rachel's continued ramblings

sunday: our church was a drop-off location for ‘operation christmas child’ this year. we did 3 boxes, one to correspond with each kid. so micah chose stuff for a boy around his age. layla, for a girl her age, etc. they had fun choosing fun little toys and socks and pencils and toothbrushes, etc. monday: another example of how micah learns . first time I’ve ever seen him write a number, and he covers a page with them, all the way up to 16. once again, no one taught him how to do this or even suggested that he should do so. just sat down and did it. tuesday: my cranberry muffins I made in preparation for the trip to california. wednesday: we were actually in the car all day on wednesday, but this is the pile of laundry I did in preparation to leave. thursday: the post thanksgiving dinner lounge. friday: lunch with grandpa dick in oakland. I think some of micah’s facial expressions were directly handed down from him! saturday: abby’s first birthday party! we were so lucky to...

“you get the turkey from a farm. there are a lot of ways you can get it, but the easiest is with a shot gun. then you skin it and take out the guts. you cook it in a big roasting trailer, starting at 4:30 in the morning. we don’t stuff. you make the stuffing separately. then, you take the turkeys in the kitchen and cut all the meat off the bones to serve.” so, shane has a little bit of experience with large-scale community thanksgiving dinner operations… they really do use a roasting trailer and start at 4:30… I’ve never seen them use a shot gun, though…

“you get the turkey from the wild, where the wild turkeys are. you catch it with a net. to prepare it, you cut off the legs and the bones, and the beak and the eyes, too. you can stuff it with stuffing that is made of chicken. then, you put it in a big pan and stick it in the oven. you cook it at 4 to 5 degrees for 11 minutes. then you serve it by taking it out of the oven, cutting it up a little, and putting some spices on it. then you put it on plates and people can dish up all the other food, too.”

“you get the turkey from school. you catch it like this (demonstrates running) and you GRAB IT! then you smash it, and stuff it with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. you cook it with a taco at a restaurant. put it in the oven for 1 minute and you eat it for dinner tomorrow.”

so I’ve been busting out my susie homemaker all day today, in preparation for our trip. odd little tidbit about me: I am incapable of leaving on a trip, no matter how short, if every laundry basket in the house is not empty. so I’ve been doing some laundry. some. just a tad. and for the record, this does not include all of my shirts, my jammies, dave’s shirts, or dave’s socks and underwear which all went directly into their respective closet or drawer, nor does it include the shower curtain which got rehung in the shower, the set of sheets that is still in the dryer, or 2 pairs of shane’s ‘skinny jeans’ which are being hung to dry so as to avoid being ‘too skinny’. I am aware that I have a problem. not sure there’s a support group for that kind of problem, though… moving on. then I peeled and sliced about 10 apples which are now in the dehydrator. so if you notice that my house burns down at some point in the next few days, it’s because I forgot to take the apples out of the dehy...

so, we’re planning a trip south to visit dave’s folks down in california. poor micah is having trouble with this concept of planning. almost every day, for the past week, he’s asked, “are we going to california today?” layla, on the other hand, has just been pestering me as to when she can start packing. she’s got it written (and illustrated) on the calendar, and has become an expert in counting down the days. micah, not so much. it doesn’t occur to him that we would, perhaps, put suitcases in the car before we left. the fact that I’ve told him over and over again, that he has to sleep *      * many more times in his bed before we go… irrelevant. if we are all in the car at the same time, “are we going to california now?” nope. sorry. “aaawwwww.” (pouty face) yesterday morning, we were in the car, on the way to church, when all of a sudden micah yells out, “we forgot to bring our swimsuits!” we were all kind of confused as to why we needed to bring our...

sunday: when dave went in to wake up layla, this is how he found her. face, essentially, smooshed between the bunk bed rail and the mattress, and the covers pulled up over her head. monday: roscoe, chilling on the pooh couch. dakota figured out how to get it to open up to make a nice little doggy bed. roscoe just took advantage when it was vacated. tuesday: my 2 pages of allergy test results . the red ones have to go! wednesday: micah fell asleep during quiet time, snuggling a domino. he had been pretending it was a phone or a video game and insisted on taking it in with him for quiet time. thursday: the missing lug nut . friday: crazy busy day. kids had half days at school because of conferences. I has my workout in the morning, then came home and tidied up because tina was coming over at 11:30 to cut my hair, shane’s hair, and my mom’s hair. I even went to the bus stop w/ part of my hair clipped up because she wasn’t done drying it! then I had to run off to do back-to-back ...

micah, age 4: favorite game: hungry, hungry hippos favorite color: green favorite book: trashy town favorite tv show: phineas and ferb favorite movie: mary poppins favorite food: pancakes favorite dessert: ice cream favorite thing to play: trains favorite friend: ella favorite animal: dolphin favorite sport: table tennis (wii) – except he calls it “tennis table” layla, age 6: favorite game: hide and seek favorite color: pink, red, and purple favorite book: henry huggins books favorite tv show: martha speaks favorite movie: 101 dalmatians favorite food: baseball game hot dogs favorite dessert: chocolate popsicles favorite thing to play: barbies favorite friend: makenna favorite animal: guinea pig, hamster, bird, dog, cat, kitten favorite sport: soccer favorite subject: music and art shane, age 12: favorite game: unblock me favorite color: yellow favorite book: I max favorite tv show: america’s funniest home videos favorite movie: transformers favorite f...

notice anything odd? no, it’s not that my wheel is very dirty. that is not odd… yup. missing a lug nut. actually, not just the nut. the whole bolt. last night, dave set out to replace the front brakes which were in dire need of replacing. apparently, in the process of getting the wheel off, the bolt in question BROKE OFF, rather than just releasing the nut. hmmm… needless to say, I did not drive anywhere today!

so, I finally decided to enter into the baking sphere. paleo, that is. I bought some coconut and almond flour and decided to give it a try. since I have a bunch of blueberries in the freezer, I thought that blueberry muffins would be a good place to start. so I searched some recipes and found one that called for ingredients I had on hand, and was JUST blueberry muffins. found a lot of banana-blueberry muffins and the like, but I wanted straight blueberry. so I went for it. I was a little skeptical as I was mixing it up. even though it called for 3 eggs and a 1/4 cup of honey, it seemed very short of liquid. but the comments on this recipe mentioned how good and moist they were… so I figured maybe it would all ‘bond’ when baking and all would be good. well, not really… as you can see, these are not exactly ‘muffins’. they are more like a ‘crumble’ of sorts and I’m a little bit at a loss as to how we’re going to eat them. maybe put it in a bowl and pour a little coconut milk over them....

and not exactly what I expected… which, I guess, is the point of actually having the test done in the first place. so, I have been anxiously awaiting the results of my food panel blood test, to find out what, if anything, I’m allergic to or somehow reacting to. I met with my dr. today to go over the results. which look like this: basically, the ones in red caused some sort of reaction when tested on my blood sample. each also has a number, showing the degree of reaction. then, based on the number, it is given a class (1-3). those marked 1 caused a lesser reaction, and those marked 3, caused the greatest reaction. so, for the next 8 weeks, I have to avoid ALL of the things in red, and then, after meeting with my doctor again, plan to add those things back into my diet, one at a time, to see which of them cause a recognizable reaction (stomach, sinus, migraine, etc.), and which seem to pose no problem to me. when they have been absent from my diet, my system will be more sensitive to...

sunday: layla’s fancy play-doh pie . monday: the dogs have arrived! tuesday:   peanut in the ‘pile’. wednesday: the fascination with the dog kennels continues. layla did her homework in here. thursday: layla tossing leaves at the park. friday: no school. so layla and I played a game of battleship. first time she’s been old enough to really understand the grid and guessing system. saturday (not really): from earlier in the week. my first ‘red cup’ of the season. extras: a big collage of all things DOG-related. and another big collage of some pics I took at the park. love fall colors!

on thursday, dave took the day off of work and the kids had the day off of school for veteran’s day. it was a gorgeous day, and after some housecleaning, watching a cement truck back down the neighbors’ driveway and pour cement for a greenhouse foundation, we (and the dogs) headed off to the park. layla, the dogs, and I left first, as micah still wanted to watch the cement truck excitement. check out that blue sky and those great fall leaves! seriously, gorgeous! under those trees was a great assortment of leaves, all nice and dry and crunchy! that really only means one thing… layla took great care in assembling her leaf pile. like really. sometimes selecting only one or two leaves at a time… sigh… but finally it was done to her satisfaction and she got to jump in it! dave and micah finally showed up… shane much preferred the cement truck action to the park, so he stayed behind. after jumping, it was time to toss! love it! and then we decided to race over to the playground. ap...

a couple of my friends, who have also converted to a primal or paleo diet/lifestyle, have gotten very excited about the cooking and baking of all things paleo, and are posting constantly about their latest recipes and giving rave reviews to most all of the stuff they’ve made. for some reason, I haven’t really jumped on that bandwagon. I’m not really sure why. maybe it’s because this isn’t really a whole family effort over here (I have hope, but I’m not holding my breath). or maybe because I have a ridiculous apprehension about cooking things I don’t already know how to cook. or maybe it’s because I’ve been perfectly happy just eating things, for the most part, as they are, or modifying stuff, already in my repertoire so as to serve it without any grains or sugar. the baking thing hasn’t really appealed to me. for one thing, it’s rare that I crave sweets, and stuff like cakes or sweet breads have never had  that big of an appeal to me. for snacky stuff, I generally look for somethin...

discovered this in shane’s room today. it seems that peanut has joined the ‘pile’. I cannot tell you how sad this makes me. it’s actually quite devastating. I might take him to bed with me. the ‘pile’ itself has dwindled significantly recently, with only a few very special animals making the cut. over the years, the whole ‘pile’ system has been an interesting dynamic. shane has always been a big fan of stuffed animals. loved them. several have found their way into his collection by way of him ‘rescuing’ them from whatever horrid fate he thought awaited them at the store where they were currently residing. dave and I will always remember the infamous ‘canada bear’ incident that needed to come home with him… at any rate, there has always been a ‘pile’. and then there were the ‘elect’. the members of this group has varied a bit throughout the years, but the 3 constant members were PB, peanut, and cocoa. (peanut is the blue elephant, PB is the yellowish bear, and cocoa is the reddish-...

well, we’re dogsitting again, this time for amy and adam’s two dogs, roscoe and dakota. the kids are beside themselves with excitement. I have to say, I enjoy having 4 legged friends of the canine variety around again… well, until the first time I opened the slider and a bunch of muddy doggy prints appeared on my dining room floor. ah yes, forgot about that part. BUT, really, they’re so fun to have around, and they are definitely making life interesting. as soon as the crates were in the house and assembled, this happened: layla, especially, is beyond excited about this particular aspect of having dogs around! poor guys. they seem really confused about this. for those of you who don’t know roscoe and dakota, they are brothers. they are a mix of labrador, basset hound, and corgi. just looking at the two of them is a GREAT example of the genetic lottery system, and it cracks me up constantly. meet roscoe: the basset/corgi really shows up. he’s got these short little legs and this awe...

for some reason, this afternoon, the kids decided to make pies out of playdough and then chase each other around the house in order to smash the pie in their faces. don’t ask. I know I have weird kids. at any rate, eventually, layla sat down to make a ‘fancy’ pie, and this is what she came up with: I was definitely impressed with her crust. not sure where she picked this up, since we are not generally pie-eating people, and I haven’t MADE a pie since… well, before shane was born, I know that much. it might be hard to tell, but she spelled her name out on the pie as well.