gone by so fast. A lot of our firsts are over now, but I know there are many more to come.

Happy Birthday, Little Man! I love you!!!

Love,
Mommy

Abelskiever

I got in Dave's car a few weeks ago and there was this weird cast iron pan in the floorboard. Apparantly something his dad had given him. It was like a skillet, but it had seven little cups. I had no idea what it could possibly be for - maybe poaching eggs but the cups looked too small. Anyway, I figured it would at least make an interesting conversation piece hanging from the wall.

Then maybe a week later I see this commercial for a "Pancake Puff Pan". Know what it was? Yeah, it looks exactly like that weird plan. I do some hunting on the internet and discover that pancake puffs are actually a Danish dish called Abelskiever. And they do sell actual Abelskeiver pans. If you're interested, you can even buy an itty bitty dollhouse Abelskeiver pan.

So I found and cleaned up the ole' pan and made some Abel...whateverthehell. It was good. A huge pita, but good. Like..well, like puffy pancakes.

Here's the recipe I used: Please note that I believe this is supposed to yeild approximately 48 thousand abelskeivers, so I recommend cutting it in half. I was bored with it after about 12 thousand of them.

2 c. buttermilk - which I didn't have so I used heavy cream (some of the
recipes apparantly call for heavy cream to begin with so I figured that was
safe)
4 eggs, separated
1/2 t. vanilla
4 c. flour - I only had whole wheat, and it was too dry, so I had to add
more milk
4 t. baking powder. Yikes. A lot of baking powder
1 T. sugar - except I used 2 b/c I didn't think it would be sweet enough
1/2 t. baking soda
1 t. salt
2 T. veg. oil - for the bottom of the cups, I used butter

Beat egg whites until stiff. In a separate bowl, beat egg yolks,
add buttermilk and vanilla. In a third bowl, combine dry
ingredients. Make a well and add wet ingredients. Fold in egg
whites. Place a little oil in the bottom of each cup, add batter.
Cook until bubbles form on the surface, then flip and cook the other
side.

O.k. notice it doesnt' say what temperature, so I did medium, but that seemed a little too hot...med-low'ish is about right. It is HARD to flip the suckers. A metal skewer works a lot better than a chopstick. My batter was too thick in the beginning, like I said, but maybe with regular white flour it would work as is. I got better at the flipping and judging when the first side was done after a few batches.

All in all, a fun little cooking experiment and they are yummy. But not something I'd do regularly, I don't think. I think next time I'll try adding something to the middle...maybe jam or fruit?
Oh...pics.
Cooking the first side. Potholder on pan handle is absolutely necessary. It's just instinctual to try to grab it when you're trying to flip. Ouchie.



Other side. They're not burned...well, the middle one is a little...just darker from the whole wheat. The middle one does cook a little faster, but there's not a great deal of uneven-ness, like I thought there would be.



On the plate. Note the varying degrees of ugliness. lol. Not too bad for a first try, though! :P

Bye, Bye...Busy?

My kid is not in high school, but she scored a part in the kids' chorus in our high school's production of Bye Bye Birdie. I find myself counting down the days until this whole musical goes "Bye Bye". Rehearsal every day this week from 3-7, which means I have to pick her up after school. I also get to drop her off on Thursday and Friday for morning performances and pick her up early Friday. Then there are the four nighttime performances. I'm going to throw a Bye Bye Musical Chaos party Sunday night.

I did manage to get her dress sewn without much problem. I wanted it to be authentic, because I'm insane, so I got an actual pattern from the 50's off ebay. Holy crap. Suffice it to say that I have a whole new knowledge of sewing jargon after trying to follow the damn thing. But, I think the end result is very nice and era-appropriate.

While I was at it, I made this. What the hell is it, you may ask? Well, I read somewhere that you can fuse plastic grocery bags together with an iron and actually use the resulting fabric to make waterproof stuff. So this is a....um....a sandwich bag maybe? I dunno. It worked pretty well, so I have hopes of a funky recycled bag tote bag or something. I feel really bad for the little ones having to be woken up early from naps, drug out in the cold at 7 am, and schlepped all over the county after their sister, so I've been trying to make up for it with fun activities...which is HARD when it's snowing and freezing. We had some fun this week with shaving cream on the fridge, and blottos. Blottos are a super-fun and easy project. But, they're messy, so dress accordingly. Just take a piece of paper (we used cardstock, but construction paper is fine too), drop on some food coloring, and fold it. The resulting blobs come out looking like a million different things. It's hilarious to see what the kids think they are...kind of like finding elephants in the clouds. You can then color on the paper or add stickers, and they make nice cards for dad and grandma.

If you have any sanity vibes handy, send some my way. I could definitely use them the next few days! :-S

Snow Day...AGAIN!

We're fairly sick of winter around here. Today we awoke to yet more white stuff covering the roads and cancelling the schools. It was too cold to go out this morning, but we managed to bundle everyone up for an afternoon outing. I always have fun in the snow with the kids, but it's the preparationg that I find so daunting. Getting two kids into snowsuits, hats, mittens and boots is HARD....getting four ready is, well, twice the pain in the ass. I work up such a sweat wrestling everyone into their gear that I'm surprised I don't catch pneumonia once my body hits the cold air.

I think it was Bodie's first time in the snow, since we usually go out during his nap. He was less than thrilled, as you can tell. The others loved it, though. Suddenly the slide was turned into a rocket launcher :) Once we found the sled (no matter how many times I repeat myself about putting the sled somewhere where it won't get SNOWED on, no one seems to listen) Molly and Owen had a few good runs down the hill. It scares the crap out of me - I can just see someone being propelled all the way into the road.

All in all, a good day, despite the cold. And we capped it off with some really good pork chops on the grill. Did I mention that we're sick of winter?