rachel's continued ramblings

so, if you’ve been to my house or have seen pictures of my dining room, you know about the “art wall”. basically, we have a big, blank wall that spans the kitchen and dining room and we decided to use it to display the kids’ (read: layla’s) art. it was getting pretty full and i was dreading the process of pulling it all down and/or taking down old stuff and putting newer stuff up, and then trying to figure out what to do w/ the old stuff, etc. etc. we got a BIG shelf for free a couple of months ago and i wanted to use it to gather and organize all of my homeschooling supplies in one place – out of micah’s reach. it’s been sitting in the garage, collecting random crap (i think that’s related to the theory of chaos) because there wasn’t any place in the house where it would fit, that didn’t already have furniture there and i hadn’t figured out what to do w/ it yet. BUT, i knew i HAD to do something about the school stuff. our current system (or lack thereof) was NOT working. micah wo

well, i guess i did it right! today was day 4 since i made my starter. it had bubbled, grown, shrunk, and bubbled some more and was starting to smell more like wine than yeast. my experienced sourdough-making friend angie assured me that this meant that it had ‘soured’ and i could now use it. so i did. i decided to use my bread machine to do the mixing and kneading for me, but i wanted to bake it in the oven. i used the recipe for sourdough in my bread machine instruction book, and then used the baking instructions in a cookbook i have. at any rate, we have success!!! i was afraid they were a little too done, but actually, the bread and even the crust is still soft, even though it looks kind of dark. we dove right in and holy yumness! i think it could be a little more ‘sour’, so i’m going to leave my replenished starter out a day or two before i ‘put it to sleep’ in the fridge. but as it was, it was wonderful. i tried to take a picture of shane enjoying it, because his piece was big

no pun intended… i’ve had this vacuum cleaner for almost 6 years. i’ve been ready to be done with it for about 5. i have the dirt devil ‘jaguar’ bagless vacuum. we only paid about $75 for it at target, which, in vacuumcleanerland, is not very much. still, it’s $75. i tried to find a picture of it on the dirt devil website, but apparently, they no longer sell it, which is probably a good thing. so i had to take my own picture, which is probably better anyway. if you think it looks a bit ‘off’, that’s not just the perspective of the picture. it is a bit off. about a year after getting this vacuum, the latch that keeps it standing upright broke. so, any time you want to NOT be holding onto it (as in, any time it’s not in use) it has to lean against something or it will fall over. ANNOYING! but livable. and then, more recently, THIS happened: that’s a picture of the bottom of it,from the back. note the missing wheel. yup. a wheel broke off. so now, when using the vacuum, if you wan

thought i’d share my banana bread recipe on here. i made 4 loaves yesterday ( =1 full recipe) and remembered to take a picture. i love this recipe because it’s super easy to make, and it’s healthy, so i don’t mind the kids having a slice or two for breakfast or a snack throughout the day. micah actually had it for dinner last night, after he woke up from this accidental nap: he had been impatiently waiting to be able to eat some during the whole time it was baking and had a full-out, fall on the floor, hysterical fit when i wouldn’t slice them up the second the loaves were out of the oven. then he fell asleep. i got this recipe from my dad and i have no idea where he got it, so i can’t give appropriate credit where it is due. anyway, here’s the recipe (with my inevitable variations noted): 6 VERY ripe, mashed bananas 2 cups sugar (or less if you desire) 1 cup oil (or applesauce) 4 eggs 1 cup vanilla yogurt (or plain + a little vanilla extract and honey) 2 tsp. baking soda 2 tsp.

so i have, what i’ve coined as, “book ADD”. basically, i love books. i love to read. i love the king county library system and their fabulous website. i love clicking the “place hold” button. i generally have upwards of 35 books checked out, a hold list a mile long, and a running ‘tab’ of fines for overdue books. but here’s the problem. i generally have so many books and i want to read them all, that i never wind up reading any of them. i’ll bring home a book, read a chapter or two, and then the next book on my list will come in. repeat. eventually, i will have read 2 chapters of a dozen or so books, they will be due to go back, and i’ll never get around to finishing them. ugh! well, i’m officially attempting to ‘kick that habit’. at my husband’s repeated suggestion, i’m learning to make use of the ‘freeze’ button on the library’s website. this enables you to keep your hold on the book, but not receive it until you want it. it just moves other people’s holds ahead of yours. this is

shane’s drama class had their performances this weekend. the class of 21 k-6th graders has been rehearsing for 2 hours every wednesday, all year. this year’s play was a musical production called STRIKE!, a play written by one of the mothers of kids in the class. it’s similar in subject matter to the disney movie, ‘newsies’. he’s the one on the far left, having his shoes shined in the opening scene. later on, same character, an employee of the journal, informing the newsies of the price-hike.   and later on, a newspaper photographer accompanying the reporter (his friend, deanna) to report on the strike. sorry the picture is so dark. it was a dark scene and flashes weren’t allowed. besides, he’s wearing a navy suit, so he’s hard to see anyway. his on stage parts were small because this year, he (and deanna) were also the stage managers, a job he was very excited about and apparently did very well! proud mama! ;)

dave and i both LOVE sourdough bread. the kids probably don’t think they do, but the do, and even if they don’t, who cares! so since i’ve been recently talking about and dabbling in making my own bread, sourdough has been something on the list of wanting to try. i’ve never done it before, and i think i was always a little intimidated by the ‘extra’ part of the process. but after doing a little reading, i decided that it didn’t sound THAT complicated and this morning i bit the bullet. my very first sourdough starter is currently fermenting on the kitchen counter. see all those bubbles? that’s a good thing. it means it’s doing what it’s supposed to be doing. SO, in about 5 days, it should quit bubbling, and smell ‘sour’, at which point i can use some of it to make some bread… and hopefully follow up with a successful installment 2 post! it all sounds kind of gross, since we generally think of avoiding things that have fermented or gone sour, especially when thinking of food… but rea

i brought my bread machine out of retirement today. it is currently concocting some italian herb bread to go with our soup tonight. i hope. it always amazes me how that little paddle in the bottom of the mixer can actually do everything it does. anyway, i’m hoping it will be yummy… especially since i had to play w/ the recipe a little bit. (of course.) it calls for 3 and a half cups of bread flour, which i don’t have. so i used 2 cups of AP flour and a cup and a half of whole wheat (because i’ve officially turned into my mother and can’t make anything with just white flour…) it also called for 1/4 cup of parmesan, which i’m out of (yeah, i didn’t actually PLAN to make this bread… the idea just sort of occurred to me as i was wandering the aisles at qfc this afternoon). so anyway, i hope it’s good. i should really use the breadmaker more often. i don’t know why i don’t. we got it as a wedding gift from my aunt marilynne and uncle loren - yep, the one that just died – so i’m thinking o

i can really only blame my lack of posts on not having any interesting thoughts or happenings going on, but i will also attribute it to my trying to stay away from the computer as much as possible and remember what i SHOULD be doing instead. i admit that i have a slight facebook addiction. believe it or not, i threaten to delete my account almost weekly. i have a number of reasons for this… generally i do it when i get myself into trouble by making a comment about (what turns into) a controversial topic and wind up offending someone that the comment was never even aimed at… but then i think about the ease of connection i have between family and friends and i decide to stick with it. but the thing that has been bugging me about it lately is that i spend too much time worrying about something as stupid as my facebook account. it’s not that i sit here, all day, on facebook. holy cow that would be boring! i would need to have like 4 million friends in order to have anything new to read,

i haven’t posted much lately because i haven’t had anything to post that wasn’t depressing. but, i figured i should put up something. well, the biggest thing right now is that my dear uncle loren passed away last friday. we knew it was getting to be near the end, but not quite that close. thankfully, my husband planned a trip for the kids and i to go down and visit. i have trouble with that sort of planning thing… i’ll say, ‘yeah, i should do that’ but then have trouble actually pulling the trigger. well, he did it all for me, and basically said, you’re leaving tomorrow and you’re staying with barb. we left on thursday morning, got to their house in vancouver in the afternoon, had a little visit, which was SO nice, and then went on to barb’s. as it turned out, he died the next day. i don’t think anyone expected it to happen that fast, but it’s really a blessing. i think everyone’s prayer was that if the Lord was going to take him, that it happen fast, and he not have to live in pain fo