And together we learn

The sounds of Mexico

2011-04-07T09:26:00.000-07:00

So you're going to have to be a little patient with me here. Due to an unfortunate spill a few months ago, the E, R, S, G, and C keys are...fickle. Capricious. They either don't work at all, and I spend many minutes jiggling them, caressing the keys, hoping they'll work. Or they hyper work--giving me a steady stream of rrrrrrrrrrrrr's, when all I wanted was one! Now is a good time--things are moving nicely, but who knows how long this will last? And let's face it, e,r,s,g and c are kind of important letters!

So I'll take advantage of the good keyboard moment to actually post.

Let's talk about the sounds of Mexico for a minute. The sounds of Mexico are...loud. And there are lots of them. For starters, there are the horns. Every time our assistant starts or stops her car, the horn beeps 4 times. This is entirely normal, and no one thinks anything of it. If I try to get into my car by *unlocking the door with the key*, then opening the door--the car alarm goes crazy. You have to use the clicker to unlock. Anything else and you're a car thief. Once I was inside the car in the passenger seat and needed to get out to open the trunk. Bad idea. Loud, long honking ensued for my audacity.

So the horns. There are lots, and they're loud, and it's kind of funny.

There are other great sounds, too. The flag raising ceremony every morning at 7, with drums, bugles, and singing. Raucous, exotic bird calls remind me constantly that we are very far south. The sounds of people calling out what food or services they're selling. Bells from the cathedral ring every half hour, then sometimes for no reason at all (that I can figure).

I live on a little street with 14 row houses-7 on each side. I can clearly hear my across the way neighbors (who speak Cantonese at home, and Mandarin with me, btw) in casual conversation. I hear the small baby kitty corner from us who cries in the evening. I hear tantrums of the 3 year old Chinese girl.

Do you realize what this means????? That every. single. noise. that my preshus ones make can be heard. By everyone out there. And people, they make a lot of noise. Wild rumpuses that would have been normal at home are amplified by our close proximity and tile floors. I nag and plead and hiss and fuss at them, but the noisy is still with us, and that means with our neighbors, also. Sigh. At least they're normally quieter than the car alarms!

2011-04-01T22:28:00.000-07:00

So we live in Mexico now. Been here for a month. Crazy, no? Since living in a foreign country is kind of a big deal in terms of life experiences, some kind of a record is probably in order. So, Andrea, Stephanie, Emily, Britt, and everyone else who has been hinting---this is for you!!!

Our maid came today. The one who works for 12 dollars a day. She comes at 7 in the morning with 2 liters of fresh squeezed orange juice. Seriously. Then she spends 4 hours mopping, scrubbing, and washing dishes. She might be one of my very favorite things about this country. 12 dollars a day??? Tell me you wouldn't do the exact same thing if you were here.

We kept the kids home from school today--there was a field trip that we didn't send them on, and sometimes I just miss them. The boys played with water in the sink and the girls had a Barbie extravaganza going on. And of course we watched The One and Only Genuine Original Family Band. I was super smart and packed exactly 4 movies. TOaOGOFB being one of them. I'm so glad I've watched it 15 times now. And also that Calvin thinks the US has 38 states. If you haven't seen this Disney classic yet, it's darling. Just a bit much after the 15th viewing. But there really isn't anything better than hearing Sammy sing all the songs word for word.

Steve took the big kids to the Purissima (farmer's market) late tonight. They bought 3 kilos of mangos for $1.50, 2 kilos of strawberries for $3, fresh pineapple, and apples. Oh, and a kilo is 2.2 pounds. Steve says that when he's weighing the pros and cons of living here permanently, the purissima instantly throws the balance in favor of staying here forever. I'm not quite so convinced, but there are definitely some pretty amazing things about this place.

There. Now the first post is done, and that was the hardest part. Pictures, stories, you name it, they're all going to be flowing here at my little URL!!! What else am I going to do with my life of leisure here?

A perfect, perfect day

2010-04-21T23:48:00.000-07:00

It was my birthday!! I love birthdays. Even as an adult, you just feel so darn special to be walking around, knowing that it's your time to shine. Knowing that I could walk into any restaurant and command a free dessert, just by virtue of being born.?It's a giddy feeling.

My darling girls made me pancakes for breakfast, on their own, for the very first time ever. And they fed the little boys and I got to play on facebook. There's bliss right there for you.

Lunch out with the sisters and family people. Huge salads and yummy ice cream. This day was already looking fabulous!

Stephanie came home with me and we talked of weddings and finals and all manner of sisterly things. We had a wild rumpus with the children that ended with a screaming contest (they won), and she fled the bedlam and left me to calm them down. I led the four of them in a nice meditation exercise, complete with deep breathing and soothing visualizations. After many minutes of calm, I used a mellifluous voice to instruct them to open their eyes.

They looked at each other, and without missing a beat, commenced the high pitched shrieking again. Rascals. So much for meditation!

I piled them in the car and we headed for Barnes and Noble. It was such a wonderful drizzly, hailing, thundering kind of day-- the bookstore was the perfect retreat. They played on the train table for TWO HOURS while I sat and read chick novels. Oh yes, I was happy. Then we headed home where I fed them hot cocoa (with marshmallows) and buttered popcorn for dinner. I left all the dishes for tomorrow, and I read books all night.

Seriously, how could this day have been any more fun?

Well, it would have been MUCH better had my darling husband been home, but he was on a business trip. I think we did a pretty good job of living the day well, and now I have all the fun of celebrating again when he comes home!

Been served

2010-04-20T21:22:00.000-07:00

Why is it that some things are ever so much easier in theory than they actually turn out to be? Why is it that I thought that keeping up with the miles and miles and miles of flower beds around my home would be a piece of cake? Cause I sure did, at one point. Not so much anymore, but there was definitely a time I thought this wasn't a laughable prospect.

The children I have, while excellent for some purposes, really are terrible when it comes to major weeding. Crazy, right? I totally thought they'd be able to assist me in this not-so-hard job. In retrospect it's all perfectly clear--the madness. But at some point this all made sense.

So the yard got away from me in a big way last year. And this year when I went out to attempt to tame it, it wasn't pretty. The field that is my backyard turned into flowerbeds of field, and they don't lend themselves beautifully to hand weeding. Heavy machinery, maybe, but that's not really an option.

So after many many hours of trying to make my yard a presentable place, I realized this was a job far beyond me. I called in help, in the form of two little 11 yr old neighbor girls. They worked diligently for hours and made a tiny dent.

The next morning I got a call from my neighbor. She told me she does a once monthly family home evening for a group of youth, and could she please bring 25 kids over to weed my yard and clean my toilets?

First reaction: shame, embarrassment, mortification, and guilt.

Second reaction: flooded with relief and gratitude.

Third reaction: gotta clean my entire house and the yard to get it ready for people to come over! Crappy!

Last night we went from oceans of beds looking like this:

To oceans of flower beds getting shown who was boss:

My darling sister contributed beautiful cheesecake pops left over from a wedding she catered. I made sure to tell them all the origin of the fancy schmancy treats. Cause going to someone's house to do service when you think they've been spending their time supposedly dipping chocolates and putting pretty pink chocolate flowers on each one of them instead of doing their own darn weeding? That's just a bit awkward. With the provenance of the goodies accounted for, everyone felt happy.

Still a bit chagrined that I'm a project, but oh, so very grateful that this Sisyphean task is now under control!!

Spring is in the air. Literally.

2010-04-06T04:41:00.000-07:00

Despite the inches of snow on the ground, it really is spring. I know, because it was Easter, and that definitely means spring. Of course we did all the normal activities--bunny baskets, dyeing eggs, talk of the resurrection--the usual. But now I'd like to present the more...unique way that sister Andrea came up with of celebrating the vernal onset. I present to you, the chick flick.

It started out innocently enough. I was incredibly crafty this year, so I planted wheatgrass and nestled some darling little chickies in it. Festive centerpiece, no?

Then Andrea (it always always starts with her. We're not sure if she's just mischievous, incredibly easily amused, or a combination of the two) decided to use her spoon to try to launch the chick into the grass.

Then we all had to try, because that's just too random to not be fun.

We got pretty good. Look at the height on these babies!

Tyler (now fully clothed--TMITYS did not come to Easter dinner) concentrates on getting just the right trajectory.

My sister in law Catherine took the photos. Apparently it's a little tricky to photograph paper chicks as their being flung across the table, but she did an incredible job. Must. Not. Covet. Her. Camera. She photographs and blogs at catonalimbphotography.com.

Easter randomness. What else would you expect around here?

Happy sigh

2010-04-04T22:29:00.000-07:00

Sound of Music is on tv tonight. I'm sighing a happy sigh. Could there possibly be anything more romantic anywhere than the gazebo scene?

There's a Sound of Music sing a long in a local theater every Christmas. Anyone want to come?

Fool's Gold

2010-04-01T22:04:00.000-07:00

I know I mention it a lot, but I love my family. Here's yet another reason why I think they are some of the most enjoyable people on the planet.

April Fools is a favorite holiday for my mother and my kids. In fact, they've been including the auspicious day in their prayers (please bless that it will get here fast and that we'll laugh all day long). The pressure was on. For my kids I gave them banana splits for breakfast, then taught them the classic French game where you try to stick a fish on someone's back, then yell 'Poisson d'Avril' and laugh hysterically. This game was a hit, except they wanted to say it in English, and somehow 'Fish of April' is just not as funny.

But I digress. The real story, the real blog post here is the one you're wondering about. Why on earth is there a picture of a man in a yellow speedo running through the house???

Let me 'splain.

For the last 20 years, my mother has had a scapegoat. Diet Coke open in her cart at the store? Wasn't her, it was the Man in the Yellow Speedo (MITYS). Bag of chips consumed? Him again. He was the convenient answer to any bad behavior she didn't want to fess up to. This MITYS has been confusing poor innocent checkers at grocery stores all over the west for many years.

Thanks to my amazing sister Andrea, her intrepid husband Tyler, and the awesome purchasing power of Amazon, the MITYS was able to make his first live appearance.

We had just bowed our heads for the prayer of our wacky dinner where we have to eat spaghetti and salad with crazy kitchen utensils, when the MITYS burst through the back door, snatched up the pot of spaghetti, and disappeared through the front door. It all happened in a flash; all I had time for was a shot from behind. Perhaps that's best, though, for everyone involved!

I think my favorite part was watching him stash the pot in the garage, grab his pre-hidden ratty bathrobe, and run up the street at lightening speed, barefoot. Only Tyler.

The kids were a bit mystified by the whole thing, but they didn't let that dampen their enthusiasm for eating spaghetti (recovered from the garage) with whisks and beaters.

Four thousand words

2010-03-31T23:24:00.000-07:00

I don't have tons to say, but there's always something to show. There's something about seeing photos of my kids that makes me cherish them so much more. I mean, they're always with me--constantly present and underfoot and sometimes driving me nuts. But a picture makes me pause, and really see them. They are so absolutely sweet!

Multiculturalism

2010-03-28T12:49:00.000-07:00

Every morning as I'm serving breakfast, I hear the cheerful chorus of "Tauts meeywi, xie xie Eetsa!" I hear it from all the kids, including Sammy. And just what is this merry greeting?

Why it's good morning, thank you mother, in the original combination of Mandarin Chinese and Nez Perce Indian! But like you didn't know that. Of course that's what it is!

I speak Chinese, or used to any ways. The kids pick up random words here and there, hence the xie xie. And by the way, you haven't really lived till you've heard a very small boy who can't really speak English yet trying to speak Chinese. Priceless.

The girls are in a club based on the American Girls, and we're studying Kaya right now. She happens to be Nez Perce, so there you get the rest of the mouthful. They have cradleboards for their dolls that they wear all over the house, they love to wear headdresses, but they really really love the language. I think it's because the words are so dang fun to say--for example, they called themselves the Nimiipuu. See if you can say it without giggling!

I wonder how many families get to start their days with this extraordinary greeting! Not many, I'm guessing.

Baby steps to blogging

2010-03-25T20:37:00.000-07:00

Deep breaths, just keep taking deep breaths. I can do this. I can blog.

I'm coming out of my internet shell. Oh, it's not that I don't spend enough time on the internet--heaven knows that will never be the problem! I've just been in a bit of a funk as to having things to say. So in a rare, unprecedented move, I'm flooding the internets with my words. Facebook--oh yeah, status updates and even comments on other peoples pages. Message boards that I've lurked on for years? Commenting right and left. And even blogging.

I know, wonders never cease. But it had to happen eventually. I think part of the problem is that I have no idea what to make this old blog space. Food blog? I love to cook and I'm dang good at it, but the web is chock jam packed full of food blogs. Ditto with craft blogs, and I'm not creative enough for that. As a homeschool blog I fail completely, because our days are so completely haphazard. And mommy blogs are just boring.

So tell you what. I'll post smatterings of all of the above, and hopefully some of it will be interesting. At the very least, it will get me motivated to actually take some pictures of my children for posterity's sake. (I want that SLR so much I can taste it. I just know that when I have a beautiful camera, then I'll be a great blogger!!) ((same with a serger. I know the lack of one is the only thing keeping me from true sewing proficiency.))

What do you know? This is kind of fun! Spilling all my random thoughts out is actually kind of therapeutic. I just might have to keep this up!

Racism and utensils

2009-08-27T10:52:00.000-07:00

Conversations around here lately have been great. Case in point:

We were just talking about how to make spoons. Calvin theorized that you start with flour and butter.

Chloe corrected him, saying that you need, "some metal, and a Black Man."

???????

Me, gently, "do you mean a blacksmith, sweetie?"

Dang language barrier!

2009-08-24T13:04:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I forget just how confusing it must be to be little.

Exact conversation from a car ride last week.

Calvin: Mom, when are we going to die?

Me: long discussion about how no one knows exactly, but Heavenly Father is aware of us and Mommy and Daddy will keep you safe and blah blah blah.

Calvin: But what is it to die?

Me: long discussion of spirit leaving body, heaven, blah blah.

Calvin, later: Mommy, I really want you to die.

Me, slightly shocked: stay here on earth, be your mommy, love you, blah blah.

Calvin, frustrated: But then I WANT TO DIE!

Me: Why??? Life is so wonderful, it's a gift, wonderful family, mission to fulfill, blah blah.

Calvin: Because you SAID we got to dye with the kool-aid and scarves.

Oh. DYE. Gotcha. Yeah, we'll get right on that one, Calvin.

Peace, Love. Music. My backyard

2009-08-16T11:45:00.000-07:00

We've thrown some pretty good parties around here. There was the Steve birthday party ice cream day, the poutine party, various fabulous parties with beautiful food--all delightful gatherings of friends and family. But last night might have just trumped them all.

If you haven't noticed by now, my Steve is a bit spontaneous. He thinks of something, then does it. Doesn't really accept the words 'impossible' or 'impractical'. So I should have learned long ago that what he proposes doing actually really happens.

A few months ago, he told me that it was the 40th anniversary of Woodstock, and we should have a concert to commemorate it. In my mind, that means "what a slightly random and crazy, yet fun idea. I'm glad it will just be an idea." In his mind, it means, "let's get to work."

The next thing I knew, he was auditioning bands.

So he ended up with 5 bands that agreed to come play in our backyard, on the deck. We have an acre, so can easily fit tons of people. We spread the word around facebook and the neighborhood, and soon had around 200 people wanting to come.

We got a portapotty for the weekend, because 200 people are just more than we were comfortable with using the bathroom in the house.

As luck would have it, it stormed incredibly yesterday morning. Lots of rain. Wind. The works. But by the afternoon it couldn't have been prettier. Problem is, I think that 7/8 of those 200 people had been scared off, so we ended up with a much smaller group. Oh well. If we hadn't have gotten the potty, of course there would have been 300 people in my house. It was a huge hit, however, with the 7 and under crowd. There was always a line of them waiting to use it. My favorite moment was when my 3 year old niece came out with her pants around her ankles and flashed the crowd. Woo-hoo!! Nudity! This was Woodstock, afterall.
The bands were all very gracious and understanding about the sparse audience. People just had a relaxed and wonderful time. One of the bands didn't show up--they were all under 16, and one of them ran away and was picked up by the police. He was grounded, so couldn't play. Yes, I did laugh all day about that one.

It grew darker, and people lingered and listened to the amazing music. Neighbors dropped by to listen. We barbecued hamburgers and had cookies, the kids ran through the yard and fed the chickens bits of lettuce. We built a fire in the chiminea to chase off the chill of a cold evening.
An absolutely beautiful night that I hope will become a new annual tradition.

Bounty

2009-08-13T22:14:00.000-07:00

Dinner tonight was beets, potatoes and onions roasted with a bit of olive oil and sea salt. We had a tomato cucumber salad with vinaigrette and a plate of red peppers, cucumbers and tomatoes without dressing. All veggies. Every single bit.

The beets and potatoes were from my garden. I've come to a truce with the garden this year. It won. Or rather, the weeds did. But that's another story. The point here is that it DID produce something, and we ate it. Enough beets and golf ball size potatoes for a meal.

The cucumbers and tomatoes came from the farmer's market. Only the red pepper and onion weren't local.

I was a bit nervous to serve an all veggie dinner to the kids, but figured they could always eat bread with peanut butter, if they needed to. The rule of the house is that you take one bite, even if you think you hate it. So each one of my kids tried the beets, and each one liked them. Calvin even had thirds. They were Chiogga beets, with the beautiful candy cane stripes, so that helped immensely. They ate every morsel on their plates and were all happy and content.

Good mothering moment, that.

Of course, a veggie dinner does leave you a bit hungry 4 hours later, especially after seeing Julie and Julia. That movie is full of fabulous, glorious food. Late night ice cream with the best hot fudge sauce in history was the perfect solution. Oh, and if you make the hot fudge? Please buy Valrhona or Scharfennberger or something equally wonderful. You'll be so so grateful you did.

A place where the sun don't shine

2009-08-10T22:01:00.000-07:00

Do you ever find yourself doing something that the sixteen-year-old you would never ever believe? Sixteen-year-old Becca would be shocked at some of the things that go on around here, but I think some of today's activities take the cake.

Calvin and I went out to check on the chickens this morning, as is our morning routine. One of the chickens wasn't doing so well, and blood was dripping down her rear feathers for some reason. My first instinct was just to run away, but grown-up Becca decided to handle this one, instead of channeling the 16 yr old.

I picked her up (gingerly) and carried her over to the faucet where I scrubbed her bloody chicken bum and examined it to see what was the problem then applied copious amounts of Neosporin. Are you getting the visual here????? I just got far more familiar with a chicken bum than I ever could have imagined. And can I just say for the record that wet feathers smell really really gross.

Don't have a clue what's wrong. I have consulted the all-knowing internet, and I'm doing all I know to do. Short of taking her to the vet. Because it's a chicken.

How differently life turns out than what you expect. Most days I'm pretty convinced that's a good thing, but I'm wondering right about now.

The children meet Vermeer

2009-08-08T21:44:00.000-07:00

I've been reading a fascinating book called The Forger's Spell. There are so many things in this world to know, and most of them you don't even know they exist. I had no idea about forgeries of Vermeer paintings during WWII that fooled the world. The book is a little rambling, but it's goes deep into the reasons that people could have actually believed these horrible paintings were genuine Vermeers. Basically, people wanted them to be real, so they believed. The Nazi's were 'buying' everything they could get their hands on, and the Vermeers were the jewels. Paintings were surfacing right and left, and a man named Van Meegeren capitalized on it all. Once he had one painting established as a masterpiece, it became the new standard that all future forgeries were based on.

Anyway, interesting stuff. I checked out a big coffee table size book of Vermeers, because after reading about them I wanted to know more and more. I always knew his stuff was beautiful, but wow, it's pretty amazing.

So this book was lying around, and the kids wanted me to read it to them. I pulled them all on my lap and we went through every page of this book of paintings. My kids can all (even Calvin) identify about 5 qualities of Vermeer paintings--light from the left-hand corner, blue and yellow colors, meditative women, serene settings, and pearls. We examined the different textures he shows, marveled at how fur can look like fur and satin like satin, and talked about what the women might be thinking as they read their letters or dreamed at their instruments.

Calvin asked to read it again today. How cool is that??

The bard and the babies

2009-08-03T21:56:00.000-07:00

I'm currently somewhere in the middle of rural Utah--maybe around Panguitch. Definitely past Beaver, though. Isn't an imbedded wireless an absolutely beautiful invention? We've spent the weekend in Cedar City going to the Shakespeare Festival.

This was a really great weekend, everyone.

First of all, wonderful siblings Drea and Tyler and Jev and Em came along. Only Stephanie was missing, and missed she was indeed!! But let me tell you that when the lot of us hang out, there is riotous laughter, and lots and lots of small noisy people following.

We stayed with my dear grandparents. The relationship there hasn't been as close as it could have been, so this was a great step in bridging the gap. They were extremely hospitable to our twelve person group, and we had a wonderful time with them.

We call my grandma 'Maman' (pronounce it French). She's reading with Chloe here--a little book half in French and half in English. This picture here is worth the trip to me. It's a lucky thing to be able to have a relationship with your great-grandmother.

The six of us went to see As You Like It, which was absolutely so much fun. We were in the outdoor theater, perfect weather, great company, and how can you go wrong with a little Shakespeare?

During intermission, Tyler went out to procure refreshments for the group--tarts. 7 of them. Every good Shakespeare play needs a tart seller, don't you think? So he bought lots, passed them to Jevan who stood on a bench and made the handoff to Andrea in the theater. A daring move to satisfy our collective sweet teeth.

Tonight I took my sweet girls to see The Comedy of Errors. I wasn't too sure about how they'd do with the Iambic pentameter, but they were great. The acting was so broad and slapstick, you could follow the plot and just let the language wash over you. They were enthralled, and it was a perfect night out with my ladies.

A few more hours of driving and we'll be back in our own beds. Vacations are delightful, but so is coming home!

My budding astrologer

2009-07-31T08:58:00.000-07:00

Chloe has this thing with birthdays. She absolutely loves connecting people with their birth month and everyone else who was ever born in that month. She loves that she shares a birthday with George Washington Carver, inventor of thousands of peanut products. She's researched that Hazel was born in the same month as Abigail Adams. Sammy? Oh yeah, same month as Teddy Roosevelt. But she couldn't find an August birthday for Calvin to connect with.

She pulled out the entire set of Power Tales story books, and started hunting for Calvin's Leo soulmate. She came dancing down half an hour later, jubilant.

"Mama, it's Francis Scott Key!! He was born on August 1!"

I was duly impressed by this fact, and continued loading the dishwasher.

"Mom, can we celebrate his birthday? It should be very important to us."

I agreed, and proposed singing The Star Spangled Banner on the auspicious day. She sighed with happiness, then told me that, "this needs to be our new family tradition for YEARS to come!!"

Now hear this!

2009-07-28T22:21:00.000-07:00

So I just spent the last hour reading through my archives. I laughed and I cried as I remembered some of the amazing things that have happened in the past few years. And do you know what else?? I have a dang cute blog! I have things to say, I can occasionally say them well, and it's really quite fun to read. If I can amuse MYSELF for an hour, surely there are people out there who would read a quick story every day or two.

Moral of the story: just because I don't have easy access to pictures doesn't mean I can't blog. Cause I can. And I should. And I will.

My kingdom for 17 cents

2009-07-28T21:01:00.001-07:00

I'm not sure if I'm updating this because I have anything to say, or just to shock Stephanie. Actually, I'm sure there's nothing to say, but I'll give it a go, anyhow.

The girls are gone for a sleepover with their cousins, so I had the rare treat of an evening with just the little boys. After the red-letter event of Wii party with dad, we decided to go to Ikea for meatballs and noodles. Always a hit. Actually, Sammy has entered that random phase of toddlerhood where they will go for days and not consume any food at all. I think they live off crumbs on the floor and sippy cups of milk. So Sammy threw meatballs on the floor and squeezed his juice box all over himself, and Calvin and I feasted on Ikea goodness.

I bought storage containers of all shapes and sizes. I just know this is the missing ticket to perfect home organization for ever and evermore. Calvin happily brandished the scanner gun and beeped me through the self checkout. Everything was peachy until I realized my wallet was at home on the counter. Oops.

Fortunately, I had some leftover vacation money in my bag (I never have realio cash on me, so this was a bonus). I sheepishly returned the prettiest and most expensive box, and that brought me tantalizingly close to the total I had in my purse. 17 cents short. I dumped my purse out, praying a spare quarter would jump out at me. It was at that slightly humiliating moment that a girl in the checkstand next to me quietly gave me a dollar. Aren't people sweet?

So I'm home, my boys are tucked in and dreaming, and my brown sugar and lentils have never looked so tidy.

Computers and chickens

2009-04-07T22:30:00.001-07:00

There's actually a reason for the complete absence of posts lately. It's not good, but it's a reason. You see, my beloved laptop died a cruel death last fall. With the economy the way it is, buying an extra laptop just for me to be able to blog conveniently isn't really all that high on the priority list. It's not like we're hurting for computers--there are after all, 2 desktops and Steve's laptop plus all the little baby work laptops. But, and here's the big clincher--none of them are mine.

You know, kind of the same feeling that you have for your own personal scriptures. Oh sure, the words are the same, but the emotional connection is so different.

I'm also the red-headed step-child of the computer totem pole. If Steve needs either the desktop or the laptop, I need to go. The other desktop is for business, and the baby ones are always gone on trips. So, there's my reason.

The other reason is that I can only download pictures onto a laptop--I don't have a cable, just the memory card. But Steve's laptop is the one I'm least likely to be able to use. And what's the point of a blog post with no pictures? It doesn't do a bit of good to tell you what the chickens look like right now, but a PICTURE, now that tells a story!

And so, I continue in silence, mentally composing blog posts that are doomed to remain purely cerebral. Good thing my dear mother-in-law spurred me to action this morning!

I suppose all of you have imaginations, and can probably make a mental picture of things. So here goes for updates.

The chickens are doing splendidly. At least, the egg layers are. All 15 of them are happy in the front room. They love to eat plain yogurt, strawberries and worms, and they're getting their big girl feathers. They actually look a little awkward, in the way that many animals look awkward as they transition from adorable baby to adult. The meat chickens, well, they're not doing so hot. They're outside in a brooder that we built (insert picture) out of an old bookshelf. They're absolutely ginormous and a little scary. Problem is, they keep dying. So far, I have 19 left out of the 25 we bought.

Calvin was most concerned about this. "But Mommy, if dey die now, we can't eat them all up!"

Exactly, my boy. He's got that whole circle of life pretty figured.

Steve is home now from his long trip. That means that the lappy is home also, and I'll someday be able to pull the pictures and show them. But at least there is this post to assuage my guilt!!

Look!!!

2009-03-18T22:34:00.000-07:00

Look what I got today!!!! 40, yes that's right FORTY teeny tiny baby chicks. After all, what's the point of moving to a house with a whole acre if you're not going to use it any way? So after months of talking about it, I actually and really truly went and bought forty tiny chickies. Aren't they adorable??

The kids are in heaven with them. They don't want to leave their fluffy little sides.

Sammy is a VERY big fan. He's getting quite frustrated with the mean big people who won't let him grab those fun little chirping toys. Doesn't stop him from trying, though.

So much fun!

Impromptu

2009-03-13T22:47:00.000-07:00

Today started as the normal sort of day-after-a-rough-night-with-the-baby kind of days. A little sluggish, breakfast at 11, lunch at 3--that kind of a day. I had to run some errands and Hazel wanted a little friend from the old neighborhood to come and play and eat over. No problem!

Then the doorbell rings. A clump of very earnest faced and shrill voiced youngsters looked up expectantly with their pajamas in hand. "We're here for the late-over!!!"

???

Apparently a few days ago I put off the clamoring hordes of children wanting to play later with a vague suggestion of doing a late-over "maybe on Friday or something."

Vague enough in my mind that it didn't even register, but in their minds this was the highlight of their social calendars. What to do? They were so excited, there was nothing to do but smile excitedly and welcome them to the big party.

Then the little brothers started showing up. And the four children across the street. And the aforementioned Hazel friend. My sister-in-law with her two cute kids were spending the day with us already because of some pipes being worked on in their home. The grand total we ended up with??

14 children. Oy vey.

I made a homemade pizza, had at least 10 (thankfully washed!) hands helping me with toppings, and broke into my hidden stash of oreos for dessert. Goodness, but 14 children eat a lot!

We haven't been able to find the Wii since we moved, and the VCR and DVD players aren't hooked up either, so we improvised with no electronic help. On the docket was a piano/harmonica contest, hide-and-go-seek, and storytelling. At the exact stroke of 9, I heaved a thankful sigh and started to scoot them all home!

Octuplet mom is so in trouble.

The promised land

2009-03-10T21:54:00.000-07:00

I think I've moved to Zion. Or maybe the promised land. Something fabulous and almost unbelievable. This is a neighborhood where people actually care and are kind. Listen to the evidence:

We had 5 people drive from this neighborhood to our old house on moving day, load up the vans there, then drive back to new house to unload. In a snowstorm.

Our massive driveway has been shoveled twice, both times anonymously.

The other day, a man was out joyfully aerating the lawns of everyone in the circle. Just to be nice.

There are scores of children who play together in the same kind of way we played 25 years ago in neighborhoods. It's a night game neighborhood.

My neighbor across the street called me today just to see how I was doing.

An awkward boy of about 15 showed up on the doorstep--think a pudgy Napoleon Dynamite. He wanted to welcome us to the neighborhood and see if we needed anything.

Last week my kids and I were invited over for lunch with another 5 moms and kids.

Incredible, no? These things just didn't happen in my last house. It was a nice area, very standard suburbia. The new neighborhood is much more eclectic, and it feels very rural, despite the fact that it's 3 minutes from the freeway.

All I can say is--it feels like coming home!

The ultimate in misc.

2009-02-20T20:46:00.000-08:00

You know that packing got a little crazy towards the end when you uncover a box like this one:

The contents?
1 American flag
1 backpack 72 hour kit
2 badminton rackets WITH birdies
1 toilet bowl brush and assorted cleaners
1 blue headband
1 piece of a wooden train set
and last but certainly not least (and in my opinion these really give this box that extra oomph)...Mr and Mrs Potato Head Halloween Costumes, including Pop-Bead necklace and matching felt clutch purse!)

As soon as I opened this box I got really really happy. You couldn't have made a more random assortment even if you tried!!

And then, just because I think they're really cute, here are my sweet babies.

Gratitude

2009-02-15T21:34:00.000-08:00

Moving sounds so benign in theory. Switch houses! Throw some boxes on a truck and, voila! Well, it's not so simple, is it?? If not for the grace of many many wonderful family members, this whole thing would just never have happened.

Moving day was yesterday--Valentines. We probably should have planned that one a little better, but sometimes you've just gotta run with what life hands you. The snowstorm that hit right before the trucks got there almost fazed us, but that's why they invented ice melt, right? There were around 16 wonderful fabulous amazing people who came to help us. Family, friends, and even some of the people from our new neighborhood who we met for the first time as they were hauling our piano through the snow. People are amazing.

Casualties of the move include: one glass lampshade, and one bucket of meat from the freezer that was left behind at the old house. Fortunately I discovered that one today, not a week from now!!! But I think it all evens out. We're down some frozen chicken breasts, but we did end up gaining a large pair of men's boots, size 11, in a Target bag. Does anyone want to claim them???

Even with the sheer amount of stuff we had to move (food storage, anyone??) the whole process was overwhelmingly smooth. Today, the kids played making forts among the boxes, since all of their stuff is still packed.

I'll post some pictures someday. Right now I'm just grateful beyond belief for the family that I have.

Would you like to rent this house??

2009-02-06T22:43:00.000-08:00

Moving is one of those things that sounds great in the abstract. Once you get elbow-deep in the details, it gets less appealing. Oh, don't get me wrong. I'm enormously excited for the new house; the basement is almost done and it's going to be fabulous. It's the packing, and the decision making, and the sheer amount of work that needs to be done that's getting to me.

One of the tasks was to find renters for our current home. Fortunately, finding people to look at the house wasn't the hard part. Lots of people want to rent right now, so we had an overwhelming response to our ad. But that, of course, meant that I had to show the house to a whole lot of people while trying to keep it clean and pack AND have four children. Occasionally, some things fell through the cracks. Literally....but to be more accurate, the things only fell through ONE crack...

A family was coming to take a look the other night. I made sure the dishes were done and the floor was vacuumed upstairs. I think I even took out the trash and dusted. The place was gorgeous!! I did not, however, check the downstairs. That was the fatal mistake. As I showed the prospective renters through the house, we came to the playroom. The few scattered toys weren't that big of a deal. Then I showed them the downstairs bathroom.

I opened the door and saw poop. Smeared all over the toilet, on the floor, and even a little on the walls. Stinky, fresh, oozy poo all over the place.

The family did NOT come back for a second look, and I get another notch in my belt of most embarrassing parenting moments. Oh, the joys of a three year old boy with loose bowels!!!!

Life lessons learned

2009-01-20T23:07:00.000-08:00

Sammy made a grand new discovery while in the tub. He discovered that he has a really cool part of his anatomy--one that is usually hidden from his exploring little fingers. Well he found that nifty part and grabbed hold....YOINK...to get a better look at it. Loud scream of pain and confusion.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

Mom cracks up as baby learns the tough way that some toys just need to stay where they are.

The fluids are flowing

2009-01-13T23:16:00.000-08:00

Montezuma is having his revenge on my sweet baby. Mean old Mexican bug! I guess whatever it was couldn't get to our super-strong parental digestive systems, but Sammy's tender little body didn't stand a chance. I'm kicking myself that I even fed him anything there--I should have just brought Gerber from here. But I don't feed him baby food at home, so it didn't even occur to feed him baby food there. It's not like I was getting him a drink of water from roadside cantinas; he just ate bites of whatever we ate, and it got him.

So I've changed the sheets a LOT of times since we've been home. Just when I think we're through with the worst of it, he'll surprise me and let loose again. I've never had Clean Sheet Day so many times in a row!! That's going to be my silver lining. Perpetual clean sheet feeing.

After cleaning up from yet another round, I kept smelling it somewhere. Kept checking the baby--he was fine. Looked over at my sleeping Calvin, and noticed that he was sound asleep all crusted in horribleness. Now HE didn't go to Mexico, but my darling sister DID take them to the mothership for all nasty foul gross germs....Chuck...E....Cheese.....

You think it's all fun and games and tokens. Then WHAMMO!! You're wishing you'd never heard of the cheerful rat with all his latent diseases.

More laundry is going, baths have been administered, bowls distributed, and essential oils applied liberally--even to the sleeping girls as a preventative measure. I'm going to go to sleep now, because who knows what adventures this night holds for me?

2009-01-10T21:29:00.000-08:00

Sammy got to try out the pool for the first time. He started out like this:

He loved the water for a few minutes, but I brought him down when he was pretty sleepy. He snuggled up on my chest in the water, and for a full 20 minutes I rocked him in the water. The palm trees were swaying, the sun was shining, and my baby was cuddled contentedly under my chin. It was one of those beautiful moments that I hope to always remember. I had a random German lady grab my camera and get a photo of my sweet peaceful Sammy.

And then out of the pool, he slept in his stroller while I knitted, read, and had beautiful food next to the pool. Oh, I love my life!!

Love from the south

2009-01-09T09:24:00.000-08:00

I'm writing this from a balcony overlooking a brilliant blue pool ringed with palm trees. The gentle murmur of the ocean is in the background. Alas, my camera batteries are charging on the counter at home!! I think Steve brought his camera, so I'll have to use it. We're on our semi-annual retreat to a Beautiful Place. Since we both crave warmth in the middle of January, we're back in Puerto Vallarta again.

This time, it's not so much of a romantical getaway, seeing as we have a wriggly, dribbly 7 month old distraction tagging along. But as traveling companions go, you couldn't ask for a better. This baby is so serene and sunshiny, he'd take living upside down in stride. He gurgles and coos at everyone who smiles at him, he sleeps when given the chance, and eats whatever we have on our plates. As a nod to our tropical location, I am feeding him mango and papaya right now. He is one blissed-out baby.

There is something so restorative about spending time together--just Steve (and Sammy) and me. When we leave our regular routine for a few days, problems that were seeming so challenging are suddenly doable. I've realized that as long as our marriage is strong, it really doesn't matter what else is happening--with our combined strength we can handle it. We see each other as the person that we fell in love with--not just the one who's in the trenches fighting the daily battles. When I take a few days away, I have more appreciation for my kids, more patience, and I am a better mom.

I'm sure we don't actually need the beach and palm trees to goal plan and reconnect...but they sure don't hurt!! Since Steve travels so much, the plane tickets here cost us exactly $11 apiece. So really, why not Mexico??

We went to a little restaurant last night for some dinner. There was a table next to us with a grandma, mom and daughter here for a month long vacation. They were having a grand time with all their margaritas and kahluas, and got very drunk before too long. I couldn't help think how fun it looked--they were all dancing and laughing riotously, and Steve and I just watched with our very non-alcoholic Coca lights. I wondered if we would have so much more fun drunk, but then I decided that I don't really want to have a clubbing/bar-hopping/hook up with guys relationship with my mom, daughters, or grandma. We're okay just the teetotalling way we are!

We're going to get massages today--we'll trade off watching the baby. They have a FOUR HAND massage here!!! I mean seriously--four hands? Tomorrow, we'd like to go whale/dolphin watching. We have a pool to sit by, an ocean to walk along, and jalapeno popcorn to eat. Bliss!

My darling sister Steph has my undying thanks for watching my sweet babies at home. Thank you!!! Hopefully I'll be able to post some pictures later.

A pledge

2009-01-06T00:06:00.000-08:00

I am propping my eyeballs open to write a few things because there is a blog here at this URL, and I am the blogs owner, therefore, I should probably, sometimes, actually, well...BLOG!!

So things happened. Things like Christmas (Nutcracker, Christmas dresses, sledding, homemade marshmallows, knitted and crafted gifts galore, traveling, snowstorms), and things like New Years (games until 4 am, kids waking up at 5:30, beautiful food, fabulous times). And also some very big and important Things with a capital T--things like buying a new house and all the accompanying decisions and worries.

Other things happened to keep my from fulfilling my bloggy duties, but those are merely excuses--the diehard blogger will undoubtedly find a way. Not even beloved laptops that go plunging off beds to impale themselves on their own power cords would stop a true intrepid blogger. But it did stop me, alas. To my great shame, the computers downstairs are too far, or it's too cold (can you hear the whine??). But now there's a darling little teeny tiny itsy bitty baby laptop--truly it's small enough to slip in my purse, and I am repenting for my cyber neglect. January is the perfect time for a fresh start.

In a very oversimplified nutshell, things are good, kids are cute, they continue to get bigger (oh, both the bigness and the cuteness of the baby are overwhelming!) and we continue to be overwhelmingly happy. There will be more to come here at Together we Learn house. This I solemnly pledge!!

Wondering

2008-11-27T11:09:00.001-08:00

"The stick of butter is in the gravy boat under the zebra."

Now just how many times in the history of the world has THAT particular sentence been uttered??

Edited to add that this really did make sense when I said it. A neighbor needed to borrow a stick of butter on Thanksgiving morning. Calvin had been playing in the kitchen and put a stick of butter in the gravy boat that was out in preparation for the dinner. His Happy Meal toy zebra was on top of the lot. It really was quite clear when I said it--it just made me laugh!

Cooking and more cooking

2008-11-26T23:09:00.000-08:00

Can I just mention how much I love Thanksgiving? A holiday devoted to family, gratitude, and very good food. Definitely one of my favorites.

Today was pie day with the sisters. In complete pandemonium, we had 5 of us making 5 kinds of pie (12 in all), 1 salad, a galette, and 2 frozen pizzas. Simultaneously!!!

I have the turkey brining, ready to roast in the morning. I've so far made apple, leek and sausage sourdough stuffing, orange ginger cranberry sauce, the pies, the spice rub for the sweet potatoes, and a gorgeous butternut squash and caramelized onion galette.

I used smitten kitchen's recipe for the pumpkin pies. I'll let you know tomorrow if they were worth the extra (LOTS) of steps and dirty dishes.

My kids are turning into little miniature foodies, and it cracks me up. They love to help me cook and weigh in on whether something needs more rosemary, or perhaps a pinch more salt. Hazel decided that she enjoys brussel sprouts, and that fresh ginger is one of her favorite smells.

Calvin will fixate on an object and carry it with him wherever he goes for a day or two. Usually it's a small car, but it's been things as random as kitchen utensils--a slotted spoon, a couple of days a wooden spoon. Lately it's been a large six inch tall wooden letter K. It comes with him everywhere. To the bank. In bed with me when he creeps in during the wee hours of the morning. Today I had to go outside to pick some sage, and he wanted to come with me. "But let me first get my K, just in case."

You just never know when you're going to need an emergency letter K!

He took the K, a U and a W to my mom's this morning, because that spells Jane. I love this kid!!

Pledging

2008-11-20T20:19:00.000-08:00

My sister has guilted me into updating. She just told me I need to 'be the blogger I know you can be.'

With encouragement like that, how can I not post?

Is it just me, or is everyone So Dang Excited for Christmas this year? I'm almost giddy with the anticipation this year, and I'm not really sure why. Sister Andrea and I had a very grown up conversation about all the unrest in the country and the divisiveness and yearning subliminally for the peace and love of Christmas. All in all, it was quite the deep analysis of life. But whatever the reason, I'm just plain happy about it.

Here's a little secret. (((i'm listening to Christmas music in the car. before Thanksgiving.))) sssshhhh. I know it's totally against the rules, but I just can't seem to help myself! Plus, a little Rudolph goes a whole long way to peace and joy in the backseat.

We've been listening to a lot of this amazing CD--it's the Tabernacle Choir with the Kings Singers, and it's absolutely transcendent. This is the kind of music that fills your whole body with joy and radiates happiness. Buy this, then be really really grateful.

I'm kind of a pseudo-crafter. I have all kinds of aspirations, and I buy patterns and supplies and fabric and such, then, well.....let's just say that I have lots of places to start. My mom is an accomplished, fabulous seamstress. Like she can make wedding dresses kind of seamstress. She made almost all of our dresses growing up; Christmas and Easter both meant new dresses for every one of the girls in the family. But somehow, none of us ever learned how to do more than sew a pretty basic seam. We've tried sister sewing classes with mom, but didn't get past the second lesson. But we all want to know how!

So in Ikea the other day, while discussing our sad lack of abilities, I stopped and turned to my sisters with one arm outstretched. They put their hands on mine, and together we pledged to each complete 2 honest-to-goodness sewing projects by February 12, 2009. I'm going to make dresses for my girls, Andrea is making an apron and a skirt for herself, Stephanie is making pajamas, and Emily is making (I THINK) an apron and a skirt. (Em wasn't with us, she pledged after the fact).

Later that night, I sent Drea a text pledging to make homemade marshmallows this Christmas. We always talk about it then never do. So this year, it's been pledged! It will be done, and I will follow up with photos of every single project so the blogging community can hold me accountable.

Keeps me laughing

2008-11-12T21:22:00.001-08:00

Hazel got a treat at a little club she belongs to. "Look Mom, it's a knock knock, ...no wait, I think it's a ding-dong!"

I served a mission for my church in Taiwan, and now thanks to the internet I'm friends on facebook with a bunch of the cute little girls I loved over there. Apparently some things don't translate all that well into Chinese...

One of them joined the facebook group 'Protect Marriage--one man and one woman.'

And I guess to keep things fair, she ALSO joined the group 'Petition the IRS to revoke the LDS church's tax exempt status.'

I laughed at that one really hard. Nothing like being able to see both sides of an issue!

Hazel's party, OR, the importance of having sisters

2008-11-12T20:48:00.000-08:00

My sweet Hazel turned 7 last week. Seven!!! It seems like such a great big grown up number. This is one fabulous kid, people. She's so loving with her baby brother, she is responsible, compassionate, hard working, and just fun to be around. Oh, she has her moments, and she does those moments better than most anyone I know. But overall, this is one amazing little girl.

To honor the milestone of being on the planet for seven years, she chose a cooking themed party. Each of the little guests got to roll out their own pizza dough (I quintupled a dough recipe!!), then add their own toppings. Let me tell you, you haven't seen chaos until you've watched 13 small people with dough and rolling pins in their hands!

We made each of them sweet little aprons, and for the life of me I can't understand why there are no pictures of them. Drea, you got any??

Parties like this are really only attempted if there are sisters present, or if those aren't available, very long-suffering friends. I was so completely fortunate to have FIVE sisters and sisters-in-law there!! This was a complete collective effort. From cake and home decorating to crowd control and clean-up, they were there for every stage.

Andrea is the mastermind behind the operation. She provides inspiration, is an endless source of creativity, is always game for an impromptu trip to the craft store or Target, and dang, she makes amazing cakes!

Fondant olives! Can you believe that?? She grated fondant for the cheese!

Steph decorated the house, and is a master hand with crepe paper.

Emily, Catherine and Tasha provided desperately needed party time support and are all around amazing.

For party favors, we gave them the aprons and this little set of wooden utensils. I love Ikea. We did a obstacle course/relay game where they had relay spoons full of rice to fill up a glass, then we played Pin the Meatball on the Spaghetti. Big hits, both of them.

About a half hour in, we noticed that the token boy child of the party was missing. I placed a nervous call to his mother, because really, how do you say to your neighbor that you've just misplaced their child during a party? There's no good way to say that. Fortunately, he was there. He came over, gave us the present, rolled out his pizza then walked home and announced to his mother that the party was over. Kind of an odd child, in general. She sent him home and I assured him that there was actual fun in store for him.

We decided that it actually would have been a great concept--collect presents, force them to cook for us, then pack 'em on home while we enjoy the pizzas they've slaved over and eat the cake ourselves!

Overall, it was an amazingly fun little party. Happy Birthday, sweet girl!

Surprising

2008-11-05T09:59:00.000-08:00

I'll be the first to admit it--I didn't want Obama to win. There's a lot that he says that I don't agree with. Don't agree with McCain, either, but what do you do?

So I was very surprised this morning at what just happened.

My girls were asking me about who won the election; they knew I didn't vote for Obama, and they've listened to all the political chatter around here for weeks. I told them that it is President Obama, and they were disappointed. But then I startled myself by starting to cry.

We've been reading the Addy American Girl books together, so they're familiar with slavery and discrimination. As I told them that we have a black man as the president-elect, I cried over the enormity of it all. I don't agree with his policies. But his speech last night was inspiring, and the thing that he has accomplished transcends partisan politics. I didn't expect to cry over this. But wow, how far we've come. I'm glad my kids get to grow up in a world where race isn't the all-important thing it once was.

So even though he wasn't my pick, I'm very grateful to have seen this day.

Halloween

2008-10-31T22:06:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween!!

Calvin was a giraffe blocker, and he was the cutest dang giraffe blocker I've ever seen! A giraffe blocker, if you missed that post, is one of 'dose guys who ropes da giraffes and fros dem in da water."

He never wavered in his choice, and has been very excited for it. I was kind of on my own for his costume--there just aren't many giraffe blocker costumes at Target this year. He had his giraffe on a rope that swung from his arm like a purse all evening. So cute!! Next year he wants to be a lion blocker. I can do that.

My girls were flowers, thanks to Martha's inspiration and my sister's very capable hands.

Yes, the baby is sideways. It's late and I'm really tired and I'm not feeling like messing with sizing and such. Sorry. If you tilt your head, you can see that he's strutting his stuff in a little baby tuxedo.

Here's all my little trickertreaters with their cousin, all ready to go get sugared up. Such a fun day.

Gratitude

2008-10-30T22:57:00.001-07:00

Guess what??? I smell again!!! I'm a smeller, officially, completely, and very happily. The steroid was doing some really funky things to my body, so I stopped taking it. My good friend is an herbal genius, and she gave me some stuff that I've been taking religiously, and things are much much better.

I'm so grateful now for smells. The world is a beautiful place. All the things I didn't realize were a part of life now make me catch my breath and take a second to just be grateful. I think that losing my sense of smell for a few weeks was a small price to pay for this increased awareness and joy.

updates

2008-10-22T09:54:00.000-07:00

I went in for my CT scan the other day. Good news--the little smell receptors aren't permanently damaged; my whole head is just filled up with goo. Funny, because my nose is perfectly clear and I breathe freely, it's just the rest of the cavities that I didn't really realize I had that are all impacted.

So the doctor prescribed a month of a strong antibiotic and a month of the steroid Prednisone. He was pretty dismissive of any side effects and mentioned he didn't know it's effect on breast feeding, so to check with my pediatrician.

I googled. Google is not that comforting of a place, folks. (shudder)

I called and called and called. Pediatrician, baby/medication help lines. Pharmacists. Everyone I talked to said that the dosage and the duration of this particular medication put it in a very gray area for breast feeding, and good luck with this tough decision. Not so helpful!!

And can I just mention how outside my comfort zone this was? Calling doctors to ask questions. Lots of questions. Holy cow, but these are things I abhor!!!

The problem was that I'm not willing to stop nursing my little four month old baby boy, nor am I wanting to not take the medicine and completely lose my sense of smell. The solution that I finally came up with is to take the whole steroid dose in the morning, rather than spread it out over the day. The half life of the steroid is 2 hours, so within 4-5 hours it's completely out of the milk. So I am giving him a bottle during the morning hours, then I'll pump and throw away that milk and be able to nurse for the afternoon and overnight. I feel great about this solution. A bottle or two of formula a day won't kill him and I can get better and we can continue to breast feed. The reason they wanted me to space out the steroid is to prevent a stomach ache. But I'll take it if it means I don't have to wean my baby!

So far, he's less than impressed with the whole bottle thing. But it will work out. And, this morning, I'm going to use all capital letters for this:

I SMELLED THINGS FOR 3 MINUTES!!!!!

It was like explosions of sensation in my nostrils. It was beautiful. Then it left again, and I changed Calvin's horrible diaper with impunity. Talk about superpowers!

So I'm very hopeful that this will work out smoothly, and I'll be fully recovered soon. Then I can start posting happy cheerful stuff, instead of all the woe is me sinus garbage that you've been plagued with for the last little while.

Memories

2008-10-20T07:45:00.001-07:00

It's been over 2 weeks since a single smell has registered in my brain. I haven't been posting because this is just so weird, so hard, and so very not normal--I just don't really know what to say.

I go in for a CT scan this afternoon. I should have some kind of an idea about what is going on, and what to expect.

If I'd known that I would be losing my sense of smell, I would have kissed each of my kids and Steve, and tried to memorize their own particular smells. Calvin smells like graham crackers, and the baby is pure deliciousness. But the memories of the girls smells are fading. Kissing Steve feels like kissing through a layer of plastic wrap.

But, I know that this is just a teeny little blip in the grand scheme of things. I'll wait until I know what I'm facing, and then I'll deal with it.

Thumbs

2008-10-13T23:46:00.000-07:00

Sammy has found his thumb, making him the fourth baby in our family to be a thumb sucker. Matter of fact, that means that we have three of them living here, now.

I can't find a photo of Calvin sucking his thumb, but trust that it's a constant, daily thing. Fortunately their dentist isn't worried about it, so they're ok for another little bit.

We went to the pumpkin patch tonight for family night. Only problem was, the temperature dropped to about 40 degrees. I'm not ready for this kind of cold yet!! We had a great, although freezing time. Sammy was all bundled up and cozy in his snuggly outfit.

Oh, he's sweet!

An olfactory void

2008-10-09T22:56:00.000-07:00

The cold, it does not end. Ever, I'm convinced. But that's not good positive thinking, so I need to visualize a healthy Becca, an energy-filled Becca, a Becca who can...smell.

My sense of smell is absolutely 100% gone. Disappeared and not coming back anytime soon. It's the weirdest feeling to suddenly be without one of your senses.

I got into one of those autumn-y moods yesterday where there just had to be baking, and lots of it. So I made apple bread with apple butter spread, a roast chicken with rosemary and lemon, chocolate mousse, and roast potatoes. Delicious, all of it, no?

Unfortunately, I couldn't say. It all tasted the same to me, but my sisters and children say it was delicious indeed.

It's a little surreal--I can't smell Sammy's little velvet head, or the smell of warm leather when I get into Steve's car, the scent of my body wash in the shower, or the crisp autumn air. It's a bit like living in a void. But there are some definite advantages--changing toddler poopy diapers and washing out revolting milk sippy cups has never been easier! But honestly, NOTHING is registering in my brain, even when I'm not stuffed up. Someone please tell me this will end someday. Can you imagine having a sense permanently taken away? I wonder which one I would choose if I had to.

This and that and the state of my sinuses.

2008-10-06T21:38:00.000-07:00

I'm on day 10 of the Cold from Hell. This one deserves it's capital letters, as evidently it has decided to stay. Urrgh. I'm getting really tired of sinuses that feel like a semi truck has planted itself firmly up there. Today, to break up the routine amalgamation of essential oils, tylenol, mucinex, massage, and fist shaking, I bought a Neti Pot.

Oh, how far I've come in this journey to be a little more natural!! 2 years ago I would have laughed at the thought of a nasal wash that comes dripping out the other nostril. Actually, now that I think about it, I'm not sure if it's an attempt to embrace natural cures, or the willingness to try anything if I can only breathe again.

Results? Interesting. Not horrible. Not the miracle cure I was hoping for, but definitely has it's place.

Other news besides the state of my sinuses. Like you need any other news. Surely this is a fascinating enough topic for anyone!! Anyway. We had two nights in a row here with only our 4 little people and us sleeping in the house. First time since August that's happened. Why yes, things have been very busy around here!

My wonderful sisters and I picked apples (can't believe I forgot the camera) and canned them. We did 54 quarts of sauce, dried some, did apple butter and apple syrup, and only got to half of the apples we picked. Holy cow, that was a lot of apples!! We took the kids picking with us. The girls worked steadily, and Calvin roamed and played underfoot. Every time we looked at him, he was munching on an apple. Only when we started picking up the bruised apples underfoot did I realize what he had been doing. There was one bite taken out of about 25 apples, and periodically in our buckets we'd find another apple missing one bite. Calvin! (and please say that like you're Jerry Seinfeld saying "Newman"!)

Hazel has the very worthy goal of not praying for the same things night after night. Admirable. I try to do the same thing myself. Tonight, she did herself proud, and I think the Lord himself must be pleased with this request:
"Please bless that Verdi will write more beautiful music, or if he's dead, make his great-great-great-great-great-great grandchildren write some because I like it."

Wowza to that one!

Last minute preparedness

2008-09-30T23:34:00.000-07:00

Andrea and I went to the case lot sale at the grocery store today. Since we're so totally on top of things, we got there at 8:00 on the last night of the sale. We're kind of slackers, but at least we made it!

Within mere minutes, my cart was filled to capacity with tomatoes, black beans, evaporated milk, corn, sugar and much more. Sammy had to pull his own weight and obligingly carried a box of Ziploc for me. No worries about that--it just might have been the most exciting thing he's seen in his whole 4 month life. Oh, but those were exciting bags!!

We weren't the only ones who had procrastinated--the store was packed with people stocking up on the basics before the sale ended. And before inflation kills us, or the world ends, or whatever!! But you know, I felt so great about it. With all the insanity going on around us, at least I'll be able to feed my family some basic foods. There isn't much that I can do personally, but I CAN stock up on the things that we need.

Last week we canned peach syrup, tomorrow, applesauce. I still am going to stock up on clothes for the kids in the next few sizes. Just basics--some shoes and plain stuff. Nothing fancy, but enough so I'll feel that I'm doing everything in my power to take care of my family in a very uncertain time.

Food. Yummy yummy food.

2008-09-25T23:18:00.000-07:00

All day long, I write blog posts in my head. They're witty, informative, full of sparkling and creative prose. Then I get in front of my computer each night and ..... nothing. I got nothing, folks.

So I'll revert to the easy way out and do a couple of food posts. Because things have been GOOD around here in the food realm of the togetherwelearn household.

My sisters and I are embracing some communal living--we've had dinner together almost every day this week. There's something so right about working together as women. There are some aspects of polygamy that make a whole lot of sense. Just some, mind you. The big negative??? There's just no getting around that one obvious flaw in the system. But the hanging out with other women idea of it is fabulous.

Anyway, the food. Oh, the food!! Last night we made some Greek-type pita hamburgers that were inspired by a recipe from the Smitten Kitchen's kebabs. Oh, help me, these were good!! Not just a little good. These were groan-out-loud, roll eyes and swoon good.

Greek hamburgers
1/2 cup oatmeal, or cracker crumbs, or bread crumbs
1 small onion, finely chopped (about 1 cup)
1/4 cup loosely packed fresh parsley leaves
1/4 cup loosely packed fresh cilantro leaves
1 lb ground meat-- we used hamburger, but lamb or turkey would be excellent
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/8 teaspoon cayenne (do more if you don't have little people!)
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Mix everything up and grill patties. We served ours on pita bread with sliced cucumbers, garden tomatoes, red onions, feta, and a mint yogurt sauce.

Eat, with lots of napkins and you'll be really really happy.

For dessert, I made Cherry Chocolate Cupcakes with Vanilla Almond Buttercream. And those, my friends, are happiness incarnate. Oh, so yummy! I found this recipe at Cast Sugar, and I'm so glad I did.

Chocolate Cherry Cakes with Almond Buttercream

Ingredients:
1/2 c. butter
1 1/2 c. bakers sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp. almond extract
1/2 c. good unsweetened cocoa powder
1 3/4 c. cake flour
1 1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 (21-oz.) can cherry pie filling
For the buttercream:
1 1/4 c. confectioner’s sugar
1/3 stick unsalted butter at room temperature
Pinch of salt
1 1/2 tsp. almond extract

Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly grease and flour one 9x13 inch baking pan.

Cream the butter with sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in the eggs and almond extract and beat well. Add the cocoa powder and mix until well combined.

By hand, stir the cake flour, baking soda and salt together. Add flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix until just combined. Stir in the cherry pie filling. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
Bake at 350 F for 30 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the middle comes out clean. Cool.

For the buttercream: Add the butter, confectioner’s sugar, salt, and almond extract to the stand mixer and mix on low using the paddle attachment until combined. Turn the speed to med-high until the buttercream is fluffy. Spread or pipe onto the cooled cake.

I realize the photos are pretty crappy. There's an art to taking food photos, and I haven't mastered it yet. But please know that these are utterly and completely delicious.

And since I'm on a roll here, tonight for dinner I made a recipe from Mollie Katzen's Vegetable Heaven that I've had my eye on for years. You can tell by just the name that it's going to be yummy, and it surely didn't disappoint.

Lentils with Caramelized Onions and Slow Roasted Tomatoes

4 onions, cut into rings
3 T butter
1/2 t salt
4 big tomatoes
1 T brown sugar
1 T balsamic vinegar
8 C cooked lentils (about 3 cups dried)

Melt the butter and add the onions and salt. Cook for a long time on slow heat, until really brown and soft and delicious. About 30 minutes, stirring frequently. Meanwhile, roast the tomatoes whole in a oiled pan in a 400 degree oven for about 30 minutes. Let them cool a while, then skin them and chop them up, draining all the extra water that oozes out.

Meanwhile again, cook the lentils in about 8 cups of water. Add some salt to the water if you feel like it.

Combine the cooked lentils, tomatoes, and caramelized onions in a 9 x 13, and add the balsamic vinegar and brown sugar. Salt and pepper generously, then bake, covered with foil, for about 30 minutes.

Feel really really good about your life when you eat them.

Young politicians, all of them!

2008-09-17T21:03:00.000-07:00

I vacuumed and swept today.

Really, that shouldn't be a big deal, but seeing as it's been DAYS since either of those basic things have been done around here...I'm just thankful for little steps in the right direction. Steve is traveling again, and we're all in a bit of a funk. The kids are having that rough adjustment to the new situation that they go through every semester, and I'm kinda just mopey a bit myself.

But the floor is clean now, and everything is seeming more manageable now.

Calvin is being a stinker like you wouldn't believe. I KNOW he's acting up because he misses Steve, but that doesn't make it any easier to deal with in the moment. He's really disobedient and defiant, and will melt into the most heartbreaking puddle of tears when he's missing Steve. And oh, he's being mean to the girls!!

Hazel came upstairs crying, holding her eye and sobbing that Calvin had hit her in the eye. I started talking to him to see what had happened.

Me: "Calvin, did you hit Hazel?"

C: "NO! I Didn't!"

Me (sternly): Please tell the truth Calvin. Did you hit your sister?"

C (unrepentant and wickedly): "I didn't hit her. I PUNCH her!!!!"

I have to admit, I did giggle just a little bit.

I was back in my room putting the baby down for his nap. The kids were supposed to be doing their jobs. When I came out, I saw them taking turns standing on the hearth, making grandiose speeches. When I asked them what they were doing, they answerered matter of factly, "playing Sarah Palin and Rocco Bama."

Sheesh.
The things they pick up on!

Mercy

2008-09-10T22:20:00.000-07:00

There are moments in life that take your breath away when you realize just how not in control we are. Moments where you are faced with the reality that it is God directing our paths, and He is the one in charge.

The other day I went to the grocery store with the girls and the baby. Calvin stayed home with Steve. After I returned, he mentioned that Calvin slipped out of the house and was riding his scooter and a neighbor brought him home. I didn't really think that much about it. Steve had been playing with him, then went into the other room and Calvin ran out. I was grateful, of course, to my neighbor, but not really aware of what had really taken place.

When I saw her the next day, I thanked her for bringing him home. She hadn't told Steve all the circumstances surrounding what had happened, but she told me then.

She told me that Calvin wasn't just riding his scooter around. He came looking for Mommy, and was turning onto a main road that leads to a very very very big road that you have to cross to get to the store. Calvin knows the way. He would have ridden his little scooter down to that very very very big road.

My dear friend told me then that never before has she felt so compelled to follow a spiritual prompting. She drove way out of her way, in her words "pulled" to the spot where he was rounding the corner. The path to the big road is off to the side--a few moments later and he would have been lost from sight until he was at the very very very big road.

I feel so humbled. So humbled knowing that God is aware of my sweet little son, and that his time on earth isn't over yet. So grateful for promptings of the Spirit, and for people who listen and follow.

Blessing day

2008-09-07T23:26:00.000-07:00

What a beautiful day!! Perfect from start to finish. Sammy was (of course) happy and smiley and peaceful. Steve gave him a beautiful blessing, and it was so wonderful to have so many of our favorite people there with us.

Everyone came for dinner after--there ended up being over 30 people!! About 15 more than I was expecting--fortunately I always make waaay more food than necessary, so there was plenty for everyone.

Hannah asked the other day how I can throw parties with a newborn and 3 other crazy kids. Answer?? What you don't see here is the big picture. Sure, I can throw impromptu parties left and right, but I sure don't blog about the state of my laundry room!! Or the disorganized everything in my house, the weeds in the garden, the scrapbooks that I've never done...this list could go on and on for miles. So I do get some things done really well, but at the expense of other, equally valuable things.

But anyway, here are some pictures of my precious little Samuel on his perfect blessing day.

Getting ready for the party

2008-09-06T22:24:00.000-07:00

We're blessing my sweet baby Samuel tomorrow (Blessing = christening for the non-LDS among us). All the other kids have been much littler than his 3 month self, but we've been busy this summer! We were out of town every possible Sunday until now.

Everyone is coming over after the blessing for dinner and a party. I've been busy baking all kinds of delicious treats for it. I made Key Lime Cheesecake Bars--oh these are good!! Usually I NEVER repeat recipes, but this is the 3rd time I've made these this summer. Very very worthwhile recipe.

Key Lime Cheesecake Bars--recipe originally from Cooks Illustrated

Recipe:
Crust:
5 ounces animal crackers (about 1 1/4 C crumbs)
3 tbs light or dark brown sugar packed
pinch salt
4 tbsp butter melted and cooled slightly

Filling:
2 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1 tbsp grated lime zest
1 can (14oz) sweetened condensed milk
1 large egg yolk
1/2 C key lime juice or regular juice (do not use bottled juice)

Garnish (optional)
3/4 C shredded coconut toasted until crisp

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Cut about 12-inch length extra-wide heavy duty foil; fold cut edges back to form 7 1/2-inch width. With folded sides facing down, fit foil securely into bottom and up sides of 8-inch square baking pan, allowing excess to overhang pan sides. Spray foil with non-stick cooking spray.

2. To Make Crust. In workbowl of food processor, pulse animal crackers until broken down, about ten 1-second pulses; process crumbs until evenly fine, about 10 seconds. Add brown sugar and salt; process to combine, ten to twelve 1-second pulses. Drizzle butter over crumbs and pulse until crumbs are evenly moistened with butter, about ten 1-second pulses. Press crumbs evenly and firmly into bottom of prepared pan. Bake until deep golden brown, 18 to 20 minutes. Cool on wire rack while making filling. Do not turn off oven.

3. To Make Filling: While crust cools, in medium bowl, stir cream cheese, zest and salt with rubber spatula until softened, creamy and thoroughly combined. Add sweetened condensed milk and whisk vigorously until incorporated and no lumps of cream cheese remain; whisk in egg yolk. Add lime juice and whisk gently until incorporated (mixture will thicken slightly).

4. To Assemble and Bake: Pour filling into crust; spread to corners and smooth surface with rubber spatula. Bake until set and edges begin to pull away slightly from sides, 15 to 20 minutes. Cool on wire rack to room temperature, 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Cover with foil and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled at least 2 hours.

5. Loosen edges with pairing knife and lift bars from baking pan using foil extensions; cut bars into 16 squares. Sprinkle with toasted coconut if using, and serve. (Leftovers can be refrigerated up to two days; crust will soften slightly. Let stand at room temperature, about 15 minutes before serving.)

If you make these, be sure to include the toasted coconut. It takes them from yummy to over the top fabulous.

I've mentioned before my very bad habit of making brand new recipes for large groups of people. Of course I had to continue in that tradition, so I tried blondies with white chocolate chunks, dried cranberries and pecans. Even though I haven't tried them before, how could you go wrong with this set of ingredients?

Basic Blondies
6-7 TBS butter, melted
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup flour
1/4 tsp baking powder (optional, creates lighter blondie texture)

“Add in” (see below)

Preheat oven to 350.
Line an 8×8 pan with foil and lightly spray with PAM.
In a large microwave safe mixing bowl melt the butter. Allow to cool for 5 mintues. Mix the brown sugar with the melted butter and beat until smooth. Beat in egg and then vanilla. Add salt, stir in flour and baking powder (if using). Mix in any additions (some ideas below).

Pour into prepared pan and use a greased spatula to evenly spread mixture in pan and level the top. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until set in the middle. (I baked for 22 minutes)Cool on rack before cutting.

Add in ideas:
1/2 to 1 cup chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, white chocolate or butterscotch chips
1/2 cup chopped pecans, walnuts, almonds
1/2 cup M&M candies1/2 chopped Reese’s PB cups
1/4 cup toffee pieces
1/2 tsp mint extract in addition to, or in the place of vanilla extract

Giraffe what??

2008-08-31T23:59:00.000-07:00

I asked Calvin what he wants to be for Halloween. His answer is pretty much my favorite thing I heard all day long.

"A giraffe blocker."

Me: "??????"

Calvin: "One of dose guys wif a rope and dey fro de giraffes into the water."

I'm loving the possibilities of a giraffe blocker costume!!!

Campaign promises

2008-08-31T23:38:00.001-07:00

Hazel informed me today that she will NOT be voting for Barack Obama. Her reason??

He plans to abolish YouTube, and she really likes Baby Jane sings and Charlie bit me. Since she is decidedly FOR YouTube, she is now anti-Barack.

Apparently she heard this from my sister Stephanie, who denies having discussed politics of any kind with my six year old.

One can only wonder about the evil plans McCain is cooking up. A take down of the Magic Kingdom, perhaps? Or maybe abolishing PBS morning cartoons? Darn politicians!

Beach babies

2008-08-27T21:58:00.000-07:00

We just got back the other day from the last vacation of the summer. We went to Southern California to go to the wedding of my darling cousin Cameron. We went with my family--my brother and his family, and my two sisters. The whole trip was perfect from start to finish.

First of all, we had the perfect adult to child ratio of 6:6. Totally manageable. Andrea might beg to differ, since she did end up with 4 of the exhausted little people right after the wedding. Oh, the tantrums of the Calvin!! The screams reverberated through the lobby long after they went up in the elevator. Fortunately, moments like that were few and far between, and for the most part the kids were great.

All the little girls got to be flower girls. So much fun!! And isn't Katie an amazingly gorgeous bride?

The reception was in this fabulous house in Newport Beach. Oh, the backyard!! SO beautiful!

Sammy was, of course, absolutely perfect. I swear, that baby is almost too good. Not that I'm complaining! He smiles and gurgles and coos and bats at his toes, no matter where he is. Good thing, too, considering all the places we've hauled him to this summer.

We spent two blissful days on the beach. Usually when we go to California, we don't have time for the beach. The thought of Disneyland on a Saturday in August just didn't sound even a little bit fun to us, so we went for the beach instead. I know there are a whole lot of superlatives and exclamation marks in this post, but they're really truly deserved. The kids ran and laughed and dug in the sand and had such a picture perfect time. .

Birthday suit

2008-08-20T23:04:00.001-07:00

Calvin got his first suit for his birthday. He was so proud to be dressed up like his daddy!

Poutine, anyone?

2008-08-20T22:46:00.000-07:00

We didn't bring any shot glasses with maple leaves home from Canada. Nor moose hats, snow globes, or ashtrays. We figured nobody really wanted random cheap Canadian/Chinese junk, and we sure didn't want to inflict it on anyone. So, in lieu of a souvenir, we decided to cook a Canadian dinner for our nearest and dearest.

The dish we chose is a specialty of Montreal--Poutine! For the uninitiated, poutine is basically french fries with cheese curds and gravy. Not really as nasty as it sounds, it was actually pretty good. For dessert I made maple syrup pies. We had these at a restaurant in Quebec City housed in a building built in 1624. The dessert was fabulous there, so we thought we could recreate it here.

Turns out we have an awful lot of nearest and dearest. There was a lot of family from out of town, so we ended up with 33 people for poutine! My sisters Andrea and Emily made the oceans of fries, and I came through with quarts of gravy.

I made 6 maple syrup pies that were delicious, but tooth-achingly sweet. I suppose since the main ingredients were both sugar, that's to be expected. But with some whipped cream and raspberries, it was pretty good. Not pretty to look at, but it tasted good. We had one pie left over, and used it the next morning on top of oatmeal. Now that was fabulous!

Darling Emily is a magnet for the kids, and they smother her whenever she's around.

Poutine for 30 was one of our most random parties ever, but it was so much fun!

Samuel

2008-08-16T23:26:00.000-07:00

The essentials

2008-08-16T23:00:00.000-07:00

I learned the absolute essentials for a birthday party today. Calvin turned 3, my sweet little guy, and I was trying to plan his party with him. I asked him what he wanted to do. Answer? Presents and cake.

Trying to flesh out the plan, I probed more. "Do you want a pinata?"

"No."

"Balloons?"

"Too scawwy."

"Sprinklers? Swimming? Games???"

"NO! Mom, pwesents and cake. JUST DOSE TWO!!!"

Really, those are the absolute essentials. Everything else is just a time filler to get you to the important part. He, at the tender age of three, apparently can sort out the extraneous from the necessary. Can't fault him for that!

So I obliged with the bare minimum party. Fortunately for Calvin, he is related to the wonderful and extremely talented Andrea, who made him this completely darling car cake.

I'm sure everyone wishes they had an Andrea to make every kids birthday perfection. Remember Chloe's party? Yeah, Andrea's amazing.

Here's my sweet Calvin boy. He is sunshiny, quirky, crazy, and all boy. He is so fun to have around, and those big brown eyes of his get me every time. I love this kid!!

Another food post

2008-08-15T23:24:00.001-07:00

We had yet another dinner with kids cleaning their plates and clamoring for more. Since this is a rarity for me--enthusiastic thumbs up from every member of the family-- I thought I post it so I'll at least remember to make it again.

Biggest plus? It was so fast, so easy, and very very yummy.

Mango Chicken Curry

* 1 chopped onion
* 1 medium sweet red pepper, julienned (I didn't have this, but it would have been great, I'm sure
* 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
* 1 1/2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cut into thin strips (I used a leftover bit of rotisserie chicken and tossed it in at the end)
* 1 tablespoon curry powder
* 2 teaspoons minced fresh gingerroot
* 1 clove minced garlic
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper (left this out. They're kids, after all)
* 1 cup chopped peeled mango (I used 2 mangos)
* 1 can coconut milk
* 2 tablespoons tomato paste
* Hot cooked rice

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large skillet, saute onion and red pepper in oil for 2-4 minutes or until crisp-tender. Add the chicken, curry, ginger, garlic, salt and cayenne. Cook and stir for 5 minutes. Stir in the mango, coconut milk and tomato paste; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 10 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink. Serve with rice if desired.

Olympic dreams

2008-08-11T22:40:00.000-07:00

Watching Men's Gymnastics this morning, Calvin sat spellbound. After a fabulous pommel horse routine he gasped out, "How they DO THAT???"

Eggplant surprise

2008-08-11T21:51:00.001-07:00

I just made a dinner tonight that every single one of my children had second and third helpings of. Pizza?? Chicken Nuggets?? No. It was....EGGPLANT!!!

Shocker to me, also. I made the recipe because I had an eggplant languishing in the fridge. It was leftover from Eggplant Sandwich Night.

I found a recipe for rigatoni with eggplant puree on my favorite food blog, Smitten Kitchen. Pretty positive none of my kids would go for it, but that's why they invented peanut butter sandwiches. But surprise, surprise, they devoured it. I substituted basil for mint, and didn't use pine nuts, since I didn't have any.

Rigatoni with Eggplant Puree
Giada DeLaurentis, Food Network

I’ve made a few adjustments/suggestions to the original recipe. The eggplant is a total sponge and it seemed no matter how much pasta water I added, it was still lacking in sauciness. I think a higher proportion of tomatoes to the eggplant (which I have adjusted below) would have loosened up the sauce a bit, and perked up the flavor as well, as would a glug of vinegar or lemon juice at the end. Mixing it with ricotta was something many of the commenters on the Food Network site enjoyed, and I can’t imagine that would steer it in a bad direction.

1 small eggplant, cut into 1-inch cubes
1 pint cherry tomatoes
3 cloves garlic, whole
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
1 pound rigatoni pasta
1/4 cup torn fresh mint leaves
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
Glug of balsamic or red wine vinegar or freshly-squeezed lemon juice (optional)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl combine the eggplant, cherry tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes. Spread the vegetables out in an even layer on the baking sheet. Roast in the oven until the vegetables are tender and the eggplant is golden, about 35 minutes.

While the vegetables are roasting, place the pine nuts in a small baking dish. Place in the oven on the rack below the vegetables. Roast until golden, about 8 4 minutes (only do it for 8 if you want them nice and burnt, like mine). Remove from the oven and reserve.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 to 10 minutes. Drain pasta into a large bowl and reserve (at least) 2 cups of the cooking liquid.

Transfer the roasted vegetables to a food processor. Add the torn mint leaves and extra-virgin olive oil. Puree the vegetables.

Transfer the pureed vegetables to the bowl with the pasta and add the Parmesan. Stir to combine, adding the pasta cooking liquid 1/2 cup at a time until the pasta is saucy, as well as a glug of vinegar (optional). Sprinkle the pine nuts over the top and serve.

Parsley, sage, rosemary or thyme--take your pick!

2008-08-08T22:04:00.000-07:00

We went to a fabulous homeschool Olympic activity. Hazel and Chloe made friends with a new little girl, and her mom and I hit it off also. My girls played with her little Sage, and we made plans for a playdate.

In the car, Hazel sighed contentedly. "Mom, I'm so glad I met my new friend Chives."

Me, "Do you mean Sage?"

Hazel, nonchalantly, "Hmm, I knew she was some kind of herb!"

Montreal quick recap

2008-08-08T21:51:00.000-07:00

We got back from Montreal and Quebec City the other day. Oh, it was wonderful. So so beautiful and altogether perfect. It was hard to believe we were in North America--I've never seen such a European city outside of Europe.

Steve and I don't plan our itineraries around museums, adventurous activities, or popular sights. We plan it around the food. Montreal didn't disappoint even a little bit. Steve has a friend who sent him pages of restaurant recommendations, and I was armed with my guidebooks. We had some amazing stuff, folks. My favorite? Had to be the maple syrup pie with cream we ate a restaurant in Quebec city.

Quebec City is celebrating their 400 year anniversary this year. That's a whole lot of years for this side of the globe. The maple pie place--oh, it was built in 1624. Incredible.

I did something horrible to my camera--I'm not sure exactly what I did, but it deleted tons of my photos, so I only have a few from the trip. But here are a couple of them.

Governor's Mansion, then some random pretty street corner

Samuel was an absolute dream baby. So peaceful, content, and all around perfect. I love teeny babies. They're so portable!

A friend asked us to bring him home ketchup chips. Eeew. So we carried 6 bags of Ketchup flavored Lays onto the plane. Nasty!

I missed those kids of mine like crazy. It's so nice to get away, and it makes coming home to my sweet little people even better.

Procrastination

2008-07-30T23:19:00.001-07:00

I'm leaving at 4:30 in the morning to head to the airport. Yes, it's 12:20 am right now, I'm not done packing, and I'm blogging. Aaaaack!!

But I did organize my underwear drawer a few minutes ago. Way to prioritize!!

Steve and I (and Samuel) are heading for Montreal for a few days. There are some real pluses to a husband who travels non-stop for work. Lots and lots and lots of frequent flier miles that just have to be used up.

Now, must go pack!!!

A belated birthday post

2008-07-30T23:02:00.000-07:00

I would be a very very bad sister if I wait any longer to post about Chloe's birthday party. Andrea is kind of the most talented party planner/crafter/all-around amazing sister.

She helped me with Chloe's 5th birthday party and it was so completely fun. We read about petite fours in a book we were reading called The Saturdays, and she latched on to the idea of having those for her party. So around that idea, we built the theme of a paperdoll party. The invitations Andrea made were paperdolls with real fabric dresses, there's a paperdoll banner in one of the photos, we made dolls as party favors with a wardrobe of 5 dresses for each girl, and of course, there's the petite fours.

We played classic party games like the clothespin drop and bingo, but my favorite game was pin-the-part-on-the-paperdoll, who ended up looking like a bad Picasso.

In the first photo, there's a big old doll holding a basket. Years and years (we're talking 20+) ago, my mom had a shop where 6 of these were in the front window. They've followed her from house to house, and finally a few months ago she gave some to me and my sister-in-law. I groaned at these ginormous dust-catching random things, but they did come in handy for the party! The girls have the doll that resembles them the most--my niece called hers the "giant Jane".

My Chloe is the sweetest, most winsome little creature you can imagine. She is soft and snuggly, and spends most of her time in a dream world. She loves to read and write and is a delight to be around. Mostly. She's the kind of kid that people just fall in love with. I can't believe she's five already!

Ice cream for days

2008-07-24T13:40:00.000-07:00

Such a backlog of posts in my brain!!! Amazing pictures waiting to be posted, amusing anecdotes, scintillating discussions of events. But I can't play catch up right now--far too late. Instead, I'll blog about the incredibly fabulous birthday party we had for my Steve last night.

We do a lot of themed parties--fancy/funky drinks, different chips and salsas, stuff like that. So for Steve's birthday this year, he requested an ice cream tasting party.

I made 4 different flavors of ice cream, then cheated by buying the 5th. On the menu were Buttermilk Cherry, Avocado, Blood Orange Sorbet (the one I bought), Lavender Honey, and Double Dark Chocolate.

Holy cow. Those were some killer ice creams. I served them in tiny little cups and we had them in 5 separate courses. The buttermilk was awesome, and the avocado was unusual, fun to try, but overall a little odd. The blood orange sorbet was so fresh and bright tasting. I was very surprised that the Lavender Honey turned out as delicious as it was. I expected it to be more of a novelty flavor like the avocado, but it was really fabulous. And of course chocolate is always a hit.

Fun party, great food, and the best husband ever. What a great life!!

Definition of family

2008-07-16T22:35:00.000-07:00

We just spent a fabulous couple of days at a condo in the mountains with my whole family. Swimming, games and more games, movies and snacks were the only things on the agenda.

In the middle of an afternoon swim, surrounded by cousins, aunts, and siblings, my little Calvin stopped in his tracks. He looked around, then announced joyfully, "All of dese people is makin' me SO HAPPY!"

That's gotta be the perfect definition of a family.

Trying to catch up

2008-07-11T22:10:00.000-07:00

Ummm, is this blog still working?? I am actually still here, even though my blog doesn't reflect that. This summer is just rocketing past, and I'm trying desperately to hang on for the ride. Does anyone else feel that way? That instead of a nice, leisurely relaxing summer, there's just a constant whirlwind of activities and vacations and just plain stuff. I can't keep up.

So some updates. I just don't know where to start!! It's been a packed couple of weeks. We spent a wonderful day at the Alpine Slides in the mountains. I hung out with the baby while all the kids went down the big old slide. Very very expensive--can they really charge 20 bucks for that?? But good times. My darling sister Steph was there and my cute cousin from Austin.

Parties everywhere, a wonderful fabulous 4th of July, then the next morning on a plane to Northern California. Steve's family is there, and it was so fabulous to see them and show off our little Samuel. Steve's brother and his wife had their first baby 10 days before Samuel was born. The two babies got to meet--2 adorable little newborn guys side by side? Priceless.

We spent a couple of days hanging out in San Francisco. Steve lived there before we got married, and he can never get enough of the city. My sister Steph came with us to nanny, and I have to highly endorse bringing someone along if you happen to be traveling with 4 children six and under. That made it actually doable. Steph, Steve and Hazel spent a day thrifting and poking in some of the fun funky shops. Hazel, who's six, suddenly morphed into a teenage shopaholic. "Steph, this is so you! It is adorable. You have to try this on!!!"

Can't you just hear the italics? Too funny. While they shopped, the littles napped then we hit Union Square to chase the pigeons. Ice cream makes it even more fun!

Fisherman's Wharf and a visit to the sea lions. The little dress Hazel is wearing is one that they found at a cute little vintage shop.

So I can remember them for posterity--some of my favorite kid moments from the last few weeks.

I was dressing Samuel, and Calvin became fascinated with his chest. He asked Hazel what they were, and she told him they were nipples. Calvin grew very thoughtful. "Mom, Nipples do NOT fly airplanes!!"

Truer words were never spoken. Although we did decide that with a strategic piercing, you just might be able to make it happen.

Chloe got hurt one night on the trip. It was at the end of a long day, and she was just tired. I hugged her, then offered to go sit in between my two big girls. She sniffled and two big tears rolled down her face. "Mom, I just don't feel like I want to be a big girl right now!"

Calvin asked me if I was "having the feelings". What feelings?, I asked. "The feelings of having your toes fall off." Umm, pretty sure I'm not having those feelings, buddy.

Tomorrow is my sweet Chloe's birthday. We've got big plans for her party, and I'll post some pictures to show off my amazing sister Andrea's party skillz. It's going to be so dang cute!!

Tender Mercies

2008-06-19T22:14:00.000-07:00

It was a standard morning around here. Chores, scriptures, getting dressed and doing some school. Kids running in and out of the house playing. I had great plans to do a lemonade stand with my girls, and that's about the total of our ambitions.

12:30, a whisper of a thought passed through my mind. "Hazel, Liberty Girls".

Hazel is in a club for homeschooled girls based on the American Girl books. It's absolutely fabulous, and has been such a great experience for her. They were having a huge end of the year retreat for all the chapters. An all-day, pre-paid, much-anticipated retreat.

And it was today.

My heart dropped as I realized that she'd most likely missed it. I checked my email for the details, and it started at 1. I read this at 12:30. I got her ready in a flash, and Steve was home and available to drive her to it.

Waves of gratitude washed over me as I realized that the Lord cares enough about a little girl's happiness to remind me gently about this activity for her. He will compensate for my failures because he loves us. Humbling, and so beautiful to think that we are known so individually by a loving Heavenly Father.

Life with four

2008-06-17T23:24:00.000-07:00

Why is it so hard to post lately?? I certainly have plenty to blog about--there's an absolutely adorable baby who delights me daily, but for I'm just tired lately. Maybe because of this adorable baby?

He's a marvelously good baby, he sleeps well and is constantly good natured. But there are four of them now, and that in itself is reason enough to be a little tired.

So there's the excuse, and here's the update around here.

I gave Steve a gorgeous hammock for our deck for Fathers Day. But...it was Father's Day 2 years ago. I told him I'd set it up and then never did, because I weirdly get paralyzed by projects if I don't know exactly how to do them. The stupid hammock sat for 2 whole years in the garage, and I felt guilty every time I thought about it. So I finally called wonderful sister Andrea, who put the big scary thing together in about, oh, 6 minutes flat. Hooray for a sister who can help me even when I'm a complete freak. Note to self--just get over it and at least try things!!

For dinner on Sunday, Steve requested Soul Food. So I made ribs (a first for me) and waffles with fried chicken (another first--I don't really fry things ever). We ended up with 23 people over and had a fabulous time. The food turned out great, but I should really break this habit of trying out new recipes on large groups of people.

We took Samuel to church for the first time on Sunday. So fun! Here he is in his handsome little Sunday clothes. He's three weeks already. I'm trying so hard to savor every single moment.

LIfe in suburbia

2008-06-07T22:31:00.000-07:00

We took my mom out to dinner tonight for her birthday. Since it's a Saturday night, the place was packed and there was an hour wait. We were in one of those ginormous, has-every-store-under-the-sun type of places, so we decided to walk to Barnes and Noble to kill some time before dinner.

While walking back to the restaurant, Chloe looked up at me and asked, "Are we in New York?"

"Ummm, no, we're in Utah, honey. Why do you ask?"

Her reply: "We're walking someplace."

OUCH! If that isn't the definition of life in suburbia articulated by a four year old!

A glut of Samuel pictures

2008-06-02T10:30:00.000-07:00

Pictures galore, because I can!!

Sleeping brothers. Calvin is a little unsure about this whole baby thing. He's pretty standoffish. He'll occasionally kiss the baby's head, but holding him is right out. Fortunately, he doesn't seem to be upset at all by Samuel, just indifferent. He does tell me, though, that, "My brudder's one good guy. Him's perfect!"

Chloe and Hazel are having so much fun holding this baby. In fact, if Samuel were a toy, he would be confiscated because of the amount of squabbling over who gets to hold him.

And yes, all these pictures are taken from my bed, since I've spent the last many days here. I did get the midwife's go-ahead to walk around the upstairs now, so I'm loving the new freedom. I got pretty stir crazy, but it was really very nice to have such a calm, peaceful time to spend just loving this new baby. With four kids now, real life is crazy. It was nice to focus on bonding with Samuel.

The birth story

2008-05-29T14:27:00.000-07:00

Here's the long version of the birth story.

I had a goal yesterday that I wasn't going to complain at all or cry. I was going to be positive and upbeat and just DEAL with the whole 9 days overdue thing. Steve and I figured that this whole process would come down to the midwife breaking my water, just like it did with the other three. Since we would have to transfer care, by law, at 42 weeks, it seemed like it was worth any risk of complication if we were going to end up at the hospital anyway. So yesterday was my day to be cheerful and just not stress about things.

Then my midwife called and she pretty much flat out refused to break my water, calling it negligent. So I broke the no tears goal as we talked about options and what to do to have this baby. At this point, I'd tried so many things, and was so tired of trying to stimulate my blasted uterus, and I felt like giving up. I contracted regularly, just no labor. Well, the midwife promised me that if I'd try her method of castor oil, then she'd break my water if it didn't work.

Castor oil! The one thing I was so adamant I WOULDN'T do, more than anything else. Tried it with Hazel, thank you very much, and once was enough. Nasty.

But I felt like I was up against this ticking clock, and didn't have many options left. I planted flowers and weeded my garden and cursed the midwife all the while. Andrea, my sister, came with me to buy the needed supplies. There are few people in the world you can purchase castor oil with--she's one of them.

I sent the kids to my mom's, just in case. Did the doses. Cursed life and wished to die a few times there, but we're just going to gloss over the details of this part for a moment!!!

The contractions had been regular, but really wimpy for hours. I started to have guilt that the kids were at my mom's and had her bring them back so they could go to bed here. Steve started to put together the birth pool while I alternated putting the kids to bed and pooping. Around 9:30, the kids weren't asleep and I was thinking that maybe this just might happen, so my longsuffering mother took them home with her again and put them to bed there. Steve and I went to sleep around 11, after I called my mom and apologized that nothing was possibly going to happen, and I'd be pregnant for ever.

Right before bed I took my second dose of castor oil. I had contractions while we slept, but I mostly slept right through them, same as all of them for the last few weeks. I woke up at 1:15, needing to use the bathroom. That's such a euphemism for what actually happens with the nasty stuff, but we'll stick with it. It sounds much more polite. I started having stronger contractions right when I got up, and after 5 minutes of them I called the midwife and my sisters. Normally I would never have called after such a short time, but I was shaking and teeth chattering through even the milder ones, with let me know that this was serious business!

There's an aside to the story that needs to figure in here. Last Sunday it was very difficult to make myself go to church, especially Relief Society (the women's part). Facing the comments was such a dread--it seemed much smarter to stay home and mope. But I knew that that's not the example I want for my kids, so I made the decision to do the hard thing and I went with a heart determined not to be affected by the comments. And it worked--I was genuinely happy and felt nothing but love and support from people. Here's the key part of this tangent. During Relief Society, I was given a gift. A blessing for obedience, almost. We sang a song that struck me with such force. The lyrics are:
I will not doubt, I will not fear,
God's love and strength are always near.
His promised gift helps me to find an inner strength and peace of mind.
I give the Father willingly, my trust, my prayers, humility.
His Spirit guides; his love assures, that fear departs when faith endures.

Not a hymn I was familiar with, but oh, the power of those words on a woman about to surrender to the power of having a baby!

So that hymn became my mantra. I grabbed the hymnbook and paced through the house, reciting the words over and over during each contraction. Steve and my sisters raced to set up the birth pool, and I just read my hymn.

The midwife and doula arrived within minutes of each other, about 1:45. By this point, I was pretty loud through them and deep in the fogs of labor. Jules the midwife started setting things up and called to me to try a kneeling position by the couch. Clutching my hymnbook, I knelt down with my head in Steve's lap and moaned through two big ones. The doula applied counterpressure on my back through one, and Steve did through the other one. At the peaks I was feeling a little pushy, but thought that there was no possible way I could be even close to there. The next second I was pushing--the primal yelling, overpowering, not caring even a whit that I was massively pooping and my pants were still on and not a thing was ready kind of pushing.

Jules displayed some mad midwifery skills here and sprinted in from the other room, throwing plastic in time to catch all of the goo, got my pants off and caught the baby, all in about 2 minutes. Are you getting a sense of the timing here? Wake up at 1:15, deliver at 2:10. Crazy.

The baby was strong and rosy, with apgar's of 8 and 10. When we got him all weighed and measured, he was 8 lbs 8 oz and 20 1/4 in. long, making him my biggest baby by an ounce. They got me all tucked into bed and left Steve and me to marvel over this newest baby.

I can't for the life of me understand why someone would willingly choose unassisted birth. I was THRILLED to relax in bed while they cleaned up the mess. Having a baby is a messy job.

Since everything was so fast, I did end up tearing, which kind of stinks. It's not stitchable, since it's really shallow, but it is long and in an awkward place, so my midwife has ordered me in bed for a week. I feel fabulous except for that, so I'm really not happy about total bedrest, but I guess it's much better to let this heal without infection.

The baby is gorgeous and perfect and he now finally has a name. Samuel Phillip is our sweet little guy, and we are so happy.

Presenting...

2008-05-28T14:04:00.000-07:00

He's here! My darling, as yet nameless baby boy was born last night at 2:10 am, after a lightening fast labor.

8 lbs 8 oz, 20 1/4 inches long, and absolutely perfect in every way.

I'll post the long version in a while. Right now I have some sleep to catch up on, and a baby to snuggle. Hooray!! I'm not pregnant anymore!!!

My new philosophy

2008-05-25T06:32:00.000-07:00

I came to a decision yesterday. I can either mope around the house, doing everything in the books to bring on labor, and get all frustrated and depressed when it doesn't happen. OR, I can live my life, hoping of course that I go into labor soon, but not stressing so totally over it.

Choice #2 won. I went to the nursery and bought all the plants for my containers in the yard. Ran my errands, did some laundry. Contractions come and go, and that's ok. They're getting me ready for the big event, which WILL happen. Someday.

Getting out of the car yesterday, my pants split down the front. I didn't change immediately, but sat on the couch with my beloved laptop for a few minutes. Cue the doorbell, and a family who moved away and came back for a visit. At 6 pm. With their 4 kids. I hadn't started dinner yet. Aaack!!

We visited with the parents while the kids ran absolutely wild and got into all kinds of mischief.Tthey were hungry and the random kids kept asking for food. And I couldn't get up or do a darn thing about any of it because my pants were split all over the place!!!

Finally after and hour and a half Steve stood up and started to make grilled cheese for my brood, but explained we didn't have enough bread for everyone. Poor hospitality, I'm sure, but who shows up unannounced at dinnertime with unfed kids, and stays for that long in the home of a 41 week pregnant mom?????? Grrrr.

Enough of the blackness of my heart. Now you all know what kind of a person I really am. But trust if any of YOU showed up, I'd laugh off my split pants, run to the bedroom and change, and make cookies for everyone!

The state of the cervix

2008-05-23T14:21:00.000-07:00

My camera has been broken for ages. I could take pictures, but the display was black so it was shooting blind. Less effective. I was trying to debate repairing it vs. buying a new one, but the nice guy at Canon suggested doing (insert technical lingo here), and it worked! No need to buy a new one. So here's a picture of my three darling ones, just for fun.

Now that that's out of the way, on to the state of the cervix. Yea, no baby yet. Don't you just love how people have to point that out to you?? Really, I promise I've noticed that there's no baby yet. Trust that I know!!! I CANNOT face church on Sunday, when every single person I pass will say, "Haven't you had that baby yet??"

NO!

But, at today's midwife appointment, I learned that I'm at a 4, not very effaced, and the baby's in a fairly decent position. Still sort of high, but not too too bad. The contractions are still Braxton Hicks and obnoxious. I've been going up and down the stairs, two at a time, walking, and drinking nasty horrible black cohosh tinctures. Hopefully this will turn into labor sometime this weekend. I'll keep updating as there's anything to report.

Belly talk

2008-05-22T07:23:00.000-07:00

Today is the day I get serious about getting everything ready for this baby. I'm going to get my bedroom completely cleaned out and shiny scrubbed, make sure all the supplies are close at hand, and pack bags for my kids to take to wherever they end up going. I'll finally haul the birth pool out of the van and make sure it's ready for a quick set up. I AM going to have a baby soon, so I'd better make sure I'm ready.

I'm 4 days past due now, and doing everything I know to bring this baby on. Except castor oil. Never, ever that. I'm faithfully drinking my raspberry leaf tea, even though I hate it with a passion. I'm taking black and blue cohosh tinctures, and those make the raspberry tea taste like nectar! Horrible things. I've got the evening primrose going on, and Steve is definitely doing all he can to *ahem* get things going (blush). SO WHERE'S THIS BABY???

Last night I did start contracting regularly--just braxton hicks, but they were extremely regular for about 6 hours, then through the night. Maybe. I go in tomorrow and my midwife will strip my membranes, have me walk stairs for hours, and in general convince this small guy that we're in earnest about wanting him here!

More updates. More of the same updates

2008-05-18T21:24:00.001-07:00

How should I put this??? I'm still pregnant. Still, eternally, never-endingly pregnant. Today is my actual official due date, and I've been late with all the others, so I really didn't expect anything different. But hey, one can always hope, right?

I've tried so hard to ignore my due date and focus instead on the time window, but there's something very seductive about that magic date. Much as I've tried to resist, my hopes did get a little bit pinned on one calendar moment that has come and gone with no changes.

Midwife appointment tomorrow--she's pretty hands off, but maybe she'll have some good ideas to get things going. Ugggh. I'm so ready to have this baby!!

Update

2008-05-13T21:56:00.000-07:00

Still pregnant. Still very very pregnant. I'm not technically due until Sunday, so a few days away, but I've been late with every baby so far. This one seems to be following the same pattern! Dang it.

I have strong, working contractions all over the place, but never anything that develops into actual labor. With the other three, this continues for weeks and I slowly dilate to a 6 or so, then they've broken my water. I don't really want to do that this time, so it will interesting to see how things will progress.

Maybe he's waiting until we choose a name for him. Poor baby--he might be waiting a long time! Still no luck on any kind of a name.

Calvin played hard all day today and climbed into my lap for a snuggle this afternoon. In just a few minutes he was sound asleep in my arms. He smelled like little boy and sunshine and sweat and outside. He's only going to be my baby for just a few more days. I rocked him and reveled in the moment, then carried him into my bed and we snuggled and napped together. Bliss.

Nesting and sunshine

2008-05-06T20:36:00.000-07:00

Where to even start????

Such an amazing day today. 75 degrees and absolutely glorious outside--we spent the whole day soaking in the sun. My sisters came to hang out, I met with my doula who's wonderful, then we turned on the sprinklers and the kids ran around in their bathing suits while I weeded. I'd forgotten the beauty of little squealing bodies and splashing water. So fun!!

Then on a whim, we ran inside and made up a batch of chocolate chip cookies to take to a neighbor with a new baby. I started itching to hold a newborn, so off we went for a walk with a plateful of cookies. Oh so cute!!! There's something so magic about a new baby, and holding him made me so excited to meet my own small boy.

We went up to my mom's and we made dinner together while the kids played. Her neighbor just got a truckload of topsoil delivered, so after dinner the kids played in the dirt for an hour. Shovels, trucks, a couple of dinosaurs, and 7 kids. Absolute bliss. This is what childhood is all about.

Home again, where we planted some bean plants then a quick (desperately needed) bath. They couldn't wait to get into bed!!

So that was our day. I'm feeling absolutely fantastic lately. I have so much energy, and I'm not nearly miserable enough to be 38 weeks along. My chiropractor is truly amazing. My ribs don't hurt anymore!!!!! There aren't enough exclamation points to convey just how monumental this is. And my pelvis is perfectly aligned and I can move with complete freedom from pain. So incredible. My chiropractor is actually going to attend the birth. Yippee!

I must be nesting. So far in the last few days, I've done the dreaded clothing swap out for all the kids, washed and put away 7 loads of laundry, sorted and washed the baby clothes, weeded for hours, homeschooled with aplomb, and generally been a bundle of energy. I even washed the girls' bedding and quilts AND line-dried them. But let me just say that if Dante had only known, he would have made a special level of hell for poor souls condemned to eternally change the bedding on twin bunkbeds while nine months pregnant. Whooo! That wasn't so fun.

But holy cow! By the end of everything tonight, I was about ready to collapse. I got the kids in bed barely, grabbed a hot pack for my lower back, and fell into bed to veg out with American Idol and my laptop. So so nice. And so my friends, I'll post next when the next wild swing of emotion hits. I'm sure it won't be long!

Small successes

2008-05-01T21:15:00.000-07:00

Look at what I finished!! My sister-in-law is due on the exact same day I am, so this little sweater is for their baby. This was my first attempt at knitting a sweater, and I'm so delighted it actually turned out ok. The yarn is the softest, most yummy wool imaginable. I've got some in green to knit up for my own little man.

Other successes? Well, I've started chipping away at the mammoth to-do before baby list. I got the winter clothes put away, the hall closet cleaned out, and I finally found the 0-3 baby clothes, to the great delight of my girlies. They practiced holding the onesies and cradling them--they're so excited for this little guy to come. I bought diapers and little hats, and really, what else do I need?

38 week appointment tomorrow, and hallelujah, a visit with my fabulous chiropractor. The clock is ticking, and I'm almost there!

The light breaking through

2008-04-26T07:06:00.000-07:00

Thank you all SO MUCH for the encouragement and love. This is why I keep blogging, I think.

I feel like the clouds have parted and I'm me again. For a day or two there, I wasn't sure. Crazy hormone surges, perhaps, or some weird brain thing, but it was scary for a bit. I couldn't stop crying all day long, and couldn't get a single thing done. It took me until 3 in the afternoon to take out my kitchen garbage. I'd go in there, look at it, pace a little and sob, then go back to just sitting. It was a very very weird time. I knew, rationally, that there were dozens of people who would have been more than happy to come over and help me out, but admitting to needing help seemed so much more than I could do. So I just cried. My sweet kids would try and kiss me and love me, and once Chloe was so delighted when I smiled at her. OUCH!! But I couldn't make myself function. It was a bad bad bad day. Never had one quite like it.

But then I woke up yesterday, and I was me again. Like someone had turned a switch off in my brain. Sure, the aches and pains are still very much with me, but with my own brain intact it's amazing what a difference it makes in the outlook on life. I'll tell you, if that craziness had continued, I'd have marched myself straight into some kind of doctors for some serious medication! Too scary.

Anyway, my Steve comes home in a few hours. AND, too just make things more wonderful, his only sale for next week canceled, so he's home for the entire, whole, every single minute of the week!!!!! He'll be traveling the week after, but that's the last one. I'm going to make it through this. Yahoo!!!

Now if that nesting instinct would just kick in, I could start to make some headway in the many projects that need to get done before this baby comes.

Don't read this. Really.

2008-04-23T22:23:00.001-07:00

Ok, Dy, I'm feeling the guilt!!!

I'm just feeling so very very...blah. So pregnant. So absolutely not feeling like opening my mouth, because whenever I do, I just complain! And really, who wants to be around that??

I'm grumpy, tired, and so completely unmotivated. School??? Well, Hazel did a page of math today, and that is the first anything we've done all week. My sweet kids are so patient with me--Chloe prayed the other night, "please, Heavenly Father, help Mommy to not have any pain with our little baby."

They color, play dolls, dig in the garden, and we read stories. We are getting scripture reading in consistently, but that's about the only structure that's left. I just can't seem to do anything!!

Since we're all friends here, I'm going to whine. I'm going to let you all in on the aches and pains and bliss of week 36. So I have this lovely pubic bone/pelvis pain with each of my pregnancies. I'm not sure the percentage of women who get it, but if you've had it, you know!! Rolling over in bed, putting on pants, walking...all not so fun. Then I've developed this rib pain, but not the normal one in the front--this one radiates around my side to the back. I'm seriously doubting my ability to manage through the next couple of weeks. My chiropractor is wonderful, but my body seems to be falling apart faster than she can put it together.

Oh, yes, there is more!! I've started throwing up again and feeling nauseous half the time. I did this months ago! No fair to have to do it again. Other than this, physically I'm doing great. But the whole no husband thing is really really getting to me. He's done traveling in 2 weeks, and really we're at the end of the worst trips, so there's just another couple of days. But I'm so tired of being alone. So tired of not being able to go anywhere alone, of being the one responsible for it all. But he works so completely hard, and I can't whine to him (I do anyway, but I really try not to) but I'm so ready to be done!!

This is why I don't post!! Isn't silence better than the ranting and ceaseless complaining? Sorry, dear friends. I'll try to come up with something even remotely interesting, and I'll stop the pity party!!

Kids gone wild

2008-04-15T08:56:00.000-07:00

In the aftermath of a party here, I found an admiral hat behind the couch and a pair of panties on the piano.

Exactly what kind of a frat party was this??

Homeschool science co-op. We're a wild and crazy bunch!

A day in the life

2008-04-11T16:22:00.000-07:00

We get up this morning. I'm not telling what time I actually hauled my very pregnant self out of the bed, nor divulging just how much Playhouse Disney my kids might have watched before I did. That's getting just a little too personal.

We had breakfast of cornflakes with fresh strawberries sliced on top. Can you believe my kids have never had cornflakes before? Steve found some amazing deal on cereal for $.30/box. We stocked up, and now have around 30 boxes of cold cereal. Guess they'll get quite familiar with the taste of cornflakes before too long!

We do chores and I start some laundry. Hazel colors some pictures from the Felicity books, and announces that since two of the girls in the picture are from another country (England), they need different colored skin. Gold skin.

Scripture time goes well. We have a discussion about when Christ will come again, and why it's important to have our hearts continually prepared. Hazel asks if there are any 'clues' about when his coming will be, so we talk about some of the signs of his coming. We talked about the gospel being preached all over the world, but Chloe mentions, "not China or that place where Christ used to live." How do they know this stuff?

After discussing rudimentary Chinese politics, Hazel has the bright idea to stage a coup of the Chinese government man and his family. When I discourage this idea, the girls launch a half hour discussion of all the different ways a cook for the chinese government could insert lots of cayenne pepper and salt and lemons into jelly beans and cake, thus shocking their palates into allowing the gospel in. Chloe, in her list of horrible ingredients, included "10 cups of salt, 6 cups of pepper, and just 2 butters, because you know, their veins? We don't want to hurt their veins too much, huh Mom." Nice to know that the sabotage doesn't include any artery clogging!

Chloe read a couple of Bob books to me (my that kid is doing amazing with her reading! She's far more fluent than her older sister. In fact, her learning to read has been how I pictured the whole process--very organic and natural), and Hazel narrated a composition on the piano about elves and witches and birds. It was very dramatic. Chloe skipped off to do some math pages while I did reading with Hazel.

She called me to task for letting my eyes stray off her face while she was reading. Getting through two Bob books takes us a loooong time, and if my eyes are anywhere but on her she comes unglued. If there is another child in the room she melts. Distractions are not permitted, period. Good heavens!!!

Hazel does some math, then I look at the clock and realize we're late to pick up Steve from the airport. We pile in the car and listen to some music. They correctly identify violins, flutes, piano, trumpet, and cello. I tell them the story of Narcissus, prompted by Hazel's lovely behavior during school. Chloe actually knew the story far better than I, and filled in many details for me, including a description of the narcissus flower. Thank you, Jim Weiss! I told them the story of the Mormon pioneers and the seagulls and crickets, and they loved it.

While in the car, I realized that despite my innumerable deficiencies as a homeschooling mother, they are learning. Happy thought!!

Steve is home for 4 whole days!!!! We're so excited, so we go straight from the airport to the bowling alley. The cuteness of watching Calvin lift up his ball to bowl almost shreds my heart! Chloe bowls with flair--she has a special 'duck waddle bowl', and the super running start approach. Hazel gamely tries to bowl like a grown-up. So fun!

We veg all afternoon. Outside play, some computer time, and a quick nap. My mom and sister dropped by and were told by Hazel that "my mommy and daddy are in bed together, sleeping together so don't go in!" Unfortunately, not that kind of 'nap'. This was the real deal with drool and a sprawled out Calvin in between us. The other kind will just have to wait!

And now we're going for game night with my siblings. Such a fun, typical, crazy, day in the life kind of day!

A Day

2008-04-03T09:01:00.000-07:00

So Calvin had a day yesterday. Maybe that should be capitalized. He had a DAY. He was tired and cranky, but I HAD to get to the chiropractor, so into the car we went. I'd just fed them pizza and slushies (please don't judge me!) but even sugar water couldn't soothe his savage beast. It was one of those wrestle the screaming flailing child into the carseat moments, but I can totally deal with that. Continual screaming? Doesn't faze me. Crying so hard he vomits everywhere--ok, now he has my attention.

Not a wet wipe in sight in the whole car. Napkins, nope. Bottled water? None of that either. Fortunately, being the stellar prepared mother that I am I DID have spare diapers, so I mopped up the mess with those and some stray socks that were floating around the van. And all the time I'm trying just to like this little offspring of mine. Not succeeding too well. But he eventually got a 15 minute nap in the car, and all was beautiful again.

We get home, and he decides that the worst thing in the world is for me to get him OUT of that carseat. Another major tantrum ensues, I unbuckle the kid, drag him in the house, lock the van and the house and think I've outsmarted him. Well, after going to the bathroom, he's disappeared. The little stinker got into my purse, found my keys, unlocked the van and buckled himself back into his carseat. He's 2. Good grief!! Fortunately, I'd just gone to the library, so I had some brain candy book and I sat in there with him in the driveway while he sniffled and moped and fell asleep again.

But holy cow!! So much willpower and determination and butting heads over stooopid stuff. He's normally such a delightful child, but wow, when he has a DAY he does it up right!

Rachael Ray I'm NOT!

2008-04-02T10:17:00.000-07:00

I seem to be in some kind of major bloggy funk lately. Sorry.

About 3 months ago I was asked to teach a class on Indian cooking to about 25 of the women in my ward. Sure!! No problem! It's very easy to say yes to things occurring 3 months in the future. It's amazing how fast the future creeps into the present!

So last night I played Rachael Ray and did a cooking demonstration. I made Chicken Tikka Masala, a lentil dal, yogurt raita, saag aloo, and a spicy beef dish. YUM! It all turned out delicious, and for that I was oh so relieved. I have this really bad habit of trying brand new recipes whenever I cook for people. The saag aloo I was making during the demonstration was an untested recipe. That could have been disastrous, but thankfully it turned out really good.

Yesterday I was getting Calvin out of the tub, and I slipped on the wet bathroom floor while I was carrying his little wet self. As I went down, I felt my very pregnant pelvis do all kinds of not good things. An emergency trip to my wonderful chiro kept me walking yesterday, but the whole cook for 6 hours straight didn't help things at all. Can't move today!!!

Since yesterday was April Fool's Day, I woke my kids up with a surprise breakfast of ice cream with chocolate sauce. They thought that was undoubtedly the funniest thing they'd ever seen, and I won some major good mom points. No good nutrition points, but one breakfast a year isn't going to kill them!

Stop the ride, I'm ready to get off

2008-03-27T07:44:00.000-07:00

We are now on day 9 of a merry-go-round of illness. Up and down, from one person to another, watch those symptoms swirl and swap owners in a dizzying kaleidoscope of sniffles. Just when you think the ride is slowing and it's time to rejoin the world, here we go again!

I've been right there in the thick of it, and still feel so so so not worthy of my membership in the human race. Last night welcomed a surprise double ear infection on Chloe and a burning up fever on Calvin into bed with me. Sandwiched between the two of their needy little bodies was my 32 week pregnant, coughing self. Oh, the sleeplessness of last night!!

So there's my update. Probably wish I'd just kept up the posting silence, but oh well!! As soon as there's actual real health, we'll emerge from this cocoon and start schooling and living again. I can't wait!!

Why, Congress...WHY??

2008-03-14T09:32:00.000-07:00

Things the little cherubs fought over during dinner last night:

Who had to pick up Calvin's fork that fell during dinner.
Who GOT to pick up said fork.
Who got to hand it to him.
Calvin fought over who would be privileged to hand him the utensil.
Whose bow tie pasta looked more like a butterfly. Whose looked more like a bow tie.
Who had more yucky yucky onions in their sauce.
Etc, etc, etc.

Daylight Savings Time, I blame the week that we've been having on YOU!!! Losing an hour's sleep then making the blasted sun go down so much later so my kids in their west facing windows have no chance of sleep before 8:30 instead of the previously blissful 7:15. Your fault, DST. And I'm not going to forget about it anytime soon.

Finished projects

2008-03-11T22:21:00.000-07:00

My sweet little niece had her first birthday today. I wanted to make something for her, so decided to embroider a little shirt. I kinda procrastinated until the afternoon of the party, but amazingly enough was able to finish. Actual finished projects are a rarity for me, so I'm posting pictures.

And just because they're so dang cute, Calvin and cousin Janey at the aquarium.

Daily moments

2008-03-05T22:26:00.000-08:00

There's a point in my day where, every time it happens, I'm startled that yet another day has sped by.

Each night I tuck my babies in bed, and when it's Calvin's turn we read three books, always the same ones, and the first is always Goodnight Moon. I open that book and look at him snuggled in his big boy bed, and I'm every night amazed that another day has passed so quickly.

We read through his books; I don't look at the words because the books are such an ingrained part of life by now. Each time we get to, "goodnight comb, and goodnight brush," Calvin starts to chuckle. Then I flip the page and he belly laughs, "Goodnight NOBODY!!" then we recite together, "goodnight mush."

Such simple moments, but they are part of the beauty of this life that we've created here.

Little sponge

2008-03-01T21:32:00.000-08:00

We've been listening to a classical CH for kids in the car lately, and I was playing a kind of 'name that tune' game with them. They had to guess the composer and the name of the piece. We've listened to it a bunch of times, so they're quite familiar with the pieces by now.

Hungarian Rhapsody came on, and I asked the girls who composed it. They thought and thought for a while, then I heard a tiny Calvin voice pipe up, "FranList, dat's Franlist!!"

Yes, my two year old can recognize Franz Liszt! I've been laughing all day about this. Of course, he calls Fur Elise and Beethoven's 5th both 'Baby Einstein', cause that's where he first heard them!

You know you're getting there when...

2008-02-29T21:10:00.000-08:00

Sure signs you're entering the third trimester:

*Each time you cough, you Kegel with desperation. Sometimes it helps (this is my fourth baby, after all).

*Rolling over in bed has become a major undertaking

*You know that spot under your ribs?? Yeah. I'd forgotten about that spot, too, but now I remember it!!

*What bellybutton? Mine's disappeared?

*The Tums are an hourly thing.

*Trying to reach something UNDER the chair you're sitting on requires getting on all fours, since the whole bending past the feet thing isn't happening.

10 (ish) weeks until baby!! It's a dang good thing, too.

Back to normal

2008-02-27T05:51:00.001-08:00

Miraculously, this boy of mine is perfect. He woke up yesterday (after sleeping all night through, I might add) without any temperature and all smiles. He ate, ran around, jumped, danced, got into mischief, and was generally a normal baby. Incredible how resilient these little people can be!

We didn't get all the learning time in yesterday I would have liked--every other Tuesday we have a whole afternoon of outside activities. But we got in some good violin practice, both the girls read to me, and during our (3 minute) math time, Hazel had a major lightbulb moment.

She randomly asked me 9+9. I asked her what 10+10 is, and she quickly answered 20. Then she started thinking and announced the answer to be 19, and insisted I was wrong when I said it's actually 18. We grabbed the Math U See blocks and I used those to illustrated the difference between 9+9 and 10+10. The joy in her face was radiant when she 'got it.' I LOVE those moments of elucidation. Big reason I'm a homeschool mom.

My housecleaner took advantage of us being gone for the afternoon and did the carpets. So I have a sparkling clean house, well-rested, HEALTHY for the first time in weeks kids, and life is very very good.

Thanks to everyone for your concern for my sweet baby. Very traumatic for the day, but now you'd never know there'd been a problem!

Update

2008-02-25T17:49:00.000-08:00

This poor baby!! He hasn't really moved from my lap all day. The saddest moment was when he woke up from his nap and looked at me. "Mouf hurts, Mommy! Kiss better!" He stuck out his little tongue for me to kiss, but I couldn't get to the roof of his mouth, so it didn't help.

Every time he's tried to eat something, he tells me that "Mouf so owie!"

I bet it is!

The doctor called me back a few hours later to check on him--I thought that was fabulous. He called in an antibiotic for me, which is great. Calvin went into this adventure with an ear infection and a cold. He's had a fever for the last couple of hours, and it's hard to tell if it's from the ear infection or from his injury.

I've got pudding and applesauce and fruit popsicles for him, but he's not eating much of anything. He just went to bed. I'm hoping he's able to sleep peacefully tonight. Poor baby!

Ouch!!

2008-02-25T12:17:00.000-08:00

It was a happy peaceful homeschool morning. Hazel was doing her copywork at the kitchen table, Chloe was working on reading with me on the couch, and Calvin was in the other room, coloring.

Suddenly the peace was shattered with one of those cries; the ones where your heart stops for a second because you know it's bad. Calvin staggered towards me, blood dripping from his mouth. I grabbed him and started to clean him up and figure out what had happened. Since he was playing with a pencil, I started to look for cuts in his mouth. Sure enough, there was a huge gash mark in the roof of his mouth.

Then the blood started to come out his nose, also. That's when an injury goes from sad and poor kid, to what on earth do I do? The pencil had pierced through his soft palate to his nasal cavity. That's beyond my comfort level of deal-with-myself injuries, so I threw everyone in the car and we ran to the instacare.

Good news is, after looking him over, we didn't have to go up to Primary Children's for a CT scan. Thankfully. It's just a really really yucky gross mess in his little mouth. So I'll keep a close eye on him, and if he develops any weird secondary symptoms we'll head up there.

Man, this motherhood thing kind of works you over!! Just when everything is running smoothly...BAM! Something hits. I was pretty shaken up for a while, but he's napping and the house is quiet and I had some ice cream, so things are ok now.

Unpleasant surprises

2008-02-24T21:06:00.000-08:00

We had Steve home for a beautiful few hours, then it was off to the airport again. I'm very accustomed to the rhythm of our lives during his work season--he's generally gone during the weeks and home for a night or two over the weekend. It works for us and is overall really manageable.

Well, I'm not dealing well right now!! When I was re-packing his suitcase, I asked how many days clothes he needed. "10."

Me: "WHAT???????"

I don't know how I missed this one, but he's going to be gone for 10 long days. After a visit home for just hours. If I'm mentally prepared, I can do anything, but for some reason I just didn't realize what his schedule was looking like. I'm not prepared for 10 days without him!! So if the blog contains maniacal rantings in a couple of days, you'll know the reason.

But it's not all bad. When he's gone, I can do things like watch Pride and Prejudice without him making fun. It just barely finished on PBS, and I'm still smiling. Isn't Colin Firth just the most perfect Mr. Darcy imaginable??

Yummy!!

2008-02-23T19:46:00.000-08:00

Don't you love that feeling of a really really successful meal? One where every member of the family loves every single thing you serve? Tonight the stars were aligned just right and it happened.

I made Chicken Curry with Sweet Potatoes and was it ever good!

Since I ALWAYS tweak recipes around, here is my version.

1 chopped onion
1 clove minced garlic
2 peeled and chopped sweet potatoes
couple of chicken pieces--enough for my family with a bit leftover
~1 cup orange juice, except I just used a largish lump of frozen concentrate and a cup of water
3 t chicken curry
1 chicken bouillon cube
2 t brown sugar
salt and pepper

Stuck everything in the crockpot on low for 5ish hours. Perfect.

We had coconut rice, which oddly took about 15 longer than rice normally does for me, so everyone was expectantly at the table with no meal ready. No problem, we turned fancy and served the 'salad course' first. We had already gone all out and were eating by candlelight--the kids loved this touch so much! Steve is home for all of 18 hours this week, so we thought we'd make his one meal at home special.

For dessert, I'd made a lemon blueberry pie before we left for the airport. Perfect ending. I love meals that work out like this!!

Choices

2008-02-21T21:51:00.000-08:00

It was time to go--lots of errands to do. I told them to get on their shoes, and we started the loooong slow process of getting out the door. When I heard the CD player erupt with the rockin Stevie Wonder, I was seriously annoyed.

I charged into the room, and all three of them looked up from their dancing, with guilty looks on their faces. Without saying a word, I picked up the baby and started dancing. I whirled Chloe around and boogied with Hazel. We clapped to the beat and after 15 minutes, collapsed into a laughing pile.

Choices. I'm so glad this time, I made the right one.

Breakthroughs

2008-02-19T21:12:00.000-08:00

Something clicked today. Big time. Hazel read me 100!!! pages of this Dick and Jane book! On her own, bringing it to me at different times throughout the day. She set a goal of getting to page 100, and she did it. I am so completely proud of her.

Reading has been such a struggle, but she has pushed through whatever wall was holding her back, and she's full of joy today. Sure, most of the pages are of the 'look, look, see, see' variety, but she read them! And by page 100, the pages were much more complex: "Baby Sally said, "Oh, Mother. Sally is big. Sally wants to work. Sally wants to help." Mother said, "Run, Sally. Run to the car. Run to the car and help me. Big big Sally can help me."

I know it's not phonics, and it's a lot of word recognition, but I couldn't be more thrilled. She's actually reading. She can sound out the phonetic words, and she figured out words like 'little', 'down', and 'find' on her own. So dang exciting I can't stand it!!