Five Little Acorns

Newsy

2010-09-08T18:43:00.000-07:00

We're moving....to http://fivelittleacorns.blogspot.com. It's time that Ari gets a nod in the address. Come on over!

Back to School (for lack of a witty title)

2010-09-08T18:18:00.000-07:00

Hello, all!

We started our new school year yesterday with a bang. Or actually, with the absence of a bang, which I prefer; often the first day of school is met with a lot of sadness/apprehension/skepticism around here. Remember our "first day" photo from last year? Cole told me the other day, "Mom, when I think about starting school, it feels like my worst nightmare. And like my best day EVER." I guess that about sums it up.

But really, can you blame them? School for boys typically means having to give up the stuff they like (playing outside) for the stuff they don't (working sums and practicing handwriting), and so I understand the apprehension...conversely, I understand that on some level they are desperately bored and hopeful that this school year will bring some wonderfully messy projects and possibly another Greek War Ship made entirely of ice cream, whipped cream and frosting (a favorite from last year!).

Oh, and I am hopeful too. I still only have one child that is legally obligated to be schooling, and a gaggle of other wee ones that want to be included, but not forced to work. Ah, the complexity of homeschool! We are also coming off of nearly 6 weeks of 'making do' while Justin has been working out of town, and we are preparing to move for the first time in nearly 7 years.....no small task for people as 'packratty' as my beloved and me. It's a bit of a whirlwind. Big shout-out to my Big Sis who brought her two ones up to add in the chaos for an overnight...and then returned for another visit a short two weeks later to help with our yard sale. B: We are ever so thankful for your help and for all the fun!

Guess that's all for now, as I've just noticed the two-year-old is sitting in front of the oven LICKING IT. Apparently a bit of parenting is required.

20 A Day: Day 11

2010-07-30T15:26:00.000-07:00

Well, here we are on Day 11 and still limping along. I will confess that I am in the hole $20 at this point--there was one day at the beginning of this week that I actually had all the groceries for lunch & dinner, but was just too wiped by the afternoon to make up the bread dough--which of course was the basis of our dinner. We swiped a twenty and bought Subway sandwiches for everyone. We could have made it. I could have cooked a big pot of oats and called it good. But it was Day 5 or 6 and we were hitting a wall, tired already of all of the work required to live on so little!

But for the most part, the experiment is going well. We've managed to do just fine with meals (other than that one little hiccup...which actually provided the next day's lunch, too, now that I think about it) and even add in little bits of gasoline here and there, toilet paper, and a birthday gift.

I'm going super-economy on meals though, folks. Like, taking a roast chicken and making it into three meals economy. My new favorite dinner is grilling up a whole mess of veggies (my eggplant, zukes, onion, and bell peppers from Haggen), mixing up some bread dough and making flatbread rounds that we cook on the barbecue until they are hot and puffy. Then I dump on some of the vegetables, add a sprinkle of mozzarella (2 pounds at Costco for only $3.99!) and put the lid on the 'cue for another minute to make it all melty and yummy. The vegetables are my favorite part, but I'm pretty sure Justin & the boys would be more than content to just live on the hot grilled flatbread.

Other favorites we've had this week are Trout Pie and a sweet onion quiche, made with the Walla Wallas that are on sale everywhere. The boys didn't go for the quiche, but Justin and I ate it for three days. And the Trout Pie was gone that night--it's a big seller every time I make it (I'm sure only due to the fact that it's a Jamie Oliver recipe...). Maybe I'll post that recipe tomorrow, in the event that anyone else has a sweet neighbor like we do that provides them with fresh fish all summer long!

Heard Around The House

2010-07-29T20:08:00.001-07:00

Cole: "I know how to make a chicken bomb! You take a roast chicken, and put some dynamite inside..."

Sorry, folks. He walked out of the kitchen after that. You'll have to imagine the ending on your own.

20 A Day: Day 3

2010-07-23T12:53:00.000-07:00

We went out as a family yesterday morning to the library to restock our movie & book shelves (free entertainment) and stopped at Haggen on the way home so Mama could restock a few of the refrigerator shelves. For the bargain price of $25, we bought:

1 can of pine-orange strawberry juice, 3 packages of bagels, 4 pounds of carrots, 3 cucumbers, 1 eggplant, 2 heads of lettuce, 1 package of cream cheese, 3 pounds of tomatoes on the vine, 1 pound of zucchini, 2 red bell peppers, 2 orange bell peppers, and 1 yellow bell pepper (can anyone guess what dinner I'm envisioning?). It felt good to leave the market with an entire twenty dollar bill still in my pocket.

Breakfast: Omelettes with sauteed mushrooms, sauteed sweet onion, and cheddar.
Lunch: Bagel sandwiches with cream cheese, tomato, cucumber, shredded carrot and mustard, and juice.
Dinner: Hamburgers (Birthday leftovers again) and pasta salad.

Start of Day: $45
End of Day: $20

**************************
Quote of the Day:
"When Ari is a toddler, I'm going to teach him. I only like babies. I don't like toddlers. Toddlers get into your stuff and mess everything up. I just like taking care of babies" --Smack-In-The-Middle Reuben, age 4

20 A Day: Day 2

2010-07-22T09:29:00.001-07:00

We did much better with our stipend yesterday-- only spent coins out of the coin jar for a cup of coffee at Small Group last night.

Breakfast: Oatmeal with brown sugar & raisin.
Lunch: Hotdogs (left over from Cole's birthday on Sunday...we're going to be floating on that food for a while!)
Dinner: From-scratch pancakes with fresh berries and fried eggs.

Start of day: $25
End of day: $25

A grocery trip is on my horizon for today; I've moved from Find-A-Recipe-That-Sounds-Good-And-Buy-The-Stuff-For-It meal planning to Read-The-Ads-Buy-What's-Cheap-And-Create-From-It meal planning (I typically use some combination of the two). I am armed with $45 and will be looking at every display with a critical eye...

20 A Day

2010-07-21T10:54:00.000-07:00

I've implemented a sort of social experiment around here: to see if we can live on twenty dollars a day. (Maybe "social experiment" isn't the right phrase? Monetary experiment, possibly? Though before too long we may begin fighting over the last piece of bread and then it will be more social than we desire...)

I digress. The twenty dollars doesn't include housing, or heat, or any of those things: the bills are paid. I just wondered what it would be like to give ourselves a $20 daily allotment and try to live within it. The money needs to cover groceries, household purchases (diapers, laundry soap etc), gasoline, and spending money. I set a single twenty dollar bill out every morning and whoever needs something can grab it and spend it. If there's any left over, it gets added to the next day's twenty...and so on. We're going to try it for about 3 weeks and see how feasible it is. I'd love to eventually get to the point where we are providing so much of our own food that a Grocery Budget is nearly non-existent.

Day One:
Breakfast: Oatmeal with brown sugar & raisins.
Lunch: Two loaves of homemade bread, fried eggs, yogurt with berries from the garden, watermelon, lemonade (left from Cole's birthday on Sunday).
Dinner: Barbecued trout (caught by the neighbor), basmati rice pilaf, salad.

Spent: $10 at the grocery store (a bag of rice, a half gallon of organic whole milk, green onions and cilantro for the pilaf.)
$5 at Dairy Queen--Mama needed ice cream, and Daddy says 'you shouldn't eat alone'...

We had so much food floating around from the weekend that I thought we'd at least be able to get through the first day without spending, and yet there is only a fiver left. This may prove more difficult than I anticipated.

Posture

2010-07-20T18:25:00.000-07:00

So apparently I have a tendency to go weeks, nay, months without updating this blog. I'm sorry. That must be terribly frustrating to those of you that like to have a semi-regular glimpse into our lives. What is even more frustrating is that sometimes I go through seasons when I like to update daily, and other seasons, there is only silence...

I am realizing that is how my brain works, too. There are times when everything is cheery and the details of my days are tangible. It takes no effort to record daily happenings and funny little quips. But then inevitably, I dip into waters that are deeper, more complex, and my mind goes black for some time as I seek to process what I am thinking, what I hear God saying to me, and where I am being led. And then somehow I get out of the habit of communicating daily events and don't know how to enter back in.

So let's just start, awkwardly. Shall we?

For some time now I have felt gentle nudges to simplify, simplify, simplify. I don't think it's an uncommon message. We live in this culture that is so absolutely oppressive. Stuff EVERYWHERE. Things to do. Places to be. MONEY TO SPEND. It's so burdensome, isn't it? We watch TV shows about hoarders, feel guilt, and purge, frantically. We spend hard-earned dollars on storage solutions, organizational books, and systems. We neglect our kids to read websites and blogs about ways other people are doing "it" (whatever "it" is: organizing, parenting, creating, living), and bite our nails with anxiety that we don't know where to start. It appears that everyone else has it all together and we are the only ones that are lost.

Is anyone else feeling this? Is it only me? Maybe I should have said "I" instead of "we"...

Okay, then. Here is my confession. I did those things, I did. I spent hours trying to figure out better systems to do my daily tasks. I pushed my own children aside while sitting in front of the computer trying to figure out how to be a better parent. And then it struck me how absolutely silly it all was!

Simplify. Simplify. Simplify. But how, Lord? What does that mean? How do I know what it looks like? Where do I begin?

For one, we have determined after nearly 10 years of marriage that, for us, it doesn't mean birth control. The concept that a "smaller family equals a better life" has become a lie to me, because I know my own greediness and how quickly it would take over. Money for vacations? Done. Money for sports lessons? We're there. Money for nicer cars and lots more stuff? Yes, yes, and yes...

But an ever-growing family that ties me to home feels calmer and more secure. I know it doesn't make sense. Here is the best example I can give:

When Cole was a toddler, he was manic. He had problems processing sugars (that we hadn't discovered yet) and in addition to his food issues, he was a typical active little boy. He ran non-stop, always in a straight line, always away from me. Never looked back. I was exhausted for years, parenting just that child, but what I found as he grew is that he exhausted himself, too. He didn't always like being manic and active. Before he could even speak, he developed his own little sign for "go car" and when it all got to be too much for him, he would ask me to take him for a drive. I was always so amazed at how much calmer he would become the instant he was strapped into his 5-point harness. This look of pure relief would come over his face as if he knew it was going to be better now, for a time, because he didn't have to run and be crazy and control his body. He could just rest within the restriction. Now, looking back, I realize that I feel the same way. This world has too many things that lure me in and distract me. The (few) times that I have had plenty, I find myself immediately swayed by options. I'm too weak against them, and it's too easy to whip out my check card. There are too many bright lights and colors. It feels manic. I find my heart whispering, "five-point harness, Lord"...

The main thing that I feel God telling me these days is to adopt a posture of humility; now I am in the throes of trying to figure out what that looks like. I know it will be a process. But I can tell you that living a life with just enough manna for today feels peaceful and safe. Listening to my children and petitioning God for answers when I am up against a wall is calmer than doping out in front of the computer, looking for solutions in an endless sea of information. I don't think I want to give up this blog, and actually there are several things currently that I'd like to share with you...but I have to warn you that I might disappear from time to time when all this technology gets too much for me.

I guess those are all the things I have floating around in my head tonight. If anyone is still out there, come on back soon and we'll head for lighter topics for a while...

The Earth-Conscious Family

2010-05-07T10:29:00.000-07:00

Mama's quote of the day (during a discussion about ecology and how even humans, yes, are 100% recyclable): "Mama's in the 'reduce' stage so she can be reused again!"

Still Learning Tact

2010-05-04T15:57:00.001-07:00

Reuben: "Mom, it's after lunch, can we eat one of our candies?"

Mama: "Can you wait for a little bit please?"

Reuben: "Why?"

Mama: "Because Sean really needs to have a nap today, and it will be easier for me to get him into bed if you and the boys haven't pulled your candy bags out. So wait for just a few minutes and I will put him down, and then you may have a candy."

Reuben goes downstairs to play; he and Sean are swinging on the rope.

Overheard:
Reuben: "Seanie! Go see Mama! She wants to give you ICE CREAM!"

Mama: "Reuben, come here right this minute please."

Reuben (tromping up the stairs): "What?"

Mama: "DO NOT tell Sean I am giving him ice cream, you know that is not true! You are telling Seanie a LIE. Do you know what happens if you tell lies?"

Reuben: "I get into trouble."

Mama: "You get into BIG trouble. Lying is not permitted in this house. Do not do that again, please."

Reuben goes back downstairs.

Overheard:
Reuben (in his best sing-songy voice): "Seanie! Go see Mama! It is NAPTIME! Well, I mean, not for all of us. JUST you. It is just naptime for you. You are going to go to bed and then all of us are going to EAT CANDY!"

Mama: "Reuben, will you come back up here please..."

Clarity

2010-05-03T15:21:00.000-07:00

During school today:

Mama: "Okay, for Bible time we are going to read the passage where Satan tempts Jesus. 'Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being tempted for forty days by the devil. And in those days He ate nothing, and afterward, when they had ended, He was hungry. And the devil said to Him, "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread."' (luke 4:1-3)

Cole: "Wait. I don't know who the devil is."

Mama: "Satan."

Cole: "Who is Satan again?"

Mama: "He's like the biggest bad guy. He's the one that is fighting against God."

Cole: "OH! OH! I remember him! We saw him on Oprah!"

Mama doubles over and tries to be nonchalant about it.

Cole: "Remember? We saw him. I know exactly who he is. Remember? He was walking on the air between those buildings."

Mama (using her arm to hide her hysteria): "Um, that was someone different. That was Criss Angel."

Cole: "Wait. So now there's TWO bad guys?!"

April

2010-04-15T10:40:00.000-07:00

On month four now of thrice-weekly visits to the chiropractor. Little time for anything else...well, other than cooking, potty-training, and washing dishes. We are plugging away at our schoolwork; dissected owl pellets on the dining table last night with the older three after Sean went to bed. Switched math curriculum (from Horizon to Singapore) and Cole is saying (so far) that he likes it much better. Having fun learning Latin verbs, and making up our own (English) madlibs in our spare time to cement the ideas of nouns and verbs. Taking walks to clear Mama's head. Washing machine has been broken for two weeks now, I've spent nearly $100 at the laundromat and there is dirty laundry EVERYWHERE. Packed 5 boys and as much dirty laundry as I could fit around them into the Volvo this morning, drove the minute and a half to the laundromat and discovered that they are closed on Thursdays. Which wouldn't be quite so sad of a story if I hadn't done the EXACT SAME THING LAST WEEK. It's possible that there is a neural connection missing in my head. Hmm. Not willing to switch laundromats because mine uses cards, I've already started one and I don't need more than one laundry card floating around my kitchen. We made an outing out of it anyway and spent a bunch of time wandering around the grocery store; picked up a few things for dinner but forgot the salad dressing. Have just enough balsamic vinegar in the bottle to mix some up.

Weather is nicer and boys are dying to be outside. The only complication is that outside = dirty clothes and I'm not sure there are any clean ones left. Appliance repairman just called and said my machine is completely shot...apparently a nail pierced a hole in the washtub...is that any surprise?

My favorite romantical quote from my spouse this week:

"Baby, one day this merry-go-round will stop. We'll puke, and then we'll get back to our lives."

_____________

While packing @! loads of dirty laundry back into the kitchen this morning, along with three bags of groceries:
Mama: "Boys, this is the loading zone. Please, unless you are helping unload, please move out of the way so the rest of us can get through. REUBEN. Scootch out of the way PLEASE."
Reuben: "BUT I WANNA GET LOADED!"

(Typical) Conversation with Reuben

2010-03-19T14:51:00.000-07:00

Reese: "Mom, Reuben is calling me names."

Mama: "Reuben, we don't call brothers names."

Reuben: "Why not?"

Mama: "Because it's not speaking with love and kindness."

Reuben: "Not even Cole and Reese?"

Mama: "What do you mean?"

Reuben: "I can't call them Cole and Reese?"

Mama: "Well, of course you can call them by their REAL names. That's not the same thing. Please say you're sorry for...Reese, what did Reuben call you?"

Reese: "Evil Contented Waste."

Mama: "Please tell Reese 'Sorry for calling you Evil Contented Waste'."

Reuben: "But I didn't CALL him that name, I just said it TO him"....

(Typical) Conversation With Reuben

2010-02-26T08:24:00.001-08:00

Mama: So are you excited for Co-op today?

Reuben: Yup.

Mama: Today is the last day of your Bible class!

Reuben: I know! And my teacher will never know that I'm not wearing any underwear.

Mama: Oh. Hmm. Well, please get some out of that laundry basket over there. I washed some especially for you.

Reuben (almost toppling the huge pile of laundry): Is all of this whole basket MINE?

Mama: Oh, no. It's for the whole family. Everybody's laundry is all mixed together in there.

Reuben: Like mine? And the boys? And God and Jesus?

Mama: No, not God and Jesus. I don't think God and Jesus have laundry.

Reuben: Yes they do! They have INVISIBLE LAUNDRY! Like underwear, and tee shirts, and they put them on... oh but NOT jammies.

Mama: God and Jesus don't have jammies? Why don't they have jammies?

Reuben: Mom! You know! Because they stay up late, with you guys!

Highlight

2010-02-13T11:52:00.001-08:00

Call me crazy, but sometimes the highlight of my day is simmering a pot of something on the stove and watching condensation build on the windowpane of the kitchen door...keeping one ear out for the sound of a sneaky little boy climbing the stairs up from the basement to stealthily write "Poo" in the steam. And then hearing his indignation later when he brings a brother up to witness his crime and finds that Mama has changed his creation to "Boo"...

Alignment

2010-01-14T22:06:00.000-08:00

I have recently begun seeing a chiropractor for the first time. Not because of any injury or accident; just because five big boys and one miscarriage in 8 years does a number on the body. After all this time, I still remember that sudden, jarring, change-your-life-in-an-instant moment during Cole's delivery when I felt my bones shift and I knew things would never be the same. Add a few more babies to that--a few of them close to ten pounds--and, well, it would serve to reason that my structure is a bit out of whack.

I'm going to go off-topic for a minute, but bear with me and I'll come back around. About a year ago, I read Debi Pearl's article "A Whole Boy" and I have not been able to get it out of my head(see the article here). In it, Pearl describes a painful encounter with the hurting mother of an out-of-control eight year old boy. There are problems on top of problems. The boy is spiraling downward. The mother is begging for The Answer, and Pearl is backed into a corner. What advice should she give? Organic food? Structure and discipline? Homeschool? Repentance?

Oh, there are so many moments when I am the mother in this story! My heart feels dischord in my home and I am at a complete loss for what to do. I am desperate, angry, biting, silent. I see smart-mouth boys that act disrespectful and lazy. I hear impatience in my raised voice, oozing sarcasm, and bitterness at perceived injustice. I feel the weight of piles of junk and extra pounds that I refuse to let go of. The anger and frustration wells up that things are not different. And I think, what is the answer?

I have run full-bore down the rabbit-trails of answers. A Montessori Homeschool Model. A Kosher Diet. Monitored Sugars. Carefully-Scheduled Calendars. Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera...

But I am a Whole Mother. These are Whole Boys. And Jesus has come that we may have (a whole) life, and that we may have it more abundantly (john 10:10)!

Clean. He needs to be made clean. He needs a clean body, free of poisons, sugars, and dyes. He needs a clean home, free of anger, Hollywood, and deceit. He needs a clean day, free to roam the countryside until his body is relaxed and tired. He needs a soul cleansing that can only be found in Jesus and His shed blood. He needs a clean daddy whose heart wants only to bring healing for his son. He needs a clean mother, whose heart is turned to honoring and reverencing her husband. He needs a clean world, both physically and spiritually.

....How do I tell his mother? Where does she start? ...It must start with her, for she is the one seeking a solution. This mother can't clean up the world. She can't dictate to Daddy; that would create further strife. But she can decide to honor and reverence her husband, thus bringing to her son at least one area of peace and security. She can go to the library and study the effects of foods, dyes and sugar, then take that information and act on it. She can take him to a place where he can run for hours, instead of forcing him to labor over a workbook that will never make a difference now or in eternity. She can pray, asking God for a miracle both in herself and her son. She can laugh and sing the joy of the Lord right into his presence. Everyday, he needs her smile. If she will do these things, it will be a beginning. Like a young tree bent in the wrong direction, she can begin to straighten that which is crooked (Debi Pearl, "A Whole Boy").

Isn't that the most beautiful list? It makes me take a long breath somewhere deep in my soul. This is what I am looking for. It reminds me of another list I love, one about a beauty who seeks wool and flax, and willingly works with her hands; who rises while it is yet night, and provides food for her household; who considers a field and buys it; who girds herself with strength, and strengthens her arms; who extends her hand to the poor, who reaches out her hands to the needy; who clothes her household with scarlet, who makes tapestry for herself; who watches over the ways of her household, and does not eat the bread of idleness; who opens her mouth with wisdom, and on whose tongue is the law of kindness (from proverbs 31:13-27).

Slowly, I am pursuing Wholeness, for myself and for my family. I have a little grab-bag of tools that I use. I have spent four years researching the effects of different foods and have barely scratched the surface....but I see change in my sons, myself, and my husband. I am working towards allowing my boys to have independence in the things that are not too large for them to handle (a Montessori method), and in the understanding that those boundaries are often much farther out than my controlling spirit perceives them to be. I read the Flylady emails to tackle my superfluous 'stuff', and to kick the negative thoughts in my head.

And I go to the chiropractor now, to take care of me. The aches and pains that began with my first pregnancy have slowly worsened over the years, as is to be expected....but they increased exponentially after Sean was born (face-up) two years ago. I don't know if it was his position during delivery per se, or if a fourth pregnancy was just this body's final straw, but things have not been great for a while. Justin has been wanting me to do something about it for a long time, but I just wasn't ready.

Then a friend told me about a clinic nearly an hour away, where a family of doctors would work together through gentle biofeedback techniques to help me begin to heal, and I was sold before I even met with them. I think they were who I was waiting for all this time. By the time I finally went for my first adjustment, the bones in my feet felt at times as though they were broken, I had shooting pain down my right leg, I couldn't sleep, I had no nerve reflexes in my left arm and couldn't turn my head to check my blind spots, and I had to manually adjust my hips at times just to get out of bed in the morning. I was in pain all the time, but for so long, I had been reluctant to get better. The thing about pregnancy is that it pretty much forces you to come to terms with being uncomfortable. There is no other option. And I've been in and out of this pattern for so many years, I forgot what it was to feel healthy. I had actually lost the desire to have things be any other way.

At my first adjustment, I was asked to write down up to three sites where I was experiencing symptoms. I had to consider the page carefully before deciding what to write--I had pain radiating everywhere; how could I pinpoint a location? My subsequent appointments followed suit. And then suddenly, when I was in the clinic this week, I realized suddenly as I was filling out the form that there was only one place I could legitimately say was hurting. One place. After only a handful of short adjustments. The difference still astounds me.

There is still a lot of work to be done, and I'll be living at the chiropractors' for a while. But I've been so absolutely blessed by this experience and by the parallel it is playing to the rest of my life. See, that overall pain, that radiating discomfort, it's not there anymore. There is life returning. And I see it in my home, too---there is life, there is peace in so many areas. There are things that are working as they should. The time and energy spent in making corrections are paying off. And you know what? The closer things get to good, the easier it is to see what is out of alignment, what isn't working. When we are all getting enough rest, and eating clean food, and encouraging one another, and working together, and one member of our little clan suddenly has a tantrum, it's blazingly clear who has the issue that needs to be dealt with in that situation (and yes, sometimes it is the parent!). When the pain is everywhere, and everyone is losing it simultaneously, it's pretty difficult to pinpoint where the adjustment needs to happen.

So it's a new year, and time for resolutions I guess, but I am content to just plod along my little path in pursuit of alignment in all areas of my life. I know that this life is fleeting, and that I am not meant to love the world, but I know also that I can experience God here, and right now, that is all that my soul is longing for.

Lunch Conversation

2010-01-13T15:21:00.000-08:00

Cole: "So, Mom, how do staffs work, anyway?"

Mama: "What do you mean? What kind of staffs?"

Cole: "You know. The ones with crystal balls on top. I mean, I know they need magic to work, but I also know the STAFFS don't have any magic inside of them--it's the guy holding it that makes it work. So if the guy is the one who has the magic, he doesn't really need the staff, right? I mean, instead of using his magic to TURN THE STAFF ON, why doesn't he just use it for whatever it was he wanted to do, anyway?"

******

The calendar may have flipped to a new year, folks, but nothing much has changed around here. It's life as usual. Just in case you were wondering.

Five Little Acorns

2010-01-09T19:18:00.000-08:00

I'm thinking it's about time to clean up this blog!

Hope your Christmas was merry!

Heard Around The...Christmas Tree

2009-12-15T12:55:00.001-08:00

Reese: "Hey-stop that right now! I'M fighting the soldier. You fight the angel!"

Waiting

2009-12-10T13:25:00.001-08:00

Quote of the Day:

"I'm just sitting around waiting for the future to arrive." --Cole, age 8

Heard Around The....Volvo

2009-12-08T10:55:00.000-08:00

Pulling up outside the Bellingham Amtrak station (Reuben got to go on a REAL train ride with his daddy for his 4th birthday):

Reuben: "LOOK, Mama, a NAZI!"

Mama: "WHAT? Where?!"

Reuben: "Right over there. A Nazi, Mama, look! Right there in front of the station!"

Mama cranes her neck to look around and sees no Nazis.

Reese: "Reuben---do you mean a taxi?"

Reuben: "Yeah, Mama, a taxi! Look!"

Holidaze

2009-11-30T20:54:00.000-08:00

Is it too late to post Halloween photographs? Am I within some sort of 30-day grace period or something?

Anyway. Here's Ari. Reese said, "Look, Mama, Ari is Almanzo's milk-fed pumpkin!"

I bought this costume for Ari partly because I thought it was adorable but mostly because his brothers fell in love with it and told me I just HAD to buy it for Ari, I just HAD to. Which I thought was sweet. It might be the first store-bought costume we've ever had???

And here's the rest of the crew in their self-made costumes:

Reuben: a Ski Ghost

Cole: a Ninja

Sean: a Worker Man (we made his costume)

and

Reese: a Spider King.

I took them Trick-or-Treating in Fairhaven on the afternoon of Halloween, and despite the gads of people, we got quite a few looks. A group of Japanese tourists even pulled Reuben aside, posed him against a pole, and took pictures of him. Ha!

Wordless Wednesday

2009-11-25T19:37:00.001-08:00

When You're The Fifth Baby

2009-11-18T20:21:00.000-08:00

sometimes you sleep in while Mama makes breakfast for your brothers

sometimes you just sit and experience the craziness of morning

sometimes you hang out in your jammies til 10

sometimes you actually nod off while waiting for your turn to get dressed for the day

...and sometimes a brother comes up from the playroom to find you sleeping peacefully in a quiet living room....

and decides to play a little joke on Mama...

QOTD, Take Two

2009-10-24T17:28:00.000-07:00

Another Quote of the Day:

Reuben: "Mom, do I have to wear shoes outside?"

Mama: "YES."

Reuben: "But I might kick someone."

Money Talks

2009-10-24T09:37:00.000-07:00

Quote of the Day:

Cole: "Dad, can you hear me growing?"

Justin: "Yup. It sounds like a cash register."

Fall Pinto Bean & Yam Soup

2009-10-22T12:02:00.000-07:00

Hello! We are all still too busy to blog, apparently. I have big plans for the weekend that include posting some photographs of what we have been up to the last two months....

Ari is 8 weeks old today.

Sigh.

In the meantime, here's a recipe for a fabulous fall soup we tried recently--we loved it and I know you will too. This recipe comes from The Whole Life Nutrition Cookbook written by Alissa Segersten and Tom Malterre--our local co-op's resident nutritionists.

FALL PINTO BEAN & YAM SOUP

2 cups dry pinto beans, soaked overnight

6 cups water

4 cloves garlic, peeled

1-2 inch piece kombu seaweed

(my beans had bugs in them...ugh...I substituted with two cans of pinto beans from my pantry!)

2T extra virgin olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

5 cloves garlic, crushed

1-2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and chopped

2 small yams, peeled and diced

3 carrots, cut into rounds

1T ground cumin

1 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp chipotle chili powder

8 cups water

28 oz diced fire-roasted tomatoes

2-3 ears of corn, corn cut off cob (I used a 16oz package of frozen corn)

1 small bunch black kale, finely chopped (I used collards--store was out of kale)

1 cup chopped cilantro

1/2 lime, juiced

sea salt or Herbamare, to taste

Rinse and drain soaked beans, place into a 6 quart pot with the water, garlic and kombu, bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a gentle simmer and cook for approximately 1 hour, or until beans are soft and mash easily. Remove pot from heat. Drain beans and reserve the cooking water.

To make the soup, heat olive oil in a large 8 quart pot over medium heat. Add chopped onion and saute for about 5 mins. Then add the garlic, jalapeno peppers, yams, carrots, cumin, paprika, and chipotle chili powder. Saute and stir for another 5 minutes then add water. Mix well to remove any spices that have stuck to the bottom of the pan.

Then add the cooked and drained beans, tomatoes, cut corn, and chopped kale, mix well. If the soup needs more liquid then add some of the reserved bean cooking liquid.

Cover pot and simmer until vegetables are tender, about 20-25 minutes. Add chopped cilantro, lime juice, and sea salt or Herbamare to taste.

Let me know if you try it!

Reubenisms

2009-10-06T18:19:00.001-07:00

My favorite thing about three-year-olds is the way they say the most random things---with absolutely no context whatsoever. In honor of Reuben's upcoming birthday (and knowing it means he will outgrow this stage soon), here are a few I've heard lately--completely out of the blue:

"Do you want to look in my belly-button?"

******************************

To Sean (shouting): "SING THE BARBIE SONG!"

******************************

Running into our bedroom first thing in the morning: "I asked God to give me a dream about caterpillars, but He didn't. He gave me a dream about bees."

******************************

Crawling into bed, whispering: "God, I don't want to have any dreams. Don't give me any, okay?"

******************************

"Ella has nice teeth."

******************************

"I'm a human."

******************************

(holding a cup of water): "I am NACHO LIBRE. Remember? He has water?"

******************************

"When I was a baby, what did you call me?" ("We called you Reuben.") "OH."

Next day, looking worried: "When Ari is all growed up, what will we call HIM?!" ("Ari.") "Oh."

******************************

Wide-eyed, walking out of the bathroom wearing only a teeshirt: "I'm 'posed to have underwear on but I don't. IT'S MAGIC!"

Reese (bored): "You peed them dead."

Reuben: "No, I didn't."

Reese (moving on to something better): "You shot them right off."

Reuben: "No!" Runs back into bathroom and emerges holding the elusive spiderman pants.

"Here them is! THEY WERE IN THE BATHROOM!"

Seriously

2009-10-05T21:04:00.000-07:00

It's seriously hard work being this wonderful.

But Ari would like you to know that he is up for the challenge....

right after his nap.

Nevermind

2009-09-18T18:30:00.000-07:00

Renee from Little Earthling Photography is coming tomorrow to take some photos of Ari for me. Wonderful, yes?!

Still Here

2009-09-14T21:58:00.001-07:00

The babe is nearly three weeks old already. I am in denial. I am feeling obligated to work steadily; to keep up on the housework, the cooking, the laundry... but all I want to do is sit and stare at him. I know how quickly these weeks disappear. He still has all those newborn mannerisms--the fluttering of the eyelids, the phantom sucking in his sleep, the squinched up faces--I am head over heels in love.

Hope to be back soon with some more photos to send your way...that is, if I can stop snuggling with him long enough to actually take some!

Sneak Peek

2009-09-05T18:48:00.001-07:00

Introducing

2009-08-30T18:43:00.000-07:00

our new son!

Ari Nathaniel

born 27 august 2009
9:20 am
9 pounds 14 ounces
22 1/4 inches long

photos to follow soon!

Change of Plans

2009-08-20T16:26:00.000-07:00

Justin and I made the difficult decision yesterday to leave the care of the midwives and make arrangements to deliver this baby at the hospital. There were many factors in our decision that I won't get into now--it mainly comes down to the fact that my blood sugars are becoming enough of an issue that we had to reassess what was going to be the best thing for the baby at the point of delivery...and in the hours and days that follow. I spent nearly all morning on the phone with physicians, specialists, you name it, and even had an impromptu "counseling session" with the endocrinologist--- and then spent two and a half hours in the afternoon at the childbirth center having the baby's heartrate, movement and contractions monitored.

We are on track (and registered!) for a hospital delivery and I found an obstetrician that has agreed to take us on. I was reassured several times by the doctor & labor nurse that Baby is healthy and happy! But we are not out of the woods, by any means---there are still many decisions that will need to be made over the next few days, and we appreciate any prayers you can send our way as we navigate gingerly through each obstacle.

We are super thankful to know that the baby is okay and to have a (tentative) plan in place. I am also thankful to be able to tell you that we both feel a lot of peace with the decisions that have already been made! More decisions will be made on Monday if we make it that far. If labor starts in the next couple of days, we may have to sort of "wing it"--so we are praying for grace & wisdom with those spur-of-the-moment decisions.

Thank you for your continued love and support! We hope to be able to announce the arrival of our newest baby soon!

Dreaming

2009-08-17T09:44:00.000-07:00

I had a dream this weekend that I went into labor. Not an unusual occurrence for a girl 38.5 weeks pregnant, surely, but this dream was different in that I actually could see the babe I delivered--finally. It was a boy, a big, strong, healthy boy with a lusty cry, and I fell in love with him instantly. He was so familiar somehow. I took one look at him and knew that I had always known him.

In my dream there was another baby, too, also a boy, that I knew I had delivered the day before. He was smaller, quieter, weaker, and I knew he was the baby that we lost in the fall, but he was alive, here, and in the dream Justin and I made the decision to raise the babies as twins--even though we knew they weren't. (I also dreamed that I delivered the babies at Half-Price Books...but we won't talk about that here.) We packed up the boys to take them home and I remember feeling so overwhelmed at the blessing God had chosen to bestow...even though it was different than what we may have originally anticipated.

I woke from my dream finally feeling like we have (almost) come full-circle. It has been almost exactly a year since we started down the road of that first pregnancy--the one that was lost. One year. One long year! My dream made me realize suddenly that the birth of this child will finally close that chapter for us, for me. I don't think I recognized that it hadn't yet ended in my mind. This baby, this life, was meant to be. Just another little piece of our story--and a daily reminder to this mama that God works all things together for the good of those who love him.

Can't wait to look upon that face and know that somewhere in my heart, I have always known and loved him.

Buttermilk Blueberry Bliss

2009-08-11T10:02:00.000-07:00

Happier words are never heard in this house than:

"Mama: I'm FULL!"

[august]

2009-08-08T19:42:00.000-07:00

[we are in the last weeks now...in the days that feel sometimes like they are playing out under water, where the voices and movements all come in slow motion and muted tones. the babe is still turning and kicking. i think that my belly can not possibly grow another centimeter...and still it does, consistently, ever allowing for the constant growth. my bones feel like they are no longer connected. i keep up with my chores throughout the day, but once the sun goes down, i cannot walk without hobbling, bent at the waist, trying to avoid putting any pressure on my right leg. my feet feel tight in my shoes. i am not wishing the hurt away; it is testimony to what the body and spirit can bear.

he is here, and i must depend on him more and more. he comes up behind me as i cook at the stove and puts his arms around my belly, holding it up against gravity for just a few moments, and there is instant relief from the pain--what one cannot manage is not too much for two. he is carrying all of us now, having to intuit where the gaps lie and fill them, smooth them over... and yet it is i--the one who has no strength left--who must rise up on that fated day and somehow find the effort to give life, and breath, and voice to that searing fire...]

"Our bodies are what we first give to each other as families--as husband and wife, in labor, in birth, and what we leave at death...In order to cherish the body--both those of others and our own--we must first recognize the inescapable fact that it will one day break down and turn to dust. This should trigger a certain urgency in us to care for one another's arms, feet, and face and to enjoy each and every stage a body passes through on its journey from birth to death.

"...Families everywhere must be fed, sheltered, warmed, and held...but in the end it is the way in which we do these everyday tasks, the spirit in which they are done, that determines the atmosphere of a family. It is the way we feed each other, bathe, groom, clothe and lay us down at night that makes a family...When a husband yells from the bathroom, 'Hey, want your hair washed tonight?' it isn't only hair that gets salon treatment, so does the whole self.

"...Families are complicated weavings of light and dark, of hurt and healing. We will hurt each other in ways we didn't intend. We will even hurt each other intentionally...but our hands can heal...anyone who lays on hands gets attached to life...unlike the mind, a body is never without sensing, even in sleep. A body will always remember" [exerpts from The Art of Family, by Gina Bria]

When Daddy Cooks Breakfast

2009-08-02T14:29:00.000-07:00

Cole says: "This tastes halfway like heaven. I think that heaven will be just like earth, but with different colors and missing some things."

Mama: "Oh yeah? Like what?"

Cole: "What do you want to know about? The colors, or the missing?"

Mama: "The missing."

Cole: "Well, I don't think there will be any ambulances, or fire engines, or police cars."

Mama: "That's probably true. But what do you think heaven will be like? Do you think there will be foods there that you have never seen before?"

Cole: "You mean like MOON CHEESE?!"

Assembly Line

2009-07-21T11:06:00.000-07:00

Quote of the Day:

"Mom--do babies come from factories?" --Reuben, age 3

Already July

2009-07-10T17:17:00.000-07:00

Wow, has it really been two weeks since I've posted on here?

Is it really already July?

Despite the apparent confusion--things in our house are going well. I'm a couple of weeks into my new diet now and feeling quite comfortable with checking my blood sugars & ketones regularly and making the appropriate alterations as needed to make sure all the numbers stay in a safe range. (I even figured out a way to get to have a bowl of popcorn with peanut m&ms in it as a treat last night--no starchy carbohydrates at dinner!) Important things, you know. Since my last post I've seen the endocrinologist once, the diabetes counselor (again), and had another prenatal appointment. All of my numbers are looking very, very good, and I've been told by the counselor that I don't have to come back and meet with her anymore as long as I keep up with the endocrinologist. Baby measured 35 cms this morning, and I'm nearly 34 weeks! How's that for catching up!

I'm feeling far better than I've felt in months. Lots more energy. I am happily eating copious amounts of steak and wild Alaskan salmon (sigh) and filling in the gaps with every vegetable I can set my sights on. I'm learning to curb my red potato addiction...and am trying not to think about all of the summer fruit that is currently, beautifully in season. The boundaries are a little difficult to adhere to at times, but the payoff has been so great.

The boys are spending their days playing in the dirt pit out front, catching flies out of the air with their bare hands, trying to find ways to earn money for Legos, and eating me out of house and home. The usual. We're s-l-o-w-l-y checking things off of our to-do list, trying to prepare for having a bit of "down time" once Baby decides to make an appearance--whenever that may be. Cole's birthday is on Saturday and we ordered---SHHHH---a junior (not TOY) metal detector for him, and it came in the mail the other day. I can hardly wait to give it to him and to go out "treasure hunting" with him for the first time. I think you're going to find us spending a lot of spare time at the parks and beaches in the coming weeks.

That's all for now, I guess. The two littlest ones are napping...I'm going to jump on the bandwagon and doze on the couch for a bit before entering into life here again.

The Long(er) Update

2009-06-26T19:44:00.000-07:00

I'm a little delayed in writing this post, but this past week has been full of phone calls and appointments and I am definitely still in the "gathering information" stage. So here it is: My diabetes test from last week came back positive. Blasted Crazy Juice! My glucose numbers are still just a smidgen high--but because technically they are still above normal range, we have all been working to decide what the next step is.

I'm not thrilled to have a positive diagnosis, obviously. But there is some relief in knowing why sugars have been bothering me so much during this pregnancy, and knowing that there are people out there who are able to help me keep my levels more in line. Just in the last few days, I have altered parts of my diet on my own and have noticed a HUGE change in my energy levels and overall well-being. It's empowering to feel like I can affect change so quickly. And I'm loving being able to focus on the boys more without feeling so loggy all the time.

So, the next question is: Where do we go from here? At this point, I still have a chance of delivering with the midwife, but that may change depending on how the next few weeks go. I had my regular prenatal appointment this morning and it was FABULOUS--this belly is still measuring 34 cm (only 2 1/2 cm ahead now!) and Baby is now head-down (there was actually a moment this week when Justin and I were talking and suddenly my stomach gave a huge gelatinous SHAKE--Justin said, "wow, did the baby just flip or what?!")....all good reports. We spent a lot of good time talking about gestational diabetes and what it all means, and I left there really feeling like everything was going to work out beautifully.

This afternoon, I met with the hospital dietician/diabetes counselor to talk more in-depth about my unique situation and what the options are for change. I think I went into it pretty well-informed, but still I felt like my head was swimming a bit when I left a short hour later (though that may just be my pregnant brain!). So I think the next few days will be key as I actually start putting some of this stuff into effect--watching my foods carefully and charting my blood sugar numbers. I have to meet with an endocrinologist on Tuesday and I am anticipating that I'll be feeling like it is all "old-hat" by then, ha!

I am so appreciative of all of your prayers as we navigate these new waters. There are still several things up in the air about how exactly this delivery will go, but I'm not feeling anxious about any of the details.

"Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem! Praise your God, O Zion! For He has strengthened the bars of your gates; He has blessed your children within you!" psalm 147 12-13

Thank You, Wipeout

2009-06-22T19:17:00.001-07:00

Quote of the Day:

"This looks like a banana hammock" --Reuben, age 3 (holding up a sliver of sauteed onion)

The Short Update

2009-06-19T17:24:00.001-07:00

Everything went well today at the lab--thanks for those that were praying and sorry to those who were secretly hoping to see covert photos of my sugar coma, ha! The lab techs were all in Happy Friday moods and did what they could to keep me in high spirits. I got some good reading done of my (semi-boring) book, did what I could to stay relatively comfortable (though I got a few nasty looks for having my feet up on the coffee table--even though it was the one WAY in the back of the room) and even took a little bit of a walk outside during the last hour. Justin did great with the boys and graciously allowed me to sleep away the afternoon when I returned home. Now we just wait for the results and look forward to my prenatal appointment next week!

Glucose Laments

2009-06-15T13:16:00.000-07:00

I forgot to mention in my last post on here that I had my glucose test on Friday--the one where you drink the Crazy Juice and then get your blood drawn an hour later to make sure your body is able to adequately deal with the vast amounts of corn sugar you just pumped into your bloodstream. Fun times. Thing is: I have become more and more sensitive to sugar with each pregnancy and my test this round made me want to promptly fall into a coma until it was all over. Which of course I mentioned to the midwife--and to which of course she responded that there was a chance my results would show levels of intolerance--and that perhaps this intolerance was affecting the baby's growth rate and contributing to my Giant Belly Syndrome.

I got my test results today and they came back one point above the level that is considered normal. Or safe. Or whatever. So...it's probably not much to worry about, but all things considered, it's best that we go through the next level of testing. I'll go into the lab and complete those tests on Friday. It requires an 8 hour (overnight) fast, an early morning blood draw, a new bottle of Super Charged Crazy Juice, and three subsequent blood draws at one hour intervals throughout the morning. (Sidenote: I have to take the Volvo to the shop that morning, and Justin and I giggled at the thought of me trying to run errands in between blood draws all hyped up and turned loose on the town in the loaner car...) I'm planning on bringing my Book Club book and getting some good reading done while hanging out at the lab for HALF THE DAY. Or, alternately, going into Said Coma on the floor there and drooling. We'll see how it all turns out.

Movin' On Up

2009-06-13T08:26:00.000-07:00

...but more slowly now, thankfully. Baby is now measuring 34cm and I will be 30 weeks on Monday. We're closing the gap! The baby has settled nicely into a breech position, however, so I will be spending the next few days doing jumping jacks, standing on my head and the like trying to encourage a FLIP before he (she?) gets much bigger and runs out of room!

On a more comical note, I had a dream early yesterday morning that I was in a garden and everywhere I looked, there were HUGE green cabbages so ripe that they were falling off the vines, so ready were they to be harvested. Then I dreamt that I woke up from that dream, to find I was in labor with contractions 2 minutes apart. And I lay in bed (in my dream) and thought, "Hmmm, better call the midwife, she'll have to deliver here instead of at the birth center....WOW I wish I had cleaned my room!"

So if any of you are looking for me the next few days, I will be cleaning my room. And washing the newborn clothes. And setting up the cradle. You know--just in case!

Postponed

2009-06-11T13:49:00.000-07:00

For all of you that have been stalking June 11th on your calendar to see how this Giant Belly Story is going to turn out (okay, that might have just been me): My appointment has been postponed until tomorrow! See you then!

Heard Around The....Volvo

2009-06-09T19:08:00.000-07:00

Oh, the things one can hear on an innocent drive around town.

Are you ready for this?

********************

Reese: "Hey Cole? When our new chickens die, do you think we will bury them in the same place as the old chickens?"

Cole: "Well, here's what I'm thinking." (Mama is cringing.) "I love them SOOO much, and I think they're SOOO pretty....how about if we cut off their heads, and keep them? You know, like in a glass box? With their eyes open?"

33

2009-05-30T11:36:00.000-07:00

Well, our trip to the birthing center yesterday was great. What a beautiful place that is! I am especially excited about the huge beds--loving the idea that I will be able to snuggle up with my husband as I am laboring. No more hospital beds for me this time (fingers crossed)!

The stats: Last time I met with the midwife, I was 24 weeks but the baby was measuring 25. That's normal for me--I always measure big, but I also have big babies. The strange part of it was that I didn't believe I was even 24 weeks along (because of my miscarriage in the fall we have been unable to determine an actual due date) so I was surprised to be measuring 25 weeks!

Yesterday, the midwife went to measure my stomach and seemed confused. She kept putting the measuring tape down, feeling the baby, measuring, putting the tape down, feeling again. Finally she wrote something down and then went for the doppler, checking Baby's heartbeat (140 bpm). So I asked: What am I measuring this week? Her answer: Well, you're a bit big. Me: How big? The midwife: 33.

Thirty-three! Holy moly. By all accounts I should maybe be 28 weeks along. Thirty three is a BIG difference. I've never been THAT far off before. Wowzers.

So here's what I'm thinking. Either I'm having a HUGE baby in August sometime, or I should be ready to deliver in, like, July. And from the beginning we've been thinking this babe would come in September.

So, that's where we sit. I think the whole thing is rather comical. It certainly gives credence to the additional aches & pains I've accumulated the last four weeks! I'm far enough along that an ultrasound wouldn't give any answers....so we're in the "wait and see" mode. I'll go back in on June 11th and we'll see what's happening then. Stay tuned!

Off

2009-05-29T07:02:00.000-07:00

Off to see the midwife again today, and to check out the birthing center, hooray! Can you believe that after today I'll be going in every two weeks already?

Chickpea Stew

2009-05-21T07:13:00.000-07:00

Here's another recipe that's just too good not to share: Chickpea Stew! This one is definitely up there on my list of favorites--it's one of those dishes that I start to actually crave if it's been too long since I've made it. (Plus I love any recipe that enables me to drink a glass of wine while I'm cooking!) When I woke up yesterday morning I was glad that I had bought the ingredients for it earlier in the week; Sammy and I had ourselves a little pizza party on Tuesday and I woke up yesterday feeling LOUSY. This body is way too sensitive to junk food when I'm pregnant! Two bowls of stew for dinner last night and I woke up feeling great today!

This recipe comes from my Vegetarian Planet cookbook, by Didi Emmons. These amounts serve 4--I usually make a double batch so I can eat it the next morning for breakfast, too (if we're being honest)

STEW:

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 cup sliced onion

2 large garlic cloves, minced

2 carrots, sliced thin diagonally

2 large red bell peppers, seeded and cut into 1/2" squares

2 large ripe tomatoes, chopped

1/2 tsp salt

fresh ground black pepper

1/2 cup red wine

1 heaping teaspoon paprika

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1 cup (or more) cooked chickpeas

1/4 cup slivered almonds, lightly toasted

1 tablespoon lemon juice

3 tablespoons chopped cilantro

COUSCOUS:

2 1/3 cups water

1 1/3 cups couscous

1/2 tsp salt

In a large sauce pan or skillet, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook 5 minutes, stirring often. Add the garlic and cook another minute. Stir in the carrots, red peppers, tomatoes, salt, pepper & wine. Then add the paprika and cinnamon. Stir and bring the stew to a boil. Turn the heat to low, and cover the pan tightly. Simmer the stew for 15 minutes or until the carrots are tender. Stir in the chickpeas.

Meanwhile, make the couscous: In a saucepan, bring the water to a boil, and add the couscous and salt. Remove the pan from the heat, cover the pan, and let the couscous stand for 5 minutes. Fluff the couscous by lightly running a fork back and forth in the pan, starting with the very top layer of granules and gradually working your way down.

Stir the almonds, lemon juice and cilantro into the stew. Spoon the couscous into bowls, make a little well in the middle of each and spoon in the stew. Enjoy!

Heard Around The House--Thomas The Tank Engine version

2009-05-16T21:51:00.000-07:00

Mama and Reuben are sitting on the couch (yes, other posts have started this way). Enter loud, scary tooty sound.

Mama: "Reuben! What do you say?"

Reuben: "Toot toot! TIME TO LEAVE THE STATION!"

Missing

2009-05-02T19:56:00.000-07:00

Okay, so, back in the day, when we only had one (surprise) baby, we used to actually sit around and talk about how many kids we might have. Granted, the conversations were never very long--I think we always had a sense that we would be more than just three. The "family planning" conversations always ended up at the same inevitable conclusion: Let's Wait And See. I remember countless times sitting around the dinner table with Baby Cole in his highchair, telling Justin: "I know it's so busy, but I feel like someone is missing..."

Same thing when Reese came along. We were over-the-moon blessed to have two healthy boys! ...but when I would set the plates on the table at night I often found myself grabbing too many out of the cupboard. We would sit around the table and dine, and though it should have maybe felt complete (I come from a family of four), I still felt a sense of loss for one that was missing. And by then Justin was feeling it too.

So over the years, this has been a common thread for us. With each crazy, loud addition, we still look at each other over our soup bowls and nod that yes, one is missing. But it has become more than that to me--more than trying to control what the size of this family might eventually be. It has evolved instead into a willingness to be open to what God is asking me to do within these four walls. Maybe (certainly) that will mean a baby for us this year. Maybe it will mean opening up a room (or a basement) to a family member or friend that needs a place to stay for awhile. Maybe it means foster care at some point in our lives. I'm not sure--but I do know that He is asking me to let go of my desire to define what "family" means and what its limitations are. He can do so much more than I can even imagine. I have stopped wanting to place roadblocks in the way of the plans He has for me.

I am trying to teach my boys that love is to be shared, and that children are a blessing. I tell them daily that they are gifts that God has given me. It's so important to me that they know that. So I get a little weepy when we sit down at Costco to eat our hot dogs for lunch, and see two children sitting a few tables away (whose mother is surely getting their napkins and straws), and hear Cole say, "Do you think those kids would like to come live with us?" Because in that moment, I think, he gets it. He knows that family boundaries are meant to be fluid, that beds can be pushed against walls to make room for another, that another chair can always be pulled up to the table. That another handful of beans can be added to the pot.

And this week, even though I have been very, very careful to never talk about feeling a "hole" in our family in front of my children, Cole sat down to the dinner table on two separate occasions, and immediately said: "Doesn't it feel like someone is missing?"

************************

Meet the newest member of our family! I think he looks like Sean, but maybe that's because Sean still looks so much like a baby. Oh, and I use the term "he" loosely; no, we didn't find out; you'll have to wait just a little bit longer! Baby will be making an appearance the beginning of September. Ish.

Heard Around The House (the Who Are You version)

2009-04-06T22:14:00.000-07:00

Cole: "You know, Reese, sometimes I can't tell if you are Cole or Reese."

*******

Reese (sigh): "Cole, do you know what I wish I was?"
Cole: "What?"
Reese: "Human."

Let's Pretend

2009-03-30T13:32:00.000-07:00

Quote of the Day:

"Let's pretend me be the mom. My name is Cranky." --Reuben, age 3

stellan

2009-03-25T07:28:00.001-07:00

I'm sure many of you are following MckMama's blog and already know that Stellan is back in the hospital...for those that are used to reaching her through the button on my blog, I have added the new one to my sidebar. We are praying for peace for Stellan's family, for a safe return home for the babe, and for the Lord's will to ultimately be done.

I Know That They Have To Grow Up

2009-03-23T13:34:00.000-07:00

...but I love that Reuben thinks that his name is Little Chef

and I love that Reese thinks that the LGMs are a representation of the trinity, because they say they are one

and I love that Cole thinks the name of the crayon is "Violent Red"

and I love that Sean gets his monkey and climbs up and lays on the couch with me when I read at night

February 2008 - March 2009

2009-03-19T13:37:00.001-07:00

my three girls

in colder days
reuben sees the villain--

can you?

Breakfast Fare

2009-03-08T17:38:00.001-07:00

Quote of the Day:

"Even things that look disgusting can make you bigger. But not sweet things. Sweet things keep you tiny." --Reese, age 5

(ages, for those who have asked: Cole 7, Reese 5, Reuben 3, Sean 1)

Our Mom, by Cole, Reese and Reuben

2009-03-06T09:16:00.000-08:00

What is something your mom always says to you?
Cole: I love you.
Reese: (no answer)
Reuben: Let's go!

What makes your mom happy?
Cole: That her kids love her.
Reese: Happy face.
Reuben: Medicine.

What makes your mom sad?
Cole: When we disobey.
Reese: Being naughty.
Reuben: Sick.

How does your mom make you laugh?
Cole: By telling us jokes!
Reese: I don't know, jokes?
Reuben: Madagascar 2 caterpillar.

What did your mom like to do when she was a child?
Cole: Puzzles.
Reese: Play games.
Reuben: Play with my boys.

How old is your mom?
Cole: 40.
Reese: 22.
Reuben: 5.

How tall is she?
Cole: 6 feet.
Reese: 50 feet.
Reuben: Big.

What is your mom's favorite thing to do?
Cole: Take care of her children.
Reese: Pick berries.
Reuben: Play together.

What does your mom do when you're not around?
Cole: Take a rest.
Reese: I have no idea because when I go somewhere, I don't know what you do.
Reuben: The computer.

If your mom became famous, what would she be famous for?
Cole: Having 5 kids! (yes, we have one on the way!)
Reese: (no answer)
Reuben: Treasure!

What is one thing your mom is good at?
Cole: Taking care of her children.
Reese: The computer.
Reuben: Computer.

What is one thing your mom is not very good at?
Cole: Building houses.
Reese: Legos.
Reuben: Going.

What does your mom do for a job?
Cole: Takes care of her children.
Reese: To tell us to do the dishwasher.
Reuben: Doing the dishwasher!

What is your mom's favorite food?
Cole: Salad.
Reese: Those little cabbages, what are they called? (Brussel sprouts?) Yeah, yeah, brussel sprouts!
Reuben: Eggs and toast.

What makes you proud of your mom?
Cole: That you take care of us.
Reese: That you can feed us.
Reuben: Make mine birthday cake.

If your mom was a cartoon character, who would she be?
Cole: Batgirl.
Reese: A space man.
Reuben: Star wars.

What do you and your mom like to do together?
Cole: Do school.
Reese: Go to the Daisy Cafe.
Reuben: Play.

How are you and your mom the same?
Cole: We both have big feet.
Reese: Our skin is the same.
Reuben: Same kissing.

How are you and your mom different?
Cole: I'm young, and you are old.
Reese: You have spider veins, and I don't.
Reuben: You change into Dad.

How do you know your mom loves you?
Cole: Because she always has.
Reese: Because I always think about it.
Reuben: Me be special.

What does your mom love most about your dad?
Cole: He's handsome.
Reese: He gives you kisses a lot.
Reuben: Him special.

Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
Cole: To a fancy restaurant.
Reese: Red Robin for her birthday.
Reuben: At Robin.

Isn't having children enlightening?

A Seven Year Old's Budget Reform

2009-03-03T20:56:00.000-08:00

I found this in the house earlier this week (Ways To Sayve Money):

I'm considering having buttons made that say "Vote for Cole 2012"!

Baby, Daddy, Fat, Old

2009-02-17T08:51:00.000-08:00

Our breakfast conversation this morning:

Reese: "So Mom, does it go: 'Baby, Daddy, Fat, Old'?"

Mama: "Excuse me?"

Reese: "Does it go 'Baby, Daddy, Fat, Old'?" (I love how they always repeat it verbatim...as though there is a CHANCE I might have the slightest idea what they're referencing)

Mama: "I'm sorry, Baby, I don't know what you're asking."

Cole (desperate to help): "You know, Mom, like living? Like the way we live? We start out as babies....then turn into kids....then daddies" (DOT DOT DOT)

Reese: "Then it goes to that other stuff...right?"

Now how would you have answered this question?

And They Wonder Why I Forget To Get Dressed Sometimes

2009-02-05T15:26:00.000-08:00

Mama (hearing a loud thump from the other room): "Reuben, are you okay?"

Reuben (from said other room): "What?"

Mama: "Are you okay?"

Reuben: "What?"

Mama: "Are you okay?"

Reuben: "WHAT?"

Mama: "Are you okay?"

Reuben: "What 'okay'?"

Mama: "Are you okay?"

Reuben: "What?"

Mama: "How are you?"

Reuben: "I doing good."

Mama: "Okay!"

He wanders into the room and sits down beside me.
Reuben: "Mama, why you say 'Okay'?"

Mama: "I just wanted to make sure you were alright. I thought I heard you fall down. Did you fall down?"

Reuben: "Oh!" (He chuckles to himself): "No." He gives a big sigh.
"I just fell down."

Storytime

2009-02-02T14:10:00.001-08:00

I think one of my favorite things about school this year has been the narrations: the boys create, and I write down their creations. Wonderful. Even a child that cannot write can tell a fabulous story! Here are a few for your reading enjoyment.

REESE'S PET, by Reese

Once upon a time there lived Reese. He walked along and found a little pond. He saw a tadpole and he picked it up with a bucket. It was full of water and he put in the tadpole. The end.

REESE'S SEA STORY, by Reese

Once upon a time there was a turtle. He was swimming along. He scared hisself by getting caught by a net. A octopus saw the turtle! The octopus swam to the turtle. A froggy jumped down in the water. The froggy got to the turtle first. The froggy freed the turtle. And then it was the regular sea again. The end.

THE KNIGHT'S FIRST BATTLE, by Reese

First some knights wanted to do a battle. They saw lots of other people doing battle and they really wanted to do one. The knights looked around for some bad guys. And the queen said, "Go find some bad guys." The knights looked around in the bushes. And then they found bad guys. And then they raised their shields and helmets and spears and swords and stuff like that. And they were finally fighting about a green jewel and a red jewel.

RED POEM, by Cole
Red is a strawberry
Red is a raspberry
Red is a jewel
Red is an apple
Red smells like a flower
Red feels like softness
Red looks like a red rose
Red is for the most wondrous thing you can find in the earth.

GOLD POEM, by Reese

Gold is a goldfish
Gold is a jewel
Gold is gold
Gold is a banana
Gold smells like bananas
Gold feels like a banana
Gold looks like a yellow cup
Gold bee.

THE QUEEN'S FIGHT, by Cole

One day there was a castle. And there was a good king that was two hundred years old. And he had two million knights guarding the castle. And one day a dragon came. It was a big, red, evil one. And he took the queen. And he took her two hundred miles away to the great evil castle. Which the evil king lived in the tallest building. And then below the big building, there was four small buildings on each corner of the big castle. And the dragon flew up to one of the small buildings which ten knights came to take the queen to the big building. And the stairs went around, and around, and around....there was four hundred steps. And they finally got the queen to the evil king's throne. Which the evil king said to her, "You are going in the dungeon for forty years. And when it's been forty years, if you are still alive, then we'll let you back to the castle. But if you are dead, then we will throw you in a pile of skeletons."

So they locked her up in jail with two hundred different locks. She stayed there for forty years. After forty years, the king had no queen at all, and then a woman came to the gate. It was the beautifulest girl the king had ever seen. And she said, "Your wife in jail is going to stay in there forever and I am the new queen." So the king married her and they had a lovely wedding. And there was a big feast at the end.

And then, ten minutes later, the real queen came home. And she said, "Let this queen go away!"

And suddenly the new queen turned into a bad guy witch. And the king was shocked to see how ugly this princess looked like! And the king called the guard as loud as he could. And they took her away. And the old queen said "I am the real queen." And then they lived happily ever after.
The end!

When Discussions On Ancient Egypt Go Awry

2009-01-31T08:20:00.000-08:00

Quote of the Day:

"Maybe if somebody dies....and they are our friend....we could make a mummy out of them?" --Cole, age 7 (said with great hopefulness!)

This Morning

2009-01-24T12:40:00.000-08:00

Justin has been on a trip for three days....I thought I was doing well this morning by getting up an hour early...in a quiet house...and making coffeecake for the boys as a breakfast surprise...

But I accidentally let a chicken out of the gate and had to chase it around the yard, dropped an egg when I was taking care of the neighbor's animals, gave the rest of the eggs to Cole and watched him drop one right outside the back door, refilled the water jug and got it all the way next door before realizing it wasn't screwed on properly (it fell apart and dumped water all over the ground), thought to check the mail for the first time since Justin left, hoping for a paycheck (our first check since mid-November) and was instead surprised with a huge STACK of overdraft notices from the bank since I accidentally put the money into savings instead of checking, opened a notice from the gas company threatening to turn off my heat on Monday because I forgot to send the check... and I'm utterly unable to do anything about it today since the CU is closed and I'm locked from doing any more transfers online. And then while I was fuming about the bills, Reuben stomped on my bare foot wearing his winter boots and I yelled at the top of lungs, which caused him to BURST INTO TEARS. And then I burst into tears and then we sat on the couch together and CRIED.

So I'll check the mail again a bit later. But I'm pretty sure that the Mom Of The Year award will NOT be showing up in my box today.

Room Enough

2009-01-19T20:47:00.000-08:00

Oh, the days when I drew lines around my faith
To keep you out, to keep me in, to keep it safe
Oh, the sense of my own self-entitlement
To say who's wrong, who won't belong, who cannot stay

Cause somebody somewhere decided
We'd be better off divided
And somehow, despite the damage done--
He says, 'Come...'

Ever since I was a young child, I have always loved the image of huge, rustic banquet table. Yes, I love feasting!...but it is more that that--I love the picture of a table where no one is turned away. All are welcome, no one is cramped, and the wine and bread overflow. A celebration in its entirety.

My boys--Cole, especially--must have inherited this deep longing that I have for the fellowship and comraderie that reside in a banquet with food and room for all. He occasionally dreams aloud about the table in heaven and tries to estimate how long it must be! I love this because I believe that God's heart is for us to care less about determining where exactly all the little boundaries and differences between us lie, and instead to reach out, to love, to break bread together and live life in community.

But
Oh, the times when I have failed to recognize
How many chairs are gathered there around the feast
To break the bread and break these boundaries
That have kept us from our only common ground
The invitation to sit down
If we will come

There is room enough for all of us
Please come
And the arms are open wide enough
Please come
And our parts are never greater than the sum
This is the heart of the One
Who stands before an open door
And bids us 'Come'

I feel sometimes in this life like a child back in the schoolyard, hoping not to be picked last and feeling an ache in my heart for the one that is. Do we ever really outgrow this yearning to be welcomed into the fold? There have been too many times in my life--even as an adult--when I have been insensitive and uncaring to those waiting on the periphery for an invitation to be let in. There have been just as many times that I have waited, myself, for that invitation. The idea of a banquet table--my Lord's banquet table!--where there is a seat reserved for me, a glass of wine waiting in anticipation for my arrival, and One standing at the door to usher me in--well, it is almost more than I can bear. I can't think of anything greater than to be welcomed to the table of He who created the universe. I am absolutely humbled and terrifyingly overwhelmed.

***********************************

Justin made me a table for Christmas.

It is seven feet long.

The table we have been using seats four comfortably. Four, and we are six...without any company! The new table is fashioned out of Justin's childhood table (in the middle, made of solid maple) and my childhood table (solid oak, cut in two and added to the ends). I cried and cried when I saw it. Not just because it is a "bigger table", but because it is a deep representation to me of the things God has been teaching me the last several years about having a truly welcoming and joyful spirit towards the people he brings my way--without reservation. It is the two of us, made better and stronger as one. It takes what was inadequate and makes it into something overflowing with purpose and life. God's provision for me abounds, and each time I am stretched, I experience more and more of his blessing. And as hard as it as gotten, that blessing is still so good, at its core, that I am absolutely unable to turn away and try it on my own! I am completely captivated by this life he has chosen for me.

There is room enough!

Thank you, Justin, for walking this journey with me, and for a gift that meets a need and speaks to my heart. It is functional and beautiful! I love every bit of it.

Oy

2009-01-18T22:10:00.001-08:00

....Seemingly too busy facebooking to blog.

Thanks, Jill and Kristie :)

New post to come--tomorrow!

Better Hit The Mall

2008-12-26T20:43:00.000-08:00

alternately titled: Better Review The Calendar Unit

Cole (as he casually loads his dinner plate into the dishwasher): "So it's two hundred million thousand days until Christmas?"

Mama: "Um, no."

Cole: "Well, how many then?"

Mama: "Three hundred and sixty four."

Cole (jumping up and down for glee): "THAT'S SO SOON!"

Mommy P-I

2008-12-17T12:14:00.000-08:00

Quote of the Day:

"(contented sigh)....Me love Mommy and Tom Selleck." --Reuben, age 3

Birthday, Please--Double Shot

2008-12-14T17:10:00.000-08:00

Better late than never....here are the photos of Reuben's birthday!

This was the first year that we made a "do" out of Reuben's day--I guess because it was the first year he was really aware. His birthday is so close to Thanksgiving that we usually just celebrate with family that weekend instead. This year, he was emphatic that he wanted a Thomas cake and that he wanted to eat it with his friend Ella. We invited Ella and her family over for dinner and figured that was celebration enough (7 kids between the two families!).

I really really love making my boys' birthday cakes. This one was particularly fun.

It was mostly completed when Reuben woke up from his nap--of course he was thrilled to walk out of the bedroom and discover it, and kept saying, "that Thomas face is so funny, Mom, it's so FUNNY!" The cars are filled with black jelly beans ("coal"), green gummy frogs and candy legos. Of course.

After dinner we did something special: a Birthday Walk for our birthday boy. We lit a candle and placed it on the floor, to represent the sun. Then we put labels for each of the twelve months all around the sun in a circle, and asked Reuben to stand on the November label.

He got to hold a model of the earth that I had made out of playdough the day before. Justin talked briefly about the day he was born, then we had Reuben walk once around the sun, to represent his first year of life. He stopped on November, and Justin shared a little about his first year of life. We continued on in this fashion until he (and the earth) had made three complete circles around the sun.

The cutest part was that every time he would stop on his birthday month and listen to Justin talk about his toddler years, he kept trying to sneak a bite of the earth!

Happy 3rd birthday, Reuben, we love you!

*********************

And Sean just celebrated his first birthday...with a STORE-bought cake (see how worried he is?),

a dinner of finger foods (in true one-year-old fashion) and a new rubber ball! Sean-boy, what a gift you have been to us this last blessed year! We love you and are so thankful for the chance every day to watch you grow and learn.

Dive in, little boy, welcome to toddlerhood!

Belated

2008-12-04T15:09:00.000-08:00

Around here we are

Finally home from our 8-day Thanksgiving
Finally healing
Finally beautifying the breakfast nook/homework table
Finally (already?!) digging through the Christmas decorations
Finally digging through the photographs of Reubsy's third birthday to share

so until the next installment, here's a fun conversation from yesterday:

********************

Cole: "Mom, all I want you to make me is broccoli and carrots, for the rest of my life."

Mama (proud and scared): "Oh? Why is that?" (cringing)

Cole: "Well, because broccoli makes big toots, and Olivia says that carrots make you see in the dark. So then I could see big toots in the dark."

Reese: "Me, me too!"

*********************

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving!

Happiness

2008-11-18T18:58:00.000-08:00

Cole: "Do you know what I need to make me happy?"

Mama: "Yup."

Cole: "What?"

Mama: "A hippity-hop, a pair of underwear, your slippery socks, a rubber room, maybe some bubble gum and one can of silly string."

Daddy: "And a whole bottle of maple syrup."

Cole: "No, I just need to be taller. Then I'd stand on that table over there and climb on top of the ceiling fan."

Is that all? Who knew?!

The Birthday

2008-11-16T20:48:00.000-08:00

It's coming...

One Month

2008-11-15T13:25:00.000-08:00

In one month, I have
mourned the loss of my fifth pregnancy
cried over the deaths of two co-workers
listened to my husband explain to me why he lost his job

I have also
purchased new clothes for growing, healthy boys
bought groceries and gasoline with cash
worn tank tops because my house is nice and warm
eaten hot meals lovingly prepared by family and friends
given to others out of my excess

In the next month, I will
celebrate the birthday of my three year old son
sit round a table with 17 others in thankfulness
help a sweet one year old blow out a candle

"the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away;
may the name of the Lord be praised"! (job 1:21b)

Heard Around The House....TODAY

2008-11-13T17:44:00.000-08:00

Cole: "Mom, I think you get more wrinkles every day."

Reese: "Ow, I just hit myself in the sperm!"

Reuben: "Mine tea brown just like a toot-toot!"

It's not altogether a bad thing that Sean hasn't learned to talk yet.

In Which I Shamelessly Self-Promote

2008-11-07T13:17:00.000-08:00

In a moment of whimsy recently, we decided to try something new this holiday season: A Handmade Christmas. I've been actually thinking about the idea since last fall, when I saw one of the posh buyhandmade.org tags on the Four Little Men & Twins blog. Such a cool idea; I just didn't know if I could do it. Nothing but handmade gifts? No lego sets for the boys? (I might just cave on this one yet.) I mulled over the idea for a full 9 months before mentioning it cautiously to Justin....knowing that he would pounce on it. Guess what? He pounced on it. So here we are, planning our handmade Christmas, and having more fun than I could have anticipated!

The rules: to give only handmade gifts this year--but the gifts don't have to be made by OUR hands. (Thank goodness. I told Justin he would be getting a painted rock, a knitted flask cozy and a box of fudge....and he just might be....) We wanted to also support our local (and not-so-local...I have an etsy fetish) crafters. So we will be avoiding the mall this year (yay!) and hitting many of the craft fairs instead (yay yay!). We are also coming up with new ideas every single day of things we DO want to try to make ourselves. I'm dying to post pictures, but some of them will have to wait, since I know there are family members who read this blog. You will have to check back after Christmas for some of our more-hilarious (I mean: unique) gifts!

And we have something to offer, too. For the past several years we have been making these beautiful wooden family plaques. They are handcarved with your specific last name and wedding year, and they make a lovely gift for Christmas, anniversaries, birthdays, or housewarmings. The length of the plaque is dependant on your specific information, but each one measures 8" high and is 3/4" thick. The edges are sanded to look rustic, and each sign is fitted with hanging wire.

Here's a few we've done: the photos aren't fabulous, but I will try to get some better ones to post soon:

For any readers that would like one, we will be accepting orders this year through November 30th (for delivery by Christmas). You can leave a comment here with your contact information, or email us at familysigns@live.com to place your order. Individual plaques are $30; order three or more and they are $25 a piece (shipping extra).

Your turn! If you have a handmade product you are selling this holiday season, I would love to hear about it and post a sidebar with your info to pass onto other readers. Ready, go!

Goodbye October

2008-11-05T12:47:00.000-08:00

Hello November!

Child Critic's Review of Odwalla Superfood

2008-10-24T12:37:00.000-07:00

Quote of the Day:

"We're drinking motor oil with just a touch of poison in it."
--Cole, age 7

Back To Basics

2008-10-22T20:15:00.001-07:00

Judi: I dare say: you've given me a bit of a Fat Head with your lovely comment about searching out my recipes. Truth-be-told, I've neglected my freezer far too long, and my children have been subsisting almost entirely on the 160 lbs of jonagolds we picked a week and a half ago. They are actually to the point of begging me NOT to serve them apples anymore. Whoops. With Justin's help (I get dopey if I'm out of the kitchen too long) I finally made a meal plan yesterday--with plans to restock the upright built right in! Here's what's on the docket for this week:

Wednesday: my famous Hot & Sour Soup and potstickers (two batches--when it's available I eat this soup three meals a day, and for dessert)
Thursday: Homemade Spaghetti and salad (two batches--each batch makes about 12 servings, so we should get four meals out of this)
Friday: Brittany's Black Bean Soup and homemade cornbread (three batches--another favorite, and one that freezes well)
Saturday: ...taking a break from cooking...we'll have appetizers for dinner....
Sunday: Enchiladas Verdes (four batches; two pans for Sunday and two pans for the freezer)

Whew! When I started making my grocery list, I calculated that I needed 31 cups of chicken stock just for the next five days. 31 cups! I buy plenty of packaged stock, don't get me wrong, but with these numbers, it's worth making my own.

I think that people don't make their own stock anymore because they think it's scary, or time-consuming, but the truth is that it's easy and does most of its own work. Here's what I do:

Buy a whole chicken. Bring it home, unwrap it, rinse it under cold water and pull all the "extras" out of the cavity (I usually just toss these). Now at this point, you can decide whether you want to boil the whole chicken, boil part of the chicken, or roast the chicken. Boiling the whole chicken gives the most flavor, but you won't get to use any of the meat. Boiling part of the chicken gives you more bang for your buck, but it takes a few extra minutes since you have to cut off the breastmeat or whatever else you'd like to save. Roasting the chicken first makes the flavors deeper, and you can use some of the roasted meat before making your stock, but it will make a dark brown broth, which isn't suitable for some recipes that require a clear broth. You can't really make a "wrong choice" here, but it's worth thinking about what your end product will be.

Today I wanted a good clear broth (asian soups don't lend themselves to roasted stock) and the benefit of some of the meat, too. I carved my raw chicken and saved the breastmeat and thighs in a freezer bag to use later this week in the enchiladas. Everything else went in the stockpot. Now chop one onion, one carrot, and one rib of celery into chunky (like 2") pieces and toss those in, too. Add cold water to your pot until it covers all of that goodness by about an inch. Throw in 5 or 6 black peppercorns and a couple of sprigs of fresh parsley (or dried, in a pinch). Now, these are my two secret ingredients: seaweed and a splash of white wine. The wine (or you can use vinegar) in your cold water will work to draw calcium out of the bones--which we get excited about in our house, since we are sort of anti-dairy. And the seaweed adds so many amazing mineral and nutritional properties, but you won't notice the taste in the final product. I keep a small package of Kombu in my cupboard, and add a small piece to the water whenever I make stock. Don't wash it before adding it though, as you'll scrape off the white film--which contains much of the seaweed's nutritional makeup.

That's about it! See, now wasn't that easy? Set your heat a little past medium and check your (uncovered) pot anytime you happen to pass through the kitchen. Don't stir the pot at all, and don't let it come to a rolling boil. Once it really starts to bubble, it will develop a foamy cover on top, which you can skim off gently with a slotted spoon. At that point, go ahead and turn the heat down to medium-lowish and simmer gently, still uncovered, for a few hours while you go about your day. It will be done when two to three hours have passed, and you notice the level of the liquid has dropped about an inch. All the flavor should be gone from your chicken and vegetables. You can try a bit of chicken--if it doesn't taste completely bland and lifeless, keep cooking. You want all that goodness in your stock. Once you determine it's done, go ahead and pour it--through a colander or strainer--into a large bowl and let it cool. Refrigerating the stock overnight will set all the fat on the surface, and you can easily remove it before transferring your stock to the freezer. Just remember to portion it into smaller containers if you don't have plans to use the whole batch at once.

Yum! So economical, and good for the bod, too. I'm sitting here looking at the label of my Pacific Natural Foods Organic Free Range Chicken Broth, and it says: Organic chicken broth (filtered water, organic chicken), organic chicken flavor (organic chicken flavor, sea salt), natural chicken flavor (chicken stock, salt) sea salt, organic evaporated cane juice, organic onion powder, turmeric, organic flavor.

Now, does that make any sense to anyone else out there?

Know what's in my stock? Water, free-range chicken, carrots, celery, onion, black pepper, dried parsley flakes, kombu, vinegar. I like that ingredient list a whole lot better.

Heard Around The House

2008-10-22T10:24:00.000-07:00

Mama: "If you put the clean dishes on your head, they're not clean anymore."

Cole: "I'm just like an orphan!"

Daddy: "....I'm thinking of making it my new profession, actually. I'm sure organized crime needs Project Managers..."

NC-17

2008-10-16T10:17:00.000-07:00

Quote of the Day:

Mama (as Daddy comes in the back door from work): "So howzit in the world today?"

Daddy: "Not suitable for younger audiences..."

"Tag, Justin is it!"..."where did he go?"..."oh, there he is."

2008-10-15T08:37:00.000-07:00

Hey, Justin here:

I didn’t know we were playing a game.

I feel like the kid who is in the field checking out some cool ant colony and all the other kids are playing tag and all of a sudden someone hits me on the back and yells “TAG YOU’RE IT” and I’m like, “Hey you almost stepped on this ant hill!” and that guy is like, “You’re IT man, stop looking at those bugs and play” and I’m like, “But I like ants and it’s sunny out and…I had…peanut butter for lunch…and that always makes me tired…and… (my voice is trailing off)” and that kid looks at me like I’m from space then he runs off to play with the kids that have already started again without him and I’m like, “hey…hey…I can play too” but they are gone and the peanut butter is making me tired again and I go back to watching my ants...

Thank you Dan for tagging me and making me feel included in this exclusive game.

Four things I was doing 10 years ago (not blogging on my wife’s blog site that’s for sure).

1. Digging myself out of an academic hole. My freshmen year of college was not my most productive year. I did poorly my first quarter (0.6 GPA) and the following 11 quarters were up hill the whole way. Ten years ago exactly, I was starting my junior year and loving my newly declared major (Psychology). I made it out in four years with a degree and a wife! Now that is some hard work, let me tell you.
2. Dating the hottest girl on campus. You know the type. The deep, artsy chick that cooks gourmet food, hangs out in cemeteries and won’t let you touch her pencils. Yeah, we were close. Btw: I ended up marring her and having 4 kids, but that is another story.
3. Eating dinner. “College Budget” dinner: Top Ramen, canned chili and Costco hotdogs almost every night. I know, gross. The only time, in my adult life, that I have put on any weight was in college. I gained 10 pounds (and then promptly lost it all my first year of marrige because we were dirt poor and I was unemployed and stressed out).
4. Playing video games. I lived in an apartment off campus with two roommates who had the TV on ALL the time. They were either watching MTV or playing video games every moment they were not in class. I joined in, often.

Four things on my “To-do-List” today:

1. Feed the chickens
2. Kiss my wife
3. Go to work
4. Play with my sons

Four random things I love about my wife:

1. She can make me laugh. I have a strange sense of humor. I usually only laugh when I see someone fall down or fall off of something or hit themselves with something. I don’t respond to stand-up comedy or “funny” movies (unless it is about people falling down). I don’t laugh at jokes or clever anecdotes. Kim can make me laugh (without falling down) on a regular basis. She has to catch me by surprise and she does. No one else can do that.
2. She can’t stand mold, spiders or wet cheese. So when those evil, menacing items of ugliness rear their awful heads I am called upon to dispose of them. I look like the “hero of the world” without much effort. It is like she is serving me up a huge slow soft ball that I can hit out of the park every time. The ego boost is nice. We haven’t ever had a moldy, wet piece of cheese shaped like a spider, but when that day comes, look out, cause I’ll win the day and get the girl.
3. She plays video games (I know I have already mentioned video games in this post. I enjoy responsibly. No, I do, really). She is a contender. When she was pregnant with our first child (Cole), she played through and beat The Legend of Zelda. As I am writing she is playing the LEGO Indiana Jones game with amazing speed and skill. It is nice to have an ally.
4. She tells me all the time that she would follow me anywhere. I believe her. She LOVES the Pacific Northwest and if I moved her anywhere else she would be miserable. I recognize the sacrifice she is willing to make. She loves me without any reservation.

Four jobs I have had:

1. Aluminum recycling. I worked at a recycling station in Kenmore every Saturday for a year and a half. I came home smelling like rotten beer and the bottom of my shoes were sticky.
2. Caddy. When I was 12 I was a caddy at a local country club in Cincinnati, Ohio. I learned what club to offer the golfers and how to wash a golf ball and where to walk on the green. The other caddies and I would drink soda and watch a black and white TV in a swelteringly hot caddy shack until we were called up.
3. Port of Anacortes maintenance worker. I worked at the Port of Anacortes for a summer in college. I was the lowest man on the ladder. I had to perform such duties as sanding and staining 1.5 miles of marina railing, cutting down acres of wetland at the airport and removing bloated seal carcasses from public beaches. That was pobably the pinacle of my working career.
4. Property Manager. In a tough financial time Kim and I were given an opportunity to manage a rental home. She did all the money stuff, and I did all the fixing stuff. I am glad we don’t have to do that any more. Cleaning dead cats out of the basement and evicting people are not high on my list of things I like to do, even for money.

Four movies I have watched more than once:

1. Good Will Hunting, because I feel like Will sometimes, not so much in the "genius" way, but in the “selling yourself short when God has something bigger and better” way.
2. Serenity, because I loved the TV show and the movie was like one big 2-hour last episode.
3. 12 Monkeys, because I like Sci-Fi and the concept of time travel and apocalyptic event scenarios.
4. Nacho Libre, mostly because my boys LOVE it and I love to watch it with them and pretend to be Luchadores with them.

Four places I have lived:

1. Medford, OR – It was where I was born and lived for the first year and a half of my life.
2. Cincinnati, OH – My family moved there in 86’ and I had to uproot and move for the first time in my life. Our first house was a hotel (3 months) then we moved to a 100 year old stone house on a highway across from a biker bar and finally to a house in the suburbs.
3. Seattle, WA – Well, not really Seattle, more like the surrounding areas. First to a tiny house in Lynnwood, then to a bigger house in Bothell and then to an apartment in Woodinville.
4. Portland, OR – After Medford my family moved to a white house in Portland then we moved to a cul-de-sac in Beaverton.

Four places I have been:

1. South Dakota, to see Mt. Rushmore.
2. The United Kingdom - Just me and a bicycle for one month in 96’.
3. Tennessee – To a lake called Lake Cumberland for a family vacation.
4. So-Cal – Kim kidnapped me and flew us to San Diego for a long weekend.
(to name a few)

Four places I want to visit:

1. Maine, for the weather.
2. Australia, for the water.
3. France, for the food.
4. New York, for the…atmosphere, I guess

Four TV shows I watch (on DVD):

1. The Office – kinda funny
2. Battlestar Galactica – Any show where there are robots taking over the planet, I’m in to.
3. Planet Earth – Not as good as the real thing but more of the earth than I will ever see in my lifetime.
4. Firefly – Cowboy Sci-fi with an Asian twist. Oh – yeah.

Four things you might not know about me:

1. I love sweeping. You heard me right. Give me a broom and a dirty floor and I am in heaven. My idea of a retirement job is an empty warehouse that needs to be swept every day. I love sweeping because I have all the time in the world to think. Sweeping in and of itself takes very little brainpower and leaves my mind free to explore.
2. I am an INTJ. Look up the Meyers-Briggs personality assessment and you will find out what that means. I don’t put a lot of faith in these tests because I believe we are more than a list of questions and can’t be quantified by a matrix of attributes, but it is the closest thing I have found to an explanation of my personality. But know this, I am deeper than those four letters!
3. Silence is golden. I need silence. I could be deaf and happy. I don’t like loud noises at all. I don’t usually listen to the radio in the car or at work. I am trying to teach my sons the value of quiet times.
4. I had (still have, I think) a Cabbage Patch doll when I was a kid. It wasn’t your normal Cabbage Patch. It was the knock-off brand that you could by at the fabric store where you would buy the “head” and use a pattern to make the body. My sisters were excited to go “pick out their head” and have my mom make the body. I went along with it and “picked out” my own head. It had green eyes and brown hair like me and I named him Oliver David. I dressed “Ollie” in my old baby cloths and he sat on my bed for 6 years and then he sat in my closet for 6 years and has been in a box for the last 12 years. What a life.

I don’t know anyone in Blogland who has not been tagged already, but here is my list.
1. Link (from The Legend of Zelda)
2. Al Gore (because he invented the Internet)
3. The state of Utah (it would be interesting to read what Utah was doing ten years ago)
4. Oliver David (I would like to make contact with my estranged son, so Ollie if you have access to a computer look me up, what are you like 24 now, man I wasted those last 18 years, maybe we can go an have a beer, you are old enough now, daddy loves you son.)

Remembering Creation

2008-10-13T20:31:00.001-07:00

Quote of the Day:

"I can't remember what it feeled like when God was making me." --Reese, age 4

Fall Window Hangings

2008-10-10T17:31:00.000-07:00

I have to show you what we did this week. I've been so excited to make these window hangings with the boys since finding them here a few weeks ago; we finally bought a new roll of clear contact paper Monday morning and got to work. The boys had such fun, and they turned out so beautiful, and I am so in love with them-- I just sit and stare at the window all day long. You know how I feel about kids and art and how I wish I was creative enough to give my sons opportunities to just fill my house with color...

They're so lovely, truly. The photos don't do justice. I LOVE that Cole's is made of all the different bright fall colors, I LOVE that Reese's has that beautiful branch right in the middle, I LOVE that Reuben chose to do his ENTIRELY in green. They make me so happy.

10.07

2008-10-07T14:29:00.000-07:00

justin one:

nine years ago I said "I will"

eight years ago I said "I do"

today I say "I still"

my friend assures me:

it's all or nothing

I am not worried

I am not overly concerned

my friend implores me:

for one time only,

make an exception

I am not worried

wrap her up in a package of lies

send her off to a coconut island

I am not worried

I am not overly concerned

with the status of my emotions

oh, she says, we're changing

we're always changing

Remember when you were eighteen? So stubborn and bullheaded, so sure you knew what your future held, so in control. I was so captivated by you and calmed by your surety; your stubbornness thrilled me and frustrated me...

Remember rock climbing at the park and pizza on the scaffolding? Remember water towers at night and the ribbing of friends? Remember missing your One in England and lunch at Fridays?

Remember moving north, and starting again? Remember lawn games before dinner? Remember new books, new profs, new schedules to coordinate? Remember waiting to be buzzed in to the building? Remember calling Naked Guy and asking him to please put some clothes on? Remember rapelling off the look-out tower? Remember photographing the cemetary, and walking all the way home? Remember pre-bought tickets and (root) beers on the builders' swing?

Remember the realization that it wasn't a game anymore, that something bigger was beginning?

it does not bother me to say:

this isn't love

so if you don't want to talk about it then

it isn't love

and I guess I'm going to have to live with that

but I'm sure there's something in a shade of grey

or something in between

and I can always change my name

if that's what you mean

Remember loud silences and frenzied writings? Remember tearful walks in the night, muddling through miscommunications? Remember wanting so desperately to make it work? Remember knowing that something larger was at stake?

it seems like I should say:

as long as this is love....

but it's not all that easy

so maybe I should

snap her up in a butterfly net

pin her down on a photograph album

I am not worried

I've done this sort of thing before

...but then I start to think about the consequences

and I don't get no sleep in a quiet room

Remember waking exhausted, but starting another day?

Remember not giving up?

this time, when kindness falls like rain

it washes me away

and Anna begins to change my mind

and everytime she sneezes I believe it's love

and oh lord, I'm not ready for this sort of thing

she's talking in her sleep

it's keeping me awake

and Anna begins to toss and turn

and every word is nonsense

but I understand it all

lord, I'm not ready for this sort of thing

her kindness bangs a gong

it's moving me along

and Anna begins to fade away

it's chasing me away

she disappears and

oh lord, I'm not ready for this sort of thing

justin one:

thank you for taking a chance on us

eight years added to our cache of memories,

four olive shoots around your table

and I am crazy in love with you (I think hearts about you)

Apocalypse

2008-10-02T18:16:00.000-07:00

Quote of the Day:

"Mom, COME QUICK! The world is falling apart!" --Cole, age 7

(I know. I was worried too. Apparently it was just a small matter with the globe.)

Tag, I'm It

2008-10-01T21:24:00.000-07:00

So, back in August, my new bloggy friend leah tagged me for a blog post, and....well, I am apparently THAT behind. But it's great fun--and leah, I am doing this mainly for you, because my parents and my best friend (the only other people who read this blog) probably already know these things about me!

4 things

4 things I was doing 10 years ago:

1) Moving into my first apartment! Lovingly called the Peach Pit by the locals (90210 nod, yes?), it was a four-story peach stucco building on the south side of campus with bright turquoise doors. Lovely. (And all I could afford). On move-in day, I entered the apartment to find candles burning and the TV blaring, and the roommate nowhere to be seen (she was in another part of the building visiting a neighbor). I wondered what I had gotten myself into....but sure enough, we survived two years in that flat with no fires! Hurrah!
2) Swooning over My One, knowing that he was absolutely the missing half of me and trying to do the hard work of sorting through our baggage ahead of time so that we could (hopefully) have an uncomplicated marriage in the future...
3) Volunteering as a counselor at the local pregnancy center. Important work, yes, but very overwhelming. Every Friday afternoon, when I returned home from my shift, I would collapse on top of my bed and sleep for about three hours--sleep being my No. 1 Coping Mechanism.
4) Biting my nails off with the stress of having to "write on cue" for all of my major classes.

4 things on my to-do list for today:

1) Make 7-layer burritos for dinner (check)
2) Make a model of the Nile River, plant its banks with Cereal Rye and flood it to make the crops grow (tabled--forgot to buy the potting soil)
3) Wash a load of cloth dipes (check)
4) Spend 15 mins cleaning my entryway (Flylady....check....good thing, too, since one of the boxes sitting there has been there since July!)

4 random things I love about my husband:

1) He understands me. Absolutely. My every moment, be it Crazy, Scattered, Furious, Weepy or Stressed (how are those for dwarves?) fits perfectly into his understanding of who I am....which means that he is never surprised by me....and which means that I never have to be something that I am not. He loves me unconditionally.
2) He turns the light off for me when I fall asleep reading, and tells me stories on the nights I can't sleep.
3) He has gifted me with my four most favorite sons on this planet.
4) He knows how to FIX stuff....anything! Oh, and he sews. And irons. (Is that six? Sorry.)

4 jobs that I have had:

1) Restaurant critic for a local online guide.
2) THE BEST bagel sandwich maker. Test me on this. You will not be disappointed.
3) A server at Red Robin. Yes, I made good money, No, I didn't like it (I had to talk to people--apparently that's part of the job), Yes, I once dumped a chocolate milkshake on a little boy, No, he didn't sue.
4) Vault teller at our local credit union--a job I LOVED (money and numbers, ahh)--and would have done longer if God hadn't decided that honeymoon babies are cool.

4 movies I have watched more than once:

1) The Office DVDs (standard Sunday afternoon fare at our house)
2) Pike Place Market: soul of a city (my mother-in-law bought this for me and I can't tell you how many times I've watched it...Great background movie for laundry folding!)
3) Sliding Doors
4) Keeping the Faith
...you know what I have never watched, even though it's sitting on my shelf? My wedding video!

4 places I have lived:

1) my childhood home in Kirkland WA--where I lived until I moved away to college

2) on the 39th floor of a 42 floor highrise in Honolulu...but just for a summer

3) in a condo on a golf course on Hawaii....but just for a summer

4) in a teensy shoebox of a house on Iron Street...our first house!

4 places I have been:

1) building a church in Jamaica

2) at the theatre in London

3) at the rim of the crater on Mt St Helens

4) wandering the Louvre and Notre Dame

4 places I want to visit:

1) the Grand Canyon

2) Alaska

3) Norway

4) Greece

4 TV shows I watch (on our two channels! woohoo!):
1) Survivor
2) The Office
3) Cosby show reruns
4) The Andy Griffith show

4 things you (leah) may not know about me:
1) When I was little I was a tomboy too. Most of my best friends were boys. Two of my girlfriends and I started a club where we gave ourselves boys' names: Tom, Tommy and Thomas. I was Thomas. I wanted to have a baby brother and live on a farm.
2) My dad helped me buy my first car at 17 so I could start classes at the local community college. It was a stick shift and I was anxious about driving it...and about going to college...and on my first day, I missed my exit back to high school and ended up in downtown Seattle!
3) In high school, I took Photography, International Cuisine and Auto Technology.
4) In kindergarten, I won a goldfish at my school's Harvest Carnival. It went on to live for five years and got me into a lot of trouble. It would jump out of the water at night and the splashing kept me from sleeping. Of course my parents didn't buy that story and I got reprimanded often for making up untruths about the poor goldfish and not staying in my bed. (they finally saw him one night and all was made right!)

Your turn! The four people I tag are:
1) Jill (can you do this with dial-up?!)
2) Karissa
3) Janine
4) Lynne!

A Few Fun Things

2008-09-30T19:46:00.000-07:00

daddy brought home a snake...

reuben brought home a snail

and a mothwaaayyyy too much excitement on the first day of school

(c'mon, reese, SMILE)
morning walks to the park

swinging in the sun
this week: first time pulling up to standing!

Of Cow Pies & Mullets

2008-09-26T19:26:00.001-07:00

Playmobil Quote of the Day:

"What's that in your hand, Mom? Oh....two poops and a hair?" --Reese, age 4

And Then There Were THREE

2008-09-23T20:34:00.000-07:00

It's true: Our chicken house is becoming quite the lonely place to be. Lost another one this week, and though we're thankful to not be mentally muddling through a raccoon "robbery", we are dealing with the fact that we have absolutely no idea what killed her. Yesterday afternoon, while Justin was here on lunch, the boys were looking out the window and noticed there was a chicken that had flown over the fence. Justin went out to put her away (thankfully telling the boys to stay inside) and as he ushered her into the yard, he spied a limp little body out by the back wall. No blood, no bites, not a scratch on her.

So....c'est la vie. Or not, as the case may be. The boys weren't any more upset this time than the last, though this time they did come out and get a bit of a lesson about what a dead chicken looks like. I'm feeling sad that our egg ration is depleting. (We didn't eat any of the eggs from the nests yesterday, not knowing if they were safe.) Farmer Justin is feeling sad that he lost yet another member of his flock.

Week 3

2008-09-21T10:05:00.000-07:00

M week!

We ate muffins,

played Barrel of Monkeys in math,

stared at a jelly jar full of m&ms all week before finally charting our guesses (1-100) on Thursday, counting them and eating them, yum!

and.... we made mud!

(we were supposed to learn to mop, too, but somehow that didn't get done....)

When White Boards Attack

2008-09-19T07:45:00.001-07:00

Mama's quote of the day:

"SPELLING IS NOT A WEAPON!"

First Week of School, part three: Eat Local Week

2008-09-17T22:18:00.000-07:00

UPDATED WITH PICTURES!

I know: I'm a little late posting this....this was actually our Week Two project...

The second week of September is Eat Local Week in Bellingham, when everyone rallies together to celebrate our diverse local food and agriculture. Restaurants, local businesses, community members and even the schools get involved. Last year our little family felt that we were doing our part by purchasing a share in a CSA; this year, we decided to take it a step further and make Eat Local week into a social studies project, to occupy us while we waited for our Story of the World books to arrive.

The mission: To create four (school-day) dinners using only ingredients found within a 100-mile radius. We thought originally that we'd like to "eat local" for every meal for four days, but I panicked thinking of all the staples I couldn't use (my boys eat a LOT). Like rice. And flour. Then Justin had the great idea to cook local dinners, and map our breakfasts/lunches/snacks to see how far THAT food had to travel to reach our plates....and contrast it to our dinners. I liked this idea much better.

So.....last Saturday, Justin took the bus to the market and stuffed his huge backpack FULL of fresh produce to the tune of about $30. Not a bad start. We loaded it all into a big wicker basket in the kitchen and waited for Monday to come.

I decided it would be appropriate to kick-start our week with a meal made out of our chicken eggs, being as they were absolutely the most local food we had available. It wasn't until about the middle of the day that I realized I had no way to cook the eggs (I was going to make omelettes) without butter. Hmm. This was going to be more complicated than I thought.

A call to Justin, and he came home at dinnertime with a pint of rich, heavy cream from Twin Brooks Creamery (Lynden).

(makes you lick your lips just thinking about it)

A few minutes in the mixer on high and we had wonderfully creamy, homemade butter:

Dinner: MUCH later than usual. Worth the wait? Absolutely. On the menu: Omelettes with eggs from the backyard, a smidgen of gouda cheese made in Ferndale, green and purple bell peppers and walla walla onions from the county, and fried yukon gold and red potatoes on the side (also from the county). I gave myself salt and pepper to use as freebies. Everything else was local.

*****
On Tuesday, I chose a stewing hen Justin bought from an Acme farm. I've never cooked a stewing hen before--the meat is much tougher, stringier, and less edible than broilers--but I wanted to see what I could make of it. I cut off the breast meat and set it aside, then hacked the rest of the bird (bones and all) into 2" pieces. This went into a soup pot with some of the homemade butter to fry.

When the meat was brown, I pulled it out and added a couple of chopped walla walla onions to the pot, and stirred them around a bit until they carmelized. Then I added the chicken back in with about 2 1/2 quarts of water, and simmered it for three hours or so, and it became a wonderfully rich, brown stock. When the stock was done, I strained out the chicken and onions, and started again with my empty pot. In went more butter, and the white of an enormous leek sliced into rings, and a few minced cloves of garlic. These all sauteed together for a few minutes before I added the strained stock back in and brought it up to a boil. Time to add the chopped breast meat and simmer for another couple of hours.

About a half hour before dinnertime, I threw in an entire bunch of chopped, fresh beets, a bowl of chopped potatoes, and some orange, yellow and purple carrots. I was on the phone with Janet when I tossed the beets in and I yelped, as their brilliant color immediately perforated every ounce of the soup. I fumbled around trying to explain to her that no, nothing was wrong, it was just that "the beets turned my soup red". Well, duh!

When I went to serve up the deep soup bowls, finally (seven hours after starting the stock!), I realized I had a few butterflies about the finished product. Soup is one of the foods I make most often, but I always serve it with a salad or hearty bread, in the event that my children don't eat much of their main course. Tonight there was only soup (we had greens but I didn't know what to use as a dressing, so I didn't bother putting them on the table). It was all or nothing here. We were rewarded when we took our first bites and all began moaning and grabbing our bellies, murmuring how good it was. Life-giving food, this. Unparalleled goodness. Even the little ones went back for seconds.

*****

After that, Wednesday's dinner was much simpler. I planned simply to bake some more of the trout still in our freezer from our kind neighbor (FYI: there WAS some debate in our household over this meal, as the fish, though locally caught, was most likely farmed.....Jury's still out on the exact details and whether the meal truly passes inspection.) Our vegetable cache was dwindling, so I piled us all into the car and we went to Fairhaven to check out the Wednesday market. Though much smaller than its Saturday comrade, the market did not disappoint, and gave ample opportunity to fill our mesh bag with just-picked corn ("so sweet it makes my cheeks hurt thinking about it," said the stall's owner), tart apples, and crisp cucumbers (plus the obligatory cookies from Mt. Bakery). I realized as we drove away that I should have bought more than I did (see Thursday). Dinner that night was trout (cooked without spices or flavorings), hot corn, tomato and cucumber slices, and a full skillet of Pommes Anna, which used up the rest of my butter, sadly, but whose crisp chips were well worth the sacrifice.

*****

Thursday: the last night of our Eat Local experiment. We were running painfully low on local food. I considered calling it good, throwing in the towel, and ordering a pizza. The last minute lunch-break shopping trip I planned was cancelled when Justin got called into a meeting and couldn't sit with the kids. We tossed around the idea of taking the family downtown for Ferndale-based Hempler's sausages...but then, I could buy those myself at Haggen for less money. We settled on this plan. Justin would be home at the usual time, I'd run down and get some sausages, we'd eat a little on the late side. No problem.

Well--you know. I was walking across the parking lot at Haggen when I realized I left my grocery money on the counter at home. And my wallet. I remembered that the drive-up at the nearby credit union was open late, so I got back in my car, drove the two blocks down the street, withdrew some money, and drove back. How silly. I walked straight back to the meat department, fully expecting to see advertisements for local poultry and Skagit county beef, but there was none of that. I found the extensive Hempler's section, but couldn't locate any info about where the meat was grown. Does a local processing company count as eating locally grown food? I didn't think so. Was I splitting hairs? Was I making this far too complicated? Would we eat before dark? Did any of this--the whole experiment--even matter?

I finally asked the girl behind the fish counter (couldn't locate the meat man, and I was running short on time) to direct me towards anything from Whatcom or Skagit county. She told me that sometimes they had Lummi Island salmon...but didn't that day. I told her that didn't help. She blinked at me a few times and told me that some of the packaged chicken was Washington grown. I told her that didn't help either. I said it nicely though (sort of), and thanked her before I left the store--empty handed.

By the time I reached the next store, now nearly on the opposite side of town, I was feeling deflated and sheepish. And frustrated. And hungry. I knew, however, that this little locally-owned natural food store would have what I needed. I left there with one single $40 bag of groceries. Skagit River Ranch beef sausages, a 5 lb bag of local carrots, more corn, two heads of broccoli, a jar of Maranatha peanut butter from the sale shelf, and a big glass jar of Twin Brooks whole milk with which to make pancakes in the morning.

We eventually ate dinner on Thursday night. The sausages were good but I was grumpy and missed my mustard. The corn was so good that it (almost) made up for it!

*****

So, there you have it. A post that took four days to live out and nearly two weeks to type....I used to have pictures on here but they caused the whole post to crash multiple times. I'll try to add them in tomorrow!

What Mama Is Learning

2008-09-09T16:50:00.000-07:00

1) First-Day-Of-School-Hot-Cocoa is a contradiction in terms.

2) My homeschool needs a recess teacher.

3) Homeschools have bullies too, sometimes.

4) The first week of school brings anxiety, excitement, tears, and the need for extra sleep...whether the boys leave the house for school or not.

5) Sometimes the most frightening moment of parenting comes when you discover your toothbrush is in a different place than where you left it. (I know, it's not school related, but it's true, yes?)

First Week Of School, part two: Lesson Plans

2008-09-06T13:22:00.000-07:00

We survived our first week of school! (one down, 35 to go) Had a bit of a slow start since our school weeks are usually only four days and Monday was a holiday. But I am thankful to be easing into it, since it's really the first sort of formal schooling for both Reese and Reuben, and since Cole is coming off of a summer of literally living out of doors. We've all needed an extra dose of grace this week.

Here's what we're studying! (I love hearing about what materials people are using--what's working, what isn't working, what brilliant ideas you have that I can steal! So feel free to post your lesson plans too and maybe I will come take something of yours *grin*)

Reading: Tons and tons of reading aloud. We're intermixing "kids' choice" library books with Sonlight Core 1 Read-Alouds, Daddy's choice "Wizard of Oz", folktales from a variety of countries and cultures, Bible stories, and other "ancients" literature. Cole and I just started "Black Ships Before Troy: The Story of the Iliad" in our afternoon reading. It's very difficult material for him--I'm literally stopping every half-sentence to explain vocabulary, backstory and plot lines--but we're both loving it! Our mandatory "no TV or computers for the entire school week" rule is lending itself to much more reading around our house. Cole is working through his "I Can Read It" Sonlight Core 1 readers (see Language Arts), Reuben is learning letter recognition and sounds, and Reese is doing basic phonics and early reading exercises. We do all three of these simulateously in the mornings, so that the younger kids get the benefit of whatever info they might glean from Cole's lessons, and so that Cole gets the benefit of review through what his younger brothers are learning.

Writing: We've used Reason For Handwriting for the last couple of years and I'm loving it thus far. We chose it simply because the "style" of letters was the most similar to the lettering that both Justin and I learned as children. Beginning with the Grade 1 books, the writing exercises are all scripture verses, too, which I love.

Math: Horizons math books aren't very "hands-on", but Cole and Reese have done well with them, so we'll continue in this vein unless we hit a snag. I like that the workbooks introduce a concept, stay with it for a bit, move on to something else, and then circle back, over and over again. This method seems to be greatly effective in reinforcing abstract concepts in my boys' minds. Additionally, I'm trying to add a lot of my own manipulatives and real-life applications these days. We'll play a lot of games, cook, make our own colorful charts, count, sort, add, divide the buttons in Mama's button box, etc.

Spelling & Other Language Arts: For now, we're working with the Sonlight K and Core 1 LA materials we already had on hand. The programs are pretty all-inclusive, so spelling, dictation, grammar, vocabulary, narration and readers are all pre-planned and pre-organized. I did order a copy of First Language Lessons and we might supplement with that...or use at a later time.

History: This year we'll use Story of the World for the first time! I'm uber excited about it; history was always the one subject in school I just couldn't wrap my head around. I loved the stories and was able to memorize dates just fine--but I never could seem to comprehend which historical events were happening simultaneously. Learning American History separate from European History and so on created the illusion in my head that there were way more historical periods than actually existed. So for my own kids, I purchased several of the Usborne history materials, but I felt like I was falling into the same rut. I'm so excited to begin Story of the World and am hoping it will fulfill my expectations of presenting history in a linear way that will make it wonderful and appealing to all of us! Our books have been delayed in the mail, though, so next week, we will be working on an alternative social studies project....more on that to come (in part three of this post)!

Science: This week we will beginning Sonlight Core 1 Science...the last of our materials just arrived a few days ago and I haven't had a chance to peek at them much...so will have to update you later!

Bible: Our Bible reading falls into the "ancients" read-aloud category. For memorization, though, I have chosen Ecclesiastes 3:1-8:

There is a time for everything,

and a season for every activity under heaven:

a time to be born and a time to die,

a time to plant and a time to uproot,

a time to kill and a time to heal,

a time to tear down and a time to build,

a time to weep and a time to laugh,

a time to mourn and a time to dance,

a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,

a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

a time to search and a time to give up,

a time to keep and a time to throw away,

a time to tear and a time to mend,

a time to be silent and a time to speak,

a time to love and a time to hate,

a time for war and a time for peace.

which I'm sure will take us at least eight weeks, if not sixteen. But I'm feeling deep emotion about this passage, as I've recognized that every other word out of my mouth the last year or so seems to be "it's not time for that, it's time to (fill in the blank)." I don't want to be a mother that is continually telling my boys that they can't wrestle, or be loud, or dig up the flowerplants...I want to be a mother that teaches her sons to recognize when those things are appropriate, and conversely, when it is appropriate to be silent, to embrace, to plant, to build. So I'm thrilled that God (and Solomon), in their wisdom, included this passage in the Holy Book and thankful for the opportunity to teach it to my children and watch its seeds begin to come alive in them.

Art: Ooh, this is a hard one for me. I am pretty much of the mindset that children should do art all day long! ....but I am hopeless when it comes to artistic creativity. Thankfully I married a man who is artistic to the core. I'm not planning a separate "art" segment yet, because I'm anticipating that the SOTW workbook will be full of crafts and art projects. If it turns out that isn't true, then Justin will take the reigns, and Fridays will become "Art with Daddy" days. And they just might anyway.

Montessori: On top of everything else....we'll focus each week on a different Life Skill to be taught in detail and practiced intentionally. Wonderful, majestic things like Saying Thank You (without prompting), Washing Dishes, Sewing, correctly Setting A Table, Sweeping, and (Daddy's favorite!) Being Silent. Hooray! I love how this instruction will further enforce the Ecclesiastes passage we'll be studying.

Whew! Is that it? What a whirlwind this homeschool thing is. As with every other area of parenting, it's dawning on me that homeschool, too, is more about my education than my childrens'. Thank you, Lord, for using these boys to refine me!

*******

"But women will be restored through childbearing--if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety" I Timothy 2:15

First Week Of School, part one: Meal Plan

2008-08-31T15:54:00.000-07:00

Hooray for the arrival of the first week of school! Like everyone else, we've been bustling around the last few weeks trying to get everything in order...

Today we're cleaning the house and trying to prep as many foods as possible. This is the first year I will have all 3 boys at the table, and I'd love to have every day free to be with them instead of feeling stressed about getting dinner made and on the table.

Since it's the end of the month, the grocery envelope is close to empty and we're using up the last of the foods in our freezer--ground beef for the pastie and meatloaf, one lone flank steak, and some trout that our neighbor caught and gifted us with. Seasonal veggies, rice and legumes round out the remaining meals!

Here's our plan for the week:
Sunday: Indian spiced rice (with chicken)
Monday: Fresh pasta and pesto
Tuesday: Pastie
Wednesday: Split pea soup
Thursday: Marinated flank steak and grilled vegetables
Friday: Fish pie
Saturday: Basil/sundried tomato meatloaf and roasted fingerlings

...and how about one of my favorite recipes?

Indian Spiced Rice

This recipe is from a lovely book that my mother bought for me when I was in college: Vegetarian Planet, by Didi Emmons. It has become my favorite meal to make the day after roast chicken. Because of the lentils, it's a complete protein on its own, but Justin's one of those bodies that requires animal protein on a daily basis, so I just chop up whatever chicken remains from the previous night and stir it into the finished rice, and the two pair beautifully. Yum! (and so economical, too! These ingredients cost pennies!)

1 tablespoon oil

1 cup chopped onion

1 tablespoon minced, fresh ginger

1 garlic clove, minced

1/2 teaspoon ground coriander

1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

1 1/4 cups uncooked jasmine rice

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup dried lentils

3 cups water

1 large potato (russet or sweet) or 2 small (reds or yukons)

1 small bell pepper, seeded and minced

1/2 cup peas

3 tablespoons raisins

In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onions and cook, stirring frequently, until softened. Add the ginger, garlic, coriander, cardamom, nutmeg and cumin. Cook for 3 minutes more, stirring frequently.

Add the rice and saute 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the salt and lentils, then stir in 3 cups water. Add the potato and cover the pan. Bring the mixture to a boil, then turn the heat to the lowest setting. After 10 minutes, lift the lid and add the bell pepper, peas and raisins. Stir well, then cover the rice again. Cook 10 minutes more, or until the rice, potatoes and lentils are tender.

Five Little Acorns

Newsy

Back to School (for lack of a witty title)

20 A Day: Day 11

Heard Around The House

20 A Day: Day 3

20 A Day: Day 2

20 A Day

Posture

The Earth-Conscious Family

Still Learning Tact

Clarity

April

(Typical) Conversation with Reuben

(Typical) Conversation With Reuben

Highlight

Alignment

Lunch Conversation

Five Little Acorns

Heard Around The...Christmas Tree

Waiting

Heard Around The....Volvo

Holidaze

Wordless Wednesday

When You're The Fifth Baby

QOTD, Take Two

Money Talks

Fall Pinto Bean & Yam Soup

Reubenisms

Seriously

Nevermind

Still Here

Sneak Peek

Introducing

Change of Plans

Dreaming

Buttermilk Blueberry Bliss

[august]

When Daddy Cooks Breakfast

Assembly Line

Already July

The Long(er) Update

Thank You, Wipeout

The Short Update

Glucose Laments

Movin' On Up

Postponed

Heard Around The....Volvo

33

Off

Chickpea Stew

Heard Around The House--Thomas The Tank Engine version

Missing

Heard Around The House (the Who Are You version)

Let's Pretend

*stellan*

I Know That They Have To Grow Up

February 2008 - March 2009

Breakfast Fare

Our Mom, by Cole, Reese and Reuben

A Seven Year Old's Budget Reform

Baby, Daddy, Fat, Old

And They Wonder Why I Forget To Get Dressed Sometimes

Storytime

When Discussions On Ancient Egypt Go Awry

This Morning

Room Enough

Oy

Better Hit The Mall

Mommy P-I

Birthday, Please--Double Shot

Belated

Happiness

The Birthday

One Month

Heard Around The House....TODAY

In Which I Shamelessly Self-Promote

Goodbye October

Child Critic's Review of Odwalla Superfood

Back To Basics

stellan