A Peek at our Lives

Discovery!

2012-02-08T14:33:00.001-08:00

Tess has found her toes. She likes to suck on them, particularly the big toe.

Rebuked

2012-02-05T19:33:00.001-08:00

The other day, Michael was told by Naomi that it wasn’t appropriate to talk about cleaning up bunny pee at the table.

A new take

2012-02-05T19:32:00.001-08:00

on a book:

Michael: “The Chief tells his men what to do.” And they contradict and don’t obey and the building burns down. The End.

Gee, what are we having difficulty with at our house these days?

Yeah.

2012-01-31T20:19:00.001-08:00

What she said.

I just have a long way to go.

Be afraid!

2012-01-30T17:30:00.001-08:00

Simeon has recently started relishing scaring his siblings. And his parents. And, really, anyone else who is within a few feet of him. He likes to be tigers, dragons, and other dangerous and frightening beasts and make snarly, growly noises.

After the 3,000th time, this does get a bit old. However, Sim doesn’t mind if I do a pro-forma “Aaaaa,” which leads to things like this:

Sim: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHH!

Me: [Sounding somewhat distracted and not very convincing] Aaa.

Sim: [Runs off, perfectly happy]

In my defense, I had done a more convincing scream for the times before that.

Happily, his sisters are usually more obliging, sometimes even bursting into tears and running to find me when he growls at them. I have made no headway explaining to them that he WANTS them to run and cry, and he’ll continue his scary efforts if they do that. That doesn’t make any sense to them.

This afternoon, though, he’s the dragon that belongs to his sisters, so we’re having a relatively pleasant game of Dragon and Owners. Sim hasn’t yet figured out that this really just means that his sisters tell him what to do. I don’t really want to explain that to him. It would change the game, and right now I can’t take the screaming of a game of Dragon Turns On Owners.

5 months!

2012-01-27T07:47:00.001-08:00

Tess is 5 months old today. It’s incredible how quickly babies grow and change at this age. There’s singing, smiling, laughing, foot grabbing, gaining lots of motor control, rolling over, and generally getting cuter by the moment. Oh, and there’s the pottying, too. And chewing on anything she can get her hands on, but most especially people’s fingers. That is quite painful, since she’s gotten her two little sharp teeth. She loves to have people talk or sing to her. She’s almost always happy and content and sweet.

Babies on the potty

2012-01-25T22:16:00.001-08:00

Tess has caught on to the use of the potty. It’s really, really, really cute. I mean, who wouldn’t think that a nearly-5-month-baby on the potty is cute? Especially when it turns out that one doesn’t have to change poopy diapers nearly as often? There’s a whole lot of cute in not changing poopy diapers. But even so, it’s just funny and cute to see her being held on the potty.

I won’t be providing pictures of her on the potty, because I just don’t think that’s a good plan. Take my word for it, though.

Now, in the elimination communication literature, authors assure you that you can decide your level of commitment to having your child on the potty. You can catch (their word) one or two diapers’ worth a day, or try to catch them all. Or you can even do one or two times a week. You can do nighttime e.c., or you can skip the nighttime.

Turns out, though, that it’s not entirely up to you. You see, that cutey pants little baby that I’m putting on the potty actually, well, LIKES going on the potty BETTER than going in her diaper. Especially poop. She doesn’t mind the odd wet diaper here or there, although she does seem to prefer the potty, even for those. But she really, really, really does not like to poop in her diaper any more.

Okay, at this point I have to say: I don’t blame her. I don’t want to poop in my pants, either. Ever since I discovered, many years ago, how to go in the potty, I’ve been hooked, too! I mean, I tried to convince my parents that I preferred my diaper when potty-training began, but since I got the hang of it, I haven’t looked back. It seems to be true for most people. So I am not anywhere close to saying that I blame Tess.

The thing that makes this tricky is that she prefers to go in the potty when she needs to go in the middle of the night. Hah! “You can decide if you want to do nighttime E.C.” Well, no, I can’t. Because let me tell you, I did decide. I don’t want to do nighttime e.c. I want to sleep peacefully through until morning, half-waking occasionally to feed the baby. Never stirring from my warm, cozy bed. (Preferably until well after 8 a.m., but that only happens on Saturday morning and isn’t Tess’s fault at all – turns out Michael has to work and I have to get food for the rest of the family.)

Tess, though, does want to do nighttime e.c. She decided this two nights ago. I had NO IDEA why she was awake. I couldn’t figure out why she wouldn’t go back to sleep…for an hour. She wasn’t upset, but she wasn’t sleeping, either. Now, 2 a.m. isn’t the my best time for thinking. I think it might have something to do with the fact that…it’s 2 a.m. I’ve been asleep. However, I finally thought, “Maybe she needs to go potty.” Lazy person that I am, I asked Michael to take her.

He came back to say that she’d peed, pooped, and spit up. She went right back to sleep.

Last night, she got us up at 12:30 to pee. She got me up at 4:00 to poop, although, since I was totally out of it at that point, I didn’t realize that’s why she was awake. So it took me half an hour to figure it out. When I finally did, I took her to the potty and she pooped. Back in bed, she went right back to sleep. Both times, her diaper was dry.

If this goes on, I may wonder why I started e.c. I might wish I hadn’t. I might think I’d rather change all those poopy diapers and just sleep through. But it’s not really my choice any more. Tess has discovered that she prefers the potty, and I don’t see her going back.

The truth is, though, that I’m glad I did it, even with interrupted sleep. The transition to underwear with Simeon was a breeze, and I can’t say that about Hannah or Naomi. It won’t be that long before Tess won’t need to poop multiple times a day, so she’ll stop getting us up for that. Even if she pooped in her diaper, though, I’d have to change her, and there’s always the chance of a blowout – um, yuck! – in the bed.

Besides, babies aren’t babies for very long. All the other kids sleep through the night most of the time with only occasional wakeups for bathroom breaks.

So I guess my thinking should be, “This too shall pass.” And when one is discussing potty issues, it’s certainly true.

Snippets

2012-01-13T16:00:00.001-08:00

Hannah is working on her very first five-paragraph essay.

Me: Okay, with a new paragraph, start on a new line and indent.

H: I did indent.

Me: Indenting on the same line is hard to tell from just leaving a space, so we start on a new line.

H: But that wastes paper.

She’s a serious ecologist if a waste of 3/4 of a line is that distressing to her.

***

I’m wearing a pair of pants from prepregnancy! And they fit!

***

Warnings to Sim about outlets don’t necessarily sink in.

Naomi: Sim, there’s ELECTRICITY in the outlet.

Hannah: Yeah, don’t put your hand in there, or you might catch on fire.

Sim: No I won’t. The house might catch on fire, but not the kids.

Hannah: Yes, you might catch on fire!

Sim: And be eaten by lions?

Ummm….turns out that getting eaten by lions is not one of the natural consequences of sticking fingers in outlets.

***

Naomi’s reading is progressing really well. She’s starting the silent e with long vowel sounds rules now. She thinks it’s great that there are some “disobedient” words, like have and give, that don’t listen to the rules.

***

Tess’s two bottom teeth are through. AND she’s pooped and peed on the potty more than once this week. Also, she’s still really, really cute.

***

Michael has decided that getting paid for staying home on infant care leave is better than getting paid for actually working. However, he’s not sure he’ll be able to convince his employer of this.

Grocery shopping

2012-01-05T11:49:00.001-08:00

with my four kids is actually not as difficult as it sounds. I had Tess in the sling, and the store we go to lets kids have a free piece of fruit with each visit, which means that the first half of the shopping trip is beguiled for the kids by eating fruit.

The hard part is staying on target. It seems like roaming the aisles of the stores loosens up memories and questions and all kinds of commentary that my children have stored up. Except for Tess. She was content to chew on the edge of the sling.

The others, however, had all kinds of things to ask, communicate, show, etc. “Mom! Guess what?” “Mom, look at this!” “Mom, do you remember?” “Mom, what’s in Pirate Booty [which we weren’t getting, but was an Item of Interest]?” With all of that, it’s very difficult to remember tomato paste – or anything else, for that matter. It’s written on the list, of course, but between looking at the list and looking at the shelf, I had 3 or 4 other requests for my attention.

Of course, the kids are also quite helpful, and they know where things are, what brands we get, and how to put things in the cart, it’s just that that much talking does make me forget what I’m doing, besides getting me home worn out and ready for quiet time!

Typos

2012-01-04T17:59:00.001-08:00

can really affect culture. For example, our kids sing this lyric in Drummer Boy: “I played me drum for him.” I made a typo when I was making song sheets, and apparently Michael hadn’t ever learned the lyrics, because that’s how he sang it to our kids, who will now correct him if he sings it with “my” instead of “me.”

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T13:11:00.001-08:00

Did I really have to say that?

2011-12-15T18:50:00.001-08:00

Michael: HEY! Get your fork out of your eye!

Sorry for the long absence

2011-12-13T22:29:00.001-08:00

Nothing’s been happening, so no posts. HAH! Just kidding. We’re busy, so no posts. Maybe soon I’ll write some stories about our family, but for now, pictures will have to do:

Borrowing lines doesn’t always work

2011-11-18T18:04:00.001-08:00

Tonight I used (again) a line that my mom used on us when we would say, “Why not?” to ridiculous things, like, “Don’t read a book at the dinner table with your family.”

I said, as my mom used to say to me, “Because I’m a mean old lady and I never want you to have any fun.”

Sim: You’re not old.

Naomi: You’re not a lady.

Haha! Notice that nobody said, “You’re not mean.” It wasn’t even that rough a day…

Naomi did add, “Hahahah! You’re a GENTLEMAN!” So I’m hoping she was kidding about the part about me not being a lady.

****

And in other amusing dialogue today:

Hannah: Sim, you’re being very contrary today.

Sim: I AM NOT!

Sim participates

2011-11-17T19:33:00.001-08:00

in Movember:

Special thanks to hot cocoa for making Sim’s participation in Movember possible.

Pictures!

2011-11-17T07:20:00.001-08:00

I’ve been light on posting lately, so I’m going to put up some pictures for you.

Someone is quite pleased with the Halloween cowboy boots.

So sweet.

Naomi is always convinced that, when the baby cries, she’s crying for her big sister Naomi. “It’s okay, sweetie, Naomi’s here!”

THIS is what my living room looks like when the kids play “camping.”

Yeah.

It’s…lovely.

But they did clean it up at the end of the day. Not spontaneously, of course, but without too much whining. So I let them do it again. With very similar results.

Let’s play

2011-11-16T12:21:00.001-08:00

Sim has discovered the beauty of playing the things he’s seen or read. I already told you about Kermit, but now he’s also been Bill from Cheaper by the Dozen (Tess gets to be the baby, Bob, when we play that game. It was interesting to have Sim call Tess “Bob” for a few days.), and then he decided to be the kid who took the crybaby’s gingerbread in Hello, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle. Happily, he didn’t run around snatching things from others, since his sisters weren’t very interested in that game. Who can blame them? They would have been assigned either the character who has to cry constantly or the character who has to deal with the character who cries constantly.

Today, he’s Peter in Peter and the Wolf. Although Sim likes to assign roles to everyone -- Hannah’s the bird, Naomi’s the bird’s cousin, Tess is the duck (since she doesn’t object to being the one eaten in the story, and the other siblings do), and Dada, when he gets home, will be the grandfather – I don’t have a part in this game. I am not allowed to be the cat – I’m too big. I’m not supposed to be the grandfather – I’m not a boy. I am not allowed to be the wolf or the hunters – I don’t really know why. Thus, I’m at liberty to tell others about this game.

The best way to play this game is to start AS SOON AS THE BOOK OR MOVIE ENDS! And then to play it for a while. Sometimes for days.

**Update! Hannah is now the wolf. And the rope keeps pulling her tail all the way off. Whoops!

Not getting results

2011-11-11T08:00:00.001-08:00

I started exercising again. Last week, I started doing one 10-minute segment of a pilates workout each morning. The video is called Weight Loss Pilates, and I am doing it more for a workout than for weight loss (breastfeeding has always eventually gotten the weight off for me, so I am not obsessing about that). The third day, I did the third segment, and the video ended. I had completed 3 days of 10-minute workouts. Hannah, who had, of course, been observing my workout, said, “That’s the end?” I told her it was.

“I don’t think you lost much weight.”

A few quick notes

2011-11-10T14:51:00.001-08:00

Tess is laughing! As of today!

Halloween was great. We had a cowboy, princess fairy, and book. We have pictures, but they’re on Michael’s camera, so he’ll have to upload those for you.

Here’s what we do when Tess is napping: look at pictures of Tess. Okay, not the whole time, but the kids all love standing at the computer and ooo-ing and aaahh-ing over Tess.

Posts have been light because life has been busy. It’s sunny today, so we’re going to try to get out there, because there are probably not that many more sunny days this year!

Naomi lost her first tooth!

2011-10-27T10:38:00.001-07:00

She’s very excited. And the tooth fairy remembered to come!

Tess smiles!

2011-10-23T17:35:00.001-07:00

Teresa is getting more and more interactive. When my parents were here, she’d look at you and occasionally smile. When Michael’s parents were here, she had increased the amount of smiling she did. Now, she’s started cooing and smiling a lot, and it’s all kinds of fun.

Family Movie Night

2011-10-21T20:14:00.001-07:00

We’ve been having family movie night on Friday nights for several weeks now. The kids really enjoy it, and it’s a great incentive for cleaning the house and getting showers done. It’s a pleasantly relaxing way to end a hectic week, too.

Except when it becomes family suspense/horror movie night.

In my defense, I think that Naomi could turn almost any movie into a suspense/horror flick. This time, though, I picked The Muppet Movie, and it appears to be singularly suspenseful. I’m not sure what she thinks is going to happen, but she freaks out about Doc Hopper, even when he’s not around. When the muppets are at the fair, enjoying themselves and watching Miss Piggy win the beauty pageant, Naomi is convinced that something terrible is going to happen, “I’m worried. What’s going to happen? Are they going to get Kermit?” Again, this would be appropriate for a scary movie, but Naomi is not familiar with movie genres, so assuring her that it’s a comedy goes nowhere.

Then there’s Hannah, who has turned it into a tear-jerker. “Mama, I don’t think you should have shown me this movie. I’m too sad for the monster who wanted to go to Hollywood and got left behind.”

Simeon, on the other hand, is Kermit the Frog. He spent the few minutes between the end of our movie time (we didn’t watch the whole thing, just 45 minutes) and lights out reminding us, “I’m not Sim, I’m Kermit.”

“Okay, Kermit, get in here and brush your teeth.”

At least he likes the movie.

Math

2011-10-21T08:07:00.001-07:00

tends to be Hannah’s least favorite subject. This is too bad, because she’s really good at it. One of her math problems yesterday was to divide a rectangle in half two different ways and find the perimeters of the halves. She did this in her head, even though it involved adding fractions, and she got the right answer for both of the perimeters. In about 30-60 seconds for each of the problems.

Hannah likes to deny that any math that she likes doing is actually math. Geometry, graphs, word problems (!), and money all fall into this category. “Well, that’s not really math.” I sometimes have the feeling that she uses the term “math” to mean, “schoolwork I don’t like to do.”

Whoa!

2011-10-21T08:01:00.001-07:00

I’m not mentioning any names, but someone doesn’t look like a newborn any more.

Tess is cute

2011-10-20T15:07:00.001-07:00

…in case you needed reassurance. And here’s proof:

It’s a flavor, too!

2011-10-20T14:54:00.001-07:00

Sim: What flavor is that gum?

Naomi: Pink!

Update

2011-10-14T15:39:00.001-07:00

Tess is in size 2 diapers and has started outgrowing her 0-3 month clothes. She doesn’t look like a newborn any more. That was quick!

Everyone still loves her.

Our kids are now sometimes doing a kids’ exercise video in the morning, since it’s getting to be not such great weather for biking and their mom isn’t up for loads of exercise yet. It’s totally cute. And they often can be found wandering the house saying things like: “Left hand to the sky! Right hand to the sky! Wiggle down, waving hands to the ground. Stand UP!”

This also led to a very unintentionally funny moment this morning. I looked out to where the kids were supposed to be doing their exercise, and Hannah was sitting on the couch, reading. This led to me calling out to her (I’m not kidding, unfortunately), “Hannah, stop reading and do the video!” Of course, I was on the phone at the time, and my friend laughed at me and said that I had a problem that most people don’t…

Laundry. I don’t know why someone under 20 pounds doubles the laundry around here, but it’s true. If you need me, I’m feeding the laundry machines.

Peter Pan is the most popular game in our house right now. We watched a film of a stage production for family movie nights (we watch in 30-40 minute increments, so it took 3 family movie nights), and all the kids heartily approve. The only drawback to the Peter Pan game is the crowing. I’ve had to ban it from the house – crowing is an OUTSIDE activity. Let’s just say that roosters aren’t kept outside only because they’re stinky and messy and peck everything.

I ordered all the new fall wardrobe items needed for my kids online. This includes shoes. And the shoes ALL FIT. This hasn’t ever happened to me before, and I am thanking God that this is the time it did happen!

Having people bring meals when you have a new baby is awesome, and I can’t seem to figure out how to appreciate my thanks appropriately. Just saying, “Thank you,” doesn’t seem to cover it. In any case, I’m starting to be able to cook again, but I am TOTALLY grateful to everyone who brought us meals!

People have been emailing about our plans. Haha! We don’t make many plans when we have a baby of this age. We’ve learned that much by our fourth child. And the plans we do make are conditional – we’ll be there unless we can’t be there, and maybe we’ll all be there, or maybe it’ll be a contingent. It’s a good lesson in holding lightly to things, because one never knows…

After Simeon’s nursing days, I thought I’d really gathered a lot of ideas about plugged ducts and mastitis (if you don’t know what that is and aren’t of hardy constitution, just ignore this paragraph and move on), but I have a whole bunch of new things now! A meeting with a naturopath and a discovery in the comments on someone’s blog have added to my arsenal. It’s good to have a lot of ammunition.

Don’t take that last sentence out of context!

Both sets of grandparents have now met Tess, and they seem to really like her. They still like the other kids, too. :)

One of the luxuries of a new baby

2011-10-08T16:29:00.001-07:00

Okay, so new babies are fantastic. We love them. But they’re also a lot of work. There’s a ton of laundry that wasn’t happening before, there’s waking up at night, there’s the person who is usually the household runner not able to actually run the house very well for a long time, etc. These are sacrifices that are totally worth it, as far as we’re concerned.

There are some luxuries of having a new baby, though. Lots of them, of course. One of them is this:

The nap with a sleeping baby. Michael especially looks forward to this with each new baby. Hannah, for a long time, wouldn’t sleep EXCEPT on someone’s chest, and we both got used to the joy of sleeping like that. It’s a short-lived luxury, but there’s something about a nap with a baby – their new-baby smell, their sweet weight, their total relaxation, their sleep pheromones enhancing your own nap (okay, that’s not scientifically proven, as far as I know, but I’m not sure how else to account for the overwhelming sleepiness that holding a sleeping baby produces, and for the deep, deep sleep that napping with said sleeping baby induces) – it’s a really satisfying experience.

I have to admit, I love catching pictures of Michael sleeping with the babies on his chest. He laughs, because each of their baby picture books include multiple pictures of these naps. He says they’re all going to think that’s all he did.

Welcome to the Church, Teresa Anne!

2011-10-02T21:35:00.001-07:00

She’s Catholic now! It was a beautiful, blessed, and tiring event!

Simeon turns 3

2011-09-28T21:37:00.001-07:00

today!

He’s happy to be a 3-year-old. We had a party today – not a big one, but he didn’t mind. It was lots of fun.

Tess slept through most of the fun. She was held by many of the partygoers.

One gift Sim got: a knight costume.

Knights do not smile for the camera.

It was also Hannah’s Baptism Anniversary. So we sang to her, too. It was also the local uncle’s birthday. (He’s not 3.) So we sang to him, too.

Naomi didn’t have a special occasion today, but she was happy to bask in the party spirit, anyway.

Sim opted for dirt cake with gummy worms. He may have liked the gummy worms more than the cake. The dirt cake was a joint effort: Gramps made the cupcakes (and pretty much all the party dinner, too!), Hannah crumbled them and added the decorations, and I provided the frosting, which looked like worm castings.

If you don’t know what worm castings are, they’re what they sound like. Hey, don’t blame me, it’s dirt cake!

Sim’s godfamily joined us for the party, too.

They’re good friends. It’s totally cute.

Dirt cake: good.

Another year off to a good start.

1 month?

2011-09-27T19:27:00.001-07:00

Really? How did that happen?

Here’s what happens

2011-09-21T16:22:00.001-07:00

at dinner after your babysitter takes you on a long walk to a fun park in the afternoon:

Pictures!

2011-09-19T21:01:00.001-07:00

Standard response

2011-09-13T09:07:00.001-07:00

Naomi has discovered the joy of a standard response. Of course, the response she’s chosen is a bit over the top, but perhaps she’ll refine it over time. For now, though, any time she’s corrected or thwarted, here’s what she says:

“Nobody loves me anymore.”

Then she turns away and sulks.

I’m actually at a loss as to where she got this. Maybe she came up with it on her own. I don’t know, but when she asked to be excused and we told her to eat a bit more first, that’s what she said. When I told her not to put her feet in other people’s faces, that’s what she said. When I asked her to go to the bathroom and then insisted that she go when she tried to resist (I am the Potty Ninja, you know), that’s what she said.

She doesn’t seem to actually believe this statement at other times, so in her world, her family goes quickly from loving to not loving several times a day. It would be exhausting to keep up with if it were actually true, I’m sure.

Tess is over 2 weeks old

2011-09-12T12:34:00.001-07:00

How did that happen? At her 2 week appointment, she was 8 lb, 14 oz. So she gained nearly a pound in her first two weeks. She’s doing well. :)

Here are some photos:

Sim loves holding Tess.

So does Hannah, but for some reason, we don’t have pictures of her holding Tess in this batch. But she did enjoy having electronics lessons while Dada was home.

Naomi specializes in singing Tess to sleep in the carrier.

Pink! Pink!

She fell asleep with her little face all snuggled into Michael’s neck.

You can see she’s already done some good work on her double chin.

Sleep smile captured!

2011-09-01T12:22:00.001-07:00

Tess smiles in her sleep a lot, and I managed to catch it this morning:

SO CUTE!

She’s also a deep thinker.

And she has the hearts of her siblings. Simeon came into my room this morning, saw Tess sleeping there, and said, “I love our new baby!”

Naomi’s favorite thing to say about Tess is, “I can’t believe you gave birth to such a beautiful baby!”

The kids LOVE her tiny feet.

Hannah has decided, after observation, that she’s willing to change wet diapers but doesn’t want to be put on poopy diaper duty. She is always first in line for holding Tess. “Oh, man, she’s nursing. Can I hold her when she’s finished?”

Here she is!

2011-08-28T21:27:00.001-07:00

Welcome to Teresa Anne!

2011-08-28T12:44:00.001-07:00

Born Saturday, August 27, at 12:16 a.m.

7lb, 15oz, 20 inches long.

All is going well so far.

Pictures to come.

Euchre and housework are alike!

2011-08-25T16:34:00.001-07:00

I found this out this morning. I think I’ll start saying, “I’m in the barn,” when I get close to having the whole house clean at once. Don’t worry, though, it doesn’t happen very often.

How it can backfire to have your kids pick their own food

2011-08-25T08:32:00.001-07:00

Our garden is quite happy and productive these days, and the kids usually pick things to eat from it on a daily basis. Yesterday, though, I guess Sim decided he wanted some extra protein. He came out of Quiet Time and told me: “I chomped up a fly.”

Me: What?

Sim: I chomped up a fly.

Me: [Not quite believing it, since flies are pretty fast] Um, Sim, flies are not for eating.

Sim: [Looking sad] But it was dead.

Me: [Still not sure whether to believe, but coming much closer to it] Okay, but please don’t chomp any more flies.

School

2011-08-22T22:10:00.001-07:00

We started school again today. It went really well, actually. The kids were excited about it, probably because we’re doing lots of crafty things, and were excited to show Michael their accomplishments when he came home. Third grade, Kindergarten, and pre-preschool have all begun!

Real summer

2011-08-21T19:40:00.001-07:00

Real summer weather is here. Well, real summer for our area. It’s in the 80s and definitely warm. The kids are somewhat shocked by the lack of need for a fleece at any time of day, and I am so glad that it’s been a relatively cool summer with this pregnancy. Enough said. The bunnies are lamenting their fur coats.

Cucumbers and zucchini are very happy with the weather and producing lovely things to eat. The tomatoes are (some of them) getting red!

Music to their mother’s ears

2011-08-18T07:45:00.001-07:00

This morning I came down a bit after 7 to my three kids actively doing something. I could hear them moving about very actively when I was upstairs. Since they have taken to occasionally “wrestling” by taking turns jumping on each other, I was a bit nervous about what I might encounter.

Me: Good morning.

Them: Good morning, Mama! We’re cleaning up!

And they actually were.

Still not the rhubarb panic

2011-08-18T07:43:00.001-07:00

Now it’s the zucchini panic. Strawberries are all taken care of. And, quite honestly, it wouldn’t be the zucchini panic if my due date weren’t 10 days away. But we have loads of zucchini, and more coming in every day. I’ve made pickles using the book from which I’ve loved every recipe I’ve tried. I’ve made some zucchini bread, but everyone would be happy to see more. I’ve sauteed, I’ve shredded and mixed in, I’ve made zucchini fritters, and I still have a lot of zucchini. The thing that’s getting me, more than the amount of zucchini right NOW, is that I will have this baby and there will still be more zucchini. I want to get at least one more batch of pickles done. I have other big and ambitious plans for zucchini. But I may have 10 days and I may have 2 weeks more than that, and I have things to do other than make things with zucchini.

Name suggestions

2011-08-17T19:32:00.001-07:00

Naomi has a name suggestion. If it’s a girl: Rose. Of course, that’s her middle name. What about a middle name suggestion for a baby named Rose? After some consideration: Sunflower. Rose Sunflower. That’s her suggestion.

Simeon suggested, if it’s a boy, John The Goose. Somehow, I’m not convinced we’re going to use that one…

I have wild horses in my living room

2011-08-15T10:29:00.001-07:00

You may not believe me, but a wild mare and her two foals are sleeping in the living room at the moment. Well, actually, one of the foals is running about.

This is the same herd that used the little wading pool in our back yard recently:

An amusing aspect of this game is that one of the foals has just decided to go off and catch a rabbit for her meal. Her mother is trying to explain to her that she’s an herbivore. However, the little brother foal has gotten into the spirit and has now killed something to eat, too. Meanwhile, mother horse is attempting to get them interested in “this lovely grass!”

Three strategies for a happier afternoon

2011-08-12T16:49:00.001-07:00

Sometimes we have tough afternoons here. Sometimes the children are cranky and clingy, and I’m cranky and want to be left alone. Sometimes this happens for a few days in a row. Sometimes this leaves me feeling very, very tired and frustrated at the end of the day…for several days in a row. That leads to some significant thought on my part about how to make things better, because late summer afternoons should not be spent in the company of people who are bickering and disagreeing and generally making life miserable for each other…

Three things that I’ve discovered that help us are:

-- Lots of exercise in the morning

-- Occasional fun projects to do in the afternoon

-- A high protein snack right after Quiet Time – for everyone!

Hopefully writing it down will help me remember it, should I ever need strategies to improve the afternoons again. ;)

Weather and clothes

2011-08-11T08:24:00.001-07:00

To my children, sun = warm and clouds = cold. This means that, on a sunny day in the winter, when it’s 25 degrees outside and windy, they’ll look outside and say, “I don’t need a jacket today, it’s sunny!” Similarly, when it’s overcast on an August morning, they’ll looks outside and say, “I should put on corduroys and a long-sleeved shirt, it’s cold out today!”

I have had to get Hannah, especially, to change her clothes (or clothing choices, if I catch her before she’s actually dressed) a whole bunch in the last week, because we’ve been having overcast skies, and she really does come down dressed for fall or winter. The thing is, it is somewhat cooler in the morning, but it’s still going to get into the high 70s or 80s, and corduroys don’t work well for that. Isn’t this what layers are for?

Hannah gets very annoyed with me, and perhaps I should just let her sweat it out one day.

Long-awaited swimming lesson

2011-08-10T15:24:00.001-07:00

Sim had a swimming lesson today – he’ll go once a week for the rest of August. He was quite gratified and did a great job. The girls, of course, wanted to get in. I can’t blame them.

Important knowledge to impart

2011-08-10T07:58:00.001-07:00

Naomi to Sim: Did you know that when you were born, you didn’t have any clothes on?

For some reason, the girls think it’s highly important that Sim be informed about this. I don’t quite know why, because it’s not as if they ever have experienced it first-hand, but they want Sim to know.

Berry picking

2011-08-09T15:35:00.001-07:00

We went blueberry picking this morning. It was fun and peaceful and the bushes were mostly taller than me. I have no pictures because I didn’t bring my camera. For some reason, I’m not remembering the camera these days. Pregnancy brain? However, I do have pictures from strawberry picking a while back, so I’ll put those in, instead.

Today, Sim didn’t fall asleep on the way there, but on the way back. He looked about the same, although the outfit was different and the sunglasses weren’t there.

Hats are always a good idea during picking.

Sim likes to pick 3 berries and then ask for berries from other people. This has applied to both strawberries and blueberries. He also likes to find sticks and other natural toys.

Naomi picked more strawberries than blueberries. Well, technically that’s probably not true. She disclosed that she ate a lot of the blueberries, so she may have picked the same amount, they just didn’t make it to the bucket.

Hannah is a dedicated picker and likes to come up with the things she’s going to do with her berries while she’s picking. She wants to freeze her blueberries to eat on hot days. Assuming there are any hot days coming up.

Today, Michael was working, so he didn’t go picking with us. That wasn’t as fun, of course.

Here’s Sim after giving up on the strawberries. There was a lovely dirt track that he -- and the other kids who were done with berries -- used to be sure that a layer of dust clung to their sunscreen. Today, there was no dirt track, nor any other kids his age, so he stuck to wandering about, finding sticks, and occasionally getting another berry from the bush. He remained fairly clean on today’s outing.

At some point on that trip, Sim realized that a WHOLE LOT of dirt would fit in his hat. There was a little girl who would occasionally go over, dump the dirt out of Sim’s hat, and return it to his head. Did I mention that Sim was completely and totally dirty by the end of this outing? Yeah.

Berry picking

seems to agree

with our family.

5th Annual Dads and Kids Camping

2011-08-04T20:39:00.001-07:00

By my count, this was the 5th annual Dads and Kids Camping Trip, and it was by far the biggest. We had six dads this year, along with eleven children, which made it quite a crew! I took Friday off from work, so we got a relatively early start, leaving a little after ten. If the kids'd had their way, we'd have left at 6:00 am!

Our first stop was a walk we've done several times before, the Shadow of Sentinels walk, among a beautiful grove of old growth fir trees. It really is amazing to place your hand on a tree that is 680 years old -- that tree was ancient when our country was founded! It's a short, flat walk, which made it a good start. We stopped to take a picture by the big stump – I think we’ve done this ever year:

After that walk, and lunch, we were off to pitch our tent. Our cousins arrived as we were doing so, so once they were ready we took a walk down to the Skagit River. The children are wonderfully clever at finding hiding places I would never think of, like this hollowed out tree by the edge of the trail:

This was Simeon’s first year, by the way, and he was completely psyched to be there. He liked the hiking, he liked the tent, he liked the campfire, and he especially liked the s’mores. Uncle Time is also a good thing:

After the River visit on Friday, we had dinner and the big campfire. It really doesn’t get dark in the Northwest Summer until well past 9:30 pm, so the kids were up pretty late. On the positive side, they completely crashed once they were in bed.

Saturday morning was our big hiking day, up on Mt. Baker. I’ve learned that with the kids, shorter hikes are better, so even our big hike was less than 2 miles. By the time the hike was done, we had some tired hikers!

Saturday afternoon involved a longer visit to the Skagit River, with more swimming, splashing, and mud. We were blessed with lovely, sunny weather for the afternoon!

Saturday evening was the full campfire, since all the families had arrived by then, plus a Ranger Talk on Creatures of the Night. This particular ranger would toss candy to kids who answered questions correctly, which definitely got her audience’s attention! Sim was so tired, though, that he dozed off and fell off his bench, so we retired for an early bedtime for him. The others followed not long after.

I don’t have any pictures from Sunday – we had a simple breakfast, broke camp, and tried to head for Mass in Sedro-Woolley. It had been rescheduled (whoops!), at which point we raced back to Seattle and dragged our tired, informal selves to the most formal, liturgically high Sunday Mass that Blessed Sacrament offers. Sim was making me laugh: he isn’t used to incense, and covered his nose for almost the whole Mass. After Mass came donuts, of course, and a quiet afternoon.

Thanks to all of the Dads who came along this year – a campfire with six families is really a blast. Looking forward to next year!

Birthday girl

2011-08-03T10:36:00.001-07:00

Hannah’s birthday party hasn’t happened yet. But she has opened the gifts that were here for her from her us and various others who have sent things. However, that was at 7:15 a.m. on her birthday…so I didn’t get any pictures of it. Sigh. For some reason, I don’t think of taking pictures when I’ve been up for 2 1/2 minutes. Next year I’ll remember to set out the camera the night before!

By the time cake time rolled around, though, I was awake enough to remember the camera.

Hannah requested a cookie cake this year. This is a deviation from tradition; ever since she’s had the choice, it’s been apple breakfast cake made by Michael. This year, she saw a cookie cake somewhere and thought that would be fantastic.

I was a bit worried about eggless cookie cake, but it came out really good. And – bonus! – Hannah didn’t realize that there would be chocolate chips in it until I was making it. I never even thought to tell her…it’s one of those things that kids who can eat eggs learn at an early age: cookie cakes have chocolate chips in them.

We all liked the cake, and Hannah had a great day, even though I missed taking pictures of her gift opening. I’ll try to get pictures of the gifts separately as she’s using them, and then you can see them.

Touching: they missed me

2011-08-03T04:35:00.000-07:00

The kids were swift to point out that they missed me while they were camping. The reasons were somewhat…less edifying than one might hope.

Hannah: I really missed you while we were camping, Mom. Dada put a braid in my hair and it was too chunky and ended really abruptly.

Still, I can’t complain. They had a great time and I am very, very glad about that. They were happy to see me when they got back, and I certainly wouldn’t have wanted them to spoil their camping trip pining for me at home.

Homesickness

2011-08-02T02:25:00.000-07:00

can come from different sources for different people. Naomi, on the morning they were departing for camping, said, “I’m going to go potty now [instead of after the car was packed]. I just remembered that this is the last time I’ll be using this potty for three days and two nights.”

Hannah’s 8!

2011-08-01T09:01:00.001-07:00

Happy Birthday, Hannah-Boo!

Camping

2011-08-01T03:31:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was Dads and Kids camping. Our kids all went. Well, except for Quinque, who refused to go along. Preparations last week were quite amusing.

Hannah wanted to start packing about a month before. We managed to dissuade her from this. Meal planning was done LONG ago, and Hannah’s list was really, really, really cute. She had a chart for the days and meals and a list down below of the things we needed to get at the store.

The day before they left, after Naomi’s suitcase was packed (oh, and she had corrected some of the erroneous outfit choices I’d made: “Mama, I’ll go get the shirt that goes with this skort, because it’s not this one.”), she spent some time sitting next to her bag, with her backpack on her back. She was staring out the open front door. I’m not exactly sure what she was thinking, but I enjoyed watching her be quietly excited.

Simeon was excited because graham crackers were going along. He loves graham crackers and we don’t have them very often. Sleeping in a tent was also high on his list of things to be really excited about. He also revived his old favorite from last year: “Fire. Ugh.”

The kids were excited about leaving me at home.

Hannah: I’m looking forward to coming home to a clean house.

Simeon: Bye, Mama! I love you! [This was about an hour before they actually left.]

Naomi: Dada, do you know how do a high pony tail? Yes? Okay! [As long as my high-pony-tail-making skills weren’t necessary, she was sure she’d be fine without me.]

They were all very sweet about it, though. They assured me that they’d miss me and would be happy to see me again.

Update

2011-07-29T07:58:00.001-07:00

1. We’ve seen the sun! I know everyone else is languishing in the heat and drought, but we’ve had an unusually wet and cool summer. This week we saw the sun a couple of times! Of course, we also saw heavy rain and 60 degree temperatures, but at least we weren’t at swimming lessons for that.

2. We got the first zucchini from our garden. The zucchini is HAPPY. Apparently, lower temps and filtered sunlight are what make it pleased to be alive, because it’s as happy as it can be.

3. We went to the recycled house stuff store this week. The kids loved it. I’m not kidding. They loved this place, from all the stuff they thought they’d like to the bathtubs and toilets that were dirty and worthy of upturned noses to the resident cats, they had a fantastic time checking it out. The most-repeated phrases were, “Mom, look at this!” and, “What is this?”

4. Hannah has come up with another explanation for the outfit on the woman in my exercise video: “I think she’s from a different culture. Maybe she’s Hawaiian.”

5. Hildy the bunny likes to play with Simeon’s toys, especially the little cars and trains. She picks them up in her mouth and tosses them. The one time this backfired was when there was a train track setup and she accidentally knocked down the bridge, scaring herself silly. But in general, she’s a big fan of Sim’s toys.

6. My nesting instinct is kicking in. This is part of why this week has been low on blog posts. 37 weeks is considered full term, and we’ll be there next Saturday. Not that I think the baby will come that early, based on his or her siblings’ births, but one never knows.

7. Speaking of kicking, the baby in utero is VERY active. As the doctor remarked, active babies don’t usually change that by being born. Luckily I’ll have some help chasing this one when it gets old enough to run.

8. The other day, Simeon held up his fingers about half an inch apart and said, “Quinque is this big.” Apparently we haven’t talked about the size of the baby recently. (If that’s how big the baby is, then I have been eating FAR too many doughnuts!) So, we then had a discussion about how big the baby is. Of course, that baby has to come out, so I find it’s best to not dwell on that too long.

9. Naomi has decided that she’s not going to learn to read. When asked if she wouldn’t enjoy it, she admitted that she might, but she also said, “But then you’ll make me read to Simeon.” The thing is, she’s not really wrong about that. BUT it’s not a great reason to choose illiteracy.

10. Simeon has embraced the word “hilarious.” He uses it appropriately, too. I must say, hearing him use it is…hilarious.

Exercise critics

2011-07-22T15:41:00.001-07:00

Hannah and Naomi have appreciated the pregnancy exercise DVDs I’ve been doing. Hannah likes to compare and contrast: “I like this one better because it has more people. The other one has just one. But look at the room she’s in. It’s not nice like the other one. And the music isn’t as good.” Most of Hannah’s critiques are aesthetic.

Naomi likes to do the exercises with me. Then she likes to make up her own exercise routines, complete with descriptions of what she’s doing and how to do it yourself, just like the women in the video. I would add a caveat about this: Naomi’s exercises are not always appropriate for pregnant women. In fact, they’re not always appropriate for anyone whose flexibility doesn’t approach that of an active 5-year-old girl. But it is pretty cute to watch her.

Neither girl approved of the woman who had a bikini top as part of her outfit.

Hannah: She didn’t dress very well for this video.

Naomi: Maybe she didn’t know anyone would be taking a video of her.

Adding to the list of ridiculous things my kids fight over

2011-07-20T13:18:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I had Hannah weeping – weeping! – in a huddled heap in the living room. You might think, “Poor little Hannah! What could have happened to her that she’d spend her time weeping in a heap?”

Naomi’s turn cleaning the toilet was too long. CLEANING THE TOILET. Hannah wanted her turn.

I could NOT believe that I was having to mediate this argument. What does one say to that? “Don’t worry, Hannah, there will be a lot more times that the toilet will need to be cleaned and you can do ALL OF THEM.” Or perhaps, “Don’t worry, Hannah, I don’t mind if the toilet is rescrubbed after being scrubbed once.”

It turned out that all I needed to do to relieve her meltdown was to show her how to clean the whole bathroom.

But not the Rhubarb Panic

2011-07-19T15:55:00.001-07:00

I laughed at this post by Simcha Fisher. She’s pregnant, too. She has pregnancy insomnia, too. She ends up thinking about totally irrelevant things in the middle of the night, too. I have to admit, I haven’t had the Rhubarb-Related Panic, but I did have some pretty good times lying awake thinking whether we had enough strawberries for this or that project (…and if so, how was I EVER going to get all those projects done? Would I need to freeze the berries first? Would that affect how the jam turned out? How could I find that out? Without wasting a whole bunch of berries, if it doesn’t work? Should I just be freezing berries for smoothies anyway?)

And I’ve planned out all of the house projects we’ll need to do for the next 5-10 years. Because sometime between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m. is always the best time for things like that. And the planning needs to be done now, of course. Happily, the plans I’ve made aren’t completely insane (always a danger with plans made at that hour), so we may actually use some of them.

So my question is: why is pregnancy designed thus? It seems to be a common thing that pregnant women experience insomnia at a time when you’d think that their bodies would be sleeping as much as possible in the hopes of starting off at a fairly well-rested point with a little one who will be awakening multiple times at night for an undetermined length of time. Perhaps the idea is to train up?

Nesting

2011-07-17T15:17:00.001-07:00

has begun in a big, bad way. Michael and the kids are going camping for a weekend coming up and I already have FAR more nesting plans for that weekend than I can reasonably complete…Not to mention the plans that I need to complete before that in order to be ready for the projects that I want to do then! This particular pregnancy nesting seems to be much stronger than the others. I don’t know why, but maybe it’s because this baby is coming at the beginning of the school year and I want to be ready for that as well as for all of the new baby things.

Vocabulary

2011-07-14T14:46:00.001-07:00

Hannah was showing me a scrape on her leg today. “What happened?” I asked.

She replied, “I hit it on that dastardly pedal!”

More on swimming lessons

2011-07-13T22:55:00.001-07:00

Naomi, after day 1: It was great! Fun!

Naomi, after day 2: It was great! Fun!

Naomi, after day 3: It was great! Fun!

Hannah, after day 1: I thought I was a good swimmer, but now I know I’m not. I can’t even side-breathe. [Side-breathing had just been introduced to her in that lesson.] But it was fun.

Hannah, after day 2: I hope we learn something new soon. We don’t even jump in. But it was fun.

Hannah, after day 3: My teachers are the best in the WHOLE POOL! I like Max a little more than Ann. He shows a lot of stuff, but doesn’t correct a lot. I’m not very good at keeping my chin tucked when diving. [Diving had just been introduced to her in that session.] But it was fun.

Simeon, day 1: Can I have my swimming lessons now?

Simeon, day 2: Can I have my swimming lessons now?

Simeon, day 3: Can I have my swimming lessons now?

Taking turns

2011-07-12T08:36:00.000-07:00

is a hot topic in our house, of course, because we are a sharing family, you know. What’s interesting is that now we have to take turns SINGING. Sometimes it’s okay to sing together, but sometimes certain kids want to sing BY THEMSELVES. This means that we end up having one singer joining in, only to have the original singer stop singing and yell (it’s always a yell when it comes to this particular situation, never a polite request), “STOP SINGING! IT’S MY TURN TO SING!” Because of this, singing time can quickly deteriorate into screaming time. Really fun.

Swimming lessons

2011-07-12T01:14:00.001-07:00

began Monday. Daily for 2 weeks, but just for the girls. The place we’re going doesn’t have lessons for anyone under three. Simeon is not impressed. The girls were a bit chilly, but both had a great time and did very well.

Fruit picking

2011-07-10T14:16:00.001-07:00

Michael took last week off, so we used some of the time to pick fruit. I’ve told you about the strawberries. Friday it was cherries and blueberries. We got 32 pounds of bing cherries, 14 pounds of pie cherries, and 11 pounds of blueberries.

So now we just have to eat them or pit them and process them.

Photos will be forthcoming.

I can see the humor even now

2011-07-07T07:58:00.001-07:00

As the baby’s due date approaches (August 28), posts like this make me laugh even more than usual. Which is good, because I think that, with the first couple of kids they made me sweat and worry.

9 years ago today

2011-07-06T08:20:00.001-07:00

Really? 9 years?

Strawberries

2011-07-06T08:14:00.001-07:00

We’ve finally entered strawberry-picking season! It’s quite late this year, because the spring was so cold and damp, but we’ve picked, as a family, 27 pounds since last Friday. That’s really just 2 farms visited and 11 pounds picked Friday and 16 yesterday. Michael came with us yesterday.

Hannah and Naomi are great pickers. Simeon can readily identify the ripe berries and eats them with great vigor. Yesterday, though, the farm had a dirt track next to the field, so Sim spent most of his time there, playing in the dirt. Of course, since he’d been slathered with sunscreen before the excursion, and then had eaten several strawberries before the dirt, he was quite a sight when we finished.

I’ve made 2 kinds of preserves and a strawberry jam, and I’m looking forward to a couple more kinds of jam, as well as strawberry syrup and butter. Hannah wants to make freezer jam, too. And, of course, we’ve been eating strawberries plain, in smoothies, and in strawberry shortcake. Mmmmm, summer!

More creations

2011-07-03T08:07:00.001-07:00

A lot of what we’re creating these days involves the garden, but I haven’t taken the camera out there recently. Yesterday would have been perfect, since the weather was absolutely gorgeous. But I didn’t think of it. Today it’s overcast again, so I think I’ll wait for another sunny day. Hopefully it won’t be too long.

However, something I made recently was a book of felt saints for our goddaughter. I got the idea from a website, as well as from our Catholic Craft Day group, which did a felt Last Supper during Lent. The only problem with the felt Last Supper was that it didn’t stick very well, since we used glue. The woman who made the website I found (which I can’t remember now…typical for my life these days!) used embroidery techniques to put together her felt pictures, so that’s what I did. Then I made them all into a little book. It’s very handmade (lots of fun mistakes!), but I thought it came out cute.

I asked my goddaughter’s mother what saints were their favorites. Our Lady of Kibeho topped the list.

Saint Anne is supposed to be sitting on that bench. It’s difficult to get felt pictures to look like they’re sitting. Try it sometime.

I had a lot of fun with the iconography. The lily is a bit funny-looking, but at least the saw is very clear. I was doubly pleased that Naomi guessed who this was before I told her. Hannah knew, too, of course, but I wasn’t sure if Naomi would recognize him.

St. Peter’s name is completely wonky. But the keys, which Michael thought were hatchets on my first attempt at making them, came out looking mostly like keys, I thought.

St. Nicholas was the most fun, because he has all kinds of different iconography. I had to be sure the little bags of money were in there, for the dowries, you know.

I have a feeling more felt saints are in my future, because I had so much fun with this one.

Do you need a laugh?

2011-06-30T20:27:00.001-07:00

Then you might want to check out this video. Michael and I both laughed a lot about it.

Naps

2011-06-28T20:44:00.001-07:00

Simeon is working on giving up his nap. This is hard in many ways. For all my kids, they’ve been almost ready to give up naps, but the last step to napless-readiness seems to be to actually give up the nap and go from there. That means that they’re not quite ready to give it up, but they’re almost ready, which means that we have some rough afternoons. Also, I appreciate the blocks of time to do things (including get a nap of my own) that come from having the youngest nap. The girls do an hour of quiet time each day, which is made (not by accident) to coincide with naptime, so that means that I have an hour of time to do what I need to do to recharge from the morning. The other rough thing is that, when he does get a nap, he isn’t ready to go to bed when it’s bedtime. Which means he pops out of the room repeatedly.

[Simeon recently conked out in the car and didn’t wake up when I brought him in…or during the next 30 minutes of noise and normal life.]

On the other hand, Simeon is good at doing quiet time already. I put on a CD for him and explain that when it’s over he’s done, and he spends his quiet time looking at books and listening to the CD. So I really can’t complain too much about that, except that he often has a potty break in there, and it’s usually about 5 minutes after I’ve fallen asleep for my own little nap, hoping for 15-20 minutes. Still, it’s been the smoothest transition to quiet time we’ve had yet. And, when he doesn’t take a nap, he falls asleep right away upon being put to bed.

It’s strange to have the baby growing up so much. He reminds me that he’s not the baby, Quinque is the baby. He’s a big boy. And too many times I have the feeling that he’s right. He can put away silverware, clear and scrape his own plate and put it in the dishwasher, wash his own hands, open doors, water plants, put together puzzles.

The thing is, each phase has its joys and difficulties, so I’m happy to say goodbye to each phase in theory because of the difficulties, but I watch my kids grow and realize that I can’t stop them, and I can’t get the joys of that particular phase with that particular child back. It doesn’t matter that there’s another child in line to become that age – having multiple kids doesn’t mean that I’m immune to this feeling. I don’t want to get to the day that Naomi stops saying Cingorilla. I don’t want to get to the day that Hannah decides that “made at home” isn’t some kind of great honor and distinction. And I have mixed feelings about Sim giving up naps.

This isn’t any kind of new discovery, of course. It’s another mother being reminded to enjoy things as they come.

More things I’ve been making

2011-06-22T20:42:00.001-07:00

This I made for my sister. It’s just like the bag I made myself, only more colorful. She says she likes it.

This is a 20-minute Tote from the Purl Bee. It was a bit longer than 20 minutes, but I don’t think the woman who did the tutorial had three kids “helping” her. This one is for my niece. I also made one for Naomi and one for Simeon. Naomi’s has fairies on it, and Simeon’s has construction equipment. Naomi’s holds her Cingorilla doll and Sim’s holds his cars.

This is a pull-over-the-head bib that I made from a pattern from a new book I got: Growing Up Sew Liberated, by Meg McElwee. This is for my nephew for his birthday…late. I am enjoying this book, and got a walking foot on the author’s recommendation so that I could do knits more easily. Let me tell you, it’s a revelation. I have always been afraid of knits, because the few times I’ve used them, they have been the nastiest things to work with. But the walking foot…ah, the walking foot! So easy, so lovely. I have a feeling I’ll be making lots more knits. I mean, just check out this tutorial – another one of Meg McElwee’s creations. How can I resist?

Father’s Day

2011-06-22T20:21:00.001-07:00

We took a hike Father’s Day afternoon. The weather was overcast and a bit chilly, but we weren’t to be deterred. This summer may all be like that, and if we’re not willing to go out in weather like that, we may be inside all summer.

When we told the kids we were going into the mountains for a hike, there were mixed reactions. Hannah was excited, Naomi started to cry, claiming that she was scared of the mountains, and Simeon said he didn’t want to fall off the mountain.

However, by the end of the hike, a good time had been had by all. We deliberately chose a fairly easy hike, since children and a pregnant woman were involved. It was 1.2 miles to the waterfall, and then, of course, 1.2 miles back. Incredibly, Simeon walked probably 2 of those. Then he suddenly said, “My legs are SO tired! Will you carry me?” I declined, but Michael was willing. Some of the tiredness of Sim’s legs might have been related to his penchant for jumping. Both up the trail and down the trail, he jumped off rocks (most of which were about 2 inches above ground level) and over things.

Hannah liked to be ahead of everyone, despite a tendency to tell us every few minutes that she was tired and hoped we got there soon. She stopped when I pointed out to her that it wasn’t too much fun hiking with someone who complained all the time. She seemed to realize the justice of this, and switched to talking about other things.

I think Naomi’s favorite part was singing on the way down the mountain. And skipping and running. Her legs weren’t tired, I guess!

It was great to get into the wilderness a bit, and fun to do the hike together. Pictures? Well, that would have required remembering the camera, which we didn’t do.

We stopped for dinner on the way home, and everyone slept very well that night.

Hannah loves to create

2011-06-18T09:09:00.001-07:00

She loves crafts! Any type! Any time! I like crafts, but I have to admit that I’m much more picky about the type that I like, and ones that create yet MORE clutter for our house are not the type that I like. So making another egg-carton caterpillar isn’t really in my line. However, sewing stuffed animals for cousins for their birthdays is something that I can definitely appreciate.

I recently got the book Hand-Stitched Felt, by Kata Golda, from our library. It’s full of fun projects that have also inspired other ideas in fertile brains, and many of them are doable for an ambitious 7-year-old who has a parent who’s willing to help get through rough spots (and look up how on earth to do the blanket stitch on Youtube – they helpfully have a video). Some of them are doable by Naomi, too, and I’ll show those in a later post.

The local girl cousin had a birthday at the beginning of the month, and Hannah decided that she needed to make a stuffed mouse from the book for her cousin.

My poor mother, who taught me to embroider, will be happy to hear that, with this project, I was finally forced to learn how to do a French knot. And Hannah learned, too, much earlier than I did.

She stuffed the mouse herself, too.

And embroidered the face. She learned the blanket stitch from Youtube in order to connect the stuffed parts together (I don’t think that was one that my mom ever tried to teach me), and the whip stitch to connect the head to the neck.

Local girl cousin seemed to very much like the mouse, which was pronounced to be a lot like Angelina Ballerina. Hannah has decided that she’s going to make herself a dog, a bunny, a mouse…and maybe a boy dog, bunny, and mouse. For some reason, I’m hoping that she’ll be needing to make more gifts than things for herself.

Busy

2011-06-17T20:14:00.001-07:00

We had Michael’s parents and sister in town over the last weekend, and had a lot of fun. Of course, I didn’t actually take any pictures. What? I know. I realized that after they left.

I also wish I’d brought my camera to the community garden where we have our own 10x20 plot. I hadn’t been there in a few weeks, having covered everything with weed barrier and left it until I was ready to plant. Well…the weed barrier partly blew off, so we were faced with a long, 3 foot wide strip of 2 foot high grass with weeds underneath. When we were finished, we had cleared that all out, planted potatoes, melons, and beans, and covered the potatoes with straw. It was a very dramatic difference and I had a lot of help.

Naomi, in particular, was an extremely diligent and motivated gardener, following behind my grass-pulling efforts (the grass more than filled a wheelbarrow) and pulling all the little weeds. She must have done that for about an hour and a half! Then she asked for further jobs. Hannah was very into planting, as well as ridding our plot of any grubs and slugs discovered. Sim liked that I gave him scissors and asked him to trim the grass next to the path, where it’s hard to pull. He also liked using the hoe. If you want to add adventure to your life, give your 2 1/2-year-old a hoe and put 3 other people, also working, in a 10x20 plot with him. Miraculously, nobody got hurt.

I’m also still trying to get the garden at home set up, and this weekend is Father’s Day. I’ve begun having dreams that are very clearly “you’re not ready for the new baby to come yet and you should be” nesting dreams. They’re not very fun – new baby, no diapers, new baby, didn’t make it to the hospital, new baby, no name yet, etc. For the most part, we have what we need, but there are a few scattered items that we haven’t gotten yet, so I need to make my list and get everything ready. At least, my nesting instinct seems to think so.

I have some pictures of more creations, but they’ll have to wait. Some of them are ones that the girls made – they’re very cute!

Another creation

2011-06-06T20:12:00.001-07:00

I think I might have bitten off more than I could chew on this one. When the nice weather hit and I wanted to take all the kids out to play and do gardening, we had a plethora of little girls’ sunhats – all very cute – and the girls had a great time deciding which one they would wear.

We only had one bucket hat that was remotely the right size for Simeon. It turns out that we don’t actually have gender neutral headwear. This hasn’t ever been a problem, because we had hats galore for boys smaller than Sim is now…I’m not really sure why. Hand-me-downs? Gifts? Purchases by me?

Sim wore the too-small turtle bucket hat that day, but I decided that I’d make him a hat. I searched about on sewing blogs and realized that bucket hats aren’t that tricky. One blog had a really cute one made out of worn out pants, and a pocket was even part of the design. So cute! I then recalled that Michael had worn out some pants…maybe they were still around.

A phone call to Michael confirmed that he had pants and jeans that were worn out in a certain spot in the closet and that he wouldn’t mind if I completely cut them up. So I found some cargo pants and began my project.

Okay, it turns out that making this hat without a pattern was more tricky than I expected. And the fact that I used the waistband for the hat (which I think, in an unbiased way, is totally cute) meant that attaching the brim was not going as smoothly as I had imagined. And then there was the bobbin tension.

So I took a break. I left the project for several days and let it steep. When I came back, I suddenly had the patience to make the brim fit the hat. And I realized that I should try rethreading to see if that fixed the tension issue (it did). And I finished the hat.

Here it is. It’s much cuter on Simeon, of course, but I forgot to get a picture of that before bedtime, and there’s no way I’m waking him up for a picture.

Since it’s a hat from worn out pants, it already has that lived-in look. It is definitely NOT girly. Simeon likes it.

What you don’t see are the funky seams underneath…and you never will, because I wasn’t foolish enough to make a reversible bucket hat on the first try!

What I learned: This might be a good project to actually have a pattern…it would have been a lot faster, I’m sure. Also, that Simeon’s taste in hats is not fussy or discriminating.

Update

2011-06-05T09:17:00.001-07:00

Weather: Gorgeous

Activities: Mostly outdoors, especially gardening

Children: Thrilled to be wearing short sleeves and NO TIGHTS (except Sim, who doesn’t ever wear tights), pleased at the prospect of selecting which hat to wear outside, rediscovering all the hideouts in our yard, rediscovering the sand box and its rules, such as NO THROWING SAND, SIM!, watering plants, running around, dirty and tired by the end of the day

Garden: 3 yards of compost spread about and making new garden beds out front (with especial thanks to my hero, Michael, who did the majority of the moving), many things planted, seeds sprouting, lettuce going crazy, blueberry bushes and strawberry plants blooming away with the promise of later production

Inside: Not getting more messy, because we’re almost never there, but not really getting more clean, because we’re almost never there

Parents: Pleased with all that’s getting done, enjoying the weather, worn out in a very good way by the end of the day

Recommendations: Rhubarb Orange Jam from Canning for a New Generation: SO GOOD!

Perhaps I should have seen this coming,

2011-06-04T07:39:00.001-07:00

but I didn’t. Now that Naomi has seen the opera, she spends a lot of her time singing VERY high notes…loudly. This can be a bit hard on the ears if she’s singing in a small, enclosed space such as the bathroom. She used to do some of her loudest and highest singing when everyone was in the bathroom as the kids were brushing and flossing and getting ready for bed. Not a recipe for happiness, unfortunately. I feel something like an ogre when I request that she sing not quite so high, but I also don’t want to sustain ear damage. I’ve explained to her that outside or in large areas, it’s not a problem, and she seems to be moderating herself accordingly.

It’s not always too loud or too high, though. She often makes up songs about her life as she goes about her day. And she made up a play that she did for Michael’s birthday that involved dancing and singing and was really cute.

She’s also working on her vibrato off and on.

Day 5 of Staycation

2011-06-02T14:24:00.001-07:00

Okay, it’s well over now, but I still have to share Day 5, which was Sunday. We went to Mass, then picked up doughnuts, then headed for the ferry!

Doughnuts are important on Sundays, of course.

We got to the ferry in good time and drove the car on.

Then we checked out the view from the ferry.

It wasn’t raining, despite forecasts of rain for all of Michael’s time off.

Sim, on the 15-minute drive from the ferry dock to the forest theater that was our destination, fell asleep. Then he slept in the car for 40 minutes while Michael and the girls had lunch.

When Sim woke up, he and I walked down the trail to find Michael and the girls and the seats they saved for us, because we were going to see…

Oklahoma!

We got there early enough that it was a bit boring, waiting for the show. That was despite finishing lunch and looking around.

The girls didn’t really want to walk around much, being in perpetual fear that the show would start without them, although we assured them that there were 20 minutes before the show.

The theater was really, really cool.

The seating is on the hillside above the stage. It’s basically large steps cut into the hillside. There’s a 1/4 mile hike down to the theater.

Michael got a commemorative bandanna.

(Simeon’s look of intense concentration lasted the entire show. He held almost completely still, too, which is saying something for a boy of 2 1/2.)

Simeon had gotten the soundtrack for Oklahoma! for Hannah for Christmas, which meant that the kids knew all the songs already, and were very excited when we told them we were going to see it.

Not so excited, though, that they wanted to talk to the characters at the intermission.

This cowboy tried to greet Sim…who was not very talkative, apparently. Notice Naomi clinging to Michael with all of her strength.

Afterwards, the audience was invited to come down and meet the cast (which we didn’t do, the kids being too shy to speak to them) and check out the backstage area and generally get a look behind the scenes. The kids did like that idea. They were taken with the log that you can crawl through.

They also liked how the house front didn’t lead to anything.

And they thought it was really cool when they found the smokehouse set that was used in the Poor Judd scene.

Hannah and Naomi agreed on all the parts and characters they liked best. Sim, after hearing that the girls didn’t like the bad dream part, decided that was his favorite. None of them liked Judd, though.

It’s really cute to have them sing the songs together.

Afterwards, we took the ferry home, having thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Everyone enjoyed the whole day, what with the ferry, the show, and the ferry again. We got home just at bedtime and everybody crashed.

Happy Birthday, Michael!

2011-05-31T22:56:00.001-07:00

Today is Michael’s something-somethingth birthday!

We celebrated by sending him to Mass by himself this morning, taking a morning bike ride, going swimming, and playing video games. Well, Michael played video games – he somehow figured out how to hook up his Nintendo games to our projector, so he could show the kids Super Mario. He enjoyed it a bunch. So did they.

[You may be asking yourself, “How is it that Michael has his Nintendo and games, when Monica is such a freak about getting rid of stuff?” I’m asking myself the same thing, but it’s Michael’s birthday, so I’m not going to ask him that today. He’ll probably site the used-in-the-last-6-months clause, though. And since he used it today, he’s right.]

I made this for his birthday dinner. It was good. Michael likes bacon. And burgers. When this recipe appeared on the blog last week, I knew that it was what he wanted for his birthday dinner.

I made this for his birthday cake. Also good. But why is some of the recipe in cups and some in grams and some in milliliters? Mysterious. I doesn’t make any difference to the taste, though. I will confess, my creation did NOT look like the picture on the recipe.

We managed to eat a whole bunch of it despite its looks.

My local sister and brother-in-law stopped in to help later in the evening, too.

I’m so glad that Michael was born! Happy Birthday, My Love!

Staycation day 4

2011-05-31T15:21:00.001-07:00

Today is the last day of staycation, and we’re going to miss Michael when he goes back to work!

Saturday, day 4 of staycation, was a home day. Michael took the kids for a bike ride to the park in the morning. I had taken the opportunity of the kids waking up late to take a morning walk on my own instead of a bike ride – mix things up a bit. I didn’t go to the park because I was making jam. Strawberry rhubarb and orange rhubarb. And canning it. I recently came upon this book, and have really been having some fun with it. I made the pickled asparagus earlier in staycation, and then these jams. Mmmm. In theory I’d like to save them for when the weather gets dark and cold again, but I’m not sure that’s going to happen. Everyone likes the jam so much that it might not last us the next few weeks.

The rest of the family enjoyed the park, though, and the dire predictions of rain for the day didn’t come true. Just shows you can’t trust the weather. There was more moving of compost, as well.

Michael and the kids made strawberry rhubarb pie in the afternoon. I forgot to take pictures, but they all enjoyed it. I had gotten some mini pie pans to use with the kids, so they each got to make a mini pie. They’re really 2-serving pies, though, which we had to explain. While they made pie, I sewed a new summer purse for myself:

using this tutorial. It was pretty easy and quick. We all hung out in the dining room together again, working on our various projects and enjoying our family.

We had more salmon for dinner, although the friends who were supposed to come over ended up getting sick and not being able to come. The girls especially are really enjoying salmon this year. It’s quite cute. We ate their pie for dessert, and it was a hit with everyone but Naomi, who doesn’t care for cooked fruit. She had chocolate instead.

Rush hour explained

2011-05-30T21:50:00.001-07:00

Naomi has carefully explained to Simeon that “rush hour” means the time when cars can go fast on the freeway, since there aren’t many cars. When there are lots of cars, it’s called…I can’t remember the whole name, but “traffical hour” is in there.

Simeon has picked this up quite easily, and will happily tell Naomi, “It’s rush hour, Naomi!” as we’re sailing down the freeway.

It’s too cute to disabuse either of them of this idea. Besides, it does make more sense their way.

Staycation Day 3

2011-05-28T07:25:00.001-07:00

was yesterday. Despite the forecast for RAIN, RAIN, RAIN, both Thursday and Friday had a significant amount of sun. And only a small amount of rain. So we went to the farmer’s market downtown and had some good fun. Salmon, rhubarb, strawberries, beef jerky (one of these things is not like the others…). The salmon is Copper River salmon, which only has a season of about three weeks and is totally delicious – more so even than other salmon. It always comes around Michael’s birthday, which he doesn’t mind. In the market is a fishmonger where they throw the fish, and we got to see our salmon thrown. The kids were most impressed.

Then we went and picked up the rest of the straw for our garden. More on that in a different post. I’m trying out a different technique. Then we came home and had Quiet Time and proceeded to spend most of the afternoon outside enjoying the beautiful weather. And spreading more compost, since the pile is depleted, but still there. We’re nearly done, though, and I got a whole bunch of stuff planted Thursday! More to go, but this spring has been so cold that it hasn’t seemed like a good idea to try putting things out early.

Yesterday evening we had friends over to help us eat some of the salmon. That was a lot of fun, and the kids all heartily enjoyed the salmon. (I was realizing that, since I grew up in Texas, I hadn’t had salmon until much later in life. It’s just not a Texas fish.) It was great to see our friends – they are a lot of fun, and our kids do well together, too. Prepping dinner on a weeknight with Michael home is really a breeze, particularly if he’s grilling most of the food.

The kids are definitely enjoying long hours of each day spent outdoors. Naomi spent quite a while practicing biking uphill – the large hill next to our house – yesterday. And then she spent some time practicing biking up our driveway, which is even steeper. The girls also cleaned off the plastic table for Michael, which involved the hose, so was totally fun. Simeon did a lot of digging, whether in the compost bed or in the hole in the garden that I let them make, he didn’t care much. Needless to say, he was pretty dirty by the end of the day – the sign of time well spent, as far as he’s concerned.

Staycation continues to be fun and both productive and relaxing.

Staycation Day 2

2011-05-26T20:39:00.001-07:00

Michael here. I don’t know if we’ll keep this up daily, but here’s a quick note on day 2: The Day of Three Contractors.

First, the Door Works mechanic arrived to install a garage door opener for our garage:

I think I’ve wanted a garage door opener for that garage since we moved in, and we started the project of getting electricity out to the garage almost 2 years ago (July ‘09). I was very happy to finally see the garage door opening on its own this morning.

While the mechanic was at work, the second contractor arrived: well, a deliveryman, actually, with 3 cubic yards of compost for our garden. The kids were delighted to see it dumped on our front walk and spent hours playing king of the mountain on a pile of pit-washed dairy manure. I reminded them what that pile actually was. They told me that it was a tradition to jump on it anyway.

While we were shoveling, the third contractor arrived from Roto-Rooter. Nothing was actually wrong: we just wanted to do preventative maintenance. The cleaning went very well: he said the pipe looked great and will hopefully be good for many years. He was fast, too: he came and went before the garage door mechanic was finished.

So, three contractors had come and gone by 11:00. We spent the rest of the morning and afternoon working in the garden, taking compost to various spots, pulling weeds, chatting with the neighbors, and so forth. The girls had their last choir rehearsal of the school year, and then dinner was provided by our favorite little Italian joint. It was a golden day – the kids were happy to be playing out of doors, and we were happy to get so much done on our house!

Hannah on our modern age

2011-05-26T20:22:00.001-07:00

At dinner tonight, we were discussing a particular pastry that the kids wanted to make. They were distressed that we didn’t have a recipe for it, and Monica replied that we could certainly look up a recipe for it online.

Hannah remarked, “I’m glad we have a computer and don’t have to use our wits like people in Daddy’s time did.”

I couldn’t stop laughing – that quote works on so many levels.

Staycation Day 1

2011-05-25T22:18:00.001-07:00

Michael’s taken some time off, and we’re staying home and doing things around our area. And, to tell the truth, around the house. Of course, the forecast is RAIN, RAIN, RAIN. Oh, well. Last week we had a whole bunch of nice weather, so I shouldn’t complain.

This morning, Michael took the kids to our local science museum. They had a great time. Lots of experiences to relate, funny stories to tell, and a butterfly landed on Simeon! It sounded like a lot of fun, and they saw just about the whole museum.

I spent the morning creating a big mess. And also some pickled asparagus.

It looks a little scary, doesn’t it? I’ll keep you posted on how it actually tastes.

This afternoon, after naps and quiet time, the kids and Michael did Dada’s legos, which is always a big treat. It doesn’t happen very often, but when it does, it’s a whole lot of fun. I think they played legos for two hours straight. And while they did, I made a dress for Hannah. We were all creating things together in the dining room, which made for a pleasant afternoon of family togetherness.

I’m optimistic that summer may actually come some day. And when it does, Hannah will need some clothes. Naomi gets lots of great hand-me-downs, so even though I’m sure I’ll buy and make things for her, I’m a bit more concerned about having some clothes for Hannah to wear. She was highly enthusiastic about this dress, which was gratifying. And it was a really simple pattern, so I put it together today! I foresee that this will be a popular pattern for some more summer clothes…

Morning Bike Ride

2011-05-25T11:37:00.001-07:00

Most mornings since the institution of morning bike ride in our household have not been rainy. Some have been downright pretty. If I had been on my game, I would have brought the camera along on one of those rides. However, “on my game” is not an expression that can be used for me before…probably 9 a.m. (sometimes later), so I of course did not bring my camera on a sunny day. I DID bring it on a non-rainy morning, though, so that you could see some of the fun.

Some of you may be asking yourselves: “Isn’t Monica pregnant? Like, 27 weeks pregnant? Aren’t pregnant women supposed to avoid balance activities like biking?” Yes, yes, and YES! So here’s how we solve that dilemma:

It’s a recumbent tricycle. I got it on craigslist last summer, and have really, really enjoyed it. And you can see that we can attach the burly cart to the back for Sim, who rides a tricycle (but a kids’ one), so can’t keep up with the bigger bikes yet.

How thrilled is everyone to be going on a bike ride? Naomi has a bell toy that she keeps in the garage, and she rings it as I back out the burly/trike combination. This is something like the beeping that large trucks do when they’re backing up. Naomi says it tells people that I’m coming. On this particular ride, Sim brought along a maraca so he could join in the fun.

This one is the most enthusiastic biker every morning. As long as we remember to put her hair in a low ponytail so that it doesn’t get all in her face. Nothing so annoying as hair in your face as you bike!

Sim sometimes likes to get some running in beforehand, since it’s mostly fresh air for him, not so much exercise, since…

…he’s in the burly. This particular morning, he still has a maraca so that he can provide musical diversion as we go up the hills.

Here’s my view for most of the ride.

Although, of course, sometimes they’re much farther up the road than I am. I didn’t manage to get one of them standing on their pedals, but I’ll see what I can do sometime soon. But the pink and purple with streamers really cracks me up. Sim and I are much less pastel.

Wetlands adventure

2011-05-22T20:19:00.001-07:00

Last week we went over to the new wetlands that had been put in about a year ago at a local park. It was lots of fun.

It was chilly, and it had rained recently, so we were all bundled and booted. The hats weren’t really necessary, since it wasn’t really COLD, but Naomi wanted one to keep her hair back, and Simeon…just wanted one.

There are many fascinating things at the wetlands.

Some of them get into our shoes. Each of the kids had a shoe-emptying stop.

Naomi is our star dandelion picker this year. We go about and pick them so that they don’t go to seed (although we’ve fallen down on the job this week). She recently made $10 picking dandelions for the local aunt and uncle. They pay more per dandelion than we do, and didn’t realize what a very dedicated dandelion picker they’d hired. She was really impressed with the size of this one. We didn’t pick it, though. You know, take only pictures, leave only footprints.

Hannah brought her nature book and wanted to sketch.

I imagine that, once the small things that are planted on the perimeter grow up, a photo from this angle will look very different.

The kids all appreciated the logs placed strategically around.

You wouldn’t guess we’re in the middle of the city, would you?

Fallen logs = comfy nap spots.

Now, imagine lots and LOTS of duck pictures. Here’s just one, a representative of the ones the kids wanted me to take of every duck we saw. We saw more than 22 ducks (carefully documented by Hannah), so I’m not including all the pictures I took. Oh, and we also saw (and heard) a redwing blackbird. But the picture I took of him was not remotely close enough to show him in this format. We also saw a flicker, as well as the hole in a large snag (standing dead tree) that was probably its home. And there were all kinds of sparrows swooping and darting about.

Did I mention the kids enjoyed the logs?

The log climbing reminds me that Michael and the local aunt recently taught the children the Log Song.

They learned it while they were making the wood pile from the wood that was left after the cherry trees came down.

I had heard it vaguely sometime in the past, but hadn’t remembered it.

Now, thanks to Michael and my sister, I can hear it playing in my head as the children play on the logs.

“It’s log, it’s log, it’s big, it’s heavy, it’s wood!”

“Everyone wants a log. Come on and get your log.”

And Sim collected large pieces of gravel. Which I made him leave on the path before we went back to the car. You know, take only pictures, leave only footprints.

The kids were very interested in the wildlife.

And the logs.

It was gratifying to have them hold still to hear the redwing blackbird, or cheer when the swallows came swooping close to them, or notice small details of nature.

Nobody wanted to get in the car to go home, but we’ll get to go back again soon.

We had a great time there. It was pleasant and peaceful and natural and 8 minutes’ drive from our house.

Cute to hear with a 5-year-old lisp

2011-05-22T12:52:00.001-07:00

“Is there any leftovew tandoowi chicken?”

Workday comparisons

2011-05-21T12:47:00.001-07:00

My sister sent this link to me this week, and I cracked up at the questions – take a look when you need a laugh. There are so many funny ones, I can’t seem to pick a favorite.

Biking

2011-05-17T09:07:00.001-07:00

The girls are experimenting with standing up while biking. It’s quite amusing to watch a little 5-year-old stand-up biking up the hill on a 12 inch pink bike with streamers. Hannah is rapidly outgrowing her bike, which is all the more noticeable when she’s trying to bike standing up, because her legs can’t get all the way straight even when she’s standing. Maybe a bike with gears is next…

Oven update

2011-05-16T19:38:00.001-07:00

It’s working, thanks to the repairman who came this morning! Whoohoo!

Also, the kids really appreciated the 30 – 40 minutes of entertainment, and learned that, besides 2 kids, the repairman has 2 dogs, named Charlie and Lola. They recommended this book to him, based on his dogs’ names. And they probably got a whole lot more out of him, too, but I was not following the conversation in as much detail as they were.

However, it’s definitely nice to have a functional oven, and I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking of all the things I can now bake. Mmmm.

What have you been reading?

2011-05-14T05:24:00.000-07:00

We’ve been reading a bunch of the Gospel according to St. John, since it’s the Easter season. We’ve done the road to Emmaus as well as a whole bunch of other stories. Naomi was clearly considering this today as we had a snack, because she suddenly commented, “I bet if Jesus had said, “Amen, amen, I say to you,” his disciples would have recognized him.”

Things I’ve learned recently

2011-05-13T15:13:00.001-07:00

1. It’s not so great to have one’s oven stop working in the middle of a party…particularly in the middle of baking pies for that party. (I had already learned that it wasn’t great to have an oven not working. The party part I probably could have conjectured, but now I know it first-hand. No need to try it out yourselves, folks! It’s not fun.)

2. One can warm up the oven sufficiently with the broiler (which was happily still working so that the chicken for the party could get cooked) to finish baking the pies.

3. I wouldn’t recommend this as a regular method for baking pies.

4. It’s annoying to have one’s oven out of commission for over a week. Especially when it’s one’s new oven.

Here are some examples:

“Mom, can we have biscuits for breakfast?”

“Sure…Wait! No, sorry, oatmeal again.”

OR:

Heck, I’m out of tortillas and bread. That’s okay, I’ll make cornbread for…Darn, no I won’t. Well, we don’t really NEED carbs, do we?

OR:

Roast chicken…requires the oven. Okay, new menu plan for THAT night.

5. Raspberry rhubarb pie is delicious, even when partially cooked in a normal way, taken out of the oven, and then cooked the rest of the way using the remaining heat from the broiler. It’s probably EVEN BETTER when baked the proper way. We’ll have to see. Sometime soon. I hope.

6. Bunnies don’t like their toenails clipped. At all.

7. I can clip bunny toenails, whether they like it or not.

8. Spring is good. Okay, this isn’t really something I learned. But I am appreciating it anew. (Just ignore the weeds and enjoy the beautiful tulips and swiss chard. That’s what we do.)

First Communion!

2011-05-08T20:36:00.001-07:00

Today was Hannah’s First Communion. It was a joyful occasion – thank you to everyone who joined us in celebrating, as well as those who were with us in prayer. Before Mass it was cloudy and a bit drippy out, but afterwards, the sun came out and it was gorgeous:

Hannah was dressed in a beautiful gown that Aunt Debbie had made for cousin Tricia’s First Communion years ago…Tricia’s graduating from college this month.

MANY people complimented her on it, and she looked quite lovely. I may be somewhat biased.

Last night, as I was lying in bed and trying to go to sleep, I found myself thinking of how exactly to do the hairstyle we’d decided on. At which point I told myself to GO TO SLEEP ALREADY!

I listened to myself, and I was able to pull off the hairstyle Hannah and I had discussed, thanks to the practice I’ve been getting with hairstyles recently. Hannah, recognizing the price that beauty sometimes demands, said it was worth the pain (I’m not sure it was all that painful, but I think there were a couple of pulls) and the long time it took (which was about 10-15 minutes), because she really liked how it came out.

Yesterday Hannah and I went for First Communion practice and to make flower baskets and banners to decorate the church for the occasion. Each child made a banner for the end of his or her pew.

Hot glue guns are fun! Hannah’s banner has the Eucharist, an angel, and two of her favorite saints, Our Lady, Queen of All Saints, and St. Therese of Lisieux. Also roses and a very lovely ribbon border that had roses on it.

We also had a great time with the flower arrangements. Ours was made from flowers from our yard: tulips, bluebells, and lilacs. I don’t have a picture, but it was really quite pretty.

Fr. Daniel celebrated the Mass and Fr. Christopher preached, and they both did a fantastic job of highlighting the importance of the Eucharist and our relationship with Jesus. Fr. Daniel tends to emphasize how little he can relate to children, but he was really eloquent and not at all difficult to understand. He told them that their Baptism day and their First Communion day are the two most important days of their lives because of the relationship they are building with Jesus, and that they should take care to nurture that relationship their whole lives. Fr. Christopher preached on how we can easily miss things that we’re not expecting to see (because it was the reading about the disciples on the road to Emmaus), so we should expect to meet Jesus in the Eucharist, as well as in the people around us, so that we can see Him there. It was a most beautiful Mass.

There were photographers taking family photos before the big event, so we’re hoping those came out. Simeon had awakened early and was not impressed by most things this morning, so I don’t think he smiled for any of the pictures. However, given his recent track record with “smiling,” we might be okay with that. At any rate, maybe soon you’ll get to see a picture of all of us dressed up and all together, smiling or not.

We had a celebratory gathering this afternoon. No pictures were taken, but a good time was had by all. Someone gave Hannah a book, though, so about 3/4 of the way through, she disappeared into her new book.

A couple of quotes from Hannah about the day:

“First Communion is like a birthday, only better, because you have Jesus inside of you.”

“I feel joyful and solemn.”

“I can hardly believe that I get to go receive the Eucharist EVERY TIME now!”

All in all, it was a wonderful day. We are so blessed in our Faith and our family and our community, and are so happy to have Hannah as a communicant now!

Life changes

2011-05-06T08:49:00.001-07:00

with children. This morning, Hannah said to me:

“For Mother’s Day, you have to sleep in as late as you want. Maybe even to 7:30, or 8:00!”

Morning people

2011-05-04T14:54:00.001-07:00

Some of my family is made up of morning people. I’m not included in this group. Naomi isn’t either. Simeon…well, the jury is still out. Some mornings with him are great and some are…not so great. Hannah and Michael are both up like toast and rarin’ to go in the morning.

However, if I sit around and wait until I’m awake and ready to face the day, any potential momentum for the day has dissipated, and all of the kids are doing different things and I’m stuck trying to regroup as the very first thing of the day. This isn’t a good scene.

So I’ve instituted the early morning bike ride. Everyone up, dressed, beds made, small snack, out the door. (Well, almost everyone. Our ride doesn’t include Michael. He takes an early morning bike ride, too, but his starts before ours and goes to the park and ride so he can catch his bus.) After about 30-35 minutes of riding, we’re all ready to face the day. We’ve seen the snails at Snail Town (phlox in a bunch of neighbors’ yards seems to attract snails), we’ve enjoyed the morning sun…or sprinkles, we’ve had a chance to work off some excess energy (or wake up as we realize that our legs are moving), and we’re all much more able to do chores, eat breakfast, and get started with school as cheerful, happy family members. This morning we rode to the library (not open yet at 7:45 a.m.) and returned some books, so we even did an errand!

Now that the spring mornings start so nice and early and the spring weather means that we don’t always have steady driving rain every morning, I think we’ve found something that will help us have better mornings and get some exercise, too. I have not yet become a morning person, but I figure that this might be a way to get as close as I’ll probably come.

I can’t actually credit myself with the idea of exercise first thing, though, because I have to admit that most of my ideas about morning are along the lines of, “How late can I sleep and still take adequate care of everyone in the morning?”

Big step

2011-05-04T14:40:00.001-07:00

Simeon’s wearing underwear during the day now! As long as we make sure not to let him wait too long for the potty, he does really well. Sharks and turtles on his undies…this is a change from his sisters’ undies, of course, which have flowers and princesses.