Tales From Toad Hall

Wahoo!

2012-02-13T20:56:00.001-08:00

One of our favorite toys around here is the Wahoo we got Peanut for her first birthday back in November. The first one we got was defective, but they quickly shipped us a replacement and he's been up and running ever since. He was advertised as the "perfect puppy" and I have to say that's pretty much true: he doesn't bark, shed, chew on shoes, or "misbehave" (as the Victorians put it.) And he doesn't mind when the kids pull on his ears. Or sit on him, for that matter. Which they do. Constantly.

Best Tuna Salad Ever

2012-02-12T05:12:00.000-08:00

I recently discovered how to make the yummiest tuna salad ever, so I thought I'd share.

Start with a bowl of greens. Add two cans of tuna. Then make this dressing and stir about half of it into the bowl:

Avocado Salad Dressing

1 ripe avocado, pitted
1/2 c sour cream
1/3 cup olive oil
juice of 1 lemon (please use fresh!)
2 large garlic cloves
2 tsp fresh pepper (yes, this is a lot, but it works!)
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

Blend everything in a blender until smooth.

On plain lettuce, this dressing is too strong-- too much lemon, too much pepper. But when you add the tuna, something magical happens. I never thought I would rave about tuna salad, but here I am. And it's healthy, too!

Our Puppet Theater

2012-02-10T20:56:00.000-08:00

I've been wanting a puppet theater for my kids for years. I was always seeing them in catalogs and I almost bought one several times. The thing that held me back was their bulk, especially with all the moving around that we do. The last thing we needed was some big wooden thing to have to try to squeeze into the moving truck. Then I saw one that could be hung in a doorway with tension rods. Perfect! And then I said, "I could totally make one of those."

Remember how last Christmas we were focusing on homemade gifts? I bought the fabric to make a puppet theater for the kids and that was supposed to be one of the homemade gifts. Remember how I said we only got a few of our many projects made?

But I did get it made in time for Roo's birthday! I kept the design very simple-- I had to because I ended up throwing together most of it the day before. But it turned out just great, mostly because I used awesome fabric that looks like real theater curtains and doesn't have to have the edges finished.

They are so happy with it! They've spent hours already creating puppet shows. Right after I took these pictures they came up with the idea of hanging it in the closet doorway of the boys' bedroom. Then they made the boys' room into a Theater. I went in there this evening for a Performance. They had the window darkened with a blanket and a bunch of chairs set up. Music was playing on the CD player while we waited for the show to start (the overture to HMS Pinafore, actually...) Then one of the boys sat up on top of the bunk bed and ran the spotlight (flashlight) while the other boy ran the puppet show (later they traded places.) It was so creative and clever.

This is exactly the kind of thing I like my kids to spend their time doing!!!!

Bountiful Happiness

2012-02-08T13:36:00.000-08:00

One of the things I was sad about leaving when we left Utah was the Bountiful Baskets food co-op. I had just discovered it-- it was fairly new back then-- and I was so excited about it.

I found when I got here that, like in Kansas, it was hard to find affordable organic food, bulk food, and bulk produce that wasn't revoltingly expensive (for instance, finding apples in any quantity or quality for less that $1.00 a pound is really rare here and I was used to being able to buy an entire box of apples for quite a bit less than that.) And food prices are just generally higher here as well. I missed my Bountiful Baskets so much that when we went back to Utah last fall to visit I actually put in an order with them while I was still in Oklahoma that I excitedly picked up right after I got to Utah.

Well, I am not the only person out there who is madly in love with Bountiful Baskets. The organization is growing like a weed and has spread to many other states, including Oklahoma!

Last Saturday I got my first Bountiful Basket in Oklahoma. Wow! I'm sorry I didn't take a picture of my haul. In addition to 12 organic fruits and vegetables for $25 (try that at the health food store!) I bought a 25-lb bag of juicing carrots and an entire box of apples (for far less than $1.00 a pound!) Oh, and a gallon of organic olive oil.

The Badger started munching on stuff right away-- pea pods and radishes and apples and oranges. Then he looked at me with his happy Badger face and said "I feel nourished." Yep, that pretty much sums it up.

Hooray for food co-ops! I'm very much in favor of them. And it looks like Bountiful Baskets is rapidly gaining popularity in Oklahoma. Which is good. Oklahoma is one of the least healthy states in the nation. I love to see that starting to change!

Happiness Is....

2012-02-08T08:25:00.000-08:00

...having a Rabbit! A Rabbit that thinks she's a puppy. It tickles when she licks my face!

Our friends Shane and Shannon from Kansas visited recently and when I laughed at something someone said Shane remarked that he'd never seen me laugh like that. He commented that I seemed a lot more relaxed and happy than I had when we lived in Kansas. Shannon agreed strongly. I was rather surprised because I really don't remember being particularly unhappy in Kansas-- I don't feel like I am significantly more happy now.

So either I've just gotten better at expressing the happiness that I felt inside all along, or else those early days of stress and sleep deprivation with high-maintenance infant Rabbit took more of a toll than I realized. In any case, it makes me think about working on how I exress myself and come across to others.

But even though she turned my life upside down, there was never a moment when I did not just LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE my little Rabbit-girl. I always knew she was going to be a really talented and fun-to-be-around person, and the older she gets the more true that is. I love you, my Rabbit!

Red Mush

2012-02-06T21:47:00.000-08:00

When I was a child, my mother sometimes made a treat called "Red Mush," which I later learned came from her Danish grandmother. I absolutely loved it served warm with a little bit of cold milk. I get all warm and fuzzy just thinking about it. I close my eyes and see myself sitting in the cozy kitchen of our house on Crestwood Drive with a big bowl of red mush and then this wonderful feeling of contentment and nostalgia sweeps over me. Oh yeah.

When I grew up I asked her, "what in the world was that stuff, anyway?" As a kid I had no idea. Luckily it didn't turn out to be anything like head cheese. It was just stewed plums sweetened and thickened with tapioca.

At one point when I was living in Idaho (several moves ago now!) I learned how to can plums. I would run them through the food processor and then can them as "plum sauce." This stuff was perfect for Red Mush and we got to enjoy it again several times. All I had to do was pop open a quart of plum sauce and cook some tapioca and a little sweetener into it.

Oh, those were happy days in Idaho. There was always so much bounty from garden and orchard and I was always canning and freezing. I did a little canning in Oregon and Kansas, but I haven't done any since I moved here. I have not yet ever been able to get my hands on anything in a sufficient quantity to can.

I recently found my last few jars of home-canned food and we have been eating them up. These few remaining jewels included one jar of plum sauce. I smiled when I saw it and thought of my kids enjoying bowls of red mush on a cold winter night.

I didn't have any tapioca, so I went to go buy some. It was hard to find: some grocery stores aren't carrying it anymore. I finally found some organic tapioca at the health food store. I was pretty excited.

So tonight we made and ate Red Mush. The kids loved it. It was great. (I meant to take a picture but it disappeared too fast!) They asked me if we could have it again sometime. I told them that we could but not until we were living near a plum tree again.

I do hope that won't be too long from now!

Country Wisdom

2012-02-06T21:45:00.000-08:00

The longer we live out here, the more we learn about how to do this country thing right.

We have learned that some varieties of chicken mature much more slowly than others. Brahmas are one such variety. So we thought this was a hen:

But it turned out to be a rooster. We actually had two of them and they both eventually ended up being roosters. And they both eventually ended up being enchiladas.

The Badger has finally figured out how to dispatch chickens and prepare them so that the meat is actually very tasty. Truthfully, these guys tasted like a good Thanksgiving turkey. Much better than the last rooster we ate which was tough and stringy and tasted... odd.

The third bit of country wisdom I am learning is that it really is quite disturbing to eat something you have named. I have always loved naming things but I haven't named too many of our chickens. The Brahma roosters had names though-- it's kind of a long story but they were essentially collectively named "Mr. Wong." When the Badger came over and popped a big piece of tender juicy chicken meat into my mouth I said "ooh, tasty-- wait! I AM EATING MR. WONG!!!!" And it felt really weird and uncomfortable. But I got over it. The enchiladas were really good.

Cake and Presents

2012-02-04T21:47:00.000-08:00

Here are pictures from the cake-and-presents portion of the party.

I made one of my famous homemade chocolate cakes and then we put a Hello Kitty candle on it-- no food coloring! First we gave it to Roo and had her blow it out:

Then we re-lit, put the cake in front of Rabbit, and sang again:

At present time, we piled up a bunch of mats for them to sit on while they opened.

Happy happy happy!

Bouncing Rabbit

2012-02-04T21:26:00.000-08:00

The big extra-bouncy trampoline at the gym was extremely popular at the party today. I took a bunch of pictures of the Rabbit while she was jumping and it was so funny to see the expressions that I caught when the flash went off.

Like this one:

Or this one with her tongue hanging out:

This picture struck me because in it she looks so much like the Badger's side of the family. Usually I think of the Rabbit as my Mini-Me, but here she has a strong resemblence to my extremely gorgeous sisters in law.

And then I finally got one where she was up in the air! Yay!

Boing!

She was loving it! There's that tongue again!

I love a happy Rabbit!

What a Party!

2012-02-04T21:20:00.000-08:00

When I did the boys' birthday party last summer I thought I was being so clever having it at my house and saving all the money that a lot of people spend having their parties at some venue. But when I added it all up I realized that I really didn't save that much money. And I about popped a brain vessel worrying about how the whole thing was going to go and were the kids going to trash my house, etc. I decided right then and there that when the girls' birthdays came around, we'd rent the gym where we do gymnastics.

So that's what we did. I am so glad. I still had to bring cake and ice cream and a few things like that, but what to do to keep them occupied was absolutely no sweat for me. And they could be as crazy as they wanted and nothing was going to get broken. It was awesome having the whole gym all to ourselves. The kids went bananas and had a blast!

I realized that this is the first time I have ever done a birthday party anywhere but at my house, but the price wasn't that bad-- lower than a lot of places I've looked at. And it was just so absolutely fantastically fun for all of us!

There's Somethin' in the Trap!

2012-02-04T20:28:00.000-08:00

The boys like to set their traps near the chickens to catch possible predators. We've caught a lot of cats (our own or the semi-wild neighborhood cats) and last time we caught a skunk, as you may remember. This time we caught....

...a 'possum!

Look at that crazy tail!

For a ten-year-old boy, life doesn't get much better than catching a real, live wild animal! Especially for a Bean boy, who seems to have been born to live on an Oklahoma ranch. I mentioned recently how Fish relates so well to London and the British culture. Bean comes straight out of a Wilson Rawls novel, with a little banjo and fiddle music thrown in.

Take Two and Take Three

2012-02-03T08:00:00.000-08:00

So, I woke up yesterday morning thinking about diaper sewing and I said "I know I can do better!" I made another one exactly like the first one I made and it turned out much better. It still isn't anything for anyone to scrutinize, but I was better prepared for all the tricks the PUL was going to play on me and everything went much smoother. In fact, it really didn't take me very long at all to put it together.

I don't have a picture of that one, but it's just like the first one I made. Then, last night I made this one:

Again, it wasn't perfect (I don't know if I will ever be able to sew in a straight line!) but it looks pretty good. And cute! I had never thought about using Minky fabric for the inner liner of a pocket diaper (which is what all these are) but the pattern suggested it and I had a small remnant of cute bubble Minky (recognize it, Mom?) so I decided to give it a try. So soft against the skin! I'm almost jealous of Peanut.

Peanut was pretty happy when I put it on her, though she's always happy in the mornings so I don't know whether that was because of the Minky or not.

Now comes the testing phase-- how well do these work as diapers? I'm not totally sure about the pattern. I like the trim fit, but I can't fit as much absorbant material in them because they are smaller than my other diapers. So I will have to change her more often or else there could be embarrassing leaks.

Next on the agenda: either a fitted diaper or a diaper cover with fold-over elastic.... this is fun!

The Wedding Feast

2012-02-01T22:55:00.000-08:00

I was invited to a wedding feast today. Roo LOVES to play wedding, draw weddings, talk about what she wants at her wedding, etc. I thought she did a pretty good job putting this spread together.

Peanut Today

2012-02-01T22:47:00.000-08:00

Today's Homeschool Science Activity

2012-02-01T22:43:00.000-08:00

We mixed Elmer's Glue with liquid laundry starch. I had never done this before! It clumps up and gets all stretchy and rubbery and funky. The kids loved it. And then we had a nice discussion about polymers.

It Can Only Get Better....

2012-02-01T22:33:00.000-08:00

Tonight I made my first attempt at a homemade diaper.

Don't look too close. I now know a lot about what not to do! I think it will be functional, but I truly hope that in the future I will be able to say "this is the worst diaper I ever made." Because it's pretty bad.

They make it look so easy, and they say it's so easy to sew these critters. But my first time working with PUL did not go smoothly. That stuff is slippery! And when you pair it with fleece, which loves to stretch and slither, you've got problems! I used the recommended needle and followed all the tips etc. but I still struggled through every step. Even my topstitiching looks like it's trying to win the slalom competition.

The snaps went pretty good-- better than I thought they would, actually-- until I spaced it on the last two and installed the wrong ones. I think I'm a little sleep-deprived.

This is why I like quilting best. You're working with nice gentle cotton weave. The hardest thing you have to do is match points.

At this point I am wishing I had just bought myself some new cloth diapers. But tomorrow I will feel better and then I will try again. There were several things I did want to try, so now that I have all this experience under my belt things just have to get better, right?

Sampson

2012-01-28T03:30:00.000-08:00

I don't think I've ever mentioned Sampson on my blog, though I've meant to many times. Sampson lives at my neighbor's house, but she says he's not exactly her dog. She found him one day a couple of years ago out on a back country road, starving and miserable. She brought him home and fed him. Since then, he has stayed around her property. He turned out to be a really sweet dog as well as a really beautiful one. He has one blue eye and one brown eye, which is a common trait in Siberian Huskies, but he doesn't really have the personality of a Husky (they're supposed to be very energetic and mischievious) so he might be part something else. Or maybe he's just had a really tough life.

When we moved in, he quickly befriended us. He has always been very gentle to our kids. It wasn't long before he started following us on walks. It is so fun to go on a walk down the road with a big ol' dog walking beside you. I've enjoyed having Sampson around because it's been like having a dog without having to have a dog.

One neighbor told us that one night he was coming home at 1 AM and saw Sampson taking down a coyote in our pasture. There has been other evidence that he has kept predators off our property and away from our animals. Our neighbor who looks after him thought that he was the one responsible for killing our ducks and chicks last summer, but I've looked at the evidence and I really believe it was a different dog. We've had issues with a lot of dogs in this neighborhood, but not with Sampson. He seems to be the Police Chief for the neighborhood animal community.

The photo above is remarkable because it was the first time Roo touched Sampson. For a long time now Roo has SCREAMED HYSTERICALLY every time any dog (even a tiny one) came near her. But she's growing up, and recently she decided that dogs can be friends. So when Sampson came on our last walk instead of cowering in the stroller, she went up to him and started touching his back, saying with great delight and newfound confidence "I'm petting Sampson! I'm petting Sampson!"

I have heard many stories throughout my life of animals who seem to have been placed providentially in people's lives to be a blessing to them in remarkable ways. I really think that Sampson came here under divine guidance, partly to be a blessing to us. He is the first dog in my life I have ever had strong feelings of affection and appreciation for.

A Little Girl and Her Doll

2012-01-28T02:29:00.000-08:00

My girls play with their dolls more and more and I love to watch them. They love to mother them and coo over them and snuggle them. They love to change their clothes and put barrettes in their hair. I sure enjoy having small girls around the house.

...And Still Crawling!

2012-01-26T16:16:00.000-08:00

Really fast, I might add! I know this picture is blurry, but the little bottom scooting out the door is such a part of my life right now that I had to keep it (and post it!) I was trying to get some good pictures of her, but she was very much on the move. That's why I took her outdoors and set her in the leaves-- I figured she'd be so surprised she'd hold still for a minute. (It worked-- see the following post!)

Fourteen Months

2012-01-26T16:05:00.000-08:00

Comments?

2012-01-26T12:02:00.000-08:00

It has come to my attention that people are having trouble leaving comments on my blog. It might not just be my blog-- one reader thinks it's a blogosphere epidemic. In any case, I am trying something: I took off the word verification for comments. I am still requiring an ID for comments-- no anonymous comments. And I still have to approve the comments. I hope this makes it easier without making it so I get all kinds of crazy stuff on here. Help me test it out by trying to leave a comment below!

Rabbit Art

2012-01-24T09:05:00.000-08:00

Love it love it love it!

You know, it fascinates me how each of my children's early art has been similar, but strikingly unique. The Rabbit's people are much more geometric than any of my other kids'. And she's drawing earlier than they did, but that's probably because she copies everything they do.

I think about how everyone sees the world differently and how I think everyone has a desire to create and/or be around beautiful art and music because of all our divine nature. We are children of God and He is a great Creator. I think we all yearn for that, on some level. And then I think how kids love to draw but most grown ups say "I can't draw" and I think that's because they decided at some point during their growing up years that their art didn't look "good." It wasn't just like their art teacher's or some other kid made fun of it, or something. And so they quit trying. But it's still there inside all of us-- the passion to create and an absolutely unique perspective on the world. Luckily, most of us transpose our creative urges from drawing to something else like writing or woodworking or sewing or growing flowers. But I also think it would be good for us if we all did a little bit more drawing.

Oklahoma Biscuits

2012-01-22T21:39:00.000-08:00

I love cookie cutters. My kids love cookie cutters. But I have this problem with sugar addiction, so I try not to make sugar cookies very often (because I will eat two dozen of them during the making process). I think I make them about every two years. That makes my cookie cutters very sad. So I try to find other ways to involve them in our family.

I discovered awhile back that cookie cutters are very happy in biscuit dough. I need to remember this more often. I did remember it tonight, though, and when I went looking for cookie cutters in my cupboards I found one shaped like Oklahoma and one shaped like a cowboy hat.

Look how cute!!!

My kids were so happy helping me make Oklahoma biscuits.

Oh, my beautiful new convection oven, I love you so much!

I wondered if they would cook unevenly-- crunchy panhandles and doughy through the red bed plains, but they were perfect.

What do you use your cookie cutters for?

Bean and His Raccoons

2012-01-22T21:27:00.000-08:00

I don't know if I have ever mentioned how much Bean loves raccoons. Two of his favorite audiobooks are Where the Red Fern Grows and Rascal and I think that's why raccoons are right up there with armadillos in his book (though how armadillos got right up there in his book I am not really sure...)

We got the puppet at a national park on our trip last fall and I gave him the hat for Christmas. Then the other day I was at Gymboree combining their gymbucks promotion with their clearance rack (getting Gymboree clothes for thrift store prices is my new obsession in life) and I found that shirt. I paid $2.49 for it. It was so fun to give it to him because he went bananas with joy. I love it that even though he is really growing up he still has a lot of boy left in him.

Sew Organized

2012-01-22T21:16:00.000-08:00

I have been really into sewing lately. I only have teeny tiny chunks of time here and there to devote to it, which was frustrating me, especially since when I did have a minute I didn't know where to start. I decided I just needed to get more organized.

Because my sewing takes place in a small corner of my bedroom, all of my sewing stuff has been stored in big plastic tubs stacked in the very corner of the room. This keeps everything contained and out of the way, but when you do decide to work on something you spend a lot of time digging through tubs trying to find stuff. And then ten minutes later when you finally found what you need someone throws up on the carpet and you don't get anything done.

So I commandeered this plastic cart and I went through all my tubs and re-organized.

The top drawer is projects I am currently working on: fabric, patterns, and everything else I need. That way, when I have ten minutes to sew all I have to do is open the drawer and grab something and get going. Then I at least get something done before I hear "MOMMM!!!!" The middle drawer is my quilting scraps. The bottom drawer is for my diaper sewing project, which takes up so much room it needs its own drawer.

I am so pleased that I can now get to everything I need easily. I still haven't figured out exactly where this cart is going to live so that it's not in the way (if I put it next to the bed Peanut climbs on it!) but that's a small problem compared to the way this has enabled me to actually make progress on things.

I have a lot of small, easy projects I've been working on, which are nice with my limited time. It feels so good to have less fabric in your stash and something useful in its place. Like these colored pencil rolls. My friend Julie gave us one awhile back and it has worked so well I decided we needed some more for our new colored pencils.

See, you can roll it up and tie it and throw it in your church bag or wherever. Love it!

Okay, and then the aprons for the boys... I bought this space fabric two years ago to make them aprons and I just didn't get around to it. I would see it in my fabric tub and think "now, where is my apron pattern?" But since I just went through absolutely all my sewing stuff I located my apron pattern and it was pretty fast and easy to whip these things out. I made them really really simple with no pockets or anything, but I just wanted to get them done. And at least they are reversible with a coordinating fabric on the other side.

Here's how my girls fell asleep on my bed while I was sewing the other night....

Bean talks about memories of the comforting feeling of falling asleep to the whirring of my sewing machine, so, there you go. I think that's going to be a frequent occurence around here.

Next up: doll clothes and Roo's birthday present (which was supposed to be her Christmas present but I never got it done!)

On the Subject of Diapers

2012-01-16T14:22:00.000-08:00

(I know some of my readers will want to skip this post, and I'm not offended...)

I'm sitting here in bed with a bad cold, not feeling like doing much, and watching my house get rapidly ripped to shreds. But isn't it wonderful that I have a laptop and I can entertain myself by writing long, rambling blog entries? About stuff like diapers? A silver lining, indeed.

I haven't said anything about cloth diapers for a long time. In case you haven't been with me long, I will give you some background information: I used disposable diapers for the first seven years of my parenting career. I have only been using cloth for the last 3 1/2 years. I finally made the switch because I was sick of pouring money down the drain.

I will now tell you my brutally honest feelings about my cloth diapers. They are a lot of work. Sometimes they are really yucky. I have had to struggle through difficulties with leaks and smell build-up and yeast rashes on Baby's bottom. And countless times I have thought "WHY am I doing this?" And then I go to the store to buy disposables and I look at the prices and I say "ACK!" and think "why should I spent money on diapers when I have everything I need to diaper the baby already with almost no cost?" And so I don't buy them. And I go on using the cloth.

On the flip side, I love the feel of the cloth. I love the satisfaction of reusing them-- taking them out of the wash or off the line all clean and ready to go. I love how dang cute they are, and they get cuter all the time as the cloth-diapering movement grows.

I was reminded when we went on vacation how disposables are pretty gross too. They're squishy. Ew ew ew. And they smell weird. And when those yucky gel beads get out... ugh. Not to mention the blowouts. Cleaning up a disposable diaper poop blowout is WORSE than washing a poopy cloth diaper in the toilet. I have only ever had poop escape from a cloth diaper once in all these years (and that was because someone had inadvertently put fabric softener on my diapers), versus several times just in the three weeks we were on vacation with disposables. Wetness leaks are another story-- that is a big issue with cloth and almost a non-issue with disposables. My youngest is what they call a heavy wetter, which means we have gone through lots and lots of outfit changes with her (sometimes right after we had just changed her!) But with those at least you just throw the clothes in the wash and forget about it. I don't know how many of Roo's cute little outfits I scrubbed and scrubbed with Carbona stain soap to get the poop stains out. Not an issue with cloth.

Fact is, diapering is just gross. No matter how you do it. You can't avoid the yuck factor.

So I'm sticking with cloth. And I'm making plans to acquire some new diapers.

I haven't bought any diapers at all for at least two years (with the exception of a couple of tiny newborn-sized fitteds that I picked up and used for a couple of months last year for Peanut.) So my stash is getting old and worn. I'm still using all the ones I got originally, which are more than 3 years old. Overall the longevity is impressive, but it's time to start getting some new fluff and phasing out a few things.

My plan is to actually make some new diapers. So far I have purchased some PUL (waterproof fabric) and a diaper pattern and some fold-over elastic. (Have you seen the new line of diaper-making supplies at Hobby Lobby?) I already had some fleece for pocket diaper inners and some flannel for fitteds. I have cut out enough of each of these fabrics to try making several different combinations and see which I like. But I haven't sewn anything yet. I still need to buy polyester thread and snaps and those are kind of essential for any next step. And then I need to decide if I'm going to use microfiber or bamboo or what for the soaker pads.

All my sewing projects just go agonizingly slow these days and I really am needing new diapers, so I find myself looking at diapers for sale online. Since I started using cloth there is even more variety, especially of cute printed fabrics instead of just solid colors. And then if you get on etsy and look at the handmade one-of-a-kind stuff you'll really get excited (LOOK AT THIS!!!) But I have to keep reminding myself that I've already paid money for the PUL and other supplies and it would be better to invest in a few more supplies for making my own. I know it will save me a ton of money in the long run.

And that was what this whole business was about to begin with, anyway....

Winter Salad

2012-01-15T16:41:00.000-08:00

I went out to the garden a couple days ago and collected lettuce, broccoli, and green onions and made a salad! I added store-bought spinach and cauliflower, but for the most part it was from our own garden.

Looks Like We've Got a Climber

2012-01-12T12:04:00.000-08:00

So, I'm washing dishes in the kitchen last night and I hear bass notes banging on the piano. This is very normal at our house because Peanut loves to reach up and play the piano, so I didn't think anything of it. Then Bean went into the living room and called out "Mom, come here quick!"

One of the kids had picked her up and set her on the couch. From there she had climbed right up onto the piano. Boy, was she pleased with herself! I knew I needed to get her down right away, but I had to take a picture.... you know how it is. So we spotted her while I grabbed the camera and snapped a couple of shots. Then it was back to the floor.

And kids, NO MORE putting Peanut on the couch! You hear?

Bean was a notable climber. In fact, I have a picture of him at about this age climbing up the books next to our computer... let's see if I can find it. Oh, look, here it is!

You can't really see that he's climbing, but he has the same "I'm so clever-- ha ha!" face that Peanut has.

Anyway, it's been awhile since I've had to deal with a baby who really likes to climb.

Winter Garden

2012-01-11T20:42:00.000-08:00

I spent a couple hours one mild afternoon last week working in my garden.

And I thought, that is a first for me in January!

There was quite a bit to do. I had to go through and pull out all the plants that died back in November when we had a hard frost (now that the kitchen remodel and Christmas were over I could think about such things!) Then I had to go through and pull all the weeds that have been growing during all the mild days since then. There were a lot!

There are still quite a few things growing in my garden. We have had temperatures as low as 9 degrees F but it has never gone more than a couple of days so far without coming up above freezing. And most days have been in the 40s and 50s. So I have lettuce and onions and, well, let me show you. Here's a view of the whole garden:

Here's Roo with what she has been calling her "secret plant" all summer: chives. They are frostbitten, but still hanging on.

This broccoli plant looks absolutely awful but parts of it are still growing....

...and producing actual broccoli!

Here's my lettuce bed, behind the chard bed. I really need to remember to go out and pick and eat and enjoy. I'm just not used to thinking about going out to harvest from the garden in January.

Also, you can see that there's still quite a bit chard hanging on. The big outer leaves all died, but when I pulled them out I found much underneath that was still growing.

I've been getting lots of seed catalogs in the mail. I used to pour over seed catalogs all through snowy January and February-- when I lived in Idaho. I'm having a tough time getting excited about them here. It's not as much fun to fantasize about next summer's garden when the last two summer's gardens have been 80% destroyed by heat and insects. All those pretty tomatoes and cucumbers and squash on the glossy pages just seem to be laughing at me.

But I have had some success, and I need to start perusing the seed catalogs and thinking about my game plan for this year. After all, it's nearly time to start my tomatoes from seed, and in just over a month I can put in my spring crops!

Man, that still just seems weird to me.

Ah, London!

2012-01-09T17:03:00.000-08:00

I'm sitting here with my kids listening to the audio of Mary Poppins (quite different than the movie!) and I'm remembering a conversation I had with Fish probably a year ago.

As you know, I did a Study Abroad in London during college, so I have a tremendous fondness for the city. One day I pulled up my old London neighborhood on Google Maps and started remembering the various streets in the area: Palace Court, Bayswater Road, Queensway, Moscow Road... I was having quite the reverie.

Fish came in and started asking questions. "What's that, Mom?"

"London."

He pointed to a green area on the screen. "What's that?"

"Oh, Fish, you wouldn't know. It's a park in London." I was a little bit annoyed-- I get very self-absorbed when I'm on the computer.

"Which one?" He wasn't giving up.

"It's Kensington Gardens!" I replied with a little bit of exasperation.

"Oh yes, Kensington! That's in Peter Pan!"

Okay, so he did know Kensington.

"And what's that?"

"Regent's Park."

"Oh, yes, that's where Pongo and Missis lived."

All the sudden it dawned on me that he really did know something about London. I wasn't annoyed anymore, I was very amused.

"And what's that there?"

"St. John's Wood."

"Oh, that's where the Splendid Vet lives!"

I just laughed. At that point I was happy to let Fish into my little London walk. We had a jolly time together.

I started thinking and I realized how many of Fish's beloved stories on CD take place in London or in England. Peter Pan, 101 Dalmations, Mary Poppins, Robin Hood, The Wind in the Willows, and the Narnia books start out in England. All of these are read on the CDs with a British accent, which Fish can replicate quite well. He seems to pick up on the geographical essence of the stories more than the other kids do.

I hope he has the chance to go to London someday.

Resolving

2012-01-08T20:11:00.000-08:00

I have always liked New Year's Resolutions. Many people give them a bad rap, but they've always been good for me. Maybe because I always keep them short and simple and realistic, or maybe because I am always striving to improve myself anyway.

My aim for the last while has been to try to bring more beauty, peace, and order into my life. Homeschooling can be chaotic and can also cause you to neglect little things. My constant striving to be more patient and more grateful helps, but here are some specific things I am going to do this year:

Window treatments. I want to make my home more pretty and that's a good general goal, but curtains is the one specific thing I can think of right now that I know I can handle this year. Somehow I am going to get curtains on the windows.

Aprons. I am going to get or make some aprons that I like and wear them in the kitchen. I have been noticing how I am always wiping my hands on my pants or shirt while working in the kitchen and since I have been trying to wear nicer clothes lately (read: not scrounge around in my sweats all the time) aprons would be practical. I also read something recently where a woman talked about how when she wears an apron her kids see her as the Mom Authority-- the uniform effect. This idea intrigued me and I kind of want to see if it works. In any case, there is a wide variety of apron styles available these days and I think it's going to be fun finding styles and fabrics that I like.

No more late nights on the computer. I have long used K9 web protection software for safer surfing, but I have now employed another feature it has: it will shut my internet down during certain hours of the day. So, from now on, at midnight this computer turns into a pumpkin.

Finally, I have devised a system to help me spend time with the kids on Sundays. I am always remembering that "Oh yeah, I am supposed to help the boys work on their Faith in God award" and "I should help the kids write in their journals" and "the little girls should draw pictures and mail them to Great Uncle Such and Such in the nursing home" but there are so many things to do and Sunday ends up slipping by and nothing got done. So I am getting organized. I have set aside one Sunday each month for each kid. My Rabbit gets fast Sundays because her needs are the simplest and then we go on down from there. I take some time Sunday afternoon to sit down with the kid of the week and work on whatever it is they need or want to work on. That way I don't have to do everything for everyone every week but gradually things get done. I am really looking forward to this.

And I am really looking forward to this year. I know it is going to fly by, but I plan to see the beauty in it even as it is rushing by me.

Bob Does It Again

2012-01-08T19:18:00.000-08:00

Our neighbor Bob has done so many incredibly kind things for our family in the months since we moved here. He's always been on hand to help the Badger out with various home improvement projects and he has many times come over and said "I was cleaning out my house and we don't need this anymore... could you use it?" He's the one who gave us the trampoline, which Bean has been living on for the last year, and I didn't think he could possibly do anything nicer for us. Until he gave us this:

Now, I've been wanting to learn how to play the organ and it's really been on my mind lately. All of the sudden, here's an organ! Wow! It's in perfect condition. We've been enjoying it so much, and I know we will for years to come. The kids love to experiment with all the different sounds it can make. The Rabbit especially likes to play with it.

But it was this gift of Bob's that forever won the Rabbit's heart:

Yes, a Hello Kitty waffle iron. It makes really cute little Hello Kitty shaped waffles. And you know, I'm not much into most media characters, but I kind of like Hello Kitty. And my Rabbit loves her. So we have been enjoying this waffle iron.

Thank you, Bob. Having neighbors like you and Sue really makes me want to be a kinder, more helpful person.

Back in the Saddle

2012-01-03T20:45:00.000-08:00

We're back to our normal life routine after living it up in December and totally letting things slide. It feels good to be back to "normal" and I'm looking forward to the things that we can get done during the winter months ahead.

I used to have some trouble with seasonal depression at this time of year. One thing that helped me was to try to live with the rhythm of the seasons. I try to have a list of things that I set aside during the rest of the year and only do during the winter months, so that I look forward to this time. Sewing and quilting projects, books to read-- especially aloud-- and that kind of thing. I hope for this to be a really productive time for homeschool and I'm excited about some of the things we can be working on during this time when there's so little else going on.

I'm also getting back to normal eating-wise. I deliberately chose to throw all dietary caution out the window and just totally enjoy whatever food came my way during December. It was great, it really was. We decided not to actually purchase any candy or sweets and we didn't, but we were still given enough treats to satisfy my hankerings. And the handful of Christmas parties I attended during the month were a gourmand's paradise.

I knew there would be repercussions to this eating binge, but I was surprised at how I would wake up every morning just aching all over. Once I got up and got going I was okay, but I definitely had less energy than normal and I did let a lot of things slide that I wanted to get done. And then there was the weight gain...

Well, I knew I would gain weight, but I also knew that I am really good at switching gears on January First and going back off sugar again, so I knew I wouldn't do too much damage. And now the damage reports are in: I am ten pounds above my target weight. Going into December I was three or four pounds above, so that means I gained six or seven pounds. Which is bad. But ten pounds can be lost in two months. Much less daunting than last year when I was facing a forty pound loss that was going to take me all the way to the end of swimsuit season to achieve.

So that's New Year's Resolution Number 1. The others I will tell you about later, with the exception of Number 2, which is to not stay up late on the computer anymore. And it's getting late. So, later!

Borders!

2011-12-31T11:33:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I put the borders on my Christmas quilt. It's amazing what a difference a good border makes on a quilt.

Well, it didn't get done for use on the rocking chair this Christmas season, but now I have eleven whole months to get it quilted and bound for next Christmas! Even I should be able to handle that!

Ooooooh!

2011-12-31T11:28:00.001-08:00

Peeeeeeeeeas!

Bubber!

2011-12-30T08:41:00.000-08:00

I decided to try out Bubber, a modeling compound I read about in homeschool magazines. So I gave some to the kids for Christmas. It is really strange stuff-- it feels different than anything else Iv'e ever played with. It's not anything like Play-doh. I'm not sure what I think of it, since it's hard to make realistic shapes out of like you can with Play-doh. But the kids are having a ball with it and it will be easier to clean up than Play-doh, since it's so dry. They already want me to buy more colors, but I told them that it is a lot more expensive than Play-doh. But I'm glad I bought it and I'm glad the kids are getting to experience something new and interesting.

Breakfast!

2011-12-29T21:27:00.000-08:00

Even though we keep trying to be healthier in our lives, we still haven't given up the family tradition of "pigs in blankets" on Christmas morning. The Badger does such a good job with them and we thoroughly enjoy them, along with eggs, hashbrowns, and orange juice.

Merry Christmas from Toad Hall!

Presents!

2011-12-29T21:17:00.000-08:00

What a Christmas we had here at Toad Hall!

There were so many fun presents! Slingshots for the boys, colorful links for Peanut, plenty of tangerines for everyone...

The Rabbit is now old enough to really get into present unwrapping. And she was thrilled with whatever was in the package, thank goodness!

Fish was happier about his Tintin book than anything else.

I had to get Bean a raccoon hat because he loves raccoons so much. He was pleased.

This is that the Badger wanted. He was very very happy that I got it for him.

Here's Fish with one of the homemade presents that actually made it to fruition: a leather pouch that Roo made him from a kit. We didn't get as many homemade presents completed as we originally dreamed up, but there were some nifty ones like these pouches that the kids were really excited about. I should do a separate post just about the homemade stuff.

There were plenty of hair accessories for the girls.

And my mother sent me the most beautiful quilt ever. This picture does not do it justice. It is such a treasure. I am thrilled!

I usually try to get a picture of each person with all their presents. I did not do that this year-- bad me! But these were some of the highlights.

Stockings!

2011-12-29T21:05:00.000-08:00

Christmas Morning Lineup

2011-12-29T20:59:00.000-08:00

Here's our classic "on the stairs" picture Christmas morning...

... I love the "tired but excited" Christmas morning faces!

Christmas Eve Stories

2011-12-26T10:45:00.000-08:00

Here the Badger reads Christmas Day in the Morning by Pearl S. Buck (beautifully illustrated!)

Here I read a wonderful little book a cousin of mine wrote about Hee Haw, the little Christmas donkey.

I know I am going to look back at these pictures years hence and sigh and say "oh, those were the days..." What could be better that having a pile of cute, sweet kids all over you while you read a book on the couch?

Peanut doesn't sit still for the stories, but she still wanted to say "Hi!"

Hooray for Christmas stories!

Puppet Pageant

2011-12-26T10:33:00.000-08:00

On Christmas Eve, we always have a family program where we read stories and sing songs and act out the Nativity. A couple of years ago, my dear friend gave us a set of felt puppets for the Nativity story that she made for us. Wow. These work great with a bunch of kids!

Here Fish and the shepherds are in the fields...

...Here Roo is wrapping Baby Jesus in a pillowcase to keep him extra warm...

...and here is the Rabbit being an extremely enthusiastic angel!

Christmas Eve Angels

2011-12-26T10:28:00.000-08:00

We love the nighties, Grandma! Thank you so much!

After Sitting in a Box for Twelve Years....

2011-12-26T09:19:00.000-08:00

As part of the observance of our wedding anniversary, I decided to get out my wedding dress and let the girls try it on. They, of course, LOVED this and the pictures I got were absolutely priceless. My only regret is that we did this first thing in the morning when my bed was still unmade and my room was a mess, but I guess seeing that in the pictures is part of our family history. This is what a house with five kids looks like. And that's what my wedding was all about, after all!

A Dress For Roo

2011-12-26T09:06:00.000-08:00

Last fall I realized that Roo was running a little short on dresses. I decided I was too busy to try and make a dress, so I started looking at girls' dresses in every store I went in (which isn't terribly many, given our location and my lack of time for serious shopping.) I was rather dismayed at what I found. Either they were really fancy special occasion dresses made from satin and taffeta, or they were ultra-casual outfits of a fashion that I felt was sloppy, sometimes bordering on sleazy. Whatever happened to just plain old Sunday dresses for church? I guess the market for that is dying out.

Well, anyway, I decided I'd better make one. One day last autumn I found some corduroy fabric I really liked and I already knew the pattern I wanted to use: a little wrap jumper from Ottobre Design.

But, for Pete's sake, it took me clear until Christmas to get the thing done! I don't know why I keep thinking I can get more done than I can...

I am pleased with it, though.

I am thinking I maybe should put the pocket a little higher. I didn't want it to get in the way of the darling gathers on the sides, but I think it looks a little weird over her belly like that. Here is the back-- the pattern called for it to be in two pieces and I thought "that's silly-- I can just cut it on the fold and have it be one piece." But then I realized that the back seam is part of the style of the dress and it looks really cute.

She really loves it, and I'm so glad!

Catching Up After Christmas

2011-12-26T07:49:00.000-08:00

Okay, now that Christmas is over and things have calmed down to "puree" instead of "liquify" I can finally go through all the photos on my camera and blog about everything I've got stacked up on there.

Like this picture of my completed quilt top. Don't look too close, but I really like the way the pattern turned out. Then I realized yesterday that I still haven't sewn the border on it. Oh well, hopefully it will be quilted and ready to go for next Christmas season!

Musings on Marriage

2011-12-21T20:50:00.000-08:00

Twelve years ago today, I did one of the most brilliant things I have ever done in my life: I married my Badger.

After twelve years I am still figuring out how to be a good wife. I am grateful that he has put up with me all these years. I really don't know what I did to deserve someone so wonderful.

Here are some things I have learned about marriage:

I think Rule Number One in marriage is to be fiercely loyal to each other. Always speak positively of your spouse to others. Don't gripe about them to your mom, your sister, your friends, or anyone. It took me a little while to learn this rule, and I'm sorry for that. But now I try really hard not to complain about or make fun of my husband at any time. I mean, it would really hurt me deeply if I knew he was laughing with his friends about my bad morning breath or something. One time, after I figured this out, I was invited to a "girl's night out" with some ladies I was just getting acquainted with in a new place I had just moved to. I was excited to get away from the kids and have some girl time. Well, I got to the restaurant, joined my party, then sat and listened as they picked apart their husbands and raked them over the coals, each one trying to outdo the previous speaker with shocking tales of dirty socks left lying around, missing milk jug lids, and belches. At one point I was tempted to join in and I began to think up some example I could share that would make me feel part of the group, part of this new community. But I caught myself before I said a word and remembered how I would feel if this was the Badger and his friends talking about their wives. A few minutes later, someone turned to me and said "How about you, Birrd?" and I said "I really can't think of anything bad to say about my husband." They laughed and said that was BS and then went back to their bashing. I left that night without feeling like I'd made the new friends I was seeking, but feeling awesome because I had been loyal to my man. I felt an even deeper love for him after having said aloud to a group of people that he was a great guy. Because he really is.

One time, before I had learned this lesson, I was on a walk with a friend. I was expressing to her that my husband was doing some things that were really irritating me. I'll never forget-- at one point she turned to me and said emphatically, "But don't you see, Birrd? He is your balance." Those words were seared into my brain because I realized they are so true. The Badger and I balance each other so well. This means that we can irritate each other, but whenever I start to feel irritated I remember he is my balance and I can usually just let it go.

Irritation is a normal part of living with anyone, but learning how to keep it in perspective sometimes makes the difference between a successful marriage and a failed one. A couple other things have really helped me there. One is the concept I learned in a college marriage class-- that our best traits have "side effects." The very things we love about each other sometimes in some situations hurt or bother us. You love that he is kind and gentle, but then because of that he won't go and confront the drunk noisy neighbors at 2 am when you're trying to sleep. You love that she speaks her mind, but then she embarrasses you at a work function when she should have kept her mouth shut. When these kinds of things pop up, it is useful to stop and think and remember that the character trait which led him or her to do this thing that bothered you is also the character trait that has been a huge blessing to you in so many ways.

Another thing that has gone through my mind a lot over the years is a quote by Gordon B. Hinckley that we had hanging on our fridge at the beginning of our marriage. Someone was handing these little magnets out on BYU campus one day shortly after we were married and I wish I could tell them that it really was a blessing to me. I can't find the magnet and I can't find the quote on the LDS website, so I am sorry I can't authenticate it, but it does sound like him. It goes something like this: "It is one thing to talk about a happy marriage and another thing to create such a marriage day in and day out. Marriage can be fragile. It requires nurture and time and very much effort." It was good to have that quote. You get married and you expect bliss-- this person is going to meet all your needs and you will live in euphoria forevermore. When you realize that isn't always true, it can be disillusioning. But when Gordon B. Hinckley, whose marriage to Marjorie for more than 50 years looks absolutely perfect, says that you've got to work hard at it, you realize that you are normal and you can continue on and keep trying.

Which brings me around to one final thing: something that's been on my mind a lot lately about marriage. Just before we got married, we counseled with our church leaders and one of the things one of them told us was "You are in the business of making each other happy." What that meant, he explained, was that if I spent my time and energy focusing on his needs and if he spent his time and energy focusing on my needs, we would both have our needs met and we would both be very happy because we would love the person we served and be served by the person we loved. It sounded like such a lovely idea-- I really liked it. But I was young and immature and didn't really understand how to implement that. I am only now realizing just how dead-on this advice really was on an even deeper level than I did before. I have realized recently that I want to do way more for him. There is so much I can do to make him happy, to make him glad to come home to our home at the end of the day, and to make him glad that he married me (better personal hygiene for starters!) For years I thought all that sounded kind of corny and old-fashioned, like a 1950's marriage or something, but I'm realizing that it really works and that it's what I want. And I can't believe how bad at it I've been over the years. So I'm working on it, slowly but surely.

Thanks for sticking with me, Badger. I have loved these last twelve years and I'm looking forward to many, many more!

Most Beloved Christmas Tradition

2011-12-20T09:06:00.000-08:00

I think our favorite Christmas tradition here at Toad Hall is our Christmas carousel. We light it on Sunday nights in December and take turns choosing carols to sing while we watch it spin around.

New Things and Dyeing Things

2011-12-18T11:09:00.000-08:00

Our new stove arrived yesterday, just in time for a little homeschool project I had on the agenda: dyeing silk scarves with Kool-Aid.

Simmer water, dump in Kool-Aid,

Add silk and stir...

...until desired color is reached...

...then rinse and repeat with a different color!

It was as easy as they said it would be, fun, and very popular with the kiddos. And I am loving my new stove!!!! Hooray!

(Oh, and PS-- the Badger fixed my KitchenAid. The gear housing, which KitchenAid used to make out of PLASTIC for this model, was cracked. I read online that KitchenAid was no longer doing anything to fix these unless you wanted to pay them a revolting amount of money, but that the new 6 quart mixers were being made with a metal gear housing. I almost bought a new mixer but then I found that I could buy just the metal gear housing online for less than $20 shipped. We decided to give it a try and the Badger installed it for me. So far, so good! Hope it lasts me another couple of years, at least. I am pretty hard on them.)

Peanut's Favorite Spot

2011-12-18T10:56:00.000-08:00

Peanut loves to climb up the stairs to where she can look out of the railings. She gets so excited when she can look down on everything that is happening in the living room.

In this picture she is "waving" at me, though she has to sometimes look at her hand to see what she is doing.

Peanut's frequent chuckles, giggles, and chortles add another rich layer of joy to the atmosphere of our home!

If Your Work is Fun, Then it's Actually Play!

2011-12-18T10:25:00.000-08:00

That's what Roo says as she helps me wash dishes.

Since we've been living without a dishwasher for a few days the kids have had to help with the dishes a lot more. Bean and Fish will do it if they have to, but Roo BEGS to. She LOVES to wash the dishes! And we have lots of them!

More Music

2011-12-14T22:00:00.001-08:00

Every year I buy a CD or two to add to our Christmas music collection. And every year I discover that even though I know and love tons of Christmas songs, there are even more to find and fall in love with.

This year when I was researching Santa Lucia I stumbled upon a Scandinavian Christmas song called Jul, Jul, Stralande Jul and I want to know how I lived more than 30 years without knowing this gorgeous song existed. I bought an album called A Scandinavian Christmas that contains this song and the whole album is just great.

The other album I bought this year was A Classical Kids Christmas. I love the Classical Kids series so I thought I'd give this a whirl. It wasn't quite what I was expecting-- there's a lot of narration in it, telling the stories behind various songs and traditions while the songs are being sung. It's not one I plan on listening to much, but I can see my kids enjoying it and learning a lot from it. There is one song on it though that I am totally in love with: the most beautiful version I have yet heard of the Polish Lullabye: Lulajze Jesiniu.

Hooray for Christmas music!!

Happy Santa Lucia Day!

2011-12-13T11:16:00.000-08:00

Today is the day the Scandinavians celebrate Santa Lucia, who brought food and hope to the poor during dark times and wore candles on her head to keep her hands free for service. Since the Badger served an LDS church mission in Sweden for two years after high school and since we both have Scandinavian ancestry, I decided it was time we added a few Swedish traditions to our family culture.

Accordingly, Roo got up a little earlier than usual this morning and donned this charming outfit:

The tradition is that the oldest daughter in the family gets up early on the morning of December 13th and prepares a special kind of saffron bun, which she then brings to her sleeping parents. Saffron buns were a little beyond us this year, so we made do with muffins. I made them, but Roo really enjoyed dishing them up onto plates for everyone and then bringing them upstairs.

We totally surprised the Badger when she came into the room. It was fun. We were all supposed to be singing a special song, but we haven't learned all the Swedish lyrics yet so I just played a recording of it.

It was a wonderful start to the day and I can tell this is going to be one of the highlights of our Christmas season for years to come!

Being a Princess is Tiring Work!

2011-12-13T11:03:00.000-08:00

Roo's New Christmas Dress

2011-12-11T22:25:00.000-08:00

Taking a picture of Roo in her new Christmas dress (that I paid only $10 for!) was tricky, my house being what it is...

...but I finally did get one I really liked! I love my beautiful Roo!

Toad Hall Christmas Tree 2011

2011-12-11T22:19:00.000-08:00

Well, it took us until December 9th to get the tree up and the decorations on, but I think it was worth the wait! I love our tree this year. I love the magic a Christmas tree brings to a home.

I am not a decorator and my house is not fancy but I sure love my Christmas decorations.

About the Cabinets

2011-12-11T21:45:00.000-08:00

I was asked about my cabinets and countertops in my new kitchen.

The cabinets are the reason we started this whole crazy project in the first place. We had been debating what to do about the mess that was our kitchen and we finally decided that we were just going to replace the sink and the countertops for now. We had some money, but we didn't think it was enough to redo everything.

So one Saturday last October we loaded up and headed over to Lowe's to pick out a sink. When we got there, we saw that they were putting all their pre-built cabinets on clearance and they had them out on the sidewalk in front of the store. We were just looking at them and saying "wow, those are incredible prices" and then we realized they had everything we needed for our kitchen and at those prices we could actually afford to do a total remodel. They had three or four different finishes of cabinets but a quick scout around told us that the hickory was the only kind that had enough available to give us everything we needed. So we started building our kitchen right there on the sidewalk with the hickory cabinets, drawing schematics on the back of old receipts and beating off other people who were trying to buy the cabinets out from under us (people were swarming all over these cabinets, let me tell you!) There were a lot of cabinets there when we got there that morning, but by the time we finished triple-checking that we had everything just exactly right (some three hours later) there was almost nothing left.

I really count it as a miracle that we were able to get those cabinets. It was like God put them there just for us. That was a comforting thing to remember at times during this project when I wanted to start screaming "AUGH WHAT ARE WE DOING???" If a miracle had initiated the whole project, it just had to work out okay.

And it did. I just did the final numbers yesterday. We did go over budget, but not badly, and not enough to put us in debt. We spent about 115% of our budget. I think that's pretty remarkable, especially considering all the things we ended up having to redo that we weren't planning on redoing.

Anyway, the cabinets. I love the hickory. I think it is great for a family with lots of kids because it won't show the dings and dirt as much. And it brightens the room.

The countertops are the ones you buy at Lowe's pre-built in stock in long lengths and then cut to whatever you need. They are formica made to look like granite and they really do look a lot like granite. I like how the dark speckles hide stuff.

I have no complaints about formica. I have always had formica and it has never bothered me. At one point when I thought we were going to have some extra money in the budget I entertained thoughts of putting in granite countertops. They seemed so luxurious. So I talked to a couple of my friends about them: "tell me how much you love your posh granite counterops..." and my friends surprised me by saying that they actually didn't like them that much. That made me feel a lot better when it turned out there was only money for the formica. And I'm perfectly happy with my faux granite formica.

Homeschool for the Holidays Part 2

2011-12-07T20:41:00.000-08:00

So.... Math.

I believe the last time I wrote on here I was still using Math on the Level. It was a really good fit for us for a time, but it got to the point where I was just mentally worn-out and trying to come up with customized math assignments for my boys every day was too exhausting. So last summer I decided to just try a workbook and see how I felt about it. I felt like my boys maybe needed a little bit of help with the day-to-day applications of math, so I picked Daily Word Problems by Evan-Moore Publishing. I talked last night about how I generally feel about Evan-Moore, but I actually really liked these books. The title is pretty self-explanatory. I had the boys do more than one problem each day during the summer since that was all the math we were doing.

I was surprised at how hard it was at first for my boys to transfer a real life situation into a math problem. I thought they were doing pretty good at math and in some ways they were (Bean was very advanced on some fronts) but they just weren't making that all-important real-life connection. Maybe this was my fault for not teaching it to them properly while using Math on the Level, but that's the downside to the program: essential skills could fall through the cracks because you're not following a carefully laid-out path.

I found I really liked having a workbook to just hand to them where the problems were already concocted for them. So for this fall I decided to try a "regular" math program and see what happened. I bought Singapore Math for both of them: a solid math program that is very affordable. We've been using it for about 2 months now. It seems to be working fine so far. I really like having far less teacher prep time.

So then my friend Andrea introduced me to the Life of Fred books. If you have never seen these, I'm not sure how to describe them. They read like a chapter book and teach math concepts through storytelling. And they are very humorous. I think some people use them as their curriculum, but most people use them as a supplement. I talked to Bean about it and he agreed to start using the Fractions volume that I borrowed from Andrea starting in January, doing one chapter a week. This will replace his Daily Word Problems-- he just finished that book.

Fish just finished his Daily Word Problems book too and even though I really did like them I do not think I will do any more of them. Singapore seems to have plenty of word problems in it and I would rather have them do something really unique like Life of Fred.

I will share one more observation about math. I get frustrated with my boys sometimes because even though they are quite good at math and seem to understand it really well, they usually have a hard time doing it independently. I really need for them to have things they can do entirely on their own because I just can't hold three kids' hands through all their schoolwork every day, but whenever I turn them loose on their math it never seems to work out. Either they get stuck within seconds and come straight back to me or they work for quite awhile and then bring me work to check that is full of small silly mistakes. I shake my head and sigh and say "if you were in public school this would be a real problem..." and I think that if they had to take math tests in public school they would flunk them all even though they really do understand the math. It's really hard for me to rewire my brain to not impose on my children the same standards I learned in public school and I'm still working on that. But what I think is this: I think it is similar to Susan Wise Bauer's idea about how kids learn to write easier when they can break it into the two steps of composing orally and taking dictation of other people's writing for quite awhile before they have to put the two together and write down their own ideas. I think with math my boys can understand it in their head and they can work a problem when they are talked through it but it will be awhile before they can do the entire process completely on their own and I think this is totally okay. Come back to me in five years and ask me, but I think they'll be able to put all these skills together in time just fine. If they were in public school and having to take math test and were getting really poor scores they would quickly develop the false notion that they are very bad at math. This is not true-- they are actually really good at math. They just need time to be able to piece together all the skills involved.

Homeschool for the Holidays Part 1

2011-12-06T22:42:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd give you a little update on the homeschool front this evening. We're winding down for the year and it's nice to be finishing some things and letting them go. I'm going to make my boys still do math and spelling through the holidays, but otherwise we'll put everything on hold until the new year, when we'll start a few new things. So, anyway, here's more detail than most of you want about what's going on with....

Language...

The boys finished their cursive books awhile back. I'm not going to make them do any more handwriting exercises. I'm glad they know how to read and write cursive but I'm not going to torture them with it. I remember how much I hated being forced to write cursive as a kid.

I really really like Sequential Spelling. It has been a great tool for Bean and has been a much less painful way for him to learn to spell. (Yes, we've had our moments of difficulty with getting him to do it, but nothing like it would have been with a traditional spelling program!) His spelling is improving a lot and his understanding of the spelling patterns in the English language is definitely improving.

Fish will finish the How to Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons book this week or early next. I've talked before about my kids learning in spurts. There were long stretches where I couldn't get anywhere with him on the reading front, but then one day he was ready and I could tell he could easily finish the book, it was just a matter of him reading through all the stories. I hear so much about being patient with late-blooming readers (especially boys) and now I can add my voice to the chorus of people saying "relax-- they'll get it eventually when they're ready." I never took that advice: I worried and worried and worried. But then one day they're reading and you realize everything's just fine after all. Bean is reading like crazy and constantly begging me to go to the library for more books. It's great to see him advancing through the reading levels and enjoying longer and more complex books all the time.

I had the boys doing the Daily 6-Trait Writing books from Evan-Moore publishing. Just the name Evan-Moore typically turns me off because it is widely used in public schools and their methods are often not what I'm looking for. Daily 6-Trait was highly recommended to me though, so I thought I'd give it a try. It wasn't long before I didn't like it but I continued to slog through it to get my money's worth for several more weeks. One day Fish's assignment was just so banal I couldn't take it any more and I told the boys we were done with them. It seemed to me to be approaching writing from the philosophy of breaking it into tiny chunks and going over absolutely everything to make sure nothing is missed but going over a lot of obvious stuff in the process, thus potentially wasting a lot of time. Sometimes this method is helpful but it wasn't in this subject for my boys at this time.

Now I am having a dilemma about what to do for their language curriculum. I really like the philosophy behind Susan Wise Bauer's Writing With Ease. Her method involves teaching the composing of the writing and the putting it down on paper as separate skills and not putting them together for several years. You do a lot of narration and dictation. This is the opposite of the Daily 6-Trait and other public school curricula that want the kids to start coming up with original writing starting in first grade, just starting with really simple assignments like one sentence and then make it longer and more complex as they get older. Well, from what I've seen of kids and how they learn Bauer's method makes more sense. The other method will still work fine for a lot of kids but those who are slow-maturing on the language front will not only be frustrated but could easily grow to hate writing and think they are bad at it when that's not the case at all.

My other possible choice is the Sandi Queen books which I have been using with the girls. I really like them but so far I've only done the early volumes that contain mostly phonics. I like the extremely short lessons and the poetry and fine art interspersed throughout the book. I don't feel intimidated by trying to fit them into my homeschool groove and I would rather just order the appropriate volumes for Fish and Bean except that I have no idea what's in them and how it would mesh with where Fish and Bean are at language-wise. The Bauer book I actually have in hand from my friend Andrea and I can see that it would probably work for the boys, it's just going to take a little more brainpower to figure out how to incorporate it into our day. And extra brain power is not something I have a lot of lately. Well, maybe I can sort things out over Christmas when I supposedly have a little less to think about. (Ho ho ho.)

When I first started the Sandi Queen book with Roo, I said it would be an experiment to see if she could learn to read from such short, simple lessons. Well, it's been great. And she has sailed through her Kindergarten language book. The lessons are so easy she usually wants to do two in a sitting but she's totally learning everything she needs to read and is catching on to reading very rapidly. I just ordered her the first grade volume and it looks like it will take her even farther down the reading path than my beloved Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. I do not think I will need to do anything from that book with her-- it would confuse her at this point because it uses a completely different methodology and teaches things in a different order. I will miss reading the silly stories in that book (they really appeal to my sense of humor) but the Sandi Queen books I think are better overall.

Well, I didn't know I was going to write so much just about language. It's really late, so perhaps I'd better wait to write about Math and Latin and Science and History and everything else. Goodnight!

Putting Up the Tree

2011-12-06T22:41:00.000-08:00

It has taken several days to clean all the kitchen stuff out of the living room, rearrange some furniture, and then dust and clean everything really well. During this time the kids have been eagerly awaiting the time when we could get out the Christmas tree. Finally this evening we got to the point where that was possible.

Bean puts our tree together without our help. He does a great job, especially as he martials the little kids to help him.

Tomorrow we'll move it over into the corner by that tall bookshelf and then put the rugs back (oh, yay!) And then we can put the lights on and decorate it!!!

The Rabbit is happy about this and she wants you to know it!

December Fields

2011-12-04T22:07:00.000-08:00

We went on a little drive yesterday to go get something in a nearby town. I enjoyed the scenery so much I tried to take pictures through the windows of my moving vehicle, which I only do when I am desperate. But the green fields of winter wheat were so pretty! Everything else is all brown and wintry looking so they really pop out at you.

And then there's the angle of the light this time of year...

It seems to me so far that winter arrives right around Thanksgiving in these parts. November is usually quite mild and nice and autumny up until about then. You have days in the 60s and 70s and little frost and pretty leaves. Then right around the fourth Thursday in November you realize that the leaves are just about gone, the nights are cold, and the days are in the low 50's. And that is the weather most of the time in the winter in Oklahoma. We'll get a couple of really cold spells and a couple of snowfalls, but we don't wait for those to say that winter has arrived. It's here!

At Work in My Kitchen

2011-12-04T21:51:00.000-08:00

Here's our neighbor Bob watching as the Badger fiddles with something in the hole where the dishwasher is going to go. This was right after they put the countertops in. Bob has been amazing. I can't believe how much he has helped us. Our friends Ryan and Jim have helped a lot too. Thanks, friends, we could not have done it without you!

So, these aren't going to be very beautiful pictures because this kitchen is very much a working space right now and the decorative touches haven't been added yet. Once they gave me the okay to start using the sink and cupboards I had mountains of dishes to wash. But look at my pretty pretty sink! What a difference!

My favorite thing about the sink is that this darn oversized high chair tray that's been bugging me for the last ten years because it's so awkward to clean acutally fits in the sink and is finally easy to clean!!!! This is a huge help to me.

Lots of tubs of kitchen stuff to unload, lots of dishes to wash, but this is the sink side of the kitchen. The fridge used to be on the other side of the kitchen-- it's the only thing that got moved. We wanted to knock out that little wall but it turns out to contain major plumbing so it had to stay. But it's still a great place for the fridge. We're going to get a pretty new fridge eventually, but we're out of money for now....

Here's the stove half of the kitchen-- again, I am still putting things away. That's our old stove-- the new one will be here in a week or two along with the pretty new dishwasher.

This is the area between the stove and the garage wall. The fridge used to be on the right. By moving it to the other side of the room, we doubled the amount of countertop in this spot. This has made the hugest difference. I can't even tell you how much more workable the kitchen is with just this small change. I now have an area large enough to roll out pie crust and do other tasks that require a little elbow room. I also have a cabinet I can put baking supplies in so everything's right there within reach when I want to put something together. The cabinets are just enough higher above the countertops that the space is just that much more useful.

I still can't get over how this room has gone from dismal to fantastic relatively simply and relatively inexpensively. I know it was a huge project and a lot of money but not nearly as huge as it would have been if we had tried to redesign the space completely and if we hadn't gotten those pre-built cabinets on clearance. What a blessing! And before it seemed like a small kitchen-- a little too small for a large family-- but now it feels like a good-sized kitchen that you can feed a big family in.

I'm excited to cook now. My responsibility to nourish my family with good food is engaging to me once again. I actually want to plan meals, which you know is something I've struggled with for months. I didn't realize how much that old kitchen was getting me down. I am so happy! Hooray hooray hooray!

Second Block

2011-12-04T21:25:00.000-08:00

There are two styles of blocks for this quilt I'm making: the ones I already showed you, and this one:

I have all the blocks made now, and I just have to sew them together in alternating fashion. And then... I still haven't decided how I'm going to quilt it...

What the Kids Liked about the Kitchen Remodel

2011-12-04T21:17:00.000-08:00

Building elaborate furniture forts out of the cabinet boxes....

I HAVE A KITCHEN!!!!!!!!

2011-12-02T22:35:00.000-08:00

It's still a bit of a construction zone and there are tools everywhere, but the Badger told me this evening that I could put stuff in the cupboards and WASH DISHES IN THE SINK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I spent a couple hours after the kids went to bed starting to chip away at all that needs to be done-- there's a LOT to do, but it's so fun!

My new stove isn't here yet, but the Badger put my old one back for the time being. How wonderfully simple it was to warm up beans and tortillas on the stove! With a counter next to it to put the salsa and cheese on! What a blessing!

Pictures tomorrow. My camera's gone AWOL.

Merry Christmas to meeeeeee! What more could I ask for?

Happy December, Everyone!!!

2011-12-01T06:38:00.000-08:00

Christmas is coming!!!! I'm so excited!

I love Christmas. I love it more every year. Every year I understand better just what a miracle and a gift Christ's birth was and I'm just that much more grateful and excited about it. It's such a wonderful thing to get to celebrate it in such a big way.

My favorite thing about Christmas is the music. Joyful music is the perfect way to celebrate the birth of Him who gave us all hope and light.

I dug out the Christmas CD collection today and was very excited to see some of my favorite albums. I had to drive with the kids to a farm an hour away from here to buy some hay for my goats (and it was trucked down from Minnesota and twice as expensive as it should be-- that tells you something about the state of the drought in Oklahoma but I'm getting off topic...) We had a wonderful drive listening to Christmas music. Lots of songs made me cry-- kind of surprised me, but I guess I have so many emotions and memories wrapped up in this season and its music. The older I get the worse it will probably get. But it was wonderful.

One of my favorite Christmas albums is a CD I actually got at a white elephant gift exchange five or six years ago. It's the Boston Pops and I don't know why someone thought it was a white elephant because I think it's an absolute treasure. I love Robin Williams reading The Night Before Christmas with the orchestra in the background. I love John Williams' theme song for the movie Home Alone which actually has really nice words that I don't think you ever hear in the movie, at least not that I remember. I love The March of the Toys from Babes in Toyland. I love The Star Carol. I love the traditional carol medleys. I love the orchestral arrangement of Sleigh Ride. Oh heck, I love the whole CD.

I'm so looking forward to an entire month of Christmas music, lights, beautiful decorations, gifts given and received, service rendered, treats savored, and family memories made. All in honor of the One who blessed us with all that is good and beautiful.

Happy Birthday, Peanut!

2011-11-30T21:18:00.000-08:00

One-year-olds don't really have a clue, but Peanut seemed to enjoy her birthday. Her daddy helped her open her presents:

She got some clothes...

And she got a Wahoo. I was really excited to spend the evening playing with the Wahoo, but it turned out to be defective. I contacted the company and they're sending us a new one (Timberdoodle's customer service is excellent!) I know it's going to be a real hit once we get it up and running.

Part of me is just aching because Peanut is now one. Those sweet, sweet days of her tiny infancy are behind us now. I enjoyed them so thoroughly. Of course I still enjoy her, but she is bigger now and there's a very different dynamic: instead of a sweet swaddled sleeping cuddly bundle you've got a wiggling grabbing giggling babbling little friend to interact with. I don't want to sound at all ungrateful that my baby is growing and developing normally (because trust me I am very thankful for that!) but there is a wistful sense of loss that those precious early days are over. Along with that, though, there is gratitude that she came through them safely. She reached her first birthday with no serious trauma or difficulty and so tiny Baby Peanut is safe forever. We mothers face uncertainty with our children every day but I can say that whatever the future holds Peanut's first year was just about perfect. I am so grateful for that, and so grateful for the privilege of having this little girl in my life. I thank Heavenly Father for her and for each of my children every single day. Being a mother is the most wonderful thing that I have ever done.

Lights! Cabinets! Action!!!

2011-11-30T20:26:00.000-08:00

And (hopefully) tomorrow... countertops and a SINK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Goats Are Back!!!

2011-11-30T20:24:00.000-08:00

Our goats are home from their breeding vacation. It was so good to see them again! They are such sweet animals. Plus they do a good job protecting our chickens. And it's fun to feed them chard from my garden.

Anyway, I can't help but wonder how they feel. I know how I feel when I'm expecting. Do animals get morning sick? Well, they don't throw up so they must not feel really bad, but do they feel a little strange, a little "off"? Do they crave certain foods or enjoy certain foods more? I don't know, but I feel very sympathetic towards them right now. And I'm very excited to think about having baby goats in about six months!!!

One

2011-11-27T17:41:00.001-08:00

My sweet Peanut is one. I've been trying to think of some poignant things to say on this great milestone, but there is a lot of chaos around here this evening. Perhaps I will have some time later, but if I don't, here at least are some pictures of the little birthday girl. I have such happy memories of this time a year ago. And every day since then this little sweetheart has lifted my spirits and filled my heart to overflowing with love.

Toad Hall Thanksgiving 2011

2011-11-27T07:51:00.000-08:00

While we've had some unique Thanksgivings over the years (eating pumpking pie on the beach in 2007 and me in labor in 2010 come to mind) this one was the oddest. Right now, this is my kitchen:

Dazzled? Want another look?

We talked about postponing our turkey dinner a week or two and just pretending Thanksgiving wasn't happening last Thursday, but as I was talking to my family in Utah getting ready for their awesome traditional feast I felt wistful. It dawned on me that we could have roast beef in the crockpot with very little trouble. So here is our Thanksgiving joint of meat for 2011:

And here is my plate. I made yams in the other crockpot and mashed potatoes in my little electric kettle. The roast was REALLY good.

A very very VERY wonderful friend brought by pies and a loaf of bread and my sweet visiting teacher stopped by with some cookies, so we ended up with quite a nice feast despite our circumstances. We were very very grateful for it, that's for sure!

I'm planning a big dinner once we get the kitchen done. Maybe a feast of St. Nicholas on December 5th? We'll see how it goes!

Closer.... Closer..... Closer....

2011-11-27T07:38:00.000-08:00

When we started this project a month ago I thought we would be done a week or so before Thanksgiving. Everyone always tells you it will take longer, so I thought, well, surely it will be done at least by Thanksgiving. Even until up to about the 19th I thought we would have it done by Thanksgiving. It wasn't, but I would rather be way behind schedule than way over budget!

Thanksgiving morning the Badger textured.

Friday he put up a coat of primer on the kitchen. Yesterday morning we finished prepping (we have to paint the dining room too since it flows into the kitchen.) There was a lot of stuff to move out of the dining room and then we had to fill wall holes, scrub the floor and then plastic/tape (it takes way longer getting ready to paint than actually painting!)

Last night we put movies on for the kids and had a priming the dining room/painting the kitchen date. It was sooooo romantic! (Actually, while not exactly romantic, it's really fun to work together on a project like this!)

I was amazed that we agreed on a paint color so fast. I got a brochure of paint inspiriations from the store and it showed a cheerful yellow kitchen with blue and white plates hanging on the wall. The blue and white just popped against the yellow background. I have a lot of blue and white plates, so we just said "give us that color!" and we were on our way.

Tomorrow's project: Birrd paints the dining room while the Badger installs the recessed can lighting after which Birrd weeps tears of joy. And then it's cabinets, counter tops, and sink! We ordered the appliances yesterday too (yay for Thanksgiving Weekend sales!) and let me tell you, I AM EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Three

2011-11-27T07:25:00.000-08:00

I think three is the funniest age. They are always catching you off guard doing strange and random things. They are off in their own little world that is almost, but not quite, in the family groove.

So here is the Rabbit sucking on her sister's binky and wearing her other sister's nightgown (and it's not bedtime). Then she's got a party hat on her head but she's scowling at me. She makes me laugh every day!

Badger Cake

2011-11-23T21:01:00.000-08:00

Knowing about our kitchen situation, an incredibly kind friend volunteered to bake the Badger his favorite kind of cake this year for his birthday. I added the badger figure but otherwise I cannot take any credit for this wonderful cake.

He was very pleased with it. I think he had a good birthday, despite all the chaos around here.

The kitchen won't be done for Thanksgiving, but it is coming along and looking really good so far.

Moving the Chicks

2011-11-23T20:47:00.000-08:00

About a month ago we got a new batch of a couple dozen chicks. We've been brooding them in the stable in the brooding box the Badger built last spring, but they were getting too big for it. This afternoon the boys went out and moved the brooding setup to the inside of the green chicken coop, which the rest of our flock has hardly been using lately.

You can see the boys are getting to be good chicken handlers. I thought this was a cute picture:

They all kind of huddled in the corner when they were first deposited in their new home. I hope they're now enjoying the space.

End of Season-- Lessons Learned

2011-11-21T10:32:00.000-08:00

Our fall sports season has come to an end. Our last soccer game was Saturday. I finally remembered to bring the camera and snap some pictures of Fish on the field:

He said he enjoyed the season very much and he liked his teammates. I'm glad he could have a good experience.

Football ended a couple of weeks ago. In the end, Bean says it was worth it and he wants to play again next year. I am glad he feels that way because he did not have an easy time at the beginning of the season. Those 6 am conditioning practices were the hardest thing he has ever done and there were times when he wanted to quit. But he is a lot stronger now.

Football was a very different experience this year than last year. Last year he was the biggest kid on his team (because his birthday is right near the cutoff and he was one of the oldest on the team.) At the end of the season they were down to 11 players and so Bean played every minute of every game. This year I signed him up for this great team that a friend's son was on and didn't realize until after we got going that I was actually playing him up a year. I figured it wouldn't matter much because he is right on the border and because he was very comparable in size to the other kids. But there was a big difference to him in the size of the kids he was going up against on the line and that was an adjustment for him. Also, the older kids had so much more experience with football that it was a big jump up for him. Football is a complex game and every year they gain a ton of understanding of plays and positions, etc. So he was a little behind the curve even though he had played last year.

Being the new kid on the team and not quite up to speed meant that he was definitely not one of their first string players. Instead of playing constantly like last year he spent most of the time on the sidelines, only doing kickoff return and a few plays in the second half. That was a change.It was discouraging at first, for both of us. It wasn't what he expected (though it is normal for new players) and for me, having loaded up five kids and all their gear to come watch my son's game only to see him sitting on the sidelines was a little frustrating.

I remember one game in particular, probably 4 or 5 games into the season. I was sitting there on the bleachers watching all these parents cheering like crazy as their sons did great stuff on the field and I was thinking "WHY are we here??? Why did we feel so strongly we needed to sign up for this? All this time, all this money, and he's just sitting there. Why do we even need to bother to come to these games anyway?" You know how once these negative thoughts start they can spiral down deeper and deeper. Pretty soon you're thinking really negative stuff like "maybe my son is really bad at football and I just didn't clue in to that fact before now. Maybe the coaches wish he wasn't on the team because he's so awful." Etc.

I really was on the edge of quitting, and with the discouraged look I saw on Bean's face I don't think he would have objected. I decided I needed to talk to his coach and see what he said and then I'd decide what to do. I sat there and thought what would be the best way to approach the coach.

After the game as we were walking to the car the coach came walking past us. "Hey, good job out there, tonight, buddy," he said to Bean. "Coach?" I asked. "Is there something we can be doing with Bean at home to help him get to be a better player so he can get more time on the field?" I figured this would be a good way to open up a positive conversation about Bean's skills or lack thereof and that I would be able to tell a lot from the way he responded to it.

Boy, was I right, only it wasn't at all what I was expecting.

"Bean's doing great," he said. "He's got the makings of a really awesome football player. The only thing you could do at home is just keep working on conditioning, building those muscles and getting stronger." I can't remember everything he said, I just remember how incredibly encouraging, positive and supportive he was. It was clear that instead of seeing Bean as behind the rest of the team he saw him as the football player he could be and would be with time and training. It was also clear that he was looking at Bean long-term and that although this season he felt he and the other new players weren’t ready for a lot of playing time he was building them up and getting ready for bigger and better things next year and beyond. I had wondered if he saw Bean as a failure, but I found out that he saw him as the team’s future.

I left that short conversation feeling completely different than I had just a couple of minutes before. I felt supported and encouraged by just a few simple words. Bean felt better too. I also felt great admiration for the character of this coach and his ability to lift up the boys. I was tremendously grateful for the way he very quickly swept away all those negative discouraging thoughts I’d been having.

It really got me thinking about the ability we have to build people up or tear them down with just a few words. Bean’s coach didn’t know how downhearted I was and he had no idea that Bean’s continued participation in football was on the line. How many times do we talk to someone without knowing that it’s all on the line for them in some way and what we say will decide their future course?

All the stories and quotes I’ve heard over the years about the importance of encouraging youth came sharply into focus. I thought back to times I may have said something less than encouraging to someone, especially a young person. I felt pretty terrible about a couple of instances. I thought back to the times as a youth when a grownup said something encouraging to me and it made me feel wonderful. I vowed that I would find ways to lift other people up whenever I could, especially young people.

Especially my own children! As a homeschooling mother, maybe I have not fully appreciated the effect my words have on my children. When I get frustrated with them for poor school performance the things I say could be of a far bigger impact than I realize. You never know when your kids are at one of those turning points.

If that was the only thing we learned from this season of football, then it was worth it for that alone.

Quilting

2011-11-17T22:18:00.000-08:00

When I was a student at BYU I attended a play at the Pardoe Theater entitled "Quilters." It was about the pioneer women on the prairie and the challenges they faced. The one thing that has stuck with me about the play was how they said that during the long cold prairie winters the women had to quilt or they would go insane.

The statement intrigued me, since I wasn't a quilter at the time and could only partially understand it. I'm still not a pioneer woman stuck in a log cabin all winter but I do fancy myself something of a quilter at this point and therefore can understand a little bit what they meant. Quilting is very soothing. It puts your creative muse to work, which is always very satisfying. The geometry of it is good for your brain and it creates a sense of order in your life that is very calming, especially when things are a little chaotic in your world (like, say, your kitchen is ripped up and you're trying to keep meals on the table for a family of seven without a sink or a place to prepare anything!) The repetition of sewing each of the little squares is also very reassuring. All the sewing is in straight lines, so it's not usually as stressful as sewing clothing.

I've been itching to make a quilt for awhile now. I adore looking at quilt patterns and, even more than that, looking at quilt fabrics. I love thinking about how to combine colors and shapes. I've had a few projects simmering in my brain for months now.

Last week I had the rare chance to get up into the city and go to the quilt shop with only a couple of my kids in tow. I just thought I'd run in and quick pick something out for a Christmas quilt really quick, you know. I had a pattern in my mind and all I needed was three or four coordinating fabrics. Should be easy, right?

Well, I was in there for two hours. It was a fun two hours, but it was kind of maddening. The problem was that there were too many options and I was trying to put them all into a quilt pattern in my mind and decide if they would look good and that's HARD for me to do. I love high-quality quilting fabric but it is expensive and so if I am going to spend money on it I want to make sure it is exactly perfect before I cut and buy. So I agonize. I always agonize about purchases anyway, but it's even worse in a quilt shop. One of the things I've learned about quilting is that in order to like the finished quilt you almost have to put in a fabric or two that you don't really like by itself but that adds to the harmony of the design. This is hard for me when I have the tendency to want to passionately love every fabric I spend precious money on.

It's also hard for me to try and juggle more than 3 or 4 fabrics in my mental patterns. So what I ended up doing, since I didn't like any of the specifically Christmas prints, was choosing a red and green that I adored and a nice white to go with it and sticking with a simple pattern that only takes three fabrics. I got it off the "pattern playground" on a free quilt patterns website.

I'm really really happy with how it's turning out. Here is one of the blocks:

(And I know I'm not perfect at matching up my points etc.)

It's so wonderful to be piecing a quilt again. It's been a long time since I've done one (I still haven't even made one for Peanut, but I'm waiting for just the right fabric and pattern for that one!) Working on it really does make me feel like I'm bringing a sense of order into my life, and it's much more productive than doing Sudoku puzzles!

Our Current Flock

2011-11-17T20:02:00.000-08:00

Remember, we started out with nine brown hens. Last spring we got about three dozen assorted chickens, most of whom have not survived. Now we have probably about 16-18 various birds, two of whom are roosters. The brown ladies are molting, which means they don't lay much, so we're getting roughly 7 eggs a day. A new batch of chicks is brooding in the stable. They are very securely locked up because we lost most of the last batch during the brooding stage due to predators. So far so good with them and they are all hens so in a few months our egg production should be up a bit.

Anyway, this is what I get when I go out to the pasture with treats. This isn't everyone, but it's a good sampling. The two very large black and white chickens are named Mr. and Mrs. Wong. The other rooster is named Leppy. The rest of the hens have never been named because they're too hard to tell apart.

We love our chickens, we love our eggs, we love living in the country!

P.S.-- Did I mention our goats are on vacation right now? They are visiting another farm where there is a boy goat. Come next May we shall have kids!

Life With Small Children

2011-11-16T21:54:00.000-08:00

I am really glad they have such cute little feet.

Bouncing Roo

2011-11-16T21:51:00.000-08:00

Lately Roo has been getting more daring and more skilled at jumping on the trampoline. She learns things at gymnastics class and then she comes home and practices them. It's fun to watch her.

All my kids love the trampoline. It is in nearly constant use. Sometimes that is frustrating as it tends to distract kids from doing things I need them to do. Also, a trampoline makes it so that your kids go through way more pairs of socks (they take off their shoes to jump and then go running around the yard in their socks and then leave the socks outside somewhere, where you find them muddy and cruddy days later.) But despite these downers, I really am glad they have it. I know how badly I wanted one when I was a kid and it makes me happy to watch them enjoy it so much.

Tough Call

2011-11-16T21:19:00.000-08:00

I can't decide whether I like autumn color better on cloudy days....

...sunny days...

...or a day that's a little bit of both!!

Elves at Work

2011-11-14T21:22:00.000-08:00

The last few weeks I've gotten several homeschool toy catalogs in the mail. I love to look through these and make long wish lists of all the fun and educational things I could buy my kids for Christmas. Most toys on the mainstream market don't really interest me, but I sure have a weakness for these catalogs.

And so do my kids! It seemed that every time I turned around one of the kids had their nose stuck in one of the catalogs. When I picked one up, two or three of them would come running to me saying "let me show you what I want, Mom!"

I don't mind a little bit of that, and I do want to know what they want for Christmas, but I decided I needed to do something to help get their focus off themselves.

One day last week I gathered them all up and said "Okay, you guys are all going to MAKE presents for each other for Christmas this year. I want you to think carefully and come up with some good ideas of things you would like to make. I will be available to help you and I hope you will do your best to make these things really nice."

Since this wasn't something we'd ever done before, I wasn't sure how it would go over. Well, they went nuts with excitement. Ever since then I haven't heard a single "I want..." but I've heard a lot of "will you help me make a _____ for _____?" Bean has an elaborate plan all written out in his special notebook enumerating all the things he is going to make and the other kids would too if they could write. I couldn't be more pleased!

I think the days before Christmas are going to fly by in a flurry of yarn and fabric and wood and paint. And I think Christmas morning is going to be extra meaningful with so many very personal gifts.

I've said this before but it keeps getting reinforced to me over and over: I believe that when you give a gift or an act of service to someone you create a bond of love between the two of you. It's almost like stretching an invisible thread between you. And I think that if it's a homemade gift the thread is just that much thicker, not just because of the time but because of the creativity involved. This has a lot of interesting applications, but the most important one is within families. It's a critical component of a solid marriage (which is something I need to do better at remembering). And I love the idea of my kids stretching these threads of love and unity between them as they spend selfless time and effort making beautiful things for each other.

I am going to make some homemade gifts for the kids too. I worked on a couple things today that I'm really excited about. I also helped Fish make something really really neat-- can't give you any details because it's for the Badger-- and I helped Bean use a Knifty Knitter to start a hat for Peanut. It was so fun-- I can't wait for tomorrow!

In case you are interested, here is a brainstorm list I made of possible things that the kids could pick for projects/presents. This was just what I thought of off hand-- I'm sure once I take some time to search the internet the list will grow. And some of these are beyond the skills and ability of my kids at this point, but I hope we will make this a tradition year after year with craftsmanship getting more and more skilled. Anyway, if you have any ideas you would add to this list I'd love to hear about it!

Quilts/blankets/pillowcases
Clothes/pajamas
Doll clothes
Furniture/woodworking
Wood carving
Knitting/crochet
Needlework/embroidery
Picture frames
Pencil cups or other office accessories
Pottery
Puppets/sock puppets
Cookies/candy/fudge
Dollhouse accessories
Felt crafts/felt food
Hats/scarves/mittens
Original stories/poems/music
Christmas ornaments
Bookbinding/blank books
Dress-up costumes/accessories
Leatherworking
Aprons
Handprints on something
Jewelry/hair bows
Magnets
Weaving
Birdhouses/bird feeders
Plates with artwork on them
Items with photos on them
Etc....

Sunday Evening

2011-11-13T20:59:00.000-08:00

I was looking forward to some serious blogging time tonight, but my sweet Peanut is having a tough time settling into a deep sleep. So I am holding her and thinking about how she's almost one and how much I've loved this last year with her. What a treat it is to just hold her in my arms.

One year ago I was wondering if she was going to be born before or after Thanksgiving. That was an exciting time.

November is a great time of year. I have lots of good memories of November.

Nine years ago right about now we were moving into a brand-new house near Boise, Idaho. We'd only been married a couple of years and we just had baby Bean, but house prices were really low and we were blessed to have the amazing opportunity of having a house built just for us. I was so worried that something would fall through because it seemed too good to be true but everything came together beautifully and we moved in just in time for Thanksgiving 2002. That was such a good little house. After a few years we felt we'd outgrown it and we set our sights on bigger things, but the ironic thing is that the house we're living in now is only slightly bigger than that one and has the same number of rooms. I wonder what would have happened if we had just stayed there and if we were still there now. We'd probably have it halfway paid off by now. But we wouldn't have had all the adventures that we ended up having once we left that house: Oregon, Kansas, Utah, Oklahoma...

I never could have imagined it nine years ago when we were moving in there.

And now we have another November construction project: a kitchen this time. I hope it's done in time for a marvelous Thanksgiving dinner.

Happy Peanut Pictures

2011-11-11T20:02:00.000-08:00

Every time I take pictures of my Peanut I am always a little disappointed because she never looks half as cute in the pictures as she does in real life. Somehow the camera misses her vibrancy and the shine in her eyes. But I still try my best to take cute pictures of her and share them with her adoring fans on my blog. Enjoy!

An Unexpected Treat

2011-11-11T19:41:00.000-08:00

After that scorching, withering summer we had I was expecting close to zero fall color here this year. By the end of August many trees already looked done for the year, with the leaves curling up and turning brown.

Well, I got a pleasant surprise. Fall comes late here, but it did come this year. And I am loving every minute of it!!!!I love to take my kids on walks in the crisp air full of the smell of woodsmoke. We've been going in the late afternoon when the light is at the perfect angle to compliment the yellows, oranges, and rust colors of the leaves.

The line of cottonwoods down along the creek that runs through our neighborhood is turning a lovely gold right now.

Do you see those green clumps in this orange tree? They are clumps of mistletoe. There is a lot of it around here. I have never noticed it anywhere else I've ever lived, though I understand it's quite common many places. But I really enjoy seeing it here. It stays a pretty green all winter.

And I love the rusty gold of the oak trees in the fall. I do not think I have words to express how much I love oak trees. I feel some strange sort of bond with them.

Autumn is by far my favorite season. I was talking to my sister about this while we were in Utah because she's as nuts about fall as I am and she had something to say which I really needed to hear. She talked about how she thinks one of the reasons she loves fall so much is that she is entering the autumn of her life when she is beginning to harvest all the seeds she's sown and tended for so many years. She feels like she is now in a stage where she is reaping her rewards. Now, my sister is ten years older than I am and when she said that I realized that I am still in the summer of my life. As you have probably noticed, I tend to be a little impatient when it comes to waiting for my own harvest and I must say I am very much looking forward to it. But I realized as we talked that I need to not wish away the summer of my life. Yes, it is hot and there are mosquitoes and I am still laboring hard over crops that don't seem to produce much yet, but it is still summer! It is green and lush and full of beautiful vistas and happy, care-free moments. I have resolved to seek out the fun and frolic even as I carefully tend my fields so that when my majestic and peaceful autumn arrives I will not have any regrets about squandered summer evenings.

When the Moment Arrives

2011-11-09T22:13:00.000-08:00

The earthquake hit at 10:53 PM Saturday night. The Badger and I were sitting on our bed and I was reading him my notes from Stake Conference (he stayed home with the kids.) I was telling him a story that Elder Perry had told when it slowly dawned on me that not only did I hear a low rumbling sound outside but the room was vibrating too. I think the Badger realized what was going on at the same time. We looked at each other and said "it's an earthquake!"

My first thought was "this is Oklahoma so it won't be a big one" but then it started getting stronger. My house was shaking now instead of just vibrating. I could hear things creaking. And it kept on coming. Instead of "no big deal," now I was thinking "this could be significant" and "this is too big for Oklahoma-- could this be coming from the New Madrid fault?" and most importantly "what am I supposed to do?"

The problem is, I know a lot about earthquakes. I have studied them and I spend probably too much time reading news articles about them, complete with lots of pictures of the devastation they cause. I had always thought it would be cool to feel a small one, but now that it was actually happening my mind was full of too much information and I was scared. I mean, your house is shaking and there's nothing you can do to stop it and it could shake enough to shake your roof right down on top of you.

When we lived in earthquake territory, I knew all the earthquake safety procedures. But it's been awhile, and as I stood there I could not remember. My three little girls had fallen asleep in our bed and I stood there looking at them and thinking "should I move them? should we carry them outside? how do I protect them?" I couldn't remember, so I just prayed.

Well, the earthquake ended, and it's getting to be old news by now. It didn't do us any permanent damage, thank goodness. In hindsight, it really was more cool than scary. But at the time we didn't know and it shook me up as I realized I wasn't really prepared for it.

As I have studied history throughout my life I have pondered often situations where ordinary people, who live normal lives of work, school, shopping, family, and holidays suddenly find their world completely changed as they end up in a moment of political or natural crisis. What interests me is how that moment reveals who they really are. If they took the time to prepare physically, mentally, and, most importantly, spiritually when it didn't seem to make any difference they are, when their moment comes, suddenly emerging as a hero and a survivor while many around them crumple and fall.

You never know when that moment is going to come. When it does come, it's too late to prepare. When you're standing there and your house suddenly starts shaking and this time it really is the big one what you have then physically, mentally, and spiritually is all you have and that's what's going to make or break you in this new reality.

So that little shakeup got me thinking about that again. And it was a good hands-on reminder to me that the most important preparations really are the spiritual ones. We try to be up on physical preparedness here at Toad Hall and I have studied earthquake preparedness in the past, but since I felt our earthquake danger was incredibly low in Oklahoma it hadn't seemed necessary to review and drill earthquake safety procedures. When life throws you a curve ball like that, you have to turn to God. If you are already close to Him, you can have the peace that comes through faith in God.

I'm glad this wasn't my defining moment. But I'm glad I have a better idea now of how it's going to feel when that moment comes. That will help me a lot when I am tempted to get lazy about my relationship with God.

My Flinch Child

2011-11-06T21:17:00.000-08:00

Our cat Flinch desperately wants to be one of the children in our family. Anytime we open the door to the house, he is right there and he often tries to come in. I can't count the number of times we've been late to something because he got into the house while we were coming in and out of the door getting loaded in the car and then we had to hunt him down, coax him out from under the ___ and then get him out of the house.

He hangs around our windows and watches us wishing he could get in on the action. He has done a number on our living room window screens because he likes to climb up them to get a better view.

He's an incredibly personable cat and very companionable. He's good with the kids and even seems to enjoy the baby. He likes to come over to me and pester me incessantly to pet him while I'm working in the garden. He knows that when I have garden gloves on I will actually pet him.

I sure wish Flinch could come inside, but my cat allergies are really severe.

This last little while there have been a couple of days where we simply could not keep Flinch out of the house for certain stretches. The Badger was working on the kitchen and had to have the garage door open. There was no sheetrock between the laundry area in the garage and the kitchen, so all Flinch had to do was come in the garage and mosey on through the hole in the wall. If we caught him and booted him out the front door he was back again within a couple of minutes.

So I eventually told the boys that they could keep him in their room for awhile. All the kids went in there and had a lot of fun playing with him (he's a very playful cat!) Bean grabbed the camera and took some pictures that I thought were rather entertaining.

Flinch really is a remarkable cat and I'm so glad he's part of our crew here at Toad Hall.

This and That

2011-11-06T21:02:00.000-08:00

Well, I have now lived through the hottest summer in Oklahoma history and the largest earthquake in Oklahoma history. What's next?

I will tell you about the earthquake, but not tonight. I'm determined to get to bed at a slightly less than appalling hour. I intended to blog about it tonight, but by the time I got through a bunch of other catch-up I realized it was pretty late.

So I'm just going to really quick fill you in on a few other recent happenings.

We had a frost the other night that killed most of my garden. I knew it was coming so I went out and covered everything up, but instead of the light frost that was forecast we got a rather hard frost. I didn't mind most of the losses, but I was sad about the peppers, tomatoes, and basil. I was hoping for a couple more weeks with the peppers, I didn't have a chance to harvest any of the green tomatoes so they could ripen indoors (which means officially we ate all of one tomato off our eight plants this year!!!!!) and making a big huge batch of pesto was on my to-do list for this coming week. Bargh! But I still have the lovely chard patch, as well as the broccoli and some onions. And of course the baby lettuces coming up that can tolerate some frost.

Now the weather is lovely and mild and frost isn't even remotely on the forecast. Oh well.

My poor dear Badger got what we like to call the Martian Death Flu this last week. He was down for days and days and days and he's still not fully up to speed. He feels very behind on the kitchen remodel, but we've been alright. Thanks to my friends who have let me do dishes at their house. Call me a softie, but I really dislike doing dishes in the bathtub.

We had Stake Conference this weekend, which is a regional gathering for members of our church. We were blessed to have Elder L. Tom Perry of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles with us, which is an increasingly rare treat as the church grows bigger and bigger (there are more than 13 million of us worldwide and only 12 apostles.) It was so wonderful to be in his presence and feel his loving spirit. He spoke of our Savior Jesus Christ with great power and conviction. He requested a children's choir for the Sunday morning meeting and both Bean and Fish got to be in it. After the meeting all four of my non-infant children got to shake Elder Perry's hand. I am so grateful that they had the opportunity to meet someone who has devoted his whole life to testifying of Jesus Christ and radiating His love to everyone he comes in contact with. Elder Perry is very down-to-earth and when he is done speaking you feel like you love him like he's your grandpa. Here is a link to my favorite Elder Perry talk, from the April 2010 General Conference.

Time for bed, but on the subject of the earthquake I'll just share with you a quote I liked from the Tulsa World website. They quoted the emergency manager of Lincoln County as saying "It was a pretty ornery little earthquake." That is just such an Oklahoma way of saying it, and it's absolutely true.

Worth Its Own Post

2011-11-04T22:33:00.000-07:00

I think I forgot to blog this picture from our trip to Utah. I love this picture. So, here you go:

Adventures in Motherhood

2011-11-04T21:26:00.000-07:00

Tonight I thought I'd just share a little story that, while not monumental, gives a really accurate glimpse of the life of a mother with a lot of young children:

We left the house in a hurry, as usual, and I was sure I had forgotten something. In my mind I ran down the list as I turned the keys in the ignition and backed the car out of the driveway: all five kids, football helmet, mouth guard, pads, game jersey, water bottle, soccer cleats, soccer socks, shin guards, diaper bag containing at least one diaper and hopefully some wipes, spare onesie for the baby, and two binkies. I knew I had all that, and that was the essential stuff, anyway. If anything else came up... well, we'd survive.

It was one of those back-to-back nights: soccer practice was first on the agenda, followed by a late football game and then back home with a car full of very sleepy kids. But the timing was perfect: at least it wasn't going to be one of those nights where I'm somehow supposed to be in two different places miles apart from each other at exactly the same time.

It was a mild evening and the girls played happily on the playground at the school during soccer practice. I changed the baby's diaper, then walked around watching the kids play. I was pleased at how well things were going.

Then I noticed the big wet spot on the Rabbit's pants.

I headed back to the van to see what I had in the sea of clutter that swallows the ankles of my brave passengers: camp chairs and dirty plates and overdue library books and baby toys and dirty socks and crayons and papers from Primary and jackets and empty water bottles and candy wrappers.

There had to be something!

Nope, that was the thing I had forgotten: a change of clothes for the Rabbit. This kind of thing happens from time to time with three year olds and I try to be prepared. But tonight I wasn't.

However, if there's one thing we mothers have, it's ingenuity! There had to be some solution! What about one of the baby's diapers? Well, there had been only one extra and I had just used it. Baby clothes? A onesie was all I had and that wasn't going to cover her legs. Hmmm... boys' dirty socks? No. Itchy picnic blanket? Too big. Quick drive to Walmart for some new pants? Reasonable idea, but there wasn't time.

Even I was stumped at this point. So what do you do? I watched her running around on the grass, happy as a lark, and I thought, well, her pants will have dried out quite a bit by the time we get to the football game... what else can I do?

The whole way over to the football game I kept thinking about it though... you know, if she sat on the bleachers that would be gross, so should I drop off Bean and then run home but then I would miss the game and little kids are grubby and dirty anyway and it's dark and we're outside and if I just sit her in one of our camp chairs....

We got to the football field and I sent Bean off to warm up with his team. I didn't have to be in there for a few minutes, so I took the opportunity to feed Peanut. While I was sitting there with her, Roo unbuckled herself and came up and sat in the passenger seat by me.

She had her special box with her. My kids do this: they take a small cardboard box and go around the house filling it with various small "treasures." I knew there were some hair clips in there as well as a plastic princess figure and probably some cards from our Memory game. I hadn't known she'd brought her special box along and I wasn't too pleased because when my kids bring stuff into the car it doesn't usually make it back out of the car for a long time and after it's spent time in the Sea of Clutter it comes out with muddy footprints all over it. So I kind of groaned and thought up a quick lecture about "Taking Care of Things that are Important to Us" (I have to say, I'm pretty good at lectures).

But then I noticed what she had tied the box with....

...A pair of the Rabbit's knit pants!

Clean, dry, Rabbit pants! Right there under my very nose!

I quickly discarded my lecture as my mood suddenly elevated several notches. Off went the smelly pants, on went the clean ones, and off we went to the football game in comfort and style.

And I thought to myself, Another day in the life of Mom!

Peanut Plant

2011-10-31T21:14:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I chide myself for not going out and taking care of my garden. Then when I do go out there, I remember the biggest reason why working in the garden is so challenging right now:

My Merry Men

2011-10-31T11:54:00.000-07:00

I got kind of lost in Sherwood Forest while sewing my boys' costumes this year...

Cue the Polka Music....

2011-10-31T11:44:00.000-07:00

...The Rabbit is ready for Oktoberfest!!!!!

I don't know exactly how it started.... I just got this idea in my head. My sister and I were talking recently about how much we liked dirdls. The Rabbit's favorite movie is The Sound of Music. And she has a nice line of Austrian ancestry through great-great-grandpa the bandonion player who immigrated through Ellis Island a hundred years ago, a family history story I find particularly interesting. So I just decided I had to do this.

I had fun with the details, like the sleeve bows:

Roo tried it on too-- it just barely fir her.

I modified the pattern for the top from a back issue of Ottobre Design (thanks, Andrea!) Then I just made a simple full skirt and modified the apron pattern from the pioneer dress pattern I have. Then I just went crazy with the ricrac and ribbon.

It was oh so much fun to make!

Sew...

2011-10-30T22:24:00.000-07:00

All last week while the Badger was tearing up the kitchen I was upstairs trying to finish this year's batch of costumes. I love sewing costumes for my kids. It is one of my favorite creative outlets. But sewing time is hard to come by, so I had to trim back my original plans. I had seven beautiful costumes in mind. Only four came to fruition, but I was very pleased with them.

Bean took this picture of me at work:

He also took this picture of my sewing corner while I was in the thick of it. What a mess!

Everything around me went to pot while I sewed happily away in my little corner. The kids' rooms were ankle-to-knee-deep with debris when I finally came back to earth after the Fall Festival at church. Everything in the bathroom was the wrong color. And the laundry was totally out of control. I'm still trying to get everything cleaned up.

But wait until you see the costumes I made! I am going to make you wait until tomorrow because I need to go to bed now, but they turned out great!!!!

Oh My, What Have We Done?

2011-10-30T22:04:00.000-07:00

This is what my kitchen looks like right now:

I knew when we moved in that we needed to remodel, at least as much as we could afford to, but this all happened so suddenly and now it's all ripped out and we have to put it back together!

I feel like we've jumped off a cliff and I'm not sure where the bottom is, but I'm so excited to be rid of all the nasty things. At this point I don't even care what it looks like when it's done just as long as all this old stuff is gone. Like the light ceiling. 'Twas the thing in the 70s and 80s but I just have this deep hatred for flourescent light.

Here's my lovely sink. It actually doesn't look so bad in a picture. Sprayer has never worked and part of the faucet broke off awhile back. Plus, the faucet's been leaking for awhile now. And the sink is only 5.5 inches deep.

Countertops warped...

...and stained... (and again, these pictures actually make it look better than it was!)

Once you get rid of the light ceiling it doesn't look so bad. But those cabinets were old and grungy.

And then when the Badger got them out of there we saw that the sheetrock really needed to come off, too...

So, yeah, now we're down to the studs. And we're about to build a room that makes me happy. It won't be fancy on our budget, but it will be wonderful.

In My Garden Right Now

2011-10-26T21:53:00.000-07:00

I've totally ignored my garden for the last six or eight weeks. It hasn't been watered, weeded, or tended. So I went out there the other day to see what was left.

I was surprised-- mostly pleasantly. I knew a lot of stuff died during the hot summer, but despite my lack of care everything that was left has been going bananas this fall.

Nice crop of basil, nice crop of chives. Marjoram is dead, but the oregano still has a tiny bit of life left.

On the other end of the herb bed there is rosemary and mint and quite a few marigolds and misc. perennials.

Around the first of Septeber I threw some lettuce seed in the ground. It then continued to be hot and I didn't water much and nothing germinated. I meant to go out and plant some more but I never did. Then when I went out there a couple days ago I saw this:

I didn't know that it would sit there that long without germinating and still come through. Maybe it was just waiting for a good rain. We have had some lately.

Over in the tomato/bean/pepper bed I have some fun zinnias and marigolds, though the beans and the tomatoes are pretty much dead.

The peppers are doing fine, though they're not fruiting much. And something's munching on them.

My chard patch is going bananas. It's beautiful.

The only thing prettier than my chard patch is Fish's chard patch, which is extraordinary. It's hard to tell from this picture, but those leaves are HUGE. I've only seen chard grow that large once before. Good job, Fish!

Bean's broccoli plant is also going bananas and it's finally starting to set a few small heads.

Which is weird because my broccoli has all been eaten by some very hungry caterpillars.

Here's another corner of Bean's garden. He's got a nice little watermelon (there were actually two but we already picked one). He was pretty excited about those melons. I was sure they were going to be dead or rotten or bug eaten when we got back from Utah, but there they were! Anyway, he's also got onions, peppers, a few carrots, and the one surviving tomato plant, which is fruiting (but they're not ripe yet.)

I'm glad we've been able to get some good out of our garden this year. We've learned a lot and had a lot of difficulty, but it's been a good experience overall.

On the Subject of Smoothies

2011-10-26T12:03:00.000-07:00

I love to make smoothies because I always sneak in some spinach or ultra-fabulous vitamin powder or something to make them really nutritious. It's a great way to get raw whole food nutrition into kids. It's harder with small kids though. They tend to make a mess with their smoothies:

On my trip to Utah I learned a helpful trick. Aunt Meadow also feeds her kids tons of smoothies but when she serves them to her kids she gives them straws.... They drink all their smoothies quickly and happily! What a concept! I never buy straws because it seems like the kids always getting into them and leaving them all over the house and I end up throwing them away but I'd rather deal with that than smoothie messes!

Peanut is Learning to Climb!

2011-10-26T11:57:00.000-07:00

One month 'til she turns one! I can't stand it!

Following the Path

2011-10-26T11:46:00.000-07:00

One thing that's fun about homeschool is how the littler ones want to do what the older ones are doing. Consequently they catch on to stuff far faster than the older kids did. When we do school the Rabbit insists on having her own folder and books and so she is learning her ABCs at a younger age than Roo, who learned at a younger age than Fish, who learned at a younger age than Bean. Poor Bean, he always has to blaze the trail.

Then there's Peanut....

Rabbit in the Chicken Coop

2011-10-26T11:42:00.000-07:00